It's raining pretty badly today. Cars are rushing by, splashing water everywhere. I'm the only one walking in this part of town. As I hold my black umbrella over my head, I press forward.
I have been walking for about an hour now, heading home after volunteering at this one place. My legs were fairly sore, and I had a decent cut on my right arm the length of a business card after I fell accidentally.
Another ten minutes of walking have passed. I fixed the bottom of my thick, black jacket. It was thick to a point where it didn't present my breasts too much which I liked; I'm very closed towards people.
That's why I have them. I have them to keep me company. With that in mind, I walked a little faster as I was only a few blocks away from my apartment now.
As I passed by a bus stop, I saw a book lying on the bench for those waiting for the bus. "The Holidays." Thinking that someone will come back to get it, I decided to leave it alone. Speaking of holidays, I guess it's true that Christmas and the New Years are just around the corner.
I went up the stairs to my apartment room, B273. As I reached for my keys in the jacket pocket, I saw another "The Holidays" book in front of my neighbor's apartment door. I turned around over the railing to see if the book at that bus stop was there. Coincidentally, it was still there. At least the book isn't getting wasted by the rain thanks to the cover that the bus stop has. I also could get it out of my head that there wasn't some mystical thing about this book, thinking that it was showing up and disappearing just to haunt me like some books I've read. It's just your average, normal book.
I haven't been in this town for very long, only about a week or two, so I don't really know too much of what's here.
I went into my apartment and hung up my jacket with the umbrella alongside it. I'm really loving these jeans; not too tight or too loose, they're just perfect. This idea of having a tight black shirt underneath this tank top is also very comforting. I think it's cute, too, though it does present my breasts more unlike my thick jacket.
I realized I was distracting myself when I wanted to be with them.
My drawings. I'm not an evil 18-year old girl that hides dead bodies in my freezer like I used to be, but I do have plushies, posters, and drawings everywhere I look. I love to draw, especially when it comes to my best friend Hinata, someone I made up; I draw her parties, I draw her a boyfriend, I draw her own house and dog, I do everything for her. Best friends forever, right? I even combine some of the anime that I find out about to make some fun pictures of her, I even play around with her when I get her to go on a date with those characters that everyone despises. Everyone has one of those characters they hate.
This time, I'm working on making her a new home- in middle of the woods with a large lake in front of the cabin she will be in. Kind of like that one anime that I started watching lately.
I wish I ended up somewhere like there instead of here. It was so lonely before I met Hinata. I say met even though I made her up, but I act like she is real, which is what makes all the difference. Putting the thought aside, I continued to make her cabin.
My leg vibrated. I jumped because I'm still not used to the feeling that these things around here. These things called phones. I looked at my phone and found that I have a text from an unknown number.
It said "Need to leave. Now." I gave out a huge sigh. I grabbed all of the drawings and posters, putting them into my backpack. I'm still surprised that I can manage getting everything into there. As for the plushies, I had a secondary bag that I put them in. I put my jacket on with my two bags, took the umbrella in hand, and I left the apartment.
Once again, I have to leave. I start running down the street back in the rain again, but I didn't bother to put up my umbrella this time. I ran for a few minutes before I got to the spacious park nearby where another was waiting. He was bald, about in his thirties. He wore engineering clothing, made up of green slacks with a black shirt and gear vest. His eyes were green with a mix of yellow.
"You need to get faster. You're lucky nothing happened."
"I'm fine. I'm always fine. You should be worried about yourself," I sighed.
"I have never had trouble with these sorts of things."
"And neither have I. You need to stop worrying about me."
"It's hard not to worry about you when you aren't always careful, especially when we're in a place like this."
"Yea, so I'm not used to it. Big deal. We move around a lot, so it can't be helped."
"You know what I mean." I turned to look at the rest of the empty park as the sun was setting, even though it was hardly viewable with the clouds and rain. Speaking of rain, I decided to open the umbrella up over my head so it would stop raining on me. My long, rich brown hair easily gets messed up with the rain.
"So, are we ready?" I turned back to him. It's funny to look at him with his bald head. He wasn't always bald.
"The others are going to other locations that are closer to them. So yes, we are ready." He reached into his vest where he pulled out a huge double sided axe.
No, it isn't possible to stick a six foot stick with a double sided axe the size of a coffee table in your vest. He rose it into the air with ease and brought it down, causing a rip in the air to appear. After a moment, a purple light appeared from it and he jumped through. I followed him.
