Chapter 5: On the Other Side of the Dimension

The Ozu household was oddly quiet. Mandora Boy rested in his pot and Smokey the Cat in his lamp while the three elder members of the house, one Magician and two Heavenly Saints, looked around for the missing Magicians of the Five Colors. None of them had been present when the interdimensional spell swept them away to Briarwood, and as such had no idea where to start.

"Majiiro Majika," Miyuki Ozu, an older woman in a white dress, placed her sparkling silver MagiPhone to her eyes and looked around the magical library with sharpened senses. Not even the slightest trace of her children could be found. She dropped her MagiPhone to the ground and placed her head on the shoulders of her husband, Isamu.

Isamu was a middle-aged Japanese man dressed in a brownish-black fur coat with purple clothing visible underneath. In his hand was a red phone like Miyuki's, except it had a golden "W" where her "M" symbol was. He had been through much in the past year, from his transformation into Wolzard to his apparent death protecting his children, to his final and strongest form of Wolzard Fire. In reality Isamu was the Heavenly Saint, the Champion of Flame, Bragel. He consoled his wife of many years.

"We'll find them," he reassured her, "remember that our children thought you and I were dead for quite some time. This feels…different though. They're not dead, but they're not anywhere here either. Not in Magitopia, not in the Infershia, and not on the surface. Try calling Snowgel."

Miyuki opened her silver MagiPhone and saw the face of Snowgel appear. She was an icy-blue, humanoid Saint that had trained the Five Legendary Magicians, Flagel, Volgel, Splagel, Wingel and Groungel, long, long ago. Snowgel's voice came through the MagiPhone. "Magician of the White," she asked, "What is it you're looking for? Calling me in the Marudeyouna World must mean something."

"Have…have you seen my children?" Miyuki said, holding back tears.

"Not since recently," replied Snowgel. The final battle with N. Ma had been a spectacle that the city would remember for some time to come. "But no, they have not been in the Marudeyouna World today. Although… I have heard news of the Dragon Keeper leaving his life of solitude for a dimension not of our own."

A flare of golden light came from the magical room's fireplace. Hikaru-sensei, Sungel, appeared in the hearth in his blue-and-gold suit. He had been out buying a cake from Akane to give to his new family in celebration of their victory but a week ago only to hear the news that all five children had vanished without a trace. He set the cake on the table and walked up to Isamu and Miyuki.

"So they're gone…?" he asked, "What about Urara?"

"Her too," Isamu replied, "Nowhere to be seen."

Mandora Boy awoke and replied to what he had heard of the conversation. "So they've vanished de gozarimasu desu? What are we going to do without them de gozarimasu desu? This is terrible de gozarimasu desu!"

Hikaru's mind sparked with a thought. "The Dragon Keeper," he said, "Who told him he could leave? He was deemed to be locked in eternal isolation by the Magitopia Council!"

"What'd he do?" a tired Smokey asked.

"The Dragon Keeper practiced some advanced forms of Dark Magic," Hikaru explained, "One of which was the control over dragons. He realized that dragons held such power…raw strength, unhindered defense…and almost wanted to become one. When he attacked Magitopia with an army of the beasts he'd acquired in his travels, Magiel, Lunagel, and I sent him into exile in a distant corner of the Marudeyouna World with a powerful seal keeping him in.

"Yet, there are other dimensions out there; anything can lie within them, and they may be shockingly different from our own…or very much like home. One of those worlds is where they must be. But we have no clues…they left no trace. Unless…SMOKEY!" Smokey exited his lamp and walked to his Master's side.

"What?" the peerless magical cat asked.

Hikaru took out his GripPhone and a MagiTicket. He slid the ticket in, pressed down on the GripPhone and held the ticket between his and Smokey's foreheads. "Luuma Goludo!" he declared. Hikaru was fully aware of what he had done. Smokey acted like he was hiding something…so Hikaru had gone inside his memories to see just what he knew.

Hikaru was in the magic room some hours earlier. The room had a whitewashed and blurry tint. Hikaru himself was nothing more than a ghost observing the events; his presence had no say in what was happening, for it had already happened. Things were going as usual. Kai was engrossed in his studies while Mandora watched over him. Makito and Urara were cleaning the room. Tsubasa was looking through a book of spells with Smokey and Houka was talking on her MagiPhone; business as usual.

