The Kyoto Ordeal (Tales of the Other Universe Book 1)

by J. G. Taschereau

  “Excuse me,” the figure said. “I seek an audience with the King, for He has called me.”

  His voice startled Dee, because it sounded to her as if it had not come from the man but from all around her. She looked to Mathias, whose eyes were locked on the man, and she imagined that he must be thinking the same thing.

  “The King of Magid isn’t here,” Dee said. Realizing she had just revealed information she shouldn’t have, she quickly tried to cover. “That is, he’s not available right now. He has a terrible stomachache from eating too much cheese.”

  Mathias gave her a curt look, as if to ask her if she honestly thought that lie would work.

  “I do not seek the King of Magid,” the man spoke again with the same disembodied voice. “I seek the King of All Things, his Majesty the Creator Most High.”

  “You too, eh?” Mathias said. “My, my. This must be some important job.”

  “Yes,” Dee said. “I’m afraid it’s a matter of national security.”

  “Oh? Something you’re not telling us, kid?” Mathias asked.

  “Well,” Dee started. “I can’t go into too much detail out here. Why don’t I let the Creator explain? Please, come with me. Both of you.”

  The wanderer folded his arms and followed Mathias and Dee as they headed up the stairs. From the top of the stairs, Dee could see through the glass in the ceiling above them that it was starting to snow again, ever so slightly. She looked back at the two: a battle worn bounty hunter and a mysterious giant of a man.

  “Sir,” she thought, “what are you planning to do?”

  “So where is the old man anyway?” Mathias asked, with his hands gripped behind his head as he walked with the other two down the corridor. “I mean someone like him should have come out to meet us himself, asking for our help and all.”

  “Well the Creator is a very busy entity,” Dee said. “I’m sure he’s been very busy working on a solution to find Mr. Evans.”

  “Oh, so that’s what’s going on,” said Mathias with a grin. Dee was suddenly mortified to have divulged the secret information, and frantically waved her hands in front of Mathias, pleading that he remain silent.

  “It’s not a big deal, kid,” the bounty hunter said. “It’s not like the Boss wasn’t going to tell us himself in a few minutes anyway.”

  Dee lowered her hands. “I suppose,” she said.

  The two men followed Dee as she led them a rather plain looking door. On the wall next to it was a plaque that read, “Gold Room.”

  “This is where he told me to meet him,” Dee said. She delicately knocked on the door twice. “Sir, there are two men here to see you.”

  “Is that you, Dee?” the Creator called from in the room. “Yes, please come in, all of you. We should get started.”

  “Get started?” Mathias asked. The second man, still completely concealed, said nothing. Dee turned the knob and opened the door, entering it with the two others following close behind.

  Inside the room, the Creator sat at a round glass table surrounded by three other chairs. It appeared that he had been looking through a series of papers prior to the group’s arrival. The room itself was actually rather plain, with pale walls and only a single window. The Creator smiled and beckoned the group to sit around the table.

  “Sir, you didn’t mention earlier that you were having anyone else meet you today,” said Dee, taking a seat at the Creator’s right.

  “Well I hadn’t heard back from either of them, so I wasn’t sure if they were showing up,” the Creator replied. “It’s a pleasure to meet you at last, Mr. Albright. I suppose you’re already acquainted with each other.”

  “Well I met your lady friend downstairs,” Mathias said, sitting to the Creator’s left. “Although your other man here has been pretty quiet.”

  The Creator looked across the table at the cloaked man.

  “You’re in the company of friends, you know,” the Creator said. “You don’t have to cover up.”

  Dee and Mathias looked at the wanderer as he hesitated, then pulled the hood from over his head. The two gasped softly as they saw what was beneath the hood. The man wore a golden mask that covered his entire head, which was completely smooth and featureless, unlike that of a human. The only openings were two eye holes, from which his large eyes shone through with bright yellow pupils.

  “I am most honored to see you again, my Lord,” the masked man said. Even without the hood, his hollow voice echoed in all directions, and had the others not known better, they would not have known the source of the sound.

  “The honor is all mine,” the Creator said with a smile. “Now then, would you like to introduce yourself?”

  The man folded his hands on the table and closed his eyes, now hardly visible behind the mask. He opened them again, the golden spheres reappearing and shining brightly.

  “I have had several names throughout time. Today, I am called New Baggins.”

  “New Baggins?” Mathias repeated. “Weird name. So what, did you used to be Old Baggins or something?”

  “That’s not really relevant to our situation, Mr. Albright,” the Creator said. “In any case, welcome, New Baggins. We are privileged to have you with us.”

  “You honor me, my Lord,” the golden man replied.

  Dee took time to look over this strange man and contemplated for a moment the name he had given them, which to her sounded very familiar. A thought crossed her mind, but realizing it was nonsense she dismissed it and turned her attention to the Creator.

  “Now that we’re all here, we can get started,” said the Creator, sorting through the papers again and handing several sheets to each of the guests.

  “The reason I’ve called you all here is because there’s currently an emergency situation here within Magid. Two days ago on the evening of the Winter Solstice Festival, the King of Magid Adam Evans disappeared from the palace. A note was left behind stating that he had abandoned the throne in order to pursue something of great importance. The note was determined to be credible, and as of now the throne of Magid is empty and the king’s location is not known.”