We do not belong in this world. We don't belong in any world. We are Dimensional Jumpers. You could say that we're aliens, but we're just another race of humans, that's all.
There are only a few of us left, and we are trying to survive. We are being chased.
Chapter 1: The Laws of Jumping
"Hey, Hinata!" I heard someone calling out to me. That wasn't my real name, it's just what I have told everyone in this new dimension. "Hinata!"
"What," I mumbled as I put my head back down on the desk. I was in school, the one place I wish I didn't have to go to when I already know everything they're teaching here since I was ten or something.
"The bell rang a while ago. We need to our next class!" His name is Tsubatsu.
"Yea, yea, whatever."
"If you don't want to go to class, you can always go on a date with me instead—"
"Yea, I think I'll head to class, I think my head is feeling a little better." And he is obsessed with getting me to go on a date with him, but he is such a creep. He stalks me everywhere as if I don't know he's there. If Zetsuma didn't remind me of the rules, I wouldn't be here. This stalker has only ever seen me yesterday, which is when I arrived in this dimension.
Speaking of rules, there are just too many bothersome ones. One of them that Zetsuma is constantly reminding me of is that we have to go to school, even if we know everything. Why? Well…
"That's more like it," Tsubatsu grinned, knowing that it would motivate her to get moving, though he did look displeased. I laughed within at him cruely. The next class was math, and all I did was draw Hinata again. This time, I worked on a drawing of her being happy in school with many friends.
"Can you please pay attention, Hinata? Just because you cleanly passed each and every test I hand out doesn't mean you can't pay attention," the professor snapped.
"Yes, sir," I sighed.
This is a college. I am 18, and all of these things are so freaking easy even though no one in these dimensions at this age should be able to know all of these things. I wish I didn't have to come here, but rules are rules. I jumped into the classes as if I had already been taking the classes, so there weren't any problems when I jumped to this dimension.
Finally, the class was over and I didn't have anything else after that. Sadly, Tsubatsu was once again tailing me, but I ran off and he lost my trail. I went to my new apartment, once again covered in posters, plushies, and drawings. I daydreamed while drawing Hinata again.
The next day was the same deal. Boring classes, boring tests that I ace, a stalker stalking me like Tamaki from that one anime I watched in another dimension that completely adored a girl that he forced to dress up like a guy for their host club so he could be with her after she breaks something and has to repay.
This went on for about a week. Usually that's all it takes before I get what's called a text from Zetsuma saying that we need to head out, but nothing has happened yet. I was actually really mad about that because I did not want to be stalked. Like… at all. It's really creepy. At least I've always been wearing my jacket so I didn't feel like I was only lusted for.
When Christmas Eve came, things were a little calmer. I was almost getting worried that Zetsuma wasn't letting me know that we needed to leave, but it gave me plenty of time to keep drawing. I kept drawing Hinata in a girly santa costume with a cute shirt and bell all day while dangling my feet in the air as I lay on my stomach.
For once in my life, I decided that I should do something for Christmas day. So, I got a human-sized piece of paper and drew a life-sized version of Hinata and made some cake for tomorrow.
Christmas Day came so quickly after working all day on the cake and the large drawing of Hinata. I just sat at the table all morning. I began to think while looking at the drawing. I went into deep thought about the rules I must abide by. I don't know why, it just… happens at times.
One of the many rules that we must obey is to act like a normal human being in these different dimensions of the earth. We can't attract too much attention unless we wanted to be caught. If we are caught, we are dead.
There is one other reason why this rule must be followed: it is because we need to fill the emptiness that we took away from each dimension that we have gone to.
My race is known as the Janpesu. We originally don't have anything special about us other than the fact that we learn much faster than normal humans, which is why I do so well in these dimensions' schools compared to the humans. We do, however, generate a special material that spreads into the air, making the air pure, clean, and valuable.
There is another race of Dimensional Jumpers called Tsuhelu who want to move from their dimension to ours, however they cannot create this special material that we can, so they want to capture us so they can take this material that we continue to unconsciously spread into the air, and they have more of a demonic appearance than humans, like how we look.
A war broke, and we were losing. I received a message from the elder that I should head for the Forbidden Cave, where the materials we give off are condensed and life threatening. Only those chosen by the stars can withstand the pain and be able to gain power. The power of Dimensional Jumping. I don't know how many others were also picked by the elder. As of today, I've met up with four of them since surviving the cave.
I don't like the Tsuhelu. When they catch us, they're going to torture us like those they've already taken. I tried fighting with Zetsuma, who I found right away, but even with his power we couldn't do anything to hurt the general.
