Alternate Dimension (Part 35)
Just after New Year's day in January 2007, I received some odd news from my company. I don't know if it's a good or bad news, but here it goes:
The professor did the necessary arrangements and sent me back there, but not without asking some final questions. Heck, I wasn't paying attention to what he was saying as I just want to go back there.
....
I felt dizzy. What was with the buzzing and flashing red lights? I can't tell what dimension I'm in now, since the only difference between the two is practically nothing except how people treated me as and events that might indirectly include have me involved.
I don't see any change in myself: I'm still stuck in an age-proof 16-year-old rich beautiful girl people are crazy over instead of a 17-18 year-old poor guy that nobody wants. I can tell without looking or touching, since I did not feel a change with my body. Did it really work?
Professor: "Oh! Hisakawa-san! It's been three months since you started to transfer from that dimension to here, and now it's done! There apparently was a problem."
Problem? What problem?
Professor: "You see, this system only looks at how your body was made and applies it here, not your soul, which is secondary. Since this cloned body of yours did not exist in this dimension, it had to create a new one to compensate for the non-existance. I know you were switched in that dimention, but the system does not see that part and just carries whoever is occupying that body over. That is to say, the transfer between dimensions was technically successful, but you aren't in the body made by your parents when you last left this dimension. Part of the reason why it took so long, is that we were discussing the options available as your cloned body does not exist here and we don't want to have the transfer end as a failure and your soul wandering around somewhere, lost or in bits and pieces."
You mean to say that I am still stuck in this female clone of myself from there? What happened to my original body here?
Professor: "That? It's still here and is somewhat on auto-pilot since you left. Don't worry, it behaves as though that event in May never happened, and recognizes you as the master, though your appearance as a girl that never ages instead of its exact duplicate might have it not to take you seriously... and for reasons mentioned earlier, you can't ever return to your original body. You wouldn't want to anyway due to the time difference since you left."
I don't know what this would mean though. The way he said it made it seem that my entire world is just one freaking huge server of technology far into the future than what I think I'm in and someone is messing up my existance, which is made up of multiple files, that affects my behavior and appearance. Make me wonder how I can think of this if it's true. Maybe it's not. If it is, they might have certainly done the same to Kotomi. What am I talking about?
Professor: "Oh, by the way, it's now the beginning of April, so i bought the uniform of the new high school you would be entering soon. It's located somewhere in west Kanagawa, though it's more of an average school compared to the Mihara Academy (三原学院)."
Oh great. Another 3 years of the same old stuff and again, and again, and again. Design of the uniform? Hard to say when compared to my previous school and the one Kotomi wore, but in my opinion, it's better in design than that of about 20 years ago. Wait, where do I live?
Professor: "As to where you are staying, it turns out that all of the houses you own from the other dimension are carried over, with one not too far from this school."
"All of the houses"? Wait, you mean that large-expensive-penthouse-at-the-top-of-the-tallest-building-in-the-area is not my only house? Just how rich am I? Or were they given by the gods responsible of messing up my life? I just don't know myself... What is my source of income? The amount I have in the bank seem to increase astronomically.
Wait, did you say that the school is in western part of Kanagawa prefecture (神奈川県)? That area is part of the Greater Tokyo Area (首都圏), which means that the place is likely to be built up with buildings close together. Either way, I need to find my house around there. That professor only gave me a map highlighting the route between the school and train station. He didn't where my house was over there, but he did say that it's near enough to not need to take the train. Why did he give me that map anyway?
Professor: "By the way, I have a special car for you. I know you don't have a driving licence, but neither will you be able to get one, and you are too short to see everything in the driver's seat anyway. Now, off you go. Oh, and your name here is back to Saeko Hisakawa (久川沙江子)."
There are more questions on my mind than the answers I was given: he did not say where my house is exactly, or why he gave me a car knowing that I can't drive. Oh well, le's have a look at the car anyway since he had told me the exact parking lot it's parked at in the basement but had not gave me a key to it. How do I unlock it without anything? Mind power?
