“Sakura. Sakura!” Kaori shook the girl by her shoulders, trying to arouse her from the reverie. For the past couple seconds, she had been staring off into empty space as if she could see or hear something that no one else could come in contact with. She appeared to be in a distant land, far away from the world around her. But then as Kaori called out her name, she again awoke to reality.
Glancing around the room,
disoriented, Sakura’s eyes fell to the glowing orb that still remained in the
air before her. The small gem, about
the size of a large bouncy ball, glittered back at her a deep color of red, a
color of both warmth and dire circumstance.
As she gazed into the solid ball, she could still hear the voice deep
inside, the one crying as a baby cries for its mother to be heard, to be
saved. She could hear the urgency that
lingered heavily in that voice. But
what could she do about it? She didn’t
know what to do or how to help, as the voice so fervently pleaded to her. If she couldn’t do any more than simply
accept the existence of the ghostly being within the orb, would that be enough
to bring Hisoka back from the depths of his nightmare from which he could not
escape on his own?
“Too much… This is too much!” Sakura
cried out, emotionally breaking down.
She took a few shaky steps backwards, toward the doorway, seeking an
escape. Not knowing where to turn, she
found Kaori beside her.
“Shh, shhh. It’s okay.
I’ll help you however I can, alright?
We’re all going to get through this, okay?”
Why was she talking this way? As if she knew everything that was
happening. It was impossible. There was no way that Kaori could possibly
know what was happening to her now. But
what else could Sakura do now? She was
lost and alone, so much like the way Hisoka felt within his dream. They were so much alike; that’s why Sakura
became so attached to him. He seemed
like her other self that she had lost so long ago, and now that she finally
found him, she didn’t exactly know what to do.
But she knew she didn’t want to lose it again. She found herself listening to Kaori’s words like a child
listening to its mother for guidance.
She knew nothing else but to listen.
“Sakura, can you hear it? The voice from within the Dreambomb?”
Stunned that she mentioned the
voice, Sakura quickly looked Kaori in the eyes. How could she know?
“It’s alright. It won’t hurt you… but you need to listen to
it. It will guide you in finding
Hisoka… Then you will find the way to
bring him back. Just listen…”
Kaori’s words sounded like they were
spoken in a long tunnel under ground, an echo trailing off into
nothingness. She did not know what to
do, but just as Kaori had said, all she could do was listen and find the way to
Hisoka. The instant she shut her mind
to everything but the voice coming from the Dreambomb, her world was plunged
into the darkest midnight with no source of light to be found anywhere. She was entirely alone, except for the small
ball within her grasp.
Frightened in the dark, she held
onto the orb with all her might. The
voice that she heard before seemed to have silenced now; there wasn’t a single
sound that she could hear. Nothing at
all. She was in the world of
nothingness where only nothing existed.
Falling weakly to her knees, still cradling the orb close to her, she
closed her eyes to the darkness, hoping she would find more light there than in
this cruel world she had been sucked into.
But there was no light, no warmth to be found.
“Kaori…” she whispered softly to
herself. Perhaps someone would hear
her. “Kaori, I don’t know what to
do… Where am I? How can I bring Hisoka back if I lose
myself?” Curling up into a tight ball
over her knees, she began to sob. The
Dreambomb limply fell from her hands and rolled away.
As the tears fell from her eyes, she
felt a tingling sensation surrounding her, tickling every inch of her
body. She didn’t want to open her eyes;
the darkness frightened her. There was
nothing worse in her mind than to be alone, completely alone, and she was too
afraid to investigate the sensation.
She much rather not find out.
But the more she tried to think of her own safety, the more she felt the
swell of heat around her. It wasn’t
painful, but she wished it would go away like everything else had. She was so afraid to be alone and yet she
did not want to feel this odd sensation.
It made her think too hard, jumping too deeply into the dark corners of
her own existence.
The feeling wouldn’t go away. All of a sudden the heat around her turned
into flashes of light, images in her mind like someone was showing her 100
different slide images a second. Some
images stuck out in her memory more than others, but she couldn’t recall any of
them from her lifetime. Some images
were of a darkened walkway through the woods, a small town with happy houses
with happy children inside, hideous crimes of hatred and pure evil, and a face
of one person in particular.
She didn’t know this person back in her world of
reality, but he did look very familiar.
He had these deep golden eyes that seemed to know everything about the
world and much, much more. His hair was
a mess, all tangled and worn out, but the color struck her curiosity. The hair closest to his scalp was a dark red
and along the strands of his hair was a pure white, almost like it had no
strength to keep the color the entire length of the strand. His face appeared very masculine and tough,
but his eyes told another story. Sakura
felt as if she knew those eyes, seeking possibly acceptance from a world of
hatred, a sense belonging in the world of man, friendship, something to hold on
to, or perhaps relief from the cumbersome weight of destiny.
