To all readers, young and old, I acknowledge that it says the story is being rewritten. In truth, I'm expanding it. Rereading it again, prompted by a review, I have to say I agree with the review to agree. I've begun expanding the interactions, and hopefully, this will sate the pickier of the reviewers and my own expanding hunger for better written material from myself.
As per status quo: All intellectual property that is not designated by me to be my own, is not my own. Furthermore, all I own is the plot.
Weightlessness encompassed him, and all was so serenely dark. As he felt no rush to do something, he questioned what caused this.
(How am I alive, and why? Is it just my luck that I can't die?) His near perfect purgatory soon gave way. A sudden rush of air hit him, and he began to fall. Colors began dancing into his vison, but it didn't last long as he shot through the surface of a lake. His battered body bounced off the bottom of the lake, and he slowly floated up. Pain threatened to knock him unconscious, but no motivation kept him in the middle of a lake. An alien feeling spread through his body, and an unusual tightness occurred in his chest. Black and red Marker script was being over taken by flesh and his suit, and fear crawled into his mind along with the familiar buzz of the Marker signal.
He tore at the nearly sealed suit, but no reward was given to his effort. Yet, the buzz of the familiar signal gave way. He quickly swam to shore, and resumed the useless task of trying to remove the Alien rock in his chest.
"Are you okay sir?" He ignored the voice as thoughts of grabbing his cutter and just ending it became plausible.
"STOP! You're going to kill yourself." His actions stopped as it dawned on him.
"It wanted me to kill myself, so it could turn my corpse." The person didn't hear his musing.
"Thank you." Isaac looked at his fellow person. The young man in front of him looked rather unassuming, and appeared to be a student. Black hair, brown eyes, and a rather odd bracelet were his identifying features.
(Average, but looks are unreliable.) The boy across from him put his hand out.
"Tsukune Aono"
"Isaac Clarke" He returned the handshake, and relaxed his stance as the other male relaxed.
"Where are you from? I've never seen clothing like THAA-" The boy was interrupted unceremoniously as a pink-haired girl latched onto the boy's neck.
"What the hell!" Isaac grabbed the girl by the shoulders, and pulled as she unlatched from the boy. He pushed the girl away, and drew his cutter.
"Ow…" The afflicted boy noticed Isaac.
"Isaac, this is my friend Moka Akashiya. It's okay, she does that often." The girl's eyes were wide with terror, and Isaac didn't stop aiming at the vampire.
"STOP!" Tsukune's voice met deaf ears, and Isaac formed an unusually gleeful smile. An orange haze took over Isaac's eyes, and his index finger began to squeeze the trigger.
"No." Isaac's left eye began flickering from the sickly orange back to the blue. His hand began to shake, and soon enough, the cutter fell from his grasp. Both students felt a powerful force began to leak from the man, but erratic movements from the armored figure drew there attention. The orange haze gave away suddenly, and left an exhausted Isaac in its wake. The presence they felt disappeared almost as soon as it left the man.
"Isaac?" The aforementioned person took less-than-solid steps towards them, but fell to his knees in the process.
"That wasn't normal." Darkness encroached on him for a second time, but this one was less peaceful.
4 hours later
Isaac smelled alcohol and a faint trace of blood, but his other senses couldn't pick up anything. A white ceiling greeted him as he opened his eyes, and he understood where he was.
"Hospital."
"No Mr. Clarke, a high-school infirmary." Isaac snapped his head to the voice, and was met by glowing eyes. The man sitting by his bed wore an ornate white robe, but his face was obscured.
"Mr. Clarke, would you like a job?" Confusion spread to his features, and the ever present grin on the man's face widened fractionally.
"No." Isaac looked back to the ceiling, but noticed the grin remained.
"You are in a land you don't know, and having a job here will prevent you from becoming a corpse. Plus, the students could use another Arithmetic teacher."
"Why ask me? What's the catch?" He looked back at the spectral person.
"I'm asking you because you are from an alternate dimension, and one that is far more advanced than ours." That satisfied his first question.
"The catch is that you must watch over a group of students. You've met two already."
(Tsukune and Moka)
"Precisely, but there are a few more that need to be watched over." Isaac doubted the man was psychic, but he wouldn't say impossible. His life has taught him to not doubt what seems impossible.
"Mizore Shirayuki, Kurumu Kurono, and Yukari Sendo. These students hang around Tsukune, so keeping tabs on them will be as simple as knowing where the boy is." Isaac felt that if he wanted to survive, he'd take the stranger's offer.
