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“If you wish to keep your life on the other side, then protect it with your life. If the door is destroyed, there will be no second chance to return.”
Whenever it was night back in my world, it was day in Waqwaq. My mind raced for a possible solution, glancing around frantically. We’d gone back. Through that sliding door in my father’s house. I came to my feet to see a sliding glass door in the middle of the forest. Walking past Qawasumi I slid it closed, and opened again.
Nothing happened. It was different from the first door, where I could go back and forth between the forest and my room. This time the connection wasn’t there. It was simply gone.
“Dad… Sorah…” I whispered their names, the people that we left behind back in the house. No one could know when the door would work again except me.
“We’ve gone back again? Sorah? Kawari, what do we do?”
I facepalmed. The fact that we disappeared in the middle of the night could create misunderstandings. Qawasumi didn’t get to close the guestroom window, and I left my futon all rugged. Why were only the two of us transported? Why did it have to be the sliding door?
No, I said to myself. Sorah would definitely understand. But I didn’t warn him about the door reopening, nor Qawasumi herself. This entire time, I’d kept the concept of the door to myself. I never spoke about that voice in fear of everyone thinking I was a lunatic. Either way, I had to assess the situation.
The door this time was on top of a cliff, and behind it led back to the forest. I made my way to the cliff’s edge to gage for a better view of where we were. Qawasumi followed suit.
For kilometers stretching the lowlands, there was nothing but greenery and trees. However in the distance was an amalgamation of buildings clustered together in one, a civilization that much resembled the urban metropolis of the time. It doubled, tripled the size of Itogutshi alone. That must be the Wawaqi capital.
“That’s Han’ei, right?” I covered my face from the sun as the wind blew through my hair. Qawasumi finally reached the ledge, before her eyes met the city.
“Ha… Han’ei?...” Her voice trailed off into a tremble before falling down on her posterior. I turned around.
“Is it?”
“Um… Yes.” She looked away to the ground. Even I wasn’t as dense to know she had a negative connotation towards it. I was scared, too. Of the unknown.
We had nothing. Qawasumi left her bow in my mother’s apartment, and we left our baggage and everything in my father’s house with Sorah. The only things we possessed… were our pajamas. My heart pounded and clenched my chest with crippling anxiety. I didn’t know what to do. I still had the duty of protecting the door, yet we had nothing but the clothes on our backs. Barefoot, thirsty, starving, in the middle of the forest.
“You will be called the Devil of the Apocrypha wherever you go next time you return. When you do, you will only have one goal in mind.”
I remembered the voice’s words. My presence would be made known in this world by the Royal Marshal. Only them would recognize who I was. As for the one goal in mind, it hit me like that truck rushing at me the day I’d been brought here. Sorah’s will echoed. I wasn’t alone.
“Miss Qawasumi, we’re going to Han’ei.”
“Huh?”
“The door won’t be open for a while.” I said without knowing the precise time. My gaze focused on the city below the cliffs. “I take it you know your way around the capital?”
“Well… I suppose.” Qawasumi stood to her feet and dusted her pajamas off. I clapped my hands.
[System Announcement]
Lingual Cognizance UP
545 >>> 923
+378
I couldn’t stand around and wait until bandits ambushed us. I needed to shoulder the responsibility.
It took hours, but eventually we arrived at the front gates of Han’ei. Before entering was a long queue of travelers from around the nation and beyond, some with bizarre hair colors and clothing, others with animal characteristics and dog ears. The city’s turret-like structures at the front guarded the kiosks of people applying to enter Han’ei. Kiosks, a sea of tents that crowded the plains enough that there was no green for kilometers, were filled with the brim with these travelers. As Qawasumi and I trudged past them, every once in a while I accidentally stepped in mud with my bare feet. I had to shake it off but keep going.
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We found an open spot. I lifted the flap of a tent to find a table with a stack of papers. They were copies of a form it appeared. Sorah had told me about a while back. I grasped one of the ink brushes from the ink stone and placed a paper in front of me. However, it occurred to me that I couldn’t read or write at all.
“Miss—”
Qawasumi took the brush from my hand and began filling it with our information. As I stepped back, I thanked her as her hands trembled slightly while writing with each stroke. Sweat also dripped down her neck, while her face almost went pale. Within minutes Qawasumi completed the form and we brought it to one of the gatekeepers. He glanced up and down from the form, as we nervously smiled. The guard sighed and gave us the green light.
