Hi, guys! :) Sorry it took so long, but here's the special project I mentioned in the notes of chapter four of Braving the Storm. Basically, this is a crossover between the first game and the first season of the anime. Though it's in third-person narrative, most of the story is seen from the game Jiro's "perspective". I can't really say much more than that about it, though; it would spoil too much. ;) Actually, I'll give away a little - the beginning is kind of an alternate storyline to my oneshot, The Dimensional Break. As such, beware of spoilers! The same spoilers for The Dimensional Break apply here. I don't think there's anything else I need to mention… So, after the disclaimer, read on!

Disclaimer: I do not own Blue Dragon, games or anime seasons. *insert interesting and/or funny part here*

"Come on, you two, break it up!"

"Kluke! Kluke, hang on!" Jiro stumbled, trying to catch up with his longtime friend and crush, his arms filled with twenty-six of the fifty antidotes he had unintentionally purchased. Kluke was carrying the others, but had managed to fare better with holding onto them (and had also managed to move faster). Jiro just felt lucky that the bottles were in his arms instead of the floor, because by this time (he'd held the antidotes for less than a minute), he'd honestly thought he wouldn't have been doing this well.

"Give it back!" Shu, Jiro's best friend (and often a younger-brother-figure as well, though that was more commonplace when they were younger), tugged upward on an item they couldn't see.

On the other end of the unknown item was Marumaro, a young Devee boy from Lago Village; he hadn't been friends with the three of them nearly as long as the trio had been with each other, but he had been a close friend all the same, and a powerful ally. "No!!"

"What are you two fighting over anyway?" Kluke breathed out as she came to a stop near them, wearily exasperated.

"Maro hurt himself, and Shu won't let Maro have a cookie!" His tone made it clear that he was painting himself as the victim (when he wasn't entirely innocent), and trying to gain Kluke's sympathy.

"Of course I'm not going to!" Shu snapped at him, pulling harder. "There's only one left, and it was a gift!"

Kluke let out a tired sigh, and began trying to get them to cool off. Jiro had stopped listening at that point, because it was getting especially difficult to carry the antidotes - he swayed almost constantly, and had almost tilted over several times.

He was backing up and to the side, trying to find some decent footing somewhere. These Cube World floors are so hard to get used to walking on; I wonder if the other ones are like this...

A spark of interest flickered in his mind. Were all of the Cube Worlds like the Mecha Robo Cube? He had seen a few at a distance, and it had looked like they had grass and trees; were the plants only metallic imitations, or could they possibly be an illusion, or, by some chance, were they actually real?

He was so caught up in all of his musings, he had ceased watching his feet.

Absently, he heard the voice of Zola, the quiet and strong leader of Jibral's Blademasters, who was loyal to both Jibral Castle Town and its King - but she had joined the group in order to help them in their quest, and had quickly become a well-trusted friend. "I finished gathering information from the Servant Mecha- Jiro!" Her sudden, alarmed shout rung in the air.

Jiro spun his head toward her quickly, baffled - and then he felt what had her on high alert. A bump on the floor.

He started falling backwards, and saw all of his friends' panicked expressions and abruptly outreaching hands, as well as several antidotes escaping from the cradle of his arms. He expected that he'd be hitting the floor any second, that he'd probably hurt himself badly-

But this turned out to not be the case as everything around him was suddenly engulfed by a swirling blackness.

Jiro groaned as he came to, his head pounding fitfully. That was one heck of a fall... He started opening his eyes-

The instant he took in his surroundings, his breath stilled.

He was in a dark cave, barely illuminated by light that fell in from a distant entrance, with water dripping from the rocky ceiling every once and a while. More importantly, this place looked no where near the Mecha Robo Cube.

How did I get here? Jiro swallowed, throat tight. And where are the others? He started sitting up, and was surprised by the sound of glass bumping the ground - an antidote. A quick look revealed that most of them were with him, all on the ground. I must have gotten separated from the others somehow. Maybe there was an attack. He quickly got to his feet; if that was true, then he needed to find out where they were and get to them as fast as he could.

Jiro gathered up the antidotes, and soon discovered that there were less than he had originally thought (the dim luminosity made it a little hard to see) - but in the current situation, that was more beneficial than not, because they were easier to carry now, and weren't nearly spilling out of his arms. He hoped that Kluke or someone else had managed to get the ones he'd dropped; Jiro hated wasting anything, money and items very much included.

