The Order of The Worlds

[Alisha Readman]

OOC: I don't have time to post the first story on here, but I will soon.

 

There are worlds beyond your own. Worlds that have different races, cultures, languages. . .

It is necessary to keep the worlds in order, and the ones in charge of such are certain people.

There are the Shinigami, who control which souls are reincarnated or sent to Hell. The most important ones are Byakko, Seiryu, Suzaku, and Genbu, but even they answer to Tsunada, the Master of the Shinigami.

There are the Watchers, Kage and Hikari, who watch the worlds and report any disturbances to the Guardians.

The Guardians have the authority to intervene in any worlds that are heading down the path of destruction. There are many Guardians, as there are many worlds.

There are the Recorders, Tsukasa, Mikhail, and Suna, in charge of recording the histories of all worlds, past and present.

And there is the Time-Keeper, the one person who can see into time, past, present, or future. Many say she is the descendant of the Ancient Dragons, but most about her is unknown. She owns an antique shop, and this is where our first story takes place. . .

[Alisha Readman]

The Shop of Dreams—Part 1: The Yumeneko

 

Welcome to the Antique Shop of Dreams,

Where dreams can become reality,

Myths and fairytales can be relived,

And anything can be found for a price.

But be careful,

For not all dreams are good ones,

Not all fairytales end ‘happily ever after’,

And sometimes. . .the price may be too high.

 

Alice Hayward stared at the shop in a small part of Chinatown. Although it was a two-story, it was smaller than the buildings on either side, made out of brick with ivy and moss covering part of it. The door was made out of aged wood, with an old-fashioned handle and knocker. The large windows were painted black, a small sign in the corner of one window read “Open”, and a sign in front said “Antique Shop of Dreams”.

“Weird,” she muttered. “Still, I might find something good.”

You never know until you try, right?

She pulled the door open, expecting a bell to ring, but it didn’t. As the door closed behind her, she noticed a couple things. First, although no light came in the painted-over windows, there was plenty of light coming from the large lamp in each corner and the electric chandelier hanging from the center of the ceiling, lighting up the large single room. Second, she noticed the mess. Bookshelves were pushed against the walls, stuffed with books that didn’t appear to be in any sensible order. Several tables of various sizes were scattered around the room, buried under statues, vases, urns, jewelry, more books, paintings, dolls dressed in Victorian-style clothes, and other antiques. Paintings were hanging on the walls wherever there was room, and statues and pottery were stacked around the tables on the floor. Across the room was a doorway with a beaded curtain, and next to it was a counter. On top of the counter were an old-fashioned register and a spice rack with several small items in it.

“Weird,” the blonde woman muttered to herself. She stepped forward, only to almost jump out of her skin as a piercing yowl sounded right in front of her, breaking the silence of the store. A cat unwound itself from around a Chinese lion, walked over to Alice, and sat down, staring at her with unblinking golden-green eyes. It was completely black except for a white crescent-shaped mark on its forehead.

“What’s up, Yue?” a voice asked. Through the beaded curtain came two girls who were almost completely identical. Both looked to be about fourteen years old and had dark gray hair, green eyes, and a string of prayer beads around one wrist. One had her hair in several thin braids, pulled back into a single ponytail held in place with a thin black ribbon, and was dressed in a knee-length, long sleeved black dress with lace and ribbons, Lolita style. The other had her hair cut about shoulder-length and hanging shaggily around her face, dressed in torn cargo pants, a sleeveless shirt, half-gloves, and wore several earrings, a black choker, and two necklaces that looked like it was made out of barbed wire.

The twins looked at Alice, then at each other and grinned widely.

“A CUSTOMER!!!!!” they yelled together at the top of their lungs, causing Alice to wince at the noise and the cat to shoot up onto a table and disappear into a wide vase painted with cranes and willow trees.

“N-not really,” Alice said nervously. “I just came in to look around.”

“Oh,” the twins said, sounding and looking defeated.

“Well, I hope you find something you like,” the short haired one said.

Alice carefully maneuvered around a stone Buddha, a bust of Uncle Sam, and a beckoning cat statue to go to the nearest bookshelf, aware of the twins leaning on the counter, watching her every move. She noticed several odd titles, such as “The Ghost Danced at High Noon”, “A Beginner’s Guide to Voodoo and Witchcraft”, “Black Magic for Dummies”, and “The 87 Cursed Swords of Kashan Allad”.

“Who was Kashan Allad?” Alice asked, turning towards the twins. They answered her, the long-haired one answering first, and they switched back and forth.

“Kashan Allad was a sword-maker.”

“I think he was Persian, wasn’t he?”

“No, I think he was Arabian.”

“Anyhoo, he made 87 swords in his entire life.”

“But he loved ‘em so much that after he sold them. . .”

“. . .he died, putting a curse on all of the swords.”

“If anyone owned one of the swords for more than a week. . .”

“. . .they’d die as well.”

Then the two of them said together, “And that’s the story of the 87 cursed swords of Kashan Allad.”

“That’s. . .kind of dumb,” Alice said after a minute.

They suddenly heard a thud upstairs, and a woman’s voice yelling, “OW!! Who left this dad-blasted box of books in the way!?!?”

“That would be you, Kaname,” the short-haired girl called.

After a few minutes, a tall, slender woman with Oriental features came through the doorway. Her raven-black hair covered her left eye and came to her waist, her right eye was dark blue, and she was wearing jeans and a tank top. She wore a choker with a rectangle pendant that was black on the bottom half and white on the top.

“Whaddya mean I was the one who put it there?” she demanded.

“Exactly that,” the long-haired girl said. “We were going to put it away last night. . .”

“. . .but you said to leave it there,” her twin finished, then both of them said, “Therefore, it’s all your fault.”

“Whatever,” the woman muttered, then saw Alice, who was watching the proceedings with a mixture of curiosity and amusement. “Oh, a customer?”

