The New World

by Tankou001

In a World where the dead walk there are those who would destroy the zombie menace. This is not their story. This is the story of the new World and the government instated when gods put mortals in their position. M For drug use, citrus, gore... Context...

1. The Legacy of Eight

The New World

A Crossover

Hey All! Tankou001 here with an all new fanfiction! It's called The New World and it signifies the most major crossover work I will probably ever do. I've actually thought a lot on this fic. It's going to have four completely different women from four completely different anime/manga and four different men, also all from different anime/manga. It took me a while to think on the characters and anime I would be using in this fic but I've come out to find out a good portion of them and will work actively on coming up with them even as I am writing the Author's Note!

First Thing You Should Know! I do not own any of the main eight characters. They belong to their own respective creators, whomsoever those creators may be and I take no credit for their existence. However, the rest of the story, with a few key exceptions, is all my work. The characters and references that they make to their worlds belong to their creators. Everything else is mine and mine alone.

All of the characters in this fic, no matter what age they were in their anime, are all at least 18 in this fic for the sole purpose of lemon involvement and all that good stuff. Actual ages will be described in the story!

Hmm... No, I don't think I'll even do anything beyond that. You can be surprised by what this story involves. XP

ENJOY!

{HR}

Chapter One: The Legacy Of Eight

At one point in time there were many worlds. In some of them ninja flourished and in some of them were home to cataclysm. Some were as any normal human plane would have been thought to be; the standard hustle and bustle of everyday modern society. In one world people turned into weapons while other people used them and in one of them the world's catastrophes had been evaded thanks to heroes of great ability and generosity. One way or another, all of the worlds continued perfectly. However, one day a wave swept through the planes of existence. The wave was unseen, unheard, unfelt even. Still, it was there and, slowly in the nights and days of the various planes, it took eight people and sent them away. Even some very powerful people, with talents still yet unknown to the cosmos, were swept away by this divine wave that stole people from their place.

And so there was a room. One by one, ever so slowly, people arrived. The first was a man named Akimichi Chouji. He had been in a battle with a mortal enemy but there had been a killing blow coming for him. Last thing he had remembered he should have been dead. However, there he was, healthy and able, sitting in front of a mid-sized coffee table. He sat on the floor and looked over the table, which there were several items on. Suddenly, as he went to reach for one, another appeared.

This one was a woman; one of great power and prestige. She wore a tight outfit of assorted fabrics, all very fancy and expensive. She was The Dimensional Witch Yuko; a woman who connected through time and space into all other worlds, though not to this one. She arrived fully awake and able, like Chouji. However she wasn't quite as shaken up by her sudden presence in this room. She looked around and then down onto the table, discovering pipes and brownies and cookies and other delicious looking snack foods. There were eight different specific implements on the table, all of the variety to smoke from. Next to each implement was a small glass container that held a good amount of green vegetation. It was in buds, sticky and green with a powerful yet alluring scent.

Chouji looked at Yuko and Yuko back at him. They stayed silent for a moment before Chouji started to open his mouth. Yuko, however, cut him off. She said, "Whoever you may be, I think we have been invited here to partake of what is in front of us. I suggest we talk over it." Without any further hesitation she reached past a little sign that said Enjoy! On it and grabbed a brownie, biting into it with a pleased noise, "Oh these are delicious!" Yuko said with a smile, looking back to Chouji. "So who are-"

Yuko stopped speaking as another individual popped into existence in front of them. He wasn't too tall but he was striking in appearance, a picture of masculinity and physical prowess. He had spiky muted blue hair with what seemed several scar-like tattoos adorning his body, all in the shape of stars. In fact, stars seemed to adorn his figure in several places. He seemed, at that point, to be striking a victory pose. However, he noticed quickly that he was not where he had been and looked around, "Wait, who the hell are you guys?"

Yuko looked up at the man and spoke up. She said, "I suggest you take a seat, Young Man. What are your names? Mine is Yuko. Please, Boy, take a seat and enjoy what we have been given. I have a feeling there will be more coming soon."

The young man looked stupidly at Yuko for a second before looking around and then, finally, sitting and grabbing a nearby piece of cake, which had a greenish hint to the otherwise white cake substance. "I'm Blackstar, The one who surpassed god! I guess it's kinda amazing to be around such a big man like myself, huh?" Blackstar hadn't changed since when he had been younger in Death Weapon Meister Academy. His friend, Tsubaki, had remained his weapon and closest ally but she wasn't there anymore Where had she been? She was somewhat taller but not tall by the standards of a man. However, Blackstar was nothing if not attractive.

Chouji spoke up, "Akimichi Chouji, Jounin of Konohagakure No Sato. Where do you think we are?"

Yuko shrugged. "I couldn't know. I cannot sense anything outside of this room. We are clearly dealing with someone much more powerful than any of us." Yuko held her hand up momentarily and, suddenly, another person popped into existence.

The new person was yet another woman, not particularly tall, unlike Yuko, but definitely striking in appearance. She wore little glasses and a white lab coat. Under her coat were a skirt and shirt of simple design. Her red hair was long and somewhat untamed and, in her hand, a small bag was held. She looked absolutely lost. She looked slowly around her. "Where have I come to?" She asked, observing slowly her surroundings. "I am," She started, more to herself than the others, as she sat down in front of the table, "Francois Edward Wong How Pepilou Tivruski III. I was born," Edward went off for a bit of her personal information. The rest watched while consuming various baked goods that had been on the table. Yuko and Chouji both grabbed the pipes in front of them and loaded them, taking lighters from beside the glass containers and lighting the pipes.

Blackstar was the first to speak after Edward seemed done, "What the hell is going on here?" he asked in slight outrage, "I know it's hard to believe that a big man like myself wouldn't know this but I'm stumped."

"It appears," Yuko started, "That we, as well as others, are being pulled from their planes of existence and pulled into this dimension. I suggest we wait until we find out who else is coming before we continue talking about this. The key here is to keep calm and make sure the others who do come, if any, know to keep calm as well."

Next popped into existence a tall man with spiky blond hair and a pair of orange-yellow glasses with a trench coat of red. He looked puzzled, and then around. Then he shrugged and reached into his coat pocket to pull out a box of doughnuts and sat down at the table to dig into them. He didn't bother asking questions, for his wasn't as unbelievable as he had seen. Vash The Stampede had seen some pretty crazy things in his life. How was this so different?

Edward finally spoke up. "So I have been taken to another dimension? I doubt I would have been hurt or else they would have brought me back." Everyone looked at her. "Do you think more are coming?"

As if answering her question another person showed up. This one was a female of tall stature and wore a purple body outfit, made with s lits at just the right places for full mobility. In her hand was the most enormous fuuma shuriken anyone had ever seen, as tall as her from end to end. Her eyes were squinted, almost shut. Her hair was brown and somewhat unkempt but it had a style it's own. Behind her a floor length pony tail hung. Her ankles and wrists were tied with bandages and on her feet were simple ninja sandals. This was Nagase Kaede. She looked around for a moment and then spoke up, "That was interesting." She said with a dull smile on her face, "Who all are you?"

"I think we can take care of this after the others arrive, should they appear at all. Have a seat and have some of these lovely treats. None of us know where we are so it would be best just to wait for an explanation." Yuko answered.

Ed spoke again, as Kaede sat down and grabbed for a brownie, "What do you think are in those brownies?"

Chouji picked up yet another and bit into it. "Flour, sugar, cocoa powder, butter, Delta-9 THC, cinnamon, numerous other minor products."

