Hello everyone, I wrote this last year but never published it because couldn't find a good time to make corrections. It is still not perfect yet and I won't be able to update it often. I hope you like since I try to make my works more original stories while being faithful as possible. Enjoy it.
"Welcome to the Velvet Room." A creepy man with a long nose greeted to a young man, he was laying on a comfy therapist chair while the old man was sitting behind a desk. "This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter. My name is Igor, and this is my assistant Victoria." This old man calling himself 'Igor' was accompanied by a young lady with pale-blonde and yellow eyes with blue nurse outfit.
She was standing next to Igor white a weak smile, she barely showed any emotion. "It is my pleasure to meet you, sir." She said it politely. "We are in here to serve and heal you while you are our guest."
"Serve and heal me? I don't understand who are you or why I'm doing here." The young man replied to those to ambiguously friendly strangers.
"We cannot tell you much about those details for the moment. When the time comes, we will tell you everything you need until you wake up at your destination. Now then, why don't you tell us your name, young man?" Despite his creepy eyes and slasher smile, Igor didn't show any sensation of threat towards the teenager.
"Sure I guess…My name is Shin Maeda. Can you tell me why I'm in this place? Here looks like a surgery room or something." This young man called Shin was looking around the Velvet Room. That weird place was indeed a surgeon's room but with old machines, a table with chains attached to the ceiling and some large capsules on the bottom of the room.
"Seems that you are still grasping your surroundings, don't worry Mr. Maeda. We will explain to you all about this place in due time. It is almost time for you to wake up; we will be waiting for your return until you form a contract of some sorts." Victoria explained to Shin about his short visit in that place.
"You seem tired after a long trip; we are not going to bother you until you come back to this room. Until your next visit, farewell." The place started to look blurry for Shin, as he began to heel a little light-head as the room started to disappear.
04/04, Wednesday, Evening.
Shin woke up on a passenger seat while holding his backpack and a heavy suitcase by his side. He looked outside of the window to see how much left to arrive at his destination. Shin was traveling in a boat on the middle of the ocean; it already passed 3 hours since he left the port.
He was waiting to arrive at Kaishi Island: A touristic island on the south of Japan, known for its nature, traditions and modern infrastructure. It was a weird combination of a fisherman bay, homes from the last century and a city with a massive population in the middle of the island. That place has almost everything some could ask: Peaceful suburbia side next to a modern city with a lot of entertainment and everything with mountains and a beach. It was paradise. Shin was astonished for how his family lived in a place like that for years. They were most likely waiting for him at the port.
It didn't take too much time until the captain spoke through the boat's speakers. He was loud. "Attention, passengers. We are arriving at Kaishi Island in 15 minutes. I suggest everybody take your belongings and stay in your seats until we arrive at our destination. I hope all of you enjoyed traveling with us. Until next trip…" The captain was done talking; Shin grabbed his stuff with him and looked at the island from a fair distance. He was able to see the city hidden among the trees and some houses on the hills. The port was the most visible thing on the island. Shin looked at the pamphlet to see what offers to his new home. Nothing was like his previous home.
"Mhhh, what a weird dream, what those people were referring to serve and heal?" Shin asked himself about the vision he had. There were so many questions but not a logical answer for some of them. He didn't mind though because the boat finally stopped. "Well, I should get going." Shin stood up from his seat and carried everything with him.
After leaving the boat, Shin took out a note about someone would be waiting for him at the port. He had a picture of his father and sister together, that could help him to identify them. There was nobody around the harbor. The teenager walked into a public restroom to refresh himself after a long trip. After using the toilet and washing his hands, he looked at himself in the mirror. He examined everything about his appearance: He had short black hair with a crew cut. His eyes were color dark-brown. He was using a black camo jacket with a green and white pattern. He looked fine so far he could tell. After comparing between him and his relative's picture, he went to the conclusion that they didn't look much like him except for the hair colors and eyes.
Walking outside of the restrooms, he noticed a teenager sitting on the bench. She dressed bright colors on her blouse and skirt, with black stocking and brown shoes. She kind of looked like his sister with the only difference is the shorter hair. Shin walked towards her and asked. "Excuse me, but are you, Hikaru Matsui?"
