Chapter 2: Carpooling
The light light inside the car had finally reached it's climax, and blinded the entire cabin. YN could hear the car begin to rev up, and the ride smooth out.
Was the car floating? Had he driven off a cliff? He couldn't bring his eyes to look forward at such an intense light.
The sensation continued for what felt like the longest few seconds of his life, but all of YN's attention was being occupied by the feeling of the hand on his shoulder.
And before he knew it, the hand was gone, and as soon as it was, the light began to dim, until it finally became a more warm light, like sunshine almost, it was no longer the bright scalding white of before.
With his eyes still shut, he started to feel the car rumble.
Was the car back on the road? No. This rumbling was much too consistent to be natural. Bricks maybe. A cobblestone road.
YN struggled to open his eyes, which before closing them were still used to the darkness of the night.
His vision, while blurry started to come back through. Looking ahead, YN could begin to see an area that was well lit, as well as voices, like he was standing in a crowd. As his sight cleared up further, what appeared to be a horse's carriage could be made out, and he was approaching it very quickly.
YN slammed the brakes with all he could and jerked the wheel.
Narrowly avoiding totaling his car, he instead careened into a stack of wooden barrels and crates, shattering and destroying many before the brakes finally put and end to the car's destructive slide.
?: My inventory! Oh this cannot be!
What? Crates? Barrels? Inventory? YN thought, analyzing the situation, his eyes darting around trying to understand what just happened.
YN: Is.. is it day time?
YN rolled down his window and looked up at the sky. It was slightly cloudy, but otherwise bright, sunny day.
An older women came running from the other side of the carriage YN saw just moments before his crash.
Woman: Oh dear! It's all ruined! That metal box must have come flying off one of the passing ground dragon carriages!
A rather rotund man, wearing a black apron and scruffy clothes made his way around the same way the woman had come from.
Man: None of that matters now! Come honey, we need to find whatever blithering idiot of a carriage driver lost his load and demand compensation for his failure to secure his product!
Woman: Oh but some of this might be salvageable—!
Man: We haven't the time! Quickly! We must find him!
And with that the two departed into the busy avenue of bustling carriage traffic.
YN: Do... do they not realize that I'm the one who crashed here? It's like they didn't even recognize that this is a car or somethi—
Wait a minute YN thought. Ground dragons? Dragons?
YN opened his door and got out, and observed the damage. Thankfully, the damage appeared to be the car shoving the goods and them toppling over had broken them more then his actual impact did, as his car was left with only a but a few scrapes.
But after he saw, he heard.
City sounds. The sounds of mid day hustle and bustle of an urban area. He turned to see what was behind his car.
Before him was a wide street, filled with many carriages. But.
Those weren't horses pulling them, but rather, large beasts. Lizards? No, dragons. The woman's voice echoed in his head. Ground dragons she had said.
YN couldn't believe his eyes. Actual dragons. Some on two legs, some on four. Some blue, or green, or a display of many other colors.
His attention turned to the many passersby walking around, through, and some even scavenging the wreckage.
They all wore elaborate clothes, robes, cloth and hats. It was very, fantasy, very otherworld.
YN's attention was then drawn to the buildings with their architecture, the stone pavement of the roads, and finally, the squeak of something on the other side of his car.
He walked around only to witness some street urchins trying to take the mirror off his passenger door.
YN: Aye! Get your paws off that.
The urchin dropped his hands to his side
Urchin: B-b-but I found it first!
YN: Yeah but it's mine! Now scam, all of you.
YN turned around to see a small crowd gathering to look at his car.
"What in the world is that?" "I've never seen anything like it." What do you suppose it does?"
YN began to look like a deer in headlights and the only thing occupying his mind was that not all of the people surrounding his car now, were human.
He observed many cat like, lizard like, and all other sorts of demi-humans mixed among the humans in the crowd.
But what finally shook him from his trance, was that some of onlookers were brave enough to begin touching the car now.
"It's smooth! And cold!" "Is that whole thing metal? It must weigh as much as ground dragon!" "The paint is so shiny I can see myself in it!"
