As the Japanese government discovers a mysterious artifact with 4 hidden worlds in it, they send a criminal, anti-social hacker against his will with an additional operation team into the worlds to obtain the 4 keys to decrypt the artifact. Discove...
Location: 3. World (Yūgure), inside the PAST-portal
[from Kaito's perspective]
Crap. The arm had caught me. I should have concentrated better, I should have been more careful. I shouldn't have let myself be distracted, I should have been stronger. Smarter and stronger, and better.
What now? Do I still have a chance to get out again? Back to the doorway? Or was I trapped here forever ...
What would happen here? The arm was called PAST, past ...
Suddenly arms appeared from all sides and clutched me. Immediately I felt a sharp pain. They twitched around in front of my eyes, and soon I could no longer see anything. I didn't know whether I had gone blind or if my field of vision was simply covered.
Unexpectedly, the pain stopped. At the same time I got my eyesight back again. I looked around. I was...
On a playground.
In front of a playground.
A sign reading 'Donated by the Old-Tokyo-Youth welfare' greeted newcomers. Then a gravel-covered path led into the playground, grass grew beside the paths, and trees and bushes overgrew a few larger hills. There was a place back there with climbing and seating options, there was a large wooden castle with a slide and two towers... a little further away, two swings.
I knew this place. Only too well. I had always played with Yuri here, when we were allowed to go out into the fresh air, under supervision. We had always let off steam at the castle there, climbed up and down the three floors of one tower, tried to stumble from the bridge to the other tower, but often fell into the sand. Then we'd thrown stones at each other and had cried, argued, and reconciled again. Past...
What would happen now?
The answer was a loud scream. "Kaito! Come down, you coward!"
Yuri jumped around on the climbing place, she was currently on a kind of spider web made of ropes. I followed her look, and saw myself. My younger version. Little Kaito rolled around on a hill, with a water pistol in his hand.
"Why should I be the coward? I have the gun!"
Yuri cheered happily. "Who said I didn't have one too?"
She pulled out a large water rifle and aimed it at her brother. With a splash, Kaito was knocked down by a wave. "Where did you get that from? It doesn't even belong to us," asked the snorting, astonished boy.
"Found it behind the hills with the dead trees!"
Kaito, who had looked like a wet cat before, was beaming with happiness. "That's great, Yuri! Then we have even more options to play!"
Another person appeared out of nowhere. Niretsu?
No, not really. It was a rather fat woman with a wrinkled, bad-tempered face and scratched glasses.
"Put that back immediately!" She yelled at Yuri. "That belongs to someone else and you mustn't steal!"
Yuri started to cry. "But surely he has forgotten and lost it, and whoever finds it, then it belongs to him!"
"Silence! You obey me, is that clear? Put the crap back, otherwise there will be no more food for the next few days! Your little brat eats too much anyway, and in return we don't even get a speck of dust!"
Kaito approached the two. He went up to the teacher and held up his hands. "Here, take this one if you want one that much!"
In his hand he held a few bits of dust, stone and sand.
The older woman got angry. "Are you trying to fool me??"
She knocked the dirt out of his hand, then she raised her hand to slap his face.
Kaito ducked the blow and ran away. Yuri followed her brother.
The woman started screaming. "Stay here! You are nothing, you are just little fuckers who live at the expense of us! We educate you, you brats !!!"
Everything went dark, the scene flickered and shortly afterwards Kaito found himself alone again. It was completely black, not even the white paint was on the floor.
But something appeared there, it looked like a ...
The swings.
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I approached them. Only the swing frame and the gravel on the ground could be seen, stones limited the place.
The rest was swallowed up in darkness.
What's the meaning of this?I sat on the left swing.
At the same moment voices appeared.
"Catch Me If You Can!"
"Love you, Yuri"
"Why are the people here so mean?"
"I don't like this place"
"Stop it! Hihi, that tickles! Hihi"
"Yuri, should we leave? Just leave everything behind?
"IT'S YOUR FAULT! ONLY YOURS!"
"THEY DIED BECAUSE OF YOU!"
I jumped up, away from the seat. Gasped, breathed, calmed down. Shit, the pain spread all over me. I remembered all the fights with Yuri, all the fond memories with her, staying awake until after midnight, even though we had no longer been allowed to stay up. The birthdays we had celebrated, we had found things on the street and gave them to each other because the home thought birthdays were nonsense.
The ups and downs...
Her death.
My loneliness...
Wouldn't it be a lot easier to stay here? Here, maybe I could go on living here. With Yuri ... In this world, if I stayed here, would she live again? And if it were only here ... and if I just had to watch her play with my young self ... that would be enough for me ... I wouldn't be lonely anymore ... I would have everything I need. Into eternity ...
The thought beckoned me, twisted around me, itched and scratched. Grabbed me, held on to me. Planted itself, took possession of me.
Wait, no, what was I thinking!
I roared in fear of death. "AWAY FROM ME !! THIS IS FALSE, FALSE, SO FALSE !! I WILL NOT LIVE IN THE PAST, I WANT THE TRUTH !!"
All of a sudden a hand tore me down. Screaming, I fell down into nothingness, I fell and fell forever, shouting for help, for hold. But the flight did not stop, I fell endlessly and there was nothing I could do about it.
After years of falling, the fall stopped abruptly. My thoughts gathered again, and at some point I realized my surroundings again.
I was in front of the door again, in the middle of the way
The PAST-arm rattled and slackened, and withdrew into the depths of its world.
