Welcome to Another Dimension part 1:
The stand "Another Dimension" used in this chapter is not my original creation. It was conceptualized by Youtube-user Hoel Yvert and Visualized by youtuber AP274. Consider this fanwork of their fanwork.
Mello and Shizuka started searching around themselves, looking for any clue to Mirinos location. Mello sent out Sundays all over the yard, while Shizuka turned everything within her range invisible to create a weird panorama.
Eventually the Sundays found something. A water stain shaped like an arrow on the ground. When Shizuka crouched down to touch it the ground felt wet, but her fingers remained dry.
The arrow pointed towards the school's entrance, which was locked.
With two heavy kicks Shizuka and Achtung Baby broke it into a thousand pieces, to the horror of the teachers and students around them. They ran into the building, straight into the enemy's trap.
As she got in Shizuka noticed in the corner of her eye something blue flying towards her. She dodged just in time, but there was no trace of what had attacked her.
"The stand seems to be fast and waiting for us to walk into it's trap." remarked Shizuka as she turned the walls near her invisible. "We need to catch it as quickly as possible before it can attack any of the children."
They ran up the stairwell and into a nearby hallway. It was completely empty of people. The mild beige light of the lamps and the ash gray lockers gave off a very mundane vibe, very different from what the grand outside would imply.
Shizuka started walking through the hallway, while Mello stayed behind on lookout. When she was at the other side, and about to alert Mello over, the explosive sound of an iron door being slammed into the wall alerted her to quickly take cover behind a corner. A barrage of bullets burst out of the locker. Both Shizuka and Mello covered their ears.
An arm peeked out of the locker, with a hand-held machine gun in a white-clad hand, looking around for the two of them. The confused and despaired sound of children's cries could be heard from the classrooms.
Shizukas heartbeat was quick and violent. She took a deep breath, and turned the corner. The gun snapped around and pointed towards her. Shizuka created a crowd of illusions around her as she started running, covering herself from the enemy's view. But the enemy found a weakness in her strategy.
They shot wildly throughout the narrow hallway, covering a large area. Shizuka had to back down and hide behind a locker. The classrooms turned into a wild cacophony of screams.
A small group of Bloody Sundays, made out of the pain of a few tooth removals, had sneaked up on the hand, and jumped down. The hand violently tried to shake them off, before giving up and returning into the locker.
Shizuka turned the lockers invisible to see what was hiding behind the arm, and saw a glimpse of the enemy stand.
Everything except its arm seemed to be inside the lockers walls, like a painting on a canvas. It seemed more human and less robotic, with pale skin and a dash of obsidian hair. It was dressed in a creepy white mask, like something from a surreal play, and an elegant, classy black suit and white gloves. Lying in its palms were two bizarre balls that seemed to be made out of floating liquid. On the left was a red, on the right was a blue.
Also stuck in the locker walls was Mirino, who seemed to be on the verge of breaking down crying.
Shizuka had already understood that the enemy had the ability to turn objects two-dimensional, but as showcased by the wet arrow on the ground the objects seemed to have some properties that interacted with the three-dimensional world.
If they were going to defeat the stand, they needed to get it into three dimensions.
The stand moved out of the locker, quickly crawling up the wall until it hung in the ceiling. It then pulled out a knife and chucked it towards Shizuka. Achtung reached out and grabbed it by the blade, before spinning it around and throwing it back with all the might it could muster.
The stand dodged, and the knife left a notable mark on the wall. "Oh , quite the quick one, aren't you? The gentleman Hellstrom informed us that you relied a lot more on your wits than on your strength. A respectable strategy. Oh, Where are my manners? My name is Another Dimension, though my user wants to be anonymous." remarked the stand in a fancy, british dialect. "Huh, the stand can talk. Well, when it comes to wits, that goes in the family. But, you aren't my toughest puzzle to solve."
The stand recoiled by the insult. "You revealed one of your weaknesses by dodging that knife throw. When the surface you are on gets hurt, you do as well."
Another Dimension gasped. It flew past her, dropping a second knife towards her. Acthung kicked it back towards Another Dimension, but the stand dodged again. It went under the door into the nurses office.
