Chapter Text
It was 16:58. The room was small and dark, barely any light came from the window as the sun was setting.
Amidst the almost completely dark room, I stood. I didn’t know what I was doing, standing in the middle of my room, looking at my bed with a look of boredom etched on my face.
The phone that I was holding, it was recently bought, and some major things were messed up inside it. But that wasn’t the thing that made me irritated, it was the fact that I was waiting for someone to respond to me.
I looked at the reflection on the turned off screen, seeing the ever so beautiful face that I had to carry for the past 17 years and sighed.
“They’re really taking their time, eh?” I said, sighing and throwing the phone onto my bed. I threw myself after it, lying on my bed face down and exasperated.
Suddenly, from outside the room a voice rang out. It was loud enough that it could probably be heard by the entire neighborhood, but I didn’t particularly care about that detail.
I sighed and got up from my bed, leaving a boy shaped mark on it as I made my way to my door. “Comin’ mom” I responded, even though I knew she wouldn’t hear it.
I put my hand on the handle of my door and stopped. The handle felt lighter than usual. I was confused, “Maybe I’m just too fed up with this crap to give another for the things they do somebody.” I conversed to myself.
My mother was already screaming my name again, due to me not giving any signs of being alive back to her. I sighed once more and opened the door.
But what I was not expecting from the opening of the door was the fact that a blinding light overcame my vision. “Ngh- what the-…?” is all I could stammer out.
Before I knew it, I wasn’t in my own home anymore, I was in a completely different place.
The sun was hitting my face. “Unusually bright for 5 pm.” I thought, trying to make sense of the situation.
Once my vision came back, all my other senses followed. I could hear lots of people talking, walking in what seemed to be the central square of whatever city I was in now.
Before I realized what happened, I tried to reach back to the door that I went through before, but it wasn’t there anymore. I jerked my head back to where the door should be standing and saw only a wide street with canals at the end of the road.
My pupils shrank as I realized. “Holy fuck…” I said out loud, hoping someone would hear it or hoping it was some kind of joke pulled by something mysterious, or even a hallucination.
I slapped myself as hard as I could, which was probably a mistake, since I dropped to the ground with my own hit. I got up again and with the stunt I just pulled got also lots of eyes pointed at me, but they dismissed me as if I were nothing.
“Yep, this shit is real after all.” I said while holding my cheek, rubbing just a little and hoping it would ease the pain.
“This is not what I meant when I asked for another way out…” I sigh and let go of the chills running through my body. Only then did I start to take in the view of the city and the people around.
The people around were dressed in old clothes and a group of furries walked by… “Furries? Does this world have demi-humans? Oh, wow, I really am in one of those anime’s.” I think before moving on.
The structure of the city and the rivers flowing next to the buildings reminded me of Venice, a city I had visited way too many times.
“Where do I even go now? I literally got transported to another world without anything but these fancy clothes that probably stand out!” I rubbed my forehead while walking past some more people.
This time, however, I overheard them talking, and what they were saying didn’t make any sense to me, I couldn't understand a single word. I glance back at the group that just walked by, talking a strange language that resembled… Japanese.
“Great… what is the term for these types of things again? Uh… Oh yeah, Isekai. This must be a joke.”
I walked up to a passerby, hoping to the skies above that those I heard were just tourists. “Sorry, I’m a little lost, and I’m trying to find my way home, if you could help me find a door to another world-“ my words trailed off as the person in front of me narrowed their eyes at my words.
“E? Ima nante itta no, kodomo?“ the person said. I was stunned for a second before recollecting myself. “Oh yeah definitely, let me kodomo myself really quickly.” and with that statement I left the conversation and headed towards a space with much less social activity.
“Great, new world, nothing in my name… WAIT! Do I have basic necessities?” I tap around my body to see if I even had anything that could help me survive.
After a short search in my clothes, I concluded that nothing was given to me. “Even better, I don’t even know if the currency is the same, and all I have is a crumbled 20-euro bill.” I pulled it out of my back pocket and stretched it. “Probably not, this is a fantasy world, assuming this is anime related they probably pay with gold…” I sigh again and stuff the 20-euro bill back inside the same pocket.
I leaned against a wall, “and now what do I do? I’ve got nothing in my name… I should probably start looking for something or someone.” I pushed myself off the wall and went somewhere.
Where? Not even I knew, but I needed to move If I wanted to survive.
The sun was still high in the sky as I roamed the streets of the water city, seeing a lot of people with fantasy world aspects and a lot of merchants on the various streets.
