Hi there,

Thank you for reading chapters 1-3 if you have.
if you haven't, I strongly suggest that you read those first as Miscent is a continuing story and this is chapter 4 and 5. There are recurring characters.

―――――

Chapter 4
― Jacob ―

― ??? ―
Jacob wakes up, breathing in more deeply than he ever had before in shock. He looks around him, his eyes eventually settling on the darkness before him within what he thinks is some kind of cave behind a waterfall. Jacob looks around and finds that the cave is almost un-noticeably illuminated by the light that can get through the waterfall masking the cave, but finds as well that the wall feels strange, not quite like rocks.

“Where… am I? What happened?” Jacob remembers the events of his prom, getting shot, causing Jacob to feel his shoulder and his face, but remembers that he has gloves on.

“MOM! WHERE ARE YOU!?” Unfortunately, all that greeted him was the unfortunate roar of the water outside clashing and pounding against the stone making up the outside of the cave he finds himself in.

“MOM! CAN YOU HEAR ME!? HELLO!?” Once again, the roaring of the waterfall prevented his voice, no matter how loud, from being heard by anyone, including Jacob himself.

“OK…. Step 1: Find out where I am. Step 2: Find mom. Step 3: Get home. Step 4: Profit?” Jacob walks over to the waterfall, analyzing his would-be chambers as he finds light at the end of a tunnel.

“I know the line is that I shouldn’t go to the light at the end of a tunnel, but I’m not sure if I have a choice,” he thinks to himself and slowly but surely, Jacob walks out of the cave, allowing him to get a look at the surroundings of a lush forest.

“What am I going to do...” Jacob asks himself as he steps out of the cave, and through to the forest outside, in a mixture of fear, trepidation, and depression, takes the first step into a new green world.

― Forest ―

“Where… am I?” Jacob stands straight up listening to the silence of the forest, marred only by the sound of the water behind him, staring up at the sky full of Cirrus Clouds with what look like Nebulae behind them.

“Am I… on another world?” Jacob inspects the trees, finding them to be lush and green, but the sky seems to have a different quality about it.

“What is this?” Jacob hears a cracking of a twig behind him, causing him to whirl around, finding an old man, looking weak and frail, as if he’d snap in half himself at any moment.

“My name is Adcredo. Jacob, I mean you no harm, you can trust me.” Jacob shakes his head warily, blinking a couple times.

“What do you want?” Adcredo stares at Jacob for a few moments before he responds somewhat altruistically.

“I want, what you want. Simply to help you.”

“Why? First I get hit into a car side-view mirror, then I get shot, and the next thing I know, I’m here. What do you get out of it?”

“Why? Nothing of course. I’m just a monk, moving from one place to another in this prison we call life. I heard that you happened to appear out of nowhere, so I moved you to that cave... to protect you.”

“How do you know my name?”

“You talk in your sleep,” The old man says matter-of-factly, causing Jacob to stare hesitantly at the old man in front of him.

“What else did I say?”

“You had mentioned that you shielded your mother. But alas, nothing else.” Adcredo shrugs to himself.

“Might I inquire what a healthy looking young lady is doing out here in the forest? Where were you before you had ‘appeared?’”

“I… can’t tell him that I think I’m on another world, and did he say I’m a ‘healthy looking young lady?’ he probably thinks I’m Ellen too,” Jacob thinks to himself.

“Oh, no no, don’t misunderstand, I’m a man.”

“A…. Man… looking like that? If I had to describe how you look. it’s definitely not manly.” Jacob stares quizzically at Adcredo, questioning his wording, and before Jacob can inquire further, Adcredo begins to explain his meaning.

“If I had to explain, I’d say you look rather exotic. Short blue hair, somewhat plain.” Adcredo tilts his hand back and forth from left to right as if to emphasize Jacob looking somewhat plain, but somewhat exotic.

“It’d be really kinda funny…. If it happened to someone else.” Jacob begins to explain, as Adcredo looks skeptically at Jacob, while he explains.

“You see, I don’t normally look like this. This dress is my sisters, and I had to wear it to prom because she wanted me to break up with her boyfriend.” Jacob says, reasonably sure of his outfit, without even looking at himself.

“Excuse me young lady, but, you’re not wearing a dress.” Adcredo gestures towards the wayward youth.

“W-what do you mean? Of course I am.” Jacob looks down at himself, finding himself wearing multicolored tights, a multi colored vest and a short skirt, with boots.

“Re-Reflection! Mirror! Water! ANYTHING!” Jacob looks around rapidly and fearfully, causing Adcredo to nervously direct him to a nearby lake.

“Well, theres a lake over by the waterfall you came from over there.” He points over to the waterfall, leading Jacob over to it.

“Thank you!” Jacob cries more in desperation than gratitude as he rushes to the lake side, realizing little by little that the skirt of his outfit is significantly shorter than before.

― The Lake Side ―

The lake side of the water is a beautiful sight under any other conditions, where fright is not a concern. Jacob approaches the lake side formed by the waterfall flowing down the cliff-side above the cave, but finds that he can’t see a reflective surface.

“That old man can’t be right. He just can’t be. I was wearing Ellen’s dress! I have to be wearing it now! Oh man! She’s gonna kill me!” Jacob thinks to himself, refusing to look down.

“If I’m not already dead, It just doesn’t make sense that I wouldn’t be,” Jacob thinks to himself as he looks at the water, hoping for a glimmer of a reflection, but the water is too active to give an accurate reflection. Finding no source of reflection, Jacob follows the path of the water down the river, as he finally finds a calm space, allowing Jacob to see himself. Jacob finds that he has become a young looking Elven girl, with blue hair in what can only be described as, an Elven tunic with tights, boots and gloves.

Jacob pulls a glove off his hand and feels his new short blue hair, seeing his somewhat long fingernails. They seem to be approximately 3 mm longer than he expected. Jacob dips his fingers into the water, shivering from the chill of the small river before him, as he realizes that he’s neither dead nor is he dreaming, at least under normal circumstances. Some twigs crack under the weight of someone watching Jacob causing him to turn around quickly, finding the old man once again.

“My my, but Jacob, whatever are you sad about?” Adcredo asks carefully, but without tact, setting Jacob's emotions into a free-fall. Jacob tries and fails to get his emotions under control, and after a few moments, he shouts outwards.

“You… you wouldn’t understand!”

“Oh my, I should think you might like to try me, as they say.”

“W-What is this place?”

“This is a forest,” Adcredo says, as if it was obvious, leading him to sigh ad Jacobs next question.

“Yeah, I know that but… where is the forest?”

“This is the southern forest. Do you mean to say, that you don’t know where you are?”

“I… don’t. No…” Adcredo leans against the tree behind himself, stroking his beard.

“Well, this is the country of Fusoba, on the planet Messorem. It’s a very nice place to live, but occasionally, Heimr soldiers cause problems.”

“Fusoba? Heimr? Messorem? I don’t understand. How did I get here?”

“You arrived here using means that I am quite simply unfamiliar with. I was only told that you appeared out of nowhere. You can trust me.”

“I don’t understand!” Jacob shakes his head again, as if the thoughts of recognizing that something is wrong and doesn’t add up, but falls out of his head.

“With respect, you’d better start understanding. I am merely a humble old man. I cannot assist you any further.”

W-What? Why?” Jacob shouts towards the old man, half in panic and half in fear of death, and begins to beg for Adcredo's help before he responds to the un-asked question of where he might be able to go.

“You would want to journey to the villages to the north.” Jacob turns his back momentarily to look in the direction that Adcredo had pointed, but when his sight is returned to the old man, he’s vanished.

“Wait! Where are you!? Come back!” Jacob begins to hyperventilate, never having been alone in a strange foreign place before. The old man is nowhere to be seen, as if he never existed. Curiously even the twigs that he stepped on earlier appear to be undamaged by his weight. Jacob knows he was there, but there isn’t any evidence of his existence.

“AAAAAHHHHH!!!” Jacob takes a few moments, throwing stones, splashing water, letting his frustrations out, until he realizes the terrible awful truth.

“I’m alone…” Jacob falls to his knees in the small stream, uncaring of the temperature of the water. At this revelation, Jacob has one thing he can do in his current state of mind, as he starts to shed tears, pleading with the powers that be, to return him home. In his tear-filled sorrow, thoughts come to Jacob about his mothers and his sister, how he’s going to get home. Why did this happen to him? What would he do now?

― The Trek Through The Forest ―

Finally after an hour of wallowing in his thoughts, Jacob stands up and walks in the direction that Adcredo had directed him towards. Hours pass, as Jacob starts walking north, hoping that the villages to the north will be able to help him. For many, hours alone would be boring, but to Jacob, that time has become terrifying, allowing him time to reflect upon not only his current location, but his body.

“This forest is beautiful, or that’s what I would say if I wasn’t somehow an Elf girl.” Jacob seemingly pouts in his most desperate hour, completely confused at how and why this is happening to him.

“What am I even supposed to do now? Do I… somehow have a greater connection to the woods, like in all those stories?” Jacob walks up to a tree, placing his newly effeminate, but gloved hand on the tree and closes his eyes trying to feel out any kind of connection.

“OH! Right! my gloves are on.” Jacob soon takes his gloves off, and places his hand on the tree again, but even without his gloves, he feels no connection to anything beyond himself, and even that seems to be partially diminished.

Jacob walks north, breathing in deeply, realizing that this body may not be entirely a bad thing, as he walks forward with his head held high, tirelessly. He attempts to consider the positives, as he thinks about how he’s been walking for hours, but he isn’t tired, that this may be an opportunity for him to explore himself, but his thoughts soon turn to his family once again, and the last moments he had with them.

“I wonder how Ellen’s doing. And mom… are they even alive? Am I alive? That concert ticket better be worth this… If I ever get home…”

“How am I going to get home…?”

“AHHHH WHAT THE HELL IS EVEN GOING ON!” Several birds from nearby trees erupt from the branches, opting to attack the source of the sound.

“Oh no…” Jacob starts running from the birds as fast as he can, and further to the north as instructed by the old man.

“DAMMIT BIRDS! JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!”

“Why am I not getting tired? This is such a crazy place!” Jacob continues rushing forward towards the city described to him, but he inadvertently falls through a pit into an old city ruin.

“AAAAAHHH!!!”

― Old Ruin ―

Jacob falls into the old ruin, from rooftop to tarp, and finally to the ground and despite several objects breaking his fall, Jacob still finds himself in pain.

“That huuuuurt!” Jacob lay there motionless for a few moments, before he stands up, surprisingly not as fazed as he expected. Jacob attempts to investigate the dark old ruin that he’s found himself in as he struggles to make out definitive shapes in the dark.

