Dimensions Collide: Destiny Bond Side Story 5: A Place to Call [Home]

Side Story 5: A Place to Call [Ho]

Prota blinked the light out of her eyes. Having just been in an empty void, seeing this place was a little disorienting.

She found herself standing on the edge of a cliff, a beautiful, sparkling ocean far below, the sound of its waves crashing against the shore echoing up to her ears. Beneath her feet was lush green grass, swaying slightly in the light breeze. The golden light of a sunset shone on her face, casting its radiant light over everything she could see.

“Hey.”

She nearly jumped out of her skin as John put his hand on her shoulder.

“This is the [Ho] dinsion. Didn’t think I’d be showing anyone around or anything. Well, I don’t think. Anyway, co on, let’s go take a look.”

Prota turned around to see a white house sitting at a distance away. There was a porch, on which sat a rocking chair with incredibly deep and soft pillows, and on the lawn was a set of items she didn’t quite recognize.

“You’ll, um… you’ll get used to it eventually,” John muttered. “Fuck, I have a lot to teach you. Seriously, you don’t usually think of this shit, but guess who has to think of it? Oh, that’s right, it’s ! Oh, my fucking god, what a pain in the ass…”

Prota ignored his complaining and followed him into the house.

The layout of the place was cozy and simple. There were two sofas sitting to her left with plenty of pillows and cushions, and between the two was a glass table with so interesting-looking books on it. To her right was a kitchen, except it was nothing like anything she’d ever seen. Everything was made of so kind of stone or tal, and the flooring was made of so kind of polished wood.

“It’s modelled after a place I stayed at on Earth,” John explained as he ignored everything. “Looks like you vaguely understand what’s going on down here, so let’s go upstairs.”

Prota followed him up to find herself in a den-like area. There was a massive cushion that looked like it was ant to be sat upon, facing a large black rectangle.

“That’s called a TV,” John muttered. “Don’t worry about it for now.”

He led her out to a balcony, where they once again looked over the ocean below.

“...John,” Prota said quietly. “What… what is this?”

“My own personal dinsion,” John sighed. “It’s… It’s where I go to between worlds. To be honest, ever since I lost my mories, I’ve only been here, like, twice, but I rember it pretty well, from my other mories. You know, the lost ones. Seems I ca here a lot before that.”

“Who… who made this?”

“.”

Prota turned to him, eyes wide.

“Well, to be more precise, the dinsion itself is just sothing that exists. But the rules…”

He snapped his fingers, and suddenly, they were in John’s old room, the one he’d had at the bar. Prota was stunned, spinning around, trying to understand what had just happened.

“This world can be whatever I want it to be. Not like anything happens here, after all.”

He snapped his fingers again, and the world went back to what it was before.

“I like this the best, though. I think I’ve switched it up here and there, but, well, whatever. You’ll get used to it eventually, and I’m way too lazy to teach you everything.”

Saying that, John fell onto the giant cushion and closed his eyes.

“...that idiot,” Anta muttered.

There was a flash of light, and before Prota could react, Anta walked up and smacked John on the head.

“Hey! Lazyhead! Get up!”

“A—wha—whas going on—Anta?”

John frowned, slowly turning around, only to freeze. Anta was standing before him, which was expected.

And Prota was standing a few feet behind her.

He rubbed his eyes, trying to make sure he wasn’t seeing double, but no, there were two of them standing, both in physical form.

“What the—huh?”

“It’s the [Ho] dinsion,” Zero said, laughing as he appeared in his soul form. “It’s not that unreasonable for the rules to be broken here.”

“Then why haven’t you shown up?” John challenged. “You know.”

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“...I can’t. Different set of rules,” Zero said solemnly. “But anyway. Yeah, why don’t you guys have so fun? Oh, but there’s one more thing we need to show you. Two more things, actually.”

“What—oh, that?” John said, surprised.

“Might as well show them.”

With a sigh, he got up and walked back down the stairs. Prota and Anta shared a glance, neither particularly disturbed by the other’s presence, as if both of them in physical form was completely natural. Well, in a sense, they had seen each other in physical form for a little bit, so it wasn’t the first ti they were experiencing such a thing.

They followed him down the stairs, toward a strange looking door. No matter how much they looked, they couldn’t quite discern its shape or colour. It was like a mirage, vanishing when in vision, only visible just out of sight.

“Here,” John said, a little bored. “The two rooms in this place that remain consistent no matter what.”