“No, I’m. . .”

“SHE says she’s just browsing,” the twins said, cutting Alice off.

“Oh, I see,” the woman said, scratching the back of her head. “While you’re here, would you like some coffee?”

“Uh, sure,” Alice said, nodding.

“Go make it, guys,” the woman said, turning towards the twins.

“I’ll do it,” the short-haired girl said, going through the doorway and up the set of stairs Alice could now see. A few minutes later, she called down, “Where’s the coffee grounds?”

“Try the freezer or the cabinet!” her twin yelled back.

“It ain’t there!!”

“I’ll be back,” the girl said, walking upstairs.

“They’re Satsuki and Nadeshiko,” the woman said, leaning on the counter.

“Huh?” Alice said.

“The short-haired one is Satsuki, and her twin is Nadeshiko. By the way, my name is Kaname.”

“I’m Alice Hayward,” the blonde said, shaking Kaname’s hand.

“Alice? Like ‘Alice in Wonderland’?” the woman asked, smiling. “Just kidding.”

“I get that a lot,” Alice answered.

“Hey, Kaname!” one of the twins called. “C’mere a sec!!”

“I’ll be back,” she said, leaving the room. Left by herself, Alice pulled out a book titled “Chronicles of the Mystics” and read the description on the back. She jumped slightly at the sound of the black cat meowing. She turned around to see the cat jump onto the counter, walk over to the spice rack and start patting it with a paw.

“Don’t do that!” Alice exclaimed, dashing over to the counter just in time to keep the rack from falling. She caught it, but a small figurine fell out of it onto the floor. “I hope it’s not damaged.”

She picked it up and saw what it was. A jade cat, about six inches tall, with two small diamonds for eyes.

“Ah, I see you’ve met Yue,” Kaname said, coming into the room, carrying a tray.

“Yue?”

Kaname nodded towards the black cat, who was now sitting primly on top of a stack of books. “His Royal Highness Yue,” she answered, setting on the counter old fashioned cups and a coffeepot. “Whatcha got there?”

“Oh, it fell off the spice rack,” Alice said, setting the jade cat on the spice rack again. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

The twins came in with four plates of coffeecake and they had strong coffee and coffeecake that was a little too sweet.

“By the way, Alice, that figurine you were holding earlier,” Kaname said. “What did you think of it?”

“I thought it was pretty,” Alice answered.

“It’s called a Yumeneko,” Nadeshiko said, taking a drink of coffee.

“What’s a Yumeneko?” the blonde asked.

“You know that in some cultures, like ancient Egypt, cats were worshipped as deities, right?” Satsuki said. “In some other cultures, they believed something similar. They would carve small cat figurines like this,” she picked up the jade cat.

Nadeshiko finished the explanation. “They would use them kind of like the Indian’s dream catchers. They’d put them by their beds, and believed that when they had bad dreams, the Yumeneko, or “Dream cat”, would catch the bad dreams.”

“That’s interesting, actually,” Alice said. She took the jade cat and peered at it.

“Do you want to buy it?” Kaname asked.

“Yeah, I think I do. And this as well,” Alice added, setting “The Chronicles of the Mystics” on the counter.

“That’ll be $34.70.”

As Kaname rang up her purchases, Alice chatted with the twins about various antiques.

“Have a good day!” the twins called as Alice left. After the door closed, Yue jumped onto the counter.

“Are you sure that’s what needed to be given to her?” the cat asked.

“Yup,” Kaname said, smiling mysteriously. “The Yumeneko will make sure she stays safe.”

 

Two days later, Alice came back to the shop. This time, the twins were dressed in yukatas, with their hair pulled into two ponytails and still wearing their prayer beads. Kaname, however, was still wearing her jeans and tank top.

“Hey, Alice!” the twins chorused. “What’s up?”

“Well, I remembered what you said about the cat figurine being a dream catcher,” Alice said, setting the Yumeneko on the counter. “I was wondering, is it supposed to bring bad dreams?”

“What do you mean?” Kaname asked.

“Well, in the past two days, every time I fall asleep, I have the same dream. I’m standing in this room, and suddenly there’s this strange creature that appears and starts trying to kill me. Then there’s a huge cat that appears and starts fighting the monster.” Alice looked down at the cat figurine. “Then I wake up. And last night, right after I woke up, I looked over at the Yumeneko, and it was glowing!!”

The twins looked at each other, then at Kaname, who stood up from where she was sitting behind the counter. “Follow me,” she said, walking through the doorway and up the stairs. She led the way, the twins, Alice and Yue following her.

Upstairs was a long hallway, with doors that were closed. At the end of the hall, was a large room. As the room seemed to spread out Alice could see a walnut bureau with a mirror on the top in one corner. A coat rack sat in another with an old fashioned umbrella stand nearby. There also were other various bits of furniture lying around the edges, but what surprised Alice was a strange doorway in the middle of it all. Well, not exactly a doorway, but three logs were tied together to make a doorway shape. The bottom two logs were birch and rowan, and the top was willow. In the space between the logs was a kaleidoscope of colors, and watching it, Alice could almost make out bits of scenery. At first, a desert, then a forest, then a town with buildings of a style she had never seen before. But all of this vanished into a pitch black place, and a frosty wind blew through the doorway.

“What is this?!” Alice demanded, jumping back.

Kaname smiled wolfishly, her eyes glittering with anticipation. “Right now, it’s the portal to the world of demons!”

“WHAT!?!” Alice shouted.

“Seems like this demon doesn’t want to show his face,” Yue said.

Alice was shocked into silence by the fact that the cat was talking, and the twins chimed in, “Can we?”

“Go right ahead,” Kaname said.

“Chin! Ton! Shan!!” the twins sang, turning around with each word. They flung their hands towards the portal on the last word, and blue fire shot from their hands. As the fire reached the blackness, an unearthly shriek issued forth. Moments later, a huge creature came through.

