1 We're not in Kansas anymore...
~ One month ago, in another world that also housed humans ~
An older woman's health had severely deteriorated in a town called Miranda. A doctor whose name was Agatha also lived in this same town. She was known to be a kind woman who often helped her patients even when they were too poor to pay for her services.
Before becoming a doctor, Agatha was a White mage of the Town Watch (a group of warriors organized by town officials to keep order and protect Miranda from invaders). In most cases, magic was useless when treating natural illnesses. But since Agatha was an excellent doctor, everyone came to her when they were in need.
One day, a child came to Agatha's home saying that her grandmother was coughing out blood and didn't know what to do.
Agatha: Take me to her, child. I cannot make any promises, but I shall do whatever I can to help her, OK?
Child: OK.
The child was crying and trembling. He took her to an abandoned-looking temple quite distant from the downtown area. Finding a temple in such an abandoned area was unusual, to say the least.
Agatha: Your grandmother lives in this abandoned temple?
Child: She came here for care after we couldn't do anything else for her at home. The wizard is taking care of her... but he needs a doctor's help!
Agatha: I understand, child. Do not worry. Let's go inside.
Agatha opened the doors and went inside first, thinking that the child was right behind her. The doors suddenly slammed shut behind her when she was inside the temple. Naturally, she was startled. After trying to open the door and realizing it didn't budge, she started to worry.
Agatha: Hello? Is anyone here? I am a doctor... I have come to help...
Nobody replied. The inside of the temple was extremely dark and damp. It didn't even look like anyone had been there in a long time... maybe years.
After a few moments, she heard a voice coming from the shadows. The voice was filled with arrogance and mockery.
Voice: Such a good soul, Agatha. Sadly for you, it will be your downfall. Your essence of divinity will be pretty valuable for letting us bring god back to the Arkana.
The man who spoke to her started cackling like a complete lunatic, making Agatha nervous. From all the dark corners, many tentacles started swarming her and wrapping her up completely. They squeezed her so tightly that she ended up passing out. Just before passing out, though, she saw the blurred-out figure of a man wearing long robes and a cape, while she still heard that haunting cackle.
~ Present day, on Earth ~
Jonas knew there was something wrong with him for years. But when he went to the psychiatrist, he was officially diagnosed with a mental illness. While listening to what the psychiatrist had to say, he heard other people talking about him. He couldn't quite place where the voices he heard were coming from. It sounded like they were right there next to him. Perhaps behind him... or maybe just outside the office. It wasn't obvious. But there was no mistake... Jonas could hear them.
"He always does that. It's all he knows to do well."
"Yeah, playing the victim is his favorite card."
"I think he's really sick, you know? I couldn't live with myself if I were him..."
"Nah, he's fine! Look! See that? That means he can hear us!"
"He did this to me! He knows it!"
"Poor guy... He would have been a great kid, you know?"
"He doesn't know anything yet. I can't believe a person like him exists..."
"Do you know what Jonas did to me? I'm gonna make him pay..."
This was quite a common occurrence. Sometimes, the things he heard these people saying didn't make much sense at all. But then, other times, they were oddly specific.
{Who are those people?} – he thought to himself, unsure if it was all a part of his delusion or if the people around him were all insane, just pretending to be normal. The voices were there, but there were never faces to match them. They were always only voices... conversations of people that sounded 100% real... albeit only real to Jonas.
He didn't use to talk about them or what they would say, except this one time when he got distraught and lost his cool. His parents heard him talking alone (more like shouting, honestly) and thought he was arguing with someone in his room. When his dad entered the room and found him alone and not talking on the phone, he realized something was wrong.
Jonas never wanted to go to a psychiatrist in the first place. His parents didn't give him much choice, though. They set up an appointment for him, but they couldn't go with him because they were working. He ended up going to his appointment alone. This felt better than the alternative.
It was difficult to tell if he was sick. He looked like a normal kid. He felt normal. But he would constantly hear things that weren't there.
Jonas was a seventeen-year-old kid. He usually arrived late to school, but he was a pretty average student. He was one of the quiet types and was fond of the ones he called friends (he only had one friend who happened to be his best friend as well). He went everywhere with his best friend Maurice, who was actually kind of a creep.
The fact that Maurice wasn't expelled, considering all the times he was reported for creeping around the girls' bathrooms was baffling. He was pretty harmless, though. People never did understand how the two of them were friends, seeing as how they didn't seem to have anything in common.
Jonas' interactions with the rest of the people his age were usually awkward, but there were few things he loved more than the pigeons that came daily to visit him looking for food. Every morning he fed bread or corn to the pigeons that came to hang out.
The place he called home was located on the fifth floor of an apartment building. An aisle led to all the different apartments on each floor. In front of each aisle from the third floor up, there was a metal platform that served the purpose of funneling rainwater away from the building. He would feed the pigeons on that metal platform. That's how he met Meg.
At first, he thought Meg was a female (hence the female name) but later realized that males were bigger, fluffier, and always chased after the females with their particular cooing noises. Despite learning this detail, he didn't bother changing the name of his best pigeon pal. Meg seemed to like Jonas and ended up going home with him.
One day, Jonas was feeding the pigeons with Meg on his shoulder. Meg was lucky because he got much more food than the other pigeons in the flock. This was just a typical morning, with a customary pigeon attendance, and Jonas was in a pretty standard mood. It was a day just like any other.