Ed nodded and looked at the brownies. "I'm not sure..."

"Why not?" Vash asked, reaching forward to take a break from his doughnuts, chewing down into one of the fragrant brownies. "They taste great."

"Because The Complex wouldn't approve of the ingestion of cannabis." Ed replied, still looking at the brownies and the pipe in front of her.

"Something tells me," Yuko said slowly, an air of seriousness about her, "That whatever The Complex is, you'll not have to worry about it... I don't think we are going to leave this world, wherever it is, for a very long time."

Another person appeared, this one tall and with a similar trench coat to Vash's but it was more like a cape of red, ragged and alive. His left arm wore a great arm gauntlet of brassy color with clawed fingers. His hair was long and black and his face dark and cold, though still feeling. He turned to Yuko and pulled out a pistol with three barrels, pointing it at her face. Yuko rose an eyebrow and Vincent Valentine hesitated. This was not where Vincent had been. He had remembered being in the Northern Crater, fighting a group of bounty heads. One of them had used a materia that he didn't recognize and pointed a finger at him. Vincent had thought he would have been fast enough to get rid of him but he wasn't. Vincent suddenly came back to the world, realizing that all eyes, and hands, were on him. Yuko sat exactly where she was as Vincent was forcibly seated where he stood next to the table by Blackstar, Kaede, Chouji, and Vash. He had beaten less by himself before but, somehow, this was off. He had the feeling he wanted some answers and, for once, shooting didn't seem like the answer.

Yuko said, "Well that was a bit of a scary experience. I think I'll need to be granting you a wish at some point. But that is for later." Yuko took a long draw from the pipe that had been in front of her; a long, fine glass pipe that had a deep, narrow bowl and deep red color. The stem was curved in a U shape, with the pipe's bowl a bit lower than the mouthpiece, which curved flat at the tip to make smoking it easier. She held it for a second and then spoke, the smoke roiling out of her mouth as she did so, "I don't think I was the one you were planning on looking at when you drew your gun, was I?"

Vincent said nothing, looking around the room and at the table covered in various cannabis goodies. He had no idea what had happened. What had become of The Planet?

"We should wait just a bit longer," Yuko said, demanding the attention of the people in the room. Finally others were also starting to pay attention to the pipes in front of them. Chouji had a heavy pipe with thick glass, just see-through enough to be able to see the smoke inside but not too clearly. It was clunky but deceptive. Numerous shades of red and gray adorned the pipe with some white blurs around the long, large bowled piece. It was about two feet long and could have probably been beat over someone's head without receiving too much damage. He had been smoking from it for some time and his eyes had reddened significantly since.

Ed's pipe was a little transparent green pipe, a simple hash spoon. It was about three inches long and had little red speckles surrounding it. Vincent's pipe, incidentally, was a fancifully blown glass pipe shaped like a magnum pistol, the carb for air regulation on the side was on the trigger and the bowl on the hammer. It was meant to be smoked from the tip with the thumb on the trigger. The handle held water with a tube from the bowl going down. It seemed well able to stand upright on handle and barrel as well. Vash's was shaped like a silver cross with a bit of water in the bottom and smoked from the horizontal bar with the carb on the other side. It was a pendant as well, with a long silver chain. Blackstar's pipe had four different bowls, a party related pipe for when friends were around. However, there were little corks attached on small platinum chains that he could plug the excess bowls with and smoke from just one. It was mounted on a golden chain. Kaede's pipe was a fully operable knife with a pipe attachment in the pommel so that she could smoke it from the handle and light it at the hilt. Finally, there was an eighth pipe at an empty space on the table that waited. It was a pipe that was strange in shape, oblong and with funny cloud shapes built into it where smoke would flow through. It was a very pale purple and you could see through it quite easily. The end was completely open.

Yuko looked to everybody for a moment, "I think we only have one person left to arrive."

As Yuko continued smoking, as well as most people starting, the room began to get smoky up at the ceiling. They all watched the last seat and, in some time, two things showed up. One was a young woman with just below shoulder length hair and a vacant expression on her face. She wore a jacket and deep pink shirt with a black skirt and kneesocks. This was Kasuga Ayumu, also known as Osaka by her friends back home. She had been taking her teacher's exams and had been opening the letter at home if she passed or not but now she was here. She was a bit spacey and made mistakes at times but she had been sure she had passed it. Now, suddenly, she was in front of others, sitting at a table covered in green plant stuff and pipes and baked goods and many other things. One of those things, the new one, was a screen on the center of the table. Words were on it.

It Read:

Greetings! It's good to see you're acclimating quickly to this setup. You'll have to excuse this little kidnapping but we have news for all of you. You will never go home and you must now do what we ask of you.

This world is a broken and shattered one. The United Coalition Of Existences has taken you from your respective planes of existence and inserted you into the isolated plane in another cosmos entirely. You are all disconnected from your home planes and will never be able to return. However, the versions of yourself that you left behind still exist. All of you had been doing something when you appeared here. Simple or otherwise, you failed at this activity. The people who failed came here, the eight of you. We, from a higher cosmos, have brought you here and bent the will of the planes to arrange for you to have succeeded, replaced by versions of yourself able to do the job. You will not be missed and you will only cause trouble in your return.

This planet you are on is called Earth; Terra Firma. Some twenty years ago a virus called Solanum broke out in this world and the human population fought and lost against the zombie hordes. Now zombies roam the earth and you are expected to band together, hereby known as The Legacy Of Eight, and begin again civilization by making a settlement out of your new home. The place you are going is in North America, a forest in Oregon, USA. It is a clean zone and no zombies have ever been there, being dozens of miles from the nearest road. It is located near an uncharted mountain that has had heavy and precious metals injected into it through our services and the nearby land is rich in good land and animal life. Life still exists in Oregon as far as humanity goes so it would be good for you to explore and set up a base of operations. You will both be given two one-sided screens to write what you want on. Please write within the lines and legibly. Whatever you need will be provided to you so long as no individual item exceeds the size of a house, which must be built by itself with the aid of other tools, and so long as they are not already living animate beings.

In this plane of existence all of your powers and abilities work just as well as elsewhere with certain limitations, which you will find out in due time. If you get bitten by a zombie you will die. There is no cure for Solanum and if anyone is bitten they will become a zombie. The only way to completely kill a zombie is by a successful decapitation or head shot. Disembodied heads will still snap at you. Do not eat infected meat. Fend for yourselves and act kindly and with teamwork toward each other.

Yours,

The United Coalition Of Existences

Yuko was the first to speak, "Well that doesn't seem fun at all... What am I going to do without the finer things in life?" She took the screen and began to write on it.

Chouji began scribbling his own wishes on the screens that appeared in front of everybody. "I think about now would be a good time for everybody to introduce themselves. My name is Akimichi Chouji. Jounin ninja of Konohagakure No Sato in The Fire Country."

Osaka spoke next. "I can't believe I failed my exam!" She put her hands on her face. "What am I gonna do now?"

"You're going to put your big girl panties on and realize that there are more important things to worry about right now" Yuko answered. "My name is Ichihara Yuko. I run a shop in Tokyo that sells wishes to people, so long as they pay the price for their wish."

Vincent was next to speak. "Vincent Valentine, one of the saviors of the Planet and former Shinra laboratory worker. I'm a bounty hunter currently where I come from... or was when I was there."

