I blinked rapidly, trying to clear my foggy vision as a wave of nausea hit me. My stomach churned, and everything felt wrong. The party—the lights, the noise, the people—had completely vanished.
In its place was something out of a history book. A cobblestone street stretched before me, the buildings old and weathered. The sounds of bustling life filled the air, but not the sounds I was used to.
This wasn't the Tokyo I knew.
I staggered, trying to get my bearings, and realized everyone was staring at me. Well, not staring exactly, but they were definitely looking—giving me strange glances. I looked down at myself.
Jeans, sneakers, a rumpled T-shirt… Nothing anyone else was wearing looked like it belonged here. The others? They were dressed in tunics, boots, and simple skirts.
I felt like a sore thumb sticking out, or worse—like a ghost.
A couple of kids ran past, laughing and waving wooden swords, and a horse-drawn cart trundled by, piled high with hay.
The air smelled of fresh bread, and somewhere in the distance, I could hear the faint sounds of a blacksmith hammering away.
Everything felt too real, but that only made it all feel weirder.
I rubbed my eyes.
Okay, Naoto, snap out of it. You're just way drunker than you thought. This is some kind of weird, messed-up dream.
I leaned against a nearby stone wall, hoping the rough texture would remind me I wasn't just imagining things. I tried to focus, but nothing made sense.
The people were going about their day as if I was just another part of the scenery. I could hear their chatter, but it didn't sound like anything familiar.
A woman—old, bent, and dressed in a long dress with a shawl—paused in front of me. She studied me for a long moment, her eyes narrowing.
"You alright there, lad?" she asked in a scratchy voice. "You look a bit… lost."
I gave her the best smile I could muster. "Uh, yeah. Just… uh, trying to find my way back to the party?"
She raised an eyebrow, then shook her head. "The youth of today," she muttered under her breath before shuffling off.
I couldn't help but stare after her, still trying to process everything. What was going on? The longer I stood there, the more surreal everything felt. It was like stepping into a history book I didn't recognize.
The sound of children playing near the fountain caught my attention, and I stumbled toward it, needing a minute to collect myself. The town square was a little more lively.
It was a large open area, centered around a stone fountain, water splashing softly as it hit the basin below. Some kids were skipping rocks on the water's surface, and others were playing tag.
The hustle of the crowd felt strangely out of place, considering how out of place I felt.
I leaned over the fountain, splashing cold water on my face, hoping it would snap me out of whatever dazed state I was in. It didn't help. In fact, it only made everything worse.
I straightened up, wiping my face on my sleeve, but when I looked back into the water, my reflection caught me off guard.
It was me, yeah, but my eyes… there was something off about them. They were too dark. Too hollow. Like something was crawling beneath my skin, pulling me in. I jerked back, my heart racing.
What the hell?
I wiped my face again, trying to shake off the unease, but when I looked back at the fountain, everything seemed… normal again. Too normal.
My reflection was just a confused guy standing by the fountain, nothing strange at all. But the fear, the feeling that something wasn't right, still clawed at my insides.
I tried to calm myself, but that unease wasn't going anywhere. As if on cue, I felt it—a presence just behind me.
I froze. A shadow in my peripheral vision. I didn't dare turn around, but I could feel it—the weight of someone standing there, close enough that I could almost hear their breath.
Don't look. Don't turn around.
But the air around me felt charged, thick with something dark. My heart thudded in my chest as I tried to steady myself. The ground seemed to tilt under me, like I might just fall over.
Then a voice broke through the silence, low and almost musical. "You look like a stranger here."
I sucked in a breath, my pulse kicking up again. I turned just enough to see him—a man in a dark, tattered cloak. His face was hidden under a deep hood, and his presence was... wrong.
There was something about him that felt like he didn't belong in this world. Not like the townsfolk who moved with the rhythm of the place, but like he had stepped out of the shadows themselves.
I blinked at him, trying to shake off the unease. "Uh, yeah, you could say that," I said, my voice a little unsteady. "I'm just… trying to figure out what's going on."
The man's eyes gleamed from under his hood. There was a sharpness there, something older than the world around us. He leaned in, just a bit too close for comfort.
"You'd best be careful. Strangers in these lands… don't often remain strangers."
I frowned. The guy was clearly insane, but his words dug into me. I tried to laugh it off, my voice a little slurred from the alcohol still swimming in my bloodstream. "Okay, buddy. Great costume. Very spooky."
But before I could even take another breath, the man turned, and in the blink of an eye, he was gone—lost in the sea of people, as if he had never been there at all.
My stomach churned. I looked around the square. No one seemed to have noticed the weird interaction. The world was just… moving on, like nothing had happened.
But I felt like something had shifted, like I was in a movie and someone had changed the script without telling me.
