The deep blue sky was not as visible as it usually is, clouds blotted the sky out with the occasional ray of sunlight beaming through the clouds like it wished to be free. In the heart of Tokyo a few paces away from a construction site was a decently built young man with lightly tanned skin that looked like he was in his late teens or early twenties. He had light brown eyes, short dark brown hair with the tips dyed a light shade of brown similar to the colour of sand, which was poking out of the front of a yellow hardhat. His outfit was made up of cargo pants, an orange reflective vest over a flannel jacket, and a yellow hardhat. He was sitting on a bench eating a sandwich while staring at a pile of I-beams that were stacked along a wall, that just so happened to reflect one of those occasional rays of sunlight like it was a clear lake. A woman walked up to the man who was eating and hit his back “Oi, your break was done 3 minutes ago stop wasting time, we need to get the foundation laid out. Also, could you help me grab those beams and bring it over to the site?”.

The man hurriedly scarfs down his sandwich and packs his things up, “Mhf… sure…”

She hit him again and exclaims “I’m your boss! that’s “Yes ma’am” to you, and don’t talk with your mouth full… Geez.”

The man gets up and gets a hold on one end of the beam while his boss latches onto the other side, they lift on a count of three and start walking towards the site.

As they walk past various pieces of machinery, the occasional rays of light strike the metal beam and reflect onto the machines and other equipment giving life to the darkened area around them.

they place the beam next to a dugout meant for the foundation and headed back to grab another beam, it took them about one and a half hours to bring all the beams which was comprised of 10 of them.

Once the beams were all gathered, 5 or so other construction workers started to place I-beams vertically in the corners and lined the edges as well as a few in the centre. From there they bolted them in place.

The groundwork was laid out in 4 hours, once it was laid out a man that was operating a cement truck drove over to the side of the excavated area. This man coincidentally, is a good friend of their boss, his name is Hiroki. He started to pour out cement into the foundation, repeating a cycle of filling the truck and then emptying it.

It took close to 15 cycles to fill the entire foundation.

Around 7 pm is when everyone finished so we packed up for the night. The man and his boss were walking out when Hiroki called out “Akiko!”

His boss turned around to face Hiroki and asked what he wanted with her.

“Want to go for drinks with me, you two?”

“I don’t have anything after this, but how about you?” after which Akiko turned to face the man.

He replied, “I don’t either, so I can come.”

The man reached into his pocket for something then said to the two “I forgot my phone in the locker room, I'm going to head back to get it, wait for me.”

While he walked away from the two and in the direction of a small rectangular building, there was a loud creaking noise, then a call came back from Akiko “Watch out!”

Akiko charged and tackled the man, and where they were just standing was an I-beam sticking straight out of the ground, from where the metal beam was imbedded in the ground cracks started to appear on the ground like an intricate pattern of webs. In under a second from the collapse the cracks started to grow as if something was emerging from the ground. The ground erupted spewing dirt and concrete everywhere, and a hole about 7 metres in diameter appeared.

When Akiko and the man were getting up, a piece of concrete hit her leg and she stumbled backwards into the big sinkhole. The man quickly grasped Akiko’s hand when she fell leaving her completely submerged into the sinkhole but not yet at the bottom of it. Although Akiko nor the man can see the bottom, they know there would be no way of getting out once they fell in. Akiko was gripping onto the man’s hand like she was trying to pull Excalibur out from its stone and said “Let go! I will only drag you down if you try and help me!”

“Don’t be stupid! If I see my boss in danger I will obviously help, don’t worry I'm confident in my strength!”

Whilst this was happening Hiroki was blocked from getting to the other side because of the sinkhole, so he just stood there dumbfounded at the current events unfolding before him.

The man tried to pull up Akiko but only managed to get her head above the concrete. Once Akiko’s head was above the ground the man tried to stand up while grasping her hands.

“Once I’m standing up, I need you to quickly grab my waist and I will grab you from your arms okay?”

“Got it.”

“I’ll start on a count of 3:

1… 2… 3!”

