Chapter Text
Ren should have expected this. Five years was a long time. Five years without any contact from them. It was foolish to have expected that he would waltz into Inaba to find them sitting inside waiting for him as though that time hadn’t passed at all. They clearly wanted nothing to do with him. The lack of calls, visits, and letters attested to that.
The ex-convict walked up the steps to the home he had lived in until he was 18 but didn’t knock. There was no need. Through the window next to the door he could see a young couple, about his age. Far too young to be his parents. They didn’t have his frizzy black hair that seemed to puff up as the humidity rose, or his tall and lanky frame. They didn’t have his eyes that a passing glance might assume were a pale blue, but when you really looked were and dark and stony grey. No one here shared any off those traits that combined to make Ren stand out in a crowd even as he tried his best to blend into it.
Having seen the strangers who now occupied his childhood home he could avoid the embarrassment of knocking. He momentarily thought about doing so anyway, asking them if they knew where the old couple who used to live here had gone. He thought better of it. What was the point when it was becoming abundantly clear to him that finding them would only end in heart break.
He turned around and walked back towards the main street. Coming back here had been Ren’s only real idea of something to do after they let him out. He had so few possessions on him. His only change of clothes swung from one hand in a plastic bag. His ancient phone sat in one pocket. The battery had died long ago. The other pocket held a set of keys that unlocked the home he was currently walking away from. What little money he had been let out into the world with had been spent on the train fare to get here. He hoped the change that was tucked into his left sock was enough for whatever plan he came up with. He wasn’t even sure exactly why he had kept the pack of cigarettes that were tucked into his right sock.
As the delinquent walked, he took in all the ways the town had changed in his half decade absence. On the whole, there wasn’t a lot to notice in that regard. Over the tops of the houses he saw they had opened a Junes. That was about it. It explained why the block of shops he recognised as he walked past them look emptier than he remembered them. Strolling past them, he made his way up towards the small shrine just off the road.
He felt a sense of tranquillity come over him as he followed the little path, surrounded by flourishing plant life. It wasn’t the spirituality of the place that had set him at ease, but the sense that he was no longer being watched. The few people of the street had all been looking at him, probing him. It was a small town, always curious about outsiders. It hurt a little to think of himself as that. This is where he grew up, but now he stuck out like a sore thumb. What was worse was the idea that one of them might actually recognise him, remember that he had been one of them once. Before he screwed it all up.
Tucked away at the shrine he went to his sock and withdrew the paltry funds he had. He frowned at the handful of notes and coins that stared up at him. The only place around here he could stay the night was the Amagi Inn, but that place was far too rich for his blood. Besides, even if he could justify spending everything he had left on a single night under a roof, it would mean walking down the road that led up to its entrance. He wasn’t sure he could stomach the reminder looking at that street would entail.
As Ren thought out what to do, his gut let out a thundering rumble. He hadn’t eaten since he had been discharged. A night sleeping in a terminal, and a day hunched in a train seat put that at about 18 hours. He plucked a couple of coins from among the pile in his hand, before depositing the rest back where it had come from. With that secure he turned to leave his hiding place, yet something held him back. The young man turned to the shrine one last time, depositing one of the coins into the deposit box. He felt a little foolish doing so, poor as he currently was.
“Wish me luck,” Ren said to the air. “I think I’m going to need it.” He could have sworn he heard a chittering as he walked away. He told himself it must have been the wind through the trees overhead, even as some deeper part of himself knew it wasn’t.
With that he returned to the road below. Once again eyes seemed to follow him as he walked up and down the street. His small flight of whimsy had reduced the amount he had budgeted out to eat, so he now was on the prowl for whatever would fill him up as cheaply as possible. Ren finally decided to duck into a convenience store where he purchased the cheapest thing he could. Scant chicken on simple rice at least filled him up as he shovelled it down far too quickly.
Ren hardly remembered sitting on the curb outside of the shop. He must have been hungrier than he thought to be so lost to it the moment he had the food in his hand. It was clearly a mistake, as those eyes that were following him where now accompanied by whispered rumours. He knew the lost and found leaving that made up his wardrobe would be even further contributing to the idea that the stranger was some dangerous drifter. They would be wondering what he was doing here. Speculating on what had brought him here. Hoping he would leave.
