“Minoru, is there anything you want to tell me?”
“…No.”
The man’s gentle yet firm gaze bored into his son’s face. Adorned with gauze and medical tape, his injuries were clear as day, incapable of being hidden from view, as much as the teen would’ve wished they were. He even positioned some of his long, dark hair in such a way to try and hide them amongst the dark colors of his hair and his somewhat brown, dark complexion, but it didn't do much.
“Really? Because the school told me you got into another fight today.”
“Well… yeah, I did…” The youth stammered briefly as he spoke. “But it wasn’t my fault.” He said, to which his father simply sighed.
“Minoru, you know that’s not what I’m asking. I know you don’t get into these fights without reason… I’m not dumb enough to think that. What I want to know is what you want to do about it. You know the school’s not gonna let you off a third time.”
Minoru’s shoulders slumped. “Well, what can I do? It’s not like I have much choice. The principal already told me that if this happened again I’d be expelled.”
A long, contemplative sigh escaped the boy’s father. His movements were gradual and deliberate as he slid his chair back, standing up and taking his mug into his hand, walking into the kitchen only a few feet away. He wasn’t a particularly tall man, but his somewhat shorter stature betrayed a broad, built figure underneath. His aged appearance was clear in his grayed, wavy, shoulder-length hair. The wrinkles around his eyes and his dark gray beard that hung down to his chest- which was his most distinctive feature compared to the looks of the average man around him- the look that, to many, instantly identified him as being of the Ainu peoples of Japan’s north. His darker complexion, shared by his son, sometimes hid his expression as it did now as he looked down into his mug after pouring another cup of coffee for himself.
“Have you been defending yourself like I taught you?” He asked.
“Yeah. That’s the whole reason I got in trouble.” Minoru responded, eliciting a scornful chuckle from his father.
“I’m sure it was. I heard you sent one of the guys to the hospital. I’m sure that prick won’t mess with you again, huh?” He joked, his tone lightening the atmosphere enough for Minoru to give a small, bemused huff and smile slightly. “If you don’t mind me asking, though, what’d you do to make him mad enough to take a swing at you?” He asked, leaning against the kitchen counter, prompting an eye roll and a confused shake of the head from Minoru.
“Hell if it was my fault. His girlfriend’s been sleeping around with other guys and just tried to make a move on me, this is just the first time he actually caught her, so of course she goes ahead and tries to make it seem like I was hitting on her.”
“Hah, one of those overly protective types, huh? Doesn’t even know the girl he’s going out with and yet he’s that quick to defend her wholeheartedly. Had to deal with a few of those guys when your mother and I met back in school. None of them were even dating her, but they all wanted to so badly that they hated me for actually being successful.”
“What’d you do to ‘em?”
“Oh, I was nothing like you. Your mother didn’t like me fighting, so I just kept reminding them that I was the one to get her! I only swung back if they did first, but many of them weren’t ready to go that far, especially for a girl who wasn’t interested in them.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less from you, Dad.” Minoru responded with a small chuckle.
“Yeah, well, I didn’t have much choice. Your mother could be much scarier than anyone at that school, so if she didn’t want me fighting, my hands were tied. If it wasn’t for her, I might’ve turned out to be a delinquent like the one my son is now!” He responded in a joking tone.
“To me it sounds like she was keeping you from doing anything stupid.” Minoru shot back with a lighthearted smirk, eliciting a hearty laugh from his dad.
“Too true! You and I are troublemakers at heart, your mother must’ve realized it as soon as she and I met!”
“Guess she managed to wrangle you well if you’re this collected now.”
A wry smile remained on the man’s lip as he thought back to the days he spent with his wife. “Well, I suppose I just had the right person to teach me.” He said, and fond memories of her came to Minoru’s mind as well. A small, quiet moment filled the house for a moment, before his father spoke once more.
“You know, Minoru, I don’t mind moving again if the people at your school are causing too many problems. I don’t want you to have to deal with this stuff happening more than it should. Once is already too many.” He said, exiting the kitchen and walking close to his son, placing his hand on Minoru’s shoulder. “I know it might sound like a lot, but no amount of money is worth keeping you in a school you’re unhappy with. Just come talk to me if it becomes too much, and we’ll work something out. Alright?”
