It was the break of dawn. Hajime had a good sleep for once. He was ready to get out of bed, eat a bowl of hearty rice topped with omelets, and watch whatever poor sap was against the peerless champion—Khabib Nurmagomedov.
For the next twenty minutes, he was on a date with his sandbag while hearing the crowd on TV go wild over his idol. One, two, three, one, two, three; the trance of an imaginary battle was intoxicating. The veins in his muscles tensed to their limit, reaching across his neck before the final blow. As expected, it was a total knockout.
“And he has done it again, ladies and gentlemen!” said the announcer with a heavy Bristol accent. “The crowning youth of our time has given us another spectacle in the books! Anderson Silva has yet to recover. All praise for our beloved Hajime!”
Hajime stopped in the middle of his daily intake of liquid protein, his eyes fixed on his walled flatscreen. He heard stories of mild delirium in the heat of exercise, but as the moments passed, the crowd began to cry out his name. The bewilderment of it all made him pour his drink into the sink without a second thought. Goddamn expired eggs.
“Speak for yourself, Hajime,” said the announcer in a wispy tone. “You had everything going for you that day, but it all went tits up! Your second life expired too fast before your eyes.”
“What the fuck…?” He squinted at the screen, pacing himself a little closer. By then, he didn’t utter a word as the crowd grew louder and louder, repeating his name like a broken record. It was pure chaos in the face of a proud man.
“But don’t worry, Hajime. We’ll always love you. Your greatest spectacle has yet to come!” The announcer disappeared into the crowd, overtaking the screen with their never-ending smiles.
“Hajime! Hajime! Hajime! Hajime! Hajime! Haji—”
“Hajime!” said Farkas. “Wake up, it’s time for breakfast. I’ll get some condiments. Be right back.”
It was a nightmare to remember, as Hajime begrudgingly agreed. The moment his second life was gone due to hubris, it didn’t even cover all the world’s greatest fears, much less in the new one, where he waited in a room not too far from the average penthouse.
“Knock, knock. Howdy-do, Sleeping Betty!?” Farkas entered the room, bowing like a butler of an esteemed household. Putting his wolf cap back on, he walked toward a coffee machine at his own pace, asking the built-in Alexis to turn the thermostat up a notch.
Farkas had already left quite the impression since midnight. Hajime supposed one could get used to this life of watching over a dreary roommate 24/7, free from the worries of facing the horde. However, he was dumbfounded at how Farkas remained barefoot with all the dirt tucked under his toenails. For sure, there had to be a health code around here.
“Is this your way of keeping in touch with your spirit animal?” he said.
Farkas nearly choked on his espresso like the giggling chum he was, laying his mug on the table. “No, of course not! It’s a mandatory custom of my people. We Lupinians don’t have the luxury of slow-growing nails like your primate kind.”
“My kind?”
“I’m not from Earth, Hajime. Not many of us here are, except for Aaron in the tabloid section. Barring him, you’re the most recent human from that planet in years.”
“Really? What happened to the others?”
“Dead.”
Hajime had eyebrows raised for a few moments, his mind betraying him as it replayed the one scene he would describe as the personification of the word embarrassing. Not even the word fun could escape its filthy clutches. “Dead? But how? I’m here, aren’t I?”
“It’s complicated, but for the other cases, let’s just say you still get to see yourself growing wrinkles after a few more decades. Some are worse than dead. One is out there going…”
He caressed his chin, thrust into stories of cruel and unusual suffering due to the horde. One had half their brain removed; another went crawling on all fours. One even got trapped in a never-ending cycle of the memory of fighting the slime matriarch herself. It was cold inside, yet it stung constantly worse than the last. It stung until every bone and tooth became her daily nutrition.
“But hey, it’s not all doom and gloom here,” Farkas emphasized. “The top dogs tend to be reborn heroes, not me included. Such a shame none of them were impressed by your show of vanity yesterday.”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it.” Hajime stood tall from the table, stretching his arms wide as he yawned like a rooster on sedatives. “So… any chance for a brief tour of this place before we do what we gotta do?”
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“Ready when you are, dude. We’ve still got all day.”
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Hajime didn’t know what to expect from the otherworld by that point. It seemed like he had never left home, with all his surroundings being a typical strip mall. One striking difference, however, was the overabundance of nature. There were trees, shrubs, everything. Even beneath his feet, the concrete floor had noticeable moss.
Usually, such a scenario would dictate a place abandoned for a century, but it was never like that. It was vibrant, leaves glistening with morning dew and colorful mushrooms on logs. As they took a surprisingly smooth ride on an escalator teeming with vines, something became clear: their inside was also outside. It sure explained the hanging flower pots in their apartment.
“Unique feeling, isn’t it?” said Farkas, hands resting at the back of his head. “I heard all humans used to live similar lives among the forests and grasslands. It makes me nostalgic for my home, honestly.”
