As Michael's mind tended to do when in states of unconsciousness, it drifted back to school.
It was an experience he was used to when he went to bed at night. After half an hour of existential dread and eventually slipping into sleep, Michael's unconscious mind would usually conjure up dreams of his old school days, long gone by. Michael was a part of the class of 2020 when he was in high school and, like everyone else in his class, his year was cut short. The start of March marked the end of his high school life and the start of the adult years of his life, his education cut short because of the pandemic that rocked the world.
Sometimes he couldn't believe it had been four years since he was still in school. He'd remember the morning gathering of his friends before class, his easy English and science classes, the classes he'd get away napping in. The easy, stress free days before he had a job, adult responsibilities. He only really appreciated them when they were gone.
Most of the time his dreams were just him back in school, or a return to finish the remainder of the senior year the pandemic stole from him. This dream, it seemed, was a little different than those ones.
He was at a desk, his old desk, arms crossed and head resting on top of them. All around him was the dull sound of ambient chatter, enough noise to know people were talking, but not loud enough for the young man to pick out any conversation in particular. A part of the class routine that would normally grant Michael a decent if not great nap, helping round out his sporadic sleep schedule that was normally hampered by late night Discord calls with friends during game sessions or manga binges.
However, the gentle, sweet Elysium of a nap wouldn't be granted to him. A mechanical pencil with the lead extended poked into his side from the seat next to him, causing him to wake up and nearly jump out of his chair due to the surprise.
"FUCK-"
"Language, Mikey. We're still in class."
A few irritated grumbles came out from the young man as he rubbed his side, turning his head to glare at the person occupying the desk next to him.
In zoology the desks were grouped into tables and spread around the room. Michael's naps passed because his table was filled with his friends who, aside from disliking the looks they got from the teacher, weren't adamant about waking him up every time he decided to sleep.
However, to him at least, it was debatable if the person sitting next to him was a friend or not.
They were both the same age but couldn't be more different. The young man sitting next to him was shorter and slimmer, more androgynous than Michael. His hair was black and long, wavy with the ends curling and two long bangs framing his slim face, devoid of any chubbiness or babyness. He wore a black v neck sweater that looked like it was a size too big, exposing much of his collarbone and the inner ends of his shoulders, with a black baggy hoodie worn over with jeans and sneakers.
"Honestly, if you just paid more attention and stayed awake, I wouldn't have to do things like this," the young man said with a shrug of his shoulders, twirling his pencil between his fingers, "but you don't, so whatever do I tell Abby when she's having science trouble?"
"She only took the elective because I did and it'd be an easy passing grade for her, shut it," Michael said with a groan, forehead making a dull thud against his desk.
"Your fault for dating her, Casanova."
"Shut it, *****. This is just payback for seeing us kiss when you didn't knock."
"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, who reallllllly knows~?"
Michael groaned again against the wood of his desk..
"Is class almost over yet? I'm starvin', and I already finished my manga. I ain't got shit to do…" Michael mumbled, picking his head up reluctantly and resting his chin in his palm.
"Still half an hour, Mikey. Shouldn't you be studying? We have a test coming up," ***** replied, the scratching of pencil lead on paper adding itself to the cacophony of the classroom.
"It's just on bivalves and other ocean life, it's not that hard," he grumbled.
"Says the science golden boy. This doesn't come easy for the rest of us, you know. We have to actually work hard." ***** said.
Michael clicked his tongue. "Just because it's an easier subject for me doesn't mean I don't put in the effort."
"Yes, you just put in less effort."
The response he got was a middle finger instead of verbal.
Michael picked his head up out of his hand and leaned back in his chair, using the top to stretch and pop his spine. The pops made him groan in satisfaction, sitting up straight and lifting his glasses up to rub at his eyes.
"You'd be less tired if you didn't stay up so late, you know," ***** quipped.
"Oh we are not having this talk."
"Ohhhhh but we are. It is annoying having that teacher look at us every time you decide to sleep because of your horrendous sleep schedule, and honestly, I think I'm hitting the limit of my patience," ****** clicked the end of his pencil and pushed the lead back inside, setting it on his desk and closing his notebook. "The other two may not share my feelings completely, but they get irritated as well, you know?"
"Man, they're part of the reason I don't go to bed early in the first place." Michael turned his attention from ****** to the two desks of the table in front of their own, where two of Michael's friends sat. "Like come on guys, back me up-"
He blinked, mouth stopping mid sentence. "Guys…?"
The two desks were empty. The chairs were pushed in and flush, the tops of the desks cleared of papers, books, pencils or anything else that might clutter them. In the resulting confusion he felt, Michael noted that the choir of disorderly sound, the typical noise of the classroom, had faded away.
He heard nothing but silence, only broken by the beating of his own heart as it rang in his ears.
"What the…? Where the hell did they go?" Michael ran a hand through his hair, a nervous tic, turning back to ******. "H-Hey, you saw where they went, right?"
"Hm?" ****** was sliding his notebook into a bookbag, "What're you talking about? They were never here in the first place."
"H-Huh? C-Come on man, don't fuck with me like that. They were right there- we've been sitting here for almost an hour, how were they not here?"
