Chapter 2: Chapter 1 – Into the Twilight Zone

Hearing a voice, it felt as though the boy had just been woken from a deep state of comatose.

Had he been sleeping? Somehow it didn’t feel like that. His senses were all numb and muddled, and he was having a difficult time processing his own thoughts. This was a completely different feeling from waking up after a nap or something. It was almost like his entire body was shut down, including his brain, and he was only now being reeled back to consciousness.

The first thing he could feel was his body swaying side to side. He was moving. He was sure of it. But...moving? How was he moving? Or perhaps the better questions to ask were: where was he and where was he moving to?

His eyes were still closed, so he had no way of knowing. He was even weary of opening them out of fear of announcing his awakening. What if he was in some sort of danger? He had no idea what was nearby watching him. Something could have been waiting for him to wake up. Wishful thinking, perhaps, but he had no reason to suspect otherwise.

So, he decided to listen first, tentatively, in case there really were perils lurking about.

“...on’t know, either?”

There was a voice. It sounded human (he thought) and it came from right next to him. Did that mean he wasn’t in danger, after all? If there were other humans around, then maybe. There was really only one way to find out.

The boy slowly opened his eyes. Once his vision came into focus the first thing he saw were a pale pair of legs in front of him. Not only those but others lined up beside them. They were human legs. He felt slightly relieved at that revelation.

“You awake?” He heard somebody ask.

The voice came from a young man seated beside him. He was slender with curly brown hair and brown eyes. The boy didn’t recognize who this person was.

“Y-Yeah...,” he replied hesitantly. “Where am I? Who are you?”

“We were just about to ask you that,” another person, a boy with wild brown hair tied into a ponytail, said.

“Me…?”

“You were the only one still passed out.”

When the boy with the ponytail said that, he glanced at all of the other people around. He counted twelve of them. Including himself, there were seven boys and six girls, and they were all seated in what appeared to be a wagon of sorts.

A wagon...? When had he gotten on a wagon? And why? When he tried to think about it, a dull throb pounded in his head, rendering him ditzy.

“Ow...” He clutched both hands on his head.

“I take it that means he doesn’t remember anything, either.” A boy with glasses looked rather vexed at that. Was he supposed to know something they didn't?

The stranger to his right, with the curly hair, gently placed a hand on his back. “Take it easy.” He assured him. “Can you remember anything? Anything at all? What about your name? We can start there. I’m Yamato.”

A name.

His own name.

Surely he remembered something as rudimentary as that, right?

“...I’m Sakuta. Uh, I think. Could it be something else…?” No. Somehow, he was sure of it. “It’s Sakuta. My name is Sakuta.”

“Nice to meet you, Sakuta-kun.” Yamato smiled at him. This person seems like a nice guy, was Sakuta’s first impression of Yamato. He immediately struck him as someone kind and reliable.

Sakuta shook his head in an attempt to jog up his memories. “I'm struggling to remember anything. Did something happen? I-I think I was passed out, so I don’t know...”

“We were all passed out,” Glasses replied matter-of-factly. “We found ourselves here just like you. Nobody seems to have any idea where we are. Allegedly.” When he said that, he eyed everyone suspiciously, as if in doubt of them.

“You're in the beautiful kingdom of Aranea, of course! The northern realm in the country of Essen. Seriously, you young'uns don’t even know that much? This generation is lost. Truly, truly lost.” The reply came from none of the other passengers, but a man without the wagon--the teamster, it looked like. He was a short and podgy old man with a balding head and a thick grey beard. He was shaking his head gravely, apparently disappointed that they didn’t know where they were.

But that aside...Aranea? Essen? None of those names rang any bells to Sakuta. He was fairly certain that he’d never heard of them before. They sounded foreign.

“That doesn’t explain much, old man,” said a girl who was dressed in a black high school sailor uniform. She gave the impression of a student council president; someone stern and poised.

Wait.

Sakuta’s brain came to a sudden halt, like it had just slammed into a brick wall.

High school? Student council? ...What are those?

Strange. He’d clearly mentioned those things as if he knew what they were but all of a sudden he realized that he hadn’t the slightest clue whatsoever.

He was sure he knew…? But apparently, he didn’t, after all? It was a disturbing feeling. Deep down, Sakuta felt like they were obvious things to know. At least, he got the feeling that he should’ve known. But no matter how desperately he thought about it, his mind was an empty sheet of paper.

“We have no idea who you are or what you’re talking about.” Student Council President continued. Sakuta figured he would keep calling the girl that for convenience’s sake. “How did we end up here? Where did you find us?”

By the sound of it, Sakuta wasn’t the only one who couldn’t remember a thing. Everyone else on the wagon appeared to be in the same predicament as him. Weird. This entire situation was weird.

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The old man snorted through his nose. “Silly question after silly question. I picked you up, didn’t I? You all arrived here by ship in Albion. It was just a few hours ago, so how could you all possibly forget? But I s’ppose you aren’t from around here. And you were all so puckered out you passed out right after hopping on! I spent half o’ the ride chatting with myself before I even realized! By your jolly accents, I take it you come from somewhere abroad? We’re on our way to the capital now. There’s where I was instructed to take you.”

