Chapter 1: Memories

Memories, memories were all she had and the only thing she could hold on to the hazy memories of her birth and her father's voices memories of that place memories of being passed around from hand to hand from owner to owner seeing battlefield after battlefield. All these memories where all jumbled up if she didn't focus, she couldn't tell which memory came first or when which event happened and when, if she was ordinary not being able to recall this moment would worry her if she was like everyone else like people, she would begin to fear she was going senile, but she wasn't worried and she wasn't going crazy. She just didn't care or rather those events just didn't matter because what she could remember was that all those jumbled interlocking memories all came before him, they all happened before he arrived and found her that boy that boy with long silver hair that fell beyond his back that boy with piercing determined eyes that boy who gripped her with tenderness and moved her with grace that boy no that man Mifune.

She could remember him and every second they spent together she recalled every battle they fought every action they made she knew the places they traveled she knew; she knew God knows she knew everything about that man Mifune because they were partners, they were once one and she also knew that he fell he fell in battle killed mercilessly by one of her own. She was taken from him, ripped away from his cold dead corpse they took her away from him no matter how hard she screamed they took her away from her chosen and from that day for 100 years she has been passed from hand-to-hand owner to owner but unlike before she never saw another battlefield. She refused to be grasped and maneuvered by another, so she sat and sat and sat drowning in her misery and grief only slightly comforted by her memories of Mifune.

But she wasn't the only one she wasn't the only trapped in grief being comforted by the past there was another a woman living in the slums of the land of Gardenia where all she could do is lay in a hospital bed replaying the memories in her life back to when she met him the first and only man she had ever loved the man who gave her or more liked blessed her with love and a child a son a son she loved even more then the man and even more then herself a son who loved her equally. That son who held her hand at this very moment as she laid in a coma, she could feel the slight sensation of him gripping her hand tightly and somewhere in her mind she knew it was him and another wave of comfort was washed over her as her child was here with her, but the hand holding wasn't only out of love it was a more like a mixture of concern desperation hope and fear. Fear was the main reason the son held his mother hand so tightly and that fear set in more and more as the doctor kept talking.

"Mr. Green"

He said but it his words were muffled to the boy's ears.

"Mr. Green"

He tried again but still he got no response the doctors voice was so close but to the boy it was so very far away his thoughts his fears were consuming him he felt as if he was under water drowning, he thought the pressure would kill him until he was brought back to reality this awful reality.

"Mr. Green"

The doctor said again gently touching the boys shoulder his touch brought the boy back he damn near started gasping for air, but he didn't as his eyes rested on his mother then looked back up to the doctor.

"Mr. Green…. I…. I am so sorry, and I know this is a lot I know it's difficult but right now I need you to please focus please…. for the sack of your mother"

The boy looked back down at his mother he had to fight back tears and from slipping away again when he composed himself, he was able to say.,

"Ok so what can when do for her."

"As I was saying before Mr. Green your mother's disease is too far gone to be treated by medication the only other option is radiation."

"All right"

The boy said.

"So will just do that."

"Well that there is the issue."

"Issue?"

The boy's brow furrowed.

"What issue?"

"Well, the issue is such an operation can't be done in this hospital."

"And why the hell not!?"

The boy shouted rising to his feet and making the doctor back up as he did.

"Well… because this is simply a slum hospital, we don't have the necessary equipment or environment to treat your mother's disease."

"So where can we??!!"

The boy shouted tears filling up in his eyes.

"Near the capital"

The doctor said and as the words left his mouth, they were like a dagger to the boy's heart.

"There are many hospitals that possess all the means of providing for your mother but..."

He said pausing.

"As you and I know it will not come cheap."

And the boy did know, and that realization nearly dragged him back down.

"But there is one final option."

These words from the doctor were like floating debris that the boy held onto for dear life the embers of hope he felt weren't salvation they just lead to another dead-end road. The doctor said that they could make his mother comfortable and pull the plug he said it would end her suffering bring an end to her pain, but even though he knew the doctor was right the boy believed him to be wrong.

"No, we're not doing that."

He said fire burning in his eyes.

"I'll make sure we can afford to pay for her operation."

The boy then turned back leaned over and kissed his mother on the forehead another sensation she felt and recognized.

"I'll be back mom he whispered in her ear everything's going to be ok."

And with that he left he left with the determination to not lose his mother, but he also had an unknown goal a goal to not be like his mother or the unknown figure to only have the ones he loved in his memories.