It was similar to a dragon, but it was mostly covered in fur with occasional scale showing. Huge bat-like wings were on its back, with four horns on its forehead. It opened its mouth, showing four rows of very sharp teeth, and shrieked again.

“W-w-what is that thing!?!” Alice yelled, shaking uncontrollably. “That was what appeared in my dream!!”

“The Akumu Oni,” Kaname answered calmly. “The Nightmare Demon. I thought as much.”

“Huh!?” the blonde said.

The demon reared back, and raised a claw. Kaname shouted, “Yumeneko! Your master is in danger! Protect her, as is your duty!!”

The cat figurine, which Alice had been carrying, suddenly glowed and shot from her hand, growing larger. There was suddenly a huge cat in front of Alice. It resembled a jaguar, but was silver-white in color, with amber claws and golden eyes. It leaped onto the demon, roaring loudly.

“What the heck is going on here!?” Alice demanded.

“You see, in a way, the ancient folklore is true. The Yumeneko is used like a dream catcher,” Yue said. “But the Akumu Oni is the cause of nightmares. When it creates a nightmare, it sometimes decides to go after the person having the dreams to consume them. It gives it more energy to go about its business.”

“The Yumeneko is the opposite of the Akumu Oni,” Satsuki and Nadeshiko explained. “The demon exists in darkness, while the cat exists in light. They will always fight, because they can’t exist in the same world. The demon decided to go after you, Alice.”

“That’s why we drew your attention to the cat figurine,” Kaname said, shrugging. “To keep you from being killed.”

The Yumeneko jumped backward, and the Akumu Oni shrieked again, stepping back through the portal and vanishing. The Yumeneko walked over to where Alice stood and bowed, then shrank down into the jade figurine. Alice knelt down and picked it up, trying to comprehend everything that had happened.

“Well, now that that’s over,” Kaname said, kneeling in front of Alice. She touched her fingers to Alice’s head, her fingertips glowing. . .

 

“Well, as I was saying, I don’t know how it happened, but I lost the jade cat figurine that I bought from you the other day,” Alice explained. “That’s why I came back here, to see if you have one like it.”

“I’m afraid not,” Kaname sighed. “It was one of a kind.”

“Oh, I see,” Alice said, looking sad.

“We’ve got other cat figurines,” Nadeshiko said.

“Do you want to take a look at them?” Satsuki asked.

“No, maybe some other time,” Alice answered. “I need to be getting home anyway.”

“Oh, here,” Kaname said, rummaging through a cardboard box. She pulled out a keychain with a small cat hanging from it. She tossed it to Alice, saying, “A good luck charm, to make up for the one you lost.”

“Thanks!” the blonde said happily.

As the door closed behind her, Yue asked, “Are you sure it’s okay to only erase her memories of what happened upstairs?”

Kaname smiled, leaning on the counter. “Yeah, I am. I don’t see her remembering what happened anytime soon.”

“Was that a regular item you gave her?” the twins asked together.

“I can sell regular items too, you know,” the woman said. “It all depends on who comes through that door, and what fate they have in store for them.”

The door opened again, and Kaname turned towards the door, smiling pleasantly.

“Welcome to the Antique Shop of Dreams!”

FINISH

[Alisha Readman]

Realm of the Shinigami—New Arrival

 

On the wind. . .

Under the earth. . .

In the flames. . .

Surrounded by water. . .

In the darkness. . .

In the light. . .

That is where the Shinigami exist.

 

A teenaged girl opened her eyes and found herself in a long hall filled with candles. She blinked slowly, and confirmed that she wasn’t seeing things. She was Asian by her features, with black hair pulled into a ponytail, and was wearing a high school uniform.

“Where am I?” she said aloud, looking around her. “I remember being on the school roof. And where did this come from?” she added, touching a choker around her neck. It was pitch black, made of smooth metal, with an iron plate on the front of it.

“Yuuko Nakahara-san?” a voice asked.

“Yes?” the girl answered, turning around. She saw two people standing there, one about three feet shorter than the other, who was about 6 foot tall, both wearing a black cloak with a hood that shadowed their faces.

The taller one raised his hand and pointed his first two fingers at Yuuko. “Tamashii tojita de eien.”

Suddenly, black chains shot from the choker’s plate, and Yuuko’s arms suddenly were pulled behind her back and the chains fastened her hands together to where she could barely move her arms.

“What the heck is with this!?” Yuuko exclaimed, trying to pull her arms apart.

“I am sorry, but it is necessary,” the shorter person said.

“Necessary for what!?”

“You’ll see,” the shorter person answered. “Now then, if you’ll follow me.”

The teenager had no choice but to follow them through the hall. The shorter person walked in front, with the taller person following behind Yuuko. As she walked, she glanced back and forth between the several rows of candles on either side. The candles were in every shape, color and size, small, fat, tall, skinny, some that had a ridged spiral on them, some were red, gray, black, and the very occasional pure white. But they all were lit, even though some of them were close to burning out. Then Yuuko noticed something. Even with all the hundreds of candles burning, there was no heat coming from them.

After what seemed like an eternity, they finally reached the end of the hall. Yuuko then saw a single bridge stretching several feet in front of her before vanishing into darkness. The bridge looked to be made out of a dark stone, but that was about all that she could see.

“Come on,” the shorter person said, motioning for Yuuko to continue following them. After a moment’s hesitation, she followed them out onto the bridge. As she walked, she got closer to the darkness, to which she could see no end.

“I’m scared!” she thought. “That darkness. I feel as if I walk into it, I’ll go to a place worse than this!”

Suddenly, as if someone had hit a switch, blue flames appeared just above the bridge on both sides, starting by Yuuko and going on to the end of the bridge, which turned out to be closer than she had thought.

