Ukyo Kuonji was in her Okonomiyaki restaurant 'Ucchan's', doing what she liked doing best: Making okonomiyaki!
There weren't too many people in her restaurant at time, so it was a quiet day for the young chef.
When she looked through her ingredients, she noticed something.
"Konatsu, we're out of onions! Could you please go down to the storage room and bring me a few?"
When she got no response, she slapped herself on the forehead. Of course - Konatsu wasn't here because he had a serious cold. She remembered clearly how the cross-dressing ninja came to his working place the day before, coughing and sneezing all the time. He insisted that he had to serve his 'mistress', but Ukyo didn't want to hear anything about that. She personally put him to bed and insisted he'd stay there until he felt better.
Well, that left her with no waitress for the week - at least not until Konatsu was feeling better.
Oh well, she had been able to deal with it before her loyal kunoichi had come into her life, so she would be able to cope with it.
Hoping that no customer would come in the meantime, she quickly went downstairs, into the basement, where her stock of okonomiyaki ingredients was stored.
"Let's see, where did I put the onions again..." she murmured to herself while she searched through the crates.
She then smiled. "Aha! Found them!"
But just as she was going to reach for the onions, a bright flash of light appeared in front of her.
"Gah!" she cried out and shielded her eyes. "What's that?"
She waited for the light to die down, but it still shone as brightly as it did when it appeared several seconds ago.
Ukyo blinked, and slowly, her eyes got used to the bright light.
"Greetings!" a soft voice spoke up.
Ukyo looked around in confusion. "Huh? Who's there?"
"I'm here, floating right in front of you!"
Ukyo cleared her ears. "Excuse me, but I think my hearing is defective... I just thought your voice was coming from that ball of light..."
"Yes, that's me! I apologize if I started you. I am a Wisp!"
Ukyo blinked again. What the heck was a Wisp doing in her storage room?
What was a Wisp, by the way?
"Could you run that by me again?" she asked.
"Sure!" the strange apparition said in a cheerful voice. "See, actually, I am a member of a race of inter-dimensional beings. Our 'bodies' consist of pure energy, so we are able to easily cross what you would call 'dimensions'. You couldn't possible pronounce our true name in your 'language', so we came up with the alternate name 'Wisps'."
The Wisp then sounded uncertain as he kept speaking: "Um... I'm sorry to ask, but... this isn't Alpha Centauri, is it?"
"Um, actually, no!" Ukyo replied, wondering what he meant.
"Well, I already figured as much," the strange spirit sighed. "But could this perhaps be Middle Earth?"
"No," Ukyo said, wondering if the Wisp was reading Tolkien.
"Hyrule?"
"No!"
"The Marvel Universe?"
"No!"
The Wisp seemed to gasp, even though he had no mouth or lung. "Don't tell me... this isn't Hell, isn't it?"
"NO!" Ukyo almost screamed. "This is Nerima!"
"GAH!" the Wisp shouted. "That's almost as bad!"
As a citizen of Nerima (even if not a native citizen), Ukyo wondered if she should feel insulted. "Hey, if you don't mind, I'd like to know what a Wisp is doing in my storage room."
"Oh yes, yes, of course..." the Wisp muttered, his bright form zipping around the room in irritation. "You see, as a race of natural dimension travellers, my people always have created dimension tunnels for those races who can't do it by themselves. I am what you might call a 'construction worker'. For several of your 'years', I have been working on a special 'transit road' for inter-dimensional travellers. Unfortunately, I lost my inter-dimensional map, so I, um... kinda got lost. I believed that I would have been able to enter the system of Alpha Centauri when I go left at the moon Endor, but... seems like I was wrong..." He sighed. "Not much of a surprise here..."
For Ukyo, this Wisp seemed to more and more similar to Ryoga...
"Listen... Wisp," she said. "I'm sorry for what happened to you, but could you perhaps leave again? I need to get back to my restaurant, in case a customer arrives and..."
"You don't seem to get the problem," the Wisp said in a desperate voice. "Now that I dug myself through time and space, I created a trans-dimensional tunnel that must have breached at least five or six different dimensions... and everyone who finds the dimensional hole within his home dimension will be able to cross time and space just by jumping in them. And as I dug all my way until I came here, everyone who does that will appear right here, in this place."
