Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex Fan Fiction ❯ My Magical Gate Experience Was Ruined, As I Expected ❯ YGS: 14 ( Chapter 14 )

[Batou]

I got orders to transfer through the gate. I met Hachiman there and we eyed each other for a while. It’s not like we don’t trust each other after so many years as friends, and we’re the sort who would help bury a dead body. We had the standard recon loadout, and the crap Type 64 rifles. I suppose their good point is burst fire is easy and they have built in bipods and the issued bayonet worked. The flak vest was hot, but being a soldier often has discomfort. Orders were orders.

“So, here we are,” he said.

“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” I jabbed.

“Komachi and Yukino are out there, somewhere.”

“How do you feel about the whole magical girl thing?” I asked him, as we settled into the back of the truck with a dozen other troopers. The vehicle started moving before he answered, pulling behind a flatbed truck stacked with milspec canvas tent crates. The big one for mess and sleeping. Some of the soldiers eyed me over the question and squinted harder at Hikigaya, noting the familiar name. I heard some whispers and groans. He glared at them.

“Oi, shut it,” he ordered. The captain’s bars, the modern black ones, did more than his glare. They shut up. He got fast promotion because Hikigaya Hachiman is sort of evil. Diet evil? He wants good outcomes and doesn’t mind doing bad things to get them. If anything, the Outbreak Company fiasco solidified his stance on Cynicism, and he was leaning towards Stoicism, and possibly Buddhism if he ever gave up on people entirely. So far he was still fighting Da Powah, but it was in his own special way.

“Tell you later,” he finally said. The commercial truck with the tents drove ahead of our truck and we followed in mostly silence the 10 minute trip through the sullen darkness of the gate. We were travelling over 40 light years on a paved bit of magic-land, inside a quantum tunnel powered and stabilized by magic in direct violation of both special and standard relativity, and spit in the eye of both Einstein and Hawking, who apparently died after hearing about the Gate. Good riddance. Man was an arrogant blowhard, according to our astrophysicists. The wheelchair was a fine way to prevent debate over his failures to prove all those absurd claims about the nature of reality and time. Hah! Now we know that Magic is Real and there are gods? The rational universe is reeling from its knockout punch. At least metaphorically anyway.

Exiting the gate we followed the truck with the tents. Eventually it pulled to a graded area where a bunch of horsedrawn wagons and carts and some civilians with pink and blue and various shades of hair. They didn’t look violent.

“So headquarters called in and said we’re to assist with setting up tents and make friends with these natives. Learn their language. Gain their trust. Get some intelligence on the situation here and report to me on what you learn,” Hachiman ordered the men before we were allowed to dismount.

“Hai.”

We stepped down and turned toward the truck where the driver was loosening the various straps holding the crates in place and a nearby off-road forklift waited to lift the pallets off and get this going. I recognized the driver. I should. It was my mother, Ran. She insisted I call her cousin in public because mother doesn’t age. She’s centuries old. She’s a drunk, usually, but sometimes she meets a man she likes and settles down for a while. She kept it going until I was 12 and took a job truck driving, long haul from South to North and back again. Left to fend for myself with a housekey on a string I suppose that was what drove me mad, and awakened Batou, and let the old me sort of die. Still, memories. And she was still my mother, even though we look only a few years apart in age.

“Cousin Ran!” I shouted above the engine noises. Hikki peered, confirming the fact and nodded, letting me off to see her. He knew. Of course he knew. The world is strange, long before this Gate.

We hugged, and she kissed my cheek, examining my new hair style and how big I’d gotten. Dad worked as a garbage man in Chiba, and had a love affair with Ramen and beer after Ran left us.

“Yoshiteru. How big you’ve grown. You’re a man now, “ she said, admiring all the changes.

“I will be married soon. Will you come the wedding?” I requested. She agreed in principle so I exchanged contact information with her and kept my fingers crossed. She might show up. Saki should be pleased to meet my mother, at least. I had to get back to work on setting up tents and such. Hikigaya was talking to some blue haired girl of maybe 15, holding a wizards staff. She looked really familiar. I approached.

The feeling of familiarity grew stronger as I looked at her. She moved awkwardly, staring at Hikki like Yui used to, when they started dating back in high school. It was really strange. She shifted her gaze to me when I stepped to Hachiman’s side.

“Batou. Yoshiteru. I know you,” she said in Japanese. She turned back to Hachiman. “Hikki…” she said at last, with that sigh that Yui makes sometimes. This was truly disturbing.

Komachi tromped over with her rifle slung over her back and stared at the three of us.

“She smells like Yui. Her mana is like Yui feels, lately.” In the month since operations had begun in the Special Region, Komachi had managed to spend some time with Yui, who was pregnant with their first child, with her wedding planning for Saki and I’s upcoming wedding. I was grateful for that, because Saki needed a distraction now I was in a combat zone.

“Why do you smell like burning hair, Komachi?” asked Hachiman eventually.

“There was a dragon. Big, red, about 90 meters long, very quick for its size. It killed a bunch of villagers by breathing fire on them. The stench gets everywhere. I want a bath, but I’ll be going back to Chiba for that.” Figures. Commuting by flying skips the famous Tokyo rush hours mess. I say hours because it just goes on and on.

“Dragon huh? That’s news. Do you think this girl might be connected to Yui somehow? She knows some Japanese, despite never hearing a word until a short time ago.”

“She’s with that old wizard guy, apprentice mage, from the edge of that village these people all came from. I think her first word in Japanese was probably this morning. She might be pretty smart.”

“Smart like Ebina? Or even Yukino?” I asked. Ebina perked up at hearing her name. Without the flack vest on she filled out into a pretty woman, all curves and pixie grin. Pity she was mad as a bag of spoons. Yukino approached, as usual deferring to Komachi like a subordinate to a commander. She kept calling her Major in German, and Komachi kept calling Yukino Captain.

“Oh. Weird. She’s got mana like Yui,” said Yukino. Her eyes briefly glowed green and then a series of overlapping circles appeared in the air, like an HUD drawn by a Full Metal Alchemist fan. I hadn’t seen that before.

“Same signature, and she’s resonating. This is very odd. I wonder if there are others like this? Do you think the Gate is responsible for simultaneous incarnations?”

“Time doesn’t matter. This even fits with Buddhism, and no God ever denied this possibility. Not yet, anyway,” added Komachi, also displaying those circles and runes floating in the air. “Hachiman, you should introduce this girl to your wife,” said his sister like a command. Hachiman stared back and forth and sighed.

“This is going to take a lot of paperwork.”

That’s when things got weirder. A loli with a huge axe twice her height dressed in black lace, with a veil, stepped forward trailed by happy children and addressed both Yukino and Komachi in clear Japanese.

“Ah, you have come. Emroy welcomed you. We should speak.”

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[Tanya/Komachi]

The little girl reminded me of... me, in Germany. She was older than she looked, and her mana was so overwhelming she felt like a god.

“I am the apostle of Emroy, and my name is Rory Mercury. You two are like me, if only at the start of your journey. My god welcomes you to this world, and bids you continue your good works in his name. If you please him, he will grant you his favors.”

I had to stop my automatic rejection. This was not a representative of Being X. She smelled different, if that was the word.

“What does Emroy represent here?” I finally asked the little girl with the really big axe.

“Emroy is the god of war. You know war. You are both steeped in it. You are already followers, even if you never knew his name. Emroy is in all places, not just here, but he is stronger here, so you can hear his voice if you know to listen. If you pray to him, you will hear him more clearly.” The mana vibrated like sound, like approval from a parent looking over your shoulder.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. If it was good or bad, that feeling.