Chapter 403: 20. Another World
“Monster. Monster. Don’t come near, my flesh isn’t tasty. Namu Amida Butsu. Namu Amida Butsu.”
Watching the girl curl up trembling in the corner of the cage, Gouwen managed a troubled smile, then glanced at Fisher, who had been observing the girl all along.
Through her clothing and long socks, Fisher could probably tell that she was just an ordinary girl, lacking any signs of physical training in both her soul and body, not to mention the strange phrases she kept mumbling.
Gouwen stopped speaking, but Fisher spoke up from his spot.
“Hey, stop chanting. This isn’t a dream, it’s reality. If you don’t believe it, just give yourself a slap and see if it hurts.”
Gouwen’s smile grew more helpless, and before he could comment on Fisher’s strange suggestion, Tang Zeming Asuka, who was shaking like a leaf, raised her head slightly, her brown pupils brightening a bit.
It seemed that this monster might have a point.
In the next moment, under Gouwen’s astonished gaze and Fisher’s calm observation, she suddenly slapped her own cheek hard. With a crisp “smack” echoing in the cage, Tang Zeming Asuka froze.
“Mr. Fisher’s solution is really rough.”
Hearing Gouwen’s voice, Fisher, sitting with his arms crossed, shook his head.
“This is also the most direct method, isn’t it?”
Tang Zeming Asuka, who had just slapped herself, now had a hint of deep red on her pale face. Her skin seemed quite sensitive; even a slight force could leave marks. She had thought she was dreaming, so she hadn’t hit herself with much strength. This slap not only confirmed whether she was dreaming but also completely awakened her recently stirred consciousness.
But it really hurt.
Tang Zeming Asuka remained in a daze, her eyes slowly reddening, causing Gouwen to burst into laughter.
“Hahaha, you little human girl are so silly, you cried after slapping yourself, really.”
“Eh, eh?”
Tang Zeming Asuka looked at the “monster” in disbelief, then turned to see the expressionless dark-haired man beside her. He wasn’t laughing, just continuing on.
“Now you’ve confirmed it, right? You’re not dreaming, you’re in reality. Take a look outside and see where we are now.”
Tang Zeming Asuka’s mind went blank. Her seventeen years of life experience seemed completely inadequate to deal with the sudden situation at hand. She had just taken a nap in the classroom that afternoon, and when she woke up, she found herself in this strange place.
Just like Fisher had done three days ago, she turned her head. Through the small window, she saw the massive planet outside and the illusionary golden giant tree. She was dumbfounded, and only after a long time did she frantically clutch her skirt and scream,
“Eh, eh, is Japan recruiting astronauts now? Why am I in space? And what’s that tree? And those buildings suspended in mid-air? This… this isn’t Earth?”
“Earth?”
Fisher was momentarily taken aback, chewing on the strange term that had suddenly emerged from her mouth.
“Yes, yes, it is also a planet. The land there doesn’t look like this; there’s no giant tree, and even if there are space stations, they wouldn’t look like this! Where am I now? I was supposed to be in school! You… you must be from some Osaka TV station making a show, right? Don’t joke, let me out! I want to go home!”
Tang Zeming Asuka, with red eyes, turned to the two behind her, wildly gesturing in a circular shape. The more she spoke, the more her tone trembled, and the moisture in her eyes and the sobbing in her voice became thicker. Until finally, she couldn’t hold herself together and turned to start banging on the walls of the sealed cage, making a loud “bang bang bang” noise.
“Haha, don’t joke. We can’t hear sounds in a vacuum; you are definitely pranking me! Let me go! Hurry! If this goes on, I’ll absolutely call the police!”
Gouwen’s smile gradually faded. Watching Tang Zeming Asuka crying and banging on the cage walls, his fingers twitched slightly, as if a faint glow emerged. As that invisible glow connected to the distant Tang Zeming Asuka, her agitated and frantic emotions gradually eased, and she became listless, weak.
But even so, she still gasped softly, curling her body timidly into the corner, looking around the cage.
