Chapter 2
STRUGGLING to breathe, Yuki opened her eyes to a blurry world.
I’m…alive? Yuki’s eyes burned, forcing an absent awareness she was underwater. The instant her brain registered she was underwater she struggled to breathe. She desperately tried to swim to the surface, but the movement forced all the air from her body. Panicking further as her mind grew hazy—she struggled with her last bit of energy to reach the water’s surface.
Just when she thought she could stick her face out of the water, her body slowly sank. She frantically kicked her legs and swung her arms, but the surface only drifted farther away. She racked her hazy mind for what was weighing her down, when she realized how heavy the backpack she had on was, and quickly pulled it off. She untangled the parachute and removed it too. She was at her limit. She wanted to breathe so badly, she couldn’t think about anything else.
Her body lightened the instant the backpack and parachute came off. She swam straight for the surface. Her body’s natural impulse to suck in air caused her lungs to expand, sucking in water and pushing out what little oxygen was left. Yuki lost consciousness as her right hand finally breached the surface.
✦ ✦ ✦
SOMEONE is smacking my cheeks. Is it already morning? Yuki thought, shaking her head. Her mother, Nobuko, always fooled around when waking her up. Yuki was just as often irritable after her mother woke her in such an annoying manner. She rolled over to escape the annoying hand.
“Mnn…”
“Don’t sleep,” said a deep voice.
She found it odd an unfamiliar voice was trying to wake her up. The voice continued to speak, “I thought you lost consciousness. I guess the joke’s on me because you’re just sleeping,” the voice mocked. Yuki opened her eyes to see a soaked young man sitting beside her.
Yuki didn’t scream as she quickly sat up and backed away.
“You’re awake now?” the young man asked curtly. “Is this your stuff?”
He held up her archery set. Yuki nodded.
“Ooh…so you can use a bow?” he must have checked inside the case.
A handsome young man with blond hair, almond-shaped blue eyes, and an aquiline nose was sitting in front of her. Yuki was astonished by how incredibly handsome the young man was, even as he squinted against the dazzlingly bright sunlight.
He looked like he was in his early twenties. She was further surprised by the plate armor and helmet scattered around him. It looked like the armor shown in Hollywood movies. She stared flabbergasted at the handsome blond man from where she sat on the ground.
“So do you care to tell me why you were drowning in a place like this? This area is off-limits to ordinary people—” he said, suspicion clouding his visage.
Their eyes suddenly met. He stared at her with such intensity she thought his eyes would burn a hole right through her. Her mind spun to catch up to the situation.
Where am I? Why am I here in the first place? Wait, wasn’t I pushed off our condo’s balcony? Hold on, was I drowning? And then this person saved me? Weird, how did he save me then? CPR? This guy who looks like a Hollywood Star gave me CPR?
No way that’s possible. But wait, why am I even here? Don’t tell me Mama and Papa went through the effort of making their joke so real they laid out a cushion or trampoline to catch me when I fell? And then they carried me here to further their joke after I lost consciousness? Is that what happened?
Yuki forced herself to accept her stretch of a conclusion over what happened; at least for the moment to push her confusion back enough to talk to the handsome man gaping at her.
“U-Um, where am I? We’re still somewhere in Japan, right?”
“Japan?” the handsome man frowned.
Handsome guys are handsome no matter what they do, Yuki thought, impressed by how he could still be handsome after scrunching his face.
“I’ve never heard of a place by that name. I don’t believe there’s anywhere by that name near or within Rvydom or Maruk, either.”
“…Huh?”
Japan doesn’t exist? This isn’t a continuation of my parents’ bad joke, is it? Yuki’s head started to spin. She took in her surroundings. She couldn’t deny that the vast expanse of breathtaking scenery was too real and large for a private set. If she was still in Tokyo, there would be buildings in the distance at least.
The handsome man nimbly put his armor back on and gently covered the stunned Yuki with his cloak.
“Come now, young lady. You are inviting a cold by remaining in those soaked clothes. I will have a change of clothes prepared for you, so come with me.”
“Huh? O-Oh, okay. Thank you very…much.”
She took his outstretched hand and followed him at a hurried gait.