Hit the Road, Jack!: Hit The Last Travel

Sasha looked at her son.

Jack. The useless Jack. Even without depression or the such, he was still lazy. But she could get it. A hundred years living freely had taught her one thing - what moves is the Soul, not the person!

[ - A trip?]

She looked at her son's mind. It was dazzling. So many little strings! Would he be able to die, even if he wanted to?

One might not be aware, no, her son surely wasn't aware of that. But the world itself was alive. Another World was alive!

She remembered clearly when Jack told her about his experiments with Shabe's secretary… what was her name again?

No matter.

She was still in the world. She WAS the world. Every single rock, every single particle of light was her.

And if she was the world, what had happened to her boss?

Once she had to kill a beast. A mighty beast. The mind in contact with it had cultivated the thing's body to its utmost limit. It was a high-level player, no, a Max-Level player and beyond.

Its mind had a brilliance like the sun. Totally enclosed and firmly held by Another World's Fairy Dust. Or mana. Rather, was Fairy Dust the same as mana? In a certain level yes, but in others, no, it wasn't.

Fairy Dust was a thing that connected people's Minds and their bodies. It was something different from everything else.

That beast's mind was full of it. All around, in all corners, all one could see was Fairy Dust. And she killed the beast's body.

However, what happened next surprised her.

People weren't supposed to remain alive after being killed on Another World. Not ever since the game turned real life for them.

Still, the beast… respawn.

Its mind had lost many strings of light, that was certain - as one could see by its body and skills, which had become way less prominent.

But it was still there. Trapped. Respawning. It was one of the reasons why she desired to die. Not simply die and be reincarnated, her new brain losing all but the minimal connection to her Mind.

No. She wanted to die for real. To escape. Escape that prison she had finally sawn as it was.

But how?

The beast's Mind… its soul, still remained with her to this day. At every opportunity, she would then create barriers around it and study.

At first, the thing's soul tried to reconnect. To reincarnate. But then, it stopped doing so. With time, it became still like water, and started to avoid Another World's threads of light.

So far, it had stopped struggling. It would not reincarnate again, even after being enticed by the presence of a suitable vessel.

Would it free itself? Could it leave Another World? Could… she?

Her soul was old. Very old. A hundred years being alive inside Another World - all days, every day.

But those were only half of the years she had lived. She had also lived a very long life… on the real world.

Didn't she do enough already? No… something deeper was happening.

Somehow, her Mind would still look for things to do. But, at the same time, it looked for something else. Something she herself didn't know what was.

She could reincarnate, of course. Her Mind would surely find interests in the world and keep living its life.

But then, there was a risk… the risk of her remembering. Of, someday, she again become smart enough to remember her past lives.

She didn't wish to return anymore. This was a given. So, if she managed to leave Another World, then…

She looked up again. How many thousands of deaths would her son need to truly die? Was that even possible?

If the beast's soul looked like a sun, then Jack's looked like the entire galaxy condensed in a great Supernova. Elicia was far behind, but not much.

Still, she didn't wish to tell them. What's more, she didn't even wish to reprimand her son for being a lazy good-for-nothing.

Because she could see it. See how her son's Mind, his soul… just didn't care.

Ah, her soul wanted to do things. The beast's soul, as well, wanted to do things. Elicia's, then… she carved for adventure. It was such a shame such an active soul was trapped inside a dungeon, looking after the kids and nothing else.

No. Jack didn't want to do anything besides sleep… because his Soul didn't find anything interesting. Nothing at all.

One's Soul is what drives then. One's… libido? Was that the world Freud used?

Regardless, one's curiosity would be a better term. One's desire to experience things. So, in order to make her son move, what she needed was to entice him - to make his Soul interested, not his personality.

She needed to move his Spirit, not his ego!

- Yes. To the confines of the world! - She said, her voice carefully toned.

Jack looked to the other side.

"He's feeling pressured…" - Sasha noticed, and a smile appeared on her face.

- You never went on a trip with me, right? Not in this world. So, how about that? We can go on dragon form, and get away from this stuffy place. No to mention, you'll be able to sleep on new places. How long has it been since you've slept out of your bed?

The trick was to tick the interest. Jack's Mind was… curious. It was teeming with curiosity. Even more than Elicia's. She would see a glimpse of this curiosity here and there. But it was also, somehow… scared?

It was closed on itself.

So, a familiar experience. Something it could relate to. Being isolated on its own world, with family around and allowed to sleep. Wasn't this good enough?

His Mind lightly rippled.

It worked.