Chapter 4: History

I couldn't quite tell you what I was dreaming about but that didn't really matter right now. I awoke on top of a comfy bed, layered with thick purple sheets and a fluffy pillow to rest my head upon. As if the softness wasn't enough to lull me back into slumber, the sweet scent of jasmine wafted up from my pillow. I was expecting to hear a slight breeze, or even birds chirping in the back but this room had zero windows.

I seemed to be wearing some kind of all black bodysuit. I could feel it emit a level of heat on my skin. I have no recollection of putting it on though.

I slowly sat up and viewed the scenery that surrounded me. The room was quite miniature and was scarcely filled.

To start, there was a brown ceiling fan beaming upon me and slowly spinning. To my left was the bare concrete wall. To my right was another bed, identical to mine where Tenshi was slumbering peacefully.

He seemed to have reverted back to his ordinary form. And in front of both beds lending more towards my side, was a wooden door.

SLAMM!!!

I was almost tempted to go right back to sleep until the door was slammed straight open. I'm actually surprised it didn't shatter. At the door was a girl that looked to be in her 20’s, cosplaying as a nun.

“Supper is ready, clowns!”, she said.

An awkward silence broke out as we just stood there and glared at each other. I wasn't sure if we had met before but she seemed to be quite acquainted with us. More crazy than that is how the noise didn't even wake Tenshi. He was sleeping more peacefully than Snow White.

“... So who exactly are you Ms. Cosplayer? And where are we?”, I asked.

“I AM NOT A COSPLAYER!!”

“Dude, It's wayyy to early to be shouting this loud.”

“cough* cough*... excuse my rudeness and I'm sorry for shouting. My name is Rin and I'm Finral’s grand-daughter. Also it's still the evening. You were only asleep for about half an hour.”

“Ummm… who is Finral?”, I asked

“THE POPE DUMMY!”

“What was the sorry for if you're just gonna shout aga-?”

“SHUT IT!.. As I was saying earlier, supper is ready so please follow me.”

“You're not gonna blow us up right before we take a bite are you?”

“Maybe I will if you don’t hurry up.”

Tenshi had finally woken up -most likely from all her shouting- and was gently rubbing his eyes while peeking around.

“Good morning sleeping beauty. The food is ready so hurry downstairs”, she said.

“I thought you said it wasn’t morn-”

“SHUT IT!”

Then she stormed off into the distance.

I dragged the sheets to the side so that I could free my legs from their clutches. I planted the soles of my feet on the cold marble floor and arose out of the comfortable bed.

I may have only been wearing a bodysuit, but the chill in the air felt way too abnormal. I felt as if I was dipped in a pool of ice water with no warning. I shivered my way to the door, holding and rubbing my arms as the goosebumps waged war. Tenshi tailed right behind me, also fighting the goosebumps.

We struggled our way to the door and migrated through the corridor. Shortly after, we were welcomed by a large set of curling stairs. I may have been starving, but I was way too tired to walk down some stairs. So I did something I've wanted to do for a very long time now.

I hopped on the balcony of the stairs and slid my way to the bottom. I went in hula hoops at such a fast speed I felt a little dizzy.

I viewed the area around me, only to see a typical living quarters. The entire space was pretty vacant excluding a couple tables here and there and the kitchen setup at the very back. At the biggest table closest to the kitchen, was the nun cosplayer and the Pope from this morning.

The table was surrounded by 4 wooden chairs -a table close by, was missing 2 chairs so I assume they moved them for us. Two were right by each other on one side, and the other two were also next to each other on the opposite side. The pope was sitting in the seat towards the left while Rin was sitting in the seat on the right.

“Good evening, Young man”, the pope greeted.

“Umm.. Good evening.”

“Good evening to you too, Mr. Tenshi”

Tenshi had finally made it down the long haul of stairs. He should have joined me on the slide to be honest.

“Please, have a seat, there is much to discuss.”

“Uhh.. why is it so cold?”, I asked.

They both looked me straight into my pupils and stayed dead silent. Could they be any more rude?

We walked across the freezing floor, feeling each chill run straight through our spine with every step. I sat at the seat on the left and faced the pope while Tenshi sat in the chair on the right, parallelled to Rin. Even the chairs were cold to the touch.

I just prayed that the food wouldn’t also be the same.

When they said dinner I was half expecting divine cuisine, but I was instead welcomed with a bowl of porridge. I guess the good part was that

I could clearly see the steam emitting from the bowl. Finally something to warm me up from this hellish feeling that I was standing in the middle of an Ice Age.

“Why is it so col-”, the pope had cut my question short. Like he was dodging the question at all possibilities.

“I want to start off by asking if you all have been acquainted with Rin and I’s relationship?”

“Yeah. You're her grandpa right?” Tenshi asked.

“In a way, yes. In truth she is actually one of my descendants.”

His words put us in a face of pure confusion.

Could it be that we were right from the beginning and he was actually some kind of crack dealer? Either way, we were curious on what he would say next so we remained silent.

“Where should I start?...”, he whispered to himself.

“... Let me start from the very beginning…”

He took a short breath of air, as if he were preparing to explain something huge.

“...This story dates long, long ago. About three million years ago. Before the first man stepped onto this earth..”

“THREE MILLION?!?...”, I blurted out while jumping out of my chair. The chair creaked back from the sudden force and almost rocked off its balance. They were all staring at me as if I just did something irrational which eventually made me a little embarrassed. I was surprised that Tenshi was just absorbing all this information and was keeping cool. The sheer amount of that number jolted me.

“Sorry for that. Please continue.”, I apologized while sitting back down and scooting forward in my chair to return to the table.

“As I was saying, this story takes place three million years ago, in an entirely different solar system from this one.”