Part VIII – Dream Odyssey
At this early hour of the night, the walkway was guided almost entirely by neon. Flickering signs from nearby food stalls and makeshift iron shelves displayed scavenged goods: dented food cans, aged Buddha amulets, even a small refrigerator the seller loudly advertised as a fair trade for a legitimate 100% Atmospheric Water Generator. Reprogrammed multi-purpose service drones of various types sat alongside several other SAI-invented devices and odd-looking tools that felt strangely familiar, though Kaodin couldn't place why.
If this wasn't my first night here in SAI… and if I actually knew where things were… maybe I could find something Xiao Ying would like. Maybe something small for Liara and Cee-Too. But before that… still…
Locals gathered, drifted, and spoke without restraint. Some no longer walked straight. Some muttered to walls. Others lingered over the goods, unhurried, drawn in by neon reflections that gave battered items and scavenged wares a brief, almost pretty shine.
As the group walked deeper, crossing a narrow pedestrian bridge, the path opened into a slightly wider, livelier stretch of the zone.
Laughter broke out in uneven bursts as people passed. Some were searching for something worth trading. Across the area, several interesting places were already in sight. Small, makeshift stalls offered armor patchwork, protective repairs, and secondhand goods. Farther along sat a secondhand SAI hybrid-weapon repair and smith shop.
There were also shadier spots. Places Kaodin could somehow tell were not meant for him. Once, a door slid open to let a couple of new customers inside, just long enough for him to glimpse a strange-looking bar where naked girls danced around metal poles. The curtain fell quickly after, the door sealing shut, and whatever lay beyond the façade disappeared from view.
"Kaodin, come this side. Don't you feel hungry at all?" Han Xiao called, already adjusting her pace. She was still in her militia armor, rifle slung along her left side, barrel angled safely down.
She glanced at him, catching the way his eyes lingered a moment longer. "What were you looking at earlier?" she asked lightly. "You looked curious. See anything you want to tell your pretty sister?"
Kaodin hesitated. "Umm… I was just… looking," he said quickly. "There wasn't anything… really. Let's go eat, sis. I'm hungry already."
"Not the girls' bar?" Han Xiao asked, a quiet giggle slipping out.
Kaodin flushed and immediately sped up, trying to outrun her. "No! I was looking for gear shops. For my friends back at CSDS."
Han Xiao smiled, soft and knowing, and mercifully dropped the subject. "Alright then. Let's go quickly. We've only got two hours before we have to send you back to the med bay, or Dr. Mintra won't be very happy."
She noticed it then, the way his shoulders dipped, the flicker of disappointment he tried to hide. She didn't need training to see it. Anyone on their first night in a new place would want to explore.
Han Xiao bit back a laugh. "If you really want to walk around," she said lightly, "maybe when we're free, sis will take you."
Kaodin stopped short and turned toward her, eyes suddenly bright. "Thank you very much, Han Xiao sis."
She met his gaze and smiled. "Good boy."
"Though, despite how much I'd want Ken to take you to the girls' bar, I'm not sure they'd even let a young boy in."
"No… I didn't want to check that place at all…"
As Kaodin hurried ahead toward the crowded area where the rest of the group was already waiting at the table by the street-stall BBQ shop, Han Xiao followed just half a step behind, close enough that her presence never left his side.
Kaodin tried to hide his smile. His face was already flushed, and now he'd grown too shy to speak at all.
"Han Xiao, why did it take you so long just to bring the boy over?" Arika said. Her gaze brushed Kaodin for a brief moment, long enough to register his stiff posture, before returning to Han Xiao.
Han Xiao, still panting slightly, didn't offer an explanation. She dipped her head instead, a short, practiced bow to her commander.
When she straightened, the tension at the table eased. Albert was already grinning. "Took you long enough," he said lightly. Ken lifted a hand in greeting, a playful smile tugging at his mouth. "C'mon, kid. Sit."
Their familiar expressions closed in around Kaodin like a quiet welcome.
Kaodin smiled back, a little late. His gaze moved from face to face, pausing each time as if checking their reactions. Han Xiao didn't tease him further regarding his earlier embarrassment, and that alone made him breathe easier. That feeling settled warm in his chest, the kind that reminded him of his past.
