The Return to Strange Skies (JNC Edition)

by Hiroyuki Morioka

  He sized Kyte up beside him. Though he was technically older than him, bodily he was still young, so he wasn’t breathing heavily. He was truly jealous in that moment, even rueful.

  He swerved in his tracks by gripping a pillar of the store at the corner as he ran. He saw them. The backs of his quarry.

  “Give it a rest!” Entryua took a knee and assumed firing stance. “Stop or I shoot!”

  But by the time he heard his words of warning, Jinto had already slipped away from the path. Naturally, they had no intention of stopping. They hid in an alleyway blind spot, but the moment they did, they snapped to a shout from their left.

  A green-brown uniform. An enemy soldier. An adversary even more of a hassle to deal with than the police, but this soldier was alone.

  Lafier took him down in a flowing martial arts throw before he could fire. “Jinto, we must hurry. That soldier was one of many who have spread out to search for us. The others have been signaled.”

  “Don’t need to tell me that...” Jinto picked up into a run once again.

  Their destination for the time being was the stone building. Though he had a bad feeling that its stone walls would serve as much protection as construction paper against the enemy’s boulder-shattering crusher-bullets, it was probably more reliable than the marketplace.

  However, they hadn’t even made it halfway across the lawn before another enemy soldier appeared. Lafier didn’t stop running as she mowed down the soldier brandishing their gun in a standing position.

  Jinto gripped a phaser cartridge from his pocket and set it to grenade mode. He could feel it chirping its countdown in his hand. CHEE CHEE CHEE CHEE... He’d cultivated his pitching arm in many a match of minchiu , but given the distance, he couldn’t be certain his lob would reach that far.

  Which is why, when the soldier joined clods of dirt in the air, he reassessed the power of his throw. Unfortunately, these soldiers neither quailed nor flinched. Fresh infantry came out of the woodwork, one after the other.

  Lafier, for her part, stayed a step ahead, firing her phaser over her shoulder with her right hand while never taking her eyes away from their destination. Despite the fact that she wasn’t even looking at her targets, her aim was always true, thanks to her frocragh . In this situation, her spatio-sensory perception manifested like a feat of sorcery. An Abh with a circlet equipped had as good as 360 degree vision — she could sense motion in her surroundings through ultrahigh frequency waves. As such, she had no need to stop or turn to take aim.

  Still, the bullets came hurtling their way, and with ever swelling intensity. A cloud of dust struck a mere five dagh away from Jinto.

  We’re almost there...

  Lafier stamped in through the wide-open entrance.

  All right, my turn now.

  He got within arm’s reach of the entrance.

  “What in the hell!?” Entryua reflexively ducked for cover, face-down on the ground.

  It was when they’d almost cleared out of the alleyway in hot pursuit of the Abh that the firefight unfolded — a shoot-out the likes of which Clasbule had never before seen.

  Guess that’s the difference between a police force and a military. He knew it was pitiful, but he was too scared to even raise his head.

  “Retreat!” ordered Entryua, plucking up his willpower. His voice, too, was nearly drowned out entirely by the gunfire. “We’re heading back. This is no place for police.”

  “You can’t be serious, Inspector!” Kyte objected. “You’re giving up!?”

  “What do you think!?” Entryua barked back. Though he was just as much lashing out against his own cowardice. “What exactly do you want us to do, huh, buddy!? Cuz if you ask me, we’d just be a bunch of brats swearing we’re strong to career boxers as they’re slugging it out. I don’t know what it’s like on your world, but on this planet, police aren’t trained or equipped to survive an active warzone. Now listen good, cuz let me tell you, no matter how many cops you get killed in the line of duty, society won’t value their capture any higher. And if you wanna catch the Abh that badly, I suggest you go join your little friends.”

  “Urgh...”

  A round of crusher-bullets pierced through a handful of shops and flew inches beside Entryua, demolishing an animatronic.

  “Your aim is goddamned terrible!” Entryua cursed them out, knowing full well they couldn’t hear him. Then he faced his subordinates to address them. “What’re you doing!? Fall back! Retreat to the cars. Keep your heads low and run. Damn it all to hell, coming to a place like this was a mistake!”