This is the part that connects to the rule: we get stronger when we absorb our other selves from each Dimension that we go to once we make contact with them. That is our curse- we empty the dimension of another version of ourselves so we can take on more characteristics and gain even more power. Sadly, there was another Janpesu that I found who found his own self in another dimension, but he disintegrated because he couldn't handle the added power from what he already had.
Our goal is to absorb as many of our selves in different dimensions as we can, as well as training, so we can fight these generals. We are at full power with so much potential in our dimension. The drawback is that once we leave our dimension, we have to do the absorbing of our other selves to get our power back.
Zetsuma has absorbed over 500 different versions of him, and I've only absorbed about 75.
I looked at my Hinata drawing while slowly taking a bite of the cake.
I just wanted a normal life with other Janpesu. I wanted to cry. Another curse of absorbing our other selves is that we take on their pain. I can't begin to imagine how much pain Zetsuma has been in after absorbing so many different versions of him.
I slapped my legs. I needed to stop thinking about this and think about being happy. In these dimensions, this is a popular holiday. I needed to relax.
I took another bite of cake.
The next few days were silent until someone came knocking at my door. Having been in middle of drawing Hinata, I grumbled as I gave up and went for the door. When I opened it, Tsubatsu stood there with a huge grin.
"It took a while, but I found—" before I let him say another freaking word, I slammed the door on his face. Before I could walk away, he knocked on the door again. I rolled my eyes.
"What do you want?" I looked down at his hands and saw a box. It wasn't small but it didn't look heavy, either.
"I have been meaning to get this to you for a while since I didn't know where you live. I was only able to find out because someone came up to me after seeing me looking around here for a while." I began to hesitate and worry.
"Who? Who knows that I live here?" I grabbed the collar of his shirt. "Who?!"
"H-how should I know? He was just someone that sat in a corner of the parking lot doing nothing." I moved him to the side and looked out at the parking lot from the second floor that I was on. Just as he said, there was someone in a cloak in the corner of the lot.
"I need to leave." I rushed in, not bothering to close the door, so Tsubatsu let himself in.
"What? Do you hate stalkers and creeps that much? You see two too many and have to leave?"
"I need to get away from him, I don't necessarily need to get away from you," I grumbled as I put drawings and posters into my bag. Only to realize what I said.
"So you do like me?" I shook my head and packed up the last of the drawings and posters, going to the plushies. "Well, I shouldn't keep you from doing what you want to do. At least take this with you," he said as he handed the box to me. I hesitated but gave in and snatched the box with him. "I've seen some of the things that you've been drawing, so I thought I would give you a little something."
"Not now. I really need to get out of here." I finished running around with him watching me to get all the plushies into the secondary bag. I put my coat and bags on and tried heading out, but Tsubatsu stood in my way.
"I know that you have to leave for your reasons. But please, at least let me give this to you."
"You don't even know me!"
"I know a lonely person when I see one." I couldn't find anything to come up with to say. I pulled a piece of paper from my pocket. It had my number on it, though I doubted it would work in different dimensions.
"Just take it and I'll take your gift," I said quickly after giving him the paper. He grinned happily and left the room to stand outside and watch me run out.
As soon as I left the complex, Tsubatsu feeling relieved and satisfied, slowly walked home happily as the cloaked person got up and started to follow me from a distance. When I knew the person was following me, I tried calling Zetsuma, but I didn't get a response. I guess I have to jump on my—
Oh shitomi mushrooms. I left my umbrella back at the apartment! I never leave anywhere without it. Ever. I take a right to go around back to the apartment and quickly snatched the umbrella. However, it was too late.
The cloaked person was standing in front of the door when I had grabbed the umbrella. Without thinking, I closed and locked the door, and then I headed to the farthest room of the apartment. Freaking out, leaving me with no other choice and wondering if I'll be seeing any of the others that I was jumping with, I take my closed umbrella and swing it straight down, where a cut in the air appeared with a purple light emitting from it.
I heard the door get knocked down. Without hesitation, I throw the two bags and the box into the dimensional portal and then jumped in myself. Whether or not the cloaked figure will manage getting through the portal is something I don't know. Though they can jump, too, so it wouldn't matter other than the fact that it would take longer to find me again if they had to jump on their own.
