Asahi's eyes adjusted to a dense, humid space several meters underground. Thick vegetation and solid rock covered every corner.
Several boulders stood before him. A waterfall half the mountain's size loomed overhead, and sunlight barely touched him.
Squirrels scampered around and mocked him for how low he was, squeaking and chirping as they did.
With an amused tone, Asahi slowly pushed himself upright from a pile of leaves and muttered to himself.
"Where am I?"
Near him were five tiny houses fit for the height of a child. Most of the windows were not lit by a yellow light, although one of them, which had a blue hue, stood before him with ease. As silence consumed him, Asahi was greeted by a guttural voice.
"Hey, boy! Over there!"
Though the voice caught his interest, Asahi instead focused his attention on the several glowing objects floating in front of his eyes.
A red meter, a green circle, a tiny cyan diamond, and several other identifiers, such as the fading text, revealed the name [Half Statue] at the top of his eyes. Asahi commented quietly.
"The Tenth Eye."
The voice that shouted at him earlier screamed once again, coupled with the chiming noise of echoing footsteps.
"Hey, boy! I'm talking to you."
Asahi dared not to interfere and instead tried to call out Telos for clarification or anything that revolved around value.
After all, if he made a deal to use him, then there should be no reason not to use him.
"Blink!"
(Yes, what is it that you need?)
Asahi looked upward to assess his surroundings and gulped when he noticed how far he had fallen. He shook his head and muttered a reply to Telos.
"Telos, thank goodness you responded. I'm lost, okay? I don't know where I am, and I thought the training would be simple, but suddenly that woman ambushed us. Why did Joshilyn or whoever she was take me there in the first place? I thought it was an easy challenge."
(Hold on.)
Telos paused for five seconds, accessing Asahi's eidetic memory to review his recent experiences.
Though skilled at recollection, even he struggled to process everything Asahi saw: flashing lights and several spoons.
As the billowing winds howled through the deeply carved hole, Telos spoke, informing Asahi of his observations.
(I see. So, you were supposed to go in for training, but then ended up here after an ambush that wasn't planned. Interesting.)
Concern started to spark in him as he remembered the face of Chloe, who was caught in the storm of the ambush.
"Okay, that isn't informative. I know what you said, so… what do I do?"
(Well… the first thing I suggest is that you try to find any sign of your allies. Anyone at all would be enough to recuperate value as they would have a different perspective and have more knowledge on the event.)
"Understood," Asahi said as he started sprinting down the rocky terrain with that thought in his mind. The Tenth Eye that was still within his vision caught on with the current state of his body, revealing such dangers as low health and injured limbs. Nonetheless, he never harbored a sense of care for that.
. . .
As he rummaged through the place, Asahi found moss-covered stones everywhere in this place. The pleasant colors of green, cyan, and blue were all splashed here like a bucket pouring down on an already painted canvas.
The vegetation seemed out of place, yet mist covered almost everything in this pit.
"It's so humid here. It's been ten minutes, and I haven't seen a ray of sunlight, and yet it's so hot."
During his search, Asahi squeezed through a narrow passageway covered in vines and noticed an adolescent young woman with faint martini-red hair. She sat against a pile of lush leaves, oblivious to his approach, her posture weary but stable.
She mumbled, not noticing the boy approaching her.
"There's no way out of here. I've tried for thirty minutes, and I can't find a single exit. I guess… this is my fate."
"Chloe?!" Asahi hollered as he raced over to the young woma"Yes?" she muttered. "Who are you?" Although Asahi could see Chloe perfectly, the same couldn't be said for her.her.
All Chloe could see was a dark silhouette hidden in shadow, made murkier by the crowded walls strewn about the place. When sunlight finally streamed through the treetops, it illuminated his face, revealing his features clearly to Chloe.
An expression of relief flew on her.
"Asahi?"
"Yes? Where are the others?!"
[Keep in mind that these two were speaking in Chloe's native language.]
Chloe shrugged, relieved to see someone. She explained she'd wandered for thirty minutes and only found him.
Asahi nodded, showing he understood everything Chloe explained. This knowledge made him more ambitious to continue the search for the others.
But as they tried to find out where everyone had gone across this heavenly enclosed space, Chloe glanced at Asahi, wanting to ask him something. She bent her head and smiled.
"Hey, I know we are stuck in this predicament and all… but, c… can you…" The teen started steering, afraid that if she were to speak wrongly, she would be embarrassed. "... can you teach me your language?"
Asahi raised an eyebrow and made a soft grin.
"Wait, you want me to do that now? Are you sure? I know we're alone and all, but…"
Chloe immediately interrupted.
"Yes, please! You don't understand how long I have waited to ask you this. Asahi shrugged and sighed. Although he just awakened and was now weakened and separated from the group, Asahi felt pleased to become Chloe's teacher.
"Okay…"
As they carefully crossed a passageway that led to an open, vegetation-infested cavern, both of them rested near a comfortable spot and started the session.
* * *
"So, why did you want me to teach you? I thought you did pretty well speaking."
Chloe gulped and shook her head.
"Well, because…" A trembling look came from her brown eyes. "Ever since I was summoned into this world, I have had trouble communicating with people."
Asahi leaned over and caged his hands.
"Like what?"
Chloe shook her head and forced Asahi upward.
"N… Nothing."
She didn't want to goof around and stand in one place, so as they tried to find an exit from the cavern, the two walked in separate directions, exploring the area while explaining different things to each other.