  “Jinto, come quickly!” Half of Lafier’s body was poking out of the doorway, and she made ample use of her phaser to defend him.

  Jinto slid in through the door hands first.

  “Welcome!” It was a restaurant. The server rabbits flapped their ears in salutations. Needless to say, there were no customers, no other humans.

  Jinto swiftly scanned their surroundings. There was another entryway at the other side. It probably led to the kitchen.

  Lafier was still returning fire.

  “C’mon!” he said, dragging her by the sleeve.

  “Okay.” With three final barrages of gunfire, she ran deeper inside.

  “Hello, how many in your party? I’ll lead you to your seats,” said one of the rabbits.

  “Thank you, but there are many empty seats, so that’s fine,” he said, before heading for the kitchen.

  “Sir, you can’t go there!” The rabbit tried to deter him.

  Meanwhile, the enemy was positioning themselves and making preparations outside. Jinto noticed through the window and screamed: “GET DOWN!”

  The only one that understood was Lafier, but that was to be expected, considering the designer of the animatronics’ artificial intelligence could have never foreseen a gun battle.

  It was a savage assault. The stone walls weren’t as paper-thin as Jinto had feared, but they weren’t sturdy enough to withstand the attack. The walls came crumbling down while stone shards sprayed through the air. Crusher-bullets flew in from the where the walls collapsed, filling the restaurant with fiery death. Rabbit heads and parts tumbled across the floor.

  “Warning!” Several rabbits looked out from the holes in the walls. “We are property of Guzonh Dream Park, and if you destroy us without cause, you will be committing vandalism, and be charged with indemnities for all damaged goods. Incidentally, the average price for one of us is—”

  The roar of the enemy’s firearms blew away the rabbits and their futile warnings.

  “Lafier, are you okay!?”

  “Of course I am, a Kin of the Stars would never...”

  “Gotcha,” Jinto cut in. He started crawling along. “Now let’s hurry!”

  “Okay.”

  “Sir.” A rabbit looked down at him. “It’s dangerous here. We believe it may be in your best interest to evacuate.”

  “Thanks for the heads-up. I had a feeling the place wasn’t the height of safety.” It lifted Jinto’s spirits to exhibit the will to crack wise even during a nightmare like this.

  Right after their exchange, the rabbit took a bullet and fell to ruin.

  “Dammit!” Jinto’s high note proved brief, for now he was enraged. While he knew he’d been guilty of destroying a hyena, it was still a thing of woe to watch a being that traded some words with him get blasted apart.

  The motion sensor door opened up for the two, and Lafier followed Jinto into the kitchen. The kitchen was unscathed, practically a world removed, but they couldn’t use it indefinitely. They got on their feet and ran between all of the cooking bots.

  Another door, another room. They found themselves in a hallway, likely employee-use-only, with a number of doors on each side.

  Suddenly, Lafier collapsed in a heap on the spot.

  “What’s wrong!? Are you hurt!?”

  “No...” A weak smile, so weak as to ill fit an Abh. “How pathetic of me. It seems I’m exhausted.”

  “Wait, don�
�t tell me you’ve got a weakness ?” he said, though he commiserated. Abh bodies weren’t used to running for long stretches, especially not at twice the gravity level of their everyday living environment.

  This was Lafier, though. There was no question she’d pretend to be doing fine while burning through every last drop of energy in her.

  How many hours had they been running? Three? Four? They’d stopped at points, and walked some stretches, but most of the time they’d jogged, and over the course of the last half hour, they’d been scampering with all of their might. Of course, Jinto could hardly be described as a monster of stamina himself. He hadn’t noticed earlier by dint of all the mortal peril, but he was so tired he could throw up at any moment.

  “But we’ve still gotta go.” Jinto gulped down his nausea and fashioned a smile. “C’mon, I’ll give you a shoulder.”

  “Thank you.” Lafier offered a hand.

