《It All started...》


 Death, never knocks politely...

    Babies usually enter the world whilst being on the ground; I entered this one a few thousand feet above sea level and old enough to at the very least, tie my shoelaces.


    Falling a thousand feet to my death isn¡¯t how I want to end my school trip. Last thing I remembered was peacefully nodding off while listening to some Mozart. Classical music always made one sleepy. The scenery out the window was very peaceful.


    I gazed at the sea of clouds roll by from the window of the airplane. Quiet and uneventful just how I liked it.


    Class had gone on a trip to Tokyo, of course it hadn¡¯t been easy raising the money for it but with everyone working as hard they did, the students had managed to lower the amount each individual had to pay. Right now most of them were tired and had fallen asleep from all the sightseeing they did on the trip. I swear the plane was dipping from all the souvenirs they had bought.


    No, the plane was actually going under the clouds. I was just moments away from dozing off when I noticed a yellow light blink on above me and I heard the captain¡¯s voice, ¡°Passengers please wear your seatbelts as we hit some turbulence we advise you to stay seated for duration of this time, thank you for flying-¡°


    I stopped listening and got my seatbelt on just as the plane started rumbling. How unfortunate, no sleep tonight, I thought. I looked outside it¡¯d just turned dark, and there wasn¡¯t any light outside except for the moon. The clouds that were a sea of gentle waves a few moments ago had suddenly gained speed. They looked heavier and ominous all of a sudden. Was it just dark or did those clouds look like storm clouds?


    I decided to be optimistic and think this was regular occurrence.


    That is until we dropped a couple thousand feet.


    One second I was gazing at the clouds, the next I was holding onto my seat for dear life. The plane sharply dropped like rock, without any warning or indication.


    As if the engines had failed and all the momentum of a few hundred ton vehicle had simply disappeared.


    Turning my head to the side I saw the ocean stretch for miles, the sun setting just beyond the horizon. It looked like the eye of a giant beast before its final breath.


    ¡®at the speed the plane was hurtling towards the ocean I felt as if my final breath would arrive faster.¡¯


    I flashed back to this comi-, sorry manga; I was reading in Tokyo about pirates and fish people that could control water. I hoped if they were real they would be nice and give us a helping hand. I heard the sound of metal and machinery tearing apart, screeching.


    I looked out the window again and say the wing breaking off into pieces hurtling them above since we were falling faster.


    I heard more tearing only this time it was a lot closer, I glanced up as a roof of the plane started to peel off. The pieces of metal disappeared from view.


    Well, at least we it couldn¡¯t be any worse.


    Honestly, I didn¡¯t see how it could be, the odds of dying had reached the triple digits.


    What did fate have against me? Assuming fate was real does that mean there are three cackling old ladies trying to kill me with scissors? (AN: Greek gods-the fates)


    An entire section of my compartment broke off of the plane.  I decided there was no way I was going to die in the seat. The only reason I was still in the seat was because i couldn''t decide whether to go down with the ship or just jump out the side of the plane and see how that works out.


    The plane groaned and the seats attached to the broken parts of the floor started to come apart at the seams. There were some strange looking metals in the floor that didn¡¯t match with the other material of the plane.


    ''Is this why the plane¡¯s breaking apart, I thought. This plane must have been hastily built, I guessed. Since, it seemed to be the only logical explanation and I read about something like this in a book, the husband lost his nephew and his family because the company making the planes took out all the good parts to sell elsewhere and the planes were forcibly made by substituting parts, the turbulence was too much and the engines failed causing the deaths of his family and of  hundreds of passengers''


    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    ''There''s no way people actually do that, i thought, its much too stupid and the losses are larger than the profits.''


    A suitcase came flying out of nowhere and bashed me in the face. If the fates were trying to send me a sign, it was it wasn''t too subtle....


    All the passengers were screaming. At least, i was pretty sure they were, the noise of the wind and the snapping of metal made it hard to tell.


    Well, this was a horrible way to end the school trip. I knew we should''ve gone to hawaii.


    For some reason, I had become strangely calm, which was most likely because everyone was screaming for their lives. That might''ve helped, I don''t have to panic because they''re doing it for me was my line of reasoning.


