“You were in the sea for fifty minutes, Jane.”
“Really, Joe?”
“Yes, really.”
Joseph and Janet Simpson are twins from America who recently moved to the South African town of Fish Hoek. They live close to a beach, and the place is peace and quiet, just the way they like it.
They have an uncanny resemblance to Quote and Curly Brace from Cave Story, to the point where every time they meet someone who played the game, they had to tell them it was a coincidence. But their skins are orange and they have brown eyes and black hair. Obviously, they don’t have antennae for ears.
Joe was playing with the laptop he built, complete with internet that seems to only work when he’s around and a battery that seems to last forever. Joe and Jane both worked on the battery together.
Jane was in the water swimming. She seemed to be at ease whenever she’s in the sea. Not only that, she could also hold her breath for a long time. As she walked over to Joe she asked, “What are you doing, Joe?”
“Playing Sims 2. I’m starting with the tutorials.”
“Wait, that couple’s names sure looks like ours, don’t they?”
“Tutorial Joe and Tutorial Jane Sim? Now that you’ve mentioned it, yes, they do seem to.”
“Can I have your lemon, please?”
“Uh, sure. Brought it especially for you.”
“Thanks!”
She loves lemons.
“I think it’s getting dark, Joe. I think we need to go home now.”
“I guess so. Maybe we can try out our new Role Playing game we got just another day.”
“Yeah, let’s do that.”
 
When they got home, they had immediately got out their game.
“So, what do you want to be, Jane?”
“Well, what’s available?”
“Let’s see, there’s the paladin, the thief, the cleric, the wizard, the -”
“I’ll try the wizard.”
“Okay, do you want to be lawful, chaotic or neutral?”
“I’ll be lawful.”
“Okay, let’s roll your stats.”
He took out different sided dice and rolled them.
“Gosh, these dice sure do look weird.”
“The game’s based upon the D20 system used in Dungeons and Dragons. D20 is named after the twenty-sided dice that it uses, among other sided dice. They said it’s to even the odds.”
“Okay. Can we get playing now, please?”
“Sure, ah, you arrived on a hill side. To the north, you can see some smoke. To the south is the village where you had already brought a staff and some robes. What do you want to do?”
“Well, is there any other location where I can go to?
“Um, there’s a port downside the city, where you can get a boat to sail to another land.”
“I’ll, uh, go north. What do I see?”
“You see a group of drows camping.”
“Aren’t they from Dungeons and Dragons?”
“The rulebook said we can use those monsters in this game. Anyway, the drows picked up their daggers and moved towards you. What do you want to do?”
“I cast Forcenstu on each of the targets.”
“What?”
“Forcenstu is an actual spell, right?”
He searched through a book that came with the game.
“The list of spells doesn’t have that in it.”
“Then make something up!”
A brief pause.
“O-o-okay, you shot multiple energy balls at the targets, killing them. You gain 90XP!”
“Great! Do I level up?”
“Uh, no, not yet. You’d still need 110 more XP to gain a level.”
“Okay, now, I search for monsters.”
“You search the forest to find two slimes...”
They played till they were called for dinner.
 
“What are we having for supper, dad?” asked Joe.
“We’re having pizza.”
“Yay!” shouted the children.
Their father loved his foster children very much. He was a moderately sized person with brown hair, green eyes and Caucasian skin, looking very different to Joe and Jane.
 
When they went to the table, they opened up the pizza lid to find out it had small fish on it.
“Why is there anchovy on the pizza, dad?” asked Joe.
“I wanted to try something different.”
“I like it!” said Jane.
“Well, you love all bitter and sour foods,” said Joe.
He took the anchovy off the pizza and started to eat it.
“Want some cool drink, anyone?” asked the father.
“Yes, please!” said the children.
“Okay, I’ve brought some grape juice.”
He poured some juice into two glasses.
“That doesn’t look like grape juice,” said Joe. “Are you sure you bought grape juice and not grapefruit juice?”
“What’s the difference?” asked the father.
“One’s bigger than the other, and they look completely different.”
“I like it,” said Jane, who had just finished drinking it.
“Just try it,” said the father.
Joe took a sip. It tasted very bitter.
“Sorry, but I can’t finish it. Let me see the bottle, please.”
“Uh, okay,” said the father.
He gave him the bottle.
“See?” said Joe. “It said Grapefruit, not grapes.”
“Well, silly me,” said the father.
“Can I have your glass, please?” asked Jane.
“Well, sure, it’s not like I’m going to drink it down myself.”
He gave her the glass.
After they finished eating, Jane asked, “Can I go to the sea again, please father?”
“Well, sure, Jane.”
“Thanks!”
She ran out the door.
“Say, father?” asked Joe.
“Yes?” said the father.
“What happened to our real parents?”
“I’ve already told you two, they were killed by drows.”
“I’m serious! It’s not like drows exist in real life!”
“You don’t know that.”
“You say that every time.”
After a brief moment of silence, Joe said,
“I’ll, uh, go to my room and surf the web.”
“See ya, my son!”
 After they went to their rooms, the father sighed.
“They don’t know what they’re capable of,” said the father. “I guess I’ll enrol them at Frogwings tomorrow. After all, that’s what I’ve promised the Purple Karjam.”
Joe, who had been listening, wondered what Frogwings is, so he went on to his laptop and searched the web, only to find nothing.
“That’s strange,” he thought. “I thought this school would at least have its own website.”
 
