Death is a word that most men fear. But for those that fear nothing, or at the least, not death, know something more about life than the others. It started in a small apartment in Tokyo. A man, named Jin, thought him-self exceptionally happy with his wife, Sola. They worked together, she owned her own independent radio station and he designed the advertisements that would be posted or hung, stuck and taped to any window or wall that their friend would find. Their friend Hasu, traveled much, still unsure of what he was striving for in life. He liked helping out his friends as much as possible because they have let him stay with them for years now and they’ve never even mentioned him having to pay rent. This was good because Hasu didn’t have any money. Sometimes he would work odd jobs when he had to, in order to pay the right bills or buy that really awesome video game that just came out. He mostly fallowed in his friends endeavors; really, they all had the same interests, anyway. When one person would discover something new that they really enjoyed, they would pass the news on to their two friends, most of the time they all agreed that whatever that person had discovered, was amazing; and they all believed in keeping your horizons open, being skilled in many ways, trying and mastering new things all the time, together, as it always turned out. Jin and Hasu valued martial arts very much. Somewhere deep down they both believed that if you had the power to protect, then you should, and should always be ready to fight those that only want to destroy. But once they had finished their exercises it was off to their computers, where they wrote stories or advanced on the development of their newest video game that they had been working on; Jin and Hasu’s main endeavor of the moment. Sola would often get cast in plays at the community theater, one of Jin and Hasu’s favorite things was to watch Sola act, but sometimes they too, when they had the time, would have to join in as well, for they loved acting as much as she did. Jin was loyal and dedicated to his two friends and now that school was over and they worked as a independent radio broadcaster and video game designers nothing could stop him from always putting his main priority on his friends and cherishing their presences everyday. Everything seemed perfect, this peace and harmony could never be unsettled. Life was amazing.

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One night, it was raining hard with clasps of thunder and lightning. The three of them just exited from a movie theater, jollied by the remarkable picture that they just saw. They walked in a row, Jin on the side of the street, Sola next to him on his right with their hands joined, and Hasu near the building walls. They rounded each of the bright city corners, they always walked when they went places, they lived near most large areas and they never saw a real reason to own a car. They continued to walk together. Hasu was going on about, how, if only he had a demon stone, he could make all the gangsters in Tokyo explode into shit. He was very descriptive in his tale on how it would work. Jin and Sola looked at each other and they both laughed. Hasu would always sometimes break suddenly into creativity.

“And then who would clean all the shit up, once they have exploded, Has?”, Jin said humorously.

There was no reply. Jin turned to his right to look at where Hasu once was walking beside them. But there was no one. “Has?” Jin said again, looking behind him now, trying to locate Hasu. The street behind them looked dark, there were no street lamps in this part of town, the pavement was cracked severely in many places, trash littered the place, and the pavement was shiny and wet, thanks to the rain that hasn’t stopped since they left the theater. They must have come up onto the wrong street on accident and it led them to this place, this part of town that Jin had never seen before.

“Hasu!” Jin yelled this time, hoping it would help find Hasu faster; there was no answer, and not a stir.

“Shit” Jin said to himself, “Sola, what do you think?”
“I don’t know… this place frightens me,” she whispered
“I know, it does me too, but we need to find him, come on, lets start walking the way we came.” He decided. They walked on backwards, looking intently in all directions. They stopped again, thinking what to do, and looking. Back, and to the left in an alleyway, they saw two flashes of light, popping noises echoed through the alley and out to were they were standing.

Sola sputters out “gunshots?!”
“Come on!” Jin says hastily and takes off into a run, “that may be Hasu in there!”

When they get to the opening of the alley way Jin leans against the outward wall Sola behind him, and peaks in. He sees a tall figure wrapped in tabard clothing, standing over another figure. The man is holding something in his hand, he starts to look through it and laughs excitedly. Jin’s eyes are starting to adjust to the darkness of the alley, he recognizes the cloths of the figure on the ground, Those are Hasu’s. And the item the junky is holding, that’s Hasu’s wallet. The junky starts to walk away; he has a strong gimp in his right leg. Jin can’t control his emotion, he starts to move forward, towards the junky, his face is full of hope that what he thinks happened isn’t true and hatred for the man walking away, about to sprint straight towards him and thrash his nature until his soul begs to leave. Sola stops him,

“Please, don’t, I beg you, one more moment, please!” she whispered pleadingly, she is tearing up

from the shadowy figure on the ground and you can hear it in her voice.
Somehow, Jin held onto himself for 2 more seconds. The junky disappears into a metal door sixty feet away. Jin and Sola rushed to the figure on the ground, hoping there is something they can do. He isn’t Hasu as they thought, but a man in his forties, black-grey hair and only cloths that were similar to Hasu’s. Jin taps his shoulder,

“Sir, are you conscious, are you alive?”

For a moment there is nothing, no response; but then there is a stir, he opened his eyes and looked back and forth from the both of them, looking at their eyes.

“You two will have to do”
“What? Old man, are you ok? I think we need to take you to a hospital. How bad are your wounds?”

Jin reaches for the old man’s shirt, noticing the blood spot, “don’t worry I was trained-“
The old man’s hand shoots forth in life and strikes Jin’s hand away from him.

“I don’t have time for your shit, now look into this crystal here,” the old man removes a broken
sphere from his coat pocket, and brings it up, level with Jin and Sola’s eyes. A dirty eyeball is embedded into the center of it.

‘There was a strange atmosphere after he brought that thing out,’ Sola thought, ‘it’s like the sphere
was pulling everything around into it, in a slight, hardly noticeable way, like it has its own gravity that is separate from our own world.

“Now look, look right into this eye here,” Sola looked away disturbed, the old man continued “look! This is your only chance!”
“For what?” questioned Jin, “what exactly are we doing this for? You do realize how awkward this is?”

The old man thought for a moment and squinted his eyes at Jin.

“Boy, you may think this is awkward, but I insure you that there are a million different experiences out there that are a hundred times more awkward than this, and some you will find after you look into this eye here. Think about the adventure, boy, think about you duty. Your friend is missing, you must get him back; I know where he is, and going through this whole can only help you-“
“You know something about Hasu?, what the hell is it, tell me! Are you saying he is in trouble?” Jin is instantly filled his rage again, “Tell me!”
Sola moves closer to the man and crouches, “Is what you’re telling us the truth, that looking into this eye will somehow help us find our friend, do you lie?”, she said all of this without looking away from the old man’s eyes, and he did the same, listening and answering.

His tone suddenly changes, “My lady, I haven’t lied in such a time that I’m sure it’s longer than you have lived; I promise what I say is true”

Sola pulls back and looks at Jin with a satisfied look on her face.

“I think we should do as he says,” Sola offered
“We don’t know anything about him, though”
“He says he knows about Hasu, don’t you think Hasu would do the same for us?” Sola asks
“Well…” He pauses, arranging his priorities, “Yes, I think your right, Hasu would definitely do the same for us, I suppose we don’t have a choice, let’s go.”

They both looked at each other and nodded.

“Alright, we’re ready” Sola proclaimed.
“Then look into this eye,” the old man instructed once more.

Both Jin and Sola looked into the eye embedded in the broken sphere. A white haze began to surround them, but they didn’t look away. It seemed to be like light. They were instantly jolted, into another realm.