An audience of zero

 I’m not sure when exactly I lost consciousness, but it must’ve been for quite some time. Because when I stirred from my slumber and opened my eyes, what I saw above me was a ruined roof and gray skies.

I blinked in disbelief, not a single sign of the storm, the patrons, the bus, or anything else. Instead, there was dilapidated ruins and towering structures around me. But the most noticeable thing for me was the silence.

I’d lived in a big city my entire life where it was always noisy, always busy; so this silence was…unsettling.

“Where… am I?” A rhetorical question whose only response was the whistling wind amongst the blades of grass. Was I… alone here, in this strange place.

My head was beating like a war drum, like I’d gone through some sort of major trauma. My thoughts were a jumbled mess as my brain tried to establish a connection to the rest of my body, trying to rationalize everything that went down. And the first thing my brain puts together was the image of that mysterious girl…

“Whatever happens, don’t forget!”

“Don’t… forget…” My voice trailed off as her instructions etched into my memories. Remember that feeling, that feeling of warmth and sadness, the feeling of someone who desperately missed that which was important to them.

And her hand… her hand… small… and… slimy? Kinda itchy?

. . . . . .

Wait, something about that doesn’t seem right?

I turned my head to the direction of my left hand, expecting it to be empty but I saw what kinda looked like… some kind of glowing gelatin? It seemed to be crawling over my hand, it kinda tickled sorta like a soft brush.

Then it started to tickle.

Actually it started to tickle a lot.

Then there was itching.

…and stinging.

More itching.

Then a burning sensatio- OKAY WHY AM I JUST LETTING THIS HAPPEN?!

With one swift motion, I hopped to my feet and swiped my left arm as hard as I could, sending that strange creature airborne! I’d like to say that it was probably floating in the stratosphere, but that’d be a lie. I wasn’t superhuman. It impacted the corner of the ceiling, making a messy SPLAT sound.

For a moment, I thought I might have accidentally killed it. However, it quickly reformed back to its original shape, then “looked” at me. It made, what I could assume was, the equivalent of a hissing motion and quickly left out of an open hole.

It was probably mad at me, but screw that thing. I wasn’t food. And as I stood there feeling triumphant… the burning sensation didn’t go away. In fact, it was still hurting.

I looked down and saw smoke coming from my hand. I stood there staring at my hand for an embarrassingly long time before my fight or flight response finally kicked in!

“Water! Something to wash this off!” My eyes rapidly scanned the room, trying to find somewhere that I could wash this gunk off my hand and then…

A miracle!

In the corner of the room, it seemed like the wall and part of the floor had been blown open and in the opening, seemed to be something of a flooded basement.

“That’ll do!” I sprinted at full speed, trying to suppress the urge to cry from the pain and dunked my burning hand into the water. There was a boiling and then a hissing noise as steam started rising from where my hand was, but it also brought relief so I didn’t even mind how bad the water smelled....

‘Don’t think about it, just enjoy the fact that you get to keep your hand. For now.’

Adrenaline wearing off. My mind was starting to piece together the disconnected pieces into something my brain could comprehend.

“I… flew? Did she send me to another country? No, that doesn’t make sense. Then again, nothing about this makes sense.”

. . . . . . . .

“A slime-like creature that… tried to eat me?” Slimes were a common RPG enemy, considered the weakest of creatures and I’m fairly certain they don’t exist on earth. Also a staple in a certain genre of media.

The brightness of the sun peeking through the gray clouds hits me right in the face. And as the light’s rays touch the ground, I can see nearby plants shudder away as if the sunlight were something toxic. Definitely nothing like that on earth.

In addition, I could now clearly see that I seemed to be in the remains of a building that resembled a church. Or at least, a place of worship. Never really was a religious person, but anyone who’s watched enough anime would know what a place of worship looked like.

“Hm?” My thoughts were interrupted by something glinting in the water’s depths, probably reflecting the sun’s rays? Curious, I reached deeper into the water — also held my nose with my free hand — and took hold of some sort of rod-like object.

It was wedged onto something but the water was too murky to get a good view of it. Well, I’m already committed and my hand was probably gonna smell terrible anyways so I put in a little more force!

Got it!

Something bubbled in the water as it looked like whatever was holding onto it broke apart! Unfortunately, I put in too much strength and wound up falling on my butt.

“Ha! Got it!” I said a bit too happy with myself, and now it was time to look at the treasure I’d pulled from the depths.

. . . . . . . . . . .

“...I have no idea what this is.” Like, if I were gonna try to describe it: It sorted looked like the hilt of a sword, though one of the ends were curved at an angle; which sorta made it resemble a gun in shape.