“What’s going on? Am I a superhero in this body or something?” Jacob blinks in the dark, staring up at the hole he made in the roof of the cavernous city he finds himself in, and then back to the dark. Under the light left by the hole, is a small brazier, but without some means of creating fire, it’s useless.

“Great… some flint would be nice… or better yet, a way off this planet.” Seemingly at Jacobs irritated would-be request, some flint falls down towards Jacob. Resolving to use this supposed gift from above, Jacob lights the torch, granting momentary sight, Jacob sighs at the newly lit fire.

“At least I have SOMETHING in this crazy place.” Jacob journeys forward with the torch in hand, as he finds himself in what appears to be an old city square, with statues of the founders.

“Aiko Kaminari, and Mirai. Slayers of the Immortal Demon King Amun, liberators of man. May they stay forever in our hearts.”

“I wonder who they were… I mean, I know who they were based on the statue plaque, but…” Jacob dismisses the thought as he realizes that he’s talking to himself. Jacob continues through the city, wondering where a stairway is, as he hears some rustling.

“I’m warning you! I’m a blue belt in Tae Kwon Do!” Jacob, expecting trouble, adopts a horse riding ready stance towards the invader. A mouse, or at least something that looks like one, rushes from the large pile of leaves it was rustling from, allowing Jacob to catch his breath.

“What even is this place? What did that old man say? Messorem? Fusoba?” Jacob wanders the area and eventually finds that there isn’t much to this ruin, but idly wonders if an archaeologist like his other mom might be interested in this place. He looks back at the light projected by the hole, seeing a man with a hood obscuring his face, Jacob panics and runs away. Jacob’s act of running however, only causes the man to give chase. Unfortunately for him though, in Jacob's rush, he runs right into a wall, knocking himself out.

―――――

Chapter 5
― Jacob ―

― Cage ―
Jacob wakes up, finding himself in a cage on wheels, being pulled by a horse. He looks at the cage from the inside and finds that it’s being pulled by a horse trotting along at a casual pace, being ridden by a man in a hood across a dirt path in a forest clearing.

“W-What happened?” Upon hearing the awakened prisoner, the horse-rider allows the animal to slowly come to a stop, and feeds it an apple before finally walking in front of Jacob.

“A-Am I a prisoner?” Jacob asks, fearing the possible answer.

“Prisoner? No?”

“Then why am I in a cage?” Jacob says somewhat relieved.

“Sorry, it’s the best I can do. That cage is for wild animals like a boar, and my horse is more or less for one person. That cage is unlocked. Go ahead and give it a try.” Jacob pushes the door of the cage, finding it readily swings open with a loud squeak.

“See? You’re OK. But I’d like to ask a few questions. Also, if we keep going the same direction, you might want to stay in there.” The man says somewhat menacingly, leaving Jacob petrified.

“What? Why???” The would-be prison keeper gestures to the horse being a one person horse mount.

“Ooooh… I see.” Jacob steps out of the cage, stretching his legs, finally getting a more or less calm look at himself, wondering exactly what had happened to him.

“You’re a strange one. You know that? Who are you? Where do you come from? The Northern City?”

“I’m from a place called Everlane, it’s a city in California.” Jacob says as he tries to convince the hooded stranger, but he tilts his head to the side in confusion.

“Well, I don’t know what or where this Cal-ih-forn-ya is.” Jacob notices his gloves, and looks down at himself with a frown.

“Ummm…. This is a strange question but…. Do you have a mirror?”

“Yes, I do, do you need to use it Jacob? You have some sticks in your hair.”

“Yeah, can I borrow it?” The hooded man grumbles for a moment, and rummages through his belongings, and finally pulls out a mirror made of polished steel, handing it to Jacob.

“I… what happened to me?” Jacob touches his face lightly.

“You knocked yourself out when you saw me. What do you think happened?” Jacob stares at his reflection, looking at his teeth, and nose, noticing slight freckles on his cheeks as well as the very strange blue hair.

“No, I mean, I didn’t look like this a few hours ago.”

“You didn’t look like what a few hours ago?” The mystery man asks, trying to be delicate, but comes across more aggressively, as he starts to put Jacob off.

“This!” Jacob gestures to himself as the feminine being he now appears as, with his arms stretched outward, bent at the elbows.

“You mean you weren’t a woman a few hours ago? What kind of sorcery is this?”

“I don’t know! I just know that I woke up in a cave behind a waterfall, I met some old man named Adcredo. He said he carried me into the cave for my 'protection' whatever that means.”

“Adcredo? I’ve never heard of him.”

“Who… are you? You sound familiar.” Jacob gets a better look at the man before him. He appears to be wearing relatively modern looking clothes consisting of some cowboy-esque boots, some corduroy pants, with a short sleeve shirt under the long hood and cloak. Moments later, the man lowers his hood, revealing himself to look very similar to a somewhat older Noodle.

“N-Noodle? Is that you?” The man stares bewildered at Jacob, given that the two of them have clearly never met, and now he’s calling him a noodle.

“Noodle? I have no idea who that is. I’m Edward. But most think I’m a thief so they call me Ne’erdoward.”

“Seems a little convoluted for a name, but OK. Can I call you Ned?” Edward seems to nod, as if he has no problems with Jacob’s request.

“How did you know my name earlier?” Ned seems taken aback by the pertinent question, and replies matter-of-factly in turn.

“You talk in your sleep.”

“D-Do I really? Adcredo said that too…”

“Well, now that we have my introductions out of the way, tell me about yourself,” Ned seems to say, as if somewhat impatient.

“Well, you see, it’s like this…” Jacob tells his story to Ned, as he leans against the horse drawn cage, sucking in the story, as if there were no tomorrow.

“So you’re saying that you, Jacob, are a man, who was bequeathed to masquerade as your sister in exchange for pieces of paper?”

“Your world is indeed a strange one.” Ned shakes his head defiantly.

“Well, when you put it like that…”

“If I might offer a recommendation?” Ned grimaces before Jacob replies.

“Sure, what is it?” Jacob, just being glad to be out of the cage, is receptive to any ideas.

“I have no problem calling you as you claim, but I study the unknown, such as that ruin I found you in. But others may not be so forthwith to understand. So you may want to fabricate a backstory for yourself, with a new name.”

“But… I’m just Jake… yeah, I guess that won’t work here.”

“What do you mean?” Ned assumes that Jacob is making some kind of “Earth Joke.”

“On Earth ‘I’m just Jake’ was an old phrase, it meant that ‘I’m OK’, and Jake is short for Jacob… but… never-mind.”

“What do you think I should take as a name?” Ned shrugs his shoulders.

“I think you should consider it for yourself. You don’t want someone else giving you a name,” Ned shrugs his shoulders again, giving legitimate advice.

“Uhhh…. For now, I want to be clear to avoid misunderstandings, so I think Crystal would be fine. You know… like being Crystal-clear.”

“OK, Crystal. You don’t know how you got here, for the most part where here is, or why you’re not tired?” Ned says attempting to summarize.

“But you’re from a planet called Earth, in a city-state of Cal-ih-forn-ya?” As if having never heard of that location, Ned shakes his head somewhat.

“Yeah that sums it up. I also don’t know how to get home.” Crystal groans at the difficulty of the situation.

“I think it’d be a good idea to talk to my city’s prophet. She’s a descendant of Aiko herself,” Ned suggests to his new friend.

“Aiko? That name sounds familiar…” The newly named Crystal puts his hand to his chin, pondering about his situation and his fate in this weird world as Ned explains about Aiko.

“Aiko and her husband Mirai slew the false god Demon Lord Amun, who commanded hordes of demons to attack humanity if we got out of line.”

“Oh, she was part of that statue in the ruins. How long ago was that? The statue looked pretty old.”

“Despite how she looks, no one knows for sure, but we estimate that it’s been thousands of years. The prophet isn't the oldest person in the room though. You'll find out when you meet her.”

“You’re sure that this prophet can help me?” Crystal stares skeptically at Ned.

“Not really, but it’s worth a try. Right?” Ned adds hastily, as if uncaring completely of the situation.

“I suppose… So… can… I ride the horse?” Crystal says hopefully, but unknowing how to even ride a horse in the first place.

“Do you know how to ride it?” Ned says somewhat insultingly.

“No…. I was never taught, can you teach me?” Ned stares at Crystal, confused at how he had never learned how to ride a horse.

“In what world do they not teach you how to ride horses when you’re a child?” Ned says confusedly as he’s never heard of horse-riding being uncommon.

“Ummm Earth?” Ned looks somewhat bothered by what he seemingly considers to be a foreign world

“I’d rather not have anything to do with it, thank you.” Ned shakes his head, somewhat frustrated at Crystal's backwards world.

“So what am I doing then?” At Crystal's question, Ned gestures to the cage, much to Crystal's dismay, causing him to grimace, and begin to complain.

“Why me… what did I do to deserve this…” Crystal pulls the cage door, and gets back in, sitting on the floor, prompting Ned to lock the cage much to Crystal's shock and surprise at his new friends actions.

“Wait! Why did you lock it!?” Ned shakes his head yet again, and shrugs his shoulders several times, indicating that he enjoys shrugging.

“For your safety. My city is more advanced than others, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t real thieves and murderers or worse, in this area. We’re a long way away from my city.” Ned shakes his head, sighing to himself with yet another shrug.

“In that time, we can’t have people think that they can just ‘take you.’ If we’re to keep you safe enough to even talk to my cities prophet, we need to make sure they think you’re my capture. Elves are highly prized.” Ned immediately decides to zip his lips, not wanting to say anything more, but this only causes Crystal more than a bit of unease.

“P-P-prized? For what?”

“Trust me, you don’t want to know. If you’re even being half honest with me, you seriously don’t want to know. Not to mention, no Elf I’ve ever met has that shade of blue hair. Their hair is usually silver or jet black. Another thing. If you keep saying you’re a man, that could cause major problems. I’d really recommend going with the flow. Act however you want, but you really shouldn’t say that you’re a guy all the time.” Crystal gulps heavily, his imagination running wild.

“But I am. I’m a guy!” Crystal nearly stamps his foot within the cage uncharacteristically.

“Are you? I’d like to consider myself evolved and generous, but considering you don’t even know where or what you are, I think you should consider your options. A male Elf, looking like you do, could cause a major issue with bandits, thieves and slavers.”

“I’ll… think about it. Wait slavers?” Ned walks back to his horse without answering the question put to him. Crystal sits on the floor of the cage, dismissing his concern as having misheard something, and brings his knees to allow for resting his forehead, as he gradually falls asleep, worried for what his future holds.

― Evening ―

Crystal awakens to find the cage door is still locked, but Ned and the horse are nowhere to be seen.

“Wait! What? Again!? What is with this rotten world and betraying people!” A large burly man with a massive sword on his shoulder walks up to the cage, giggling to himself on his prized catch.