Minoru’s following silence was somewhat deafening and contemplative as he glanced down at his hands. It took a moment before he responded with a quiet “Alright, Dad…”
His father could tell something was gnawing at his son, and yet also knew well that Minoru was one who kept his cards close to his chest. “I’m going to take a walk down to the store in a bit, I’ll handle dinner for tonight. I’ll call you down when it’s ready.” He said, removing his hand from his son’s shoulder and walking off, leaving his son to gather his thoughts on his own.
“...I know you’re just trying to reassure me, Dad, but I don’t know if it’s worth making an offer like that…”
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The bustling classroom in the morning was loud and lively as ever, students talking amongst themselves, trying to sneak in as much leisure as they could before their teacher arrived. A long, heavy yawn escaped Minoru’s mouth. Flipping through his notebook as he wiped away the small, resulting tears in his eyes, he simply spent the small reprieve to himself, doodling in the margins of the pages. He wasn’t very talented in drawing, by his own admission, but it was something he could do to keep his mind from wandering. It had inevitably gotten him in trouble at certain points, with teachers presuming he wasn’t paying attention, but it was a habit too ingrained into him to stop.
In a few moments, the door to the class slid open, their teacher announcing their presence with her signature “Yes, yes, settle down everyone.” A phrase she was similarly in the habit of saying, the class quickly quieting down, attentions turning to the girl trailing behind the woman. Standing at the front of the class the teacher clapped her hands together before gesturing to the accompanying student. “Alright everyone, starting today we have a newcomer joining us.” She said, looking towards the girl, who was silent, a nervous expression on her face, before she noticed the woman looking her way.
“O-Oh, uhm…” She said, looking out into the crowd of students before her and beginning to speak. “K-Kurogane Hana! That’s, uhm, my name! It’s a pleasure to meet you all, I-I hope we can get along!” She said, giving an almost inappropriately deep bow to her new peers. Her pale blue eyes flitted about, looking from student to student, giving Minoru a quick glance before moving on to the next target of her attention. It was almost hard to believe she was a third year like Minoru, she was noticeably quite short, and looked more like a first year than anything. Her short hair, lightly peach-colored, was the most noticeable thing about her, however.
“Maybe she’s a foreigner.”
In only a moment, the girl was assigned her seat, taking it directly to Minoru’s right side, with him offering a look in her direction, as did a few other students. She looked to her left, meeting his gaze, before quickly shifting her gaze back to the front of the class when she realized he was looking her way.
“Even for a new girl, she’s really nervous…” Minoru mused to himself, before the thought quickly left his mind as the teacher began the lesson. He almost felt bad for her as the teacher didn’t see fit to go easy on her with how often she put Hana on the spot for her questions throughout the following lessons.
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Sitting in the cafeteria, Minoru ate by himself, as he usually did. Nobody ever seemed particularly interested in bothering him at this time, so he usually took the time to brush up on his notes, or to simply look through the apps on his phone, skimming through post after post by people he hardly knew very well, ones he followed simply to keep up to date with what others his age might be talking about.
In his periphery he saw someone take their seat at the same table as him, glancing over to see Hana tentatively set her tray of food down. This table in particular- the one he and scant few other students sat at unless the cafeteria was stuffed full of students- was often taken by those who either haven’t yet found their appropriate clique, or simply didn’t fit in with any. The expression on Hana’s face told the story in full to Minoru, as he could see a look of longing on her visage as she gazed out at the various groups of friends chatting away and eating together.
Remembering having much of the same experience when he was a first year here, Minoru put his phone to sleep before scooting across the seat of the table to sit across from her.
“Nowhere else to sit?” He asked, prompting a slightly surprised look from the girl.
“A-Ah, no, not really… I don’t really know anyone here yet, so… it’s hard to just sit at a table with a whole group already there.” She replied with a sheepish smile and a small, somewhat forced chuckle. With a closer view of her face, Minoru could make out a light freckling across her features.
“Mmh. Can’t really force your way into any of the groups here.”
“Right… O-Oh, I forgot to introduce myself! I’m Kurogane Hana–”
“Class 3-5, right? We sit next to each other.”
“Right! Now I recognize you! Oh– don’t tell me, you’re… Takahashi-san, right?”
“That’d be me.”
“Ah, it’s really nice to meet you! I really enjoyed listening to you read out those passages in class earlier, your English is really good!”
“Well, my dad’s pretty insistent on me picking up more than just Japanese. It helps that my mom was so good at it, too.”
“Hehe, I see. I’ve never been very good at English, myself, though I’m sure you could tell with how much I messed up while reading…”
Shaking his head briefly, Minoru rested his head on his hand, gesturing with the other that held his fork. “No, your English was fine. Not fluent, of course, but you had a good grasp on pronunciation and grammar, better than most people here, that’s for sure.”