Truthfully, it was not that shiny of paint, but these people had never seen clear coated paint before.
YN circled around front of the car, and got into the driver seat and fired up the car.
"Oh it roared!" One young women said as the crowd took a collective half step back.
"Look papa! It lights up! Wow!" Another child remarked, YN putting the car into reverse and the lights coming on.
He stared to back up while the crowd stayed still.
YN rolled down his window.
YN: Come on folks, you gotta move! Lemme out.
The crowd stayed, memorized by what they were seeing.
"It moves! Do you think he controls it?" "Oh look, smoke, do you think he's got a fire place inside it?"
YN, fed up with the crowd, honked the car's horn, which startled them enough to open a hole big enough for him to safely back out of.
With the car rolling down the side of the road, he was now faced with pedestrian traffic. Even in strange worlds, proper traffic etiquette would include not operating a car on the sidewalk. Nonetheless, YN was struggling to get his car onto the busy city road.
YN: Come-on, please let me merge.
YN asked to no one, head looking over his shoulder, praying for a gap in traffic with his blinker on. Not that it made any difference, people in this world hadn't a clue what the blinking yellow light was meant to signal, let alone a car.
In the confusion of his attempt to merge into the oncoming ground dragon convoy, YN had failed to pay attention to what was in front of him, and subsequently hit something with a 'thunk'.
YN slammed the brakes and looked at the person who had come to inadvertently sit upon his hood. Thankfully it was a very slow bump, just faster then the person's oblivious walking speed. But why had this person not noticed the very foreign sound of car?
The person jumped off the hood and spun around.
YN had his right hand up in surrender and used his left to roll down the window in attempt to voice his apology, but no sooner then when the person turned around, that things definitely got more confusing.
The person turned around, and upon seeing each other realized, that they were both wayward travelers.
The person was a boy, around maybe sixteen to eighteen years in age from the look of things. But what made him standout from everyone else in this town, was his black and white with orange accent colored tracksuit.
But what definitely sold his foreign image was the partially full plastic convenience store bag he held in his hands.
The boy, stared back at YN and his car.
What is THAT doing here? I never saw this the last two times… The boy thought.
He walked to YN's window, and they only awkwardly stared at each other, trying to size up the situation, assessing friend or foe.
Till finally they both spoke at once:
Boy/YN: You're from—
YN: Earth, right?
Boy: Yeah. Twenty-first century?
YN: Indeed, don't let the old car fool you.
The boy smiled at the remark.
Boy: Ha, it looks straight out of some decades old undercover-cop day time TV show!
YN: I'll take that as a compliment.
Boy: You betcha!
Speaking as if he'd found a new friend to sit next to during lunch, the boy finishing his statement with a thumbs up in YNs face.
Another brief silence of awkwardness over took them both.
YN: So uhh, birds of feather?
He said while pointing with his thumb behind him, in a gesture of inviting him into the car, as logic would dictate they should probably both stick together in this strange world.
Boy: Fly together?... Yeah.
The boy walked over to the other side, while the crowd from before was closing in behind on them.
YN reached across the inside of the car to unlock the passenger door, right before being besieged for a second time.
The boy sat as stiff as a board in the passenger seat, bag between his legs.
Trying to juggle the tasks of keeping the conversation going, as well as taking the opportunity he saw to merge into the traffic of the road, YN asked a question of his guest.
YN: So, where are you from?
Boy: Japan.
YN: Oh. That's pretty far from where I'm from.
Boy: Well, at least you know of it. Uhh, what's your name by the way?
YN: YN.
YN said, extending his right hand for a shake. Eyes still on the road ahead, concentrating on not hitting any dragons, or being hit himself.
The boy slapped the reached out hand enthusiastically and shook his hand back.
Subaru: Subaru! Natsuki Subaru.
YN: Subaru? Like the car compan—?
Subaru: There! See that blonde girl running on top of the carriages! Follow her!
Subaru cut off YN with his exclamation.
