Boundary 2

"HOLY FUCK GUCCI? LOUIS VUITTON?" Arahabaki exclaimed at the displayed advertisement of Gucci's iconic Dionysus collection and the LV monogram series on the monitor.

"You recognise our luxury brands?" Alex eyed Arahabaki with curiosity.

"No. I like pretty shiny shit," Arahabaki retorted with sarcasm dripping out of his mouth as he pointed to his leather jacket with zips all over. "See this?"

"Yeah. Don't tell me that's a Gucci."

"Heck no, Alexander McQueen's 2018 collection."

Arahabaki's words made Alex cringe at how Arahabaki sounded so human. Like some guys and girls Alex knew in high school, always bragging about designer brands. Not that Alex cared about it. Buying designer goods was out of his budget when alive, and he saw no point in dropping a thousand bucks on a leather bag.

"…"

"We deal with the human world too…," Arahabaki said, and Alex wondered if he had read his mind. "Appearances matter more there."

Turning to Kanghui, Arahabaki asked, "But how the fuck does Gucci end up here? A primeval being with too many soul stones?"

Alex pricked his ears at another use of soul stones.

"Burnt offerings from the mortal world. Gucci, Prada, LV…"

"MATTAKU! I thought the Chinese were rich but not that ridiculously rich to buy a bag from a boutique in the human world and burn it," Arahabaki cut her off.

Kanghui sighed. "Let me finish. Humans made all those designer goods out of paper. Hence, no limited editions unless customised in the human world. Those paper items don't exist past Xitian territory."

"Ah, no wonder no Chinese ghosts wander over to our side."

Alex kept mum and lips shut tight. He wanted to laugh, yet he held so many questions. If those Chinese ghosts wandered into Takamagahara's side, would they be butt-naked?

"Then how do the shops get hold of so much stock and variety?" Arahabaki continued staring at the advertisements. Another advertisement has popped on screen selling Chanel bags.

"Some ghosts don't want them, so a few shops in Ming and other ghost cities buy from them and sell the goods to others," she explained.

Entrepreneur ghosts. Alex smacked his cheek. Would there be rich and poor in the ghost cities, like seen in the social hierarchy of the human world?

"Can't the ghosts materialise things like that instead of buying them with hell money?" Alex asked.

"No. They depend on burnt offerings."

"And this Alexander McQueen's jacket? Is it…"

Arahabaki smacked the back of Alex's head. "A projection of my leather jacket in Earth's domain. The real deal is in my property within the human world. Less soul stone wastage."

Arahabaki had property in the human world. Then Alex remembered what Yata said about their homes there. He hadn't figured out how everything worked out yet. The hidden dimension is more complex than he thought.

"Yup, waste of soul stones to conjure the material up," Kanghui replied with a nod of her head.

Alex winced. "Then what about my clothing now?"

"Default clothes, innate within memories of your soul and projected. So no one runs around mooning the streets butt-naked unless they want to," Arahabaki answered in a sarcastic tone.

"What's your…"

Before Alex could complete his question, Kanghui placed her arm around Alex to pull him away and whispered, "Don't make him change here to prove a point. His true form will cause chaos and give me more trouble."

"Heh…"

"Him in true form is huge and horrendous - even some primeval beings run," she continued as her hand shot up to stop Arahabaki from approaching.

Alex shuddered at what she said. He couldn't imagine, but from the use of Arahabaki's power to force Yata to change to a cat sized spider and the reaction of the crowd, Arahabaki's form may be even more horrific. Everyone Alex knew in the hidden dimension seemed to scale down their appearances to match the others in the city. Only to appear in some sort of gargantuan aura form to fight. Perhaps to keep the peace around. Who knows?

"Hey… what are you two talking about and what did he want to ask?"

"Nothing," Kanghui and Alex chorused in unison.

Alex crunched up his face after she released her hold. So that punk-like appearance was not the true form of Arahabaki, although it suited him.

"No, seriously." Arahabaki pouted.

"How do you even get the cash to buy them?" Alex patted the leather jacket to change the direction of the topic.

Flicking away Alex's hand, Arahabaki answered, "we work both sides of the worlds. We have our business here and in the mortal worlds."

Kanghui opened her palm to reveal a few odd shaped crystalline stones and added, "you'll find that out later."

