CHAPTER 4

Hana breathed in the scent of coconuts and pineapples emanating from her freshly applied sunscreen lotion, and stretched out on her lounge chair while Kari sampled the games that were pre-loaded on her cell phone. They were three rows away from the shallow end of the hotel's expansive pool, but they could still keep an eye on Sota as he splashed around with the other kids on a penguin-shaped float.

"After that huge breakfast, I just want to lay back and chill out", Hana groaned, rubbing her stomach. "I guess we don't have to follow that 'wait a half-hour before swimming' rule, Sota seems to be just fine."

"It kinda makes you wonder... do we even have to worry about skin cancer here?" Kari pondered as she put her phone on the side table and adjusted her bikini top.

"Maybe the sunscreen doesn't matter much. Or maybe the worst you get is a bad sunburn. Or people just like the smell and feel of the lotion on their bodies." Hana fixated on the muscular man in the bright red swim trunks perched on his chair near the diving board. "I mean, I was just thinking, if no one here dies drowning, why would this pool need lifeguards? Then I thought of all those stories where people would pretend to be in trouble, just so the cute lifeguard would give them attention."

"That sounds about right!" Kari giggled. "Like that was one of their life goals, get mouth-to-mouth from a lifeguard! Though I'm sure they still have to break up fights or give directions and all that."

"Excuse me, is that chair available?"

The two girls turned their faces toward a young olive-skinned woman in a yellow sundress, her long black hair secured in a ponytail and topped off with a flower pin.

"We're not using it, go right ahead!" Hana replied.

"Thanks!" said the woman as she set her tote bag and cocktail down and spread a towel over the empty chair. "My name's Erina Sakura, pleasure to meet you!" She bowed toward the girls and slipped out of her sundress, revealing a white one-piece swimsuit with a sizable hole in the midriff area.

"I'm Hana Nakamura, and this is my sister Kari. We also have a brother here named Sota, if you see a little boy in the pool with a penguin-shaped float, that's him."

Erina sat in her chair and surveyed the shallow end of the pool where Sota and the other children frolicked. "I see him! Looks like he's getting along well with the others." She took a sip from her daiquiri. "So did you kids just get here?"

"Yeah, we just came from the hotel's breakfast buffet," Kari answered.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I meant... did you just arrive in this world?"

"We just got here yesterday, still getting used to everything."

"I see... well, if you have any questions about this world, I might be able to help."

Hana looked up from her chair and stared curiously at Erina. "If you don't mind me asking... are you a real person?"

"What- what kind of a question is that?!" Kari shot back at her.

"Hey, you're the one that was wondering if all the adults here had souls!" Hana aggressively replied.

"Girls, girls!" Erina laughed. "It's no big deal, I'm not offended. Yes, I am a real human being. I wound up here because at the time of my death, I was heartbroken over not being able to have a child of my own. I was just a year out of college when I found out I had stage four ovarian cancer. I tried to make peace with my fate all the way up to the end, but I guess deep down in my heart the desperate desire was still there.

"Next thing I knew I was on the floor at the Welcome Center. All I could see around me were little kids, some crying, some just confused. One of the workers greeted me and assured me I was in the right place. He brought up something called the Afterlife Adoption program, where adults yearning for their own family could be matched up with children who wanted the presence of parents again."

Kari and Hana exchanged glances at each other, as if to telepathically tell each other, We could do this for Sota.

Erina continued. "They located for me a seven-year-old girl named Akiho. She had died of cancer as well, an aggressive form of lymphoma. We talked for a while, shared our battle stories, and just like that, we agreed to share a home together as mother and daughter."

"Oh, that's so sweet!" exclaimed Hana. "Is she in the pool?"

"No, she's more interested in video games," Erina replied. "She's probably trying to get a high-score record on one of those fighting games right now at the arcade in the amusement park. But at least that gives me lots of time to myself so I can get some sun."

"Well, back to Hana's other question," Kari added. "Is it true that some adults here don't have souls?"

"Speaking of video games," Erina mused, "have you ever heard of the term 'NPC'?"

"I think so... 'Non-Playable Character', right?"

"Correct! Just like in those 3-D multiplayer video games like 'Warcraft', the NPC's here provide information, play their roles as various workers, and generally blend into the background. Some of them also agree to be stand-in parents, or just adult friends like helpful neighbors."

"I see... and they can one hundred percent be trusted not to do anything bad to the kids?"

"I've never seen an NPC hurt any kids, so you may be right. As for the real people with souls... well, this world has a peculiar way of maintaining order, and keeping the children here from harm. When one person manages to hurt someone else — a real human someone else — their minds suddenly go blank, both the aggressor and the victim, and in some cases the aggressor is remotely restrained. But I've never seen this happen when, for example, two boys are playfully sparring with each other. I think there's some kind of supernatural policing presence that can read not minds, but moods.

