Yes! I told the truth but kept the secret stuff ou—
"That's not everything," Patora was staring me down. "I can sense it, you're hiding something. Is it what you were talking about at the village with me? What's the secret you're keeping form us."
"He's keepin' a secret? I didn' think he was the type ta do tha'."
"What kind of secret is it?" The girls jumped in at the chance to get any details about the secret of mine. Han just gave me a sympathetic look.
"Well, Kichi, tell us!"
"What's this secret!?"
"What are ya hidin'!?"
"Guys, calm down. It may be a bad one. One that upsets him or something." Han tried to calm them all down while I stared blankly at the fire.
"He said he was scared that if it got out that we'd think differently of him, that we'd abandon him."
There went Patora, giving away the minor details. It only made the girls want to know even more.
They got louder and louder. Their voiced began to erk my nerves.
If I tell them, they'll shut up.
"You really wanna know?" I asked, the annoyance clear in my voice. They all nodded, sparkles in their eyes. "I'm not from here."
"Yeah, you're from the south, we know that alr—"
"No, I'm not. I'm not from this place. This...World..."
"...What...what do you mean?" Sora sounded confused and scared at the same time.
I knew this would happen, but there was no avoiding it. They all wanted to know so badly, so I'll tell them.
"I'm from a place called Japan." If I'm going to tell them, may as well tell them everything. "My dad's Japanese and so is my mom. I use to play video games, watch anime, and read manga all day. But one day I just randomly woke up in this world, not knowing how or why I was brought here. But this world plays just like the RPG's I've played before, so I figured, 'Why not become an adventurer?' And now here I am?" Silence filled the night air, with the exception of the crackling of the fire.
"See, this is why I wanted to keep it a secret," I said softly as my gaze fell to my feet. "You're all scared of m..."
""""Pfft!"""" looked up to see them all trying to hold in a laugh.
"What's so funny?" I scowled.
"You were keeping such a dumb secret?"
"Huh!?" Dumb secret?! I thought they'd hate me or be scared if I told them, now they're calling it dumb? And aren't they the ones that wanted to know in the first place?!
"Who cares where you're from," Han said. "Isn't that what you told me?"
Huh, who knew my own pessimistic realism would come back at me?
"And you were so worried about it too, man, you're stu—ow! Stop pulling them!"
I had reached over and was grabbing Patora's ears.
"What were you saying? I'm stu-what? I hope the word was 'stupendous'."
"I-it was! Now please let gooooooo!"
I did as she begged and leaned back onto my log.
"Sorry I kept it a secret, but I was worried y'all would leave me." I scratched the back of my head.
"Aw, so ya do care abou' us," Ellie giggled.
"Tch." I looked away from them.
"We'd never leave you, and stop putting on such a tough guy act. We already know that you changed and that, deep down, you care." Sora teased.
"Shut up. I've changed for y'all, but I still don't like other people and hate talking to them. So I'm still the same, I just talk more, which also means you'll get more crap from me."
"Uh-huh," Sora rolled her eyes.
"If ya say so," Ellie shrugged.
"I totally believe you," Patora smirked.
"Whatever you say, Kichi," Rubellia added to it.
Han just laughed softly and I felt a sigh escape me. I tossed a fish at Ellie and then grabbed one for myself.
I'm so done with tonight.
"What's the difference between this world and yours?"
It's been three days since I had told everyone my secret; That I was from another world. And they were still asking questions.
It was annoying, being asked questions all the time, but I was happy.
More or less.
I had been scared that if I had told them, they would look at me like I was some freak or abomination, or maybe even a monster. Scared they would have left me. But they didn't, they accepted me.
Well, it was more like laugh at me, but same thing.
But now that they knew, the questions were being asked non-stop. The one I had just been asked came from Sora.
"Well, a lot of things, actually," I started. "For one, Mana wasn't a thing, neither was the races that y'all have."
"You're saying your race was the only race?" Han asked.
"No. We had different races, but it wasn't like Elves, Beast-kin, or Human. The races in that world were divided by, well, race, I guess. There were African Americans, Asians, Whites, Russians, Germans, so on. But we were all human."
"So, you're saying that all of you were human?" Rubellia put a finger to her cheek. It was obvious she didn't understanding.
"Yeah, I guess you could actual say we were all part of the same race, the human race, but our beliefs, looks, and skin color kind of divided us."
"Weird. And what's this thing about no Mana? It wasn't a thing?" Sora leaned more on the couch where she stood behind it while Rubellia, Patora, and Ellie were all sitting on it.
I was sitting on a chair across from them while Han leaned against the wall.
"Well, we had history that talked about beliefs in magic and stuff, but that would be too complicated to explain, so I won't talk too much about that. But to answer your question, no. It wasn't a thing. We couldn't shoot fire out our hands, nor ice, nor wind."
"Then how'd y'all get stuff ta light up? Ya couldn' use magic ta light a candle er anythin', right?"
"See, we had this amazing thing called electricity. This guy name Benjamin Franklin discovered it and things progressed from there. Oh, an explanation about what it was, imagine a switch. We flip that switch and a bunch of electricity will run through wires and stuff and it would heat up some metal and then light would fill the room."
I left out lightbulbs and stuff because it would just lead to more confusion.
"Wow! That's amazing?! And I though we Elves were intelligent! But a question," Patora tilted her head. "If our races weren't real, how'd you know about us? How'd you know what an Elf was and stuff?"
"Well, it's rather strange, really. Elves were made up beings where I come from. Y'all weren't real. Y'all descended from the history I spoke of early, to be more precise, the Elves were spoken of in Norse Mythology."
"Really? That's weird. So is that the time you're in? Norse?" She asked.