The boy groaned, probably in
frustration, given the expression on his face and the way he
scrubbed at it with both hands. Then he gracelessly plopped
himself down in front of Sho and just stared for a minute.
+If you want to talk, I’ll listen.+
The look of abject, stunned surprise on
the other boy’s face gave Sho an idea of exactly how much
explaining he was going to have to do for the other boy’s
benefit. Trying to think about what Agito had told him during
the first battle with the Hyper Zoanoid Team Five, Sho managed
to remember what Agito had said when it had been him in almost
the same situation.
+We Guyvers can communicate
telepathically through the organisms on our backs,+
Sho stated for the red-haired boy’s benefit. Seeing that the
expression on the boy’s face had become one of startled
puzzlement, Sho decided that he would explain in more detail.
+You should be able to
communicate with me if you concentrate. We’re linked through our
Guyver units, after all.+
+You mean you can hear this?+
+Yes, I can hear you,+
Sho said, trying to be reassuring.
+Oh, good. That means I’m not going
insane.+
+No, you’re definitely not going insane,
though there might be times you’ll wish you were.+
Even though he’d been trying to keep any
of his own emotions from showing, Sho still found that his
sadness was somehow projected along with his words. The
sympathetic look on the red-haired boy’s face clinched it in
Sho’s mind.
+How bad was it for you?+
+Bad. And please—don’t ask me
anything more about it,+ Sho
pleaded.
+Don’t worry. Hey, what’s your name,
anyway? I can’t just go calling you ‘hey you’ when we finally
learn to speak the same language.+
+My name is Sho Fukamachi. What’s
yours?+
+I’m Ryan Crouger. I don’t suppose
you’ve seen Nightmare on Elm Street, have you?+
+No, I haven’t,+
Sho said, confused.
+Good. I hate that old joke.+
Sho, not knowing exactly how to
respond to the red-haired boy’s – to Ryan’s – words, decided to
change the subject. +How did
you find the Guyver, anyway? I thought there were only three.+
+I don’t know anything about that, but I
found this big dartboard-looking thing in a cave. I just dropped
in and, well, there it was.+
+You touched it, didn’t you?+
Sho said, his mental tone rueful.
+Well, I would have had to, since
I ended up like this,+ Ryan
said, winking a bright green eye.
+I guess you would have,+
Sho said, nodding and chuckling a bit himself.
+Well, that takes care of the
introductions,+ Ryan said,
tilting his head and smiling at Sho.
+Now there’s only the problem of
getting out of here with no clothes, no shoes, and no one
knowing where we are.+
+Where are we, exactly?+
+We,+
Ryan said with a dramatic sweep of
his arm, +are currently
sitting somewhere in the Garden of the Gods. Completely naked,
of course, and up to our waists in some kind of slimy
ooze—either that, or some kind of oozy slime; I haven’t quite
managed to figure out the distinction yet.+
The tone of Ryan’s voice was at odds
with the just-waiting-to-grin expression that was breaking out
on his face. Sho found himself laughing in spite of the
previously stated seriousness of their situation. When he’d
finally managed to regain his composure—not an easy thing when
sitting naked in slime—Sho decided to try and see if the two of
them might be able to get a handle on the situation.
+What do you think we should do?+
+You’re asking me? Me, the guy who
doesn’t even know what a Guyver is? Okay; I have no idea.+
Sho chuckled.
+I guess it wasn’t the best idea.
Well, I guess I’ll have to think of something, then.+
Ryan, whom Sho noticed was
starting to look a bit tired, shifted so that he could lean
against the side of the cocoon that they both sat in. Looking
closer at the cocoon, Sho found that it looked a lot like the
Relic. Even the slime, as annoying as it was, was kind of
similar to what had been inside the Relic.
Maybe this cocoon was originally a
part of the Relic. It would explain a few things, I guess;
still, the last thing I remember was being disintegrated by that
Zoalord.