"The same reason everything went quiet; no one has been here this whole time." ****** said, scooting his chair back and standing up. "That little head of yours is trying to play anything comforting back to you, but unfortunately, it didn't account for me."
He turned to face Michael, smiling. It was crooked. Off centered. It didn't look right.
"It's cute that you don't recognize what's so wrong with me being here. Or, is it stupid? Hm…well, cute and stupid aren't mutually exclusive, especially in your case," ***** took a few steps towards Michael, who scrambled and pushed his chair back, standing up on shaky legs.
He looked around once again, having to accept the dead silent classroom, the emptiness around him. Even if he was dreaming, he was remembering something through the dream, something he had experienced. His zoology class in his senior year, his friends sat at his table, Abby and ******-
Abby and…who?
In the midst of his mental confusion, Michael blinked, hand going to his forehead and rubbing it. He knew him, he knew his name, but when Michael tried to think of it, he couldn't.
"Why…why can't I-"
"Oh? Caught on, huh?"
Michael's response was choked down as ****** shoved his face into Michael's own, his moment of thought used by him to get closer.
"Somethings not adding up, right? You're gonna feel that a couple times, buddy." ****** chuckled, pulling his face back and instead putting a finger on Michael's chest. "That'll be for later though. For now, get whatever rest you can."
Michael felt the poke to his chest, and then he was on the floor, weariness consuming his consciousness until it faded out.
"You'll need it."
"Ngh…ahhh…"
"Yeesh, he keeps moaning and groaning."
The long haired man shifted his grip on the young man slung over his shoulder, having felt him shake and shudder.
"You did pull him rather hard onto the branch. That sleep of his is more than likely not the most pleasant," his companion commented, looking over her shoulder at him.
"Can ya blame me? We were told he was falling through branches, but didn't exactly get a heads up of how fast. If I didn't grab him then, I don't think we would have made it in time. Guy would've just died in the Dimensional Gap," the masked man replied with a shrug.
The two had been walking since they grabbed Michael near the end of the branch they were walking on. They were following the branch back, using it as their guide to the larger, gigantic tree it connected back to. Occasionally the pair would stop and check their surroundings for anything sticking out, but they'd see nothing but more branches in the distance and the purple "sky" surrounding everything.
Eventually the two would arrive at their destination, the branch they were walking on widening out and merging with the colossal trunk of the tree in front of them, so wide and vast they couldn't even see the ends of the sides. The woman stepped forward and placed her hand on the trunk, holding it there for a few seconds before taking her hand off and stepping back. A low humming came from the trunk, wood sliding down and sinking until an arched doorway was formed in the trunk. The pair stepped inside, the door slowly sliding shut behind them.
The inside of the trunk was a room, the interior walls not made of wood, but a sleek black material that reflected no light. The floor was similarly colored, and had two steps that led to a dip. In the center of the room was a round wooden table, surrounded by a U shaped couch with a single occupant, illuminated by the blue lights shining through the chandelier hanging from the ceiling.
The couch's occupant was a tall woman with pale skin and long purple hair, her face obscured by a black veil. She wore a dark purple sleeveless dress that bared her midriff, a skirt and leggings, thigh-high heeled black boots with black belts tied around her thighs, and long black gloves that reached her biceps.
She was busying herself with a deck of cards on the table, shuffling it back and forth, cutting it in half and swapping between hands, bringing it back together to bridge it and shuffle once more. While it was unclear what her eyes were focusing on with the veil obscuring them, her head raised when the two entered the room.
"Purge. Shirona. I see the retrieval went smoothly." The woman's voice was smooth like velvet, hands shuffling her deck of cards back together, evening it out and setting it down.
The pale haired woman, Shirona, said nothing as she took a seat on the far end of the couch. The long haired man, Purge, walked around the couch to shrug Michael off of his shoulders onto the couch, adjusting him into a sitting position and then rolling his shoulder. "Eh, more or less. Might wanna double check your cards next time, Vivian. Any slower and the kid would be swimming in the Gap."
"Hmmm, no, I knew it'd be fine," the veiled woman, Vivian, gently grabbed Michael's shoulder to pull him down into her lap, his head resting on her thighs. "My cards said there might be a slight matter that required speediness, but I trusted that the two of you could handle it."
"It would've gone faster if Purge hadn't insisted on rock paper scissors," Shirona commented with a huff, elbow on the table and jaw resting on the palm of her hand.
"Hey, it was to figure out who was catching him." Purge said, jerking his head towards her.
"You were the one that wanted to play but you still lost."
"How was I supposed to know you'd go for rock twice?!" Purge yelled with a stomp of his foot, "It's like you just held your hand out and weren't- Wait, you were taking it seriously, right…?"
Shirona was quiet and turned her head.
"OH COME ON!"
"Now, now you two, settle down."
Both of the room's guests turned to Vivian, who was running a hand through Michael's hair. "You retrieved and brought me the boy in one piece, as I asked. You both did a fine job. Now I can draft the Contract."
Shirona picked her head up, sitting straight in her seat.
Purge crossed his arms over his chest. "Right, that. Never seen one made in person."
