Akira Joins the Team

It was later on after many missions that a new member joined the novagel team. That was Aawoot's past life. His name was Zoner Sun Wukong (same name as the Monkey god in the Chinese epic Journey to the West), but when he joined the team, he was named Akira, and he was given a very big welcome feast to the team. It was a high end Japanese feast, otherwise known as Kaiseki Kaishoku.

For their Kaiseki Kaishoku (会席会食 or high-end Japanese feast), they ate at Tsuruhime Abashiri (鶴姫網走). The food was scrumptious. They had crabs, sashimi, and many other delicacies, some purely Japanese, and some were fusions with western cuisines. Tsuruhime refers to Tsuruhime Group (鶴姫グループ), a group owning a chain of hotels owned by Masato Onishimuro (鬼獅室 将人). This was the hotel based in Abashiri (網走). There was also another one at Lake Akan (阿寒湖) and another one in Jozankei (定山渓), and another one in Shiretoko (知床), basically covering Central to East Hokkaido (道中東). They were enjoying their Kaiseki as they overlooked the Sea of Okhotsk, the sea north of Hokkaido separating Japan and Russia. It was a magnificent view of blue. In this restaurant, everything was perfect - The food, the architecture, the richness in cultural atmosphere (featuring authentic Japanese and Ainu related decorations). The hotel they were at was Tsuruhime Abashiri Soukai (鶴姫網走蒼海), and the restaurant name was Hokkai Shinju (北海真珠), or Pearl of the North Sea. Hmm, too bad it was no longer winter, otherwise it would have been possible to board the Aurora for an Ice Breaking Cruise, here at Abashiri, or enjoy watching a magnificent ice festival.

During the wonderful Kaiseki breakfast, Akira did not manage to meet the Grand Master yet. Yumeko later guided him to a large hall with stone walls and Chinese character carvings, where all he saw was a stuffed toy that resembled a brown bear (referring to Higuma (ヒグマ), the indigenous brown bear of Hokkaido).

The Grand Master Garaya was the master of the Shirakaba Clan, but not too long ago he returned to Asgardia, the land in the sky in the realm of Märchenland. According to Yumeko, he had been sending his spirit down back to Earth to guide them on a regular basis.

"Send his spirit down? Sounds scary. Is he going to speak to us in our minds or something like that?" Akira asked.

"Usually he'll possess an inanimate object, such as a stuff toy. See that brown bear stuffed toy over there (pointing to the front of the room which was actually at our end of the table)? It's called "Higumaru (ヒグマル). We prepared it for him. When it speaks and turns into a living brown bear cub, you'll know it's him. So please don't be too shocked when it happens," she explained.

Akira went in, but Yumeko didn't.

He walked over to where the stuffed animal toy was placed, approaching it with great apprehension.

Suddenly the stuffed animal toy came to life. "Hello Akira", it said.

Akira's jaw suddenly dropped in shock, but he regained his composure very quickly and greeted him. "Master!"

"Welcome back! I've waited very long for your return! How are you?" said Grand Master Garaya.

Akira responded. "Never better. I'm sick of being an underdog and a nobody for so long".

Garaya then responded. "Thanks for helping out as Cowboy Daybreak all these years. You were probably not conscious about it, but a part of yourself separated from you from time to time to help us out in our battles against the demons and the True Knights of Asia."

Akira responded, "I do have some faint recollections". He recalled the few dream like moments when he seemed to have flown out of his body to assume the identity of "Cowboy Daybreak" to rescue Yumeko and the other novagels in times of peril. In fact, it was after making love with the female novagels that he remembered his heroic moments as Cowboy Daybreak.

Garaya then explained. "Let me warn you that your transformation is not complete. The curse of the Ruby Dragon on your soul and your karma has not been terminated yet."

Akira suddenly gritted his teeth and clenched his fist as he recalled all the unpleasant events that led to him suffering so much in his present life as an ordinary human being. 1) His past life in Shanghai during the 1920s which ended in a fatal tragedy and a curse that threatened his existence and sanity after he was revived as a novagel; 2) The battle with a ferocious dragon called Ruby Dragon that destroyed the world, whereby they needed to get the power of the Loch Ness monster to revive everyone who was killed and restore everything that was damaged.

"Are you ready?" Garaya asked.

"Anytime! But when will I be cured?" Akira asked.

"I don't know, but I have something that should help you. This will be just a stop-gap measure. A temporary solution. At least you'll be as fit as a fiddle for now until we find other ways," responded Garaya. Then, Garaya snapped his fingers. Akira felt a burning sensation coming from within him, then seven shining stones suddenly appeared out of nowhere surrounding him, and they were orbiting round him as if they were planets revolving round the sun. When the gems were orbiting round him, the burning sensation in his chest suddenly disappeared.

Garaya started chanting. The seven jewels glowed furiously, started floating in the air and revolving round Akira like moons round a planet. Suddenly, after the seven jewels disappeared into thin air, he screamed as he felt strong heat inside his body. It was as if his flesh or organs were being cooked in a microwave oven.