"Yes I am, you must be Shin." She stood up after saying his name. The conversation felt awkward. "I suppose you already know that I'm your sister."
"Fraternal twin, pretty weird huh?" Shin cracked a smile, but he wasn't laughing. He didn't know exactly what to say to someone who is your sister and never knew about her existence, neither she. "So…where is our dad?"
"Him? He was busy at work, and he asked me to pick you up at the port. You arrived earlier than expected." She sounded disappointed about not being with her dad today. "Well, now that you are here we should walk to home; it is not too far from here." The brunette pointed to Shin where to go. It didn't bother him to walk.
While walking to their home, she started to make some question about Shin. "Tell me, how did you know about my father and me? He never mentioned anything about you or our mother." She looked curious about Shin's sudden appearance.
"To tell the truth, I found a picture of us as babies and some letters. I was shocked as much as you." Shin was feeling a little awkward to talk about it.
"I can imagine it, separated since birth…" Hikaru felt silent for a moment. She couldn't say a single word.
"Hey, Kaishi looked pretty nice in the pamphlet. What you can tell me about here?" Shin tried to change the topic so he wouldn't have to deal with an awkward silence until they arrive at home.
"This place is great; we have the fun of any other major city and the peace of any country town." Her mood became more cheerful after talking about her home. "We got a lot of touristic places like shrines, temples, woods and a beach…" She couldn't stop talking about the island.
"Well, seems that you really know a lot this place." Shin made a small smile after looking at her sister in a more upbeat behavior.
"I lived at this island since I was born. It would be hard for me to leave my home." She clearly loved that place. "Why you decided to come here?"
"Well…" Shin had some struggle to pick the right words. "I wanted to meet the family I never knew. Maybe it was twin telepathy, isn't it?"
"I don't think it is how it works."
"Yeah, sorry…" Shin and Hikaru kept walking until they saw some houses. Some of them were traditional while others got a more western design. The area was divided into sections between each other; almost all of them were old. They walked uphill until they stopped in a more looking-cleaned house, it was western design.
Hikaru pulled out a key from her purse while Shin was observing the suburbs around them. He thought that he didn't look bad at all. Maybe with some optimism in his mind can help him to bring a new view of his new home. He couldn't wait to start school. After Hikaru opened the door, they walked inside the house while leaving the shoes at the entrance. The inside looked clean and friendly; with an LSD TV in the living room, a bright well-organized kitchen, a table with 4 chairs, and large coaches around the TV.
"Mhh, dad is not at home yet. I guess I will cook dinner again." Hikaru was looking at the fridge while thinking what dinner she should cook tonight.
"You don't have to cook today, Hikaru. Let me make dinner this time." Shin interjected.
"Do you know how to cook?" Hikaru raised an eyebrow by hearing Shin's proposal.
"I do. In fact, I always make dinner every day." Shin sounded a little enthusiast about making dinner at his new home.
"Ok. So what you have in mind for tonight?" Hikaru crossed her arms while listening to her brother's ideas for dinners.
"I can make some spaghetti with beef and cheese. Do we have all the ingredients?"
"We do, let me get them for you." Hikaru started to search in the cabinets to get the ingredients. Shin started to boil water for the pasta. "You don't need it to do it by yourself. Get some rest at least because your trip was pretty long."
"No thanks, I want to help you at least." His expression became serious.
"Alright, how about we do it together?"
"Deal"
The twins started to cook dinner together. The synchronization between them like checking the pasta, cutting meat, cheese, and mixed it with the tomato sauce was in top notch like they did it before. They were so focused that they didn't notice the dinner was almost made by itself in a short time. After finally making the dinner with some bread and condiments to complement it, they looked at each other with satisfaction.
"Looks like is almost ready, but is too early." Shin looked at the clock in the living room; he wasn't sure what to do now.
"Mhh, I wonder if my show is already starting." Hikaru grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. The local news is the first thing to show up.
"It looks like the weaves are going to increase on this year. The best suggestion to the citizens is not to get near the bay or beach at night. Strong wind storms are expecting to appear next week. That being said, there's no risk is going outside now and…" And the reporter continued to explain more about the island's weather.
"Nothing important I guess. I should unpack my stuff." Shin stood up and grabbed his stuff.
