Adam awoke in the hospital room, shaken out of his sleep by a dull pain. He was covered in bandages, most likely covering up any burns he suffered from the fire. His eyes looked up at nothing, the room mostly dark, with a little light coming in from a window above his bed. As he lay in the bed, his mind ended up wandering to the events of the day before. What had happened that day? The fire he was pretty sure ended up being an effect of the isekai initiative, that was pretty obvious. But when the world stopped, and he had that weird, out of body experience? The dull pain he felt made it hard to think, but he still ended up puzzling over it for a while, at least until he was shaken out of his thoughts by a sudden snore coming from next to him. He slowly, painstakingly turned his head to the left, and regarded the scene next to him. A woman with light blue hair was passed out on the chair next to his bed, her head resting on the bed next to him where Caleb lay, also covered in bandages, and with a sling. The sight was so comical yet so peaceful, the normally irate Caleb lying peacefully, with some woman(who looked like she was drooling) passed out at his feet. At the moment, Caleb didn’t look like some authoritative investigator, he just looked like a small child. Adam grinned, before feeling his consciousness fade, and going to sleep again.
…
However, just as he passed out, it was as if his eyes had never really closed. Well not really, as he didn’t see anything before him. It felt as if he was seeing what was before him as half-formed thoughts, more like as if he was writing or reading a book, rather than as if he were seeing something. There was a presence, soft, pleading, surrounded by worlds and millions of lives. As he continued to look on, he felt the presence tell him, not through speech or visual communication, but again as if through thought:
“I am so lonely.”
…
Adam awoke with a start to the sounds of a shouted argument.
“He’s clearly injured, so we let him sleep! He needs to rest so he can recover!”
“Caleb?” Adam thought blearily.
“No, he’s been sleeping for-everr! Let me wake him up so that I can interview him!” the blue haired woman put her hand on Caleb’s shoulder, “You realized his death, right? Aren’t you also curious as to what happened?”
Adam saw Caleb pause for a moment, before smacking the hand away.
“Even if I am dying from curiosity, I can afford to wait an hour or two so he can get the rest he needs!”
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The blue haired woman scoffed, then softened a little.
“You… you really care for him, don’t you? I thought after Carol-” Adam saw Caleb’s eyes deaden at the sound of the name, “-you would be cold until-”
The blue haired woman trailed off as her gaze fell on Adam’s face, and noticed he was awake. Without a second to spare, she jumped from Caleb’s bed onto Adam’s and held out her hand. At her movement, Caleb looked over and also noticed Adam had awakened. The blue haired woman held out her hand.
“Hello, nice to meet you, private investigator Adam Park!”
When Adam accepted her hand, she shook vigorously, to the point where it seemed she would tear his arm right off. After the handshake had been going on for an uncomfortable while, Caleb intervened.
“Lay off him, you’ll put stress on his burns.”
The blue haired girl drew back.
“Sorry, sorry! Just excited to meet one of the detectives we hired that actually managed to survive.”
Caleb interjected, “I’m sorry about her Adam. This is the current chief manager of the Isekai initiative, Sinja Bae.”
Sinja flashed Adam a peace sign, “Pleased to meet you!”
Adam starred, somewhat in shock. This was really the woman who, over the last few years, had discovered more about the Isekai initiative than any other person in charge had in their decade of service? The one person who held more authority and clearance in her hand than any person in history? Adam starred, dumbfounded. Why would someone so important be here? After a few seconds of silence he shook himself out of his stupor, and attempted to return the greeting.
“Uh.. yeah! Hello! Nice to meet you too,” he said, flailing his hands in order to make some semblance of respect.
Sinja giggled at his panic, and even Caleb couldn’t help but smirk at the mess of Adam’s greeting. Adam blushed, mortified by how his introduction had come out. He just felt unsettled, most likely for being in front of a person of such magnitude.
“Since we have the niceties out of the way, let’s get down to the details of the incident. So in most cases of the Isekai Initiative, especially where our organization is considered, the victim dies. Unless the victim has some sort of special training, or has experience dealing with these experiences before. So-” she spoke with anticipatory excitement, almost as if she were a small girl awaiting a promised pony, “would you mind recounting your experience?”
Both she and Caleb awaited his answer with baited breath. Adam took a second to gather his memories.
“When the jug was falling toward the fryer, I was planted, completely frozen,” he began to recall, “despite the amount of warning Caleb had given me, it was as if I was completely unable to process the danger, and I just stood there dumbfounded, witnessing my death. Until…” he tailed off, unable to process what his memory was telling him. Until time stopped. Until he had left his own body. Suddenly his head felt like it was splitting open with pain. He clutched it writhing and fell off of his bed. Instead of hitting the ground with a thud though, he landed in someone’s arms. A hand was placed on his forehead, and the pain subsided. He looked up to the chief manager’s smiling face.
“I knew it! So you do have something that’ll help you!