Lost in Time

LOST IN TIME

(JIKAN DE ROSUTO)

Chapter 1

My life sucks

(Watashinojinsei wa saiteida)

________________

A small, yellow, mechanical bird peeped out of a tiny door, tweeting merrily in synch with the music emanating from the clock. On the bed, Orihime groaned into her pillow. She struggled to get her hand out of the tangle of sheets covering her. After several failed attempts, she finally managed to find a gap in the sheets through which she could wedge her arm. She fumbled the side table for a bit before her fingers found the knob that would switch the alarm off. Stretching languidly, Orihime rolled over. Deciding that another ten minutes of sleep wouldn't hurt, she pulled the sheets over her head and curled into a comfortable ball. When she next opened her eyes, it was an hour and five minutes later.

"Holy crap on a cracker!" she cried as she leapt up from her bed and ran to her bathroom.

She discarded her clothes with one hand as she applied paste on her toothbrush with the other. Her pajama got entangled in her leg so she had to hop one-legged as she brushed and tried to untangle her leg. She finished her morning schedule in top speed and fifteen minutes later, she was out of the bathroom. She donned an off-white shirt and pale lavender business suit, glad that she'd had the sense to iron them last night.

Orihime ran to her fridge as she combed her hair, picked up a carton of milk and drank directly from it. She tied her auburn hair in a simple braid, grabbed her bag, her hibiscus hairpins, keys and phone. Slipping on her black peep-toed flats she ran out of the apartment and to her car. She threw her things in the passenger seat and started the engine.

As she merged on to the highway she muttered a string of curses as she realized that the traffic was exceptionally heavy and almost unmoving. She took advantage of the bumper to bumper traffic to finish her make-up and clip her hairpins. As her car crept along Highway 71, her eyes fell on the woods that ran along it. These woods had some very interesting stories associated with them; most of them originating from the time the Karakura Municipal Corporation had decided to build the highway through it. Strange phenomenon started to occur, making the construction of the road very difficult.

One time there had been a flash flood that washed away the half built road. Another time there had been an earthquake and another time, unseasonal typhoons had wreaked havoc. Ultimately they decided that they were incurring heavy losses from having to rebuild the road again and again and that circumventing the forest would probably be cheaper. Some bureaucratic back and forth later, the plan got sanctioned and the Highway 71 was built. That was fifteen years ago. Since then Nature had reclaimed the part of the woods the Municipality had cleared. But stories of the woods being magical or cursed stuck.

Orihime didn't believe that the forest had any mystical power and considered the rumor to be an urban legend. However, she felt a certain sense of awe and unease whenever she crossed them. Perhaps it was the author in her that loved the mystery, but she found herself strangely drawn towards it. Her apartment was situated on the other side of the forest and thus, to go anywhere, she had to take the Highway 71.

Finally the traffic let off. The radio in her car announced that there had been a collision somewhere and the jam was a result of rubbernecking. Orihime stepped on the pedal and zoomed on the highway, her mind on the busy day ahead. The forest and its mysticism were forgotten.

++++

She had been typing out her latest article when the phone on her desk rang.

"Hello?" she said absently.

"Orihime, in my cabin, now," her boss's voice sounded from the other side.

"Yes," she tried her best to sound enthusiastic but failed.

She walked into his cabin and tried her best not to cringe. It was ironic that Keigo Asano, the man who was the Senior Editor of one of Japan's most famous and influential fashion magazine, had no sense of fashion. He was currently dressed in a bright red shirt, yellow tie with what looked like Christmas trees, Santa Claus, reindeers and baubles drawn on it. He had paired it with a bright green sports jacket and brown chinos. Added to the entire ensemble was a loud and cloying perfume that made Orihime gag.

Suppressing the urge to bolt, she sat in front of him and pasted a fake smile on her face. "You called me, Keigo?"

"Indeed," he said smiling in the way that meant bad news, "I hear you were late, again?"

"Yes, I woke up late and then the traffic …"

"Don't worry about it," he said waving a hand, "More importantly, the Japan Fashion Week is coming up. You're going to be one of our correspondents. You'll be covering the Vintage Haute Couture. Get prepared for that."

Anyone else would have been thrilled but Orihime was actually depressed. She hated her job. When she had done her course in Mass Communication, she had wanted to be a crime reporter. She had tried her best to get into a newspaper but somehow things hadn't worked. Hard pressed for money, she had taken up a job in the fashion magazine with the hopes that it was temporary. Seven years had passed since then and her temporary job had become her permanent one. She was stuck reviewing fashion weeks and red carpet events, describing the way a garment fell or how it folded and what clutch went with what shoe and what belt buckle looked out of place. It was inane, boring and completely unsatisfying.