  “Sounds like the job finally got to him.” Mathias interjected. “In a way I don’t blame him. This country was a mess after the takeover and he’s had to deal with everything himself ever since.”

  “I don’t believe that’s the case,” the Creator continued. “Iilil-ja would have said something if he needed to take a brief vacation. No, I believe that there’s something more sinister at hand here. Please take a look at the second page.”

  Dee and the others flipped to the next piece of paper which showed at the top a large picture of the interior of a room. It was the room marked “Abyss.” In it, fragments of glass lay on the floor while the larger portion of the orb still sat on the pedestal.

  “After the gala had ended, I returned to the lower chamber of the palace where the king had earlier performed a cleansing ritual. This ritual purged his mind and body of excess feelings of hatred and rage that had been eating at him for some time. However, sometime between the ritual and my return to the room, someone entered the room and shattered the orb containing this energy. You’ll note that the orb itself was not moved, because most of it remained in its original position. I have concluded that the orb could not have just fallen over, but was instead smashed open by an unknown person.”

  “What about the contents of the orb?” Dee asked.

  The Creator folded his hands. “Unfortunately, it would appear that the force that was released by the king has escaped, and based on what happened at the time of Iilil-ja’s birth, I suspected that this force has taken on a physical form which is now running loose somewhere.”

  The other two guests took this conclusion with a grain of salt, but Dee became very tense. She knew what kind of dark thoughts lived within Adam’s mind before the ritual, and trembled at the fact that an individual who was comprised solely of those thoughts was now free to do what he pleased.

  “So you’re sugg
esting that the disappearance of the King of Magid is related to the release of this life force?” New Baggins asked.

  “I’m not merely suggesting it,” the Creator stated. “Based on the evidence presented, and Iilil-ja’s stubborn attitude, I’m certain that he became knowledgeable of the orb’s situation and left to take action. He may very well have encountered the physical form of the anger by now.”

  “So what’s the plan, chief?” Mathias asked, leaning back in his chair. Unfazed by the bounty hunter’s rudeness, the Creator shuffled his papers again.

  “Well I certainly can’t allow Iilil-ja to just walk away from his duties here, especially since I was the one who placed him here,” the Creator said. “That would just look bad for me, don’t you think? Not to mention the repercussions such an action will have on the country. If the general population was to learn of what happened, there would be panicking and riots. This infant government would collapse into anarchy. No, that certainly wouldn’t do.

  “That’s why I’ve called for the two of you. I would like to take both of you with me on a mission to find the king and bring him back here safely. As for this other ‘alter ego’ that has been created, I will deal with it in a proper manner.”

  “You mean destroy it,” Mathias said.

  “Most likely, yes,” the Creator replied.

  “Well, better you than me,” the bounty hunter said, easing the chair back to the floor. “If it’s just a search and rescue mission for the king I’m onboard. This place has a sentimental value for me after all. I wouldn’t want to see it fall into chaos again.”

  “I’m glad to hear that, Mr. Albright,” the Creator said. He glanced across the table to New Baggins, sitting with his hands folded flat on the table. “And you?”

  “This place has been my home for a very long time,” New Baggins said, “So I can certainly agree with Mr. Albright that this land needs its leader to return.”

  “Excellent,” the Creator said with a smile. “Naturally you two will be compensated for your efforts, according to the terms addressed in the letters I sent to you two. Now, we should begin preparations…”

  “Excuse me, sir?” Dee cut in, causing the Creator to break his gaze on the papers in front of him and look to his young assistant. “What about me?”

  The Creator cleared his throat. “Well, Ms. Gatti, considering the danger involved in this situation, I wouldn’t feel comfortable asking you to come with us.”

  Dee was somewhat stunned, though not offended, by the Creator’s statement. She knew that compared to a bounty hunter she wasn’t that much of an asset to a rescue mission, but her concern for Adam outweighed that logic at the moment.

  “Sir,” she began, “I understand that there will be dangers involved, especially if that dark presence from within the Abyss room is out there, but I can’t just stay behind right now. I’ve spent the last two weeks with Mr. Evans helping him to try and understand himself. He’s probably confused and vulnerable, and I don’t want to bear on myself the thought that he was hurt and I did nothing to help him.”

  “Come on, Boss,” the bounty hunter cut in. “If she wants to go that badly, just let her. We can pick up a little extra slack.”

  “I assure you that won’t be necessary, Mr. Albright,” Dee said. New Baggins looked at Dee for a moment and then shut his eyes.

  “I don’t think it would be a terrible idea, my Lord,” he said. “I’m sure that Ms. Gatti’s own unique talents will prove to be helpful to the group.”

  The Creator turned his head to New Baggins and nodded after a moment.

  “If you insist,” the Creator said. “Welcome aboard, Ms. Gatti.”

  Dee smiled, pleased with herself to have swayed her employer.

  “So now we’ve got to find out where he went,” Dee said.

  “Actually, Ms. Gatti, I already know,” the Creator said, standing up from his chair.