One shop caught my attention, as it sold weird looking red rocks. I approached it, looking through the various stones. “This world also probably has magic, huh?” I mumbled.
The shop owner looked at me and said “Yunīkuna fukusōdesu ne. Kono atari no shusshindesu ka?” I waved dismissively at what he said and moved on without putting too much thought into my actions.
“Damn it, I’ll have to learn Japanese.” I pondered, walking beside a river. I looked into the water, and it reflected on my face perfectly.
“At least it isn’t polluted, not like the real thing.” I mused. I turned around to move on in search for anything, and then I spotted it, a gondola.
It was painted gold and it looked a bit smoother and longer than the gondolas in Venice. “Well, one must’ve copied from the other, it’s way too similar.”
Though suddenly, a person bumped into me as I was taking a step forward without looking. “Oh- sorry, I didn’t mean to-“ I stammered before I remembered that they don’t understand me.
“Dareka ni butsukatta ato ni ayamaranai no wa futsuu shitsurei desu ga, konkai wa minogashite agemasu. Sore o kansha shinasai.“ The person said. I raised my hands in a friendly gesture as to not cause a misunderstanding and nodded along to whatever he was saying.
The man in front of me had white hair, a new color I hadn’t seen before yet, and golden yellow eyes. He had a white suit on with black and golden details. I figured it must have been some sort of noble figure that I accidentally bumped into, and I didn’t want to escalate things further.
The man, though, seemed to understand my actions, so he turned around and moved on. I breathed a sigh of relief, even though I knew something was strange about that man. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but it seemed normal to see strange things in a new world, so I let it slide and moved on.
Not too far ahead was a particular building, it wasn’t too different from the others, but it had black smoke coming out from one of the windows. “Either they burned something or an explosion was caused, both are equally likely.” I mused, “…hang on that noble from before came from this direction, and he had that smug smile of a fool. Did he cause this explosion?” I looked back in the direction of where I came from.
On the other side of the river, the same “noble” man was walking in my same direction, and I had a feeling this wasn’t going to end well. I looked back at the black smoke coming from the windows for another second before looking for a way to cross the river.
“Well, one point for causing an explosion next to me in this timeframe.” I said, clear irritation in my voice. But before I could let the intrusive thoughts take over me any longer, I stepped back and thought to myself, “But what is someone like me gonna do against a fucking noble of all people, those guys could probably execute me for even bumping into him! I need another way around it…”
As I was wondering how I could solve the situation, I observed the movements of the strange white-haired man. He was walking with that smug smile on his face, seemingly amused by this whole situation, towards a small group of people who were walking in the other direction.
Usually, I wouldn’t really care about who was in anyone’s way, but there was a strange boy in that group that caught my attention immediately. He had black hair and some nasty looking eyes, but most importantly was his tracksuit.
Up until then I hadn’t really seen any modern clothes anywhere around, so seeing somebody who potentially was from the same world as I was, excited me.
“Wait! He must be from earth. I need to get to him asap.” I was in a scramble, trying to find a path to the other side, but the nearest bridge was too far away from where I was, and I was scared I could lose them.
All I could do was watch as the man in a suit bumped against a girl in the group. Her hair was silver, eyes were purple and her ears were kind of pointy.
“Wait, he bumped against me too, is he planting something on them?” I immediately search my body, only to realize that if that man had planted something, it would probably be magic, and I would’ve had no way of knowing if I was going to live to see the next day.
“At this rate I’ll die before I can even starve.” I pull my hair a little but make no effort to stop my voice from rising. After being lost in overthinking for a few seconds, my gaze wanders back to the group. It seemed like the black-haired boy was interfering with the conversation the man and what I presumed must be an elf were having.
“At this rate, they’ll die without any help! I need to get over there and tell them-“ but before I could brainstorm further, I realized once more, “…if I could tell them… How would I do that? I don’t know Japanese.”
And even though I didn’t know how to communicate with them, I still made my way to the far away bridge, just to get to the other side in time.
But incidentally, when I finally arrived at the bridge, it was packed to the brim with people. It was almost impossible to pass through such traffic. “Damn this world and it’s problems!” I thought, “I need a way around it, one where it doesn’t take more than 2 minutes to get through a crowd possibly.”
I looked around, trying to find another way across, and suddenly I saw it.
A few gondolas were lined up almost perfectly to form a path to the other side of the river. It was risky, but I needed to get to that boy, I needed to get someone who could help me out of this situation.
So, with my collected courage, I leapt into the sky, landing onto the first gondola with almost too much ease.