“Guh-hih-hih. Look at her, her hair is like water. Just like he said.”

“Who’s he?” Crystal asks with reckless abandon, struggling to keep his emotions in check.

“Your boyfriend sold you to us. Didn’t he fellas?” 3 additional bandits nearly crawl out of the dark chortling similarly to the larger man.

“Yeah boss. Just like you said.”

“But… he wouldn’t! He was…” Crystal stammers, trying to make sense of all this.

“Your friend? Ha, he was a common thief just like us.”

“I…. No…! He wouldn’t! He was Noodle!” Crystal stammers, broken-hearted, pondering his fate, as he rests his head on his knees as he cries himself back to sleep.

“Mom…”

― Crystal’s Dream ―

Crystal wakes up, finding himself on Earth at home, in his guest room, with the room looking entirely normal, like it always does, but the light is dimmed.

“W-Was it just a dream?” Crystal looks down at himself, finding himself still in his Elven tunic, giving himself a sobering realization.

“Guess not…” The guest room door opens, allowing for Crystal’s mom to walk in. Crystal tries to cry out that he’s so glad to see that she’s OK, but he can’t seem to say the words he wants to say, as if he’s in a dream. Crystal's mom sits in the chair opposite of him, as she glares angrily at her son.

“Who are you?” Crystal tries to say anything, but the words won’t come out, as if some force of unimaginable power is preventing him from begging for help.

“What do you want?” Again, the words won’t come regardless of Crystal’s intention to answer, and slowly but surely, he feels like he’s being crumpled into a box, as Crystal's mom gets the idea that there's something wrong and changes gears, asking instead about Jacob, not realizing the truth as she starts looking around briefly.

“Where is my son?” Crystal tries to gesture and point to himself, but before he can, he vanishes from his mothers sight as he wakes up.

― The Cage ―

Crystal is jostled awake by the sound of the fire being doused and the clattering of a metal bucket against the trees. He looks at the cage, and at the doused fire with the bandits nearby in the fog gathering in the early morning.

“What’s going on this time?” Crystal groans to himself in confusion as he sees the least likely face crawling up to the cage.

“I’m here to get you out of here Crystal… Jacob… whatever.” Ned sits in front of the cage as he fiddles with his keys, inserting one after another trying to unlock the cage.

“It’s you! What happened to me being safe?!” Crystal tries to shake the cage, in doing so, makes somewhat of a racket causing Ned to be somewhat commanding.

“Keep your voice down.”

“Why should I? You sold me to those… bandits?” Ned crouches down to the lock of the cage.

“I didn’t do anything like that. If you don't quiet down, you'll wake them up!” Ned harshly whispers as he continues trying several keys to unlock the cage as silently as possible.

“Why should I believe you?” Crystal narrows his eyes at Ned.

“If I sold you, then why would I still have the key? For that matter, why would I be breaking you out if I sold you to them?” Ned dangles the key in front of Crystal’s cage before jamming it into the keyhole as quietly as he can.

“Wouldn’t I have given it to them? They said that to try to break your spirit. Breaking spirits is very important to slavers. It helps to instill desperation driving the slaves to willfully stay with their so-called owners.”

“Why are you letting me out then?” Crystal asks confusedly, conflicted at the series of events before them.

“They killed my horse. That removes the need to keep you in the cage. Or didn’t you notice the cage is tipped over somewhat?”

“OK… good points… sort of.” Ned finally unlocks the cage lock, regretting that he didn’t throw the lock into the ocean weeks ago as he opens the door, but while opening the door, he finds it squeaks too much.

“Move away from the door?” Ned backs up as Crystal grips the sides of the cage. The door squeaks with every inch the cage door gets to granting freedom to the confined Crystal, but he feels that the squeaking is just too loud.

“What are you going to do?” Crystal kicks the door, causing him to get hit by the door as the squeak loudly sounds in supposed pain. Crystal isn’t sure how things work in this world and half worries that he hurt something.

“OUCH DAMMIT!” Ned frustratedly cries out, and quickly stifles his shout as to avoid waking the bandits. The bandits rustle in their sleep, safe in their knowledge of their bounty being secured as Ned moves out of the way, allowing Crystal to leave the confines of the cage.

“Well, I’d say thanks, but I’m not entirely convinced you didn’t try to sell me,” Crystal shouts quietly, not knowing what normal or crazy is in this mixed up world.

“I told you I didn’t, so I didn’t!” He whispers harshly as they sneak from the camp fire, and away from the slavers, towards a life of freedom, or so Crystal hopes for.

― Forest Trail ―

As soon as the two travelers escape from the camp, they begin to speak at an average volume. Crystal gets glimpses of the forest through the very early morning, finding it to look just like the forests he woke up in.

“So, what? They ambushed you in the middle of the night?” Crystal stares into the distance skeptically, wondering if this Ned is telling the truth, or if it’s a lie designed to do play the long con and wants to do something even worse..

“Pretty much, yeah. It’s not exactly my best moment.” Ned angrily blushes to himself embarrassed at being overtaken.

“But they said you sold me,” Crystal says, more accusingly than intended.

“Are you going to take a bandits word for anything? I told you, they were trying to break your spirit. Why would I tell you anything about my City’s prophet if I was just going to sell you?” Crystal despite his skepticism, agrees with Ned's logic.

“OK, so how long until we get to your city then?”

“Without a horse, it could take days. We need to be careful, especially in the early mornings like this.”

“But isn’t most everything asleep?”

“Not a chance. There are some pretty fierce Canum out here right now. Less though for big Cadent though.”

“Ummm…. What are Canum and Cadents?” Ned stops walking, glaring at Crystal, as if he asked a ridiculous question.

“What are you? 3 years old?” Crystal's cheeks puff up, out of character for him, as he attempts to defend himself.

“Excuse me for not knowing about a different planet! This is my first time in a forest! Let alone a new world!”

“Calm down before we attract attention!” Ned says as he tries to hush Crystal.

“Don’t tell me to calm down after the last couple days I’ve had!”

“No, seriously! We may attract attention! And not the good kind!” Unbeknownst to either of the two, a large animal has set it’s sights on the two wayward travelers.

“I’m just trying to make sure we don’t get the wrong kind of attention OK?” Ned stifles his shouts, as he looks in the distance, seeing an animal sneaking up on the two would-be friends, in the midst of an argument, mostly perpetrated by Crystal and his fear of the unknown of this new planet.

“First I have to dress up like my sister, I get knocked into a car window, then I’m shot! Twice! Then I wake up here, where I’ve been abandoned! LOST! SOLD! TRAFFICKED! WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?! An animal tries to eat me!?” Ned turns around in time to see a large Cadent creeping closer and closer to them.

“No! SERIOUSLY STOP! LOOK!” Ned points at the large animal, causing Crystal to look at it.

“That’s a big… Cadent.” Ned pales looking at the large animal before them, who seems to be getting larger and closer to them the more time passes, but one small piece of him hopes that its just perspective.

“That’s a Cadent? That’s not a Cadent! That’s just… a Saber-Toothed… tiger…!” Both Ned and Crystal gulp harshly, cowering as the large Cadent pounces at them. Crystal stares at the tiger, unable to move beyond cowering, as time seems to slow, and both Ned and Crystal disappear, causing the Cadent to look around confusedly upon it’s landing.

― Outskirts ―

The two travelers appear suddenly in the outskirts of Ned’s City, much to his surprise, once he sees where they are. Within eye-shot distance appears to be a grove of flowers, and behind them is the exit of the forest, and in front of them about 250 paces is the entrance to a large city and a blue phone booth.

“Hey Ned… why hasn’t the tiger eaten us yet?” Crystal loosens his tension, as he prepares to open his eyes.

“I… don’t know?” Ned questions as Crystal opens his eyes, looking around, and finds that the two are in a completely different place.

“Hey, Ned? We’re somewhere else,” Crystal proclaims matter-of-factly.

“What… happened?” Ned opens his eyes, finding that he’s in the outskirts of his city.

“Well, whatever happened, at least we don’t have to deal with that tiger.”

“Wait, what’s a Saber-Tooth Tiger?” Ned asks seemingly confused causing Crystal to stop in his tracks, glaring at Ned.

“What are you? 3 years old?” Crystal says echoing Ned’s previous sentiment.”

“Har har, that’s SO funny.” Ned rolls his eyes at his new friend, giving him a large area of sight for his befuddlement.

“I don’t believe it.” The would-be researcher looks around, befuddled by what he sees.

“What is it this time?” Crystal says angrily, unintentionally stamping his foot, unwilling to accept Ned’s response.

“This is my city, but we were… at least 3 districts away. We'd have to have crossed at least a couple mountains too!”

“How big is a district anyway?”

“A district is about 5000 paces…. Sometimes more.” Crystal assumes that to be about 2 miles.

“Whatever caused it, we can go talk to the prophet now right?”

“Yeah…” he says confused at the sudden distance change of scenery as a young looking woman walks towards the group from the less distant city entrance. She runs towards the two teens, pulling out a paper fan.

“Oh no… oh no no no!” Ned shouts, clearly terrified.

“What is it this time???” Crystal shouts in confusion as Ned gets on his knees, prostrating himself, hoping for forgiveness for something he’s unaware of.

“I’m sorry! I won’t do it again!” he shouts, knowing full well that he would be slapped with the woman’s fan for something he’s done. The woman approaches the two, and slaps Crystal with her fan causing a loud THWAP sound, knocking him out. She looks at Crystal and Ned as she speaks in a somewhat cold voice.

“You’d better take Crystal back to your place. When they wake up, let me know and bring them to me.” Ned in his frightened state simply nods emphatically, and soon he picks Crystal up and calls for a ride with a nearby phone booth.
―――――

Hi there,

Thank you for reading chapters 1-5 if you have.
if you haven't, I strongly suggest that you read those first as Miscent is a continuing story and this is chapter 6. There are recurring characters.

Chapter 6
― Crystal ―

― ??? ―
Crystal starts to wake up, finding himself in a large, but nice bed, unsure of how he got there. He looks around the room that he currently occupies, and likes the room, but his thoughts gradually revert to the same thought over and over again.

“This room is really nice, but I’d rather be home.”

While looking around beyond the bed, Crystal finds a full length mirror, a window with horizontal blinds, with a white wall base of some kind of material in-between plaster and metal with a sliding door. Moments pass and the apparently sliding door is knocked on, allowing Crystal a moment to respond before it’s opened.

“Uhhh yeah?” The door opens, revealing Ned as he walks into the room wearing something similar to a Hakama.

“Hey, are you OK? You really got knocked out. I’m surprised she didn’t go for me too.”

“Where… am I? The last thing I remember… I was uhhh…” Crystal tries to remember what happened, but his memory is still somewhat scrambled.

