Namkaverse Stranger of the Night

Chapter 1

June 25, 2008, in Tokyo, Japan at around 11:30pm.

The sounds of traffic echo through the cold air while the lights fill the dark with a faint, but lively glow.

Ruby and I took a stroll to the mart where she could buy some knickknacks here and there, and as well as her favorite snacks in the cookie aisle. I only got a bottle of water from the refrigerator aisle just because I was thirsty after a long plane ride to Japan while Ruby was looking over at the magazine shelves. After a few moments of window-shopping, I was at the cashier at that time.

"I'm just gonna take my leave." Ruby said as I drank my bottle of water.

"M'kay." I replied as I leaned towards the counter a bit.

I looked to the side and saw a magazine featuring the Lights Up Audition. I crouched a bit and grabbed the magazine from the shelf just because I am around 7"5. The articles explained about the artists of NSR and the latest news about what's going on at Vinyl City. The magazine alone reminded me of when I was in my own universe where every music genre, including rock, rules NSR. It almost feels like I was back home.

The reminiscence of not returning home seems to be a bummer to me because I missed all of the artists in my universe as well as a majority of my friends and fans there. I wished that I didn't went to that portal behind the concert, but it's already too late to do it now.

I was about to purchase the magazine until I smelled something in the air. Something that I probably find uncommon, perhaps for a formal event. My head turn to Ruby with suspicion, knowing that something is up.

"Hey, Ruby," I asked her, "have you worn any fragrance recently?"

Ruby turned to me and thought about it a bit.

"I think so," She responded, "why did you asked?"

"It smells rather…" I continued to sniff the air for a better context of the scent, but my cheeks slightly glowed once I smelled the rich scent of teakwood, lavender, and patchouli in the air, "umm… how do I put this…rather....masculine."

I covered my mouth with one hand, looking towards the side while Ruby scratched her head in confusion. The aroma was enough to make me swoon over someone, whoever wears that strong fragrance.

I cleared my throat to snap out of being barely enamored by that mysterious scent and inspected the cause of it.

"Whatever or whoever is emitting this scent seems pretty suspicious..." I processed, my hand on my chin as I walked over to Ruby.

"Pardon, Ruby." I picked up her cape and started smelling the fabric to identify if the fragrance came from her; it appears that she wasn't emitting the scent. The fragrance was floral, but not as strong as the one lingering in the air. It seems weird to see a tall person like me sniffing someone's cape while investigating the cause of this masculine scent. I then let go of her cape and apologized again.

"It's alright." Ruby nods her head as I looked around the area.

"I don't want to inspect the other customers here because they...might call me a creep for doing that..." I considered, "Then if that's the case, I will use my radar to find where this is coming from."

My right eye activates to its radar mode to track the strength of the fragrance. The pings appear, showing a dot on the top right corner of the radar.

"It's coming from.... " I was pondering a bit until I spotted where the scent gets stronger. "Outside the building." I pointed towards the entrance to the mart, "Come on!"