Haruto walked out of his apartment and left the building.
His apartment was near the main road, so the constant blowing of horns was deafening . But of course, it was something that shouldn't be taken away, it added liveliness to the city in it's own way.
The moment he left the building, a feeling gripped him, one that caged his soul. It was fear!.
(Indistinct Whispers).
He could hear them, the whispers, it was louder than any other thing. He couldn't actually pick what it was saying. He could just hear it.
He stopped and looked back.
He could hear his heartbeat, it was loud and though it wasn't that fast, it was pacing up.
Seeing only the bustling street and nothing out of the ordinary, he concluded he was just afraid as a result of the series of events that had happened to him lately.
Sigh…
He resumed his advance.
After a while,
Gasp!!
He halted abruptly and glanced behind him, his pulse racing.
What was that just now?!!
His heartbeat quickened.
He started to walk briskly, he had actually felt it, a big, giant pair of eyes. He felt devoured in front of it.
He walked faster.
Bang!
"Hey mind the glasses, you might break them" the security complained.
"I'm sorry," mumbled Haruto.
Though the restaurant was etched into other buildings, the part that faced the road was made of glass, including the doors.
'What happened to wood?!' Haruto sulked.
He took a seat at an empty table.
Phew!
The feeling had disappeared, as if it never existed.
A waiter soon approached him.
"What would you like to have today sir?" asked the waiter.
"I just need a plate of ramen," replied Haruto, his voice trembling.
"Okay sir" the waiter, straining his movements in hopes to learn what made the young man nervous, left to bring his orders.
He withdrew a card from his pocket.. He stared at it in awe. It was called a GFC—General Fund Card. It was strange as far as he was concerned. How could everyone's funds be accessed by some random card?. You could literally pay for anything anywhere in Japan, all you had to do was insert it into their ATM—Automatic Teller Machine and input your pin. The one he held currently was for Haruto. Back in his world, they were still even using cowries occasionally. Not that it was that ancient, they couldn't just drop the act.
He stole a fast glance up and back at the card. Wait a minute!. Haruto looked up again.
Geez!
Fear gripped him.
Haruto jolted back abruptly, almost falling from his chair.
"Who the hell are you?! And when did you get here?!" Haruto stared at the two new visitors opposite him angrily.
'How did they sit so composed without me noticing?'
There was a man. More like a youngster in his 20s. He had red hair, crimson eyeballs, and had a straight look. Then there was a kid Haruto suspected to be years younger than Touma. The kid had long purple hair, was very small, had purple eyeballs and emitted no expression at all. Haruto couldn't even tell the kid's gender. He looked so much like a girl but gave off a boyish feeling. Both wore a dress style that Sal found to be so stunning. It was exactly like the NYSC uniform he had seen in a picture of blacks from Nigeria, Africa, in his former world, only the jacket and trousers was army colour this time and it looked a lot smaller on the kid's body.
The man quickly broke the tension between them and cut straight to the chase.
"I'm Sato Kentaro, a member of the Tokyo Secret Combat force and beside me here is my colleague, Hoshino Nagisa." said the young man, completely ignoring his initial reaction.
"Secret Combat force?" Haruto repeated. He had not heard of them before. He had studied all of Tokyo's military information back when he aspired to be one of them.
"Yes" replied Kentaro.
"To what then, do I owe this visit?" asked Haruto. He had searched all his memory, but he still couldn't find any information on the secret Combat force. It was like they never actually existed. He was becoming more weary of them.
"The train incident"
The moment Kentaro mentioned it, Haruto froze, a wave of panic surged through him.
"I didn't do anything, I swear!" he blurted out.
Droplets of sweat found their way on his forehead.
"Oh! We believe you" Kentaro smiled.
"But we have two requests of you"
"What is it?" asked Haruto.
"One of them is for you to take us back to the scene," Kentaro smiled.
Haruto frowned,
"Everything is debris, what could you possibly find there?"
"Not now Haruto" Kentaro smiled widened even more.
"To before it happened"
Kentaro's cold voice condensed into a whisper and sinked into Haruto's mind. He felt like he was staring at a mad beast.
However, the feeling soon vanished.
"How is that even possible?" Haruto's voice trembled. He was now more weary of the two individuals opposite him. He felt like they weren't just normal humans like everyone else. They were something different.
"Well that's where Nagisa comes in" Kentaro rested his back on the chair.
"All you have to do is accept"
"Why are you investigating it? Does she…."
Haruto suddenly paused. The sweat on his forehead increased a manifold to the point of creating a soaked collar for him. He felt a pair of eyes peering directly into his soul. And it looked like any little mistake would cost him his life.
"D…does he h…have any powers? I….I mean that can't be possible right?"
