A/N: Now we're back to the main story.
The following chapter is chronologically sixth (counting that last gaiden chapter), but was posted eighth.
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Kouichi
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It's just another average summer day in the life of me, Kouichi Kimura, sitting here at Shibuya train station for my brother.
He's ten minutes late. I hope he's ok. I wonder if he got caught up in a bad traffic zone. He's never one to be running late.
Could this be an omen? My Spirits of Darkness have been warning me of a cryptic vibe. Could these be related to the recent Arcadian Cross sightings I've been hearing from my friends across the city? I wonder, will there be another conflict in the works? I suppose I'll never know until I find anything peculiar.
"Kouichi! Hey, sorry I'm late!" I turned and saw my brother running up toward me as I got up and greeted him with a brotherly embrace. "I was caught up with traffic flooding a street. There was an accident."
"You're excused, Kouji. So, what do you want to do now?"
"We could go and find Mom a birthday present."
"Good idea," I agreed. Our mother's birthday was in two days. "That'd be a perfect way to spend some time together."
As we walked along a less crowded street, we came across a shopping center and viewed the latest clothing lines displayed. Everything seemed calm and quiet, exactly what I was hoping for. We stopped at a jewelry store and looked at the classiest items they offered. Unfortunately, our budget couldn't afford to pay for such luxurious jewelry. We quickly went into several clothing stores and saw a few comfortable summer clothes. One summer dress caught my eye and I thought it would be perfect for Mother, so Kouji and I decided to pool our money and buy the dress together.
"That takes care of our gift, Kouji. What do you want to do now?"
"Let's go take a look at the local game shops. There's a game or two I'm thinking about getting."
I nodded and followed Kouji into a game shop. As we moved in, we stopped and noticed a middle-aged man with a sickly pale complexion. He walked up almost aimlessly toward us and suddenly gasped out. We turned as the man threw his arms over Kouji and collapsed on the ground. We were both taken aback by the man's sudden fall. My brother quickly tended to the man and checked for a pulse.
"Is he...?"
"No, he's still alive, but why did he suddenly collapse?"
Before long, we noticed a large crowd across the street begin collapsing in the same manner as the man did. We watched as they fell akin to a domino effect as more Shibuya citizens fell one after another. The staggering and frightening scene caused a stir between us as we frantically gawked over the fallen citizens. What could've caused all these people to fall all of a sudden? This didn't make any sense.
"Kouichi, what's going on?" I cautiously asked, scanning across both ends of the vicinity. There were fallen bodies scattered. Even automobiles stopped. I felt like were pulled right into the middle of a horror movie. There was no sound except for our breathing and the shuffling of our feet.
I turned and saw my brother checking over a couple with a child. He shook his head and stood up facing me.
"They all have pulses, but they're completely out of it. I can't even wake them."
"What do you think might've caused this? Is there some viral outbreak we weren't aware of?"
"If it is, why aren't we affected?"
This is true. It's strange. All of these people lost consciousness, but we didn't it. Nothing adds up, but perhaps we should be looking at a bigger picture. Our friends, including Takuya and Izumi, recently encountered a monster in Akihabara. Lately, this Arcadian Cross group has been appearing and leaving signs of breaching our side of reality. Are they aliens? Some type of dimension travelers? Whatever they are, they've left quite an impression during their rare appearances.
"Kouji, I think this might be the work of the Arcadian Cross. The Spirits of Darkness have been warning me of something major happening in the near future..."
My brother turned to me with a perplexed stare. "You, too, huh?"
"So, then, I take it the Spirits of Light have been nagging you?"
"That's kinda why I wanted us to spend time today. So, we can investigate," he proclaimed while looking over the pale and unconscious bodies scattered around us. "Lucky us. We've turned up in a fishy situation, haven't we?"
"Tell me about it. C'mon, let's get out of here."
As we walked along through the eerie side of town, we kept an eye out on the bodies scattered across the streets. We turned the corner and saw a lot of stationary vehicles. More people were lying unconscious and covering the narrow street. The question remains: Why have all these people fallen ill and unconscious, yet we haven't? My guess would be our Spirits protected us from whatever infected these people. Suddenly, I stopped as I felt something grab my left ankle. Alarmed, I whirled around and saw a barely conscious man seizing a grip around my waist. I jerked my leg away and saw the barely mobile man lifting his hand.
"Kouji! Over here!"
Kouji bolted over to me as we checked over the trembling man.
