Unknown Territory

When he opened his eyes, all he could see was a vast expanse of darkness spread out in front of him.

In this expanse,

There was no panic.

There was no fear.

There was no pain.

There was no memory.

There was no recollection.

There was him, and only him. Alone, all alone in this space.

He tried to move his hands by instinct. He felt like it was sluggish.
Similarly, all his actions took longer than he expected.
Not to say that his limbs had a certain weight to them.

It was like his entire body was lagging behind his brain.

He heard a snap.
It wasn't too loud, but he heard it loud and clear.

Suddenly, there was peace.

Nothing but peace presided over his heart, clenching it tightly in its grasp.
He felt like he had been disconnected from everything.
Everything was a void that sucked him deeper into the abyss.

Then he realized.

The thread that had been binding him had been cut.

Binding him to what exactly? He did not know.
But he felt like it was very important. Something he could not give up on.

Even though he shouldn't have been able to, he struggled.

He wanted to hold on to that thread.

To keep it close to him.

To cherish it while he still could.

It did not matter that it would bind him again.
It did not matter that it would not let him be in peace.
It did not matter that it would not let him be free.

The light it gave out attracted him.
He struggled, trying to get closer, and eventually grab that thread.
His hands stretched out, only falling a few centimeters short every attempt.

-I can't give up... I have to grab it...

Pepping himself up with his thoughts, he continued to resist.
He continued to resist the void, to resist being dragged into the abyss.

For he knew that once he got sucked in, he could never get out.
With this, he single-mindedly reached out repeatedly, until he would grab it.

After what felt like an eternity, he was slowly growing tired of the struggle.
His movements were starting to slow down, and the peace in his heart asked him to give up and be carried away by the flow.

But the thread was too precious to give up on.

Even so, he had a limit to his perseverance.

He could not keep this up forever.
He would have to give in sooner or later.

When he felt like it was futile and was about to throw in the towel, something changed.

The thread was nearing him.
Slowly, but surely, it was coming closer.

Feeling like it was his last chance, he readied himself for a final push.

It stopped right in front of him, touching a single finger, his right index finger.
It was a terrible way to tease someone, placing something just outside one's reach.
Frustrated by such pranks, he angrily lashed out at the thread.

-All I need is another finger, and I've got it!

And the very moment he grabbed it, the darkness itself started to crack.
The peace holding a firm grip on his heart drifted away.

He felt like all sensations were slowly returning, like he had been reconnected to the world.

He would be bound again.
He would not be allowed an easy retreat.
He would not be able to be free.

But that was no big deal.

For he was sure he would gather the strength to face it.

Soon, the cracks deepened, light pouring through at a rapid pace.
His eyes reflexively closed, and he instinctively started searching for some sort of support to... well, support him.

Then, a shattering sound roared and everything went white...

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The scariest part about death is waking up just to realize that it doesn't end...

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Cough... Cough...

Dry coughs echoed across the room, bringing it back to life.
Yoshi's eyes opened, and he immediately woke up.

And just as he woke up, his body craved for oxygen.
He tried to breathe heavily, but ended up coughing instead.

After a violent bout of coughing, his throat started to calm down.
However, his nostrils were still blocked, and Yoshi had to struggle for air with his mouth, seemingly drinking it all up.

It dampened his mood, even though the atmosphere felt uplifting, bright, and cheerful.

The sensation of air passing through his lungs made him feel alive again, and he felt strength returning to his body.
Although he felt a little cranky.

The moment Yoshi felt that he was alive, his hand reached for his heart to confirm this fact.
It was beating like normal, albeit with a skip and a hop every once in a while, but that was hardly concerning.

He was somehow alive, and that was all that mattered.

Yoshi tried to move his hand. It felt painful.
He tried to get off the bed, but his legs refused to move.
His entire body was sore, and he found it difficult to move a muscle without pain.

-Ah, right. I was jumping around pretty recklessly in that fight...

That was truly a dangerous fight.
His life was seriously threatened on multiple occasions.
That he had somehow managed to come out alive was a miracle in itself.