Ed said, "Francois Edward Wong How Pepilou Tivruski III. Ed for short." Everyone looked at her. "Ed made it up save for Francois. I was a little child on the run when I was young before I got a place to work and live." Ed looked back down at her pipe and drew from it but quickly coughed and waved her hand in front of her face. "It burns." Ed put the pipe down and grabbed a screen, writing on it with one of the many little stylus that adorned the screens that people were writing on.

Vash stared at everybody. "Vash The Stampede; Lover of doughnuts and Warrior for Love And Peace."

Kaede made to speak but Blackstar jumped up an yelled out. "I'm Blackstar! I'm a star! I saved the world and surpassed god! I have this cool friend, Tsubaki, and she's my weapon! I guess.." Blackstar paused for a moment, "I guess she's gone now though..." He went silent for a second and then grabbed the screen, writing on it like the others.

Kaede sighed with a small smile and spoke up. "Who would have thought something as simple as getting to the train on time would have been so crucial? I'm Nagase Kaede ~De Gozaru. Former member Ala Alba of and co-founder of Kage No Deshi ~Gozaruyo."

Finally Osaka spoke up, having been shaken from her fit of panic. "I-I'm just Kasuga Ayumu... I just wanna become a teacher. M-My friends know me as Osaka. Wh-Why is the hapennin ta' me?" She looked down at the two screens in front of her and wrote on them. After a bit of writing she started to say, "Get It Together," repeatedly. This was a coping mechanism so that she could concentrate.

Everybody wrote different things. Yuko put some magical items and certain foods and things of that sort. She also wrote in for a full grow op system with seeds and shoots of various types. Chouji put practical things; building materials and tools, food and water containers, fully stocked. Osaka wrote for books and strange things. Vincent signed up for armaments, ammunition, emergency supplies, stuff of that nature. Blackstar chose things with allure as well as practicality; Large amounts of food, weapons, clothes, a few select comforting items. Vash wrote for alcohol, snack foods, weapon repair kits and many other things that weren't too well put upon. Ed wrote for scientific equipment and some machinery while finally Kaede wrote for tools and things for basic needs like toiletries and bath supplies and a gigantic metal barrel.

After everyone wrote their desires and turned them in the screen in the center of the table read:

You have all chosen different and good things. Remember, however, that you must employ these times in the best ways or you will be at a loss when it comes time that you need them. To get answers, please ask a question!

"How will I ever get back home?" Osaka asked.

You won't. The screen responded immediately, Your home is this world. You will never be able to return to your world because there is already a you in that world.

"What about my debt to The Complex, back in my world?" Ed asked

The screen read: That debt is no longer yours. It is the debt of your alternate self, the one who succeeded whatever it is you did not. Your debt, functionally, is paid. You are free of he Complex but prisoner, now, to the Zombie World.

Chouji leaned in and spoke up, wondering things for himself, "What exactly are we supposed to do?"

You are, The screen read, Supposed to do whatever you please, so long as you can rebuilt humanity in doing so. However, one thing is for certain. Any ways of life you have in the old worlds, you must forget them. You must be practical about repopulating and reproduction. There isn't a wide variety to go around. Don't be choosy. Aside from simply keeping humanity going and growing against the Zombie Menace you may construct whatever world you desire for yourselves with whatever government you wish to make. Do not attempt to go and defeat the zombie threat. That is already being taken care of by native heroes. Your goal is to repopulate and rebuild civilization in whatever ways you will.

"Well that solves my questions, more or less." Yuko chimed in, a smile on her face. "Except... What's the recipe for these snacks?" The screen showed several different recipes. Yuko looked at them for a bit and he smiled. "No more questions."

"So," Blackstar began, "You said that all our powers and abilities work here, right?" The screen indicated positively, "So does that mean that other Weapons and Meisters exist in this world just like in my world?"

No, the screen read, Your powers and abilities work in this world as well as the abilities of everyone else. However, that does not mean that, currently, anyone still living in this world knows about them or how the work. Instead you have all been chosen to teach the others of your world's customs and powers so that they may be trained in ways that your worlds my have used against a zombie threat. You will find, however, that the potential for everything is held in everyone on this planet, including yourselves.

"What the hell does that mean?" Blackstar asked with no answer from the screen.

"So what you are saying," Kaede inquired briefly, "Is that we all have to have sex with each other over time to help repopulate?" The screen indicated Yes. Kaede looked to the four men in the room, "I guess it could be worse..." She said with a small smile, returning to her pipe.

"I see a problem in the workings of this plan.." Vincent said solemnly. The screen show a question mark. "Clearly some of us are old and powerful. I am 444 this year. However, some of these people are clearly nowhere near as old as that and possibly a couple who are older. I am immortal so I have no worry of the passage of time but what of the people who are not?"

Ask Ed! read the screen. Are we all done? Everyone hesitated but, reluctantly, everyone nodded. Make sure to keep hold of your pipes and make sure to hold onto your hats. Here we go!

Suddenly everything blurred around the eight. The table disappeared and so did the room as a whole. Everyone grabbed their pipes quickly and the room changed into a great outdoor forest scene with piles of things like mountains, though all still intact and easily taken care of. A small piece of paper lay on the ground nearby that read: Work Hard and Good Luck. Make shelter first and work from there. Goodbye New Rulers.

As everyone got up and situated Chouji was the first to see the letter. "I guess we're out here for good then..." He said. He looked around to the piles. Each one had a name plate etched into the ground where the pile stood so it was easy to find. Chouji knew better than to waste time and began digging in his pile of equipment. More or less, everybody's equipment piles were massive. That's what you got for two whole pages worth of requests, some of the people with perfect penmanship and thus even more room to write in requests.

Blackstar came up behind Chouji and spoke up. "So what are you up to?"

"What's it look like?" Chouji asked as he pulled at a gigantic metal box with wheels, "I'm making us a house. Unless anyone else here knows practical construction and architecture, I'd say it's a pretty good idea."

"Ya," Blackstar continued. "I don't know much about building things, just takin them down."

"I have spent the last nine years outside of humanity on a training trip." Chouji said simply, tugging out a few planks from the pile that was his while everyone else went about their own business with their new personal possessions. "I thought that, when I was finally to get back home I'd see all my friends but an old... friend of mine cut me off and now I'm here..." Chouji paused for a second. "And now I'm stuck here, still away from humanity, still without ever seeing my friends again."

Blackstar thought on his own friends for a moment. Theoretically he was still with them in the other world; at least his alternate was. The same Blackstar who just couldn't do it fast enough. But still. Blackstar had remembered winning against his opponent, quite skillfully, in fact. Tsubaki had been with him the entire time but, apparently, he wasn't that Blackstar anymore. He was a dead man who had been brought elsewhere just as Chouji was, apparently. Maybe the two of them, through that very route, were much alike despite the size and skill differences. "Well, ya know," Blackstar said "I'll be your friend. Chouji, was it? Chouji-kun it'll be! Come on, no use in bein glum, buddy!"

Chouji looked back, his eyes cold, stiff and humorless, "There wouldn't be... if I weren't here." He said simply, pulling a few more planks out of his pile. "But there is definitely," Chouji said as he started growing, "A use in being glum now," He finished as he grew to the size of a four story house. Everyone in the area stopped and stared at Chouji as he became full sized, moving the planks round like toys and tossing up and down a gross of nails in his left hand as he lined up his planks correctly and looked around for a good place. He stood even taller and Blackstar backed off, bumping into Nagase Kaede.