“You got thwapped,” Ned supplies elegantly causing Crystal to stare at him, not knowing what to say.

“…Uhhh…Yeah…” Crystal, not knowing how else to put it, agrees as he slowly remembers.

“I got thwapped by that woman. Who was she?”

“That… was-” Crystal interrupts him.

“Wait, let me guess… that was the prophet. Right?” Ned takes that moment to answer his new friends question.

“Yeah, that was her. And before you say anything about her age, don’t.” Ned shudders to himself.

“But, isn’t she old and wrinkled? Isn’t that what prophets are?”

“And that’s why you were thwapped,” Ned says as if the reason was obvious.

“But, I don’t get it. What did I do to get thwapped?” Crystal complains, asking why he was hit by a fan in the first place.

“She’s a prophet, she thwapped you, because you said… well… ‘That’… In her vision. And you just said it right now. She's usually right on the money in her visions, ” Ned comments uncertainly as Crystal continues waking up.

“Oh… wait, aren’t visions only partially accurate or something? Like visions are part of one of a bajillion timelines?”

“Ask her that. But don’t be presumptuous. She’ll know. She’s a prophet. More than that though, she knows how to read people like a book.” Ned gestures his hand, as if he’s holding a ball.

“Come on. You’ve been asleep for a few days.” Crystal stretches in place for a few moments, realizing that he appears to be in a Japanese styled robe, also similar to a hakama.

“What am I wearing? Where’s that outfit I was wearing before?

“You’re wearing a customary Fusoban Robe for guests. Your Elven tunic is in the wash.” Ned looks away from his would be guest in a light blush.

“In the wash? Was it that dirty?”

“Yeah, like a washer and dryer. We don’t just use Magic for everything. Welcome back to civilization.”

“B-But I thought you used a… horse and a cage?” Crystal stares at Ned with a dumbfounded expression.

“Well, yeah, but I’m just dumb. I prefer… hoof-ing it like the old days. It reconnects me to nature and all that. We live in a society that blends Magic and Science to create Magical Technology. Get it? Horse... Hoofing?” Ned half-jokes to himself, but when Crystal doesn't laugh, he waves his hand.

“Do… do you have any pants I could wear?” Crystal asks somewhat hopefully, not liking the robe.

“I had a feeling you’d ask. The maids were against it, but I snuck some into the top drawer next to you. I’ll close the door so you can get changed.”

“Ummm… thanks.” The door closes, and before Crystal can even move, the door opens a crack, just enough for Ned to mention something through the opening.

“Oh by the way. We’re on a time table, hurry up. And before you ask, I didn’t peek.” The door closes once more, leaving Crystal with his thoughts.

“Deja-vu much?” Crystal thinks to himself as he steps out of the surprisingly western styled bed, finding himself in a Japanese styled room. He peers out the window to find a somewhat classically styled Japanese city.

“Huh… I… guess I’m out of the wilderness and into Japan, or at least... something like it.” Crystal takes that moment to analyze his new form despite numerous instances of having to look away, due to indescribable events, he determines that he is indeed a woman now, but refuses to use ‘she’ or ‘her.’ He waits a few moments and opens the door, and walks out of the room.

― Hallway ―

Crystal leaves the room wearing the clothing provided, unsure of what this entire experience may mean for himself, as he walks into the hallway with Ned in his Hakama-like outfit. The floors seem to be similar to a traditional Japanese house, with long wood planks, polished almost to a sheen with the walls and sliding doors practically paper thin.

“Finally, I swear girls take so long to get changed,” Ned says frustratedly as he sighs and begins to walk, causing Crystal to scowl somewhat.

“Follow me. We lost a bit of time there. But assuming your story is true, then you’re probably feeling a lot of foreign new stuff. I guess I should be more understanding.”

“Sorry for being from another world. This body feels so weird… or this place feels weird. I don’t know which.” Crystal frustratedly exclaims as the two travelers once more walk together towards the exit of the house, finding a very fancy car waiting for them.

― Parking ―

They walk out of the house, finding the fancy car ahead of them, despite the car being here, Crystal finds that the area completely boxed the car in, even if the area is somewhat spacious, there are only person sized doors amidst the cement like walls.

“Your city has cars? But I thought… I mean… I don’t understand,” The Neo-Elf says astounded while scratching his head. Ned opens the car door, by pressing a button above the window, resulting in the car door opening, almost like a gullwing, but it retracts inward above the inside of the car, rather than above the car.

“Oh… my god… look at this… Retractable doors… I wonder how it works… how does it work?”

“Get in. How many times do I need to say that we’re on a timetable?” Crystal ignores him and walks around the car, trying to soak it all in and wonders the car works, making theories and in his bewilderment, he bumps into Ned once more having gone full circle.

“Is this a sufficient carriage milady?” Ned smart-mouths off towards Crystal only serving to anger him.

“Stop calling me that! I’m not trans. I’m a guy!” Crystal says indignantly with a frown.

“Yeah yeah, let’s get in. The sooner we get to the prophet, the sooner we can get this over with and you'll be out of my hair.” Crystal's frown deepens.

“You don’t like me much… do you…?” Crystal sighs, resting his elbow on the car's internal door trim, and soon his chin rests on his palm.

“It’s not that, I think, assuming you’re a guy like you say you are, you’re a pretty… cool guy, it’s just… ahhhh come on. It’s nothing,” He says unsure of his own emotions.

“He’s nothing like Noodle…” Crystal thinks to himself as he gets into the car.

― In The Car ―

Ned and Crystal sit on the back seat of the car while the newly realized girl slightly bounces up and down in the seat, grateful that it’s slightly bouncy and cushy. The car by itself, seems like the inside of a limo, but smaller, even with a separator from the back and the front and the doors extend down to the floor, however Crystal’s actions cause Ned to stare at him.

“You’re like a kid, I swear.” Ned rolls his eyes at his friends childishness.

“Look, I don’t know why either, I’m just so… I feel like… oh never-mind, you wouldn’t understand.” The window in front of them scrolls down to reveal a driver.

“Where to, sir?”

“Oh, ummm to the prophet? The wonderful prophet of… Japan?” Crystal says uncertainly causing Ned to look at him questioningly, sizing him up.

“He meant me. In-case you hadn’t noticed, you hardly look like a sir right now with your naturally small Elven Stature, even when wearing pants, or that short hair.”

“W-W-WHAT DOES THAT MEAN!?” Crystal says, greatly offended, but doesn't quite know why.

“Just that you’re small. But that’s OK. You’re still growing. Give it time.”

“I’ll have you know that I was practically 6 feet on Earth,” Crystal shouts begrudgingly as he starts to look out the cars window.

“Yeah well, you’re about 5 feet here.” The driver waits for a moment before he coughs impatiently, causing Ned to redirect his attention to the driver.

“Oh, right. Can you take us to my grandmother?” Crystal, enamored with the car, doesn’t hear that the prophet is Ned’s grandmother.

“Yes sir. It’s a bit far, but I can do that,” The driver says boringly.

“Thank you. I appreciate it.”

“Of course sir,” The driver says after a long sigh.

“Hey Ned? How are we going to leave? The only doors in and out are person sized.” The window scrolls up, and the car’s engine turns over, as the car lifts up into the air.

“T-THIS… OH MY GOD!! THIS IS A FLYING CAR!?” Crystal nearly screams, but his shout bounces in the cabin of the car, frustrating Ned, causing him to take hold of his ears for a few moments.

“Well, yeah, what did you think we had? Even the hidden Elves city has some kind of a flying car, or so I’ve heard. But don’t quote me on that.” Crystal continues to stare out the window, mystified at the distance they're traveling, and more so, how they're traveling.

“Well… well we don’t where I come from OK!” Ned looks out the window boringly, paying no attention to his friends defensiveness, as Crystal peers out excitedly with various expressions of fear when the car turns.

“I can’t believe this! I’m in a flying car! THIS IS SO COOL!” Crystal almost squeaks in his excitement. Over the next 30 minutes, the car takes varying turns, keeping Crystal glued to the window, until the car slows it’s descent onto the roads, finally arriving at the two passengers intended end-destination.

― Prophet’s Residence ―

They arrive at Ned’s grandmother’s house, and find her waiting outside with some armed guards. The prophet herself seems to have a light tinge of pink in her hair, as she wears relatively modern clothing of a long sleeved tan button up blouse and brown pants with and a pair of reading glasses.

The house seems to be somewhat similar to a modern house from Earth, but in better quality with a large cement fence all around it, similar to Ned’s house. The two visitors leave the car, and Ned pokes his head back in to offer gratitude to the driver.

“Thank you for the trip, we’ll be back in a bit.”

“Of course, sir,” The driver says as he unfolds a newspaper to read while Ned is inside. Crystal tries to re-orient himself with the ground struggling to avoid falling over, Ned walks up to his young looking grandmother.

“Granny…” The frustrated grandma knocks him gently in the forehead in response to his apparent accusation of the young-looking grandmother.”

“Come on Edward, do I look like a ‘granny?’” Ned’s grandmother appears as a teenage girl of about 18 years old, much to her chagrin. Crystal walks up to the un-aged grandmother, in an attempt to be respectful, but fearing her retribution.

“Hello honored-” The supposed elder interrupts Crystal harshly.

“Do not call me honored elder. I understand that where you’re from that’s likely to be very respectful, but I personally would rather avoid it. My name is Kana Kaminari. Call me Kana.”

“Kaminari? That sounds familiar.” Crystal puts his hand to his chin as he ponders about where he had heard the prophets name.

“The statue you saw perhaps?” The prophet suggests with a cheeky grin.

“Y-Yeah, those statues were called… ummm…”

“Aiko and Mirai Kaminari,” The apparent elder supplements for the new apparent Elf.

“Yeah them…” The neo-girl mutters, being reminded of the statue’s names.

“Come inside, we have much to discuss.” Crystal and Ned look at each other warily, causing Crystal to shake his head inelegantly as he walks inside.

― Inside the Prophet’s House ―

Inside the prophets house appears to be very ancient in comparison to the outside. Several tarps lay on the ground, rather than carpet or tile, and varying bowls, and cups lay on tables of varying heights.

On the wall hangs a portrait of a pair of cups and an ace symbol, causing Crystal to wonder about if that means something, but soon forgets about it as Kana walks into another room gesturing for Crystal and Ned to follow her.

“Come in here please.” Kana calls to them both, beckoning them further. Soon Crystal and Ned walk into the strange room filled with bowls and sit down at the table opposite of Kana.

“So, what can I help you with? Wait…. Don’t tell me…. You’re looking for…. A bicycle?”

“Uhhh…. Nnnooo? My name is Crystal. Firstly, why did you… ummm 'thwap' me?” The wizened prophet narrows her eyes in a glare as she glances at Ned, and back to Crystal.