"Anyway, the victim is healed, and the last minute or so of their memory seems to get erased, because they'll have no recollection of the incident. Which I think is remarkable... a lot of these kids suffered mental trauma throughout their previous lives, and they certainly don't need any more of that in what's supposed to be a paradise for them."

At that moment, Erina's phone buzzed. She picked it up, glanced at it, and tapped away on the screen with her thumbs. "Looks like you might be able to meet Akiho soon! She's done with the arcade and is trying to find me."

"Kari-chan, who's that?" A dripping-wet Sota had suddenly walked up, penguin float in hand.

"Her name is Erina," Kari replied. "She took a chair next to us and we started chatting. I think we'll be really good friends!"

Erina beamed. "I'm so glad to hear that. Please, you can call me Eri-sama."

"Did you make any new friends at the pool?" Hana asked Sota.

"Yes! There's a girl who's like full of energy, running all over the place, she said she spent much of her life per-lized. She said she can teach me how to swim!"

"That's cool!" Erina replied.

"Yeah, and there's also these twins who like to go swimming with no swimsuits on..."

"Wait," Hana had a shocked look on her face. "There's kids in the pool playing naked?"

"Ha, that doesn't surprise me!" Erina chuckled. "You need to keep in mind that many children in this world come from environments that had very strict or overly suppressive rules for their behavior, and they might just want to know what it's like to go 'skinny-dipping' or other things that they were forbidden from doing lest they get in big trouble.

"At the same time, for other kids, it could have been perfectly normal in their communities for people to not wear anything at the beach or outside their homes, so they're just used to that. And it's important for the rest of us to let them be. Nothing will happen to them, thanks in part to the mood-policing thing I mentioned earlier."

At that moment, a blond-haired girl in red athletic shorts and a black tank top ran up to Erina. "Mom! There you are!"

"Aki-chan! Did you have fun? Get any new high scores?" asked Erina.

"Nothing really incredible," Akiho replied. "Oh, who are your friends here?"

"I'm Kari, this is Hana and Sota... we're new to this world."

"Pleased to meet you... it's weird, I don't know whether to say 'Welcome', or 'I'm sorry', or both in these situations."

Erina cheerfully chimed in, "That's understandable... but I think the best thing to say to new arrivals is that we hope you get to do everything to your heart's content here. I mean, that's literally the goal, isn't it?"

"Yeah, the luxury hotel life's a lot of fun," Kari added, "but I'd like to find an apartment or someplace that feels more like home. Where's your home here?"

"We live in this city called Valleyrun," Akiho replied, "It's maybe a half hour from here by train. It's near the big mountain and there's forests and fun places not too far away. I'd say it's a good place to start."

Hana sat up and put on a loose white cover-up dress. "Do you know about some kind of school where there's no rules or something?"

"Oh, the Sawai Academy? I think that's just outside of Valleyrun in a town called Tennosuke. I've heard that's a crazy place and you don't really learn anything. But from what my friends tell me, it's a fun time!"

Erina added, "I think that's for kids who really wanted to do weird stuff at school, but never got the chance, of course. But the teachers are all NPC's, and I think they're programmed to ignore anything the students do. I can't get my dear Aki-chan to go there or any kind of school, though."

Akiho laughed. "I mean, what's the point now? If I'm in the mood for a pep rally or a ball game, maybe then I'll go to a school that doesn't mind me showing up just for that. But school classes are soooo boring. If I want to learn something I'll look it up on the internet or go to the library."

Kari's eyes widened. "Wait... this place can connect to the internet?"

"Not the internet of the living world," Erina countered. "Though it would be nice to still be able to interact with living loved ones through Twitter or what have you, we're in a completely different dimension, with its own online world and social media."

"Huh. Yeah, I figured there wasn't a way to make an online connection to the dead, just like how psychics and seances don't really make contact with spirits," said Hana.

"Anyway, let's stay in touch, and if you want to look for a place in Valleyrun, let us know and we'll help you out!" Akiho pulled out her phone and tapped on it.

The group exchanged numbers and then went their separate ways.

As they made their way back to their room, Hana asked Kari, "Do we want to look for an apartment or a house tomorrow?"

"Let's wait a couple of days," Kari replied. "I'm not done with this hotel yet. I still want to check out the spa and the cafe's dinner menu. In fact, let's go right now and see if the cafe has any good ice cream dishes!"

"Did you notice that Akiho looked a lot older than seven? I wonder if that means we're still able to grow and age here."

"I think so. I mean, if we have normally-functioning bodies, aging would be a part of the functions, right?"

"I want to grow up!" shouted Sota. "I don't wanna stay a little kid forever!"

"Awww, do you really have to?" Kari hoisted him off the floor. "I want you to stay my cute lovable little brother!"

Hana joined in with Kari hugging a grumbling, pouting Sota.