"This guy's barely awake. Look at his eyes," I pointed to the man's eyes, rolled all the way back yet open, showing only the whites. It managed to freak me out just a tad bit. "Sir, can you hear me? Sir!" I shook the man, trying to revive him as he threw both arms over my shoulders and lost consciousness. I grabbed the man and set his body on the sidewalk. "I'm telling you, Kouji. This is getting too weird."
"Yeah, you're telling me," I heard my brother mutter.
We moved along the sidewalk and passed through another eerily quiet street. I was half-expecting another person to rise up like a zombie and attack me. I daresay the atmosphere was creepily similar to a Day of the Dead film. Well, at least it's safe to say these people won't rise up and attack us. Just then, we heard ambulance sirens blaring somewhere across another side of town.
"Looks like the EMTs are on the move," Kouji remarked, hearing the sirens. "Those hospitals are going to be plenty full."
"Yeah, I know," I said as I turned and caught two familiar figures walking through the opposite end of our direction. "Kouji, look ahead!"
As we shifted our view ahead, we caught a familiar couple walking toward our direction. We were relieved to see Sam Joseph and Jaarin Wong, the Legendary Warriors of Earth and Water. Sam wore a casual baseball jersey coupled with jeans and shorts. Jaarin wore a spaghetti-string lavender top, blue Capri pants, and a pair of high-heel straw-plaited sandals, whilst carrying a dark blue purse.
"Hey, guys! Some freaky stuff has been happening!" Sam addressed and brought the situation to our attention.
I nodded, answering Sam. "We know. We just saw a group of people suddenly collapse all around us."
"These strange occurrences could be linked to the Arcadian Cross," Jaarin hypothesized.
I'm not surprised. Jaarin is every bit as astute as her brother and father. We decided to tag along with Sam and Jaarin while crossing through an intersection as three ambulance trucks parked across a street corner to collect a few bodies. It's gonna take a lot more than every medical team in Shibuya to gather all these people. There might be many that need to be transferred to the medical centers in Shinjuku, Azabu-Juuban, and Domino. We walked inside the dining restaurant Sam and Jaarin were going to have lunch, taking seats in a booth. We ignored all the people who had fallen 'asleep' in the diner and resolved to delve into this mystery.
Sitting by my brother's side, I leaned forward and exchanged words with Sam. "...so, you happened to see all these people lose consciousness?"
"Yeah, it was really scary," Jaarin pointed out and explained what they saw happen earlier. "I hurried over to a waiter and thought he had just fainted."
"Then, we saw all these people seemingly faint for some strange reason," Sam explained.
"That's what we saw, too," I said. "They all fell for some inexplicable reason. That's how I reached the conclusion the Arcadian Cross might be behind this."
"But, do we have proof?" Sam interjected.
"Their recent appearances, including that attack at Akihabara, should be proof enough."
Kouji also pointed out the other instances. "There's also that attack at Joey and Mai's arcade."
"Yet, but we've only heard of those two attacks," Sam noted. "Just two. The other instances have merely been sightings or strange occurrences coming out of left field."
"You might be right, babe, but these didn't just happen out of sheer coincidence. All the strange events we've seen play out have to be tied to these Arcadian visitors." The moment I watched her get up from the booth, I knew Jaarin's interest was being piqued. "They're breaching our world from some point of origin. I want to believe some alternate dimension. I heard from Henry that Takato mentioned these Arcadian fellas are after Ryo and Karin for some reason, but for what? The only thing those two have in common is their dimension crossover powers. That's gotta be what they're after!"
We watched as she pulled up a menu chalkboard and erased it, drawing several non-intersecting circles.
"See? From what those two have told me, all dimensions are separate, and the space in-between dimensions is what they call a sea of æther. Normal inter-dimensional travel is done by creating a gateway in one dimension and linking it to a gateway created simultaneously in another dimension." She drew two lines connecting two of the circles, creating a sort of corridor between the two. "Stepping through one gateway brings you near-instantaneously through the other one, so a traveler does not perceive traveling through the Æther Sea. The first gateway is easy. Essentially, you're just ripping a hole in the fabric of the dimension."
"You call that easy?" Kouji gasped.
"Well, relatively easy," Jaarin responded. "Most people can't do it, but it's not impossible. Kuwabara's Dimension Sword does just that, if you recall. Anyway, the real trick to travelling to other dimensions is creating the other gateway. You have to know the dimensional coordinates of your destination, and have the power to reach into that dimension to create the gateway. That's the power that Ryo and Karin have: the ability to implicitly know dimensional coordinates and create gateways there. On the other hand, creating just one gateway would just open a portal into the Æther Sea itself, and if you were to step through that gateway, you might find yourself without a way to return." She used her finger to erase part of the corridor connected to one of the circles, leaving it leading out into nothing. "Considering that they first appeared at the Royal Flush Arcade, with Kuwabara present, I surmise that this Arcadian Cross group is from the Æther Sea itself, travelling through it like some kind of dimensional pirates, searching for beings like Ryo and Karin for their nefarious purposes."
