The sky was harsh blue, and the temperature was comfortably warm.
Such a charming weather seemed to be in tune with a young girl who walked down the sidewalk as if there was springs connected to her feet.
With her hair done in half-up double buns and her bright outfit, she gave off a cheerful feeling to the surrounding world.
But all that seemed inferior to the sweet, silly grin she had on her face. Which blind both genders and turned countless heads.
Oblivious to her own impacts, the girl was busy appreciating a piece of paper she held with both hands. If not for her phone's lack of battery, her social media's platforms was guaranteed to be flooded with the photograph of that paper.
The paper was a crisp and clean, elegant language certificate.
Ahaha.. with this, I'm halfway done on my target.
This girl was named Rachael, who set goals throughout her life and live to fulfill them. And one of the aforementioned targets was mastering eight different languages before the age of twenty. Which was going to be tough, considering there's only three years but four languages left.
Yet the optimist was still giggling away at the new language certificate that she spent almost two year on mastering.
So, she can't wait to go back and begin her flaunting.
Impossible for the head-turner Rachael, though, to be out without someone recognising her.
Fifteen minutes from her destination,
"Rachael Chandra!"
Even her action of swiping her head was unlike a shampoo advertisement.
Unexpectedly, she found several of her seniors beckoning her to come over. From the other side of the wide street, a group of boys and girls at her age was walking to the opposite direction. Even with their faces overshadowed due to the light behind them, Rachael could still recognised them as their school's olympiad squad's members.
Eh, they had a gathering? Why wasn't I informed?
Intrigued, our Rachael tried to cross the street to reach them.
Tried.
Because she had never made it.
Soon she found herself lying in a pool of her own blood, dyeing the asphalt, her clothes, and her new certificate red.
She just felt the throbbing pain for a second before it was replaced by numbness. All her senses left her apart from her sight. She dearly wanted to gaze at the blue sky for the last time, but people has already crowding over her head. Her worried seniors seemed to be on the verge of tears that made their faces all scrunched-up, unfortunately she didn't have the energy to laugh.
No hard feeling, Senpai. I'm pretty sure I'd watched the street before I crossed.
But her new certificate, Ahh.. Will her brother flaunt it for her? That anti-social jerk would never remember.
Yet she felt strangely peaceful,
The wet certificate with its Chinese characters glistening in a golden hue was the last thing in her vision.
~~~
She wasn't dead, not yet.
The pain was unlike any she's ever experienced before. Well, she hadn't really been subjected to any accident before either.
But one should try to imagine having a crack, or maybe even a hole, in one's skull.
She's wondering if local anesthesia couldn't be applied to the head area, or maybe applying general anesthesia until the pain completely subsided is a waste of resource.
The sticky feeling her hand came in contact with told her otherwise.
Wh-What?
All around her was dark.
She blinked her eyes couples of time just to be greeted with the same darkness.
Am I blind? I hit my head, right? Not my eyes? Or did I hit my Occi-what lobe that controls the sight?
No, that's not right. What hurt was my right side.
As if reactivated, her pain came back at her thought. She tried to sit up but everything seems to sway violently. With one hand holding her head and the other one searching for any hard surfaces, the girl moved.
Belatedly she realized that, it wasn't that her head was dizzy thus she couldn't properly right herself, rather the darkness itself around her was swaying.
She cussed.
Is there any other crash's casualty that was as miserable as her?!
What's with the situation?!
As time went by, her other senses seemed to be recovered. But how she wished they didn't.
A mix of rotting wood, fishy smell and salty air entered her nose. Loud sound of crashing water, she presumed, made her terrible pain worse. Her sense of touch also informed her about the current coarse and itchy clothes she was wearing.
She wanted to cry.
What is this?! Why do I had a bad feeling about this?! Isn't it as if I was in the sea?!
Rachael usually had a superb mental strength, the kind who would laugh at a horror movie. But the eerie situation got her frustated.
Am I kidnapped? Who kidnapped me?
Why and how did they kidnapped me?
Does Father and Mother know?
I'm hungry, when was the last time I ate?
As myriads of thoughts crossed her brain, Rachael also moving along the edge of the room, searching for light switch or, if she was lucky, an exit.
Slowly but surely, Rachael counted the flat surfaces as she felt them with both hands.
One, The surface right behind her.
.
.
Two, The surface to her right.
.
.
Three, The surface right to the previous one.
.
.
Four, The next and last surface. What she was searching for should be on it.
.
.
But where?
.
All she felt was the slimy surface of the slightly damp wood not unlike the three others.
The optimist in her was ignited. Yes, not all room are four-sided. So, she continued.
Five, not here.
.
.
Six, also not.
.
.
Seven, maybe the next.
.
.
Eight ...
It wasn't until the tenth count that Rachael finally snapped.
"Damn it! Where the bloody hell am I?!"
[Recognising Host's Voice...]
Huh? Wha-
[Host's Voice Confirmed.]
[System Initializing...]
Where did that sound come from?
[Initiation Succes.]
.
.
[Welcome, Rachael Chandra Dewi, to your Earth's System.]
"..."