Toshi and Ruri spoke in unison, "Run that by me again?"

 

 

Rin smiled softly, "This world was created by god as... an experiment. It is a reflection of another world he created. This is not the original Earth." Both Toshi and Ruri were silent. Rin continued, "Originally, this world was supposed to be destroyed after the experiment was concluded, but God saw promise in this existence and decided to spare you. However, there was a problem."

 

She started to pour herself a cup of tea, "Energy. You see, this world is full of weak souls. Most souls in this world do not have enough strength to exist on their own. So, other, stronger souls, must take up the slack." She took the cup into her lap, "The souls of this world were found wanting." She nodded towards Toshi, "But then, God blessed us with Toshi. He is the single strongest soul in this world. It is by his presence that the energy problem has been solved."

 

Toshi blinked, "Oh."

 

Rin nodded, "Indeed." She paused to sip her tea, "However, there is one problem. If you haven't noticed, worldwide natural disasters are at an all-time low. The world is starting to finally heal, but it all is balanced on a razor's edge. It all depends on Toshi." She smiled slightly more, "If anything happened to him..." She sipped her tea.

 

Ruri blinked, "Wait." She pointed at Toshi, "He's... like... a battery powering the planet?"

 

Rin nodded.

 

Ruri looked at Toshi, "Why?"

 

"My soul has been through the reincarnation cycle a few thousand times." Toshi shrugged, "That's all there is to it."

 

Rin smiled and nodded.

 

Ruri squinted, "So... Toshi's ability to mess with the water fountain... what's up with that?"

 

Rin blinked and seemed confused, "I'm sorry... what-?"

 

Toshi cut her off, "Don't worry about that." He pointed at his friend, "Do you know what is going on with Ruri?"

 

Rin paused, then lowered her eyes and nodded.

 

Silence.

 

Ruri abruptly yelled, "SO WHAT IS IT?"

 

Rin looked at Toshi, "Perhaps I should explain things to-"

 

Toshi crossed his arms, "Spill it."

 

Rin sighed, stood up, then walked over to her desk, "I suppose I should just take you to see for yourselves." She stepped up on the coffee table and reached into the overhead light. She checked inside the covering and fished out a key. She stepped down, "You... will find it easier to accept if I just show you." She paused then looked at Toshi, "I assume you want me to tell her the whole story."

 

Toshi nodded.

 

All three got up and walked across the hall. They entered a windowless room. It appeared to be a supply closet. She went to the back and knocked on the wall once. She paused, then knocked five times, paused, then once more.

 

The wall slowly swung open.

 

There was another chamber beyond. It looked old. In it were two women, but they were dressed in body armor and armed with fully automatic weapons. They stood on the opposite side of the room, flanking a rather large, yet old set of double doors. Rin walked up to it inserted the key, turned the lock, then stood back.

 

Rin issued a stern warning to her guests as the armed guards began to swing open the double doors, "Do NOT cross the Yellow line for ANY reason." As the doors parted, the room beyond appeared expansive but poorly illuminated. In the center, an indistinct object came into view. Stepping inside, they discovered a dirt floor and a guardrail positioned about four feet from the entrance. It disappeared into the darkness to the left and to the right as it hugged the edge of the circular room.

 

As the three entered, Rin stepped off to the side and put her finger on a light switch, "Please. Prepare yourself."

 

She flicked the switch.

 

The room took on a shallow, bowl-like shape. Nestled at the center, approximately a hundred feet away, was an enigmatic... Thing? Event? Whatever it was, it seemed to be a blurry, indistinct form that, despite its lack of movement, undeniably occupied three-dimensional space. Encircling it was a red line, roughly ten feet from the center. Beyond that, at a distance of forty feet, lay a yellow line, followed by another ten feet leading to the wooden railing that encompassed the entire room.

 

Rin looked unhappy, "It's easier to see from over here."

 

The three traveled around to the left. About a quarter of the way around the room, Ruri let out a gasp and froze. She was staring at the middle of the room, "Wh-wh-what...?"

 

Toshi looked between the center of the room, and Ruri a few times. About another thirty feet ahead, Rin stood and motioned for Toshi to come closer. He slowly closed on her. With every step, the thing at the bottom of the room started to come into focus.

 

It was a human being.

 

A Japanese man, by the look of it. However, he was disintegrating. He was stretched out and falling apart. He looked like he was screaming in agony. The look on his face was the stuff of nightmares. Because he was so stretched out, you could only really tell it was a human face if you looked at him straight on. Toshi then noticed another disturbing detail.

 

Just past the red line, suspended in the air above it, there was a human hand. It too was disintegrating, but not to the same extent as the person in the middle. What was disturbing was that there was nothing else.

 

Just a hand.

 

Rin took a deep breath before she spoke, "Toshi, I present to you, Misao Ryoichi."

 

 

 

"The very first person to exchange places from our universe to this one."

 

 

 

Ruri abruptly rushed over to join Toshi, "What... the..." She pointed at it while she looked at Rin, "What am I seeing?"

