Third book in There's No Difference Between That World and This World book series. I recommend reading books 1 and 2 before reading this one.
My name is Soren Thain, just an average boy with a...less than average circumstance. It all started when I was transported to the world of Hyrule against my will; it was my job to save it from its fate of being taken over by Ganondorf, with the help of a girl named Alice I was able to convince Link to take up the mantle and save the world. With it saved me and Alice were able to go home and I thought that was it...but then two weeks later we were transported to the world of the Mushroom Kingdom where we met up with another person like us Gareth and with his help and Mario and Luigi's we were able to stop a war from breaking out and we were back home again...but I couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't over and there was more than meets the eye. It's been a month since then and I decided to check the library for any information I could find.
I gave a loud yawn as I flipped through page after page of old mythology books looking for some reference to travelers, the only things that came up were nomads or gypsies or pilgrimages that were liable in this world but didn't have anything to do with the current traveler reference I was looking for. Deciding books were useless in this matter I headed to the computer area to do some online research hoping that someone somewhere in the world would know of this term, after some 'interesting' websites coming up and weird fanfiction pouring out of every hole of this search engine I found a forum that seemed to discuss this; this was a few years old and had been closed but the thread had been left open for people to read and for me that was very good.
LordScrub58: Has anyone ever been taken to another world by their game system?
FragBlower: Yeah, and I saved a princess from a giant dragon by singing him a lullaby LOL JK!
LordScrub58: No I'm serious, one day I was playing my game and the next I was in Castlevania!
Gurlmast3r: Yeah right! Stop lying, that couldn't happen!
FragBlower: Stop trying to get attention! u r so pathetic!
LordScrub58: I'm telling the truth! I almost died and making it back here is a miracle!
Gurlmast3r: Whatever, we all know you're lying, so stop! No one cares!
FragBlower: Yeah, why don't you go back to that world and stay there forever! No one cares about you anyway!
CashMaster: WOULD YOU LIKE A FREE CAR? JUST FINISH THIS RESUME AND START DRIVING YOUR OWN FARARI NOW! CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINK: START DRIVING YOUR FARARI NOW!
Damn adds; at least with this thread I know had someone to contact about this matter, I was able to grab their email address off their account and sent them an email about this.
Dear LordScrub58,
I would like to contact you about the thread you posted back in 2010 about you traveling to the world of Castlevania, I've also been in the same situation you were in and I would like to talk to you more about what happened. If you would like to talk please email me back about this matter. Thank You.
Sending the email with a satisfied enter key slap I looked at the clock to see it was almost four; I still had a few hours to spend with Alice and Gareth before I had to turn in for the night.
It had been a month since our last adventure in the Mushroom Kingdom and since then I had spent every day with Gareth and Alice at the hospital; like last time our strength had increased for both me and Alice and I'm guessing Gareth but I was unsure as that was his first adventure with us. But now we gamed together as a group and I was glad about that, I had two true friends and that made me…happy? Why was I still debating this after everything that's happened!? What's left to give me any doubt? As I debated I felt someone walk into me and we both crashed to the ground with me on top of them.
"Owww. What the…Gareth's right I really should learn to not think so intensely when walking." Getting back up I helped the person I knocked over, it was a girl who looked around my age with red medium cut hair and deep brown eyes behind her bottom half rim glasses that she wore very well, "Sorry about that, are you okay?" As she looked at me she just stared for a minute as her cheeks turned slightly pink, "Um…hello?" I waved my hand in front of her face trying to snap her out of her trance.
"Oh…sorry for bumping into you, I-I didn't mean to, I'm just trying to get home and avoiding eye contact with strangers." Okay…that's weird but I'll let it slide; she seems skittish and easily frightened based on her posture and her eyes glued to the pavement.
"If you want I could walk you home, I know I'm a stranger but maybe the company would help you get home safely." I offered and she seemed to shy away.
"That's okay, I'll be fine on my own, I just have to be more careful." She gave me a smile but it didn't seem genuine, she was still scared.
"I insist, I bumped into you so let me help you home." I said giving her a soft smile to put her at ease. She gave me a nervous smile back and chuckled a little.