"Let me show you your room." Hikaru stood up too, Shin followed her upstairs to the last room on the bottom of the hallway. Once inside the room, Shin looked around to see how to accommodate everything. "Here it is, not the most luxurious room we can give you but is cozy enough."
"Thanks, I'm sure that is good. I will clean around here first before using the futon."
"Alright, I'll be downstairs to accommodate the table for dinner." She walked away from the room while Shin became busy in his bedroom.
The first day at Kaishi was better than Shin could expect it. He opened his luggage and backpack to put his clothes inside the closet. A book shelve was already in the room but no books to read, Shin was thinking about getting some when they have the chance to visit the city. He moved some stuff around, underneath the futon was a weird bracelet with an odd engraving, it had one jewel which was an agate but five empty spaces where more ornaments should be in the bracelet. Shin thought it looked cool; maybe it was something traditional from the island.
As Hikaru was accommodating everything for dinner, someone knocked at the door. Hikaru went to attend who could be.
"Little girl, we are at home!" Two men with office suits came inside the house. One was in his late 40's while the second on in his earlier middle 40's. Both looked tired but happy.
"Welcome home dad, nice to see you again Sato-san!" Hikaru greeted both men while they took off their jackets and sit on the couch.
"Hey Hika-chan, how was your day?" The other man asked the teenage girl in a friendlier manner.
"It was good; we were able to cook dinner without trouble."
"We? Someone else was with you earlier?" The cheerful man looked confused about what she said.
"Dad, did you forgot to tell him?"
"Sorry, with the piles of work made me forget to give him the news." The gruff looking man was apologetic about it.
"News? Can you explain to me what are you talking about?"
"Hikaru, could you ask him to come here please?"
"Sure, I'll be right back." After a couple of minutes, Hikaru walked downstairs with Shin following her.
"Hello, I'm Shin Maeda. Nice to meet you…" Shin vowed respectful while greeted to both men.
"Shin?... Oh, I remember you now, long time huh?" The man was surprised by the teenager's sudden visit.
"Do you already know him, Sato-san?"
"Of course I do, but I only knew him as a baby."
"Shin, this man is yours and Hikaru's godfather." Their dad explained
"And I'm your father's business partner. I'm Sato Obu, nice to see you again, Shin." The man was happy to see a familiar face.
"Business partner?" Shin was curious because he didn't what kind of job his father had.
"We are working in a sales company, nothing important." The father said in a calm tone.
"We are the bosses of the company; you don't have to be so modest with your son, Tsuba." Sato sounded proud of himself.
"I don't like to brag about it, and you know that."
"Yeah…but what's the fun in not bragging?" Regardless of what Sato said, it didn't bother Tsuba about showing their successful career in front of Tsuba's children. The night became as lively as they started to dine spaghetti which the twins cooked with passion. Everyone began to talk about the past things they were doing when they were young. Shin was so happy of how things looked good for him with his new family, or at least for a while.
Midnight
Meanwhile, on the woods from the island, the wildlife was quiet as always. Birds and mammals were already sleeping, only the noises from there are the crickets. Two creatures were talking to each other under the moonlight.
"Did you found all the symbols?" One of the creatures spoke.
"No, I'm still struggling to find some without being able to shapeshift properly." The second creature with a high pitch tone said in a sad mood.
"You're still too young for that. Maybe in a couple of years of training, and just maybe, you will be able to transform in maggot." It said in a more devilish tone.
"Pretty funny, I will show you one day what I can do that without raising suspicions to the humans."
"Yeah, yeah, back to the topic of the symbols, we need to retrieve them if we want to preserve our village."
"I'm not so sure to be able to accomplish this task without enough experience."
"Say that to the Elders, I'm sure they will understand that."
"This island, something is going wrong after so many years. How can we prevent this catastrophe?"
"I have no idea either; our only option is to follow their orders if we want to survive."
"Do you think the legends are true? I thought those were only bedtime stories."
"Those are more real than you could ever imagine, we already went to 'that' place before. You know the rest."
"I guess so; I will come to the city to find more symbols."
"Try using your other form to attract less attention."
After discussing for a few minutes, those two creatures moved further into the forest. They disappeared into the dark woods.