Who was that person? With ever passing image that filled her mind, Sakura kept
thinking that question over and over as if trying to remember. Did she really know this man and somehow
forgot who he was over time…? If so,
then exactly how long ago did she know him?
She was only 19, so exactly how far back did this memory go? Or was it even a memory? With the questions piling up, one after
another, Sakura held her head tightly in her arms as she still curled up in a
ball in the cold, black space.
Then when she thought she would go
mad from all those random images appearing in her thoughts, she felt a sudden
prick on her shoulder.
When she looked up, all she could
see was the thick blackness, but there was something to her right side. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness, but she
could hardly make out the object that she saw there within a ring of bright,
golden light. As her eyes became
accustomed to the light, she couldn’t believe what she saw before her. It was a monster! A small monster, but yet it was still a monster! Its head was small like a snake’s, and it
had several sharp, pointy white teeth jutting out of its jaws. Covered in scales, the beast sat on its
haunches, glaring happily at her as it flexed its leathery wings.
“It’s about time you showed up. It only took you five years to answer me…”
Crawling away from the creature, Sakura
looked it timidly in the face. “I-I
don’t know what you’re talking about…”
“Pshaw,” the creature clawed the air
with its short forearm. “You know darn
well what I’m talking about, Sakura.
You’ve just tried to forget.”
Still crawling away, Sakura
swallowed hard. “Wh-what are you? What do you want with me?”
Appearing to be greatly insulted,
the beast puffed up its chest proudly and said, “What do you think I am? I’m a dragon, silly. Like, what other animal has these cute
little wings, huh?” The dragon jumped
off the ground effortlessly and began flapping its shining gold wings to
sustain its position in midair. “Now
listen. I don’t have time to play your
game of twenty questions. What I need
you to do is…listen, got it?”
Sakura nodded silently without much
choice otherwise.
“Alright. Now, you’re here to help awaken Hisoka, right?”
“Yeah, but how do you know
that?” Sakura asked.
Giving her a dark glance, the dragon
frowned and said, “No no no no! No
questions! Just listen! First off, you have to understand where you
are. Secondly, you need to know why
Hisoka isn’t able to rise from this dream world himself. Well… he wishes he could… but the
simple fact is: he can’t! That’s where
you come in, dear. You have to awaken
him from within this dream.”
“How do I do that?”
“Shhhhhhh! I’m getting to that part! Remember that Dreambomb thing you had?”
The Dreambomb! Of course!
That’s the little bally thing that Kaori had and was attempting to waken
Hisoka with. But where was it? Just realizing that she no longer held it in
her hand, Sakura looked all about herself.
“W-where is it!? It-it’s gone!”
Sighing deeply, the dragon looked
tiredly at the girl. “Okay, I’ve got a
question for you. Why do you think you
kept hearing a voice from the orb, huh? And now the orb is
missing and you find me. Am I connecting with you?”
“Wait a minute… But you just told me that you’re a
dragon! How could you be the orb, too?”
Looking away, full of frustration,
the dragon asked the darkness, “Ohhh, why me?
Why? Why?” Then with another deep sigh, the golden
creature looked back at the human. “It’s
all true, but you don’t need to hurt your little brain over it all now. What I need you to do is waken Hisoka from
this dream… and you’ll need this to do it.”
In a quick flash of light, the dragon disappeared and the shiny orb
replaced it.
“The Dreambomb!” Grabbing the orb suspended in midair, Sakura
looked at it half amazed and half confused.
She tried to look inside the ball to see the dragon inside, but all she
could see was her own reflection in its shiny surface. “Hey, you in there?” she called to the
dragon that was now in the shape of the Dreambomb.
Hearing the voice as clearly as she
had heard the dragon’s voice moments before, only more agitated, he said, “Yes,
I’m here, goofbutt! Now, just do as I
tell you to do, alright?”
Sakura nodded, her courage growing
by the minute with the company of a new friend.
“Okay. Now, Hisoka’s trapped in the world of dreams, his personal
world of dreams. What this means is
that something happened in the real world to trigger a distant memory, in which
he does not know how to handle. These
kinds of memories are enough to destroy one’s mind. So the longer Hisoka stays in the state, the more risk he has of
losing his mind.”
“No way… How can such memories be so…destructive?” Sakura asked. Dr. Uzuki had always preached in psychology
class that the mind is the strongest weapon and the most deadly to one’s own
health, but she never would have imagined that it was so powerful as to
self-destruct.
