Inna tried to stop herself as she remembered her goal, which was to get the thing Bob wanted then, head to Harajuku. But when a group of squealing people beside her hastily ran to the commotion with excitement in their eyes, she couldn't take the temptation anymore and finally caved in to her curiousity. She made her way to the stall as she tried hard to squeeze in between the crowd in order to go as near as she can.
But despite all her efforts, she was still quite a distance away. And so, in her position amongst the crowd, she can't see whatever is happening on the podium clearly, but she can hear them well through the speakers.
Well, she soon realized that being able to hear them was as useless as being unable to see.
That's because, her poor understanding of Nihongo, the Japanese language, began to show as the event started with a wide array of Japanese words.
Trying to remember and recognize all the words she learned before, she translated in her mind what she could hear through the speakers.
[Everyone~ My friend here...○♡※●♡... portal...★※◎●※○○♡... reincarnate...✩●※★○●◎... another world! We ✩●※●♡★※★※ choose one person ○»»◎» test! ◎○✩♡★◎»◎※●○♡※●♡¡]
The crowd filled with otakus and fans screamed in delight as the host's voice hyped them up. Meanwhile, Inna remained unfazed.
What?
Portal? Reincarnate?
Another world?
Choose one person?
Are they perhaps talking about reincarnating a person to another world?
Oh, right... Since it's the Reincarnation genre, of course they're going to showcase shit like these.
Pshhh... Like that's going to happen in real life.
Inna felt like she just wasted her time being curious and suddenly wanted to leave. So, she turned around, ready to fit through the small openings once again just to get out.
However, before she could squeeze out of the crowd, she felt a burning stare in the back of her head that made the hair of her neck stand on end.
Then she heard a barrage of Japanese words being spoken hastily by the speaker. Feeling oddly disturbed by the strange feeling she kept getting, she decided to try and translate in her mind what she's hearing in order to get a better grasp of what was happening.
[♡★✩◎... chosen one... ○♡※●♡¡ «※«◎♡... girl, doesn't... »✩◎♡♡◎... believe... »※※«※«◎... us! ◎»✩»~ ♡★♡★◎...hard work.... ◎♡»✩— device... «○«※♡✩»※★※... prove her wrong! ♡»◎✩¿ Friend, Ryuusei-kun?]
"Mm."
'Ryuusei' made a sound of agreement.
Then, when the words she understood registered in her mind, Inna suddenly felt goosebumps.
She didn't know why but she suddenly had a bad feeling about this.
Inna began to sweat in her palms as she tried to connect the words she understood. But when she reached into a conclusion, she refused to believe that the 'chosen one' they were talking about was her. Because to be honest, she's sure as hell that she's not the only non-believer in this whole place. In fact, she personally knows lots of people that don't believe in reincarnation too.
[○♡※●♡●◎○※... black... ♡○○◎»♡○»◎»※»※»○«○«※♡✩»※★※! ○♡※●♡«○«※♡✩»※★※!]
She didn't understand any of what was said by the host anymore so she figured to just walk away.
But then, before she could even take a step, she felt a hand grab her. She looked back in shock, only to see an elderly woman stare at her with a kind smile.
"You not understand Nihongo? They call for you. Black shirt, denim shorts. They request you come up."
Inna's eyes widened at what the elderly woman said.
They want her to go to the stage?
She laughed to herself as she gently tapped the elderly woman's hand that was grabbing her.
"Thank you for translating, ma'am. But i'm afraid that you might be mistaken. There are countless of people wearing a black shirt and denim shorts aside from me."
Inna was about to leave but the elderly woman spoke before she had the chance.
"No. no. Listen."
Inna raised an eyebrow but she still complied.
[No! No! Miss! It's you! ♡★✩◎※●♡○○✩... fairy face! Black hair...♡●◎※... pretty... ★♡◎●※♡... green... ◎●※♡●...eyes!!!]
"Who else is pretty face, black hair, green eyes, with the black shirt and denim shorts? They ask for you come up."
The elderly woman laughed slightly at Inna's dumbfounded expression.
