A little Break

Oriente 6, Heaven

When I woke up the next morning, for the first time in a long time, I could appreciate what it was like to get up without the fear that this might be my last day. There were no gunshots, no people running and shouting orders, no alarms or sirens; in fact, I could finally sleep a little longer if I wanted to. But I felt like I couldn't, maybe because I was sleeping in a completely unfamiliar place, like another planet, but most likely because I was standing next to a girl, a crystal angel, who looked at me intensely without saying a word.

"Say, when are you going to ask?" I said to Momo.

"????"
"Ask for what?"

"Come on, it's obvious, too obvious."
"Now I'm half a meter shorter, I have hair again, two mountains on my chest and a tail."
"What are you waiting for to ask?"

"Well, Stella told me a bit about the details of what happened to you."
"And I had already heard a bit about Nanami's story."
"So I thought maybe I should give you your space and not do anything until you were ready to talk about it."

"Oh, thanks for the consideration, I guess."
"The truth is, I feel like what happened is still very recent, and the lack of self-esteem I was already suffering from isn't really helping."
"So I prefer to keep my things to myself, at least until I see that my family is okay."
"....."
"After that, I don't know what to do, honestly."

"That's okay, I understand."
"Just take it easy, one step at a time."
"And if you have any problems, don't hesitate to tell me, I'll come to help as soon as I can."
"......"
"....."
"Hey, there's just one thing I can't stop thinking about."
"......"
"Tell me, have you thought about continuing to use your real name?"

"Uh? Excuse me?"
"I didn't understand the question."
"Cesar is a very masculine name, too masculine."
"And I was thinking about continuing to call you that, despite, well, you becoming a girl and with those big breasts," Momo mentioned as she touched my breasts.
"I don't think it's a good idea, a lot of people will start asking the questions you don't want, I suppose."
"So I thought maybe you should change your name, an alias at least."

"How about Elise, it's the same one that worked before, no one asked in those hard times."

"Are you sure to use Elise?"
"Don't you have memories of, well, Atlantis?"

"I don't like it, but I guess it's better than nothing."
"I can't think of anything better either, I'm not good with names."
"......"
"Can we change the subject?"
"Urakaze seemed to know you quite well, I'm sure you know something about her as well."

"Oh, well, about that, yes, a little."
"She's actually a friend of your father's, though I have no idea how they met."
"Every now and then they meet at a casino on Avesta 7 to trade rare collectibles and such."

"That's curious, but I'm more interested in why she's always wearing armor and carrying a katana."

"Oh, that's much more interesting!"
"Urakaze is well known here thanks to her hotel."
"But she's much better known as a Yokai hunter."
"You know, demon and monster hunters and all that stuff."
"Urakaze was perhaps the least known hunter of her time when she was alive."
"But she was the most important hunter during the hunt for Tamamo-no-mae."
"Urakaze managed to single-handedly stop the powerful and evil kitsune goddess long enough for the other two great elite hunters to arrive in time to defeat her."
"Unfortunately, she died from her injuries and has been here in the heavens ever since."
"From what I've heard, even though she's been here all this time, the hotel itself isn't as old as she claims."
"Rafael says it's a trick by Urakaze to attract more customers."
"The katana she uses is the same one she used to fight the evil goddess."
"......"
"She even once pawned it to Rafael in exchange for money to buy the car she used yesterday."

"I kind of suspected something like that after hearing that she is in debt to my father for the hotel."
"....."
"I just want to go home."
"Tell me, how long do I have to wait for the portals to be repaired so that I can return?"

"After what happened and the damage?"
"They have to bring some delicate spare parts from another solar system, so it'll take several days for them to arrive."
"And considering the repairs, it won't be easy either."
"I think about a month in Earth time."

"A MONTH!?"
"I can't stay here for a month!"
"I have to find my sister!"
"The poor girl is alone in the hospital, and my mother can't visit her all the time."
"I have to go back and make sure Stella hasn't screwed up like her sister."

"Hey, there's not much we can do right now."
"Why don't you sit down and relax for a while? I'm sure a tired soldier could use it."
"Just think of it as a vacation."

"Momo, please, the last time I spoke to her was a month before the battle of Oslo."
"And that was last year, I'm told."
"My family must think I'm dead."

"Well, actually, they don't think you're dead."
"They're sure of it now."
"Your funeral was 8 months ago."
"Cedric took a risk and managed to get into the Imperial-controlled city just to retrieve your body and deliver it to your mother."

"This is even worse!"
"I have to get out of here!"