As he walked towards the source of the light, and presumably the exit, Jiro tried to gather his thoughts. The situation was perplexing, and there didn't seem to be any clues at present.

He came to a halt as he was hit with a thought. When I fell... had I been standing...

Next to the Dimensional Break.

His mind went to work. If I fell into the Dimensional Break, that means I've been sent back to the time before the planet split in half. I thought it would've sent me someplace different... But we've never tried it before; maybe this is where you end up when you go through. He started walking again. From the places that we've been, I'm guessing this is a cave in or near the Lal Mountains. It's far away from where we entered that hole, but I think I can get back there. Maybe I could go to Jibral and see if our original mechat has been repaired, or if they'd be willing to lend one of those hot air balloons. Jiro nodded to himself, plan formed, just before he emerged out of the cavern...

He looked out on the horizon, stunned. How... Where is this place?

Stretched out in front of him was a mountainous terrain, valleys and canyons cutting paths through peaks of varying sizes - some as small as hills, others towering. He had read about such places, and had seen similar areas in his travels, but had never seen one that looked exactly like this. And he knew for sure that this wasn't the Lal Mountains; these kinds of rocks and minerals wouldn't be so close to the ones in the Lal area.

I've never seen this place, but we explored the entire continent... Could I have ended up on another one? It was the only reasonable explanation he could think of; perhaps the Dimensional Break didn't just send you back in time, but to another land altogether. Perhaps the Servant Mecha Robo who'd been near the dark void hadn't explained it quite right.

Jiro's shoulders sunk at the thought of the task that possibly laid ahead of him. How am I supposed to get to another continent? Do we even share the same ocean? Maybe they had mechats here, or at least some kind of boat...

Come on, Jiro; don't get down yet. He took a deep breath, looking forward determinedly. Just think of it as an adventure; that's what Shu would do if he were in this situation- actually, he interrupted himself, that probably means you shouldn't think of it that way, because he gets kind of suicidal when it comes to that kind of thing. Think of it another way - just imagine all the new things you'll find. That brought a smile to his face.

It reminded him of something, though. He shifted the antidotes to one arm, unwittingly holding his breath as he checked his tunic pocket, then let it out in a relieved sigh - he still had his notepad, a present for his ninth birthday from Shu. However, it had gotten the most use during his current journey - he had written of everything, from the habits of Cockatrices to the plant life in Jibral's surrounding area; from the many varieties of Mecha Robos to the kinds of fish that could be found in the Underground River near Baroy Town. And through all of it, he had drawn a map of the entire continent. He had toiled over each and every page, getting everything down to the smallest detail, but had enjoyed it all the while. It meant a lot to him, and Jiro couldn't bear the thought of losing it.

After rearranging the antidotes in his arms, Jiro squinted at the land in front of him. I don't see anything... I can't just stand here, though. I'll just pick a direction, I guess, and start walking-

"There you are!"

The voice came from behind him, startling Jiro so badly that he nearly dropped all of the items. When he turned to see the stranger, he choked on air as he saw that the person was not as unfamiliar as he'd thought. "Shu?" But... his voice...

His voice didn't sound anything like Shu's, the pitch completely different. He was still dressed like Shu, though the colors of his clothes seemed a little brighter. His hair was the same, but the brown seemed a little richer. His eyes were the same almost-black, but when the sunlight hit them a certain way, it looked like there might have been a hint of dark gray. And those same eyes were looking at him with such hostility that Jiro suddenly found it very hard to breathe. Shu looked at his enemies like that. Shu never looked at Jiro like that.

"You don't have to act so surprised," was Shu's response. "All of us have been looking for you for almost half an hour."

"Looking... for me...?" It came out faint. Jiro could only stare at the other boy in shock, unable to wrap his mind around what he was seeing and hearing.

"Yes, looking for you," Shu snapped, seeming even more annoyed with Jiro than he had a moment before, jumping down from the rock he had been standing on. "Zola wanted us out of here forty minutes ago. And you can play dumb about making yourself scarce all you want, but don't think I haven't forgotten about this morning-" Shu had lifted his head just then, and whatever words would have come next died in his throat as he took in the sight of Jiro, closer than where he'd been before and able to see more. "Jiro... Your sweater is black. And... And your pants are white..."

