Blackness. Everything was black. I felt like I was floating,levitating in a wide expanse of emptiness. Where am I? This can't be Heaven,can it? It looks more like Hell. But its empty. If this is Heaven or Hell,then where are the angels or demons,or the other dead people? Is this some kind of waiting room for me to wait in until I enter the Afterlife? Maybe this isn't Heaven or Hell,but Purgatory. The place that people are said to go when they die if they aren't good enough to enter Heaven but not bad enough to enter Hell either. Still,its so quiet in here,and I don't know where to go. I hope I don't end up being stranded here forever. I'd rather be in Hell than having to spend eternity in this place. I'll go mad in here if I don't find a way out. And I thought dieing was bad,but this is even worse.
Suddenly,I heard voices. Two voices;one a girl's voice,the other a boy's. Both of them sounded around my age,but the boy sounded a little bit older than the girl. I couldn't distinguish what they were saying,but I had a feeling that they were talking about me. The darkness was fading away,and the room got brighter all of a sudden. It was then that I realized I was looking through my eyes,and that somehow I was alive. I saw a wooden ceiling in front of me,and I noticed that I was lying down on a bed in a small room,with a doorway on my left and a dead-end wall on my right. The walls were made of wood just like the ceiling,and it gave me the impression that I was in a cabin or log home of some sort.
"He's finally awake",said a female voice on my left side. "Brother,come quick,he's finally awake!"
"I'm coming",said a male's voice,presumably her brother's.
I turned around to see a girl,around 5"6 or so,with long brown hair and big brown eyes. She was white,and looked to be around my age,give or take a year. She was wearing an odd-looking outfit;a cross between a magician's and a hunter's outfit,and she had a staff or scepter of some sort on the back of her,for lack of a better word,blouse. The staff or scepter or whatever the heck it is was strapped to her back in a leather pouch or vest which was shaped identically to the staff(or scepter). She was also wearing a pair of what looked like sandals on her feet. She was both cute and beautiful,especially with the smile she currently had on her face. As a matter of fact,she was one of the most beautiful,if not the most beautiful girls that I had ever seen;she reminded me a lot of a typical,generic anime girl. Now that I think of it,she does look a lot like an anime girl,ripped straight out of the pages of a manga or transported from out of an anime show.
At that moment,a boy entered the room through the doorway,walking behind the girl and stopping at the other end of the room,where he stayed standing and leaning against the wall,his eyes staring intently at me. He was white,had dark brown hair like the girl,had brown eyes,also like the girl,and looked around 5 feet and 10 inches tall. He was wearing a black shirt,brown leather pants,and a pair of moccasins on his feet. He also wore a belt around his waist,which had a sheath strapped to it. Inside the sheath was a long,wide-bodied sword. The boy looked like he could have been a real-life incarnation of a young King Arthur,minus the chain mail and armor. But a more odd physical attribute of the boy was that he looked like an anime character,with his big eyes,the shape of his hair,the contours of his body,and the appearance of thin,detailed outlines around the edges of his body,most notably his arms and legs. Looking back at the girl,I noticed the same thin outlines on her body as well,most prominent,again,on the arms and legs. My thoughts were interrupted by the girl,who started to speak to me.
"Hello. My name is Akemi Himura,and that's my brother,Hibiki",she said as she pointed towards the boy in the corner. "You've been sleeping for a long time now. We were walking in the forest this morning when we found you on the ground,unconscious. We were pretty worried,because you had many broken bones and serious internal injuries;you were very close to death and I wasn't sure whether we could save you or not. But sure enough,you survived the trip from the forest to our house,and I was able to heal all of your injuries just in time. You're very lucky to be alive right now;if we hadn't been in the forest at the time,you wouldn't have made it. I'm sure you must be very confused about all of this,but could you possibly tell us what happened to you?"
I sat straight up in the bed,completely at a loss as to what to say. I was still feeling a bit disoriented. I tried to think about how I should respond,and struggled to remember what had happened to me and how I ended up being found near death by the two of them in the middle of a forest in goodness knows where. Then,everything came flooding back to me,and I saw myself leaving detention from Mr. Ross and walking towards home from school,and the hole in space pulsating in the middle of the woods on the hill,and how I touched it and suddenly found myself free-falling towards the ground from high up in the sky,and the last thing I remembered was accepting my seemingly imminent death,and then everything went black.