Alex's eyes gleamed at their appearance. Was she going to give them to him? To his bitter disappointment, she popped those into her mouth like tic-tac candies.

Her eyes glowed red as she stretched herself. "Ready now."

"You ate them?"

Arahabaki nudged him as he opened his palm with three larger soul stones. "We are charging up."

Then Arahabaki also popped the soul stones into his mouth and with a great gulp, his eyes, like Kanghui's, glowed a more malicious red.

"Power booster for where we are going," Kanghui replied.

"I thought it was only currency. So the ghosts can vomit yet eat the soul stones?"

Kanghui shook her head. "Not for us. Ghosts barter soul stones with our kind for certain objects the only we can create. Some of those shops you see are owned by our kind. You will learn more later."

"So how do they get soul stones unless there is mass cannibalism going in there?" Alex peered at the night-like streets across the boundary.

"Well, other than cannibalising their own kind, there is the easier way of exchange." Kanghui pointed to the large entry way into the skyscraper beneath the monitors and billboards.

At its side was a board which was showing changing numbers in two categorised tables. It reminded Alex of the money exchangers on Earth.

One male ghost, dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, pushed out a wheelbarrow of hell money across the boundary in front of them and made his way to the skyscraper's large entrance and begun negotiating with a being who appeared with a counter out of nowhere.

Did currency worked like the human world forex markets but they only had two, Alex pondered.

"A cart of those hell money gets how many stones?" Alex asked as he guessed the multiple zeroes on screen to a single digit were the exchange rate of hell money to one soul stone. Then another line had fewer zeroes pegged to one soul stone.

Kanghui glanced over at the cart and narrowed her eyes. "Probably one."

"You are joking."

She pointed at the advertisement. "Look at how much those clothes cost."

"10 million for a pair of jeans?? Gucci A TRILLION?" Alex widened his eyes at the ludicrous amounts.

"You are fucking joking," Arahabaki muttered, checking out the entire area.

"Hell money. Not Australian dollars," she replied. "If you are lucky, your relatives may burn you some, which in your case, is unnecessary, but it means you can shop in Ming city."

"If their relatives don't offer?"

"Then them," she gestured to the same bunch of miserable looking ghosts begging for food. "Waiting for the seventh lunar month - they will rush into the mortal worlds under our sphere of influence for their annual buffet of food and burnt offerings for a month."

The seventh lunar month sounded familiar. His mother used to tell him of the Hungry Ghosts Festival in her hometown. People offered homage to all wandering ghosts by burning incense and paper money, or even paper items for the dead. The elders advised children and young adults not to wander out at night for fear of running into ghosts.

"Wait, can I go back? Like to visit friends and family?"

"Anyone you wish to haunt?" Kanghui shot the question out.

Alex shook his head. "Only to see how they are doing."

"Are you a ghost?" Arahabaki asked.

"No…"

"Coming back in this form may terrify even loved ones. Depends on their belief though," Kanghui paused as her eyes glowed red again.

"Your mother may believe you when she sees you as you are now on the seventh day of your death and three days have passed on Earth," she added.

"THREE DAYS?" Alex exclaimed. It felt like only one day in the hidden dimension. Time seemed to run at a different speed.

"Chongli kept you for a day," she replied.

Or perhaps time ran at the same speed after all. Damn fucking Chongli, Alex cursed.

'I heard that,' Chongli's voice echoed in his mind as Alex sighed in resignation. Chongli's energy wave is part of his damn soul.

"It takes another three to four days for the Courts of Hell to process you into our world. So hurry." Kanghui started walking towards the boundary into the night light.

"Maybe a day, since I can… speed up the process up there." Arahabaki flexed his arm.

Speeding up the process, Alex mused as he looked at the grinning Arahabaki with suspicion. That mischievous grin looked like Arahabaki was planning something like wreaking havoc. Alex imagined him turning the courts topsy-turvy by trashing the place up. It would be entertaining.

"ARA, it isn't Takamagahara and you are not on home ground," Kanghui warned, confirming Alex's suspicion.

"Spoil sport," Arahabaki grumbled, walking past Alex with a smirk of a petulant child as they followed Kanghui and faded into the boundary of Ming city.