Euphoria

During one cold and cloudy morning, the cold breeze blew towards a hospital located somewhere in Tokyo. In a hospital room with its window open as the breeze blew the curtains, Ken suddenly woke up from his slumber as he gasped in a frightened way. He breathed heavily while he tried to catch his breath as he said to himself,

"What the—?" He examined his body first and saw that he was wearing a different clothing. He observed his surroundings and realized that he was lying in an unfamiliar bed, and he was staying in an unfamiliar white room.

Ken was sleeping in a hospital room. Why was he there? His eyes widen as he finally realized and thought to himself while reminiscing his memories,

"I was run over by a truck, right? Or was it another dream? Where am I? This isn’t my bed, though. This is also not my room. I’m in a hospital room so it wasn’t a dream this time, huh?"

He sighed deeply as he saw something from the corner of his eye that caught his attention. Ken looked towards his left and he saw a girl who was sleeping soundly on the couch and wondered to himself, "This girl was probably the one who saved me."

Without hesitation, Ken left his bed, swiftly ran towards the open window, and jumped out of the window using the giant tree's branch in front of his room's window as a foothold. He climbed down from the tree and quickly ran away from the hospital.

"If they would ask weird questions that I even answered it honestly, they would just think that I got my memory mixed after getting hit by a truck. Why won’t they try being hit by a truck to confirm it themselves of how it feels?!", Ken complained with his voice raised as he continued to run.

As Ken continued to run, he eventually arrived at a beautiful field with Sakura trees blooming as far as the eye could see. He was amazed by the beautiful scenery as he headed towards a tree to climbed it. As he reached the top, he lied down on a huge branch and rest for a while to catch his breath.

One hour later had passed and Ken was already fast asleep. Suddenly, a voice from a tiny girl exclaimed,

"Whoa! There’s an onii-chan (Japanese for Older Brother) on top of the tree! That’s amazing!"

Ken was awoken by the sound of the voice. "What!?" He opened his eyes and as soon as he realized something was clearly wrong since someone found him, he accidentally leaned to his side, and hastily struggled to keep his balance.

"Whoa!", he panicked as he fell down from the tree and hit the ground.

The girl, who looked like she was in elementary school and was beside the fallen Ken, looked at him from above him as she asked innocently, "Are you ok, onii-chan?"

"Do I look like ok to you?!", Ken yelled in annoyance as vein throb appeared on his forehead. He tried to move but his back suddenly made a loud cracked sound and he screamed really loud in pain.

"Yes", the girl said in a straight face.

"Man, this brat is unbelievable. Never seen a person who screamed in agony after his back just broke from the fall?! Why don’t I break that tiny neck of yours so I could be satisfied!!!", Ken thought to himself as his eyes looked intense and fierce while staring at the girl.

The girl, who noticed that Ken was staring daggers at her and she suddenly received a chill down her spine, asked with a sad look on her face and a shaken voice, "Do you want to kill me, onii-chan?"

Ken's face suddenly turned into shock as he thought if the girl read his mind, or it was just because his eyes were filled with murderous intent. The girl patted her dress as Ken squat down on the grass while she said, "My name is Euphoria. Nice to meet you, onii-chan."

"You have a unique name. I never heard a person with a name like yours", Ken awkwardly smiled as he thought to himself, "How is that possible? Is it coincidence?"

"You also have a nice bracelet…", Ken added as he noticed the bracelet from Euphoria's right wrist.

Euphoria smiled in return and cleared her throat to interrupt their awkward moment, "Let’s cut to the chase. You may not know this, but I’m actually a spirit that placed a certain curse on you before that would activate after a few seconds before you died."

"Th—That's a lie, right? You are one funny girl. Hehehehe…", Ken's voice shook as he stammered in reply.

"It's not a lie. How come you didn't question yourself about how you survived that accident two days ago?? No person could survive an accident that made your entire bones break and bleed your head with a crack in the skull, you know", Euphoria eye rolled as she replied.

