Chapter Text
Passport and boarding pass? Check! Neck pillow and headphones? Check!
You go over the list of everything needed for your trip in your head as you walk through the airport, making sure you have everything before you get on the plane. It's your first time travelling abroad, and for some reason you've decided to go alone.
Where are you going? Japan. You've heard amazing stories about your friends' trips, and you were looking forward to having stories of your own. After weeks of research and planning and finding the best spots for sightseeing, shopping and eating, it's finally happening.
While the main purpose of your trip is pleasure, you're also going to learn. You wouldn't have been able to get out of school otherwise. Part of your itinerary includes polishing your archery skills with one of Japan’s top archers. You're a talented archer on your own, but you've already learned all that you can from other Canadian archers and you need to know more. After all, you never stop learning.
The ding of the intercom grabs your attention, your flight is now boarding. Luckily, you had already gone through security and were waiting nearby. You get up, pick up your bags, and make your way to the plane.
Now in your seat, you send a quick text to your parents and friends, letting them know you have boarded the plane and you'll reach out when you land. You get a few responses before you turn your phone off, all of them wishing you a safe flight.
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Almost 11 hours later, you finally land. You grab your overhead bag and make your way off the plane. The realization finally hits you, you're finally here, in Japan.
You make your way through the airport. You made an effort to learn as much of the language as you could, but you are nowhere near fluent enough to hold your own just yet. You silently thank god for translation apps and make your way outside.
You look up at the sky and see the sun setting. It's beautiful. You take a photo and send it to your friends and family, letting them know you've landed safely and that you're on your way to your hotel for the night.
You take a deep breath. A light breeze ruffles your hair as you take in the view. It's not the most spectacular view of a sunset, and surely you see more while you're on your trip, but it's somewhere new. The air is different, the city noises are different and the people that surround you are different.
After checking into your hotel, you make your way up to your room. You set your bags down beside the door and head into the bathroom. After washing up and brushing your teeth, you make your way to the bed. The second you sit down, you realize how tired you are.
You look at your phone, notifications from friends and your parents fill the screen. You take a moment to respond to each one. Some lead to longer conversations, while others end quickly.
Your eyes start getting heavier as your body calls you to sleep. You say your good nights and lay down, letting sleep take over. Tomorrow is a new day, and you're starting to feel excited for the adventures you'll have.
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As usual, you wake up with the sun. Sitting up, you yawn and stretch your arms out. There's a slight kink in your neck and you're unsure if it's from the flight or how you slept, but it doesn't matter.
You get out of bed, and start doing full body stretches. As an athlete, biomechanics is incredibly important. Understanding the muscles, joints, tendons and ligaments of your body and how they move and function puts you at an advantage, no matter the situation. It allows you to minimize potential injury and improve sport performance.
Doing these stretches along with some specific exercises daily was recommended to you by your physiotherapist. A few years ago, you were diagnosed with a connective tissue disorder, which affects your body's ability to hold itself together properly. It's a chronic issue that you were born with, an error in your code, that made you more fragile than most. By doing certain exercises and stretches, you are able to strengthen the muscles, allowing them to more effectively hold yourself together.
You have to admit, it's a pain, literally. You deal with chronic pain and frequent injuries, with each injury making you more likely to hurt yourself again. You also can't push yourself too hard as being too tired or pushing yourself too hard, makes you much more likely to hurt yourself. Thankfully, it was caught early, allowing you to focus on strengthening your muscles before too much damage was done. That doesn't mean you don't work hard. You are quite strong considering everything, and you're incredibly passionate about what you do.
After finishing up your morning routine, you make your way to stop number 1 of your first day in Japan, archery training.
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You meet with your trainer for the morning. He's soft-spoken and incredibly kind. He explains how the session will go, it'll mostly be him observing your technique, but he'll be giving pointers and tricks as you shoot. Without another word, he grabs a bow that was laid on the table beside you and grabs an arrow. His kind eyes harden as he pulls the string back on his bow. Without hesitation, or even pausing to line his shot, he releases the string and the arrow flies, hitting the target right in the middle. The speed and accuracy of that shot was incredible.
You grab an arrow and pull back on the string, taking a slight moment to line up your shot before letting it fly. You weren't as fast as him, but you were just as accurate. Your arrow flies, hitting the target right in the middle, splitting his into two. You look over at your trainer with a bright smile on your face, causing him to chuckle at you.
You admit that moving targets was your weak point. Almost thankful for something to teach you, your trainer slightly adjusts his plan for the session. The session seems to fly by. A small audience had gathered around the two of you.
Every time you prepared your shot, a voice quietly spoke over your shoulder, giving you tips and adjusting your position to improve your shot.
By the end of the session, you were able to hit moving targets much easier. While it's still not perfect, it was much better than it was. The way past training sessions were explained never quite clicked with you. A change in perspective was all that you needed. At the end of your session, you thank your trainer. You ask your trainer for his go-to food spot in the area, and he directs you to a little ramen shop. The way he talked about the food made you hungry. You thank him again and make you way to the ramen shop
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You arrive at the ramen shop that your trainer recommended. It was small and cute and the food looked delicious. You order a bowl and wait. Once your food arrives, you give it a try, and it is amazing.
You finish your meal and pay for your food. You thank the restaurant workers before making your way out. You had a big day planned, you had to keep moving.
As you're walking down the street, you pause as you see a beautiful Sakura tree. You go to take a photo to send to your friends, but stop as you notice two teenagers, about your age, having a conversation underneath the pink blossoms. You look away, thinking they would probably appreciate some privacy.
Looking down at your phone, you see a text from your friend displayed on the screen. They're complaining about your shared home room teacher. You quietly laugh to yourself before moving on.
Next stop, shopping!
Before you can take a step, a bright green light engulfs the sky. You notice it quickly approaching you, turning everyone to stone. Terrified, you try to run, but your knee buckles, making you fall, quickly followed by a familiar pain. Before you have the chance to curse the universe, you watch as the light touches your legs, turning them to stone.
This is it. You think to yourself, covering your eyes. As the light climbs your body, turning you to stone, all you can feel is fear and panic as the screams of others surround you. Suddenly, you can't see the light or hear the screams anymore. You go to move your hands, to assess the damage, but you realize that you can't move. You notice that the pain from your leg is gone, scratch that, all your pain is gone actually.
What is this? Is this purgatory?
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The only part of yourself that you have use of is your mind. There must be a reason why you can still think. No matter what, you need to keep thinking, you need to stay awake. You keep yourself busy by singing songs and coming up with endings for shows and books that haven't been finished yet. Endings that probably won't ever be written.
Every so often, you think about your friends and family back home. The sweet memories that tug the strings of your numb heart, the sad memories that made you wish you could cry, the memories that will never be made and the final goodbyes that were never said.
You wonder if there's a chance someone broke out of their prison, maybe it isn't something that's permanent, like a coma. Maybe you'll wake up and be able to go back to life as you know it. What if you never wake up, and you're stuck in here until the end of time? What if others wake up and leave you behind? You shove these thoughts deep into the back of your mind. But the longer you sit there, the harder it is to ignore them.
I have to stay awake