Bab 1: A Blink, A Light
From the darkness ever present outside the stained windows of the gas station to the very sighs that the man Kenichi Utako took whenever a customer walked in, he was your average gas-station worker who did nothing with his life.
He had dark yet mildly wild short hair and brown eyes that carried faint dark bags underneath them, he felt miserable.
He wanted break time to arrive already, and each click of the clock on the wall nearby behind the cash register felt like the ticks of doom to him, he wanted to grab a drink and a cigarette and light it out back to finally feel some form of euphoria after a long shift.
He'd taken the night shift that night because he needed the extra yen to pay his rent that was upcoming that month of November, and Kenichi Utako lived in a small apartment about fifteen minutes from the gas station. It was nothing special.
The room had a bed pushed against the wall, a computer desk with empty cups and game controllers scattered across it, and a tiny kitchenette. Most days, after his shift, he would sit at the desk and either play games, study something random online, or just sleep. On his days off, he sometimes went to a café near his apartment. He liked to sit by the window, drink a coffee, and sulk about having to work the night shift later.
He was average in every way. Dark hair, slightly messy. Brown eyes with faint dark circles underneath. Not tall, not strong, not athletic. He did nothing with his life. He worked at the gas station because it was simple, steady, and paid the bills. He had no big dreams, no big plans, just a routine.
That night at the gas station, two customers walked in. They grabbed drinks and snacks and placed them on the counter. Kenichi rang up their items, typed the numbers into the register, and handed them their change. His mind wandered while he worked. He thought about how much he wanted a break, how tired he felt, how small his life seemed.
Finally, the clock ticked to 10 PM. He let out a sigh of relief and slipped to the back of the store. He flipped on the light above the fridge and grabbed a cold drink. He took a sip and muttered to himself, “Man, my life really sucks. Twenty-seven, working at a gas station, doing nothing fun ever.” He stared at the ceiling for a few moments and thought about all the things he wished he had done with his life.
Then he heard it. The scraping of tires on asphalt, loud and sudden. A crash followed, close enough to make him jump. A streetlight outside started tilting toward the store.
“Wait, shit, no! I can get out of the way!” he yelled. He tried to run, but before he could move far enough, the streetlight fell and hit him.
Everything went dark. Not black, not white. Not gray or anything else. It was nothing. No sound, no shape, no color. Just nothing.
Then, slowly, a bright white light filled his vision. He blinked several times. He was standing on cobblestone streets. Market stalls lined both sides of the cobblestone road. People moved around him. Some were humans. Some were humanoid animals with fur, horns, and tails. Merchants shouted prices. Children, either human, either beastmen, walked with their parents past him. The smells of roasting meat and spices filled the air.
He looked around, taking everything in. Everyone’s wearing clothes that look like they’re from some old movie or a game. No jeans, no t-shirts, no sneakers. Just robes, tunics, leather, and cloth belts. And some of these beastmen have armor pieces or weird hats. He glanced at the buildings lining the street. "Most of these structures are made of stone or wood. A few have concrete, but nothing like the skyscrapers or apartments I see every day. The roofs are tiles or thatch. Windows are small, some with wooden shutters. Everything looks… old."
Kenichi rubbed his eyes, trying to make sense of it. "Where the hell am I? This is nothing like anything I’ve ever seen."
Kenichi looked down at his hands and then around him. He muttered to himself, voice low and hoarse, “What.. the hell?“
He was not at the gas station. He was somewhere completely different.