Chapter 5:
The Journey
“WOW! There are even more people than at the festival!”
“That’s right. So make sure you don’t let go.”
“Okay!”
Carol clung to the hem of my coat, looking around in wonder. I wanted to talk to her properly, but right now I was busy checking the timetable. We stood in front of the ticket machines at the train station. It was a bullet train hub, meaning it was huge and packed. There were several women dressed in kimono, likely on their way to a shrine for the new year.
Wait, stop getting distracted! Stay on task!
I approached the ticket machine to retrieve our tickets. This was my first time doing anything of the sort. The expense hurt a little, but it was necessary. Seika offered to pay for our tickets, but I politely declined. She already went through the trouble of booking them for us—I couldn’t ask her to pay.
I can just press the button for online reservations, right?
I’d looked up online how to do this, but I was still nervous.
I managed it in the end and led Carol, who was still humming with excitement, toward the ticket gate. The hard part was over. I used to take the train to school—now I was on familiar ground.
“I’ll show you what to do next, okay, Carol? You just copy me.”
“Okay!”
This was a simple procedure, but the innocent Carol looked at me with great respect. I didn’t think I deserved it, but it felt good. I put my ticket through the slot and tried to go through the gate. It closed right in front of me.
“Huh?”
I put it in properly, didn’t I?
“Yoshio?” Carol looked up at me questioningly. I wished she wouldn’t. My face grew hot with embarrassment and confusion. What did I do wrong?
In my panic, I noticed a station staff member approaching at a quick pace.
“You need to put the express ticket on top of the regular ticket and put them both in at once.”
“Oh, right. Sorry.”
Wait, then why did we have two of them? I thought one was to show the staff in the train or something, just like I’d seen in TV dramas.
“What’s wrong, Yoshio?”
“Oh, uh…the man came over to apologize because the gate didn’t accept my ticket.”
Sorry, mysterious station staff member.
He couldn’t understand us, so I pinned the blame on him. I put both tickets in this time, and Carol did the same. We checked which car we were in, then bought some lunch boxes on the platform while we waited. I’d always wanted to eat a fancy lunch box on a bullet train. Trivial to most people, maybe, but to a shut-in, it felt impossible. I loved being able to do something other people did without thinking. There was a hidden beauty to that.
“Hey, how does that big, long snake thingy go so fast? Is it magic?” Carol asked, her eyes sparkling. Trains were a staple of our society, but she’d never seen one before.
“It’s not magic. It’s technology we use in the god’s world; a power everyone can use.”
“So I can make the snake go fast, too?”
“You could if you studied and learned how to do it, sure.”
“Wow! That’s so amazing!”
Despite me having nothing to do with it, I enjoyed hearing her praise my country’s technology.
When the train stopped and it was time to get on, Carol’s face went stiff with nerves. Then she gathered her courage and launched herself inside.
“It’s not gonna eat us, right?” she asked nervously.
“Don’t worry. It’s not really a snake.” I took Carol’s hand and led her to our seats. A bullet train had seating laid out in twos and threes. Carol and I had a two-seat arrangement together. “Here we are. You can have the window seat.”
“Really?! Yay!”
I preferred to have the window seat because I often got motion sick, but she’d appreciate it more than me. Besides, if a corrupted god player showed up, I needed to be able to get up.
“Can I let Destiny out, Yoshio?” Carol asked, shuffling her bear backpack off and pointing at the zipper.
“Hmm. Put the bag down by your feet and unzip it. Then it can get some air.”
“Okay.” Carol unzipped the bag, and Destiny poked its head out. It stretched out its front legs like a cramped old man.
“Sorry. Try and relax a little, Destiny.”
It lay down on the floor, curled up, and closed its eyes. I put my bag on the floor as well, blocking the view. If anyone realized we brought a huge lizard on the train, there’d be panic.
“Wow! We’re moving, but we’re not rocking at all! And it’s so quiet!”
I realized that we’d left the station. I was so stressed, my shoulders so tensed up, that I was losing sight of my surroundings. I needed to be more careful. I couldn’t let my guard down, but staying this high strung was also no good. I was about to warn Carol to keep her voice down so as not to disturb the other passengers, when I noticed something. Her voice was echoing throughout the car, but she wasn’t actually that loud. The surroundings were just eerily quiet.
When we came in, the train was packed, but no one was saying anything. It didn’t make sense. There were even some other children here.
“Carol, would you mind being quiet for a second?”
“Oh, sorry.” She put her hands over her mouth. I had no time to feel guilty.
The silence was even more conspicuous now that she wasn’t talking. Not a single voice anywhere. The only sound was the train speeding along its path. I held my breath, listening, when the door to the next car opened. I stuck my head out into the aisle to look.
“No way…”
My mind went blank at the impossibility of the scene in front of me. A horrifying, green-skinned monster was making its way into the carriage. It was a goblin. A goblin I’d seen tons of times in the game world.
“Yoshio! It’s a green goblin!” Carol whimpered, clinging to my arm and trembling.
I wanted to reassure her, but although I opened my mouth, no words came out. Fear parched my throat. I never realized how terrifying a creature it was until now, when it was right in front of me. How could something like this exist in real life? It was so fantastical it felt like the space inside the car had been torn away from reality. A cold sweat sprung up over my skin, and I began to shake.
Was this how my villagers felt when they fought for their lives? For the first time, I knew what true fear felt like. I wanted desperately to run for it. If this was how the outside world could be, I was prepared to throw everything away and shut myself up again.
No…
“Yoshio…” Carol yanked at my sleeve, her voice small and weak.
Didn’t I say it was time to stop running from reality?! I have to protect her!
I swallowed, curled my hands into fists, and drew in a breath. “Carol. Put your head down and stay quiet.”
“O-okay.”
I gave her a reassuring pat on the head, then stood up and stepped out into the aisle. The goblin halted a few feet in front of me. None of the passengers batted an eyelid at the grotesque monster standing in the middle of the train. I swept my gaze over them, wondering if a corrupted god player might be among them, but they all seemed fast asleep. How? No way every single person on this train decided to take a nap at the same time.
I looked back to the green goblin, studying it carefully. It was a little shorter than me, and aside from a sash of animal pelt around its waist, its green skin was on full display. Its arms and legs were thick with muscle, and it carried a primitive club in one hand. This one was bigger than any of the goblins I’d seen in-game, but it was smaller than me. Still, it was a monster. That was enough to sap me of my courage.
First things first. This thing must have a connection to a corrupted god player. I just didn’t expect someone to make a move this bold with so many witnesses.