Chương 32: State of Emergency

Chest heaving, Kurisu stood in the center of the crater as it shimmered with residual heat, his muscles twitching with exhaustion, his Tanden burning with the strain of near-depletion. As smoke rose from his shoulders, he stepped onto the solid ground of the clearing, dismissing the earth wall with a flick of his wrist to collapse the barrier into a pile of loose dirt and gravel that slid back into the forest floor.

"Whoa," Kellevra breathed, his eyes wide as he sprinted past Kurisu toward the crater.

"That was insane!"

"Holy crap. You just leveled a boss, man," Ace called out, right on his brother's heels. His face pale in the dying light, Roland stared at the smoking scar on the mountainside before turning his gaze to Steven.

"What the hell was that?" the older man asked, his voice tight.

"We agreed to martial arts training. Self-defense. That was an airstrike." Clasping her shaking hands together, Gloria stared at the smoking crater.

"We... we could have died. We're playing with forces we don't understand." Beside his mother, Kenji shook his head.

"We understand enough. If giant rock monsters are the new standard, hiding's not gonna fix it. We need to be ready."

"Hey, we handled it," Ace insisted, jogging back to the group to stand beside Kenji, slightly out of breath.

"We have the power to stop them."

"Kurisu handled it," Steven corrected, his voice sharp.

"You guys watched."

"We did handle the goblins before the golem showed up," Kellevra argued, panting as he caught up to Ace. With a shake of his head, Roland looked from the crater to the boys.

"But why is there a threat in the first place? Why are we fighting rock monsters and rabid leprechauns in a state park?" Wiping soot from his forehead, Kurisu stopped in front of them and looked northward.

"Likely, it is born of that hole," he murmured.

"Hole?" Roland asked. Brow furrowed, Kurisu paused as he searched for the words.

"Hole... on road," he offered in English. Crossing his arms, Roland stared at the teenager.

"What hole on the road? I don't remember a sinkhole." Before answering, Steven exchanged a glance with Charlotte and turned back to the man.

"The rock dome on I-70. It was a portal. Kurisu built the dome to hide it. The blackout, the EMP that fried the cameras... that was all him."

"And the goblins," Charlotte added, her voice trembling slightly.

"Several of them came out of the rift before it closed."

"So what, these things that have been all over the news came out of this random highway hole, or something?" Roland asked. Silence stretched across the clearing as Kurisu searched for the vocabulary.

"Hole... cross over," he finally managed in English. He shook his head, switching back to Japanese.

"At first, I assumed your supposition to be correct regarding the smaller creatures," he said, gesturing to the crater.

"I even considered that ambient Reiki and the earth had coalesced to forge this monstrosity; however, the Reiki of this world remains far too thin for such. Furthermore, as its presence could not have possibly gone unnoticed had it emerged from the highway hole with the ko-oni, it implies this beast almost certainly originated elsewhere, another realm." Holding up a hand, Roland shook his head.

"Wait a minute. Another world? What exactly is going on?"

"Dad, come on. Have you ever seen one of these on our planet before?" Kenji asked.

"Obviously, they had to have come from somewhere else."

"So now there are more portals, and they're either leaking ambient energy into our world, or they're being used as doorways for monsters to just walk right on through," Steven muttered.

"Great options."

"In truth, it is likely both," Kurisu supplied.

"Hey." Ace pointed at the sky.

"The smoke." A rising cloud of steam and dust loomed over the crater, quite obvious against the twilight sky.

"Let's get out of here before the Forest Service shows up," Steven said. Clearing his throat, Kellevra pointed toward the tree line.

"So uh, where are the goblins we knocked out earlier?" A quick scan of the trampled underbrush, and the group found only smeared dirt and crushed leaves where they had left the creatures.

"Dangerous," Kurisu said in English, his eyes locked on Charlotte. Turning away, the woman set her jaw.

"Let's just get out of here," Roland said, heading for his car. Moments later, the vehicles pulled onto the dirt path, putting distance between themselves and the smoking crater. Inside the Miller truck, the silence broke as an alarm erupted from Ace's iPad. His thumbs flew across the glass, tapping the notification to pull up the source. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"Mom, look. It's not just the alert, there are dozens of videos hitting social media. Apparently, there are more of those portals opening up." Twisting in her seat, Charlotte took the device, her eyes scanning the glowing text.

"Steven, it's not just here. Monster appearances in Boulder, Fort Collins, Castle Rock. They're mobilizing the National Guard."

"Looks like you were right after all, Kurisu," Steven called to the back seat. The drive home passed in silence, the dark silhouettes of the passing trees blurring together until Steven navigated the familiar turns of their neighborhood and pulled into the driveway. As everyone climbed out of the truck to retrieve their gear, Kurisu paused. A warning tickled at his perception, drawing his eyes toward the street. Three houses down, a black sedan sat idling under a streetlamp, its dark tint obscuring the occupants.

"Kurisu?" Charlotte whispered, noticing his distraction.

"We are being watched." He nodded toward the sedan. Through the windshield, Steven's jaw tightened.