Vivian giggled, a hand reaching for the deck of cards on the table and picking the first from the top. "Most Emissaries prefer to work in private, and most are able to meet their chosen ones on their own through the Tree's guidance. Mine here is a…special case."
"Most don't end up falling the Gap between worlds." Shirona commented.
"Correct," Vivian twirled the card between her fingers, ending up with it held between her index and middle fingers. She held it against Michael's chest, where it briefly shimmered and slowly sank into his chest, the unconscious boy letting out a grunt. "Most don't. Most end up among the branches as world's fall, and Michael here…was unfortunately there to witness the fall."
"So he'll be one of those…what are they called again?" Tapping a fist against the side of his head a few times, Purge eventually snapped his fingers as it clicked. "Ah! Invaders, right?"
"Yes, Invaders. Those who have lost their worlds and are given a second chance." Vivian answered, tilting her head. "Though, by that definition, you two could be counted among the Invaders as well. All you're missing is a Contract…"
Shirona frowned and while Vivian couldn't see the rest of his face, she would assume Purge didn't have a dissimilar expression.
"...though I'm aware neither of you would like to be bound like that. You have your own goals, after all." Vivian continued with a shake of her head.
"Which you'll hold up your end of the bargain for, right?" Shirona asked.
"Of course, as long as you don't change the extent of my help. I can drop the two of you off at your destinations, but nothing beyond that. Emissaries don't interfere in the events beyond managing our Invaders." Vivian stated.
"...how long does that Contract take?" Purge, who had been watching Michael, asked. The unconscious young man had made some sounds of distress, and it looked like he was breaking out in a sweat.
"It shouldn't be much longer," Vivian looked down at her lap, laying a hand on Michael's cheek. "It's an intensive process, and it can vary from person to person. For him, it seems…"
The young man's body shot up in an instant, and Vivian slapped her other hand onto his chest, forcing him back down onto her lap.
Shirona and Purge blinked.
"Intense."
Vivian took the hand that slapped Michael and held it out, the card she had put inside of him shooting back into it. She inspected it and saw that its previous blank look had changed, the number 0 emblazoned on the front, and that the back depicted a man with a bundle sack and a dog.
The purple haired woman put the card on the table, and lifted Michael back up into a sitting position. His sweating had stopped and he was silent.
"There. His Contract has been drafted, and I have taken my copy. He's ready to depart," Vivian snapped her fingers and the door at the other end of the room groaned as it slid down and opened, a bright light shimmering around the frame. "If you'd be so kind to drop him through the door, he'll be transported to his destination, and I can then send the both of you off."
Purge and Shirona both looked at each other, and Shirona nodded, standing up. She walked to the opposite side of the couch and took Michael's arm, hoisting his body up with much less effort than Purge did earlier, and slung him over a shoulder. She walked to the door, picking Michael off her shoulder like he weighed nothing and holding him before the light shimmering.
The pale haired woman gave the young man a once over, looking him up and down. "... wherever you end up, good luck, from one wanderer of worlds to another."
Shirona hurled him into the door, Michael's body vanishing into the light as the door slid up and closed.
"Mmm…aaa…"
"Mikey~"
"Mm…"
"Mikeyyyyy~"
"Mm…mm…gaaaaahhh…g-gaah!"
Michael awoke to the feeling of his lungs burning, his head hurting, and pressure around his nose. One of his hands scrambled for his face to feel for his nose, and Michael felt another hand wrap around his own, and the pressure faded.
Wearily blinking, Michael was met by the low light of a slowly setting sun flooding through a window and briefly flashing his eyes.
"If you stopped being such a heavy sleeper, I wouldn't have to plug your nose. Geez, you know it's gonna mess your sleep up tonight, right? You can't just crash after work like that."
After letting his eyes adjust for a second, Michael looked beyond the light to see someone's head above his own, but it was still blurry. Seeing that person move their arm, he felt cool metal slip onto his face, the other person slipping his glasses on for him.
His vision cleared, and Michael could see that the head above him was a woman. She had pale blonde hair and red eyes, with freckles that covered her face in a diagonal way; with the most dense cluster being on her lower right side, and the lighter one on her higher left one, around her eye.
Michael had to blink a few times. He thought his vision was playing tricks on him.
"Abby…?"
"Hm? Of course, what other cute girlfriend do you have to lay in the lap of?" The girl, Abby, reached down and pinched one of Michael's cheeks.
"Ow!"
"There, see? You're not sleeping," she said with a pout, letting his cheek go. "What the heck were you dreaming about?"
"I…dunno? It was something weird, I think. I just…can't remember." Michael mumbled.
"Well, if you can't remember it, it's probably not important. Come on, up, up."
At the insistence and pushing of his girlfriend, Michael slowly and groggily sat up, seeing that he was still in his work uniform, a navy blue button down shirt over a black T-shirt and similarly colored work pants. He was on his bed, and he stood up to stretch, joints popping. Abby followed suit and got up from the bed, wearing one of his hoodies and a pair of shorts.
