Sudden Appearance

The young man turned around, spinning his head in all four directions, only to be utterly confused at all the strange ornaments decorating this plain chamber he could not recognize.

Emi held her breath at the very sight of the shadowy aura covering his entire body. Like a strange cloak floating in and out of his very skin. His black-red eyes were completely unnerving to her as he glanced up and down, with tiny sparks of purple lightning emanating from those eyes. But the more she looked at him, the more she saw how large the shadows were growing. Carrying with it a weight of lifetimes, faint echoes of metal clashing, and the heavy boots he wore. This was something she could feel but could not explain, like a projection inside her mind.

But slowly, the darkness got hidden away, as the struggle of the young man began to surface.

“Where am I?” His voice rang out, low and commanding. “What realm is this? What planet have I been cast upon?”

His gaze snapped back to her, piercing and unreadable. He pointed his finger at her:

“You there, maiden. What is this place?”

Emi blinked, still processing, as she instinctively blurted out:

“Um… Japan?”

“Hmm,” he squinted, “I have not heard of such a kingdom. I am sent here, but why? Such a mystery I must uncover.”

“Wait, wait, wait, hold up, just a sec. This is all going way too fast. Slow down for just a minute. WHO ON EARTH ARE YOU?”

Glancing back at the book on the ground and up at him once more, Emi cried out:

“You just came out of the book? You came out of the book. This is… no way.”

His eyes followed where she was looking, and so he bent down to pick up the plain fantasy book Emi was talking about. He himself gave an expression of stoic confusion, something he kept hidden much better than Emi could.

“I don’t believe it,” Emi cried, hands clasped on her head, “a fantasy character just came to life.”

“Woman, I am Orion, the Dark Lord of Soluna, Son of Evil, soon to be King of Gigas. You will now bow down before me and show me the proper respect before…”

He held out his hand, almost as if he expected his black mace to instantly leap off the ground and back into the palm of his hand. But glancing at the floor, he realized his weapons were not moving. Still lying there where he had dropped them earlier. He reached for the mace first, gripping the handle with determination…

Only for it to stay exactly where it was.

He blinked. Then tried again. The weapon did not budge.

Emi raised an eyebrow. Trying to glance over his shoulders:

“Uh… you good?”

“Silence, woman. I merely require –” He heaved, straining every muscle in his arms. The mace barely lifted an inch before clattering back to the ground.

A deep, horrible realization dawned on him.

He was weak.

“Wait, what’s going on?” Emi covered her mouth, stifling a laugh.

He ignored her, reaching for his shield this time, and to his absolute horror – the same exact result. Barely able to get it back onto his wrist before it fell to the floor.

Shifting his gaze from his equipment down to the palm of his hands, he finally made a shocking realization:

“My magick… it is gone.”

“Your… what?”

Ignoring her question, he froze his expression once more to look around the room. Now examining everything with a closer inspection.

“So…” Emi gestured around as he was looking, “this is my room. That’s my desk. My computer. And these are my… books.”

“I know what books are. I am not an imbecile.”

“Right.”

“Where I come from, people don’t tend to keep erotica like this out in the open.”

Emi’s eyes shot out of her head the moment she realized what it was that Orion was holding in his hand. In an instant, she dashed over and yanked the romance manga out of his grip, shoving it back into one of the higher shelves before shouting:

“These are not erotica! And don’t just touch other people’s stuff you brute.”

“If you say so,” he said in a monotone voice before looking around once more. “What is that contraption on the ceiling?”

“That? Oh, they’re ceiling lights. Light bulbs.”

“You’ve harnessed the stars? Fascinating. Now what manner of device is this?”

“Hey, that’s my phone. Give it here!”

“And what about this?”

“That’s the remote for my fan.”

Smelling the plastic of the strange contraption before Orion decided to take a big bite out of the mechanical rectangular device. It instantly shattered into several pieces with electrical sparks flying out of the circuits within. Completely disgusted, Emi shrieked as she quickly yanked it out of his mouth.

“This is not food!”

Before she could even calm down, Orion had seemingly teleported to the other side of the room, now fascinated by the spinning fan Emi placed by the corner of the room. He had never seen anything like it, and thus, proceeded to make various voices into the spinning circle, mesmerized by the vibration of his voice being reflected back.

“Incredible,” Orion’s face remained stoic, “it seems this Japan planet has also been able to harness the dark powers of magick.”

“Japan is a country, not a planet, you dummy. This planet is called Earth. Get away from there!”

“But still, this planet’s power is only a mere fraction of the infinite magicks that I possess.”

“Oh? From what I’ve seen so far, it’s pretty… eh.”

His visible annoyance rose from his gaze as he raised his hand, saying:

“You will respect my authority. I am the CHOSEN ONE!”

A moment of silence filled the room as Orion continued to wait for his telekinetic powers to emanate from the palm of his hand. But in the end, the stillness in the air lasted for what seemed like decades.

And Emi simply could not hold it in anymore. Bursting out the biggest laugh she had had in weeks.

“No way! Ha-ha, this is too much. Do it again! Ha-ha.”

His face remained blank, but a twitch in his brow betrayed his growing fury. He then mumbled:

“Shut it!”

“No, wait,” Emi mimicked being choked, continuing to die from laughter, “something is happening. It’s happening! Mr. Chosen One, it’s too much! Ha-ha!”

Staring down his noodle arms and shivering limbs in complete wide-eyed disbelief, Orion was now shaking in a horror that was completely alien and absurd to someone like him.

Wiping the tears off her eyes, Emi now reeled the conversation back in:

“What kind of a Chosen One are you anyway? And how are you even the Dark Lord at the same time as well? It doesn’t make any sense. Unless…” she gasped, “it’s totally the fallen hero trope, isn’t it? Oh, my goodness, this is amazing. I am going to make millions off of this.”

“Woman, what are you babbling about? Be silent.”

“This ‘woman’ happens to have a name, thank you very much. It’s Emi by the way.”

Orion stared at her, unblinking. To which Emi simply shook her head, then continued:

“Look. I have no idea what on earth is going on here. But it looks to me like there’s something weird going on, and I’d like to get to the bottom of it. This definitely has something to do with that book I bought earlier in the day. You coming out of it is probably not a coincidence.”

“Hmm… perhaps.”

“So, for now, why don’t you just settle in, and we’ll figure this out… together.”

She held out her hand for him to shake, for him to stand there, still frozen. She pulled back, now with a slight smirk on her face.

“It doesn’t really matter, I guess,” she said, “it’s not like you have anywhere else to go, anyway. So you can either start playing nice, or… you just leave my house on your own to explore this new world you definitely have no idea how to get around. It’s up to you.”