Nezumi's POV
At first, it was confusion. Then fear.
All I hear is my ragged breath and the thumping of my heart.
Where the hell am I?! I don't remember making any turns that would lead me back here.
It's the same scenery. The same tree, the same stream, and definitely the same underground room. And Gus. It's definitely the same dog seeing as it came running up to me and rubbed its cheeks against my shin.
It's been 2 days since I've "left" Tatsu's place. It's been 2 days since I had first left. But here I am, back at the place. This is the fourth time I've gotten back.
From what I know I hadn't changed my course of direction, but I'm still back here, at the same place. I've been walking straight, going west. Wait... or was it East...
The sun rises from the east and sets in the west... when I had first left Nana, I'm pretty sure I was heading west. But that morning I left Tatsu's place, my instincts told me to head east. The second time I left, it seemed as if I was heading west. The third time, if I remember correctly, I was heading west as well, but the fourth time was east.
What did all of this mean.
I thought there was something weird at first when I left, but obviously, I hadn't paid enough attention. That was foolish of me.
Slightly frustrated, I knock on Tatsu's door and he answers it a couple of moments later. Thank God he was home though. If he hadn't been home, then I would've wasted more time than I had originally planned.
"Oh, hey!" Tatsu greeted me with great enthusiasm for some unknown reason.
"Hey," I greeted back.
"Wassup? Did you get lost?" Tatsu asked.
"Just maybe?" I admitted. "How'd you know?"
"Because most people who come into this village almost never leaves. And when they do, they're never seen back here ever again."
I make a face and he chuckles.
"I'm just kidding. You said you were travelling and you were in somewhat of a hurry, so I thought that there wouldn't be any other reasons why you'd be back here unless if you were injured or dying." Tatsu said with a bit of a hint of smile on his lips.
"Well, yeah, I'm lost. I was just wondering though, how the hell do you get out of this place?"
"You don't," Tatsu simply said and Gus barked from behind me.
"What do you mean?" I made a confused face and Tatsu simply laughed.
"I said I was joking about that thing about that thing where people almost never leave this village, but I wasn't. Almost everyone who enters this village don't leave because they can't. Remember that morning when you were leaving, I said "See you again" or something like that? Well, that's because I know you'll come back here. And for those people who actually do get to leave this place, they never come back because once you leave, you just can't enter this village again."
"How do you know all of this?" I ask suspiciously.
"Because, this place is in between the outside world and this loop you're in. I know I had said "that morning when you were leaving," but the thing is that you're asleep in the outside world right now. I don't know how you ended up here because only certain people can come. And if you want to wake up... well... you have to overcome a trial."
"Why are you telling me all of this?"
"You sure do ask a lot of questions, don't you?" Tatsu raised an eyebrow.
I don't reply and he gives me a small smile.
"You can call me the gatekeeper. I'm the one who decides who leaves and who stays. Just so you know, I can occasionally read your mind even when I don't want to."
"Wait. you can control whether you can read someone's mind or not?" I ask, quite startled to be honest.
"Obviously not. That power comes and goes. You can say that the wind carries it around because I usually hear it in the wind. Anyway, I'm telling you all of this because you are supposed to know all of this before you come in."
"What?" What the heck does that mean? If someone was to know all of that before they arrived here, does that mean that they can choose to come or not? I wonder why I never got that option. Ugh, this is a waste of time. "Okay, whatever this business is, can you get me out of here. I'm sort of in a hurry."
"I can't let you go until you've proved yourself worthy to leave."
"What?"
"It's exactly like I said, you have to prove yourself worthy. You'll be given a test before you can leave. But in order to take the test, you have to find a partner to work with."
"Wait, what does all of this mean?"
"You're slow on things, aren't you?"
Well, actually, that's the first time someone has called me slow on things. Maybe I am getting really rusty.
"The thing is, you have to get a partner to complete a task before taking the test. The task will depend on who your partner is, and the test is a life or death test. People who have failed the test are forced to stay here forever, and those who had passed the test had gotten the privilege to choose whether to stay or go."
"You sound like you're talking non-sense."
"Most people say that when I first tell them all of this. You're not the first and you won't be the last."
I let out a small breath and pivot on my foot. I gently pat on Gus' head and leave.
"I know it's a lot to take in, but trust me, in the very end of the test, it'll be worth it. You can change for better or worse." Tatsu said in a serious voice.
I head towards the stream and splash water on my face to clear my mind.
"Because most people who come into this village almost never leaves. And when they do, they're never seen back here ever again."
"because, this place is in between the outside world and this loop you're in. I know I had said "that morning when you were leaving," but the thing is that you're asleep in the outside world right now. I don't know how you ended up here because only certain people can come. And if you want to wake up... well... you have to overcome a trial."
"You can call me the gatekeeper. I'm the one who decides who leaves and who stays."
I let out a sigh run my hand through my silky hair. Tatsu's voice keeps ringing in my ears.
He had seemed believable. He seemed like he was telling the truth. He seemed like he was serious about all of this.