They were in his bedroom, his computer sitting quiet in the corner for once shut down. Fishing around in his pocket, Michael pulled his phone out to check the time and saw it was 6 in the evening on June 3rd, 2024. "How long was I out for…?"
"I got here at 5, so at least an hour, but your mom said you walked in the room and never got out. You crashed as soon as you touched the bed," Abby explained as she ran a hand through her hair, trying to straighten out strands that bunched up from laying on a pillow. "Your dad started dinner, so we can just relax until it's ready."
Michael looked around his room. His TV was off like his computer, the closet was open and divided into his casual clothes and work clothes. Everything was…normal. Looked normal. But there was something that was nagging at him for some reason.
He felt Abby's hand wrapping around his again and squeezed, and he did the same. "You wanna watch something? Got nothing but time to kill."
Yeah, just killing time sounded nice. Not doing anything, just being comfortable. Just staying with Abby.
But…he napped immediately after getting home from work. He didn't shower or anything, and was probably covered in grease or sweat, if not both. Showering was the best move. It'd help him wake up and clear his head.
Michael stopped squeezing Abby's hand and pulled away, starting to walk towards the door. "Ah, yeah, in a bit Abby. Gotta wash the work grime off."
His hand wrapped around the doorknob and began to pull.
"Mikey, wait-"
DING DING DING DING DING DING
Bells rang and lights flashed in front of him, before a massive weight slammed into Michael and he felt his body be flung backwards. The sensation of feeling faded in and out for the seconds he was in the air until it all came rushing back at once as he felt the ground, or what he assumed was the ground, slam into him.
He laid out breathing, vision swimming and every inch of his body burning, in utter agony. Michael tried to move, tried to turn his head to look around but couldn't find the strength to do it through the pain ravaging his body. Nothing he tried was working and no part of his body was listening to him. The heat his body felt started to feel like it was surrounding him, and Michael realized the sensation was the same as bleeding, but on a scale he'd never experienced.
"Ahhh…gahhhhh…" The only sounds that could leave him were ragged breaths, desperate lungfuls of air going back and forth.
While in the middle of feeling his body being racked in pain, Michael felt something grab him and turn him over onto his back. His vision exploded with color and lights above him, a blue sky and a burning sun.
"Ahhhh! Ahhh! Ah, ah!" That, and being moved renewed the pain he had previously felt.
Two heads were bobbing above him and Michael couldn't make them out, his glasses more than likely having been dropped or removed by whatever hit him. They were talking, and he could barely make out the words.
"W…t…ing…tracks…"
"Train…ve!"
Tracks? Train? Was…was he hit by a train? He was in his room though. He was in his room, where would a train come from?
Michael felt something grab his shoulder, more than likely one of the people's hands, and he felt his body getting moved again.
"Gahhhhh!" He screamed.
A different hand touched his other shoulder, and suddenly the pain and the heat started to slowly fade away. His body started to feel cool and calm, like water dousing a fresh burn. The energy felt like it was being sapped from his body and his eyes grew heavy, eventually closing as he felt consciousness slip away.
Before he succumbed, he thought of Abby again. Where'd she go? She left five years ago, so why did she come back? Did she even come back?
Was it another dream? Or was he just delusional?
How many ghosts was he gonna be haunted by…?
Some time prior…
"Come on, come on, gold gold gold…"
"How many pulls have you done already, Akane?"
"Not enough if I haven't gotten Boothill already, Shin."
"You already got Robin, do you really need him?"
"Come on come on…"
The train car was mostly empty and quiet, save for its three sole occupants. Near the middle of the car were where their seats were, three young adults, a man sat at the window seat and two girls on the two seats on his left.
The young man had medium length straight black hair, his bangs parted at the middle and framing the sides of his face, with similarly colored eyes with heavy bags. He was dressed in a long-sleeved white shirt underneath a black jacket, jeans and a pair of boots. Resting an arm on the window with his chin in his palm, he was looking at the girl immediately next to him.
She had similarly colored hair and eyes to the young man, though her hair was longer, the length in the back pulled into a loose, low ponytail, while a single longer strand poked out from the top of her head like an antenna. Her attire consisted of a dark blue yukata, a slim, red leather jacket with a fur lined collar worn over it, and a pair of white sneakers.
Phone in hand, her attention was taken up by the mobile game open on the screen, some gacha game with blaring audio as she watched a train door. Her finger tapped the skip button on the corner of the screen, and her attention dropped like her head at the next screen that popped up.
"Goddamnit…two more Luka's and still not a single Bootyhill. Curse you, Hoyo!" She held her phone up to the sky and shook it, groaning and sinking back in her chair after. "I already used my paycheck, I'll have to wait again…hey hey, Shin-"
"Not a chance in hell, Akane. I'm not supporting your gacha habits." The young man, Shin, answered. He turned his attention from the girl to the window, watching the rolling landscapes outside instead.
"Khhh- so mean to your sisterrrrr~" the young woman, Akane, said with a groan. She squirmed in her seat for added effect before she turned her attention to the left, to the last of the seats in their row. "C'mon Akeno, back me up here!"
"Um…I think Shin has a point, Akane. You've already spent a lot, right?"
"Oh c'mon, you too?!"