“Congratulations,” the shorter person said. “It looks like you passed the test.”

“What test?” Yuuko asked.

“You’ll find out,” the taller person said.

As they approached the end of the bridge, Yuuko saw a tall building set a few feet back from the end of the bridge. They went in the large opening that she guessed was a door, and she found herself in a large room.

The room seemed to be the entire interior of the building, for it went up and up, with no stairs or any way of go up further up into the building. In the middle of the room, were two people standing and one sitting in a large chair.

The standing people were completely different from each other. The female was medium size, with red hair pulled into a ponytail, dark red eyes, and large reddish-feathered wings on her back. She was dressed in Chinese clothes, as was the tall man. Except he had white hair, golden eyes, white-furred cat ears and a tail, and was smiling cheerfully.

The woman sitting in the chair was a slightly curious sight to behold. Her long pure white hair fell on the ground because of its length and was held near the end with a silver hairclip, while her eyes were black. Her huge wings were different colors, the right black and the left white, she was wearing baggy white pants and a dark gray sweater that was loose and almost hung to her knees, and she wore a yin and yang pendant around her neck.

“Well, then,” the woman said, looking at Yuuko with an expression akin to amusement. “Looks like you passed the first test. Good for you.”

“I’ve had just about enough of this!!” Yuuko exclaimed, finally losing her temper. “First you guys tie me up like this, then you make me walk through these weird rooms without an explanation of any sort, and then across that weird bridge!! What the heck is going on and just who are you guys!?!”

The white haired woman stood up, an unreadable expression on her face. She slowly walked over to Yuuko, bent over and looked at the teenager closely, the same expression on her face. She suddenly smiled widely, and rubbed Yuuko’s head briskly, mussing her hair up.

“Good for you,” she said again. “I’m glad that you’ve got a bit of a temper as well. Release!”

The chains suddenly unwound themselves from Yuuko’s wrists and vanished back into the iron plate on her choker.

“The restraints were to keep you from messing with anything in the Hall of Candles,” the woman answered, grinning as she watched Yuuko trying to straighten her hair. “The bridge was to test your sensitivity to evil. If you hadn’t noticed the evil emitting from it and kept walking into it, you would have gone straight to Hell.”

“Hell!?” Yuuko exclaimed, staring at the woman. “What the heck is this place!?”

“Haven’t you guessed already?” the woman said, smiling mysteriously. “Welcome to the Realm of the Dead, Yuuko Nakahara!”

 

“Hey, Kaname!!” Nadeshiko called, hurrying into the shop with Satsuki running next to her. “We just got a message from Tsunada!!”

“Really?” Kaname asked, not looking up from her newspaper. “What’s it about?”

“She wants us to help with the initiation test for some new Shinigami,” Satsuki said. “We have to set everything up.”

Kaname quietly sighed as she read the horoscopes. “When do we need to have it by?”

“By midnight,” Nadeshiko said. “I think that should give us enough time.”

“Yeah, it will,” Kaname said.

 

“Yuuko Nakahara. 17 years old. Committed suicide due to bullying at school. Man, you really did a ringer on yourself, didn’tcha?” the white haired man said, closing his notebook after reading from a page in it. “I mean, jumping off the school roof?”

“Get off my case,” Yuuko muttered. “In any case, I’m dead, and I’m in the realm of the dead people. So now what?”

“So, now we should probably introduce ourselves,” the shorter person said, as she and the other person pulled off their cloaks. The shorter person was a greenish-brown haired girl who looked to be in her mid teens, wearing a kimono that was pure white. She had earrings that were shells, and had slightly long nails that were dark green. The tall man was dressed in dark blue hakama, with long dark blue hair and silver eyes, and had pointed ears that resembled fins, and long nails like claws.

“My name is Tsunada.” The white-haired woman gestured to the tall man, then the white-haired man, the woman with wings, and the girl, introducing them in turn. “This is Seiryu, Byakko, Suzaku, and Genbu. Come to think of it, which division do you want to join?”

“Join?” Yuuko raised an eyebrow. “Division?”

“Yeah, to be a Shinigami,” Byakko said.

“How does that come around?!” the teenager demanded.

“Because you committed suicide,” Genbu said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “So which division do you want to be in?”

Yuuko sighed. “I’ll be in Byakko-san’s division, then.”

“Okey-dokey!” Byakko jumped forward, smiling widely. “If you’ll come this way, Yuuko-san, I’ll get you outfitted and ready.”

He took her hand and led her through a door that seemed to have appeared suddenly in the side of the building. They were now in a hall that had a large crest on the floor of a white tiger with wavy lines around it.

“Hey, Natsuko!!” Byakko called, still pulling Yuuko with him.

“Yes?” a young woman said, poking her head around the corner. Her dark hair was swept up into a loose bun, and she was dressed in a black long-sleeved Chinese dress with the crest from the hall on the shoulders. Yuuko then noticed a collar identical to her own around the woman’s neck.

“We’ve got a new arrival,” Byakko replied, pulling Yuuko in front of him. “Yuuko Nakahara, this is my assistant, Natsuko Fujibayashi. Natsuko, could you help her get ready? I’ve got a couple things to get.”

“Yes, sir. This way, Nakahara-san,” Natsuko said, walking around the corner and into a large room with double doors. Once inside, Yuuko noticed several racks of clothing on one side of the room, and on the other side, a single stone table.

“What’s your preference in clothes, Chinese or Japanese?” Natsuko asked, flipping through the different clothes.

“Um, Japanese,” Yuuko said, absently. “Fujibayashi-san, what are the Shinigami?”

“How did you die?” Natsuko asked, holding up an outfit against Yuuko, shaking her head, then replacing it on the rack.

“I jumped off the school roof,” the teenager answered. “How did you die? I mean, I’m assuming you’re dead, considering this is supposed to be the Realm of the Dead.”

