Chapter Text
There really was no warning sign. Not even that funny feeling you’d get when things are actually and finally going well. Like something drastically shitty was right around the corner, ready to scare the living hell out of you.
There was absolutely nothing unusual about the day. You were, as usual, overwhelmed with general, existential dread and mildly depressed, going through your internship at the company you were not sure how you got – oh ho, not with those qualifications and that botched interview.
You could say it was normal in a sense it was so normal. But even then, life’s curve-balls usually come with something, at least. A little feeling deep down in your gut that urged you to take the pedestrian crossing, as if your subconscious knew the impending doom that would quite literally, hit you.
There are accidents such as that. Getting hit by a car. Or falling down the stairs. Or being stuck in an elevator. Mildly catastrophic, emotionally and physically.
Then, there’s shit like this. Zipping into another country, plucked and dropped by god? Or fate? An eldritch horror? Who the fuck knew? One thing was for sure, you were thoroughly and incredibly, fucked.
∿ ﹒ ☆ . 🕳️ ♫
Maybe stepping through the little door slash gateway that mysteriously led into a secluded garden was a bad idea.
It wasn’t an unknown place, in fact, it was a spot you sometimes passed by, when coming to work or when you got back from lunch breaks.
What was odd was that the two doors at the different parts of the garden looked something straight out of a Ghibli movie – this was particularly weird because this wasn’t Japan, this hellhole you were in. You supposed they were inspired by it somehow and to be fair, it did look good, but it looked out of place, when one side of the road looked like a dump and the other, a quaint little whimsical place possibly inspired by Japanese architecture – especially the entrance on the right side of the park.
Whilst the left stood rather ominously, flowers and dead branches crowning the top of the gate, the right entrance looked like a doorway to some sort of haven, though, from what you usually saw, no one sought solace in it. it was always empty somehow.
Maybe it was a bad idea, on your part. Maybe the ice-cream you got was unlucky. Maybe it was the creepy looking… thing with a face hole placed for photos near the park. You could speculate, but you might never know, how you were bulleted to Japan, in the middle of the night, ice-cream-less.
∿ ﹒ ☆ . 🕳️ ♫
You had just taken a bite of your ice-cream, when you suddenly stumbled, pushed by an unknown force and almost face planting into the concrete. Holding onto the ice-cream was what spurred you on to recover quickly and you-
Where was the ice-cream? Confused, you stared at the ground you almost French kissed. You were lucky you didn’t fall. With that concrete, your lips would be bruised for at least a week- wait concrete? But you were in the garden- You looked around and your jaw dropped.
Wherever you were, this definitely wasn’t that cute cottagecore garden anymore. You swallowed thickly, shoving down the unease that wanted to spill out. This was probably you just accidentally walking automatically, like one of those instances where your remote-controlled by another lump of meat flesh prison autopiloted itself. Right. Maybe the ice-cream will calm you down-
You stared at your empty hand, the frustration building up again.
The ice-cream. The five-dollar ice-cream. The fancy, expensive ice-cream you got as a treat. Gone. When will the universe let you have good things?
Unimpressed, you stared blankly at your hand. Because not only had you lost your precious ice-cream, it seems the universe found your work clothes unfashionable and deemed you were in need of a wardrobe change.
Though in your defense, you were a nervous, tired wreck at work and any ‘feeling Bonita’ wouldn’t last more than fifteen minutes. At one point, if you looked presentable, it was enough for you. Even if you looked like a middle-aged lady looking after her family in a Korean soap opera.
You looked better now. Well, a little better. Oversized tee and a skirt. Normally, it wouldn't sound so atrocious but seeing the ridiculous colourful pattern on the shirt and the plaid skirt almost gave you heartburn. It seemed the universe or whoever dressed you wasn’t very fashionable either. Ha, what a fucking hypocrite-
The panic settled in like a brain freeze. Were you dead? Was this hell? Why did hell come with costume changes? Why is hell dark? Midnight?
You looked around desperately. You were on the side of a road. You have to get out. You needed to be in public. If you weren’t, wouldn’t the chances of being killed increase? In a deserted place?
So, you did. You tried to act nonchalant, following the sounds of nearby traffic that grew from a small hum to a buzz, then became part of the background.
Bright lights. Signs in a language you could identify but could not understand. You knew those characters. Hiragana, katakana, kanji. You had tried to self-study before eventually forgetting to do it daily more times than you wanted to admit. You were in Japan.
Mouth agape, you look left and right around you in shock. You were in Japan. Why the flying fuck were you in Japan?
“Oh. No. Oh, noooooo! No!”
Were you going to be homeless? You couldn't even communicate-
“Oh, I am so dead,” you groaned.
“Why-”
Something in your line of vision made you pause. For not the first time in the past hour, you freeze, eyes glued to the painfully bright LED screen, in a tv channel that appeared to be the news, was a giant… white and red suited… human? Fighting a giant… really ugly lizard?
It took you a few seconds to recognize them. Well, the freakishly giant robo-suit looking thing, at least.
Wait, those… those things.
That suited guy? Superhero ? Was in that movie you saw the other day.
Your jaw dropped. Yes, it was. No, it is. Those glowing eyes, that…
Oh no.
You stare at the fight shown on the screen, a shudder going through your spine.
Because now you are in the world of…
Ultraman.