“P-Please, I know I had a rough go of it, I don’t wanna get complacent with where I’m at now!” She said, waiving off his compliments, prompting a little shrug from Minoru.
“Well, that’s never a bad thing. If you think you have more to work on, who am I to argue?” He said, before continuing. “So, did you move here recently?”
“Oh, yeah, I used to live down in Okayama.”
“Oh really? Pretty big move then, coming all the way up to Sendai, huh?”
“Yeah… it’s a little hard to get my bearings, actually… We used to live in a little rural town, but my father got a new job up here. Thankfully they were able to arrange a place for us to live, but, ah… a city like Sendai is a little much for a country bumpkin like me.” She said with a sheepish laugh. “I don’t… really know what to do here, to be honest, a lot of what I used to do isn’t really… available here.”
“Mmh… my family used to live up in Hokkaido, so I know what it’s like. Came here as a kid, so I know what that culture shock is like.” He said, taking a bite of his food.
“You don’t say? I guess it makes sense that two former bumpkins would find each other like this!” Hana joked, eliciting a small chuckle from Minoru.
After a moment, Hana looked to the side, her smile fading into a somewhat curious, unsure expression. “Hey, I think those girls are talking about us…” She said, causing Minoru to look over his shoulder in the direction of Hana’s gaze. A small group of three or so girls were looking in their direction, before quickly looking away when Minoru’s gaze met theirs. He shook his head, returning to focusing on his food. “Don’t mind them.” He said, a bit of annoyance showing through in his voice, making Hana reluctantly pull her attention away from the group, focusing on her own food.
“So, uhm… Takahashi-san, I hope you don’t mind me asking, but… are you… Ainu, by any chance?”
“Hm? Yeah, why?”
“O-Oh, no reason! I was just curious, is all. We had an Ainu neighbor back in my hometown. She was this really nice old lady, lived with her son. She’d always tell me a lot of stories whenever I visited!”
“Is that so?” Minoru said. He got more than enough of an earful of stories from his father’s side of the family over the course of his life.
“Mhm… so, uhm, I don’t want you to get the wrong idea by my asking this, but… do people treat you… differently, because of it?”
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Minoru leaned back in his seat a little, thinking about it for a moment. “Not so much that it’s like a prejudice, if that’s what you’re asking. I don’t think my lack of a social circle has much to do with being Ainu, I think I just don’t gel well with most people my age.” He mused aloud. “Although I can’t deny that I’ve felt like… well, an ‘other’ for much of my life. I don’t think most people mean anything by it, but the difference in how I was raised and how most people here were raised is noticeable, if not blatant, so it’s a little hard for me to judge what they’re thinking at times. Still, that’s just the way things are, so I learned to deal with it. Whether it’s because I’m from the country, or my interests don’t align, or because I’m Ainu… I can’t force it if something about me turns people away, so I don’t pay it any mind.”
“I-I see…” Hana said in response. “Sorry, that was probably an insensitive question to ask.”
“No, you’re fine.” Minoru said, a solemn silence washing over the two of them, as they finished up their food. The bell rang soon after.
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The final school bell rang out, and Minoru, still a bit on edge from yesterday, made a quick move to the first floor, wanting to be done with school for the day and go into his weekend. He quickly put away his things in his locker, surrounded by all the other students. Looking to his left, his eyes crossed paths with a certain someone’s. Hana was caught up in the crowd, looking left and right nervously, appearing as though she was trying to find someone. He wondered exactly what it was that was so nerve-wracking to her. Still, he didn’t see fit to intervene. He knew that when he was younger and shyer, he probably would’ve hated to be approached by someone who noticed how much he was struggling to do much of anything.
“Ah–! Takahashi-san!” Said a voice from behind him, giving him pause as he turned around, only to see the very same girl he had glanced at approaching him.
“Huh…? Oh, hey Kurogane-san.”
“Oh thank goodness, I found you. H-Here, you dropped your notebook at the end of last period." She said, handing him a notebook with the exact same design as his own, as well as his name printed on it.
“Eh? When did I…?” He said, quickly opening up his bag and looking through it, truly finding he did drop it. “Ah, I did… Thanks, most people wouldn’t think twice about just leaving it on the floor. I appreciate it.”
“Uhm… Takahashi-san, may I ask something?” The girl asked politely.