The whispers had distracted him. He had sat there far too long. When he should have been planning what to do next, he was instead dwelling on how he had ended up here. In the meantime, those whispers had been carrying out throughout the town. They had found the ears of a higher authority. Someone who could deal with the interloper. So, when he looked up, Ren found himself eye to eye with a gruff looking man sporting a dull metal badge.
“What are you doing, kid?” The man asked. Ren recognised him but could not put a name to the face. He was not surprised by that fact, both the memory and the lack of it. He must have dealt with just about every cop in Inaba over the lead up to his incarceration. In the years since he had wanted nothing more than to forget that time, but it seemed that some things still stuck.
“Just finished eating.” The words came out short and sharp. Ren was trying desperately to stay calm, but the sight of the uniform was putting him on edge. He carefully kept his head down, his eyes hidden behind a fluffy black fringe of hair.
“You got a name, kid?” The question was accompanied by a poke with a baton. An attempt to draw him in to eye contact, but also a reminder of who was in control here.
“Ren.” It sounded forced. He just hoped that a name wasn’t enough for this walking power trip to put it all together. Another jostling with the baton seemed to indicate that a first name wasn’t enough for him. “Ren Amamiya.”
“You staying in town, Ren?” It seems that luck really was on Ren’s side. The office was clearly too pig-headed to put it together. But the question clearly wasn’t one. It was a statement. It said it was time for Ren to move on.
“No, just passing through.” That much was true, he just still wasn’t sure where he was passing through to. He just needed time to think, to come up with a plan. The world never seemed to want to give him that time. It always demanded that he think on his feet, make a decision right now. Whenever he did, he inevitably chose wrong. He hoped this time would be the exception.
“Well then why don’t I give you a lift out of town.” It seemed that the man in his crisp uniform wasn’t going to give him a choice. Inaba had conspired to ensure he was driven off. If that was the case, he may as well do it in style. If you’re going to get run out of town, get run out of town on a rail.
“The train station,” Ren corrected. If he got driven to the edge of town he would have two options. One was to walk until he found some other place to hunker down. The drifter felt that would just lead to being thrown out of somewhere else. The second was to use the last of his cash to ride to somewhere they wouldn’t bother kicking him out. An idea was starting to form in his head.
“What’s that?” the cop asked. It was clear he had not been expecting back talk. To be fair it was rather bolshy on Ren’s part.
“A ride to the train station. Then I can be out of your hair.” This time he let their eyes connect. He hadn’t survived five years locked up without learning a few things. Ren stared into the man’s soul. With a gaze he tried to tell him that he didn’t want trouble but could cause some if needed.
“Fine, get in.” With a nod the cop gestured towards a patrol car parked in the street in front of them. Ren felt his joints pop as he stood and walked to the back door, waiting for it to be opened for him. “You seem to know what you’re doing. A bit of a frequent flier, I’m guessing,” the cop joked, happy to lord the idea that Ren had frequently been in the back of a patrol car over him.
Ren didn’t glorify him with a response to that. He just slid into the seat as a hand pushed him downward. That silence continued as they took the short trip to the train station. The cop occasionally glanced at him the rear-view mirror, but at no point did he put Ren’s name through the fancy looking screen that adorned his dash. Eventually he was guided out of the back seat in the same manner that he had been guided in. The cop leaned up against the car as he motioned for Ren to head on inside.
Stepping into the station, he felt the eyes recede. It seemed Inaba was happy to see him go. Looking up at the big scheduling board in the lobby, he scanned for the place he was looking for. It had been a spur of the moment thought when he had been sat on the street mid-intimidation. Now that he was here that same idea didn’t necessarily seem like a good one, just the least bad. Finding what he was looking for he leaned down to pretend to tie his shoes. Money securely transferred into his hand he stood and marched his way over to the ticketing counter.
“How much for a ticket to Tokyo,” he asked as he let the money in his hand fall to the counter. He clearly looked out of place as he did so. Where outside that had gotten him looks of distain, the woman in front of him looked on in pity. Ren didn’t like the feeling but would take it over the alternative.
“12,000 yen, dear,” the ticketer replied. She typed a few things into the computer next to her as she waited for him to pick through the pile of money. All he would be left with was a couple of thousand. This was looking more and more like it would end in disaster, but what else could he do.
He couldn’t walk back out into Inaba. That cop was certainly waiting just outside just looking for an excuse. So, he had to leave and despite everything Tokyo was the pick. A place he could get lost in. He had no doubts that he would still face the harassment he had faced in his short time here, but at least they wouldn’t throw him out. Sure, he could have picked some other metropolitan swamp to sink into, but Tokyo was closest. Consequently, that made it cheapest, too.