“Let me out… stop messing around, I beg you.”
“Little girl, could you calm down a bit? The reason you can hear voices here is because the angels have set up a kind of all-pervasive medium in the Holy Realm, to facilitate their forging. While I understand the emotions you feel being captured, our current situation isn’t safe. If you keep this up, there’s a good chance you’ll attract the angels, who are not easy to deal with.”
Gouwen’s soothing words didn’t touch the curled-up Tang Zeming Asuka. She just hid her head in her skirt, not wanting to look at him, simply saying,
“Stop acting, you actors, let me go, or I’ll definitely call the police.”
With no other choice, Gouwen was helpless, while Fisher sighed and walked over to her side. Just as she sensed someone approaching and was about to yell at them, Fisher squatted down in front of her and spoke first.
“Listen carefully, although I don’t know what those strange terms that came out of your mouth earlier mean, I can tell you this: if anything here is playing a joke on you, it can only be fate. The place we are in right now is completely different from that so-called Earth you mentioned. Perhaps you can still doubt the wonders outside, but in this cage, you can directly understand our words without ignoring the language. Doesn’t that deserve your suspicion?”
Tang Zeming Asuka raised her head in confusion, hearing the man in front of her speaking a language she’d never heard before, yet she could understand it all. Fisher’s expression remained unchanged as he pointed to Gouwen behind him, saying,
“You just said Gouwen is a monster, which means that in your world, at least in reality, beings like him don’t exist, right?”
“Yes, yes, there are only humans like me there.”
Gouwen smiled, his whale tail behind him swaying rhythmically in coordination with Fisher’s words, as if trying to prove to Tang Zeming Asuka that what was behind him wasn’t a toy or decoration.
“Humans from another world, this is… unheard of. At least I’ve never heard of other worlds existing. No wonder those angels just went to consult a few archangels to make decisions. Wait, could it be that they also have to report to the Heavenly Lock?”
Fisher glanced back at Gouwen, then turned his gaze back to the frightened girl who looked like a small chick, and continued.
“Alright, I understand. Let’s introduce ourselves first. I’m Fisher, a human just like you. The one behind me is Gouwen, a whale folk from the ocean.”
“Whale folk?”
“You’ll learn about that later. For now, just consider him another race different from humans. Next, let’s talk about the world you live in. If there are any differences here, we will tell you, so you can understand your current location as quickly as possible.”
Gouwen nodded in agreement, moving a little closer to Tang Zeming Asuka with curiosity.
While hugging her knees, Tang Zeming Asuka secretly glanced at Gouwen’s slightly swaying long black ears. After several seconds, she seemed to truly confirm that those were real ears, not some kind of attached toy.
She bit her lip, shrinking away a little more into the corner, then lowered her head and muttered,
“My name is Tang Zeming Asuka.”
Listening to the strange yet familiar pronunciation from her, Fisher’s expression didn’t change, but his heart sank slightly. The name the girl was reciting was the same as the one Baemon had instructed him to recite.
Yes, the person in front of him was none other than the future president of the Creation Association, the Magic Lord, Tang Zeming Asuka.
“I’m from Earth, which is a planet similar to yours, but there’s no giant tree like that, and there are no grand space stations. Our space stations are very small and closed because we can’t survive in a vacuum.”
“So, is it that human bodies in your world are about the same as yours?”
“No, I’m not very athletic, so I’m a bit weaker. If you exercise regularly, you should be much stronger than me, right?”
Fisher’s eyes sparkled slightly; could humans from another world be different and stronger than here?
“How strong? For example, can you jump a hundred meters? Can you charge through a storm? What about magic? These powers…”
Tang Zeming Asuka quickly waved her hands and interrupted,
“Not that exaggerated; it’s just a bit stronger, but still human! You’re talking about superheroes, right? Magic doesn’t exist at all.”
“Superhero?”
“Just… exists in comics.”
“I see, go ahead.”