With that, the man tossed Akiko up with all his might and quickly grabbed her by the shoulders, but Akiko only managed to grab one hand on his waist making him change his footing closer to the pit. He then gently pulled Akiko out of the hole, from the other side of the sinkhole came an audible sigh of relief.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Akiko crawled a few paces away from the hole and stood up.

“We’re going to leave through the back entrance, call the police while waiting!”

“OK!” replied Hiroki.

Akiko shakily turned around trying to act calm and started to walk towards the back. The man got up as well, but he was too close to the hole and the lip of the hole suddenly tilted on a 30-degree angle which caused him to stumble backwards and fall into the bottomless pit.

Akiko and Hiroki rushed to the mouth of the sinkhole and called out.

““DAICHII!!!””

Haa… so I guess this is how I am going to die.

Oh! Silly me I completely forgot to introduce myself, you see, that hopeless person spiralling to his demise I have been referring to as that man, is me, Daichi Setchi. I’m 20 years old, single, I bet you would also expect me to say I'm also an otaku that does nothing but watch anime and read manga to relieve stress, but no! I’m a regular upstanding citizen that enjoys the satisfaction of people appreciating me and my coworkers’ work. But ironically, I’m about to be reduced to smithereens so it really doesn’t matter what I tell you, haha…

As I was falling, I could catch a multitude of spikes at the bottom that would most likely impale me once I hit the ground, and in the miraculous case I avoid the giant mass of blades that will shred my body like a hot knife through butter, I will most likely die upon impact of hitting the bottom.

As I was about to have a head on collision I noticed out of the corner of my eye, the tips of the spikes at the very edge were starting to glow with a faint white-blue tinge. The spikes lit up one by one until the outermost row of spikes were glowing. Then making its way from the outer ring inwards the spikes started to glow until the light grew to become a dazzling light, like a galaxy. The tips of the spikes fired a beam of light straight into the sky, creating a pillar of light that engulfs me.

The beam of light slowly starts to dissipate, and a part in the clouds left sunlight shining down on the ground like there was never a sinkhole there.

The only people to know what really happened that day are currently on the ground crying and muttering the name of their friend they probably would not see again.

◘•◘•◘

I come to, faced with nothing, absolutely nothing. I can only feel my body, and on top of that I feel weightless as well, like I am floating in a cloud.

“Am I… dead?”

I search my surroundings but like expected I cannot see anything just pure white like the colour of snow.

I look down and do not see my body, no hands, no legs, no nothing; just white. I start to hyperventilate, dreadful thoughts going in and out of my head like a traffic jam on the highway, then a vivid and powerful voice boomed.

“do not fret, you are safe now.”

I contort myself in all sorts of ways to look for where the voice is coming from. I cannot tell exactly where I am looking but it seems like I did a 180.

Previously there was nothing there, but now there is a golden silhouette of a towering figure close to 30 meters tall. Even if this is a silhouette, it sends shivers down my spine, like someone dropped a mound of snow down the back of my shirt.

Huh? Now that I think about it, there wasn’t anything there before, so how could something that big just appear out of nowhere?

The silhouette starts to shift and a voice echoes through the area.

“Hello Daichi, like I said before thou are currently safe. It was a simple feat to save you from your perilous situation, do you remember what happened?”

“Uh… m-my head is still a bit fuzzy, but I remember falling into a sinkhole after saving Akiko…! Speaking of her, is she okay, is she safe?”

“She is safe, and so is that man that was with you.”

I breathe a sigh of relief.

“So, you remember? good at least your head wasn’t effected.”

“What do you mean my head wasn’t affected, did something happen to it?”

“Ah I was just getting to that. Do you remember that beam of light you saw that engulfed you?”

“Yes, what about it?”

“Well, it seems that the light was too strong for your eyes and you didn’t close them in time, which resulted in your retinas and iris to burn away. Essentially you are blind, I do apologize because it is mostly my fault, but I can guarantee you would’ve suffered a worse fate if I didn’t save you.”

“Wha-What! I’m blind!?”

“Calm down, I’m very sorry for what happened to your eyes, but it can’t be helped.”

“Right… you did save me after all, there was bound to be something that didn’t go well.”

I take a few deep breaths and try to think.

