The world before was one that Hiro dreamed about more often than not. Many of his dreams started on January first of that year, when he woke up with a bloody nose. It was a holiday for many but not Hiro, who had a shift at the fulfillment center with plans to deliver food late into the evening. The next day would be the same cycle, rinse and repeat.
But then, the gates.
Then, the superpowers.
Then, jobs didn’t seem so important anymore.
The decision to become homeless often isn’t a decision. It is usually a series of happenings, preventable or not, that lead someone to the point that they no longer have a place to stay, or a job to pay them. Some issues really come down to the country itself and the opportunities there, but never, as far as Hiro knew, was the trigger for global calamity and widespread homelessness the sudden appearance of hovering, alien gates.
He remembered his first night in the subway system, how hard it was.
He remembered meeting Monica, how their bond had been one of trauma.
He remembered always thinking the worst was over, only to find the worst was yet to come.
Money, the power grid, the Internet, the appearance of deities across the globe, food shortages and hungry nights, changes in the weather, and finally, the eradication of all supers and the game, or whatever this was.
Hiro remembered it all even though he wanted to forget.
“What time is it?” he asked as he gasped awake, Hiro scrambling for his phone. He tensed once he saw how much time had passed.
00:09:37:26
00:09:37:25
00:09:37:24
Over fourteen hours? Fuck…
Text appeared from his Companion:
“Finally, you’re up. I was getting sooo bored, Big Brother Hiro.”
“Less than ten hours left.”
“Really? Dang. You were out for a while,” Bianca said as she extended a fuzzy pink tentacle to him to wipe some of his dark hair out of his face.
He swatted her tentacle away. “That’s not a lot of time.”
“If you’re rawdogging an airplane flight, yes, it’s a lot of time. We could probably reach the Svalbard Seed Vault in ten hours on a plane. Pretty sure. To get levels and prepare for the gates opening, whatever that means? You’re right, that’s not a lot of time.”
Next to him, Hashi got up and moved to the other side of the room, where the demon dog sat and looked back at Hiro.
“I wish I had known.”
“I have no way of telling what time it is, in case you’re pointing the blame at me,” Bianca told him.
“I’m not.”
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She reached a tentacle out to his phone and examined the phone for a moment. “Hey, I can actually see the time. Crap. I could have helped.”
“Can you talk to my Companion?” Hiro asked as he went for one of his Survivor Tenders. As soon as he opened the jar of peanut butter, Hashi perked up. He held out one of the Tenders for Hashi, who grabbed it out of his hand without sniffing this time.
“Let me try. Companion, what am I?” After waiting a moment, she turned the phone’s front face to Hiro. “I guess your Companion is shy. That, or an asshole.”
“Let me try. Companion, what is Bianca?”
The text formed as it normally did.
“But she is sentient.”
His Companion didn’t respond. Bianca tossed the phone back over to him. “Have you ever tried leaving it behind?” she asked. “That was interesting.”
“It comes back to you. Valeria already told me that,” Hiro said as he pocketed the phone. There was certainly more he wanted to say to the Doom System, but for now, he had learned his lesson about doing that. The system was capable of anything, and he wouldn’t put it past spawning some Japanese warlord to fight him in the fallout shelter.
“And that’s where we’re going next, right? Her hideout?”
“Correct. Since we’re after SE, we might as well partner up with Valeria, Rena, and Juan. If they’re together. God, who knows. Plus, there are the Spectators.”
“You’re expecting the worst, aren’t you?”
“I am. And that’s why we’re going to head through the subway system first. If there is something waiting for me up there,” he said as he looked up to the top of the shelter, “I don’t want to be in a position where it can easily pounce. The system lets out just a block away from here. Plus, Hachi won’t have to run up the ladder.”
“This place really connects to the subway system?”
“It does.”
Bianca moaned. “What is it with you and the subway system?”
“I would say something like if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it, but all of this is broken.” Hiro ate one of the Survivor Tenders. He opened his backpack and the bear spilled out.
“Yoooo. What’s that?”
“Chronokuma,” he told her as he returned the bear to his backpack.
“Is that supposed to mean something to me?”
“It’s a Legendary Item. Squeezing it allows me to travel back in time for three minutes.”
“Back in time? To when?”
“The week before the system appeared. At least that’s what I think is happening.”
“So it just takes you back for three minutes?”
“Correct.”
“Do you know what exact time it takes you back to?”
“I don’t.”
“And how often can you use it?”
“After I rest. Thus far, I have used it to take a bath, get a coffee, and eat a hotdog.”
Bianca burst out laughing. “That sounds so stupid.”
“It’s pretty badass if you ask me.”
“Do you think…?”
“Yes?”
“Do you think you could use it to go back in time and see me?”
“I don’t see why I couldn’t. But the problem would be knowing what day I am actually going back to, and knowing where you were at that moment.”
“Yeah, if you only have three minutes, that could be an issue. When did you get the teddy?”
“The gate gave it to me. Same as your shield, right?”
“I am my shield, but yes, same. My weapon was Hammy, and the gate gave me a shield. It didn’t give everyone something.”
“So I’ve been told.” Hiro finished packing his backpack with his energy drinks, a few Survivor Tenders, and his teddy bear. He strengthened his duct tape armor, took a big drink of water, fixed his Hyottoko mask over his face, and extended his hand to Bianca. “Shall we?”
A tentacle on the front of the shield grabbed his arm and transferred to his back from there, where she found a spot just over his backpack. “I guess it’s back into the subway.”
“Yup.” Hiro twisted the handle that opened the door. He stepped down onto the platform that ran along the side of an abandoned track and whistled for Hachi to follow. “Stay close,” he told the dog once he was out of the shelter.
It was a familiar path by this point—hop down to the tracks, squeeze past the end of one of the dormant trains, keep close to the wall as he ignored the rats, get to the platform, take the yellow ladder and the stairs from there.
All in the dark.
Hiro could do this with or without the light on his backpack, which was why it was so frightening when Hachi barked and he looked ahead into the pitch black to see a pair of red eyes staring back at him just as he reached the platform.
By this point, it was instinctual.
Hiro reached into the air above his head and drew his massive odachi, a rare growl coming to him. “Let’s go,” he growled.