    The plane turned sideways and started tumbling in like an olympic gymnist, probably because it only had one wing.


    The plane wasn¡¯t meant to tolerate all this damage and started to break into pieces. Like the titanic the plane had a clean break down the middle and the back end separated from the front end, twirling away.


    Then the people who hadn¡¯t been wearing seatbelts started to  fall out of the giant gaping hole. Which happened to be most of my classmates and a number off random things mostly cellphones. Seriously, there were so many that if i had gotten a hold of them i could''ve started a small business...


    They had been asleep when the announcement had come on so there was no way anyone could¡¯ve done anything. But that didn¡¯t stop my strange urge of wanting to open my seatbelt and dive after them.


    Not that it would¡¯ve made a difference.


    I didn¡¯t know why I thought that would help, other than getting me killed along with them, I guess I could smile at them with them and die together. Man, I''m horrible.


    The belt buckle had broken and I was sent flying into open air, I guess i never had a choice in the matter.  Things stopped spinning and i managed to reorient myself. The sun just touching the horizon to my right. My seat slowly spinning to my immidiate left, I faced the sunset, I watched the myriad of colors impressed, this was definitely one of those once in a life time opportunity if I thought about it optimistically.


    Sky-diving was something I had always wanted to, even if this was one way ticket to the underworld. I didn''t know whether my heart was beating so fast because how terrifying it all was or that I was happy because I was sky-diving. More how terrifying it was probably. It almost didn''t feel real, because it felt like an amplified version of when you stick you head out the window. It felt great.


    I was enjoying the feeling of wind pushing up under me like it was supporting me, an indescribable feeling welled up, I shouted at the top of my lungs,


    "WHOOOOOO-HAHAHA-HAAAH!"


    Well, now that was exhilarating.


    Now to clear the air.


    I cursed a few people.


    My unclewas one. He told me almost gleefully that magic didn''t exist and crushed a lot of childhood dreams. Like hell i couldn''t breath fire...


    a middle school bully, he always ate my lunch Unfotunately, I wasn''t as bad back then as i was now, i would''ve spiked the food...


    and that cat, the one black one that always annoyed me. When I was 12, i was blowing out the candles it jumped into the cake and acted aborable. I swear it stopped, looked at me and made a triumphant expression. People actually took pictures and called it cute, even my family! Like hell we should''ve adopted it...


    Man, I had a lot of grudges. I was too busy thinking about recipes for grilled cat that I didn''t notice a metal pipe whirling through the air out of the corner of my eye.


    It smacked me on the head and everything went blank.

 Ch. 2 - The Uncanny Valley

    CH. 2 ¨C The Uncanny Valley


    Roe woke up in a forest, surrounded by trees.


    Whoa, whoa, whoa, what¡¯s going on?!


    I ¡®m not hurt, but why would I-


    Then I remembered the crash.


    Wait, where am I? Why am I alive?


    Not that I¡¯m complaining.


    I looked around, it seemed I was in a forest.


    Where am I? Is this a dream, or was the plane breaking apart while facing imminent doom, a dream?


    It was probably a dream since it¡¯s a pretty common one, people do have dreams falling from places- wait, even I was dreaming that, how did i get here?


    The nearest forest was at least 50 miles from the city. Why can¡¯t I remember anything? My head doesn''t hurt or anything, and doesn''t feel like I¡¯m forgetting anything¡­


    Roe looked closely at his surroundings, the trees felt familiar but at the same time different. They looked more like trees you would see in North America or Europe not Japan. Putting it out of his mind he walked through the forest, until he found a path.


    He followed it for about an hour judging by the shadows, then he finally saw a clearing. There was green grass spread out in front of him like a blanket, covering the hills. There were pots of trees here and there.


    In the distance he saw a civilization. There wasn''t a single sign modern technology.


    A recluse village probably cut from the outside world for quite some time from the looks of it.


    Seriously, where am I?


    According to our teacher, the nearest wilderness to the city was like 50 miles of so. So how did i get here? I don''t think I sleepwalked here. Was I drugged?