"I accept." Both men extended their hands, and shook.
"Speak to Ms. Nekonomei later; she'll have the info for you." The man disappeared as soon as the last word was uttered.
(I probably was just talking to myself…) Knowing that lying down wouldn't help him at all, he got off the cot. Retrieving his Plasma cutter from the desk, he activated his helmet.
"Can't risk it." He approached the door, and peeked through. Students strode by, and Isaac relaxed slightly as he saw the boy from earlier. He quickly made his way out, and stopped the boy.
"Isaac! How are you?" No hint of anger entered the boy's features. Tsukune seemed to be the forgiving type.
"Been better, and apparently I'm now a teacher here."
"Okay."
"I was told to go talk to a Ms. Nekonomei." The elder man looked around, but shrugged.
"You wouldn't happen to have her, would you?" The boy was about to speak, when a blue blur sped past Isaac.
"Tsukune-kun!" The girl practically tackled the boy, but Isaac noticed Tsukune's face was buried in the girl's chest. Moments later, a wash tub fell onto the blue haired girl's head bringing her down with it.
"Stay off Tsukune, Mammoth Mammaries!" An even-younger girl in a witch's hat stormed up to the collapsed girl.
"Tsukune is for Moka and me!" A fight ensued, but the now-recovered boy broke up the fight.
"Tsukune?" Isaac turned to see the pinkette, and spotted fear in the girl's eyes. A tense moment passed between the two, and all took notice of the tension.
"Moka. Sorry for earlier, I wasn't in control of myself."
"It's okay." He knew the girl was still afraid of him, so he stopped the conversation there. He looked back at Tsukune, and the boy noticed it too.
"Isaac, Mr. Nekonomei's class is this way." The girls quickly got into step behind the boy, and Isaac warily followed them. The group walked past various groups of people, and all gave the armored man looks of curiosity. Isaac felt even more paranoid as more eyes locked onto him, but maintained his composure as the group in-front of him slowed. The boy ahead of him opened the door, and the girls shuffled in behind him.
"Ms. Nekonomei?" A meow was heard from the room, and Isaac's curiosity peaked.
(What type of school is this? From a PINK haired girl who sucks blood to apparently a teacher who meows… What the hell have I gotten myself into?) Uncertainty welded itself to his spine, but he strode in as if he had no qualms. A small shriek came from somewhere behind the desk, throwing Isaac into survival mode. A pair of cat ears poked out from behind the desk, and Isaac began to chuckle as the slight adrenaline rush faded. The hiding figure slowly moved up, and exposed her face. Oddly enough, she had her eyes closed even though it was easy to tell she was scared. Some part of him reminded him that his helmet was still on, and he remembered well enough the amount of gore still attached to the battered suit.
"Sorry." He deactivated the helmet, and the response was instantaneous. The woman behind the desk popped up with a sigh of relief, and her face showed glee. Isaac couldn't help but notice a rather generous bounce to her chest. Mentally scolding himself, he placed his traitorous eyes at her face again.
"Alright kids!" Her absolute glee struck Isaac as absolutely contradictory to her initial action.
"We have a new teacher here today! His name's Isaac Clarke, and he will be an advanced Arithmetic teacher!" She clapped as she said this, and continued to confuse the survivor beyond sense. The students were unfazed with her responses, so Isaac reasoned that they were used to this.
"Okay! Moka, Mizore, Tsukune, Yukari, and Kurumu. You kids will be having Mr. Clarke from now on." The students nodded, but Moka reserved a nod as the memory of her first encounter came up. The bell rang signaling the end of the day. The small assembly of students said goodbye to each of the adults, and left the faculty members talk. Isaac shifted to face the woman again, and she now held a smile upon her face.
"Sorry for earlier, I'm not great with masked figures. Especially ones with flesh on it." The same grin stayed on her features even if her tone was morbid. Uneasiness crept through him, but as usual, he stayed the feeling from offending the woman.
"Don't worry about it, I'm just confused." His eyes drifted around the class, but it appeared to be what people had written about 20th or 21st century class rooms.
"Well, this school is for monsters firstly! I'm a nekomusume as you can tell." A sudden realization came to her.
"Oh, we aren't supposed to tell…"
"Okay, but if you don't mind me asking, what's a nekomusume?" Her features shifted along with her ears.
"You don't know? Well, I'm a cat demon." He had to stifle a laugh, but her next question helped him refrain from doing so.
