"Oh, shit-!"

*THUD*

"Ow!"

After falling through the "hole" in my wall, my body quickly hit what I think is the floor. However, this didn't feel like the wooden flooring of my house. It was rougher, and very painful to lay down on. My leg ached from the fall, but I ignored it in favor of figuring out where I am. I rose to my feet and rubbed my eyes, clearing my vision. When I opened them, I was greeted with... an alleyway? I turned around and looked at my surroundings, confused.

The floor I had landed on seemed to be made of stone. It reminded me of Roman walkways, albeit quite rougher. The alley I was in lay between two buildings that kept it shadowed from the sun, with seemingly more alleyways & buildings deeper inside. The exit to the alley was showered in sunlight, preventing me from seeing beyond it due to the brightness. With nowhere else to go other than the darkness, I pressed forward toward the light.

Limping out into the sunlight, I used my hand to shield my eyes from the blinding rays. The ball of fire sat high in the sky, though slightly off centered. It was either late morning or early afternoon, by my guess. Which is strange, because it was already 6:30 PM by the time I arrived at my home.

When my eyes finally adjusted to the light, I was met with a very strange sight.

Around me, people were walking back and forth across a street built of the same stone flooring I found in the alley, though this one was much smoother. Buildings lined the edges of the road, most of them seeming to be houses. Although, this architecture is not of any design I have seen. I'm not a history guy by any means, but I could describe it as vaguely medieval with a mix of modern Japanese. This made things even stranger, as there aren't any buildings with this type of architecture where I come from.

Some people stared at me as they walked by, and I soon noticed why. Their clothes were not of any kind that I had seen. Some wore medieval-type clothing, while others wore robe-like garments that vaguely reminded me of Japan. Meanwhile, I was wearing my casual outfit that made me stick out like a sore thumb.

"Lotta' Japanese lookin' things around here..." I muttered under my breath. I didn't know much about Japan other than their history in World War II, thanks to my high school history class. Whenever I say "Japanese-like," I'm just inferring based on what I've seen in the media. And no, I haven't watched any of those "any-mays" or whatever they're called. Never been big on cartoons anyways. Bah, I'm getting off-topic!

Looking to my left, the road seemed to meet up at an intersection of sorts, accented by a fountain in the middle. To my right, it extended onwards before meeting a perpendicular path that sat on the edge of what seemed to be a wall.

I chose to go left, as it was marginally more interesting.

I got more stares on my way over there. Not just because of my attire, but also because of the fact that I was limping so heavily. My leg was still in pain from the fall earlier, so it was even more difficult to walk normally. Upon reaching the fountain, I made my way to a nearby bench in order to catch my breath. The rickety wooden seat felt oddly comfortable in my time of peril. Now that I was alone (not really) with my thoughts, I took the opportunity to reflect on my situation.

I already ruled out the possibility of dreaming. My dreams have never lasted this long, nor have they ever been this vivid. And unless the barista at the café spiked my coffee, I probably wasn't hallucinating.

I let out a sigh. "This is some grade A bullshit..." I muttered to myself.

Suddenly, some whispering to my left interrupted my thoughts. I looked over to see a group of three teenage-looking boys squatting down and speaking quietly to each other. Two of them subtly pointed in my direction, but I chose to ignore it and leaned back on the bench.

Unfortunately, things are never that easy.

"Ey, old man!" A voice shouted from my left. Already knowing who it was, I sighed and slowly turned my gaze in that direction. The voice came from one of the boys. Now that I was getting a better look at them, they were all dressed in shabby clothes. Well, shabby by my standards. They each had different colored T-shirts, as well as loose pants & shoes. I couldn't tell the material of anything they were wearing, though. All their articles of clothing were dirty and ripped in more than one place. The one in the middle (and presumably the one who spoke) was wearing a beanie-like cloth on his head, and his greasy long brown hair sloppily hung down the sides of his face. The other two just had short black hair.

"I don't look that old..." I muttered to myself. I then turned my head and gave them my full attention.

They all chuckled to themselves for... no reason? The one in the beanie then approached me. I'm gonna go ahead and assume he's their leader.

"Hehehe... Say, geezer, are you an outsider?" He gave me a dumbass smirk and leaned forward.

"An... outsider? I'm not sure what that means." I decided to play along, for now.

The boy turned back around to his friends and laughed. "See boys? Told'ya I was right!" They laughed like hyenas for a solid 10 seconds before he turned back to me. "Kehe, bad luck, old man." He reached out and tapped his finger on the bench. "Y'see this bench right here?" He grinned.

I looked between him & his finger but didn't respond.

"This here is private property. Specifically, it's owned by me & my crew." His grin grew wider. Also, that was incorrect grammar. "Yer gonna have ta' pay a tax if you wanna sit here, geezer." The boys behind him chuckled.

I was silent for a moment. "...That's stupid."

He laughed again. "Maybe to you, but that's just how things work in Gensokyo, bud!"

...Gensokyo? What the hell is Gensokyo?

The beanie boy held out his hand. "Well? Cough it up!"

I slowly stood to my feet.

"No."

He stared at me for a second, before breaking out into laughter. His boys quickly joined him.

"HEHEHEHAHAHAH! Didja' hear that?" He turned around to face them. "The old guy said no!" They continued to laugh for a long while, which was getting annoying. Eventually, though, they quieted down before turning back to face me.