Natsuko smiled sadly as she pulled her sleeves back, showing the scars on her wrists. Yuuko blinked in surprise.

“You committed suicide too?”

Natsuko nodded. “Every Shinigami has committed suicide.”

“Why is that?”

“The way it works is like this. The greatest sin a human can do is to kill yourself. Killing others is the next to worst thing. Killers go to Hell. People who commit suicide become Shinigami.”

“Shouldn’t the people who kill themselves go to Hell too?” Yuuko asked.

Natsuko shook her head. “Nakahara-san, do you know what ‘Shinigami’ means?”

“Death god, right?”

“Yes. Different cultures call us different things. Grim Reaper, Envoy to the Next World, Soul Reaper. . .it still means the same thing at the core. We Shinigami have the job of escorting souls to the afterlife and killing demons who try to go after souls. Most souls are unwilling to leave their life, so we have to force them to leave.”

She handed some clothes to Yuuko, and motioned her towards a folding screen in the corner. As Yuuko changed, Natsuko continued her explanation. “The pain of forcing the souls to leave their world is carried by us. It’s a way of repenting for the sin of killing ourselves. The chokers around our necks are proof of that.”

“Oh, is that what these are for?” Yuuko said. “What’s up with Tsunada and the other four?”

Natsuko shrugged. “Tsunada-sama is the Master of the Shinigami. The other four are the Guardians of North, West, South and East. I can’t really tell you much about them other than that. By the way, the crest on our uniforms tells which division we’re from. The one on your and my uniform shows that we’re from Byakko-san’s division. Seiryu-san’s crest is a dragon with raindrops, Suzaku-san’s is a bird with flames, and Genbu-san’s is a turtle with stones.”

“Okay,” Yuuko said, coming out from behind the screen. She was now dressed in black hakama and sandals. “Now what?”

Byakko came in through the door, carrying two objects, one long and one small, both wrapped in dark cloth. “Sorry it took so long. Nakahara-san, it turns out you’ll be taking the test with three others.”

“What test?” Yuuko asked, looking at him sharply.

“The initiation test for new Shinigami,” Byakko said, setting his bundles down on the table. He unwrapped the larger one, revealing a katana. Taking it by it’s pitch black sheath, he held it out to Yuuko.

“What’s this?” Yuuko asked, taking it gingerly.

“Your Soul Slayer,” Natsuko said. “Every Shinigami has one. Normally, we aren’t supposed to wear them in the building, but since you haven’t taken the test yet, it’s allowed. Besides, you should get used to it.”

Byakko then unwrapped the other package, revealing a small hand mirror. It’s pure silver glass showed no reflection, and it hung from a thin chain. “Your Soul Mirror,” he said. “You’ll find out its use later.”

Several minutes later, Yuuko was following Byakko through another hall, Natsuko having left to take care of something. They came to a huge pair of double doors, which looked like it was made of stone, and was decorated with a pattern of two wings, one white, and one black.

Byakko started to reach for the door, but stopped as he looked over at Yuuko. “Are you ready?” he asked.

Yuuko nodded. Byakko touched the doors, and they slowly swung open.

TO BE CONTINUED. . .

 

Edited September 11, 2007 by Ran Yoko

[Alisha Readman]

The Shop of Dreams-Side Story: Crossover (AKA: The Annoying Visitors)

 

Lock the doors,

Hide your valuables,

Prepare your worst meals,

When certain people come calling.

 

It was a hot summer day when a catastrophe visited the antique shop. . .

 

Kaname grabbed a bottle of root beer and added it to the cart, along with the vegetables and bread. She pushed the cart through the empty aisles and over to the frozen foods, where she got two gallon buckets of ice cream, one butter pecan, and the other plain vanilla.

At the checkout counter, the clerk chatted amiably as he rang up her purchases. “Pretty hot day today, huh?”

“Yeah,” Kaname said shortly. She didn’t need reminded of something she already knew.

“You got a car? Gonna be kind of hot to walk through the heat to go back to your house.”

“I’m walking back to my shop,” Kaname said, paying him and picking up the sacks. Once back out in the heat, she walked swiftly for three blocks, and hurried into the shop. She plopped the sacks down on the counter, next to a sleeping Yue, and sat in a chair directly in front of the AC.

“You’re back, huh?” Nadeshiko asked, coming through the beaded curtain. She was dressed in a yukata decorated with birds, and her hair was pulled into a bun held in place with a pair of chopsticks. “Hey, Satsuki, get a big glass of iced tea for Kaname!” she called upstairs.

She walked over to the sacks and picked them up, taking them upstairs. Satsuki came down with a large mug of iced tea and handed it to Kaname. She was dressed in a yukata decorated with Chinese dragons, and her hair was pulled into two short ponytails.

“Why didn’t you just take the portal back to the shop instead of walking?” she asked, watching Kaname drain the glass.

“1: there were people around,” Kaname said as Nadeshiko came back down. “2: it takes a few minutes to get the portal set up, so I would have been out in the heat even longer.”

“You didn’t get any chocolate or strawberry ice cream again,” Nadeshiko complained.

“She didn’t!?” Satsuki exclaimed.

“I got it last time,” Kaname said, giving them a look that would have curdled milk. “I wanted something else.”

“That’s what you always say,” the twins muttered, but they left it at that. “Hey, can we go to the summer festival in Japan tonight? You said you’d think about it.”

“And I’m still thinking about it.”

Kaname sat back in the chair and relaxed, listening to the wind chime in the corner ringing with the air coming from the AC.

The door suddenly opened, and in came two women who were obviously twins. The one had blonde hair pulled into a ponytail, and was wearing a white T-shirt and shorts. The other had long dishwater-blonde hair also pulled into a ponytail, and was dressed in an Arabian princess’ outfit, complete with jewelry and slippers. Both of them had ice-blue eyes that seemed to peer deeply into one’s soul, and their faces were exactly identical.

