The Lost Outworlders

Eyes

Ermac was worried his glowing, green eyes would capture the attention of the Nihongo, but his fears dissipated two blocks from the alley. The surrounding crowd was filled with much stranger individuals,--men in costumes, heavily tattooed men, and women with the most peculiar body enhancements--so he doubted he would stand out at all.

It was a while until the soul keeper's new companion deemed the walk too silent and awkward. "U-um..." she stuttered, getting his attention. "What is your name?"

"Ermac," he stated, simply. He felt as though he should say more, "What is yours?" That seemed right.

"Misaki," she said after a pause, "Misaki Ana."

"Misaki Ana," Ermac repeated, "How much further?" They had been walking for a while. About half an hour at least.

"It's a bit far," she said hesitantly, "We're about halfway there."

"Mmm," Ermac hummed. They lapsed back into silence. Ermac took advantage of the quiet to sightsee/analyze his surroundings.

They were walking down a sidewalk, accompanied by many other Nihongo. Ermac never seemed to find a place where there weren't people. Nihon must be a heavily populated area.

Were he a regular person, the lights would be giving him an incredible headache. Lights everywhere of all colors. It was actually kind of annoying. He did abruptly switch from a realm which had yet to accept electricity to a realm that was advanced beyond even its own preparation.

"Misaki," Ermac suddenly said, startling said woman, "You have avoided looking at us since we departed. Is something amiss?" He looked down at her, only now noticing how short she was. She barely reached his chest.

"N-no," she said but still avoided eye contact. "J-just..." Ermac had deduced by now that Misaki was very shy. "What are you?"

A bold question for a "shy" woman.

Ermac hesitated, "That answer must wait until we reach our destination," she still didn't look at him, "but we must inform you," she tilted her head slightly in his direction; progress, "we are not of this realm."

Surprisingly, she answered with a quiet, "Realm?"

"As we said," Ermac replied, "we will explain once we reach the shrine." He realized he had a lot more explaining to do than he thought.

Before the silence afterwards became too long, he asked, "What gods do Earthrealmers worship?" It was something he'd wondered for years. He knew of Raiden, and the Kahn had told him of Buluc and the Mayans. But when Ermac asked Erron what gods resided in Earthrealm, the gunslinger answered with an abrupt, "None."

"Oh," Misaki seemed surprised he asked this, but excited to answer, "Well here in Japan, there are three main religions: Christianity, Buddhism, and Atheism."

Well, she seems to find this subject interesting. The Earthrealmers would say that she "finally came out of her shell."

Misaki continued, "Christians worship God, like, the God, and Jesus Christ, his son. Buddhists follow the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, Buddha. They're usually real peace lovers..." she suddenly stopped talking and began to blush. "I-I'm sorry. I talk too much. I'm probably annoying you." Misaki began to lapse back into silence.

"No, please," Ermac surprised her yet again, "We find this quite interesting. Tell us more. What is Aethism?"

"A-the-ism," she corrected him and smiled. She then continued, "It's the belief of nothing. As in there is no god, and life is meaningless."

"That sounds awful," Ermac interjected, "Who would wish to live in a world without gods?"

"Actually," Misaki argued, "some people believe gods to be dictators. Controlling everything and everyone. Put that way and religion is kind of scary."

"You may be right," Ermac sympathized. He found that he was actually enjoying learning about Earthrealm religions. "You seem to know much about religion."

She finally looked him in the eyes; only slightly hesitating at the fact that his glowed. "Thank you. I'm training to become a theologist when I graduate." Misaki Ana had dark brown eyes to go with her lighter brown hair. Her facial structure was similar to the other Nihongo, but eyes were always unique. Somehow, he knew that he would never forget those eyes.

"Tell us more," Ermac, for reasons he couldn't explain, wanted Misaki to keep talking. Like he almost enjoyed conversing with her. "What are the shrines for?"

Misaki's brown eyes shone when she began to explain. "That's not so much as religion as a superstition. See, there's many gods that we go to for knowledge, fortune, and strength..."

Forty-five minutes of talking about theology later, the duo finally made it to the Kumano shrine.

It was much larger than Ermac expected. Though, he did expect something small like a statue or a totem of sorts; not an entire set of buildings.

Ermac walked her to the door of one of the larger buildings. However, he stopped before walking up the steps.

"We owe you an explanation, if you still wish to hear it." Misaki sat down on the steps and nodded her head. "Very well."

"We are not of this realm. We are from a realm called Outworld, which is many times larger than this one, which we call Earthrealm." He paused to see that she was following. She nodded. "Also, we are not human. We are a construct, made by the sorcerer, Shang Tsung. We were created to battle for the previous emperor, Shao Kahn, utilizing the souls that he had gained in his bloodthirsty conquests..." Misaki swallowed hard, but otherwise remained silent. "... Until we were freed by Shao Kahn's death. Afterwards, we decide to serve the new emperor, Kotal Kahn. This went well until recent and unfortunate events forced us into Earthrealm, where we remain stranded."

Misaki remained quiet for a spell. It wasn't until Ermac looked at her expectantly that she finally muttered, "I believe you."

Ermac was actually quite surprised. He was honestly expecting her to rush into her house and lock her doors when he finished. Instead, she said, "How do you plan on getting back?"

Ermac considered this, "We don't know."

There was a second of silence before she asked, "Where will you stay?"

Ermac closed his eyes and thought. The alley wasn't that awful. "Somewhere," was all he said. "We thank you for you kindness, Misaki Ana. Farewell." He bowed, turned around and began to walk off."

"Wait! Ermac!"

This woman never ceases to surprise us.

He stopped and turned around, more than slightly confused.

She was looking him in the eyes again. Having many minds inside of him, Ermac was immune to most mind magics. But this woman's eyes seemed to effect him in some way; like he was being put in a trance.

She cleared her throat and said, "Ermac. Would you like to come in?"

Ermac was powerless to resist.

Oooo, Ermac!

Misaki Ana is an OC I just made up. Any relations, real or fictional, blah blah blah coincidental.

I've noticed that I've been making tons of grammar mistakes in my chapters lately so I'm gonna go back and fix those. Not to worry.

Oh, and I don't own Mortal Kombat. So don't go around thinkin' that I do.

Next chapter coming soon. We get to see how Kotal's doing in the slammer.

Later.