Chapter 2 - Into A Different World

Overcoming those difficult times, I was now fully enjoying a rare period of recovery. After the middle school graduation ceremony was over, we went on a short break before starting high school.

Realistically, I should have had a part-time job during this break, but that was gone now, because of the group bullying from the other day. Because I was absent that day, I was fired; obviously it wasn't possible to go to it. I was fired from my other part-time job as well, because of all the bruises on my body. I thought it was unreasonable, and I was frustrated, but I couldn't do anything about it.

I wondered if I should do muscle training during this break, even though I didn't think it would change anything. I had a lot of things to worry about, but first I had to find a new part-time job. At any rate, for now, I had a little time to spare, so I decided to clean this house for the first time in a long time.

I immediately got out a rag and vacuum cleaner and started cleaning the house. Even though I often did light cleaning, a thorough cleaning revealed a lot of dirt. My grandpa's house was quite large, so it would have been difficult to clean all the rooms properly without an opportunity like this.

…No, I knew the truth. I was doing this to avoid thinking about what had happened.

During a surge of depression, I went to the washbasin to replace the water in the bucket, and there, like it or not, I could see my face reflected in the mirror. Thin, small eyes. A huge pig nose with small nostrils. Rounded cheeks, and although my cheekbones were defined, my whole face was fat, swollen, and covered in acne and freckles.

My lips were thick, and covered my crooked teeth. My hair was so thin it felt like premature baldness. This was my face. A face that doesn't at all resemble my parents or those twins. When I looked at it now, the accumulated resentment inside of me overflowed.

I yelled in rage, and punched the mirror over and over again, desperately trying to erase the picture in front of me. I kept hitting it long after my fist was covered in blood.

Breathing hard, I then grabbed the big bucket and smashed it into the mirror, breaking it instantly. With the mirror broken, I was able to calm down a little, but mentally, I was still in a fog. Fragments of the mirror fell onto the floor and mingled with my blood.

No matter how much I shout, my situation won't change.

I wanted to undergo plastic surgery if I could. But I couldn't even come close to doing that without any money. The fact was, I had to work with all my strength just to barely earn enough for my living expenses.

In the face of such a sorrowful reality, my heart sank even more. What exactly do I want to be? I couldn't see my future anymore. I wouldn't be able to find a job properly. Considering how things are now, it was only natural that I'd never thought about what I wanted to be in the future.

Dream… a dream, huh? Even if I had a dream, it would be meaningless anyway. I don't have the ability or the will to make a dream come true…

"Fuck!"

Frustrated by my powerlessness, I hit the wall forcefully ― and at that moment…

"Huh?"

All of a sudden, the wall rotated, like a secret door in a ninja mansion, and revealed a room I had no idea existed.

"Wh… What the…?"

I'd lived in my grandpa's house for a long time, and I'd never seen a room like this before.

"What is this place…"

I had stumbled on a mysterious hidden room. I was cautious at first, but soon my curiosity won out, and before I knew it, I was already inside.

"This is…"

As it turned out, this was a room where grandpa put many of the things he collected when he flew around the world. My grandpa was always traveling around and coming back with souvenirs, but I didn't know where he put them all. I was stunned to realize all of them had been stored in a secret room.

When I was looking in amazement at the goods obtained from all over the world, I suddenly got a strange feeling.

"Wha― What the hell is this?"

It was a puzzling feeling, one I had never felt before, and it now guided me through the room. I passed by many things, some of which grandpa had shown me in the past, and others that were totally new to me.

"…What is that? That mask. It's frightening, and it kind of looks like a kijin… hmm? Oh wow… What's that doll?" (PosterNote - A Kijin mask is a traditional Japanese mask that was used to 'portray the devil and bring disasters' or to 'ward off evil spirits.)

It was like the kijin mask, and a mannequin that was bigger than me. There were also some basketball-sized red cubes, and although I didn't know the principle behind it, there were also some strange stones floating around an equally strange pedestal.

Apart from that, there was even a coffin that looked like an Egyptian sarcophagus, the kind that usually contained a mummified pharaoh.

As I walked around, looking at the various objects and artifacts around me, I started to get that funny feeling again, like something was calling to me. I continued on, like being led by the hand.

Grandpa… collected all of this…

In the past, he had often boasted about his collection, but I didn't realize how great it really was. Memories of a casually cheerful grandpa resurfaced, and it was almost enough to make me cry again.

It was grandpa's collection of items, but it was full of things I had no idea what the uses were, so it was almost like junk now. If grandpa was still alive, he would have taught me a lot once more…

"What should I do with all this… hmm?"

Even though I felt a bit uneasy, like something scary would happen if I even touched these items, my eyes were drawn to one particular item placed at the very back of the room. It was a door that existed as if it had been pulled out of the wall. There was a large owl carved on the middle of the wooden door, and trees carved on the edge of it.

"Did grandpa bring this back, too?"

This door? If he brought this back, where would this door lead to? Well, it's just a door anyway, so I should only see the wall behind it, if I open it. But the moment I saw the door, the strange feeling that I was having grew stronger.

"Could it be… from this door?"

I couldn't recognize anything about the door in front of me, but it demanded my attention, and my eyes were glued to it.

I wonder if this door was the thing calling me this whole time…

"Is there anything on this door?"

With that in mind, I reached for the door knob and opened it.

"…Huh?"

It was an unfamiliar room. It's decorated similar to a log house, with a large wooden table and chairs, and a wooden closet. Weapons such as swords and axes were piled up like mountains.

"Huh? Wha-?"

I felt like my head was about to explode upon seeing such an incomprehensible situation. Then, something like a translucent board suddenly appeared in front of me.

"Whoa!"

Since it appeared so suddenly, I cried out like a wimp and fell on my ass. However, the translucent board moved with me, and remained at the same place in my vision.

"W-What is this…"

Feeling flustered, I focused on the translucent board, and saw the text written on it:

--------