IT EXISTS NOT?
"This environment…are we at Zipangu?" asked Irena.
"It seems so. I recognise the difference between the culture. Especially that," said Neinheart, pointing towards the gate. The top part of it was slightly arched upwards at both ends. "That is a torii. It's the gate for the Zipangese shrine. It means we should be somewhere in Zipangu. No big deal going back to our places."
"I don't think so, Neinheart," said Claudine. "Don't you notice something strange about this?"
"What is it?" asked Neinheart.
"For one, this torii you mentioned, it's not red in colour, like the one in Zipangu. Two, there are usually food stalls - and a TV - near the shrine. I see none of them here now." Indeed, aside from a walkway that led to the torii, there was nothing else apart from sakura trees, grasses, and other greenery. Not even a hint of the smell of takoyaki could be picked up.
"I am still not convinced. How about we go in instead to find out?" said Neinheart with a slight disbelief. He had to admit Claudine's words were true, though.
"I thought so too. Let's go."
Ruriko came to the shrine in her green hakama carrying a feather duster, a broom and a dustpan. She would do what she usually did: cleaning the shrine. She was currently studying in university in town, alert to the current affairs even though she lived far from civilisation. Her house had everything an ordinary family in Japan would have in its house. Telecommunication signals were surprisingly well for her location.
She cleaned the main hall and came to a hallway. It was a long hallway, and larger than the shrine itself. On the walls were numerous gaps neatly arranged. Stone tablets of past ancestors of the Inoue family fitted perfectly into the gaps. It was built as an extension to the shrine for the purpose of keeping these stone tablets. Ruriko dusted the wall and the stone tablets as well as sweeping the floor full of dust and fallen leaves. When she came to the place which held the stone tablets of her parents, she knelt down, palm-to-palm, praying for herself, her family, the village she was in, and the shrine. Her parents died together two years ago.
The village Ruriko lived in had itself almost no outsiders throughout the centuries as the way up to the village was quite a steep and long way. The walkway was built centuries ago by her ancestors, and stairs were added sometime later after that. The only outsiders the village had were the workers who carried the furnitures and machines to the house. They didn't quite like it due to the heavy load weighing them down and, added to the steep and long way, consuming a lot of their energies. Most of them already huffed and puffed when they hadn't even reached halfway to the village. A lot complained and a lot more suggested the family to move to urban areas but Ruriko's family chose not to. There was a garage and a mailbox built at the junction of the road and the walkway. Other than the workers, there were absolutely no visitors coming to the village at all. Not even the little kids who were friends with the family members when they were very young.
Hence, Ruriko was quite surprised when she thought she heard footsteps coming towards the main hall from the torii.
"Hello, anybody here?" It surprised Ruriko even more as the voice was in English instead of Japanese. Nevertheless, being a university literate, Ruriko excelled at English just as well as her other subjects.
She decided to put down her things and head towards the hall only to find five people in weird clothes looking around. Strangest of all, Ruriko seemed to have known them somewhere.
"Hello, anybody here?" Athena's voice echoed throughout the great hall. At the central of the hall was a large statue, seemingly of a famous Zipangese warrior. Above it hung a tablet bearing words in Zipangese. Before the statue, a long cushion was placed there. 'For kneeling,' thought Athena.
The five continued to look around at the grand interior of the shrine. The structure looked very old yet well maintained, decorated in the traditional Zipangese way. Before long, a shrine maiden dressed in green appeared from behind the large tablet.
Athena spoke up before the shrine maiden could say anything. "Hello there, my friends and I are kinda lost around here. Is this the Kinoko Shrine?" She referred to the shrine back in Zipangu.
"Uh, I've never heard of that shrine before. I'm Ruriko Inoue, and this is the Heian Yamagawa Shrine. You must have gotten the wrong way," said the shrine maiden.
Athena looked from Neinheart, to Xenon, to Irena, then to Claudine. All of them shook their heads in a confused manner.
"Where is this shrine you're speaking of, by the way? I may be able to help you find it," the shrine maiden offered.
At this moment, all five of them knew something was wrong with their location. In the whole of Maple World, the only Zipangese shrine was the Kinoko shrine, which honours the mushrooms commonly seen in Zipangu. Athena didn't know if the girl was faking them, so she decided to play along for a while.
"It is in Zipangu. Do you know the place?"
The girl shook her head. "I've never heard of it. Zipangu…it does not even exist, I think."
"WHAT?!" everyone instantly yelled, shocked at her answer.
The mention of Zipangu by the older archer instantly shed light on the identities of the visitors for Ruriko. Even now, she was still playing the popular online game in Japan. Zipangu was the name of a location in the game which bore a rich Japanese culture. At that sudden reminder, she instantly recognised everyone, except the younger archer.
They were much more mature-looking than how they were portrayed in-game, though. Probably because their heads were not bigger than their bodies like how she usually remembered.
As such, Ruriko was not completely surprised of their reaction when she told them the truth. She was confused. Are they speaking the truth, or are they merely faking themselves?