Then his stomach tightened again. Kaodin glanced down at the pile of bare sticks on his plate, then at the remaining skewers, still steaming. He hesitated only a second before reaching out, eyeing the remaining plates. Each held similarly roasted brown meat, but each dish smelled subtly different, marked by its own distinctive spices. His hand hovered over a skewer coated in a pale red chili paste, not the familiar dried flakes from earlier.
I guess I'll try this one, smell like chili oil, crushed peppercorns, and the bean curd made me misses my mom's favorite soup already.
"Commander, the boy is about to try the infamous."
"Ken, shut your trap. Don't tease the boy."
Han Xiao cut in, her scolding softened by a playful smile as she leaned closer, watching Kaodin gently blow over the meat.
Commander Arika had been staring past the table, lost in thought. The exchange drew her back. Her eyes narrowed as she turned, gaze cutting cleanly toward the two, silent and expectant.
"We're sorry, Commander," Ken and Albert blurted out in unison, bowing.
The tension eased. Arika's lips tugged into a reluctant grin as she shook her head once.
"You two…" she muttered, sighing.
Han Xiao smirked. If the boy hadn't been here, she knew tomorrow at dawn a brutal drilling session would already be scheduled by Yuri, monitored by a militia droid. The thought was enough to send chill across her spine.
Ken aniki, face flushed and eyes squinted as if he'd reached his limit far faster than anyone else, raised a hand to cover his laughter, shoulders hitching as he failed to suppress it.
Without looking away from Arika, Han Xiao's gaze flicked briefly to Kaodin's beet-red face.
The elbow followed.
Quick. Precise.
Han Xiao's strike slipped neatly into the narrow gap beneath Ken's left rib, past the leather's edge, just shy of the metal plating.
Impeccable, nonetheless.
"Ough."
That would hurt.
While chewing, Kaodin kept sneaking looks at Han Xiao, trying to follow the jokes and chatter. He didn't notice at first, but Yuri, sitting beside him, had started watching him.
Oh crap… Yuri noticed… and why did I keep looking at her…
Dammit…
He quickly stuffed the skewer into his mouth.
The spice didn't sink in at first, but slowly spread.
Then his tongue went numb, followed by a strong aromatic scent and a sharp, pungent spice that left a powerful yet indulgent savory aftertaste.
Still, Kaodin insisted on chewing slowly, trying to savor a flavor he had always been longing for. Yet the longer he chewed, the more the heat accumulated, until he ended up sucking in a sharp breath of cool air to cope.
This didn't taste like any ordinary food anymore.
The long-familiar scent his nose picked up, mistaken at first for the comfort of home-style hot and spicy bean curd, was something else entirely. It wasn't ordinary food at all. It felt like the distilled essence of an uncharted, barren world, forcing his senses into unfamiliar territory.
Numbing spice, a faint citrus edge, and a distinctive aromatic depth.
And beneath it all, his mother's homemade spicy fermented bean curd scent.
Mom's favorite Sichuan beef hotpot.
Abruptly, Kaodin caught traces of an old yard from home, like a flash of a scene that had somehow crossed his vision, running past his eyes too quickly to grasp. He couldn't make it out clearly.
Maybe I miss home too much, seeing things…
His mouth opened for the next bite. Without realizing it, his eyes grew teary. He held his composure, unwilling to let it slip in front of the group, especially not before the two striking knight sisters.
But the moment he noticed, it was already too late.
From the corner of his vision, he caught Commander Arika's gaze. She looked as though she understood something. Yet ever since Kaodin had met this group, each of them had been in rough shape, despite the optimism at the table. Ken aniki, Han Xiao jie, even Commander Arika herself bore signs of recent injury, their exposed wounds partially concealed by military-tagged medical wraps, much like the ones Nyla sis had worn before reaching the medical building.
Maybe I just think too much… maybe she was just overseeing the entire table's well-being or something…
But the weight on his chest didn't lift.
And I'm sorry I couldn't get there sooner to help them. And yet… I….I'm not sure… if by chance Nyla and I had found them earlier, perhaps… things would have…
His gaze stayed fixed ahead, unfocused. Then, for the third time, the strange vision cut across his sight, slower now than the previous two. It lingered just long enough for him to catch it.
A garden came into view, about the size of a small football field. To the right, just beyond it, stood a familiar stretch of public green, the communal garden outside his home.
Wasn't that the yard at the back of the dojo…?