Although it took two of them to cause one.

However, the 「thing」 was too strong for him to handle alone.
Yoshi wouldn't have lasted ten seconds even if he tried his best.

The memories of his struggle were slowly flooding into his brain, as he became more and more awake.

He had been cornered in an alleyway by the 「thing」.

With nowhere to escape, Yoshi had tried to use 「Magic」 in desperation.
But it didn't work out as he had expected at all.
It failed spectacularly, and only damaged himself instead.

With no more cards left in his hands, Yoshi was forced to use his last resort, the second 「Wish」 provided to him by the 「Goddess」, just to survive.
It drained most of his energy, and the control being handed over to some puppeteer made him unable to counterattack.

Locked in a stalemate, he hoped that the 「thing」 would lose its stamina and give up.
But that was too optimistic, as its attacks were just getting faster and faster.

Somehow, amid that chaos, a knife had gotten stuck to his back, and Yoshi started bleeding out.
Thankfully, before he could give out, the 「thing」 was buried and...

-Wait a goddamn second, didn't I get stabbed in the back?!

The realization hit him a little late, and he shuffled to reach the spot where he could swear a knife had pierced.

He didn't feel anything that felt like a knife there.
Neither did he feel funny when he touched the place where he was wounded.
There was no stinging sensation, nor was there any pain.

That meant that his wound had been pretty much healed up, because he couldn't accept that it was a dream.

-That probably means I have been out cold for a pretty long time...

Well, no wound that deep could naturally heal up that fast.
Not that Yoshi knew too much about that, anyway.

Since the wound was completely gone, he felt that getting hurt back then was just an illusion.

But no illusion could be that real.

The pain, the feeling... there's no way he could simulate that, even in his wildest daydreams, since he had never suffered pain on that scale.

Anyway, now that that was out of the way, Yoshi focused once more on the flow of events.
Thankfully, before he could give out because of a knife in his gut, he was saved when the 「thing」 was miraculously buried using some sort of 「Magic」.

That phenomenon was too unnatural for him to believe otherwise.

After the 「thing」 was buried, Yoshi had regained control over his body.
And unable to handle the pain and the fatigue, he had passed out shortly after.
He had thought that it was the end for him, but it seemed that by some miracle, he had managed to survive.

But how?

The injury he had sustained was by no means small.
One would not survive if left in an alley with that kind of wound.

But then, not only was he no longer injured, but he was also no longer in a dark alleyway.

Where exactly was he?

Yoshi ran his eyes through the room for clues.
He saw he had been sleeping on some poorly-made bed that was a tad too big for him.
It also had quite a bit of hair stuck to it, which was creepy enough to make his face scrunch up.

-What kind of a person sleeps on this thing?

He got up and got out of that bed, his entire body still aching.
And immediately afterward, Yoshi started rummaging through everything in the room.

The bed was shabbily made, and there was nothing of note below it.
There were lamps on the wall on both sides of the bed.
Nothing suspicious in them, at least not anything he could see.

There was a small table nearby, which looked more like a work desk.
Only stationery and paperwork on it, the drawers being full of the same.

Nothing suspicious.

There was a wardrobe on the opposite side of the door.
The contents were as you would expect, except for the fact that the clothes were too big for Yoshi, or for most humans.
You would have to be way bigger to fit in those clothes.

-What kind of a person wears this size of clothes?

There were a few racks for books and other things over the work desk, but they were a little too high for Yoshi to reach.
They sort of reminded him of the bookshelves back at his home.

Yoshi stood on the chair next to the table, in hopes of gaining enough height to reach them.
The chair was very creaky, but thankfully, it seemed sturdy enough to handle his weight.
He checked the racks thoroughly with his hands, and found nothing dangerous.

The final places to check were the floor, the walls, and the ceiling.
The floor was pretty much safe as Yoshi had been treading it quite carefully, tapping each place with his foot.
The same was the case with the walls.

And although he could not reach the ceiling, Yoshi confirmed it was safe by throwing a few things at it, and immediately hiding in the other corner of the room, in case something actually happened.
And that was more or less the entire room inspected.

