New Day

Haruki’s hands were still trembling as he brushed dust off his knees. The horrid smell of burnt goblin flesh lingered in the air, smoke curling lazily upward.

The civilian woman he had tried so desperately to sacrifice was already storming off, muttering curses under her breath and throwing him one last scathing glare before disappearing down the road. She didn’t even want to be checked up on for any injuries.

“A real man, you are…” he barely heard the woman.

He couldn’t even blame her.

“Get up,” the silver-haired girl said flatly, reaching down to yank him to his feet with surprising strength.

Her hand was rough from training, her grip firm and unhesitant. Up close, Haruki could really see her now: hair cut short just below the jawline, silver strands catching the light; eyes the clear, biting blue of a winter sky. Even up close, he could still feel the heat generating from her palms, still lingering from the fight.

Here, Haruki’s brain was emptying everything within, finding himself staring. His chest squeezed uncomfortably, not from fear this time but from something else. Something far worse. His entire soul screamed at him the exact words he’d once laughed about on the internet: this is wife material.

And of course, because subtlety had never been his strong suit, it was all so clear on his face.

Her blue eyes narrowed.

“Ugh… gross,” she whispered under her breath, recoiling slightly, trying to keep things subtle. It wasn’t like she didn’t know what was going on, “You hurt in the head there, little guy?”

“Huh? Oh, nothing!” he blurted, voice cracking like dry wood. He waved his hands in front of him too quickly, which only made it worse. “Nothing at all! Did you say something?”

She crossed her arms, unimpressed. “Right.”

If there was a scale between intrigued and utterly grossed out, she was clearly leaning heavily toward the latter.

Still, she sighed, letting him off the hook – only to then strike another:

“You know, where I come from, there’s this thing called chivalry, where men are supposed to help the women. I guess that’s a bit of a foreign concept to you, yeah?”

“Oh, well… I…”

“Just don’t throw a lady under the wagon like that next time, okay?”

Haruki flushed deep red, every word digging into him like needles.

“I… panicked, okay? They had knives, and teeth, and green skin, and… I’ve never seen anything like those creatures before in my life… except maybe from a movie or a video game…”

“What on earth are you talking about? Are you talking about the Goblins? You got memory loss or something? Goblin bandits are all over the place.”

“Oh… Goblins… yes…”

“You – don’t know what they are?” she raised her eyebrows.

“Yeah… well…” Haruki scratched his head, “it’s a long story.”

The girl shook her head, half-amused, half-disgusted. And subtly curious. Then, with the same blunt tone as before, she said:

“I’m Kiera. What’s your name?”

He paused, then said:

“Haruki… my name is Haruki.”

“Haruki? What kind of a name is that?”

“The… Japanese kind?”

“The what?”

Haruki rubbed the back of his neck, feeling her stare searing him. He then explained:

“Right… okay, this is gonna sound insane, but… I’m not from around here. Like, really not from around here.”

“Yeah, that much I figured. You don’t look like you’ve worked a day in your life, let alone fought Goblins. Where are you from then? Some remote village? Another kingdom?”

He hesitated. This was the moment. He knew if he said it out loud, it would cement just how surreal his situation was.

“I… am from… Earth.”

Kiera blinked:

“The dirt?”

“No!” Haruki waved his hands again, face heating. “It’s a world. Another world. Another planet. You know, tall buildings, glowing screens, cars, the internet…”

“The what-net? You’re not making any sense.”

“Never mind that part,” Haruki groaned. “Point is, I’m not from here. I don’t know your Goblins, or any of this.”

For a long second, she just looked at him, lips pursed, like she was trying to decide whether he was lying, delusional, or both. Finally, she let out a short laugh:

“That kind of explains a lot, actually. No wonder you were acting like a headless chicken.”

“Hey, that’s harsh…”

“It’s true, though.” She gave him a lopsided grin, more amused now than disgusted. “So you’re telling me, you really had no idea what a Goblin was until today?”

Haruki nodded sheepishly. Kiera folded her arms, continuing:

“Huh. Well… unlucky you. They are crafty little bastards. Surprisingly civilized and developed society if you can believe it. It’s just that the bandits are the lowlifes.”

Kiera then continued to brush the ash off her sleeves, which caught Haruki’s attention, with him asking:

“How did you do that, by the way? What you just did there with those goblins. I mean… you just raised your hand and suddenly boom. Fire everywhere. You didn’t even have a staff or anything. Was that… a spell? Some kind of magic?”

She turned, looking at him curiously:

“It’s my Echo.”

The words hit him, but currently carried no meaning that could make him understand. Kiera then finally slapped her head, now remembering that he obviously wouldn’t know what she was talking about.

“Okay, so everybody in this world’s got an Echo. It grants us all sorts of different abilities. Many of them strange and all different from one another. Like a reflection of who they are, deep down.” She tapped her chest with two fingers. “My Echo grants me the ability to summon fire. Don’t ask me why – it’s just something I’m born with.”

Haruki swallowed, eyes widening.

“So… it’s like… superpowers?”

Kiera tilted her head again, that word foreign to her.

“Sure. If that’s what they call it where you’re from. But you are on Sunpeak now. On this world – we hear the Voice inside us. That’s where all Echoes come from.”

The name of this world resonated something strange inside Haruki. Something about a world being named after the sun seemed almost antithetical to everything he had done through all his life. And this Voice… he wondered to himself what exactly she was talking about, but it sounded important, like a fact of life. But as the sky slowly brightened above the forest canopy, washing the leaves in gold, Haruki couldn’t help but feel that the world itself was whispering at him:

This was truly the new day. And she was a bright fire in front of him.