Arrival

Coral, like any other Friday, participates in the athletics club. Although she had tried harder than usual that day, she was quite motivated, which had resulted in more praise from her teammates and coach. She exuded self-confidence and an even better mood. If it were up to her, she would have stayed longer listening to them, but when she saw Teresa, waiting calmly in the stands, she came back to her senses. Today was her day, it was the day she had been waiting for so long. She said goodbye to her team as soon as she could.

“If you keep going like this you're going to win the championship.”

“Star! Remember that you had agreed to help me tomorrow”.

“I feel envious…”

These were the various comments Coral used to hear.

“See you on Monday!” Coral stretched her muscles faster than always, and went straight to where they were waiting for her.

She was still drenched in sweat when she took her friend’s hand, dragging her out of the compound, the sooner they got to Coral's house the sooner they would read the new chapter, she didn't even want to look at social media, she didn't want to risk a spoiler, the author of one of her favorite manhwas had recently announced on social media that she would resume the story with a long and... explicit chapter.

Teresa didn't have time to say goodbye to the team, although it didn't matter, many only answered her out of mere courtesy.

Coral was only thinking about getting there and nothing else. It didn't even occur to her to stop by to say hello to Mr. Chinea, as she often did, or even to offer her help to the other extracurricular activity clubs. Thanks to the wide strides that her long, athletic legs allowed her, the journey was shorter and more pleasant than usual, at least for her. The opposite happened with her blonde friend; her unsportsmanlike attitude and the steepness of the path meant that she had to freshen up as soon as she entered the house.

"Good idea," the brunette told him. "I'm going to take a bath before watching the episode, the occasion calls for it." The fervor was evident.

“Yes”, she nodded with a little smile, “I understand the needs of mortals. Anything to understand you better”.

“Whatever you say, but the explanations are not in the bathtub.”

Indirectly, Coral invited her friend to leave the bathroom.

Teresa headed to the kitchen, apparently popcorn and strawberries are in the diet of non-earthly beings.

“I thought I heard you”, Imobach greeted.

Contrary to how his sister described him, Imobach was a charming, reserved and respectful boy, who never said a word too much, nor loved too little. But, of course, brothers, for Coral he was the most annoying creature she had the horror of meeting every morning.

"What is this about mortals ?" asked a face that was unknown to Teresa. It would have been unknown to Coral as well.

“Heh” A wide, proud smile appeared on the blonde's face. “One more ally? Humans tend to…”

“Bah, it looks like a geeky thing. I'm leaving” the strange said, hanging his coat over his shoulder.

He interrupted her, he didn't even let her finish her sentence, but it was usual for her, people didn't usually pay attention to her usual divagation, what was strange for her, was being listened to.

The room in question left. Minutes ago he had shared a room with Imobach, but now he had left, without at least saying goodbye. There was no need for a cloying kiss or a perpetual hug, but rather a “ goodbye, it was nice .” The gesture was blunt.

The normal reaction of the older boy was to frown. He was not one of those who usually complained to people's faces, he preferred to keep his opinions to himself, that's what he had learned since he was a child, since he was six years old and took care of his sister who was a year younger. He frowned when his parents went out, when the maid came in, when visits were late, when promises were not kept. Each one has his own way of responding, some ignore, others fantasize, and others frown.

“You were going to say that humans tend to explore the unknown, right?” Imobach turned on the coffee maker, he needed to regain his strength.

“Yes, unknowns attract, there is a need to satisfy that primal curiosity.”

“Yes, but why?” said the boy, putting his hand to his chin.

Coral's shower was quick, rather fleeting. As soon as she finished, she went to her room to get ready, everything had to be perfect. She listened to her brother and her best friend philosophizing in the kitchen, but she didn't interrupt them. This conversation was going to take a long time and she wouldn't be the one to get lost in arguments and ideas when she could be reading, concentrating hard in her room.

She quietly went to the kitchen to get some fresh water, straightened the bedclothes, put on some comfortable clothes, preferably pink, hugged her Park Eun-Jung stuffed animal, put on her wireless headphones and turned her screen to the highest resolution.

She removed all the advertising, the ads that open new pages and the credits for translators and cleaners. If she could, she would read the manhwa on a legal website, but since there wasn't one, that was the only solution.

It's not there, it's not there!