The gondola was shaking violently, seemingly not being able to support somebody jumping on it, but I didn’t care. I balanced myself and moved on, jumping from one gondola to another.
Finally, after almost falling into the river twice, I managed to get to the other side.
I looked around for a quick second before remembering what I had to do and moved to the location where the group was earlier.
But sadly, when I got to the point where I could see the black smoke from the windows from earlier, the group had disappeared.
“Great! I can’t even keep track of a group of people with bright colored clothes! What good am I even?” I cry out, getting another few glances from passersby, but they move on quickly.
“Risked falling into the river for nothing…!” I thought, biting my lip.
I sigh once more, “Well, really cool, huh? I get isekai’d and my first day is practically ruined. But I need to keep on searching for those people.” I quickly regained my footing and followed the path I was taking, hoping I’d meet the group somewhere on the way.
But as the search continued, the sun slowly began to set. The streets became darker and darker, until only the lights of various shops lit the streets. Although even those were starting to close, leaving most of the streets dark.
It wasn’t looking good for me; I was hungry after the stunt I pulled to get to the other side of the river. I was holding my stomach, looking more pitiful than ever.
I was walking down the streets, looking for food and a place to sleep, when I came across a merchant, who was packing his things onto a carriage.
At the front of the carriage was standing a giant lizard, which almost looked like a dragon. “They’ve got dragons too?” I wondered, “well, no wonder, it’s a fantasy world, what more could there be?”
But as I was walking past the merchant, suddenly one of his boxes slipped from his hands and landed in the flowing river. The merchant immediately went after his crate, but not daring to jump in the river.
I could see his struggle, running after the crate, but too far away to reach without touching the water.
I stood there for a second, not knowing what I should do. Should I leave him be and move on? Should I steal from him? Should I help him? The intrusive thoughts were deafening, trying to get the better of me.
I put a hand on my face, stopping the intrusive thoughts from taking over and cleared my head. “Maybe if I help him, he’ll lend me some food, I’d really need that now…” I thought.
I quickly went after the box in the flowing river, and when I was at a close enough distance from it, I jumped inside the river.
It was deeper than I originally thought it would be, but it didn’t matter. I swam to the crate and took a hold of it, then I pushed myself out of the water with the ledge of the river, pulling the box up and leaving it on the ground.
When I finally saw the merchant’s shocked face at my bold move, I thought it was a good thing. “A reckless action of kindness, maybe that can get me somewhere.” I muttered under my breath as I got out of the water, my clothes soaking wet.
The merchant took the wet box I pulled out and gave me a strange and calculating look.
It wasn’t what I expected, but if I would’ve gotten paid back for that action, anything would be alright.
I finally stood up and looked towards the merchant, who was putting his boxes back into his carriage. He hadn’t said anything, not even a thank you after what I did, which unsettled me a little bit.
But before I could make a move, he tossed me a towel and finally spoke, “Arigatou, demo okaeshi suru houhou ga nain da, bouya.”
I stood there, with a towel in my face, trying to clean myself and the only thing I understood was “Arigatou”.
“Well, at least he said thanks, but I still don’t get what he said…” I thought. I dried myself, and even though most of my clothes were still wet, I didn’t complain.
I just waited for the merchant to say something or give me something for that fact. But when I gave back the towel, the merchant saw the expectation in my eyes and shook his head before closing the shop on me.
I was baffled, “Huh?! After all that he decides to say, ‘Screw this guy’ and leave me?” I was irritated and angry, and yet there was little I could do. My stomach was empty and my will to argue was below that, so I just walked away from the shop after giving it a good kick.
The merchant noticed that I had tried to damage his property and started shouting what sounded like curses towards me from inside his closed shop.
I couldn’t care less, not after all the energy spent, I just moved on. I went past the dragon-lizard type creature, looking at it one last time before moving on and searching for a place to stay.
Yet as I was walking away, the air felt strange. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, something just generally felt off in that situation.
Had I been cursed? Had my time finally come? Was the noble man from earlier today an actual threat?
But before I could dwell on my situation more, I suddenly heard it, or better, I stopped hearing it. The merchant that was hurdling curses at me suddenly went quiet.
I froze.
Why had he suddenly given up? It wasn’t normal for any person to just stop screaming at a random point, not when the scream sounded like it was cut off.
I turned around; the shop’s door was open. “It seems like the merchant was trying to come after me, but where is he?” I thought out loud.
The dragon-lizard creature looked back too, seemingly startled by the sudden cut off too. I noticed that detail immediately, something was wrong.
I went back to the shop, going in through the open door. “Anybody here?” I asked, but there wasn’t an answer. The shop was suddenly empty, defenseless.
