Time for some conversation and people dodging skills!
Chapter Eleven:
DAYS UNTIL C EVENT HIT'S JAPAN: ONE
My dreams were closer to nightmares last night. I woke up in some kind of abandoned mansion where the dead bodies of Miyoko, Hisaki, and everyone else were on display like they were all a part in a crazy freak show. I didn't scream or panic though, I learned to recognize when I was dreaming a long time go, but it still left me a bit unsettled. The one shining light in the whole thing was seeing Mori hung by her neck looking limp, and I ended up giggling at the sight, since I had no idea why my subconscious registered this as a bad thing. So after then turning around and almost waking up, my dream felt intercepted by someone, and the scene shifted to the white room again. Awkward 101, someone tell the teacher that I'm experiencing a moment of déjà vu
This time things were a little different though, there were no papers to touch or even my bed, it was just a plain, white, room.
"Haven't we been through this already, you should know by now that I don't do cryptic!" I shouted at the roof.
"Do not worry Kevin Tanner, I only wish to talk to you." I spun around to find a heavily backlit character standing before me. I could tell she was female based on the voice, but I couldn't figure out anything else, because I couldn't see with the blinding light.
"What about, you here to give me some metaphorical bull and send me back home because I've 'learned my lesson?'" I said only half sarcastically, guessing she was the Guardian of either this world or mine. The woman shook her head, or at least I thought she did, the backlight made it really hard to tell.
"I'm afraid I cannot send you anywhere. In order to leave this realm you will have to defeat Midas, the guardian and ruler, only then can you leave." Midas is the guy in charge? I really need to beat Masakaki into ground beef.
"Do not worry, Midas is more generous to Jumpers than the people he watches over. There will be no strings attached when you leave, and you'll be able to take your friend along with you." Despite my wanting to believe this potentially good news, I was still skeptical. This being was clearly one of power but could have some hidden agenda. After a few more moments of thinking I decided to trust in what she said, I needed some good news anyway.
"Alright then, so why did you want to talk to me? I'm sure it wasn't just to give me good news and warn me about Midas." The woman pointed a finger at me.
"Because your goal is very different from most Jumpers that I send out in the multiverse, you desire something other than an escape from your world, and that is something I have rarely seen in a Jumper before he becomes one."
"Where are you going with this?" I asked warily, expecting some grand quest.
"You're time here in this world is at an end, the event that is coming is one that you cannot allow yourself to be a part of." I rolled my eyes as best as I could through my squint.
"Tell me something I don't already know, but the problem is I don't know where to go to find the seal! Can you tell me where Midas keeps his seal hidden at the very least?" The figure shook her head.
"I cannot. I do not know where Midas keeps his seals, but I sensed you were close to one yesterday, all you have to do is keep looking and surely you will find it." Keep looking, yeah this totally changes my plans, first you give me the expectation of a grand quest and then you tell me that I might be close to a seal? Screw you!
"So basically you disturbed my dreams just to tell me almost nothing new, not even bothering to point out what grand quest you have in mind for me?" The being didn't seem too worried about being accused, or if there was a reaction, it was too small for my nearly blinded eye to see.
"There is no grand quest, as there is no purpose to Jumpers other than to see what happens when worlds cross over each other. You decide your own destiny." Great, more meaning of life bull, I'm so done with this lady.
"Alright, well at least you've given me a search area and told me that Miyoko get's to tag along, so I'll thank you for those little tidbits of information, but you're still pissing me off. By the way I didn't catch your name, so who are you?"
"As you have probably guessed, I am Gaia, the guardian of your home world. You must now wake Kevin, someone wishes to talk with you in the waking world." Wait, what, who? I had more insulting comments for Gaia before parting ways, but the room faded away before I could open my mouth.
My eyes shot open to find a frying pan descending rapidly towards my face. Moving quickly, I rolled myself off the couch and crashed into the floor as the cooking tool slammed into the cushion where I had been sleeping two seconds earlier. For reasons I couldn't explain, I was fully aware and awake from the second I woke up, and I felt no remnants of exhaustion from sleeping. At least Gaia got one thing right!
"What the hell Mori! You could've killed me right there, what were you thinking!" Mori didn't seem to be phased by my yelling, and when she turned back to me she smiled innocently.
"I said you could continue to sleep here, but I never said I would be nice to you while you stayed." I gritted my teeth and picked myself up off the floor, wishing I had a shotgun.
"We really should get you enrolled in a mental institution, because you're a danger to society." Mori just continued to smile.
"Hisaki already tried that." She explained. "But I was out of there within three hours, they couldn't handle my withdrawal from being away from Hisaki for that long." I gave Mori a confused look.
"So how do you explain being gone for months at a time working and not get put in jail from this withdrawal?"
"Because I know that when I work, I'm making money to keep my poor Hisaki alive, and that fact drives me so much I can't help but not do my very best!" Look up nut job in the dictionary and you'll see a picture of this girl, this chick could've come out of an anim- oh wait.