A faint, familiar atmosphere flickered across his vision like a strip of old film, too fast to hold, but enough to embed the image in his mind. It didn't form a complete picture. It didn't need to. The feeling alone was enough, pressing in with thoughts he hadn't realized he'd been missing.
The music shifted with it. The heavy, pounding beat and aggressive guitar from earlier faded, replaced by something slower, more melodic. Notes stretched and thinned, leaving small gaps where other sounds slipped through. The chatter around him loosened, no longer crashing in all at once.
A chair scraped.
Someone coughed at the far end of the shop.
A glass tapped twice against the counter, then stopped.
One row behind Han Xiao jie, the guy is acting a bit weird, clutching a knife tight, and talking alone, his eyes looked extremely alerted, but he may be just drank too much…..and he's far enough not to pose threat I guess…
Warmth from the food settled lower in his chest. Not discomfort. Just presence. His shoulders eased on their own, though he didn't remember moving them.
Then it came again.
The clog in his breath. The heaviness. The strange sense that air wasn't quite reaching where it should.
The song's softer… it's not even that upbeat. But earlier… my chest felt like it got kicked by the bass, and now it's gone all of a sudden… what now?
The thought wasn't relief. It wasn't comfort either. Just something he noticed, the way he'd learned to notice things when he didn't yet know what they meant.
His gaze drifted around the table. People nearby were still enjoying the night, leaning close to their companions, laughing, eating.
Han Xiao jie and Ken aniki were gone. Commander Arika and Yuri bro were still there, tense but steady, drinking, eating, talking in low voices about the overdosed man near the back of the shop.
An overdose… that sounds scary. I remember well, back home. But Hanxiao jie and Ken aniki've handled worse things before… I guess…they should be fine?
Abruptly, Kaodin's vision dimmed, as if a thin cloth had been drawn over his eyes, present but not fully blinding. His body followed a heartbeat later. He couldn't move. An immense pressure settled into his limbs, heavy and compressing, like gravity had thickened around him.
No… I…I can't give up that easily.
The surrounding chatter didn't vanish. It desynced.
The music didn't stop; it lost its timing, pulled apart into overlapping fragments that lagged behind their own source. Voices arrived late, doubled, then echoed without mouths to anchor them, as if his hearing had slipped a fraction out of phase with the room. Pitch bent without warning, tones swelling into hollow, wavering pulses. Processed. Unstable. Wrong.
It wasn't silence, but sound stripped of coherence, sensory input still arriving yet no longer lining up with meaning, as though his brain had routed the world through the wrong channel.
He tried to turn, to look toward those who had been sitting beside him only moments ago.
There were no people.
The objects remained. The stalls. The lights. The tables and chairs exactly where they should have been. But the space no longer held any recognizable sign of human presence. Nothing had vanished. Everything that wasn't human was still intact.
Every human presence, however, had been replaced.
Where are the others?
Yuri. Arika.
The figures where Yuri and Arika had been looked worse than the rest, parts of their forms thinning into translucence, edges fading as though light passed through something no longer fully solid.
I don't think that's them… do they…?
Where other customers should have been now stood blurred silhouettes, hairless, featureless shapes that refused to resolve. They moved and angled toward one another as if engaged in conversation, gestures answering gestures with unsettling precision. They were unmistakably not CC. There was intent in their motion, awareness in how they still interacted with objects and with other entities around them, as if nothing about the world had changed.
And… DJ Manoch.
Something else stood at the booth. It leaned over the turntable, hands moving across the controls with the same practiced rhythm, adjusting knobs and sliders just as Manoch had moments before.
Was that him…?
The figures inclined toward one another, motions answering motions, yet no sound followed. The exchange was all posture and timing, as if the act of communication still existed even after the medium had failed.
And all the other customers too…?
Their bodies were pale and unnaturally thin, proportions stretched beyond human physical limits. Arms hung too long, hands extending past the norm, fingers rigid and elongated like rulers pulled taut.
As if my own existence is the strange one here…
All the unthinkable horror he'd heard about since he was young, things that weren't supposed to exist in any logical sense, things no one believed, came rushing back.
The stories surfaced and passed by, forgotten through time. The ones adults dismissed with laughter. The ones no one believed.
Luang Por said there exists a different realm. A Buddhist script, the one he taught me how to read.
They had said there were places beyond this boundary, accessible only to certain people. Some were for the dead, and some were for other entities beyond this realm.