  Jinto helped her up and carried her arm on his shoulder. “Better yet, I’ll give you a piggy-back ride.”

  “Don’t mock me!”

  “That’s the Lafier I know,” said Jinto, relieved. Obviously, they couldn’t sprint anymore. They were going as fast as they could, but that was no faster than normal walking speed, or maybe slower.

  “Hey, the enemy’s gotta be pretty tuckered, too,” said Jinto, trying to cheer both himself and Lafier up.

  The soldiers had chased after them on foot through that cave, and with all that heavy equipment weighing them down, at that. Of course, land wars were their expertise, and as such they must have undergone training to prepare them for lengthy foot marches while bearing heavy equipment, but he chose not to dwell on that inconvenient factoid.

  Besides, when he focused on the sensation of Lafier’s weight on his shoulders, his train of thought shifted tracks entirely.

  She would never have leaned on his shoulders in the past, not this easily. She would’ve obstinately insisted Jinto take the navigation log and go it alone.

  His heart rejoiced.

  Chapter 7: The Üamh Gymehynr (Horse of Dream Park)

  They went through the closest door on the left. To neither’s surprise, it was another kitchen, but more of a café’s than a restaurant’s. For one, it was much narrower than the other one, and secondly, the cooking bots were smaller models.

  The building shook. Enemy gunfire pressed unrelenting. But they couldn’t hope for better; what Jinto feared most was them storming in. If the troops swarmed them, they’d have no leeway to fight back.

  “Sit.” There were no chairs, so he sat her down alongside the wall.

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m gonna play at burglar.”

  “We have no time.”

  “I know, but it’s a necessary evil.” Jinto searched the place for a bottle of spring water, and handed one to Lafier. “We need to hydrate.”

  Still leaning against the wall, Lafier took the bottle in her hands and started drinking. Some of the pure spring water trickled out of her lips and wet her clothes.

  Jinto also drank about half a bottle’s worth of the stuff. It was as though the water got sucked up before it even reached his stomach.

  Lafier savored a moment. Then she said: “If the üass béïcaiberér (grand chamberlain) were here to see this... It would cause a seizure.”

  Jinto took two sineucec (drinking glasses) from the tableware washer as he asked: “Really particular about etiquette, I take it?”

  “Yep. I got scolded constantly. However, seeing as I’m able to conduct myself with the utmost grace in a space-time that demands it, I think the chamberlains wouldn’t fret too much.”

  “I’ll take your word for it, though sadly, I still haven’t come across the patch of space-time you speak of. In which reality do you conduct yourself with the utmost grace?” As they spoke, Jinto inspected the niche-like depressions along the wall.

  “Shut up, I’m always the picture of grace.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Say one more word and I’ll rip you to pieces.”

  “Well, I can’t have that.” Jinto dared not defy her.

  He placed a glass on the niche that read “GRAPE-FLAVORED CONCENTRATED SUGAR WATER” in Baronh. The liquid in question trickled into the glass.

  He gave it a taste. It was grape-flavored concentrated sugar water all right. It smelled of grapes. Its texture felt viscous in the mouth. And it was so sweet it’d make an ant balk.

  It was undiluted concentrate mixed with either booze or carbonated water. Normally, he’d have hated it, but right now, it tasted strangely good.

  He filled the other glass and handed it to Lafier. “Drink.”

  Lafier took a sip. “In another time and place, I would’ve felt slighted by this.”

  “What our systems need right now is sugar.”

  “I know.” Lafier gulped down the thick concoction in one go. Then she washed out the aftertaste with more spring water.

  “Let’s go,” he said, offering a hand up.

  “You needn’t lend me your shoulder now. The sugar has had its effect.” Yet she staggered on her feet, and she had to keep herself up by leaning against the hall with a hand.

  “You can be the Abhest Abh ever, there’s no way your metabolism’s that fast. Don’t push yourself so hard.” Once again, he lent her a shoulder.

  “Uh-huh...” She was still thirsty, so she started walking while drinking.

  An explosion flared far too close for comfort, and the door into the hallway buckled.