With a sigh he handed over the notes and took his ticket in return. At least the board said he didn’t have long to wait. Half an hour and he would be departing Inaba once more. This time it would be for good. He sat alone on a bench on the platform, worrying the hem of his shirt as the minutes slipped by. He was so lost in thought that it was only when he heard the woosh of doors opening in front of him that he noticed the train had arrived.
Tentatively he alighted the train and found his seat. Ren saw a few fellow passengers dotted up and down the carriage, but within his immediate vicinity the young man found himself isolated. ‘Better that way’ he though as he settled down. He planned to nap his way through the journey and knew that he would have trouble if he were worried the entire time about strangers accosting him for the few world possessions he had. It was an attitude that came from years of bad bunkmates. The idea was hopefully outdated now he had his freedom, yet the habit persisted.
Falling to sleep posed a problem. It had not been that long since his last train ride, his last departure into unconsciousness. But Ren knew that he needed to take the opportunity while he could. What lay at the other end of this trip remained a mystery. Who knew when he would have somewhere to sleep that had as the advantages found in this metal tube. It was covered, warm, and safe. Most importantly though, it was socially acceptable. He didn’t have to worry about waking abruptly to questions over what he thought he was doing. So, he tried his best to let his mind empty. Eventually he got there, though more out of stubbornness than any sense of calm.
The blurring countryside Ren had been quietly observing out the window faded into black as his eyelids drooped. The vivid greens and blue were replaced by a thick blackness. He never remembered his dreams on waking, but in this moment between consciousness and unconsciousness there was some spark. A sense of déjà vu overcame him, as though he were about to enter a dream he had experienced before, only for it to fade into obscurity once he rejoined the waking world.
It was not so much that the darkness receded, as much as it became something else. Black became blue. A vivid royal blue. The blueness that surrounded him resolved into shapes, recognisable forms, yet at no point would he describe the place he found himself in as getting brighter. There was no brightness here, and yet he could see. No light reached his eyes. It was as though some other part of him was taking in the scene, letting him know what was important there, and what to discard.
Eventually the details came together into a place he recognised. He was back in his cell. No wonder he never remembered his dreams, if this is where they brought him. The place he had just escaped, back to torment him. The broken man’s subconscious seemed unwilling to let him leave it. He was sat on the top bunk, legs pulled up to his chest where they wouldn’t dangle for his cellmate to swipe at. Across from him was a barred door he had spent years wishing to be on the other side of. In the waking world he was, but here and now Ren felt as powerless as he had all those long years.
Anger boiled up within him. Why should he back here. He had done his time, unfair as it was. This was a dream, wasn’t it? He must have some control over what was happening here. He jumped to the ground and began tearing at the bars. Yanking at the futilely, he quicky felt his strength drain. Only when Ren felt his muscles go slack, leant up against the door, did he hear the voice.
“Wh-Who are you?” He turned around to see a frightened little girl curled up on the bottom bunk, doing her best to melt into the wall. She couldn’t be older than 12, and her blue dress and flowing platinum blond locks looked out of place in the drab surroundings. Ren wasn’t sure what was terrifying the kid more, being in the cell or his dramatics. Likely it was both.
“Sorry if I scared you. My name’s Ren, and this is my prison cell.” The ex-convict gave a flourish towards the walls as he said it. The presence of the girl had done much to settle his nerves. She was out of place. It reminded him that this was all a dream. He had hoped the jokey tone would reassure her a little, but the expression on her face told him that it had done the opposite.
“N-No, that’s not right. This is my cell. You aren’t supposed to be here,” the girl stated. Despite the claim of ownership, it was clear the child wanted to be anywhere else. He inched forward into a crouch to better met her eye. Reaching out, he hoped it was a comfort rather than another horror.
“What’s your name?” Ren tried to keep his tone low and serene as though he were soothing a spooked animal. She thought over whether she would answer for long enough that he though she wouldn’t before replying.
“Lavenza.”
“Well, Lavenza, I wouldn’t worry if I were you. I can assure you that this is all a passing dream.” Ren did not mention that if this was all a passing fancy, then she was not any more real than the prison he found himself in once again. Then again, perhaps she was also some dreamer simply sharing the same nightmare as him.
