Novels2Search
The Isekai Initiative
Familiar, and Unfamiliar Territory

Familiar, and Unfamiliar Territory

“Hello?” A hand waving in front of his eyes snapped Adam out of his stupor.

He looked up at the girl, moments ago so excited, now slightly hesitant. The girl, while reaching out, seemed to have withdrawn a bit, not in distrust or embarrassment, but something that Adam couldn’t quite read. Some element of her that Adam knew was what Caleb had been speaking of. But it didn’t feel wrong to Adam, it just felt…

Like himself.

He shook himself.

“Are you kidding me? I’ve been waiting all my life for someone else to mention Elken!” Adam said, not even needing to falsify his excitement, though chills still rolled down his spine from his realization.

“I mean, it’s probably one of the best stories I read, and I’ve read tons of novels and manga, but no one I talk to has even heard of it.” Saki gushed, obviously enthusiastic, and a lot less withdrawn now. Though Adam thought she still felt like him, maybe even more at this point.

“The art and writing is so good!” Adam gushed, really getting into the conversation.

“The conclusion though, felt-” Saki began.

“A bit weird, right!?” Adam enthusiastically concluded “even though the rest of the story flowed so well, and was brilliantly written and drawn, it was kind of weird how it ended.”

Elken had ended suddenly, and without warning, in the climax of the final battle. The main character had suddenly just died, without warning, not even to any sort of attack or anything, but he had just suddenly ceased to exist after grabbing a random rock in the middle of the battlefield. Granted, the rock had been incredibly intricately described, so Adam had figured it would just be important in the next book. But that was where the story had ended. No notice from the author, or any sort of warning whatsoever. Of course it could have just been the author, taking a longer amount of time to release the next chapter, but the last chapter had been released over a decade ago, with no word from the author.

“It basically kept me going, growing up alone,” Adam cautiously brought up this slightly darker tone to the conversation.

At these words, Saki’s face dropped, and she visibly shrunk away from him. Before she could retreat too far though, Adam grabbed her wrist. She writhed in his grasp, trying to get away, but Adam spoke before she could get away.

“Stop. I’m not as good as my partner, or even as the average person as going about such a roundabout way when getting information, so I figured it was just better to get out with it and ask you directly. What happened to you, and why do…why are you like this?”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Saki’s eyes welled up, and filled with equal measures hope, fear, sorrow, and wrath, similar to after the lightning strike. She kept trying to wrest herself from his grip, but Adam stood firm. Once again however, time slowed, and meddled with his interrogation.

Adam looked around, but he couldn’t see anything. The space around the room was completely fine, though there were books littered everywhere, their pages in mid-flutter, from a breeze. There was nothing coming in through the window, other than an iridescent ray of light, and a few leaves from a nearby tree. Though he couldn’t make out much of anything because of…because of what? He stopped, surveyed his surroundings again and again, trying to find something wrong.

“Something…somethings really wrong” he muttered to himself, his voice raspy from the outburst earlier, and filled with notes of panic. His eyes flickered across the room, darting from point to point, frenzied, as fast as a…

“I’m thinking too much” Adam heard himself say, and suddenly, his mind was shocked into silence. He was. The scenario around him wasn’t being viewed through his eyes, but his mind’s eye was projecting this scene for him so well, that while the scene itself was very different. As the scenario around him faded, he found himself looking at a world not made of colors, lights or shapes, but one completely made up of-

“Words” Adam breathed, full of awe and horror. What…had happened to him? Why was he reading his world, and why was it so vivid, lifelike enough to trick his own sight?

Out of instinct, forgetting that he couldn’t really move himself, he drew his hand to his mouth in shock, and he saw(or rather read) himself drawing his hand back, and suddenly, the world around him was back to normal. Time resumed, and he fell back into his own body, aching, sore, and with pain touching every point of him, to a point where later he’d swear he felt it in his soul. Adam landed back, and looked up, his movements slowed by the amount of pain he felt, to see the door, once again closing behind the girl. He leapt up and followed quickly, dialing the number for his subordinate as he did so.

“Caleb, the girl left.” Adam reported as he ran, “but not just that, she did something, really weird. My(“we don’t really have a moniker for them, do we” he thought) reflex…time stop…thing went off when I touched her, and all I could see was…” the strangeness and the enormity of what he had experienced really began to sink in “was words. Words so enthralling and absorbing that I perceived them as my own vision.”

There was a short silence, broken up by the crackle of interference, before Caleb spoke up again.

“tsyyi da dhWo ua?”

Adam frowned “Are you joking around? I said-”

“ hit dmsI saA? earuu naaveyns wItoidyrodeongyas’thronurh,dte We ’. vneei,no ea lt rhset in du rareg o a o itehanrmas nrtpu’ea oyodks o rot ta tneerashgieftusls rDortauatetgouvss mslsoiy?”

Adam frowned in confusion, barely avoiding a weird square on a metal pole… He stumbled barely managing to keep himself upright. He had passed that sign before, and Caleb had even admonished him for not being able to read it due to his translator being off. But now, it was not recognizable. It was as if the girl had taken his ability to comprehend language from him.

Previous Chapter
Next Chapter