Reality

When I opened my eyes, I was downtown, I saw people crossing the streets as I was just standing in the middle of it, I rushed my way into the other side before the light turned red again and sigh, I looked at my sides and saw all the people walking around.

“I’m really back…”

A wave of both happiness and sadness invaded my body as I walked around the city, I didn’t know where I was but I was trying to get underground, that’s when I realized I didn’t have any money with me.

“What do I do? I don’t have anything… even if I want to exchange my coins for the price of metal…”

I touched my pockets and I noticed something, a coin, a rounded and heavy coin was saved in my pocket, the coin that I never spent when the merchant saved me.

“And I’m still in debt with you…”

I threw the coin up and caught it and went to a building to exchange gold for money. It was a bit tricky to find one since they weren’t many stores for that but once I found it, I stepped into a building to change it and when they saw me, they try to hold their laugh, I would have laugh too, a man entering into a building to exchange money looking like a medieval warrior, I could even think the same thing as them.

Is he going to exchange gold for money or what?

And that was exactly what I was going to do

I placed the gold coin and once they looked at it and weighed it, they were impressed.

“This is pure gold… you want to exchange this piece; you can open a bank account and we can help you make more money!”

I said no with my face

“I’m not interested, I just want to exchange, I need to money”

The other person nodded at me and I waited a little bit, meanwhile there was a person rubbing his hands and looking at me.

“Sir, are you sure you are not interested in opening a bank account with us? We can keep your money safe if you have more of these”

“Sorry, this was something that I found in one of my expeditions climbing the mountains”

“O-On what mountains sir?”

“I don’t remember, my family took me there”

“Could you ask them?”

“Uh… they are busy right now, another time, okay?”

The man just sighed and left the window, then I got my exchange, a good sum of 60k yen, it was around a monthly payment but it was enough to survive for now. First thing, I needed to change my clothes.

BUT HOLY, 60K FOR JUST A PIECE OF COIN! I would never understand how the economy works… better go now before they notice how excited I am…

I went to a second-hand shop nearby and buy a long blue shirt, black pants, and a green sweeter, it was getting cold so I needed something to warm me up, I was fine with my boots so that was fine, in the bag they gave me I saved my stuff, they looked like cosplay stuff so people didn’t even look at me, why would they though?

Once I reached the subway I looked at my location, I was far away from my home, but it would take me a few hours to get there, so I paid for a ticket and got into a train.

How many months have passed? I think I spent almost a year in that place; I don’t even think my apartment is mine anymore… I better check it out just in case

I couldn’t move my head from looking at the subway, the gray walls and after that, the sun, the city, I forget how life works on this side.

Once I reached my location, I stepped out of the train and went into the usual route from where I went back to work, I climbed the stairs out of the subway and walked around 30 minutes, but I did less. The training back there made me be faster than I thought.

Nothing had changed though, everything was the same, the same path, the same trees and flowers, the same building where I live.

When I stepped inside the building and went to my apartment I knocked at the door and for without surprise me there was someone already living there.

“Can I help you, sir?”

The person that opened the door, was an old woman, she looked fragile but with a big smile, it kind of warm my hearth, I wasn’t even mad that they threw my stuff, they were meaningful right now, it was a weird feeling that I never experience before, like letting the wind blow at your face while dropping a heavy backpack.

“No, sorry, I got confuse, good afternoon”

I was about to leave but when I passed by a door, I started to hear footsteps coming out of the apartment. The door opened the moment the other one closed.

“HIKARI?!”

I looked at my neighbor, she was looking at me with watery eyes, she was about to cry, I smiled and looked at her.

Miss Ayane… should I tell her, she doesn’t look very convinced…

My neighbor recognized my voice but not my appearance, I made some drastic changes, I got taller, my body got stronger, my hair was long and my beard was cut, I tried to make my voice a little deeper and she took a step back.

“Who?”

It seems like, after almost a year and with a totally different look, it is hard to recognize someone who you just interact with from time to time… I am sorry, Miss Ayane…

“Sorry… I thought I heard the voice of a neighbor, he disappeared almost a year ago and… I was worried… but… the search for him was over… and I already made my mind but… I thought I listened to him… I do miss him…”

“Don’t worry, mam, good luck in finding him, best of luck”

“Thanks…”

Miss Ayane was always so sweet with me, just knowing she was searching for me was enough to make me happy, but I didn’t want to tell her that I was who she was looking for, but there were people that I needed to see.

Before going to my parent’s house, I stopped to buy food, instant food that I made in the convenience store and I ate right there, instant noodles, cheese sticks.

I did miss this flavor, there is something special about it but…

When I finished my food, I went to the manga cafe that was nearby to catch some sleep, it was already getting late and while I was now better at staying up at night, I better rest now and take the train in the morning rather than walking all the way to my parents house.

I bought some coffee and used the computer for a bit, just to check my email account, tons of messages from the company giving me notices, warnings and treats until the last message popped out.

“We are very sorry about what happened to Hikari Ryuzaki, our deepest apologies, we didn’t have any knowledge about it, the money made from him on the month and the one that it was being saved by the company will be return to Hikari Zenko, his father”

I took a sip of my coffee and just sighed.

So, my parents did receive something, it seems I am being threat as dead, well, disappearing for almost a year has that, no signals of appearing, no medical studies, no nothing, but my stuff was there, they probably thought I got kidnapped or something, I don’t know what would I have done to be honest, sorry for that, dad, mom.

I sighed and took more sips of my coffee, I try to search meanwhile the words to go back to the other world but I couldn’t find the site, at that moment I panic for a bit, searching, going from the search number 1 to 99, no sites, no keywords appearing, I even try using a foreign browser but nothing.

It was like the site got completely revoked, it disappeared.

“Where did I even find that site to begin with?”

I closed my eyes and tried to remember, but it was useless, I couldn’t remember anything, my mind just made me remember the years I spent in the company. I took the sword out of the bag and unsheathed it, I looked at the blade and closed my eyes.

I put my hand in front of me, trying to made water… and nothing, I looked like a crazy person or like a kid trying to do magic, but the sword was proof that I indeed was in another place, but magic does not exist in here.

I saved the sword and leaned in the bed, waiting for tomorrow.