Dark's POV:
It was just another night, as the idiotic police force was scurrying down below me, still making their pathetic attempts to 'secure' the museum from a certain thief. I almost chuckled by how they never learned to simply give up and allow me to have one night without the slightest bit of worry of getting caught. But on the other hand, it was the thrill of the risk that kept everything exciting, wasn't it? At least, that's what I came to believe these days.
Listening carefully to the chiming of a clock tower nearby, it came to my attention that it was time for my appearance, and swooped down from my rooftop perch, diving headfirst towards the museum. There was an old air vent that Emiko had told me about, and as expected, I was able to fit in smoothly without any complications, and crawl farther into the building. According to the diagram of the building I was suppose to take a left at the first intersection, which came up in about 5 feet, and bash the first opening that I could find to crawl out of.
Deciding to play it safe, I make sure to look outside of the metal shaft before lifting it out of it's place. I could see the night's target almost directly below me, yet not a single guard to be seen or heard. Those idiots are probably looking at all the possible exits and surrounding corridors. I rationalized to myself before attaching a retractable cord to the top of the vent, and taking a swan dive toward the ground, landing myself in front of the statue.
The Reincarnated. That, was the name of the piece, which has so far led to the disappearance of two different people in the city, an old janitor and a new security guard who both worked at the museum. Both of them had simply gone missing in the same week, although the news concerning it had been kept quite concealed from the public, it had become a bit obvious to the Niwas that it was the work of this particular statue. Where it sent people was absolutely unknown, probably an alternate universe, but no human who had been absorbed by the statue had ever been known to return to their world, if they were even still alive.
"Dark! Get away from that statue!" A particularly annoying voice echoed through the show room, and I didn't even have to turn around to know that it was the Commander. But, deciding to show him the formality, I did face him, my signature smirk covering up my true feelings of slight annoyance. It was easier to deal with him than his counterpart, but Daisuke had been complaining lately about how 'I was going too hard on him' or something like that.
"Sorry Blue Boy, but I don't really have time to chat tonight. I'm already behind my schedule, so I guess I'll just have to take my leave with the artwork." I told him truthfully, Emiko really had been on my case lately about how I had been taking too long to get back to the house, mainly due to battling the Commander. So tonight I guess I'd just have to skip temporarily sealing the piece on my own, and just take it straight back to the house for the permanent seal that Emiko and Daiki always do.
The Reincarnated was actually a figure of a female angelic figure made entirely of black ivory. It was about as tall as my upper thigh, and as I grabbed it from the unguarded pedestal, I was surprised by the feather-like weight that allowed my to embrace it tightly to my side as I took off, using Wiz to appear as my wings as I made a flashy exit, by flying right out of the glass window of the room, using my free arm to avoid shards of glass from harming me.
Of course, there was some sort of yelling from Hiwatari, but I chose to ignore whatever it was that he was screaming at me, assuming that it was just some sort of form of 'I'll get you next time!' or 'This isn't over!' Nothing new, and defiantly nothing that I needed to pay attention to.
Dark! Why did you have to break that window? It's going to cost the museum money to have to replace it, and all that broken glass can be a real safety hazard for people. The annoying voice of reason said, starting to lecture me about my rash exit, and I openly sighed.
"Listen, it was the fastest and easiest way to get out, and you know as well as I do that your mom is going to have a cow if we were any later than we already are. You said you have some sort of arithmetic exam tomorrow or something? She wanted you to get home so you could sleep." I explained to him as I closed in on the Niwa house, landing swiftly in the backyard without being sighted by anyone at this late hour.
The patio door to the house swung open before I even set foot on the ground, and Emiko had come rushing outside. "Dark! There you are! Come on, let's take The Reincarnated to the basement, Dad says that it's power is growing, and that there might not be much time left." She yelled at me, grabbing my forearm before I could respond and yanking me into the house.