“Either something strange happened, or this merchant is pulling something on me to trap me, I bet!” I spoke. I raised my hands in a defensive position, ready for any type of attack.
“Damn, this place is cold!” I thought as I searched through the crammed shop, chills running down my spine.
But when I searched through the tiny shop, nothing happened. It was completely empty.
“Huh, that’s strange…” I pondered, scratching my hair in confusion.
Before I could go on trying to explain the situation at hand, my stomach suddenly churred. “Oh yeah, that, of course.” I held a hand at my stomach and looked around the shop.
I spotted a small box of apples on one of the shelves.
And I hesitated.
“I shouldn’t steal… but what choice do I have either way? Eh, doesn’t matter, I saved this guy’s merchandise earlier, this’ll be my reward.” I concluded as I took the box of apples and walked back out of the shop, making sure to close the door behind me and avoiding the threatening stare the dragon-lizard was giving me.
“Hey chill, I’m starving, you know? Want an apple?” I threw an apple at the creature either way and it caught the apple effortlessly, eating it in one bite.
I took a bite of an apple myself, finally filling my stomach. “Damn, these apples are actually quite good.” I said, approaching the dragon-lizard.
The creature seemed calmer, allowing me to come closer, but not too close as it huffed out a bit of air. I stopped, “Well, you seem like a modest creature, not too bad to keep as a pet, you know?” I spoke.
The dragon, upon hearing my words, raised its head towards me a little, as if taking pride in the things I said.
“Well, I’ll probably leave it at that, good luck with your heartless owner!” I said and made my way out of that weird place. As I walked away, the giant Lizard tilted its head, seemingly confused.
I kept walking with no clear destination in mind, hoping to find something as I kept eating a few apples.
“Well, the night isn’t that bad, it feels like one of those summer nights, but the sun went down too early. At least it’s a bit warm and not as cold as in that cursed shop. I wonder what’s up with that.” I rambled. From the position of the moon in the sky above, it seemed like it was almost midnight, and I was getting tired.
I looked back at the road ahead, which was dark. But thanks to the light of the moon, the street was still visible. And yet with such a beautiful night with shining stars, the roads and rivers were completely desolate.
“I should probably go and find a place to sleep. If there are any abandoned buildings, I’m sure I’ll be able to get through the night.” And with that I was in search of an actual place to sleep.
Surprisingly, it didn’t take long until I found an abandoned building.
The windows were broken and all the doors were shut, but I still managed to get in without too much trouble. The place was empty safe for a few shelves full of dusty books and old chandeliers.
“It’s not perfect, but it’ll have to do. Today was a strange fucking day, I can’t lie. First, I get isekai’d, then I don’t speak their language and then people randomly disappear. Oh man, I really don’t like this place. I don’t want to act like the usual main characters from the anime’s that I’ve been getting recommended, but damn, not even an ability or special power? This is cruel.” I vented out to nobody as I leaned against the wall on the floor.
I looked around the abandoned room, taking in all the details as if I was looking for something specific. “Man, I don’t know why, but this room makes me feel nostalgic. It’s so peaceful… why?” I mused, “I better go sleep actually, I don’t want to stay awake any longer and think about this too much; I’d practically die if I did.” I joked in my head.
I stood up, took a piece of cloth that was lying on the ground and used it as a pillow.
I laid down, making myself comfortable on the cold wooden floor and closed my eyes, trying my best to fall asleep as quickly as possible. I closed my eyes.
It was a narrow corridor, dark and flooded with ankle-deep water. A shadow stood at the end of the corridor; it looked like a boy. He was exhausted, but his expression was obscured by the shadows.
It was a massive gate, stretching on from the corners of one’s view. It was mostly white, but in the distance, at the top of that gate, there was a shadowy figure. The shadow’s shape was strange, it looked like a human, but it was distorted.
It was the street of a city at night. It was empty, not even the shadows of the moon were there to make company.
It was the silhouette of a tower, reflected on the surface of a lake. The water was moving, distorting the shadow of the tower.
It was a bridge. The end wasn’t in sight, nowhere to go and nothing to do. It seemed endless, no matter if you went forth or back. It slipped.
I woke up, jolting up and panicking.
My heartbeat was fast and my breathing was heavy. After a few seconds of holding my chest with both my hands, I breathed a sigh of relief. “Holy shit, it was just a dream… but it was weird… What did I see in there?” I asked myself, unsure of what was happening to me.
I looked around, “Oh yeah, I’m still in this new world. I completely forgot.” A frown formed on my face at the thought of having to survive another day in this wicked place.
