~~~

On the sun-coated shore of Lake Suwa, with a half-chewed sign that said in giant kanji LAKE SUWA on his left, and a pale woman singing, ‘oh, how great it is to be beside Lake Suwa,’ on the right, Miho stretched out his arms and

turned upwards to Aya in the floating cloud

asking if she was gonna stay there all day or come down and join him for a swim.

‘Too many walls,’ she replied, drifting up into a collection of larger clouds

vanishing completely as the sky turned lilac

and the lake became a bathtub

guarded by a tall ashigaru on one side and some kind of metal beast on the other, the latter beeping instead of talking, beeping at Miho, each beep strong enough to force him back onto the softest futon he’d ever touched

then the beeps became words, accented Japanese from the tall ashigaru, saying

‘do you require help with your brain?’

‘My bra-…’

‘Or a glass of water perhaps?’

Miho fed the questions into his core and shrieked as they turned on him, morphing purple and swirly and across the room

the bathtub became an onsen

out of which another figure crawled

yellow-skinned and familiar, smiling like a Shinto fundamentalist as they tossed a stone up and down in the air, informing Miho in rapid fire bites that he was out of the swamp and safe now in a real hospital, no more Atashhka or Sessskat or petty Palak monks

or humans for that matter

cos he was home turf…on home turf…would be on home turf soon enough

and that’s why the robot was beeping in such a jejune tone

to share in the joy of reunion

drink replicated shōchū

bathe him if necessary

massage his temples, grind out the rotten psych, sing old Vohyangah melodies and maybe some Huxx rhymes too, if Miho wanted it

if he stopped flailing his arms about

stopped struggling so much

screaming at the-

~~~

Watching the ghost kanji of scream fade off into the blackness of the dreamscape, Miho counted out a few more seconds in his head, forced in a backdrop of generic ryokan bedroom scenery, then slowly, reluctantly opened his left eye.

Before him was around seventy-six per cent of what he’d imagined: a lit okiandon, a window with one door panel slid across, and a painting on the wall opposite of a mountain he didn’t recognise.

Beyond that, in the ether of the small room, a faint melody played out, the instruments involved vaguely Japanese.

Satisfied that he wasn’t still in the insane tumult of the nightmare he’d just endured, he opened the other eye. Re-scanned the environment. Then tried to sit up.

Something tightened instantly in his chest, forcing him back down with one hand clutching where he guessed his heart was.

Kuso…

Rationing out a few recovery breaths, he waited until the pain had dissipated then attempted to sit up again, this time slowly. Ah, a little better, but still not completely comfortable.

He held his hand against his chest for a full minute, making sure there wouldn’t be any recurrences, then looked around the tatami for his clothes.

‘Not good…’ he muttered after scanning the whole room twice and seeing nothing except the okiandon, the painting of the unknown peak and the half-open window space.

Wait, shouldn’t there be a breeze coming out of that?

It wasn’t that far off winter, there should’ve been some kind of air flow circulating in and out of the room, yet, holding his hand out closer to the gap, he felt nothing.

Weird, he thought, squinting at the dark sky through the open space. Maybe this place…wherever it was…had other buildings surrounding it, blocking the wind?

He had no idea, elemental forces weren’t his strong point, or even a point…but he did know that every ryokan he’d ever been in had produced some kind of wind effect.

‘Ah, the hero rises…’ interjected a voice in slightly skewed Japanese, supplemented quickly by the face of a beaming yellow demon that, even in his dazed state, Miho recognised as the one he’d met in the…at the…somewhere he’d stayed before Lake Suwa. Ah, the other Miho, the lunatic worship couple…the yellow guy they’d conjured up under the wood shack. That was it. Though he couldn’t for the life of him remember the demon’s name.

‘No, no, don’t try to get up, you might aggravate the wound again. And we’ve already lost a day to that.’

‘A day…’ Miho mumbled, trying to think back.

‘No heavy thinking either. Doctor’s command.’

The yellow demon in a black yukata strolled as far as the okiandon then stopped and patted the little light fixture on its paper scalp, which ordinarily would’ve provoked a flickering of the flame inside. However, in this case, it didn’t do anything. At all.

Still smiling like a loon, they held up a hand and beckoned the other two figures at the door to come in farther, and when they did, Miho saw clearly that a] they were also wearing black yukatas, a ryokan uniform perhaps, and b] one was quite a stern-looking Japanese woman and the other, another yellow-skinned demon.

Which meant…what?

