Drip... Drip... Drip...
Feeling the sensation of water dripping against his cheek and flowing into his mouth, Van gradually regained his consciousness. While thinking that it was unbelievable, he slowly opened his eyes.
"... I'm alive?" "...I'm saved?"
The last thing he remembered was falling unconscious while being surrounded by monsters. His head at the moment was a bit dizzy as only droplets of water that were dripping in his face were clearing his mind.
Drip... Drip... Drip...
Looking around, he could see that he was standing in the middle of a basketball field. But he knows that this probably might be another dream or a part of his memories as this was not the first time seeing dreams like this since he reincarnated to another world.
The first place in seeing this kind of dream was in his house, and now he was alone in the middle of a basketball field.
There was a saying in his old world that when a person dies, he leaves behind regrets, no matter how small they are. But he didn't die but was reincarnated into another world with his memories intact. Did this mean that his regrets followed him all the way here? Did this mean that having memories removed as the reincarnation cycle does is a good thing?
Van didn't have the slightest clue of how he should react with all the things that were happening around him. Making an easygoing personality and asking questions to Akka continuously, was his way not to think things too much or probably that was his way of protecting himself.
Drip... Drip... Drip...
He clearly remembers this location because he used to play in this basketball field when he was in high school. But Van, at this moment, wasn't remembering his gaming days because, for a place to be remembered and be unique, it should be more than that.
On a particular day, when rain was falling down furiously on earth. He came here and shared his feelings and thoughts with rain, because for him at that time would think who is a better listener than nature itself.
At that time, he used to like a girl that was one year younger than him, but the factor who decided if she should be his girlfriend or not was not her age or anything else but his nose.
Yes, you heard it right, it was his nose!!
His nose at that time was a bit special or like Van used to call it defective. Some of his friends, his mother, his father, his siblings, they all smelled like something that suffocates his heart every time he recalls it. There is a particular aroma around them that he could not explain with words alone. And when he tries to get used to it, he could always feel his heart suffocates endlessly!!!
This condition continued with years until high school when he found out that even his girl that he liked had the same particular aroma when he approached her. He directly went to a doctor for a check-up to see if anything is wrong with him, but as he expected since the beginning at that time, nothing was wrong with him.
"Probably my nose was warning me since the beginning, but at that time I didn't know anything. At that time, I was just a lamb, waiting to be eaten by others." Van muttered to himself as he raises his head, and looked at the rain that was falling down from the sky.
Drip... Drip... Drip...
Was he feeling sentimental about his old world and his life there? Probably, but every time that he remembers that his nose was always right, he could only feel cold all over again.
Drop... Drop... Drop... Drop...
More and more rain was falling down from the heavens, and Van could feel the water swallowing him, slowly. First, it was his knees, then it was the stomach, then all the way up to his neck... Then Van could feel himself submerging in water, without having the strength to resist.
Surprisingly even inside the dark blue water, he could still breathe, but Van didn't notice this. Because at that moment, Van remembered something from before he was reincarnated to another world.
Before he went to his room that night, he saw his mother's eyes. The look on her eyes was like the predator watching his prey. Remembering those eyes, at this moment, was like the last straw that broke the camel's back. It broke Van's spirit completely because he understood all the things at what happened that night.
No matter how much you doubt and suspect something, the moment that the truth is before you, the amount of emotions that bombs your heart doesn't get any less.
Pieces of memories united together to form a picture that made Van's spirit crumble before his fate.
"Someone, save me."
Here at the bottom of the dark blue water, Van's cries of plea would never reach anybody.