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OurCasts Chapter 1
In Tokyo's financial district and in Ujiie Securities & Trading co. in particular, a salaryman with any sense of ambition would never dream of leaving before his manager. Not even if that manager was Ujiie Ryou, son of the company's current president and all-around workaholic.Eight o'clock rolled around, and every tired eye in the room started ping-ponging between the clock on the wall and the back of Ryou's monitor. He ignored the distraction out of habit. After finishing the article on stocks in Norway, he noted down a few concepts he would need to research later if the new contract with that oil company's financial branch was signed. As if in answer to his thoughts, an email from the president popped up in his inbox. The old man was also working late, of course. There was a mention of the new contract, and a lunch meeting tomorrow. Ryou entered it into his planner, locked his station and switched off his screen.When he glanced up through the glass walls of his office, the eyes of
OurCasts Chapter 2
The light shining into his eye flicked off, leaving Ryou to blink away red afterimages.Yuki swapped the pocket flashlight for a pen and his patient's chart. Ryou took this as permission to put his glasses back on."Good eye movement, no signs of retinal tear. MRI showed no intracranial swelling or concussion. Sutures are okay." Then in the same breath and tone, Ryou's brother added, "I can't believe you would be dumb enough to get involved in a gang fight. Why didn't you call the police?""I was not thinking straight, I told you."The stare Yuki gave him above the rim of the chart suggested that the idea of Ujiie Ryou not thinking straight did not fit into his version of reality. It seemed he'd rather suspect him of some bizarre business-related reason to intervene in a fight. Fortunately the police had been nowhere near as suspicious of the department head of an important financial firm."I have some clothes here for you," said Yuki, giving up on stubborn brothers. "Your assistant d
OurCasts Chapter 3
Ryou walked into the hospital wing, dressed in his usual business suit and carrying his briefcase. He looked around until he spotted a nurse he recognized and waved her over, bringing her around the reception desk and right up to the sign stating that visiting hours were over."Hello, I believe we met two days ago, I'm Ujiie Yuki's older brother.""Oh yes, Ujiie-san. Is everything alright? Ujiie-sensei isn't here tonight.""I know, he's at our family house for dinner. I'm late myself, but I forgot some important documents in my room the other day. My brother put them on top of his locker near the emergency ward. He was supposed to bring them tonight, but he forgot. Would it be okay if I went in and fetched them?"Of course it was okay. The nurse knew who Ujiie-sensei was and, by extension, who Ryou was. There was an automatic feeling of deference, of maintaining a polite distance from his affairs. A man of Ryou's circle in society could walk out with a gallon of blood in a barrel and
OurCasts Chapter 4
Ryou stopped the car alongside the curb and took stock. So far so good. There'd been no signs of anything unusual happening in the hospital as he'd made his way out. He'd handed the badge back to the nurse near reception, and chatted about his health for a minute. He felt confident that she'd later testify that his attitude had been perfectly normal (only Yuki and their parents would know that Ryou chatting about his health was anything but normal right there). There was still a lot that was going to link him to tonight's escapade, but nothing solid enough to stand up in court which, thanks to that barbarian's handling of the situation with the policeman, was where this was now going to end up. There was still a chance this might all blow over as long as Ryou could get the man out of the reach of the Tokyo Metropolitan police and back where he belonged.Tilting his wrist to catch the light of the streetlamp without releasing his deathgrip on the steering wheel, he glanced at his watch
OurCasts Chapter 5
The smell of burning wood greeted Ryou on his return to consciousness.Since as far back as he could remember, he had never had the fuzzy transition between sleeping and wakefulness he'd read about in stories, where the mind wandered dreamlike between who, what, where... Ryou was either asleep, or he was awake and in full possessions of his faculties such as the memory of crashing the rented Honda through dimensions accompanied by a refugee from the Tokyo police to end up in a place where islands floated through the sky.Staying asleep was really tempting right now.The stranger shifted and leaned forward. It seemed Ryou was currently wrapped in a blanket, curled up against the man's chest and with the stranger's legs on either side of him, one bent knee helping to prop him into place. This was a complicated situation which even higher mathematics couldn't adequately handle, and Ryou really wished he could go back to sleep and not deal with it now. He still felt amazingly tired.The n
OurCasts Chapter 6
When Ryou woke up, he was feeling clear-headed once more. The fact that it was day again didn't annoy or confuse him this time. On the other hand, he was suddenly conscious of how very uncomfortable and full of small, sharp rocks the ground beneath him was.He was lying on his back in the dirt with the cut-out car seat cover over him. The fire was as dead as the squirrel's lower half, which was still there, complete with a fly scurrying around the haunch. Somewhere off to the right, high up in the air, the floating island persisted in flouting the laws of physics.Ryou felt a sense of surrealism so strong that even the stones poking him through his business suit trousers didn't feel solid enough to cling to. It was a sensation he'd never had before.It only lasted a few seconds, then he became aware of what had woken him; a crunch of footsteps through bracken and thick, dry grass."Bad luck, magian," said Darius, coming through the underbrush from the direction of the car. "Ryou, that
OurCasts Chapter 7
A crunch of tall wheatgrass, pussy willows and ferns heralded Darius's return from a quick reconnaissance up ahead."We're stopping here tonight," he said when he was within earshot.Ryou had sunk down onto a rock near the large stream they'd discovered ten minutes ago. He moved the worn-down stumps of what had once been his legs and said, "I can still go on." Hopefully that was true. It had to be true, Ryou grimly reminded himself; this was only the second day they were walking, who knew how far they had yet to go."No, here's good enough. We need some rest." Darius peeled up his sweatshirt and looked at the bandages, wrinkled and sagging around his middle, with some concern. "We won't be able to follow this waterway up ahead, there's too much underbrush. Let's take advantage of the water here.""Advantage?" Ryou asked blankly, most of his mind on Darius' injuries and what they would do if they got infected. He noted the sweatshirt and shoes dropping to ground near their pack at the
OurCasts Chapter 8
Halfway through the fourth day of their travels, the countryside around them changed abruptly. They were still traveling through highlands dotted with occasional clumps of trees, but now it stretched out to the horizon the way a decent landscape should."Praise Inder and Seraosa for leading us out of that bloody puzzlebox," Darius said, looking with grim satisfaction at the uninterrupted scenery spreading around their hillock.Ryou sank down into the grass nearby. It smelled wonderful when crushed beneath their feet, like sunshine, water and green, growing things; a smell Ryou was getting heartily sick of by now."Do you know where we are?""Not a clue. We'll figure it out sooner or later, let's just head east for now and see if we can hit a settlement, or even better, a road or a crossing. The sooner we get back to Assyria, the better."Ryou stared at the great wide and totally empty sweep of hills around them with only the occasional rocky outcropping or tree to break up the uninter
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