Strange Situation

Ryuka was blinded by light when she woke up, and instinctively raised her hand to shield her eyes. Only to realize that the gesture was futile, as her hands were transparent. She yelped in shock and found that no sound left her. Panic took hold and she cursed.

The lack of audio only made fright worse. In this state, she had to close her eyes and forcefully calm herself. That was when she heard the steady beep nearby. Finally quieted down enough, she slowly opened an eye to peek. Her sight adjusted to the brightness of the space she had found herself in.

'Was this the Pure Land that Buddhist talk about?' she thought. 'Am I dead?'

White tiled floors and ceilings as well as pale colored walls formed the room. To her side, there was a white curtain hung, and on the other side of it, was the source of the beeping.

She stepped around it to see someone she recognized. The sight reassured her that everything was alright, and that she had not died.

Lying on a bed and covered with a thin blanket, was Jasmine.

All sorts of devices that Ryuka had never seen were around Jasmine's bed head. The beeping was coming from one of them that had a scrolling line. The line would jump on the display rhythmically.

A sudden headache struck Ryuka, and she clutched her head as bits of information surfaced in her mind. This is a hospital, she instantaneously understood. The pain left her just as quick as it had come.

Jasmine was in the hospital that her mother worked at.

Curious, Ryuka approached the machines and reached out to touch one, yet unsurprisingly, her fingers passed through it. This seemed to confirm for her that, although this dream was decidedly different, it also seemed to follow similar rules as the others.

She also discerned that by having this form; she would not have an omniscient view. Ryuka was being allowed to observe, but not experience. She was being denied the ability to know the thoughts of others.

Enlightened, she turned to leave the hospital room.

Since she could not interact with physical objects, she had to tackle the difficult task of coping with the tactile sensation of passing through objects.

Approaching the door, she braced herself and entered the battle with her mind. Her senses told her she would collide with the door and be hurt. Yet, her mind warred against the apprehension; fighting the logical with the illogical. Or was it the illogical fighting the logical?

After struggling, she stepped towards the door. Then jumped back in fear as it came swinging in at her!

A blonde young man hastily walked through the door and passed through her! Scared witless, it took a few seconds for her to register that Ethaniel Lyon had come in and had already arrived at Jasmine's bedside.

When her senses returned to her, she rubbed at her arms, as if there was invisible filth clinging to her. It was an uncomfortable sensation to have someone walk through her. Ryuka felt unclean, but with a tremble, she suppressed the thought.

Gliding over towards the bed, Ryuka went to watch Ethaniel as he pulled over a rolling stool. He took a seat at Jasmine's bed and reached over to take his little sister's hand into his own.

His face was pensive as he sat there quietly. 'Penny for your thoughts?' Ryuka thought with a smirk, as she recalled the saying that Liliana would use on Jasmine.

However, Ethaniel wouldn't answer and Ryuka was aware that he would not. So, she focused on reading his facial expressions and all the clues one could get from body language.

While she was doing this, she couldn't help but remark to herself, how similar Ethaniel was to Naito. Those blue eyes, that masculine, yet gentle face. It wouldn't be out of place for it to belong to a woman, she noticed.

'Is his hair lighter?' she pondered as she studied the pale colored strands on Ethaniel's head. 'I don't think it is my imagination. The darker shades in his hair have lightened and the lighter ones are also nearly white.'

With this epiphany, she questioned what day it was. 'How much time had passed since?' she looked around for one of those calendars, but lightly smacked her forehead. She didn't even know when that accident with the car had happened.

She had heard of some of the village women saying they would go grey from stress and worry. So, she guessed that some time must have passed. Ethaniel may be going grey with worry. This seemed reasonable to Ryuka.

'It must be nice to have siblings,' Ryuka lamented. She would never know, as her own twin had died just a year after birth. 'He really cares for his sister,' she observed.

As time passed slowly without any change in Jasmine, Ryuka got bored standing around. The only change in Ethaniel was a change of expression. The pensiveness had softened and was gradually replaced by sorrow. At some point, he even folded his arms on the edge of the bed, then rested his head.

It made Ryuka pity the young man. It also raised the question of 'how long has he been like this?'

The sound of a rooster calling made Ryuka's brows scrunch in thought. 'What the?'

Noticing that Ethaniel didn't seem to react, Ryuka questioned if she had imagined it. Then, it sounded again.

The space swirled before her. She was forcefully being pulled out of the dream.

------------

The rooster crowed again and Ryuka shot up out of bed. Blood rushed from her head and she clutched it as a dizzy spell assaulted her. She had gotten up too fast.

Her room surrounded her. The familiar objects greeted her sight.

It was all a dream.

She was not dead. Ryuka had to reassure herself again.

As the dizziness left her, she sat in quiet contemplation.

It had only been yesterday that she had woken, spitting up blood. Yet, dreams didn't follow the same timeline as the world she lived in. She knew this from previous experience.

Dreams skip around; sometimes they go forward, and sometimes they go back.

Ryuka guessed that what she observed had happened after Jasmine's accident. How long after, she did not know and wasn't overly concerned with. It was just simply intriguing to her, after all. It didn't have any real impact on her, right?

She sighed as she abandoned any further deliberation. There were things to do today, and more importantly, she couldn't forget that the village had a strange guest. That monk, she grimaced.

He had looked at her in nearly the same way a merchant looks at a gullible customer. It was as disturbing as it was revolting, for she wasn't the least bit interested in the medicine he was selling in his gourd.

'Since the rooster haw been crowing, the sun has either risen or is rising. If I want to avoid him, I should get up and get out of the village, ASAP,' she thought.

Pulling back the covers in a rush, she quickly got herself dressed to leave. She made a grab for one of the woven baskets, then headed out the door.

Unsurprisingly, she found Naito outside the door. He had picked up her quiver and pulled it across his back. Turning to greet her, he grabbed her bow as well, "I figured you wanted to leave the village early today, and I had the idea of taking you to a hunting spot."

Ryuka paused as a plan took shape. "That's fine, but I also wanted to gather some herbs. However, will you hold on a moment?" she asked but didn't give Naito time to respond.

Vanishing back into her hut, she surfaced from it again with a hastily packed sack. "I grabbed the flint, a blanket and a few other things. Let's camp out tonight."

Stunned, Naito could only nod and mumble in assent.

Rushing towards a path that left the village, the duo escaped the notice of the drowsy villagers along with the still sleeping monk.