Somewhere in the Philippine Sea, 11 pm
A week later, Dacheng and his parents were already on an airplane headed to Japan.
The booking and boarding processes had been done as smoothly as silk, a miraculous event in the Philippines.
Dacheng had only one complaint so far - he hadn't slept a wink for at least eight whole hours. He couldn't even say goodbye to Yuhua, since he and his family had left their apartment at 3 pm to ride the congested highway that led to the airport.
Now his tired eyes went along the inside of the plane the way they did as he watched many cars zip by on his way to the airport. But no matter how many times he had traveled in an airplane throughout his fifteen years of living, Dacheng would always be amazed at these giant white birds as they soared through the sky above the sky.
At the same time, his father was snoring in his seat, the in-flight-provided eye mask covering his eyes. His mother was reading the in-flight magazine, but was close to sleeping herself.
Dacheng stared out the window, watching the unchangingly pitch-black night sky dotted with the whites of stars. He smiled to himself. He was finally going to Japan.
He had first found out about Japan through ninjas eight years ago. Dacheng had Googled a brand of toy bricks. Or rather, an off-brand of these bricks.
That it had been an off-brand came as no surprise to him. He was, after all, born in a Chinese neighborhood - to be specific, the oldest Chinatown in the world - Binondo, Manila. He tried to research ninjas and ended up finding out about Japan. Tales of pretty sights, cultural legends, and exotic foods enchanted him for the rest of his childhood - especially the food.
His parents noticed his desire to go to Japan and saved enough money for a trip.
Dacheng couldn't blame them for making him wait. His thrifty parents had hammered the importance of saving money into his head, and a trip to Japan was quite expensive. Eight years later, they had saved up the money, but the one condition for him to go to Japan was to get at least 90 on his report card. In all subjects.
Dacheng had to put everything he had into his studies. But at least his parents knew that getting such a score wasn't easy in Primo High School, the school for the borderline elite.
And now, he could go to Japan with his parents.
Dacheng unconsciously gave a small yawn. His body was asking for a long-awaited timeout, and his mom told him to go to sleep in a tired, barely audible voice that still carried maternal authority.
Turning off the lights above him and double-checking his seatbelt, Dacheng obliged. Though his excitement made it a little inconvenient, Dacheng counted a few hundred sheep and eventually plunged into Dreamland, the droning of the plane engine helping him sleep.
Dacheng entered the world of sleep and began to dream. It was a peculiar dream, the likes of which he had never seen before.
He felt like he had been submerged in water. That part was somewhat normal, par for the course when it came to his dreams.
But the sounds of shouting and the collision of metal and flesh could be heard, very vaguely. Colorful lights and dark silhouettes shone down on him from above. Unexpectedly, a strange force pulled him upward on a collision course with the blurs of color.
Like a paint bubble popping on a canvas, Dacheng burst onto a strange scene.
He found himself standing behind a group of seven ninjas - there, yet not quite there. They were each wearing a different color - red, orange, golden yellow, green, blue, pink, and brown - and were engaged in combat with a strange monster near Tokyo Tower.
Yes, the Tokyo Tower, which he had learned about online. If he was being honest, it looked like a traffic cone did the Fusion Dance with the Eiffel Tower.
The monster resembled a humanoid bat, with flaps of black skin along its furry arms and blood-red claws on its hands and feet. It had pointed ears and a mouth full of red fangs. A bat's symbol was painted on its forehead protector. It wore a loincloth, and red lines criss-crossed all over its body. It also had a taxidermied bat atop its head.
The ninjas were fighting it and had the upper hand, though their armor was cracked and scratched in many places. The ninja in red suddenly yelled something in a distorted voice.
"For peace and justice, I'll finish you with this!" They sliced an 'H' on the monster's head with a fiery sword, cutting off its ears and piercing its eyes.
The now blinded humanoid screamed in pain. The fight seemed to be over already.
But then it unexpectedly performed some unrecognizable ninjutsu hand signs. A strange, blood-red wind that smelled like iron came from the bat monster's mouth and blew toward the team.
Dacheng closed his mind's eye in fear, and when he opened it again a few seconds later, the monster was gone, taking the pink-garbed ninja with it, leaving a pair of dog tags on the ground. That aside, he and the other ninjas were left behind with only broken shipping containers here and there as evidence of the strange battle that had passed. The ninja in red let out an enraged shout, pounding their fist on the ground. The world around Dacheng began to swirl into a blur as he reawakened.
His eyes popped open, and he catapulted forward. He would've nearly shouted, but then he remembered where he was. Looking around frantically, he was relieved to see he was still in his seat on the airplane, watching the sunrise in the Land of the Rising Sun.
"Ladies and gentlemen," the flight attendant announced, "we are about to embark on our final descent. It is around 5 in the morning here. Welcome to Tokyo, Japan, and thank you for flying with us."
As the plane began to land, Dacheng's eyes blazed with excitement about finally going to Japan.