He's a boy!.
Haruto had heard the voice in his mind. Even though it was for a brief moment, he understood the message it was trying to pass across.
He's like a slumbering beast.
Haruto stared at the boy with fear. He wondered just what kind of world he was in.
Kentaro smiled.
"There's a lot of things in this world you don't understand Haruto"
Haruto suddenly frowned.
"And what if I refuse?"
"Does it seem like you have a choice?" Kentaro smiled mischievously.
What did I get myself into?
How did it come to this?
Haruto squeezed his eyes shut and gritted his teeth.
"Fine! get it over with" replied Haruto.
Kentaro smiled.
"Do your thing" he gestured to Nagisa.
Nagisa nodded.
Like from before, only stronger, Haruto felt two large eyes directly look into his soul. A repulsive shock vibrated through his whole being in an instant. The sense of death lingered, thick as the buried root of a tree.
Suddenly, Haruto saw his whole vision turn green, red, yellow and blue all mixed into one.
The world started to overlap and everything seemed to be inverted and continued to.
Soon, voices faded and his vision slowly greyed out. His vision darkened.
****
Birds chirped. And the long train cheerfully made its way on its track amidst a forest path.
The morning was bright and everything was lively. Haruto sat forward in the train, and let his hair fall forward also. Maintaining the stance because he was feeling a little discomfort from people's belongings placed above him.
"Young man, you seem to have fallen into the rat race" an old man beside Haruto said, noticing the impatience in his face.
"Why have you woken up so early? Aren't you supposed to be in your bed or going early to school instead, where's your uniform?" asked the old man curiously. At least he wasn't wrong, the skies were still dark, indicating the early hours of the morning. Probably around 6:00 AM to be precise.
Haruto sighed.
"I work at a company as a delivery man in Okinawa and get paid peanuts to pay rent and feed my family. This is the hundred and oneth time I'm saying this grandpa, I don't think the meds are working, I'll take you to another hospital" said Haruto in frustration.
The old man rubbed his head in realization.
All of a sudden…
A deafening explosion rang out. Causing the moving train to jolt slightly.
Haruto sprung up from his seat.
"What's wrong?" asked Haruto, from the people around him but got no answers as they had also been thrown into a State of panic and couldn't access the situation properly.
BOOM!!!
Another explosion rang out.
This time, the whole train trembled violently. And slowly, everything turned…upside down?
What is this heat?
The train, it's turning, like it's falling to the rock bottom of something.
We're off the tracks!!!
He could see some of the passengers were already injured. And they didn't stop being injured.
Agonizing screams spread through the whole train, Haruto included.
It was continuous, Haruto hit his head almost everywhere around him.
But, suddenly…
Argh!
A sound rung in his ear, like the tiny one that resounded through the speakers when the sound wasn't right.
It continued, like a blown fuse.
"Argh!" Haruto groaned.
The train had suddenly turned and he hit his head on a sharp metal. Blood oozed.
His vision darkened.
****
Gradually, Haruto spiralled into reality and his vision became normal.
He was speechless. He could see his earlier visitors still seated ahead of him. His face was full of questions.
"Like I said, there's a lot of things you don't understand. But one thing you should know, as the only survivor on that train, you're targeted. Find us before it's too late." Kentaro stood up to leave.
"Wait!" Haruto called out, halting their tracks.
Haruto furrowed his brows, he was already sweating profusely.
"How'd he do that?"
"If you want to know more, come find us, go to Yamiichi," replied Kentaro.
He knew the place. It was a casino for scumbags to be precise, it was located in the DREGS. He hated that place, not that he did, it wasn't a place that regular folks should be found. Most people never come back if they didn't at least have someone they knew there. All of the dealings there were shady.
"What about the second request?" asked Haruto.
"We'll talk about it when you find us" said Kentaro, he left with Nagisa and disappeared like they never even came in the first place.
Haruto was dazed.
"Sir, here is your order" the waiter arrived with the ramen beside Haruto.
Haruto looked at him for a moment before crying out,
"What took you so long?!"
The waiter stared at Haruto with a blank look.
"What do you mean sir? I just left a while ago"
A while ago?.
Meaning….
It …. All happened in the blink of an eye?.
"Sir, how are you sweating? There are five air-conditioners in this restaurant.
"Did you see two individuals, one with red hair and the other with purple?" asked Haruto, he felt like he was on the brink of madness right now.
The waiter looked at Haruto, completely devoid and confused about what the man was saying.
"What are you talking about sir?"
Is he mad?
"Thank you"
Haruto quickly collected the point of sales machine from him, inserted his card and input his pin and paid for the food, leaving a confused waiter with a tray containing food utterly speechless and dazed.