Suddenly he felt himself floating, and he heard something hit the floor. When that floating feeling ceased. He turned around and saw someone lying on the floor. It was himself. Or rather, the person lying on the floor looked just like him.

"That person", Garaya explained, "is your brother, or rather, your marionette. You were inside him all along, since you could not sustain a proper physical form after you defeated Ruby Dragon. But now that you have awakened, he shall assume your identity in your place, in Singapore, while you fight alongside us here."

"Okay, but what about my parents, and my relatives in Thailand?" Akira asked. "Will they think he's me?"

"Your parents, your relatives, and some of your friends are actually not what you think they are. You see, I did the same for you what I did for Yumeko. I cut out a bit of her hair to create her super rich and successful parents. They weren't real. They were made believe characters. I did the same thing for your large family. They were created from your hair to play the role of your parents, but they're not. They are the same as you," Garaya explained.

"No! But that cannot be! All the love and all that caring for me! That has to be real!" Akira exclaimed.

"That was because they were caring for themselves. When you lost your physical form, your mind became unstable. All that logic, wisdom, and knowledge had to be transferred into separate containers. The marionettes that played the role of your parents used that logic, wisdom, and knowledge to bring you up like an ordinary human being."

"No…it can't be…"Akira cried out in disbelief.

"It's true." Akira heard a voice. He turned around and saw his father, mother, uncle, aunt, two cousins, and his body double (which got up) there. Suddenly, their bodies started glowing before shape shifting. His father shape shifted into a person covered in samurai armour. His mother transformed into a person donned fully in a purple body hugging suit (which revealed her to be a man instead) with a traditional Japanese "Hannya" mask.

"Akira, I want you to meet your team of Earth-based protectors whom I have set up to protect you. They are called Lucky Seven. Other than protecting you, their work was also to spy on the operations of the True Knights of Asia in South East Asia. The person who played the role of your father was Bishamon (毘沙門), and the person who played your mother was Benten (弁天)." Then he introduced the remaining elaborately dressed and masked members of the team. His two cousins were Fukuroku (福禄) and Jurou (寿老). His body double was Miroku (弥勒). His uncle was Daikoku (大黒) and his aunt was Ebisu (恵比須). In fact, even though they played the role of his relatives, they were actually guardian angels formed from Akira's hair who had taken human form. All of them were male, since they were taken from Akira's hair (male novagels can only create male marionettes).

Garaya raised his "stuffed toy figurine" hand, and the Lucky Seven gave a bow before disappearing into thin air.

"Hey, where did they go?"

"They have important work to do…" Garaya explained.

"They will probably need my help! What if…" Akira interrupted.

"They won't die unless you die. Staying alive is the best way to help them. They can manage," Garaya explained.

Garaya went on to explain everything that happened in this place called Märchenland to Akira, since Akira had been away for quite a while and didn't remember much.

The world that we lived in, which was the Planet Earth, was actually called Earthworld (人間界). The other worlds were contained in a dimension called Märchenland (魔仙界), which contained other worlds that existed in the form of planets. There was a heavenly realm where the divine beings and deities lived (they had lived for centuries without growing old and without personal desires), which was Asgardia (天空界). There was another realm called Midgardia (中地界) which was full of enchanted creatures and worlds like elves, fairies, dwarves, witches, mythical creatures from western and oriental cultures that were thought to be myths in Earthworld. However, Midgardia had a sister dimension that broke off from it, which was Darkrealm (魔界), where demons like incubi, succubi, or undead creatures like Vampires and Zombies lived, and the creatures were actually reincarnations of souls resurrected from hell. The above mentioned worlds only formed the 3D world. Beyond the 3D worlds, there were other worlds such as the spirit world, which was what most religions refer to as heaven and hell. Hell was divided into two regions, one was purgatory and the other was eternal hell. Heaven was divided into many levels, where the lowest level was where souls of people who had died would go to either for another round of reincarnation in the 3D world (excluding Darkrealm, where souls in purgatory or hell escaped to through advanced black magic), or cleansing of human world attachments in purgatory, or further ascension into the higher levels of heaven where angels and enlightened souls resided. Given that the ancients believed that all these 3D worlds and spiritual worlds were connected through a world tree called Yggdrasil, the study of the world was called Yggdrasil Studies (世界樹学).

Asgardia was also a place where souls from the higher levels of heaven were reborn with physical forms to carry out work assigned by the higher beings of heaven. Of course, there were beings in the 3D world that had cultivated their powers and made contributions to the world for centuries who eventually ascended to Asgardia. Although they were already in their "divine" or "deity-like state", they were still able to descend to Earthworld or Midgardia in their divine state. However, most would not prefer that since it would be degrading to their "holy" bodies (which was like asking a King to live in a rubbish dump or sleep on a pile of dung), so most would rather send down their spiritual essence into an inanimate object and communicate with the people in Earthworld or Midgardia through that vessel, which explained why the Grand Master sent down his spirit to communicate with his subjects through a Higumaru stuffed toy. Asgardians were powerless in Darkrealm where there was nothing but savagery and evil, and a sure way to kill an Asgardian was to send him there