Mello quickly joined up with her. With an illusion in place Achtung pulled open the door, and a syringe immediately flew through the fake Shizuka. A few Bloody Sundays ran ahead into the room, with an invisible Shizuka right behind them.
AD was inside the wall, with his hand still in the 3D world. The Bloody Sundays went to attack, but just missed. Achtung attacked the wall, but Another Dimension moved through the floor towards Shizuka.
It swiped up towards her, but just in time she jumped up on a desk. Mello ran into the room. "Look out!" screamed Shizuka, but the stand had already snuck under him and moved out of the room. It moved at a breakneck speed down the hallway, and escaped up the large stairway.
When Shizuka and Mello got over there, Another Dimension was already at the top level. Mello created two balls of Bloody Sundays and threw them up the stairs. Shizuka created an illusion beside herself to dodge possible attacks.
As they ran, a paper airplane slowly fell down from above. Shizuka just ignored it and walked beside it, but it landed right in Mellos face. A huge gash was cut open on his forehead and blood spurted out.
Mello wiped it off and crouched down by the plane on the ground. Razor blades were sticking out of the paper. "He must be forcing Mirino to use his to control the water in the paper, to create homing missiles." remarked Mello.
He looked up to locate Another Dimension. As he did he came face to face with another paper plane. He jumped backwards, but it changed directions and moved towards his chest.
There wasn't enough space to navigate away from the plane. Without thinking Mello spat down as much as he could down on it. The water weakened the point, so when the plane crashed into him it barely got through his shirt.
Shizuka turned Mello invisible and they both rushed up the stairs. At the same time she created multiple illusions around her.
The path seemed clear, but in horrible fate an old teacher stepped out into the stairway behind them. The airplanes immediately switched directions toward her. A clear message, "Do you want to attack me or save her?"
Shizuka dived to block the plane, but it dodged her hand and continued down towards the teacher. Just when it was about to cut the teacher in the eyes, Bloody Sundays from the balls Mello had thrown jumped into the air. They wrestled with the plane, but weighed it down and crashed it into the wall.
Another Dimension observed, before turning to Mirino. "Hmm, this game is quite entertaining. I have to say, it is nice to have a break from my boredom."
amused AD. "Yeah, yeah, very entertaining. Please don't do anything to me." whispered Mirino, scared out of his mind. "You are a pawn in this game, don't you understand? Just play your part, and we will see how it goes." answered Another Dimension.
Shizuka finally reached the fourth and final floor. She checked around after Another Dimension. Nothing. After that she took a few careful steps into the hallway, turning the walls around her invisible. Still nothing.
Suddenly an airplane flew right beside her, and cut her knee.
Shizuka turned around, and saw a particularly tall man move down the hallway. She mimicked a Bruce Lee-stance, and waited for him to get closer. She was so focused on him that she wasn't aware that Another Dimension had snuck up the ceiling behind her.
Only Mello's desperate scream alerted her. She turned around to see a knife fly down towards her. She stepped to the side, but Another Dimension reached out with his red hand and slapped the knife. A second knife peeled off the first one and flew down towards Shizuka. It lunged itself right over her foot.
With a gasp she fell to the ground. Another Dimension got out into the 3D-world and lunged towards her with a third knife. Achtung Baby grabbed his arm just in time. They grappled for the knife. AD pulled out of Achtungs grasp and attacked again, quicker than before. Shizuka wasn't able to block, and the knife landed straight in her shoulder.
Mello rushed up with his hand wrapped in Bloody Sundays, allowing him to smash into Another Dimension's face, even though it was a stand. He hit it so hard the rest of its body was pushed out into the three-dimensional world.
Mirino, who had been holding onto Another Dimension, got pulled with him. His entire body didn't get through, but his arm did. A rope of Sundays reached out to Mirino, and pulled him out.
Another Dimension's surface broke when he screamed out "No, you piece of shit! You aren't going to win this!" Mirino rushed deeper into the hallway, as fast as he could.
AD jumped into the 2D world and flew towards Mirino. Shizuka and Mello followed,but fell behind. In a flash Dimension had caught up to Mirino, and reached out with a lanky arm toward him. But then Mirino got an unexpected boost of incredible speed and ran away even further. Mirino had bitten his hand, allowing him to put Weezer in his blood and become stronger.