Later on, when Joe and Jane were getting ready for bed, Jane asked, “What’s Frogwings?”
“Huh?” he replied.
“I overheard dad mentioning it.”
“I don’t know. Googling it revealed nothing, as if it doesn’t exist.”
“Well, whatever it is, it must be a school for talented kids like us.”
“Yeah.”
“And who’s the Purple Karjam?”
“Well, I did get some info about that. According to urban legend, there’s a weird man in purple going around the world not only doing ridiculous things, but also helping out using abilities no man is known to be capable of doing.”
“Uncle Richard is both weird and wears purple. Could he be that Purple Karjam guy?”
They think for a moment.
“Nah,” they said at the same time.
“Can we watch a movie before we go to sleep?” Jane continued.
“I don’t know if dad would like that.”
The door opened.
“Of course you can! Make sure to watch the time before going to sleep.”
“Thanks dad!” said the children.
The door closed.
“So, what movie do you want to watch,” asked Joe.
“I’m thinking Shrek.”
“I love that movie!”
They went into the lounge to find the movie.
“There it is!” Exclaimed Jane”
“Great,” said Joe. “Let’s go watch it in our room.
“But we don’t have a TV in our room.
“I’ve got a program on my laptop that would allow us to watch DVD’s on it.”
They went to the room.
“Are you sure your home-made DVD ROM works?
“Relax! I read the DVD specifications online.”
“What’s that?”
“Let’s just say that those tell you how DVD’s work.”
He opened the DVD tray, put the disk in it, and then closed it.
“Well, here goes,” he said.
When the program came up, they clicked the play button to watch the movie.
“Oh, I love this part!” said Jane.
They watched until they got tired, then turned off the laptop and went to bed.
 
During the night, Joe was woken up by a thud in the room. He then heard some water splashing.
“What happened, Jane?” he asked.
“I was going to get myself a midnight snack, but I tripped and fell. Then some water seemed to come from me and wet the floor.”
“You what?”
“I know what you’re thinking, Joe. The water came from my skin, not my pants.”
“Water came from you?”
“Sounds ridiculous, I know.”
“Okay. I’ll go get the towels.”
Joe went to go get towels from a bathroom that was connected to their room.
“Here’s one.”
“Thanks.”
They then started to clean up the mess.
Suddenly, they heard a spark, and Jane was pushed back from the water.
“What happened, Jane?”
“I – I don’t know. One moment, I was trying to soak up the water. The next moment, I felt electricity coming through me.”
“Wait, there’s no electrical cords coming through the puddle!”
“Weird. Do you think it came from you?”
“M –Maybe.”
They stared at each other.
“Do you think we can spray water and shock others deliberately without tools, Joe?”
“I don’t know.”
Just then, they heard their father scream.
“D-Did you hear that, Jane?”
“I did. What’s happening to him?”
“I don’t know. Let’s go see.”
“I have a feeling that something pretty bad is going on here.”
“Me too, but we can’t just help our father from here now, can we?”
“I guess so.”
They went to the kitchen where they see their father on the floor.
“Joe, is that, blood?”
They saw a shadowy figure towering over them.
They looked around and saw one behind them with a knife.
They barely dodged the stab of the knife and ran upstairs.
“Who are they?” asked Jane.
“I don’t know,” replied Joe. “But it seems they want to murder us!”
“Why can’t we call the police?” asked Jane.
“Because they’ll arrive too late.”
They ran into their room and slammed the door shut before locking it.
“Won’t they bomb the door down?” asked a panicked Jane.
“It’ll give us time to escape through this window.”
“Isn’t it too high, Joe?”
“We can use bed sheets.”
 “Would there be enough bed sheets to make a rope? And how are we going to cut it?”
A slight pause.
“I don’t know.”
They then heard some screams.
“What happened, Joe?”
“I don’t know.”
The door then seemed to open by itself, and a shadowy figure appeared on the other side.
“Didn’t we lock the door, Joe?”
The shadowy figure chuckled.
“Lock picking is one of the most useful skills a ninja can have.”
Smoke enveloped the figure.
When it cleared, a friendly-looking Asian man stood where the shadowy figure was.
“I’m Yoshiro Sugimoto, Japanese ninja spirit.”
“You’re a ninja?” exclaimed Joe. “You don’t look like one.”
“True ninjas don’t make themselves obvious,” replied Yoshiro. “The Purple Karjam sent me here to fetch you two for Frogwings.”
“You mean the being from those urban legends?” asked Jane.
“Yes, Jane, he replied.”
“How come you know my name?” asked Jane.
“The Purple Karjam told me your names,” replied Yoshiro.
“Who is the Purple Karjam?” asked Joe.
“I’ll tell you in the bit,” replied Yoshiro “But let’s get going. Pack your stuff.”
 
