Ryoichi stretched his aching muscles and leant back against the tree. The moon was high in the sky, shedding its rays on to the Earth below and the wind blew softly through the treetops. He yawned and looked up to the indigo sky.

"This is the best part of my day," He said to his cat, Mii-kun. In reply, the orange tabby yawned and fell asleep beside him, purring softly.

Even though Ryoichi was only thirteen years old, he worked hard like any person would do in their adult life. He worked in a steel factory, carrying the scraps to the hill that towered over the village. He was paid 13 rieks a week, which was the equivalent to five dollars. After the economic crisis back in the late 90s, Japan was hit by a storm of natural disasters. Storms, floods, tornadoes, and the earthquake. After the earthquake, there was a war for the natural resources and that was when most people left Japan and headed for the other countries, but he had heard that after Japan, it was one disaster after another and the other countries were torn up by war, or by nature.

That was when his mother had deserted him. Even though he was only six months old, he could remember somehow. Maybe it was a dream, maybe not, but it was always with him. It was a very hot day that day, and his tiny body was swollen with heat under the thick blanket. There was a lot of noise and the smell of fire and something else he couldn’t place in the air. His mother was holding him tightly, running towards nowhere in particular. Perhaps it was a bump in the ground, or the laser surgery she had long ago, but she tripped and fell, crying out as he was thrown away from her arms.

She rushed to him, taking hold of him and holding the small baby to her chest, but she didn’t move. She laid him down under a pear tree and wrote a letter to whoever would pick Ryoichi up about who she was, and what made her do what she had done, and also a letter to Ryoichi. She tucked that into his blanket, along with the only one thing that was of value– a gold necklace with a ruby pendant of a dragon. Two small diamonds sparkled as eyes, windows to the memories of its past.

Ryoichi fingered the necklace as he thought of the memory. He didn’t know where his mother was. Perhaps she was dead, perhaps not. He knew his father – Ryuku Hatashi. A hero of the war, that was what Tomo had told him. Tomo was one of dad’s old friends who had owned the steel factory, and had raised him until the age of 10 when Tomo passed away. He was the closest thing Ryoichi would ever have to a father.

Ryoichi sighed. Stroking his Mii-kun, he looked up at the stars. They were glistening brightly against the dark night, each star representing all the hopes and dreams he had inside him. He leaned his head back against the rough wood of the tree and closed his eyes.

It was a couple of minutes before he heard a noise. Like a soft chm chm chm coming from the sky. He opened his eyes and looked up. Clouds had moved and covered the moon, blocking its light. In the dark sky, he could see a star shining brightly. Strange, he thought. It was growing closer.

The noise became louder, and soon all he could hear with the chm chm chm of…a train? Suddenly there was a loud toot! It was an old fashioned train, a model from the late 1950s. It was the strangest sight he ever saw. When he saw Mika naked in the bathroom, Mii-kun sucking on her tail, this was far more stranger. It was fantastic, like something from a book.The lights were on inside, a bright yellow against the dark night. Ryoichi looked at the train in amazement. On the side of the train, there were words in gold. Galactic Express.

The door slid open and stairs appeared.

For a moment nothing happened, and he stood there waiting for someone to appear.

"Are you gonna get on or not??" a squeaky voice said angrily.

"Where does it go?"

"To the future most possible. To the far reaches of the galaxy," The voice said. "Any place you want."

Ryoichi contemplated whether to get on or not. This was his chance to escape from his life. Did he want to take it?

"How about it, Ryoichi?" the squeaky voice said again. How did he know his name?

"Who are you, first? Where are you?" Ryoichi said.

"I’m right here." A small creature appeared, blowing in the wind. It was fat, and looked like a baby bunny wearing an oversized navy blue coat and a cap, resembling the uniform of the old police back in the 90s.

"What are you blowing around like that for?" Ryoichi asked.

"Look, this train leaves in thirty seconds. Are you going to take a ride or not?" the baby bunny said in a surprisingly mature, but squeaky voice.

"Mii-kun!" Ryoichi called to his cat. Immediately, the orange tabby opened its eyes and ran towards its owner. Ryoichi picked it up and took the first step.

"Hey, watch it!" a deep, ruff voice yelled.

Ryoichi jumped and stared as a face appeared in the stairs.

"What did I tell you, Rikon??" the bunny screamed. "Be nice!!"

The small creature jumped up on to the face in the stairs – Rikon – and started jumping on it with all its might in a frenzy of madness. Ryoichi noticed that the bunny’s paws had claws.

"Ow! Don’t you ever cut your claws?" Rikon cried out. The stairs disappeared and they were ushered into the train with a gust of wind.

"Ah," The bunny said. "By the way, I am Captain Tyler."

"Um…hi…" Ryoichi said. He wondered if he should salute.

"Welcome to the Galactic Express. Where would you like to go?" Tyler asked.

