Memories of Namiko Stone

Time: 8:55am June 20th, 2074

The Stone household was not the largest home in the heavily wooded neighborhood near the edge of the city's borders. Compared to the almost manor like buildings lining the street, the one floor home looked down right shrimpy. However, the backyard was the largest by far due to the previous owner's fixation on farming simulators and deep pockets capable of bribing city officials.

The owner had retired from corporate life to live out their rural retirement dream in peaceful solitude. A noble goal and one that could have given them many years of solace if they had survived the first harvest. As a former corporate titan, they felt agriculture was a simple and straightforward process like in their games. As a result, they did little research outside of growing and maintaining crops. After a successful yield, the owner enjoyed the bounty. The amateur farmer died in the hospital some days later, a victim of the lettuce they cared for so passionately. The house and land were put on the market shortly afterward.

When Mr. and Ms. Stone saw that Japan's annexation by the Empire had become a question of when and not if, they emigrated to Boston with their three-month-old son. If the new parents had ever had a passion for farming before, it shriveled up and died after learning the cautionary tale from the realtor. Instead, they built a massive shallow pond and stocked it with breathtakingly beautiful koi. These dazzling creatures would enchant their baby boy for years to come.

"You gotta be more careful little dude." Said Namiko to Pondbro, the largest of the koi. "You're like, way too old to be pulling these stunts."

Pondbro, being a koi of action, continued to struggle in the grip of his oldest friend. The foolish fish was an Ogon with stunning red-gold scales that shimmered like metal in the sunlight. He was one of the few original pond inhabitants and had remained an untouchable monarch for decades now. Yet that natural armor had obviously met its match as a long jagged scar ran along the left side of the tail. The weapon that likely dealt the blow was the algae-covered stick slowly drying on the grass near the pond's edge. One end was covered in muck, while the other held a pointy end from how it broke from the tree above.

Deducing that much was child's play, but the Intern needed help solving the current dilemma. When he awoke hours before, and sleep had refused to take him back, he decided to be productive. Since he started college, the family pond had grown increasingly unkempt as his aging parents found upkeep a grueling challenge. So Namiko wadded in the thigh-deep water to clear away all the nasty scum and fallen debris. When he found the stick with red-gold fish scales still stuck on the sharp end, he caught Pondbro without a second thought. A pity since now he was stuck with a weary fish in both hands and no bucket in sight.

*Slam* The sound of the door opening and closing behind him caught his attention.

"Yo, primo timing, man! I could use some help!" The Intern shouted over his shoulder as he gingerly lowered Pondbro back into the water, carefully keeping the patient from escaping.

"What have I told you about using slang in my house?" Sniffed a woman, her accent thin but still noticeable. "Why are you playing in the pound?"

"Hi, Mom." He greeted, ignoring the first question and electing to stay where he was. "I'm cleaning the pond because if I don't, the little dudes will get messed up."

Namiko waited until his mother's footsteps were close before risking movement. He turned to face her and… and what the son saw broke his heart.

Reina Stone was an early bird and had likely woken up hours ago, yet she looked as if she had just gotten out of bed. His mother wore a seafoam green bathrobe that matched her flip-flops. Her shoulder-length hair remained a mess and looked almost as shaggy as his. As Namiko trudged through the muddy pond bottom towards Reina, he noticed she refused to meet his eyes. Perhaps in an attempt to conceal her bloodshot eyes. Whether they were caused by tears or lack of sleep, he did not wish to know.

"Is that Ponyo?" She asked with a concerned frown, using the koi's old name. "What happened?"

The Son recounted the events how he suspected they played out. He pointedly did not correct his mother on Pondbro's name as he usually would. That argument was as old as the fish, sparked when Namiko discovered the Koi had been misgendered by the seller. He believed there would be little joy in teasing her today.

"The little guy should heal fine on his own." Explained the Intern as he crouched to submerge his squirming charge. "But I want to medicate the wound anyway. Give the bacteria no chance to take the beach, ya know?"

Namiko cringed internally as his military analogy felt inappropriate under recent events. But if Reina noticed or cared, she didn't let it show.