Well, that last thought seemed somewhat true as the car unlocked itself when I was close enough to it. What I'm puzzled about this is that there was no one else there, and I certainly did not do anything to unlock it. It even opened the door I was thinking of getting into and closes it when I'm done getting in or decided not to enter. Hold on, it can read my thoughts?
The interior bares a close resemblance to that of an expensive (regular) automobile I could think of, that I would want to sleep in it from all that time/dimensional travel I just came from before continuing home.
...
The bumps, jerks, and bright lights entering my eyes woke me from my otherwise peaceful nap. Just what is... WHAT?!!
The car is moving by itself, but I'm not in the driver's seat, and neither is there anyone else in the car. On top of that, I am mysteriously glued to my seat seeing that I can't lift up my legs or lean forward. I guess this is the saftey feature if I wasn't wearing the seat belt. It also pays the toll and drives itself as though there is an actual driver, though unless the action would make damages to the car or attract the police, it actually listens to what I want the car to do, like turning on the windscreen wiper even though it's not raining, without me vocally saying anything. But just where is this car taking taking me to anyway?
At my last thought, the screen at the front center showed the route map from my current location to some quadrilateral that is a lot larger than all the other quadrilaterals in a residential area.
Sure enough, that large quadrilateral I saw in the map represents my large house. It's so large that it made the nearby houses look like toy houses. I was hoping that this large mansion (マナーハウス not マンション) is not mine, but it has my surname at the main gate. That apartment penthouse from earlier is already large, but this mansion is just plain rediculous.
As I got closer, it became clearer that all but some of the rooms inside, has actually been mostly converted into a research center, with the name of the place put up at the top of the building and the entrance. A plate around the entrance states me as being the donor of the place, which officially opened in June 2005. (A scribble at a corner that don't seem to be part of the plate has "who is that?" written there.) What is odd about it is that there aren't any photos there taken before January this year (2007), and none of them have me included.
As I walked around, my presence alone seem to attract the people working there. Well, this is a research center, not a hospital. Everyone here, including the maintenance crew, seems to be around my director or supervisor's age, so for a high school to suddenly appear here usually means that she (me) is looking for a parent working here or is lost. The directions wasn't helpful on where my house in here is and the map only showed the floor I'm at so I don't... wait... "Landlord's Office"? Is that some odd fancy name they give to my home? Well, it doesn't seem out of place with all the other places like "Neurology Research Laboratory". Oh, the research center here is not affiliated to the company I work for, so I'm not likely to find anyone I know here.
I looked around to the place and it indeed does exist. The corridor and the door looks no different from the rest of the place, which reminds me a lot of being in a hospital. The door reminds me of my supervisor's office at my first workplace with my full name (Ms. Saeko Hisakawa) below "Lanlord's Office". Entry to the place requires only a thumbprint, but sadly, it looks just like Kenjiro's (Kotomi's uncle, my director) office. Behind the door I just opened is a white lab coat and a company pass with my name and photo on it, just like all the other permanent full-time staff (except the staff of maintenance and cafeteria departments) are wearing, but there's something different about my pass as compared to everyone else: it has "[my workplace's official full name]'s [my job title]" instead of saying that I'm the owner of the place. The irony is that it has this place's company logo instead of mine, and it looks genuine. Oh well, at least I could wear this to not attract unnecessary attention.
However, next to a door marked 立入禁止 (No entry) not visible from the corridor is something I should look into before the door opens. I looked into it, but saw nothing. However, the door opened at that instant with a beep.
What I saw inside was what seemed to be the remainder of the mansion before it was converted to a research center, but still as large when compared to my house before May 2005. It seem larger due to the lack of things and the high ceiling. There are also connection interfaces to access my system, the car and see reports of things I never knew happened.
Anyways, I don't want to talk about my embarrassingly huge house. Although I had entered high school before, I seem to have attracted people's attention with little effort since the first day. What did I do? Maybe it's one of the things I am doing unknowingly... I think someone has already created a bio and an article about me. I am having a hard time trying to explain my family background and where I live. Speaking of appearance, I did not change my hairstyle from when I was still at the Mihara Academy in the othe other dimension , but I should when I finish this one and start another as there's bound to be someone who is able to recognize me on the street by my trademark hairstyle (that's what I heard when I walk past guys) and ask questions that are difficult for me to answer, especially when it's many years later where everyone looks older, but me staying the same.
