"Aedyn!" Kaori rushed over to me holding a two ice cream cones.

The theme park seemed quite empty for a Sunday. I wonder where everyone is.

"There is a large concentration of people in their homes at this time." Mena responded to my thoughts.

I looked over to Mena. "Can you still read my thoughts?"

"Our connection has been broken, but the telepathy is fading. You were thinking that and looking around at the same time."

Visual cues. Very good, Mena. I noticed Mena looking around with concerned look on her face – well, concerned for Mena, which was barely noticeable.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm feeling it too." Gabriel, my other travelling companion, stated.

"What?"

"I have not felt this for some time." Mena said.

Thanks. Now can you explain?

"Are we in danger?" Kaori asked.

"I do not sense any danger. However, I must find the epicenter." Mena began walking towards the hill.

"Hey, what about our little vacation?" I had, after all, left Bree, Aoi, and other members of the S&T Club behind. I was promised a quiet place for Mena, Kaori, and myself. I didn't know Gabriel was coming too. My eyes were on Gabriel.

Gabriel smiled back as he normally did. "Shall we?" He motioned after Mena.

"Let's go!" Kaori grabbed my arm just as the wind blew, landing a good mouthful of her pink hair in my mouth. Not something I enjoy eating.

We arrived at the top of a hill with a Japanese-style school.

Mena pointed to a certain room and then walked on.

"Hey, Mena?" I asked. She turned around. The wind blew her teal hair over her eyes, making it hard to see if she was addressing me or not. "The anomaly has been pinpointed here." She turned back around and we continued to follow.

We entered a classroom. It seemed pretty ordinary except for an old desk with etchings on it. Mena approached the desk. "The epicenter originates here."

I backed away, half expecting shadow creatures to come out and hurt us. Workplace hazard being friends with watchers – multiverse protectors of various factions. They vanquished shadow creatures, prevented universal disintegration, and made good lasagna. The last compliment falls squarely on Kaori.

"The world within this world has been closed…temporarily."

"Um, can I help you?" A girl about my age with long, light brown hair stepped in the classroom.

I froze. Gabriel, however, in his ever smiling gaze, defused the potential situation. "Hello. We were assigned to this class. We just transferred here."

Her eyes grew wide and she backed out. "No." She muttered. "NOOO! It was supposed to be over this year!" She crouched down and put her hands on her head.

"Not a usual reaction." Mena said, unemotionally as always.

"Indeed." Gabriel turned to the girl and reached out his hand. "What's your name?"

"Hey, back off. She's trembling." I said.

"I noticed. Something is definitely off." Gabriel addressed her again. "We are not your average students. We can help."

The girl looked up at Gabriel, then Mena, me, and Kaori. "Really?"

To prove his point, Gabriel reached out his hand towards the front of the room and revealed the doorway between the worlds. This door was circular and translucent as normal, but the writing and colour differed. Gabriel spun the outer dial – a ring with symbols – and the inner circle glowed a bright white that was nearly blinding.

"What are you?" She gasped.

"We are watchers." Mena said. "Any further explanation would have to be more in detail as we are from three different factions."

She looked over to me. "Yeah, I'm normal, just those three."

"Naomi Fujimaki." She said.

"Nice name, Naomi. The teal haired is Mena, the auburn haired is Aedyn, the pink haired one is Kaori, and yours truly is Gabriel." He made a "ta-dah" pose for himself.

"Um, do you not have last names?" Naomi asked.

"Just me. It's Jensen, but please call me Aedyn." I clarified, recalling Japanese social conventions.

"You can call me Naomi if you want."

The next day, we introduced ourselves as the new transfer students, partly to satisfy Gabriel's curiosity. Nevermind that the textbooks were grossly out of date, in a language I could barely read, and that I was a year younger than everyone else. I took some Japanese last year, but only knew 10 kanjis. The only reason I could communicate effectively was through Mena's translation field. As long as I stayed within a mile of her, I could understand what people were saying. Kinda important as my spoken Japanese was not much better than my written Japanese. I could have a very good conversation with a 5 year old on my own though.

