Chapter Text
This was not how Usagi imagined his night going.
He revved the engine on his steam cycle as he sped up, the sounds of an angry yokai gang getting louder as they gained on him.
The crate of produce bounced precariously on the back of his vehicle, despite being tied down with multiple cables. If only he hadn’t used the last of his teleportation super charge on the previous delivery!
He tapped the clear window that housed his bike’s energy crystal as if that would help the little purple meter above it fill up faster. (A crystal that he would later find out to be a part of a much more powerful stone called the Ki Stone, but that’s another story for another day)
“Come on , Come on, you weird cave crystal!”
“Get back here!”
The voices from behind sounded a lot closer than they were a few seconds ago.
Now listen, Usagi wasn’t a kid who went ‘looking for trouble’ despite what people said about him. Trouble just seemed to find him.
Like five minutes ago when he was handing off a crate of apples to the nice old man who ran the corner shop and just so happened to have his back turned to his bike.
And then the local Neko Ninja gang just so happened to try and steal his steam cycle and he just so happened to draw his swords.
And- y’know, just so happened to leave ten of them incapacitated and unconscious.
Yeah, the fifty or so other ninjas hiding in the rooftops didn’t particularly like that...
“Don’t let that kid get away!”
Usagi’s bike screeched as he pulled a hard right, trying to lose them. Being Usagi’s own design and model, his steam cycle was faster, lighter, and stronger than most other cycles on the Neo Edo market. Plus it was able to literally teleport with the help of his energy emitting crystal.
He was really proud of inventing that feature.
Well, not particularly proud right at that moment. If it could charge a little faster that would be nice . Another bar on the charge meter filled up, but it still wasn’t enough to make a portal.
He looked over his shoulder for just a moment as he accelerated out of the turn to see the ninja gang members slow down and turn the other way to avoid colliding with the sidewalk, apparently deciding Usagi wasn’t worth it anymore.
“Haha! Yeah!”
A new noise sliced through the air, making the rabbit slam his own brakes so fast, he nearly flew off his bike. The flashing blue and red headlights and the sirens wailing made him squint as he shrank back in his seat.
“Aw- No…”
The door to the police cruiser clicked open and Usagi readied himself for the talk, putting on a fake friendly smile.
“Hello, officer-“
His heart dropped into his stomach when he saw the tip of a wooden cane appear over the edge of the door. A prosthetic steel leg followed it until the short old rabbit woman fully stepped out of the car and crossed her arms, practically glowering at him.
“Miyamoto ‘Usagi’ Yuichi…”
Each name was said with a thousand silent threats as the lady stepped closer.
This was so much worse than a speeding ticket, worse than getting arrested, this was-
“…hi auntie.”
Usagi’s voice was small as his aunt walked up to him, expression growing darker with every step.
“Do you have any idea how much trouble you’re in, young man?!”
He didn’t even open his mouth to respond before she broke into a rant.
“ First I get a complaint about a delivery that never arrived because somebody was late and so I call in a favor to get a ride and take it to them myself and leave Hana home alone- “
“Well, I-“
“Next thing I know, the police radio is spouting static about a white rabbit on a modified steam cycle recklessly driving with the Neko Ninja Clan?!”
“But they-“
Usagi lost his nerve to talk back when his aunt flipped her cane around to point it up at him, holding his hands up in surrender. Even as he was sitting on his bike, she only came up to about his chest and somehow still managed to be terrifying.
“And don’t get me started on your clothes! You didn’t even bother to change out of your training clothes before going out? What will the customers think?!”
“…sorry.”
His aunt heaved a sigh right as the teleportation meter dinged, signaling that it was fully charged again.
“Ugh, perfect timing.”
Usagi muttered sarcastically under his breath, glaring at the crystal.
“Just… Just get the vegetables to the market and come home, Usagi.”
“ Hai, Auntie.” (Yes, Auntie)
He bowed his head forward in respect as he nodded.
“Oh- And I need you to fix the farmbotto in the morning. It stopped working again.”
“ Hai, Auntie.”
The farmbotto broke down at least once a month no matter what Usagi did to it. Sure, he built a space-hopping physics-breaking steam cycle out of scrap metal and a weird crystal he found in a cave, but that farm robot stubbornly remained an enigma.
“And clean your room! It’s a mess!”
Usagi’s ears burned red with embarrassment under the eyes of the handful of police yokai that had stepped out of their vehicles.
“ Hai, Auntie.”
The old woman turned and made her way back to the car, prosthetic ear and leg creaking with each step as her cane clicked against the asphalt.
“Thank you again for the ride, dear.”