Many pigeons were there. He even used to make a list and keep attendance (yes… that means he named every one of them). After the bread he shredded for them finished, he went inside the apartment to get some more. The instant he entered the apartment, there was something other-worldly at work that would probably make anyone think they'd lost their mind.
A light in the corner of the dining room appeared from out of nowhere. It looked like a ball of fire. Even though it looked like fire in a way, it wasn't fire at all (just like something he had seen a very long time ago in his childhood. He always lived with the uncertainty of whether or not it was a dream).
The room got bright, and then he and his pigeon friend blacked out. At this point, he started seeing things… visions that had no apparent connection to him. In one of those visions, a child was carrying a sword with a blade made of light, running with Meg flying beside him in a familiar-looking yet strange place. They were running toward a blurred-out figure... an ominous shadow from which the only clear thing was its dark wings, as black as night.
As he came to, he saw Meg next to him staring.
Jonas told him about this dream with the child and the blurred figure with dark wings (weird or not, Jonas would talk to Meg from time to time. He never heard Meg speaking back to him, but sometimes he would pretend as though Meg understood him. It seemed to help him in some therapeutic way of sorts), and Meg answered him.
Meg: Interesting... And how are you feeling now?
Jonas: Actually... I'm great... a little dizzy... but other than that just peachy.
Looking around, he realized he wasn't at home anymore... and then it finally clicked... Meg, the pigeon, had just talked. Like, really actually talked.
Jonas was now in a long corridor. It looked pretty old and dusty... the ceiling was pretty high up, and it had cobwebs everywhere. Luckily, it didn't stir up his allergies. As if it wasn't weird enough to suddenly be transported to this strange place...
Jonas felt different. The best way to describe it was to say that he felt like someone else. In his confusion, his heart rate became elevated.
Jonas: {Was I kidnapped or something?}
Not knowing for sure what was happening was anxiety-inducing. He walked around, trying to understand where he was and what was happening. He stumbled across an old breastplate of a Dark Knight's armor. It must have been polished before being abandoned there for ages because he could see his reflection on it… and a kid was looking back at him. That was weird, considering Jonas was seventeen, and the kid in the reflection looked like he was eight or so.
Jonas had no idea who the kid was, which made his situation all the more upsetting...
Jonas: It's official. I've completely lost my mind!
He said this out loud while sliding into despair.
He was in a long corridor of an old castle. There were a few torches lit on the wall, so it wasn't completely dark (the torches were cleverly placed inside skulls... so flaming skulls were the only source of light there. They looked like Halloween decorations... or maybe they were skulls of dead people... that part wasn't exactly straightforward.)
While struggling to understand what was happening, he saw a man closing in from the corner of the corridor. He seemed to know the kid Jonas was now somehow trapped inside of.
Man: Get it together, runt! What's the matter now?
The man in dark ninja-like clothing was quite tall. Everyone else was likely a runt in his eyes. He was a shady-looking young man. An average person would have tried to walk away if they had seen him in a dark alley at night.
Man: Did you hit your head or something?
Jonas: Who are YOU?... What is this place?... Where are we?... What am I doing here?! How did I get here???!!!! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON????!!!!
For obvious reasons, Jonas was losing it. Maybe it was just that he wasn't home anymore… or that he was in another body or appeared to be in another world just by chance.
Meg, the pigeon who could now talk, tried to calm him down for some reason.
Meg: Listen... I'll explain later. Let's just focus on retrieving the hilt and getting out of here alive!
With a surprisingly calm and sassy attitude, Jonas retorted.
Jonas: You realize I have no idea what you're talking about... Don't you?!??! And by the way... How come you can talk?
Hearing Meg talk back to him was a trip and a first.
Meg tried to get closer to him to calm him down again. Jonas, however, suddenly passed out due to all the commotion. Then the shady-looking man dressed in black ninja-like clothes looked like he was losing patience.
Man: Legend! We don't have time for this! Meg... What's wrong with him?
Meg: He's experiencing something you wouldn't understand... Just make sure you keep him safe!
The pigeon had a pretty stern look on his face. It almost appeared as though Meg, the pigeon... the TALKING pigeon, was the leader of that small group of individuals.
Man: As if I had any other choice...
While they were talking, strange creatures were closing in. They weren't particularly strong, but they could kill someone if they let their guard down.
There were monsters in this world. One could think of them as wild animals with a particular grudge against humanity. Monsters could be found anywhere humans were not. And when humans strolled around those places, monsters attacked… aiming to kill. Many different monsters inhabited this world… and some were more dangerous than others.
Meg started to panic, and a battle ensued. There were three different monsters after them (one of them looked like a giant wolf that walked on two legs; another was a slug-like monster that had a spiky shell, and the other one a spider the size of a grown man), and they were coming at them in a full-frontal attack. This made things less complicated because they didn't want to be surrounded.
Shin (the name of the shady-looking guy in the ninja garb) dispatched the monsters with astonishing ease. Meg then quipped after a sigh...
Meg: So you are useful after all.
Shin wielded a Kodachi blade which he kept hanging on his back. He also was equipped with a wide variety of throwing items such as kunai, shuriken, and other bomb items called skeens that ninjas from that world often used. Shin gave Meg a kind of disappointed look and replied.
Shin: I find your doubt in my skills offensive...
