Shomei Tanaka woke up one morning from strange dreams. He gasped as he recalled the mysterious scenes of sacking hordes and screaming horsemen.
"Had that really happened?" he asked as he wiped drool from his mouth. "Had I really dreamed about living on the Steppe as a son of Genghis Khan?"
The sensation of wind through his hair, and the feeling of a powerful horse between his legs, made his heart thump.
He shook his head, as the ghostly sensation of long braids brushed against his skin. But when he went to grab at his hair, Shomei only found the crew cut that is regular for all salarymen in Japan.
By day, he was an insurance adjuster at a local firm in Shinjuku. By night, he dreamt of wild places and wilder escapades. But now was not the time to dwell on his dreams.
Shomei looked over at the clock and it was already 8:06 AM!
"Oh my god!" he exclaimed. "I might be late for the train to work!"
Hurriedly, Shomei pulled himself out of bed and donned his work clothes: white collared shirt, black pants, and Hush Puppies. After dressing, he rushed to the door and opened it, feeling the winter wind hit his face.
Shomei jumped outward into the cool air and slammed the door shut. Then he bolted down the street. It only took a block before the machinations of subconscious thought whirled into terror. When he realized something startling, he stopped abruptly. He was poised like a ballerina, along the sidewalk, on the balls of his feet. A scream left his mouth: "Briefcase!"
Where was the briefcase? He wheeled around and took the rattling keys from his pocket. Opening the door, Shomei saw someone in the hallway. It was none other than his mother, scowling and red-faced.
"Forgot your work stuff again, Shomei?"
"Okaasan!" Shomei replied, blushing red. "I didn't mean t–"
"Shut up, baka!"
At this, Shomei's mother threw the briefcase at his face. Shomei tumbled over as a big sweat broke over his forehead. "T-thanks, okaasan…"
#
Shomei arrived at the train station and saw his train, bound for Shinjuku, was about to leave the station. He called out: "Ssssstttttooooooppppp!"
His feet were heavy and cumbersome beneath him, as he powered through a crowd of people.
"Hey, watch where you're going!"
"Jesus! I'm walking here!"
"Look out! There's a salaryman late for a train!"
The voices swelled around him. People bumped into him. Others jumped out of the way. Shomei could not tell, but he swore he bowled over an old lady and a woman with a pram!
A voice over the intercom boomed, "The eight-thirty train to Shinjuku is leaving the station in one minute!"
"Waaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttttttt!"
A whistle blew. And someone yelled.
"Stop running in the train station! You'll hurt someone!"
Shomei turned his head and saw a security guard, the size of two men, blowing a whistle. He was going as red as a tomato.
Tzzzzz. Shhhhzzzzzz.
The train was leaving! Once Shomei turned back to look at the carriage slide along the rail, he gasped. Through a gap in the crowd of people in the train station, some smoky entity materialized from the thin air. A black shadow, or shape, came into existence. White teeth shone through a big smile. Black lips curled. Golden eyes shimmered in that face of blood-red. There, in the station, someone or something emerged.
Shomei stopped in his tracks. Whatever this being was, it possessed little horns and smoke billowed out of its nostrils. There was an otherworldly aura about it. Was it from hell?
"A… demon," Shomei muttered.
"Oni," the thing corrected him.
"W-what?"
This oni stepped forward as the crowd seemed to dissipate from reality, as the train station died away, as Tokyo itself dissipated.
"I am here to make you my slave in Dreamland!" the Oni laughed. "HA-HA-HA-HA!"
It pounced forward. Red hands with black talons grabbed Shomei. And the insurance adjuster, unfortunate as he was, screamed out: "But I only work forSHINSURANCE! I'm a nobody!"
The oni pulled Shomei towards him, as the smell of decay filled his senses.
"Oh God! You stink!" he yelped.
With that, Shomei reeled back and fell. The world, if this was the world anymore, spun around him. Shomei swore he saw a bright flash, then a strange set of visuals: a scene of coiling smoke, a wall of will-o-wisps, a fountain of souls. He was as weightless as a feather, falling for an eternity, until… THUD!!!!
"Owwwww…"
Shomei, flat on his back, felt soreness surge through his spine. When he opened his eyes, he was blinded by a bright beam. For a moment, he thought he was visited by Go, or an angel of heaven, when the lights came into focus and… he realized he was on the rail tracks! A train was barreling towards him!
SCREEEEEECCCCCHHHHH!
"A man's on the tracks!"
"He's going to die!"
"Don't look!"
"Oh my god!"
Shomei stared at the light coming towards him and smiled.
"No work today…" he whispered.
… THE END
…
…
…
… WELL, NOT QUITE …
… THIS IS ONLY ANOTHER BEGINNING …
… BECAUSE DEATH IS NOT THE FINAL DESTINATION … IT'S JUST ONE STOP ON THE RIDE …
#
Shomei Tanaka woke from strange dreams. He had no idea where he was when he opened his eyes. Looking around, he only saw grasslands and wild fields as far as the eyes could see.
"Where… am I?" he asked, faintly.
Shomei gulped.
"Who said that?"
The voice was high-pitched… too high-pitched. It wasn't his voice! It was soft and delicate, too… like a little girl's voice!
Shomei got up, looked at his arms and legs. They were so short and stubby, covered in soft white skin!
"What the hell is going on?"
Shomei realized he had shrunk. And he felt… different… in the sense he was transported into a new body entirely. He ran his hands over his face, which was not his face, because it was round and small, a child's face!
The confused salaryman walked forward, awkwardly. It was hard to navigate this new body. He stepped into a puddle, looked down, and found he was not himself anymore.
