It had been five whole days.

Five whole days since Yuuya had been confined to this rickety wooden cottage, forbidden from leaving. He sat on the bed, head craned back to stare at the sloped ceilings. He would count the logs from time to time, and other times, he would simply sit and stare.

It had been five days of indifferent confinement.

He had tried numerous methods. His fists had bruises decorating their surface, courtesy of banging them against the steadfast wooden door. He had screamed his throat hoarse, but no reply came. He had tried dashing out when the door would open at the appointed time, only for Miras to catch him and throw him back in.

Today was his sixth day here, and the appointed time was arriving.

“Now,” Yuuya absent-mindedly said, staring at the door.

After staring at it for a while, seeing that there was no reaction, he went back to staring at the roof, his lips moving inaudibly as he counted. The first day, he had complained and cursed, and had even flipped the table- which Miras set back in position at the appointed time. By the third day, his protests had been weaker, convinced that there was no one around to hear them. Perhaps they had him confined out in the woods, away from any possible civilization.

By the end of the fourth day, he had nearly given up on noise getting him what he wanted.

“Now,” he said, eyes riveting downward.

It was past the seventeenth now that the door swung open, and Yuuya shielded his eye, quite used to this by now. Miras cast a shadow on him as she walked in, silver hair bobbing with her gait. Yuuya stretched his neck out to see what was beyond the door before she would swing the door shut, but the blinding light only showed him haphazard shapes.

And the door swung shut.

As usual, Miras walked in, disregarding him completely. Her eyes flickered toward the floor, where green stain dirtied the floor. Her nose wrinkled in displeasure at the result of one of his rage throws- he had thrown his medicine out. She pulled her chair out once more- which he, admittedly, had tried to break, only in vain- and sat down. Once more she crossed her legs, and she set her cool grey eyes on him. Only for her eyes to widen a bit.

Yuuya stared at her impassively, his legs crossed in the exact same posture. “So,” he repeated.

An amused smile flickered on her face as she saw his actions. “And what might this be? A ‘rebellion’?” she added, a mocking smile now on her face.

“And what might this be? A rebellion?” Yuuya repeated with an even tone, holding her eye.

“Heh. Quite a futile attempt, let me tell you. But amusing nonethles-,” she began.

“Heh. Quite a futile attempt, let me tell you. But amusing nonetheless. Now, we have a variety of methods to extract information from you, so confess before I get angry,” he cut in, finishing with haste. His job done, he laid back on the bed, staring at the roof.

“I already told you everything I know, aunty. If I’d come here with anyone else, why would I be willing to kill myself by jumping into that tortoise’s maw?” Yuuya sighed, quite used to this exchange.

Miras reached for her book, a different one this time. He had tried to read them, only to realize that they were all written in code, or a language he had no knowledge about. It was almost as if they wanted to bore him to death, and it was working quite well.

Except he had nothing more to tell them.

Miras sighed, flipping through the pages of her book. Perhaps she never read any of it, and only wanted to further his impression of her disregard for him.

“Look here, brat,” she said, stopping at a random page. “Do you even realize the intensity of what you are saying? Perhaps the farfetchedness of your story should be very telling of how true it is, but it could also be the other way around. You are either an idiot who doesn’t know who we are, or a spy sent with that very same purpose in mind. You’ve met Dreadwolves, Dragons and Flood Dragons, yet you escaped alive. You bathed in the blood of a Flood Dragon’s corpse to heal your injuries, despite not knowing what a Flood Dragon even is.” Miras finished, looking up from her book.

“Ok. Ok!” Yuuya jumped off his bed. Today, he had prepared. If only she would listen, he could convince her. He prayed to whatever force was keeping him alive as he began, “Look, I really, and I swear, I really was brought here to this world.” He jumped the gun, talking quicker as Miras began to interrupt, “I have proof! I told you I was pulled in to the sky, right? And at the other end, I fell from the sky, and the trees were flying to the sky as well, pulled from the roots. And then the spot disappeared, and then all the trees fell down, it should still be like that there, I know it!”