"Um... Yeah." Jiro tugged at his sleeve, slightly self-conscious. "I mean, I wear this everyday, Shu."

He felt a bit of gratification, though predominately relief, at seeing brief concern flicker in Shu's eyes; maybe his old friend's personality wasn't as distant as he'd thought. "Jiro... Did you hit your head or something?"

"No." Jiro blinked at him. But I have half a mind to ask if you did, he added silently in his mind. "Why do you ask?"

Shu stared at him for a second, then shut his eyes tight and shook his head rapidly. "Okay, Jiro, you're acting really weird." He opened his eyes again and started moving towards Jiro. "We... I think we should go back to the others," he followed this not quite under his breath with, "Maybe Zola can figure out why you're acting so weird..."

Jiro started as Shu got especially close. He's... Shu's shorter...

Shu looked up at him, eyes searching his face suspiciously. "Did you... grow, or something?" Suspicion to changed to disbelief. "And are your... are your eyes black?"

"They're the same color as yours, except mine are a little lighter. They've always been." Jiro resisted the urge to take a step back in an attempt to escape the scrutiny.

"Always been?" Shu shook his head again. "Jiro, you're losing it. Come on, let's get you to Zola. You're starting to scare me."

Jiro soon found himself being led by the wrist up a mountain path - the one Shu had come down from, apparently - though he followed only half willingly, mostly because he didn't know where else to go. More than that, he didn't even know what to think anymore; he'd had everything plotted out in his head, as daunting as it was, and then Shu... Shu had come and dashed it all to pieces with his more than a little bizarre behavior. Jiro couldn't wait to talk to Kluke, or Marumaro, or Zola - any of his friends, just so he could talk to someone sane and have them explain away all the confusion. It was kind of ironic, Jiro thought, since he usually ended up being the voice of reason.

Eventually, they came to the top. Jiro felt encouraged to immediately see the mechat; it had to be a good sign. Beside the ship looked like a camp, with bedrolls and a fire circled by people...

People who he knew (save for one girl). But they were different, in both manner and appearance (and their voices), enough that Jiro wondered if they were actually the people he knew.

Zola and Marumaro were the closest to him; Marumaro remained preoccupied with some food, but Zola turned to him with a nod. "Good. We were just about to head out to search for you again, Ji..." She trailed off as she really looked at him for the first time. She gave Shu a questioning look. "What-"

Shu shrugged, almost helplessly. "I have no idea what's going on. He's been acting really weird, and he looks different. Something's going on, Zola, but I don't have a clue what it is."

Zola's eyes slid to Jiro again, albeit with a hint of concern this time. "Jiro, what's wrong? Are you alright?"

"I..." He said nothing else, only because he was unable to think of anything else to say.

"Darling, you're back!" A girl, the one Jiro didn't recognize, rushed towards Shu, who right away began to dodge as she tried to crush him in a hug. "Don't run away!"

"Bouquet, knock it off!" Shu cried out as he ducked out of her reach.

"Leave him alone, will you?" Another girl's voice, and at first Jiro thought it must have been another person he didn't recognize, that he just hadn't initially seen her.

But this girl he knew - had her face memorized from all of their time spent together and from his own daydreams of requited feelings, even if that face looked very different from what had been permanently imprinted onto his mind's eye.

Kluke's eyes were not green. Kluke's hair was not that light of a brown. Kluke had not worn a yellow ribbon in her hair since she was five years old. This could not be Kluke.

And yet her hair framed the right side of her head the same way, her face had the same shape, and her eyes held the same warmth - minus most of the sadness that could almost always be found - that he had come to love her for.

Stomach twisting into knots, heart pierced with a sharp pain, pulse pounding in his ears, Jiro could only get out a weak whisper. "Kluke..."

She shot him a perplexed look. "Jiro? Are you... Is everything alright?"

In the following second, Jiro became quite aware of how everyone had stopped what they were doing and stared at him silently, their expressions masks of confusion and worry. He held himself back from spinning around to find the closest rock so he could hide behind it. "N-no..." He surprised himself by speaking. "No, it's not. Everything... Nothing is the way it's supposed to be."

Zola stood straighter, concern flickering across her face. "Jiro-"

"I'm here." Jiro's eyes widened, because it hadn't been him who spoke. The voice added, "Thanks for coming to help, by the way."

The others turned quickly, faces a picture of stun. Jiro's heart missed a beat or two when he saw what they were looking at.

