He swallowed spit and lake water, causing him to enter a coughing fit strong enough to send him falling. That voice had come from somewhere nearby, but all there was were the lake, with some wreckage disappearing into the water and some greenery nearby. Benjamin weakly pushed himself off the ground, his legs not feeling quite like his own. Numb, might have been a way to describe it. But he couldn't know for sure.

“Hello, is anyone there?” He shouted out, scanning the surroundings for anything humanoid. But once more, nobody answered his call. He kept looking for another moment before breathing out, thinking he had only imagined it.

“You look kinda stupid there, kid, stop lazing around.” This time, Benjamin knew it was nearby and nearly jumped back into the water in fright. The slight panic in the back of the mind started to build up as he had figured out where the sound had appeared from. With dread being formed behind his muffled emotions, he looks down to his hand and slowly turns it around. With cold sweat, maybe it's lake water, flowing down his brow he builds the courage to flip all the way to reveal….!?

Nothing?

He let out a breath of relief and turned his hands once more before double-check his overall health. It was something his mother would do after he was outside, to make sure he hadn't hurt himself after playing with any sticks or rocks. Starting with his legs, they were oddly pale compared to what they used to be. It was hard for him to say exactly how they felt wrong, they felt oddly numb, but they weren't bleeding and didn't have any scratches on them.

Looking at his tattered underwear and pants, he guessed they equally intact. Poking a finger through the holes in his shirt, he didn't see any wounds there either. Although it was odd to him how he didn't seem all that hurt after that big explosion. He would have to find a way home and change his clothes, unless he wanted people to make fun of him.

… wasn't he just panicking over something?

Right, he heard a voice! It came from somewhere nearby, almost right next to him. He looked down at his body again, just to make sure he wasn't hurt anywhere. His body looked fairly normal, only he was wearing ragged clothes instead of the fairly normal ones he were wearing. Wait a second, he did have something that looked like a wound on his hand. Or maybe a scar, since it wasn't bleeding. Either way, regardless of what it was, he felt like picking it since he didn't have much else to do at the moment.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

As his hand reached over to the other hand, something in his mind was trying to warn him of something. Couldn't be too important, so he touched the weird mark and gave it a good scratch. It felt odd, like scratching his mouth after eating something he thought was too spicy. It was also slightly numb, so it was properly a good idea to take a closer look in case he was actually hurt or not.

But seeing the odd wound open up didn't frighten him as much as it should. Neither did hearing a voice come out from it either. Odd.

“Finally, do you know how difficult it is to mess with a brain without messing with the important bits?” The mouth said, a voice strangely high-pitched but gravely at the same time coming out. Benjamin wasn't quite sure what that meant, but having his seemingly important bits messed with didn't sound good.

“Well, what did you do that for? I'm pretty sure I need the important bits. Since they are, important.” Benjamin nearly whispered to the hand, not sure what it was meant to be. But having something to talk to wasn't so bad, especially after losing his family in a week. Which made him sad again. The mouth, maybe it noticed, made a click sound before blowing a raspberry. Perhaps it was meant to get his attention, which worked, but it didn't make him feel any better.

“Ok kid, thanks to you thinking so hard about your family, I know you ain't got any left in this world. Which makes me, you hand, the closest family you got left.” His reality being confirmed by his hand, Benjamin laid back down and stared at the sky. The sun was further up the sky than what he remembered, but it didn't matter. He simply wasn't sure about what to feel. His hand seemingly didn't like this, coming into view above him.

“Hey, what the hell, are you really going to ignore me after I went through all that effort to keep you alive? Little bro, you have no idea what your future is going to be like now that I am around. Do you have anything you want to become, something revolving around having a strong body?” Well, that did make Benjamin think about what he wanted to be, and he did have someone in mind. Licking his lips that felt dry, he spoke.

“I want to be a hero, like Aki — Aiki -”.

“You mean Akitio?” His Hand finished for him.

“Yes, Akitio! I want to be a hero that saves people and brings peace and happiness. I want to beat up the old gods and free humanity!”. His excitement grew as he spoke, and he could feel a weak smile appear on his face. If he could be a super strong hero and save The Kingdom from something dangerous, then people would be nice to him and think he is cool. His Hand started talking again.

“I knew about the part about freeing humanity from the Demon King, but what is this about old gods? There were gods roaming around, and what type of gods were there? Before we even leave to where-ever you live, let's talk about that.” His Hand, using its fingers to draw on the dirt.