Miras raised an eyebrow, lighting hope in Yuuya’s mind. Perhaps, perhaps he really could convince her.

“What are you made of, brat?” Miras asked, a smile on her face. He stared at her, bewildered.

“Your stamina, strength, and everything else in general is… to be blunt, extremely average. Average to the point of being pitiful,” Miras held nothing back as she spoke, already getting up from her chair. She headed toward the door, speaking as she left.

The door opened, and blinding light spilled in.

“Yet still, you are full of hope, hoping for the best after all this,” Miras said, turning toward him.

Yuuya covered his eyes, a grin on his face.

Miras chuckled, swinging the door shut as she left. “Very well, I will look into this.”

Yuuya jumped, overjoyed as he heard her words. He had a chance. He had a chance to get out of here, and finally go out into the world. How was it like, outside? Was it a town? Was it a fantasy city? Did magic exist? Were humans strong as well?

Yuuya dove into his bed, cuddled up. His excitement began fading as he remembered the events that had plagued him, the possibility of Shizuka being in trouble. Perhaps before he’d grazed by death, he would’ve believed that she would be living the life of a Hero as in the novels, vanquishing monsters and generally having a good time.

But now…

His eyebrows furrowing, he rolled on the bed. He had to do something. Miras had only said that she would look in to this, it could take anywhere from today to months for her to find it. After all, he had no idea where it was, having been washed away by that river.

He was average.

Average to the point of being extremely pitiful.

Yuuya’s eyes narrowed as he made his decision. Something he had never done since being at the orphanage, something he’d put away for a long time. Fleeing from the turtle, yet not being fast enough to escape. Could Satoshi have done it? Perhaps he could have. Hideki would have thrown the turtle away, perhaps.

He got out of bed, inhaling deeply.

And then he turned to lift the bed.

***

Yuuya lay on the ground, panting heavily.

His eyes were wide with terror as he lied there, not knowing what to do. There was a gut-wrenching pain in his inner thigh, and it was obvious to him what had happened.

In his feverish exercise, he had ignored the possibility of a very possible thing happening.

He had messed up.

Perhaps it was a muscle that he had pulled. But he feared the possibility of it being permanent, some nerve damage that would render him with pain forever in his life. His legs called out to him, miserable with their pain. They had already had their fair share what with his frequent running a few days ago. Once more they were in the fire, and this time, there wasn’t even any danger.

Yuuya struggled to prop himself up, his arms threatening to give out due to exhaustion. He looked down at his left thigh, where the pain was prominent. He had been doing squats, reaching the thirty fourth when the pain hit. Immediately collapsing, he knew not what to do.

He was in deep trouble.

This was his seventh day in confinement, and Miras had not arrived at the appointed time, hopefully searching for the site he had informed her of. And without her, there was no one to help him out in his predicament. He was quite sure that he was in some secluded area so that even if he’d escape, he wouldn’t be able to do anything to them.

And inside this wooden prison, there was obviously no Flood Dragon blood to heal his injury. If only he had…

Yuuya’s head flicked up, staring at the wooden stand behind his bed. A bowl still laid on it, filled with greenish violet goo, a white pestle resting leisurely in it. The medicine that Miras had told him to eat. In his ‘rebellion’, he had refused to eat even an inch of it, but she’d still refill it if he’d ever throw it away. Perhaps. Perhaps it could…

Yuuya struggled to his feet, legs threatening to give out. He stumbled forward, nearly crashing onto the bed. Chuckling from his inability to move, he dipped his finger into the bowl, scooping out a generous amount of the gooey medicine.

Gulping, he regarded the goo, which for sure seemed like something from a poison master’s arsenal.

“Well, otherworldly cuisine tasting involves this as well, I guess,” he grimaced, and before letting his rational part persuade him, he put his finger in his mouth, downing the bitter concoction.

His throat clamped down as he struggled to swallow the drop of who knew what, trying his best not to think of the insect carapaces that had been next to it the first time he’d seen it. He swallowed, making a face as the bitter taste rampaged on his tongue.