“Yeah, maybe ten thousand years ago. We primates don’t have the luxury of razor-sharp fangs like your Lupinian kind.”
Farkas laughed, bearing fangs the size of toothpicks. “You know, I think you and I will get along just fine. Paulie, too, is a great guy to be around. Wait until you see the sheer might of his [Way of the Ax]!”
“Interesting,” said Hajime, stashing his hands inside his pockets as they stopped at a taco stand. “Maybe I should’ve used that back— Wait, what did you say?”
“Paulie’s a great guy. He can’t fit in most saunas, but we’ve been best buds for three months.”
“No, not that. What do you mean your friend has the [Way of the Ax]?” He gave him a slight squint. Since his first taste of the horde, he wondered if there were more than three upgrade options on the field. If it were up to him, there would be the option to kill countless enemies with a swordfish. There wasn’t much reason to imagine such a thing other than the heck of it.
“Oh, I see,” Farkas responded. “Sorry, dude, but that’s a hereditary thing.”
“Huh?”
“Don’t worry, you’ll know during our training. Experience is the best teacher, as they say. Let’s continue the tour, shall we?” Farkas walked toward a ticket booth, asking for two seats.
It was a rather mesmerizing scene to behold if Hajime had anything to say about it. His eyes were fixed on a wide open ledge that stretched half a mile across, lined with a thousand cable cars packed with people ever-so-unknown to his human traits. Some were more like sapient cuttlefish than others. His kind was present, too, but he doubted if they knew about baseball or any other mundanity back home.
“All right, let’s go!” said Farkas, leading the way. “Welcome… to Agrima!”
As always, he shined a pearly white grin. He wanted every opportunity to see all the customs of an otherworldly populace, but as he stepped into the cable car, his expectations were already out the window. Amidst the blue sky and yellow sun was a sea of clouds beneath the metropolis. Indeed, if he could describe it with the least words, it would be this: a world above the clouds.
image [https://i.imgur.com/iXXO9lG.jpeg]
People got around the same way they did, though some preferred carrying their [Insta-Warp] card for the quickest destination possible. A brief moment of dread haunted Hajime’s mind as a couple took their child to learn for themselves. Losing a limb or two in between travel wasn’t out of the question.
Others got around blessed by their natural-born abilities, from flapping their wings to moving their tail fins to even the occasional wall crawling. Seeing the cuttlefish folks play pranks on their family members disguised as tree bark was memorable, too. They may not have hands or feet, but even they knew about the word fun.
Hajime was delighted to show Farkas such hilarity, but his friend’s face was more accurate with the word sour. “Hey, man, you okay?” he said, resting his hand on his shoulder.
“What? Oh, sorry, I was spacing out.” Farkas continued gazing down at whatever street they passed from high above. It wasn’t clear whether he looked at any citizen walking by or the skyscrapers overgrown with vegetation.
Perhaps Farkas was spaced out, but Hajime had none of it. “Yeah, if you say that again while looking like that, I might just ‘accidentally’ open the door.”
“I’m not afraid of that one bit,” chuckled Farkas, giving him the faintest smile before sighing in defeat. “Okay, you got me. I’m jealous, jealous of everyone down there enjoying themselves. You see, Lupinians are a highly social race. Leaving the nest doesn’t exist in our vocabulary.”
“Oh, God. Oh, God, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
Farkas chuckled again, eyes closed. “No, no, don’t be. We weren’t wiped out or anything. My planet still thrives as we speak.”
“So what’s this all about?”
“Well… they just didn’t want me anymore.” Farkas’ smile disappeared, his eyes showing a thousand stories of isolation and grief. After mustering the strength to take a deep breath, he uttered, “Hajime, do you know why people want to face the horde?”
“To defeat cool-ass monsters? Make ends meet? Protect those who can’t fight for themselves?”
“Yes, yes, and yes, but at least for me, it’s so I can make a difference with the people around me. Then, I realized how foolish I was to think I could make everyone happy. Lupinians are very strong, very proud, yet very stubborn. They paid no welcome to Paulie and the others.”
Frankly, it was a harrowing tale fit for a violin, and frankly, Hajime couldn’t relate much. If he were in his shoes, they could all kiss his rock-hard behind goodbye before leaving for good. But maybe he could’ve been there for him. He could’ve taught him about the supposed “spiritual benefits” of owning a Super Saiyan poster while doing push-ups. Maybe, just maybe.
He began tapping his fingers with arms crossed, humming as his mind searched for any way to lighten the mood. Usually, there was nothing a good arm wrestling couldn’t fix except perhaps a dislocated socket. He clung to the same idea, sluggishly moving his hand until it became a mere handshake. “Thanks. The name’s Hajime, by the way.”
Confusing as it was, that may have been the point. After all, heroes needed companions along the way, and against the horde, they would be invincible.
“Farkas. Nice to meet you.”