Ink Stained

78: two sides of a coin*

Pai was in the infirmary room the kitsunebi led her to the first day of Shin's 'training' when her phone buzzed. She'd been sitting on a simple, plain white bed set next to the open window that looked out at the forest wrapping all around the house, staring out at it, thoughts wandering nowhere.

The room was a lot like Kanou's back at home, though the cabinet was devoid of the strange jars and vials Kanou had decorating the shelves of his storage. There also weren't that many, either. Modern medicine filled two neat rows of the lone cabinet in the whole room, with herbal jells, tonics, and other substances occupying the other rows.

She was surprised when she'd spent the whole second day looking through everything in the drawers and the cabinet to find that she recognized almost all of the remedies and instruments to be found. Under Kanou's guidance, and Yukiji's as his apprentice, she'd actually learned quite a lot about treating people.

Such a stark contrast that was to what she did in the three years of her disappearance.

She jumped when her phone rang, vibrating in her pocket. She put a hand up to quiet her thumping heart, glad she'd put it on silent so that the noise of it wouldn't send her into cardiac arrest. She shifted to the side and pulled the phone out, shaking her head wryly at the Caller ID before swiping her thumb across the screen and putting it to her ear.

"I live."

"I die."

"What happened?" she asked, concern edging into her words.

"School." Shiori sounded exhausted and like she was about to cry. "School is what happened. I have a basketball match this Friday – which you'd better make it to watch, by the way – and then, on top of that stress, basically every single one of our teachers decided it would be a great idea to give us three pages of text to read for homework, and then another three pages of questions to answer on that. It's only Tuesday. When are we supposed to do it is really what I'd like to know."

"Shii-chan, it is Thursday." There was no way she'd make it home by tomorrow.

"Tuesday." Shiori repeated firmly.

"No," she pressed, wondering what Shiori was playing at this time. "It is Thursday."

"I think I'd know if it was Thursday considering this assignment needs to be done by the deadline or whoever doesn't hand it in on time gets extra cleaning duty after school. I already have enough chores to do at home because Obaasan thinks I'm getting spoiled," she ended on a groan.

She frowned at Shiori's words. "But that is not possible. We have been here for three days, and we got here on Monday."

"What? But it's been only a day since you left...?" a pause on the other end of the line. "Hold on, Shouta's here, let me ask him."

Pai nodded, even though she knew it was pointless to do so when Shiori couldn't see her do it. As she waited, she tried to think of any reason why Shiori was getting her dates wrong, or if it was her getting them mixed up. But she was sure they'd been gone from Ayashi House for almost a week now. She knew that it had been far longer than just one day. Why was Shiori so adamant that it was Tuesday?

It took a minute before she came back on. "He thinks the island is on some sort of time-loop."

"Explain," she sighed heavily.

"Apparently there are zones around the world where time goes faster than for the rest of the world. So it's like, only one day has passed here, but it's been almost a week for you there. He said it has something to do with the energy from – from where?" She heard someone's voice, deeper than Shiori's, muffled.