“Hey, guys!!” they chorused, waving cheerfully.

“What are you doing here, Naru, Maki?” Kaname asked, turning to look at them with an annoyed look.

“Our air-conditioning broke,” Maki, the one in shorts said. “So we hoped to hang out here until it’s replaced. The repairman said it would be done this evening.”

Naru and the twins were in the corner, complimenting each other on their outfits while Yue dozed on the counter.

“So why should I let you stay here again?” Kaname asked, slowly standing up. “Last time you were here, you broke a statue.”

“Yeah, about that. . .” Maki started as she reached into her pocket.

“And that statue had a demon, who wanted to destroy Earth, sealed in it, and two of the Guardians had to come here to help with it. And it still took three hours to seal him away again. You still haven’t repaid me for that,” Kaname went on, staring at the two visitors, as if she hadn’t heard them.

“We said we were sorry, and we even tried to help,” Naru pouted. “It’s not our fault the Oni feed off of chaos magic.”

“Hey, Kaname! Calm down!” Satsuki said.

“How about we play a game of Rich Man, Poor Man?” Nadeshiko said, hastily.

Ten minutes later, Kaname was the King, Nadeshiko and Satsuki were the Noble (Wo)Men, and Naru and Maki were the Poor (Wo)Men.

“Yay!! We won!!” Nadeshiko and Satsuki jumped up and down happily.

“So what’s the penalty game?” Maki asked.

“You’ll be running a delivery for me,” Kaname said before anyone could say anything. “I need you to go to Subaras to deliver something to Alexis for me.”

“What are we delivering?” Naru asked.

“Come upstairs and you’ll see.”

The procession filed upstairs and into the Portal Room. The portal flipped through several places before stopping on a door made of black metal. Kaname touched it and it rippled, as if it was a pool of water. Her hand went in, and withdrew with a small flat, round package.

She handed it to Maki, and said, “That’s what you’re delivering. And I’ll be keeping an eye on you, so don’t you dare try to look at it. And this might help a little.” She handed Naru a small item, which looked like a rolled up carpet, hanging from a short chain.

“Where’s Subaras, and who’s Alexis?” Naru asked.

“Alexis is one of the Guardians. I would suggest that you stay on his good side. And Subaras is. . .”

Kaname was now behind the two visitors, and suddenly shoved them through the portal, just as it showed a desert. The woman grinned as she saw them in the desert, right before the portal flipped to show a mountainside.

“I’d say they’re paying me back,” she said, stretching as she went into the messy kitchen, fixed herself a root beer float, and then went downstairs.

Once downstairs, Kaname sat behind the counter, watching a mirror hanging on the wall. Through it, she could see Naru and Maki trudging through the desert. She could also hear their voices, grinning as they complained about her.

“Hey, what about the item Kaname sent with us?”

“We’re not going to use it. She’d probably charge us a rental fee for the use of it.”

“Sheesh,” Kaname smiled, rubbing the back of her head. “I’d only charge them if the magic carpet got dirty.”

 

(oos: Brief intermission to see Mai’s version of the crossover and what happens in the desert. . .)

 

Late in the afternoon, Naru and Maki came through the portal again, this time looking very haggard and tired. Sweat and sand was plastered to them as they glared at Kaname.

“Kaname, you jerk!! You sent us to a desert!!” Maki complained.

“Why did you do that to us!? It totally ruined my look!” Naru demanded as she motioned to her tattered outfit.

Kaname didn’t bother to look up from her newspaper, where she was reading the latest news on a group of kidnappers. “1: you’ve sufficiently repaid me for breaking that statue. 2: none of the rest of us wanted to go to the desert, so you were kind enough to go. Right? And 3: the girls and I are going to a summer festival this evening over in Japan. Do you want to come?”

The twins sank to the floor, worn out, while Satsuki and Nadeshiko went to get them some iced tea, grinning as they thought: Yay, we get to go the festival!!. Yue was still on the counter, dozing away, completely undisturbed by the visitors.

 

The moral of this story? Beware of what you break, for the owner may hold long grudges.

FINISH 

Edited September 11, 2007 by Ran Yoko

[Alisha Readman]

Realm of the Dead-Initiation Test

 

Can’t you see the way?

Just look for the light.

It’s that simple.

 

The room was large, bare of any furniture. A large doorway was across the room, showing nothing through it. Genbu, Suzaku, Seiryu, Tsunada, and three other people of various nationalities stood around the doorway in the wall. The one man looked to be only about two years older than Yuuko, and had Suzaku’s crest on his hakama. The other woman looked in her late twenties, with Genbu’s crest on her hakama, and the man, in his forties, had Seiryu’s crest on his hakama.

“Yuuko Nakahara, this is Keith O’Reilly,” the teenager, “Sayaka Yamaguchi,” the woman, “and Pietro Thomas,” Tsunada said by way of introduction. There was no tone of humor in her voice, it was obviously a serious time. “You four will be going onto Earth to fight a demon, and each of you will send a soul to the afterlife. You have the choice of which soul you go after, but you will fight the same demon, understood?”

The four people nodded silently. Tsunada continued, “When you go through this portal, the people there will direct you as to what you will do. They will follow you to make sure you do the test correctly. No cheating, and work together when you fight the demon. Since you haven’t passed the test yet, you don’t have all the powers of a true Shinigami right now. And using your mirrors with the demon should help some. All right then, now that that’s done, march!!”

The four of them walked through the portal, and found themselves in a room with a walnut bureau with a mirror on the top in one corner. A coat rack sat in another with an old fashioned umbrella stand nearby. There also were other various bits of furniture lying around the edges, and three people and a cat standing in the middle of the room, facing the portal.