"I know who you guys are," said Ruriko. She started calling the names of her guests while pointing to them in order, much to their surprise. Even though Ruriko could not tell the name of the younger archer, it was still sufficient in amazing them - or rather, arousing their suspicion - of her knowledge.
"I can't tell if you're real or not, unless you can prove yourself. Lots of crimes and hoax lately, you know," said Ruriko.
Athena tried to speak, but Xenon stopped her. Without a word, Xenon took off his shirt. In place where the torso should be were rectangular gadgets with numerous glowing lines instead. His cylindrical arms seemed to be fixed onto his body too. Ruriko was taken by surprise because Xenon's actions were human-like instead of programmed. They had to be real.
"If you guys are real, how did you end up here?" she asked.
Neinheart explained everything that had happened. They did not happen in the game, apparently, so Ruriko figured something else must have occurred in the game world.
"Why is it only the five of you? Where are the others?" she asked.
"We don't know," said Neinheart, "all we know is that we ended up here, and we couldn't find the others."
"Wait a minute, I think we can go back," said Xenon.
All heads turned towards Xenon. Everyone except Ruriko was eager to go back and looked forward to what he could do.
"Now all I have to do is just to summon…" Xenon tried to reach Roo-D with a communication device within him. Perchance Roo-D would come in a vehicle swift enough to send everyone back. But for some reason the device couldn't reach him, even as Xenon attempted a few more times. It was odd to Xenon as he was able to reach Roo-D to bring him back to the lab. "Nope, I think not, guys," he said.
"My faerie powers aren't working as well," said Athena. She would have easily headed back towards Henesys if she had.
Ruriko thought for a bit, then said, "I think you guys would have a long way back to your world, if not almost impossible. I would suggest you guys stay here for a while before you plan on your next move." The others reluctantly agreed. Their suspicions had already been confirmed.
"I still can't believe we are no longer in the Maple World. I don't even know there's another world besides our world and Grandis," said Irena.
"That's not important. If what that girl said was true, we should figure out how to return to our world. The Black Mage was strong enough to create a portal warping us into this world, so we need to find a way to create a similar portal back to the Maple World," said Neinheart, already planning the next move but just couldn't think of a suitable way.
Xenon was still trying to activate his energy sword. It wouldn't sparkle of energy or transform into any mode he wanted. Strangely, the jet-pack and missile launchers equipped onto him worked, although Xenon didn't activate them. The environment was silent, and he did not feel like disturbing it.
"How should we find someone as strong as the Black Mage to activate the portal?" asked Irena.
"I don't know, but I'm sure we will," replied Neinheart.
"It may be impossible, Neinheart," Athena said. She was lying on the mat spread out on the floor. "I doubted the girl at first. Her name was…Ruriko is it? I didn't know how someone from the other world would know of us so I wanted to cast a paralysing spell on her. I couldn't conjure the spell though. It just wouldn't work."
The sliding door slid open a few moments later and in came Claudine.
"I spoke with Ruriko just now," she said.
"What did she tell you?" asked Xenon, who finally gave up trying to activate his sword.
"She told me about the shrine, the village, the story behind these things, stuff like that. She told us that we are in some Kintai town, in some Kato Prefecture, Japan. She told me she knew magic never existed in here. I asked her how she knew about us. She wouldn't tell, just said that she didn't think our world existed too."
"Wait, hold on," Irena interrupted, "you said magic never existed in here?" Claudine merely nodded to her question.
"How do people in here live without magic?" asked a surprised Irena again.
"They might have their own ways different from us," said Neinheart. "By the way, did you try to notice her tone? Athena was suspecting her identity. Could be an agent for the Black Mage."
"I did. She sounds like an ordinary person from this world. I suppose we can worry about her later. I'm turning in," said Claudine as she collapsed onto the mat.
The room was quite cozy just as the environment is serene. Everyone else lied down on the mat and slept. They felt very tired from all that happened that day.
Except Athena. She was making some links to what happened and what she heard. Her mind suddenly wandered upon something.
The chronicles of MapleStory kept track of all that happened in the Maple World. That is within the knowledge of most Maplers. They knew the chronicles kept itself updated by magic.
Deep within the chronicles, there was something else. It was encrypted and hidden among the whole of the chronicles, and the only people who knew about the hidden content was Athena herself and Grendel the Really Old of Ellinia. Athena was trying to link the current occurrence with the secret content.
Deep beyond the maple's reaches,
Thereforth lies a universe of alternate.
'Tis similar in a way of logic,
Yet difference be devoid of sense.
In such a place forth, enchantments an' sorceries
Doth hath themselves permanently seal'd,
In place of them science an' technology,
Wild beyond the intelligence of magic,
An' henceforth pronounced "the reality".
The creation of the maple, the dimension of magic,
Art but the works of such a universe
Where intelligence of minds triumphs much levels.
As beckon'd by difference of nonsense,
The reality dost hath maple forbid'n,
As doth the maple prohibit reality.
Entrance art impossible not, ne'er the less.
Such permission art gladly grant'd,
By respective time, light, life, of which
Rules of logic art compel'd to be met.
Should such conditions be fail'd to adhere,
He who crosses shalt find himself
Trap'd between, a void of limbo.