"Gah!" I stopped short inside the kitchen as I dropped the statue to the floor, jerking my suddenly blackened and burned hand away from it, as The Reincarnated burned up to an amazingly scorching temperature. It clanged and clashed with the wooden floor, but thankfully did not shatter, but rather just laid there, beginning to give off a purplish other-worldly hue.
Emiko and I simply stared at the statue for a moment, and we both failed to realize as another person entered the room. "Daiki is downstairs waiting, where's the statue?" We turned to see Daisuke's father, whose attention was soon on The Reincarnated as well. I was fairly certain that they could feel the heat radiating from it as well, which was why none of us had made a move to lift it from the ground. Would we have to preform the sealing ritual in the kitchen?
"Maybe I should go get Dad..." Emiko said, but before she could take another step, the kitchen door was flown open for yet another face to reveal itself.
"Dark! Stop! All of you! Get away from the statue!" Hiwatari yelled at us, as we looked at him in surprise.
"How did you get in our house! You're not welcome here! You can't arrest Dark here, because you're trespassing young man!" Emiko started barking at him, although he did not falter at her not-so-empty threats. Everyone seemed drastically confused with the situation, why the hell would the Commander just break into the house? It certainly wasn't like him at all, just too out of character.
Just then, a blinding pale light engulfed the entire room, and I could hear the small sound of muffled voices beyond the light. What was happening? Faintly, I could hear Daisuke screaming at me from the back of my head, but he sounded so distant. Within the light of nothingness, a familiar shade of red appeared in front of me, and with the strength that I still had, which was draining rather rapidly, I called out the the shade of red.
"D-Daisuke... What... is-" I never finished my sentence, as darkness crept into the edges of my vision. Yet, as my mind and eyes began to close, a daunting sound echoed through my ears, piercing itself into my memory. A sick and eerie laugh, although I couldn't tell if it was a male or female, it was a type of chuckling that I had never heard before. What is that? What's laughing at me?
...
Ah, my head... With much effort, I managed to open my eyes just slightly, but I wasn't prepared for what I saw. Apparently, I was in a moving vehicle that seemed to be going much faster than whatever the speed limit might be, as it whizzed down the streets of a large city that I had never seen before. A dream, and a rather poor one at that. My dreams were never as random as this, or did the pain that I felt in my head feel so real, but there was always a first time for everything.
I turned to look at my right side, and I almost screamed at what I saw, if only a hand didn't press itself on my mouth so tightly, I would have. Krad was sitting right next to me in the accursed car, and he was still pinning my mouth against the side of the wall of the vehicle, glaring me down. Sitting next to him was Creepy Boy, and I glanced back at the two of them, realizing that they each had their own body, and Krad just happened to have a certain murderous look in his eye. Yup, it's official, this is the worst nightmare I've had in 400 years.
"Don't make a sound, Mousy, not until we arrive." He snarled at me, and removed his bare hand from my mouth, at which point I began to try and rub and spit and remains of his hand contact with my face away, which caused him to roll his eyes. Arrive? What was he talking about? Just where the hell was this crazy car taking me and these weirdos?
"Oh good! Dark's awake too! Don't worry, sweetie, I'll explain everything once we get there!" A familiar cheery voice perked up my ears, and in front of me, I saw that there were two more seats in between the creeps and I from the driver. My face twisted into more confusion at the sight of Emiko, wearing a smile as usual... DID SHE NOT SEE THE SITUATION I WAS IN? CRAZY 1 AND CREEPY 2 ARE SITTING IN THE SAME SPACE AS ME! And next to Emiko, I finally noticed that there was actually one person who was still fast asleep, which was my all too familiar red haired tamer. Lucky, he doesn't know what's going around him in this stupid dream.
None of this made any sense, I swore that only a minute ago, we were in the kitchen attempting to seal the Reincarnated, now I was in some weird parallel dimension dream world? Wait... The Reincarnated... It couldn't have sent all of us to another dimension, could it? It was easy to tell that the look of shock and understanding was written all over my face, as well as despair. No soul that had been transported to an alternate dimension with the Reincarnated was ever known to come back, at least in their own time period, that is, which could seem like another possibility.