"Gee…I really don’t know," Ryoichi said.

"Good answer! Lufa! Start the train!" Tyler yelled and headed for the upper compartment, leaving Ryoichi and Mii-kun alone.

Ryoichi settled into a seat near the door and lay Mii-kun beside him. He stared out the window and felt the rumble of the engines as the train took off, the stars rushing by outside the window, leaving Earth behind.

Ryoichi didn’t know when he had fallen asleep, but when he awoke there was an endless parade of stars and dark void. He wondered if it was ever going to stop.

The door to the upper compartment opened and Tyler stepped in, a brown paper bag in his hand. "Here!" he handed it to Ryoichi.

Ryoichi opened the bag. The smell of dumplings wafted out. Ryoichi didn’t realize he was so hungry until he took his first bite into a pork-filled dumpling.

"So where are we heading to?" Ryoichi asked, his mouth full of food.

"I don’t know."

Ryoichi swallowed. "What?"

"You said I don’t know, so I don’t know." Tyler said, climbing onto a seat.

Ryoichi thought about it. "But…this train is supposed to take me somewhere…isn’t it?"

"Yes," Tyler said and headed out.

"Well, where is it taking me?"

The train stopped and the doors opened. There was a ding.

"I don’t know." Tyler said and walked out.

Ryoichi sighed, regretting that he was on this train and not under his faithful pear tree, sleeping. He closed the bag of dumplings and waited for the train to move, petting Mii-kun.

Suddenly out of nowhere, a girl rushed inside the train through the doors. She looked scared, as if she were running away from something. He noticed tears running down her cheeks. The girl sat down on a seat and started crying. Her knotty hair cascaded down her shoulders, shielding her face. She wore dirty and torn jeans, and a plain brown sweater.

Ryoichi stared at her. He felt like he had met her before, but couldn’t recall where. Ryoichi got up and leaned over her. "Hey, what’s wrong?"

The girl looked up at him. She had startling stormy grey eyes, watery from tears.

Ryoichi stepped back, feeling dizzy. Somehow, the girl reminded him of his mother he never knew.

Suddenly the girl jumped up and came closer to him, staring at his neck. "Where did you get that necklace?" demanding eyes looked at him.

"It’s mine…I’ve had it since I was a baby."

The girl crumbled. She started heaving, leaning against Ryoichi crying.

"Can you tell me what’s wrong?" Ryoichi said, trying to find a way to comfort her. He was never good at these things. He didn’t even cry when Tomo died.

"…Your name…?" The girl said.

"Ryoichi."

"…Ryoichi…my baby."

"Mother…?" Ryoichi said. It couldn’t be; she was only a couple of years older than him. There was a lump in his throat.

"Yes!" the girl said, her eyes shining. "But I just left you…under the tree."

"Tomo found me." Ryoichi said.

"Tomo…he was a good friend." his mother said. "I am glad you’re alive. When you get back…will you tell Tomo thank you?"

"He is already dead." Ryoichi said. He felt like he could smack himself. Couldn’t he at least use something more subtle?

"De..ad?" His mother’s image disappeared and came back again, like the unsettled reception on a tv. "..t…ca..n’t..be.."

Her image disappeared altogether.

"Mother?!" Ryoichi shrieked. "Where did you go?"

What had just happened? He waited for her image to reappear, but it never did. He touched the place where she had been crying on his shoulder. It was still wet. She was here. Ryoichi collapsed back into the seat beside Mii-kun. It took him a few minutes to realise the train had stopped.

"Now, Ryoichi," Tyler said, stepping back into the compartment. "Where would you like to go?"

"To see my mother…" Ryoichi said. "To find out the truth about her and my father."

"Very good!" Tyler said, turning around and waddling his tiny body back to the upper compartment. Ryoichi wondered what was up there.

There was a jolt and the train sped off.

"…I can’t…it’s too much for me." A female voice said. "I’m only seventeen years old!"

"You…have to…" a vague voice replied. "…no other…oice."

The female started sobbing. She said something Ryoichi could not hear. Ryoichi looked around him. He was in a room, like a bedroom. An old fashioned one, like how they were in the 90s. It was very feminine, with the walls a peachy color and the quilt on the bed a light blue. There was a calendar on the wall. 1998.

That was so long ago! Even before Japan’s breakdown.

Suddenly there was a brilliant flash of light and Ryoichi was standing in the middle of a road. This time there was no color, only black and white. The sky was a dull gray, and people were rushing about him in a mad frenzy.

There were screams, and Ryoichi could hear a loud explosion to the left of him. Everything was dusty, so dirty, so different from the pictures he’d seen, of the bright blue skies and clean buildings.

He looked to the right. There she was! Running, stumbling, with a baby in her arms. He saw her fall, and the baby flying from her, landing near the pear tree. She dragged herself closer to her baby. She was crying as she laid her baby down, taking off her necklace and putting it around his neck. Then she ran behind the tree…and disappeared.