Later, Yoshiro was waiting outside as Joe and Jane came out with their luggage.
“So,” said Joe. “Where’s the car?”
Yoshiro:  “We walk to the train station.”
“What?!?” exclaimed Joe and Jane.
“But this luggage is heavy!”
“Hmm,” went Yoshiro.
“Have you heard of the thing called ‘hammerspace’?”
“Sure,” said Joe. “It’s like a pocket dimension for your stuff. They don’t exist in real life, though.”
Just as he said this, Yoshiro picked up the luggage, which seemed to turn into glowing energy before disappearing completely.
“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH OUR LUGGAGE?!?” exclaimed Joe and Jane.
“Hammerspace. Don’t be shocked. After all, if a Japanese spirit is standing right beside you, you should have known that anything’s possible.”
They calmed down.
“Let’s get walking”.
 
While they were walking to the station, Yoshiro started to explain,
“Once upon a time, there existed a powerful scientist who calls himself the Purple Karjam. His power came not only via his huge intellect, but also by the fact that he had the ability to mimic almost everything he knew the workings of.
 
With the base of operations in a dimension called ‘Karjam’s Domain’, PK scours the Grande Multiverse researching as many universes as possible as long as he lives.
 
In one such universe, he came across the world called “Draconia” of the Darii galaxy, ruled by the mighty king Tyranto.
 
What interested PK of this world is the fact is that not only is magic prevalent there, but also technology. The world developed technology sooner than the people of this world, and may have been a lot more advance if it wasn’t for the fact that research into technology had stalled.”
 
As he was researching everything about the world, he came upon a scroll detailing a prophecy stating that a great evil threatens the world every 1996 years.
 
With the last one occurring in 1939 A.D., PK realised that the next arrival is approaching soon, so he researched how to end the evil permanently.
 
As he was researching, he had a revelation: only those who bare the will of Jinjin can defeat the evil permanently.
 
He then managed to identify a few of those who had the will of Jinjin:

• Me,
• Himself (which amused him),
• The fabled Dragon Rider Prince and Princess and their respective nobodies,
• Two beings with mastery over the fifth element,
• The Queen, Princess and Red Paladin of Justice Hearts and their respective nobodies,
• The cursed Irovan,
• The one of reckless Yu-Gi-Oh! duelling, and
• You two.”

“Us?” wondered Joe and Jane.
“Yes, you two,” replied Yoshiro.
“At that time, you two were still babies living with your real parents. He knew them personally, and as soon as he realised this, he figured they may be in danger, so he raced to where they were staying in order to save them.
 
But it was too late: dark elf assassins of Il'andri'iel murdered them when they arrived home from work. When he went to check to see if you were alright, he saw the corpses of the assassins I had killed protecting you.
 
After thinking it over, I suggested he take you two to someone we already absolutely trust: Your step dad on Earth.”
 
“Wait, so we’re aliens, then?” ask Joe.
“And our step dad’s telling the truth about how our parents died?” asked Jane.
 
“Inhumans, to be precise,” Yoshiro replied.
“He wasn’t too keen on lying to you about how your parents actually died, so he decided a different tactic: telling the truth in a sarcastic way.
 
Anyway, he had done a very good job hiding you.
 
In fact, it was only today where Il'andri'iel discovered where you two were hiding and decided to finish what he had started.
 
As soon as I found out, I decided to get here as quick and possible to save you.”
 
“But then why did you look like one of those dark elves?” asked Jane.
“As a Japanese spirit, I can change my form at will.”
“If the Purple Karjam cared about us like that, wouldn’t he keep trying to check up on us?” asked Joe.
“He did,” he replied. “You know him better as ‘Uncle Richard’”.
Knew it, thought Joe and Jane.
 
When they arrived at the train station, Joe asked,
“So, where’s platform nine and three quarters?”
“We’re not going to Hogwarts, Joe,” Yoshiro replied. “We’re going to Frogwings.”
“So, what platform we’re going on?”
“We’re going on platform 3.1415.”
“We’re going on platform pi.”
“Yes.”