It was almost like looking into a mirror, but not quite. White sweater instead of black, black pants instead of white. The hair a silverish-brown, and the eyes a deep blue. But the tunic, the boots, the parted hairstyle, the features remained the same. Except for an undeniably cold demeanor that Jiro could never remember having.

Zola found her voice before anyone else. "What do you mean, Jiro?" She still sounded steady, but she was noticeably shaken.

"I... There was an incident." The other Jiro shut his eyes, eyebrows deeply furrowed. Jiro noticed for the first time that there were small tears and rips in his other self's clothes. "It wasn't too serious - nothing involving Grand Kingdom or anything. But... I'd rather not talk about it right now; I'll tell you later, Zola."

"But, if Jiro is over there..." Shu twisted around to look at him. "... Then who is this?"

"Shu, what are you going on about-" Jiro opened his eyes - and stopped, stricken. There was a long pause before he spoke again. "What... What on earth is going on here?"

Unable to continue looking at the other's narrow stare, Jiro looked at Shu steadily, almost sadly, before answering his previous question. "... I'm Jiro."

At some point while the group had been telling Jiro about themselves, he had grabbed hold of his hands. He didn't know how long he'd held them - what he did know was that he'd gripped them so tightly that they had gone as pale as a sheet.

Things were worse than he'd thought.

"Wait a minute," he had interrupted at one point. He'd been addressing the other Jiro. "You... You didn't live in Talta?"

His other self's answer had slowly, almost torturously, filled him with a mixture of horror and dread. "No. I was born in Mafe, and I lived there until it was... until several months ago. I had never even heard of Talta Village until I went there with Zola in search of the Warrior of Light, who turned out to be Shu." Not quite under his breath, he added, "Unfortunately."

He had found out that all of them were younger than the group he had known - all of them were ten, except for Zola (rather obviously), who was in her early twenties. That seemed similar, at least - he knew his Zola was in her early twenties, but didn't know the exact age of either, so didn't know which of them were older or younger, or if maybe they were the same age (that would be a relief).

The other Zola was a mercenary, but had no connections with Jibral. "But... Aren't you the leader of the Blademasters?" Her response had been to ask him what a Blademaster was. Jiro had felt faint.

The other Marumaro was a pervert. "You... He... Marumaro... Groping?" Marumaro had grinned cheekily, saying that the two most important things in the whole world were justice and women. But mostly women. Jiro hadn't known how to respond - not least of all because he'd just been told that a ten-year-old groped girls on a regular basis. Maybe that kind of thing happened earlier here.

The other Kluke turned out to be quite the mechanic. "But Kluke hates machines," he had protested. The other Kluke had looked horrified that he would even say the words "hate" and "machine" together, let alone that she had been the one doing it.

Learning about Bouquet had been a great relief, because he hadn't known her other self (if there even was one). She described herself as Shu's fiancée (Shu had interjected "self-proclaimed", to which Bouquet had promptly protested).

An even greater relief was that Shu remained quite similar to Jiro's own Shu, though he had an unusual (what Kluke called "unhealthy") interest in/obsession with Knight Masters. Jiro hadn't known about them, but had a feeling from the description he'd received that they were akin to Blademasters.

But there was one difference between the two Shu's - a significant one, one that Jiro could scarcely believe, one that hurt him deeply.

This Shu and Jiro couldn't stand each other. And, to add fuel to the fire, they considered themselves rivals.

After learning this, Jiro had only half-listened to the continued explanation of who they were and what their goals were, feeling numb as the terrible fact had sunken in. It was even worse than when he'd found out this Kluke wasn't the one he knew - at least this Kluke wasn't entirely different. This Shu and Jiro were at war with each other, while he had looked after the Shu he knew as a younger brother, and had also been his best friend.

At the end of the telling, Jiro had tucked away all of the knowledge into his head for whenever he'd get a minute later, so he could record it in his notepad. He already had an idea of what had taken place that caused him to be here, but he'd wait to think on it further until he'd started writing it down.

When asked of him, Jiro explained his story, skimming briefly over his childhood in Talta Village before getting more detailed as he talked about the start of their journey, the attempt to put an end to the Land Shark's attacks. He went on to explain pretty much the whole adventure, leading up to his fall on the Mecha Robo Cube, and presumably falling into the Dimensional Break.

He had only been interrupted once - by his other self.

