CH 2

This is an actual story I experienced about half a year ago.

After school, I, Yamanaka Sumireko1, a high school senior, splendidly fell down in the middle of an empty street and stayed in my fallen position, deeply embarrassed, for a couple of minutes.

When I slowly raised my head, I found myself in an unmistakably different world. Colorful leaves that I’ve never seen before and jungle-like scenery that didn’t exist in Japan. At least it was easy to understand… not that that helped any.

I looked around in a daze and started walking, since all I could see was the scenery around me.

There was no sign of people at all. I had wanted to have my first encounter with villagers while the sun still shone through the overgrown forest canopy.

3 days of walking passed.

I think I did well for a weak high school girl on her way home. I walked aimlessly through the strange world with only some pastries, snacks, and bottled water (I had bought two bottles for my friends shortly before falling down) in my bag. I was already getting dizzy.

During the day, I walked steadily toward where the sun rose in the east, but when I tried to relieve my drowsiness at night, I would get screamed at out of nowhere by strange plants or I would vaguely see something move where there were very clearly no people. Absolutely terrified, I walked by the moonlight. I was nearing my limit.

Well, it’s fine, right?

In most isekai novels, when the main character collapses, a sparkling prince or an unexpectedly kind bandit rescues them in the nick of time, right? That sort of thing, could I expect it? It’d be fine, right?

Half-excited to escape from my exhaustion and half-way to the extreme limit of my endurance, I mustered up the last of my strength to find a place with few trees. Whether that be a lawn, a spring, or a patch of screaming plants, I’d collapse there. 

Determined, I soon found a spot.

You’d think I collapsed there, right?

I couldn’t.

Because there was already someone there.

In the middle of a clearing of grass — a perfect place to collapse onto, someone lay prone, bloodied, and motionless.

I already thought that I had no energy left or calories to burn, but I realized that, instead of screaming in surprise, I was only exhausted further.

“Is… is he… dead?”

I circled around the fallen person, who was probably a man going by his size, inching towards its figure. He was wearing long sleeves and pale trousers, both of which were covered in blood. Lying on his side, most of his head and hands were also red. He wore a belt around his waist and a sword’s sheath had fallen nearby, although the sword itself was missing. Upon closer inspection, the blood was rather light in color, meaning the man had collapsed recently.

But I didn’t care how fresh it was and I didn’t dare to collapse beside it. I’d be scared if it were really dead.

I approached the man whose fingertips hadn’t so much as twitched, staring intently. 

After much hesitation, I took one last step towards him, made a peace sign with my left hand, crouched down, and put my index and middle fingers together to place them on his neck.

“Hiiieeeeeee~ It’s there!!”

He was covered in blood, so I had unconsciously assumed that he was dead, but I was surprised that his skin was warm to the touch and I fell on my butt. I touched him again, just to be sure. My fingers were slick with blood, but I could feel a pulse.

If he’s alive, I have to help!

With my trembling hands, I turned him so that he lay on his back, but there was no reaction. Casting aside my maiden’s heart, I lifted his clothes, wet my handkerchief with some bottled water, and wiped him down. His hair was a strange silver that reflected the colors of the rainbow, but his face was quite handsome. Please forgive my increasing anxiety.

His complexion had become pale, but he had no major wounds on his head and his body wasn’t as bad as it had initially seemed. He must’ve been in a lot of pain, going by the large patch of scratches that made me want to scream when I wiped my handkerchief over them, but it was minor enough that even someone like me could tell that he wouldn’t die. Rather, his clothing was the real disaster here.

I let out a sigh.

Just as I had a moment of relief, the man moaned. He furrowed his brows, as if his whole body was in pain. He moved his trembling right hand around, seemingly searching for something, but he soon lost the energy to continue. He stopped moving, so I called out to him fearfully.

“Um… Are you okay?”

At the sound of my voice, his eyelids quivered and his glittering silver eyelashes raised. The deep blue eyes that appeared through the thin gaps between his eyelids were vividly beautiful in the otherworldly light.

Squinting up at the sky, his eyes turned to the left and then to the right, eventually finding me near his head. For a few moments, there was silence. The man tried to move his lips, continuing to flinch in pain, but only moans and breaths came out.

“Uhh… Do you live nearby? Somehow, I think I got really, really lost and I found you… and you’re hurt… um…”

Are you okay?

No matter how you look at it, he’s not okay.

Can you help me?

If anything, that should be his line.

While I was wondering what I should say to him, the man I had just met was looking up at me in shock. There was another bit of silence.

“For now… shall we go look for someone together?”

When I saw the man slowly nod, I finally felt a sense of calm.

Helping him up, I took off his bloodied shirt and sprinkled water on his wounds. The man, who turned out to be rather muscular, was expressionless and I think I looked more pained than he did. His ruined clothes were unsanitary to wear again, so I offered him my blazer for the time being. It seemed too tight for his shoulders, so I tried tying the sleeves around his front, but he barely would’ve been wearing it that way.

“Do you know which way the village is, or the dangerous animals, or the river, or the edible plants?”

I had an hour’s worth of questions I wanted to ask, but since he was injured, I chose carefully. Leaning on my shoulder, the man twisted his neck, looking vaguely in front of me. He looked a little cute, acting like a bird, but things weren’t going so well.

As my sugar-deprived brain tried to figure out what to do, the man dazedly raised his hand and pointed straight ahead.

“Eh? That way?”

It was almost the same direction as from where I had come, so I was a little worried that I’d just be going back. I had confirmed with my own eyes that it was 100% jungle with no sign of people that way. In the first place, I couldn’t even see that far in the direction he was pointing because of all the overgrown leaves and it’s not like any of those were edible. Just as I was about to get going, I heard a small rustling noise from the large bush in front of me. I froze in place and stared.

Eh? What? You didn’t show me the way, did you?

You were telling me that something’s coming?

I looked up at the man, but he was so dazed that I wondered if he was still awake. When I looked back at the bushes, the rustles had become even louder. Something was approaching. I couldn’t tell what it was because of all the thick and tall trees with ivy and other things covering them, but the rustling kept getting louder. At least it didn’t seem like there would be another candidate for collapse.

If it was a human, that’d be good. What if it were a wild boar or a bear that couldn’t even talk? We had almost no strength left, so I could only see a future of us becoming a delicious meal. The smell of blood would be in the air.

Lacking the energy to run away, we froze like deer in the headlights and watched the bushes that were rustling violently.