"Oh, you gotta be kidding me," Ukyo groaned. "You mean to tell me that now all kinds of people will appear in my basement, just because of your accident? Oh, that's just great..."
"Not just that," the Wisp sighed. "You see, we Wisps tend to be attracted by worlds that are... what do you call the word...? I believe 'interesting' is the right term here. Although 'unusual' could also be correct, I'm not too sure."
"So, what you want to tell me is that a bunch of freaks could show up, right?"
"Well, that's one way to put it," the Wisp admitted. "I can't say for sure just which dimensional walls I breached, it will take me some time to find out... But that's not my biggest problem right now. I need to report back to my employer, he has to learn about this dilemma as soon as possible."
The Wisp came floating in front of Ukyo's face and dimmed down his light a bit. "Sorry about this, but I really have to go now. I hate to leave you here with the dimensional rip in your 'storage room', but if I don't hurry, I will probably not be able to fix my mistake in this millennium any more..."
"Why's that?" Ukyo asked, already dreading the answer.
"Well... you know how bureaucracy is, right? I have to get an appointment at the main office, then I have to apply for a warrant, so I can gather a few workers who can help me to repair the dimensional holes... but that will also take some time... Hopefully it won't take longer than two hundred years..."
"TWO HUNDRED YEARS?" Ukyo screamed. "I want that hole fixed in my lifetime, you hear me?"
"I do what I can," the Wisp sighed. "But I can't promise anything. Look, perhaps we are in luck and I will just be gone for a few of your 'weeks' until I took care of everything. Until then, make sure that not too many inter-dimensional travellers come through here, and if they do, please tell them to go back to their home dimension. The dimensional tunnels will close and open once a week, meaning that every day, the gate to another dimension will be opened."
"And what if I don't manage to take everyone back in time?" Ukyo wondered.
"That's no problem, every once in a week, the gates will open again. That means, a hole that leads to a certain world and which is open on Monday will close at midnight... And another gate will open at the same time, leading to a different world. But at the next Monday, the gate leading to the first world will be open again."
"That means every day of the week corresponds with another world?" Ukyo asked. "Wait, that means people from a total of seven dimensions will be able to enter my restaurant through this tunnel?"
"Actually, only of six dimensions," the Wisp explained. "On Sundays, all of the inter-dimensional tunnels are closed. "Even beings of pure energy need a day off, you know?"
"And what am I supposed to do if some criminals are coming through the tunnels?" Ukyo wanted to know.
"Hope that they aren't armed with guns," the Wisp shouted back, just as he was slowly fading away. "I'll be back as soon as I can, I promise! Good luck, um... what was your name again?"
The young okonomiyaki chef sighed. "Ukyo..."
"Okay, Ukyo! See you in... um, not too many years, I hope!"
And then the bright light vanished.
Ukyo slumped down on the floor and buried her face in her hands. Well, that was just what she needed. A hole in her dimension's wall... and right in the middle of her storage room.
Hopefully anyone who came through the tunnel could be reasoned with...
"Hey!" an annoyed voice suddenly called from upstairs. "Can I get some service here? I'm hungry!"
"I'm coming!" Ukyo shouted as she grabbed the onions. "Just a minute!"
She opened the door and just wanted to go back upstairs, when she heard a dull thud behind her back.
"What, already?" she whined. "Oh, why me...?"
She turned around... and saw a muscular, young man lying on the floor. He was wearing something similar to a medieval leather armor, and attached to his belt was what looked like a whip.
With a groan, the black-haired stranger sat up on the ground. "What... where... where am I?"
"Um... in the cellar below my restaurant," Ukyo spoke up.
The man looked her way and shook his head. "Sorry... I didn't mean to barge in like this. I had no idea that strange light would lead me here. My name is Trevor Belmont!"
He looked around the storage room in confusion. "Um... this isn't Dracula's Castle anymore, is it?"
Ukyo just knew, this was going to be a looong week...
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(Posted Mon, 30 Apr 2007 13:37)
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