Nagase Kaede was tall for a woman. She was statuesque, fit and athletic. However, unlike Chouji, she did not seem so down. She held a small smile on her face at all times, her eyes squinted near to a close. She looked everywhere and was more or less content just on watching. "Seems like everyone's a bit depressed here... even the giants." She said with a small chuckle.

Blackstar looked her up and down for a moment. "Aren't you gonna help out?" He asked with a grin.

Kaede turned her head and looked Blackstar up and down as he had her. "If I got involved I would be worried about being stepped on ~De Gozaru." She said with a small frown that quickly faded back into her normal smile. "I'm thinking that I have different circumstances than you two do. Sure I'll never see my friends again but it's a bit different in my case... I missed a train ~Gozaruyo."

"And now you're here?" Blackstar asked

"I know ~De Gozarune," Kaede said, shrugging, "Who'da thought it ~Ne?"

"The same sort of thing bodes true for me as well," Yuko's voice came out from behind Blackstar. "I dropped a piece of chocolate cake on the floor and failed to catch it. I'm guessing my alternate is snacking on that delectable baked good as we speak..." Yuko, for a moment, looked very angry but then straightened up. "Still, its not something any of us can control. There is no coincidence, remember this. There is only the inevitable. This was fated to happen to all of us."

Blackstar looked around. Already people were assembling their own things. Ed was moving at high speeds around her pile, pulling things loose and setting them up in an orderly fashion. Osaka was looking at her pile of things and sighing grandly at the collection, unsure of what to do. Unlike everyone else, she seemed positively normal to Blackstar. Vash was digging into his pile of things and tossing out select items while Vincent walked around his pile, locating certain items before removing them and tucking them into his cloak.

Chouji had already started changing what had been his pile into a house. It seemed that, while everyone else ordered a bit of luxury, Chouji did no such thing. He readied everything for survival and survival only, as though he was used to it, as though he hadn't ever stopped being a wild man. He had his tools and amenities but nothing electrical, nothing expendable save for rations and extra meat and such things as that. All of it was for practical use.

Blackstar started at his pile and, after an hour or so it was others who took breaks to talk. Ed stepped from the area of her pile, her joints popping as she stretched. Vash too took a break, his pile having collapsed into itself in Vash's "excavations." Though Chouji was still working on his home, which now was sized at about a two bedroom, single story home, Yuko continued to wait, her pile still neglected. "So, what does everyone plan to do now?" Ed asked as she approached Vash and Yuko. "We all seem to come not only from different worlds but timelines as well."

"It appears to be the case." Yuko agreed. "But I suppose we will certainly all have to learn to live with each other now."

"I, for one," Vash cut in with a smile. "Think this world is amazing" Vash spread his arms out. "It's sad that I had to leave my old home but my old world was a desert planet where people had to eek out a living without water! But here there's nothing but green grass and trees and many things I've never seen before!"

"Oregon," Ed said slowly, looking around, "United States Of America." Ed looked at her wrist, which lit blue and said some words on it in some strange language. "The two-thousand-thirty-sixth year of the Common Era... After the moon went boom but well before my time happened. I was born on this planet and grew up on it under the watchful eyes of everyone but especially myself. I tapped into my latent talent for hacking and computer programming and later, after the Bebop, I became a member of the Earth Government and enlisted in their prosthetics buyout program. I guess my debt is paid off... so much for my half price card, though..." Ed looked up at the sky to see the early evening sun setting over the forest. "I never guessed, though, that I would ever look into the Earth sky and see something other than meteor rings and falls. It's beautiful to see just blue sky and the pinkish hue of a setting sun without meteorite storms."

"I come from Tokyo," Yuko said slowly. "I owned a shop that specialized in granting wishes..."

"Like finding cures for bad diseases or something?" Ed asked, thinking of her time with it's advanced medical and biological technology.

"Like making a container of doughnuts so large you could swim through it?" Vash said, thinking on the doughnuts now in his hand.

"I suppose it would be both," Yuko agreed and then continued, "But you would be better to look for a doctor or baker in those cases, respectively, rather than come to me. I aided problems in people of a supernatural variety. I helped people find the way they wanted to go, or let them decay because of improper choices. Everyone has a wish and my shop granted them, back when it was to happen. However, this Solanum is beyond my knowledge. I've never heard of it."

"Solanum," Ed piped in, "Is the supposed 'zombie virus' of the twenty-first century. Solanum is a virus that spreads through contact of the blood and is highly contagious and without a cure. It lengthens the electric charges that make dead bodies twitch indefinitely, animating them and making the body completely without need of oxygen. A zombie created by this supposed virus lives about five years and has one thing on it's mind; to eat. The virus is spread by a bite so this is likely a truth in such cases."

"Zombies in my world aren't so bad," Blackstar sounded as he walked by, a big kettle over his shoulder, "My teacher Sid was a zombie but he talked and beat me around the school and did missions and stuff. Guess zombies here are different."

"It would appear as such." Yuko said.

The group went back to work, save for Yuko, of course. It seemed that most of Yuko's things belonged "inside" and Chouji was still making "inside" so she didn't bother to move her things very much. However, for the most part people were just checking out their piles, seeing if everything was actually given, making sure everything was in good condition and organizing it all.

Another hour went by. Chouji had finished the "first floor" of the new home, which must have been home to six rooms all it's own, not including kitchen, two and a half bathrooms, a basement and a few other nice rooms. He was currently working, at a much smaller size now, on the first room of the second floor. He was only marginally larger now than normal, about the height of two men as opposed to the standard one and a quarter that he boasted normally. Yuko stepped up the stars and looked at Chouji. Osaka seemed to be tailing behind her this time around. Chouji continued his work. "Thank you for making this beautiful house for us, Akimichi-san. You've really done us a favor and saved us a lot of trouble."

"Ya," Chouji said with a grimace full of nails, pulling a hammer from his belt and slamming a nail into the wall.

"H-How do ya get so big there, fella?" Osaka asked shyly.

Chouji looked down at Osaka and frowned, the nails still sticking out from his lips. That was the old world. Only Chouji really had the right to such power anymore. "It's a me thing..." Chouji said, turning back to the wall and bracing it as he hammered in another nail. That was the old world. He had no business with ninja work anymore, even if that was just what he was; a ninja.

Osaka found Chouji's reaction, however, a bit disturbing and walked back down the very well made stairs to see someone else. Meanwhile Yuko stayed. "You don't like to talk about yourself, do you, Akimichi-san? You have a wish to be granted and it pains me to say that I am just not equipped as I thought I was. Your wish cannot be granted by anyone." Chouji hesitated and looked down to Yuko, who stood smiling somewhat. "All you wish for is to return home, isn't it?" Yuko asked as she stepped closer. "You're the only one of us all who just wants to be back. Kasuga-san doesn't know what she wants. Nagase-chan doesn't care. Blackstar-kun has already fulfilled his wish, as have Vash-san and Vincent-san. Edward-chan's only wish was to be free of her debt and retain all of her powers, which she has no worry of losing anymore. You are the only one left with a wish that would matter to me and it is one that, sadly, I cannot grant under any circumstances."

Yuko stepped even closer to Chouji and the Akimichi shied slightly, his big form taking a monumental step backward for what was normal. Yuko, however, didn't shy away. She reached forward and put her hand on Chouji's hip, for lack of height to reach any further up. "However, maybe not all wishes are made to be granted. Allow me to stay with you for a time. I understand that this house you make us will have more than enough rooms... But eventually we'll all have to learn to get very comfortable with each other. We have all eternity, after all, but I think you and I would do better to know each other faster than the others."