From someone else's perspective, this would be branded as borderline paranoia.
But that was not the case for Yoshi.

For Yoshi, this was necessary caution.

This was not his world.
This was the world where those 「things」 moved around freely.
No amount of caution would be able to suffice.

Yoshi was done checking the room, so he decided to head outside for more clues.
It would be nice if he could just walk out the front door and escape from there, but that did not seem like a viable option.

Because there was a possibility that those abominations would be waiting for him outside.

He was nearly all out of cards in his hands.
His physical strength could not be relied on.

His talk-no-jutsu would also not work, for those 「things」 were beyond all reasoning.

Magic already failed him once, and there was no guarantee it would work the next time.
He might not even have enough time to cast it the next time he encountered one of them.

The only card Yoshi could rely on was the one 「wish」 he had left.
But that was also a one-time use, after which he would be completely by himself.

And this wasn't a game of UNO where playing all your cards would spell victory, unfortunately.
What it implied was unavoidable death.

As he pondered upon this, Yoshi realized just how hopeless his situation was.

The question in his mind "Will I be able to survive in this 『Hell』 for seven years? ",  had now changed to "Ok this is impossible, but let's see how long can I go on before I die.".

But he didn't want to wait around for his death.
Yoshi didn't want to throw that one possibility of survival.

But he would have to do something.
Being proactive was the only way out.

...Maybe.

............Hopefully.

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Scolding himself to make a move, Yoshi decided to open the door, his hands slightly trembling.
The door was surprisingly unlocked, so he wouldn't have to kick it down.
Not that he was going to kick it down even if it was locked.

That would make a lot of noise, which could be fatal for him.

Sneaking out quietly, he found himself in a hallway.
To his right were three doors, probably entrances to more rooms.
And to his left was a staircase leading downstairs.

Presented with a choice, Yoshi decided to investigate the rooms to his right first.

The first door he opened led to what looked like a bathroom.
Other than some hair sticking to the soap, which was still creepy as hell, he couldn't find anything to be called noteworthy.
That didn't stop him from checking every nook and cranny of the room nevertheless.

The second led to some sort of storeroom.
It was full of boxes and things he didn't recognize were sprawled all across the floor.

-I don't have time to be checking everything, do I?

Yoshi said that, but his thoughts did not match with his actions, as he still rummaged through a few boxes to check if there was anything dangerous in them.
And with the hope of finding something useful for himself.
If he found such a thing, there wouldn't be any problem in "borrowing" it, right? Forever.
Unfortunately, he couldn't recognize half of what he found, and the other half was practically useless.

Disappointed, Yoshi left for the final room on what he presumed to be the first floor.

It was another bedroom, with a layout similar to the one he had been kept in, minus the paperwork.
Checking every spot was getting tiresome by now, but he couldn't stop himself from doing it anyway.
He felt that it was better to be safe than sorry.
After confirming that there was nothing there that could be of potential danger, Yoshi finally decided to head downstairs.

Tension coursed through his body with each step he climbed down.
Yoshi dangerously leaned his weight on the railing, for no other reason than that he was afraid.
So far, what he had seen was nothing more than an ordinary house.
And he hoped that that would be the case for the ground floor as well.

What awaited him was a room with sofas and shelves, but was empty otherwise.
Yoshi could hear a faint noise coming from the door that was right in front of him.

-Where there is noise, there is someone.

And that someone could very well be a 「thing」.
Not wanting to run into one, he decided it was best to look around in places where he could be alone.
And so, that door was now branded off-limits.

There was a kitchen right next to the stairs, and Yoshi decided to pick up the biggest knife he could find.

-Just in case.

He just felt more safe having one.
After all, he never knew when he could be attacked.

He didn't feel any malice, but he was also too weak and inexperienced to believe in his senses.
Those sort of senses come after you have collected enough exp.

Actually, now that he thought about it, he might not be attacked.
He had his cape on, so no one else should be able to tell that he was a human.
But it was better to not have to encounter a 「thing」.
Yoshi would not like to explain why he had a knife with him, after all.