Entering Han’ei was less of a feat than the buildings inside. Five story towers stood tall akin to pagodas as the city continued to build upwards, much like ancient skyscrapers rivaling the Tower of Babel. Foot traffic was heavy, with animal-driven carts filling up the main roads like cars and intersections parallel to crosswalks. Skywalks overlapped each other in arches draped in red wood and stone. Honestly, I thought it could take on Tokyo itself.
As I walked through the endless rows of vendors and food stalls, the vast sight of it all overwhelmed me. Sounds of various foreign languages entered my ears, the Wawaqi language being the only one I could actually begin to decipher. Local chefs yelled out their orders and boasted their meals, children frolicked in and between the alleys, and lively chatter flew along with the birds.
I needed to break the situation to Qawasumi, so I sought out a more quiet place. My eyes couldn’t focus on everything, scanning the buildings nearby for any sort of place, empty alleys, or some kind of break room somewhere.
I caught Qawasumi’s hand with a precision that surprised myself. She was halfway in a running position, facing away from me. She tugged for her wrist, but I didn’t loosen my grip.
“Miss Qawasumi?” I faced her, while she clearly avoided my line of sight.
“Let go of me. I’m fine.” She forcefully escaped from my grasp as we stood there like rocks among a flowing river of people.
I set my hand down. “Then why are you trying to run away?”
“I…”
A person pointed at us from the crowd. “Huh? Hey, is that you, the Qawasumi Ruri?”
Her eyes narrowed as she slowly cranked her head to the voice. The boy made his way through the crowd, closing the distance between us. Her gaze immediately fixed to the floor. This person had a bow slung around his back, with shoulder pads and everything. An adventurer?
“D’you remember me? I was competing against you in the Royal Archery Tournament!” He tried to break the ice with her, but Qawasumi propagated no response to him. Her hands grasped her pajamas’ trousers. They were trembling again. “I… Well… I don’t really know what to say here…”
“Hey you.” I brought myself forward, keeping Qawasumi behind me. “I don’t know who you are but, is there a place where we can take this privately? Preferably not the Guild?”
“Eh? There is, though I have to go practice so I’ll be leaving soon…”
I bowed to him, while his face widened in shock. “Thank you. We just need a place to talk for a bit.”
The young man was kind enough to guide us to a local phrontistery down a few blocks, a library where the number of people drastically dropped. Lively chatter toned down a notch as it echoed through the shelves themselves. Men and women in robes gandered at our appearance into the complex. Long rows of tables were in the corner of the library, so I took us to the farthest one. The boy took his leave, and I sat myself across from Qawasumi.
I rested my head against my propped up arms on the table. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what?”
“For grabbing you so suddenly.” I lowered my arms. “Is everything alright?”
“...”
“I’m sure you’re aware, but we’re here with absolutely no money or equipment. That door… Is our only way back to Sorah. So what I’m thinking, is that we will find his family first until it allows us to return back.”
“Do you think it would be safer… If my family came here instead?”
There was no guarantee whether his family escaped from Itogutshi. After the confrontation with Officer Guiral, even the slightest chance of them making it out could spell out hope for Sorah. They’d left the house when I told them.
“We have one goal here.” I finally told her, as she stared at me with anxious eyes. “That is to find and bring Sorah’s parents and brothers to my world.”
Without Sorah Totshigui, I had no guidance. It affected Qawasumi as well. He brought us together when friction was felt between. If not for him I wouldn’t have adjusted to this world so easily compared to not knowing anything at all. Sorah taught me Wawaqi, allowing me to communicate with people in this country. He told me how to view my stats, and taught me his lifestyle. He brought me along with their quests they took from the Guild. His family let me stay at their house, and treated me like one of their own.
He taught me all these things, and all he wanted me to do in return was to give him Japanese picture books. Sorah never volunteered for me to give him technology from my world, nor asked about what was behind the door.
It was my responsibility to return the favor.
“There’s something that I’ve been wanting to ask, Miss Qawasumi.”
“Use Ruri… People recognize my last name.”
“Okay, Ruri. That’s exactly what I wish to know. Does being in Han’ei bother you?”
She nodded slowly, avoiding eye contact again. “But…”
“Tell me,” I said soon after. She was prepared to change the subject, but her head lifted to my response. I repeated myself.
“Huh?”
“You can tell me.” I leaned forward, wondering if I was making my eyes attentive enough. No hint of the depressive personality I showed when we talked in my father’s yard. In order for us to pay back Sorah, all of our conflicts had to be faced. I emulated those lines Qawasumi had told me previously, as confidence brewed inside me.
My journey from Level 0 in this world, started now.