“You called me old,” Kana says as if that justified anything.

“But you couldn’t have possibly known that I’d call you that? Aren’t visions like… only possible futures?” Crystal says drawing on their experience in fiction, in things such as back to 1985 part 1, 2 and 3, as well as the Wagon of the Stars

“A possible future though it may be, the other one that I saw, was you being blamed for a bank robbery, then you went to prison for a century,” The prophet smiles in her response as if to say “so there you are.”

“So… you thwapped me hard enough to knock me out so I wouldn’t be blamed for robbing a bank?” Crystal wracks his mind trying to think about if that justifies the prophet's actions.

“And also because… you called me old. Visions are strange things sometimes, but yes. That being said, let’s not call it thwapping. It sounds wrong.” the sage says somewhat humorously. Crystal glares at Ned, who named the effect a thwap before eventually returning his attention to the prophet.

“Kana, I was told that you wanted to see me.”

“Ahh yes. Well Crystal, I know who you are. But I don’t know names. My visions are often clouded in that way.”

“Wait, you’re saying her story is true?” Kana glares at Ned, clearly disbelieving of his idiocy.

“Their story is true, yes.” Kana openly exclaims, exciting Crystal, having someone on his side.

“C-can you tell me what happened?” Crystal holds his chest. His heart feeling like it's beating so hard it might pound out of his chest, making him appear as if he's feeling faint.

“I can tell you some of what happened. Some is shielded even from my eyes. That’s been happening more and more frequently, so when I do see a vision, it’s generally important.” Crystal's hope has not yet been dashed, despite the vagueness of the warning.

“Then can you tell me what you know?” Crystal says quietly, not wanting to ask too much of one of his only allies in all the world.

“Of course dear, please know however, that I don’t know much, I can only see, I don’t hear, as a result, I don’t know many names. After you were attacked, your mother struck her foe with more ferocity than I’ve ever seen, likely exceeding that of my own mother,” Kana narrates, and stares at the fidgeting Crystal empathetically.

“It is very clear to me, that your mother is far more than an ordinary woman, and your sister, much like yourself has the capacity for greatness, even if she blames herself for your accident.”

“Your mother, she…. She’s someone that no one would want to cross in a dark alley, as you humans might say. Though I wonder why she had silver hair. You’re not that old are you?”

“W-What happened to my body?” Crystal blurts out dismissing the parts he isn’t ready to hear.

“Your mother took your collapsed form to a hospital and you were taken into emergency care. But the damage was… extensive.”

“Did anyone else get hurt?” Crystal asks carefully, concerned about Julia and Noodle.

“No one other than yourself had been harmed due to your sacrifice and your mothers actions. Your mother seems to be aware to some extent of what has happened to you, but not where you are, though I’m confused as to how she would surmise that you were summoned to another world.”

“Your body on Earth is in intensive care, and not even your mother can visit you at least yet.”

“D-Did my mother know there would be an attack?” Crystal pleads, swallowing his words. For several moments, the woman does not reply, knowing that the information may do more harm than good.

“No, from what I’m seeing, but she intended on leaving the day after in an attempt to locate the one who would have attacked you.”

“You said ‘You humans?’ Aren’t you human too?”

“Not quite I’m afraid. My family has traces of human beings in us, but that’s all.”

“So… I really am on another planet?” The prophet looks deeply at Crystal, contemplating what to say.

“Yes, you are on a different planet, more than that…. You’re likely on a different plane of existence.” Crystal again looks at Kana with confusion, not sure what she means.

“So, what are they doing now? How can I get home?” The prophet looks at Crystal with a gentle look, contrasting to her former piercing and confused gazes.

“There are 2 ways to return home, at least from what I understand. But keep in mind, I am not an expert. 1. You would need to do what you came here to do. Or… 2. You would return to your body, if your present form were to… die. But, you would remember nothing, you would be in excruciating pain.”

“Wait, why? What do you mean?” Kana bites her bottom lip slightly.

“Crystal, your shoulder and chest have holes in them, and you may need some form of breathing assistance for the rest of your life.” Kana taps Crystal’s shoulder as one of the locations of a gunshot wound.

“But I mean, I’m right here! I’m breathing fine!” Crystal says not quite understanding that their current form and their body on Earth are two very different physical beings and soon Kana gives Crystal his options.

“The way I see it, you have two choices. Consider this a dream, and wake up. If you do this world will fade from your mind like a nightmare, or do what’s necessary to save yourself.” Crystal weighs the two options, as if holding them in the palm of his hands.

“If I ‘do what’s necessary’ then I’d be healed on Earth?” The wizened figure, despite looking like a woman in her 20s, eyes the apparent young woman before her like a great sage might.

“It’s not always that easy, but I don’t know. What do you want to do?”

“I want to go home, and I know it’s really childish to say, but I want my mom… I know that it’s really selfish. But I want to go home.”

“As one would in your situation. That’s completely normal.”

“But, if I’m here for a reason, I have to know. I could never look at myself the same way if I gave up.” Crystal sighs to himself, clearly disrupted by this revelation of choice.

“Technically, you wouldn’t know that you had ‘given up’ as you say.” Kana says, giving Crystal some idea as to what might happen, if they give up.

“No, I would know, I wouldn’t know why I know. I wouldn’t know what I gave up. But I’d know it’s probably important.” Crystal glares downward, as if shamefully imagining what would happen if he did just give up, picking option 2.

“But, I don’t know what it is that I’m supposed to do. Can you help me to find out what it is?” For the fourth time, the wizened figure stares at Crystal with an almost un-perceivable thought.

“I can’t. But I can direct you to a place that you can go to possibly find out.” Ned steps up towards his young looking grandmother interrupting her.

“Grandma! You can’t be serious!” The prophet lightly thwapps Ned in the face with her fan, causing him to stop in his tracks, as he holds his face, groaning in mild pain.

“You would need some supplies, and you would need to go far to the north. To the same mountains that Aiko ventured to, in order to hide the Glaive of fables long past.”

“Who were Aiko and Mirai anyway?” The room becomes so silent that a pin drop could be heard and Ned has a feeling of dread so profound that he fears the oncoming explanation, while his grandmother bounces in place.

“Oh no, you shouldn’t have done that.” Ned slaps his forehead at Crystal, as if a genie was released from the bottle, causing him to step back, checking his watch. Kana pulls some drapes that flow to the sides revealing a large board of various people, like a conspiratorial detective might have. The board shows many names, with old illustrations of varying people ranging from ‘Takashi’ to ‘Aiko’ and beyond.

“Weeeell, we think that Aiko was a half demon, born to the demon god Amun, and the Messorem Tiresias. This granted Aiko a strong sense of morality but also of foresight.” Kana taps her board with a pointing stick, and soon time passes while Kana gives a history lesson on Aiko and Mirai, as well as of the world around them.

― Several Hours Later ―

As interested as Crystal is in the world’s past, he has to ask questions from time to time, and soon evening falls while Ned bumps his head against the wall, having heard this explanation many times.

“And that is the known story of my mother and father.” Kana finally finishes her very expansive explanation.

“Wait, Ned, didn’t you say that people THINK it was thousands of years ago?” Crystal glares at his cohort, not sure if he’s remembering correctly.

“Yes, that’s correct," The prophet claims broadly and with some large amount of price before Ned can answer, contesting this claim of hers.

“But Aiko was your mom…?” Crystal confusedly asks once more.

“Yes, that’s also correct," The prophet once more proclaims. Fidgeting with some cups nearby, stacking them briefly, rims on top of rims.

“So then you’re…. Thousands of years old?” Crystal asks skeptically, as he starts to wonder how much of this is in his head, and mentally counts the strange oddities that he’s experienced.

“Well… I mean..." The supposed young woman stammers to herself.

“If you want to put it that way, I’d prefer saying I’m thousands of years young, thank you very much,” The prophet says somewhat miffed by the accusation of being old, but lets her distaste go, in favor of attempting to help Crystal with their quandary.

“So… how does that relate to me?” Crystal, again in his confusion, attempts piecing things together, but isn't able to before Kana answers the question.

“Aiko and Mirai had a unique experience back a few thousand years ago. Not that anyone believes me.” Kana glares at Ned who refuses to believe that she’s actually thousands of years old, let alone the daughter of the two saviors of the world.

“Here's the gist though Crystal. I theorize that Aiko and Mirai were what I call a Blending. And I think you are too. Admittedly, I don’t have another word for it. But it’s where someone from another world, inhabits the body of someone here. Or vice-versa. The two are then blended, as much as can be. This can only happen upon the death of those here however. During the Blending itself, the body is healed of all injuries. So let’s say that Ned here died.” Ned’s saliva goes down the wrong pipes, causing him to gasp, breathing in deeply.

“Let’s not, and say we did,” Ned says uncomfortably, despite this complaint however, Kana continues her explanation.

“So then someone else, let’s say, another Ned. Who fancies himself a knight let’s say.” Crystal chokes on his saliva in response while laughing, and imagining this example literally.

“So let’s say that this other Ned, then occupies this Ned’s body. This causes the body to be fully healed due to the energies of the universe coalescing and all that kind of good stuff.” Crystal continues imagining a big bad monster smashing potato soldiers in armor, that end up coming back to life.

“So you’re saying the reverse of that happened to me? I … died on Earth and was summoned here into a dying body and here I am?”

“Do… my circumstances change what body I go into?” Kana looks at the concerned Crystal like a mother would to her daughter who just ‘danced’ the whole chorus of a movie ending.

“No dear. Your… sister’s request held no bearing on your current form in any way.” Crystal breathes a sigh of relief.

“H-How much do you know?” Kana takes Crystal's hands into her own.

“I know enough Crystal. I know what you may have ended up doing if you had never taken your sisters request, and what she may have done. That she would not be the one here instead of you. even if she had been in the same situation. I fear that for her, it would have been far more grave.”

“And no Crystal, you’re not special in the sense that ‘Only you can save the world.’ But you are important.” Crystal looks up at the woman, tears welling in his eyes.

“So what do I need to do?”

“Far to the north, in the Grand Temple of Ice and Snow, is a cave, it was previously owned by my mother. She had many adventures of her own, whether with, or without my father. It was originally meant for leisure, but she repurposed it to protect the cave. In the old days, it would take you to the lake of Requiescence. However it is sometimes called ‘The Lake of Remembrance.’ Or a cave instead of a lake. Once you’re there, you may rest and dip your hand in the waters, and find why you are here.”

“How far north?” Crystal asks, scared to actually know the answer.

“You would want to go about 25 districts worth.” Crystal turns somewhat pale, thinking of that as about 50 miles.

