As the mist of the void swelled and dissipated, the darkness around his vision propelled away like an expanding balloon, revealing a storm of bubbles rising to a rippling watery ceiling.
Schools of fish swam around walls of coral and beams of sunlight pierced through the ceiling of blue, barely skimming over his pale face. Threads of his white hair flew back and forth like the waving kelp beneath him.
His hearing muted.
His lips closed.
He was clueless about everything and barely could he recall what happened beforehand.
Saltwater stung his eyes.
Clusters of bubbles continued to slip out his mouth.
With just five seconds, Asahi realized that he was underwater. His mind grew numb from the surge of water bursting into his body; the seconds of the clock ticked as the light above him grew denser and denser.
It felt to Asahi that all of his strength had dissipated. And yet, after two minutes, he didn't drown yet.
. . .
He couldn't hear anything. His legs were stiff, and his arms were... barely moving.
The silence of the sea threatened him, and yet... he still felt calm.
(Is this my world?) Asahi thought. (No... it can't be. Why am I underwater? Where is Aletha?)
Aletha. That name-- that realization, made Asahi panic. He kicked his legs and flailed his arms, floating above the sea bed and searching for Aletha.
Just before he lost hope, Asahi found a girl with long white hair, slumped and floating above the roof of a ruined building. He cut through the vines and swam upward, dodging vicious sea creatures before finally grabbing the girl.
Five minutes have passed.
Not a bubble was seen.
Asahi realized he had the ability to breathe underwater. If he obtained this power, so should his sister. With all the energy he had left, he carried Aletha up to the surface.
The weight of the lady constantly dragged Asahi down; yet he fought the force with all his determination and kicked his legs as strongly as he could.
As his windpipe moved, Asahi felt a current of cold electricity pass through the air. His ears unclogged. The sounds of the waves, the droplets, the fresh salty breeze-- he could hear again.
The waves were merely sleeping, sluggish and slumbering in their liquid robes. Asahi took a deep exhale and clutched Aletha tightly, keeping him and her afloat. He rubbed Aletha's cheek and saw the tattoo glimmer bright from faint rays. A relieved smile cracked up from his worried frown.
"Thank goodness you're safe." He whispered as he carefully swam forward. "Now, where did that thing take us?"
The dark blue of night gradually faded away to a bright amber color. Shadows of the great puffy clouds hovered over many patches of the water, unveiling the morning light like a curtain. He realized that it was just seconds before morning.
Asahi turned to the horizon and saw a glistening orange ball of fire rise up from a waterfall of clouds. The warmth of its luxuriant golden rays shone across the expanse of the sea, then to their faces.
As he whispered that, suddenly, a huge wall of water approached them.
It was a colossal wave tinted with crystal cold blue, bubbling up with salt. His heart raced, his palms numbed.
Before Asahi could even see the tiny shoreline south of him, Aletha and Asahi's bodies were swept away to the shore with the wave, like ragdolls being juggled.
* * * * * * * *
From the darkness, flickers of bright golden sun rays fluttered through his eyelids. His heart thumped rapidly. He felt a breeze pass by, he heard birds chirp over the trees, and his nose caught a whiff of a dense earthy smell.
Asahi was clueless on where he was.
Usually, he would look around his surroundings and analyze where he was, but because of how much strength it took to keep both him and his sister afloat, and the fog that obstructed his memories, Asahi decided to slump and lay on the ground like a dog.
After a relaxing break, Asahi lifted his body up and rubbed his eyes. He realized that his energy quickly recharged.
With the fog in his mind being lifted, he could think clearly and do what he had usually done when he awakened to an unfamiliar place.
To his right he saw bushes, and to the left he saw many trees.
"I don't recall seeing the grasslands being so… closed up." Asahi said as he stared at the birds flying by, "Trees, bushes, and flowers. This is better than what I expected."
What he had in mind was a vast endless brown plain with everything in shambles; an empty wasteland robbed of life. But now, seeing it in-person, Asahi's views have shifted, driving him to think.
"It doesn't seem like five years have passed here." Asahi thought as he passed through an opening in the trees. "Rather… It feels like it has been thousands of years. If that's the case, then our world wasn't destroyed…"
A stream of falling leaves flew as his eyes shrunk in absolute disbelief.
"... it was changed."
. . .
Upon wandering the forest he had awakened to, the first thought that sparked in Asahi's mind was, how did he arrive here?
Sure he saw a shore, and yes he was caught in a wave, but shouldn't that mean he had to awaken on the shore? Why was it that Asahi awakened in a forest, rather than a shore? Where did his memory go? And most importantly, where did Aletha go? These questions bit his mind the more he walked through.
"Hmm, if I was pulled into the forest, could that mean that Aletha is still…" His eyes broadened in realization. "... IN THE SHORE?!"
