Chapter 3: Difficulties and Language Barriers

The instant the door slammed shut behind him, Ed immediately shivered from the sudden cold, like any and all heat that had been inside the corridor and Ed had been taken away once the door was sealed. Clinging onto his ratty jacket as his only source of heat while holding the wooden key in his hand, Ed started to make his way through the dark corridor.

It was almost pitch black; dark, suffocating and mysterious-feeling. It was so dark that Ed was surprised he hadn't bumped into anything by accident yet. Fortunately, the road was perfectly straight, stretching forwards and backwards; allowing Ed to either retreat back to the cul-de-sac, or continuing onwards to whatever's beyond the path.

Having the adventurous personality he is, Ed continued onwards.

"Am I the only human here?" Ed loudly murmured to himself, scritching his fluffy red hair in curiosity and confusion. How else could Ed have come to that conclusion, if he had been walking for only seven minutes, after encountering no one else but himself?

Ed continued walking onwards, despite the weird feeling that he was being watched by the shadows itself, despite the fact the ground was far too unnaturally smooth despite being in (presumably) the woods.

Despite the fact that Ed swore that the occasional pinpricks of light that peered through the darkness looks like eyes looking at him. The sheer oddity of the path just screams weird to even Ed of all people, unnerving him slightly and goading him to walk faster.

After eight minutes of walking, the path below Ed starts to become more bumpy and textured and the shadows started to lighten up, allowing Ed to finally see beyond the darkness as he walked further ahead.

After another while, Ed had finally left the shadowy road behind him and stepped into the light, shielding his eyes in discomfort from the sudden change in brightness.

There were trees all around him, reminiscent of the woods a tad, and the shrubbery was wild everywhere. Some trees were still lush with leaves, but dyed with a bright orange color, obviously a sign of autumn quickly approaching.

But the most suspicious thing that caught Ed's intrigue the most was the fact that it was daytime.

While it may sound rather normal, to put it simply why it was so strange; it was three quarters past six back in Peach Creek, and by the time Ed got to the gate, it was already late evening.

Ed checked his smartwatch and glanced at the Peach Creek time; 6:56 p.m.

Ed was immensely confused, "It makes sense, I think…? But why does it say 6:57 when it's daytime where I am here?"

Putting his confusion aside for the time being, Ed started to walk forward in hopes of getting answers.

The scenery was colorful, but rather unfamiliar and disorienting; Ed had walked around back to where he was at least four separate times thanks to most of the trees' being virtually identical to the one next to it.

Ed had resigned to walking straight forwards after a while, his walking-to-whatever's-looks-different strategy obviously not working. Ed sighed in mild confusion, stepping through the trees with a sort of tired confusion and listlessness.

"Wherever I am is pretty…" Ed notes blandly, staring at the bright orange-ish leaves scattered in both the air and the ground.

Walking for the next three minutes was hardly the most exhilarating experience Ed ever had, so Ed, like always, became distracted by literally everything, again.

So it's only natural he walked past through the strange forest and straight into a shrine by accident.

And by walk into, I mean he walked through the walls of a shrine.

In fact, the only thing that even kept Ed in place to prevent him from smashing more walls by accident was that of a strange blue barrier.

"Anatadare?!"

Ed yelped right back to awareness, and that means being aware of a certain angry shrine maiden.

She wore bright red clothing, with a large white collar embroidered with red zigzags and a yellow ribbon tied underneath. A large red dress that extends just pass her knees was also decorated with white zigzags. A large, somewhat frilly ribbon tied back her long, blackish hair into a ponytail with locks of her hair by the side of her face inserted into red hair tubes of sorts. Weirdly, her white sleeves weren't attached her shirt, but rather left detached and kept in place by red ribbons.

Her expressions outright screamed "I'm very angry" and she was biting her lip and clenching her funny stick that's decorated with the same streamers on Ed's key like she was about to scream and fly into a very violent rampage.

"Oi, anatahadare?" the girl barked angrily, obviously upset at the ruined wall with an Ed-shaped hole in front of her and behind Ed himself, she looked like she would literally kill Ed if she didn't have a conscience.

"Ehhh…" Ed enunciated uncertainly, not having even the slightest clue on what she was saying.

Furrowing a brow at him with a scrutinizing glance, the girl leaned her head backwards and shouted so loudly Ed was sure that it left his ears ringing violently.

"YUKARI!"

The tall boy cringed away from her voice, massaging his ears as he does so, "Ow ow ow…"

In the instance the girl yelled out whoever's name, the air right next to the maiden slowly part away more and more until it's about the size of a large park bench. Two red ribbons swiftly tied around the ends of the cleft in the air into an elegant knot before the void filled with with a swirling purple, flecked with bright red eyes, all blinking and staring straight at Ed.

Then before Ed could dwell to long on it, one hand gripped the edge between the gap and the air, then another, hoisting the owner of the hands up and onto the edge.

She had wore a big pale pink dress, falling far past her knees and just above her ankles, with a strange purple tabard decorated with symbols and a yin-yang in the lower left corner right over the dress. She wore a white hat with a red ribbon that reminded Ed vaguely of a shower cap. Long, messy blond hair fall down from under the shower cap—I mean—mob cap where it was loosely tied at the end by the same red ribbons on the weird crack in the air.

Her red eyes were half shut and groggy like she had been woken up rather unpleasantly, but the instant she saw Ed and the key in his hand, her eyes suddenly seemed a lot more attentive.

"Ara, anatadare?~" the woman yawned, holding her slender hand to her mouth to block her yawn.

"Um… I can't understand you." Ed muttered quietly, still poking at his ears in minor discomfort.

"Hmm?" the woman hummed, "anata wa watashitachi o rikai shite inai nodesu ka? Shinpaishinaide, sugu ni shuusei sa reru yoteidesu."

After she finished saying whatever she said, Ed suddenly felt something in his heart and brain clicked together, and he suddenly felt unfamiliar to himself.

"I—ima nani ga atta no?"

"W—what just happened now?" Ed uttered, unaware that he was now fluent at Japanese somehow.

"Oh, I can understand him now," the woman smiled, "and I suppose you do too, Reimu~?"

"Yeah," the girl, whose name was apparently Reimu, muttered, "and I guess you did something with your boundary power to him, right Yukari?"

"Yep," the woman, Yukari, smiled, "So now, may I please ask who are you?"

"Um, I'm Ed," Ed stuttered, "And where am I? And who are you?"

Yukari smiled a wry smile, and she said, "You're now in Japan, in Gensokyo."

"Gen, so, kyo?..."

Jack's Notes

I'm so evil, leaving you with a cliffhanger, haha XD.

Anyways, here's the moment you all have been waiting for, Ed in Gensokyo. If you're still wondering how Ed knows about Gensokyo, I'll explain it in the next chapter.

Oh, and two things to be on the lookout for.

1. Ed will have an ability of his own.
Don't worry, it's nothing too reality-changing, it's a simple one really and I think it's perfect for Ed. If you think you know what it is, PM or put it in the review.

2. Eddy and Edd will eventually get suspicious and find out Ed's secret.
Don't you think it's fishy that your friend literally and suddenly disappear off the face of the earth then come back the next day? Yeah, I thought so, the two Eds will figure out his secret somehow, and catch Ed in the act.

And that's pretty much it! So remember to keep those two things in mind when reading the next chapter, okay? Till next time,

Bye bye!