"Alright whatever." I threw my hands up in defeat, unwilling to fight a battle of logic with someone who was mentally insane. "I'm leaving tomorrow morning anyway, so I think I can stand you for one more day." Mori hugged me from the side and wouldn't let go.
"But you will never escape me, ever." She whispered, sending a shiver through my body. I quickly pushed her off me and turned towards the kitchen. Grabbing my Midas card and a few energy bars from the cupboard, I quickly and hastily removed myself from the house and headed out for the street corner to head off to the Financial District, a little disturbed by Mori's actions this morning.
"Hey there Kevin!" Shouted Hisaki from my left, who was running down the side of the road in an exercise outfit, waving me down before I could leave.
"What's with the workout clothes?" I asked him, giving the clothes a look over. Both the shirt and pants were a dark green color and skin tight, with a matching green sweatband to complete the outfit. Hisaki was dripping in sweat and working on removing his ear buds as he stopped in front of me.
"Every time Mori comes to town she makes me start a workout routine, and she just harasses me until I go and do it. To be honest I should be doing it anyway, but I just can't muster up the energy when she isn't here."
"So in other words, you want to look nice for Mori." Miyoko said in an amused tone. Hisaki shrugged.
"I guess so. Hey can I ask you two a favor?"
"Sure," I replied, "what is it?" Hisaki looked around carefully, like he was expecting Mori to pop out of a bush at any second.
"Could you summon your ride to the Financial District somewhere else today? I think Mori might be getting a little suspicious that you keep coming out to this same street corner." I turned around, and I managed to spot Mori looking out the window just before the curtains closed. Raising an eyebrow, I turned back to Hisaki.
"Yeah, sure thing. Try and stall her for me, I'll give you my cell number, call me if you can't keep her busy." After turning on the phone that was hidden in one of the pockets in my original pair of pants, I noticed I actually got really good cell reception here, but I hadn't gotten the chance to give Hisaki my number until now.
"I still can't believe it took you all these months to get that phone of yours working." Hisaki teased, and I in return slugged him in the arm.
"Hey, remember I was a little busy to worry about the state of my phone."I responded, starting to walk down the street Hisaki had just run down. "Alright, I'm off to continue my search. Good luck with Crazy Queen in there!" Hisaki rolled his eyes but gave no further acknowledgement and jogged into the apartment complex, leaving me and Miyoko on our own to fine a safe place where we could summon our ride to the Financial District.
It took us a while to find a secluded area where we could safely summon the District taxi without drawing attention. It took us quite a while, but I eventually spotted an empty parking lot close to the parking lot where we had been dropped off on day one. It was well hidden behind a few buildings, trees, and large bushes. I resisted the urge to run through the streets to get there to avoid drawing any attention, and to help contain my excitement. I still had my goal of staying as low key as possible, not knowing if any of Evander's goons may be lurking around, still wary of the events from two days ago.
Since the park was only about fifteen minutes away, I arrived there without encountering any problems. I looked around to make sure that no one was watching, and just before I was sure that I was alone, a hooded figure disappeared behind a parked car on my left when I noticed them. About to go investigate who might be there, my cell phone rang, showing Hisaki's number on it. Great, I'll give myself one guess as to why he's calling me.
"Hisaki, what's up?" I greeted, trying to sound cheerful.
"Take a guess dude." Hisaki said seriously.
"Mori got away from you and is now stalking me, and I had hoped this was about dinner." I answered, turning to leave the parking lot. "This is going to become problematic very quickly."
"No kidding?" Hisaki yelled sarcastically. "Have you used the Midas card yet?" I shook my head, instinctively thinking he could see me or something.
"No not yet. Thankfully, I checked to make sure the area was clear before I did, and I noticed a hooded figure sneaking around the parking lot watching me. I'm going to try to lose your girlfriend." I could hear Hisaki after I had let him know that the secret of the Financial District was safe.
"Thank god, alright I'm headed back to the apartment. It looks like Mori turned her phone off for now, so I need you to lose her before headed to the district today alright?"
"You got it Hisaki, operation 'how to lose a girl in ten minutes' is a go. I'll see you tonight if I don't succeed in my mission."
"Alright, later and good luck, Mori isn't the kind of girl you can shake off very easily." There was a beeping sound as the call ended, and I walked calmly out of the parking lot, moving about the city with no real goal in mind other than to find a way to lose Mori.
I made sure to take random pathways, double back a few times, and spend some time hiding in a few shops, but none of it seemed to do me any good. It was like no matter where I went or what I did, Mori could find me wherever I went. What is she, some kind of tracking mutant or something? After almost five hours of running around, she was still on my tail.
"Kevin, I hate to say it but this plan isn't working." I rolled my eyes, forgetting that Miyoko couldn't see my facial expression, but my patience for Mori had evaporated.