“Can I take one of those flying cars?” Crystal grips their hand lightly, hoping to find out what he needs to do, hope springing from his eyes.

“Flying Cars only work in the residential sectors because of an artificial power grid using magnetics. They won’t work in forests, mountains or otherwise,” Ned pipes in, hoping that he can convince Crystal not to go head-first into danger.

“What else do I need to know? Ned?” Before Ned can answer, Crystal remembers something that he said before.

“What did you mean by bandits and thieves do things with Elves?” Ned panics slightly, as Kana takes hold of her trademark folding fan.

“NED! What did you tell them?!” Kana prepares her folding fan for Ned’s evening thwappening.

“Nothing! I mean… I MAY have let it slip that Elves are highly prized.” Kana groans frustratedly at her idiotic grandson, rubbing her temples.

“Crystal, this is far from a perfect world. Slavery unfortunately does happen here in Fusoba, not so much at all in Heimr though. It’s completely outlawed in this city. But outside, you may not be protected. You have to be careful. Your being an Elf, and having blue hair like a cloud in space or the ocean is very taunting to thieves and bandits. You’re at risk, everywhere you go outside. Even other cities. Depending on which city, they may even make it legally required to have an owner.”

“I… uhhh….” Crystal stammers to himself as he doesn't know how to take all this.

“Think about how you want to do this. You have all the time you need.” Kana shakes her head, and walks towards the conspiracy board about her family with the intent of putting away her toys.

“M-Magic is a thing here right?” Crystal asks, trying to find some way to make things easier on him and his quest of great importance.

“Well, yes… but very few actually know how to use it. Even I don’t know much of it’s use.” Kana puts her hand to her chin, wondering why that is despite her age as Crystal wrenches her from that train of thought.

“Can you teach me what you do know? Aren’t Elves supposed to be like… really talented in Magic?”

“Ned? What do you think? You’ve been outside the city more than I have.” Kana stays the fan blades of her thwapping mastery, but feels like she may regret it.

“Well, I’ve never actually seen Elves use Magic. They have actually been more talented in martial arts than Magic, but they aren’t particularly strong.” Crystal arches an eyebrow, wondering what he meant by that.

“Why are they usually prized then? Physical labor?” Crystal again brings his hand to his chin in thought, wondering what Elves could be useful for with regards to slavery.

“Mostly as mates actu-.” Kana thwaps Ned with a resounding noise seemingly knocking him out, before he can finish his sentence. Crystal’s mood immediately sours at the trail of thought that Ned was going in, and finally understands the direction he intended on going.

“I… I mean… why?” Crystal yet again turns pale, understanding what Ned meant while Kana stares at the young man before her once more, in an entirely new light endlessly intrigued by his innocence, and wondered how far that might inhibit him.

“Have you never… considered anything like that? Having children?” Crystal brings his hand to his chin, thinking about if he’s ever had an interest like that. Despite his contemplation, he comes to the conclusion that he hasn’t ever thought of that subject in the slightest without provocation.

“No, I guess… I’ve never been interested. Unless someone else brought it up, I never had any opinion at all to be honest.”

“Very intriguing…” The prophet mutters to themselves a little too loudly, causing some display of annoyance from Crystal.

“Why? Is that weird?” Crystal asks carefully, not wanting to frustrate the wizened sage-like prophet.

“Oh, no reason especially. I want you two to spend the night here, think about what you want to do about this journey, and let me know your decision in the morning.” Kana starts to pack up for the evening, placing cups in their correct spots, as Crystal again interrupts that train of thought.

“K-Kana? Can I ask you something? I’m not asking you to decide for me. But… I’m genuinely looking for advice… what do you think I should do?” Kana stares at Crystal, folding her arms.

“I can’t, and won’t decide for you kiddo. That being said… I suggest whatever it is that you choose to do. You do what you think is right. That’s what my mom would do at least.”

“So… Magic is an unknown. Nobody knows why I’m here. I could be enslaved if I leave the city… but to know why I’m here, I have to go to the north.” Crystal tries to take hold of his hair in desperation, but finds it’s too short.

“But wait…. Didn’t Ned say that Magic and technology were blended here? Ahhh whatever, it was probably a slip of the tongue…” Crystal thinks to himself as he remains hard pressed on what he should do.

“That’s the gist of it. Like I said, this isn’t a perfect world, also you may want to go to the remains of the ancient fortress on Mt. Ishitani to the west to pick up some maps.” Crystal bumps his forehead onto the table, scared for his future, wondering what to do.

“C-Can I ask you one more thing before we stop being Super Mega Serious?” The prophet laughs at the idea of not being super mega serious as Crystal said.

“Yes Crystal, what’s wrong?” Crystal grips the hakama-like uniform he currently wears.

“Ned said that Male Elves that look like me…. They’re even more rare than female Elves.”

“He implied that I should just say that I’m a girl.” Kana glares at the unconscious thwapped young man on the ground while rubbing her temples.

“When will he learn to shut up? Yes. That’s true, while I think that saying such things would make things somewhat easier on you, that is your choice. We would respect your decision.” Crystal claps his face a couple times before realizing that he doesn't know what to do.

“I… don’t know what I should do…”

“And that’s OK. Take your time. Follow me up to the guest room. I’ll get you made up in bed for the night.” Kana smiles at Crystal, and just before she summons her maids or butlers, Crystal asks an innocent question.

“You’re… putting makeup on me? For when I’m asleep? Or did we have an argument and I didn’t see it?” The prophet doesn’t know if Crystal is obfuscating stupidity, but decides to err on the side of caution, that he simply doesn’t know what “to get made up” means, and begins to ask him quite plainly about if he knows what it means.

“Do you know what ‘To get made up’ means?” The foreigner shakes their head as if oblivious to the dual nature of the term.

“It means, to get made up for the night means, to get your bed ready for sleeping in.”

“Oh… what about Ned?” Kana looks around, realizing that Ned is still on the ground, seemingly as if waiting to be taken to his room upstairs.

“Oh… right…” Kana claps her hands gently and rings a bell causing a couple of butlers and maids to enter the room.

“What can we do for you, madam?” Kana breathes deeply, having told him before that she doesn't like being called old.

“Don’t call me that please, you know how I feel about being aged like that.” The lead butler sighs before rephrasing his question.

“How may we be of service… pretty… young… miss?” The butler struggles to get the words out, but once he does, Kana smiles in glee at being referred to as young, even if under duress causing Crystal to stare in bewilderment at the conversation before him, as he wonders what exactly could possibly cause this kind of situation.

“Can you please take my grandson upstairs and get him made up for the evening after his… uhhh…”

“Evening thwapping?” The butler supplements gracefully after a few seconds of silence.

“No… let’s not call it that. It sounds wrong.” The young looking prophet shivers to herself.

“But is that what we should be doing?”

“Yes, take him upstairs please, and get him tucked into bed.” Kana requests before turning her attention back to Crystal.

“Of course, young miss,” The butler says impatiently, struggling to make the sounds come out of his mouth.

“Thank you as always. I’ll make sure to make the staff some breakfast tomorrow.”

“You don’t have to, as always, young miss. It is very appreciated Ma… young Miss,” The butler says as he catches himself.

“It’s the least I can do.” The ‘young’ prophet turns back to the apparent young lady in front of her.

“Now where were we? Oh right, yes! Come with me.” The two walk up the stairs to the second of three floors, adding to the wonder of how Kana can afford this house.

“So… what do you do…? Professionally I mean.” Kana looks at Crystal, surprised that he has any interest in her professional life, especially given his circumstances.

“I’m a politician by night and I work with a group of restoration archaeologist by day. Yeah, I know, it’s not always really fun, and there are so many books or movies that exaggerate what I do. I was my mothers direct child, named after an old friend of hers. So I guess my mother’s initial immortality passed on to me. Trust me, it’s not what it’s cracked up to be. Translation being, I don’t need sleep. But oh my god is it nice when I can get some.” Crystal stares in confusion at the politician-archaeologist causing her to laugh as he tries to verbalize the question of how that works.

“So… why was Ned at that ruin? Do you know?” Kana stops and places her hand on Crystal's shoulder.

“I sent him there for you.” Kana says with a smirk, as her guest attempts to piece yet more puzzles together.

“Wait, how did you kno- Oh…. You're a prophet,” Crystal half interrupts himself as he realizes the truth.

“Now you’re catching on,” Kana says with a laugh as she leads Crystal to the guest room, with the intent of letting him sleep through the night, peacefully and at ease.

― Guest Room ―

Kana walks into her guest room on the second floor of her house, as Crystal follows carefully. He observes that the room seems to have a very light shade of yellow for the walls, with a cabinet inside the wall, a large bed with drapes above it, and silk-looking blankets as well as a large mirror. She prepares Crystal’s guest room, along with some pajamas and clothes for the following day.

“Now then, I’ve left some pajamas and clothes for tomorrow on this seat. There’s a bathroom over there, and I’ve also prepared a midnight snack for you in-case you need it.”

“Please make yourself at home.” Crystal looks bewildered at the kindness shown to a stranger such as himself, somewhat worried of overstepping boundaries that he's unaware of, boundaries that are common to this world, but not to Earth.

“Why are you… being so nice to me?” Crystal asks, curious about why a stranger would be so kind as to invite him into her home.

“Is there a reason I shouldn’t be?” In Crystal’s eyes, he’s somewhat skeptical, but can’t think of a single ulterior motive of why she shouldn't be nice, or trust him.

“No, but I mean-” Kana interrupts Crystal with the dreaded ‘mom-tone.’”

“Are you planning to try to harm me in my sleep?” Crystal stammers, unsure why she'd think that.

“No, I wouldn’t do that! I was raised better than that.” Crystal stops talking for a few moments, trying to understand why Kana is asking this.

“Are you planning on stealing anything? I mean, granted there isn’t much to steal in the first place.”

“No, But-” Kana again interrupts Crystal.

“Are you intentionally planning on doing anything bad?” Crystal tries to get it across that that's not what he meant, but he's stopped at each turn.

“No but-” Kana once again interrupts Crystal, trying to make a point, that his staying will create no quandaries.

“Then theres no problem. Sleep tiiight. Or is there a problem?”

“Look… I just…” Crystal sits on the somewhat comfortable bed, and Kana soon follows suit, sitting next to Crystal as he unloads his thoughts weighing on his mind.

“When I was on Earth, I was a man, and I wasn’t really the most manly of men, in fact sometimes I only acted a certain way because I saw it as the default. But now, anything I knew is gone. My family is gone. Everything I’ve ever known is gone, and I don’t even know what I’m doing here.” Crystal groans to himself frustratedly.

“Hmmmm well… did you have a girl… or a guy that you liked back home?” Crystal sits on the bed laying down, and Kana soon follows, leaving Crystal to wonder if the prophet next to them already knows about Julia.

