"Katora from the planet Kiel?"
Tenma arrived back on the space train mere minutes before their departure. Once they were out of the atmosphere and steadily flying through space, he gathered them all at the meeting room. Kimiko made a point to keep a small distance from the one imposing as her best friend.
Tenma showed them all a shining golden stone as he told them about a strange girl he met after chasing Pixie to a cave. "I think she tried to reach out to me using some form of transmission or something."
"Are you sure you weren't dreaming?" Minaho asked the question they all had in their heads.
"It wasn't a dream! I could hear Katora's voice and see her clearly."
Kimiko cast a side glance at Pixie. If she's like Acrous, then... She snuck a peak at Tenma's mind and found that he really wasn't dreaming. Katora was an adorable girl who seemed no older than them. She had lilac hair in low twin-tails and similar colored eyes. She also had pointed ears, and wore a chain crown as well as quite regal yet modest clothing.
Though, in the same instance she saw Katora, she also saw Pixie on his side. That meant that they were not one and the same. Huh.
"The planet Kiel that you speak of has long been destroyed." Mizukawa suddenly spoke up.
... Wait, Mizukawa?
"Receiving contact from there is unthinkable."
"Destroyed? How do you know that?" Tenma asked.
"Because..." She turned away for a moment before looking at them all straight in the eye. "I am from that planet."
"Eh...? That planet...?"
"I am an alien."
If saying it once didn't drive it home, the second time sure did.
"Huh?!"
And now, Mizukawa was at center stage.
"An alien? What do you mean?"
"You can't simply expect us to believe you."
Well, I can always check if I could read her mind or not... When Kimiko tried, she had to keep herself from making any faces. She could, but also could not, read her mind. The part that she could read seemed to be in a passive state, while the active part of her brain, the part that she should be using to formulate words as she spoke and all her thought processes behind it, were blocked.
That was new.
Suddenly, Mizukawa came in with a doll of a clown (Wait, when did she leave?) and placed it on the table before them all. "Now, I will begi―" Before she could complete her sentence, she fell onto the table. Out cold.
Aoi went to her side first, worried, but seeing as she just went to sleep, she relaxed slightly. Though, the others behind her were confused and a bit bewildered.
"She's not pretending that she fell asleep, is she?"
"Of course not."
... Did... Did the doll just...?
"W-Was that... a voice?"
"Y-Yeah..."
The doll suddenly jumped to the floor.
"EH?!"
And everyone else fell to its eye-level.
"I-It moved!"
"Hello, everyone. How do you do?" It bowed, its voice greatly contrasting Mizukawa's while still holding a similar amused tone.
"I-It talked!"
"My name is Potomuri. I am not from Earth. As of now, I exist as only a soul." It went over to Mizukawa's sleeping form and pointed to her before continuing with, "I have joined with you to participate in this fight by sharing Mizukawa Minori's body."
"This... can't be real..." Kusaka's voice struggled to get his words out.
"W-What the heck is going on?!" Tetsukado stuttered. "Why have you joined us?!"
"Well. My planet was destroyed in the past by the appearance of a black hole, as is now. Right before my planet was sucked into the black hole and destroyed, I alone managed to escape from my home planet."
"Just you?" Tenma asked.
It― He? She? Let's just go with 'it'― nodded. "However, my escape failed and, as a result, I lost my physical body."
"U-Um, but... Doesn't losing your physical body mean you're dead?" Sakura and Konoha were hugging each other tightly. "That means you're a ghost!"
"EHHH?!"
First, Shuu. Then, that Acrous guy. And now, this clown... Potomuri, was it? Kimiko was glad that she was standing behind all the others. She didn't really have any way of hiding her lack of fear.
"Well, let's leave it at that for now." Potomuri continued on with his story. "As a spirit, I wandered the galaxy until I arrived at Earth. By then, I was hanging on by barely even a thread of consciousness. A soul gradually vanishes without a body to dwell in. Therefore, I used the last, feeble remnants of my power to save this girl's dying life, while at the same time, using her body to extend my own."
Well, that explains the double consciousness she felt.
"So that my spirit does not end up rooted to Minori's body, I have preserved my spirit by alternatively dwelling between this doll and her body." It gestured to its own body and Mizukawa's respectively. "Without any idea on my purpose in life, I simply existed each day. Then one day, I felt the presence of someone like me arriving down from space."
"And that was Ozrock." Tenma assumed.
It nodded again. "I felt as if it was destiny."
Destiny, huh... Kimiko bit her lip to stop herself from sneering.
"Earth is very similar to my own planet. I began to think that perhaps my reason for being alive was so I could save Earth. The name of my planet is Kiel. Lady Katora is the princess of my home planet."
Tenma's eyes widened. "Then, could Katora have survived too?"
"Impossible." The doll bluntly replied. "There were no signs of anyone other than myself having escaped. Immediately before I escaped, I saw Kiel disappear into the black hole with my very own eyes. The princess that you saw could only have been an illusion."