“No, you don’t understand. He locked me away. Made sure we would never meet. Now it’s too late.” there was something in her eyes as she spoke that looked weary beyond her years. Tears slid down her face as she spoke with such sorrow in her voice. She was knocked from her mourning by the approaching sound of footsteps. “Quick you have to hide. You’re not meant to be here.”
She suddenly detached herself from the wall and hurried over to him. Pulling him with surprising strength, the girl guided him to the bottom bunk and pushed him underneath it. Suddenly he was peering out like a monster under the bed as two feet shuffled into place on the other side of the bars.
“You are oddly lively this evening, Lavenza. What could have caused you to stir from your torpor?” a deep and grating voice intoned. He could see nothing of the newcomer but a pair of well-polished leather shoes and the well-pressed cuffs of their pants. Yet his fellow inmate seemed very familiar with this new arrival.
“I was- I was trying to escape,” she offered up to who Ren was beginning to suspect must be some sort of guard or warden. Despite thankfulness for the cover she was offering, the young man did not like the idea of what might happen to her as a result. He made to spring forth from his hiding spot when he felt a twinge deep within his skull. The sensation stopped him in his tracks.
“Now, my dear, you know there is no where to go. Without anyone to form a contract you are superfluous to requirements.” Lavenza’s head seemed to tweak towards his hiding spot as she was lectured by the mysterious presence. “I suggest you leave off with your struggles. There is little point to them.” With that the voice went silent, and the feet made a slow and plodding departure.
He heard Lavenza make her way over to his hiding spot. The short and light footsteps were so distinct from those long and plodding ones coming from out in the hall. As she hurried over, he tried again to leave the confines of under the bunk. Try as he might he could not. It was as though his mind and his body were not connected. Just as the young girl bent down, her face coming into view, he felt it again. That vibration throughout his skull.
The blueness faded back to blackness. The natural order of the world asserted itself again. Everyone knew shadows were a deep unending black, not a velvet blue. Once again, he found himself in that transient state between dream and reality. He regretted leaving the vision he had just seen. Lavenza had so reminded Ren of himself, scared and trapped. The drifter hated that he would forget her. Now concern was given to the fact that the child was nothing but a figment.
Ren opened his eyes to find himself slumped against the window. The vibrations coming from the train’s engines passed through the walls and into him where his cheek met the glass. He sat up and looked out at the changed vista before him. Green had given way to grey, but peaking between spires of steel was still that perfect pale blue. He had never been to Tokyo. In his mind he associated that leeching of colour from the world with the days he was locked up. The prison had been nothing but muted concrete. That was what made the blue stand out to him so much in those moments it became visible. In the past, the grey had been all encompassing. Here it was allowed to retreat enough to allow some life back in.
As he looked out into the new world, he found himself in a realisation came to him. He remembered. The dream had not faded as so many before had. He had always felt a little out of place when other would describe their dreams to him. He had no point of reference for the parallel logic the hallucinations they described would depart on. But here he was, the image of Lavenza still clear as though he had just seen her for real. The way she had cowered in that cell. He shivered at the thought.
Whether he could still hold on to the dream or not didn’t really matter. It did not change the fact that it was still a dream. Soon they would arrive. Ren needed to centre himself. The drifter had to think through exactly what he was going to do once the train came to a stop. Based on the ever-tightening building that surrounded the tracks outside there wasn’t a lot of time to do that in. He put the foreboding vision out of mind as he prepared to disembark from the train.
What did he need? A roof over his head and three meals a day seemed like the goal. A goal that seemed extremely out of reach. A depressing notion when it was so modest. It was a goal that needed money. That meant step one was a job. That posed another problem. A lack of qualifications plus a criminal record really limited the pool of possibilities for him. Ren knew from his time inside that many in his position would just end up falling in with the yakuza. The ex-convict had worked hard to avoid that while he was doing time He didn’t plan on failing now. No matter what people though, he was innocent. He had done the right thing. He wouldn’t let it all be for nothing. In the end the only person who needed to be able to live with his actions was himself.
So, a roof and three meals was probably a while away. In the meantime, that was going to mean a lot of rough sleeping. He needed to find somewhere secluded enough that he would feel safe closing his eyes. That would be his first step. Search for some corner of Tokyo he could curl up in without the threat of something doing him in. Step one seemed a little too close to wandering around aimlessly for the drifter’s liking, but as ever it was the best he had.
