12 Souls

[Still really stuck somewhere out there]

"Lucky for you, Jiuwei had to run off somewhere," Yata shivered at the thought of the earlier meeting.

"He seems nice enough."

"Dude, you wouldn't know danger even if it hits you screaming in the face," Yata mumbled, shaking his head in dismay.

Jiuwei could have swallowed this human soul whole, if not for the mark.

"I don't. How does this whole parallel dimension work?" Alex looked around the shrine with more curiosity than the fear he first felt upon arrival.

"We call it the hidden dimension, and it is our retreat when we need respite from the human world."

"Respite? You speak as though all of you do a lot more than playing with humans. Like hard labour," Alex exclaimed as he glanced around the dilapidated shrine and the forest with the insect noises.

In his many attempts to escape, he assumed the shrine exists in the human world with the skewed physics, other than gravity. Leaves still fell on the ground.

"Does this place in the hidden dimension exist in the human world?" He pointed to the ground, hoping that his question didn't sound stupid.

"Yes, and there is a no. A dimensional veil separates our worlds, like a parallel division. Look at the shrine and forests," Yata pointed to the dilapidated shrine as Alex nodded. "Yes. Those exist both in your human world and in our dimension."

"Now here is the kicker - the big 'no'," he continued, "you heard the voices of ordinary boys coming and going - they are in the human world, but you can walk through their bodies because you are in the hidden world, another dimension. They won't even know they are sharing the same space with you."

"But why do I see the birds, the mamushi and insects? And not humans."

Yata rubbed his chin as his eyes gaze upwards, thinking of the question itself.

"So, those are super… I mean… dimensional beings like you?" Alex peered at him.

"No, not that. Those creatures are part of the background, like a set," Yata said. "The veil is a blinding mechanism. My kind from the hidden dimension. We can see both worlds at a time and there's more than just those creatures you mention."

"There's more?" Alex crinkled his nose.

"Yeah, Humans have a partial blindness to our world but they can see the background. You are like the Mishakuji said, on a cusp - neither here nor there, so the veil sets the parameters of your sight and limits your movement to maybe just human only."

"Those snake gods? Just out of curiosity, how long have they existed? And where are they now?"

"The home city. Or in the human world. Buggered if I know. Do I look like their secretary to you?" Yata replied with a shrug.

"So every being in this dimension is the supernatural in our sense…"

"Yeah. Why do you think there are so many myths? But in your time, few believe in us being gods or demons anymore. Only the older generation," Yata said, then he paused.

With a huff, Alex thought of his mother and her need to worship at the Chinese temples in times of trouble. She needed to believe that the divine could assist even with the lottery. Then his generation, where most of the fervent believers around him thumped a holy book while the atheists didn't care.

"What happens when we don't believe in your kind anymore?" Alex asked.

"Brand new beliefs take over. Like aliens," a bemused grin grew on Yata's face, making Alex uncomfortable. "Area 51, where some claims of probing in the wrong orifice took place. What's the deal with anal probes - are humans always so obsessed with holes?"

"So Zeus, Odin, and all those ancient gods were part of your kind?" Alex changed the topic to the gods to avoid the awkward moment of discussing human proclivities. After all, he wondered about the extinct religions.

"Are," Yata corrected him and continued, "They are still around in the hidden world playing with other parallel worlds like yours. We just don't really have much contact with them because even our kind have territories of our own."

"There're more worlds like mine?" Alex's eyes grew bigger.

"Of course, this hidden dimension is the connection between worlds like yours. Screw space travel. That huge vacuum of a void would create difficulty for biological species to venture beyond their given space."

"You guys sound indeed like aliens."

"Says the alien in our dimension now," Yata folded his arms. "Until you make it through the final evolution, you are not our kind, not in my eyes."

"What's the final evolution?"

"You know your current existent state?" Yata's eyes looked at him from top to bottom with a hint of contempt. "If the seven components of your soul don't dissipate into pieces upon the death of your biological body, you are one of us, those who made the final evolution."