YN: Uhh, sure. Friend of yours?
Subaru: In a way.
He said, closing his eyes and lowering his head.
Subaru: She's got something I need to get a hold of.
YN: Fair enough.
However, a car is not the best mode of transport in a city congested with ground dragons. Between being cut off from the carriage drivers not seeing the low profile of the car, and spooking ground dragons with a foreign sounding and smelling moving metal box, they quickly lost track of the blonde girl, who YN was informed by Subaru, that her name was Felt. After nearly an hour of trying to follow the carriage top runner, they had fully lost track of her.
With a sense a defeat, they turned onto a much less occupied avenue, and parked to reconvene.
After an awkward silence where none of them really know the right thing to say to one another given their own knowledge of the world, YN broke the silence, moving his hands up to gesture to the world around them.
YN: So, I guess you could say we're not in Kansas anymore.
Subaru: And no yellow brick road to follow.
Subaru replied, elbow on the arm rest with his fist pressed to his face, looking out the passenger window.
After a few more moments of silence, Subaru chose to speak first this time.
Subaru: Can I ask how you got here? To this world? Have you been here long?
YN: Maybe only about, hmmmm, a few minutes before I ran into you?
He replied, with an air of thought as he tilted his head up, looking outward to the strange world around them and crossed his arms.
YN: But I gotta ask, how long have you been here? You seem to know a good bit more of this place then I do, albeit limited.
YN turned to face Subaru with a seriously puzzled look on his face
YN: Not to mention, you already know this acrobat thief girl. But from the looks of it—
YN looked down at the plastic bag on the floor, with a bag of some sort of potato product, and a cup of what he assumed was soup or ramen.
YN: —you just got back from a convenience store.
He somberly finished his sentence.
Subaru gave him a puzzled look of his own.
Subaru: Well, I was hungry after a long day of gaming in the dark.
Subaru replied back, crossing his arms and holding his head turned up, before leaning back, away from YN and pointing his finger in YNs face.
Subaru: What does that have to do with anything!?
YN: Because—
YN reached back to the backseat behind his seat, and pulled a bag of his own up to the front, filled with the food he also had just bought.
YN: —so did I.
Subaru stared at his bag and frowned.
Subaru: Did you start to feel dizzy or tired a few moments before—
YN: Before the white light? Yes. Although I am only running on a few hours of rest and have been up for nearly twenty hours now.
YN turned away and grabbed the steering wheel at ten and two, giving a thousand yard stare out the windshield.
YN: Just driving. Non-stop driving.
YN snapped himself out of it and turned to look at Subaru once again.
YN: Did you also see... her?
Subaru was silent for a moment before responding.
Subaru: Silver hair?
YN nodded.
YN: And deep purple eyes? Almost like amethysts?
Subaru: Yep.
He said while putting a hand to his chin and nodding, eyes closed.
Subaru: And the cutest most angelic face and attitude you'd ever seen! Right!?
Subaru responded with twinkles in his eyes and his hands rubbing against his face.
Subaru: Just the way her kind caring attitude can sway your soul and—
YN: Uhh, I was going to say "overtly malevolent aura" and "speech pattern like a broken record."
Subaru: Hmm, I've gotta say I think we're talking about two different people.
Subaru answered, hand returning to his chin.
Subaru: Wait, if you've only been in this world for mere moments before running into me, between that time and your arrival, when did you meet her?
YN: Right before I left the old world.
Subaru: What? Where was she?
YN pointed to the rear seat behind Subaru with his thumb.
YN: Just back there. She started showing up in my mirror asking me over and over again if I could "help her beloved" or something.
Subaru: Doesn't sound like the same girl I met, after I got here.
YN: Well, now what?
Subaru: We're going to have to drive to the slums near the edge of the Capitol and ask around to see where Felt lives. I have a good idea of maybe where she lives. I can guide us in the right way.
YN put the car back in drive and headed back onto the main avenue on Subaru's directions.
He knows all this from not being here much longer then I have, he also dodged my question from earlier about that. YN thought.