Ryoichi blinked. A dream, or memory? Had he relived a memory? Where had his mother disappeared to?

"Ah, that is the question." a voice said.

Ryoichi was standing on a podium, with only one light above him to shield him from the darkness.

"Where did she go?" A man appeared from the shadows, a small frail man leaning on a cane. The man walked towards Ryoichi, his cane tapping noisily in the silence.

"I have been wondering that for years…centuries." The man said.

"…father?" Ryoichi said, staring at the man who was young once.

"Look at me, Ryoichi! I am an old man!" he cried. "I used to be as good looking as you, had as much energy as you…Join the army, they said. You’ll become a man, they said. Look at me, am I a man? Do you see me as a man or a young boy with hopes and dreams?"

Ryoichi was silent. "Tomo said you were a hero."

"Hero, what is a hero? You tell me, how can this old man you see before you be a hero?"

Ryoichi fumbled for words.

"Your mother will take from you what she took from me. Or has she taken it already? Hm?" Ryuku said. "Do you still have the heart to even answer me back?"

"A heart…" Ryoichi murmured. How had his mother taken his heart?

"By leaving you, Ryoichi." Ryuku said. "Your mother took your heart by leaving you alone under the pear tree that day."

A tear rolled down Ryoichi’s cheek. "She left me…I don’t even know my own mother. Where she is. Who she is. I have no one to depend on…"

"You, Ryoichi, you don’t have to depend on anybody. You have yourself. And that." his father pointed to the pendant. "You are the dragon. That is your true form. The dragon will reveal all the answers to your questions."

The dark faded away and he was back in the train, sitting beside Mii-kun. "Meow?" the cat said, questioning where he had been.

"I don’t know, Mii-kun." Ryoichi said. "This all seems so bizarre." he fingered the necklace. How would the dragon tell him everything? What could this ruby dragon know?

Everything…

Ryoichi blinked. Did he hear someone, or was it just him?

I can tell you everything you want to know, and everything you don’t. It’s your choice.

"What can you tell me?" Ryoichi asked.

I can tell you the truth. The true origin of your mother, and what she is.

"Please, tell me. I am desperate to know!" Ryoichi said.

He felt his body transform, becoming a slender, but powerful, snake-like form. From his skin sprouted hard scales, shiny red scales, the color of rubies. His eyes, sparkling, wise, the color of diamonds. He had a hundred memories that did not belong to him. He could remember swimming through the water, the wet coolness surrounding him, caressing him like a lover. He could remember the wild forests of China, the empty caves where he lived, the cool damp isolation where he had lived and died. Suddenly his death flashed before him. The rocks and dirt surrounding him, suffocating him as the Earth caved in to the ground.

Ryoichi shook his head. He pictured himself, a red dragon, shaking his head, trying to rid himself of a memory that was not his. He tried to remember a reason for this happening, this transformation. Did he ask for it? Wait a minute…his mother…

More memories flooded his brain. The greyness of Tokyo Hospital in 1981 when she was born. He remembered a name…Shinju…Takuyama…was that it? Ryoichi shook his head again. He saw his mother growing up, a small lonely girl with no friends six years later. How sad! He wished he could do something.

Then she grew, and became the girl he had seen in the train. She was at Tokyo Hospital again, lying in a bed by herself, staring at her baby, at Ryoichi. She wanted to keep him forever. Then the nurse came in and took him away, and Shinju lay back and fell asleep.

Four months later, Shinju was in her room with Ryuku. She was sobbing uncontrollably, breaking to pieces. But Ryuku became angry, leaving the room in a rush. She couldn’t take it anymore, and in two months, she didn’t have to. During Japan’s breakup, she had lost everything. Her family, her belongings, Ryuku. And finally she gave up Ryoichi, and when she took that step onto the train, she became nothing, because she was nothing.

Ryoichi realised his father had deserted his mother at the time of the greatest hardship. That was why he had become so bitter, so full of hate, and yet Ryuku understood everything. He knew everything, all the answers, because Ryuku was the dragon, was apart of Ryoichi, the part that Ryoichi could never give up, because it was part of his heart.

He could feel his father smiling down on him, pleased that Ryoichi had found out the answer.

The train stopped.

"This is your stop, Ryoichi." Tyler said, appearing from the upper compartment.

Ryoichi blinked. His body was cramped from not moving for so long. He stretched and picked up the sleeping Mii-kun beside him.

"Bye now," Tyler said, waving a paw in the air.

"Thank you," Ryoichi said. "Good bye."

Ryoichi stepped off the train and onto the solid earth. He waved good bye as the train sped up into the clouds and disappeared into the night sky, he lay back against the pear tree with Mii-kun beside him and closed his eyes.

The End

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