“Instructed?” Yamato raised an eyebrow. “By whom?”

“The pretty woman who hired me, ‘f course.”

The boy with the ponytail mussed up his head as if trying to stimulate his brain. “Huhhhh? A ship...? What ship?! I don’t remember a damn ship! What the hell is going on here?!”

“Take it easy, Noburu-kun...” Yamato tried to calm him down. “Getting riled up won’t help us right now.”

“How could I possibly take it easy?! Am I the only one bothered by all of this?! No, no, clearly you’re all just as confused as me so why aren’t you panicking right now?!”

The boy, whose name was apparently Noburu being loud and brash. But Sakuta couldn’t really fault him for his reaction. He couldn’t remember a ship, either. Everything the teamster had said was news to him.

His own name...that was about all Sakuta could remember. Anything other than that was a complete loss. He’d forgotten everything.

...No, that didn’t feel quite right. Saying he’d simply forgotten didn’t explain much at all. It was like whenever he tried bringing up a memory or something crossed his mind, it quickly turned to dust before he could get a firm grasp on it. It was as if something in his brain was actively trying to prevent him from remembering anything.

Seriously, what the hell was this?

“Keep it down, will you?” a low and husky voice intoned. It came from a boy seated nearest the entrance of the wagon. He had spiky yellow hair, multiple ear piercings, and a fairly muscular build. From Sakuta’s honest perspective, he looked like some sort of delinquent “If none of us can remember anything, then it’s obvious whoever is behind this doesn’t want us to.”

Whoever is behind this.

How the boy chose to word that made Sakuta feel uneasy. Who would be behind this and for what purpose? How would they even have the means to rid all of them of their memories? It seemed a bit too far-fetched to be someone’s doing to Sakuta.

“So, there’s a smart pup among the litter,” commented a boy with shoulder-length silver hair. At a glance, he could have easily been mistaken for a girl. He had the soft features and slim build to pass off as one. However, despite that, he was definitely a boy.

“Still, it’s strange that absolutely none of us can remember anything other than our own names.” Student Council President placed a hand on her jaw and thought. “I can’t make sense of any of it. Could this be planned in some way? No...even that seems unlikely...”

“I-I'm scared...” A timid-looking girl shook her head and whispered in a soft, barely perceptible voice. She was relatively small and unremarkable in terms of appearance. At least, Sakuta could tell that’s how she wanted to be perceived. From the dull and baggy clothes that concealed her womanly features, to the brown bangs that were used to hide her eyes, it was clear that this girl was the shy type. “D-does anybody know what’s going on…? Anybody at all?”

Nobody replied. Unless they were all deliberately ignoring Timid, then that meant none of them knew.

By the looks of everyone, Sakuta noticed that they all must have been around the same age. He tried inspecting each of their faces to see if he recognised any of them. But that proved fruitless. He didn’t know a single person on this wagon. They were all complete and utter strangers to him.

Or that was what he initially believed.

One of the passengers caught Sakuta’s eye and he found himself staring at her more than anybody else on the wagon.

It was a girl sitting directly in front of him.

Graceful features. Long, flowing dark hair. She was merely sitting there, just like everybody else, but somehow was completely different.

She had light grey-blue eyes and her skin was white as snow. She was captivatingly beautiful. And not just your average, garden-variety beauty, but the type that seemed ethereal and only existed in fantasy stories. Like a flower you were too hesitant to touch out of fear of it crumbling in your hands.

But, oddly enough, that wasn’t what seemed to draw Sakuta to her. It was something else. Something about the girl sitting before him that filled him with bittersweet nostalgia, as if he had met her somewhere before. He was almost certain he didn’t know who she was. He had no reason to, after all. And yet...

She must have sensed Sakuta looking at her because she turned her head his way. “Is there something on my face?” she asked him directly, with a sharp voice and a burning gaze that inspired apprehension.

That caught Sakuta off guard and he immediately lowered his eyes and nervously swallowed the rapidly forming spittle in his mouth. “N-no! Eh, sorry...”

What a scary woman... Sakuta really had no idea who this girl was. He didn’t know why he thought he might have.

“You foreigners are a funny lot.” Chuckled the teamster, amused by something. “Always so chatty and confused. It's all the same with you, I swear. Where am I?! How did I get here?! It never gets old!”

Student Council President asked, “Us foreigners?” and tilted her head. “What, are there more like us?”

The teamster nodded his head. “Didn’t you know? You aren’t the first group that I picked up today. But I’m sure you’re the last. You are, right? Yes, I'm sure! ...I hope.”

“Excuse me? We aren’t the only ones? Just what exactly do you mean by that?”

That statement sparked a feeling of unrest among the passengers. They exchanged uncertain glances, struggling to understand what the teamster had meant by that. There were others like them? Were they also in a similar predicament? Sakuta didn’t know. But one thing was certain to him and to everyone else: something was amiss here. It didn’t help that they possessed no memories, but they had no idea where they were or how they ended up here, either. All Sakuta could remember was his own name.

“Just who am I, exactly...?” he mumbled and everyone turned to look at him. “And where do I come from?”

That was when their reality was shifted sideways.

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