“Why me? I have no fight to pick.” Zavier responded. His goal remained to remove himself from Yafu’s affairs.
“This world is a desert. There are only muted puddles of spirit energy here. The aura of others is so uninspiring that you are a tree amongst grass. Shen has the same sense. When they get here they will find you and they will remove anyone who might disrupt their search. The only people who I can sense with that disruptive potential are in this room.”
“Are they going to like, conquer us?” Zavier immediately felt stupid after he asked. It was not a stupid question, but Yafu did not look at him like a genius after he asked. It was unfair to Zavier though, he was completely lost. He needed to watch more sci-fi at this point.
Yafu sighed and moved his gaze to the window again. Zavier could sense a deep bout of introspective existentialism come over Yafu. His face showed it all. He was clearly at a loss. Bringing himself together, Yafu began to speak and for the first time did not move his eyes to match Zavier’s when he spoke. “Where I’m from… it’s called the Biterrene. Its two worlds that are linked by the spiritual energy of the people who inhabit them. There is a myth of a third world. A world called Earth. This myth is central to our beliefs and our culture because this third world is the resting place of our all-powerful founder-king. He is supposed to be immortal as well, so finding this third world is akin to finding God. The Fang are zealots. If they believe this is the same earth as the myths, they will rip your world apart with religious devotion to find our king.”
“Do you believe this King is here?” Zavier asked.
Yafu turned his head to give Zavier the most forlorn look he had ever received. “The only part I can believe about the myths is that our supposed savior abandoned his people. Either way, no man is immortal. The only thing that could be here is a corpse and I don’t need to worry about any more of those.”
Yafu's face contorted into a very painful look. This was not the mood Zavier wanted this man in. He could still kill him in more ways than Zavier could imagine. He racked his mind for an appropriate change of topic, but he was drawing blanks. What can you really talk to an alien about?
Suddenly this concern faded to the background with the emergence of a new one. Zavier could hear his garage door open. One of his parents was back from work. Yafu had heard the garage as well and had brought himself into a defensive stance bringing a slight yellow hue to his hands.
“Hey, hey,” Zavier said frantically, “It’s one of my parents, they’re just coming home.”
“The rumbling noise.” Yafu replied, stopping but not reversing the buildup of yellow glow.
“Their car. We use it to get around places faster.” Zavier prayed they had cars where Yafu was from.
“The metal things everyone is in?” Zavier’s prayer was not answered but this rudimentary level of understanding was the next best thing.
“Yes, yes. They’re just for transportation, no threat.” Zavier had his hands up as he spoke. It was by instinct, there was nothing he could do to stop this man other than talk him down.
Yafu stayed in his stance for another second and then relaxed himself and laughed. Zavier exhaled in relief and the glow dissipated from Yafu. Yafu turned to Zavier with a big smile on his face. It was this boyish look that made Zavier realize this guy could not be much older than him. The dirt and poor grooming made him look a lot more aged but this deception was removed when he smiled. He was still a kid or at most a very young man.
Yafu could still barely suppress his laughter as he spoke. “You know how much those things scared me initially. I hid from them for at least a day and a night when I first got here. It was only after I saw one turned off, when I got close enough to operate it myself that I could function here. It was quite the puzzle.”
“You know you just admitted to grand theft auto right?” Zavier responded, sharing the laugh with Yafu.
Yafu could not hide his happiness to see Zavier lightening up, “I assume it is illegal to just take them, but I’ve got to imagine that is one of the least interesting activities I have engaged in since I’ve been here. Plus I don't think anyone here takes nightrock bits for payment.”
“You’d get more jail time for breaking an entry and threatening murder.” Zavier was only barely joking even though his delivery was still deceptively comedic. It was time to put the passive aggression on hold as Zavier could hear the parent who was home walking up the stairs. These walls would only keep their conversation private to those on the first floor. He had to hide Yafu. He had to prioritize keeping his parents away from this madness. That meant never letting them meet Yafu.
You are reading story The Dream Carrier: An American Isekai at novel35.com
“Go into the bathroom for a minute, I’ll tell you when to come out.” Zavier said as he motioned to his bathroom door.
“What?” Yafu replied in a dazed confusion. He then picked up on another person approaching and gave a slight nod before quietly filing into the bathroom. The bathroom was Zavier’s own with no connection to any other room in the house but his own. He used it as a place to hide things when he was younger from his parents, now he was hiding a whole person. There was a knock at his door. Zavier opened.
“Did you miss school today? I saw your car this morning.” The speaker was his dad, a plain short man with only the remnants of a hairline left. He was dressed in a cheap suit that was standard and fitting, but ultimately uninspiring. He had a clean shave and the beginnings of a dropping wrinkling face with a perpetual look of baggy tired eyes. Honestly he and Zavier’s mom could have posed for the painting American Gothic and the world would have been none the wiser.
“Yeah, I felt really sick. But I’m better now.” Zavier replied in a casual manner that had only started really being accepted in the last eighteen months or so with his parents.
“Alright, try to finish your high school career strong. I got crawfish for tonight.” Crawfish was a regular at their house. It was his Dad’s favorite.
“I might eat with you, I might have to get some errands for school tomorrow.” Zavier replied. He had a feeling he needed to have some wiggle room with his whereabouts for the evening. Zavier’s father nodded and turned to head back downstairs. Zavier shut the door and flipped on the TV to add some ambient noise in his room. He opened the bathroom door and motioned to Yafu to come out.
“You need to speak quietly. If my parents become involved I won’t help you.”
Yafu nodded to show he understood and then transitioned back to his goals. “We need to find out where Shen is before he can bring reinforcements. You were my only real lead when I got here. He’s very likely still in this immediate area but it's a lot harder by his own design to track him the way I tracked you.” Yafu glanced at Zavier after he finished hoping the “earth expert” of the two would have a plan.
Zavier knew Yafu was expecting him to say something useful but he was at a loss. He sighed in exasperation and motioned toward the TV where the local evening news was running. They were reporting as the Spider had predicted. The two men in a coma and the burn patient were like catnip for these programs. “You don’t think he’s leaving a trail like you are?”
“What do you mean?” Yafu was not amused.
“Well, you got lucky about last night. Neither the man you attacked or me are going to say anything but the stolen car and the three people you put in the hospital are officially noticed. By the way, where is the car you stole, it isn’t nearby is it?” Zavier did not know what they were going to do about the car at this point if Yafu had just left it around the block but it definitely meant they at least had to watch themselves in this neighborhood.
“I put it back where I found it. Way back where we first met. I needed to be on foot to follow you effectively after that anyways.”
“Ok, I guess they can’t really ID an alien so your fingerprints aren’t an issue. But there’s going to be a very spirited investigation about the three people in the hospital. That type of shit does not go under radar here. What were you doing, just swinging your glowfists at people?!?”
“My what?” Yafu replied in a confused tone before brushing the obvious shot aside, “I told you I didn’t do anything when I first got here but hide from the cars. The first thing I did afterwards was get one and track you.”
“So that’s not you.” Zavier asked as he motioned to the newscaster with the license pictures of the two people in comas on the screen.
“No.” Yafu said flatly.