Akemi spoke again,"Well,do you remember anything about what happened to you? Did someone attack you,or did you fall from a tree,or what?"
I responded,"No,I...I was coming home from school when I came across a" --
"Coming home from school?",Akemi interrupted in an inquisitive tone.
"Yes",I replied,"I was coming home from school when I found this weird hole in the middle of the woods,and it was big and pulsating like an energy vortex of some kind,and then when I went to touch it,I got warped into the sky and I started falling towards the ground,and I guess I must have hit the ground in the middle of the forest so hard I broke every bone in my body,and then...I guess you guys found me and kept me alive by bringing me here and treating my injuries,right?"
Akemi looked dumbfounded,and her brother Hibiki had a very similar expression on his face. I wasn't surprised in the least that they reacted this way to my explanation. I mean,come on,who's going to believe that some kid walking home from school finds a magical hole in the space-time continuum and somehow ends up being thrust way up into the sky and then falls back down to the earth where he crashes in a forest,breaks every bone in his body,and then miraculously is found by two good Samaritans while they were walking in the forest who transport the kid to their house and treat his vast injuries and somehow the kid wakes up from being unconscious and starts questioning his saviors about who they are and where he is and how he got there. You have to admit that's pretty wild,even for a tall-tale.
Akemi and Hibiki suddenly burst out laughing,while simultaneously shaking their heads in pity. After a few minutes of non-stop laughing from both of them,Akemi managed to pull herself together and replied,
"That has got to be one of the most crazy and ridiculous stories I have ever heard in my life,and believe me,I've heard a lot of stories from many different people! You certainly have a very active imagination,or at the very least,you hit the ground so hard you smashed your brain in the process!"
Akemi burst into laughter once again,with Hibiki quickly joining in on the laugh fest. I felt humiliated,but of course,I knew I had this coming. If I was in their shoes,and I heard someone say that to me,I'd break out laughing too,or at the very least,assume that the person was insane or simply being sarcastic. But it was real;I lived through the experience of being warped into the sky by a hole in the space-time continuum which resulted in my near-death crash landing into a deserted forest in a place I didn't and still don't know. I wish there was a way I could prove it to them,but of course there isn't. The two siblings stopped laughing again,and Akemi once again started to talk.
"Ok,enough about that,we can revisit that subject later,but seriously,what is your name?"
"Gary Coswell",I answered.
To my dismay,they began laughing yet again,as I puzzled over what they could be laughing about this time.
"Oh my--ha ha ha ha...",Akemi giggled as she tried to stop laughing in order to finish talking.
"What a strange name...Gary Coswell. Is that really your name?",Akemi asked in what she tried to pass on as a serious demeanor in her motivation behind the question,though she was clearly struggling not to laugh anymore.
"Yes,that really is my name",I said. "I never thought it was a bad name though,but I guess you think so".
At the point of saying this,Akemi stopped laughing and the expression on her face quickly changed from one of amusement to one of shame.
"I see",she said. "So that is your real name. I'm sorry. I honestly thought you were joking because its such a weird name. I've never heard anything like it before".
Her statement perplexed me. My name may seem a little strange,my last name anyway,but my first name Gary is very common. As far as I could tell,Akemi seemed genuinely puzzled about my name,like she really never had heard of that name in her life. Is it possible that when the hole in space-time warped me into the sky,it had transported me over the sky of another country,on the other side of the world? Now that I think of it,their names,Akemi,and Hibiki,are definitely not English names,but sound very much like Japanese in origin. Did I land in a forest somewhere in rural Japan? If I did,then I'm in real trouble,because I'm a long way from home! However,it is a little peculiar that neither Akemi nor Hibiki have spoken any Japanese,even before I fully regained consciousness;they've spoken in no other language except English.
"There are a few things that I don't understand about all of this",I stated. "Let me ask you;I know this is going to come across as a weird question but,I have to know".
"Sure,ask away",Akemi replied.
And so I began my turn of questioning: "Ok first off,where am I? What country is this,and what county or province are we in? Is it Japan?"
"Japan?" Akemi was lost in thought,as if she was having trouble coming up with an answer to a simple question. "I'm sorry,but I don't know any place called Japan",she answered. "We are here,on the outskirts of Rukai Forest,and not too far from what remains of Shokano Village. Are you familiar with this area Gary?"