If I am blind then how can I see him, if that silhouette belongs to him that is. He also knows my name, can blind me, and save me from being skewered like a shish kebab.

“Oh, good question, to answer your first one, I am simply using my powers of the Stitch to give you temporary sight. And to answer your second question, my name is Xen, keeper of The Stitch.”

As he haughtily finished his introduction my jaw dropped, or I believe it did, I cannot see after all.

Wait, temporary vision and powers? And what the heck is The Stitch!? What the hell is happening? Wait didn’t he also just read my mind?

“Ah, you found out. Hehe♪”

It’s almost like he has become a different person, how can one’s personality change so quickly?

Oi, don’t get all cutesy with me, don’t you need to explain a few things to me?

“Aww…”

Like I said stop or I will not hesitate to gauge out my ears if I must.

He cleared his throat and returned to his previous tone.

“Anyways, I can enhance your vision further, but I didn’t want to do it right away since it would probably distress you.”

He clapped his hands together and I slowly started to regain my vision.

it was blurry at first and all I could see was my immediate surroundings. I could see my body this time, things were still white, but had some depth to it.

I waited for my eyes to adjust until I could properly observe my location. Once they had adjusted, I glanced around the rooms and noticed that the building I am in is like a temple with tall murals plastered on the walls, depicting people 7 people with something that looks like an aura surrounding each one.

I also happened to notice that these murals do not seem to look like your regular painted or drawn ones, it looks like it is of actual picture quality, if not better.

An outline the that looks like a mix of brown and green in colour surrounds a man with black spiked hair, he also had two mismatched eyes, one of which is dark green and the other dark brown. He was wearing brown clothes that looked like a medieval garment but with more detail and flashy accessories, this man had something that looked like a black stone in his hand.

A maroon aura surrounds a woman with light pastel blue hair and two red pupils she also had a tinge of orange in her skin tone, she was wearing a long white dress that bled into a deep red at her feet, it might just be that I got my vision back, but it seems like the aura-like thing surrounding the woman is crackling and swirling like a flame.

Surrounding a tomboyish looking woman with navy blue short-cropped hair is a bluish-white mist. She is wearing a bandage wrapped around her chest and shorts that ride slightly higher than the knee, her eyes were a deep shade of blue, just gazing into the images’ eye for a decent amount of time makes you feel like you are being swallowed up by some unknown force. She could easily be confused as a man because of her muscular features but there is one thing that gives it away, her chest, even with it being wrapped with a Sarashi it looks like her chest will tear it apart and spill out. When I got closer to the depiction of this woman if felt like the humidity became oddly higher.

There is a woman with long wavy silver-blue coloured hair that looks like it is flowing in the wind, even if it is an image, she also appears to have solid white eyes, either her pupils are not visible or are a light shade that makes it look indistinguishable from the white of the eye. She is wearing an exceptionally light sakura pink dress with something that looks like a boa scarf, however, it seems to be a cloud instead of animal fur or feathers.

Next to the silver-haired woman was a man with bright yellow hair with a black streak that looked like a bolt of lightning, he had a yellow field surrounding him with electricity bouncing to and from his skin to it. His eyes were the colour of a bright yellow with a cat-like pupil. He was wearing a black vest with what looks to be a modified version of jeans? His vest in particular looks like it will rip at the seams because of how muscular the person is.

Lastly there are 2 people, a young man and a young woman hand-in-hand, the woman had snow white hair and the man had black with a streak of grey. They were both dressed well, with the woman wearing a black dress and the man wearing a white tailcoat and a grey tie. You could say they look the most proper out of all the previous figures. They give off an interesting feeling, while they don’t look similar aside from a few nuances in their facial build, their one feature they have in common is their pitch-black eyes, they both have no visible pupil or white to their eyes, it looks just like an endless void. They give off a feeling of similarity aside from their complete opposite looks, almost like siblings(?).

These people are strewn across the wall in the order I saw them.

Wait a minute, where is that huge shadow I saw

I start to spin in circles to look for the man who called himself Xen, he was nowhere to be found. And then I look down.

“Eh? So…small.”