The third of the trio, the last girl on the end seat, let out a giggle at her friend's reaction. She had long black hair that fell to the small of her back and violet eyes, wearing a dark red blouse buttoned over a black shirt, an ankle-length pale, purple skirt, and a pair of slip-on shoes.
"You've been pulling since we left the village," Shin commented, "and didn't even put on normal clothes when we left. You just threw your jacket over what you wore to bed and decided it would be good enough for the ride home."
"Ah- Well, I was right about that one. No one else was in our train car, not like a lot of people go to Serikawa at this time of year." Akane said, puffing her chest in pride.
"Only because we went for a family emergency," Shin pointed out. "You wouldn't be saying that if we were going a month or two later, when it was summer."
"Shin's right. You'd have to dress properly instead of just wearing what's laying around your room." Akeno chimed in with a smile.
"This double assault is unfair…" Akane grumbled, turning her phone off and sliding it into her jacket pocket. "Well, if I'm too broke to pull, what are we supposed to talk about? Classes are closed for the next few days since that accident on campus, so it's not like anything's really gonna be going on except for work."
"Thank Gremory and her Peerage for that. She needs to keep some of them on a tighter leash," Shin took his arm off the window sill, crossing it with his other one over his chest. "You'd think since she's given direct hunting orders for Strays in the area she'd run her plans by the rest of us, but noooo, she's the younger sister of a Satan, she can do whatever she wants."
"Mmmm, father feels the same way. There's supposed to be clear communications between the three parties, but it feels like we get the short end of the stick, along with Mr. Shidou and Mr. Yaegaki." Akeno leaned back in her seat with a sigh.
"Considering what I hear from Kaz and Kaede, yeah, it sounds like they get the same treatment." Akane added.
"That brat was the wrong option to give the overseer role too; it should've stayed with Mrs. Cleria, and we probably wouldn't have these situations." Shin said.
"Fucking redheaded bi-"
Ding Ding Ding
The chime coming over the train's PA made Akane pause her comment.
"We will be approaching Kuoh Station in five minutes."
"Huh, that went faster than the ride out of town," Akane said.
"Because you were on your phone. I swear, sometimes you have the attention span of an iPad kid," Akeno said with a shake of her head.
The three stood from their seats and began to grab their bags, the train pulling into the station shortly after they had everything pulled and accounted for. Stepping out of the train car, the midday sky and Kuoh Station greeted them.
Akane stretched her arms above her head, yawning and hearing her arms pop. Lowering them with a groan of relief, she happened to look towards her side and see a small crowd of people gathered further down the station.
"Hm? The heck they all lookin' at?" Trying to see if she could get a peek at anything, Akane took a few steps forward.
"Akane? What are you doing?" Noticing his sister stepping away, Shin turned and asked.
"Seeing what's got those people over there crowded around."
"Hm?" Akeno finally turned as well, seeing the small crowd of people that Akane had noticed. Though, Akeno was able to catch a glimpse of what they were standing around. When someone in the crowd moved around a gap opened, and she was able to see something laying on the floor.
It looked vaguely foot shaped, like a boot or shoe, until Akeno was able to make out the color red…around it. There was a pool of red, and as the crowd shifted more, Akeno could say for certain it was a shoe, because she saw the leg connected to it.
"Is…Is that a person? Is that- is that blood?"
Akane said nothing and simply started running towards the crowd. Shin clicked his tongue and followed behind, Akeno following his lead.
"How long has he been here?'
"I dunno, I only saw when I got out of the train."
"Is he dead…?"
"Was it suicide?"
They were able to hear the muttering and murmuring of the crowd as they got closer, and once they reached them Shin and Akane were elbowing and shoving their way through to get to the center. Breaking through, they stopped at the center as the sight before them briefly stunned them.
It was a body laid out flat on the platform floor, a trail of red leading back to the tracks. Face down and arms to the side, its clothes were roughed up but not torn, but there were plenty of blood stains and a small pool around its chest.
"Shit!" Akane cursed and got closer, going forward and crouching down next to the body. "Shin, gimme a hand!"
Wordlessly approaching, Shin went to the other side of the body and got on one knee. They both grabbed a shoulder, uncaring of staining their hands, and quickly turned it over.
The crowd's previous worry of the body being a corpse was squashed as soon as its back touched the ground. A ragged inhale of breath was heard before it was quickly exhaled as a scream of pain.
"Ahhhh! Ahhh! Ah, ah!"
"He's alive at least. The hell did he do, stand on the tracks?" Shin asked.
"You think he'd still be breathing after getting hit by a train?"
"Well whatever he was hit by, he should be glad he is breathing," Shin reached an arm under the boy's shoulder, hauling him up and then switching the grip, wrapping the body's arm over his shoulders.
"Gahhhhh!" the big screamed again.
"Shin, be a little more gentle!" Akane gently grabbed the other shoulder, holding the boy up after seeing him and Shin nearly buckle over.
"Little hard," He replied, gritting his teeth.