 

Rin looked unhappy as she spoke, "Sometime in the fifties, for some reason, people would randomly switch places with their duplicate. The original world and this one, specifically. When God discovered this was happening, he tried to figure out why. It shouldn't have happened." She pointed at the disintegrating man, "So God tried to send him back."

 

Toshi muttered under his breath, "The chronometric sheer would completely shred your existence and you would experience what it meant to die screaming for an eternity as your soul was turned into pizza topping." Both Rin and Ruri looked at Toshi. He looked back, "God said that when I asked him if he could send me back."

 

Ruri grabbed hold of the railing and used it to hold herself up. She closed her eyes as she turned away, asking a question she didn't want to know the answer to, "Why is there a hand floating there?"

 

Rin raised a finger, "Ah. THAT." She nodded slowly as she spoke, "A few decades ago, one of the guards here became obsessed with Mister Misao and tried to reach him. When the temple was first built, we were warned never to approach." She pointed out, "The Red line is the point of no return. Like a black hole without the gravity. Past the yellow line, things get strange. Past the red, there is no coming back."

 

Toshi swallowed deeply before he spoke, "And what happened to the... guard?"

 

Rin looked at Toshi, "Well, it took a few weeks, but we managed to pull her back. Alas, the hand had to stay." She waggled her head from side to side a few times, "Well, a few weeks from our point of view. It only took a few minutes for the pair that went in to save her."

 

Ruri looked up, "Why are you showing me this?"

 

Rin looked at Ruri, "So you understand how serious this is. There are two worlds. Ours and the original. Me and Toshi are from the original world. You are not. What happens over there has an effect over here. There is a delay, but it eventually catches up."

 

Rin took a deep breath, "The angels relayed to me the cause of Ruri's condition." She looked at Ruri sympathetically, "The original you committed suicide two days ago."

 

 She turned to Toshi.

 

"On the anniversary of her father's death."

 

 

Ruri blinked, "My father didn't die two days ago. The anniversary is..." She went pale, "Five days from now."

 

Toshi grabbed Rin by the collar, "Stop this." He glared as he spoke through teeth bared, "NOW."

 

Rin held up her hands defensively, "I don't know how." She made no effort to get free, "This usually is inevitable. However, I believe you have already altered fate for another. You should be able to do it for her as well."

 

Ruri looked at Toshi, "You What Now?"

 

Toshi looked at Ruri, "Naora. She... is dead on the other side. I managed-"

 

Ruri held up her hands, "HOLD IT. Naora was supposed to die..." She pointed at Toshi, "You broke the universe to save... the girl who did more to make me want to kill myself than anyone else?" She let her hands drop to her side and looked at Toshi with a stunned expression. 

 

Toshi let go of Rin and rushed to Ruri. He grabbed her by the shoulders, "You want to kill yourself?" The look on his face was pure anguish.

 

Ruri recoiled but remained composed, "Well... I used to?" She looked to the side and down at the floor, "Not... much anymore. I do get depressed around this time of year." She looked back up, "Never mind that. I... get that..." She rubbed her eyes, "No. You're a saint. Literally. You'd save her." She dropped her hand to stare at him with a forced smile, "You'd save anyone, wouldn't you?"

 

Toshi let go, "I don't know what I am. But yeah, if I could save someone, I'd do it. She..." He let his voice trail off.

 

Ruri nodded once, "It's fine. I get it. I GET IT." She gestured to the center of the room, "Crystal Clear." She turned to Rin, "Well, I'm not feeling suicidal, especially not now. So... I should be fine, right?"

 

Toshi and Rin were silent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Ruri swallowed nervously.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Right???"

 

---

 

Harou looked beyond shocked as he rattled the chains.

 

 

 

 

Hinako had abruptly grabbed Harou and hauled him to her bed. She practically picked him up by the shoulders and threw him backward onto it. She followed up by leaping on him and grabbing his arms. First, she pulled one wrist, then the other, toward her bedposts to restrain him.

 

"HANDCUFFS? WHY DO YOU HAVE HANDCUFFS ON YOUR BED?"

 

Hinako squinted down at him, "We're a family of cops. Duh." She stripped him from the waist down in record time, "Besides, you don't want to break your promise to Toshi, right?" She mounted his hips while cheerfully chatting away, "This way, you can just say I forced you!" She booped him lightly on the nose, "I'll play the bad gal so this is easier for you, okay?"

 

"PLAY???"

 

Harou lay there, his eyes wide with pinprick pupils. He was far too overwhelmed by the turn of events to so much as think. Even if he could, he would have no idea how to get out of this. To say he was conflicted would be an understatement. Part of him was honestly trying to respect Toshi's wishes, part of him desperately wanted to do this, and part of him was freaking out that there didn't seem to be any way to stop her.

 

As Hinako grabbed him and guided him inside her, she loomed over him with a smirk, "Oh, c'mon. Look at this beast. It takes a half hour to get a guy in the mood and you were ready when you walked in here!" She bore down on him, letting out a low groan as she engulfed his manhood, "You want this more than me and you KNOW IT."

 

Harou let out a strangled cry and thrashed his head from side to side as she started to bounce up and down on him. Hinako herself was beyond turned on by all this, her juices practically flowing as she ground herself against him, "Don't worry. I know how to please a man. No matter how long it takes, I'll-"

 

Harou lost it.