“This… will take a while to get used to… Can’t they use sugar?” He spat, massaging his throat as he did so. With nothing else to do and his leg hurting, Yuuya simply went to sleep.

***

Sweat soaked his body, drops continuously dripping off, causing clear sounds to ring out. Only his ragged breathing accompanied this, as Yuuya lied there, unable to move an inch.

Every square inch of the wooden floor had at least some of his sweat, sweat that he had worked up in the past hour. He had tried everything he knew of to burn off steam, some of his frustration making him go at it harder than ever. His worries, his responsibilities, his fears, he tried to burn them all away as he exercised with renewed intensity every time. So hard, that each subsequent try might have been the most athletic action he’d ever seen in his life. Something had grasped his throat, choking him down, for no matter how deep he inhaled, the air just didn’t seem enough. His tongue rolled out like that of a dog as he tried to recover.

It had been five days since Miras had agreed to look in to the ruined forest that Yuuya had told her. She had not returned, causing his frustration to build up even more. How far down the river had he been pushed?

All of it went into this newly found hobby of his, exercising. Every second he could move, he tried to exercise more, to improve his body up if even a little. He had tried every move he knew of, and had invented a few of his own. And the cost was proportionately increasing. Everything around him was blurry, a swirling mix of colors. His fingers trembled, and his stomach ached. His legs were the worst, shivering so badly that he could barely get up until after at least two hours of reclining.

At times he would pull something badly, making him unable to move. At those times, he’d push his aching body to the mystery concoction that would fix everything in the time it knocked him out. Sometimes he would be out for hours, once he was out for an entire day. Only the brightness of the light that seeped through the gaps in the cottage could tell him of the passing time. He had tried to climb up on the table, to try and see through those gaps, only for it to be in vain.

By five days, he had become used to the state of his half-blindness, accepting it with grudging reluctance whilst cursing a certain turtle.

With nothing to do, his time was spent sleeping and exercising, nothing else.

Blinding light filled the room once more as the door creaked open. Yuuya shot up, eyes filled with excitement as he did not even bother hiding his eyes.

Miras stepped in, a bit of astonishment in her face as she saw him on the floor. Closing the door, she pulled up her chair and took a seat. Without looking at Yuuya, her eyes ran over the whole sweat soaked room, before finally coming to rest on Yuuya.

“I see you took my words to heart,” she said, smiling.

“Of course! If aunty were to tell me that I was average, I’d exercise to death! If aunty were to tell me to climb over hills of fire, I’d still do it!” Yuuya cheerfully replied, delighted that he had someone to talk to. His five days of solitary confinement, with not even the usual visit had drained him all too well. There was no food delivered, but he’d understood that the medicine was the food for him. Other than a craving for an actual meal, his needs were well accounted for with the medicine, not even having to do his ‘morning routine’.

“Alright you brat, stop flattering me, it isn’t going to get you anywhere,” she said, chuckling. Then, she said nothing, simply looking at him with unreadable eyes. Yuuya similarly stared back at her, expectant.

“You really are from Earth?” she asked, her eyes inscrutable. Yuuya nodded earnestly, not wanting a lack of enthusiasm be his undoing.

“I went upriver, and it really had trees strewn about. Even the wind whispers of the sky opening, and herbivores dare not come there,” she said, “But you brat, to be the only one to be affected by the Alignment….” She trailed off, mind wandering.

“Say, aunty? Can I ask you some questions as well?” Yuuya pleaded, hoping that this time, he could finally get some answers.

“I suppose you’ve earned that, having been cooped up here for so long. I would say our non violent interrogation has worked perfectly, no?” Miras grinned, “How did you like the medicine? Were you wishing for something sweet, by any chance?”

“Even that?” Yuuya gaped at the scheming old woman that grinned like a tomboy. “The first time I ate it, I thought even plain old rice porridge would have satisfied me.” He sighed. Miras simply waved it off, laughing.

“Anyways, sitting here makes me quite annoyed as well,” said Miras, getting up. She pushed her chair back in, heading back to the door.

“But aun-,” he began, panicking.

“Follow me. Or do you want to stay here forever?” Miras said, smiling back at him.