I knew Jaarin was a bright girl, and the daughter of Janyuu Wong, but she more than likely has this all figured out. I can definitely see her as a college professor, albeit a cool and fun one.
"Wow, so, basically, this mess is all Kuwabara's fault," Sam chuckled. "Haha, good job, babe."
"Thank you, hun," she wore a proud smile, winking to her boyfriend. "But, that's just my theory. Even I can't provide conclusive proof these invaders are from another dimension or even the Æther Sea. Henry told me Yamaki confirms these portals aren't coming from the Digital World, so we can rule that out."
"But, what about these people? Are they going to recover?" Kouji asked her.
Jaarin shook her head. "That I can't say. I'm no medical expert, but I think those strange signals we've been detecting might be interfering with their brainwaves. I fear this might be just a trial run for a future attack."
"But, we're still here and not affected."
"Well, Kouichi," she said. "I think we're just lucky. I honestly don't know. Our Spirits might've protected us. What's weird is that it seems to be confined to this one area. I called my brother just after it happened and it wasn't affecting the people around him."
"True, and that would also explain why there were ambulances available, if they were outside the affected area." Kouji said. "But how did they know to get here so fast?"
"That would be Henry, again," Sam mentioned. "He said he'd get Yamaki to issue a state of emergency for the Shibuya area."
"Good 'ol Henry!" I said. Then, sensing that this topic had run its course, I attempted to change the subject. "So, what brings you two to this side of town?"
I watched Sam throw an arm over Jaarin as she put a hand against his chest.
Sam answered with a sly grin. "We just wanted to do some sight-seeing and since we have time off work we wanted to have time to ourselves."
"We watched some shows at a Kabuki theater and rented a hotel together last night," Jaarin answered.
"And nothing strange occurred when you two were out?" I asked.
"Nothing," they responded in unison.
How peculiar. These instances are occurring randomly. Jaarin's theory does have a lot of credence and I can firmly stand behind it. If these Arcadian guys didn't come from the Digital World, they've got to be from another dimension, or perhaps this Æther Sea she mentioned.
"Thanks for your time, guys," Kouji said. "Are you heading off?"
"Well, I don't mind if we hang with you two for a bit," Jaarin said as she turned to her boyfriend. "Is that ok? Just a little bit to see if we find anything that catches our eye?"
"Sure, I don't mind," Sam nodded as he and Jaarin got up from the booth to follow us out the front.
"Actually, let's take the back door," I suggested. "If there's a state of emergency going on, I don't want to deal with the local authorities asking us a barrage of questions when they find us walking around among all these bodies." Kouji and I led the couple toward the back of the restaurant. I turned as I caught Jaarin nearly tripping over an unconscious fat chef while Sam lent her support. I pushed the backdoor...
...and to our surprise a police officer stood in front of us. However, his skin was a sickly pale and his eyes were rolled to the back of his head. Taken aback, me and Kouji jumped back and saw the police officer advance toward us like a zombie. Then, he fell on the ground unconscious.
"Sheesh, that scared me!" I heard Jaarin cry out behind me and Kouji.
Kouji knelt by the police officer and checked his pulse. "He's breathing, but otherwise..."
"This is getting too weird, even for me," Sam said. "And we've been through a lot of crazy stuff over the last few years!"
Pushing the back door open, I led everyone out and glanced across to notice a parking lot. The atmosphere had a quiet and haunting vibe as we noted more people on the ground 'asleep'. I slowed my pace and walked forward with my brother by my side. Sam and Jaarin were walking behind us as we cautiously scanned the vicinity. Despite it being day and the sun being out, I could still feel a chilling vibe passing through with these people on the ground. Then, as I turned my head, my eyes fell on a wall near the entrance of the parking lot. There was some strange writing inscribed on the wall.
"Guys, look," I pointed to the writings. "Check this out."
Kouji turned and observed the writings. "Odd, I'm not familiar with this text."
"Hell, count me out. I don't know either," Sam said.
Jaarin cautiously walked forward and read the strange wall writings.
From my view, the writings read: [-o V o A o R o T o H o K o O o N o V o Y o Z o A o G o A o T o O-] [-o0o8o0o8o1o5o-]
Was this some kind of message? There were obvious letters, but nothing I could translate.
Maybe Jaarin has an idea what it means? Though, I highly doubt.
