Chapter Thirty-One - Resonance

We made our way back to the Library’s location in which the door back to the Paan gateway would be. I was directed by my teammates on how to enter and exit as I was shown the bright blue door hidden away behind some trees as if it were an optical illusion. I don’t know how soon I will get used to this world’s bizarreness.

As we entered the room, we were brought back to the third stage. Seiko wheeled her shopping cart full of weapons and set it aside as she surveyed the room. The Paan gateway room reminded me of a rainy day in Japan. The blue watery glow of the walls made me think of the rainy weather paired with the neon signs around me. Truly a great design choice.

Each quadrant in the floor, wall, and ceiling pulsed with a faint blue glow. Since this was my first time in this room consciously and aware, this was going to be a tough quest. If this were a video game, I could probably tell which cube in the wall had the different texture isolating it from the other mass-produced blocks. Lucky for me, I am with two people that have been in this room before and know what they are doing.

The two girls walked over in front of me as they looked for the cube key that they had inserted earlier. Those two in front of me brought back memories of crosswalks in Japan as well. The day I died. This bad feeling was quickly interrupted by agony as I saw a crashing wave of black liquid approach those two. I must’ve cracked the floor beneath me as I launched myself in top speed to push those two out of the way of the upcoming attack. All I could see after I pushed the two of them out of the way was pitch black.

Resonance.

I awoke back in the daylight setting of Japan. In front of me were two schoolchildren with their bright yellow hats and equally bright red backpacks. They were hurt as I had just pushed them away. But nothing time could heal away those scabs and bruises. I got up and looked around me. I was in the middle of the road and a crosswalk. A car was stopped behind me as they got out and checked on me as other bystanders and store workers checked on the kids.

“Ah, ouch ouch ouch.” I said out loud.

Would my injuries heal as fast, or would they stick around? If anything else, I’m going to be late for my first day of work. I wonder if they’ll believe my excuse of me jumping in front of a car. Damn, I felt like a super soldier there.

The Japanese people approached me and asked what I could assume was “Are you ok?” or “Are you crazy?”.

“Hai, hai.” I agreed to both imaginary questions.

I checked on the kids and they were tougher than I expected. I would be expecting them to be crying, but I hope they know I pushed them out of the way and they are thankful. That is the only thing I need right now. To know that these kids are okay.

I groan at my weary body. If anything, I must take my leave and go to work. Do these types of situations require police reports, maybe I should stay? I should call my work too.

I don’t think I’ve had a more unpleasant call than I have today. Maybe job rejection calls, I would’ve been fine with an email for that part. I mean, who calls to tell bad news? Is that honorable? Either way, it looks like I’m off the hook, but I will be missing the opening ceremony. I’m lucky enough to have been placed into an actual school instead of an eikawa. I get to see more of the day to day school activities up close as I work as a teacher assistant for English classes.

The police arrive and I’m able to tell them what I can to the two officers in English. Lucky for me, Japan is super English friendly which gives me more motivation to give back the same level of respect and learn their language. I might butcher a few words here and there, but that is normal for foreigners, right?

Either way, nothing much came up from this report in my end since I jumped in front of a speeding vehicle. The driver in question seems to be compliant which is great to see someone own up to a mistake. The children didn't have too many injuries and went on their way to school. I believe their school was also notified in which the parents would also be called about the incident. They offered to take me to a hospital like they did the children, but everyone involved including me refused. We just want to get our day going. It’s still early morning. I don’t feel ill intent towards the driver even though this could’ve been my last day on Earth.

I walk my predetermined route to the middle school or junior high as they call it here. My job is to work with teenagers learning English and the great part is that they already had six or seven years prior of English lessons. So my job is to make sure they are learning more advanced English to navigate this ever-cultivating world around them.

It is interesting to see this mixture of language make its way to this corner of the map. As English dominates the business world, a lot of schools around the world adopt it as a mandatory course. As someone raised in the United States, it is a weird phenomena seeing something as simple as language take root in everyone's lives.

It is truly wonderful to be in this country and make an impact in a student’s life and see how they will navigate later on. It sparks a bit of jealousy being in this school as I see the number of clubs and elective classes that could’ve been opportunities for me to learn new things when I was their age.