"I will get the Melafix," she said, using the opportunity while he was crouched to kiss the top of his head—a display of affection he had not received since he outgrew her. She turned to leave when a thought must have crossed her mind: "How did you catch a fish without a net?"

"With my hands." He said, looking up at his mom with a big grin. "Professor Du- er. I mean, Professor Morgan taught me how to get a fish to swim right into your hands. It friggin blew my mind."

"Hmm," Reina murmured noncommittally, but a corner of her mouth tugged up. She directed her attention at the captured fish. "You should have known better, you old thing. I hope you've learned a valuable lesson."

She turned away to make for the house, and Namiko saw she moved with more pep in her step. The Inter silently thanked the enigmatic teacher for reaching out last night.

At the time, Namiko had been stranded at his college dorm after trying and failing to find friends willing to hang out. The game console was on, but he quickly learned that getting into the mood to play was impossible. Only hours previously, he'd be alerted by his news app that the peace talks had collapsed for the most bullshit reason possible.

Then, out of nowhere, his phone pinged with an alert. The Professor had emailed him out of the blue. The short message spoke of how the teacher had decided to visit family in these dark times. He also recommended that Namiko do the same. The Professor even included a picture of the reunion as proof. Accepting the wisdom that came with age, the Intern was at his surprised parent's door within the hour.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"First, you stopped by unannounced; now I catch you harassing the fish?" Sighed his father with an overly dramatic flare. "Honestly, I wonder where we went wrong in raising you."

Namiko didn't need to look away from Pondbro to know he was standing right behind him, shaggy graying hair a mess and wearing nothing but board shorts. The man was likely barefoot as splashes could be heard growing closer. Shugo Stone, ever the moon to his wife's sun.

"Ha. How should I know?" Snorted the Son, rolling his eyes as he looked at his parents beaming down at him. He noticed the jug of medicine in his hands. "Mom sent you to do her dirty work?"

"Yes and no." Shugo said, a little of the light behind his eyes withering. "Your mother explained what happened to Pondbro. She planned on joining you at first but had to go and confront your brothers. They just heard about the peace talks breaking down."

"Yeah." Muttered Namiko darkly before lifting Pondbro up one last time. "It was some real heinous stuff."

Father and son worked in silence while treating the family fish's wound. Each wanted to bring up that alarming event, but neither wanted to upset the other while there was work to be done. Soon, the injury was cleaned and then dyed blue by the medication, giving the once flawless koi a chaotic blue streak on one side. Satisfied with their work, Pondbro was released. They both watched as the koi fled the scene like a sports car after accidentally scraping its back end against a mailbox.

"The Empire has got to be full of it." Bursted Namiko suddenly, unable to keep the anxiety and anger in check. "They want an excuse to fight, even if the reason is bogus. I mean, how could finding a couple of bodies be a terrorist attack?"

"Terrorist attack." Shugo snorted in agreement as he cleaned the blue medicine off his hands. "They just called it that because they have no idea what else it could be. Finding eight corpses outside of eight different temples all over Asia is odd, even in the best of times. But it's what the UPA diplomats didn't-" he paused to peer cautiously at the house. When he saw Renia was nowhere near an open window or door, he continued. "-didn't disclose to the public that was far more concerning."

"Dude!" Hissed Namiko and closed the little distance between them before whispering, "Tell me you didn't talk to Ritsu again."

"Ritsu is a family friend who held you as a baby." Defended the father at average volume. "If he-"

"-didn't introduce you to mom, I would have never been born." Finished the Son. "Ritsu is dope; I get that. Ritsu is also a big-shot Empire diplomat, and that's all the gov is going to see if they catch you two talking."

"Bah. The government has bigger fish to fry." Shugo cringed slightly at the accidental pun but kept going. "They aren't looking for spies when the end is a button press away. But if you don't want to be implicated, I could keep these juicy details to myself."

"Don't be ridiculous." The Intern subconsciously channeled his favorite teacher. "Of course I wanna know. Knowledge is power, man."