Assuming step one worked out without resulting in the weather or some stranger made sure he didn’t wake up again, he had some idea of step two. Wandering into random shops looking like he did wasn’t likely to get him a job. From the few vocational classes he had done while in jail, he knew all of that stuff was done online now. He didn’t like the idea of spending what little he had left on an internet café, so that left the ones at the library. Once he had some sort of home base staked out, he could work out where the closest public library was.
Step two was as far as he got before the train finally rolled to a halt. Ren psyched himself up to emerge into the crowd of the big city as he waited for the door to open. The hiss as they slid open prompted him to lurch forward into Tokyo for the first time.
The station contained more people than Ren had seen in his entire life all at once. Putting his head down and rolling his shoulders forward, he pushed his way through the crowd. He paid no real attention to which way he was going. His only priority was to keep moving. Eventually the drifter found himself amongst a crowd all moving in the same direction, flowing like a river, carrying him along. It was to his great relief that this flow brough him towards the exit.
His only parting from the whims of the crowd was a stop in front of a brochure stand to pocket a map of the city. It was clearly meant for tourists, so the majority of the places in gave clear directions to would be useless to him. Nevertheless, he hoped it would help his navigation. Eventually the bulk of the crowd trickled off in a multitude of directions. They went off to other trains, to taxis, some off to one of the multitude of hotels that seemed to dot the area. It left his rudderless. So started his wandering.
The first thing to do was to get out of such a built-up area. The signs around told him he was in Marunouchi, and it was clear that this was one of the nicer parts of the city. It was built for businesspeople and tourists, and that meant it was rather inhospitable for his purposes. He looked at his new map, trying to orient himself. What was needed was a place the map wouldn’t even bother to name. Somewhere tourists were expected to avoid, sightsee through.
With a little guess work he decided on a direction. He was aiming for a point on his map where there was a little too much distance between the names of two districts, as though they had skipped a less reputable one. It would take a lot of walking to get to his intended destination, so he hoped the gamble paid off. With a quick stretch of his legs, he was off.
Once again all that was left to take in the world flowing past him and to think. Where before his decisions had been on a short timer that left no time for deliberation, he now found that time in abundance. Yet instead of thinking past those first two steps he had come to, he turned back to retrospection. He could feel himself dwelling on the decisions he had made that brought him into and out of Inaba in such quick succession and found himself drowning in them. There was nothing to be gain interrogating the hope he had felt on going home, how delusional that hope was. Shutting down that line of thinking entirely left him once again to take in the views of his new stomping ground.
Again, he marvelled at the way colour seemed to pervade the washed-out tones that he had expected from the capital. In his mind, the more urban a place, the more he had assumed that life would bleed out of it. Yet life shone through, just not always in the way he expected. Neon signs beamed at him. Dashes of paint drew the eye wherever he went. Plants grew out of any crack that allowed them, blooming in the shafts of light allowed to them. The only thing that could draw him from his revery was the occasional cop on a street corner. He hoped the wonder on his face made it look like he was a tourist, not a prospective burglar.
It took hours to walk what Ren now realised would have been relatively short distance on the local trains. His legs ached from the effort, leaving him thankful that he had played out the cliché of using his time in jail to work out. Even so, simply walking had not been one the exercises easily available to him while inside. He stood in front of the train station at his destination feeling exhausted.
That local train station told him what the map couldn’t. The sleepy little district was called Yongen-Jaya. It was amazing what only a day in Tokyo had done to his perception. At any other day in his life, this would have been the densest block of houses and shops he had ever seen. Today it looked quaint. Turning every which way to take the place in he steeled himself. The map wouldn’t help him with the next part. If he wanted to find somewhere out of the way enough that even the locals had forgotten it would take searching with a fine-tooth comb.
As he swirled around the back streets that made up the neighbourhood, the noted the major points of interest. A quaint little coffee shop. A local medical clinic. A second -hand shop that spilled into the street. A public bath next to a self-service laundromat. A set of batting cages. A tiny movie theatre. Not that he was in much of a position to take advantage of any of these. Perhaps another few steps down the line. Assuming he worked out what those steps were.
As it got dark, he began to wonder if he would have any luck finding somewhere to lay his head down for the night. If it got too much later then he would just have to pick somewhere for the night and hope no one came along. Hunger was gnawing at him again. He decided on the same strategy that he had this morning. He had seen a convenience store back on the main street that led to the station. It would do until he worked something else out.