We were gone. In our own world, we might as well have been dead.
"So, you finally see our predicament, haven't you, Mousy?" Krad mumbled next to me, not even making eye contact. I found it surprising how calmly he was acting in the situation, unless this really was a really wacked up nightmare. Just to make sure that I wasn't the only one who was suffering from this awkward and potentially dangerous car ride, I kicked the back of Daisuke's seat as hard as I possibly could from my angle, jolting him awake in a matter of seconds.
"W-What? Huh? Where am I?" He questioned, seeming quite disoriented, much like I was a couple moments ago. However, Emiko was quick to calm him down, once again saying how everything would be alright once we arrived. Of course, the redhead looked utterly confused, but it was only when he looked in the back seat of the car that his expression was filled with shock and what looked like horror.
"D-Dark? How are you- What's going on?" His eyes quickly shifted to Krad and Creepy, which almost automatically shut him up, but his pleading eyes seemed to land on me again, like he wanted answers. I shrugged my shoulders in response, and decided to look out a window for the remainder of the short trip, which I must say had to be the longest and most awkward ten minutes of my life.
Once we exited the car, which I now knew was yellow and would be referred to as a 'taxi', I saw that there had also been one other passenger who had been sitting next to the driver the entire time, and only added more confusion to the situation.
"D-Dad? Mom? What's going on?" Daisuke asked both his parents once we were all out of the car and standing on the sidewalk outside a small cluster of old styled apartment buildings. The four of us were all staring at Emiko and Kosuke, since they were the only adults among us that we knew. In total, there were six of us, more exactly, the exact same six people who had been in the room along with the Reincarnated when it had reacted so strangely. There was no way it was a coincidence, that one stupid artwork had screwed over all of our lives in a matter of seconds. But why?
"Don't worry Dai! Everything's okay! The Reincarnated, the artwork that you and Dark were stealing had some strange reaction all of a sudden when you brought it back to the house. We may be in another dimension, but under the circumstances, I think we can all put our differences aside, right?" Emiko briefly explained, Daisuke seemed a little phased by the situation, and I was certainly uncomfortable with it. Krad had been my enemy for 400 years, and that wasn't going to change in an instant.
"Oh, you must be the new tenants!" A rather high-pitched voice rang through the air, turning around towards the source, a rather petite Chinese woman with shoulder length jet black hair came out of one of the tan colored buildings. "I'm Ms. Deliz, the landlady here, and I'm so glad to have you move in! Now if I could just have Mr. and Mrs. Niwa fill out some paperwork in my apartment while the others of you start to move, that would be quite progressive, wouldn't you agree?"
Move? It was only in that moment that I noticed the two white moving vans that were parked at the street curb only a yard or so away. We had to move all of those boxes by ourselves? The Niwas automatically agreed and went into the building as they were asked.
"If you four need any help, I know someone who might be willing to help you out. Let me go get him for you!" The landlady said to us before rushing into the building herself behind Daisuke's parents. Finally with the four of us alone, I was surprised of how calm everybody seemed to be, although it was clear that Daisuke was shaking a little bit. I placed a hand on his shoulder to help him calm down, which was when I noticed something a little strange. He had gotten a little taller, if only by an inch or two, but it was still clearly visible to me that he had grown by just a bit.
"Why are you acting so calm, Krad? Shouldn't it be about time that you start jumping at our throats?" I asked him calmly, and besides a cold glare, he made no other sign of a threat.
"Think about our situation a little more, Mousy. We are practically stranded in another world where magic doesn't exist, and our best bet of returning to our own realm is to... dare I say, 'collaborate'? The Reincarnated transported six souls, and only six souls it will take back, so that's enough of a reason to keep you alive, as far as I'm concerned."