Akeno, who had been standing at the edge of the crowd, stepped up to the two. She had a phone in one hand, with the other she laid a hand on the shoulder of the boy that Shin wasn't holding; and as she did, seconds passed and the ragged breathing coming from him started to slow, and eventually fade out completely. He was still breathing, but slow and steady.
On the visible parts of skin around where Akeno had touched, glowing purple lines streaked the boy's skin. When she pulled her hand back they remained, though their glow was fainter.
Akane turned to look at her, "Did you-"
"Painkiller spell. It won't last a long time, but it should last long enough. I called the Shidou Clinic and Kaz is on the way, we just need to get this guy out of the station," Akeno explained, slipping her phone into her pocket.
"Alright. Akane, grab his other shoulder, let's hurry it up." Shin said.
"Got it," Akane took the other arm and wrapped it over her shoulders to support him.
"Everyone, please move out of the way!" Akeno turned around and called out to the crowd, causing the assembled people to step aside and clear a path through.
The siblings moved quickly through the station with Akeno at the front, calling out ahead to get people out of the path. There were a few stops along the way out so that Shin and Akane could adjust and renew their grips to make sure they didn't drop the boy they were carrying, but in about five minutes they had reached the outside of the station.
Right outside the entrance was a parked ambulance with a young man leaning against the back of it; he was relatively tall, wearing a navy blue EMT uniform with shaggy silver hair and eyes. He was absorbed in his phone but as soon he looked up and saw the approaching siblings and Akeno, perked up and slid his phone into a pocket, turning around and opening the back of it.
As soon as the doors swung upon, an older man stepped out, a lit cigarette hanging out of his mouth. He had light brown hair and eyes, and a pair of glasses, some wrinkles here and there along his face, and was wearing a white doctor's coat with black scrubs and loafers.
"Alright, alright, it's been a while since we got an emergency call," the man paused to take a drag from his cigarette, letting it sit for a few seconds before letting it out, "and then suddenly someone gets hit by a train?"
"Got him right here, Mr. Shidou!" Akane called out as they reached the back of the ambulance. The silver haired young man took over for her, wrapping the unconscious boy's arm over his shoulders and lifting him.
Mr. Shidou's eyes narrowed as he gave him a once over, letting his cigarette drop and stomping it out. "Kaz, Shin, get him loaded in. He's in bad shape, we wanna work quickly."
The two boys climbed into the ambulance, laying the unconscious boy down in the gurney inside. Kaz, the silver haired boy, strapped him down and made sure he was secure before he climbed through a partition and into the front of the ambulance and into the driver's seat.
"Akane, Akeno, you two can head home. We'll get this kid back to the clinic and patched up." Mr. Shidou told the two girls as he hopped into the back of the ambulance, giving them a two finger salute and closing the door. The engine started shortly after and the lights up top started flashing, as the ambulance drove forward to leave the station.
The two girls watched the emergency vehicle drive away, and Akane let out a sigh, running a hand through her hair. "That's one way to be welcome home, huh? Finding somebody hit by a train definitely wasn't on my bingo card this year."
"Hehe, for sure. I'm just happy we were able to get that guy some help." Akeno replied with a giggle, though her expression sobered a little as she continued, "You don't think…he jumped onto the tracks, do you?"
Akane's expression soured at the question. "I dunno. We just…found him on the tracks like that crowd did. They didn't see it either, so I don't know."
"...I hope it turns out alright for him."
"Ah, come on! Don't dwell on it too much, he's got Mr. Shidou checking him out. He's run that clinic for how long now? That guy's in good hands."
"Always looking on the positive side, aren't you?"
"Hehe, someone's gotta~"
Waking up a third time felt remarkably more normal than the last two times.
Rather than a dream of being back in school or a dream about being in the lap of his ex-girlfriend who had gone missing, Michael woke up to the familiar feeling of laying down in bed with sheets covering him.
His tired eyes blinked a few times, slowly opening to take in the white ceiling and slow spinning fan above him, his vision much…clearer than he expected it to be. He didn't feel the familiar sensation of his glasses on his face, yet the ceiling above him was crystal clear. Each individual panel was clear to him, the lines separating each standing out. No blurry shapes of anything.
Michael pulled an arm out from under the covers, slowly, as his tired body was trying to catch up with his mind. He gripped the sheets and pulled them down, slowly sitting up as he did so, taking a few breaths. Things felt…different.
He looked at his hand, closing his fingers into a fist and then letting go, repeating the action a few times. It didn't feel the same for some reason. Michael had closed his fingers an unspeakable amount of times in his 22 years of life, and yet for some reason now it felt strange. There wasn't anything broken or bruised that he felt or saw, no injuries, so he had no clue.
Looking past his hand, Michael looked at his gut…or rather, he noticed the lack of a gut. Michael would admit he wasn't the most physically fit person, he had some chub. But when he looked down at himself there wasn't any. There were bandages wrapped around his stomach and the rest of his upper body, but as he held his hand against it and rubbed, the familiar feeling was gone; and as he ran his hand up, feeling his chest as well, he realized it wasn't just his hand that felt weird. Everything felt weird because everything was different.
His body was slimmer, leaner. For God's sake he thought he could see the skin outline of his ribs!