“Well, cry me a river, I guess. That’s life for you.” I sighed as I got up. My arms stretched forward, relaxing and easing the tension in my muscles. I looked over to the box of apples, which were still fresh.
“Ringo” I thought, “Yes, that's the name.” I walked over to the box and took an apple out. “I just hope they fill my thirst.” I mumbled with a hoarse voice.
I took a bite into the succulent fruit, letting the juices flow into my mouth and spill a little over my jaw. “Hmm… doo sfeet” I spoke as my mouth was muffled by the fruit.
I took the apple from the clench of my teeth and cleaned my mouth with my arm. “I'll need to find a reliable source of water, maybe I can go back to that merchant from yesterd- wait a minute what happened to him?” I scratch my neck in contemplation.
“Pff, no way I'm worrying about that jerk after he dismissed me in such a rude way.” I walked over to the broken window where I broke the night before.
I put my head out of the window, seeing nobody around and threw the box of apples on the ground outside. I jumped after it and took the box back up and started my exploration again.
“Hey, if I find some way to make a stable income, it wouldn't be so bad here. It's summer weather, the abandoned building could be a sleeping option (if no one comes to check) and the food here looks delicious.” I thought out loud as I walked out of the shadows of the alley, the sun hitting my skin in a comfortable way.
I looked up, the sun was already high, “Oh damn, I slept ‘til midday, that's a waste.” I commented as I made my way through the busy streets with a box of apples in hand.
I was admiring the view of the city, how the gorgeous sunlight was hitting the buildings and the sheer resemblance of old memories.
I glanced over, in the distance a giant tower was in the middle of the city, possibly the center of this place, but something unexpected happened.
As I was looking over, a giant ice crystal impaled the tower. “Magic?! I knew there was Magic! But what could possibly have caused such a reaction, to destroy a tower?” I told myself; I was practically sprinting towards the magic incident.
As soon as I got there, I saw him, the guy with the out-of-place clothes together with two other girls.
“Hey! It's him” I said in excitement, “What is happening, why is he so tense?” I asked myself while walking towards him, finally getting a chance to talk to the boy.
Suddenly, the ice crystal on the tower above broke, leaving a person wrapped in bandages in its place. She screamed something downwards at the people who caused it.
My vision blurred for just a second. “It's an injustice!” I thought, “Why must there always be an obstacle between me and my goals?!”
I started moving towards the modern-clothed boy and his friends.
“I can't stand it, why must that half-elf take away my beloved!?” I paused, “...what? My beloved?” I thought.
I grit my teeth, “I'll get her and teach her a lesson about my property!”
I slowly moved towards them; they looked like they started to panic. I prepared my fists, clenching them until my knuckles were white.
Before I could get any closer to them, my feet stopped moving.
“I'll kill them! I'll kill them all! I'll kill-” I blinked, repeatedly.
I suddenly stopped trying to move my feet, which were stuck. There was ice holding my feet, acting as a trap to hold me back.
I looked around and realized I wasn't the only one stuck in the ice. All the other People in the place next to the tower were stuck as well.
I let out a silent “huh” as I looked around, “What happened? What was I feeling…?” But before I could answer those questions, the bandaged person was engaged in a fight against the… elf, was it?
The elf-girl was conjuring weapons of ice to fight against the bandaged person, breaking them and rematerializing them out of nowhere.
It was a beautiful fight, but my attention got snapped back into reality as the modern-clothed boy tapped me on my shoulder and said quickly with a strained voice “Nee, dasshutsu o tetsudatte ageru yo?!”
I looked at him with a questioning look, but when I tried to move, I realized my feet were still stuck in the ice.
“He's trying to get me out” I thought, “Why would he do that, is he some sort of hero?” He grabbed my arm, trying to get me out of the ice. The boy tried helping me getting out of the trap, but was interrupted as some chains slammed between us, making the boy stumble back.
Both our eyes widened at the same time. He screamed something in the other direction, probably asking for help.
It was too late, the golden chains wrapped around me and there was nothing I could do as they suddenly tightened around me.
Something snapped inside of my chest, and I screamed as the pain coursed through my whole upper body. “Fuck…!” is all I managed to choke out as my own blood started leaking from my chest.
And as the boy tried to free me from my imprisonment, the bandaged person launched herself against me with a smile and cut my legs off in one swift motion.
I couldn't even scream, all the air in my lungs got knocked out as I saw my own life fading in front of me.
“I never even got to ask…” were my last thoughts before I closed my eyes.