Until then, Jiro had never seen anyone's expression look that pained. "You... Your parents are alive?" Jiro had confirmed this. "And your sister?" Jiro had, with no small amount of confusion, told him that he didn't have a sister. The other Jiro had only nodded weakly, looking caught up in anguished thoughts and saying nothing more.

When he'd finished, all of them - save for the other Jiro, who remained upset - looked at him with a cross between shock and amazement. Marumaro was the first to say anything. "That's nuts, maro." Kluke punched his potted head, snapping at him to not be rude (another difference between the two Kluke's - his Kluke wasn't nearly as hostile).

Kluke smiled at him apologetically; and Jiro's stomach did a small flip - she smiled the same way as his Kluke. "Please try to forgive him - Marumaro can be an idiot sometimes."

"I-it's fine," he shook his head. "He does sort of have a point, after all. It's not every day something like this happens, though it's probably better described as... unusual. Rather than 'nuts'." A corner of his mouth twitched upward.

Kluke laughed, in a way that it seemed she hadn't expected herself to do so. She laughed like his Kluke, too. "That's a better way to put it, I think."

He leaned against the large rock at his back, a small sigh escaping him. There was the crackle of the campfire and a ladle knocking against the inside of a pot filled with steadily cooking stew, and along with the other sounds of camp that he'd gotten so used to, Jiro could almost let his eyes slide shut and pretend that everything was normal. Except that Kluke wasn't the one cooking - that Bouquet girl did it instead - and that definitely counted as abnormal. But he found it comforting, nonetheless.

Worried that he'd fall asleep before the dinner would be ready, Jiro got out his notebook and began writing, while the sentences were still fresh in his mind.

Log Entry #1.02

I'm sure that the first noticeable thing is that the log number has gone back to 1, except that now it's .02, instead of simply "one". This is because something quite unexpected has happened, something that has gotten me completely off track of the journey I had been previously recording. I don't know when, or even if, I will be able to resume my adventure with my friends.

Earlier, after buying some antidotes (more than we needed - that had been my fault) from the Mecha Robo Cube's item shop, there was an accident, and I fell. When I woke up, rather than waking up on the metallic floor of the Cube World, I found myself in a rocky cave. That was several hours ago; I'm not sure of the exact time.

From all available information, I've concluded that I fell into the Dimensional Break. But instead of sending me back to the time before the planet split, I was sent into an alternate reality. My theory is that when I fell, I was probably alarmed, and it caused me to call on the magic only slightly - a small amount, but enough to change the Dimensional Break's destination. From what I could study of the Dimensional Break, it seems to be formed by a combination of eternal and gravitational energies, supplemented by an unknown magic - possibly the same magic as what Shadows use, though it looks very different from any of the spells I've seen. But whether or not it's the same magic, I'm positive that if I did unwittingly set off some of my Shadow's power, it would have thrown off the balance of the Dimensional Break's composition, thus changing the trajectory.

Things seem to be quite different in this universe. My friends and my other self all look different, and have different personalities. Their Shadows are the same, but they also look different, have different powers, and though I've never seen one summoned yet, I hear that they may talk. Even the land is different - so different that the only thing I can find in common with it and the one I know is that they both have Talta, Lago and Jibral; but even the descriptions I've heard of those three places don't sound like the places I've been to, even my own birthplace. There are many more places, and the continent is even surrounded by two others that are considerably close by.

Before I go further into a likely-repetitive list of everything that's "different", I should first go into more details about the alternate group.

There are six of them: Zola, Jiro, Shu, Kluke, Marumaro, and a girl I'd never seen until today by the name of Bouquet; Zola is basically the leader. From this point, the names of my friends will be from the alternate universe - if necessary, I'll make a notation at the end of the description.

In this reality, Nene is relatively well-known - he is the king of Grand Kingdom, which resides on one of the neighboring continents. His goal remains mostly the same - to, in the end, rule the world, and destroying anything and everything that stands in his way. He has a vast army at his disposal, and unlike in my world, most of that army is human. He still, however, uses many Mecha Robos without hesitation; the best example is Szabo, who continues to be his faithful servant and general of Nene's Mecha Robo forces. From what the others have told me, he isn't much different than the Szabo I know. If the opportunity arises, I'll try to observe his behavior to see if this is the case. Also, my other self seems to hold particular disdain for the other Szabo. I'm not yet sure of the reason why.

