Toshiki Kagami POV
Usually, when I fall asleep, I just enter and encounter the same people and situations, simply observing from the sidelines while they do their thing.
So why, after all the time I've gotten used to this situation I'm always in—
"WHY AM I FALLING?!!!" I shouted while free-falling in this Alice in Wonderland look alike.
Eh? Wait a minute, why am I feeling pain? I just bit my tongue just now, but it wasn't the usual feeling I could just shrug off and ignore.
I pinched myself to test it again. Goddamn, I felt that, alright!! This is not a dream!!
Am I seriously going to lose my life this way? You've got to be kidding me. I'm still young, with big ambitions I want to achieve in my life, you know!!!
"This is super duper bad," I said in a panicked manner.
I started to see the ground. Ah, looks like I have to accept my fate. Take care, Mom and Dad caue your son will go to the afterlife first to meet our ancestors.
As I got dangerously close to the ground, I closed my eyes and shouted at the top of my lungs.
I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die—
"I'm gonna die!!!" I shouted in fear.
Closing my eyes tightly, I expected to splatter on the ground any second now, but what I expected did not come.
Areh?? Why do I feel light?
Slowly opening my eyes, I saw myself barely missing my demise.
"Well, this is a surprise," someone said nearby.
My body was gently dropped onto the ground. Feeling my heartbeat still racing, I clutched my chest and felt my breathing grow shallow.
"Oi, kid, are you still there?" the same guy—or what I could describe as a youngish voice I heard earlier—asked.
As my blurry vision started to clear, I saw a black-haired boy leaning over and poked my head.
Weirdly enough, my nervousness immediately disappeared when he physically touched me. Did he do something?
Groaning slightly, I got up to look at my surroundings.
It was beautiful. It reminded me of those lights I see in romance movies my parents and relatives watch.
What stood out were the letters present among the lights. They looked like the runes you'd see in an MMORPG.
I winced when the boy clapped his hands to get my attention.
Turning my head in his direction, I saw the unimpressed look on his face.
"Where am I?" I asked uneasily.
"Trust me, kid, even I don't know where this is or why I was dumped here," he said while crossing his arms.
"The only thing I know is that this is a spatial prison that's at the top of my list of places I don't want to get trapped in," he added. As he opened his hand, a rainbow-colored sphere formed in his palm, and he threw it into the air.
When it hit the aurora-like light, it exploded and let out a static noise.
I rubbed my eyes because that was hella cool, despite not having any single idea how dangerous the thing he did was.
"What was that?!" I asked, my voice raised.
He just looked at me and tilted his head.
"It's magic. Why? Aren't you supposed to be Japanese? Why are you surprised?" he said as if it were common knowledge.
"Magic?! As in summoning a fireball after saying some gibberish?" I asked for confirmation.
"Wait a minute, you don't know magic? What about ki?" he asked in a legitimately surprised tone that surpassed mine.
I shook my head to answer his question.
"I thought they only existed in games and anime." I replied honestly.
He then made a face I could only describe as someone watching their car get destroyed by a superhero using it as a weapon in the middle of a fight.
"First, let me ask," he said, "do you live on a planet called Virelmarch?"
"Virelmarch? I live on Earth," I replied, confused—despite the name sounding strangely familiar.
He made the same face again, then shook his head and continued questioning me.
I answered every single question of his without any hint of lies.
I wished I could properly describe how his expression kept shifting as I went on.
"So let me get this straight," he said. "You live on a planet called Earth, which also has a nation called Japan that uses the same language as the Japanese people in my world?"
"Yes."
"Magic doesn't exist, ki doesn't exist, and fictional stories are the reason you know these terms?"
"You got that right." I nodded my head
"Though, there must be a secret society that I don't know about, so it might exist without us normal folks knowing," I shrugged while scratching my head.
He suddenly burst into manic laughter, pacing restlessly as if he'd just found something endlessly amusing.
"I thought you were just an eastern kid who miraculously survived the Bloody Birthday, but I was dead wrong! HAHAHAHAHA!"
He was starting to act like a madman, spouting terms I wasn't familiar with—higher continuum, primal reality, and other things that went straight over my head.
Also… Bloody Birthday? That sounded like the title of a horror movie.
Taking a moment to look at the situation more clearly, I realized something important.
We hadn't even introduced ourselves yet.
And yet… his face felt familiar. Way too familiar for someone I'd never met in my life. He'd mentioned Virelmarch, a word I knew I'd already heard countless times before.
Think. Come on, brain
Where have you seen it?
A boy around my age.
A short black cape with a sword symbol.
That same voice
"I remember now!!" I blurted out after finally connecting the last piece.
"You're the magic user who was with Jin, Carys, and the others!"
That was it. That's why he felt familiar. He was one of the people from my dream!
The hundred year old wizard who looked like a middle schooler.
His laughter stopped instantly.
He stared at me with a dead-serious expression.
…..Yeah. I really should've thought before opening my mouth.
Damn this stupid mouth of mine.
"Why do you know those names?" he asked, his tone suddenly cold and threatening.