"You know what, do what you want."
"Right now I'm in a hotel and I want to enjoy it after all the trouble I went through to get you out of there."
"I need to relax, my hands are still shaking from the nerves."
"So I'm going to take a bath in the hot springs first."
"Don't you want to go too and enjoy the view?"

"????"
"What view? You're transparent, there's nothing to see."
"Sure, when you swim underwater, you're completely invisible."
"Besides, you're always naked, what's so special about .....?"

I only managed to see a translucent punch right in my face for half a second, it was so hard to see that I could not react.

"MORON," the angel said as she ran away crying.

After recovering from the blow, I left the room to have breakfast. I was quite hungry and couldn't describe the feeling of joy that filled me when I saw an all-you-can-eat buffet that I could try to finish. The only question was what to start with. But after careful consideration, I made my request fully thought out and planned.

"I want the meat sandwich with vanilla ice cream, also 2 pieces of fried chicken and all covered in chocolate, please!"

" Gaining fat for the winter?" a girl behind me said.

"Urakaze"
"What? What are you doing here?"

"Just making sure you order something expensive to charge your father later."
"Don't you want ice cream wrapped in gold?"

"No, why would I want that?"
"I don't want to get food poisoning."

"Actually, I came to make an important announcement regarding your stay."
"It was something I overlooked yesterday, but after checking on your... current state of health."
"I'm afraid I can't let you take advantage of your situation to cause more problems with the other female guests."
"Therefore, you will not be allowed to use the hot springs outside your designated hours, which are from one in the morning to six in the morning."

"Early morning? Who the hell would use the hot springs at that time?"

"Nobody, that's the point."

"Fuc... of course"
"I will follow the rules."

"Other than that, don't hesitate to contact me if you need anything."
"No matter what it is, I can help you, for a good fee of course."

"......"
"You know, maybe there is something."
"Anyway, I don't think I'll lose anything by asking."
"....."
"You said you were a collector, right?"
"Surely you have contacts here and there."
"Tell me, do you happen to know a way to get back to Earth?"
"Possibly in less than a month or so?"

"Hm, since the high-voltage transformer of the portal terminal is broken, it cannot be used."
"It's not that the portals themselves are damaged."
"It's just that at the moment, there is nothing that can provide the necessary power to turn them on."
"I imagine that if you manage to solve the power problem, Momo can surely modify the terminal to bring you back to the land of the living."

"And what kind of power are we talking about?"
"Does it take 1.21 gigawatts? To reach 88 miles per hour maybe? A blue telephone booth?"

"Cesar, these numbers are small in comparison."
"There are 3 spaceships parked in the hotel parking lot."
"How much energy do you think those things can generate just for one jump?"
"And yet their consumption is ridiculous compared to what a portal uses."
"That's why its maintenance and use is so delicate, we're talking about amounts of energy like the kind of numbers small children usually play with."
"We're talking about a portal that can constantly distort the reality around it."
"The only way to get one started is with something capable of doing something similar."
"A black hole maybe?"

"Hell, I don't think even the Atlanteans had something like that."
"....."
"Damn, I need to get back to my sister and mother, at least tell them I'm okay."

"....."
"Hey, needing something that distorts reality doesn't mean it's impossible."
"....."
"There are people who are easily capable of such things."
"The hard part is convincing them to help you."

"And who might that be? A speedster?"

"A god."
"Surely you know them, those kind of legends and ...."

"Yes, yes, I have an idea of what a god is."
"The face and the way you speak may not help, but I'm no idiot."
"You know, I used to be a bit of a god myself. For about five minutes, anyway."
"But how do you expect me to convince a god to act like a human battery for five minutes?"

"Gods don't like to interfere or be disturbed at all; most of them are like hermits."
"They're more like a concept than a living being, they almost don't like to exist at all."
"But I think if you told them you could convince your father to give you VIP tickets to the New Year's Eve party, you would have a very powerful bargaining chip."
"If it were within my reach, I would offer myself to sell those tickets at a golden price."

"Why does this place work in such a strange way?"

"Well, you could say that people around here find important events quite valuable."
"....."
"Hey, I actually know someone who can help you."
"There's a god who lives in a village about 10 kilometers from here."
"His name is Takamimusubi, a god of agriculture who likes a relaxed environment but also likes to party."
"He has some land nearby, a rice plantation, If you go there and mention your problem, he might help you."

"Do you really think he will help me?"

"Well, it's either that or wait for the portal to be fixed in the usual way."