After almost ten minutes of complete expectation, Coral broke the silence. She went up and down the entire comic strip looking for the supposedly racy scene, but nothing. The most was a stolen kiss, unexpected for nothing and that would unleash chaos in the future, leading to a scene of jealousy from the seme , but nothing more. Nothing. That scene that she had waited so many months for since she read it in the short message from the anonymous author was not there.

“What is this? Where’s is my ecchi?” She said, leaning back completely on his desk.

She rushed to write on that website where fanfics of her favorite shows are written. She kept reading the comments left on her post: “But they are really good at drawing boobs ”, “They have completely omitted her, they are afraid of success”, “They could have drawn her, with blurring, even if it is…”, “Is it that bad?”. Yes, it was that bad, at least for the most die-hard fans of the protagonist.

When she left her room, she was already wearing her sports clothes, her brother and her friend were still in the conversation, although now it took on vampiric overtones, their beginnings, the story behind them, Romania, Carmilla... Both remained silent when they saw the girl's displeasure, the cause was obvious, so they didn't ask anything.

She started running, she didn't want to follow her usual route, she had recently encountered some outcasts and she wasn't in the mood to give them "an euro, sister" . She went along goat paths, there were still rays of sun and it wouldn't be so dangerous.

The disappointment passed after the first four songs, it wasn't something to regret so much, but something to complain about inside without going so far as to beat up the author, but not to deplore. Considering that the episode had come out in Korea several hours ago, the sketches and fan-arts wouldn't be long in coming, she would check her phone when she got home. For the moment, she preferred to enjoy the views of her new route, the jog allowed her to see how the night was tinting the sky, although the last rays of the sun drew a perfect trichromatic picture, blue, pink and orange; the sea was calm and the mountains in the opposite direction remained impenetrable, green and majestic.

"That's it," she said with a sigh, before turning around.

“Is there anyone there?” she heard a voice with an accent he couldn't identify, coming from a few meters beyond the path, where the land curved to the right.

It was poorly lit. They still couldn't see each other.

“Hurry, at this hour it can't be anything good” she remained silent.

“Please” said the male figure approaching, “You are the fourth person I've met here” he walked slowly, calculating the situation, it was getting dark and she just wanted to get out of there.

“It’s definitely suspicious, run away” her legs didn’t respond. “I don’t have any money!”

“Money? No, no, I just want to go. You speak English, which country am I in?” Coral understood that it was an Asian accent.

The stone path was illuminated by the faint light of spring, but it was not until they were a few metres away that they began to make out the features of their faces.

Coral's body had suddenly gone cold, her right leg was parallel to the boy and almost completely lifted off the ground, only attached by the outer edge, although on the contrary, her left foot was heading towards him. The boy's body was forward, his hands were less than a hand's width from her torso, his palms were fully visible to the sixteen-year-old and the back of her neck was sweating, she didn't want to lose the last possible help before nightfall.

“I just want to know.” Although that wouldn't help him at all. No money, no acquaintances, in another country, in another... “The police.”

“Uhm… “ she still didn't trust him, but she allowed him to get closer.

With only two meters to go, the light was enough to see their faces.

“It's you?!”

He, confused, took a step back, but his distant expression did not change. Fear took hold of him for a few seconds, but against the light he observed the girl's tanned skin and her thin but sport-marked limbs; he did not recognize her.

She, amazed, scanned him completely, that mole on the right side of his chin, slanted eyes with a black that was sometimes confused with dark blue, short hair at the back and thick, side-swept bangs... she knew everything, she was sure, despite being just a few centimeters shorter than her.

“Is it really you?” she began to raise her voice in excitement. “You?!” “Relax, you’re going to scare him.” “Maybe it’s a doppelganger… ” she complained to herself. “Am I going to die?” she became scared.

“Me?” He tried to remain stoic. “My name is Hara, Yûsuke. Yû is written with the kanji for happiness.”

“No, it can't be. No, no” she took a few seconds to think. In truth, she was talking to herself. “Was the character based on a real person? It's just that…” she looked at the boy closely without touching him, she didn't want to make a stranger uncomfortable “ the author is very realistic, you look like a copy, well... rather the opposite…”

The girl was no longer listening or paying attention to the Japanese man's request, she only admired him, she couldn't contain her joy, her husbando, one of them, the one she had read so many fanfics about , was real and he was there.

“Sorry, I just want to get off this poorly marked road.”