“No trigger? So it’s not a gun?” On the straight-end of the hilt seemed to be an indent going directly into the hilt and some flaps on the sides.

I noticed that there was a smaller rod between the two ends that seemed to connect them. “Oh, the shaft extends as well.” I paused at that sentence. “Good thing no one heard that.” Apparently the shaft also had a small, slidable opening that seemed to take some sort of shell-like objects?

“Wait, so it is a gun?” It almost seemed like it, but I had no idea where it would fire out from. The indent seemed like a likely option, but if that was the case, I had no idea how since there wasn’t even an opening for a shell to fire out from?

Yeaaaaaah, I still didn’t know what it was. Though, from the look of it, from these strange markings carved into the hilt, and the way it resembled the shape of some laser sword from a popular sci-fi series of movies; I felt like perhaps this thing was… a hammer!

…Because one end is kinda curved so maybe you’re supposed to hit things with it?

….

I guess it could also be an extendable cane or… at least a piece of one? Either way, maybe it has some value, so I guess I’ll keep it.

“So, I guess there’s really only two possibilities?” I asked myself while pacing back and forth, my mind racing, trying to consider everything I know. “So, that girl sent me here, right? If that’s the case, there are two possible explanations I can think of.”

I held up one finger, “First; either she sent me to another point in time. Or two.” I held up a second finger. “...I’m in another world.” It sounded so ridiculous, and maybe this is the weariness talking, but I couldn’t really consider another reasonable explanation. This whole scenario was unreasonable to begin with, therefore… when the possible is unlikely, consider the impossible. Or something like that, anyway.

“Wait… another world, just like that old and oversaturated genre that’s everywhere. Let’s see… usually in those stories, some blank slate loser interacts with some deity.” I guess that mysterious girl counts for that, but I wouldn’t really consider myself a loser-

Oh wait… I blew through years worth of savings in a few days because I was depressed over some girl. Okay that checks out.

“Ah! Wait, those protagonists usually have some OP cheat skill or something right? So that means… I could have one too? What did she say again? Something about a hand and not to forget. So… that must mean… my cheat skill has something to do with memory and my hand!”

The possibilities were endless! With confidence in my heart, I faced the wall, and outstretched my hand. I didn’t know what my power was but if I willed it so, then something should happen!

Imagine, that’s not just a wall! No, before me stands a group of demons seeking to do harm, and a cute girl who they’ve made their target! If I don’t stop them, then who knows what’ll happen to her! Imagine that I’m the only one who can stop this evil! Give my power a name, give it form, bring it to life and shout it with the burning passion of a true isekai protagonist!

“Dragon’s Claw of Oblivion!”

…

…….

…………

…Nothing happened. My hand limply fell to my side as I stood there, staring at not the start of my harem of waifus, but just a blank, decrepit wall. I crouched down, hugged my knees to my chest, and then fell to my side. I then began to cry on the inside while trying to curl myself into a ball.

Though I had an audience of zero, I still felt like I wanted to drown myself in that flooded basement so no one could ever learn of my shame.

“Okay… well… those stories also have, like… status screens or something right? So how do I open mine?” I carelessly waved my hand in the air as if trying to open some kind of menu. Nothing happened though, all I did was accumulate emotional damage.

In my other hand, was the hilt. Guess I didn’t have an interdimensional storage space, just my normal bag. “Ah! My bag, where’d I-”

When I looked at where I had arrived, expecting to see my bag… well, I did see that. But also one addition.

It was… a person, who was lifting my bag by the straps? Kind of. They were much smaller, roughly the size of my hand, the clothes they wore were common items that had been cut and stitched together to resemble an outfit. But their most distinguishing feature were the shimmering, gossamer wings that fluttered behind them.

The two of us locked eyes briefly. For me, I was trying to make sense of what I was looking at. And for her, likely frozen because she had clearly been caught in the act.

“A fairy? That’s a fairy. That’s definitely a fairy. And… she’s stealing my bag! Hey!” I sprung towards my bag as she continued to steal it! My fingers had just barely grazed the bottom before she lifted it out of my reach!

“H-hey! That’s my bag!” I shouted at her, chasing after her from the ground as she struggled to keep my belongings out of reach! She angrily shouted back at me in what sounded like gibberish as she floated through an open window on a higher floor!

I cursed loudly, scanning my surroundings! I couldn’t go the way she came because the stairs were out, and I might lose her if I wasted time climbing. So, I did the simplest thing I could; I kicked down the door leading to the outside!