While AD's hand was still in the open, Shizuka caught up and pulled him out. Even though it's ability was powerful, it was physically brittle. With just one hand Achtung delivered a brutal beatdown. Cracks spread over AD's mask, revealing a dark void under it. "Shizu! Shizu! Shizu!" screamed Achtung as it delivered the last few punches, sending Another Dimension flying through a window. Shizuka took a second to calm down and collect herself before turning to Mello. Mello was looking out through the window. "Where the hell is he?"
Another Dimension was hiding on the school's star-spangled banner. He was furious for having lost part of the game, and he was thinking of multiple plans for a gruesome revenge. The wind changed direction, so the banner was pointing right towards an open window. AD checked to see if Shizuka was still there, but she had rushed away to search for Mirino. AD then reached out with a razor blade, cut the flag off the pole, and flew with it back into the school.
Mirino was rushing down the stairs to get out of the school. "Goddamnit, why did I ever get involved with these people? Now i have to avoid this crazy fucking stand, ohmygod, i am very much out." Suddenly, he was stopped. A young man, barely in his twenties, clad in a fine blue suit with a white hoodie wrapped around his waist, had grabbed him by the collar. The man's face was covered in bruises, like he had been pummeled in a fight. "Oh, hello young man. Where are you going?"
Mirino was shaking with fear. Before he could say anything Another Dimensions user had turned him 2D on the flag AD was holding. He then rolled up the flag and took it up to a window, and jumped out.
The flag gently swayed back and forth when it fell down to the schoolyard. AD's user's plan to jump into traffic failed thanks to a sudden change in the wind. "Goddamnit." whispered the user.
He rose into the three-dimensional world. A group of young boys witnessed him suddenly popping out of the flag. "What the hell!" screamed one of them at the top of his lungs.
The sound reached out to Shizuka, who was searching through the first floor. She quickly turned the wall invisible and saw the user intimidating the children. She also noticed Another Dimension creeping inside of his shadow.
"Shit, Mello is on the second floor, I'll have to go for it alone." thought Shizuka, and ran to find a backdoor. She luckily found one pretty quickly, and burst out onto the schoolyard. Another Dimension was raising it's blue hand to attack the children.
"Wait!" screamed Shizuka to postpone the attack. Another Dimensions user turned to her. Shizuka slowly started walking towards him. "Just pull back your stand and we can talk about this."
The schoolchildren were confused and turned around, but AD's user saw a possible opening and fixed their legs to the ground. The conversation continued over their screams. "If you don't back off, and let me retreat, these children are dead, okay?" explained the user.
"Look, you are under the control of a vampire flesh bud, okay? If there is any humanity behind the vampire's control, please listen to me. Let the children go, and let Mirino return to his family. During these fourteen days, you can watch over Mirino, so we can't ask him for help, okay?" proposed Shizuka.
"Oh, I'm not under the control of any flesh bud, I am simply bored and owe Hellstrom after giving me this fun new ability." responded the user. "Remember the Virus T killer?" he added.
Shizuka remembered clearly, it had been all over the news a couple months ago. The son of an incredibly rich businessman had paid some homeless people to run around in a forest, for him to hunt. Instead of shooting them with a paintball rifle, as agreed, he had brutally tortured and killed them instead. The media called him Virus T. Though with appeals he had dragged the trial on long enough to escape.
"Jesus christ, please, don't kill these children. I beg you, show any, any mercy, please. Let go of Mirino." begged Shizuka. Though all she was doing was buying time. She had a thin layer of illusion right in front of her, and using that illusion she was hiding her phone, taking multiple pictures of Virus T.
"I apologise, but the kid's ability is quite useful to Hellstrom, and he claimed that after your little fight I could keep him as a handy hunting tool." responded Virus T, as if they were talking about trading Pokemon cards.
Shizuka gulped, and tried to ignore Mirinos desperate plea for help. "I'll let you go, for now, but I will have to find you, and save him. Just let the other children go." Mirino started shaking and crying. Virus T shrugged, turned the children normal and with a little jump went into the 2D world.
Shizuka couldn't do anything but watch as he went over the school's wall, and disappeared into traffic.