"Okay…sure! If it will make you feel better you can walk me home." She started walking and I joined beside her as we walked to her house; we walked in silence but she would occasionally look at me and back to the street in rapid motions. It was awkward but I was happy that she seemed to be at ease, her slouched over posture was a little straighter as we kept walking until eventually we came to her house. The only reason I knew it was her house was that she abruptly stopped in front of it; otherwise I would have looked at it and thought it was an abandoned old home. The windows were cracked or in some cases had a hole in them while the door was splintered and awkwardly tilting out of the frame off one of the hinges, the grass was dried and cracked as one step made it crunch under my foot. An old car was parked in the parking lot but the tires were gone and the hood was missing as was most of the interior parts including the engine; the paint of the house was chipped and some smaller holes were in the building almost making me wonder why this wasn't a hazardous building. Suddenly there was a crash coming from inside the house and some loud curse words spewed by what sounded like a middle aged man, "Thanks for walking me home, I think that's my cue to head inside." She said that with a smile that felt familiar for some reason…like something that's happened to me…I can't put my finger on it though; she walked away with a small wave as I did the same leaving me to head to the hospital and her to whatever was waiting for her inside.
I ran to the hospital to make up for the lost time and made it to Alice's room to see Alice and Gareth browsing through old games; Gareth seemed to be suggesting games while Alice replied with a short response.
"Tetris?"
"No."
"Punch-out?"
"No."
"Zelda II?"
"No.
"Super Mario Bros?"
"NO!"
"Geez, what's with the intense no Alice?" I asked turning their attention to me.
"There you are Soren, we were wondering where you were." Alice said with a huff.
"Yeah, you're usually here before me." Gareth said rummaging through the NES box, "Ghosts N' Goblins?"
"No."
"So why so defiant to play Mario?" I asked again.
"I haven't really felt like playing any game where we have been to the world that it takes place in, I haven't even played The Legend of Zelda since we went there."
"That was almost two months ago."
"It's still fresh in my mind when we went there though. It feels weird to play it again after that." She was right though; once you've experienced a world of a game for yourself it becomes odd to play it from a third person view and control someone else, "Now why were you late?"
"I stopped by the library to do some research on travelers and world jumpers." I replied sitting down next to the bed.
"Did you find anything?" Gareth asked done rummaging through the box, "You've been mad-dogging the subject since we got back and haven't found anything."
"If I had to guess I'd say books didn't help you?" Alice guessed.
"You'd be right there, but I did find someone online who went through the same experience in Castlvania on a forum."
"Don't trust people on forums Soren." Gareth said, "One minute you're having a nice chat and then they're insulting your mother. I don't even have a mother!"
"Trouble online Gareth?" Alice asked cocking an eyebrow.
"No, just jackasses across different continents thinking it's okay to insult others pisses me off." Gareth replied, "Also, Castlevania?"
"No."
"How long have you two been looking for a game to play?" I asked as Alice's response had some anger behind it.
"Too long." Alice said with a sigh.
"Maybe if someone wasn't so picky." Gareth said motioning to Alice.
"And maybe if someone didn't only recommend one player games!" Alice replied getting angrier; I think it was time for me to take over.
"Stop it you two, I'll find a game." Passing by them I rummaged through the box of games and saw the first Final Fantasy staring me in the face, "How about Final Fantasy? We can each choose a character in the party and control that person during the flow of battle making it a group dynamic and communication rather than just plain tactics." They sat there for a minute thinking then Gareth said something.
"What about the fourth?"
"Alternate control from person to person." They both gave a nod.
"Okay, Final Fantasy it is." Alice replied.
"Yeah because it's the one he chose." Gareth said passive aggressively.
"You want us to play a game? Make a convincing argument." Alice replied with her usual confident attitude. Sliding the game into the slot and closing it we started up the game of fantasies that was the first of many finals in the list…I think their up to fourteen now.
We spent a few hours and found ourselves still dealing with Garland and getting our butts kicked in record time.
"…either our teamwork sucks or we just suck at games." Gareth said as we died for the fifth time.
"I keep telling you to heal!" Alice said rubbing her forehead.
"I'm a black belt, I'm supposed to attack with all my might." Gareth replied, "Besides Soren kept wasting his turns on healing the white mage." So he wants to start something I see.
"If the white mage dies then we have no healer."
"The white mage can heal themselves." Alice said with a sigh, "You're a fighter, you attack!"
"And what about you miss black mage? Seems you keep using spells when they're clearly ineffective." I said sticking my tongue out at her.
"Want to keep that tongue? If not keep sticking it at me." Tongue goes back in my mouth, "Besides I have a knife, my weapon is barely a weapon at all and my spells are my best asset." We all went silent realizing that we all screwed up somehow with our communication.
