dREAMSEEd

Volume 1: Alice Through The Looking Glass

By Terryll Preston

“OP1 ~ hana no yume ~ a flower’s dream (1, 2, 3…And 4’s A Crowd)”

Niimara Arisu held the ovular silver locket up before her deep brown eyes. The sunlight filtering in through the Jisoru-Kajuen Line maglev train’s triple-paned window glittered briefly off its polished surface; when not obscured by the passing trees and other occasional landscape. She smiled joyfully at it. There were memories contained within that small space – memories of an innocent, sweet-faced young girl who was no longer by her side. A special someone who was taken away from her much too soon to be fair. Inscribed elegantly across the smooth face of the locket, in a beautiful cursive were the words, Kokoro no Ikusahime.

Valkyrie of Hearts, she reflected silently. Chi-chan, I miss you. It’s been such a long time.

Tenderly, Arisu lowered the locket into the palm of the hand resting on her thigh. She slowly enclosed it around the necklace’s small shape. For a moment, her eyes lingered on the tiny, crescent moon-shaped mark on the bottom of her right wrist. A smile followed as she ran a finger lightly across it. That was accompanied by an incredible sense of excitement. It held the greatest meaning in the world for her. Only one thing meant more to her than that mark. Her hand tightened around the locket involuntarily.

At age twelve, a white-coated man had visited a very energetic and playful Arisu. Her parents told her that he was from a special school located within the Kajuen Region of Japan – where even now she was heading. It was a place called the Toshiyuki OrCHARD for Transhuman Growth and Improvement. He had come to test her, to find out if she possessed a very rare gift. The man was there to see if she had the special talent to channel something he called Quintessence. Having such a skill would mark her out as one of those unique enough to be enrolled in OrCHARD. And while there, she would learn her more about herself and the power that lay within.

Arisu often wondered just why the white-coated man appeared at her house on that fateful day. As her parents later explained it, he was contacted by the doctor treating her painful migraines and other strange body aches. Apparently, he grew suspicious after her symptoms stretched on well past the time his treatments should have cured them. Then unknown to Arisu, they were the first signs of a Transhuman awakening; what she had since learned was called First Growth. Back then, it never made much sense to her. Afterall, everyone got headaches. Right? Everyone got pains in other parts of their bodies too. Right? But the more thought Arisu placed on it, the more sense it all made in the end.

Pulling her eyes away from the crescent moon-shaped mark, she raised her head to look out the window. Arisu found herself smiling as she watched the Japanese countryside fly by in a blur of smeared colors. The testing always seemed to happen to most of the children in her neighborhood. It was something that she never believed would happen to her. Afterall, Arisu only dreamed of adventure. She never lived it. She remembered spending a considerable amount of time watching other children being tested and then leaving a few years later. Always them and never her. But on that day, those dreams of adventure would slowly begin to shape themselves into a very tangible reality.

The man spent most of the day at her home. He took blood samples and tested her reactions to certain things he said or did. To say that she was bored would have been an understatement. What adventure began like that? None that Arisu had ever read. But after the testing ended, he pulled her parents aside to speak with them. The looks on their faces spoke volumes to her young mind at the time. Expressions of sadness and happiness creased their countenances. Before the man even removed that small device from his coat pocket, she already knew her real adventure was about to begin.

There was a quick injection administered to her, a fatherly smile given and then he was gone. Three days later, the small crescent moon appeared on her right wrist. A day after that, the man returned to inform her parents of her acceptance into the Toshiyuki OrCHARD. In three years time, it would be her turn to leave Nagemura. It would be her turn for adventure.

She absently rubbed a finger across the mark again. The SOIL as it was known. The Symbol of Identified Latency, she recited in her mind. Arisu leaned back in the cushiony seat of the small, two-person cabin. A pretty little mark that completely guarantees my entry into OrCHARD! Man, I can hardly wait! Unconsciously squeezing her hand around the silver locket again, her thoughts switched back to that sweet-faced girl. I'm doing this for you, Chise.

