CHAPTER FOUR

Tokyo-3

The next morning

God walked through the train station and onto the platform where the express was currently dumping its passengers into the dimly lit station. He watched as person after person got off, and finally he spotted his target. He walked over to the train and gestured off towards a less crowded end of the station.

He led the way, and I followed.

I suppose it's about time I entered the story.

Yeah. It's in first person.

Bet that hurts your mind a bit.

I've seen some strange things in my life, but when I was called to Japan, I think I just about lost it.

"Mr. Kaji," said the man, "Welcome."

I nodded dimly at him and sat down in the chair he gestured to.

My name is Harry Dresden, wizard by nature, private investigator by trade. A couple years ago I did some things to get a couple of other wizards annoyed with me. Those other wizards form this little group called the White Council, and they kind of run the supernatural side of the world.

When word got out that there was a wizard teenager chilling in Japan with a maniacal dad and a handful of mechanical super-killers, they thought it would be a good idea to send out someone to help. Someone who knew the streets of the world, someone with a lot of strength, someone who could teach him something.

Someone no one would mind seeing dead.

Huh. Guess who that would be.

So off I went with a cute girl who had briefly served as a cop and shot a couple nice sized holes in what were now little corpses decomposing in what had been Chicago until a couple years ago when the whole place sank.

In order to make things nice and inconspicuous the Council had decided to give us Japanese names and see if they could make us look a little more like the other folk in town. It worked…in a manner of speaking.

Karrin Murphy, the ex-cop, went ahead of me…three years or so ahead…and managed to get a job as "Misato Katsuragi" working for a secret paramilitary force under the kid's dad. Now it was my turn to go, disguised as "Ryoji Kaji" and working for the White Council in Japan.

And now there I was, stuck in a room with this guy I didn't yet know, though I wasn't exactly eager to learn about him at that point in time.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"The One."

There was a little silence. I was being kidnapped by a loony.

"Yeah…alright."

"All-might. Almighty, actually."

I looked at him. The man pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his nose.

"Is there a problem, Mister Dresden?"

"Excuse me?"

"Mister Dresden, don't play games with me. I know who you are and why you are here. I am aware that your partner, Karrin Murphy, arrived three years ago and is now in the employ of Mister Ikari and I know that her supposed penguin is in fact a spirit of intelligence whom you have so cleverly named Bob – and kudos to that. It's not every wizard who names his spirits."

Okay. So either he was a damned smart loony or I had to begin to consider the possibility that he was the man Himself.

I figured I'd try for the middle.

"Do you have anything to drink?"

The man smiled and stepped backwards into a corner where I could not see him. A moment later, an familiar, old, ovoid man returned in his place, carrying a dearly missed bottle of beer.

"Mac?" I asked incredulously, "Is that you?"

Mac grunted and then smiled an old, toothless smile. He handed me the beer and then spoke in the same, flat voice I'd heard before.

"I've had my eye on you for sometime now, Mister Dresden."

I stared at him in disbelief. Slowly, I noticed his face begin to change shape until it returned to the sharp featured man I'd seen before.

"A changeling?" I asked.

"You doubt me. Surely your friend Michael would not have done so."

He had struck a nerve.

"Don't talk about him."

He smiled at me.

"Perhaps I can convince you like this," he said and he held out his name.

"Dante," he chanted, "Revelation, My son! Believe in Me!"

Suddenly a great wind began to blow through the room. I looked widly around and held up my staff.

"It is no good in my presence!" the man, or, perhaps, the Man laughed. Then he stared straight at my old crippled hand and said in a low whisper,

"Lasciel."

There was a brief pause.

I looked at him strangely.

"So. Who the hell are you?"

The man frowned and stared at my hand.

"It didn't work, man," I said, "Hey – I got it. You're a faerie, aren't you?"

He looked up at my face and our eyes met.

Whenever two people's eyes meet, there is, at least for wizards, a chance to see into the other person's soul. It's called a soulgaze, and it can haunt even the most hardened person for the rest of their life. Scares the crap out of me.

Our eyes met, and the soulgaze began. I found myself almost literally rippling out of existence. I mentally fell forward into his eyes and found myself in a clean, white room. There was nothing inside it but a red chair.

I looked around.

"What kind of person is this?" I thought aloud. I heard a voice laughing in the distance.

I spun around and looked at the chair, but there was a desk in front of it now, complete with three number two pencils, a copy of Ishmael, and a twelve page long exam.

"Um…what is this?" I called.

"It is exactly as it appears to be," the room replied.

Well, that hurt.

"An English test?"

"Welcome to the world of heaven."

"Heaven is an English test? Are you sure you got this right? This isn't switched around with some other well-known afterlife residence?"

The walls chortled. Suddenly, the whole room went black. And I did what I do best.

I shut my eyes and screamed like a terrified little girl.

When I opened them I was next to the man again. Well, technically, we were where we had been the whole time – standing and sitting as we had before. Except now there was a beautiful woman standing between us.

"Lasciel!" I choked.

"My host," she said, "it is time for me to go."

"Yes, Lasciel," said the man gently, "it is time for you to go. But you will be called upon again, have no fear."

And with that the image vanished and my mind, which had been haunted by the vision of that woman, Lasciel, a Fallen angel, felt miraculously clear. I looked back at the man. He was holding out a sword, and with that I realized who He was.

"This is yours, Harry," He said. I looked at the long, familiar sword, and He spoke again, "Use it well."

"…You're real…" I gasped.

"Yes. I am. And I'm here to help, Mister Dresden. But perhaps revealing my identity to others would not be ideal. Only one other knows I am here."

"Then what should I call you?"
He smiled and adjusted His glasses.

"You may call me St. Pierre."

And with that, He walked back into the shadows and was gone.

Great. Now I have to remember to use capital He's the Thee's and Thou's now. Dammit, Pops.