I can't believe this. She has never heard of Japan? Is this girl for real,or is she just pulling my leg? But I keep getting this eerie feeling that she is being genuinely honest towards me. "Ok look,maybe you really never have heard of Japan before,but surely you know about the United States,right?"
"I'm sorry,but I do not know of it either",Akemi responded in a most sincere tone.
I started to panic. This is crazy. How could she not know anything about the United States of America or Japan,and on top of that,I'm not familiar with Rukai Forest or Shokano Village. Darn it. At this rate,I'll never find out where I am or how to get back home before my parents get worried and I get in deep trouble for being gone for so long. Wait a minute! An idea just floated into my head. I completely forgot that I have my bookbag from school with me. Inside it is a map of the world which I often use during geography class to study. I'll just take that map out and show it to Akemi,and I'm sure she'll be able to point out where we are,and then I'll be able to plan my route back home. I looked for my bookbag,but it was nowhere near the bed. I then scanned the entire room from the doorway on my left to the extreme right wall near where Hibiki was still leaning against the corner of the room. It was nowhere in sight. I hope I didn't lose it during my encounter with the raging hole vortex in the sky and the resulting fall towards the ground. I have to ask Akemi if she has it or knows where it is,because if she doesn't know about it,I'm in a whole heap of trouble.
"Akemi,did you ever happen to come across a bag that I had with me?"
"Let me think...hmmm...ah yes,I did!",she said excitedly. "I put it in the den by the fireplace;let me get it! I'll be right back!"
A minute later,Akemi returned with my bookbag,much to my delight.
"Thank you", I said.
I immediately took the bag and unzipped the top compartment,and started rummaging through its contents,desperately looking for the map which might very well lead to my salvation and seeing my home,parents,and school again. I eventually found it at the bottom of the pocket,and eagerly snatched it out and unfolded it.
"Here,look at this",I said to Akemi. "Can you point out on this map where we are currently located?"
Akemi grabbed the map from me and studied it carefully. Minutes went by,and still,Akemi was studying the map,her eyes meticulously reading every inch of it. I grew more nervous and anxious by the second,and just when I began to think she would never finish,Akemi gave me her answer. "This map is wrong. It doesn't show anything in its proper location,and not only that,it seems to be so different from this world,that I would have to say that this map is from another planet. These landmasses are new to me,and I know this world very well,so I know when I see something that doesn't match up with the landscape on this entire planet."
I almost fell off the bed when I heard what Akemi said. This is not happening,I thought. It can't be. She's just geographically illiterate,that's all. That's all there is to it. Nothing to worry about. I'm sure Hibiki will be able to identify where we are on the map,and everything will be ok after that.
"Gary,you really are strange",Akemi remarked. "Everything about you is unusual,and this map is the strangest factor of all surrounding your identity. But I think I finally understand you now. You are not familiar with this place or anywhere on our world,because you are not from our world;you came from another planet which looks very different to this one."
At this point,I was breathing very heavily,as if a giant anvil had been placed on my chest,and my mind was going haywire,trying to process everything that I'd heard and the repercussions that they entailed. This was all too much,too fast. I was actually transported not to another country,but to a whole other planet in a parallel universe,a universe in which anime characters were real people,with real lives and real personalities. That means that the two of them,the brother and sister,the siblings,Akemi and Hibiki Himura,are real-life anime people,and they're standing right in front of me. After acknowledging all of that information,I snapped and went crazy.
"Oh my god! Its really true! You guys are both real anime characters! My dream has finally come true! Oh wow! I bet I'll be able to find and meet all of my favorite people,like Ichigo Momomiya and the Mew Mews from Tokyo Mew Mew,and Kaede,Nerine,Lisianthus,Primula,and Asa from Shuffle!,and Saber and Rin Tohsaka from Fate/Stay Night,and ooh,ooh,I almost forgot about the shounen anime and manga like Goku and Vegeta from Dragonball Z and GT,and Naru--"
Suddenly a fierce force knocked me down onto the bed,and I felt a strong desire to sleep,and I closed my eyes. As I drifted into a deep sleep,I overheard Akemi's voice. She said something like this:
"I'm so sorry Gary...but I had to put you to sleep. You were getting too wild and out of control,and I had to do it for your own good. I hope you can forgive me once you wake up again".
And with those words,I drifted into the most peaceful and heavy sleep that I have ever experienced in my entire life.