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WHAT is this? Where am I?
I wake up in a pure white room.
That steel beam was about to flatten me… What happened?
Am I in a hospital? No, there’s no bed, nor any medical stuff around me. I glance down at my body. Everything, right down to my school uniform, is normal. And in front of me, there’s a…teddy bear?
“Sakurako?”
Kazuya’s familiar voice comes from beside me. I whip around to face him. He looks stunned, but that’s all.
Thank goodness! As long as he’s with me, then everything’s fine, right?
“Kazuya! Hey, what is this place? Are we…?” I trail off.
“I don’t know. I guess we must’ve…” he trails off, too.
Right. We must’ve both been crushed underneath the steel beam. So, Kazuya got caught under it as well…
He scrutinizes the strange room, his expression uncertain.
Oh, nope, nope, nope. I need to get a grip. It’s only natural to feel flustered when you wake up in a strange place, but I’m the older one here. If I get depressed, it’ll rub off on Kazuya! I’m the closest thing he has to family left; I have to protect him!
A high-pitched, childish voice rings out while I’m still thinking of how to comfort him.
“Hiya, God here!”
What?
“Kazuya, did you say something?” I ask him.
“No, it wasn’t me.” He shakes his head and we share a look.
“Here! Here I am!” the high-pitched voice speaks again.
We look around, but no one else is there. The only other thing in the room is a teddy bear sitting on the floor.
Kazuya frowns and steps toward it. “Uh, was that you?”
“Bingo!” The big teddy bear raises its right hand. “That’s me! God!”
“Eeep! It moved!” I shriek.
Maybe I surprised it back, because it throws up both hands.
“Please don’t yell. You scared me! Of course I can move. I’m God, remember?” the teddy bear says a little haughtily. It clears its throat, then stands.
Wha—?! The stuffed toy just stood up?!
“But enough about that. I have to speak with you two.” Its tone becomes serious.
I’m still reeling because it moved. “You do?”
“Yep. I hate to ask this, but could I send you to another world?”
Guarded, Kazuya asks, “Another world? What are you talking about?”
“Well, it’ll take some time to explain… I might as well start from the beginning. Going by the timescale you use in your universe, it all started a year ago.”
“A year ago?”
“Uh-huh, when you got into that accident. You see, only Kazuya was supposed to survive. But you did as well, Sakurako, which really threw a spanner in the works. The Laws of Fate in your world were thrown off balance. They tried to correct things by finishing you off, but nothing turned out the way they planned. Which was quite a shock.”
“The Laws of Fate?” Kazuya narrows his eyes. “No, forget that. You tried to ‘correct’ things by killing Sakurako?”
I tense up at the mention of our accident a year ago.
“Yep, the Laws of Fate are instrumental in determining what can happen in a world. They regulate things to ensure events follow predetermined routes. And, well, since Sakurako didn’t die when she was meant to, er, to put it simply, the Laws of Fate freaked out and tried to kill her. But nothing worked.”
“Hold on. For the past year, Sakurako has been bombarded by wild dogs, falling stuff, and even telephone poles toppling over. Are you telling us that was the Laws of Fate trying to put their plans back on track?” Kazuya says in a dark voice.
“In a nutshell, yeah,” the bear nods. “Anyway, back to the point: sending you guys to another world. Would you mind doing that for me?”
“What do you mean? We still don’t even know how we got here!” Kazuya retorts harshly.
I can’t wrap my head around what’s happening, either. Who are “Lawsoff Feit”? A band? And what does the bear mean by “The way they planned”? Does this mean it wasn’t a coincidence that flowerpots and stuff kept falling on me? I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.
But Kazuya realizes something before I do. “Wait, don’t tell me that Sakurako died in that last accident just now? So the Laws of Fate just…”
Wait, I died? Even though I haven’t gotten a boyfriend yet?!
“Nooo… Not quite. Sakurako didn’t perish in that accident that the Laws of Fate just caused, she only got injured. Gosh, she’s one tough cookie. Honestly, who’d’ve thunk? And Kazuya, you didn’t die instantly, but you’re at death’s door. And underneath the steel beam,” the bear says casually.
Excuse me? Kazuya’s about to be crushed?
I don’t understand entirely what’s going on, but that makes the blood drain from my face. Does this mean…it’s my fault he’s going to die?
“I tell you, your actions back there really surprised me, Kazuya. The way you went dashing in. And you know, all the Laws of Fate wanted to do was off Sakurako. Not only did they fail to do that, they double failed because you got wiped out before your time. So they came crying to me in a panic. Because I’m God.”
What? The Lawsoff Feit were crying? No, who cares about them! What about Kazuya?!
“Kazuya is going to die?! No way! I won’t let that happen!” I grab the teddy bear by its neck.
It grimaces and whispers hoarsely, “No, h-he’ll be fine. That’s…” — it coughs— “…not how I want things to turn out, either. So I won’t…” — it coughs again — “…let that happen. Uh, do you mind p-putting me down?” The teddy bear is wincing like it’s in pain.
I hurriedly put it down. Whoops. I’d grabbed it without even thinking.
“Sorry.”
“N-No problem. But gosh, that’s some strength. Who’d’ve thunk? Er, look, you can relax. Kazuya won’t die. Which brings me back to my proposal. We’ve talked things over, the Laws of Fate and I, and decided the best course of action would be to erase any trace of you in this world. That is, it would be like you never existed here. But, instead of killing you, we’re going to transport you to another world.”
Huh? What does that mean?
“Are you saying we can’t go back to our world? To Japan?” I ask.