I stumbled onto the ground of another dimension. I realized that I have not been to this dimension yet. Something that all Janpesu can do is be able to tell which dimensions they have or haven't absorbed their other selves once they enter a dimension, as well as telling the difference between ones I have absorbed or haven't absorbed from. I really should get back to getting stronger, I can't always rely on others, so I should get back to absorbing other selves of myself, even if it's painful.
Speaking of others, I decided to try calling Zetsuma again. Luckily, I was able to get the ringing of his phone, but he once again didn't respond to my call. What did respond, though, were alarms.
I landed in a prison. Sigh. Honestly, this isn't the first time it's happened. I start running to the walls after putting my two bags on me, picking up the box, and getting ready to swing the umbrella. Before I could get to the wall, guards were rushing over with things that I believed were called guns. They look so small, though, how could they—
"Agh!" Before I know what was going on, my arm exploded in pain. When I looked at my arm, blood was running down my hand holding my arm after dropping the box, my wounded hand still holding the umbrella. The guards closed in on me.
"Get on the ground!" I began to freak out. I began to cry.
"What am I doing here?" My legs gave away, sitting on the hard cement floor. "How did I get here?" I continued to mumble to myself very quietly about why I'm here. The guards didn't react to this behavior. They continued their enclosure as one of them sends another to receive some files, possibly to see if there are any missing prisoners.
"Get your hands in the air and take off your bags. Now!"
"How do you expect someone with a wound to—"
"I said do it, witch!" I glared slightly at the one telling me what to do while holding my act of a poor innocent teenager.
"Witch?"
"Yes, now take your bags off!" The ground next to my leg sparked because of the gun. I think there were things called bullets that were shot from the guns, but I couldn't remember exactly. Not too often that I get to see them. Ever so slowly, I get my left arm out of the bag straps and then even slower with the injured arm. When I did so, I went back to holding the wound he inflicted. By this time, the other guard came back, running towards the one that has been doing the talking.
"She is still there." That's all he said.
"On your feet," he snapped at me. I was reluctant, but I didn't really have a choice here. I'm not at a decent power level to handle the situation. I only wished I had my power at its fullest, I could teach these bastards a thing or two. They handcuffed me and led me inside.
"Take her to the cell with the witch until we figure out what happened," the one that spoke earlier told someone behind a desk who came around to lead me down a hallway of cells. At the very end of the narrow hallway with no windows, there was a metal door with a tiny window to gaze through. He unlocked and opened the door.
"Get in," he demanded, and the guard guiding me pushed me by the shoulders, sending me onto the ground. I heard the door close and footsteps leading away.
"So… what's your story?" I looked up to see a woman with ginger hair in old rags as if she's been rotting in here for a good ten years if not more. I didn't respond. I was mainly thinking about how they could mistake me for this old wench… I scoffed at how they could make such a dumb visual mistake. "Who are you?"
"My name is Hinata. I don't know how I got in middle of a prison, but I ended up getting here because I looked like some witch." I again lied about my name.
"You?" She pointed with the same confused expression that I had.
"Yup." She paused before exploding in laughter and rolling around.
"Hun, there is no way that you could be a witch. Look at your goody-goody clothing you're wearing, look at your wavy silky brown hair, look at your figure!" I folded my arms embarrassingly and nervously as I turned my head. She paused for a moment. "You… do seem familiar somehow… did you ever come to be or anyone in my family before?"
"I doubt it."
"Oh well, it didn't matter to me anyway."
"Then why did you ask?" she turned to me slowly and with a 'duh' expression.
"I haven't spoken to anyone for years!" She started laughing. All I did was roll my eyes. There's always some weirdo in every story I've ever read. At least I don't have to deal with—
"Hey, witch! You need to keep your trap shut! I can hear you from down the—" a man slammed the door open, yelling at the witch, but then he shifted his gaze towards me once he caught a glimpse of me.
Never mind about the witch. If there is one thing that I despise when I go from one dimension to another, and when I read from one book to another, it's always the perverted one. I swore I could hear some soft, gentle jazz behind him which made it even worse. I didn't have the thick jacket with me because of the guards, of all times. Since I wasn't chained up, I instantly went to make the punch to his face. It sent him back maybe a foot or two backwards.
I never got the chance to do that in the past or with stories since stories aren't real. It felt so good to finally punch a perverted idiot like him in the face! I wish it were Sanji from the one anime that I could have hit, though.
He had someone chain me up to the wall, but the guard who happened to be a girl made sure that he didn't enter the cell. I laugh to his face.
"Just you wait, miss. You'll warm up to me one day," he grinned. The female guard kneed him, sending him to the ground instantly.