Her tone shift did not go unnoticed by Usagi as she turned to the pig yokai officer who had been driving the cruiser she came out of.
“No problem, Captain Miyamoto.”
“Captain? Oh my, I’m far too old and retired to be called that anymore!”
She climbed back into the car, her voice becoming muffled with the door closed.
Before long, Usagi was all alone in the street. No ninjas, no police, and no auntie.
Taking a deep breath, he turned his steam cycle on again, relaxing into the comfortable rumble of the engine. He readjusted his grip on the handles and threw his foot back against the kickstand.
The clock on his dash ticked past another minute, right next to the purple meter which was now full and ready to be used.
Get to the market fast ?
Usagi could be fast .
He could be faster than fast .
He revved, feeling his front tire lift off the road slightly from the sudden speed as he tore down the road. He got to a good speed before lifting the bandana on his neck up over his mouth and nose, preparing for the wave of force.
Hold.
Still keeping his bike steady, he reached a finger behind the trigger on the handle as the wind roared past his ears. He crouched down and pinned his body as close as he could to his bike.
Hold…
He jumped, lifting his entire bike off the ground along with him.
And GO!!
He squeezed his hand, pulling the trigger. The familiar swirling blue vortex opened up in front of him, swallowing him up.
But-
But the loose gravel of the marketplace didn’t come up to meet him.
He was…
Wait, something wasn’t right.
He was FALLING.
“AAAAAGGGHHHHH”
And now he was screaming. Or at least trying to scream.
The air howling in his ears drowned out everything else. His raw vocal chords threatened to burst as he free-fell, blinded by blue mystic plasma.
He slammed into something rough and solid.
What… what just happened…
Catching himself on his hands and knees before he could faceplant, he made an attempt to open his eyes.
Bad move.
He cracked open an eye and immediately, his rabbit ears began to ring and his vision blurred. Caught off guard, Usagi fell down forwards onto his elbows, ringing getting louder as his body threatened to give out. This was not the marketplace.
Everything was so bright and so loud.
He squeezed his eyes shut as hard as he could which seemed to stop the ringing. His vision also focused back, but the peace didn’t last long.
He picked himself up, unsteady and disoriented for a moment before regaining his balance.
Something next to him released a noxious puff of foul smelling gasses, making him glad he had his face covered.
-HOOOOONK-
A loud sound blared right into his ear and Usagi whipped around just in time to see a large thing swerving at him, making way too much noise.
Loud.
Everything was so loud.
Two glaring lights that looked like eyes appeared in front of him and he almost screamed.
Was it a demon? A monster?!
Suddenly, the demon hit Usagi straight in the ribs. Not hard enough to fracture, but definitely hard enough to leave a nasty bruise. If he was at full attention, he would’ve sensed the attack entire seconds before it made impact. But with all the strange bright lights, unfamiliar sounds, and not to mention the smog-clouded air, Usagi was not operating at full capacity. The demon must’ve summoned more of its kind because more appeared, blocking off any routes of escape. Usagi swung blindly again and again at the ring of glowing demons surrounding him as he blinked the smoke from his eyes, just trying to escape whatever the damn hell was happening . But all his efforts only served to make the situation worse.
Fully disoriented again, he unsheathed his katana and blindly jammed its hilt towards the bright-eyed demon nearest to him. The pommel hit the light, shattering the outer shell and causing the monster to screech in pain.
Hold on. The demon’s scream sounded a lot like…
“AUGHH MY CAR!!”
…A car alarm.
Realizing his mistake, Usagi quickly sheathed his swords and ducked out of what he now recognized as a four lane street.
From the safety of a nearby alleyway, he watched as the car ‘demon’ he hit spun out of control, crashing into another car… which blocked the road and crashed into another… and another.
With each noise of crunching metal, Usagi cringed and pulled his head down between his shoulders further and further.
Oooof…
Not his finest moment.
Demon monsters? Really? And Usagi called himself a mechanic.
In the middle of the pileup, a glint of familiar looking blue metal caught his eye and a jolt- No, an electric shockwave of adrenaline shot through his veins.
“MY BIKE!!”
With inhuman strength and speed, not unlike a mother with an infant in danger, Usagi sprang into action, expertly jumping and weaving through the wreckage to haul the tattered remains of his steam cycle above his head.
Through the smoke for just a moment, Usagi could’ve sworn he saw a blur of green sitting on the rooftop of one of the buildings.
He blinked rapidly to clear his vision, but it disappeared. He didn’t have time to dwell on it though.
Darting back into his alleyway, he set his demolished bike on the ground and leaned against a graffiti covered wall.
This was not Neo Edo… Wherever this was. Not that Neo Edo was drab or dark in any way, but there was something about the atmosphere here that was so much more vivid. Like, everything was unnaturally colorful.