The woman was tall with long black hair hanging over her right eye, her left eye was dark blue, and she wore jeans and a sweatshirt. The two girls were obviously twins, with gray hair, green eyes, and dressed in cargo pants and a sweater. The long-haired girl’s sweater was dark green, and her sister’s was deep crimson. The cat had golden eyes, and was completely black, except for a crescent-shaped mark on his forehead.

“So you’re the new Shinigami, huh?” the woman said. She sighed. “Might as well get on with it. I’m Kaname; the twins are Satsuki and Nadeshiko, and the cat’s Yue.”

Yue walked forward and jumped onto Yuuko’s shoulder. “I’ll go with this one,” he said.

“Whoa, the cat can talk!?” Keith exclaimed.

“Let’s not get into the technical stuff,” Yue replied, giving him a condescending look. “Let’s go, wanna-be Shinigami.”

“My name is Yuuko Nakahara,” Yuuko said, although she did follow the cat’s directions out of the building, which appeared to be a sort of shop, from the look of the first floor. Once out into the street, Yuuko looked around as the others came out.

“Now what?” Pietro asked. He seemed to have been paired up with Kaname, while Keith was with Satsuki, and Nadeshiko was with Sayaka.

“You look around for souls,” Nadeshiko said. Satsuki chimed in, “It’s easier to do from the tops of buildings.”

“We’re supposed to climb buildings on top of everything else?” Sayaka complained.

“No, you can jump,” Kaname said. “Try it.”

After a moment of silence, Yuuko said, “Here goes.”

She ran a few paces, and jumped. She flew several feet up into the air, and landed on the roof of an Italian restaurant.

“Wow!!” Keith exclaimed. “We can do that!?”

“You betcha!!” Satsuki said. “Yuuko and Yue are going that way, so let’s go this way, Keith!”

The others jumped to the roofs of buildings and took off, going in different directions. Yuuko was mildly surprised to see that the twins and Kaname had absolutely no problem keeping up with the Shinigami. Smiling slightly, she ran across the roof, picking up speed as she went. She found that she could easily jump from building to building, and stopped abruptly as she heard crying.

Looking around, she spotted a young girl around five years old standing in the road, crying. Yuuko jumped down by her, asking, “Hey, are you okay!?”

The girl continued crying as if she hadn’t heard her. Yuuko tried to touch the girl’s shoulder, but her hand passed through as if through water.

“She’s a real human,” Yue said. “A Shinigami can’t touch real humans, because they’re not really anything else than a ghost themselves.”

“She’s my daughter,” a voice said. Yuuko whirled around to see a woman with blood staining her face and clothes. Tears started running down the woman’s face. “Sarah, I’m so sorry!”

She tried to hold her daughter, but her hands passed through the crying girl. Then Yuuko realized what was going on.

“You’ve died, haven’t you?” she whispered.

The woman nodded. “Yes, I died last month. I got hit by a car right here. But I can’t just go and leave my daughter here!!”

Yue jumped down to the ground. Sarah noticed him, and knelt down, petting him as tears continued flowing.

“What do I do, kitty?” she asked. “Auntie will be mad at me for leaving, but I can’t find Mommy anywhere. Where are you, Mommy!?”

The woman sank to her knees. “How can I leave her here like this?! Tell me, if you know so much!! Tell me!!”

“I don’t know if once you leave for the afterlife, she’ll stop crying,” Yuuko said. “But if you stay here, you’ll turn into a demon. And if you turn into a demon, you won’t be able to control yourself from killing people. You might even wind up killing your daughter.”

The woman gasped. “I don’t want that to happen!! I’ll go. But tell me; is there any way to talk to her one last time before I go?”

“Yeah,” Yue said. Sarah’s eyes widened as she realized that the cat could talk. “Nakahara, use your mirror.”

Yuuko pulled her Soul Mirror out from the inside of her hakama. A faint white light appeared in the middle of the mirror, and then spread to the edges.

“Mommy?” Sarah asked, staring at her mother.

“Sarah!” the woman’s tears began flowing again, but this time they were happy tears. “Sarah, I’m sorry to leave you like this, but everything will be all right. I have to go far away now, but I’ll see you again someday.”

“Mommy, I don’t want you to go!!” Sarah exclaimed. “I want you to stay!”

“Don’t worry, Sarah,” the woman said. “Remember the music box I got you? All you have to do is listen to it, and I’ll be there, okay? Promise that you won’t cry because of me anymore?”

Sarah sniffed. “I promise!”

“Thank you, Sarah,” the woman said. She stood up, and turned to Yuuko. “I’m ready, but I don’t know how to get there.”

“What’s your name?” Yuuko asked.

“Emily. Emily Armstrong.”

“Emily, it’s simple,” Yuuko softly said. “All you have to do is look for the light.”

“I see it,” Emily said. She smiled as she closed her eyes. There was a shimmer of light, a breeze, and the soul had vanished.

 

“Will you please stop crying?!” Yue demanded. The two of them were standing outside the shop, waiting for the others to come back.

“Sorry,” Yuuko wiped her eyes again. “It was just so sad.”

“A fine Shinigami you’ll be,” Yue snorted. “You’re going to have to get used to it.”

“I know,” Yuuko answered. She spotted the others returning, and started over to them.

Suddenly, the ground started rumbling. A huge demon broke through the ground, and roared, towering over the buildings.

“What in the world?!” Yue shouted, the fur on his back standing straight up. “Kaname, this is the wrong demon!!”

“I know that already!!” Kaname yelled back. “This one is way too strong for them!!”

“Can’t we still fight it?” Pietro asked.

The demon turned towards him, a cruel smile spreading across its face. “OF COURSE YOU CAN STILL FIGHT ME, SHINIGAMI,” it said, licking his lips. “YOU’LL JUST PROBABLY WIND UP AS MY MEAL!!”

