Other World

Something brushed against Daichi’s foot, like a mountain scraping by.

Huh? He cracked open his eyes and witnessed an infinite, sinking world of water around him. Bubbles rushed upwards as the silhouette of a towering skyscraper sank into pure darkness below. Myriad cars, furniture, buildings, and everyday objects all cascaded towards their watery graves.

Daichi's need to breathe hastened. He propelled himself upwards, dodging copious amounts of sinking debris. Faint light above unveiled dozens of items crashing onto the surface like meteorites. The war of waves forced him to swim further out until a clearing appeared.

Then, his silver head sprang from the depths, gasping for air. Waves bobbed over a floating door and his hands latched down onto it. Daichi coughed in succession, spraying out gray, slimy water from his mouth.

The rain of debris soon subsided and only silence alongside a moonlit ocean graveyard remained.

What the heck is going on? Where am I? He finally had time to gather himself. Did a ship sink? No. After visiting his sister yesterday, he went straight home and knocked out. Was this a dream? It had to be, or how could anything be explained? The skyscraper? The sludge-like water? There was just too much to process.

He tried bringing out the Dominion Menu but failed. His fists opened and closed—the motion to soft reset the system—no response.

Desperately, he looked up and tried every gesture possible: swiping, tapping, pinching, snapping, waving, punching, but nothing worked. A glance around revealed not a hint of land or others anywhere. It was total solitude.

Dream or bust, I guess.

Daichi rested his head and elbow on the door, somewhat sinking himself underwater. He noticed he was still wearing his black, school uniform. It was the same uniform he'd been wearing throughout high school, and the one he was supposed to graduate soon with. Had he pushed things with Dominion too far? Maybe someone abducted then dumped him into a netherworld? Thinking critically was beyond him.

As Daichi sulked, the door he'd latched onto continued drifting along, hitching a ride on the calm waves. After several more minutes passed, a pink plushie wearing a tophat that bobbed over in the water caught his attention.

He'd seen countless different objects by now—from books to clothes to anime figures—but never bothered to examine any of them. Daichi picked the furry, spherical pink plush out from the water. It looked like a character from an anime Hanako fangirled for.

This isn’t hers, right? Daichi rubbed its wet fur to examine it. A pungent odor unearthed itself, and the pink fur caused water to slick between his fingers, creating a slime-like webbing.

"Ew," he said to himself. "What's wrong with the water here?" Then he tossed the plushie aside. Weird.

As the door continued drifting through an endless ocean, Daichi's eyes made out a strange shape in the distance: a capsized sailboat. It was already half underwater, and its blue sail was floating nearby.

“Wait, how are you still in one piece if you fell from the sky?” Daichi looked up to see a regular, moonlight sky just like a normal night. Or were you already in the water when things started falling on you?

It seemed like mystery worth looking into. He started paddling over on his door to investigate, but a sudden melody pierced the night's silence.

A faint, acoustic guitar and violin track gradually grew louder. Daichi couldn't discern their source but realized he was now drifting away from the boat. A dense fog had set in, obscuring what darkness couldn't. The track loudened and Daichi remembered: It was Jangoh and Stéphen Graplie's instrumental rendition of La Lluvia. The lazy guitar juxtaposed against a jazzy violin was hypnotic; ethereal. Romantic beyond what words could describe. 

Through thick fog a rickety, wooden harbor started taking shape. Soft waves brushed against its dock pilings as La Lluvia continued playing in the background. Daichi’s door drifted him closer and he could make out a glowing lantern resting on the nearby shore. Soon, his feet dragged across the sand floor below and his door halted.

Daichi was conflicted: Part of him wanted to rush towards the beach, but another part exhibited caution. He had confirmed there wasn't any land near him, let alone an island. How did he miss this?

But La Lluvia beckoned him and he desired to know its source.

With each step he took onto shore, his feet sank into the soft sand below. Waves nudged him forward until he found himself standing over the lantern from earlier. It emanated a strong odor of kerosene, inverse to the small flame burning on its wick. Daichi picked up the lantern and attempted to shine its light on his surroundings: no trails or other recent footsteps appeared in his vicinity.