About halfway to their destination, YN's unanswered question had finally bugged him enough, and the hesitation he felt of re-asking had been overpowered by curiosity.
YN: So we got a little off track there, and I was uhh, still wondering, how long did you say you've been here?
Subaru hesitated to answer.
Do I tell him the truth? I can tell he's already skeptical at best by now. Can I trust him? Or should I be honest based off just this loop? That wouldn't technically be a lie. Subaru thought.
Subaru: A few more hours then you have I would guess...
Subaru cast his gaze out his window while answering.
YN: Bullshit.
Subaru: -hk!
YN: How do you meet this silver haired women, get robbed by this Felt girl, and then learn roughly where she lives in the course of a few hours?
Subaru: Well you see it's like this.
Subaru proceeded to tell YN of all the things that he had encountered, at least for this loop, about the silver haired girl accusing him of using the wrong name, chasing the blonde thief girl because she stole an insignia from the silver haired girl, and his near death experience with thugs in an alley and being saved by a knight.
YN: That still doesn't explain how you know where she lives.
Subaru: I only have a rough idea.
YN: And how'd you narrow it down to just that?
Subaru: Well uhh, I uhhh asked Reinhard about it and told him that she had said to 'live strong' and he said that that's a very common saying in a certain area of the slums.
I'm really glad I didn't bring up the loot house, I don't know how I could have explained that one. Subaru contemplated.
They continued their drive till Subaru directed them into the slums.
After awhile they found a place to pull over and walk on foot. Subaru asked where a girl named Felt lived and was given directions. Driving a short distance, they came upon a dilapidated shack, where Subaru again left the car to investigate while YN stayed to guard the car. No sooner then did Subaru poke his head into the shack, the same blonde girl came from another direction and began attacking Subaru.
Once the shack was destroyed and Subaru trapped in the rubble, he was finally able to have a dialogue with the blonde girl.
Having come to an understanding, Subaru escorted her back to the car YN was still sitting in. YN reached over to unlock the door. Subaru grabbed the lever on the passenger seat and pulled it forward, exposing the backseat.
Subaru: Here, just hop in back there and we'll be off.
Felt: Wait a minute. What is this thing? Are you guys kidnapping me?!
Subaru: Don't be silly, now get in.
He said, practically throwing her in the backseat. Subaru pushed the chair back and sat inside as well.
YN turned to view their new fellow commuter and raised a hand to say hello and smiled to try and break any hostile intentions.
YN: Hello, Felt-chan, my name is YN, I guess we're both heading the same way, so why not hitch a ride, ya know?
Felts expression softened a bit but not before Subaru protested.
Subaru: Hey who's side are you on here?! She just go through trying to lop my head off!
YN wrapped his arm around Subaru and brought him into a front seat strategy huddle, but used a voice loud enough to for Felt to still hear in the backseat.
YN: Ya know, if this girl has something you need to get, and you're trying to get it back in a diplomatic fashion, wouldn't it make sense to be kind at the very least? Eh, Subaru?
Subaru stayed silent for a moment before pushing YN's arm off him and sitting back.
Subaru: *sigh* You're right.
Subaru closed his eyes, crossed his arms, and nodded.
Subaru: Felt, would you please give us directions to the loot house from here?
Subaru had said it almost in a mocking tone, one that wasn't lost on YN but was just vague enough to not be perceived by Felt. Her expression lightened and she began to list off directions.
Felt: Well, first you need to head down to that crossroad and take a left where that tall building with the shop cover is- woah woah! Wait how are we moving? What's that rumbling sound?!
YN had put the car in gear and began rolling down the empty street to the tune of Felts directions. Subaru turned in his chair to face Felt and reassured her.
Subaru: Don't worry, this contraption will get us there faster then even if we went by ground dragon.
Felt continued the entire ride speaking her navigation directions with a sense of bewilderment and tense curiosity to the situation, trying to slip in questions about the vessel she was in in-between her instructions, like how it worked, what made it move, and why they had such a thing.
It wouldn't be long before they reached their destination.