She might not have been so melancholic if her writing career had worked in her favor. But there too she'd hit a block. She moonlighted as a Historical Romance Novel author under the pen name of Shun Shun Rikka. Her first couple of novels had been huge successes but then her muse had dried up. It had been ten months and she had written less than thousand words. Her publisher was giving her a hard time, asking when he could expect the manuscript and now she had run out of lies to hedge him. She had now taken to avoiding his calls altogether.

Painfully Orihime managed to pull her lips into a semblance of a smile and said, "Great, I'll get right on to it."

Meanwhile Keigo had stood up and walked around to sit on the table in front of her, his foot brushing against her shin in a way that made Orihime think that it may not have been accidental. He put a hand on her shoulder and said, "What's wrong Inoue? I miss seeing your bright and cheerful smile."

Orihime squirmed slightly, enough to make his hand slip off of her shoulder and said, "Nothing. I have a bit of a headache. I'll start my work. The deadline for the article is right round the corner."

"Oh sit down," he said pushing her back into the chair as she started to stand up, "Won't you at least have a cup of coffee with me? It'll help with your headache."

Orihime did not miss the way his thumb was coming closer and closer to her breast. Biting her annoyance she stood up and said in a soft but firm voice, "I just had my coffee. I don't drink too much caffeine. Now if you would excuse me, I have to work."

Without giving him a chance to protest, she walked out of his cabin.

++++

A couple of days later, Orihime sat drinking with her friends. It was Thursday, which meant that it was the girls' night out. She had dressed in a brown silk top, a cream jacket and a pair of dark-blue denims and sneakers. Usually Orihime would only have a couple of drinks but today she had reached the peak of her frustration and was on the sixth shot of Tequila.

"Don't you think you should stop?" Michiru asked, concerned. Michiru, the archeologist, was the level headed one of the group. She was the one voice of reason, the one person who held them sane in tough times. Ryo, while mostly a calm and collected person had a streak of unpredictability to her that still managed to surprise her friends even after fifteen years. Tatsuki was the hot-head of the group and more often than not, liked to give a kick or a chop to get her point across.

"Are you telling me?" her eyes were slightly unfocussed and her speech slurred.

"Yes, she's telling you," Ryo said sternly, "What's gotten into you? This is your sixth shot. You haven't even eaten anything. You're going to throw up, you know."

"What's gotten into me?" she said dramatically, "Life's gotten into me!"

"What?" Tatsuki asked perplexed.

"Yes, I mean look at me," she said pointing at herself, "I'm going to be twenty-nine soon. Twenty-nine! That's almost thirty! Assuming that I live to be sixty, I have already lived half of my life. And what have I achieved? Zilch! Nada! I'm stuck in a job I don't like, my muse has deserted me, I don't have a boy-friend. I haven't had a meaningful relationship in my life, my boss in a pervert who tries to grab my boobs every chance he gets! In short, MY LIFE SUCKS!"

"Have you tried filing a sexual harassment case against him?" Ryo asked.

"The thing is, he does it in a way that I'm not sure if it's deliberate or an accident," Orihime replied.

"Oh please!" Michiru said in a dismissive way, "No man brushes against a woman 'accidentally' repeatedly. It has to be deliberate!"

"I agree!" Tatsuki added, "Just tell me and I'll kick him till he sees stars."

Ignoring Tatsuki, Michiru continued, "Seriously, file a complaint. He'll not know what hit him."

Orihime frowned, pondering on it. In her drunken haze the idea held a certain appeal. However, the shots and her depression had given her a headache and she was overtaken by the sudden urge to curl up in her bed and cry herself to sleep.

"You know what," she said standing unsteadily on her feet, "That's exactly what I'm going to do. Tomorrow morning, I will file a complaint."

"Where are you going?" Tatsuki asked.

"Home," she answered placing some bills on the table, "My share."

"You're going to drive? Like that?" Ryo sounded aghast.

"I'll wash my face with cold water and I'll be fine," she said, "Don't worry. I'll call when I reach home."

"No you're not driving, I'll call a cab," Tatsuki said to her. To the others she said, "I'll be right back!"

"Tatsuki, really, I'll be fine," Orihime insisted.

"Like hell you would be," the black-haired woman said, "There's a storm coming. I don't want you to drive in that condition and in this weather."