When he opened the door to the room right next to it, his jaw dropped at the sight.
There were pieces of metal lying all around the floor.
But that wasn't what shocked him.
What caught his attention, were three things.

The first was an extinguished furnace.
The embers of a flame remained in the ashes of the burnt coal, emanating a faint heat.
It seemed like it could produce very high amount of temperatures when in use, and so, was kind of scary in its own way.

The second was the anvil, lying right in the middle of the room.
It looked pretty heavy, and was exactly how Yoshi had seen in TV shows.

The third was what was the most shocking for him.
A half-finished sword. Or was it finished?
Anyways, a sword was lying on the anvil.
Touching it, he felt that it was quite sharp already.

-So, maybe it's finished?

Not enough that he could cut his finger off if he wasn't careful enough.
He was so surprised, he didn't notice that the knife had slipped from his hands.
The blunt sound of it crashing on the floor was what snapped him out of the trance.

Yoshi almost panicked, picking the knife back up, looking around frantically.

Was that too loud?
Would he be noticed?

He decided to make a run for it.

Leaving the room immediately, Yoshi did not feel a response.
Seemed like no one had heard him.
Although he felt relieved, he couldn't relax too much.
Saying that, he resisted the feeling of his knees giving out.

There was another door next to the stairs, however, it only led to a backyard.
He tried to look for a back exit, hoping to sneak out.

But there wasn't one.
No matter where he looked.

There wasn't one.

That meant there was only one exit, and it had to be behind the one door he didn't want to check.
Not having a choice, Yoshi thought about climbing the fence.
But it was too tall for him, and he didn't recall seeing a ladder in the storeroom.

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As he could not escape the place without being found out, he decided to return to the bedroom he had woken up in, albeit slightly dejected.

After all, there was nothing he could do.
On the way back, he picked up the sword too.

-Because why not.

Yoshi tried to go back to sleep, but his brain seemed to refuse to enter the land of dreams.
His eyes were wide open as he lay on the bed, twisting and turning uncomfortably.

Not being able to sleep, his mind started to wander.

Why was he here?
Or rather, why was he being kept here?

Yoshi still had a ray of hope that the ones who had helped him were human.
But, he could never be so sure.

There were surely other, darker possibilities.
For example, he could have been kept only for the purpose of being a hostage.

But, whatever the case, Yoshi was unable to understand what value he could hold as a hostage.

Although, he could also not believe that the 「things」 would spare his life.
What if, it was his cape at work?

His cape seemed to have miraculous powers.
Even though Yoshi could see himself as a human, he would appear as a 「thing」 to any other being.
A very handy tool for him, if he wanted to survive through this place.

Another line of thought Yoshi had was that someone else had seen him dying in the alley.
They could have felt pity for him since he was in a pretty terrible state, and must have saved him.

When he thought of it this way, Yoshi felt relieved, knowing that there existed kind humans in this new, unknown world as well.
But then, why would they save him, when he was disguised as a 「thing」?

He had no idea.

For it to make sense, Yoshi would have to assume that he was saved by another 「thing」.
One which didn't know of his true identity.

But, in that case, it would just be a sense of camaraderie.

Would he be attacked?
Would he have to undergo another battle? ...No, it would be too one-sided to be called a battle.
Would he have to undertake a defensive stance again?

He had no confidence in him to able to use a knife, much less a sword.

Should he tell them? That he was a human?
Would it be a feasible idea to talk things out with them?

Yoshi didn't know, but he sure as hell didn't want to try it out.
His life was at stake here.
One wrong move, and he'd no longer even have a body left to be called dead meat.

For now, it seemed like all he could do was wait for some event to be triggered.

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Author's Corner:

Short chapter.
Originally it was supposed to part of a bigger chapter, but I felt it would be better to segregate them into two different chapters.

Also, I kind of died for the past month.
Not to worry, for I still remember my login details, so I can continue writing.

Anyways, I am going to add in seemingly random and meaningless quotes from now on because they sound cool and edgy, and absolutely no other reason.