"So, Koji, if you wanted to meet me tomorrow…" Houka found Urara sitting down in front of her. "I'll call you back later." The eldest sister closed her MagiPhone and looked at her younger sibling. "What is it, Urara?" Houka tiredly asked, "I was preparing for a date…"

"I KNOW," Urara said, "Ever since I've gotten married, I've found it to be a great thing. And you? You're moving from man to man too fast. You have to settle down at some point or another, Houka. I mean, even KAI…" Kai looked up from his book.

"What, Jii-nee?" he asked.

"Even Kai's found a steady girl in Yamazaki!"

"I did help him out a little bit," Houka blushed.

"At least he found somebody," Urara said, "I'm happy…I want you to be too."

Makito moved to Urara's crystal ball and took a feather duster in hand. He brushed the heavy layer of dust from the glass orb and noticed something sparking beneath the surface. "Only the Magician of the Blue can read the crystal ball," Mandora Boy had said, and Urara promptly responded by getting up to read it. "Maji Jijiru." She looked in.

Urara's eyes flashed turquoise-blue before she reared her head back and groaned in pain. Tsubasa abandoned his book and rushed to Urara's side. Smokey lifted his head from his lamp and looked at the ongoing events. Mandora Boy landed beside him on the table to watch. In fear, the plant retracted himself into his pot.

"What did you see?" Tsubasa asked.

"I didn't see…" Urara screamed, "Anything! I tried to read the signs, but there was nothing in there!"

"How? The crystal ball's sparking," Kai said.

"That's what I meant," Urara caught her breath, "I saw nothing…but a blank void drawing me in. If I hadn't forced myself away I might have collapsed."

"That doesn't really matter now," said a frightened Houka, "Look…"

The multicolored spark of energy within Urara's crystal ball exploded outward and trapped the five Magirangers in its grip. They drew their Magiphones in an attempt to repel the energy tornado, but it was as if their hands had become bonded to the phones. Urara screamed through the whirlwind and called out to her siblings.

"Wherever we end up going…whatever happens…" she began.

"We must remember that we're family!" said Makito, "We can make it through!"

"We're being pulled closer…" said Tsubasa.

"Somebody save us!" Houka screamed.

"There's nothing we can do!" Kai yelled, "So here goes!"

The MagiPhones flashed in the same color of light as their respective holder. Within seconds the room fell deadly silent. Except for the books and cleaning supplies left about, there was almost no sign the Ozu siblings had been in here. Smokey and Mandora retreated into their pot and lamp, respectively.

"So that's it…" said Hikaru, "but what spell caused it? Goludiiro Gojika." He listened in and heard a faint voice, not of this world, speaking a spell. As the last sound waves reverberated from the library's walls Hikaru was able to make out the syllables. "Galwit…Du…Mysto…Maji." Except for the last one, he'd heard none of them before. Hikaru exited Smokey's memory.

"I knew it," he said to Miyuki and Isamu, "They've gone to another dimension. To travel with the Mahou and Saint circles would take weeks. We need a quicker, stronger way to sail the dimensional seas." He tapped on Smokey's lamp. "Smokey, start shoveling the MagiCoals. Miyuki, Isamu, Man-chan, all aboard the Travelion Express! Platform 0 opens again!"

Hikaru punched another MagiTicket. "Goo Golu Luludo!" A thunderous steam whistle was heard as the blue-and-gold locomotive, the Magical Express Travelion, pulled into Platform 0, located just beyond the double doors of the magic room. Miyuki and Isamu boarded a car with Mandora Boy while Hikaru and Smokey began to work the controls.

"Travelion Express, set off!" The locomotive's rustic steam whistle sounded as the wheels began to turn. Faster and faster they became until Travelion was no longer on a solid rail. It was traveling through the stars and space themselves across the rail of the heavens. A portal to another world appeared before the train.

In the car, Mandora Boy was examining Travelion's route map to see all the possible dimensions they could go to. "There are so many paths de gozarimasu desu! So many dimensions de gozarimasu desu!" he said, "They could be in any one de gozarimasu desu!" Miyuki, upon hearing this news, almost broke down in tears, but didn't. She knew everything her children had been through. Isamu had once been swayed to the side of dark magic; she had been thought dead. This time they knew that no matter what dimension they were in the power of family was with them.

"They'll be alright," Isamu said to his wife, "Sungel, full speed ahead!"

"Of course they will," said Miyuki, "I know it."