A Phone Call

"This face..... isn't mine."

Situated beneath the rows of clothes was a mirror, a full length one that extended slightly above Kanjo's own head. Upon entry, the black haired youth hadn't taken notice of it, primarily due to the amount of bizarre clothes lining the walls. However, now that he finally was aware of it's presence, he couldn't look away from it, even going as far as to move closer, inch by inch.

170cm's tall, pale skin that looked as if it hadn't seen the light of day, a skinny frame that looked almost skeletal when paired with a sleeveless t-shirt and shorts, and jet black hair with a faded grey worked into the back. All of it, paired with some nice facial features and dark red eyes, gave the impression of someone who was on the brink of death or at the very least, had completely given up on life. The numerous scars that lined the arms and poked from beneath the shirt didn't do much to help the visuals either.

Earlier, when Kanjo was just shocked and somewhat happy to be alive, he had thought that his body had seemed a little off, that the proportions were only slightly different.

Now, after careful observation, the black haired teen realized how wrong he was.

There was nothing that remained of his old body.

Gone were the muscles and strength that he had painstakingly cultivated within the dungeons, strength that had been enough to lift and throw full grown dragons by their tails. The speed with which he had been so proud of had been reduced to nothing as the youth struggled to even remain upright, wobbling in place with skinny legs as he looked himself up and down. His height had shrunk a full 10cm, his skin tone had completely changed, and his facial structure was nowhere close to how handsome he thought it to be before. He could even see his own ribcage through the shirt, the alarming lack of meat on him making itself known.

(("I've been body swapped???")) Kanjo mentally questioned, his confusion maxing out as he reached up to touch 'his' face. (("Is this some kind of magic? Some weird ritual?"))

Walking forward, Kanjo brushed the glass with the tips of his fingers, checking for any sort of magic stone or any rune engravings that would give it away. Normally, the teen would've been able to sense the magic right away, but ever since waking up Kanjo had been unable to sense any sort of magic, something that had never happened to him before.

After finding nothing, he pulled away, red orbs filled with utter disappointment.

He had thought that he had finally found a lead as to what had transpired during his suffering, but it had once again been naught but dead ends.

(("I just need something that'll point me in the right direction.")) Kanjo murmured, limping away from the mirror. (("Maybe I'll find somethin-"))

Right as Kanjo was about exit the closet, a strange sound filled the room, a sort of melodic beat quickly reaching the youths ears, a beat closely followed by the sounds of aggressive talking. It was hard to say what the words themselves were due to how fast the phrases were being delivered, but Kanjo couldn't help but feel drawn to them. Even when he was tripping over himself due to the sudden surprise, he believed that the audio was quite nice and felt the need to sate his own curiosity rise within his chest. Shuffling back into the room, Kanjo followed his hearing to where the sound was coming from, eventually pinpointing it's exact location. Even when the sound stopped and Kanjo lost track of it ever so briefly, the thing started again, as if it wanted him to find it. While Kanjo would've no doubt found it after some rummaging around, the melody definitely made it much easier to find as he pulled open the drawer sitting beside the nightstand.

Resting at the bottom of the top drawer, underneath some white paper with useless scribbles over them was a small rectangular object, one that was quite similar to the giant flat one Kanjo had seen on the dresser. The difference in size wasn't the only thing however as the front of this particular contraption was glowing with some sort of strange colorful lights. These weird colors came together to form pictures and shapes that the youth couldn't decipher no matter how long he stared at them. The only thing he could properly make sense of was two circles located near the bottom of the rectangle, one green and one red. Everything else was just a mess and was simply ignored.

Scrawled near the top of the glowing rectangle was the writing, QUEEN BITCH.

After staring at the peculiar device for a while longer, Kanjo carefully picked it up, ensuring that he didn't press the shining parts, and set it down onto the nightstand. The melody from earlier stopped once again, this time to taking twice as long to start back up.

(("So...what do I do with it?")) The youth thought carefully as the screen went black for a few seconds before once again lighting up. (("Is it an item designed to send out some type of music? Does it send out alerts? A distress signal?"))

Kanjo touched his finger to his chin as he stared at the screen, his gaze flicking over the two colored circles. He didn't really know what either of them were, but the desire to press them was strong enough to dictate his next course of action as his finger pushed down over the red one.

Immediately upon contact, the melodic beat stopped and silence once again fell over the room.

(("Huh. Was that the off button?"))

The instant Kanjo had finished his thought, the contraption lit up once again, the same weird scribbles and circles appearing on its surface. Without hesitation, Kanjo pressed the green one.

"~Hello?~"

A timid female voice started emanating out from the bottom of the device a few seconds after Kanjo tapped the left circle, throwing the black haired teen for a loop.

(("A girl? But then this MUST be a magic item.")) Kanjo leaned forward to hear better as the girl began speaking once again. (("A communication device? A Talking Box? A Talka Box.....no. A TalkyBox."))

~"Hello? Is anyone there?~"

Kanjo was snapped out of his own thoughts as more words poured out from the small device near his ear. The rectangular contraption had already went back to it's dark surface but the voice was still spewing words, meaning the device was still in touch with whoever was making it work.

"Hello... I'm here."

There was a moment of pause. ~"Kanjo Umura. That's you right?"~ A slight change of tone was detectable when his name was said but the youth thought nothing of it at first.

"Yeh. That's....me."

~"Oh. So you still haven't followed my request then? What a shame. And here I was hoping we could do this without getting all dirty."~

Kanjo frowned, his thumb coming up and pressing against the top of his lip. He wasn't the smartest guy in the world, but even he could sense the sudden hostility behind the honey covered tone. It was the same track that women in his world would use before stabbing someone in the back or plotting another persons death.

"Who are... exactly?" The red eyed individual asked, his voice breaking and leaving out words again. He didn't bother to repeat himself.

~"I'll tell you what. I'm feeling lenient. Come to the convenience store at the end of Kugon. We'll have ourselves a get toge-"~

Boop.

The words of the girl were cut off as Kanjo figured out how to turn the screen back on and quickly pressed the red button. He had already heard everything he wanted to hear.

The girls voice was grating and her commanding tone left much to be desired. Not only did Kanjo dislike her off the jump, he had also sensed a dangerous undertone, a sort of danger that he couldn't get involved with at the current point in time. Though he was definitely curious as to who the female was, he had no desire to speak to her until he was fully healed and able to use his magic again. Once he was up to par and back in his old body, he would decide what to do about that girl and would try to contact her again through the TalkyBox.

Slipping the contraption back into the drawer, Kanjo plopped back down onto the bed, feeling far exhausted then he had initially thought. Though his brain was still running at speeds rivaling that of light, his body was right on the brink of collapsing, indicating just how much energy had been sucked out of him walking around the rooms innards.

"Damn this abused body," Kanjo whispered quietly as he lay down on the bed, pulling the black shirt over his head. "I know not who owned this vessel previously, but I'd like to have a word with them about proper self care. And maybe some tips on good eating habits."

The lights to the room were still on and shining in Kanjo's face, but he ignored them as he slowly closed his eyes, pulling the blanket over him up to his chin. He still didn't have any clue as to where he was or how he had gotten here, but he was no longer as worried as he had been previously. The youth was certain that if the two adults had wanted him dead, they wouldn't have had any trouble doing so, especially given that they had plenty of opportune moments to act. Their familiarity with the owner of his vessel gave him a strange comfort and made him oddly safe, though it was a purely a superficial one. He still planned on using them to get information.

After countless minutes of tossing and turning, taking time to count War Horses, and even recite magical chants, Kanjo finally managed to fall asleep.