The thought didn't arrive all at once. It seeped in, slow and poisonous, spreading through him until it stopped being an idea and became certainty.
These…. Things… felt like a chill that refused to fade…. Something formed from emotion left behind, yet out of place…. as though it had slipped into a world it no longer belonged to…
And when it settled, fear finally took hold.
Not the monstrous, hostile kind, but something beyond any normal comprehension. Something that crept upward when his mind, already fragile, became entangled with
The unintentional interference. Theta frequency, pulling his mind away from where logic usually held.
His breath shortened. Thoughts began to slip, scattering faster than he could gather them. Pressure tightened in his chest, squeezing, as if the world itself were closing in from all sides. The more he tried to anchor himself, the larger the shapes seemed to loom.
The shapes did not advance.
They did not react.
They simply existed, unresponsive to his own struggle to disentangle.
I can't even make a sound. Even when I want to call out for help. I only wish… someone could…
His body remained where it was, still inside the patient room. His mind wandered elsewhere, tangled in its own memory lanes, and something inside him had already begun to tip.
Kaodin's thoughts slid toward the edge of something dangerous. Toward a realization he could not fully grasp. Or perhaps it was the idea of that realization that pushed him further off balance. The pressure worsened. What he had taken for confusion deepened into something far more perilous, dragging him toward a petrifying darkness, toward a breaking point he could feel but not escape.
Then.
A touch.
Small. Sudden.
His body jolted.
Something like a breeze stirred within him, threading back into places that had gone hollow. Sensation returned where numbness had suffocated him. The crushing weight eased, just enough for him to feel himself again.
I'm… here.
His sense of self returned in fragments, uneven and shaking, but it was enough. Enough to hold on. Enough to know he was not alone.
Gratitude followed. Not as words. Something deeper. A quiet recognition. In that drifting memory lane, the bond between them surfaced and held, mutual and instinctive. Kaodin clung to it as though it were the only solid thing left in the world.
Then something broke through.
"…Kao. Kaodin. Wake up. Get up, quickly."
"Somsri, scan his brainwaves again. Is he off the theta frequency yet? Something's coming. Hurry."
"Please wait one moment. Waveform fluctuation detected. Processing."
"Processing what? Get him up. Whatever it is, it's approaching."
A hand grabbed his left cheek. A familiar voice cut through the fog, urgent and close. His body jolted as he was shaken, and only then did he realize he had been breathing the whole time, like when he drifted in spectral state with Wawa.
"Ow."
His eyes snapped open.
Once.
Twice.
Warm pressure kneaded lightly against his thigh. He looked up and met familiar eyes, glistening.
Light flooded in.
A soft, warm yellow glow spilled through the door vent. Medical lights hummed overhead. Systems clicked and whirred as they cycled back into rhythm, the room reassembling itself piece by piece.
So I was dreaming… while… sitting like this…
Not even in a proper stance… Was it because… I didn't sit right, and that's why I saw something weird…?
Nyla stood over him, already in full combat gear, the heavy jacket slung over one shoulder, her .385 Magnum strapped to her right thigh holster, the 9 mm secured beneath her right arm. The jacket hung loose, half-worn, barely covering where her left limb was missing.
Her right hand snapped up, gripping Kaodin's face to force his focus. Her expression was taut and alert.
"Somsri, he's back."
"We don't have much time," Nyla said, her voice low but urgent. "Something's coming."
Kaodin swallowed. His head still buzzed. The lingering image of something strange he had seen earlier stayed buried at the back of his mind as the present locked back into place.
The air around him had changed.
Wawa reacted first, fully standing on Kaodin's lap, facing the entrance.
A low rumble vibrated from the small creature's chest, a sound too deep for his size. His fur lifted along his spine, bristling into a rigid ridge as his paws pressed in, body coiled and alert.
Kaodin drew a slow breath and stilled himself, instinctively settling into place without quite knowing why.
Nyla felt it then.
The space around the boy felt tighter, as if the air itself had leaned in. Her eyes narrowed while she studied him, searching for the source of the strange shift she had sensed earlier.
Suddenly, several heavy thuds slammed against the door.
"SOMEONE. NYLA. SOMSRI. KAODIN.!"
The voice tore through the space, fractured and frantic.
"SOMETHING. Something is coming. YOU NEED TO GET OUT. NOW."