“Yeah, sure, what do you need?”
“Well, I heard some people in our class talking and… is it really true you’re a delinquent?”
Minoru sighed. “Oh god…” He slid his notebook into his bag, and leaned back slightly, his hands in his pockets. “What’re they saying about me now?”
“W-Well! After we had lunch together, a few girls came up to me and told me, uhm… ‘Here’s a word of warning, Kurogane-chan, you shouldn’t hang around guys like that! He’s nothing but trouble! He might seem calm, but he went crazy the other day and put a guy in the hospital, and that was right after trying to pressure his girlfriend into sleeping with him.’ And ‘He’s pure scum, a girl like you would be an easy target for him!’ …T-Things like that.”
“Do you believe them?” Minoru asked flatly.
“W-Well, that’s why I’m asking you!”
Minoru simply sighed, scratching the back up his neck as he said. “Nope, it’s not true. Sure, I sent a guy to the hospital, but it was after he nearly knocked my teeth in out of nowhere. And that thing about his girlfriend? She came onto me first. If you know who she is, I’d suggest you stay away from her, she’s nothing but trouble.”
“A-Ah, I see! So it’s just a misunderstanding. If I see those girls again, I’ll be sure to tell them that!” She said with a confident smile, until she looked at him again, getting a disapproving look and a gesture that dissuaded her from doing so.
“Don’t bother. If they’re already spreading rumors around like that, they’re not gonna believe I’m innocent just because I said so.”
“Huh? But… don’t you want it to be cleared up? These kinds of rumors are pretty dangerous to let go around like this, you know!”
“Doesn’t matter to me.” He shrugged. “I don’t care what they think of me. Plus, anyone who knows anything about what happened will know those rumors are bull. If people start believing them, that’s their problem for not understanding the situation.”
“Ah, w-well… you should still care! These rumors paint you in a really, really bad light!”
“...Listen, Kurogane-san, you’re really kind, but you shouldn’t be so quick to get invested in other people’s problems. This isn’t the first time I’ve dealt with rumors being spread about me. It doesn’t change anything to me. I appreciate the concern, but really, I’ll be fine.” He says, trying to reassure her, but she didn’t seem convinced at all, wearing a worried expression on her face.
“If you insist you’ll be fine, then there’s not much to do… but please, can you at least try to clear these rumors up if they get out of hand?”
He really did appreciate the concern, but he was more worried for Hana than anything else, given how easy it seemed to rope her into caring so much about others’ issues. “Right… okay, okay, I’ll do that, I’m sorry for worrying you.” He said, giving a small bow.
“No, really it’s okay, it’s no fault of your own, I was simply concerned that you might be letting yourself be pushed around too much.”
“My dad thought much the same before he taught me self-defense…” Minoru said before he briefly realized something, pulling out his phone and checking the time. “Ah, I should be going. I’ll see you around Kurogane-san.” He said, bidding her farewell.
“Oh, okay! I’ll see you!” She said, giving him a polite wave as he walked off.
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Returning home, Minoru removed his shoes as he walked through the door, not bothering to set them in their proper place. He was gonna be in and out of the house anyways once he changed. “Hey Dad, I’m home.” He called out, receiving no response. Doing a cursory glance around the living room, the lights were dim and his father was nowhere to be seen. “Oh, right, he said he was going to be with friends for the weekend…” Minoru mused aloud. Setting the thought aside, he made his way upstairs, and quickly got changed, slipping into more casual clothes and a jacket. Sendai was well on its way into winter now, and the evenings were noticeably colder than they usually were. Making sure to do some leg stretches beforehand, he went back downstairs, leaving his home only minutes after returning from school. Going on a walk at this time was a common habit of his, one he enjoyed doing. And dressed like this, nobody would bother him for being a student if he stayed out late, either.
At this time of year, the day would already be transitioning to twilight. Minoru looked off into the distance, past the buildings both near and far, to how the sky lit up in captivating shades of yellow, orange, and purple. It looked as though it were painted in large, sweeping brushstrokes. The cold wind nipped at his face as he continued walking. He had no destination particularly in mind, he never did, he simply walked around without any true aim. He rested his hand against a railing around the nearby river, feeling the cold metal against his palm, he let it rest there for a second, before pulling it away, pushing it into his pocket.
Walking through the streets, his eyes focused solely on taking in his surroundings. The trees dotting the sidewalk, the gently flowing water of the river, the birds that he occasionally passed by, flying away speedily as he got close.