"...Emiko threatened you, didn't she?" I asked him with a raised eyebrow, not completely buying his sob story. At first, he seemed outraged at the suggestion, but quickly turned his view towards the ground, coughing slightly into his hand, therefore proving my theory correct. Trust me, no one in their right mind would ever mess around with that woman. No offense to her, but she is pretty scary.
"It also appears that Daisuke and I have had a slight shift in age, probably only about a year, but it's still something to consider." Hiwatari stated oh so, matter-of-factly, and come to think of it, that was the first time that I had heard him speak since I had woken up. None of us seemed very talkative though, and it was easy to see why.
All of us were trapped. And to make things worse, we were trapped with each other.
"Hey, so you the new guys or something?" A voice interrupted our previous conversation, and I turned around to see the source of this new face. Walking down the steps of the building in front of us was a rather thin looking boy, it was a bit hard to determine his exact age, but something told me he was around the same as Daisuke and Creepy were now. Maybe he was younger, but it could have been anywhere from 13-16. Behind him was the landlady, placing her hands on the boy's shoulders and smiling widely.
I took a good look at him, although he didn't seem to even so much as glance in our direction yet, he was still looking at the landlady. His hair was a jet black, cut short in what some might say would be a 'punk goth' sort of style, except he had long bangs on the right side, which covered half of his face. He was wearing a short sleeved black shirt with a v-neck, and as I looked farther down, I saw dark blue skinny jeans, except on one side of them, there were a number of about three or five silver chains, probably hooked to two of the belt loops.
And was he wearing... platform shoes? They looked as if they were 5 inches thick or so, giving him extra height, although by looking at him from at the top of the stairs, he couldn't be much taller than Daisuke. Guess he's just waiting for a growth spurt or something.
"This is Kai! He never does anything but lounge around all day, so I thought he could help you move in! You'll have to excuse me, because I have some paperwork to get done with your parents, but if you need anything, my apartment is on the first floor." She was still smiling brilliantly, but this boy, Kai, did not look thrilled in the slightest. In fact, it was plain to see that he seemed rather annoyed, furrowing his brows and creating wrinkles on his forehead.
"Huh? I never agreed to this. What do I look like to you, some free laborer?" He looked infuriated at Ms. Deliz, giving her a death glare, but her smile quickly faltered, starting to rant to Kai about something that I really couldn't understand all that well. She was talking so fast, and I still wasn't completely comfortable with my English yet. I picked up on a few words, like 'grounded', 'privilege', 'fresh air', 'helping others'.
After groaning, he turned to face the four of us, the rage that I had just seen boiling up inside of him suddenly gone. He could tell that I was staring at him, and his eyes met mine in a quite uncomfortable way. It looked like his eyes were... dead, with no emotion, and it filled me with a slightly sickening feeling as he continued to look at me, but something had kept myself from looking the other direction. Was it sorrow or discomfort that I saw? It was an emotion shining through him, and it certainly didn't sit well with my gut. The words of the landlady were obviously falling on deaf ears now, although I could still hear her talking to Kai, like a constant buzzing in my ear.
"I'll help." His words were sharp even though they came out with a bored sigh, much like a razor that suddenly stopped Ms. Deliz from speaking any further. She herself looked somewhat shocked, but shrugged it off and went back into the building in a hurried fashion, leaving the strange boy with the rest of us. He slowly walked down the stairs, stuffing both hands into his jean pockets, and a bored expression on his face.
Kai approached us, not really looking at one of us in particular until he was right in front of Daisuke, at which point he removed his left hand from his jeans pocket and half thrusted it out in the red head's direction. Daisuke seemed confused for a bit, and almost took a step back, almost as if he thought the other boy was going to hit him, and just stood there dumbly.
"It's suppose to be a sign of greeting." He finally said, before letting our an annoyed sigh. "Geez, if you flinch from a handshake, how are you gonna live in New York City?"