"How is it that we could get through a world as a team and yet our communication is so lackluster it kills us in an RPG fight?" Gareth asked sulking.
"Different platform." I answered, "Like with Legend of Zelda and Mario it's always a different ball park when working from a controller and using your own two hands, it will always be a different story when in place and in third person."
"Even so this is pathetic." Alice said feeling defeated, "Maybe we should have grinded in the forest."
"Yeah going in at level one also didn't help us did it?" Another silence came over us.
"We just suck at games don't we?" Gareth asked. He wasn't wrong…we suck at games now but I'm guessing it wasn't always like that; at one point we were all at least decent gamers but it seems like now our gaming skills were worse than we expected.
"Maybe we're just too use to the actual adventure to get into gaming." I pointed out.
"That sucks." Gareth said tossing the controller, "If were not gamers any more than what do we do?" It was a good question; if we couldn't enjoy games than what was left for us to do as a group.
"I know." We heard a female voice emanate from all over the room and jumped in surprise, "I need your help again, lend me your strength and enter the world you've lost touch with in this realm." It was that female voice from the other adventures again.
"Again!?" Alice said surprised by the situation, "Before you decide to whisk us away to another world answer me a question." There was a silence as nothing happened, "I'll take that as a yes so…why us? So far you've sent us on two adventures and I want to know why." There was another silence and then she spoke.
"You are the only three I can rely on." The voice spoke with a sadness in her throat, "Please, lend me your power to stop him again, you are the only ones who I can rely on to help me."
"I have more questions first." Alice said not letting her slide under the rug on this.
"We'll help you." I hastily said surprising Gareth and causing Alice to sigh.
"Thank You, I appreciate your help." She replied.
"But once this adventure is over, you have to explain everything to us." I replied, this was our third time risking our life and since it seemed like whoever was directing us was giving us this time they were getting hesitant with relying on us, at this point she owed us answers and she knew it.
"Very well, once you have completed your quest I will answer all of your questions, I promise." After she said that a light enveloped the room as I felt my conscious mind fade into darkness.
I opened my eyes to see the blinding sun above me as I lied in a grassy field, the last time I woke up like this I could feel the wind blow over me but for some reason there was no wind to be felt; sitting up I looked around to see Alice and Gareth asleep in the same grassy field. I stood up and looked out to the south to see a large expanse of sea stretching over the horizon; the only notable landmark in the area was the large town to the north of us with a castle towering in the back of it. Hearing a yawn I looked over to see Gareth stretching as he stood up and Alice giving me a glare.
"I know, you're pissed because I agreed to it too quickly." I said trying to apologize when I heard her give a small chuckle.
"Actually…I knew you were going to do that." She knew me really well by this point.
"Well, we're here now so let's get moving!" Gareth said pumped for our adventure, "You ready Soren? Now that we're on this adventure before it ends I want to go up against you in a practice match!" He still wanted to do that? I promised him a match the last time but we never got around to it, guess I still had to keep my promise.
"Bring it on!" I said confidently.
"Before you two decide to get into a brawl how about we figure out where we are." Alice said refocusing us.
"Well there's a town right over there so we should probably head there and get some information." I said pointing to the nearby town.
"Sounds good to me." Gareth said heading for the town ahead of us. We entered the town and found it well populated; from the entrance we had view to see that there were different shops in the town including two magic shops and an armory with a normal item shop next to it.
"A town, ah it's good to see an actual area of people instead of bunkers and ruined towns." She was right, this was the first time we had actually been in a town with people while on an adventure, it was nice to see the world thriving while in danger at the same time.
"This just means that we're going to have to buy equipment to stay strong." Gareth pointed out making me search my belt for any items; all I could find was a small bag with about 200 gold coins, guess this was currency in this world.
"We should gather info about this world before doing anything." I pointed out making Alice and Gareth nod in agreement. We split up and talked to various villagers gaining some idea of what was happening in this world. Apparently the four elements of the world were dying off and they had taken a toll on the land; the wind had stopped completely making it almost impossible for ships to sail across the sea, the water had become contaminated and making almost all water undrinkable and poisonous, the heat and fire of the world raged out of control making desserts much more hazardous and volcanoes more volatile and the earth had begun to rot away making crops unable to grow. With these problems in the world it narrowed down where we were to an incredible degree that I had no doubt about where we were.
"Soren, are we were I think we are?" Alice asked unsure of her answer.
"If what they said is true than that means-"
"Yes Gareth, we are in the world of the first Final Fantasy."