"Really, are you sure? Because I could have sworn we lost her at least SEVEN INTERSECTIONS AGO!" Miyoko sighed.
"Look, just call her out, we both know she's there. Take a deep breath and talk to her okay?" It took me a minute, but I reluctantly followed Miyoko's suggestion. Making sure I was calm first, I called out to Mori and made sure to catch her eye. I was careful to make it very clear that I knew she was there.
"What are you doing following me Mori, you don't need to watch me every second of every day you know!" For a minute, Mori looked like she didn't want to accept the fact that I has caught her, but eventually walked up to me and stuck her tongue out at me.
"You weren't supposed to find me, now I'll never know what kind of evil things you do all day!" I wanted to slap myself really badly, but somehow managed to refrain from doing it. I placed a hand on Mori's shoulder.
"Mori, I don't do evil things, I've been investigating a missing persons case, so I'm out interviewing people and looking into the leads they give me."
"But you haven't done any interviewing all day today, you're no investigator!" Mori accused. I waved a finger.
"That's not what I'm doing today." I replied, thinking quickly. "Since I'm leaving tomorrow, I thought I would get Hisaki a gift for being so nice to me for these past few months, but none of the shops around this part of town have looked any good."
"So wait, you want to give Hisaki something?" Mori asked raising an eyebrow. I nodded.
"Great! I know all the best shops around here, I'm sure you can get him something fantastic!" And that was the start of the longest shopping trip of my entire life. Including a small nap to regain our energy, Mori and I were touring shops all over the place until four in the morning the next day.
We checked out everything, fancy, overpriced stores, to pawn shops, to a used car lot, and even a woman's clothing store, which confused the hell out of me but I wasn't about to get on Mori's bad side after getting past what had happened the day before. Eventually, and thankfully, it finally came to an end when Mori got a phone call.
"Hello, yes Mr. Warren! Of course I'll fly over right away, no it's no trouble at all, yes I'll see you there." I raised an eyebrow at Mori.
"Your boss?" I asked while gazing over a mug with a panda on it.
"Yes, and it seems our network broke down, no doubt because of your criminal actions, I can't believe I let you sidetrack me!" Mori stormed out of the store, leaving me baffled as to how I went from friend to enemy in two seconds.
"Kevin, is it wrong if I never want to see her again?" Miyoko asked quietly.
"No, not really." I replied, matching her voice level.
"Just checking." I left the store and headed for Hisaki's apartment. It was now the day of C, and although that meant I had just one full day left to find the seal, I was too wiped to do anything but go home and sleep.
I sighed when I got to my favorite street corner, thinking about laying down and snoring for years, surprised to find myself coming face to face with Kotaro and Masakaki. Son of a…
"Hey there Kevin." Kotaro said, a little too neutral for me to have any sense of comfort. Something was very wrong here, my deal wasn't until tomorrow, but that didn't explain why Kotaro was here.
"Wait, Kotaro are you the person who challenged me to that deal?" I asked in realization.
"He sure is, and I'm sorry to say that he refuses to wait until this evening for a dea, I hope that doesn't inconvenience you too much mister Tanner." I shook my head, still trying to put the pieces together, unsure of why Kotaro would challenge me like this.
"I'm fine with right now, but before we go I need one question answered Kotaro, why challenge me?" Kotaro grinned a seemingly uncharacteristic evil grin.
"Because Evander has special plans for you Kevin, but I thought I would get myself ahead of the game and take you and that pretty little asset of yours down first!" he licked his lips. I sighed and shrugged, I was surprised by this, but at the same time he had gone insane to the point where I had seen it at least a thousand times before in anime.
I wasn't sure if it was from the exhaustion, but everything seemed to be going to hell less than a second, and I was ready to snap. I felt sorry for Kotaro, because if I was hallucinating right now about his attitude, he was about to get obliterated.
"Great, so you turned out to be some crazy psychopathic pervert who's looking at my asset. On top of that you want to impress your evil boss, I can't tell you how much I'm going to enjoy making you go bankrupt." I looked at Masakaki. "Alright, I'm ready and fired up, let's deal!"
"Perfect!" Masakaki chimed cheerfully. "I look forward to an excellent deal then!" Instantly we were in the middle of the Financial District, Midas cards out and ready for a deal. How do people like him even keep an act like that up? Sometimes I think this jumping stuff makes people go crazy! Whatever the side effects of Jumping might be, I needed to destroy this guy, because illusion of my lack of sleep or not, this was a deal, and something told me that I wasn't just dreaming this one up. Kotaro's look of obsession was real, and this Evander lackey was going to try to finish what his boss had started.
Don't ask to read the first draft of this chapter, please. In any event I have a lot of work ahead, because ch.12 has so many errors in it that I'm going to end up crying. Wish me luck everyone, because C is coming!
