Chapter 1: Transferral

05:27 A.M, A crop farm near the border of the Fukui Prefecture, Japan...

"Come on, you can't honestly expect us to allow you to do this," Tachida said in retaliation.

"Yeah. Do you know how much trouble we'll get into if anyone finds out?" Our friend added, taking a step closer to me.

"I'm doing it, you can't stop me," I replied coldly.

Allow me to bring you up to speed; I'm currently being confronted by my last two friends. They're trying to prompt me out of a decision I'd dismissed further discussion upon a long time ago...

"Look, Jake, this is illegal!" Akira said, drafting a worried look. "Not only that, but you might die from this! What do you think this'll do to us, to your family?"

This is my friend, Akira-san. I met him in Tokyo when I first moved there a few years ago, back when things actually mattered. He decided to follow me and keep me company when I left due to... certain circumstances. And no, I'm not Japanese. My name should say as much. I moved here from England around 6 years ago, my head filled with aspirations... dreams... hopes for the future. But that all disappeared long ago, along with the rest of my world.

"I don't associate myself with them any more; not since they made a pact with the Vialleno and started that accursed hunt," I retorted bluntly, a glint of repressed anger surfacing in my voice. "Besides, you both know that this is all I want to do now. Whether I prove my theory right or die, it doesn't really matter to me any more. I see no more joy for me in this world, only emptiness and solitude." I take a few steps forward, bringing myself closer to the machine in front of me

"Even so!" Tachida-san, my other friend, started, "If the Old man finds out you'll be in a lot of trouble!"

I sigh, looking upon him with tired eyes. This is Tachida-san, he's the only son of the owner of this farm. He and his father were kind enough to let me and Akira-san live here, provided we offer free labour, of course.

"I won't be here after this experiment Tachida." You see, I used to spend my free time concocting theories and testing them with the laws of physics for fun. This just so happens to be one of those theories, and if my calculations are correct, then this experiment will have 3 possible outcomes. "If this transporter works, I'll be in another dimension far away from this one." That's the first possibility, hypothetically standing at a mere 2.3% chance of occurrence.

"I- I know but-"

"If not," I interrupted, "Then my body will collapse from the pressure, causing me to die instantaneously. What will then happen to my body... I don't know." This is the second outcome, with approximately an 91.6% chance of happening. "And if that doesn't happen-"

"You'll be expelled from our dimension for breaking the laws of physics, but being left with nowhere to go; resulting in becoming non-existent," Akira finished for me. This, ideally, has an 6.1% chance of happening, but oddly seems the most realistic.

"Precisely. This is why I'm not worried, Tachida. Nothing bad could happen to me." I turned my back to him and made my way to the machine's entrance, slipping on the suit I had prepared for this experiment.

He took a step closer to me. "Nothing bad? There's a zero percent chance of you ever returning! And even if that's what you want, you only have a slim chance of living afterwards! How is any of that good!?"

"Because my world has already ended," I replied with venom. Those words left a rancid taste on my tongue, the truth hurting more than the malicious tone.

He didn't respond, instead he simply ran his eyes across my back in search of something, something to pull me back to his side. But after many painstaking moments he retired, lowering his head with a heavy sigh. "I'm not going to be able to change your decision, am I?" He glanced back up at me, hoping for a last minute change of heart.

"I'm glad you're beginning to see sense now." I kept my back to him and turned to face Akira, allowing him the displeasure of seeing my resolve one last time.

"So this is it... where our life ends." Akira approached me, his eyes welling up with tears as he, too, started to accept the truth. He embraced me, letting his emotions pour out onto my body. "I- I'm going to miss you, Jake," he started, his voice shaking from his light sobbing. "You've been my greatest friend, and an irreplaceable mentor. Because of you, I-... my life-..." He tried to say more, but his voice cracked to the point where his words were beyond recognition. After a few more seconds he pulled away, tears streaming down his face. " A-are you sure you don't want me to tell the others? I should still have some of their contact details somewh-"

"No." My words still cold and unsentimental as they cut him off. "I decided to leave the broken pieces of my life behind, they are no exception. The only reason that you're still with me is because I simply needed scientific help with this, nothing more."

He just looked at me... and smiled.

The damn fool, even after I said that to him he still believes that I'm his friend. I wanted him to at least feel a little less amicable before I left, to minimize his pain.

"Okay, I understand." A somewhat content tone left his lips. And that was the last thing I heard from him... ever.

Acknowledging his response as a symbol of his insignificant consent, I turn my back on him and focus on my creation.

