My Normal Life Now Has a Weird Other World

Chiho clasped her hands together and made a wish, bowed and smiled, rung the bell; the wind cracked, a flash burned Tama’s eyes, and the other girl disappeared as if she never existed.

“Ok…ay,” Tama mumbled, frowning as she regarded the shrine. The two faeries copied the same motions and zipped out of existence. Tama knew what she needed to do, Chiho drilled it into her head during every spare minute between classes, but the idea of surrendering her life to the mercy of some larger than life Gods still struck fear in her.

But if she wanted to avoid looking like a coward, she’d have to follow the three in as fast as possible.

When school ended, Chiho dragged Tama all the way to her family’s shrine buried in the spooky, trembling woods around her home. Her sister and parents already went home for the day; no visitors lingered. Nature bent over the decaying structure, watched over the offering box and provided shade to every poor soul ready to do anything to seize their destiny.

The process seemed similar to normal prayer at a normal shrine, though to enter this ‘Society Prime’, one needed to whisper their password three times right before they rung the bell.

Tama closed her eyes.

She pressed her hands together.

“Draum,” she said, and the wind whispered.

“Draum,” she repeated, and something bit her cheek. A kiss, a warning. Whatever it meant, she prayed on.

“….Draum.”

The ring echoed in her ears. She stopped breathing.

Her body emptied of everything, flesh and guts and bone and matter stripped away, reassembled, pain and aches vibrating alongside the intense pressure waves running through her body. And oh, fuck—Gods? She couldn’t breathe. She choked, sputtered, wanted to scream; the Gods took her words away, they stole her existence and now they wanted to—

“Kimura-san!”

Tama woke up, eyes itchy and irritated. She reached to rub them, only for Chiho to hold her wrists down.

She smiled. “That won’t help. It’ll go away soon, I promise—the first time traveling over is always the worst, but once your body gets used to it, it’ll be like going in and out a door.”

“…Ughhhhh, this sucks,” Tama groaned. “Why’d I agree to this…”

Head in hands, Tama stared at the cobblestone ground underneath, before she perked her head up; excessive blinks kept the itch at bay as she took in her surroundings. Her—wild, weird surroundings.

Weird. Weirder than anything she’d ever seen, but beautiful too. The darkened, sunless sky loomed overhead, yet despite the lack of natural light, there seemed to be an evening ambiance and an eternal drip of purple light—ahead various modern buildings sat in a circle, with even more floating above and stretching onward, most as small as homes and some as big as museums. They shone in an abundance of colors as people and odd creatures alike floated, some talking business and others living their lives. The entire city rested on a marbled disk which stretched out quite far, a shimmering border keeping the residents from falling into the empty void below.

And at the heart—a shrine, resembling the one they entered from, though much more well-maintained with a series of Torii gates leading the way inside; even if people could enter from any other angle they seemed committed to walking through the gates.

From this world. To the next, and onward.

“If you want to fly, you need to know magic,” Chiho explained as she held a hand out, “but you don’t yet, so I’ll take you where we need to go. Okay? Just promise you won’t scream.”

“Uh—”

Chiho gave Tama a few seconds to process before she scooped the other girl into her arms, leaping into the air. She tipped over, then balanced herself, ascending as though she rode a gentle current as the two faeries joined her.

…And, of course, as Tama screamed. A few passerbys gave them dirty looks.

“I don’t know her,” Sarine said, sharing their displeasure before Lavi hit her head.

“Come on,” Lavi chided, “she’s new to this. Give her some grace.”

Sarine rolled her eyes, clutching her head. “Yeah, yeah.”

“Please don’t ‘yeah, yeah’ me, I’m actually really sensitive about that kind of thing. I mean, Chiho, my sparkling light and hope for all mankind would never say such things to me…”

“Uh—sorry…?”

Chiho landed at the doorstep of the building at the very top of the floating city, massive and like a grand hall, at the tip of the purple hued sky. It shone with golden light and opened its doors before anyone touched them.

“Thanks for riding Air Chiho!” Chiho placed Tama on the ground, who stood stiff as a board until she snapped back to life and stumbled away from the edge. She only had a moment to gather herself before Chiho grabbed her arm and yanked her onward, the two faeries hurrying after the pair.

Tama grit her teeth, trying and failing to dig her heels in. “Hey! Give me a second! Like, one, just one!”

“No time! We gotta talk to the Head of Society and see what you can to do help!”

“Can you at least tell me about this place before we go in?”

“We’ll explain it soon! Promise!”

Maybe it had to do with the ‘no friends’ thing, but Tama’s heart thudded with exhaustion trying to keep up with Chiho’s endless enthusiasm—an energy matched by the equally bright room they wandered into.

Pure white; foggy, not a speck of life present. As if they wandered into purgatory, the only certainty in this space seemed to be those by their side and the wisps of mist wrapping around their ankles with each step, an imprint left hovering; eaten once more by the rolling breeze.

Chiho put a hand to her heart. “This is a special kind of place,” she said, “where those coming in with a purpose will be guided to where they need to go.”

“It’s like casting a spell,” Lavi said, mimicking the pose. Sarine looked between the two and copied them. Only Tama refused, crossing her arms and looking about. Did anyone else wander inside before they did? Any hidden rooms, pathways? How practical was this?

Of course magic had to be weird and complicated. Just like Tama’s life, now. Noisy—nosier than it’d ever been. Proving her point, Chiho grabbed Tama’s arm and brought her in a random direction.

“We’ll guide you there; stay with me so the fog doesn’t mislead you, okay?”

“Like I have a choice…” Tama grumbled, though this time, she kept a grip on the other girl as well. Endless, emptiness—it haunted them with each step. Tama almost feared whatever being this Head of Society was.

And as they continued…

A figure emerged.

Tama stopped and gaped, for the figure she faced shared her face, shared her body, shared every nook and cranny of her appearance, a smile reflected against Tama’s shock.