04/06, Friday, Early Morning
It's been already 2 days after Shin arrived at Kaishi, nothing happened yesterday as he stayed at home to keep cleaning and accommodate his room. He studied more about the island, so he doesn't feel behind about its history and favorite spots of interest, he almost looked like a tourist. Hikaru woke up earlier and already dressed to go out.
"Hey, I'm going to the city for some school supplies, are you going with me?" Hikaru asked Shin while knocking at his room door.
"I will go with you, just give me a moment to get ready." Shin looked at the clock; he never thought that his sister was an early-bird person.
Shin grabbed his clothes and the same camo jacket. He caught the bracelet on his right wrist and took his wallet, current funds: 10,233 yen. He was short in money after traveling to that island. Shin was thinking to find some part-time jobs after entering school when more jobs are available.
"I'm ready, let's go." Shin walked out of the front door while Hikaru was waiting outside.
"Ok, we will have to walk a little for the bus stop. Going from here to the city is pretty far so is our only method of transportation."
"Okay, now you mention distance, is our school far too?" Shin was looking at his phone to see at the island's map.
"Not really, we can just walk to the school as it is close to residential areas, kind of hidden at the forest."
"Now that you mention it, I couldn't find the school with my phone."
"Yeah it is actually weird, maybe it wasn't updated or something, this island is pretty old despite how modern is."
"Well if you say is not that far then I don't have to worry about getting lost on my way to there."
The twins had to take the bus from the residence zone to Hamachi City for 30 minutes. The city was packed of people, from different nationalities and cultures because how much the area has to offer for both local resident and tourists. Shin couldn't believe about the change of environment, not even his previous home had that kind of sudden change.
"This place is amazing, it's almost like Tokyo!" Shin sounded so excited about the city.
"You had been in Tokyo before? You know that I never left this island before."
"Not even for school trips?" Shin was surprised by his sister never experience any other place.
"No, usually we go to a hotel from this island and get some fun activities."
"Huh, that is weird. Well, I guess not always possible to leave here without taking a boat. And about Tokyo, I went there just once."
"I see…" Hikaru was lost in thought about experiencing other places that she would like to go.
They went to separate ways around the city, leaving Shin wandering on the street and looking at different stores, the bookstore was the one that caught his attention. Once inside, Shin looked at the plethora of books the store had to offer. He wasn't sure which books he should buy them, but maybe something that would help him to learn more about the island. Shin ended up buying books about Folklore Tales and Kaishi Anthologies. His current funds changed to 3,433 yen, not much left for other stuff to buy. After leaving the store, he decided to read a little about Folklore Tales, nothing special but mythological creatures and spirits that are reasonably common on the island. Pretty impressive as is said the forest has small shrines and sanctuaries for the spirits living on this island.
After done looking at the book, Shin started to check the next one. When he opened it, something fell from it, it was a necklace. That thing was inside the book for some reason and got an emblem: it was a hexagon with a triangle and a cross inside. Shin never saw something before, maybe from some religious symbol.
Before picking up from the floor, among the bushed started to get agitated.
"Woah!" Shin jumped back when a tanuki came out of the bushes running to the street. "What the…a tanuki? I thought there wasn't any in this area….Wait a sec." The teenager started to look around and to see that the animal took the necklace away. "Hey! Come back here!" He chased the tanuki through the street.
Shin chased it for a couple of minutes until he ended up in the forest area, he wasn't happy about dealing with this kind of situations. It was hard for him because the tanuki was in its natural habitat. It would take him hours to find it if it wasn't for someone's voice.
"Someone get me out of here!" The voice came not too far where Shin was.
"Who could it be?" After hearing it, Shin decided to follow the voice and see who was asking for help. More bushes were in his way, no much vision or space to move around. When he finally reached the voice, there was no one approximately.
"Huh, this is weird. I swear I heard someone asking for help." He eyes were looking at different directions to see if there was someone around, but nothing. One of the bushes started to shake. He was curious if it wasn't another animal catching him off-guard again. He slowly moved towards the bushes and began to push aside the branches to see what was behind them. Of what he saw, it was something totally unexpected for him.
"What the…?"
"You gotta be kidding me." An anthropomorphic tanuki spoke in annoyance while Shin saw it being trapped inside a cage.