The room had plenty of empty chairs. The ones that were filled though, the people looked at us with a mix of disdain and fear. Two, however, remained calm for the most part. One kinda resembled a dark haired version of Mena with an eyepatch and fuller hair.

"We should probably explain ourselves now." Gabriel said.

After a repeat of the introduction and show-and-tell from yesterday, the class told us the story.

"We need to prevent this from happening again. Can you do that?" Matsuko asked.

"What do we need to do?" Kazue asked.

Many other questions followed, but the one that brought silence to the room was the one from Mei. "Can you bring back those that died from the curse?"

"Leave the dead with the dead!" A couple students shouted.

"That's what caused this mess in the first place." Another shouted.

Mena spoke up. "Those that were affected by the subworld's disturbance are not dead."

The class grew eerily silent. "But, we saw them die."

"Humans are composed of personality, body, and mind. The body has been destroyed, but the personality and mind still exist. This would not normally be possible, but they are trapped in that subworld.

I turned to Mena. "Are you saying Observer has the power over life and death?"

"No, but this energy has altered their state. In essence, they are not dead."

"But if their bodies are destroyed what then?" Naoya asked.

"Dead bodies don't preserve long and some wounds were quite disturbing." Yuuya added.

"This body you see before you is not my original body." Mena said.

The class gasped.

"Is she a ghost?" Someone whispered.

"It's a trap. They'll set off the curse again." Another added.

"I am a clone. My mind and personality are preserved forever, but my body has been destroyed five times."

"Impossible!"

"No way!"

"Way." Mena responded. "If provided pictures, Observer will be able to provide clone bodies that match their appearances."

"Observer?"

"Yeah, sorry. Observer is a sentient quantum supercomputing blah blah entity and stuff." I said with my voice trailing off towards the end showing how little I knew Observer. I really should have just had Mena explain.

She looked at me, then continued. I guess my explanation was enough for her.

Kouichi brought the class picture from the trip; others brought pictures of their friends and families who had been killed.

I seriously needed a break as the day dragged on. Everyone was getting me down, so I whipped out my phone and began playing a recently downloaded CGI game.

Naoya looked over my shoulder. "What kinda handheld is that?"

"Galaxy SX. Its pretty decent for the price."

"Never heard of it."

"Well this model was released earlier this year."

"1998?"

I paused the game and looked over to Gabriel.

He approached sensing the situation. "What seems to be the problem?"

"Is it possible to time travel?"

"Not sure, never done it." Gabriel said.

"Naoya's saying its 1998."

"I see. It is quite possible this universe experienced everything 17 years later."

"Wait…17 years?" Naoya looked at us in shock.

"You could certainly tell us some winning lottery numbers."Yuuya said.

"Even if we did give that information, we are from a different universe. Things don't always occur in every universe. In one universe, the Soviet Union still exists and in another the Golden Gate Bridge in California is blue. Our 'future' would necessarily be on a different track than yours."

Mena walked back to my desk where Kazue, Naoyu, Yuuya, Kouichi, Mei, and Gabriel gathered. "All photographs acquired. Observer has constructed the clone bodies. They are in my subfield."

The watchers hardly used the word 'subfield' but from experience, I knew it to be the invisible field surrounding them from which they materialized their weapons. Kinda like an infinitely large pocket that won't weigh you down.

"We will need a guide." Mena said, looking across the sparse room. "Unlike here, there will be danger."

Everyone looked away. Mei was the first to look at Mena. "I will go."

Kouichi looked over at her.

"My sister was connected with the curse. If I can bring her back, it will be worth the risk."

"I…I want Akazawa back. And my other friends." Naoya volunteered.

"I'll go too." Kouichi grabbed Mei's hand. Mei looked back at him.

Everyone started making requests for friends and family.

"I assure you, we will find everyone that has 'died' due to this curse." Gabriel assured them. He turned towards the epicenter and held out his hand. The doorway with two extra rings within appeared. Gabriel spun the rings with his powers and the doorway unlocked and opened. The centre was not bright white as the other doorway, but a strange reddish colour.

"Shall we?" Gabriel motioned for Naoya, Kouichi, Mei, me, Kaori, and Mena.