"All right, I'll try to talk to him and see how it goes."

"He lives in the village further up the dirt road to the north."
"Remember to turn right at the intersection, and then it's just straight ahead."
"He lives in the only white house in the village; you can't miss it."

"Thanks, I'll go after breakfast."

"Oh, and one more thing!"
"Normally on Earth it would be the middle of winter, but on this planet the seasons are a little delayed."
"Don't let the beautiful reds of the trees fool you, this is just the beginning of winter."
"It could snow at any moment, so keep that in mind when you go out."

After eating like a king for breakfast, I made my way to the place Urakaze had told me about, and I could see that she was right about it being almost winter here. You could probably see the first snowfall along with the cold weather. Even though the clothes I was wearing were military, they weren't the best for being outside in a snowstorm. I should get something warmer and maybe a scarf on my way back. According to Urakaze, the seasons on this planet are a bit delayed compared to Earth. According to the calendar, we are at the beginning of February.

"Very well, this must be the crossroads. Now I have to go north if I turn right.

Now that I think about all this weather, surely in my home country it would be right in the middle of summer, with its high temperatures, lack of rain, and dry plants. A good time to go to the beach, no doubt.

I also wonder what happened to my mom. I'm sure she's still living in our old house, but hey, we've lived there our whole lives, so no one's complaining. Maybe she's the president of that law firm where she used to be a secretary, or maybe she's helping someone with a political campaign. Knowing her, she may be working in a new place or may have become her own boss. She's not really into politics; in fact, she originally studied to be a teacher. She started working as a secretary simply because she was good at math and taking notes for reminders, but she was definitely quite good at it. Despite her job, she always put our family first. My mother wasn't someone who was particularly interested in her work, she was just very good at it. In fact, she enjoyed cooking or keeping up with neighborhood activities much more. She didn't earn too much, but her job was only out of necessity, with the sole purpose of helping to pay for my sister's treatment at the hospital. Even then, it wasn't enough, which is why my father finally took that job as a bodyguard.

"Okay, now I have to turn right at the intersection to go north."

Speaking of Maria, I wonder what she is doing now? I imagine she is still in that hospital in Japan. Damn, I can't believe I've been sleeping in a box for almost a year. Maybe she's been released by now. Maybe my mother had to go all the way to Japan to pick her up from the hospital, but it was the only place that could treat her because even the best hospital in our country didn't have what was needed to treat her illness. Japan came up as an option because it was the cheapest place and it wasn't in North America or Europe, which were starting to get crowded because of the continental war. How rare was her disease? Well, the doctors let Maria call it "Kiss of the Rose" for no particular reason.

I imagine Maria probably spends her time practicing magic tricks or reading a copy of that black book she printed or transcribed by hand. She loved that thing and pretended to be a real magician when she was little. She even used to annoy the doctors with supposed spells she created while being treated, like when she tried to do that trick of destroying a bill in front of an audience and ended up actually tearing it up. It was pretty funny to see her cry when my mom lied to her and said the police were coming to arrest her for it. Damn, I'm still laughing just thinking about it.

But as my laughter subsided and I took a few more painful steps, I stopped dead in my tracks. I had already walked quite a distance, but I still couldn't see anything of the city I was looking for. In fact, I was now surrounded only by a path that pretended to be a road and a huge forest, thick with the red of the trees and fallen leaves.

I was completely lost now, without the slightest idea how I got here, and since the whole forest looked the same, I couldn't tell where the hell I came from.

"Let me guess, I am in the part of the forest full of traps that the hunters left behind and that Urakaze told me not to approach."

Don't panic. I am just in the farthest place from home I will ever be in my life, I can get out of this easily. I mean, I've been through worse, unfortunately for me. The only thing I have to do is go back through the forest where I came from, which looks the same everywhere, or like plan B, go south, except I don't have a compass and I have no idea which way the sun is pointing on this planet.

So right now the best thing I can do is find a river and follow it until I get to a house or a town.

Seeing the advantages of having a bigger pair of fox ears, I can hear better, so I hear a river a few moments after I start looking. After walking along it for a few minutes, I came across what might be my way out of this situation.

I had come across a small Japanese temple, the kind where a god is supposed to live. Although it seemed strange to me, because when we are in this far away place, it would be normal to see a big temple and not a small, uncomfortable and forgotten one; besides, this temple was quite dilapidated and even the weeds were growing under the floor, no doubt it was not a place that people visited often, and there seemed to be no path to get here. So my situation hadn't changed much.