  “You do?” Dee asked, shocked. Mathias raised an eyebrow as well.

  “Yes, I’ve known for two days now,” the Creator answered. “But until now I wasn’t prepared to start after him. I’d say that our group is ready now.”

  “Oh,” Dee said with a mix of confusion and disappointment. Had she known that Adam’s location was known all this time, she wouldn’t have spent the last two days worrying herself sick.

  “So where is he then?” Mathias asked.

  The Creator turned towards the window and held his hands together behind his back.

  “Earth.”

  Chapter Five

  The Arrival

  Tokyo, Japan

  Shinjuku District

  December 14th, 2004

  Dee sat by herself on a bench in the middle of Shinjuku Central Park with her head between her knees. She had arrived on Earth nearly fifteen minutes ago, but the nausea that came with interdimensional travel didn’t pass away as quickly as it had with her companions. It wasn’t the first time she had travelled across space-time to another world, but it was something she had never gotten used to. The Creator, in comparison, had no trouble with the trip as he was used to such travelling, and he stood beside the bench with the group’s luggage as Dee recovered.

  “The effects should wear off soon, Ms. Gatti,” he said, though his efforts to comfort her were ultimately useless. Humans were simply not meant for the trip between dimensions, and her weak stomach did not help her to recover at all.

  Before the group had left Magid, the Creator explained that Adam had travelled across the universal bounds on his own, arriving at this spot on Earth three days earlier. With the help of his powers, the Creator was easily able to bring the other three out of his universe to follow the path of the king. The trip itself was over in the blink of an eye, but very disorienting. Dee and Mathias needed to rest upon their arrival, though the bounty hunter had already recovered and was surveying the scene with New Baggins as they waited.

  “What a weird place,” Mathias said. “Why do you suppose he came here?”

  “It’s certainly an interesting question,” New Baggins replied. He kept his hood over his face, hoping that his appearance wouldn’t draw the attention of the native people. The other three of the group at least appeared outwardly human, but with his form fitting mask he might be a cause for alarm.

  “So what do we do now?” Mathias called to the Creator. The pulled something small from his pocket and began to press it with his pointer finger. Dee, finally starting to feel relieved of her motion sickness, looked up and saw that the Creator was using some sort of electronic pad.

  “What is that, sir?” she asked. He continued pressing buttons on the front of the device before holding it in front of Dee. The blue rectangle’s front was made up of a series of small buttons with a large screen at the top. Dee could see three lines of text, only the first of which she could read. The line read “Good afternoon.”

  “This is a translator,” the Creator explained. “The top line is written in our common language and the bottom two are written in the language of this country.”

  “Why are there two versions?”

  “In this country, the language is written with symbols, like in the second line. The third line shows how these symbols would be pronounced if written in our own language.”

  “Ok, I think I understand,” Dee said, taking a closer look at the screen. “‘Konnichiwa.’ Is that right?”

  “Close, you want to make the ‘o’ sound long. Try it while making an ‘o’ with your lips when you say it.”

  “Konnichiwa,” she repeated, now with improved pronunciation. The Creator smiled at her.

  “Not bad at all, Ms. Gatti,” he said. “We’ll need this in order to get around the city, seeing as none of us speak the language of this country. Save New Baggins, of course. I’ll be depending on him to make sure we’re really conveying everything we need to say.”

  “Hold on, you already know this world’s language?” Mathias asked, giving his new companion a strange look.

  “I understa
nd many languages, Mr. Albright. In addition, this world doesn’t have one exclusive language as is often the case in the Other Universe. This language is called Japanese, and the country that we are now in is called Japan.”

  “Fascinating,” Mathias said dryly.

  “New Baggins is quite correct,” the Creator said. “The country of Japan is itself an island, and considering Iilil-ja cannot speak the language he is not likely to have left the country’s borders. Along with the language barrier, Iilil-ja has neither the currency of this country nor any form of documentation. I can only assume that despite moving three days ahead of us, he has not gotten far from where he crossed over. We are in the capital city of this country, which happens to be one of the largest on this planet. We can split up from here and begin searching the city for any sign as to where he has been moving about.”

  “How long will it take the four of us to search this entire city?” Mathias asked.

  “To cover the entire city would be unreasonable and would likely take weeks. Each of you has a picture of Iilil-ja, so all we can hope is that someone has recognized him and can direct us in the right direction.”

  The Creator pulled another device from his pocket and handed it to Mathias. “This is a communication device designed to mimic current Earth technology. You can use it to keep in touch with me as we search the city by pressing the center button. I will have one to reach you as well, you just have to press the same button when the device begins to vibrate.”

  “Sounds simple enough,” the bounty hunter said as he examined the small machine. “These would come in handy back home, you know. You should share some of this nice technology with the common folks.”

  “I try not to interfere as best I can, Mr. Albright,” the Creator said. “Now, we haven’t a moment to waste. I’ll ask you to go ahead with New Baggins to the north while Ms. Gatti and I look in the south. I’ll contact you when the time comes for us to meet again.”

  “Gotcha,” Mathias said. He grabbed his two suitcases and turned to his partner, who still looked quite alien despite his efforts. “Ready to go earn our wages?”