Handing what was becoming a more and more significant percentage of his remaining funds hurt, but he left the shop with another container in hand, filled with rice topped with some sort of indeterminate fish. He realised that as cheap as his chosen meals, this was still going to be unsustainable in the long term. He liked to think that his time away had forced him to grow up quickly, but in this particular realm he was rather out of his depth.
Sitting down on the path outside, he leaned up against the glass window of the store and opened the container greedily. As though summoned by the unleashed smell, he found a sleek black cat with a white snout stood in front of him. There was no collar around their neck, and Ren could help be notice the messiness of their coat. They looked up expectantly, as though there was no thought in their head that they would be denied.
“You’re hungry too, huh bud?” Ren said with a smile. Grabbing lid of the container, he carefully transferred a scoop of the fish off the top before putting it down on the ground between his feet. The cat instantly started digging in. Not wanting to be left out, the delinquent dug into his own portion. Chopsticks flying, it wasn’t long until the pair were done.
Unlike this morning, he wasn’t interrupted by anyone human this time. He thought maybe the presence of the cat made his own placement there look a little less out of place. Anyone merely glancing over the street would see a young man bent down to pet a cat, not a would-be criminal loitering about the place. Enjoying his moment’s reprieve, he gently held out his hand for the cat to sniff. It was already a surprise to him that the stray had stayed so close after finishing up their meal, but the fact that the dishevelled feline happily rubbed against his hand melted his heart a little.
“That’s okay, little guy,” Ren said, running his fingers along the cat’s spine. “Us strays have to stick together, huh.” Eventually he decided that he needed to get back to it if he was going to have any chance of finding the sort of spot he was looking for before midnight. It was only the calm that petting his new friend had brought him that gave him any hope that he would be able to do it today at all.
Pushing himself to his feet, his tiny friend let out a meow that felt larger than their little body. Ren waved the street cat goodbye as he tried to find the point in his search that he had abandoned it in want of food. He hadn’t made it two steps when the cat bounced over to him and batted him on the ankle. There were no claws, yet the bop was insistent.
“What is it? Still, hungry? I don’t have any more food.” This got another outsized meow followed by another whack on the leg. Next, his dinner guest turned and began to trot away in the opposite direction, only to stop and turn back expectedly at Ren.
“You want me to follow you?” the young man asked, feeling rather stupid as he did. Cats may be smart, but they aren’t understanding Japanese smart. He briefly wondered if he was still asleep on the train. It would explain the weirdness. It would understand why he still remembered with unreal clarity that dream. After all, why would he forget what was still happening to him. If so, why not go with it. Who knew where this dream cat was going to lead him to. “Fine, let’s go.”
As the night stretched on, the streets of Yongen-Jaya had emptied out. It made picking out the path the stray was taking much easier. Still, there where time that the drifter had to duck and weave through obstacles that gave no problem to his new friend. Each one would leave him falling behind, so which the moggy would pause and give him a look. The cat looked so human in those moments. It only made him more convinced that this still a fantasy.
The lights of the houses and apartments were blocked out as Ren descended down alley after alley. Eventually he came to a dead end, covered with an awning, under which sat the small fluffball who had led him here. It was a strange boxy sort of place. It almost looked like the buildings on each side had expanded out, leaving this tiny forgotten space just for him. He picked his way over to his little guide and bent to get them a pat well done.
“Thank you,” Ren whispered into the darkness as he scratched the stray’s neck. “I hope this is really here when I wake up.” The cat gave him the strangest look as he said that, but Ren paid it no mind. He had grown used to the idea that the dream cat could understand him.
He pushed himself up into the corner of the dead end, putting his plastic bag down next to him. The exhaustion of the day seemed to overwhelm him, but surely that must have just been the sensation of the real world calling him back to wakefulness. The cat stepped up into his lap, curling into a warm ball. The drifter’s hands ran through black fur as his eye fell closed.
“Think you need a name, bud. Maybe I’ll remember if you have a name,” Ren mumbled out in a haze, interrupting himself with a yawn. “I think I’ll call you Morgana. Witchy sort of name for a witchy sort of cat.”
With that decided he let the change take him. It was only in that moment that he realised he had been wrong. He had certainly been awake. He could feel the way reality was becoming unreality around him. Black faded to blue again. As it did, he wondered just what that meant for the cat sat in his lap somewhere in the waking world. He wondered if he would see Lavenza again.