Day by day, week by week, Shigure and I were slowly able to wake up. Then we were sitting up for most meals, rather than just one a day. Soon, we were able to get out of bed for the toilet or showers, albeit not without help.
Otōsan helped Shigure with his care. Okaasan helped me with mine.
Okaasan was a talkative person. She told me all about Shigure when he was young. How she had given birth to him at midnight after two painful days of labour and how he spoke his first word at eight months old. She told me about how cute he had been when he had taken his first steps on his first birthday and how he used to follow her around the house insisting on helping her.
When his siblings were born, he had been a responsible older brother, helping his mother wash their nappies, mind them when they sat on the potty and protected them from bullies. She showed me her hidden photos of his first errand to the shops and his kindergarten photos. Okaasan said he was such a good, responsible boy that she and Otōsan later began to neglect him in order to focus on his more lively and naughty younger siblings.
His younger siblings took him for granted as they grew up, throwing all their chores and responsibilities onto him and bullying him when he tried to make them do their own work. Then in school, because of his good grades, he was bullied by one of his richer classmates who was jealous. This made him become more withdrawn.
Okaasan said that she had not noticed anything except that he began to isolate himself in school and at home. He found part time work in highschool and began to resist his parents' expectations for him to go to the clan village to train during school holidays. It all came to a head one day in senior highschool. Shigure couldn't take the pressure anymore and exploded. He attacked the bullies at school, beating them to the point they had to be hospitalised.
His father had been so angry that he had beaten Shigure and threatened to send him to the clan. For once, Shigure talked back and refused. In anger, Otōsan had told him that if Shigure refused to accept correction and refused to go to the clan to train as a possible successor of the family inheritance, Shigure was no son of his and to get out of the house. In answer, Shigure had packed his bag and left.
He had only been sixteen at the time.
Somehow, he had made his way overseas to where his master had found him. It had now been almost two decades since they had last seen him. Otōsan had refused to look for his prodigal son all these years, only suddenly having an ominous feeling when the family heard news of the latest battle in the Blue Gulf. The huge earthquake that had completely destroyed the Blue Gulf area and spread across the sea to our enemy country was what had prompted him to start the search.
Otōsan and Okaasan had dreamed that Shigure was dying and if they didn't find him, they would never be reunited again. As such, Otōsan and the family had joined the disaster relief and international search party. Shigure and I were the only survivors from the city. Okaasan showed me photos from the internet. The whole of the tribal Land had sunken into the midst of the sea. The Blue Gulf was all rocks and shallow water now. The desert beyond the areas I had been and most of the Tangled Mountain were all gone. It was as if the whole section of the continent had been sliced off. Just like that.
There was no news or sound of where the previous desert or mountain creatures had gone. They had seemed to have just disappeared. Very few animal carcasses had been found despite the widespread devastation.
I wondered where they had gone and where the Creator had sent them.
Okaasan didn't ask me about my background or about my family. In fact, the way she talked to me, it was as if she was more talking aloud to herself than to me. It was very possible that she assumed I couldn't understand her.
It was only one day at the kitchen table when Shigure was talking to me in Nihongo and I replied that it dawned on my parents-in-law that I could speak and understand their language. After that, I received an excited barrage of questions and exclamations that made my head whirl.
Shigure shuffled closer to hold me steady in my chair, while apologising to his parents for me. He explained how languages were my main ability, but that because we were still recovering, we couldn't handle too much stimulation. Or at least I think he said something like that.
I felt like someone had just thrown a brick at my head that had shatter6ed on impact, softening the blow but was still enough to send me into a daze. Shigure fed me a few more mouthfuls, but then rushed me to bed with his parents' help when he noticed my brain going into auto-protect shut down.
All the questioning had inadvertently reminded me of the intensive and tortuous interrogation I had gone through, as well as the time in the Circle when the tribes had surrounded me. I was fighting my memories and Shigure couldn't help me because he had similar memories that could be triggered. That night, Shigure hugged me in the bed, wrapping me tight and hard in his arms to try and keep me anchored while I was reliving my memories. He had to separate his mind from mine or risk drowning in the memories with me.
I think I developed a high fever that night and ended back up in hospital. Anxious about me, Shigure also fell ill and was admitted beside me. It got so bad that we ended up in the ICU.
Whereupon the Creator pulled us out to rest with Him in a lakeside house. He told us to go fishing, rest and relax, while helping us deal with the memories that were trying to kill us. He talked to us individually and let me sit on His lap for hugs for as long as I needed. Shigure had hugs one time too. I saw him sobbing and talking to the Creator who patted his back and comforting him.
It was a very pleasant and relaxing healing time. It helped us stabilise both our minds and also our link, so that we weren't exacerbating each other's conditions.
I watched the water swirling, rippling, moving. The pleasant sound of travelling water was calming. If I didn't want to watch, I could jump in and play. The water was the perfect temperature. Not too hot. Not too cold. I could swim and practice all the various swimming strokes. As I swam, the fish raced along with me, keeping me company. Their colours flashed in the light.