He dropped back, reaching a hand up to his temple and missing…then settling for a grinding of his forehead instead. There were a thousand questions in his mind and he had no clue how to ask any of them. Or which to prioritise. Hadn’t he been stabbed by someone, before this? He had the memory of it, quite clear…Aya behind him, another girl in front…yet after that…nothing.

But the stabbing part…the pain in his chest just now…that was real.

Wasn’t it?’

‘Young Miho…’ said the yellow demon, taking a tower of very thick books from the other yellow demon and bringing them over to the futon. ‘It’s obvious that you’re struggling to put an order to things. I can see it on your face. The way you’re pushing those knuckles into your forehead. Not that I’m an expert on human psychology or body language…’

‘Where am I?’ asked Miho, pausing the self-massage. ‘What is…this? This room? Here?’

‘All good questions. Albeit, technically the same one four times. Never mind. You’re still concussed to some extent, I suppose. Now, location. The good news is…you are safe and among friends.’

‘Where?’

‘Yes, yes, I’m getting to that. But first…do you remember anything before coming here? A whirlpool perhaps? Or a strange metal figure emitting sporadic beeping noises?’

‘Not really…’

The yellow demon glanced back at the two assistants, screwing up their nose bridge and letting out a whistled breath. ‘Okay. Do you remember the stone I gave you, to drop in water in the case of extreme danger?’

‘The stone…yes. You said it would bring you back from your world…to help me.’

‘Good, good. So you do know that I’m from a different world.’

‘But I don’t recall using it. Or taking it out of my-…no wait a second. I did take it out. The girl…she stabbed me and I-…my hand had it…the stone.’

The yellow demon crouched down next to Miho’s pillow, placing himself awkwardly into a sitting position on the small hill of books. It was a bit odd as they weren’t wearing socks yet had no qualms about sticking their feet out over Miho’s stomach.

‘Ah, that’s better…’

‘Did you rescue me?’ asked Miho, pulling his body higher up the futon. ‘From the lake?’

‘Actually, you rescued yourself.’

‘Me? But I was stabbed, how could I-…’ Miho paused, his brain filtering in the face and torso of Aya to his lake memory. ‘Wah, I completely forgot. Aya…she was there too. She must’ve saved me.’ Another neuron flicked on, FIND AYA, and he followed it, looking over at the window, then the door, then the ceiling, flinching when he saw not Aya but some blue flecks of light dancing near one of the beams.

What the-…

‘Yes, the Sessskat is safe, do not worry. In fact, if you could calm your breathing for a second, and power down the searchlight, I will give you a brief summary of all that has happened. Then we can really talk. About certain topics, at least. What do you say?’

Miho watched the mysterious blue light insects for a few more seconds then turned back to the very sincere face of the yellow demon and acted out some pretty unconvincing long-form breaths.

‘Good, then here we go. A quick summary. You got stabbed. Almost died. Opened the portal. Came to my world. Got your wound fixed by superior Huxx technology. Had a few relapses. Now you’re okay, but still need another day or two for psychological repair and baseline catch-up.’

Miho blinked twice, three times, waiting for the gaps between the incredibly short sentences to fill themselves in. When that didn’t happen, and he saw the yellow demon staring back at him, head tilted, mouth half open, he blinked again.

‘I assume you understand the word summary. Yes?’

Miho nodded.

‘Okay then, let’s see, what else? The term Huxx is probably unfamiliar to you…but that’s simple enough. I am a species called Huxx, as is my friend over there. Say hello Mon Uhk.’

The other yellow demon did nothing at first, then, after some cajoling from their fellow Huxx, reluctantly raised their left hand, mumbling, ‘hello,’ in perfect Japanese. No, not perfect, more like incongruous, as if there were an actual Japanese man inside their throat sending out the words.

‘Of course,’ continued the Huxx boss, coughing to regain Miho’s attention, ‘my given name is Ya Ying, not very hard to remember, and my other friend over there is called Joooon. Yes, I know what you’re probably thinking, and no, she’s not human. Vohyangah is her type designation. Voh-yan-gah. Does that sound familiar to you?’

Miho looked at the very Japanese-looking Joooon and instantly replaced her face with that of a slightly irritated Aya.

‘No?’

‘My friend, Aya…where is she?’

‘Ah, concern for the Sessskat, how sweet. As I already said, she is safe and well, and, if traffic is kind, most likely halfway to Nheen by now. That’s the Sessskat home nation, by the way. Well, the Eastern cut of it. Which is also a schism itself to some degree. Ah, don’t worry about that now, it’s all in the books here.’ Ya Ying leaned back and tapped the books they were perched on. ‘You will notice that the pictures and text are quite large on the cover…and that continues in the content inside as they were primarily written for Huxx children.’

