"WHO ARE YOU!?" Emmanuel shouted, pointing a trembling finger at the reflection in the mirror. Before him stood a young boy, his messy, fluffy chestnut-brown hair framing a face that was foreign to him. His eyes—crystalline brown, almost too perfect—shone like precious gems, giving the boy an ethereal, surreal quality. Emmanuel's mind raced, bombarded by a flood of questions, but was quickly interrupted as he groaned due to a sharp pain in his mouth.
Emmanuel lifted his hand, his finger reaching up to touch his lips, and when he pulled his fingers away, they were stained red. A drop of blood slowly trickled from the corner of his mouth, a bitter taste lingering on his tongue. Emmanuel's heart skipped a beat as he looked back at the mirror, his eyes widening in horror.
The boy in the reflection mirrored his every movement and scene—his hands, his panic, his disbelief—right down to the bloodstain on his finger and the red liquid drooling from his lip. That was when it hit him. The boy in the mirror wasn't just anyone. It was him.
But how? he thought, his breath catching in his throat. Where did my jet-black hair go? Where are my dark eyes? He quickly brushed his fingers through the strange, chestnut-brown hair that now cascaded over his head. It felt different. The texture. The length. What happened to my phone? My contacts? My life... where did everything go?
He was surrounded by questions, and the answers seemed impossibly far away. The reality he once knew—his life, his identity—seemed to be slipping through his fingers, and all he could do was stare at the boy in the mirror who bore his features but felt like a stranger.
Emmanuel began darted around the room, desperately finding a clue. Then, a sudden cold touch could be felt from where his finger was positioned, his sight dropped to the ground and there it was. Lying just a meter away, a sharp knife came to his attention. His breath hitched. A knife!? Why is there a knife on the ground!? His pulse quickened as his mind raced.
For a long moment, Emmanuel froze in place, unsure of what to do. Finally he mustered every ounce of courage left in him, forcing himself closer and closer toward the object. Each movement felt heavy, his breath growing louder and louder every second. When he was close enough, he lunged forward and grabbed the knife in one swift motion, his hand trembling as he clutched it tight.
His full attention was now concentrated in this one, small but dangerous, object. He turned it over his hands, carefully examining it for clues, alas there were none. It wasn't until a small rolled piece of paper fell from the knife's grip that Emmanuel's attention instantly was drawn to. He cautiously placed down the knife and reached for the mysterious paper, it may be a note. The tension in the air grew as he mentally prepared himself, gathering all his courage he uncoiled the note with a swift motion. After a long moment of uncertainty, he opened his eyes and cautiously examining the unwrapped paper note. A cold sweat broke out across his skin as he mentally prepared himself. To his shock, the entire paper was empty. The only thing written on it was name at the top. Emmanuel? Who's Emmanuel? Emmanuel muttered
And Then it hit him. The dream
. He remembered a dream— an open field, a person shining with a glorious light, a feeling of love and peace enveloping him like a warm cloak. That person kept calling him Emmanuel, even though it wasn't his name, Gisuke Akuhara... realized that this name, felt like it belonged to him.
Gisuke, now Emmanuel, paced around the room, trying to connect all the clues. One thing he could be certain about was that he, somehow, ended up in this world. After inspecting and studying the room, he realized that this Emmanuel person was poor. But there still were things preoccupying his mind. How did he get this mouth scar? Why was there a knife in his room? Did he use it to cut this rope? Why is there a rope in his room? Does it have to do with all of this? Emmanuel had trouble connecting the dots, his mind racing with unanswered questions, but one thing is for certain, if he had been brought to this world there had to be a way to return. He only needed to find out how.
Grrrr
Emmanuel's gaze fell down as his hand moved towards his stomach, he clearly needed to be fed. But how? Seeing the state of this room, the original Emmanuel was clearly poor. With no other choice, he began checking the entire room, desperately hoping to find at least a coin. After searching the entire room, thoroughly, he sadly still ended up broke. Emmanuel let out a sigh as his stomach began rumbling once more; "Alright, alright, I get it" he responded to his stomach. After putting on some hand-me-down shoes, Emmanuel left his room, entering a dirty looking room. In the middle of it stood a table shaped like a deformed circle with many scars written on it, around it were four chairs who looked like they were on the verge of breaking down. "So he's a family of four" Said Emmanuel as he walked over the table, carefully looking at the scar marks written on it. It was written in a weird language, one he couldn't read.
Ping!
"Ow!!" Yelled out Emmanuel as he instantly grabbed his head, it felt like a giant needle just pierced into his head. Voices talking inside his mind, his eyes began seeing different colors at once. What was going on? Why did he feel like it. Emmanuel suddenly dropped onto his knees while still tightly his head in agony. "It...hurts...!!" he exclaimed, his voice trembling due to the pain. He grabbed onto the table as he began pulling himself up. This agonizing pain lasted for quite some time before instantly vanishing the same way it appeared, Emmanuel let go of his head as he began looking around the room, sweat flowing across his skin. The pain was gone but he still felt dizzy, like he was going to puke. Mustering all his strength left in him, using the table as support, he raised himself back on his feet. After blinking two, three times, his eyes fell once more on the table scars. But this time it was different, this time Emmanuel was able of reading the scars. Was it due to this headpain? He quickly shook of the thought as he began going through every writing. 'Dinosaur is monster', 'Daddy no had food', 'Me be much money when me growing'. Emmanuel blinked at the scrawled words, his lips twitching between a frown and a laugh. "This kid... really pulling a pulitzer here..." he shook his head and moved on. After going through most of the notes, half of them being nonsense-gibberish, the other half being a bunch doodles and drawings, Emmanuel came to the last one of them. 'Time for him come , time for us to free'. This caught Emmanuel's sight, it felt deliberate, the grammar still awful. But what really drew his full attention, was the mysterious meaning lying behind this note. 'Time for him to come?' Who is this person he was talking about? Did he mean him? Did the original know that Gisuke was going to transmigrate into his body? Emmanuel quickly shook his head, no, he wasn't that smart enough. Once more, he had another mystery to resolve. Is this world too lazy to give him some kind of beginners guide. Well, nothing he could do about it. Emmanuel let out a deep sigh as he shut his eyes; "this is going to be one looong journey" he said to himself, his stomach rumbling once again.