Another significant part of Nene's army is a squad of powerful Shadow Users - that's what people who can use Shadows are called in this world - led by a man known as General Rogi. They were given their Shadows artificially, using a technology that Nene and his scientists invented. In this world, only a small percentage of people are capable of being natural Shadow Users. Zola's group has faced off with Rogi's squad several times, neither side really winning the skirmishes, and some of the squad members appear to have been defeated... for good... though it hasn't been confirmed. But I'm getting a bit off track now.

The journey started with Zola, who was trying to find the descendants of the Warriors of Light - powerful Shadow Users from the time when Shadows had first been created. They fought against a darkness that threatened to overtake the entire world, and eventually managed to seal it away. With time, fact faded into legend, and people forgot about their saviors. But their descendants lived on, even if they were unaware of whom their ancestors were. In the present, Zola began searching for them, because she believed that they were the only ones who could stop Nene. In other words, the world's only hope.

The first descendant Zola found was Jiro - not me, of course, but my other self. I have the impression that they met under... tragic, I suppose, circumstances. And... From a question Jiro asked me earlier - "Your parents are alive?" - I have the strong feeling that his... my... our... parents, are no longer living. I think he - or is it we? - may have a sister as well, who shared the same fate as Mother and Father. He hasn't said any of this, but I haven't truly asked, either... And I don't know if I will; I'm not sure I can bear to hear the answer.

The next descendant she found was Shu, and inadvertently Kluke (she tagged along, but they hadn't known at the time that she also happened to be one of the descendants). Zola and Jiro had arrived in Talta Village in search of the Warrior of Light, having a brief meeting with Shu and Kluke (Zola suspected Shu instantly, because of his age) before going to investigate nearby ruins - just in time for Grand Kingdom to unleash an attack. The soldiers began kidnapping children, presumably in search of the descendant, and Shu and Kluke were almost taken - but Zola and Jiro came to save them and the other children at the last minute. In the fighting that followed, Kluke and the other villagers were almost crushed under debris, but their lives were saved when Shu saw that they were in danger and summoned his Shadow for the first time. He wasn't able to control his Shadow, though, so much so that Zola had to restrain him; doing so caused him to go unconscious. When he woke up, Zola explained much of what I've already gone into here. Shu ended up getting upset and running away, refusing to go with them. But, later, after Zola saved the village from a second attack, Shu decided to go with her. And not allowing him to leave her behind, Kluke came too. It wasn't until much later that Kluke discovered her Shadow, when they faced Nene for the first time and he nearly killed them.

The fourth descendant Zola found was Marumaro. Shortly after Shu and Kluke joined, the group came across a ruined village. When they found a destroyed Mecha Robo, Kluke had started going into its memory banks in the hopes that they'd discover what had taken place. Marumaro saw this, and, thinking that they were with the people who had destroyed the village, he attacked them. In the following fight, they saw firsthand his exceptional speed and unusual skill; though she hadn't said anything at the time, it gave Zola the impression that he was one of the Warriors of Light. Also during the battle - and Kluke put particular, angry emphasis on this part when they told me - the group learned of Marumaro's... inappropriate habits. I will not explain this in detail. At any rate, the misunderstanding was eventually worked out, and Marumaro came with him. On a related subject, I'm relieved to note something that both Marumaro's seem to have in common - when he makes a friend, it's a friend for life.

The last descendant they found was Bouquet. The first time they met her, she worked in a restaurant as a waitress. When some of the customers harassed her, Shu stood up to them, and with the help of Zola, scared them away. After that, Bouquet tried several times to help them out, but made a mistake pretty much every time. After several failed attempts, she used her power to turn invisible - that's an ability of the Ra Clan, which Bouquet is a part of - and listened in on the group's conversations to find out what they wanted. Through their talk, she discovered that Shu and Jiro wanted to become stronger. So, she waited until they were leaving the village, and then used the power of her Shadow, Hippopotamus, to transform into a Jumbo Poo Snake in order to challenge them. It... didn't quite work out how she'd planned, and when they discovered that it was her, they didn't take too well to that fact. But, as he had been since she'd met him, Shu showed her kindness. Bouquet ended up being fired shortly thereafter, and tried to get the group to take her with them. But because of her being so accident-prone, they fled and left her behind. She met them later, sneaking onto a boat leaving a port in Jibral. When a creature incapacitated the crew and most of the group, Bouquet and Shu ended up saving all of them. It made them decide to bring her along. On a side note, it was at that point that Bouquet got Shu to "agree" - according to Shu's account, he was tricked - to being her fiancé.