"No…"
He looked into the reflection that shimmered on the puddle's surface. What looked back was not the unassuming, bland face of Shomei Tanaka––the insurance adjuster. It was the cute, youthful face of a little girl! She looked… Asiatic but not Japanese. Her skin was perfect, unblemished, ethereal. This person, whoever she was, nonetheless possessed a powerful demeanor: rugged, individualistic, brutal.
"W-what the hell?" the image of the little girl spoke in disbelief. "Am I dreaming?"
Just when Shomei was about to scream out for help, something rustled in the background. He turned and saw some shadow loping towards him.
"What's that?"
Shomei squinted. The shade was shaped like a small animal. In fact, it was a rabbit. But it was wrapped in a lettuce, or something. It was bounding and leaping. It was following Shomei. It bounded and pounced forth. Once it got within proximity, close enough to see the snarling mouth, the fangs, the red-shot eyes, Shomei realized this was not an ordinary rabbit to cuddle!
"Hssssss!" an angry sound emanated from the creature.
"P-Please!" Shomei muttered, effeminately.
The bunny, covered in a big leaf, bounded. And then came crashing into Shomei's new body.
"Ahhhhhhh!"
SPECIAL MOVE: SURPRISE BUNNY ATTACK! 6 DAMAGE!
SHOMEI (HIT POINTS): 34/40
The bunny, thirsty for blood, sunk its fangs into Shomei. Blood spattered all over the bunny's head as it drank the blood with fervent, devouring hunger. Shomei, coming to his senses, swung his small knee into the rabbit.
ATTACK: BRAWL! 5 DAMAGE!
RABBITO (HIT POINTS): 25/30
It gave out a pained sound and tumbled off Shomei. Without thinking, Shomei leapt up and sprinted away. He heard a growl behind him, as he ran across the grasslands.
"Heeeellllllppppppppp!"
#
Shomei had been running for god-knows-how-long when he heard the beast behind him gain speed. When he looked back, the monstrous thing was nipping at his girlish heels.
That's when Shomei heard the sound of hoofbeat.
Clip-clop-clip-clop.
"Tamerlane!" a man bellowed. "Here!"
Shomei, for a moment, saw the silhouette of a man fling something at him from atop a stallion.
"T-Tamerlane?"
Something struck Shomei's head. It was hard. Wooden. And it clattered on the ground. Shomei stopped and looked back. He saw that a bow and arrow had been thrown at him.
"Tamerlane!" the stranger cried. "Strike the beast and show us what you're made of!"
Shomei looked back at the bow, which the demonic rabbit was sniffing with ardor.
"Get away from my bow!" Shomei summoned the courage to say, then pounced at the weapon.
RABBITO ATTACKS!
With lightning agility, which Shomei did not know he possessed, he grabbed the bow from underneath the beast and dodged its bite.
MISS! MISS! MISS!
A new power overcome Shomei as he felt the fighting reflexes somehow return to him.
"My turn…"
He strung back the arrow and loosed it.
SPECIAL MOVE: PARADISE ARROW!
Thwack!
The rabbit screeched in agony.
CRITICAL HIT: 25 DAMAGE!
RABBITO HIT POINTS: 0/30
50 XP GAINED! 50/1000 XP (LEVEL ONE)!
"Ha! Such accuracy!" the stranger laughed. "Ha! Ha! What a marksman you are, Tamerlane!"
That name again. Who the hell was Tamerlane?
"You will be a conqueror when you grow up and move west," the rider said and got off his horse. "Once you ride away from the Steppe, which has already taught you how to skewer a rabbito!"
The Steppe? Conqueror? Rabbito?
Shomei was obviously bemused because the man came close and scratched his head.
"What's wrong Tamerlane? Did you hit your head?" he asked.
"I just don't remember anything. Except I was in a train station a-and I got hit."
"A what?" the man asked, mouth agape.
"A train station, it's a…" Shomei looked at the man and saw his barbaric attire. "I mean, never mind."
"Is that some kind of horse?"
"I… guess it is."
"Well, it must have gotten spooked by the rabbito and fled. That's fine. You can just use my horse to get back to the horde."
"The horde?"
Shomei could not hide his confusion.
"The horde you command!"
"I command a horde?"
"Tamerlane!" the man exclaimed. "Do you even remember who I am?"
Shomei looked him up and down again. The man was a tower of muscle and brawn in leather and fur armor. How could a tiny person command a horde of men like him?
"I don't recall your face right at this moment…"
"It's me, Jochi!" he cried.
"Jochi? R-right."
"And you're set to duel my brother, Ogedai, to the death this evening!"
"To the death…"
A big sweat broke over Shomei's forehead.
"And you're going to be crowned the Khan of our horde once and for all and vanquish the forces of the western empires for the good of our people!"
"Um…"
"And we will build pyramids of skulls that will block out the sun! Ha! Ha! Ha!"
"Uh…"
"And we will steal all the horses and sheep in the world and burn every city we come across, because you are the strongest warrior in the entire horde!"
For a moment, Shomei thought he would faint. But he came to his senses.
"Are you alright, Tamerlane?" Jochi asked. "You are going to duel my brother and rule as no man has before, right?"
"T-that's right! Because I am Tamerlane, the ruler of the world and the Horde's most fearsome warrior!" Shomei blurted and almost forgot his days as a salaryman. "I will kill death itself and then… I'll burn Constantinople to mere ashes and embers! Or my name isn't Tamerlane, the slayer of empires!"
Jochi's eyes were sparkling with wonder.
"Constantinople!" Jochi screamed out in glee. "The richest city in the world! The heart of the Eastern Roman Empire!"
That was when Shomei finally threw his old life, his times in Shinjuku poring over paperwork, to the dustbins of history. And so, Tamerlane, the tiny conqueror of the world, was born!
TO BE CONTINUED…