"...I don't remember tellin' ya you could say no." Beanie baby boy tried to put on his best "tough guy" face, but he just started to look constipated.

Another pain surged through my leg, and I lurched over to hold on to it.

Of course, he took it as an opportunity. "Hehehe... Are the brittle bones gettin' to ya?" Walking forward, he then kicked me in the leg.

"FUCK!" I clutched my knee and fell to the floor, to which he began laughing again.

"Oh, man, that's pathetic! Hahaha!" He walked forward and leaned over me. "If you don't wanna give me the cash... then I'll just have to beat it out of you!" He laughed again before kicking me in the ribs a few times. I grunted with every hit, before I grabbed his foot and threw him off balance, causing him to stumble back into his buddies. They didn't fall down, but I got enough time to slowly rise to my feet.

"...Hah...Hah..." My breathing was heavy and raspy. The air was knocked out of my lungs, and my chest was bruised from the kicking.

Beanie Boy recovered and gave me an angry look. "Old man wants to fight, huh?" He smiled. "Let's see how confident you are after I've snapped the rest of your leg in half!" He put his fists up and got into an inexperienced boxer's stance. His buddies didn't look all too eager to jump in, and I don't blame them. Out of the three, he was the only slightly able-bodied person among them. The other two were just comprised of a fatass and a kid who looked like he would break his forearm with a shake weight.

I took my own stance and stared at Beanie Boy's face. This wasn't my first fight, long from it. Most of my youth was spent tussling with kids twice my size for superiority over the playground, or other stupid shit. I'd mostly left it behind in my adult years, but there's been more than one occasion where somebody at a bar would get a little too hands-on with me and we'd both end the night sitting in a jail cell.

Beanie Boy's eyes darted multiple times down to my bad leg. I knew what he was planning on before he even did it and prepared to react accordingly.

Rushing forward and abandoning his stance, he immediately sent a kick with his right leg down at my left. I quickly pulled my left leg away, avoiding the attack. The kick still connected with my right calf, but it had lost almost all of its force since he threw way too much weight into it and lost his balance. Despite his disadvantageous position, he tried to throw a wide punch with his left arm and whiffed completely.

"Assho-!"

A right hook to the jaw and he was out like a light.

His body flopped unceremoniously to the ground and landed with a thud. I waited a few more seconds before it was clear he wouldn't be getting back up.

"I'm 38, you ignorant shit." I proceeded to spit on him.

"N-No way..." The fat one stared in disbelief. "He beat Aoi!" He began backing away.

The skinny one, however, reached towards his back. "Y-You bastard!" He turned to me, now brandishing a small knife. "Y-Yo-You're gonna die for that!" He held the blade in both hands and pointed it at me.

"Shit..." I muttered. There's not much you can do against a person with a knife. I began slowly backing away, but the skinny kid kept following me.

Without warning, he started to rush me. "Die!"

"HEY! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON OVER HERE!?" A voice bellowed from my right, and the skinny kid stopped running at me. We both looked over to the source of the voice and saw what looked like a medieval soldier. He wore a bascinet on his head and had very basic leather & plate armor covering his torso & legs. He was accompanied by multiple other men with the same outfit, each one holding a spear in their hands.

They ran over and pointed the ends of their spears at us. "Drop the weapon!" One of them shouted. I immediately raised my hands in the air, and the skinny kid dropped the knife. Looking around, it seems that fatass ran away once the soldiers showed up. Suddenly one of them stepped forward and raised his spear to the air, letting the bottom of the shaft rest on the ground.

"We got reports of a group of hooligans attacking someone who looked like an outsider. You gentlemen seem to fit the bill." He glared at us.

I immediately pointed to Beanie Boy & Skinny. "They're the hooligans. I'm the outsider." I spoke calmly.

"Hm." The man grunted. "Judging by your looks, I'm inclined to believe you." He then turned to the other men and pointed at Skinny. "Seize him & the unconscious one, leave the outsider to me." The men immediately moved to surround Skinny, who looked like he was about to piss himself (if he hadn't already). The man then approached me.

"I-I, uh... thanks." I thanked the soldier before he could say anything.

"Don't thank me yet, outsider. Still haven't decided what to do with you." He gave me a stern look.

I raised an eyebrow. "Do with me? Can't I just, like, go?" I questioned.

The man then sighed. "Not quite. Y'see, we haven't had any reports of new outsiders coming through the gates recently. And unfortunately, you don't look like any of the outsiders we've documented so far." He glared at me. "How did you get in here?"

I backed away, a little perturbed by the sudden switch of tone. "Well, i-it's a long story, and I'm sure you wouldn't want your time wasted like that, right?" I gave a lopsided smile to accompany my downright terrible excuse.

The man just stared at me before grabbing my arm. "You're coming with me."

I tried to pull away. "Hey now, wait a sec...ond..." The adrenaline of my life being threatened began to wear off, and my body started feeling drowsy. My chest ached from the bruising. I stumbled forward a bit, and the man released my arm.

"H-Hey, are you ok?!" He tried to put a hand on my chest, but my legs began to buckle. My eyes forced themselves shut with hardly any input.

The world turned dark before I even hit the floor.