It was an average evening for this time of year, one which he already appreciated. The routine nature of his walks helped calm him. That consistent routine, seeing the same scenery, and how it changed gradually, or even how it didn’t change, over the course of the year made it all so much more concrete for him, acting as an anchor for these times where his mind would wander the most.
Minoru never shared these walks with others, and that was how he liked them most. Moments for introspection, for clearing his head and organizing all of his thoughts. A time to pick apart the day and put the pieces back together… it was all very valuable to him, and he cherished it far more than many other people would.
His mind wandered to all sorts of places, like how he should study for an upcoming exam, or thinking up his budget for his purchases for the month, and thoughts like his current one filled his head often. He was considering what changes might await him. Hana’s surprise transferal to the school was a rare event to happen in the middle of the school year, but that was the less concerning change, compared to what he would do in the event of getting in trouble again like he did yesterday.
His father often said the both of them were troublemakers at heart, but Minoru could never come to terms with that perspective. In his eyes, it was more like trouble always gathered around him, like his attempts to stay out of people’s business and keep to himself only attracted people to him instead of pushing them away like he wanted. Even Hana was an example, albeit a positive one, with how she seemed overly invested in his issues, worrying herself to an unconventional degree for a boy she had only just met that day.
His contemplation followed him as he walked further into the city, slipping into a convenience store to buy a coffee can. Even as he spoke with the cashier casually during his purchase, his mind was fairly clouded with these thoughts. Idly sipping at his drink, he leaned against a nearby lamppost.
“It’s not as though I want to make people worry… I wish they’d just go about their days without concerning themselves with me so much… I don’t want Dad to feel like we have to move, just because I keep getting in trouble…”
Shaking his head, he brushed his bangs, long enough to leave one of his eyes covered most of the time, out of his face, letting go of a deep, anxious breath- the kind that made his chest quiver as it escaped his lips.
“Maybe the coffee’s getting to me…” He said, playing off the unexpected intensity of that sigh, before continuing on his walk. It was getting darker now, dusk coming to a close, making way for the black skies of night. He let another breath go, watching how it curled around in the air, rising into the sky before disappearing from sight.
“Should I tell Dad…? I don’t know if I can really stay out of trouble. It’s already happened twice, anyways, I can’t imagine it not happening a third time before I graduate… but then I’d really be shit out of luck. I can’t repeat a year, and getting expelled would destroy my chances of getting into any college…”
Unable to control his thoughts when they spiraled into pessimism like this, his brow furrowed in uncomfortable realizations and thoughts about his uncertain future, as it teetered delicately, hinging entirely on whether or not something like yesterday’s fight would happen again. He cursed his situation, and lamented his own incompetence in letting it go as far as it had.
His thoughts, however, came to an abrupt pause as he looked ahead of him, finding a familiar figure a good distance away from him, walking the same street as him
“Kurogane-san…?” Minoru said to himself. The girl was walking with her hands to her chest, seeming nervous and unsure, her head turning from side to side, scanning her surroundings again and again. “What is she doing here?” Minoru asked to nobody in particular. Hana’s presence here was certainly peculiar. A recent arrival to Sendai like her would certainly get lost in this deep of a part of the city. He was moments away from calling out to her, when she turned her head to her right, a look of shock and confusion washing over her as she stared down an alleyway. She looked scared, almost, but in a slow, deliberate movement, she reached her hand out.
In a flash, a indistinguishable shape, looking as though it was formed out of a blinding white light, wrapped tightly around Hana’s wrist. She tried to pull back, but soon two more of the limbs of light grabbed onto her as well, around her waist and right leg. She seemed to open her mouth to cry out, but in an instant, she was dragged into the alleyway, without a sound to indicate her terror.
“K-Kuro… gane-san…” Minoru muttered out, completely dumbfounded. He was almost frozen to the spot, before he managed to force his legs to move, breaking into a sprint as he turned the corner into the alley, dropping his coffee onto the pavement.
And yet, he was met with nothing. The silence was deafening, all Minoru could hear was the pounding blood vessels in his ears as he looked around frantically. “Kurogane-san!? Kurogane-san, where are you!?” He called out, the impossibility of the situation not fully settling in yet. Where could she have gone? She was right before his eyes one second and gone the next, just like that. That couldn’t have truly just happened. She must be hiding somewhere. Maybe he was seeing things when he saw those… limbs grab her, but he knows for a fact she was taken.
