To Be or Not To Be

"Finally, you're awake!"

Ren blinked a few times, trying to connect the familiar voice to a face. The air seemed cleaner in the morning as the bright sky stretched out like a meadow. A faint, smoky residue of the unlit fire hung in the morning air while the birds sang as if performing the concert of their lives. Ren burrowed into his hoodie, which—along with his shoes—was his only connection to the real world.

Haku clapped her hands together excitedly, ushering the others around the now-unlit fire. She sat on a large rock with a wide grin on her face, and with her eyes closed, she nodded in approval as the others gathered around her, like a grandmother. "My dears, I'm glad you could join me."

"You're not a grandmother!"

Lily began to braid her hair, while not taking her eyes off the girl. Zel seemed excited too, fidgeting back and forth like a child who ate too much sugar. Ren was the only one who didn't know what was going on. He glanced at Lily, whose gentle waves of hair emphasized her thin, long neck, which seemed more hollow than usual. Her face looked sickly, with dark circles under her eyes and pale skin. Ren wondered if he looked just as awful. He ran his finger through his light blue hair, hoping to improve the situation. Meanwhile, Zel yawned frequently, a tear sliding down his eye each time, his movements slow and lethargic as if he hadn't slept in years.

Haku stood up and cleared her throat, signaling that she wanted to say something. "Our topic for today is..." She paused dramatically, then spread her hands and wiggled her fingers in front of one person. "Ren!"

He scratched his face. He still didn't understand what was happening.

Haku walked back and forth, brandishing her huge sword like a stick, its length a constant reminder of the danger she held. She looked so threatening that Ren pulled his neck in and backed away every time she got close.

"So, does anyone know what we'll be talking about today?"

Lily finished braiding her hair, the familiar braid now resting above her ear. Ren couldn't even imagine her without it. The girl now raised her hand, her back straight, and volunteered like a small student.

"Yes, Lily!" Haku pointed at Lily with her sword—an action that, in another situation, could have been interpreted completely differently.

"Yesterday, you let it slip that Ren isn't from this world." Ren shot an irritated glare at the red-haired girl, but she only urged the other girl to continue. "Based on you, Grandma Bridget mentioned that the Mage is in another world. I don't know how many worlds can coexist, and I don't have my books with me, but if I remember correctly, some people philosophized about another place." Lily put her hand under her chin and scrutinized the ground below her. Her eyes darted back and forth, searching through her memories. "I'm sure these are about Ren's world."

Lily jumped up and picked up a stick to use as a pencil to draw on the ground. First, two circular sets. She wrote an M on top of one and an R on the other. She derived something else next to the sets, but it was too fast and complicated for Ren to understand her train of thought. What he did understand was the two-sided arrow from M to R and from R to M. "So, presumably M and R swapped places, right? I have several hypotheses about the why or how, but all of them assume that the two worlds are in some kind of connection with each other. Which is impossible. I've never heard of anything like that."

"Bingo!" Haku yelled and patted the girl on the top of her head, who bathed in the recognition, returning from her serious tone to a schoolgirl's.

Zel casually raised his hand to get attention, and when they all focused on him, he continued, "I don't want to badmouth the elders, our great ancestors, but they didn't really do much. They didn't even leave us a miserable map. We're trying to put things together, but for us—" He stood up and gestured to himself with big movements. "Even I have places that are impossible to reach. For example, this here!" He gestured toward the long mountain range. It looked pretty massive, but Ren found it unbelievable that they hadn't invented mountain climbing here yet.

"Couldn't you just go around it?"

All three of them turned to Ren as if he were an idiot. The boy wished they still hated each other.

"There are the same forests on both sides as the one we were in, only 100 times worse. No one has ever come back from there."

"Can’t you go there? I mean, you're the Great Hero. I thought that title comes with some superpower."

Zel covered his mouth with his hand. "Ren, are you trying to kill me?"

"I don't have those intentions!"

Zel stepped away from the group, full of worries. He clasped his hands behind his back as he looked up at the sky. Perhaps for dramatic effect, but the sad humming of his voice and his posture only enhanced the experience.

"This brings us to the next problem. I don't have my superpower." He spoke the last word with a strange disgust, as if the word was alien to him. "I'm not at the peak of my strength, and an unknown person from another world appears, who magically gets power. Isn't that a little strange?"

Lily's eyebrows shot up to her forehead. "You mean, Ren stole your magical power? How would that even be possible?"

"The others reported a magic circle that trapped me and Ren. Haku carved a hole into it and kidnapped Ren."

Ren wrapped his arms around himself and took a step away from Haku. He instinctively guarded his body from his kidnapper.

"I didn't kidnap you! I saved your ass!"

"You make it sound like you're trying to force Stockholm syndrome on me."

"Stockholm what?"

Lily's face hardened as she confidently stepped towards the oni. Her teal eyes sparkled with excitement at being able to work in her own field. She tightly gripped the stick she used as a pencil and handed it to her. "Draw it! The magic circle."

Haku stammered something about not remembering, which sounded more like an excuse than an actual answer. But as if Lily hadn't even noticed, she muttered something to herself and drew random lines with her stick. Zel stood frozen, like a sculpture, staring at the sky, mourning his lost power. And Haku was still giving excuses to the air, because no one was paying attention to her.

Ren just sighed and left the malfunctioning oni, Prophet, and the Great Hero.