Opening her palm again, she gazed down at the locket with wide, positive eyes. Reaching for it with her other hand, she lifted it from her palm and held it out before her almond-shaped eyes again. The bright light from the noonday sun glittered along its miniscule length, spreading rainbow-hued reflections of luminescence across her face. Elbow on thigh, she cupped her chin in a hand and leaned forward slightly. She allowed herself to become lost in the shape dangling before dark eyes. For you Chi-chan, Arisu reminded herself with a faint smile. For you because I…

A weak knock from the other side of the cabin door interrupted her thoughts. Shifting her position, Arisu calmly raised the necklace. It only took her a second or two to get it around her neck. Once secured, she turned quickly to the door and merrily said, “It’s not locked, come in!”

Slowly, the latch turned and the door slid aside. Arisu smiled warmly at the girl standing in the threshold. Tall and lanky-looking, she had a small nose and wore big, circle-rimmed glasses. The eyes behind the lens were a light shade of brown. Her dark hair seemed reddish when hit by the sunlight and was braided into two ponytails that reached down a well past her shoulders. The girl’s face was full and mildly pallid with naturally colored lips that were not too thick, but not too thin.

Her dress was drab gray with black highlights across the chest and sleeves. To Arisu, it seemed ridiculously long. It began about halfway up her neck and ended just a hair beneath her booted ankles. It made Arisu hot just looking at it. Slung across her shoulder was a similarly colored book bag that seemed to be loaded to bursting. Arisu tried not to sigh in exasperation.

Well, she thought, still smiling at the slender girl in the cabin threshold, she certainly isn’t going to OrCHARD. I mean, that school’s a place for kids like me. Ones who can use…no channel – that was the word, right? – Quintessence? That was it, wasn’t it? I think that’s what the interviewer called it. What we can do? Man, what a goofy name! Well anyway, it’s a place for kids like me, not uber-smart book nerds like her. Man, isn’t she hot in that dress?!

The girl clearing her throat timidly brought Arisu back to reality.

“E-excuse my…my interruption,” she said in a formal but unsure tone, “but…but might I sh-share this compartment w-with you? I-it is the last one in…in this car a-and the only one which is not full. If y-you have no…have no objections, might I stay un-until I reach my destination?”

Arisu stared at the girl with a blank expression marring her innocent-seeming face. ‘Excuse my interruption’? ‘If you have no objections, might I stay until I reach my destination’??? There were people in Japan who still spoke like that?! Eyes catching the small, hopeful gleam behind the girl’s oversized glasses, Arisu shook herself and extended out a hand to wave her in.

“Oh yeah,” she answered happily and loudly, scratching the top of her short-haired head. “Sure you can! Got plenty of space in here and nobody to share it with! I’d be happy to have some company, might make the trip a bit quicker with someone else to speak to!”

For a moment, the slim girl standing before the compartment’s doorway looked like she might be reconsidering her request about sharing the cabin with Arisu. Her smooth face was a literal bastion of nervousness and uncertainty. Arisu could feel her eyes narrow slightly and a low sigh escaped her mouth.

“Look,” she said, dropping her hand onto her lap. “I’m not gonna bite or anything. If you don’t wanna talk, that’s fine. But if this is the only cabin in this car that’s free, you should probably just take it.” Arisu paused for a moment to scratch her cheek with a lone finger, gazing up at the roof of the cabin innocently. “Otherwise, you’ll just have to find another compartment in a different car and those might not be filled with people as nice or cool as me. ‘Course, that book bag looks pretty heavy. Do you really feel like lugging that thing around to another car?”

The girl in the threshold adjusted her grip on the bag unconscionably, cheeks reddening beneath the rims of her glasses. Without any kind of warning to Arisu, the slender girl bent herself at the waist and bowed in her direction. She had no idea what to make of it. Jeez, she thought, trying to keep herself from blushing in embarrassment. Why is she so damn traditional? Where the hell is she from, Kyoto…some lost village? Jeez! I mean, all this formality is so freaking stifling! This girl could give Sakuraba Aoi from that super-old manga, Ai Yori Aoshi some lessons! Man, she really needs to learn how to loosen up!

“I…I accept your gracious offer,” the girl called out quickly from her bowed position. Arisu could only stare in absolute wonderment. How were all those books still in that bag? “I sh-shall endeavor to…to not burden you with m-my presence too m-much.”