Asahi checked his notebook and asked Chloe with a friendly tone, "You know: hello, hi, goodbye, right?"
"So, I guess you know the basics, right? Hello, high, goodbye?"
She nodded her head and smiled.
"Yeah." But those words triggered a traumatic memory in Chloe.
* * *
"Hello?"
I can't remember what this place was. It's been so long, and I never cared.
A fairly young girl with dark brown hair lay atop this poisonous ground.
That was me: a defenseless girl, summoned here after standing outside.
There was nothing else I could have done.
I was weak, I was barely healthy, and had never gone outside in my world as much as I liked. I was quarantined because of my anxiety and the disease that only my brother and I knew I had. Now that I had lost him, no one could have comforted me. No one was like my brother. My world wasn't bad just from the crimes, natural disasters, and murder, but also from what affects your soul. Everyone in my home world had this token of freedom to speak and judge; This thing, judgment, I hated it so much.
It's the element that determines how people perceive you. You don't even know if you're being judged until they say something. That's why I don't like judgment.
I hate when people are silent.
When I reached out to people passing by, they ignored me, just as they did at home.
"Move away, scamp!"
"Get out of here!" I could still remember their voices.
So cruel for a modern world, that's why I looked forward to fantasy. It's the reason I tried to escape my world through my own stories, acting, and role-playing. I loved to escape because the characters were the only people who could bring me this sense of comfort. It's the only ones I thought they cared about. So when I found I was summoned into another world, I thought I had died.
But this world was nothing like it, at least… not what I thought.
The air was poisonous; even my tears couldn't dry. Pollution evoked my home city. I wondered if this world mirrored my own hell, and believed I deserved it.
People here were cruel and merciless, treating me like a freak, not a human.
"Should we help this alien?"
"I don't know. It looks dangerous. Never trust anything from this nation, not even ones that look like us."
That stare. It's almost like the stare my parents gave me when they discovered I had a disease. A disease that was powerful enough to wipe society.
No one helped, not even my parents. I was truly alone.
It got worse. I was somehow still alive as spider-like creatures tried to devour me, a fitting punishment for my idleness.
They looked like the nightmares I have seen in my dreams, horrible, horrible nightmares.
Their sharp teeth almost ripped my skin off, as if they were trying to devour me, but my pain ceased, as if it were a dream. I just… hate those creatures so much.
But suddenly, even though I was paralyzed and unable to breathe, this girl, with light green hair and cyan eyes, grabbed me and escorted me away from this place.
After years of my life being alone, I could finally feel the sense of comfort, just as I did with my fantasies.
At first, it was only a small hut, but she gave me this mask because she was aware of the breathing problems in this place. She even taught the language because she had encountered people like this before…
* * *
A tear struck Chloe's eye as she forced herself to shut her eyes and not break down.
"It's… nothing now. I'm safe, ha. You don't have to worry about me. It's all in the… past."
She tilted her head to the book Asahi held and backed away in shock.
"Huh? What is that?"
Asahi's gray eyes slowly looked over to the girl and trembled.
"Dear… god."
He had difficulty imagining Chloe's scenario, thinking.
(Just imagine what it would feel like to be taken away from your own world, only to be transported to somewhere worse. Where no one remembers you, no one knows you, and no one understands you. Not even the air could get you. The only thing that could comfort you is the people you believe like you.)
It was a chilling thought, one that made Asahi's skin crawl.
"... I can't imagine. Please, I don't want you to feel alone. That's just how someone could react when hearing what you said."
Chloe giggled, trying to brush the sadness away from her.
"I-It's okay. I'm fine now. That girl who had saved me, changed my life. This world isn't as bad as I thought it was. It's fine."
Asahi gritted his teeth in anger.
"NO, it's not! How could you survive like that? Even if I lost my parents, it's a tragedy to be all alone. I never knew a place such as that existed. It just sparked even more curiosity in you."
A tremor of faint amusement and disbelief flew with her face.
"R… Really? Do you think so?"
"Yes." Asahi tried not to wipe a tear.
"I know what it's like to lose a family; it's a horrible feeling. The only ones that had loved and cared for you, the ones you were raised by, and the ones that truly cared about your life, had suddenly passed away before you; it's a horrible feeling."
Remorselessly swept into oblivion, a retort leaped to Asahi's lips as they wandered the warm cavern. He felt as if he genuinely cared for this person, as if he could connect to her.
And that feeling that pulsated in Asahi was EXACTLY what Telos desired him to have. If he could keep it up, perhaps he could draw a realization that every person he encountered, shares a story?
Asahi mumbled as they finally found an opening leading outside.
"Alright, Chloe. Are you sure you want to learn this language?"
Chloe beamed while she tried to hide her expression.
"Absolutely! I look forward to that, Asa…hi!" Suddenly, her mouth shut as she thought about something. Chloe mumbled.
"Asahi… Wow. That's such a nice name. It fits his appearance so well. White hair as bright as the sun."
Asahi turned over to Chloe with curiosity.
"What are you mumbling about?"
"N-Nothing! It's just about your name and all."
A silence fell over the area.
"My name…?"
"Yeah. It reminds me of when my brother taught me about Japan."
Asahi backed up.
"Brother?"
Suddenly, as they passed through the opening among what they assumed was a massive cavern, where vines dangled and scrambled ruins, Asahi's reply triggered another memory in Chloe to return in her.
("I never want to lose you, okay?")