 

Abruptly he started to buck against her, lifting his hips against her and thrusting wildly. He had done his best to resist, and since he no longer could, he wasn't going to hold back, not for this bitch. Hinako looked rather shocked at how hard he was pumping into her. If anything, she started to feel concerned, "Hey? HEY! Are you-"

 

With a final strangled cry, Harou arched his back and lifted Hinako right off the bed, holding her in the air as he exploded inside her. She might be able to force him to have sex, but he wasn't about to make it a fun experience. And it wouldn't be...

 

If this had been his original world, that is.

 

He collapsed back against the bed, panting as his head reeled from the force of his orgasm. He slowly realized Hinako was holding his shoulders and grinding her hips against him quite aggressively. Slowly he turned his head to look up at her to see her eyes rolled up in her head as she humped against his softening cock and then suddenly freeze up. She dug her fingernails into his shoulders and let out a long, drawn out, "YESSSSSSSSSSSsssssssssssssss..."

 

This was not like the girls he usually fucked.

 

Hinako collapsed against him, panting. Abruptly she ripped off her shirt, her skin covered in a thin sheen of sweat. She propped herself up on one elbow then abruptly rolled to the side to let him breathe, "Holy sweet father of GOD!" She lay next to him, one leg across him while she vaguely humped his side, "That was amazing!"

 

Harou just stared at her in disbelief.

 

She cupped his face, "What are you? Seriously? It takes a half hour to get a guy in the mood, and another half hour to get him off." She looked at her clock, "You came in like... two minutes." She looked back at him, "That was the sexiest thing I've ever seen." She humped his leg as her eyes flared with lust, "Do I turn you on THAT much?"

 

Harou stared back. Eventually, he spoke, "The handcuffs hurt."

 

She looked confused, as if this never occurred to her, "Oh? Shit. Sorry. Got carried away." She reached over to open the drawer on her nightstand, fished out the key, and freed Harou. He held his hands close together, rubbing at the red rings on each wrist in turn. He glared at her as she kept him half-pinned beneath her.

 

Hinako frowned slightly, "Oh... C'mon. You loved it and you know it. Holy shit, when you lifted me like that..." She bit her lower lip, then slowly bared her teeth as she moaned. Running her hand up under his shirt, she started to play with his nipples, "Don't tell me that wasn't hot as fuck."

 

Harou tried to glare harder, but it was difficult with her boobs pressed against him. His indignity lacked conviction as he couldn't take his eyes off her tits, "That's not the point. The point is-"

 

She shifted to hold herself up, looming over him. She couldn't help but notice where Harou's eyes were drawn. She smirked down at him, "The point is, you could still go to jail."

 

Harou shut up.

 

She rocked back and forth, swaying her tits hypnotically in his face as she continued, "The point is you are a goddamn slut and we both know it. You're a cum pump made for pleasing cunts and that's what you are good for." She gently tapped him on the nose, "No good boy cums that fast." She abruptly lost her grin, "Seriously. That was just amazing." She leaned in and lightly licked his nose, "You liked it. I liked it. Let's not pretend you're some blushing virgin groom." She poked him in the stomach, "Or do you have rock-hard abs JUST because you want to look good on your wedding day?"

 

Harou turned his head away and said nothing.

 

She smirked as she knew she had finally broken him, "So... Which one am I?"

 

He rolled his head back to look up at her, "Huh?"

 

"How many have you fucked before me?"

 

Harou was silent.

 

She twisted his nipple. HARD.

 

"SEVEN!" He blurted out

 

Hinako looked surprised, "Fuck. Am I gonna have to get tested?"

 

Harou narrowed his eyes, "I always use a condom, UNLIKE YOU."

 

She scrunched up her lips, "Fair point." She fell to the side and lay next to him, "Look. We might have got off on the wrong foot, but you knew what could happen when you tried to pull this shit." She dragged a finger along his arm between them, "I mean, You're fuckin' seven other girls and you want to steal my underwear? You got a problem, babe." She rolled onto her side to face him, "So, I'm gonna help you out."

 

Harou abruptly swung his legs off the edge of the bed and sat up, "Help me? HOW?"

 

She reached out to touch him, "Oh... c'mon, babe." She purred as she spoke, "Don't be like that. I like sluts. You're the best slut I ever had." She propped herself up on her elbow, "Seriously. You're the gold standard." She reached out to touch his thigh, "I'll forget any of this shit happened. I won't tell Toshi about any of this. So you can either pretend this never happened as well, or..." She smirked, "When you got that itch, you give me a call. Kay?"

 

Harou looked for his pants, "Ain't gonna happen."

 

She grinned at him, "Oh... c'mon. You ain't even let me suck you off yet." She waggled her eyebrows, "I KNOW how to hit that sweet spot."

 

Harou froze.

 

Hinako noticed an unexpected twitching in Harou's lower regions. She got on her hands and knees to start stalking across the bed, "C'mon, babe... give me a chance?"

 

 

 

 

In that moment, Hinako's expression gave Harou a flashback to his world's Honey Whitefox.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He would not find his pants for several hours.