Chapter 2 - Cave

I start to panic because of the thought. I need my eyes to read novels, play games, look at stuff and… all sorts of other reasons. Please don't be blind.

I push myself up and try waving my hand in front of my face. Nothing.

I touch and rub my eyes. Nothing.

'No no no no no fuuuuuuuuuuuuu…'

I can't keep myself calm. My breathing starts to get ragged and tears are starting to form.

"NO! CALM DOWN DAMMIT!" *slap*

I slap myself to calm down.

"… ow." A bit too hard.

I start forcing myself to calm down so that I can analyze the situation.

"Flaire?"

Reaching my hands out like a blind person I call out for Flaire. But no one replied.

"Danae? Anyone?"

There was only silence around me.

'Okay let's analyze the situation. A few moments ago I was sleeping in class before waking up to a shit show of lights. Then an earthquake happened. I fell down and said goodbye to my breakfast… And now all the people around me are gone while I am now blind.'

Perfect. What the hell kind of situation is this?! Definitely not something a normal girl like me will wake up to! I crouch down and lean my head on my knees while grabbing my head in fetal position.

'What do I do...?'

'…'

"My smartphone!"

After a few seconds of thinking I decided to try out my smartphone. Even though I'm blind I can most likely dial and call for help based on familiarity. Pressing my thumb on the fingerprint sensor I unlock my smartphone.

'…'

And I can see that I have no notifications, the current time and date, and the apps I currently have installed.

"I'M NOT BLIND! YAY~!"

Finding out that I'm not blind was such a great relief that I shouted out. No offense to blind people but I really can't live without my eyes. I start using my smartphone to call for help but stop midway as I realize that I no longer have a reason to call for help with my eyesight back. That and I also noticed that there was no service.

'So I'm not blind and it's just really dark around me. This can mean two things. One, the school collapsed during the earthquake and now I'm trapped in an enclosed space within the rubble. Or two, I was kidnapped while I was out and the kidnappers have put me in a dark room.'

Hoping that it was the former instead of the latter I turned on the light on my smartphone.

Pointing the light and looking around me I saw that I was in some sort of underground cave.

'Did the earthquake cause the school to drop into a sinkhole and now I'm deep underground somewhere?'

I try to think of what happened that put me in my current situation. Looking up I see that the ceiling was around ten meters or so above me. All around me are cave walls except in one direction.

'Well since there's only one entrance I must have come from there.'

As I walk towards the entrance or exit in this case a sudden thought arose in me.

'Isn't this like the plot of some novels and manga I've read?'

Thinking so brightened my mood. Although I'm now in what looks to be a dark gloomy cave I try to remember some details of novels I've read while coping with this situation.

"Status… Status open… Status Ruby… Menu… Menu open… Properties…"

I say some words to see if I've suddenly become the protagonist of a novel who was transported to another world to no luck.

Although feeling slightly dejected I keep walking through the cave while muttering words that might do something. The cave was surprisingly linear.

'Wait if this is another world won't there be monsters?'

Thinking of this I look around to look for something that might help in case I run into monsters in this cave. But all I see are rocks of all sizes around me.

'Oh well better than nothing.'

I pick up some of the rocks of good size to throw and put them in my pocket. Thank God that my school uniform skirt has one pocket on the side. Sadly, it was only one pocket and it was already at max capacity. Keeping my smartphone in my left hand and a rock in my right, I continued walking forward. Soon I ran into a fork going left and right.

'Hmm let's stick to the left.'

Choosing left, I left a mark on the ground to indicate that I've been to this fork and continued to walk again.

'Okay I'm definitely not in some sinkhole so the chances are that I was kidnapped and brought into this cave which is the kidnappers' hideout or… most likely I'm now the hero summoned to this world and now have to go on an adventure to defeat the Demon King.'

With a smile on my face I start thinking of all the novels I've read with similar plots. Although it's not my favorite type of plot there were some novels that started with an isekai that I really enjoyed.

'Although it's weird that I wasn't summoned in front of the summoner and somehow ended up in this cave. Those bright lights and earthquake might be part of the summoning ritual. At least it wasn't Truck-kun who got me. Anyways first I gotta get out of this cave.'

As I continued to walk I started hearing sounds behind me. Slightly scared I look back.

"Anyone there?"

The sounds continue and started to sound like something was scratching across the ground.

'This isn't going to be like a horror type plot is it? I was hoping that it was gonna be more like the one with the living mud as a protagonist since the starting point is a cave.'

As the sounds grew louder, the thing making that sound was getting closer. I lifted the rock in my hand up threateningly to get ready to throw it.

And that's when I saw it.

"Aaaahh!"