Starting from when Zola met the other Jiro until now, the journey has taken a little more than six months. I have the feeling those months have been long and hard, but this group is just as determined as the one I'm part of - and we don't give up easily.

The differences I've found in the counterparts of my self and friends - as well as my surroundings - have been difficult to adjust to, but I think I'm more accustomed to it than I was initially. But there is one thing I don't think I'll ever get used to, no matter how long I'm here.

In this universe, Shu and Jiro... They aren't friends at all. There's a great deal of animosity between them; I don't even have anything to compare it to. Seeing them, and thinking of Shu and myself... It's painful.

I don't know how long I'll be here, but my goal is to find a way home as soon as I can. Be that as it may, I plan to do everything I can to help this group, even if they aren't exactly the friends I know. I'm unsure of many things right now, but helping them is one of the few things that I know with certainty

"What are you doing?"

that I need to do. The last part of the sentence was hastily written before he flipped the notebook closed just as quickly. When he gazed up, Kluke stared down at him with curiosity. He pushed down the inner voice that near-wailed, her eyes are supposed to be brown. "Just writing down some of the new things I've learned since I ended up here. Where I come from, there isn't as much known about the world as there is here, so during my journey, I decided to write down all of my observations in this notebook."

"Sounds interesting," she sat down beside him. Their knees brushed, and he pushed down a shiver from the closeness, just as he often had to do when he and his Kluke had any physical contact. She's not your Kluke, he had to keep telling himself, no matter how much he wanted it to not be true. Kluke paused for a moment, then asked, "Is the technology different in your world?"

He blinked, not expecting the question. "Well... There isn't a lot known about technology in my world, save for things that came before the Ancients' time, so it's hard to actually make a comparison. But, from what you and the others have said, I think our machines rely a little more on magic."

"Definitely interesting." She grinned. "It's too bad I can't come back with you; if I could, I'd study your machines for hours."

He felt a true smile spread across his face, more genuine than he'd had since he fell into the Dimensional Break. "Maybe later we could look over the mechat, and I'll point out differences between yours and mine."

"I'd love to!"

It was funny, Jiro thought, that green eyes could appear as warm as brown ones.

Dinner was awkward.

Not for everyone else, really; just for him. It wasn't their fault - they tried to include him and make him feel welcome, and for the most part, they succeeded. But nothing could ever really replicate the familiarity of his own camp - nothing could replace the rightness.

He had to hand it to Bouquet, though - she knew how to cook.

His compliments had coaxed out of her a shy, "You pick up a thing or two when you work in a restaurant. And I learned some things from my mom and grandma."

Jiro had decided almost from the start that he liked Bouquet. It was a shame - she probably would've made a good friend and reliable ally should she have been a part of his group. Then again, considering the pattern everything seemed to be following, if Bouquet existed in his world, she probably wasn't anything like this one.

It is kind of nice to watch them together, though - separated, they seem like six pieces of six different puzzles. And yet, when they're all together, they're a perfect fit. Like they belong together, and always have. Jiro wondered if maybe it had something to do with them being the descendants of the Warriors of Light; he wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

After dinner is when the problem starts.

It is only a single incident that doesn't take very long, but for three of them - Jiro included - it hits harder than anything else that's occurred today.

Shu and Jiro - the other Jiro - somehow end up conversing with each other, and they've hardly said much before it's already delved into snappish bickering. And Jiro just wants to get away, bury himself under the ground, even, because it's killing him to listen to it-

And then his other self says something relatively mean to Shu, something Jiro doesn't even remember a second after it's out of his counterpart's mouth-

But whatever it is, it makes something in Jiro snap - and suddenly he's having a flashback so vivid that he could almost reach over and touch the closest person to him; he and Shu are six and four again; bullies Jiro's age are teasing Shu, and calling him short and stupid and a few nasty things a young Jiro didn't even know six year olds said; and he never, never, never would have told them that they'd pay one day if he'd known the Land Shark would take their lives away only a week later, and he wishes so badly that he could take it back, but there's nothing he can do now, and the grief and guilt is overwhelming-

But then he's back to the present again, he's somehow standing, and he's so angry that honestly, he could care less if the Shu across from him isn't the Shu he grew up with. Because he's still Shu.