Then, when she turned around, she saw that everyone was looking at her with envy as they somehow parted to make a path for her.
At the end of the path, she saw a foreign-looking man-child with blonde hair, cheerfully smiling at her. He has quite a babyface. In fact, he looked nothing older than 18 but at the same time, he gave off this mature adult vibe that felt like he lived twice the age of what he looked like.
He held out his hand as he spoke towards the microphone.
[Miss? «○«※♡. Please... ✩»※★※]
Inna didn't understand what the man just said so she looked at the elderly woman for help.
The elderly woman was about to translate it when the man cut her off.
"It seems that you don't understand Nihongo well. Apologies for that. We were simply just calling you to please come forward."
The man held a kind smile as he spoke but his brown eyes seemed to have a hint of impatience as he urged her forward. But Inna wasn't able to notice his tone since she was startled at the fact that he was able to fluently speak English.
Seeing almost everyone's attention on her, she suddenly felt nervous and was unable to think clearly so she simply obeyed him. And when she felt the nerves die down, she found herself bewildered at the sight of a huge weird looking circular ring machine, that looked so futuristic and sci-fi-like, in front of her. She looked at the man 'controlling the device' and saw that he somehow had the same vibe as the other guy that called her. They both wore lab coats and had the same brown eyes and foreign-looking man-child faces except the man by the device had black hair while the man with the microphone was blond. Still, they looked eerily similar that they can even pass off as brothers. But she recalled the words that she understood before and concluded that they were probably just friends and that the black-haired man's name was Ryuusei.
Ryuusei and the blonde-haired man looked at each other, their eyes holding a kind of meaning before the blonde one held Inna's hand gently as he guided her near the intimidating machine.
Inna continued to follow in silence while the feelings of being lost and not knowing what else to do made her experience a mental blackout.
She literally had no clue what to do or what to feel and so she decided to just follow through with whatever stunt they were trying to prove in this event, hoping that it would make it end faster.
Ryuusei looked at his wristwatch then gave his partner a small thumbs-up before pulling down a lever. This made the machine in front of her crank up with some buzzing noise that sounded quite unstable.
The blonde guy slowly let go of Inna's hand as he urged her to enter the machine's opening. But hearing the incessant unstable noises coming from the machine, Inna began to feel like it was a really bad idea and so she refused to take another step.
"Uhm, this won't hurt right?"
"I mean, it's just for show, right?"
"I-it won't really send me to a faraway place, right?"
"... Right?"
Inna bombarded them with questions, showing just how nervous and scared she felt of the machine. It looked like it was going to electrocute her to death, judging from the flashes of light and sparks that appeared occasionally.
Hearing her questions, the blonde man just smiled sheepishly beside her. And after a few moments, he leaned towards Inna and whispered.
"Eh, actually it's the first time we tested this so, uhm, to answer your questions... we don't know."
She felt her blood run cold at the statement.
"Are you serious?!"
She gasped out as she looked towards the towering device just in time to hear it release some creaking noises. It seemed like it was about to collapse from the noises it made and the slight sway it had whenever it was hit by a breeze.
But from the close distance she had with the machine, Inna strangely felt a suction force. It felt like a vacuum sucking her in.
And because of this, she was a bit convinced that she actually might get reincarnated.
But even with that, she still wanted to escape!
The machine just gave her straight up bad vibes. So, she took a step back, planning to dash out.
But with her back facing the blonde man, she wasn't able to see the glint in his eyes as he spoke to her quickly.
"Don't be shy! Here, I'll help!"
He strongly pushed her towards the machine, making her stumble towards the machine.
Due to the sudden turn of events, Inna wasn't able to fully process what just happened and so, she remained shocked as she entered the machine's opening. Then when she recovered, she planned to look back to cuss at the man. But when she did, she saw nothing but bright white light.
Then suddenly, she felt pain in her whole body similar to tiny pins piercing her. It made her wince and cry out in agony. The pain gradually increased until, after a few moments, she felt a blast of something all around her body before everything turned black.