“Yes, yes... Let's go” she started to walk but seeing his doubts the boy grabbed him by the sleeve of his shirt and pulled him loosely, just to wake him up.

By the time they reached the entrance, it was already dark, luckily the streetlights lit up the path every few metres. They hadn't said a word during the walk up the slope, and that was unusual for her. Coral's thoughts were still a whirlwind of ideas, questions, possible conversations and a lot of happiness.

“… Before you go, can I ask for your autograph?”

“An autograph?”

Yûsuke tried not to show the incomprehension that was overwhelming him.

“Yes, an autograph, it's not every day that you meet the person that one of your favorite manga characters is based on” not to mention crush, if you're more handsome in real life, she thinked. “It's like if I met Osamu Dazai, well, I couldn't, because the real one committed suicide but, you understand me.”

“I… I don’t know where I am. I have a vague memory, but…”

“Is he shirking to avoid signing?” The brunette shook her head. “But he really seems lost… A settling of scores? Sometimes, celebrities take so many substances that if they manage to escape they don’t remember anything…”

“You are in the Canary Islands, Spain. You know that, don't you? Remember, if you arrived by boat, the parties are usually more in the south of the island, in this area there are more loose cannons from the town, do you know any of them?”

“No. I know how I got here, but I can't go back... “ he closed her eyes and put her hand to her chin, in an effort to imagine the way back.

“This is strange... if you're going to kidnap me or something, tell me, so I'll get over the disappointment sooner” she said seriously, firmly, expecting the worst response.

“What? No, I really don't know what to do, I can't go back, I don't even have a place to spend the night.”

After a few seconds of deliberation, Coral acted. Leaving people stranded was not her modus vivendi, and this was not going to be an exception. She took the risk of bringing him indoors.

“Follow me.”

He cautiously accepted, he wasn't going to make the mistake of trusting just anyone, no, but he preferred to stay alert rather than spend the night out in the open.

There was silence along the way, too. Coral was absorbed in thinking about how she would relate to him, how she would make her best dish and how she would fall in love with his food, how she would delight him with her handling of the surfboard and how she would toast him with all her love. The whole journey went on like this, each one dealing with their own internal battles.

The building was newly designed, the small gardens that bordered it were pruned almost daily and the elderly doorman always greeted you with a smile, especially Coral who occasionally brought her some sweets. On each floor there was only one apartment, the fourth and last floor was where the girl lived. Her apartment was spacious of course, but it didn't look like the place where a family lives, rather it was like the extension of the room of two teenagers.

“Surprised?” the brunette said, trying to show off. “What?” Yusuke thought. Her parents had probably bought it, not her. “Wait at the entrance, please.”

A few seconds later, she appeared with a man, another teenager who looked very similar to her. He was even taller, no one would deny that he was six feet tall, slightly darker skinned and much more muscular, but the relationship was noticeable. Yûsuke noticed his smooth, defined jaw, and the boy clenched his jaw when he saw him.

“Don't say anything” Coral turned to her brother-. Tere hasn't answered yet, it’s too late...

As if she had heard her, her friend answered the video call. Despite it being past ten o'clock at night, the girl appeared in the dark, the light from the screen dazzled her and the embroidery on her white pajamas on the collar could be seen.

“Sorry, I assumed you were sleeping, but this is too much” said the brunette pointing her screen at the Asian.

“What? I wasn't sleeping, the nocturnal creatures didn't…” when the camera focused the girl was speechless. “Magic exists! You see! They called me crazy! How did you summon it?! Wicca, white magic, black magic... illusionism?!”

The blonde was beside herself with joy, the dream that dominated her had taken a backseat only to give way to enthusiasm. Although this took a backseat when her grandmother entered her room, almost knocking down the door.

“It's not time. Go to sleep now, tomorrow we have to work the land.”

Still with her face turned towards her grandmother, the blonde hung up immediately. She didn't usually question orders, she never did. But this didn't stop her from sending one last message:

Please tell me everything. I'll see him tomorrow as soon as I wake up.

“She won't sleep thinking about what happened.” Coral knew how passionate her friend could be at times, more than she, much more.

“Back to the topic... What does this mean?” Imobach looked the other boy up and down without changing his expression. “Are you one of those idols who fulfill the dreams of their fans, a hyperrealistic robot created by Adassa, or have our parents decided to give you a treat?” he said at first, then look at his sister.