The door opened, and the girls were t with sothing indescribable.

A mountain.

That was the only thing it could be called.

A mountain of items. Giant suits of armour, millions of weapons, billions of units of food, materials, furniture, anything.

“This is where I get all my stuff from,” John explained. “Don’t go in there. It’s frozen in ti, so if you step in, you can’t get out.”

“If John steps in…”

“The [Author] gets involved and pulls out,” John muttered. “Don’t… don’t look into that too much.”

Anta snickered.

“Hey! I just said not to look into it too much!” John sighed. “But it is accessible from anywhere, so… well, you just think of what you want, and it’ll appear.”

To prove his point, John held his hand open, and into it fell a chocolate bar. Behind him, the mountain shifted ever so slightly. It was barely noticeable, but sothing in that pile of items had changed.

“Yeah. Well, you’ve seen use it before.”

“Hey.” Zero appeared, a mischievous smile on his face. “You guys, too. Try it.”

John’s eyes widened. “Wait, them? Hold on, what’s going on—”

Prota frowned slightly, focusing very hard, and then suddenly, the sa chocolate bar fell into her hand as well. Her eyes widened in surprise, and she took a bite.

“Oh, cool. So they can access it too?” John muttered. “Yeah. I’m sure that’s fine.”

“She’s going to be travelling with you for a while,” Zero shrugged. “And you understand her nature better now. She’s a part of you. Like a fragnt, in a sense. You’ll always be in control of this, but as far as things go, she can [Reset] and stuff, so why not this?”

John just shook his head.

“Word of advice, though. Don’t be surprised if you ask for sothing and it doesn’t co out. First, you have to actually think of it. As long as it’s close enough, it’ll co out, but you can’t just imagine whatever and expect sothing to co out. Long story short, if you want to take it out, you need to have put it in. Second… what you’re allowed to use is controlled by the [Author]. There are world ending weapons in there. There’s a reason I didn’t use them against your world. Think of it as… hm. Well, think of it as keeping things interesting.”

He closed the door to the storage room and sighed.

“Alright. The last room. This door… it’s always here. It leads to both rooms, so to access it, just think about which one you want to enter. Not that you should ever enter the storage room. But this…”

He opened the door, revealing a massive circular room, spiralling upward until it couldn’t be seen anymore.

“This is the [Library].”

Prota stepped in, a sense of wonder entering her heart. Anta turned back into her soul form, floating up and exploring, staring at the place in wonder.

It was a circular room with dozens, no, hundreds of floors of bookshelves, stacking upward. The center was clear, with the bookshelves lining the sides, the entire place made of wood. Gentle flas and strange lights filled the place, dimming and brightening to Prota’s will.

“Simply put, it’s where my mories are stored.”

Prota’s eyes widened. She looked around, only to find that most of the bookshelves were empty.

“So… you get it, right?”

She nodded.

A place of utmost importance.

One might even say it was the only thing that mattered in this world.

“You should co here often. There’s lot of books that aren’t part of my mories in here, too, so you should get used to reading them.”

“But John said not to think like—”

“Not to learn how to [Read] a world. But just to see what other worlds are like. And more importantly… well, stories are fun to read. So if you ever get bored, just check it out.”

With that, he left and closed the door again.

“Hm… well, I guess there’s one more room.”

John opened the door again to reveal a large, spacious white room.

“It’s a training room. Co on.”

Inside was nothing. It was reminiscent of the room Jinae had in her own residence, the one Prota had first learned magic.

But this one felt a little different.

“Alright, I’ll say it now: I’ve never used this place. Maybe once in a while. But you know ,” John explained.

Prota nodded. It made perfect sense that John wouldn’t use a training room.

After all, soone with his level of power didn’t particularly need training.

“But you… Well, you broke your mana core, right?”

She froze. Right, in her last fight against Celeste, she had shattered her mana core in order to take in John’s infinite amount of energy.

“That’s honestly better. The worlds we visit aren’t always going to have mana. So worlds might have mana that works differently. In fact, there’s bound to be worlds that have no magic at all. If it cos to that, you’re going to have a hard ti adapting.”

He looked around, then snapped his fingers as several robotic dummies appeared.

“So. You know. I can’t exactly help with that. But if you want to keep your skills up… well, this isn’t a bad place to do it.”

With that, he left, leaving the door open. Prota stayed behind, staring at the dummies John had summoned.

He looked over his shoulder, a tired smile on his face.

“Welco [Ho].”