Miho watched Ya Ying pull one of the books out from under their ass and flick through the first few pages. Although the characters weren’t kanji, or any other language he recognised, they were still comprehensible somehow. As in, he could read and understand exactly what each page was saying. Could translate it into Japanese without thinking about it.

Huh?

‘As you can see, it’s all very straightforward in terms of grammar and vocabulary, yet…unless you remember more than you’re letting on…the concepts may pose more than a few problems.’

Ya Ying stopped on a page with some kind of dark green tower stretching up into the heavens, pointing at the Huxx text. ‘The space elevator allows easy and convenient access to the UP station in orbit. This is where the ships come and go from all the new colonies in our solar system.’

Miho read the words, heard Ya Ying vocalise them, and still didn’t understand a single thing.

Solar system?

Elevator?

‘It’s okay, you still have a day or two to digest it all. And we’ll keep Joooon and Mon Uhk outside your door overnight, in case you try to do something impulsive.’

‘Impulsive?’

‘Like eject yourself out of the airlock.’

‘Air look?’

Ya Ying closed the book and patted the two cartoon suns on the cover, then placed it down on the tatami next to Miho’s arm. ‘We’ll talk about it more tomorrow. For now, all you need to do is rest, and when you’re resting, read these books. Hopefully, some residual memory will start to seep in. If not, there’s always the nanobots.’

Miho mouthed back the words nanobots and said, ‘tomorrow, more talk.’ Then closed his eyes and brought back the void. He stayed there for almost a full minute, trying to put into order everything he’d just been told. But nothing would stay where it was supposed to be, and then the new concepts starting brawling with the old ones and he had no choice but to give up and open his eyes again.

‘Will I be able to see Aya…before I go back home?’

‘See her? That might be difficult.’

‘Why?’

‘Hmm. You haven’t met many Sessskat types before, have you? They’re notoriously individualistic. Selfish, some will say. Not keen on forming long term bonds at all.’

‘No, it’s different with Aya…we’re friends.’

‘She told you that?’

Miho opened his mouth…then closed it again quickly when the lie refused to come out.

‘I see. Well, let’s just wait and see if she calls back. How about that?’

‘You can’t find her yourself, with the stone?’

‘Not at all how that works, my young friend.’

‘But-…’

Ya Ying pulled himself up and gave a hand signal to Joooon and Mon Uhk, apparently dismissing them as they turned sharply, re-adjusted their yukatas a little then exited the room. ‘You will understand more tomorrow. And I will be here to answer all your questions. In the meantime, lie back and read. Learn about this world.’

Miho looked up at the yellow demon’s face, the blue light bugs still flickering beyond them.

‘And on the off chance that you crawl as far as the window…’ added the Huxx, moving over to the panel and pausing a moment before sliding it all the way open. ‘This is where you are now. Off planet, up in the stars. Band-aid gone.’

Blinking like he’d just been woken up by a pushy belt salesman carrying a temple-sized okiandon, Miho peered through the gap between the wall and Ya Ying’s arm, telling himself that it was Kyushu at night as the dome structures in the background sat cocooned by infinite night sky. Then scolding himself as another part of his brain broke in, announcing that this was a Huxx colony in space, somewhere out near the Butterfly Nebula. But those words were gibberish, while Kyushu at night was comfortable and reassuring and much more what he wanted to settle down with.

‘I’ll leave you to it then, Miho,’ said Ya Ying, heading back across the room. ‘Remember, read as much as you can…with an open mind. Don’t let reflex fear derail you. And don’t try to climb out the window, the forcefield there is quite strong. Ah, forcefield…can’t mention that either…’

The Huxx cursed to himself in some other language then pushed at the door panel…cursing again when it didn’t budge. ‘Tomorrow. Just wait until tomorrow.’

After Ya Ying had gone and the door was slid shut, Miho sat up and crawled on his knees over to the window.

Stared out into the impossible abyss.

Kyushu at night, he repeated inside, ignoring the voice deeper down that appeared to be laughing at him.

But the laughter grew louder and more insistent and, coupled with the fact that he knew for sure this was the demon world, Kyushu at night could do nothing else except disintegrate into imaginary pieces.

And what was left was…space.

In the Butterfly nebula.

On a Huxx colony.

Not a dream.

Kuso.

He stared out at the planet surface again, counting the dome structures, the blocks floating up and up and out into the stars, then turned back to the futon and fixed eyes on the books.

‘Learn about this world…’ he whispered, moving back over, sitting down on the pillow, glancing up at the blue flecks of light…then pulling over the first book and reading out the alien title.

‘Our Solar System And All Its Life-Forms [With Pictures].’