Naturally, I joined the computer club within the first few weeks. I would like to join the science or chemistry club instead, but the school is too small for it, as expected.
Saturday, May 12. Close to the 2nd anniversary of my life thrown from a miserable poor life and into a hard-to-believe very well off lifestyle overnight. Normally, I would head home on foot or tag along with my friends, but as soon as I leave the school gates, I saw a familiar car parked outside with someone inside. Who is that? How did he even get into my car and drive it here? I can tell it's mine from the car registration number (熊谷501す1405).
The man seem to have noticed me staring at the car for a while through the mirror and started to get out of it.
!!!
W...wait. If I am me and I'm back at my original dimension, why does he look a lot like the me before I entered an another dimension, but older? I'm scared...
Mysterious Man: "Saeko-chan! Haven't seen you in a while. Why are you afraid of me? It's me, Itsuki Hisakawa, your brother!"
Of course I'm afraid of you. I never saw myself from a 2nd person point of view. You even dare to say my original name as yours to me. You even said that I'm your younger sister. I never had any siblings! Now I know what Kotomi feels like when she was at home, though she's the eldest child in the family. This situation I'm in now has already attracted the attention of my schoolmates.
Me: "Fine! I'll go with you, but only because I want to avoid those fans of mine before they start asking questions about us. Where are you taking me to anyway?"
Itsuki: "Glad to see you tagging along. We would first head to the hospital we both know. Following that would be to introduce you to our parents."
The phrase "introduce me to our parents" doesn't seem right. Aren't our parents the ones who made and brought us up? Why do I even need to be introduced to my own parents?
- It was found out that Kotomi I had known had returned to the original dimension since after the school festival in 2005.
- Although I am actually 17 and a half years old, my body never grew a day older since around that summer holiday. That means my body says that I'm still 16. What?
- Because of point 2, I can still learn and absorb new things better than my peers who are born in the same year as me in the latter years. That means that I would still appear, behave, and learn like a 16-year old even though I might actually be 70. Which also means, mentally, I can't be as mature as an adult. Ugh.
- I am highly likely to repeat high school for the rest of my endless life (I can't die even if a Hydrogen Bomb were to explode in front of me)
- The dimensional viewer range limit is now at infinite from the 1-hour range and, if necessary, communicate with the people there. They also made it possible for me to return to my dimension with control over it.
- The Kotomi in that dimension did made it into that American university.
The professor did the necessary arrangements and sent me back there, but not without asking some final questions. Heck, I wasn't paying attention to what he was saying as I just want to go back there.
....
I felt dizzy. What was with the buzzing and flashing red lights? I can't tell what dimension I'm in now, since the only difference between the two is practically nothing except how people treated me as and events that might indirectly include have me involved.
I don't see any change in myself: I'm still stuck in an age-proof 16-year-old rich beautiful girl people are crazy over instead of a 17-18 year-old poor guy that nobody wants. I can tell without looking or touching, since I did not feel a change with my body. Did it really work?
Professor: "Oh! Hisakawa-san! It's been three months since you started to transfer from that dimension to here, and now it's done! There apparently was a problem."
Problem? What problem?
Professor: "You see, this system only looks at how your body was made and applies it here, not your soul, which is secondary. Since this cloned body of yours did not exist in this dimension, it had to create a new one to compensate for the non-existance. I know you were switched in that dimention, but the system does not see that part and just carries whoever is occupying that body over. That is to say, the transfer between dimensions was technically successful, but you aren't in the body made by your parents when you last left this dimension. Part of the reason why it took so long, is that we were discussing the options available as your cloned body does not exist here and we don't want to have the transfer end as a failure and your soul wandering around somewhere, lost or in bits and pieces."
You mean to say that I am still stuck in this female clone of myself from there? What happened to my original body here?
Professor: "That? It's still here and is somewhat on auto-pilot since you left. Don't worry, it behaves as though that event in May never happened, and recognizes you as the master, though your appearance as a girl that never ages instead of its exact duplicate might have it not to take you seriously... and for reasons mentioned earlier, you can't ever return to your original body. You wouldn't want to anyway due to the time difference since you left."