The girl straightened herself, much to Arisu’s relief, and entered the compartment. She pulled the door closed behind her and then turned to give Arisu a weak grin.

“I am Shiza Tomoko,” she stated in her most formal voice, lowering the book bag from her shoulder. She sat it on the seat opposite to Arisu. “I was born into the noble Shiza Family of Yokohama. I am the daughter of Shiza Hiei and sister to Shiza Torasu, my Ani-ue who is already attending the academy to which I am currently enroute. I stand as Second Heir to the Shiza-Udanade Zaibatsu behind my Ani-ue. It is my pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

Arisu found herself blinking in utter amazement. She can hardly get a normal greeting out of her mouth without stuttering and tripping over her words, but she can practically deliver her entire family history without screwing up once?! And no mention of her mother? What’s up with that? She abruptly realized that she was staring at Tomoko. Blushing, Arisu quickly switched her gaze to the book bag sitting across from her. Scratching at her cheek ingenuously, she smiled briefly before returning the girl’s introduction.

“Uh,” Arisu said with an embarrassed frown. “Well, I…ah…hmmm, let’s see… Well first, my name is Niimara Arisu and it’s good to meet you too! If you want, you can call me Aru-chan! All my friends back home did! Uh…well, I’m from Nagemura and my family’s not so well off as yours, but they make due! My dad’s name is Kisei and my mom’s is Eri, and I have a little sister named…named…”

Almost immediately, Arisu’s voice trailed off. The playful frown on her face was replaced with something a bit more serious. A dull gleam of sunlight shimmered off the silver locket hanging from around her neck. Before her, Tomoko gave Arisu a questioning glance.

“Oh,” she returned lightly, hand reaching up to grip the locket. “It’s just that…well; I did have a little sister. But…but she’s…gone…now. Her name was Chise. It happened a while ago…when I…I was…younger…” Arisu’s eyes began to glaze over with both memories and faint traces of tears as her hand squeezed the small, silver oval gently. Tomoko stood there quietly. She looked like she wanted to offer comfort. There was something in her face, something that spoke of an intense understanding. But she said nothing.

Arisu hastily pulled her hand away from the locket and wiped the back of it across her eyes. She curved her mouth into a happy smile. “Hey,” she said, voice becoming more upbeat. “No need to get all weepy because of that! It was a long time ago and even though I still get sad and cry, I know that she’s in a better place.” Suddenly standing up from her seat, Arisu grabbed the girl and pulled her into a mighty hug. Tomoko’s cheeks flushed a bright crimson as her eyes widened considerably. That understanding expression evaporated under the weight of Arisu’s embrace.

“Besides,” she continued, completely ignorant of Tomoko’s mortification at her emotional display. “Thanks for caring enough to want to say something. If we were going to the same school, you’d make a great friend…Tomo-chan.” The red on Tomoko’s cheeks spread further across her face.

“Uh,” she mumbled weakly, “c-could…could you pl-please…uh…th-that is…well, I-I… Wh-what I mean t-to say…is –”

Tomoko’s broken words were cut off as the compartment door slid aside. Both only had time to blink as two more girls casually made their way into the small space. They were too caught up in talking to notice what they had walked in on.

“…Can’t believe you got our cabin number wrong again, Nee-chan! Don’t you know your way around this train yet?” the younger of the two called out teasingly, heedless of the situation in front of her.

The eldest girl did not respond to the first. She had stopped dead in her tracks, a few inches shy of the door’s threshold. Her coffee-colored eyes were opened wide, gaze affixed on the misleading scene before her. Reaching out quickly, she grabbed the shorter girl by the shoulder and pulled her to a halt.

“Kita-nee,” the smaller one said angrily, staring up at the other holding her back. “What’re you –”

“Quiet Kanna,” the one clutching her shoulder returned. She casually adjusted the small black case slung over her shoulder. Her eyes narrowed impishly, voice taking on a chiding tone. “I think we got the wrong compartment again. Besides, we might’ve walked in on something a little too private for us.”

The girl named Kanna turned her head slowly to again view the misleading scene. Her eyes widened with an unspoken question. The silence that fell upon the cabin was almost deafening.