After his rude comment, Kai chuckled rather darkly, as if what he had just said was the most hysterical thing he had ever heard. Or maybe he was simply laughing at Daisuke himself? Whatever the case was, I didn't like it, this kid had an attitude that was too strong for my liking, and way too overconfident.
Daisuke was a bit hesitant, but in a matter of seconds, he took the other boy's hand and shook it. "I'm Daisuke, and this is Dark, Satoshi, and eh, Krad." He said while pointing to the rest of us as he said our names. He was slightly stuttering on his words, although it was barely noticeable. Kai nodded his head once in acknowledgement, and as soon as Dai had let go of his hand, it went straight back into his pocket.
"Eh, so... Where is it that you wanna get started?" He asked us while eyeing the large amount of brown boxes that were in the moving vans. Emiko had said that all of the furniture had already been placed in the apartment, so I personally didn't know what would be in those boxes. Had The Reincarnated actually given us items from our old world? Or were these items just normal living necessities that people in this world had?
"I think we should just start grabbing stuff and bring it up to the apartment." I said rather bluntly, and it seemed that the rest of them all shrugged their shoulders in some sort of silent agreement. Hiwatari and Daisuke were the first ones to go choose boxes from the trunk, each of them carrying two each with both their arms and went to enter the apartment building.
Krad was next, and he took five boxes out of the van, looking as if they were no trouble for him. He glared at me, and I could tell that we shared a mutual hatred for this situation at hand. But, I had to consider these circumstances: In this world, the two of us had no magic. We both had our own bodies and could do as we pleased. However, the six of us have to stay together if we ever wanted to return to our world.
And most importantly, we had to more than likely learn how to get along.
"Hey, Krad. You shouldn't be carrying so many boxes, a lady like you might hurt herself with all that weight." I teased, a darkened smirk twisted on my face. There was so much of my own satisfaction found in the rage in his eyes, knowing that he couldn't hit me with all of the boxes he was carrying. My concentration on him was however, broken as I saw Kai walk right in between the two of us, towards the van. He immediately pulled out six of the cardboard containers that were inside, as if proving that he could handle more than Krad. When he turned back to us, his face was obviously full of anger, although he was glaring at me the most.
"Are you just gonna stand there?" I didn't respond to him, and he certainly didn't wait for an answer, and entered the apartment building shortly after Hiwatari and Daisuke. Apparently, I had done something that had pissed him off, that, or he was just someone who didn't like standing around waiting. I didn't know which one it was, but something also told me that I sort of didn't want to know.
Krad half scoffed, and half smiled evilly at me before catching up to Kai. I hope that he didn't think he had won because of a small remark someone else had made to me, because he hadn't. Sighing in my own loneliness on the street, I glanced over at the moving van and it's remaining contents. There were five containers left, three of them were quite bulky. Even though I desperately didn't want Krad to even think he would beat me at anything, even I knew that two of the larger boxes probably required two people to carry them.
Gathering the three that I was able to manage, I took another look at this entirely new environment that was surrounding me. New York City? Why would The Reincarnated ever want to send all of us here? It just didn't make any sense in my mind. But, like Emiko had said before, there wasn't anything that we could do about it now. We don't know how long we'll be here, or if we'll ever go back, so it seems like we'll all have to learn to live with each other for a while.
Hazardously, I walked up the small amount of three stairs that were in front of the building, but something in my stomach had told me something that I just couldn't shake off.
This was going to be hell.
A/N: Woot! DN Angel characters in NYC! Got a problem with that? Honestly, I've traveled a lot throughout my life, although I haven't very recently, I still have memories from a ton of different states that I've gone to. Literally, I've been on the entire East coast, and NYC is one of my favorite places in the world, so I'm going to attempt to capture it the best that I can~ Bye~
OH! THE NEXT TWO CHAPTERS ARE DONE. Yeah, but I'm going to wait until two weeks to upload them because I'm off to camp. (You better review, or else I may not update.)