Ken's eyes widen in surprise as he thought to himself, "That’s really ridiculous, but I can’t deny the fact about asking how I survive. I just ignored it since I was glad that I barely survived that accident."

Euphoria continued, "I placed that curse on you on purpose in order for you to change yourself and atone for your sins."

"What sins?", Ken asked with a straight face.

Euphoria scoffed in anger, "Don't act like you are innocent, you little shrimp."

"What was that?! Don't you dare act all high and mighty just because you're a spirit but never forget that my pride is taller than your height!", Ken angrily replied as he stood from his position and looked down on her.

Euphoria's face turned as red as a tomato after being insulted and started to chase Ken, but he was too fast for her little feet.

Ken yelled as he ran from a distance, "What's wrong? Yo feet's too short?"

He stopped as soon as he saw Euphoria stopped in place to catch her breath.

"Just shut up! I only have a short time so listen up…", Euphoria repeatedly panted as she demanded.

Ken whispered under his breath as he smirked in mockery, "Short, she says."

"I heard that!!! Get back on track, I put a curse on you on purpose not just atone for your sins from the people you hurt—", Euphoria pointed in anger towards Ken as she explained but Ken inserted, "Oh. That sin…"

"Seriously? Anyway, I chose you to be resurrected because I saw a potential in you that would be able to defeat a certain man to save Japan, possibly the whole world", Euphoria scoffed as she continued.

Ken complained in a sarcastic manner, "Cliché! And defeat a man? Why would a delinquent like me have such capabilities to do such boring things?"

"I don't know with you. What I want to know is why a kind of person like you had such capabilities!", Euphoria yelled in return.

"Hhmmm…" Ken placed his right fist under his chin and right elbow rested on his left palm to think.

"Anyway, my curse is about you to be revived again and again whenever you die. It won't stop until you atone for all of your sins and while you're at it, defeat the evil man that would destroy your own future", Euphoria sighed and finished what she was about to say.

Ken's eyes sparkled as he excitedly exclaimed, "So you're saying that I'm practically immortal!? Yes! Now I can do dangerous things without fearing death!" His eyes instantly turned back to normal and lost his hype as he realized, "Wait, I can't trust this too easily. Gotta test it out first."

In a part of the field where Sakura trees didn't grow and was basically plain, Ken brought an umbrella with him and held it over his head as the rain was pouring hard. A lightning bolt struck the umbrella in a blink of an eye and electrified him with it.

In a busy highway where the rain slowly stopped and only the cloudy clouds remain, Ken ran towards the central area of the highway and all of a sudden, a huge truck hit him, and he flew away due to the strong impact to another place.

Next, Ken was in a place that looked like a science lab wherein he poured different chemicals one after the other in one beaker without any protective gear. In fact, his clothing was already torn to pieces that he looked like a homeless person despite looking unscathed. The beaker began to shake horribly as it fiercely exploded, and the blast made the whole room turned into pile of burnt bricks and he was roasted from head to toe.

Back at the field where Euphoria remained, Ken was standing in front of her completely unscathed. She scolded the completely immature technical man-child,

"You were just messing around! Besides, those stuff only cause major damage and won't kill you so you would just heal after five seconds."

"Ok. Fine, fine. A chibi (Japanese for Small) being bossy and KJ (Acronym for Killjoy) to me really pisses me off now, too. Can't wait to torture he—", Ken complained in fury and suddenly stopped. "Right, you're a spirit..." He continued as he murmured to himself in a pale expression and started to feel gloomy.

Euphoria complained with a vein throb on her left cheek, "Stop calling me that! You should go back to your room and be discharged then thanked the girl who saved you and who was waiting for you to come back. Don't just sit there and let a woman wait for you and just go already. I'll reappear when I want to. Bye." She then disappeared into thin air without warning afterwards.

Ken sighed as he started to walk back to the hospital since he still needs to walk about three kilometers to get to the hospital.