  There was no one in the café on the other side — neither animatronics, nor, of course, people. He was glad; nobody would be accosting them over something or other.

  They exited the establishment, out onto a wide path of soft stone. Jinto took Lafier’s gun, and gave her spring water to hold instead.

  Lafier took another sip, shook the remaining bottle, and pulled an inquisitive expression.

  Jinto shook his head.

  Lafier threw it aside. The synthetic resin bottle dropped to a useless little thud and rolled away.

  “If that chamberlain saw you do that just now...”

  “The consequences would be far graver than a mere seizure.” Lafier squinted gleefully.

  A horse approached them from in front: “It’s naughty to litter.”

  “Sorry,” Jinto apologized in spite of himself.

  “Are you tired?” The horse about-faced and began walking with them.

  “Yes. Very,” he confided.

  “Would you like a ride?”

  “You’d do that for us?” said Jinto, startled. He looked the horse in its forehead, which sported a star.

  “I would. It’s my job, after all.”

  “Thank you so much. But we’re more than just tired. We’re also in a hurry.”

  “I can help with that, too.”

  “Sweet.” Jinto gave the royal princess a hitch up the horse’s back, and handed back her gun. Then he straddled it behind her.

  “You’re quite heavy, little ones. You’re actually grown-ups, aren’t you?” it groused.

  “We’re just kids with weight problems.”

  “I sometimes give rides to pairs of smaller children, but two kids that’re this big at the same time is a first.”

  “Can’t hack it?”

  “Oh, don’t worry, I absolutely can.”

  “Great. Take us to the exit, if you don’t mind.”

  “Without telling your mommy or daddy?”

  “Daddy’s at home. For us both.” He had no idea how many hundreds of light-years away the imperial capital Lacmhacarh and the Countdom of Hyde were, but he spoke naught but the truth.

  “Then we’re off.” It broke into a trot. Lafier held onto its neck, while Jinto grabbed the reins. The horse’s speed was on par with a dead sprinting human’s, so they could probably gain quite some distance.

  The building they’d hid inside was extensive, but soon its edge came into view. Lafier straightened her gun arm. They arrived in close p
roximity to the building. Ten or so soldiers were lying in wait, but it appeared the sight of the two cavaliers took them by surprise. They were a second slow to react. Invisible beams of light promptly burst from her muzzle. In the blink of an eye, they passed through a narrow gap, and a similar building obstructed them on the right hand side.

  “Can you pick up the pace a bit!?” Jinto asked their steed.

  “It’d be no trouble for me, but it’d be dicey for you.”

  “We’ll be fine, trust us.”

  “If you say so. Tell me if you ever think it’s unsafe.” With that, the horse sped up to about 500 üésdagh per hour.

  Unsafe was right. Unlike a hovercar or a connecting vessel , a horseback ride came with a great share of shaking. Jinto stuck his feet into the stirrups and struggled to stay mounted.

  “Jinto, you’d best lean back,” said Lafier.

  He gripped the reins for dear life and bent backward. He could swear he felt the laser graze past his chin.

  Upside-down soldiers started firing at them from an upside-down world, shooting blindly from their cover behind buildings.

  “Ahh!” His chest felt constricted. He could do nothing but hold on, and that powerlessness redoubled his terror.

  Lafier’s phaser gouged at the corners of the buildings and took out enemy troops.

  They passed by yet more buildings, and since the enemy fire died down, Jinto exerted himself and sat back up.

  A hemispherical facility greeted their eyes. The horse ran past it and turned right.

  “Not there!” Jinto panicked.

  There were soldiers to the right. And while they were considerably far away, he had to suppose they were well within shooting range.

  “How come? I’m taking a shortcut,” the horse objected.

  “Just not there!!”

  While he bickered with a horse, one appeared from behind the hemisphere.

  The space was akin to a plaza, with a fountain at its center, and surrounded by facilities of various shapes and configurations. To their right was a three-story town of pink coral, with an avenue as straight as an arrow. Meanwhile, soldiers lined up far down their current avenue, sending bullets their way all at once.