“I want to” the brunette rolled her eyes. “But I'm scared of being an android” she began to inspect it, looking for some kind of entry slot or coupling.

Imobach was terrified by the idea of artificial intelligence pretending to be human. He said they should have some kind of device that would force them to always tell the truth.

“If you ask me…” Yûsuke took a step back “I can tell you my experience.”

The guest explained his life in a general way, which was a bit different from what the girl had read about. There were no childhood friends, no bullying, no mind-reading, but rather a resentful older brother and a high ability to read the environment. Coral's conclusion was "Where I put my eye, I put the bullet"; Imobach's was "I'm not liking this collective hallucination at all."

Hours later they finished the conversation, he had omitted the details of his personal story, he preferred not to be taken for a madman and he knew that if he told how he had gotten there they would. Tomorrow would be another day, and luckily for him, the connection and the power outlet were no different from where he came from.

For Coral, the night was long, or short, depending on how she looked at it. She had trouble sleeping because of the excitement, no one would ever dream of meeting her crush 2D, but the next morning she didn't mind sleeping less than six hours, she was the first one in the house up. She approached the living room where they had improvised a bed, it was still there, at first she admired it from the distance of the hallway, she hesitated, but taking advantage of the boy's deep sleep, she approached. His face, calmed by sleep, was far from the serious and haggard expression of the previous day.

“If I try hard, I'll make it, she whispered, encouraging herself. With that, she prepared breakfast, hoping that the boys would wake up or her friend would get home, whichever came first.”

When Teresa arrived, with the wide country hat protecting her from the sun, her cheeks rosy, the patch on her left eye half-fallen from sweat and her boots full of dirt, the boys had already had breakfast. She greeted her friend effusively, she was happy for her, she also wanted to delve deeper into the boy's mysterious arrival, although she was worried about reading minds, sometimes Teresa thought bad things, very bad, and she wouldn't like anyone to reveal them.

For the second time, Yûsuke told his personal story. He repeated exactly the same story. Two sons in a middle-class family, one of them with a capacity for studies, diligent, studious, he never got below ninety points in any exam; the other, just as hard-working as the first, but without achieving the same, got tired of trying so hard, his parents also got tired of so many disappointments. "My older brother hates me, and he is the one who abandoned me here," he concluded.

“But… that doesn’t explain your resemblance to the story of My Blue High-School Life.”

Coral's intervention was foolish, although the only one who thought so was the newcomer. It was obvious to him that it had all been his brother's fault, he didn't know how but he had done it. Where he came from, the technology was advanced enough to do it, at least twice; the first time, giving up a lot of information about both of them, and the second time, abandoning his own brother.

“I have some ideas” was the only answer he said. With the lack of information, Coral continued.

“In any case, don’t worry, you can stay as long as you want.” As if it’s for life, handsome, she thinked. “The three of us will help you find…” Not his brother, does he have another relative nearby? Will they bully him too? “The way back home” she corrected.

“In fact, there are four of us.”

They remained silent, they did not know who the brother was referring to, but it was at that moment that the entrance door rang. It was he who opened it, the rest waited at the table, they did not know that the fifth in question would arrive so soon.

“First of all, I just wanted to confirm that it wasn't a deception from him” Imobbach said before looking to Adassa.

“I've already told you that it has nothing to do with me. But it is interesting, no doubt” she moved a chair closer to the boy to look at him more closely.

“You don't seem to want to hear my story.”

“I heard it when I was outside - she said looking into his eyes, resting her cheek on his hand” But if it's not too much trouble, I'll repeat it…

“Did you hear us from outside? How? It's a luxury building, there's good security” Coral prioritized.

“Don't accept everything on your phone without reading it” he winked at her.

Imobach, who was used to the brunette's antics - she already had at least nine visible piercings on her face - was not surprised. But his sister was still not used to it after years of friendship?

“But hey, knock on the door.”

“I didn't want to invade privacy.”

“Ah… but listening from one of our cell phones isn’t, right?” Coral tried to respond as calmly as she could.

“Girls, don't... argue. Let's focus” Teresa hated arguments and loud noises since she was little, she also didn't like sudden movements or angry people. Anyone would say so with her semi-Victorian-Gothic style that she wore every day.