"I can't tell what the first one reads, but the second one... looks like a number, or perhaps a date, since numbers don't typically start with zero," Jaarin deciphered the numbers between the 'o's. "08-08-15?"
"Going year-first, that would be the 15th day of the eighth month of the eighth year of the new millennium," I said.
"August 15, 2008?" Jaarin exclaimed.
"But, that day hasn't even come yet," Kouji wondered. "Why would they consider that date to be significant?"
Sam shrugged. "The date of the big attack? But why would they warn us about that?"
"The first part looks like a word or phrase," I said. "V-A-R-T-H-K-O-N-V-Y-Z-A-G-A-T-O... hmmm. 'Varth Konvy Zagato'? That makes no sense to me."
"Maybe it's like 'Klaatu Barada Nikto'," Sam pondered.
"You are such a nerd," Jaarin chided her boyfriend.
"Hey, guys, look at this," Kouji pointed inside the parking lot garage.
We entered the parking lot slowly and saw that the same distinct alien writings were inscribed all over the walls. This left us astounded and befuddled by the messages these otherworlders have left for us.
"Well, want to try and decipher all those?" Sam asked.
I merely shook my head. "Nah, they're all the same cryptic messages."
Jaarin pulled out her cell phone and took quick snap pictures of the walls. "I've got to look at these closely back in the hotel."
"So, what do you think, Kouji?" I turned to my brother. "Any thoughts?"
"These Arcadian guys aren't too subtle, but their actions are still too mind-boggling."
"I concur," I offered my stance on the situation. We watched as Jaarin finished taking pictures. I turned as I spotted from the corner of my eye one of the most mind-boggling scenes I've ever witnessed. "Guys, y-y-you might want to look at this!" I stammered whilst pointing toward a steep hole leading into a construction site.
As the others gazed onward, they shared the same bewildered and confused stares. What we caught was one of the most vividly startling impressions in our lives.
"Kouji, are you seeing this...?" I asked, my mouth and eyes gaped at the unforgettably rare scene, which would be etched into my memories forever.
My brother, Sam, and Jaarin were all speechless, looking onward with a mix of perplexed shock and distress.
Piled on atop of each other, there stood a pyramid made of over 50 people piled atop of each other. As if taken straight from a horror film, this horrific scene caused an emotional stir that made us freeze in place. I didn't even care to notice Jaarin taking a quick snapshot of the 'human pyramid' with her cell.
"Well, guys... I think... they've really established their mark..." I stammered, unable to grasp this illogical action.
Later that evening, Kouji and I led the couple back to their hotel. The side of Shibuya they were staying was, fortunately, very lively. He waved to Sam and Jaarin.
"Guys, you two be careful and stay safe," Sam advised.
Jaarin walked up to us and opened her cell to show us the wall writings. "I'll be sure to shoot you guys an e-mail if I find anything out. And about that... um... human... pyramid... yeah, let's keep that between us for now." She nervously gulped and backed off, trying hard not to reflect back on that horrific scene.
We nodded in response as the couple entered the hotel.
"Kouji, whatever happens, we'll find out what happens if that date is any indication of the future."
"If it holds any weight, that is..."
I turned and vaguely nodded. "Right. And that date is the night of the..."
"O-Bon Festival."
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LazerWulf's Commentary: Let's talk dimension travel. Jaarin's theory, is, of course, completely accurate (within the construct of this series, anyway). For the most part, I imagine travel between dimensions is a lot like using a Stargate. You have coordinates for the destination, as well as a starting point. There is a connection between the two gateways that allows for near-instantaneous travel (though the gateways themselves are not confined to a single location, and can be created anywhere). Dimension coordinates are given in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet. The ones Yyenesa read off the scanner in Kuwabara's chapter, "Yankee Yankee Golf Delta Mike Dash Zero One", translate to "YYGDM-01".
The Æther Sea, however, I imagine to be more like the Web, from ReBoot (if any of y'all remember that show). It's not really a dimension in and of itself, but it's the space that surrounds all the dimensions. With a one-way portal, such as the one Kuwabara created, one could enter the Æther Sea and access any dimension, but they would have to traverse it in real time, and the distance between the dimensions is vast in some cases, which is why Arcadian Cross uses a ship. Whether or not one could traverse the Æther Sea unassisted (or whether one could even breathe there, since it's not exactly empty space) is a subject left unexplored for now. Maybe in the future.
Lastly, the fact that nobody mentioned the The Day the Earth Stood Still reference makes me feel old, and I'm only 26. Does nobody watch the classics anymore?
Peace out.
P.S. Please leave a review!