"So they are teaching something in that school besides how to bully fish." He chuckled before whispering conspiratory, "Ritsu and I spoke just before you turned up last night. He sounded disturbed, and I think he just wanted to vent to someone who wouldn't report him. But according to him, the bodies are definitely connected by some kind of fringe group. They were all different nationalities but had similar clothes and the same strange device with them. Ritsu was shown a picture and said it looked like a magic scepter from an RPG game."

"Ok… That's like, really weird." The Intern admitted while he frowned pensively at the water. He noticed the other pond dwellers trailing after Pondbro, likely to investigate the new paint job there. "But cult shenanigans don't mean the UPA is behind it. They have just as many crazies."

"True enough. But unlike most cultists and crazy people, these bodies could not be identified by the Empire. They found all the bodies over the last two weeks and they couldn't find any social media accounts, banking, criminal, citizen, education, health, nothing! Can you believe that?" The wide-eyed stare he gave his father was answer enough. "Exactly. Ritsu told me the Empire has classified them as ghosts, and while they don't know the goal, they know only one group can erase someone so thoroughly. So until the UPA fesses up and-"

…And what? Until their government reveals that they were the masterminds behind the dumbest covert operation ever conceived?

Namiko turned away from the fish to shoot his father an annoyed look. The pause was undoubtedly an attempt to tease the young man and lighten up the conversion. While the sentiment was appreciated, the execution was not.

Only Shugo Stone was not messing with his son. The man wasn't even looking in his general direction. The parent had his eyes fixed on the sky just over the house, his brows furled in confusion. Namiko watched transfixed as confusion matured into total open-jaw bewilderment. But before any flies could take a tour inside, the jaw snapped shut. The middle-aged man's eyes dilated, his breathing became ragged, and all the color drained from his complexion.

This was fear—possibly even paralyzing terror—since his father had yet to do anything but gawk. This level of fear from a man who thought nothing of conversing with political figures from a hostile country?

Were the literal bombs dropping? Namiko looked and refused to believe it.

There, in the same sky he and every other creature ever born had lived under, was a second sun. A shining sun that hovered low in the West, a perfect mirror to the one in the East.

Parent and child gasped as the impossible celestial body's light flickered like a light bulb when an energy-hungry AC unit was switched on. The truth was displayed for all to see; the spell broke.

"Hey dude," said the Intern shakily, "that's like, not a sun." Quickly, he navigated through the menu, pulling up the camera app and zooming in as far as it could go.

Once the software compensated for the brightness, Namiko could see that the false star's surface bubbled and roiled like plasma. Still, the flowing material could not be mistaken for anything but liquid gold. He reported the findings.

"I knew it! The camera says it's only 12km away from us. If it were real, we'd be toast at that range. But we should really grab everyone and head to the basement… Like, right now."

"REINA!!" screamed Shugo, his son's words finally reaching him. "GET THE—AHHHH!"

The cry to action became a cry of panic as the unidentified hovering not-sun exploded outwards. Namiko never even got the chance to scream. By the time his brain registered what had happened, it was too late to bother. The house had already been swallowed in a curved wall of swirling gold and white light. The Intern's last thought, before the end would claim him as well, was of the family inside. He hoped that his father's last words had failed to reach them and that they left this life completely ignorant of the horror that snuffed them out. That would be best. Children given confort by a parent, a parent comforting their children. Yes, that would be a gentler end than his.

His world became an endless expanse of white before becoming the more traditional black void he expected to meet after death. The Earthling floated, stood, or swam in the empty vacuum with no senses to draw any context from. Namiko enjoyed oblivion for only a fraction of a second before a rectangular screen of purple light popped into existence, running the experience of nothingness.

The screen display suddenly shifted, like someone switched the channel, and now it displayed a human woman, one seemingly not much older than him.

She sat on top of a wooden throne placed in the middle of a forest of black trees. Long black hair framed the pale face of the haunting beauty, and her sweet smile almost put Namiko at ease. However, her glowing, mismatched eyes made such comfort impossible. They conjured the image of piranha devouring their prey's flesh until only bone remained.

"Welcome, my dear students," crooned the women, "to the Multiverse. Today will mark the first day of the Tutorial."

"Multiverse?" Thought the former Inter as it finally dawned on him that college, war, and even death were no longer the greatest concerns.