Just after he yelled, Asahi followed the sunlight and ran through the forest. hoping to approach the shore. But instead, Asahi stumbled across a shadow-covered area with thick dangling moss, blankets of gray flowers, and withered logs. This place alone gave him a sense of uneasiness.
After he passed halfway, Asahi stopped in his tracks and scratched his head, looking back and forth. He mumbled.
"This isn't anywhere close to the shore? Had I stumbled upon the wrong path?"
Suddenly, an unearthly roar sounded behind him.
"SCREE!"
A hot pain lashed across his lower back.
The sudden attack forced him to trip and stagger to the ground. He frightfully looked back and forth, trying to find where the attack came from. And then,
"AHHH!"
Soon before he knew it, a red streak flew across him, forcing him to the ground. His skin immediately started to swell up. Blood rushed to the area, making the pain on him sting like pure alcohol. He rolled around back and forth, crying, and screaming.
"What is happening? Why can't I…"
A third scratch pierced through his right arm. The pain shot up in all three areas like fire. He cringed and rolled on the ground. He hadn't remembered screaming like this since he was young. His eyes darted back and forth the shadows surrounding him.
But just as the blinding light could reveal the enemy, his vision blurred.
"AHHH! What is this?!" He said as he felt every corner of his body sting. "This sensation is so… unbearable! Is this what mortals… f-feel?! MAKE IT STOP!"
This pain was far worse than his imagination.
It was like needles had been dipped in alcohol and jammed through his skin.
To put it simply, it would feel as if you were stabbed in all directions.
In reaction to the unbearable sensation, Asahi hunched down and tried to suppress his cries, feeling his skin bubble and swell up from the point of impact.
Then, to make matters worse, his sight blurred even more to where he couldn't see anything passed his fingers.
His tongue, his cheek, his heart was swiftly caught in fear at the creature above him.
A dark figure crept over his face, dangling its twenty long dark arms and wagging its hideous tail. Slowly, it started prying open its jaw, revealing seemingly endless sets of sharp daggering teeth and a glowing purple circle at its tonsil.
It croaked and gulped, staring at Asahi's face with its two tiny glowing purple eyes. As it raised its claw, lowering its jaw toward his neck, preparing to slaughter the defenseless boy, Asahi lifted his arm and opened his palms, mumbling.
"This… has… to work."
Suddenly, a small white glow emerged above the tip of Asahi's palm. The monster stood still at its feet, tilting its head in confusion and curiosity. As if it was attracted to the light.
The idea was to summon a storm of darts to hopefully pierce the monster into oblivion with its sharp luminescent blades. He had always depended on this attack.
When he would be in danger, all it would take to save him was a barrage of sharp, magical white needles. It was the most basic attack he could use, and he had hoped it would work on the monster too.
However, something was wrong.
Before the light could even form into the shards, it crunched into a tiny pulp, splitting and destroying itself until nothing remained.
Asahi's eyes shrunk in pure horror.
"H-Huh?"
He tried again to summon the attack. First, a white ball of luminance would appear, then it should transform into shards of light, and finally, it should fly toward the target.
But instead, all the attack did was crunch into a tiny pulp, splitting and destroying itself like before.
This concerned Asahi. Never had he seen his magic perform like this.
To keep the creature distracted, Asahi tried to use another attack. A white laser beam.
He lifted his left arm, pointed it to the monster, and fabricated a white ball of luminance at the center of his palm.
All of his attacks were to be summoned by a white ball, but usually the ball shouldn't be visible, as the sheer speed of the summoning was so quick that all the ball would look like is nothing but a tiny flash.
But because of some sort of error, every attack Asahi used at the moment would just be a tiny white ball before shattering like glass.
With no hope of the attack, Asahi resorted to the only option he had.
He swung his steel fist at the creature's jaw and forced it to skid away. He saw the black goop and teeth of the monster fly into the air like pellets before crashing onto the dirt. Hope lifted him upward.
The creature reeled back to the tree and crawled up it on all fours, twisting its repugnant head and hissing at Asahi like a snake.
Although he managed to swing a fist at the creature, it looked like it was healing already.
"H…Huh?"
Suddenly, the creature threw its goopy arm through Asahi's chest and opened a massive wound, spewing white dust out his body.
At this point, Asahi couldn't feel anything anymore.
His vision darkened.
He closed his eyes and trembled. He had thought returning to his world would be the greatest idea, but instead, it turned into a nightmare.
"ASAHI!"
A voice rang through the circle of trees, eclipsing the loud roars, and even Asahi's rough breaths.
His eyes broadened in shock.
Behind the trees, stood a girl. She had long white hair stretching to her back, wore tight black attire, and had a concerned gaze piercing at the creature.
From his trembling lips, Asahi muttered with a smile of relief.
"Aletha…"