Who would have thought that on the edge of the rainbow, laid a forest. And who would have ever thought that inside that very forest, live a Fourth World. That world was the world of Shinobi. A world of bloodshed, lust, greed, death, happiness, despair and tailed-beast. Who would have ever thought that one girl would ever discover what truly lies at the end of the rainbow.
"All paradises hide their hell." -Unknown
What Lies At The End Of The Rainbow: Chapter 1
Minoku had found the Fourth World by accident.
She never really had ever thought that something as strange as the rumors claimed to be were true; that if you stayed on the General Six bus to Tokyo until its finally round you'd wind up in some unknown part of the world, where time and space created a hidden dimensional door. In fact, before all this, Minoku had never believed the stories in the Daily Paper.
Taking a Swim to An Alternate World?
Spirited Away?
Sucked into Cyber-Space?
All these stories seemed silly to her. An alternate world, hidden by time and space? She scoffed thinking, As if. In fact, Minoku had read several fan fictions more believable than what was happening in the real world. Lightning strike and being sucked into Dragon Ball Z via pool drain? None of that stuff ever happened in the real world. Never. But yet, these unexplained disappearances still had Minoku on a slight edge, more so than she even expected. She even quit riding the General Six bus, her usually bus, to school and home.
The disappearances had everyone on edge, but none more than Minoku. To her belief anyways. She'd scowl as the bus would ride past her walking figure, on it taking a few naïve kids, or stubborn adults that would not stop their morning and evening routine for some silly rumor. Many times, she wish she would hail that bus and ride it herself, just to prove to everybody that, no, she wasn't scared of mere rumors, and yes, that rumor was just a rumor.
But the fear of leaving a sensible reality to one of unknown scared her, as well as many others, as much as she hated to admit it. Rumor or not, Minoku knew from experience that words had power, and she was not going to test what had caused hundreds to disappear in a single night. Whether they end up in Dragon Ball Z or got kidnapped and rapped by a rapist, Minoku had determined herself to straying away from the General Six.
But still, on October seventh, lacking sleep, Minoku hadn't quite been too sure what she was even doing when she'd boarded the General Six, an old habit she had once thought broken six months prior, and sitting herself in the back, her old usual seat. Five minutes of rest, she thought sleepily. Just... five... minutes...
A rainbow.
Minoku had woken up in a green field full of flowers. Red, pink, yellow, blue, purple, all shades of color surrounded her. This has to be a dream, she told herself. No place is like this one our planet anymore. Destroyed, cut down, and damaged by human nature. By accident, we humans are destroyers, Minoku understood this.
In the bright, azure sky, not even the smallest cloud in sight, Minoku spotted the rainbow. It seemed to be within finger-tip reach, the width of three large houses with every color imaginable and unimaginable. The most furious shades of red, the most calming shades of blue, all these colors, most not known to man, laid before one small, average girl, who had been deemed 'nothing special' by whatever strange, cosmic force out there.
But there she was, staring at the most beautiful view she knew she would never, ever see again. She tried burning it into her mind, like she was trying too take a mental picture of some kinds. She knew she would never forget this image- the cloudless sky, field of what she deemed 'pure spring', and the shining, warm sun- but at the same time that this image might just not cooperate with her memory, that it might be too much for her mere, five-percent-used brain to handle.
Yet she tried to memorize that beautiful sight she would never see again, yet would always remember, yet not, at the same time. How could something this beautiful even exist? she wondered. Nothing logical came to mind. Is it really possible? Is this an omen? Awe was the only facial feature to describe Minoku's face. Her eyes were wide, her mouth slightly gaped open.
Minoku wouldn't have stopped looking had it not been for the piece of pure white she notice waver from the corner of her eye. She tore her gaze away and looked down at herself. No longer was she in her school uniform- a black skirt, white socks, black shoes, and a white short sleeve with a black collar- but now she was in a white nightgown, the piece of pure white she had seen from her peripheral vision. Even her hair, once short and messy, was fitted into an elegant braid down the spine of her back. She had shoes and no school bag. Anything from her past life of casualty, repetitiveness, and normalcy seemed to be gone. Even her braces and need for glasses, to which she did not mind (having braces on in middle school was demeaning).
"Is this... me?" she whispered quietly, not seeming to recognize her own voice seeing she had turned around wildly for the source. She looked down at herself. "How is this me?"
