📍 The Meadow | ???
The darkness spoke.
Not from a direction. From everywhere at once.
A voice — deep, lady-like, carrying the kind of authority
that didn't ask for attention. It simply had it.
"You are the only hope. Become strong.
This is not a request. This is the only choice.
You can quit at any time —
but it comes with a price.
If you quit, your partner will die.
Both must proceed together,
except when the system allows.
If you die, you die in the real world as well.
But if you fail —
your family, your friends, everything —
will burn to ash. With you."
SILENCE.
Then they saw it.
KOK Mall — or what was left of it.
A crack split the sky above it like broken glass,
and through the gap, monsters poured.
People ran. People fell.
The city they had been standing in twenty minutes ago
was coming apart at the seams.
Before either of them could speak, the light took them.
📍 A City That Shouldn't Exist | Dusk
The light faded.
Streets lined with stone. Lanterns hanging from iron hooks.
People in ancient attire moving around them like this was
any ordinary evening — like two strangers appearing
from nowhere was simply not their problem.
Kiyoshi looked down.
He was wearing something he hadn't put on.
A sword hung at his hip.
He stared at it for a long moment.
Right.
Sakura stood beside him, her new clothes unfamiliar,
her expression moving quickly through shock, confusion,
and something that was settling into anger.
"Is this all real," she said.
Not quite a question.
"Has to be." Kiyoshi touched the sword hilt. Solid.
"I've been noticing something off about the gravity
near that mall for months. Something was building."
She looked at him like he'd said that completely wrong time.
He checked his pouch. Three gold coins, heavy and unfamiliar.
Around them — swords, bows, arrows.
Elves, if he was seeing correctly.
A dwarf arguing loudly with a merchant three stalls down.
She's not my rented girlfriend anymore.
The three hours ended somewhere between here and there.
Strangers now. Stuck in the same problem.
He walked toward her.
"I know we need to get out of here as fast as possible,"
he said, keeping his voice steady.
"But we'll have to work together to do it."
He had no actual plan.
Every instinct he had was borrowed from games and anime.
He was hoping that was enough.
Sakura nodded. The concern on her face didn't leave,
but she didn't argue.
———
📍 City Streets | Night Falling
"Do you have any money?" Kiyoshi asked.
"Two gold coins. One gold equals fifty silver."
He did the math. "We can get a basic room with food
for about twenty-five silver. We need an inn."
They moved through the streets, piecing together
what they could from what they saw.
Sakura pointed to a building — warm light through the windows,
noise spilling under the door.
"Is that an inn?"
"Just like in every anime ever," Kiyoshi said.
"Best place for information, cheap rooms,
and someone willing to talk."
He grabbed the heavy door and immediately struggled with it.
A burly man behind them pushed it open without effort
and walked past like they didn't exist.
Kiyoshi and Sakura slipped inside.
The bar was loud and alive —
elves, dwarves, witches crowded around tables,
laughter cutting through the low hum of conversation,
candlelight catching on a dozen different faces.
"What the—" Kiyoshi muttered. "This is real."
At the bar, he asked about a room.
The barman didn't look up. "One left."
"We'll take it."
———
📍 The Inn Room | Night
Dusty. Small. One candle's worth of light.
Kiyoshi lit it and started tidying while Sakura moved to the window.
She opened it. Moonlight came in soft and quiet.
In it, he could see her eyes.
The tears hadn't fallen. But they were there.
He didn't ask. Some things don't need asking.
She prepared the bed in silence, and he let her.
After a moment he said, carefully:
"The floor is freezing and there are rats.
Can I sleep on the bed?"
She didn't answer right away.
He waited.
"Fine," she said. "Don't touch me."
"I won't. I'm not that kind of person."
He meant it. She didn't look entirely convinced.
He couldn't blame her.
But he sleeps on the chair thing way to get-out.
———
📍 The Inn Room | Deep Night
The storm came in fast.
Rain loud against the window. Thunder rolling in
from somewhere far and getting closer.
*BOOM*
Kiyoshi jolted awake from the chair, nearly falling.
Sakura was sitting up in bed, wide-eyed,
flinching at every crash outside.
"Sleep here," she said. Quietly. No longer an argument —
just exhaustion and something she didn't want to name.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
He lay down. Left as much space as the bed allowed.
Kept still.
The thunder kept coming.
At some point in the dark, a cold hand found his arm
and held on.
She was scared of the thunder, one very Strick she shocked and held Kiyoshi's hand tight.
He didn't move. Didn't speak.
Outside, the storm raged.
Inside, he let her hold on.
She was thinking about her mother.
He didn't know that. But somehow he felt it.
———
📍 The Inn Room | Morning
THUD.
Kiyoshi hit the floor.
He lay there for a moment, processing.
"Why did you kick me?" He sat up, glaring.
"Are you crazy?"
Sakura stood over, arms crossed, expression ice.
"You deserved worse. How dare you sleep in my bed
and touch me."
"You told me to sleep there.
And you grabbed me because of the thunder."
"I don't need your explanations. Get out."
He stared at her.
Then he got up, muttered something under his breath,
and left.
———
He came back with two portions and set one in front of her
without a word.
She didn't thank him.
He didn't expect her to.
They ate in silence — less angry than before,
more just tired.
After a while Sakura put her chopsticks down.
"I'm sorry," she said. "About this morning."
He didn't look up. "It's fine."
"It's not." She was staring at the table.
"You didn't do anything wrong and I — "
She stopped. Started again.
"I don't hate you. I just don't know
how to be in this situation."
He nodded. Let her sit with that for a moment.
Then, quietly, like it cost her something to say it:
"I have a fear of thunder."
She didn't look at him when she said it.
The embarrassment was sitting right on the surface,
barely held down.
"You don't have to explain," he said.
"I know. But—" She exhaled.
"When I was young, lightning struck a tree
near our house during a storm.
Part of the trunk shattered.
My mother pushed me out of the way."
A pause.
"She got hurt. I got a scratch on my back.
She got the rest of it."
She touched the back of her shoulder
without seeming to notice she was doing it.
"On rainy nights I used to sleep beside her.
Even when I got older. She never minded."
Kiyoshi looked at his food.
He thought about the voice from last night.
The things it had said about family.
About ash.
He didn't say any of that.
"My mother is alone," she continued.
"She doesn't have anyone else. Just me."
Her hands were flat on the table, very still.
"She's going to wake up and I won't be there.
She always waits. She'll keep waiting
and I won't come."
"We'll find a way back," he said.
"You don't know that."
"No," he admitted. "But we found a room.
We found food. We're still here."
She didn't look convinced.
She didn't look completely unconvinced either.
Outside, the city moved through its morning —
merchants, carts, voices in a language that somehow
wasn't and yet was perfectly understood.
A world that made no sense.
A mother waiting somewhere in the one that did.
Sakura picked her chopsticks back up.
She ate.
Quietly this time.