Where do you go when dreams come home to you? A voice plays in her head. She’s fast asleep. There’s no denying it; she understands this as a dream as she beckons to her feet while still in Shoji’s house. A black smoke is raised at knee length.
“These dreams? What are they?”
You feel it now, don’t you? The one you know as Usagi has awakened to a new power, one that very few inherit. The tie that binds.
“The tie that binds? You know? Are you in my own head, my own subconscious? Or are you something else?”
I am a memory from elsewhere. An elsewhere that you and your friends need to venture to soon. The fate of all existence, you must save it.
Takei propels into the air. Her feet dangle as she floats up and above her head, a cloud that mesmerizes her eyes. Whiter than a sheet, a sheep, a snow storm. The charge of it, the electricity in her veins, the tightening of her neck. And without realizing it, the dream fades, and her head is laid on the table.
Upon awakening, she notices Okazaki has nodded off, and so has Shoji. They both begin to wake up, groaning and rubbing their heads.
“Damn, I fall asleep for a bit or what?” A jingle is heard down beneath his chin. “What the hell?” A collar around his neck possesses the charm of a dagger. “Hey, what’s going on!? Why do I hav—”
“Huh, what’s happening, everyone?” Shoji rubs his eyes, and the same tune plays, jingle, jingle. “Oh? What’s this?” He holds the charm of a stuffed bear. “Oh, this thing is cool. Did one of you guys get me a gift? Wait, weren’t we supposed to give those to Takei?” he says lazily.
“GUYS, GUYS!” Keiko runs in, Ishimoto close behind. They, too, have chokers around their necks.
“I have one like Usagi. Look, look, it’s a card! That’s kind of weird, though. I don’t have a gambling addiction. Kind of cute.”
“Cute? I say it’s a little more of a wonder.”
“Look, Ishimoto, too. He has a… mmm… uh…” Peeking over, his is more unclear.
“A-b-ba-balls? Ishimoto, what kind of things are you into?”
“Hey! Don’t say it so weird! It’s Newton’s cradle, see? Five metal balls and one of them is showing the preputial motion.”
“Uh, yeah, I guess that’s what it is…”
“Haha! Leave it to him to have something so out there!” Okazaki is in an uproar at his complexity compared to everyone else.
“Whatever. At least mine is more original than a knife.”
“Hey man, don’t diss it. This is a hella sweet-lookin’ knife. What y’all think it is? Seems like a combat knife to me, must mean I got some badass powers.”
“Powers? Wait. Powers? Powers! You’re right, Okazaki! This must mean we have powers too now, like Usagi!” Keiko Shouted
The room is befuddled by this realization. A couple of smiles appear, and curiosity strikes.
“Wait, guys, we haven’t seen Takei’s yet,” Usagi remarks.
“Takei, can we see?”
Takei has her head on the table. She brings herself up, and the song continues; Jingle, jingle. The lights of her eyes spark. She peers down to see her collar, and the charm is three bird wings from three different birds.
“Oi, oi, that’s a pretty one there. That some kind of dove wing, yeah?”
“Not quite.” Ishimoto leans down to get a better look.
“Yes, one of them is a dove wing. This one looks like a crow, but this one. I’m not sure I ever seen a bird with that type of wing.” The last one almost looks like wings inside of wings. It’s fluffy and chicken-like but far from anything of a known origin.
“This is extraordinary. I wish I knew what it was,” he concludes.
“Yeah. Some of us got pretty detailed ones, like look at Shoji’s bear! It has a smiley face and is so cuddly, chubby, cuddly, chubby, cuddly!”
“Don’t look at me while saying that! Look at him!” Ishimoto says.
“This all strange. I don’t feel different. But something inside me is different, just a small hint in the middle of my chest. Do you all feel that?” As she stands up, Takei is alerted. Almost as a third sense. “Sh-Shoji? You have a problem.”
“That’s a little harsh.”
“No, no.” Approaching his side, she sets on her knees and reaches out her hand, touching his belly.
“H-hey, I know you know I’m hungry too, but no need to go touching my belly. Probably won’t help.”
“Maybe not with that, but with something else.” An emitting glow of white and a soothing rush goes over Shoji. His breathes come to a slow, and his eyes droop more than normal.
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“I can sense it. Your abdomen. There’s a small cut beneath. It’s prone to bursting with enough force.” The hand of healing fixes him. His body is rejuvenated, and even his tiredness subsides. The others can’t believe it. It’s true; they all possess the power of the Remnants.
Her head prongs downward, taking in the floor in silence. After a good five seconds of a blank expression, she smiles warmly and radiantly.
“It seems I have healing powers and the ability to detect wounds. I could sense it.”
“Woah! So super cool! You’re like the white mage in a fantasy manga!”
“That’s pretty sweet, but what about the rest of us?”
“I myself am curious, Okazaki. Might I su—”
“Oi, all out to the backyard. Let’s test what we all got.” Usagi interrupts the first to head out the backdoor.
“Good plan, Usagi,” Ishimoto concludes before being able to say the same thing.
The backyard is fenced with a white brick wall. The neighborhood is fast asleep. A wonderful night after all that occurred. Usagi is stood up against the wall and points to the middle of the yard.
“All right, I know I got my powers first and all, but let me go first.” Curious to answer a theory, she hits her right foot against the wall and bounds across the yard. Her grasp on the ground with her heel is an immediate stop, finishing it off with a spinning kick the speed of a horse.