Sho shuddered as he remembered the
feeling of his own skin being charred and vaporized. Of course,
it hadn’t really been his
skin: it had been the Guyver’s, but he
was
the Guyver, so it really had
been his skin at the time. All of these thoughts, though, were
just a distraction from something else. Something, or rather,
someone, that Sho really didn’t want to think about.
Mr. Murakami. Mr. Murakami was dead.
Even the thought of it wasn’t something
that Sho could stand for very long, and he shied away as if the
merest reminder was painful to him. The worst part of it was
that he hadn’t even been there for Mr. Murakami when he died.
The only thing that he had been able to do was to hold his body.
Even then, he hadn’t been able to do that for very long—not with
all of the Zoalords attacking him.
Sho hated the fact that he hadn’t even
been able to say goodbye, and also that he hadn’t been able to
recover Mr. Murakami’s body. Sho knew Mr. Murakami well enough
to know that he wouldn’t have wanted his body to stay in any
place that Chronos had control over. Sho knew that it was too
late for him to do anything about that, but he still found
himself hoping that nothing had happened to Mr. Murakami’s body.
Even though there wasn’t anything he could have done, Sho still
thought that he should have helped Mr. Murakami somehow.
Still, now wasn’t the time to think
about things that he couldn’t change. Seeing Ryan, dozing while
he leaned on the edge of what Sho found himself thinking of as
the Relic’s cocoon, reminded Sho that he had other things to
think about.
+Ryan, you said we were in the Garden of
the Gods, right?+
+That’s what I said.+
+Where is that, exactly?+
+It’s just outside of Colorado Springs,
my hometown. I always wished I could come out here when I have a
bad day, but this place really isn’t within walking distance of
my house. I really never imagined I’d be stuck out here naked
with another guy, though.+
Ryan chuckled, and Sho found himself
smiling as well. The situation did have its elements of humor,
but there was still the matter of getting out of this place,
even as beautiful as it was. They were out in the open,
vulnerable to any Zoanoid that might come across them. Even if
they were Guyvers, an army of Zoanoids would eventually
overwhelm even them. Sho wanted to be somewhere… else—somewhere
safe, at least for the time being. As Sho concentrated harder,
his eyes slipped closed almost of their own volition, so he
missed the fact that Ryan’s eyes fluttered and closed only half
a minute later. As Sho wondered where he would ever manage to
find a place where they would both be safe from Chronos even for
a short time, he started to feel a gentle pulsing coming from
the region of his shoulders. It almost felt like his Guyver was
responding to something.
After what seemed like about fifteen
minutes or thereabouts, Sho felt the pulsing in his shoulders
lessen from a dull throb to a barely noticeable tingle and then
fade away to nothing. Opening his eyes, Sho found that they were
no longer in the Garden of the Gods. In fact, they weren’t even
outside anymore. Instead, they were inside a building.
The place where they now sat looked very
comfortable, if a little bit too cluttered for Sho’s taste. The
overstuffed chairs and couch, combined with the warm, almost
buttery colors of the drapery, carpet, and walls only added to
the feeling of calmness that Sho got from the place. Still, Sho
knew not to trust appearances anymore.
+Just how in the heck did we end up
here?+
+Ryan? You know this place?+
+I’d have to be pretty dense not to,
considering that this is my living room and all.+
+We’re in your house?+
+That’s about the long and the short of
it, yeah.+
Sho noticed then that Ryan was
starting to climb out of the Relic cocoon, scraping some of the
excess slime off his feet by rubbing them against the edges Sho
turned away, looking around at the room where he had somehow
ended up. Noticing that Ryan had left the room, Sho climbed up
and out of the Relic cocoon as well. Now that he wasn’t so
focused on the potential problem of Zoanoids coming to find
them, Sho found himself really noticing the sticky slime that
coated him almost from head to toe.
It wasn’t a feeling that Sho enjoyed.