Chouji looked at Yuko for a moment. "I don't want to make friends, Ichihara-san..." Chouji turned back to his work, hammering in a couple more long nails. "I just want to continue living as I must."

Meanwhile Osaka wandered around the surrounding area, looking for someone who could possibly know what she was going through. Everyone else, so far as she could tell, was extraordinary in some way. Chouji could grow huge and Blackstar was strong and swift. Ed was fast and smart and Osaka had sworn she had seen Kaede split herself into several dozen versions of herself and carry things into the house. Vincent, though somewhat normal, put Osaka ill at ease with his gauntlet and rough attitude and even Yuko was a bit strange for Osaka, if not completely odd. Who could realize what Osaka saw wrong with this setting?

As she walked through the woods to figure things out she ran into someone, a red trench coat and spiky blond hair. As she fell it was Vash who caught her. " Careful there, Missy." He said with a grin, hauling her with ease back to her feet. "You don't want to get hurt your first day, do you?"

Osaka was a bit taken aback. She hadn't expected someone so... amiable and yet not completely insane. Kaede was nice but a bit weird and Blackstar, though also nice, was a bit high octane for Osaka to hang around. Still, Vash wasn't so crazy and although a bit mysterious, seemed to enjoy just what normal people did; doughnuts and good times. It was a start back to being a normal girl, Osaka guessed. "I-I'm Ayumu. D-Darn pleased to meetchya." Osaka stuttered out with a forced smile. She was still tense. Maybe this man would try to eat her or something. Maybe he was a freak. She would hate that.

Vash looked down at Osaka and smiled, extending a hand. "Vash The Stampede. It's a pleasure, Ayumu-chan."

"S-So?" Osaka asked dumbly, "Vash-san or Stampede-san?"

"Just Vash will do," Vash grinned.

Osaka couldn't believe it. This man seemed positively normal! Sure he had a weird name but he was shaking her hand and smiling and he wasn't doing things no human could do! That was for sure! "Vash it is." Osaka said with a small smile.

Back in camp everyone was gradually starting to get their things into the house and claim rooms. Kaede had done the job of assigning Blackstar and her to room "#1," which Blackstar seemed puzzled at but suddenly froze up and nodded as Kaede dragged him into the room. Chouji politely declined any room for that night, insisting that work needed doing before any rain was to appear and catch him off guard, not having yet painted or anything like that.

Ed, strangely enough, said no to the offer of a room and began digging out under the house; at a ridiculous pace at that. Vincent followed her. "Alright you hear me?" Ed said, tapping her jawline with a finger as Vincent approached.

Not exactly knowing what to say at Ed's speech, Vincent replied. "Yes."

Ed turned and looked at him before shaking her head. "Sorry, not you Vincent-san. I'm speaking to Akimichi-san over a dermal radio." Ed placed her finger at her jaw again. "Ya, just send them on down through the walls. I'll get the taken care of once you do the boring." Ed paused for a moment, as though in concentration, "Wait! It grows, not extends, right? I don't know anything about this crazy ninja stuff you do. Metal, right?"

Ed screamed, however, as metal lengths of pipe blasted through the ceiling of her "cellar" and into the ground below. Ed swore loudly as she was soaked with water. Vincent neared her. "Are you alright?" he asked.

Ed shook her hair out, which made her already wild hair a bit more wild and shook water on Vincent. "Sorry bout that, Vincent-san. All this new stuff is making me go insane. Akimichi-san said he would be able to get everything from electricity to water working in this place but I have my doubts as to what exactly this Ninjutsu stuff is. Can he really keep it going over time and how does it even work. The law of Conservation of Matter is pretty against this, I'm sure."

"It does seem difficult, even by the standards of magic." Vincent said with a frown.

"Ugh, and I've got even more magic to deal with..." Ed said exasperated, "Even the science of elsewhere is beyond my understanding, much less the magic or, in Osaka-Saka's place, the normal world. I think I can only deal with so much weirdness for so long before my wetware gives up?"

Vincent cocked his head to the side a bit. "Wetware?" He asked.

"Back in my time, in my world I was a laboratory researcher and prosthetics engineer. I made fake body parts and did time rejuvenation on people and stuff like that in an underground complex. Wetware is like cybernetics but with actual functioning body tissue, seamlessly woven into your actual DNA to work better than the real thing. No part of my body is actually original anymore, from the lungs to the eyes to the reproductive system but all of it is still very much mine. While I do have to change in every once in a while I'll have the ability to replicate the machines back home and make this into a functional science lab and home for all of us for as long as we need it."

"So," Vincent asked, "You can make people anyway they want?"

"We could," Ed answered simply as she sped out and came back in with some sort of plumber's kit on, a belt at her hip and a hat on her head with a light. "Back in The Complex we had a full staff of people who knew what they were doing. I have the full archives, incidentally, on these new machines, but this is an endeavor unto itself. After all of the settling in is done I'll have to wire in everything, run diagnostics, check circuits, make sure that Akimichi-san's magic is actually what he says it is and then finally get things running. After that I can't be sure everything'll be operational. In fact I guarantee it won't be. Unless I get a few good helpers down here it'll take a few weeks just to get a proper working medical bay open, much less any of the high tech stuff that can replace body parts or decrease physical age."

"So you know how to do some manual labor, at least." Vincent said, sitting down on he stairs to the cellar after stepping away from Ed a bit.

"I live in a world where things move four times faster than they actually do. Needless to say," Ed was cut off as a jet of water sprayed at her and soaked her down thoroughly. "Dammit! Ugh... Anywho... Needless to say I have spent some free time down under reading up on basic household maintenance of the old days. I know a bit of plumbing and a good deal of wiring and electrician work. However, everything down under is made of metal. Akimichi-san really is the be all and end all of architecture and carpentry here up top so far as any of us are concerned. So far as I can tell, none of us have ever had to actually build anything in the architecture department more than a small hut or shack. Akimichi-san seems to have been doing it for years. Even when smaller, he works quick for such a big guy."

I suppose he does," Vincent said, looking up to see a towering Chouji, about two stories tall this time, lifting something into place. "Back in my world I was a savior of mankind more times than one."

"Lucky ducky." Ed said right before getting sprayed with water again.

"I still did work but largely everyone I knew was gone. Both my first love and my second had already died and the children we had as well and then their's. I kind of am glad for the separation from my old word. I don't have to be worried about the chain of loss any longer." Vincent looked down at his feet. "I'm immortal so don't really know much about aging or needing new limbs or anything. I just live."

"You know," Ed said, "There are some people who don't get that option. For most, becoming young again costs an astronomical price back in my world; worse than death for some. Some even go so far as to put their lives in servitude to cater to the debts The Complex puts them through back there. I think, now that you are free as I am, and with all of the things that had to be paid for before, you should look forward to the way that it is. Your old world and this new one; you're going to have to see people die. However, you don't have to be alone, ever. Everyone has the option of keeping the loneliness at bay."

Vincent thought about that for a second. Now that he thought of it, maybe it was true. Maybe he didn't have to even dwell on the past any longer, this was a new world and his old self would remain on The Planet. He could make life anew in this world.

As the night went by the basement was finished, courtesy of Ed and with still provided help by Chouji. As everyone (save for Chouji) settled down in the new living room they found the place oddly packed for a new home. "It would seem," Yuko said smoothly, "That we have too many things tonight. I don't think even Akimichi-san's working pace will allow us the full comfort of having unloaded boxes. Perhaps, for tonight, we should share rooms together and get things sorted out in the morning."