Slowly, ever so slowly, a sound settled into his mind… a low hum, like that of a radiator, growing louder and louder… it was coming from behind him.
He whipped around, but had no time to react as those same blinding white limbs grabbed hold of him, one grabbing onto his arm, and another on his leg. They seeped out of the walls, terminating directly on the bricks of the buildings on either side of the alley, with seemingly no visible source, as if they were phasing right through solid matter. They seemed to turn in his direction as if they sensed his presence.
“W-What the fuck!?” He exclaimed, a cold sweat of dread washing over him, his body immediately trying to break out into a run, but the limb gripping his leg stopped him before he even took his first step, sending him falling forwards to the ground. Three more limbs shot out of the walls, one wrapping around his torso, another around his head, and the third on his wrist. He felt weightless, as the ground moved further and further away from him. He was being lifted into the air. “S-Someone, help me! Help–!!” He pleaded, trying desperately to make his voice be heard, until a thin limb grabbed hold of him, directly over his open mouth, muffling his voice in the process. The pounding in his head made it feel as though it was going to explode, as his heart pumped his entire body full of adrenaline, trying to struggle, but it was for naught, as the limbs shifted across the walls, moving down until they now sprouted up from the ground.
“S-Someone… h-elp… m-eeee–” He tried to choke out, until in a flash he was dragged down into the ground, his body warping as it was pulled to an infinitesimally small point in space, his senses blurring and warping beyond recognition. It was like he had been flashbanged, his vision pure white and his ears ringing as though he had tinnitus. Just as quickly as his senses had been robbed from him, did they change. Now, he only saw black, and only heard the sound of rushing water. His body felt light, as if it were being carried downstream, and yet a peaceful sensation surrounded him, one that sedated him in mere moments…
Another one? Now isn’t this interesting…~ I can’t wait to see where this leads…
The voice sent dread flooding back into him, and his eyes opened, almost on their own.
But when they opened, he found himself… somewhere else.
The sun’s warmth shone onto his face. The sound of rushing water was prevalent as it was before, but now it felt more… concrete… after a few moments he could even pinpoint its direction, looking to his right. That’s when he realized he was lying in the grass, almost shielded entirely from the sun by the canopy of trees above, save for the gap allowing it to filter through down to his suddenly waking face.
Slowly, he got up, yet his body felt numb, making it hard to feel any sort of stability as he pushed his hand into the ground. It almost felt like he wasn’t really ‘there,’ like he had been plopped down somewhere that rejected his very existence. And yet, soon enough that staticy feeling left his body, much quicker than normal.
“W-What the hell… happened?” He said, before slowly standing up. It was a sisyphean effort for him to make, feeling like his body had been completely sapped of all its energy. Shakily, he stood up, looking to his side, finding himself in a small, circular clearing with a fairly sizable pond, multiple streams of water falling from a raised piece of the earth on the far side. His face felt sticky, coated in sweat, prompting him to crouch down enough to cup his hands together, dipping them into the shockingly clear, pure water, before bringing them up and wiping down his face.
Standing back up, he felt a breeze flitter through the trees, pushing on his face, whipping up the leaves and grass, causing some loose pieces of foliage to fly off behind him, as if nudging him to move in their direction. Turning around, he dragged himself to the treeline, squeezing himself through the underbrush. It only took about a minute to make it through to the other side.
Emerging from the small collection of trees, he had to cover his eyes as his whole vision was filled with bright greenery. At the top of a large hill, he had a great vantage spot from which he could gaze out into the rolling, vibrant green hills in front of him. Hills and pastures as far as he could see, stretching out into the horizon, his vision was utterly overwhelmed by the picturesque nature of the view, like something from a fantasy book, or an old oil painting. He could even see a few tall, snowcapped mountains far into the distance, peeking out just above the horizon. To his left, he saw a river, winding and curling around the pastures, seemingly coming from the hill he was on at the moment. Following the path the river took, his attention was eventually caught by something huge off in the far distance. It was hard to make out at such a great length away, as clouds seemed to shade it from view, but soon they passed overhead, allowing the thing’s form to become exposed as sunlight washed over it, gradually running across its shape until it was fully exposed.
It was a city, one with an enormous castle at its center, surrounded by large, stone walls on all sides. It was a breathtaking, yet unnerving sight. It looked truly fictional, architecture like that from a tabletop RPG, or a high fantasy novel. All that this sight elicited in Minoru, was awed silence, until his mouth finally moved to form his first words in this strange land.
“Where… am I…?”