“I had a girl I met, and we were going to go on a date or something on Thursday! I don’t even know what it was going to be…” Crystal groans frustratedly while covering their eyes, almost creating suction between their palms and eyes.

“Thursday? What’s that?” The prophet asks in genuine curiosity.

“It’s a day. There’s Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It was a Friday, the day of the prom, so I was going to go out with her tonight probably,” Crystal says trying to do some mental math.

“Hmmm. What did you like about her? It’s OK, you can say her physical features.”

“I… actually didn’t care about her physical features. I know most guys would say ‘Oh her chest’ or ‘Her hips’ or something.”

“Hmmm yeah, many would,” Kana supplements curiously, wondering what the visitor will say next, ever curious about Earth and it’s customs.

“But to me, I found her personality intriguing.” Crystal smiles, thinking about Julia's sparkling personality.

“What did you find interesting about her?”

“She and I genuinely liked this game. Anima Power 6. It's about-” Kana cuts off the story before he can get too far into what Anima Power 6 is about.

“A game? What’s that?” She says jokingly, implying knowledge belying her visual age.

“Ummm In this case it’s a video game. Like… something you’d interact with on a telev-” Kana interrupts once again as Crystal didn’t catch that she was joking.

“I know what you meant. I was joking.”

“Oh… OK… so I was at the prom and she was the only one who recognized me for being me.”

“Well, if you’d like, I can attempt to peer into the Earth to see what she’s up to.” Crystal holds his hand up, as if to say to stop.

“But that would invade her privacy!” Crystal all but shouts outward towards Kana, giving her pause as she considers Crystal's request.

“Then I’ll let you know if I see her, but I won’t ‘Intentionally go looking’ does that sound fair?”

“I guess… but I’d prefer she tell me herself.” The wizened prophet puts her hand to her chin, curious about how that would happen across such great distances.

“Regardless, you should get changed and go to sleep. You’ve likely got a big day ahead of you tomorrow.”

“Oh by the way, I’ve also set a mirror over there for you, in case you want to look at your hair or whatever.” Kana points to the mirror in the far side of the room.

“I… was about to ask for one. Thank you…” Crystal says shyly, trying to avoid thinking about the clear differences between his two forms, opting to focus on the surface details, like his hair.

“Yes, I know dear. Sleep well.” The prophet gives Crystal a brief hug and then leaves the room, closing the door. He waits the briefest amount of time, instinctively reacting to all the times that Ellen would open the door just a crack to say something and then half-slam it closed again and he almost expects Ellen to come out of nowhere, but nothing happens.

“I wonder how Ellen’s doing…” The new girl sighs, taking hold of the mirror on the nightstand, finally getting a clear look at his face and hair. Crystal sighs, seeing the uniqueness of his hair. His new almost button nose, ever so slightly puffy cheeks, freckles and chin. From every angle, there was no trace of his former self.

“I guess I should have expected that I wouldn’t see myself,” He says more frustrated than even he expected.

“I guess I should practice how I’m going to refer to myself.” Crystal stands up, off the bed, and steps into the middle of the room, away from any furniture for at least a few feet, as he starts mockingly acting scared, trying to be quiet as he starts mocking the bandit from the previous encounter at the former campsite cage combination.

“Gir hur hur, I’m a big scary bandit and you’re a girl Elf.” Crystal then spins around to the opposite side of the fictitious villain.

“Nuuu not me, I’m not that kind of g…. I’m not that kind of g…” Crystal groans, opting to spin around back to the bandits spot.

“Not that kind of what?” Crystal spins back around to be himself.

“Uhhh I’m not that kind of…” Crystal sighs heavily.

“Sigh… this isn’t working.” Crystal flops on his bed, frustrated that he can’t refer to himself as a “girl” even when in mock examples, it simply doesn’t feel right. He stares at himself in the mirror, realizing that his chest is sore from his flopping on the bed, and that he needs to be more careful and introspective.

“I’m not a girl. But I’m not a guy anymore either. I never liked guys or girls like ‘that’ either. What should I do?” Crystal soon decides to change clothes and get ready for bed, and walks over to the pajamas left for him. He unrolls the pajamas and finds them to be a somewhat silky feeling, brown and red set of striped pajamas. Over time, Crystal changes into his pajamas, carefully, wondering what happened to their previous clothes. Despite the length of time it took to change, Crystal finds that the pajamas are very free fitting, and they feel like what Crystal expects silk to feel like as he crawls into the guest bed, and soon stares at the ceiling, unconsciously making out shapes from the residue of the ceilings formation.

“Good night Ellen… mom…”

Hi there,

Thank you for reading up to this point. If you haven't yet, I highly recommend reading the first few chapters of this story before this one.
I hope you enjoy it.

――――――

Chapter 7
― Crystal ―

― Crystal’s Dream ―
Crystal finds himself walking down a long corridor made of rainbow, with red, and black stars all around.

“What is this place?” Crystal looks back and forth between both ends of the long tunnel, and finds the tunnel start to collapse. He starts running towards one end, but the bridge collapses under him. No matter how fast Crystal runs, he eventually falls into the stars and darkness below him.

― ??? ―

Jacob breathes in deeply, causing erratic beeping from medical equipment and Jacob’s mother sits on a chair holding his hand, but seems to recognize the deep breath.

“Jacob, listen to me carefully. Where were you 5 minutes ago? Jacob honey! Tell me where you were!” Unfortunately, Jacob can’t say anything, as a ventilator is in his throat. Just before he loses consciousness, he’s able to utter a single word through the ventilator.

“Fu…So….Ba.” Several nurses rush into the room, as Jacob’s vision fades and for a brief moment, he sees two of his mother. One with silver hair, and another with black hair as they’re being pushed out of the room by the nurses, but his vision fades before he can make sense of anything.

― Guest Room ―

Crystal breathes deeply and bolts forward somewhat sparking, bordering on hyperventilation as he wakes up, and feels himself, peering across the room. He feels his arms and waist, as he recognizes that he’s back in the guest room with Kana next to him.

“Are you alright now?” Kana asks carefully, lightly gripping Crystal’s shoulder.

“I… I think so. What time is it?” Crystal feels his neck, and gives a raspy reply.

“It’s midnight…”

“Midnight? Did… Did you know I was going to have that dream?” Kana looks at Crystal concerned about this recent development, and that Crystal is back at all.

“I’m afraid that was not a dream. While I don’t know the details… that was you returning to your human body.” Crystal gulps heavily at the revelation of just how poor his health was.

“If that… I mean… If I was on Earth… why am I back here?”

“That, I don’t know. I can tell you though, that you are greatly cared for.”

“So… If I go back to my body on Earth. I’ll… be stuck in that body as opposed to the freedom here?”

“… yes, that’s right. The two options sound like a stark contrast.” Kana stares up at her ceiling, as if trying to make out fictitious shapes.

“If that wasn’t a dream… Is this world the dream?”

“Oh my god. That would make sense… I’m never tired here because I’m not moving. But… If that’s the case I’m… going to be stuck in that bed if I ever wake up!” Kana reaches her hands out to Crystal.

“Take hold of my hand.” Crystal looks at Kana’s hand, skeptical of what Kana was looking for her to do, until he finally takes her hand into his own.

“Do you feel that warmth? Could you read my notes earlier about my mom? Do you feel like you’re in a dream? How different does your Earth feel from this world?”

“Well…. I mean…. I feel your hand, it is warm. But this world feels only a little different from Earth.”

“But you feel it the air in this world. Describe to me where you were 5 minutes ago.” Crystal tries to remember as much as he can from the hospital.

“I was on this bed, and I woke up in a hospital. There were a lot of beeping machines.”

“And before that? When you went to sleep. Trace back as far as you can. Talk to me.”

“I was here,” Crystal says unsure where Kana's going with this.

“Ummm… I was brought here, we were down stairs, I was taken here by Ned, I was at his house, you knocked me out in the outskirts…. Before that, I was running away from some bandits with Ned, and uhhh… a Cadent? Somehow we teleported to the outskirts of the city, and he saved me from his cage.”

“Teleported? Cage?” Kana shakes her head dismissing that line of thought.

“What about before that? Do you remember?” Crystal stares at Kana confusedly, questioning the significance of this line of reasoning.

“Uhhh… I was in the ruins, and before that I was in the forest, running from some birds. Before that I met an old man who told me to go north. And before that I was in a cave where I woke up the first time here. Before that I was shot… why are you asking me to tell you all those things?”

“I asked you to tell me those things because if this was a dream, you would never remember that much detail. It’d be as simple as ‘I was just here.’”

“It wouldn’t be like ‘I woke up here’ or ‘I swam up from a lake.’ or even ‘I came to awareness.’ It would just be ‘I was just here.’”

“But your mind can conjure so much. If you believe truly, with all your heart that this is a dream, I won’t be able to dissuade you.”

“Why not?” Crystal asks in deep thought.

“If you believe this to be a dream, you can justify anything,” Kana says matter-of-factly, as Crystal somewhat disagrees.

“I guess that’s true…”

“My concern is that you’re back here at all.” The prophet puts her hand to her chin in contemplation while Crystal tries to understand whats happening.

“I don’t understand. What do you mean by that?”

“Well, if you woke up in your hospital bed. But you came back here, I wonder if something has pulled you back here? I wonder if you really do have something that you need to do here.”

“W-What do you mean?” Crystal asks quietly.

“Well Crystal, this world isn’t a dream. It’s a real location in space somewhere in relation to Earth. But where, I don’t know. I’m not even sure if Earth and Fusoba are in the same space time.”

“But I know that both are real. Think back Crystal, what did you see before waking up, but before being in your hospital bed.” Crystal folds his arms under his chest, in silent contemplation, trying to remember.

“I… was falling. No wait... I was walking.... Maybe both. I was on a rainbow bridge, with red and black stars in the darkness above me.”

“How did you know there was a black star at all?”

“I think.... Sometimes when I looked at the red stars, there were small black stars over the red ones. At least… I think so…” Crystal continues thinking, trying to remember anything else.

“Interesting…” The wizened prophet seemingly stares into space for a moment as her eyes glaze over momentarily before reverting her gaze to Crystal on the bed.

“In old history books, something similar was referred to as ‘The Spacial Realm’ and it was considered a form of travel between worlds.”

“Crystal, something dark is looking for you here. But what for, who, or even what it is, I don’t know. You must be very careful. You should eat your midnight snack, and go back to sleep. I’ll put up some electrical fences tonight.”

“Kana… I’m not… d-d-” Kana interrupts Crystal for a moment, as she attempts setting Crystal's mind at ease.

“No Crystal, you’re not dead, but it sounds like you are in a tenuous position.” Crystal wriggles in the bed nervously, not sure what to say, or think.