"Not a problem." Kaede piped up first, grabbing Blackstar around the wrist and standing, dragging the poor man to "their" room. Blackstar was, for once in his life, at a loss for words that this woman was showing such attention to sleeping with him. However, Kaede's motives were more for personal comfort than sexuality at this point. No, she didn't plan to jump head first to roll in the hay with anybody in particular but Blackstar was the youngest of the men and seemed like he would be fun to snuggle against at night. At worst he had a wonderful, well muscled body to clutch up against and Kaede, though no scaredy-cat, did appreciate a good strong man to put her own body against at night, no matter how well they may have known each other.

Osaka found a bedroom with Vash that night, the two curling up under separate blankets with separate pillows. It wasn't too far to be cold though not too close to be "steamy." Vash was a true gentleman, of course, not even trying once to peek on Osaka. What proper gentleman, after all, would do that? Vash, however, wasn't all gentlemanliness and propriety in this case. Many thoughts filled his head. Many ideas and notions. He was gone from his old world forever. What about Meryl and Milly? He had gotten all of their guns, though; Milly's Cross Launcher, Meryl's Derringer Cloak, Wolfwood's Metal Cross. He slept with them nearby as well as his gun. He wondered if, because he had ordered the cloak and cross launcher, if Meryl and Milly still had their's. How did requesting items work, after all? Did it take the first or duplicate a new one. Vash drifted off to sleep that night with many questions on his mind and one of them happened to be; What color of panties did Osaka wear? Almost asleep, Vash scolded himself mentally for his lecherousness.

Edward and Vincent slept in the basement, newly finished and installed with plugs in the walls, just like Chouji told Ed to do. Vincent had a good knack for electrical work to a degree so he had helped a bit toward the end after helping move things in most of the day. Ed naturally felt safer sleeping underground as it was and Vincent had no particular reason otherwise so he didn't mind sleeping down with Ed. There was, however, no romance or even any talking between them save for short goodnights. It was a bit awkward, both of them thought privately as they dozed later that night.

Chouji continued his work, now on the third story of the house proper. The second story of the house had three master bedrooms with three master baths attached. Aside from that there wasn't anything else of the second floor. However, each master bedroom had a fireplace and small kitchen attached with them and the bathrooms included both showers and big baths which Ed had already agreed would be equipped with jets as soon as possible. Chouji's idea was, apparently, to make eight different master bedrooms in the home for the party. The soon to be five story tall mansion with attic and two floor basement would have full running water; both hot and cold, ample electricity to last years (though not yet up and running) and full heating circulation in the home with good cold air insulators to keep it from getting too warm in the summer. Chouji knew his craft very well because, out where he had been for the past nine years, he had been given no choice in the matter. It was either learn how to build a suitable home out in the untamed wilderness or try to learn the value of fur, which Chouji hadn't looked forward to at all.

The Dimensional Witch Yuko, however, looked very forward to watching Chouji. While the rest had gone to sleep or were getting to it, Yuko was checking up on Chouji, her new glass pipe in hand, filled with green. She said, "Haven't taken even the smallest of breaks yet, have you?" Chouji looked down at her as he sealed in place the ceiling for the third floor's hallway. However, he soon went back to work. The way he saw it, he was earning some excuse not to talk in this scenario. He was working hard on the home that everyone would come to live in, despite the seriousness of this situation. He didn't need to talk near as much as the others. He would let his actions be words enough. "Of course not," Yuko said with a smile as she drew a long hit from her pipe and sat down outside the walls of the first bit of hallway for the third floor. "You need to help the others in making a new home for all of them. Then you may be able to avoid making things like connections."

Chouji hesitated this time, looking back to Yuko for a moment before grabbing another nail and beginning to hammer it in. "But one way or another," Yuko continued "We'll still be here, whether you like it or not. I understand that while Nagase-chan may be more than eager to make a meal out of Blackstar-kun, you aren't as willing to make connections. You had friends back in your world and now you'll never see them again. It's thanks to a decision you made, isn't it? Well obviously the same rings true for all of us. Don't think that you were the only one to leave things behind when you got here. How long has it been since you've seen your friends?"

"Nine years..." Chouji said simply as he hammered in another nail.

"And how long since you had seen anybody else?" Yuko questioned, "Before the incident."

"Nine years." Chouji repeated truthfully. His rival in training had done the same thing and had beaten him to a meeting location, defeating him after that. They had been strangers when it had started and Chouji had all but forgotten him. Well his rival hadn't forgotten him and when he had tried to to kill Chouji, he had succeeded. Now Chouji was living with that regret.

Oh wow." Yuko said with a bit of surprise. "I hadn't guessed you had really never seen people in that long. This must have been quite the shock." Chouji continued, dropping down from the roof and pulling on another section of wall planks. "But I suppose you wouldn't want to talk about that. After all, it's been so long away from humanity and you had planned on making those tales up for someone a bit... closer, right?"

Chouji turned as Yuko walked to him, still smoking her pipe slowly. "Must you bore at my every insecurity?" Chouji asked angrily, his teeth grinding together. Contrary to popular belief, people didn't get less of a vocabulary over a period of not having anyone to talk with. In fact Chouji had gotten more eloquent with his words. However, after so long not talking to anyone, not having anyone to talk to, Chouji didn't like talking very much and Yuko was right; He had been saving all of those stories for friends.

"Yes, I must,"Yuko said with a smile, "I am going to grant you a wish, Akimichi-san and though not yours, you will appreciate it." Yuko stepped closer to Chouji, who was actually back in normal sized mode and put her hand on his chest with a smile. "How about we take one of those master bedrooms you so skillfully built. I think we won't have to worry about inclement weather tonight. You need some rest anyway."

Chouji hesitated as Yuko touched him. However, for some reason, he felt a bit calmed. Maybe this was just one of the witch's powers. He slowly let his head nod a bit before following Yuko down into one of the master bedrooms. It was one of the fortunate bedrooms upstairs to get a full sized bed already put in it. Everybody had one in their request forms. This bed was Yuko's bed, as a matter of fact. It was deep purple in color with deep blue sheets and crimson pillows. Chouji felt a bit out of place in the room and flinched a bit as Yuko tried to urge him to sit down. He had changed a lot during nine years of intense outdoor training, One of the ways he had changed had been in weight. Though Chouji was now "thinner" than the overweight Akimichi that had left Konoha he had become well over five hundred pounds and rising by such a point. He just used special jutsu to keep his body weight compact against his body, which made a natural armor layer than kept him from most damage. Though he was fit and healthy, he was also very heavy under his clothing.

Yuko looked up at him. "It will take your weight, Akimichi-san," She reassured him as she sat down. "This bed is meant to take the weight of any sleepers." Slowly Chouji let himself sit on the bed and, surprisingly enough, Yuko had been right. The bed took Chouji's weight better than he could have imagined. It was almost like sitting on a cloud. Chouji allowed Yuko to help him strip down his armor and use her shower, which made sure that he didn't smell bad after such a hard day of work. Tomorrow he would finish the place, starting at dawn. As Chouji came out of the bath Yuko lay on the bed, pipe in hand and leaning on her hand at the head of the bed. "Did you enjoy your shower?" She asked, wearing a heavy sort of nightgown. It covered all of the necessary portions of Yuko's body but the neckline was a bit low and the garment was more likely to fall off Yuko's body than any other night garment Chouji had ever seen.