I don't know what this would mean though. The way he said it made it seem that my entire world is just one freaking huge server of technology far into the future than what I think I'm in and someone is messing up my existance, which is made up of multiple files, that affects my behavior and appearance. Make me wonder how I can think of this if it's true. Maybe it's not. If it is, they might have certainly done the same to Kotomi. What am I talking about?
Professor: "Oh, by the way, it's now the beginning of April, so i bought the uniform of the new high school you would be entering soon. It's located somewhere in west Kanagawa, though it's more of an average school compared to the Mihara Academy (三原学院)."
Oh great. Another 3 years of the same old stuff and again, and again, and again. Design of the uniform? Hard to say when compared to my previous school and the one Kotomi wore, but in my opinion, it's better in design than that of about 20 years ago. Wait, where do I live?
Professor: "As to where you are staying, it turns out that all of the houses you own from the other dimension are carried over, with one not too far from this school."
"All of the houses"? Wait, you mean that large-expensive-penthouse-at-the-top-of-the-tallest-building-in-the-area is not my only house? Just how rich am I? Or were they given by the gods responsible of messing up my life? I just don't know myself... What is my source of income? The amount I have in the bank seem to increase astronomically.
Wait, did you say that the school is in western part of Kanagawa prefecture (神奈川県)? That area is part of the Greater Tokyo Area (首都圏), which means that the place is likely to be built up with buildings close together. Either way, I need to find my house around there. That professor only gave me a map highlighting the route between the school and train station. He didn't where my house was over there, but he did say that it's near enough to not need to take the train. Why did he give me that map anyway?
Professor: "By the way, I have a special car for you. I know you don't have a driving licence, but neither will you be able to get one, and you are too short to see everything in the driver's seat anyway. Now, off you go. Oh, and your name here is back to Saeko Hisakawa (久川沙江子)."
There are more questions on my mind than the answers I was given: he did not say where my house is exactly, or why he gave me a car knowing that I can't drive. Oh well, le's have a look at the car anyway since he had told me the exact parking lot it's parked at in the basement but had not gave me a key to it. How do I unlock it without anything? Mind power?
Well, that last thought seemed somewhat true as the car unlocked itself when I was close enough to it. What I'm puzzled about this is that there was no one else there, and I certainly did not do anything to unlock it. It even opened the door I was thinking of getting into and closes it when I'm done getting in or decided not to enter. Hold on, it can read my thoughts?
The interior bares a close resemblance to that of an expensive (regular) automobile I could think of, that I would want to sleep in it from all that time/dimensional travel I just came from before continuing home.
...
The bumps, jerks, and bright lights entering my eyes woke me from my otherwise peaceful nap. Just what is... WHAT?!!
The car is moving by itself, but I'm not in the driver's seat, and neither is there anyone else in the car. On top of that, I am mysteriously glued to my seat seeing that I can't lift up my legs or lean forward. I guess this is the saftey feature if I wasn't wearing the seat belt. It also pays the toll and drives itself as though there is an actual driver, though unless the action would make damages to the car or attract the police, it actually listens to what I want the car to do, like turning on the windscreen wiper even though it's not raining, without me vocally saying anything. But just where is this car taking taking me to anyway?
At my last thought, the screen at the front center showed the route map from my current location to some quadrilateral that is a lot larger than all the other quadrilaterals in a residential area.
Sure enough, that large quadrilateral I saw in the map represents my large house. It's so large that it made the nearby houses look like toy houses. I was hoping that this large mansion (マナーハウス not マンション) is not mine, but it has my surname at the main gate. That apartment penthouse from earlier is already large, but this mansion is just plain rediculous.
As I got closer, it became clearer that all but some of the rooms inside, has actually been mostly converted into a research center, with the name of the place put up at the top of the building and the entrance. A plate around the entrance states me as being the donor of the place, which officially opened in June 2005. (A scribble at a corner that don't seem to be part of the plate has "who is that?" written there.) What is odd about it is that there aren't any photos there taken before January this year (2007), and none of them have me included.