Some of the fish showed off their fins and tricks. Some leaped in patterns. I tried and belly flopped. The fish scattered as if in laughter, before regrouping and seeming to urge me to try again.
Shigure walked with the Creator along the bank. Ducks waddled away with their lines of fluffy ducklings to make way for them. Two ducklings had decided to hitch a ride on Shigure's shoes, enjoying the ride while he carefully took a step at a time. Picturesque clouds in the sky looked as if they had been painted there, so that I wished I had a camera to take a photo. It was such a pretty picture.
I swam over and surprised them with a splash of water. I was expecting a shout of surprise, but was instead surprised by them both jumping in the water to splash me. It was a splash attack! We played water fighting for a while before progressing to swimming tag. It was great fun.
Who would have thought the Creator would join in these types of games and play with us like this? He also didn't show off. He matched His power to us, so He was like an ordinary person. Otherwise we'd probably be smashed within seconds and it'd be no fun.
We lay on the bank of the lake, watching the clouds drift overhead. Shigure held my hand and I held the Creator's big hand. We pointed out what shapes we could see.
"It's time," the Creator said to us.
"Already?" I complained. "Can't we stay longer? I wish we could stay forever."
"One day," the Creator told me. "One day. It's not time yet. There's still work to be done. Junichi, remember my instructions."
"Yes, Majesty," Shigure nodded. "It shall be done."
I blinked and we were back in hospital beds.
There was no one else in the room with us but we could see each other. Feeling too far away, I struggled out of the bed and fell onto the cold ground. Ugh. The floor was really cold. Really hard.
My muscles were slow and sluggish. It was hard to move. I half crawled and half rolled my way across across the room to Shigure's bed. Panting, I rested my head on the edge of his bed for a while to gather my energy, and then carefully climbed into his bed while he made room for me. There, although the space was a bit small, we managed to hug each other to sleep again.
That was until some surprised and bemused nurses arrived to pry us apart. I was forcefully separated from Shigure and returned to my own bed, pouting. Since I was awake, the nurses took me to shower while asking me questions as to how I was feeling and whether I was in any pain.
They praised my shiny silver hair and asked me if it was dyed or whether I was born with it.
"This is what happened after a lot of stressful events," I told them. "I received an ancient inheritance and this hair is also the evidence of that."
"Ooh," the nurses said and clicked their tongues.
"Did you become a shrine maiden of a god or a great spirit?" one nurse asked.
The other nurse made a questioning noise.
"I heard some shrine priests or maidens have changes in their body as a blessing or as a sign of whose service they are in," the first nurse said.
"Really?" the second nurse was surprised and then turned to me. "So was it painful when you entered that god's service?"
"No, no," I tried to explain, but the shower had tired me out and my breath was growing short. "I received the ancient inheritance first and joined a line of a tribe of noble judges. I suppose you could call them priests. Receiving that inheritance was painful. Entering my god's service was not. Instead, it was very healing and comfortable."
"Maybe that's why your body rejected the family's healing," the first nurse said in thought, "and you had such a bad reaction. Perhaps the spirits of the two gods do not agree or match."
I thought about it.
"That makes sense," I said, rubbing my eyes after they finished washing my hair.
"I can't believe you believe in that stuff," the second nurse shook her head at us while she began drying me. "There's no such thing as spirits and gods, or those superpowers they've been talking about in the news. That's all made up stuff. Don't believe everything you hear."
"I was born in a tribe overseas," I told her. "We believed in the spirits of the Land because if we didn't and weren't careful, we would die. They're very real."
"Perhaps," the second nurse shook her head and changed the subject. "The doctors want you and your husband to stay for a few more days where they can keep an eye on you. The two of you have almost died quite a few times since you were flown back by your husband's family and the doctors are worried. Your health is very weak. It's weaker than your husband's. You have to take things easy. How did you cross the floor to your husband's bed? Can you walk?"
"Not really," I shook my head. "I crawled and swam," I mimed.
Both nurses exchanged glances of exasperation.
"You need to stay in your own bed."
"But he's so far away," I complained. "How am I meant to protect him when he's so far away?"
"Nobody is going to try and kill him here in the hospital," the nurses reassured me.
"They might not try to kill him, but they might try to kidnap us," I said. "I'm not being paranoid," I frowned, having read their lips. "We've already been captured and kidnapped and tortured so many times. I don't think I can stand it if…"
One of the nurses hit the button on the wall, while my eyes rolled up and I struggled to breathe.
There was a bang and Shigure's hoarse voice calling my name.
People came running.
"He's fallen on the floor. Junichi-san. Junichi-san, calm down. Calm down."
I was wheeled out of the bathroom on the commode and hurriedly put back into bed while doctors and nurses gathered around. A cart came rattling down the corridor.
I reached out a hand toward Shigure but a curtain was drawn to separate us from each other.