His words reminded Alex of the soul's seven components, from the make up of a soul as explained in those Hong Kong movies about ghosts and Taoist priests. Whether it was the same as the Taoist Chinese folk belief was another story. Yata looked too Japanese to even share the belief.

"What?" Yata asked, noticing his puzzled look.

"Japanese belief has the four components," Alex replied, "and I am wondering…"

"Ahhh… four mitama, the four souls, and one reikon, the spirit," Yata then chuckled. "They didn't mention how many components that spirit contains, right? But that's moot. It's a belief system which has some truths and some interesting deviations which are neither truth nor lies."

"Too much for me to understand. And what happens if you know… I dissipate?" Alex grimaced at the thought.

"If not, you will be a ghost or recycled, as in reincarnation. We waste nothing in the universe, not even energy itself."

Alex blurted out, "what happens when if I become a ghost?"

"You choose the hidden dimension or the human world," Yata replied and then he leaned near Alex, causing him to step away.

Yata snorted at his reaction in amusement. "Piece of advice - our ghost cities are much nicer than languishing in the human world. The old Asian primeval beings thought of a containment field to stem the flood of the partials, or ghosts, into Earth. And every seventh lunar month of the year, ghosts get to visit the human world and have fun. If you become a ghost, choose our territory to live. The rest is not much fun."

Alex slapped his forehead. He almost forgot the annual Chinese Hungry Ghosts Festival and the Japanese Obon, where ancestral reverence and ghost stories took centre stage. Did these religious festivals originate from the hidden dimension?

"You must be also wondering why we have forms since you know you are not in your body," Yata added.

Alex nodded, even though he was dreading the answer. If the answer was logical enough, it might shatter the small glimmer of hope in his heart that he was hallucinating in the real world, having an outrageous conversation with a fellow lunatic.

Perhaps in reality, they are sitting in Starbucks and the shrine was a real counter top where the barristers were busy in his hallucination.

"Je pense, donc je suis," Yata spoke in French.

Alex tilted his head in confusion. First, the spider was speaking to him in English and now he spoke French? Isn't he supposed to be Japanese? A loud sigh from Yata got him to look up.

"Descartes's first principle - I think, therefore I am, and right now, the reason your soul holds this human form is that your mind is used to your biological body. The first biggest hurdle to shape-shifting."

Great. The gift that just keeps on giving - advice from a spider who read Rene Descartes' book, titled 'Discourse on the Method', Alex thought.

Next, he might even get an earful of Plato's knowledge of knowledge, or a dose of Kierkegaard's notes on existentialism from Yata.

Not that Alex really needed to hear after suffering the boring but compulsory philosophy classes in his undergraduate days. Nothing like snoring in the class during a lecture.

The only comfort then was the eye candy - the girls outnumbered the guys in those classes. Ahhh, the good old days. He reminisced about the time when he was checking out the girls in the class.

"If you want to know more, ask." Yata stretched his arms and yawned, revealing those intimidating canines of his. "Not like I have anything to do."

"Who placed me here?"

Yata gestured at Alex's right palm. "Your marker. And if I were you, never offend her."

Yata repeated the very warning Jiuwei gave him before his abrupt departure. Who was she? Was she hot? Then again, hot girls were trouble from his pub buddies once said.

Alex sighed at his hopelessness with women. What he wanted, brains and beauty, did not bother to give him a chance. He should have lowered his standards to those bubble brain girls in his classes who hankered after dates with him.

Then again, back then, he didn't want to waste time on them in favour of his studies. Not like he had much time left.

Oh, the regrets of what his life should have been. Some experience in bed was better than none. Maybe he could have even experimented.

"Which god was she known as?" he asked with a mixed of anticipation and hesitation.

The expression on Yata's face turned somber as his eyes shifted from side to side, as though he was thinking of an explanation. Alex went to his side and nudged him with his elbow, only to meet with a quick swat.