As I walked around, my presence alone seem to attract the people working there. Well, this is a research center, not a hospital. Everyone here, including the maintenance crew, seems to be around my director or supervisor's age, so for a high school to suddenly appear here usually means that she (me) is looking for a parent working here or is lost. The directions wasn't helpful on where my house in here is and the map only showed the floor I'm at so I don't... wait... "Landlord's Office"? Is that some odd fancy name they give to my home? Well, it doesn't seem out of place with all the other places like "Neurology Research Laboratory". Oh, the research center here is not affiliated to the company I work for, so I'm not likely to find anyone I know here.
I looked around to the place and it indeed does exist. The corridor and the door looks no different from the rest of the place, which reminds me a lot of being in a hospital. The door reminds me of my supervisor's office at my first workplace with my full name (Ms. Saeko Hisakawa) below "Lanlord's Office". Entry to the place requires only a thumbprint, but sadly, it looks just like Kenjiro's (Kotomi's uncle, my director) office. Behind the door I just opened is a white lab coat and a company pass with my name and photo on it, just like all the other permanent full-time staff (except the staff of maintenance and cafeteria departments) are wearing, but there's something different about my pass as compared to everyone else: it has "[my workplace's official full name]'s [my job title]" instead of saying that I'm the owner of the place. The irony is that it has this place's company logo instead of mine, and it looks genuine. Oh well, at least I could wear this to not attract unnecessary attention.
However, next to a door marked 立入禁止 (No entry) not visible from the corridor is something I should look into before the door opens. I looked into it, but saw nothing. However, the door opened at that instant with a beep.
What I saw inside was what seemed to be the remainder of the mansion before it was converted to a research center, but still as large when compared to my house before May 2005. It seem larger due to the lack of things and the high ceiling. There are also connection interfaces to access my system, the car and see reports of things I never knew happened.
Anyways, I don't want to talk about my embarrassingly huge house. Although I had entered high school before, I seem to have attracted people's attention with little effort since the first day. What did I do? Maybe it's one of the things I am doing unknowingly... I think someone has already created a bio and an article about me. I am having a hard time trying to explain my family background and where I live. Speaking of appearance, I did not change my hairstyle from when I was still at the Mihara Academy in the othe other dimension , but I should when I finish this one and start another as there's bound to be someone who is able to recognize me on the street by my trademark hairstyle (that's what I heard when I walk past guys) and ask questions that are difficult for me to answer, especially when it's many years later where everyone looks older, but me staying the same.
Naturally, I joined the computer club within the first few weeks. I would like to join the science or chemistry club instead, but the school is too small for it, as expected.
Saturday, May 12. Close to the 2nd anniversary of my life thrown from a miserable poor life and into a hard-to-believe very well off lifestyle overnight. Normally, I would head home on foot or tag along with my friends, but as soon as I leave the school gates, I saw a familiar car parked outside with someone inside. Who is that? How did he even get into my car and drive it here? I can tell it's mine from the car registration number (熊谷501す1405).
The man seem to have noticed me staring at the car for a while through the mirror and started to get out of it.
!!!
W...wait. If I am me and I'm back at my original dimension, why does he look a lot like the me before I entered an another dimension, but older? I'm scared...
Mysterious Man: "Saeko-chan! Haven't seen you in a while. Why are you afraid of me? It's me, Itsuki Hisakawa, your brother!"
Of course I'm afraid of you. I never saw myself from a 2nd person point of view. You even dare to say my original name as yours to me. You even said that I'm your younger sister. I never had any siblings! Now I know what Kotomi feels like when she was at home, though she's the eldest child in the family. This situation I'm in now has already attracted the attention of my schoolmates.
Me: "Fine! I'll go with you, but only because I want to avoid those fans of mine before they start asking questions about us. Where are you taking me to anyway?"
Itsuki: "Glad to see you tagging along. We would first head to the hospital we both know. Following that would be to introduce you to our parents."
The phrase "introduce me to our parents" doesn't seem right. Aren't our parents the ones who made and brought us up? Why do I even need to be introduced to my own parents?
Chapter 8
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