The Spaces in Between (30 page)

Ryoma stood and admired the face of his stone visage. “But I’m not Sakamoto Ryoma, am I?”

“You are,” Cameron said, “but in the way that Sananda was Jesus Christ. You are an interpretation of Sakamoto Ryoma. The real Ryoma died and went to heaven long ago. Then was reunited with his wife not too long after.” Cameron gasped for a moment. “But he was made a sacred ancestor to the nation of Japan. He was prayed to, prayed for, and had offers left for him. Sakamoto Ryoma don’t you see, you are a god and this is your seat of power.”

“Why didn’t you tell me before?” Ryoma watched the black sky bulge towards them.

“Because I didn’t think you’d believe me before,” Cameron said, “And I was greedy I guess. I wanted to keep you as a friend.”

“You’re a bad liar,” Ryoma said.

“The god part is true. Also I should add that Japan is in danger and that you are one of her chief protectors.” Cameron used the last of his power to restore his body to an earlier state. Before he had accidentally sent himself to the Astral, before he was the Pirate King and only Cameron Styles. His body rocked as the changes were being made – fighting to be made. Both of his eyes changed back to green and the sigil carved into his chest vanished along with the beast it summoned.

His head rolled over and he could see Ryoma for a moment. Ryoma turned to him, but Cameron could already no longer hear him. He read Ryoma’s lips say “
Arigato
” before he faded away. He now lay alone on a beach in Japan.

Cameron pulled the Ark out of his coat pocket and rested it over his heart. He closed his eyes and listened to the music beyond the spheres until he fell asleep.

“It’s over! It’s over! Everyone died, but me!
Chomp
.”

- Teen Girl Squad, “Battle of the Bands”

Epilogue

In which loose ends are tied into a balloon poodle.

Cameron

There was a lot of talk in the office of the
Ichiban
Graphic Design agency in Tokyo about the foreigner that worked in the office. He was an oddity, this
Gaijin
. He had red dreadlocks pulled back into a ponytail and could speak Japanese fluently. It was rumored that he was one of those
Gaijin
Otaku
that learned the language so he didn’t have to wait on Anime and Manga to trickle back into the states.

He was not talked to by the staff. Even the IT department wouldn’t associate with him. (Their
Otaku
status was far superior to his.) Upper management had no problem with him. He had an impressive portfolio, a work visa, and all his references checked out. The boss didn’t speak English, but someone answered for each number. That was good enough for him.

Cameron furiously scratched his stylus against his tablet. He was in a Hawaiian shirt and black slacks. The supervisor stepped into Cameron’s cubicle and breathed down his neck for a good minute before he was noticed.

“” Cameron said in Japanese, but he only looked at the supervisor through the reflection of his glasses. “”

The supervisor remained in his indignant face. “” Cameron assumed that last bit was supposed to be Style-san. “

“,” Cameron said.

“ the supervisor said the vein on his head was bulging. “”

“”

The supervisor was flabbergasted. Cameron guessed correctly if he could still see auras then this man’s would be red. “

“

“Nihon
.>”

“

“
Hai.
”

“” The supervisor informed Cameron that he would be third on the queue for the company katana. After Takahashi from Accounting and the supervisor were done with it then it would be Cameron’s turn. After the supervisor left, Cameron went to the vending machine in the break room to get five beers. He drank them at his desk and slept until quitting time.

2

Cameron wormed his way around the pair of African-Japanese men into a Shinjuku nightclub. He was immediately accosted by four Japanese girls wanting drinks. They were not attractive in the least bit and if you put their ages together they might equal his, but he really doubted it. He considered drawing the company katana from the paper shopping bag he carried it in, but pretending to only speak English and charging through their ranks worked just fine.

He pulled himself up to the bar. A waitress in a pants suit arrived within minutes. “
Nomimono
? Fyukku?” The latter inquired in heavily accented English. This nightclub was noted for allowing patrons to “do whatever you can’t do at work.”

“
Cigaretto onegaishimasu
,” Cameron requested. He lit up and drew on napkins for three hours before going back to his hotel room.

3

He locked the door to his room at the Love Hotel behind him, Love Hotels are hotels in Japan known for their hourly rates that make them ideal for couples from the clubs, awkward situations in Anime when two characters that like each other get stuck in the rain and have no where else to go, and for
Otaku
to masturbate to said Anime without their parents barging in on them. It had the best weekly rates for staying, and the cleaning staff coming in every hour was only slightly inconvenient.

Cameron turned on the TV. In all Japanese hotel rooms the standard issue channels are Japanese CNN, English CNN, and hardcore pornography. This was just fine by Cameron. The pornography was the only thing on that Cameron could understand what was going on, but the sound of a Japanese woman in coitus causes his ears to bleed. The sound broadcasts at frequencies that screw up the internal navigational systems of angels.

He settled for English CNN, he could pick up bits and pieces of world events. Nothing really changed on Earth since he was last there. Everyone wants an Ipod big or small. Everything was the President’s fault including gas is still expensive as hell. People are camping and killing each other over Playstations.

He pulled the pyramid from his pocket. He ran his thumb over the gold relief tooled on it. Resting in both hands was the Ark what he was looking for and for which he gave up everything to finally possess. In the end it wasn’t what he needed to stay in power, but it was meant for him to hold. He kissed it and placed it by the nightstand. While there was no power for him in it, it still comforted him. It was worth everything he paid for it.