Well that’s weird.

As he rotated around he noticed La Lluvia's music rotated with him, as if the fog itself was La Lluvia. Upon the realization, a path through dense fog opened and revealed sets of stone steps up a hill, and towards some jungle. La Lluvia's echo up the stairs beckoned Daichi once again.

"I swear if I've been spirited away . . ."

The stone steps were battered, as if a tank tried rolling up them. Daichi ascended with his lantern in hand, its light providing the sole warmth he'd felt since he awoke. His wet uniform clung to his body and his shoes made a squishing noise with every step.

At the stair's apex, Daichi confronted an expansive, destroyed garden courtyard. Mortar craters, charred sandbags, and impromptu trenches littered the area. Rows of rotting flowers encircled the destruction and fragments of bullet casings were strewn about. What looked like a geiger counter lay trapped underneath a nearby slab of wall.

Overlooking everything, a monumental and grandiose, gothic cathedral stood solemnly. Daichi saw most of its roof had caved in from damage reminiscent of an air raid. Its twin bell towers were obliterated and their neighboring belfry was split in two. Only the cathedral's magnanimous rose window appeared undamaged and as beautiful as can be.

La Lluvia grew louder as Daichi approached the cathedral. Echoes of acoustic music reverberated from beyond its distant, ajar doors. He walked past what looked to be the cathedral's spire, lying in pieces amongst a debris field. A few more steps revealed a knocked-over wheelchair, as if the worn, cobblestone walkway was once frequented.

Where is everybody? Or when was the last time anyone was here?

Daichi glanced at the immense rose window overhead. Moonlight pierced its stained-glass panels, casting prismatic, vivid colors down onto him. Unnatural hues seemed to amplify their spectrum, almost like a heavenly beacon that shone just for Daichi. All that was missing was powerful, pulsing music from a church organ. 

He pushed the large doors inwards with little resistance. Upon entering, his lantern illuminated a demolished hall, but the full moon above soon became his main source of light. A roof lay strewn about alongside most of its fallen support columns. Rubble piled like a landfill: remnants of masonry, church benches, and artifacts all drowned beneath the crushing weight of stone and clay. Only a statue at the back of the cathedral's atrium stood untouched.

La Lluvia played on loop as Daichi climbed over the ruins and made his way towards the statue. It was no longer curiosity for him but a sense of calling. Rafters cried in protest as he stepped on and over them. His fixation buried his uncertainty like a high. He tossed the lantern aside and broke into a sprint over rubble; at journey's end, La Lluvia ceased and Daichi faced a deity.

The life-sized statue on a pedestal depicted a woman. She had her arms opened as if readying to embrace him. Her extravagant dress, reminiscent of a Greek goddess', almost sparkled under the moonlit night. Around her neck a crescent-shaped necklace hung from end to end. Etched in its center was a pronounced, heart-shaped leaf. 

The mark of the beast.

"Huh? What's Dominion's logo doing here? What's going on!" Daichi exclaimed. He looked around, panicked. "Am I really dreaming?"

He raced to come up with theories but his train of thought severed when two arms wrapped around him from behind.

Daichi's muscles paralyzed. He felt someone breathing right over his shoulder as the being pressed herself into him. One arm slung over his shoulder and the other gently swaddled around his neck, like a protective mother's embrace. Daichi glanced behind him to face an alluring woman with flowing, green hair millimeters away from him. Her body irradiated a soft glow as her deep, rosy eyes gazed into his.

She smiled and pulled Daichi backwards.

"Wait, stop—what are you doing?" he shouted as he splashed into water. The entire cathedral started flooding, surrounding Daichi in a gray, slimy liquid.

Her hold on him tightened. Daichi tried to pry away but sank further into quicksand-like depths. He opened his mouth to scream but water rushed in, as if waiting for that exact moment.

Help! he yelled in his mind. Anyone!

The mysterious woman vanished beneath the surface, dragging Daichi in along with her. Black depths devoid of light awaited them.