“Woah, that’s lethal.” Coming down from the high of her awakening, she is surprised to see the power she holds.
“Sick as hell! Let’s see what I can do.” The powers inside of them come naturally. Uncultivated, yet the instinct felt like an extension of their bodies.
“Take this!” He points his finger at the brick wall. A sharp dagger rips the air and lodges into it. “Holy! Guys, you see that!?”
“Oh, me next!” Keiko steps up to the plate. “I’ll be honest, I’m not entirely sure what mine does, bu—” A card slips from her wrist. It barrels to a tree, snapping it in half. It timbers down to the middle of the yard.
“Oh, whoops. Uh. Sorry, Shoji.” She apologizes ahead of time for ruining his backyard.
“Oh, uh, not sure how I’ll explain that to my parents, but that was really cool and powerful,” he answers. “Where did that card come from, though?”
“Oh, good question.” Raising her hand reveals the answer. A glowing pink hue lights inside her wrist, looking at the deck she brought to play games with everyone.
“Uh, no idea how that got in there. I had them in my pocket, but yeah. So cool.”
“Oi, I believe the answer lays in your powers. I’m not certain, but maybe since they were so close to your body, you were able to put them to your wrist to attack with. They’re all not in their pack.”
“Yeah, maybe she’s making some sense. I mean, I got a couple of knives in my pockets, and the one I threw looks like the one in my upper pants pocket,” Okazaki said, pointing to it in the wall, an amber glow around it.
“It’s most likely the case. I don’t know everything about Remnants, but the cultists rant about them a lot. One thing I overheard once is that Remnants aren’t made; they are born that way and awaken to it later in life.”
“Hold on, Usagi. Before we continue with our show and tell. Are you saying that six Remnants happened to be friends since childhood?”
Usagi pauses. The possibility of it seems astronomical, and she doesn’t have a clue. The cultist never hinted at anything similar.
“I can’t answer that, cause I have no idea. What I can answer, though, is an important thing you must all know now.” Benign to the belt around her neck, she circuits the loop.
“These things are hard to break. Only Remnants can break them, but never do because if you do, you will surely die.”
“What!?” Shoji awakens fully, which is a rare instance this late.
“Die? You mean if we break them, there’s no chance of us surviving?” Takei asks.
“Yeah. Think of it as your contract to the void. If you break it, you get sent to it. Though there is one benefit to it, and that’s unlocking one’s true potential.” She raises her finger to the moon. “The void resides close to the moon. It’s believed to have come from somewhere in space and set itself near it about fifty years ago. Nobody knows what’s inside the void itself. It appears like a black hole but does not have the same effect as one. Else, we’d all be dead,” she says.
“This is all heavy stuff.” Shoji sets himself down in a lawn chair, searching the stars. “Heavy, heavy.” He snores, falling asleep.
“Shoji, you’re useless!” Okazaki screams.
He wakes back up.
“By the way, you said reach one''s true potential? Does it maybe work like a star? Once it burns out all it’s energy, kaboom?” he says. The others are baffled by his ability to get back on track like he didn’t just fall asleep.
“Haha, I won’t lie, Shoji, that’s an excellent way of putting it. The only thing is you don’t get millions of years to have that happen. For the Remnants who did it, like the few brave souls who went against Mr. Nuke Happy and his gang, the longest someone has lasted is one hour max.”
“That’s a dreadfully small amount of time.” Takei can’t imagine what they went through. The few who went against them and how none like them remain. All good Remnants are dead. Only humanity fights for its ongoing nature. It didn’t used to be this way. There used to be a hero-and-villain dynamic in the world, but the villains won. They are all that remain.
“Yeah, but don’t worry, only someone like us can break it. A normal human can’t, no matter if they use a knife or chainsaw, even if they used a combination.” Her confident chuckle brings some comfort to the group. “Though, don’t think you’re invincible just because we have these powers. We’re more durable and harder to kill than humans, but it’s still possible.”
“Understood. Don’t get cocky. Always a good rule to follow,” Ishimoto affirms.
Usagi slides herself onto the ground, sniffing it.
“I… uh… you okay there, Usagi? You know if you were hungry or something, you don’t have to hunt for it?” Shoji said.
“No, no, I definitely smell something.” Wafting the dirt, the smell of rose perfume and lavender mixed cologne spread inside her head. Pleasant scent for sure, but one she immediately recognizes.
“Shoji, your parents are home.”
“W-what? They’re home early!?” Shoji rushes back inside before poking his head out
“You guys need to go. If they see you all here on a school night, they’ll kill me. Also, the tree thing.”
“I said I was sorry! Ah, but you’re right; let’s get out of here.” Keiko scrambles.
“Hold on. We can go out the front, but I think I have an idea of how to get us out of here and take care of the tree problem. Everyone, sit on the tree, trust me,” Ishimoto says.
Everyone is confused, but they follow Ishimoto’s orders and take their seats on the log. Being set down, the log rises into the air, his white-hue aura around it. It floats higher and higher until it can go over the brick wall into the alleyway. It is still visible from its large branches, and he rides it down the alley. The neighborhood is asleep; there is no worry, or so he thought before seeing one drunk man in a stupor stumbling in their direction.
“W-what the hell?” The man is flabbergasted. The floating tree rides by as Keiko waves.
“Hello, sir! Hope you get home safely!”
“Keiko, please don’t acknowledge him right this second.” Ishimoto protests, leading the tree to the end of the alleyway. The drunk man watches them turn the corner, calmly putting what was left of his drink on the ground before heading home.