Yuuko suddenly shot forward, taking advantage of the demon’s preoccupation to get past him and towards the others. The demon’s tail flicked out towards her, making a hole in the wall of a building as Yuuko barely dodged it.

She slid to a stop by Satsuki, panting. “P.E. class was never my favorite,” she muttered, standing up straight and drawing her sword. “Kaname-san, what can we do to help get rid of this?”

“What?!” Nadeshiko shouted. “You can’t possibly hope to fight this thing and survive!!”

“She’s right!” Satsuki said. “You’re not full Shinigami yet! You don’t have the necessary powers to kill it!”

“Who cares?” Keith interrupted. He drew his sword and took a fighting stance. “It doesn’t really matter to me! It’s here, and if we don’t kill it, it’s going to kill people. That’s all I really need to know!”

Kaname sighed. “Use your mirrors to distract it! We can take it from there!”

The Shinigami pulled out their mirrors, but instead of a white light in the mirrors, it was a black light. The light shot forward, and surrounded the demon. The light showed the times that the demon had killed people, but most of them were when he was. . .

“. . .a human?” Sayaka asked.

“DIDN’T THEY TELL YOU?” the demon asked. “MOST DEMONS WERE HUMANS AT ONE POINT. THEY KILLED PEOPLE WHEN THEY WERE ALIVE, AND WERE SENT TO HELL. THERE, THEY WERE TURNED INTO DEMONS.”

“Turned into demons?” Keith said.

“AND DID YOU THINK THAT THIS LITTLE TRICK OF YOURS WOULD WORK ON ME?” the demon laughed. “I ENJOYED KILLING THOSE PEOPLE! THE FEEL OF MY KNIFE CUTTING THEIR SKIN, HEARING THEIR SCREAMS, I COULDN’T GET ENOUGH!! BUT THE POLICE FINALLY GOT ME, AND I GOT THE EXECUTION. BUT IT TURNED OUT OKAY, ‘CAUSE I GET TO KILL EVEN MORE PEOPLE!! OTHER SHINIGAMI TRIED TO USE THAT THING WITH THE MIRROR ON ME, BUT THEY WOUND UP AS MY FOOD. AS MANY OF YOU AS THERE ARE THIS TIME, I DON’T KNOW IF I’LL BE ABLE TO EAT ALL OF YOU!”

“You’ve got bad taste,” Sayaka said, trying to force her fear down.

“Why are you trembling?” a voice asked Yuuko.

Yuuko realized that she was standing in darkness, and couldn’t see anyone.

“Why are you trembling?” the same voice repeated. It sounded like a husky woman’s voice. Yuuko whirled around to see a woman with long black hair. She was dressed in what looked like ragged black hakama and had an empty sheath shoved through her belt. Her eyes were like two chips of obsidian, staring at Yuuko.

“I’m trembling because I’m scared!” Yuuko said. “And who are you?”

The woman ignored her question. “Why are you afraid? There is but one enemy, and there are people fighting with you. There is no reason for you to be afraid.”

“Because it’s a demon!!” Yuuko shouted. “I don’t have the power of a Shinigami! None of us do!! And that demon is a born killer!! Why shouldn’t I be afraid? And answer my question!! Who the heck are you?!”

The woman shook her head. “While you still tremble with fear, you have no right to know my name. When you are able to overcome your fear, and stand on your own two feet, then I will tell you my name. In the meantime. . .”

She suddenly vanished, reappeared behind Yuuko and whispered in her ear. “I will teach you a spell that you will be able to use at your current level of power.”

 

Kaname sighed. “With this homicidal maniac, it’s gonna be a little harder. Okay, Yue, I need you to. . .”

“Gatekeeper of Hell’s Gates, take back the spawn from whence it came,” Yuuko said. Her eyes were completely emotionless. She raised her right hand and pointed her sword at the demon. A ring of black light appeared around the demon. Black chains shot from the light and wrapped themselves around the demon.

“WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!?” the demon shouted.

Yuuko continued chanting the spell. “Let the voices of the thousands slain be heard! Let the red rivers of blood be seen!”

“How does she know that spell?” Kaname asked to no one in particular. Then she realized the answer.

Yuuko then said four words. “Shi No Ano Tamashii.”

“NOOO!!!!!!!” the demon screamed. Cracks appeared in the demon as the chains tightened, and the demon broke into pieces. The light and chains vanished as Yuuko fell forward, unconscious.

 

Tsunada sighed as she sat down. Behind her was a tree, about seven feet high, with the roots extending into the earth that was surrounded by tiles. The leaves of the tree were oval and silver colored, and the bark of the tree was smooth and dark brown.

She heard a clanking sound and turned her head to see Kaname walking into the room, carrying a crate with six glass jugs of sake in it.

“Hey, there,” Kaname said, sitting next to Tsunada. “I see that Yggdrasil is still doing well.”

“Yup,” Tsunada said, pulling out a jug and taking a swig from it. “So what’s your opinion? Did they pass?”

“You saw what happened,” Kaname said, glancing pointedly at the small crystal ball next to Tsunada. “Make your own decision for once.”

“I’d say that they passed,” Tsunada answered, taking a long drink of sake. “I assume that Nakahara is in the sick bay?”

“Took her there myself. She passed with a little over flying colors. The others barely squeaked by, though.” Kaname drained the last from a jug and set it down.

“Tell me something. You got that strong demon on purpose, didn’t you?”

“Was it that obvious?”

“The whole thing stank of a botched summoning,” Tsunada said, starting on her second jug. “And you don’t make mistakes, Kaname.”

“Oh, well. I wanted to see how their Sword Souls would react. I guess Yuuko’s is pretty dang powerful to be able to talk to her before the kid’s a full-fledged Shinigami.”

“Indeed. I wonder what else Yuuko Nakahara has in store.”

FINISH 

Edited September 11, 2007 by Ran Yoko