“Nee-chan,” Kanna inquired softly, breaking the silence. “Is this what you mean when you say ‘don’t go around acting like a Tokyo party girl’?”

Both Arisu and Tomoko’s face went bright crimson.

“Yes, this is exactly what I meant. You should never be caught doing perverted stuff like these two in a public place like a commuter train, right? Hmph, Tokyo girls have absolutely no shame!”

Kanna giggled as her sister gave the two girls before her a mischievous smirk. The implication of what the newcomers were saying dawned rudely in Arisu’s mind. Her cheeks reddened even more. She suddenly realized that she had all she could stand of the two. Even if she didn’t know who the hell they were! Breaking her embrace as fast as she could, Arisu shoved Tomoko to the side and pointed a stiff finger at the girl grinning sheepishly in her direction. The slim girl fell limply to the seat where her book bag lay. Her face crooked oddly, lips curving into an uncertain and fidgety grin.

“Hey,” she practically screamed out, jabbing that lone finger in their direction. “No one’s doing anything perverted in here! We’re not even from Tokyo, you morons! We just met a few minutes ago! I hardly even know that girl! I was just showing her my appreciation for –”

At that remark, Kanna started to laugh and the taller girl began to giggle along with her. Arisu’s eyes narrowed angrily. Her back teeth ground against one another.

“And what,” she questioned, barely forcing her teeth to unclench, “may I ask, is so damned funny?”

The two girls in front of her stopped laughing. They stared at her and then back at each other. Suddenly, they began to laugh again even harder than before. The oldest went so far as to double over and slap her thigh.

Arisu could feel her left eye beginning to twitch.

“STOP LAUGHING,” she screamed in frustration, stomping her foot down hard against cabin’s metal floor. “DIDN’T YOU HEAR ME?! STOP LAUGHING!!!”

In front of Arisu, Kanna and her sister continued to laugh. She felt the vein in her temple begin to throb. On the seat beside her, Tomoko’s face was still flush with embarrassment. She twirled her forefingers around one another nervously. The look on her face said she wished she were anywhere but there.

“FINE!” Arisu hollered. She quickly pushed up the long sleeves of her archaic, black Asian Kung-fu Generation hoodie to her elbows. “I WARNED you! Now I’m gonna kick you stupid, prissy little –”

A sudden pitching of the train cut her words short. The abruptness of the jerking passenger car threw Arisu headlong into the two girls who had been standing in the doorway laughing at her and Tomoko. Caught off guard by the train’s unexpected lurch, Kanna and her sister – along with Arisu – fell through the open entryway. They crashed to the floor outside the compartment with a loud, fleshy thud. In moments, they were a heap of limbs in the corridor. Inside, Tomoko gasped noisily. The jolting had thrown her onto the cabin floor. And the heavy book bag along with her. She struggled to push it off her chest. After managing to do so, she sat on the floor between the two sets of seats and took deep, labored breaths.

In the misleadingly wide hallway of the passenger car, Arisu shook her head slowly. She struggled to shake away the dazed feeling that was trying to sweep over her. Vaguely aware of the train beginning to slow, it set her mind reeling with questions. Was that an explosion she had heard earlier? What was happening? Was the rest of the train in the same state as the passenger car? Or was it worse? What on an automated commuter train would even cause something to explode? There was no way it could have happened!

The trains in Japan were some of the safest in the world now, ever since that horrible crash some sixteen years ago that killed over a hundred people. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism’s Transport Safety Board produced a nearly flawless record since then, making passenger safety and equipment maintenance their top priorities. So, there was no way that that was an explosion she had heard. It was impossible!

Beneath her, she could feel two small fists pounding weakly against her arm. That was accompanied with a few muffled words that seemed anything but kind. Realizing that she was lying on top of the smaller of the two girls, Arisu hastily pushed herself away from the heap under her. As she did, her brown eyes found a familiar crescent moon on the bottom of the young girl’s wrist. They widened in surprise. Once she was clear of them, Arisu rose up to her knees as quickly as her muddled head would allow and pointed another erect finger at the two.