“Memories have a way of creeping up
from the depths no matter how painful…
They’re always there and they’ll never go away. All Hisoka’s done was forget. That was the only thing he could do, and for
him, that was his only escape. But now,
something happened to force him to remember, even if it was a tiny piece of the
puzzle. It was enough to began tearing
him apart from the inside.”
Cringing from the dreadfulness of
that thought, Sakura said, “That’s horrible…”
“Yes… It’s… not very pleasant… That’s why we have to hurry! Now, before I tell you how to get Hisoka
back, you have to know where you are.”
“Okay,” Sakura said, nodding again.
“You are in an in between realm, the
bridge to the world of dreams, if you will.
This place is neither part of the world of reality or the world of
dreams. That’s why nothing exists here
except us. Soon, I’ll open up the
gateway into his dream, but you have to be prepared for what you’ll see
there. If you’ve ever had a nightmare,
I mean a really evil nightmare, you may know what this is like…but even so,
that alone won’t prepare you for this task.
I’m afraid nothing I can tell you will either. All I can do is warn you.”
Swallowing hard, Sakura whispered,
“This…doesn’t sound too great…”
“No, it’s not. Believe me.
But you have to go through with this, or else… I’m afraid… you’ll never see the same kid again.”
“It’s that bad, huh?”
“Worse.” As Sakura held the orb in her hand, she felt it shake and
hesitate to speak again. “We don’t have
much more time. You have to go now!”
Before Sakura had a chance to reply,
the orb jumped out of her hands and flashed brilliantly. She tried to look away from the light, but
she kept feeling the need to see what was beyond the ray of light that shot
into the darkness before her. A surge
of anxiety began to boil within her being.
She both wanted to see beyond that light and she dreaded finding out what
was out there. The warning the dragon
orb gave her was alarming to say the least.
How hideous could a mere dream be to even destroy one’s own frame of
mind? She had heard of cases of people
losing themselves in a mass of distinctly different personalities in their
mind; Dr. Uzuki called it Disassociative Identity Disorder. Yet none of the cases he had spoken of
mentioned anything like this happening only in the dream state, if that was
what the dragon had meant.
Slowly, out of the bleak darkness
appeared a small hole the size of a pin drop in the distance where the light
pierced through. Instant by instant,
the hole grew increasingly larger, so large to the point where she could see a
world of color beyond the gateway. She
couldn’t see much of it, but what she could see reminded her of those pictures
of a desert landscape she had seen in her geology text. The land wasn’t entirely sand but the ground
was made of hardened, cracked earth that seemed to have no energy to stop its
decay.
“There you go. The doorway’s been opened,” the dragon orb
echoed very matter of factly. Now all
you have to do is walk through it. And
remember what I told you before… Be
ready... Oh, and my name is Mukashi. You may need to know later on…”
Nodding, Sakura slowly approached
the rift between the two worlds. One
side was completely black and the other was so full of color, she could hardly
tell the dream world from reality. She
stood before the gateway and looked into the realm ahead of her. She suddenly felt like Alice in the novel
“Through the Looking Glass.” The
gateway appeared to be a flat, see-through mirror almost. Holding up her hand to touch it, her hand
slipped through the mirror, causing a few ripples to expand across the surface.
“Go on! …There’s…not much time!”
Again, without saying a word, Sakura
nodded in answer. Raising her right
foot, she stepped cautiously through the rift and smoothly carried the rest of
her body through the gate in a single step.
She now found herself in a new world
caged within a sky of reddish-black clouds that hid the bright rays of the sun
from this wicked land. The air was hard
to breath with all the dust and sand blowing in the putrid wind that smelled
like rotten meat. As she looked around
the area, shielding her eyes from the minute sandstorm, she could see piles
upon piles of bare bones littering the ground, some almost completely buried in
the sand and others sticking completely out of the earth. The sound of the wind howling against the
dried bones hissed and cackled in her ears and she wished right away that she
had remained in the in-between world where neither sound, smell, nor sight
existed at all.
“This is Hisoka’s dream. I don’t really know where to find him, but
this place can’t be that big… I think
it’ll be obvious when you spot—“
“—There! What’s that?” Pointing to
a small wedge of land jutting out of the ground in the distance, Sakura
squinted her eyes, trying to make out what the object was.
“Umm… I dunno,” said the voice.
Dumbfounded, Sakura looked down to
the orb in her hands. “You don’t
know? You bring me to this foreign land
and you don’t know where or what this place is?”
“I know where I am!” the voice of
Mukashi hissed deep within the orb.
Sakura could almost see his scaly little face frown in annoyance. “It’s just that dreams can change in an
instant. The last I knew where Hisoka
was located was near a steep cliff…
That area you pointed out may just be the place.”