The two friends stepped outside the bar as Tatsuki called the cab company. The music from the bar was exceedingly loud so she moved a few steps away from the door to converse better. Seeing her chance, Orihime ran over to her car. Her drunkenness had exacerbated her frustration with her life and Tatsuki's babying was getting on her nerves. The idea of running away seemed very alluring. So she followed her impulse. Her house was a little over six miles from the bar, surely she could manage that much! She sat in her car and drove off.

She got onto Highway 71 and was surprised to find it almost deserted. Weeknight, coupled with an upcoming storm had driven most people indoors. She gripped her steering wheel hard as she concentrated on the road. Little less than 2 miles from her house, her car suddenly fishtailed. Somehow she managed to pull over to the shoulder, used the handbrake to bring the car to a halt and parked it. It had started to drizzle and the wind was picking up. Ignoring her constantly ringing phone, she got out of her car and staggered over to the rear to find that she had a flat-tire.

She screamed in frustration and kicked the offending tire while the wind was whipping her hair in her face continuously. She got her purse, phone and car keys and locked her car. She dug out a hair-grip from her purse and tied a hasty knot. She desperately wanted to go home and drink a cup of tea. She couldn't see a single car for her to hitch a ride home. So in her drunken and exasperated stupor she decided to walk home.

Muttering angrily to herself, she started to head home. She had walked about three-quarter of a mile when the storm picked up in earnest. It was then that Orihime made the latest in a series of bad decisions that would change her life forever. She decided to take a shortcut through the woods. In her mind, as long as she headed west and maintained a relatively straight line, she should reach her home. Having made her decision, she crossed the low embankment and carefully walked down the slope, away from the road and into the woods.

What she hadn't thought of was that the forest would be pitch-black. Whatever little light would usually permeate from the civilization around it was cut off due to the storm. Instantly realizing her folly, Orihime turned back and headed towards the road. However, in the darkness her foot caught a branch and she tripped. While the dry leaves on the forest floor had cushioned her fall, they couldn't stop her from tumbling down the slope. As she rolled downhill, she was scratched all over by branches and brambles.

When she stood up, soaked to the skin and aching all over, she realized that she had lost all sense of direction. She groped around her feet blindly for a while before her fingers brushed against her purse. Thanking her providence, she pulled out her cell phone from it, only to realize that there was no network. Suddenly she remembered that she had a pencil torch in her purse. She dropped her phone back in, fished out the torch, switched it on and started to head in a random direction. Although she didn't know it but had she walked to her right, instead of her left, she would have gone out of the forest and onto another part of Highway 71 in less than fifteen minutes. However, as fate would have it, she chose to walk left, away from civilization and deeper into the mystical forest.

Cold, shivering, wet, hungry, aching, scared and crying, Orihime walked. Many times she stumbled. Sometimes she heard a rustle here and a hoot there. All the while, it kept raining. At one point, Orihime could have sworn she felt something run over her feet. Abject terror froze her, rendering her incapable of screaming. A loud clap of thunder jolted her into action. She didn't know for how long she walked before she spotted a small structure. It looked like an old shrine. She wiped her tears and ran over to it. Her torch was about to die out and she needed to take a shelter before that. Without a second thought, she entered into the shrine (1).

Once inside, it was clear to her that this shrine had been here for a long time, perhaps for centuries seeing as it had fallen to ruin. Several creepers and trees had broken through its walls and roof. But it was a shelter from the rain nonetheless. She slipped down on the floor, exhausted. She pulled her legs up to her chest, clutched her purse tightly to her bosom and started to cry.

"Why?" she sobbed, "Why did I make that stupid mistake? Why didn't I listen to Tatsuki when she said she'd get a cab? Why? Oh God! I'm so completely lost! I'm in such a mess! Please, help me! Somebody, please help!"

She sobbed for a long while. Exhaustion, hunger, thirst and pain started to take their toll on her and she began drifting in and out of consciousness. All of a sudden a bright light permeated her awareness and she had the feeling of suddenly dropping a great distance before she lost her consciousness completely.

++++

The old castle that Michiru was working on renovating was presumed to belong to a powerful Daimyo (2) in the mid-15th century, during the Ashikaga period (3). It had mostly fallen to ruin over the years. Somehow, this castle and its story had become lost in the pages history. It was situated on the edge of the forest that was along Highway 71. It had recently been excavated and now the Japanese government was working on bringing it back to its lost glory, but it was easier said than done. It was back breaking work and Michiru had to often get down on her fours to get the work done. Slowly, inch by painstaking inch, the team were uncovering the story that the castle had to say.