Trying to distract himself from all the questions popping up in his mind, Michael looked around the room he was in. It didn't look like it was a room that was lived in. The bed was in the corner of the room with white sheets, a nightstand on its left side. A window was on the wall near the middle of the bed and when Michael peaked out, he saw the early morning sun, and what looked like a normal neighborhood.
In the corner opposite the wall from the bed was a sink and mirror, and next to it on the lift was a table with two cabinets, and a set of cabinets above it. There were containers of medical supplies, and a biohazard container hanging from the side.
A mirror…maybe he could get a better look at himself.
Michael slowly swung his legs out from under the covers to the edge of the bed, slowly standing up. He stumbled and had to catch himself on the bed, staring down at his legs. Like the rest of him, they were slimmer and…longer? As Michael stood up straight, yeah, he felt like he was taller. He was wearing a pair of black sweatpants as well. Taking a few steps was hard, trying to get used to the new feelings and sensations he felt as he crossed the room.
It took a few more minutes than he'd like to admit, but Michael eventually stood in front of the mirror, with his hands bracing himself on the sink in case he lost his balance again.
He…found it hard to look up. His body was already different, and he was afraid of what he'd see if he looked up. What if his face was different? When he woke up his glasses were gone, but he could see fine, what else could be different?
Would…would he still look like himself?
As these thoughts went around in his head, rattling around like a coin in a washing machine, Michael's grip on the porcelain white sink grew tighter. The young man took a deep breath. He wouldn't know anything if he didn't look up, so slowly, he raised his head up to look in the mirror.
And what stared back was a visage he was unfamiliar with. The face had lost some of its chubbiness, becoming more angular but retaining some of the softness, the cheeks still dimpling when smiling. Where there used to be long locks of curly, dark brown hair there was now silvery white, straight and long, and the facial hair was missing, clean shaven with only the lightest of stubble.
The only thing that remained on Michael's new face were his eyes; ladened with heavy bags, and still colored that light hazel brown. He raised a hand and touched the side of his head, feeling the different colored hair. It felt the same as before, soft and smooth, but the reflection in the mirror showed him just how different it was.
Moving his eyes down he looked at his body's reflection, noting the new slimness it possessed. Even with bandaging covering the skin, it was blemishless and healthy from what peaked through.
In a way, Michael was transfixed by what he saw. He raised a hand up to the mirror and pressed his hand against it, feeling the cool glass on his fingers and palm.
"This…is it really me?" He blinked. Even his voice was different, a little deeper, like he'd always wanted.
He pulled his hand away from the mirror and noticed the bandages around his right forearm were loose, letting some black coloration peek out. Wondering what it was, Michael started to unwrap the bandages, and the black color was revealed as a tattoo; a wolf's head with a planetoid behind it and three chains wrapped around the planet. The dark color of the ink stood out as a sharp contrast to his pale skin, and Michael ran his other hand along it. It wasn't raw or sensitive, but he didn't have a tattoo on his arm before; he didn't have any tattoos at all.
Seeing as there was one already, Michael quickly undid the bandages on his other arm and found another tattoo. On his left wrist were linked chains with the phrase "A Man Chooses" between the links, and like the other it didn't look or feel fresh. It felt like it had always been there. The young man grabbed the bandages wrapped around his chest and stomach, starting to pull and unwrap them to see if there was anything else. His right shoulder had a tattoo of St. Brigid's cross, the core a bright orange that faded into a darker orange, to red at the arms, and then into black at the tips.
He had to turn around to see the last of the tattoos, as it took up his entire back and he could only see it from the mirror. It was a knotted Celtic cross in crimson red ink, outlined in black. It started at the nape of his neck and went down to the small of his back, the arms at the sides going over his shoulder blades, reminding him of those yakuza back tattoos he remembered seeing. Across the middle of the cross the phrase 'Guide My Way' was spelt, and as Michael squinted, he could see more text underneath the two arms of the cross. They were two lists of names, and after a minute of focusing Michael was able to make out the top two; the names of his parents. When those two clicked he was able to recognize the rest as other family members, his brother, his sister in law, grandparents and so on. His friends' names were also included, on the opposite list of his family.
"What the hell…?" The changes to his body were already strange and confusing to him, but the tattoos just added another layer to that, especially the one on his back. "What happened to me?"
Michael started to think back on what he could remember. He had left his house to get beer for the family, and drove to the liquor store across the street. One of his friends had called and said they were all dropping by. And then there was the girl-
…the girl? Oh, yeah, the girl-
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"If I was weak, then I simply have to become strong. If I was stupid, then I simply have to grow smarter. It is the way devils do things, raising to the challenge. And I want you to know that I understand that now, and I will live up to the expectations.
"I'm a monument to all your sins."
"All is Mine."
"Gahhh!"
Michael's hands shot to his head, cradling it as an assault of pain swarmed his mind, legs buckling and making him crash to the ground. He was shaking as the voices filled his head, banging it on the hardwood floor through the fit of pain.
Even though it lasted only a few minutes, it felt like longer before Michael let out a ragged breath, letting his head go and letting the tension leave his body. He slowly rolled onto his knees, pushing himself up with his hands as he continued to take deep breaths.