    Roe had so many questions, he walked faster thinking the village would give him some clue as to where he was.


    He noticed something odd about the village.


    All the houses were made our of a combination of 15th and 16th century European architecture.


    Alright, an entire town with really old architecture that has no cultural relation to it''s country.


    Let''s conveniently ignore it.


    Architecture''s not really something to worry over but why is it abandoned?


    Roe ran all over town looking for someone, but he couldn''t find anyone.


    After sitting down on one of the roofs of the building for a rest, he found himself worried. He looked around for a bit he found signs of struggle all over the place and from what he gathered they were fighting some kind of animal, one with really big claws. There was blood at some and just destroyed furniture at others, but strangely no bodies.


    The sun was setting without him noticing and he decided that there wasn''t anything he could do now but get some sleep.


    He looked for a nearby inn and burrowed one of their rooms to sleep in.


    In the end he hadn''t found out anything.


    It felt like reality, but it could''ve been a really long dream.


    Right a really long dream where things don''t constantly change. Right, like you''ve ever had a dream like that, said my sarcastic side.


    Maybe this some kind of science experiment? See how kid reacts when dropped in the middle of nowhere with no memory, and make him walk for hours. Oh, we shouldn''t stop there! Let''s spill blood everywhere and see how he reacts, did you see him grimace there! Ha-ha, that was riot, stay tuned for our regularly scheduled programmed.


    Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.I think I¡¯m going insane for staying out so long in the foreign sun. I think I there might have been something the food, let¡¯s just sleep it off.


    I''ll go looking for clues tomorrow.


    After waking up he stole some food and had breakfast, then went to this strange building with a sword sign hanging out on front.


    It was one of the places he hadn''t checked yet.


    It was completely empty.


    Why is it that they loot everything except for the food? What kind of idiot leaves behind food? Unless, it was poisoned¡­well, I already had some so, there¡¯s no point fussing.


    Roe poked around for a bit looking for anything that give him a clue. He found a ladder leading up to an attic and he followed it up.


    There were boxes and boxes all over the place. Whoever raided the village - probably thieves  - had missed this.


    People generally never look up when they¡¯re in a hurry, which makes it perfect for assassinating from rooftops. This only applies in games though.


    Shaking out of his thoughts, Roe sorted through them, usually they were filled with rocks or some type of metal ingots. Sometimes clothes, or weird looking accessories were strewn in chests. Why the heck would anyone need so much jewellery? He rustled through all of them and in the end he had found some stranger things.


    His findings consisted of strange metal shoulder guards, some boots, a cowl, a black book, and some gauntlets or arm guards?


    The gauntlets didn''t really cover his hand entirely, they covered his hand like finger-less gloves and were made with some strange soft silky material. It only covered the top part of his arm the under side exposed. They were like puny shields...


    The hell would this protect me against...


    He also had shoulder guards. He recalled some suddenly useful trivia. Spaulders, were the shoulder guards for samurai armour, and suspiciously enough it looked exactly like it.


    Well, whatever it was,  it was reassuring to have some protection, something to take comfort in.  Even if it made him look stupid


    Strangely enough they felt like real armour, even the boots had a custom feel to them.


    Now that i think of it, isn''t this cosplay? Wait, then does that mean that the person who lived here was a cosplayer? Or maybe i was part of a costume fora play? Then, that would mean that all that blood I found might not be real and it was just some special effects. Then no one is really hurt they could just be putting on a show.


    I lied to myself and exhaled in relief.


    What I found relief in was that it was a logical thought. Even if it was a thought, it was logical. It helped give me some ground becuase i couldn''t make sense of the situation.


    That means that there''s nothing to worry about, it was just my imagination. I had funny feeling that I was in danger, now that I¡¯m thinking about a little I find it ridiculous. Even though I don''t know where I am it was pretty calming to recognize something I was familiar with. Though, it would be better to find the villagers.


    Roe thought with some protection he would be ready for anything, even if it was going into a forest he knows nothing about.


    He was naive. Then unkown is always something to be respected if not feared. He nithere feared nor respected it and was going to know first hand how dangerous it was.


    He entered the forest.