"What are you?"
"Human." Her face contorted to shock. In the blink of an eye, her smile had returned.
"If the Headmaster hired you, then it must be okay. I guess we can actually stop killing humans on site." Paranoia snaked its way into Isaac's form yet again, and the woman caught on instantly.
"Don't worry; you were hired as a teacher. The only issue you should have is from the students."
"That's not soothing." Ms. Nekonomei's ears drooped again.
"Let's get you to your room; I imagine you are rather tired, meow." She almost ran out of the room, and Isaac followed her to the best of his ability.
(School of monsters, a cat demon, and the whole place is filled with things I heard of in old stories. At least I don't have to deal with Necromorphs.) His pace kept him a bit back from the Nekomusume, and he caught himself examining her yet again.
"C'mon old man, the time for doing that is long gone."
"Hmm?" The woman looked back at him.
"Nothing."
-Next Day-
Isaac felt cold again, but the drone of the air conditioning reminded him of where he was. He couldn't believe what had happened yesterday, or who he had met. A teacher with cat ears, and a mysterious robed figure with glowing eyes were some stand out figures.
"What the hell have I gotten thrown into?" Without hesitation, he threw on his RIG and subsequent suit on. His cutter was attached to him, and he avoided having any breakfast. He couldn't eat, because if anything bothered him far more than Necromorphs; it was being surrounded by people he didn't trust. A knocking was heard from the door, and reflexes brought his cutter to eye-level.
"Mr. Clarke?" Isaac sighed, and put his cutter back. Ms. Nekonomei had said that she would help him out with his first day. Without moving, he turned the door handle with his Kinesis module. She had been nice to him, but anything that wasn't human still set him on edge. The door swung open, and the woman stood in the doorway.
"Uhh… You okay?" He walked up to the woman, and shrugged to hopefully have her lay off him.
"I'm fine." Isaac trudged by her, and she followed behind him.
"Mr. Clarke. These days have been strange, so many of the students are on edge lately."
"Any of them hallucinating? Seeing dead family and friends?"
"I don't think so…"
"Then there isn't any reason for me to be worried." He had arrived at his class room, and began to take note of how many students would be in his class.
"But Mr. Clarke? There have been students beating up teachers! Meow!" He was getting irritated by the woman's penchant to say "meow". Cat demon or not, there had to be some way for him to get her to stop. Many ways just to get her to shut up came up in his mind, but all were very despicable for a man to do to a woman. He knew well enough that if he did that, wherever his father was, the vanished Clarke would be disappointed in his son. That was not something he would ever risk.
"Thank you, Ms. Nekonome. I can handle myself well enough. If you don't mind, I'll be preparing the next few days of notes for the students." His tone was forceful, but the woman didn't back off as well as he had hoped.
"If you need any help, I'm a few rooms away. Also, would you want to have lunch with me? The other teachers don't like me so much. Meow." Isaac was a hardened man, and he was irritated which made him damn near cold to everything, but the woman's dejected tone wore on the ever-present caring part of him. With a sigh, he responded to the woman's offer.
"I probably won't eat, but I'll join." The woman's near constant smile grew wider if that was possible.
"Thank you! I finally have company, meow!" The woman said her farewell to the engineer, and walked off to her classroom.
"Dammit." He let his skull slam onto his desk, and uttered a low groan. He hated having emotions, because they always got in the way. He wanted to be a loner, keep people distant, and get everything done so he can try and find a way home back to Ellie. The survivor regretted letting that picture fly off as he had been falling to Tau Volantis, and he never kept digital forms of any pictures. He didn't need them was what he kept telling to himself, but even now, his memories of her felt distant. His frustration mounted as he struggled to keep the images of her fresh, but the mis-matched eyes that he loved so well were already fading.
"What the hell?!"
-Lunch break-
Isaac numbly nibbled on the only thing that had even looked edible. The rice was bland as he had expected, but his coworker was happily chomping away at chunks of raw fish.
"So…" Ms. Nekonomei finished the last piece of her fish, and closed up the Tupperware.
"So?"
"How'd you get here, if you don't mind me asking?" He set down the fork, and wiped his mouth with the napkin.
"I don't mind. I was sent through a rift created by a Marker and another alien machine. More so, I ran into it."
"Why?"
"I was suffering from massive blood loss, and probably a pretty heavy concussion at the time."
"Oh."