“You're right” the friends held hands. They could do nothing but ask him to cancel what he had done to eavesdrop on them.

For the third, and hopefully last, he told his personal story. When he finished, he looked at the new girl with short curly hair and flashy clothes.

He was kind out loud, apologizing that he didn't mind explaining it again, that it helped him remember, but he remembered perfectly what had happened, and all he was doing was wasting time instead of looking for a way to get back, although he knew he should be grateful, thanks to the brothers he hadn't spent the night out in the open.

To Imobach something, he didn't know what, sounded strange, something didn't quite convince him, he didn't feel in danger at all, but for him, the Asian two years younger was hiding something, however, his taciturn nature prevented him from saying anything. It was Adassa who came forward.

“Liar.”

Everyone at the table was expectant. Coral had it in her head that she was the one who had to protect her crush, well, protect everyone, she had to be the leading voice, the one who would guide them all, that was why she was the first to react, if it weren't for the fact that Yûsuke spoke first.

“Excuse me?”

“You lie.”

A few seconds passed in silence.

“Not about your story, that's fine. You've repeated exactly the same thing, I don't doubt it. I mean, how you got here, you know perfectly well but you've omitted it.”

“It was my brother.”

“AND?”

The oldest at the table, only seven months older than Teresa, sat up, wanting to pay as much attention as possible to the scene.

“I have searched for all the 15-year-old Yûsuke Hara from Mie Prefecture with AB blood type in the country and there are no matches.”

That had certainly surprised the boy, he understood that the information had been taken from the manga, it was correct, but he had not expected to be discovered so soon. Imo, he smiled to himself, he knew that his intuition, when calling Adassa, was somehow good.

“Teresa is the most gullible of all, and Coral has a strange interest in me, they will believe me. The other two…” for the stranger the situation was critical, tell the truth and be taken for a madman or risk continuing to omit and be thrown out. He rested both elbows on the table, interlaced his fingers under his nose and sighed.

“That my brother hates me is a fact. Where I come from there is more advanced technology, technology that can take people from one point to another in a few seconds, and that is what he has used. In Japan, in my Japan” he clarified, “even though I live in a time similar to yours, it was discovered years ago that parallel universes exist.”

He looked around, it seemed like everyone wanted him to continue the story.

“I suppose, and since there is no other Hara Yûsuke, that my brother sent my information a long time ago, I don't know with what intention, I doubt it was to be the protagonist of an animanga , but that's how it was.”

“But… your story was sent to Japan… or at least it was published there. How did you end up here in the Islands, in Spain?”

“It could be that he sent several, or that he made a calculation error when sending me here. Altering space-time in this way may have had an influence, by bringing the first information, I imagine in notebooks or electronic devices, it has created an alteration, they were atoms that were not there before, they did not exist and now they occupy a space, it increased the disorder of this planet and decreased it on ours” he was beginning to really worry, entropy was something normal in the universe but its spontaneous and random increase was not good, he could not predict what would happen and that upset him. If his brother had a minimum of sense he would bring him back immediately to be in balance, but he knew well that would not be the case.

"What have you come here in? Wormholes? Black and white holes?" Adassa burst out.

“So time exists?” Imobach asked.

“Are there vampires in your universe too?” Teresa said.

“You've been lucky, you've met a bunch of crazy people,” Coral smiled as she looked at him, overwhelmed by the avalanche of questions.

“So it's a parallel universe, like when ****** wakes up from a long dream, crying, and **** sees her and asks her to forget about their life together, but ****** can't and kisses her, but it's in another reality, because in the one they're in ****** decapitates ****.” Coral tried to understand with an example of her own.

“What?” Yûsuke and the rest of the table were perplexed.

“Spoiler alert too late…” Adassa complained.

Do you understand? - Yûsuke was still incredulous -. My being here means that everything is in disarray, unusual things are going to happen.

"Something like an ice cube re-composing itself after it melts? We did the test last week," Coral explained.

It's unlikely, but yes.

Well, it was even more unlikely for us that you would show up and here you are. Don't worry, we'll help you find a way back.

“Calm down? It’s almost like I’m dead, I can’t be calm,” Hara replied in his mind. “I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.”

Yûsuke had had the best and worst luck in finding them. A girl completely interested in helping him, two lovers of the arcane and the mystical, and a busybody who was quite intelligent, despite her peculiarities… they had all set out to find their way home.