“Th-that’s the SOIL!” she exclaimed excitedly, forgetting all about the explosive sound she might have heard a few minutes ago. “You’re going to OrCHARD too?! You’re a Transhuman like me?! That…that means –”

“Yeah,” the older girl retorted to cut off Arisu’s enthusiastic babbling, heat obvious in her annoyed voice. “She is. And I am too. Now, do us both a favor and shut up. Something’s not right here.”

She quickly to Kanna and checked over her sister carefully. Once she was satisfied that nothing was wrong or amiss, the girl returned her attention to Arisu and tossed her cold gaze.

“You heard that, didn’t you?” Kanna’s sister asked grimly. “That explosion or whatever it was? Something’s definitely wrong.” Slowly, the teen girl’s eyes rose to stare suspiciously all around the car’s interior for a few seconds. They narrowed intently whenever they fell across any passengers who exited from their cabins because of the noise or had been thrown down to the floor during the violent lurching from before. After a moment or two, she returned her gaze to the innocent face of her sister. “Kanna, are you sure you’re okay?”

The big-eyed girl, with ebon hair that fell to almost the middle of her back, nodded her head quickly.

“I told you not to worry over me, Kitada,” she said sourly. “Stop being so overprotective! I’m not a baby anymore! Nothing’s broken, even though that big horse over there landed on me!”

Arisu could feel her eyes narrow irritably. Her mouth was practically twitching with an equally nasty response. But Kitada motioned a hand toward her promptly as the train slowed to an expected stop.

“Worry about your snippy comment later,” she said in a rush of words, gazing around the passageway of the car again. Kitada scanned each and every person standing in it. Her dark eyes finally settled on the door at the far end of the corridor. It was slowly sliding closed. Kitada’s jaw tightened. “Right now, I think we have other things to worry about.” She pointed a finger toward the door and cast her gaze at both Kanna and Arisu. “Did either of you see who came or went through that door?”

Both girls’ expressions became quizzical as they shook their heads. Kitada’s face became even grimmer. Pushing herself up from the floor, she grabbed hold of the small case still slung across her shoulder. Pulling it off, Kitada quickly handed it down to Kanna and began to meticulously flex her fingers. Her tapered, coffee-colored eyes seemed to be trying to scan everywhere at once, every face at once. It was almost as if she were expecting one of the passengers in the car to attack her. From her kneeled position on the floor next to Kitada, Kanna’s eyes grew wider.

What in the world? Arisu questioned in confusion. Just what the heck does she think she’s gonna do? And why does she look like she’s waiting for something to happen? What the hell is going on?! Was that an explosion I heard? Is that why the train stopped? Just what’s hap –?

Arisu found her inward musings ended abruptly by an automated message playing over the train’s ICS.

Attention all passengers. Due to apparent car instability and imbalance, we regret to inform you that the train has been brought to a stop until the problem can be resolved. We apologize for any inconvenience that this might –

Suddenly, a strange sound touched her ears. Immediately, her interest in the announcement was cut short. Worried eyes darting about the corridor, Arisu was about to stand up when Kitada shouted out something. Abruptly, the older girl reached down and shoved Kanna toward the compartment doorway before throwing herself in the opposite direction. Arisu didn’t have any time to question what Kitada was doing. That odd noise from before was intensifying into a painful screeching sound. But there was no time to put her hands over her ears.

Without warning, a blast of wind roared past. It was so concentrated and powerful that it nearly tore the air out her lungs. Arisu could feel her clothes practically being ripped off her body by its sheer force. It was a good thing the wind hadn’t lasted long enough to finish the job.

But, that was the least of her concerns. Not after her eyes fell on the part of the floor that lay between her and Kitada. Even with it literally staring her in the face, Arisu’s mind refused to wrap around what she was seeing. It was impossible. Impossible!

There was a cut on the floor between her and Kitada! A long, neat, six-inch deep, v-shaped cut! Arisu’s mind was still refusing to believe what she was seeing. Something just cut almost a four-foot long gash in the metal floor of the passenger car! Metal! Arisu felt like her brain was going to melt. She glared fearfully at the scarred floor not even three feet away from her and Kanna. Her whole body began to shake uncontrollably. A fearful question soon bloomed in her mind.

Wh-what…what the hell j-just happened…?!

© 2006 Terryll Preston