"If you don't mind me asking, why don't the other faculty members eat with you? You don't seem to be bad company." The woman let her ears fall in defeat. Isaac inwardly grinned as the change of subject worked.
"Oh, the others think I'm annoying, and they don't like interacting with a Yokai that doesn't enjoy killing humans."
"Do all Yokai like to kill humans, besides you?"
"For the most part. Humans are delicious to all monsters, but I like fish." Isaac could tell by how she destroyed her fish. Almost as if a light bulb went on in her head, she realized one thing.
"If we are going to have lunch together, can we refer to each other by first name? Calling them by miss or mister is too professional, especially for friends."
"When did we become friends?" He chuckled at her reaction, as she looked back incredulously.
"It was a joke, and why not?"
"I'm Shizuka."
"Isaac." He was going to put out his hand, but the woman stood and pulled him into a hug.
"Okay." She quickly let go, and sat back down.
"Sorry. You're my first actual friend." Yet again, the emotional side of him welled up with pity.
"It's fine." He quickly picked up his trash, and threw it away. The woman fell behind him, but soon walked beside him. She was almost skipping with excitement, and he caught himself again eyeing her various assets. He scolded himself, and corrected his treacherous eyes. Repeatedly telling himself that he has a woman to go back to did little to keep the man's attention elsewhere.
"Have you ever been alone?" Forever the inquisitive woman, she had struck up conversation again.
"Yes, and it's not something I want to keep on living with."
"Do you have a girlfriend or wife?"
"Girlfriend." She nodded in response.
"You miss her, meow?" To say he missed Ellie would be an understatement, but the more he tried to think of any possible way back to his proper universe, the more likely it was that he was stuck here.
"Yeah." He dropped his tone, and the woman took an inquisitive look at him.
"I'll probably never see her again." Isaac wanted to go to his room, and look over his cutter; the one thing that had truly stuck with him through thick and thin. Even Ellie had abandoned him when he wanted to hide from everything, and it was all because she didn't understand what she had meant to him. He didn't want to put her in harm's way, but she left him in the apartment with nothing but an apology message. Just remembering what had happened just days after her departure brought an unpleasant realization.
(Did she actually love me in the end? Was it just better for her to stick with me than Norton?) He shook himself from the thoughts, and looked at his coworker. The woman was looking back at him, and he saw pity in her features.
"I'm pretty sure you'll find a way. I mean, you are from the future of another universe." Her optimism made him feel better, but the pessimist within reminded him that tech like that didn't exist in his own universe. He was a ship engineer, not a physicist with access to teams of researchers and the funding to do so. He also didn't have something like the Machine, and the Marker shard in his chest was probably useless now. There were no Brethren here, as far as he knew.
"I'm an engineer Shizuka, not a physicist. I can't repeat what got me here, and I don't know of any other ways." Yet again, her ears dropped in defeat.
"I'm sorry Isaac."
"What for?" Isaac was genuinely confused by the woman that stood by him.
"I barely know you, but you just seem to be so sad; As if you haven't had anything to be happy about." Her telltale "meow" was gone as she began to dwell in his sorrow. Without rhyme or reason, he hugged her. He couldn't think of why, but it felt akin to one of the times he had woken from a nightmare with Ellie nearby. Even though the "nightmare" was more so a memory than a figment of his imagination, it was still very reminiscent of the times.
"Don't worry about me, okay? It's mine to deal with." She nodded, and Isaac ended the embrace. He felt an awkward silence develop between them, and he wished she would speak.
"See you tomorrow?" Isaac nodded, and they began to separate.
"Isaac." He was pulled into another unexpected hug, but it didn't feel as awkward as the previous ones.
"Thank you for being my first friend, and trusting me with parts of your life." He put up a simple smile, and they parted. As the engineer strode into his room, his once genuine smile faltered. Shizuka was as lonely as him, even more so if she was speaking the truth.
"Didn't have any friends." One thing they shared was the loneliness, and maybe a decent friendship would help them both out. Hell, he didn't have friends at all. Carver seemed more like an unnecessary gun by his side than a friend. They were friendly by the end, but friends were hard to make in that environment. With added vigor to his mind, he promised himself that he'd be a reliable person. Not just a reliable person, but a worthwhile friend for Shizuka.
End of the reworked chapter, and a few changes I made: No fog this time around, keeping with a presence of the mind. Not a supernatural fog that escapes Isaac like a possession in Supernatural.
I added about 1,400 extra words of interaction. Hopefully it is a good basis to build the relationship on.
Alright, Nemesis out.