Michiru was scraping a layer of grime from the floor when her phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Michiru!" Tatsuki's voice was extremely panicked.

"Tatsuki, what happened?"

"Michiru, Orihime!" she seemed on the verge of tears.

Immediately concerned, Michiru stood up, "What about her?"

"She's missing."

"Missing?"

"Missing!" Tatsuki was distraught, "Her car is abandoned on the Highway 71 and she is nowhere to be found. Her cell is unreachable. She is not at home or at office. I've been everywhere she could possibly be."

"Have you alerted the police yet?" Michiru asked.

"Ryo did," the black haired girl replied.

"Where are you all, I'll come over?"

"At Ryo's."

Michiru disconnected the call and frowned. It was unlike Orihime to just up and vanish. Yes she had taken off from the club last evening but they had fully expected her to call back. The first signs of worry had started when she had refused to answer the call. They had decided that Tatsuki would go to her place first thing in the morning, since it was her day off. Now it was close to mid-day and there was still no news of her. It was very unlike her and was definitely a cause for concern.

She'll be fine, Michiru told herself. Although something inside her disagreed.

++++

The incessant chirping of a bird percolated through her cognizance. She opened her eyes to a very bright light. Her head hurt, her body felt like it had been taken multiple cycles in a tumble dryer, her throat was on fire and her stomach cramped from hunger. She groaned and used her hand to shield her eyes from the light. From the warmth that surrounded her she realized that the Sun was shining on her. She wondered why she was feeling the Sun on her body. Hadn't she pulled her blinds? With that thought, the horrible events of the previous night came crashing into her mind. She bolted upright, instantly regretting her decision.

"I do not think moving is a very wise idea," a beautiful masculine voice said to her.

Startled she turned to see a man crouching next to her. She looked at the man and blinked. He was dressed in what could be the weirdest dress she had ever seen in her life; and given her profession that was saying something. He was dressed in a green Hitatare (4),which she recognized only because of her knowledge of history. He wore a black obi (5) and she could make out the hilts of the two swords that were wedged through it. His black hair hung about his face in an unruly fashion. His face was extremely interesting with sharp, precise features, as if he were carved from stone by a master sculptor. His skin was so pale, Orihime wondered if he was an albino. But most interesting were his eyes. They were unlike any pair of eyes she had ever seen; green like the first shoots of leaves. And while his face was inscrutable, his eyes told a story of their own.

"Who are you?" she asked rolling her tired shoulders.

"I should be the one asking you that," he replied in a calm, flat voice.

That's a weird accent, she thought. Aloud she said, "I'm sorry, I didn't quite get you."

"I have never heard anyone speak like you do. I do not understand some of your words," he seemed slightly perturbed by it.

"Anyway, are you from the Police? Or are you a local? Can you help me find my way out of the forest?" she asked hopefully.

The man frowned at her, clearly unable to follow what she was saying, "Perhaps you need to eat. Maybe then I can understand what you are saying."

"Food!" she couldn't help but salivate, "That sounds good. Come let's go."

She started to stand up but her legs wouldn't support her. She staggered and was about to lose her balance but a pair of strong arms grabbed her, preventing her fall. She looked up to find that the man was holding her in place. When did he stand up? She wondered.

Wordlessly he took her arm and draped it around his neck, grasped her waist with his other hand and started to guide her out of the shrine. Orihime couldn't help but notice the clinical and detached way he performed this task. She knew she was an attractive woman and that men had, more often than not, tried to touch her under any and every pretext. This man was different. She could have been a rag doll for all the difference it would have made to him. He lent her a gentle yet firm support as the duo walked out. As they stepped outside Orihime held up her hand to shield her eyes from the Sun. She blinked her eyes to adjust to the change in light and gasped. The forest was nowhere to be seen.
_________________________
EXPLANATION:

1 Shrine: Shintoism is a polytheistic religion and it venerates natural objects such as Sun, trees, mountains, rivers or even dead nobles. There are numerous shrines built across Japan, each venerating some God, Goddess or an object.

2 Daimyo: A Feudal overlord of Japan.

3 Ashikaga period: A Shogun was the head of the military government and the strongest Daimyo. The Ashikaga family ran the Shogunate from 1336-1573.

4 Hitatare: Hitatare was a two-piece costume, though more flowing and ample compared to a Kimono. Hitatare was popular between 12th and 17th Century.

5 Obi: a belt worn wrapped around the waist and tied in front.