Now within arm's reach of this contraption, I place my hand on the outer rim of its circular opening. The opening itself spanned a 75cm radius and supported three differing switches, each at a different point on the rim. With a click of one of the buttons, an invisible 'portal' appeared in the gap, boasting an amazingly strong force that pulled everything nearby to its centre. This machine... enabled the travel out of our space-time continuum. By speeding an object or person beyond the speed of light, you would enable time travel in the opposing direction in which we naturally flow. By continuing to speed up said object, it would start to travel back in time at a greater rate. But humans could never dream of achieving such a speed, and this is for a very simple reason: terminal velocity. But I found a way to escape this setback. Five years ago, a fifth sate of matter was accidentally discovered when the Division for Planetary Science peaked in budget and sent several probes to outside of our solar system. Naturally, this increase in budget is old news, but the discovery of this matter and how to create conditions allowing for it to form on Earth is not. Through disgusting connections which I'd rather forget, I was able to obtain some of this matter and its artificial enclosure, but for observing purposes only. But after Earth's leading physician minds continued research on this new form, I, and much of the world, found that it had a very close connection to the spacial plane around us, almost as if pieces of 'space' itself was a key component of this matter's structure.

Using this information, I was able to construct both this machine and the suit I'm wearing. The machine uses simple physics on a drastic scale to propel anything placed in it to unbelievable speeds; while this suit utilizes the matter's spacial properties to embed my very being within a chunk of 'space'. While like this, 'I' won't actually be moving, meaning that I gain no air resistance and my mass never increases. But in my place, the 'space' around me shall be propelled at the speed allowed by the machine; and since space cannot be affected by forces such as air resistance and gravity, it will never gain or lose speed. This means that I've simply to hope that this machine can accelerate me beyond the point in which terminal velocity would normally halt me, otherwise I'll be moving endlessly until I eventually collide with an object and die.

I take a deep breath, staring into the seemingly empty void of my machine. This gateway means so much to me... a gateway to escape from everything... this mundane life... my never-ending suffering... this broken, messed up world, where I owned not even the smallest leisure.

My lips bent slightly into a smile, something I hadn't done in years. I braced myself, ready to take what I've spent years yearning for, for myself. Without looking back, I gave my friends one final instruction, one to finalize our severance. "Once I pass through, destroy it. Bury the pieces where no-one will find them."

I never did bother checking if they agreed to do so, it wouldn't be any weight on my shoulders if they didn't. All that mattered was that I was able to break free.

And with that thought, I stepped into my escape... only to be surprised at what awaited me on the other side...

The date is Thirteenth of May, 2026.

...

...I can't move...

...Am I dead...?

Hehe... guess it didn't work... after all...

A low murmur flowed around me, the noise barely audible to my ears.

...Hm? Voices...? Then, I'm not dead?

The murmur continued. I caught the odd words said, but my brain couldn't process them.

...Maybe I'm just a consciousness now? No... my body aches. That's proof enough that I'm real...

"...-o the palace!"

A palace...? So... that means it worked? I travelled to another dimension?

A splitting pain razed through my brain, delaying any and all thought processes.

Guh... my head hurts... I can't think straight...

Slowly, my mental state started to deteriorate, my senses, though already lacking, began to fade away. The last thing I can recall before blacking out is a tugging sensation on my arms, as if I were being dragged somewhere. Needless to say, everything after is a blank space in my memory.

? ?:? ?, ?, ?, ?...

I slowly open my eyes, an awful pain ripping through my head as the harsh whiteness of light burnt its presence into my retinas. I quickly re-close my eyes and wince, the pain slowly fading after a few seconds pass.

"Hm? Oh, I see you're awake now, our mysterious guest."

I flinched from the shock of hearing the alien voice. But shortly after, I started to steadily raise my head to the source of the voice and tried my luck at regaining vision again. Slowly, my eyes started to adjust to the area's light intensity, a mysterious figure forming before me. Once the image had been fully processed, I found myself unable to think clearly again; not through pain or some other affliction, however, but through pure shock.

"Now," the regal figure spoke gently, her soft voice almost soothing my frantic state of mind. "I'd like to ask you a few questions."

Author's note:

Okay, I finally motivated myself enough to write this. This is my first attempt at any form of (non-academic) literary work so don't expect it to be good :P This just came from a dream I had a few days ago, so I thought that I may as well use it as a story and see where it goes.

Review on the good, the bad, and the myeh!

Author's Note, FROM THE FUTURE!

Hello new readers! I'd just like to let you know that this chapter has been re-done, and that the following 28 chapters are all going under re-construction and re-naming and shall be finished at some unprecedented time in the future. But do not fear (well, that's all up to you, really), the re-construction consists only of making the chapters less crappy overall, and the story will remain unchanged! Well, for most of the chapters, anyway...

Anyways, thanks for reading this and I wish you a good remainder of your day ^_^

Bye bi!