Although it somewhat seemed like he was talking non-sense, I can't help it but believe him.
I shut my eyes and pinch the bridge of my nose.
Well, this has made a really weird turn of events. Shion... I hope you're holding up well. I swear I'll try to get out of here as soon as possible. Please wait for me.
-----
"You want me to help you find a partner?" Tatsu ask.
"Yeah... I'm not very sociable and I don't quite want to be either. I just want to get all of this over with so I can get out of here. I have people waiting for me out there."
"Hm... Sure, I'll help." Tatsu stands and stretches. "Though I can't promise you that your partner will be a goody two-shoes. The only people available at the moment is a 13 year-old boy and another boy. I think he was 19 years-old the last time I checked. Which one do you want?"
"I'll take the older one, I guess." I'm not very fond of younger people because they are quite dense and they cause too much trouble.
"You sure?" Tatsu asks hesitantly.
"Yeah," I say, "why ask?"
"Oh, because he quite troublesome. All of the people who had partnered up with him had given up and chose another partner. If I were you, I'd choose the younger one. Although he's more quiet, he's easier to get along with."
"Is the older one a knuckle head?"
"Pretty much, yeah. You can say that."
"Who you calling knuckle head?" A male voice rings out from behind Tatsu.
A boy wearing a plain t-shirt and jeans walk towards us with his hands in his pockets. His silky black hair flows freely in the wind. His eyes are also grey like mine, except his is a darker grey. You can only tell that it's grey when you get close enough. From far away, it just seems like black.
"I mean, it's obviously not you," Tatsu says with sarcasm as the boy walks closer to us.
"You fucker," the boy says. Well, someone is a ball of angst.
"Calm down, man. Chill," Tatsu says in a vain attempt to calm the black haired boy. "What are you doing here?"
"I just wanted my dog back. I don't understand why he's so fond of you," the boy says in irritation. Gus runs up to the boy and jumps onto the boy and licks his cheeks.
So this is Gus' owner...
As if remembering that there were others watching, the boy sends daggers my way.
Maybe I should rethink my decision. Working with this boy will be hard, and I need to get out of here as soon as possible.
"Yo, Tatsu, who's this?" the boy asks.
"Noah, meet Nezumi," Tatsu says, "and Nezumi, meet Noah."
"Boy seems gay, man." Noah says. "Just looks at how long his hair is."
"Yo, that's not nice," Tatsu looks at Noah. "Sorry," Tatsu says to me.
"No, it's fine." Well, he isn't exactly wrong about the gay part... Though he really shouldn't assume someone's sexual orientation just because their hair is long...
"Well, I hope you two boys get along together well~" Tatsu says in a sing-song voice.
"Wait, what?" Noah asks, surprised. "What do you mean?"
"He's gonna be your partner for the test," Tatsu says.
"What the fuck?! When did I ever agree on this?!" Noah says, frustrated.
"You never did, but I'm assigning him as your partner. Well, if he can't put up with you and decides to get another partner, then I'll change it then. For now, you two are working together." Tatsu explained.
Noah raises an eyebrow and looks at me. "He's just gonna be like everyone else and leave in the end. What's the point of trying to get me a new partner?"
"Well, you sort of do have to take the test soon. You know that you can't stay here for too long without taking the test. You could die. Actually, you only have a month left if you don't take the test." Tatsu says, petting Gus.
"Well, I might as well die. There's no point going back out there. I don't have anyone waiting for me and I don't have any dreams or anything to accomplish like some stupid brats. There's no point in getting me back out there."
"Well, I don't care. My job is to either let people stay, or leave, not kill." Tatsu says with a hint of irritation. I guess they've discussed about this before.
"Whatever, I just want to get this over with. What's our so-called task that we gotta complete?" Noah asks, leaning on a tree.
"Well, I must say that Nezumi has a harder job than you, so you should be okay," Tatsu says to Noah.
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"Oh, so you can talk," Noah says. I wonder why he'd assume I'm mute.
"Well, you task is to get Noah to work with you, and Noah's task is to cooperate with you. Sounds simple, but if it's with this boy, it might be a bit hard."
"Why is this so different than the last task I got? The last one was to get some random shitty flower from the top of a mountain. Why's this one so simple?" Noah asks.
"Seems simple, doesn't it? But have you actually cooperated with anyone before? You either all the work or you sit back. You don't let anyone help, or you don't help anyone at all. Just try to get along with him, let's see how that goes." Tatsu says in a mocking tone.
Noah rages and turns to stomp off. Gus follows close behind him and Tatsu and I are left to watch him leave.
"He seems..." I start, but can't find the right word to describe him. I've never been unable to find the right word before.
"Difficult? Annoying? Irritating? Uneasy? Vexatious?" Tatsu starts to list off a bunch of adjectives to describe Noah's behaviour.
"You can say all of that applies."
"Well, good luck. You might want to go after him though. You do need to get him to be willing to work with you."
I let out a small sigh again. "Awesome."
Author's Note
I'm so lazy lollll
I haven't updated in like 2 weeks .-.
I swear I'm not guilty!!!!