Chouji himself was just wearing a towel and had an extra one to continue drying his great mane of red. He was a bit surprised at Yuko's outfit, to tell the truth. "It was... nice." He said truthfully. Chouji hadn't had what could be considered a good shower in months, years even. Now that Ed had gone through and fixed the house plumbing with Chouji the first two floors worked fine for hot and cold water and great for pressure, as Chouji had used his jutsu to make pipes that extended downward into the natural water sources of the mountain and well out of the range to a good place to put waste, some several miles away and underground.

"Come take a lay down, Akimichi-san. You shouldn't stay standing in the cold air like that too long." Yuko pat the seat next to her. In truth she found Chouji a bit mysterious, even by her standards. Chouji literally hadn't known anything but himself the past nine years and now that he had been plucked from his world he would continue to only know himself. The Dimensional Witch knew that she would have to eventually sleep with Chouji on a much more intimate level than this but she was glad that she could be the one to start this relationship up and see what she couldn't do to help Chouji out in return for a it of compensation on his part later on. It would happen, of course. There was no coincidence, only the Inevitable.

Reluctantly, of course, Chouji laid down. He forgot that he didn't have any other clothes save for in his pile, a pile that he had covered in a stone dome to keep the weather out. He certainly had no plans of going out at this time of the night, nude as the day of his birth when he could get it tomorrow after the warmth of dawn. And just before everyone awoke. He let the towel around his waist slip off as he got in bed. Yuko didn't mind, of course. Chouji still looked muscular. The fat that surrounded his body was far more dense than the average bulk muscle mass. It was steel hard though still very warm. Yuko didn't waste time in pushing herself against Chouji's back as he lay. "You really are tense, Akimichi-san."

"My apologies, Ichihara-san," Chouji said, irritated at Yuko clinging to him. He supposed he just couldn't understand the closeness in this case. He was uncomfortable with the closeness of another human being after so long. He sat up suddenly, remembering a few flashes of his life before his training trip or this. Yuko looked up at him. "I'm just a bit shaken up is all."

"It's been a strange day, Akimichi-san. Please come back to bed. You should take a hit from your pipe and relax." Yuko urged.

Chouji looked at the pipe he had left on Yuko's bedside table before taking a shower. The gray and red with white swirls that could club a man to death it Chouji put the force behind it. It filled him with a sense of security for some reason and, without much hesitation, he drew from it; his finger alight as he willed Katon chakra into being to smoke with. The clouds filled his mind merrily, Chouji getting a small smile from he fumes he breathed that night, Yuko curled up against him and Chouji found a bit of rest in the smoke of cannabis and the small hands of The Dimensional Witch against his large back.

Ed thought she had woke up first the next morning, having less need to sleep than the others. However, she would have been wrong for the first time in a while. Chouji was working right at the first light of dawn. He hadn't been working earlier that night because no noises had been made but Chouji was definitely working now. Ed walked up the stairs and through the third floor hallway, passing a room that Chouji worked on and finding herself on the roof to watch him. "You work hard, I'll give ya that Akimichi-san. But how does it all work?"

Chouji looked down at Ed and shrugged "It's a me thing..."

Ed sighed. "Ya know, I'm giving up all my stuff for the betterment of this group. At least tell me what it is that this ninjutsu stuff does. It seems a lot like magic to me."

Chouji looked back at Ed and then back to his work putting up the first third floor room. "The act of ninja work pertains to three basic forms of which all beginners learn. The first is Ninjutsu. This is the way of the ninja, the art that allows us to perform such techniques." Chouji turned to Ed and put his hands together. "Using seals and occasionally verbal components a human can use the physical and spiritual energy within their body to manipulate the elements or other forces though their will, like making those pipes or water. Taijutsu is what I have long specialized in and is more easily put to hand to hand combat with flare. It involves pushing your body it the physical limit, to break yourself and rebuild how you want it. These are all punches, throws, kicks and the like. That is Taijutsu. Finally there is the art of manipulating the five senses, genjutsu. It's the art of illusion at it's finest and one of the more difficult basic sections to master. After that Kenjutsu; the art of the weapon, Kinjutsu; the forbidden arts and Fuinjutsu; the sealing arts. I'll go into those some other time, when I have less important things to do."

"So you use spiritual and physical energy within your body?" Ed asked. Chouji nodded. "So it's just matter transference?" Chouji nodded again. "Well that's more believable than you made it appear."

"It would be to anyone who hasn't had ninja training before." Chouji said, "However, you're technology is far ahead of the technology in my world. I'd be lying if I said that it didn't seem as much like magic to me as my jutsu must seem to you."

"I suppose I get it." Ed said, nodding slightly. "You need any help there? I'm not too skilled in building homes but I am faster than you probably. I'm sure hammering in a nail couldn't be too difficult, especially at my speeds."

"I'm sure," Chouji started solemnly as he went back to work, "That you can do whatever you like but do you want to take the chance on our first and only shelter when you could just wait for me to get done and try it out on future houses? We'll be sure to need more. I just want to get this home done as son as possible..." Chouji looked down at his pile of equipment, which was very quickly getting smaller as the mansion got larger.

Yuko stepped up the stairway and stretched grandly in the morning light. "Sleep well, Edward-san"

Ed looked at Yuko, who now wore a beautiful kimono of reds and yellows and oranges with other colors spotted marvelously throughout. Slowly the redhead nodded. "Jut talkin to Akimichi-san."

Chouji didn't bother to look at Yuko as he continued to work. "hmm..." Yuko started slowly, leaning forward toward Chouji and smiling slyly, "I think Akimichi-san has a way of working a bit faster than he has been, now that I look at him. Care to show us, Akimichi-san?"

Chouji looked at Yuko and hesitated. "Not the place, Ichihara-san..." Chouji said somberly, "Nor the time..."

"I beg to differ." Yuko said as she stepped closer. "It'll just take more time if you dilly-dally."

Chouji looked back to Yuko, his eyes hardened and cold. Ed sat next to the spectacle, a little confused. The two locked eyes for what must have been several minutes but, at the end, Chouji turned away. "Whatever..." He said,. Putting his hands together and forming several hand seals. An explosion of smoke blew outward and Chouji was suddenly... more Chouji. Twenty identical copies of Chouji now stood next to Ed and Yuko, all somewhat surly and all speeding off to get to work. Ed was amazed and Yuko smug. As the morning light progressively illuminated the land Chouji's copies made quick work of finishing the third and fourth floors. By the time that everyone awoke Chouji had lessened himself to four copies and was working on the fifth and final floor, nailing up the walls and ceiling with attic attached. People were gradually moving in their possessions inside to their respective rooms. Chouji worked until the house was "done" but insisted that finishing touches were needed.

The second day, however, wasn't anything as interesting as the first. Nobody worked after Chouji was done and their belongings had been brought in. Chouji's pile of equipment was much smaller, just some heavy sheets of metal left after Chouji had brought his tool kits and other personal belongings. The group decided that, if they were to live together under one roof they would have to know about each other. Chouji, begrudgingly, came with Yuko to the third floor Grand Room. The third floor was the floor that Chouji had decided would e the "social" area of the house, where everyone would come together and eat and sped time, if that were to happen at all, of course.

