Obsidian

It’s been about a month since I woke up.

“Make sure that you keep up with your stretching and mobility exercises,” Kou says for the millionth time. I just stare off into space whenever he talks, How many times is he going to repeat himself? “And make sure you go for walks every few days!”

“God, you worry way too much, Kou. Weren’t you the one who said it looked like I’d only been asleep for a few hours instead of almost three months?” I look at him like he’s a stupid kid, because to me that’s what he was. Even though outwardly Kou was older than me, mentally I’ve lived eighty-one years longer than he has.

“Just because you aced all of your rehab in half the time doesn’t mean you’re up for anything!” he nagged “It may not have felt like long for you, but your body went without much movement for almost three months, you need to keep that in mind so I don’t have to see you back here again.”

“Hah, not a long time for me, huh?” Bits and pieces of the days I spent with my friends, family and students flash in mind. I feel so… nostalgic? The brat would say I’m getting old.

“Anyways, just head up to the front to finish signing some paperwork, then you’re free to go. I think someone said your mom and brother were here to get you.”

“Thanks Kou,” I bow my head in respect to the time and effort he put in to helping me this past month. "I really mean it. I wouldn’t have been able to get back on my feet without you.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m sure you would have been simply helpless without me.” He chuckles ruffling my hair. “Hopefully I don’t ever have to see you again kid.”

He is a good man. Reminds me of Taka a little bit.

I watch him walk lazily down the hall back to his little office.

Just a little bit.

***************************

Once I finished signing the release forms, I walked outside the hospital exactly one-hundred and five days after I was admitted. My mother, Hoshi Ukiyo, and little brother, Sora Ukiyo, are waiting for me outside.

“Satomi,” my mother almost starts crying, again. “I’m so glad you’re finally awake. We can finally take you home.”

“Took ya long enough to wake up, Sis.” Sora says glaring at me. “You’ve made mom worry too much you know? She’s not getting any younger!”

I knock Sora on the head, “It’s rude to say things like that about mother Sora!”

“Now, now you two, Satomi’s just got out of the hospital and you’re already fighting?”

Even though Sora is being such a pain like always, I couldn’t be happier to see him. So many years ago I’d say I’d never miss this sorry excuse for a little brother. I guess that’s what happens when you go 81 years without seeing someone.

According to the doctor’s on my fifteenth birthday, I mysteriously fell into a coma. I simply fell asleep and wasn’t waking up. They found nothing physically wrong with me. The only thing that stood out was above average brain activity. Normally, a comatose patient will show little signs of brain activity throughout. However scans of my brain showed exponentially higher brain function while I was asleep.

For me though, I thought I had been taken to another time. More specifically, one-hundred and fifty-one years into the past. There, I met many people and faced countless dangers as it was a completely different era. In this era there were many dangers and trials I had to overcome. The only reason I survived back then was because my Master took me in and taught me how to fight.

In this world there is a power that many do not know about. Over the years it’s been called many things, ki, mana, magic, sorcery are only a few. For my Master and I we used this energy with our fighting techniques to make ourselves stronger. Though it had many names I liked to call it Soul Energy, as whenever I used this power it felt like something from deep within my very soul, what made me who I am in a way, was what was used to create it. Master taught me that this Soul Energy is unique to each person who uses it, and will take different forms as the user's inner self saw fit.

And so I lived my life trying to find a way through time to return to my family that I seemed to have left behind. In that pursuit, I made many people and soon eighty-one years had passed me by and I died, only to wake again back in my original body with less than a quarter of a year gone by.

Was it all just a dream? Something my mind made up to deal with the shock? But what put me in that coma to begin with?

I had so many questions that I didn’t know if I’d ever find answers to. There is one question I can find an answer to.

If it wasn’t a dream, then is Obsidian where I left it?