Chapter 2: The First Steps

Kazuma still had made no progress in attempting to contact Sue, and was beginning to feel extremely nervous. Every time he commanded his computer to try and find her, the same reply of "No users found" would show up again to taunt him.

"Ugh, come ON!" he shouted at it, as if that would help much. Still nothing.

Leaning back in his chair, he put a hand over his eyes and groaned. He didn't want to think about what could happen if he remained trapped in that room with no supplies for too long (though the thought had crossed his mind at least once already). Even as a grown man he was beginning to feel like a lost and helpless child, stuck in that metallic "time-out" chamber for the foreseeable future.

Suddenly, a quiet beep came from the computer. His eyes snapped open as he stared at the screen in hope.

"One user 'Sue' found."

"YES! FINALLY!"

Kazuma began typing so fast and with such ferocity that it was a wonder he didn't completely break the keyboard in his excitement.

"Sue! Do you read me? Please respond! They're looking for you, and probably me too. Are you okay? …Sue? Are you asleep or something? Your brother is so lonely in here…"


Quote stifled a gasp as his foot hit a snag in the rocks and sent him tumbling forward. He painfully crashed onto the floor, silently cursing himself for not paying attention. Getting back up and checking himself for injuries, he noticed that the skin on his forearms was rather badly scratched from the landing. Stinging sensation aside, however, it wasn't too bad. Keeping his eyes peeled, he continued to trek through the cave.

A very unpleasant smell hit his nose soon enough, which he quickly attributed to the fact that the floor was littered with bat droppings. The creatures themselves, apparently sleeping on the ceiling, took no notice of the young man as he walked by. Quote decided to be grateful for not attracting unwanted attention from them.

He still had no idea who he was or why he'd been laying in there for what felt like months, and the more he walked the more questions he thought of. What was this place? Had he been captured by someone and tucked away so nobody could ever find him? If so, what had he been doing beforehand? It must have been something important if that were the case. How long was he unconscious for, and why did he suddenly wake up now? And just how long did this cave go on for anyway?

The last question at least was answered after another two minutes of walking. Quote found himself at a dead end, staring down an enormous chunk of the wall carved into the crude shape of a tiger's head. Its lifeless stone eyes peered out over the cavern, and as he walked closer he could make out even more details on it. A nose, ears, and small whiskers were visible on the carved rock. How he knew what a tiger was when he didn't even know who he was frustrated Quote more than just a little, and recognizing all the accuracies on this thing didn't make it any better.

He looked into the tiger's gaping mouth. It was more than large enough to fit his whole body inside, although the sharp teeth made him feel apprehensive about getting too close. On the other hand, Quote peered further in and saw something that raised his spirits tremendously: light! Maybe it was a way out! Briefly forgetting about his unease, he stepped between the carved stone teeth and ran through the exit, finally breaking free of that cave and arriving at…

…another cave. A considerably smaller one, at that. The light he'd seen came from a gently flickering torch fixed to the wall, and the dim glow mirrored his confidence by then. Not to say it was completely devoid of features, though. A wooden table in the center attracted his eyes, as did the object sitting on it.

He needed to get closer to inspect it, but the thing was unmistakably a gun. A pistol, to be exact, colored metallic blue with a wooden grip. A small white star was visible on its barrel, and the name "Polar Star" was etched into the side of the gun. Its holster was right beside it on the table. Quote couldn't see any spare bullets on the table, or even a place to load them into the weapon if there had been. Out of curiosity, he pointed it at the wall of the tiger cave and pulled the trigger.

Whatever he'd been expecting, a white burst of light that loudly darted out of the barrel and impacted the rock wall before simply vanishing wasn't it. He looked closer at where the laser struck the cave to see his handiwork. To Quote's surprise, the Polar Star had left a considerable amount of cracks on the wall, and he wondered if he could use it to get past those rocks from earlier. Maybe a way out wasn't so impossible to find after all.

His brief sense of wonder all but dried up as a soft rumbling sound came from behind him. Quote whirled around and kept his new weapon pointed out to show he meant business (despite not really knowing the extent of his skill with a gun), but was met with a strange sight.

A wizened old man was sitting in the corner of the room, slumped over in a chair. Numerous tools were scattered around his feet haphazardly. His dark skin tone contrasted quite a bit with his frizzled gray hair and mustache, which gently swayed as the man snored.

Quote did a double-take. The old hermit (who he presumed owned Polar Star) had actually slept through his noisy arrival and the sound of the gunshot. How he didn't notice his sudden visitor was confusing, but that was far from the young man's mind. If anything, he was excited to finally meet another person. Maybe this man could help him learn who he was.

"Uh… hello?"

He paused at the sound of his own voice. It just occurred to Quote that he hadn't said a word ever since he'd woken up earlier, thanks to being the only person around. Now that he wasn't alone, though, he could better appreciate the moderately-pitched sound coming from his mouth. He also noticed how hollow his voice was, like it was echoing off something in his body. Was that supposed to happen?

No reply from the old hermit. Quote tried again to wake him up, speaking a bit louder. He clapped his hands in front of his face, shook him by the shoulders, and even tried tickling him, but it seemed the man was determined to stay asleep. Sighing, he gave up his attempts.

"Well, now what?"

He wasn't sure how he felt about stealing the Polar Star, but Quote knew that he had to get past the rockfall from earlier somehow. If he stayed asleep, the man wouldn't notice he was gone for some time, anyway. Perhaps he could just clear the path then return the gun (as well as apologize, if necessary).

With that thought in mind, he took both the gun and its holster and ran back through the caves in a fraction of the time it had taken to get that far. Quote didn't go unnoticed on his return, however. The bats which had been asleep before were now awake and clearly interested in sampling the pale-skinned person in their midst. They swooped down at him from multiple angles, forcing him to narrowly weave his way between them to get past unscathed. At some point, he remembered that he was armed and began firing the Polar Star to ward them off. Several bats dropped dead from the shots, causing the others to flee. He wondered how strong this gun really was.

Upon arriving at the rockfall from earlier, Quote tried to find a way of breaking it that wouldn't cause the whole thing to come crashing down on him. He eventually decided to work from top to bottom, firing off several shots that smashed apart the boulders with little difficulty. Within a minute, the path forward was free of obstructions.


"Come on, Sue!" Kazuma groaned aloud. It had been almost twenty minutes since he established communications, and there was still no reply.

"Type something, will you? I'm starving over here. Heck, I got so hungry I even ate a cockroach…"

He snickered to himself at the thought of his sister getting disgusted over that. The bugs were his only company, occasionally wandering in through that crack in the wall.

"LOL just kidding! But… if it comes down to it, I really will eat one."

He was terribly hungry.


Quote was elated to see that just a bit further beyond the former blockade was a door, colored dark gray with a brass doorknob. He wanted to turn back and return the Polar Star to its owner, but his curiosity to see what was past that point got the better of him. Surely there would be something to help him learn who he was. With a confident stride, he pushed the door open and stepped forward, ready to see what the world had to offer.

His expression blanked as his foot didn't meet solid ground, and Quote opened his mouth in a silent cry as he plummeted down the large hole in the floor.