In the middle of the Grand Room lie a table of oak with everyone's pipes sitting on them and a few small treats of cannabis related edibles. Bags of green adorned certain parts of the table surface and everyone already sat down, waiting for Chouji to join them. Reluctantly, Chouji sat down on a chair and, hearing the noise it made, sat down on the floor in front of the table. He picked up his pipe and looked around. "A Toast!" Yuko cut into his thoughts, "To The New World and our new lives. Who knew that it would all happen?" With that sad Yuko smoked deep from her pipe.

Osaka was the first to put pipe to lip after this toast and, having never smoked before in her life, was caught off guard by the coughing fit that came to her soon as the smoke hit her lungs. Her throat burned and Ed, who sat across from her, coughed similarly when she took her hit. Vincent didn't seem bothered at all by his pipe, nor Vash nor Blackstar or Kaede. It was just Ed and Osaka who coughed. "Why," Cough Cough, "Does it burn so much?" Osaka asked through her coughing.

"You'll get used to it," Vash said with a smile as he smoked from the cross shaped pipe that hung from his neck.

"You gotta remember though, "Kaede said as she breathed out a cloud of smoke, "They don't have bubblers."

"So tell us about yourselves," Yuko said, smoking more from her pipe. "Kasuga-san? You come from Japan, right?" Osaka nodded as she tried again to smoke from her pipe, this time with a little less lung hacking. "You wanted to be a teacher?"

"I wanted to be a classic literature teacher.." Osaka said somberly, smoking a bit more from her pipe and coughing further. "But I failed ma' test..."

"All people meet failure once or twice in their lifetime." Yuko said, "Don't let it bother y-"

Blackstar picked that very opportunity to make his presence known. He did this by stepping up on the table with one foot and balancing mostly on his chair, "Not me!" He cried out. "I'm Blackstar! I'm a star!"

"Be quiet, Blackstar-bozu." Kaede said, pulling him back into his seat. "You met failure at least once, or you wouldn't be here right now." Blackstar looked at Kaede and, suddenly, sobered up. She was right. "Just smoke something."

Blackstar looked at his pipe, the pipe with four bowls in the shape of a star. "Ya..." He said, uncorking the remaining three bowls and filling them. "I think you're right. Someone help me light this thing." everyone was, more or less, happy to light Blackstar's pipe for him. Within minutes the Meister was rolling on the ground, coughing and laughing and being utterly embarrassing. The room was full of smoke from Blackstar's "heroics" and even Chouji and Vincent let out a couple of chuckles each. Everything was starting to slow down for the group.

Vincent held his pipe, intrigued by the workings of it. It was a bubbler, clearly. Though you smoked it from the front of the barrel, "blowing your head off" when you smoked it. The metaphor was spectacular as the workmanship behind it. He drew deep from it and held it for some time, passing it to another person. Blackstar's pipe was getting quite the reception and Chouji's mace-like piece had Vash and Yuko a bit more excited than they should have been, taking long, drawn out hits from the pipe, filling the chamber to milky white smoke that rolled into their mouths. Coughing fits were not rare at all. Of course, in their inebriation nobody remembered to open the door or the windows, making the hotbox effect that much more effective

That night, after thick smoke filled the room to the floor, everyone talked with each other. Sometimes one of the group would walk out to the kitchen and return later Sometimes someone would leave to the bathroom and stumble in afterward. But everyone paid attention to each other and everyone talked, even Chouji and Vincent, the quietest of the group. Osaka and Ed had gotten past their ridiculous coughing fits and now coughed here and there but not always, just as everyone else. Yuko hung from Vincent's shoulders and Osaka sat on Chouji's shoulder as they walked around and made merry. Kaede eventually found herself, somehow, snuggling up with Vash in the middle of the floor while Ed stumbled around in the protection of Blackstar's equally stoned presence, singing songs that neither one knew but both thought they could have, if they just sang a bit louder, of course.

As the night dragged on munchies hit the party. Chouji managed to find himself a bag of potato chips, a precious reminder of civilization once again in his hands after over nine years of absence from his life. If anything gave the near unconscious Akimichi comfort, it was the snack that he had long left behind. Ed ate what Blackstar did; more ganja treats that they had made up sometime in the past hour. Yuko had some chocolate cake she ha requested from the screen two days before. Vash ate doughnuts, imagine that, while Vincent ate some simple food that included rice, meat and pickled vegetables. Osaka ate a melon bun and Kaede simply drank from a bottle of Sake that she had pulled seemingly out of nowhere.

Before too long, that was to say a few more hours of smoking, eating, drinking and carousing, everyone was ready to fall asleep where they fell. Vash, Osaka and Kaede passed out in a heap on the floor together. Yuko dragged Blackstar to her room and, as high as he was, Blackstar didn't say no. Edward hit the ground right outside the Grand Room, about half way up the stairs to get to her own room on the fourth floor. Chouji and Vincent were the only ones who had the wherewithal to stay awake and, by the time everyone else fell asleep, the two of the had stopped smoking for some time and were very awake. Chouji sat on the roof, looking at the stars while Vincent climbed up after him, stepping up through the hatch to see Chouji. "You're still awake, Chouji?" Vincent asked as he closed the hatch behind him.

Chouji nodded. "I've never seen these stars, none of them." Chouji said simply, looking up at the sky, his head still so cloudy but clear enough to form words. "It's so different from where I came from..." A small smile show on Chouji's face but Vincent could tell, by looking at him, that it was just the green talking. Chouji wasn't happy. Chouji was mourning the loss, not only of his old world, but of the chances he may have had had he not been killed the day he was to return to see his friends. Underneath the glazed over smile was a very sad man an Vincent knew exactly how he felt.

"When I lived in my world," Vincent started, "A man did horrible experiments on me and it made me immortal." Vincent sat down next to Chouji, his mind clear due to the edge that his uniqueness gave him. "I eventually fell in love with someone different than I had originally fallen for. She was much younger than I but I let it happen. However, as time went by she grew older and our children had children of their own and I hadn't aged a day." Chouji looked at Vincent in slight confusion, trying to work out what the red caped man was trying to say. "And then she died and so did our children... and eventually their children and their children. Back where I come from there is nothing left for me. Back where you come from you have friends that were waiting for you. However, you'll never see them again. I can't imagine it any easier for you than losing my loved ones was for me.

Chouji looked at Vincent seriously, even under the haze Chouji now saw where Vincent was going. "Even if we are different, Chouji." Vincent said slowly, "Even if we come from different worlds and derive power from different things I have no doubt that you and I could make very good allies." Vincent hesitated for a moment. "You have no reason to think of me as a friend after only two days of knowing me. However... If you would... it would mean something to me..." Vincent let his hand extend toward Chouji.

Chouji looked down at Vincent's hand and hesitated. This wasn't something he had expected. Yuko had become his partner in crime the night before because she was interested. However, Vincent became his partner in mourning because he knew, at least to some degree, what Chouji felt. Chouji suspected, even, that Vincent knew far more of the hurt that Chouji felt right then. Chouji smiled genuinely for a moment. "Why not... but don't make a big deal of it..." Chouji took Vincent's hand and shook it for a bit. "We should get to bed soon... Goodnight, Vincent-san." With that Chouji stood and walked to the hatch, ducking into the attic and leaving Vincent on the roof alone.

{HR}

There you have it! First Chappie of The New World!

It was a little forced toward the end, admittedly, but I think I finished it up rather well. Whatta ya'lll think? Anywho, please review and please don't flame! I hope everyone agrees with the line-up of characters! They're the only bit of fandom this story will have!

Anyway, I'll let you all get to your stuff and I look forward to your reviews!

Yours,

Tankou001