“I just… when I went back, it was so painful. I couldn’t move my arm, my chest was wheezing, even with a breathing helper thing.”

“You mean a ventilator?” The not-so elderly woman supplies.

“Yeah, that. I feel like I’m acting different too…”

“Crystal, when you have come to death’s door, even when you don’t cross to another world…. These kinds of things can have great consequences on your mind, and body,” Kana attempts to explain.

“Those consequences may still be to come, or they may have passed. Or both. It’s entirely possible that your acting differently is a direct result of your traumatic experiences leading you here.” Kana continues.

“I don’t understand…”

“Oh… perhaps you are still too young. Visions grant me a lot of knowledge, but not everything.”

“May I ask you what your name on Earth was?”

“My name was… Jacob…” Crystal says somewhat blankly. Almost as if the name was a distant memory.

“How old are you Crystal? Or Jacob, if you prefer.” Crystal’s eyes narrow in a glare, unable to tell if Kana is being sarcastic, but he has no reason to believe for certain that she means any harm, even momentarily.

“I’m 18, I was going to graduate high school pretty soon.”

“Still just a child. This experience never should have been forced on you.”

“I’m not a kid! I’m almost an adult.” The prophet laughs heartily at Crystal's outburst.

“Crystal, almost everyone is a child to me. Get some sleep,” Kana says playfully.

“Thank you Kana.” Crystal slowly eats his snack, seemingly made of oats and potato chips, finding the chips, despite his hesitation, to taste surprisingly good, and slowly drifts off to sleep.

― The Next Morning: Guest Room ―

Crystal wakes up slowly, as he realizes that this isn’t a dream, expecting that if he was dead, then everything would end at his acknowledgment of his death.

“Guess it’s not a dream.” Crystal gets out of his guest bed, and peers out the window, seeing a forest nearby on the edge of the city.

“I wonder if that’s the edge that we somehow teleported to…? How’d I do that anyway?” Crystal looks towards the sunrise without actually looking at it, realizing that even if he gets home, he may have to be hospitalized for life.

“What am I going to do? I don’t get any of this! I’m in another world, I’m a girl now, at least physically. Oh and let’s not forget that I’m an Elf or something too. Not only all those things, but I can’t even go outside the city without fear of being enslaved. This world sucks!” Crystal groans at his predicament, and after a few moments, Crystal hears a knock on the door to his guest room, causing him to stop his complaints, if momentarily. Initially, Crystal doesn’t say anything, expecting the visitor to just open the door, but to his surprise, the door is knocked on gently once more.

“Ummm… come in?” The door opens to reveal Ned, and Kana behind him standing at the door in a black flowing uniform similar to the hakama from the day before but with a purple triangle on his back.

“What is it Ned?” Crystal says angrily, but Kana stops the young Elf's frustrations.

“I just wanted to come over to the guest room and apologize.”

“What do you have to apologize for?” Kana says with a grin, knowing exactly what he has to apologize for.

“I’ve been mis-gendering you, and I’ve been a real jerk. I didn’t believe what you told me. But after last night and grandmother's insistence…”

“Well, it’s difficult to take you seriously with your claims of another world. So… I apologize. I thought you were just a crazy Elf with blue hair.”

“No, it’s cool, I just… It’s really hard to adapt to being here,” Crystal says, trying to be the bigger person, but Kana and Ned don't understand Crystal's phrasing.

“So, your Earth is that different?”

“It’s less that, and more that anything I do here, reminds me of my predicament, even breathing. Which for all I know, maybe Elves don’t have to do that anyway?” Crystal suggests to his foster family.

“No, Elves need to breathe. I think…” The familiar looking young man puts his hand to his chin thoughtfully in contemplation, much like how his grandmother would, followed by a shrug.

“So, what’s up?” Ned stares in confusion as he looks upwards in an attempt to answer Crystal’s question.

“Ummm…. The sky? The roof? The ceiling? I don’t know, what do you mean?” Ned continues looking confused until he finally realizes small contextual clues that Crystal had been inadvertently giving.

“A-Are you kidding?”

“OH! You mean 'What’s going on?' or 'What’s my reason for visiting?' that kind of thing right?” Crystal can’t tell if Ned is being serious with his question or if he’s playing around, like Noodle might, but Crystal nods nonetheless.

“Yeah, don’t… people say that here?” Crystal's jaw drops in shock.

“No, they don’t. We’re usually very polite saying things like “How are you?” or “Did you need some help?” or something like that. That’s neither here nor there. I wanted to see what you were going to do about your quest thing. Grandma told me about what happened after she thwapped me.”

“C-Can we not call it that? I agree with your grandma. It sounds wrong,” Crystal says in a bothered tone as he rubs his upper arms.

“Anyway, we should do some manly things today!” Crystal stares at Ned questioning his use of “Manly” as he considers the toxic representation that he’s more familiar with.

“W-What constitutes as ‘manly’ here?” Kana rolls her eyes, leaving the two alone.

“Well…” Ned starts to talk, but with each word, Crystal is reminded that this Ned is entirely different than Noodle.

“Universally, manliness constitutes acts of maturity, and sometimes great risk, but great rewards. Regardless of what it is we end up doing, it’ll be difficult beyond measure… It will be tragically difficult! It will be... A TRIAL OF MANLINESS!” Ned builds to a shout, in an attempt to be dramatic. Ned claps his hands in an attempt to drum up excitement, but he starts sweating to himself somewhat in nervousness.

“We can either… go clothes shopping for you, so you don’t have to steal my pants, or we could go into the forest and pick some mushrooms? Or, or! And hear me out, we could… play board games or computer games about living a mundane life going to a mystical place they call… school. Ned hisses playfully at his own references.

“Follow me yonder knave! For we shall journey into yonder schooool, in our search to save the princess from the dreaded dungeon we call… detention!” For a moment, Noodle seemed to overlap Ned, as Ned and Noodle seem to be entirely different, but very much the same. After this realization, Crystal starts laughing, clutching his stomach, kneeling down. A few minutes pass as Crystal finally regains his capacity to look at Ned without bursting out laughing.

“Well, now that we have THAT out of our systems, could you tell me what that was about?” Crystal sits on the guest bed, as he starts explaining.

“Yeah, yeah, sorry. So… there’s a guy in my world that I grew up knowing. His name is Ned Schafer too and he looks just like you.”

“He’s obsessed with something called Magi and Monsters, but he’s a good guy, that’s who I mistook you for initially.”

“Let me guess, this Noodle guy?”

“Yeah, that’s him. But here’s the thing; if he tried to do all this, then he’d be so overwhelmed.” Ned scrunches his nose, being bothered.

“He could never do what you do, be an archaeologist, plunge into tombs or ruins. He’d be shaking in his boots at the first spider.” Ned seems to be somewhat offended that any version of him would be that cowardly.

“But he really likes board games. Saving princesses from monsters and demons, calling me knave, it’s all there really. For a second, I thought you were him….”

“So, it was just really funny… sorry.” Crystal wipes a year from his eyes.

“Well, that’s OK. What’s important is getting you home. Do you have any special guy…or girl on Earth? Or is it a guy?” Crystal shakes his head, thinking about Julia.

“I mean, not really. There was this one girl, but I don’t really ‘feel’ anything for her other than that she’s really really cool and I want to be her friend.” Ned smirks at Crystal talking about the mystery girl.

“What’s special about her?” Crystal thinks about what made the girl special and comes to the conclusion that nothing really made her stand out specifically other than interest in Anima Power.

“Honestly, nothing about Julia made her stand out, but it was really more that she was so passionate about some games that we both enjoyed.”

“I know that a lot of guys would say… ‘Oh her chest is so…. Big?’ Or her hips, but I just… never saw any appeal in that kind of stuff.” Ned looks at Crystal with a sour expression.

“And you never looked at guys like that either?” Crystal shakes his head.

“Nah, never saw the appeal either way. People are just kinda there. Some are jerks, some aren’t, and sometimes there’s a really nice person that you can get along with.”

“So then, you don’t see anything you like about me? Other than I look like this conveniently named other Ned.” Ned raises and lowers his eyebrows rapidly several times.

“Yeah, pretty much.” Ned glares at the apparent girl before him, frustrated by the utter lack of tact and excessive honesty.

“Yeah, well, it’s not like you’re anything special to look at either… other than your weird hair…”

“Is that bad? I mean, I get that people like ‘details’ like those things but…” Crystal looks in the mirror, observing his face and relatively small, but feminine features, wondering if he’ll be forced to grow more and more feminine until there’s nothing left of his old self, even based on his personality.

“I really don’t see a problem with that. You know? I just… don’t see the appeal in those kinds of things. Do yo-” Ned walks out of the room groaning in frustration at Crystal’s clueless-ness, leaving him to wonder what he did wrong.

― Several Hours Later ―

Crystal walks outside for a few moments to the backyard, taking in the air, noticing a distinct taste of lemon in the air. He looks around, finding a small pool, and some lawn chairs with an outdoor table, eventually sitting down.

“Why… am I tasting Lemon?” Crystal peeks around, trying to find the source of the lemon taste in the air, but is unable to.

“That’s a good question, why are you tasting them?” Kana walks up to Crystal with a bodyguard behind him, somewhat frightening Crystal, causing him to jump.

“Oh, it’s just you Kana.”

“Just me? Getting a little too used to your situation aren’t you?”

“Oh hell no. This world sucks.” Crystal frowns, wanting to leave as soon as possible.

“The degree of how much this world sucks is not up to debate. But this is our world here. Sometimes, you just have to deal with your situation. Have you thought on your options?” Kana says somewhat perturbed.

“I’m sorry, I need more time. I mean, my options are either stay here in a completely foreign body, or go back to one that will need to be hospitalized for life.” Kana stares at Crystal with a half-lidded expression, while Crystal himself starts to rub his eyes, attributing his drowsiness to getting little sleep.

“You know, there is a possible third option. But while it’s not easy, it does goes in line with possibly going home. When you go home, you may be given an option of staying in that body by whatever brought you here, or even healing your body on your world.”

“But… I’d never be able to face my family like this…” Kana looks towards the sunrise in an attempt to give some ease to the nervous youth, and to avoid their confused glare.

“Sometimes things appear darker than they are. Hang in there.” Kana walks back inside, gesturing for the bodyguard to stay outside to assist her guest.
Crystal sits down on a nearby patio chair, trying to make sense of the situation as a gentle breeze sweeps the area. He with his head buried in his arms, as he hears some footsteps. He assumes that it’s the bodyguard, until she looks up seeing a nightmare unfold.

“Found ya!” The man who attempted to enslave Crystal is on the other end of the table with a metal glove. The man reaches forward, and knocks Crystal out with a punch from his gloved fist before he can shout for help.