He turned off the light and under the glow of the television he fell asleep.

4

A man in a black suit passed through the walls of Cameron’s rooms. The wards residual around Cameron had faded away over a month ago. Lam wanted to be sure that Cameron was completely powerless before moving in to take the Ark. Their second concern Ryoma had not been seen anywhere near Cameron since the conflict on the beach. But Lam is immortal, it only had to bide its time until it could strike again.

The man in the black suit walked across the room. He didn’t take any pretense of sneaking. His footfalls on the Astral couldn’t be picked up by Cameron’s ears now. A pair of hands in black leather gloves wrapped around the Ark. It was weightless in his hands and easily lifted from the nightstand. The man in the black suit could feel the tug of the rest of Lam like the silver chord.

The company katana swept into an arc through the air and stopped against the throat of the man in the black suit. He craned his eyes to look over the thick, black sunglasses to see his assailant. He expected to see Ryoma, but instead he saw Cameron’s astral body dressed in full Pirate King regalia and the Mehmet talisman blazed across his chest. The Pirate King’s aura extended over the company katana.

The man in the black suit almost spoke, but Cameron cut him off. “I have the message for the rest of you. Be sure to deliver when you go. The Pirate King is still around. I’ve been slowly recovering my power – I know how to do it now. I’ve been doing it slowly so you guys wouldn’t notice. This power is on loan from a friend of mine.” Cameron smiled widely.

“Actually while I have your attention I think I’ll just deliver the message on my own.”

The temper line of the katana flashed and ichor splashed against the walls. None of which would be seen by normal people. The room would always have a reputation for being haunted. The man in the black suit lost its man shape and changed to a black mass. Lam pulled the piece back, but before it could Cameron grasped this thread and went within it.

Cameron fell into the waters of Lam’s will. It was like wading in the ocean, but did not hold a candle to
Ain Soph Aur
. There was no light here. Cameron had been in worse (or better depending on how you look at it), and this time he had remembered to bring his water wings. The Pirate King laughed and pulled a pink crazy straw from his coat pocket.

He placed the end of the straw into the water and began to suck.

Warren

“I don’t like how your characters swear,” Janet’s mother said over the phone. “It just shows a lack of creativity and cry for attention on your part. This isn’t much better than when you were a pornographer. Now you’ve got responsibilities to my daughter and the baby! It’s time for you to finally grow up. When are you going to find a real job?”

“I didn’t make pornography,” Warren replied, “I just made their website. And a real job? I wrote a book that sells- most authors couldn’t say that. It doesn’t matter anyway since we won the lottery.” Or at least that’s what he’s been telling people to believe the sudden increase in bank balance from the Irishman. “So I don’t see how you have the right -”

“Well my parents nagged Janet’s father about many things so that gives me the right to nag you – ow! The phone just shocked me!” Warren closed the eye in his brain.

“Well I guess you need to go then. Bu-bye!” The screen on Warren’s Zune went blank. He had every intention to having a coolest smart phone, but not involve Apple in any way. He could teach a Lexus to drive itself, so teaching a Zune to take phone calls wasn’t that much harder. The rental company never got that Lexus back, but the computers certainly believed that they did. He donated the blue book value of the car to them though it was worth far more now. Finding a car that a one-armed man could drive was hard.

“Was that my mom?” Janet inquired from the kitchen of their new apartment. She was three months pregnant, but it barely showed. They really had only known for a week. She walked into the living room to feed Steve his nightly meal of what suspiciously looks like fish flakes. “What did she have to say?”

“Rawr rawr rawr I’m the crazy lady from
Misery
!” Warren exclaimed while waving his arms in the air.

“Did she want to talk to me?”

“Uh, no,” Warren scratched the back of his head. “Her phone was shocking her. Damnedest thing.”

“Warren…” Janet started, but a spaceship landing in their front yard interrupted her.

2

“Am I too late for the wedding?” Cameron inquired and walked down the gangplank into their yard.

“Um, it’s still three months away,” Warren replied. Janet’s jaw remained in the dropped position. While Warren had proved to her that magic existed and that the Pirate King may have well been real nothing really prepared her for the genuine article sitting in her lawn. She was even more flabbergasted as to why the neighbors couldn’t notice that beautiful white light emanating from the ship
Soulforge II
.

“Oh, don’t worry about that.” Cameron twirled his right wrist and spoke as if he read Janet’s mind, which he damn well could have done. “Only those touched by magic. Particularly mine will spot me. They’ll just see two idiots gawking in their yard.”

“You were never good a reassuring anyone,” Warren said. “And why exactly are you here? It’s not like you’ve ever done something altruistic.”

“Oh well, I came to deliver a wedding present,” Cameron’s feet touched the ground and he continued speaking. “I’m glad that I’m not too late.”

“So you’re solid?” Warren walked up to him. “You’re really here?” Warren pressed his left hand against Cameron.

“Yes, I’m really here.”

“Well, I owe you this.” The right hand balled into a fist in Warren’s sling. He pulled back the arm and socked Cameron a haymaker to the cheek. Cameron fell flat on his ass and slid a foot back on to the gangplank of the
Soulforge II
. Warren opened his right hand and closed it again. He gasped.

“Yes, then happy erm…wedding. And I see you’ve gotten my other gifts already.” He rubbed his face. “You’re going to wish you hit me a lot harder in a minute.”

“Other gifts?” Warren said without taking his eyes off his flexing right hand. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”