I stared at the water again, my reflection now steady and still, but the uneasy feeling remained. It gnawed at me as I walked aimlessly through the square, my mind racing, trying to piece everything together.
Suddenly, a voice broke through my fog.
"You're not from here, are you?"
I turned quickly. A little girl, no older than ten, stood in front of me. She was barefoot, her clothes simple—worn, but clean. Her eyes were bright, wide with curiosity, and she was staring up at me like I was some kind of riddle to be solved.
I frowned at the girl as she looked up at me, her gaze steady and unbothered by the confusion that was clearly written all over my face.
It was almost like she was the one who understood what was going on, not me.
"No," I said slowly, trying to steady my voice, which felt a little unhinged. "I'm not. Do you know where I am?"
The little girl nodded, as though this was the most obvious thing in the world. Her expression didn't waver, and for a moment, I almost felt like I was the one who was out of place, not her.
"You're in Eldaroth," she said matter-of-factly, her voice light, as if I should have known that already. "It's a nice place. My mama says it's peaceful here."
Eldaroth. The name didn't ring any bells, and I couldn't shake the feeling that it belonged in some fantasy novel—not in the real world.
I blinked, trying to make sense of her words, but she seemed completely unfazed, like she couldn't imagine anyone not knowing the name of their own hometown.
"Eldaroth…" I muttered, trying to grasp onto some semblance of logic. "Is that where I am now?"
She tilted her head, a puzzled look crossing her face, as though the very idea that I didn't know where I was made no sense to her.
"Yeah," she said slowly, like it was the most natural thing in the world. "It's home. Where else would you be?" She grinned, showing a missing tooth. "Are you lost or something?"
Her innocent, casual response hit me harder than it should've. Where else would you be? The way she said it was like of course this was where I was supposed to be.
I swallowed hard, trying to process it all. But before I could say anything more, she glanced over her shoulder, her small brow furrowing.
"My mama's looking for me. I have to go," she added quickly, glancing back at me. "But it was nice talking to you, mister!"
I didn't have a chance to respond before she took a few steps back, already turning to run toward a narrow street at the edge of the square.
I was left standing there, still reeling from everything—the strangeness of the world, the confusion of the moment, the complete lack of answers.
I was going to ask her something more, maybe even introduce myself, but she was already disappearing into the crowd. I stared after her, watching her small figure slip away, a sense of eerie finality settling in my chest.
For a brief moment, I almost felt like I was slipping through the cracks of reality itself, some dream that didn't belong to me.
I stumbled, my legs shaky, my mind still reeling from everything that had happened. The cold night air bit at my skin, but it wasn't enough to snap me out of the fog in my head.
Whatever had just happened—whatever that was—couldn't have been real. Right? There had to be a logical explanation for all of this.
Maybe I'd had too much to drink. Maybe I'd passed out and was now dreaming this whole thing, stuck in some messed-up nightmare that didn't make sense. That had to be it. I'm dreaming, I told myself.
But the chill on my skin, the rough cobblestones under my feet, and the distant hum of life around me… they all felt too real.
I couldn't shake the sense that something was horribly off. This wasn't Tokyo. This wasn't anything I knew.
Alright, Naoto. Calm down. Just find somewhere to sleep. You'll wake up tomorrow. Back home. Everything will make sense again.
I wandered aimlessly through the cobblestone streets, the sounds of the bustling town swirling around me, but everything felt so distant.
Like I was moving through a dream. My thoughts were foggy, fractured. Nothing seemed to line up.
I passed a few inns, the warm light spilling out from the windows, but something about the idea of knocking on any of their doors felt wrong—too many questions, too much confusion.
I didn't want to deal with any of it. Not now. Not when I was so sure I'd wake up and this would all be a joke, or some stupid prank. I just needed to lie down.
Sleep. That's all I need. I just need to sleep, and I'll wake up in a world that makes sense again.
The streets began to thin out as I made my way to the outskirts of town. Farms and fields stretched before me, the dark sky above tinged with purple, the first stars blinking to life as the night settled in.
Everything was still, quiet. The hum of the town seemed like it belonged to some other world entirely—one that I was no longer a part of.
I spotted a barn in the distance, the door slightly ajar. My tired mind latched onto it like a lifeline. It wasn't much, but it was a place to rest.
The smell of hay and earth hit me as I stepped inside, my body grateful for the rough texture beneath me.
The soft rustling of the hay and the stillness of the night began to lull me into a stupor. I sank into the pile, the straw scratching at my skin, but I didn't care.
My body was exhausted, too tired to fight it. I pulled my jacket tighter around me, curled into the warmth of the hay. For a moment, everything felt distant—like I was drifting deeper into some dream I didn't understand.
My thoughts were muddled. The weight of the night pressed down on me, but I couldn't find the strength to push it away. My eyes fluttered closed, and I whispered to myself one final, uncertain thought.
"Please… just let this be a dream."