Plus the pollution. Gods, there was a lot of smog here.
His city had moved past the need for fossil fuels and other gross methods of energy thousands of years ago. All their vehicles operated on electricity.
Well, almost all their vehicles.
Up until Usagi got flash-banged to this place, that cave crystal powered his bike with near infinite energy. He had found it a few years ago while exploring the forest behind the farm in a cave that he was never able to locate again. He had tried a great many number of times, but it was almost like the cave had never been there to begin with. The only proof of its existence was the crystal he took as a souvenir on his first visit.
Maybe in hindsight it wasn’t the smartest idea to build his entire vehicle around a strange crystal he barely knew anything about, but the energy readings he got from it were insane and he just had to.
Long story short, that crystal not only had enough renewable energy to power his bike for who knows how long, but it output so much extra energy, he was able to build an attachment that could store it and rip a hole through time and space.
He ripped off his bandana and heaved in gulps of air as the chaos continued to rage on slightly farther away.
He dropped to his knees to assess the damage to his bike.
Maybe almost dying like a billion times in a row should’ve changed Usagi’s priorities to something like, y’know, being grateful for being alive. But hey, cut a guy some slack.
The bike was in bad shape to say the least. Real real real real bad. The back wheel was missing completely, the pipes looked like something out of a modern art museum, and there were stray tubes and wires fraying out from places they were definitely not supposed to be in.
Buuut, the frame looked… alright. Er, more or less. If he got all the right parts and tools, he could get the steam cycle to be good as new. After all, he had originally built it out of nothing but scrap metal and that cryst-
His hands paused in their inspection.
The crystal was gone . The window was cracked and shattered and there was no sign of the energy source to be seen. The meter fizzled with a pathetic sprinkle of purple sparks before going dead.
“No… No NO nonono!”
Usagi pushed aside a tangle of wires and circuitry, frantically searching for the purple crystal which simply was not there.
“No!”
All of a sudden the gravity of the situation caught up to him and he slammed his fist into the concrete out of frustration.
If he didn’t have that crystal, he couldn’t super charge his bike.
If he couldn’t super charge his bike, he couldn’t make a portal.
Without a portal, he couldn’t get home .
Usagi finally took in his surroundings. A leaky storm pipe was creating a puddle on the gray concrete not too far from his feet. The dumpster to his right was overflowing with black plastic bags. He leaned back, feeling the back of his head touch the damp brick as he looked up into the sky.
The thick haze of smog blocked out the stars that Usagi was so used to seeing from his aunt’s farm back in Neo Edo.
As he was mourning the loss of his crystal, bike, and basically his entire life, the solid brick wall next to him opened up with a vwoom sort of sound, creating an orange portal.
Usagi startled and jumped away.
“OUT! You wretched. Ungrateful. Spineless. INVERTEBRATE!!”
A huge lobster was violently shoved out of the portal and Usagi could only stand and watch with his eyes practically bugging out of his head.
Was that lobster wearing… a suit?
The lobster person (uh, lobster man? creature?… thing? ) stumbled forwards from the force before dramatically whipping his head back, rolling his eyes with an exaggerated scoff.
“Ugh, whatever. ”
“LEAVE. Don’t you ever DARE show your face here ever again! I hire you and you steal from my register? Huh? Is that how you repay kindness?!! ”
Following the lobster was a man made of nothing but bone. Literally. A dark gray skeleton was nearly assaulting the back shell of the lobster in an attempt to kick him out faster.
And he was furious.
Still processing everything, Usagi stood stiff like a board, unable to move. Every neuron in his brain waa firing ‘ghost! monster! danger!’ but he suppressed it.
As the lobster stalked off out of sight, the bone man suddenly whirled around to point at Usagi. The look of absolute rage was enough to make Usagi instantly put his hands up like he was being arrested. This guy would probably get along well with his aunt.
“You. Yokai. Need a job?”
Coming to his senses, Usagi bagan inching away backwards. He glanced over at his bike which was very much out of commission.
Usagi could still run. He was fast on his feet too-
“Did you see where that kid went?”
He stopped moving backwards to listen for a moment.
“The one that smashed my hood? No. But lemme tell ya, when I get my hands on him-“
“Was he wearing a rabbit suit?!-“
“My CAR-“
Ooookay, he was not going to go back that way.
He was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Figuratively. Literally , he was stuck between a crazy skeleton, an angry mob, and a broken steam cycle.
The skeleton nodded at him, prompting Usagi to answer.
He darted his eyes to the traffic wreckage one more time before looking back at the skeleton.
“Uhhhhh…”