"What…what the hell happened to me? What happened to everyone?" He slowly sat down, resting his back against the side of the bed. "Mom, dad…"
That girl had said the world was being culled, and that he was spared for touching her. She called herself a Beast. And then he fell…and everything after was a blank. The voices, he remembered those. They were like nails on a chalkboard inside his head, but he could understand them.
But…
"Where am I?"
Michael picked himself back up and gave the room another once over. It looked like the exam rooms from urgent cares he had been to in the past but with a few more decor choices to make it feel homey. So he was at a…clinic? A doctor's? But how had he gotten there after falling?
Remembering the window, he turned around and climbed onto the bed to crawl to the window. Looking out, he was greeted by the previous view of a morning sun and a sky changing from night to day. Around him was what looked like a suburban neighborhood, but not one he recognized. On top of that, it felt…off to him. The style of the houses he could see wasn't familiar to him. He was at least on the ground floor.
A buzzing sound took him away from the window. He turned to the nightstand next to the bed, and saw a familiar phone in a light purple case; his phone, his Pixel. Nearly jumping off the bed, Michael scrambled to his feet and picked it up off the table. It was his phone, beat up case and all, on top of his black leather wallet as well. Swiping a finger up, he quickly tapped his pin in and opened the phone.
What greeted him was his familiar screen layout, animated Honkai Star Rail background and all. The time was 6am which made sense considering what it looked like outside, but what threw Michael for a loop was the date. It was the day before Christmas Eve the last time Michael checked, but his phone was telling him it was June 13th…of the next year?
He shook his head and decided to try and ignore it for the time being. Pulling the top down to look at his notifications, Michael saw the usual suspects; his emails of chapter updates from the sites he read on, Dr. Squatch offer emails, and Discord group chat messages and pings. Tapping on the Discord notifications opened the app, but without an internet or data connection, he got nothing but a spinning logo.
Clicking his tongue, Michael closed his phone and pocketed it alongside his wallet. No connections probably meant his phone had no signal either. Looking back down at the table, he saw a simple white shirt and took it, putting it on so he was at least fully dressed. If his phone wasn't gonna help right now, that meant he'd have to do something else. And, at the moment, all that came to the young man's mind was leaving wherever he was…which meant going outside.
Thinking it over, a debate came to Michael's mind. Does he go through the door or the window? Walking through the door meant running into someone or something, and he had no clue if that was a good idea. He didn't know who or what brought him to a clinic, if that's where he even was, not to mention not knowing why. So that left climbing through the window.
Letting out a breath, Michael took a deep one. He climbed back onto the bed, looking for and reaching for the latches on the window once he found them. Twisting them till he heard the tell tale pop, he reached down and pulled up, sliding the window open. Thankfully it was a window without a screen, so as soon as it was open, Michael was able to slide his legs through, sliding further in until he felt his feet touch the ground below. He stepped forward to pull his upper body out, until his head cleared the window and he quickly stood up straight.
Now outside, Michael decided to take a renewed look around. It looked like a suburban neighborhood, that part hadn't changed, but there were a few more things he was able to pick out. Most of those things were decor and flowers, but one thing in particular he noticed were the signs or plates on some of the houses.
And specifically, the fact they weren't written in English, but some Asian language by how familiar the symbols looked.
Turning around to look at the outside of the building he came out of, Michael was able to see the room he was previously in was attached to a one story building that was connected to a two story house. The one story building had a large sign written in the same language as he saw on the other houses, and an ambulance was parked further to the side at an entranceway. So it was definitely some kind of medical building.
"What the hell?" Michael blinked. Was it…Japanese? He couldn't name any specific characters, but it felt more like he was looking at kanji than the Korean or Chinese written language. He couldn't even name those two.
"But if it's Japanese, then does that mean I'm in Japan? Why would I be in Japan?" He ran a hand through his hair as he vocalized his thoughts. Everything was confusing, and so far the only thing that came his way was more questions than answers.
Should he go back inside…? No, no he didn't know anything about that place. It was a risk. Everything was at this time. Nothing was certain and confusion was abundant. He didn't know where he was, why he was there, or why he looked so different. Answers and a way home were what he needed.
So…with no better idea in mind, Michael decided to use the sidewalk in front of what he was gonna call the clinic , and just walk it. It would take him somewhere.
"I'm just hoping someone speaks English…"
The door to the room swung open, a cheerful humming coming from the woman with light brown hair who opened it.
"Good morning mister sleepy-...ah? Huh? Huh?! Dad! Dad, dad! He's gone!"
"Hm? Irina, what are you talking about?"
"The p-patient, he's gone!"
…
Chapter 2 - Missing Limbs
'Cause it still makes my blood run cold
To remember what they did before
The stories that you never told to me
A/N: Yeah I got nothing to say update wise. There was a blank period of nothing but plotting and scheming with my conspirator.
The first chunk of this chapter was a little hard to write on my end, mostly because of the fact I had to limit what I actually included. There were things to introduce, but I couldn't go further because of pacing.
I really appreciate all the support so far and would be thankful if it continued. See you all next time.