But―
"But I never even heard her name before." Tenma reasoned, trying to convince their resident alien (aside the fake that she still refused to acknowledge the existence of) of what he saw.
"Perhaphs you heard the whispers of rumors about her in a town somewhere, and that appeared before you as an apparition." It countered. "Ever since we made contact and began socializing with other planets within the galaxy, there are very few who do not know of either our planet Kiel or Princess Katora."
"Is that so...?"
She couldn't help denounce that logic as she wasn't with Tenma for most of their time around Sandorias, but she wondered if 'Princess Katora' would've appeared so vividly in his memories if that is truly what happened. Before she could interject, a small groan came from the table.
Mizukawa, the real Mizukawa, was waking up.
"Who the hell are you guys?!" And her first reaction was to grab the closest person to her, that being Tenma, by the collar and yelling in his face. "What the hell is going on?!"
"E-Eh...?"
"Oh no!" With a panicked gasp, the doll fell to the floor. At the same time, Mizukawa had seemed to immensely calm down, back to her demeanor before... all of this. "That's better."
"I have no idea..."
"... what is going on anymore..."
"Pardon me." She said, walking to the unmoving doll. "Mizukawa Minori's own personality appears when I am not in possession of her body."
"So, from what we just saw, she's really a delinquent?"
"She was apparently quite the troublemaker in school as well."
"Wait a sec!" Though he was the one that asked, it seemed that Kusaka himself found the answer. "By Mizukawa Minori, you don't mean... That glare in her eyes. I remember now! Who we just saw must have been the Mizukawa, who's otherwise known as the Minotaur of Iwashiro Junior High!"
"H-Huh?"
Minotaur, huh... If they hadn't seen what they just saw, none of them would probably believe it.
"While I am in her body, our spiritual states are fused together." Mizukawa continued without a care for such details. "This means that I am someone who is both different from myself and from Mizukawa Minori. Someone who is both male and female. Both an adult and a child."
Kimiko nodded to herself. Yeah. Sure. We just met a planet of aliens, and whatever the heck Pixies are. Of course we'll also meet an alien-spirit possessed human this year. Amidst the people who were still trying to swallow the insanity of it all, she wondered if there would be anything else in the universe that would surprise her.
~~~~~
"I wonder what the next planet is like."
Shinsuke's muttering was the first voice they heard after their warp. Right in front of them was a blue planet with rings of the same color surrounding it. It was a bit like Uranus with how far its axis was tilted.
"I bet we're not welcomed either way."
"We are the enemy."
"Whoever loses gets kicked out of their home planet..."
Not if history proceeds as it's supposed to... At this point, she really wanted to see how Tsurugi (the real one, the kidnapped one) would play his role. As fate decided, or whatever that ghost king said.
"Tenma." Shindou stood up, calling for their captain. "The only thing we're capable of doing right now is playing soccer. We must fight each match with care as we look for a solution."
"Right!"
"We will now be landing in Sazanaara."
When the train stopped at the station, they were immediately greeted by the sight of fish in the sky. Or, to be more precise, in the water that was above them. Taking a closer look, they could see that this world was structured similarly to an aquarium. The difference is that it was the fishes who lived freely in the oceans of the planet, while all the residents seemed to reside within the glass walls below it all. Truly a sight to behold.
Ishigashi came to welcome them, just like before. "Welcome to the water planet, Sazanaara. This planet has a view that is far more magnificent than the one you see here. It is said to be a must-see tourist attraction whenever one visits Sazanaara."
"I want to see it!"
"So do I!"
"Then, allow me to escort you."
It was tempting to go with them, really. However...
"Kimiko, you don't want to come along?"
She gave them a wry smile. "Sorry, I'm not feeling that well after the last warp. I think I'll stay and rest for the day."
"Oh? Then, should one of us stay with you?"
By Aoi's gesture, it was easy to tell that she wanted him to stay. So she kept her expression from changing as she declined. "No, it's fine. I think I'll just stay in my room until dinner."
"Really?" The blue haired girl turned to her... should-be childhood friend.
He shrugged. "She said she'll be fine."
Hm. The real Kyousuke would insist on staying no matter what I say... Can't believe I miss that nagging. She suppressed the thought and responded blankly with, "I'll also be taking your tablet for the day."
"Whatever."
He's not even trying!
"Well, if you're sure." Aoi gave a hesitant nod before they all followed Ishigashi into the underwater city.
Once they were out of sight, she took her real friend's tablet like she said she would before heading for her room. She stuck a sticky note to ask that she'll be left alone in case anyone returns early or if Kamata (or even less likely, Coach Kuroiwa) was looking for her. Then, she turned the lights off.
The only light left in the room came from her bracelet. Numbers scrolled through the screen embedded on it before a certain year appeared. And with the press of a button, her surroundings changed.
She had time jumped.