Minoku gazed at the tiny, true peaceful world around herself. I want to stay here, she thought suddenly. I want to stay here, so my children will experience the beauty of this place, and my children's children. I want my life to be beautiful, just like this clearing. She couldn't wish for anything more than a happy, fulfilled life. But yet, it seemed she was missing something in her paradise.
What was it?
A flower. That's what she was missing. The most beautiful, most perfect, most greatly smelling flower. Gazing at the field, full of the most rare, unknown and simply beautiful flowers around her, she couldn't help but frown. How was she to find one flower within this heaven? But yet, something told her she had to find this missing link. She in an effort to see more of her paradise and find her missing link, Minoku started at a slow walk, taking in the rainbow, the sky, the flowers and the smell, but by the end of it she had started running.
Flower petals were kicked up as she ran, her arms out like a plane's, as the petals gently were swept up by gravity and brought slowly down to Earth all around her. Her voice broke out in giggles at first, but became full out laughs of joy towards the end. Only when that teeny, tiny plot of orange in her side vision caught her attention did she even slow down and stop.
She gazed at it from her place- a good ten feet between the two. Just staring at it from where she stood, so far away, she could already see its beauty, and why it had made her stop. It was simple, painfully so. It was pure orange- something Minoku only had identified on the rainbow above her- with a straight, thin line of blue, one that was not quite azure, but yet was not blue blue, between the middle of each petal, making a circle inside the tiny flower.
As Minoku stared at the flower, she couldn't help but realize how much she and that flower seemed to be alike. Not only was orange her favorite color, but the flower seemed tinier compared to most of them in the field, just under them by an inch or so. It's two bottom leaves were a pure green, artistic even, only causing the flower to remind her of what had been her old life. A great personality, just a bit shorter than the usual bunch, with fast feet and artistic hands.
She walked towards the tiny flower and crouched onto her knees, gazing it softly. "Hello," she whispered quietly. "I'm Minoku." The flower said nothing of course, but Minoku still giggled anyways, a small smile and soft blush forming on her pretty face. "Well then, you're very pretty too." Only in the very far back of her mind did she realize she was talking to a flower.
A neighbor had once told Minoku that flowers, trees, and bushes loved being rustled and talked to, and that microscopically, they responded in small movements, unseen to the human eyes. Only then did she believe it. The missing link. The tiny thought had sparked Minoku's determination, as she softly dug her hands around the tiny flower. As she pulled it out, the strangest thing had happened (not that things hadn't been strange before). The dirt around the flower became solid, forming into a tiny pot, just big enough to hold the flower.
I feel completed.
Then suddenly a large gust of wind blew, causing her to squeal and close herself in a bit, holding tightly and protecting her flower. Her eyes were forced shut as breathing became a labored act. In and out, she reminded herself as what felt like her lungs compressing pain erupted in her chest. In and out. The moment it stopped, Minoku sensed the small, almost unbelievable change in the atmosphere. It seemed more... cold.
Her opened her eyes softly, blinking them open slowly only for her face to contort in horror. Hundreds of girls, all dressed in different colored dresses like her own, littered the ground in front of her. Their eyes were all shut as they slept peacefully on the ground, one bright, illuminating flower next to each of their heads. Minoku recognized some of the faces that slept from the Daily Paper in the Missing section.
"What-huh?" The word was illogical to Minoku, yet it seemed to be the only word to fill in the bitter quietness. "How?" Another simple, illogical answer that seemed only suitable for this outcome. Never had she dreamed her paradise was a graveyard of sleeping girls.
She couldn't help but glance at her flower. What is this? she wondered quietly. A tiny voice entered her head, whispering the answers she sought. She was stunned, so much that she froze over. Her grip on her orange flower tightened as she unconsciously wrapped her arms around it, as if to hug it. "B-b-but... t-this was p-p-p-paradise," she mumbled, her voice shaking terribly.
The last few words shook Minoku to her very soul.
"All paradises hide their hell."
Then suddenly she was falling. Her eyes started shutting slowly as fell, the pure white dress around her rose up slowly, just as slow as she fell. She gazed at the rainbow one last time before her eyes shut, thinking, I-I don't want to die.
A voice chuckled in the back of Minoku's mind, an evil sound of knowing the future and what could happen.
"Silly Mortal, you are not heading to hell, but you wish you had when you wake up. After all..."
The voice was fading slowly, getting quieter and quieter until it was only a buzz of a bee.
"Where you're going, no one will ever be safe again."