Chapter 2: 2

An Encounter with a Strange Creature

Have I perhaps died? Is this what you call a near-death experience? No, If I already died, this wouldn’t be a near-death experience, this would be the afterlife.

If that’s the case, I must have fallen to my death in the storeroom of the shop. That was too careless of me! And right when I had just gotten my dream job of being a designer!!

“How could this happen,” I lamented.

I hadn’t confirmed that I had indeed died, but if I was heavily injured or in a coma or something, my tentative job offer might also be taken away.

Why didn’t I just go and take the stepladder? It was too late now, but I was steeped in regret.

“Haaaa…” I sighed out, “I’m here because of my carelessness I guess.” 

Looking around, there was no Sanzu river1, and I didn’t see my relatives who had already passed waving me over either.

It’s not like I had any strong expectations to see my grandmother who passed when I was little, but if I didn’t see the river it seemed like that wouldn’t be the case.

“I guess I’ll start by searching for the Sanzu river.” I do think there was something wrong with this line of thought, but while I was here what else could I do?

Standing up, I wiped off all of the dust from sitting. While wiping off, I did get a slightly damp feeling, but fortunately I was wearing black skinny pants so I didn’t feel much discomfort.

I chose my outfit today because I thought it looked boyish and casual, having a nice aesthetic. Skinny pants and sneakers. On top, I was wearing a collarless denim over a sweet white lace shirt with a high neckline.

I didn’t choose this outfit because it was easy to walk around in, but in this situation it helped that my clothes were agile.

Although I said it was a field, it wasn’t the kind that had been reshaped by people. The ground was uneven with grass growing all over, so the fact that I was wearing sneakers and I had a backpack that freed both of my arms was a huge relief.

‘First, let’s try and figure out which direction to walk.’ I thought to myself. I hadn’t ever learned the survival skills necessary to determine the correct direction in a situation like this, and I obviously didn’t have any of the geography knowledge I needed to actually know where to go. Without anything to rely on, I aimed for a direction that looked like it would lead to a river with just my instinct. I started to walk down an animal trail that separated the grass.

Despite ending work at night, right now the sun was out and the weather was good.

I had settled into a uniform rhythm as I continued to walk when I suddenly stepped on something with a mushy texture.

“Uwah, what is this?”

There was something with a translucent gel-like shape clinging to my right leg. It seemed like a sticky jellyfish.

I jumped back in shock and waved my foot around to get it off, but it showed no indication of falling. As I was doing that, another gel-like thing got on my left foot. It seemed like these were some kind of living being. They were slow, but they were definitely moving.

“Gross!” I yelled out, “I can’t get it off!”

I didn’t have the courage to touch these unknown creatures with my hand, and I couldn’t rub them off onto the ground with my feet either.

The situation getting worse, these gel creatures weren’t limited to just the two of them. They were springing forth from some place and one after another, they started to approach my feet.

“Hey, stop! Seriously what is this! What should I do!!” 

I couldn’t shake them or push them off, and I completely panicked. It wasn’t like they hurt, but it simply was a terrible feeling. Right now they were just stuck to my feet, but the first creatures were slowly climbing up my legs.

Single mindedly moving about, I screamed. As I was doing so, I suddenly heard the sound of a swoosh and something came out of a thicket. And then, aimed at the gel creatures, something came swinging down at them.

With a splash, liquid scattered as the gel creatures smashed into flying pieces. Turning into something like water vapor, the crushed pieces disappeared.

While my eyes widened in surprise, the gel creatures were destroyed one by one. In front of me was a high school age boy holding a wooden rod. He easily crushed all of the creatures that I could do nothing about.

Finally, he knocked the one attached to my sneaker off onto the ground and then completely crushed it.

“Thank you!” Feeling relieved with the strange crisis being resolved, I thanked the boy. The boy looked at me with a puzzled expression.

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“Good grief, to struggle with slimes, are you some kind of princess?”

“Slimes?”

“You don’t even know what slimes are!” The boy was startled as he saw me tilt my head in puzzlement.

Even if he said that, not once in my life did I see a strange creature like this before. But, I did recognize the name. They’re an introductory monster in a lot of games.

“So that was a slime.”

“… so at least you know what they are. Is this the first time you’re seeing one?”

“Yes. It’s my first time.”

“Seriously, you seem more and more like a noble lady. You’re wearing a strange outfit though…”

“Strange!?”

 When it comes to fashion, I have a good bit of confidence in myself. To hear it called strange was a complete shock. 

As I reeled from the wound to my confidence, the boy crouched down around the places he destroyed the slimes and started to pick something up.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m gathering the slime cores. They’re low value stones, but once they’re gathered they are worth a bit of money.” Saying that, the boy showed me what he was gathering. It was a small stone that looked like a cloudy marble.

“Hmm~”

With a little bit of refinement, perhaps it could become quite pretty. I wonder if it can be melted like glass. Thinking that it was quite interesting, I started to stare at it quite intently.

“Do you want me to give you one?”

“Eh, is that okay?”

Perhaps he thought that I was feeling slightly envious.

I looked up at the boy’s face at his proposal. Looking slightly embarrassed, he averted his gaze and said “here,” as he held out the core.

Accepting it with both hands, I continued to intently stare at the stone in my hands. It was slightly elliptical, and the inside was cloudy.

Thinking that I might be able to use it somehow, I looked at it from all different angles. Perhaps that was a bit strange, as I heard him burst out into laughter.

“This is the first time I’ve seen someone so happy to get a slime core.”

The boy was laughing quite hard. He seemed to have the mannerisms and voice of the adult, but the way he was laughing fit the childishness matching his age.

“Well, we might have some fate meeting here. If you’re headed somewhere, do you want to come along with me? You might encounter some slimes again.”

“Really!? Please, I’d appreciate your help!”

Like this, I started to follow this boy who seemed like a local to this region.

Notes

A mythological river similar to the River Styx. People must cross the river in order to reach the afterlife.

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