Help from the Shadows (Open Novella Contest)

2 (Rau)

Eventually, Uncle Chenhua opened the door for us to come in, so we rushed in immediately to see her already awake. All of our questions died in our throats as we could only stare at her. 

There was only silence, which I realised wasn't a great start to a friendship.

"A-Are you really Himeno Ayame?" I decided to step up and represent all of us. 

She blinked, before she nodded, "Yes, I am." and gave us her signature smile. Luckily, we were quite immune to her smile, but we still couldn't stop the thoughts of how cute it was pass through our minds.  

"How did you end up here? Don't you live in Japan? And, more importantly, how are you even here? You're not real," Choiseung questioned curiously. Her eyes widened.

"N-Not real?" she stuttered out. "W-What are you talking about?" 

Almost immediately, I nudged him, trying to get him to stop. He looked at me, confused why. I shook my head and gave him a meaningful look. He understood and turned back to apologise.

"Sorry for the directness. What I mean is that you're not supposed to be here," he explained. "Here, you are a fictional character of an anime called Youkai Watch Shadowside, which is set 30 years from now."

She looked shocked and frozen this time, "W-What? What are you talking about?" Her eyes were darting around the room desperately. She was shaking vigorously too, obviously beginning to understand the truth, but not in a good way.

"Miss Himeno, please calm down. We need answers, and panicking will not solve them," Choiseung went into detective mode in 5 seconds flat. Ayame took in a few deep breaths before she nodded. I internally sighed. Choiseung had this charm that worked on traumatised victims, which comes in handy all right. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to lecture him for starting it. 

"A-Ah, sorry," she apologised quietly. "It's just a lot to take in."

"Let's not think about that, okay? Why don't we try to find out how you even got here. Maybe explain where you got those injuries?" Akino suggested. Ayame just grew silent. I was about to hit my two best friends for being so social-awkward when she looked up, determination clear in her eyes. 

"If you can help my friends, I'll tell you, Mister..." she suddenly looked away with a sheepish and apologetic smile, causing the 4 of us to go red in the face as we finally remembered what we had forgotten. 

We had completely forgotten to introduce ourselves!

"Sorry for that," Choiseung stated with a red face. "I am Kam Choiseung, a police officer." 

"Hi, I'm scriptwriter Rau Maui," I greeted. 

"I'm Kin Akino, an editor for a newspaper here in Singapore," Akino smiled. 

"I am Ren Chenhua, Miss Himeno, also Choiseung's father. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am a doctor, as you already know," Uncle Chenhua bowed. 

"Ah," she just smiled back. "You don't have to apologise, Mister Kam. I can kind of understand how you are. Mister Kin and you remind me of Touma and Keisuke combined, while Mister Maui kind of resembles Akinori, and Mister Ren is similar to Natsume-chan." 

Choiseung and Akino looked a bit red, obviously a bit flustered that they had reminded Ayame of Touma and Keisuke, while I just chuckled hearing the comparisons and Uncle Chenhua rolled his eyes, having watched the anime with us too. 

"Please, just call us Uncle and use our first names. We only let people we're not familiar with do that," Uncle Chenhua gently admitted. She looked a bit hesitant, but soon recovered and smiled, "Okay." 

"So are you well enough to tell us about how you got here? If you're not, we can wait," I offered. 

She shook her head, "I can tell the tale, because if I ended up here, then you 4 must be able to help me." 

She sighed, "It all started when we got another case on Usuranura shortly after Natsume-chan was revealed to be the Princess about weird incidents happening in the mall at night. Deciding to find out what it was, we snuck out of our houses and went to the mall that very night, where we searched everywhere, but couldn't find a clue. We had thought that it was a joke, when suddenly, a figure dropped down from the 5th floor in front of us." 

"That figure managed to defeat Touma, Akinori and me when we used our strongest moves. Even Natsume and Keisuke's friends were no match for them. Then..." she squeezed the sheets tightly. "Out of the blue, the 4 of them disappeared, and the next thing I knew, I was outside the mall. Desperately, I went back in, but, to my shock, there was no one there. No trace of them. No trace of the horrible fight that had taken place." 

"That had been 5 days ago," Ayame continued. "No one really suspected, since I had lied that they had gone to Kemamoto to visit the old Amano household. I still looked for them, though, and the Youkai helped me out a lot. However, there were no clues until yesterday afternoon, when I checked Usuranura, having found a case which started 5 days ago at the very same mall where I had last spotted my friends, but in the early morning. Determined to save my friends from that person, I immediately set off for the mall at 5 a.m. today." 

"When I arrived at the mall, I managed to sneak in using the same way that we had used before. However, who were at the lobby stunned me so much I froze." 

"It was my friends tied up back-to-back with rope, knocked out. I immediately tried to rush over, but my body wouldn't let me. I was lucky it had, because soon after I arrived, the hooded figure arrived, grabbed the others, opened some sort of portal, and entered it. Wasting no more time, I managed to rush into the portal before it closed." 

"The figure caught on, though, so once I was out of the portal, they attacked me viciously in a dark room after having my friends sit on separate chairs and tied them up using duct tape. I barely managed to survive and I remembered the figure was about to put my life to an end. But then I recalled a wish-granting technique that Akinori's grandmother had taught me to use in emergencies. That's why I used it, and kept of thinking, 'Please help me save my friends'. Next thing I know, I'm here."