Yes. Very attractive of him. So very attractive. …not.
"Witch, don't forget that you only have a month left. Try to be a little quieter, maybe we'll cut the sentence for a little longer."
"If I'm going to die, I might as well make the best of it with what company I can manage." She grinned. He got back up, very slowly, and left, leaving the guard to close the cell behind them.
"I'm so glad that I punched him."
"Not many have had the guts to punch him other than me," she smirked. I couldn't think of anything else to say. All I cared about was getting out of here. If I could get more power, I could easily get out of here. I can take the chains off fairly easily at the current moment, but I may not be able to get anywhere with their guns on them.
We sat in silence. Or at least I did while the one they called a witch continued to try and get my attention. All I wanted to do was get out of here with my stuff and find Zetsuma and the others again.
At least two hours passed, and the cell door finally opened again. It was probably night now.
"Let's go, girl," the guard motioned for me while the witch gave the guard a disgusted look. I got up as he took the chains off my wrists and went for the hall. As I exited the cell, another cell was opened by another guard. She had brown wavy hair just like mine. She had a mix of blue and yellow in her eyes just like me. Her figure was like me even though she wore grey jail clothing. The witch in the cell gasped as she saw the two together.
She smiled. I was relieved that I didn't have to go searching too hard to find her. My other self. However, the chase was on. Just like any of my selves and any of the other Janpesu's selves, they run away unconsciously when they see another version of them. I went chasing myself after she lost the grip of the guard, and the witch got up and pulled the chains out as she started running. I turned around to catch a glimpse of who the witch was: horns growing out of her head, fangs and claws, dark blue scales appearing in different locations of her skin, and black eyes. She was a Tsuhelu. I ran as fast as I could, making multiple turns until we ended up outside. As I ran, the Tsuhelu jumped with enough strength to reach me, sitting on top of me as I lay on my stomach. I could hear her claws clicking against each other. Knowing that I messed up badly, all because of the previous dimension, and that I was now going to die. All I did was close my blue-yellow eyes.
I waited.
And waited.
Why isn't anything happening? I opened my eyes to see blue goopy stuff dripping in front of my face. It fell over and I got up right away. I smiled when I saw the enormous double sided axe.
"Took you long enough, Zetsuma," I mumbled as I turned around. "Now tell me what you did in the last dimension. Why did you stay quiet? Why didn't you warn me?"
"I was attacked instantly after arriving the dimension, just like you were here. They're finding us faster than the last."
"So they really are waiting in every dimension for us now?'
"Basically." He pet his bald head, and I giggled inside about his head again. He really should have his hair again.
"I saw you and got her first before helping you out," Zetsuma said as he walked over to a large blue dumpster, pulling out a girl from it. I took a deep, relieved breath. I hate hunting for myself, I'm really smart. I slowly walked up to the struggling girl and grabbed her hand slowly. She stopped moving once she began to emit a golden light. Slowly, she began to disappear, and I began to glow a little bit with the same golden color. When I finished absorbing her, the glowing stopped. "I already got myself in this dimension from a previous time, so we're good to head out. We're going to meet up with one of the others once we get to the other dimension."
"Sounds good." I gasped when I realized I didn't have my jacket and other stuff. "My stuff!" Zetsuma held up his hand as to motion me to wait. He pulled his double sided axe out of the Tsuhelu, which then disintegrated, and walked into the prison again. Screams were heard and the breaking of walls were clearly seen. He proudly came out without a single scratch.
"Here you go," he said as he held my two bags, the box, and my umbrella. I grabbed my umbrella first.
"You don't have to show off, you know. I don't have enough of my power back yet." He pulled back the short sleeve to reveal his upper arm where he had his Janpesu symbol, a very unusual pattern, with the word "Nana" on it, which is seven in Japanese.
"I have to show off as the seventh strongest of the Janpesu, I need to make sure I am manly enough!" I rolled my eyes. Too similar to Elfman from that Fairy Tail anime I read about. "Does your mark show your number yet? I need to spar with you again." I took a step back, and he knew right away. "It will eventually come back. I promise you." Acting like a father all over again, he motioned me over to him for a hug, and I couldn't resist. He really is like a father to me, even if he is bald now. As we headed to the nearest park, I continued to look down at the ground. And at my thigh. The mark is on my upper left thigh.
I am supposed to have the Ni hiragana on my mark as the second strongest of the Janpesu like I was when we were still in our home dimension. Right now, the mark has no hiragana character.
I hope I can get my full powers back soon.