Whoosh. Whoo……oosh. Each time the strange sound reached Yuuma’s ears, he felt his legs become immersed in lukewarm water. He seemed to be lying on top of damp sand. The wind caressing his cheeks carried a familiar scent. It was… The tide. Yuuma opened his eyes. Was it…dusk? The sky was red. No, Yuuma realized immediately, something was different. The sky that stretched out above him, filling his entire field of vision, was drenched in an unnaturally vivid shade of crimson red. There was no gradation in the color. A sunset could never look like that. Yuuma sat up slowly and glanced around. White sand dunes stretched out to his left and his right, as far as the eye could see. Before him stretched an endless plane of water—the ocean. Waves lapped at the shore, continuously washing over Yuuma’s bare feet. Glancing down at his own body, Yuuma realized he was entirely naked. Yet for some reason, he didn’t seem to care. He lifted his head once more. Shooting stars—meteorites—raced across the crimson sky, emitting a sound like distant thunder as they fell in an arc before disappearing beyond the horizon. Squinting, Yuuma could see great plumes of smoke rising into the sky from that direction. “The stars…are falling…,” he whispered. “They are,” someone said from beside him. Glancing over, Yuuma saw another boy where earlier there had been no one. He had the same build as Yuuma and the same haircut. And just like Yuuma, he wasn’t wearing any clothing. That was all Yuuma could see. The boy’s slim, naked body was semitransparent, and his outline shimmered like summer haze. Yuuma couldn’t make out the boy’s face clearly. The boy didn’t remind Yuuma of anyone that he knew, and he certainly didn’t recognize his voice. Yet for some reason, Yuuma wasn’t too worried about who he might be. He turned his attention back to the horizon. “There’s so many of them… Is it all right that so many stars are falling…?” “Does it look all right?” the boy said, his mouth twisting up into a sardonic grin. “That meteor storm is what was responsible for what your people call the P-T Boundary…the massive extinction event that occurred at the end of the Permian Period. Soon the earth’s very crust will split, and the mantle will explode into massive volcanic eruptions that will reach all the way up to space. Once that happens, ninety-five percent of the life on this planet will cease to exist.” “That’s terrible… We have to do something…!” Yuuma started to stand, but the boy just laughed delightedly. “Ha-ha-ha… Sorry to break it to you, but there’s nothing you can do about it. At this point, it would take an angel or a demon to put a stop to that. And besides…everything you’re seeing now happened two hundred and fifty million years ago. In fact, if it weren’t for this massive extinction event, your people—modern-day humans—would have never even been born…Yuuma.” At the sound of his name, Yuuma sat back down in the wet sand and turned to stare at the boy’s face again. “Who…are you…?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Does it matter? And more importantly, is that really what you should be worried about at this moment?” said the boy, another sarcastic smile appearing on his imperceptible face. “You’re dying.” “…” Yuuma finally remembered. His lower body was being chewed in half by the Conehead Bruiser—no, was about to be chewed in half. He reached down with his right hand and stroked his naked belly, but there was no wound and no pain. “Am I…dead? Is this the afterlife…?” The boy shrugged. “I just told you: You’re dying. There’s still a thread of life holding you up… It’s about to be severed, but it’s still intact.” “But…there’s no way I’ll get out of a situation like that…” “When you go back, fix the angle of the steel bar. And then use your Monster Tamer powers. Do both at the same time.” Yuuma stared hard into the boy’s face. It shimmered like an illusion. Yuuma couldn’t read the boy’s expression, but he knew that he wasn’t smiling anymore. “How do you know all this…?” “Does it matter? Do you want to survive, or don’t you?” “Of course I want to survive… But how can I do two things at once…? And what do you mean by Monster Tamer powers? Are you saying—?” “Is this the time for hesitation? That huge creature is going to kill your friend and your sister after it’s done with you.” “…” The boy was right. Yuuma knew Sawa and Kenk probably wouldn’t run away once Yuuma was dead—they wouldn’t be able to. They wouldn’t be thinking straight. Instead they would attack the creature in a rage, and it would retaliate with deadly force. “Okay… No more thinking.” Yuuma nodded. The boy stretched out his left hand and patted Yuuma lightly on the back. “Don’t hesitate, Yuuma. I staked everything on you. Now get ready to wake up in three…two…one…zero.”