"Don't... don't you dare talk to him like that." He didn't even know he was that incensed until he heard the viciousness in his own voice.

Both boys are staring up at him, both of their expressions looking stricken and stunned; and for Shu, awed, and maybe even sorrowful.

Jiro blinks, as if he's waking from a bad dream. As quickly as he can, he mutters an apology and, "I-I sh-should go," before retreating to the corner of the camp where he left those blasted antidotes. He notes that it's the same rock where he wrote in his notebook earlier, where he talked to Kluke... As he sits, his heart twists a little as he thinks that after that little almost-outburst, she probably won't want to look at the mechat with him now - in fact, she'll probably try to stay as far away from him as she can. He brings his knees to his chest, burying his head into folded arms as pressure and stinging builds in his eyes.

Back in his reality, his planet is on the verge of destruction, and even if going back would mean his destruction as well, all he wants to do is go home.

When the camp eventually became quiet, when the fire had dimmed, Jiro finally moved again, unfolding himself, thinking that all of them had gone to sleep.

He was wrong.

As soon he lifted his head, his eyes locked with Shu's; the younger boy sat across from him, a foot or two away from the campfire that had been reduced to embers.

Jiro swallowed, unsure of what to say. Should he not say anything? Or would keeping quiet be a mistake?

"You're... different than our Jiro."

He started at the sound of Shu's voice breaking the silence. He waited, not speaking.

"You act... warmer. He's a lot colder. But you..." Shu broke off, shook his head. "Did... In your world, we... we really grew up together?"

Jiro nodded wordlessly, and when something akin to pain flickered in Shu's eyes, Jiro's stomach lurched when it hit him.

This Shu had also been tormented by the bullies when he was younger. But no one had come to his rescue.

"We... Were we..." Shu stopped, struggling to find the right words. "How did we get along?"

"... You're my best friend," he answered softly. "Always."

Shu blinked, fast, before looking away. "... I see." He stood, brushing the dirt off his shorts. "I... I guess I'll see you in the morning, then. Sorry for keeping you up with all of my stupid questions."

"Sorry. Just ignore me. I'm saying stupid thing again."

Jiro almost flinched. Shu said things like that so much...

And this was Shu. Just not exactly the way he knew him. "No," Jiro said, unwavering. "They weren't stupid at all. You're welcome to ask me about things like that whenever you want. Later, though," he smiled. "Get some sleep, kiddo."

A slow flush spread across Shu's face before he twisted his head away in an attempt to hide his growing smile. But Jiro had seen, though he didn't mention it.

As Jiro laid down on the bedroll they'd leant him, he listened to the crunch of gravel as Shu walked towards the mat that the other Jiro and Marumaro were already asleep on. Jiro grinned lightly up at the star-studded darkness above him - even the pattern of their footsteps was the same. His eyes slid shut, drifting off to sleep with a single thought. Maybe this won't be so bad after all.

And the first chapter is done! :D Hopefully, Jiro is the only one who wants to strangle me right now. (Game Jiro: I was thinking more along the lines of throwing something at you, but that's a possibility, too.) (Sorry, Jiro… But, it's going to get better for you; I promise. :)) It ended a little differently than I'd thought – the stuff between both Jiro's and Shu wasn't supposed to happen until next chapter, but it kind of ended up snowballing… Anyway, the chapters are a little unique compared to my other stories – every chapter is supposed to be a day (though some may end up shorter or longer than others), and will include a log entry by Jiro. So… That's pretty much it, actually. If you can, please review! :) I'll try to update this after 10 hits, but the main thing to decide my next update will be the poll on my profile. The poll results will not be cleared, since this story wasn't on the poll – but Mirror Image will be added to the poll as soon as it's been uploaded. In related news, the Plus adaptation is back in progress, because I've finally gotten a new DS (Yay!!!). So, though it may take some time, either the adaptation or the next chapter of Blue Dragon Beyond will probably be uploaded next (I'm eager to write the next chapter of Braving the Storm, but I think Beyond is probably in more need of an update). That could change, however, depending on if/when there are more poll votes. Also, I'm working on some non-Blue Dragon oneshots, so one of those may pop up before the other chaptered stories do. Anyway, I'm mostly just rambling now, so I'll shut up now and leave you be. XD See you soon! :D