“Heh, then that means I know more
than you do!” Sakura said with teasing pride.
“Whatever, girl! I’m the guide, so you’ll listen to me! Now, that place looks too far away for you
to get there with your feeble means of transportation, so I’ll take you
there. Just hold on tight.”
“Hold on ti—eeehhhhhaaaaa?!” The orb suddenly burst into bright flames as
Sakura held on to it with her left hand and dashed out across the land carrying
a distraught Sakura along for the ride.
Faster than the Mukashi could travel in his dragon form, the orb raced
across the land with tremendous speed.
Sakura couldn’t keep her eyes open even if she wanted to due to the sand
hitting her face. Just when she thought
the stinging feeling would never end, she fell to the harsh ground below, the
orb flying comfortably above her.
Switching back over to his dragon
form, Mukashi flapped his wings as he stared down at the girl. “You’re pathetic. Can’t handle a little roller coaster ride, huh? Heeheehaahaa…”
Regaining her composure, Sakura
propped herself up with her arms and attempted to stand. “Pathetic…
I’ll show you pathetic, you little flying twerp! You could have at least warned me you were
going to do that!”
With a devilish grin, Mukashi said,
“Ahh, but I warned you in the cross-between chamber…if you have forgotten… Haha.”
Sakura was about to add something to
that thought, but the dragon suddenly looked ill. Loosing a few feet in the air, the beast curled its head close to
its chest. Sakura didn’t know what was
the matter, but the dragon looked a bit tired.
“Hey, hey! What’s wrong?” Sakura cried, raising her hands as if to catch the
dragon if it should fall.
“…He…he’s using…me…” was all he
said. His voice was hoarse and labored.
Demanding some answers, Sakura asked
forcefully, “What? Who’s using
you? What’s going on?”
The dragon shook his head, regaining
a small portion of himself. “He…he’s
using me! Or…he was… Grrr, how dare he!”
“Would you mind telling me what
you’re talking about, please?” Sakura whined.
“Before you brought me into the
dream world, I had no direct connection to it.
I was sorta trapped in my own hell within this ball. I couldn’t come in contact with Hisoka’s
dream world with out your help! I
wasn’t even really aware what was happening here before, but now… Listen, just over that little hill, you’ll
see the cliff that we saw back there. I
need you to climb this hill and run as fast as you can to the base of the
cliff. You’ll find Hisoka there at the
bottom. But remember what I warned you
of before. I can assure you that you
won’t like what you find there.”
“I understand,” she said calmly,
unaware of the horrors that lay beyond this tiny hill…
“Okay, then! Let’s go!” Mukashi, the dragon, again did a
backwards flip in the air and formed the Dreambomb once more. Grasping the orb in her hand, Sakura began
the hike up the hill. It wasn’t much of
a hill, but it was still enough to block out the sights beyond it. She had a perfect view of the cliff ahead of
her now. She could only imagine how
much distance they had covered when Mukashi took her on that ride of
speed. Soon she would reach the top of
the hill and find Hisoka below the cliff.
Her heart raced at the thought, yet she hoped he looked better than he
had when she arrived in his room… She
would find out all too soon…
Finally reaching the top of the
hill, Sakura gasped as she looked on.
She could see him. But something
wasn’t right. He looked different. There were great wings on his back and he
lie weakly on the ground. Yet that
wasn’t what shocked her at all, but the sight of the red stained feathers
did. He reminded her of a war-torn
angel, like the pictures of Archangels she was always so fascinated about. There was no sound of anything around her
for a long time, until something growled from above. Gaining her attention, she look up to see what it was. It was a monster! Worse than any monster she could have ever imagined herself, yet
no matter how grotesque it appeared, it still looked somewhat human. The face in particular…
The face…
The face! It was…him! The man that she had seen in those seemingly
random images that flashed before her eyes in the cross-between. But why did he appear evil in this dream of
Hisoka’s? Why was Hisoka dreaming about
him anyway? Through all the questions
she began formulating in her turbulent thoughts, one stood out far more than
the others— why were they fighting?
“Okay, Sakura!
Here’s our chance! You have to
throw me at him! Throw me right at
Hisoka. Then you’re task will be over.”
There was no response.
“Sakura.
Sakura?” he repeated. Then
transforming back into his dragon form, Mukashi kicked the side of her
head. “HEY! Listen to me! We don’t
have time for you to idly watch as things go all… chaos like!”
“That…that man…or-or, whoever he is,” she said,
staring.
Following her look, Mukashi looked up to the demon
high above, who was just beginning his descent. “What about him? That’s
who we have to save Hisoka from!”
She shook her head, confused, still looking at the
demon. “No, no… I-I know him!”