Tang Zeming Asuka observed the thoughtful Fisher, fidgeting with the hem of her skirt. After thinking for a long time, she continued,
“I’m from a country on Earth called ‘Japan,’ which is an island nation in Asia. This year is the eighth year of Heisei, or 1996, and I just turned 17 in June. I’m a second-year student at Kagawa High School in Kyoto.”
“Do you have any impressions of special events from before you left your world? Did anything unusual happen?”
“Special events…”
Tang Zeming Asuka pondered for a long time, then decisively shook her head, looking downcast.
“No, there hasn’t been anything special at school. I don’t have friends; it’s just a simple life of commuting. I just remember feeling very sleepy in the afternoon, so I rested my head on the desk for a while, and when I woke up, I was here.”
Well, Fisher had already anticipated this, as he had read the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans, and he understood that the person in her world wasn’t particularly successful and didn’t have anything notable happen, or else it would have been recorded in the handbook.
What Fisher saw was merely a frustrated middle-aged man with an unfaithful wife and a rebellious daughter, living a rather miserable but not particularly remarkable human life, and Tang Zeming Asuka was likely similar.
Thinking of this, he silently noted the country she was from and then asked,
“Have you heard of… the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland?”
“Eh?”
Tang Zeming Asuka was momentarily stunned, her eyes brightening as she looked up at Fisher, exclaiming,
“Are you really not some TV station or school prank? Why do you know…”
Even Gouwen, who had been listening from behind, showed a glimmer of interest in his eyes, looking at Fisher with a new perspective.
But Fisher, seeing her reaction, was slightly shaken, quickly probing,
“You really know?”
“Eh, eh, I… I know. It’s a country; we generally call it ‘Britain,’ which is a far away place from our country. Um, let me think… Sorry, my geography is really poor since I didn’t choose that subject in school. But it seems we’re on the same continent; it’s in Europe, and we’re in Asia.”
Fisher soon realized that these Trans could very well come from the same world. Although judging by the cultural symbols they left behind, they likely didn’t know each other, just as a weaver from Nali would never know a painter living in Shivali or a cleaner from Cardu. But they all came from the same world.
So, is it possible that the author of the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans also comes from this world?
“Wait a minute, can you help me see if the owner of this text is from your country? The language seems to be the same as the one on your badge.”
“Eh?”
In Tang Zeming Asuka’s surprised gaze, the magical circuit in Fisher’s hand began to glow slightly. He infused his magic power into it, leaving a series of sparkling characters on the wall of the cage. Although the characters would disappear once his magic dissipated, at that moment in the darkness, the words stood out clearly.
There, on the wall, appeared a line of characters that Fisher had restored quite accurately, reading:
“First of all, I am not a Subhuman Girl Enthusiast.”
Fisher turned back to Tang Zeming Asuka, and after she read it carefully, surprisingly gave a shake of her head. Then, she softly said,
“Um, Mr. Fisher, can I call you that?”
“Sure.”
“Um, actually our country originally didn’t have writing; all the characters we use come from an ancient nation in the West that is very close to us. Although today’s Japanese has undergone changes due to our modifications, there are still many that look exactly like they did in their homeland.”
Tang Zeming Asuka raised her finger in the air and wrote down a few straight strokes, then hugged her knees again.
“The characters you wrote are pure ‘kanji,’ the script used by the ancient country called ‘China,’ so… that person you’re asking about is probably from there too, right?”
Sure enough, the author of the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans also came from the same world as the Magic Lord.
“I see. Do you know much about it?”
“Um, I guess I know a bit? Because there are many elements about China in the anime on TV. There’s this really cute animal called a panda, and a beautiful garment called a qipao. And I’ve heard that it’s very traditional, but I’ve never been there. The only places I’ve been in my country are Tokyo and Kyoto.”
Traditional, huh?
Fisher was slightly taken aback, not obtaining any useful information from Tang Zeming Asuka’s description. Even if there was a hint, it seemed completely unrelated to the strange behavior of the Trans.
The previous chapter contained an error regarding the Japanese era, mistakenly writing “Heisei” as “Taisho,” which has now been corrected. Please be aware.
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(End of Chapter)