"Federal plates," he murmured.

"Alright, let's get everyone inside so we can figure this out." With the boys' backpacks dumped onto the living room floor, Steven dropped his keys onto the kitchen counter and moved back to the front window to adjust the blinds.

"Are they cops?" Ace asked, dropping onto the couch.

"Or like... Men in Black?" Steven peered through a crack in the slats.

"Private contractors or Feds, most likely. Department of Homeland Security, if I had to guess. They're probably watching for us. Specifically him." Steven gestured toward Kurisu.

"All that noise at the school must have finally caught up." Remaining near the front window, Kurisu focused on the aura emanating from the vehicle as a familiar presence brushed his perception.

"Cox," Kurisu whispered.

"I sense no killing intent. It appears he is merely here to observe," he murmured, turning away from the glass.

"Cox?" Steven frowned, looking at him.

"Who is Cox?"

"Man from school," Kurisu replied in English.

"Suit. Government. Scribe." Pinching the bridge of his nose, Steven shook his head.

"The government was at your school? And you didn't think to mention it? Well, that settles it, they're definitely watching us, not the neighbors." Kurisu tilted his head.

"Threat... low. Small man. No Ki."

"Well, he's a threat now," Steven muttered, grabbing the remote off the coffee table. Flipping through the channels, Steven found the same emergency alert graphic interrupting every major network. On one channel, real-time news footage showed a commercial intersection in Brighton; a sinkhole had collapsed the pavement outside a shopping center, and dog-sized, chromatic green and blue beetles swarmed the parking lot as local police formed a barricade.

On the next channel, an anchor with a pale face rattled off reports of seismic anomalies and military deployments in London, Tokyo, and Buenos Aires.

"Jesus, it's happening all over the world?" Charlotte asked.

"Just what are we dealing with?" Kurisu watched the footage. Just as he had told Roland, he had assumed the recent news coverage and monster sightings were simply straggler creatures that had slipped through the prior hole before he closed it, but witnessing gateways rupture simultaneously across the globe shattered any hope of this being an isolated incident. He looked at Steven.

"Without a doubt, someone is intentionally tearing these holes open."

"But why?" Steven asked, staring at the screen.

"What happens if they keep opening?"

"That, I do not know," Kurisu replied.

"This world will eventually become saturated with Reiki, and its very shape will be altered," he continued.

"If the energy continues to flow in thusly, creatures will spawn of their own accord, and the populace will awaken to new abilities. Ultimately, this realm will become exactly like my own," he added, nodding toward Ace and Kellevra. From across the room, Charlotte stared at him. She opened her mouth to ask another question, but stopped as Kurisu swayed on his feet, a wave of dizziness washing over him.

"You're pale. You need to eat," she said abruptly, pivoting away from the living room and heading for the refrigerator.

"You burned through everything you had out there." His legs heavy, Kurisu followed her into the kitchen and slumped into one of the chairs at the dining table.

"I'll be right back," Steven said, stepping past him and heading up the stairs. Moments later, the man re-entered the kitchen, racking the slide of a 9mm pistol. Charlotte paused, holding a container of leftover roast beef.

"Is that really necessary?" After a nod toward the television in the other room, Steven met her gaze.

"You saw what he just fought out there, a fifty-foot slab of concrete. Obviously, these aren't going to stop that, but if the Guard is fighting things downtown and they scatter into the suburbs, I'm not taking chances. We don't have the luxury of being nice."

"Fine, you're an adult. I get it," Charlotte said, firing up the microwave.

"But they're children. I don't want them fighting, having to take any lives."

"I'm not sure we're going to have the luxury of making that decision," Steven replied quietly.

"And I'm sorry, honey, but that's probably something you're going to have to come to grips with." Slamming the container down on the counter, the woman set her jaw.

"We will discuss this later," she snapped, her voice low.

"In private." Signaling the end of the cycle, the microwave chimed through the kitchen, cutting the argument short as Charlotte pulled the steaming container from the turntable. Plating the beef and rice with a drizzle of soy sauce, she reached into the cabinet for a glass. She paused, glancing at the boy sitting at the table, and poured the orange juice into a plastic cup instead before setting it down in front of him.

Ace snorted from the living room as Charlotte shot him a flat look, pressing her lips into a line. Kurisu nodded in thanks before shoveling the food into his mouth. As he ate, the gnawing emptiness in his center began to fade, replaced by a grounding warmth that spread outward from his stomach to his aching limbs.

"Alright, it's late. You boys need to go to bed," Steven said, checking his phone.

"You have school tomorrow, assuming they don't cancel it." Scraping the last grains of rice before setting the plate aside, Kurisu stood. His legs trembled slightly under his own weight as he split off from the brothers and headed toward the basement door. At the top of the stairs, he paused, looking back over his shoulder. Steven caught his gaze, giving a short nod.

"Get some rest, kid. Tomorrow's gonna be a long day." With a nod of his own, Kurisu descended into the basement. Once inside his room, he slid the shoji screen shut and stepped onto the tatami mats, turning his vision inward as he settled into meditation.