"Cold. So cold!", Jack thought groggily as he fought his way to consciousness.

As he regained his recent memories, he brought a hand up to feel his left cheek, gingerly checking to see if all his teeth were still present and accounted for. The scrawny youth that had approached him - with a smile no less - and sent a knowing nod in the direction of the group of students by the well, had sucker punched him! "Yeah, no. That wasn't even a punch. It was just a slap", he thought wryly. "Still hit like a sledgehammer though!"

Elder Li scowled as he made his way through a gaggle of students. clustered outside a classroom where the Head Mistress was waiting just outside the door with a furious glower. Entering the classroom, his worst fears were confirmed as he saw his strange patient laid out on a mat, a livid hand print still visible on his face.

To the side, a sobbing student - Bo, if he recalled? - saw him and immediately started kowtowing while saying "Forgive me, Elder Li! It was an accident! I didn't mean it!". The boy was obviously distraught - and seeing the unmoving body on the mat, Elder Li could only sigh as he realised why.

Jack opened his eyes. "Wait, my eyes are open!" he realised, a strange sense of Déjà Vu permeating through him. Cold? Dark? A floating feeling? He panicked as he realised that he wasn't lying on anything. "Was that just a dream?", his mind asked as he looked down at his body. "Okay, not a dream. But why am I back here?", he said into the void.

He was still wearing the clothes he remembered putting on this morning before heading to the compound for his surprise day of work, so at least what he remembered was real. "Wait. Did that single slap KILL ME?", he thought, terror and dread welling up to overwhelm him. He knew the people there were a lot stronger than him, but to die to a mere slap?

He'd die from embarrassment if he weren't, apparently, dead. Again. But if he was dead, what did that make this space, this void? It certainly didn't resemble any of the heavens or hells of the religions he was familiar with...

Dainan respectfully followed his master as they walked through the monastery, making their meandering way to the shrine where the Buddha had stood for as long as he could remember.

It had been a week since the statue had disappeared right before his eyes, and given the seriousness of the matter, he was shocked that the master had taken this long to respond to the news.

He hadn't met the master often, as he was always in seclusion in a smaller temple, some distance away, on this rock that was their home, but he knew that he wielded indescribable power.

Not only did the master take a week to respond to the news, he seemed happy? And the twisting route he was taking showed that he was in no rush to reach the shrine either.

"Are you sure it's gone? Completely? Not a trace?", his master asked him for the third time!

"Absolutely sure, we've searched everywhere!", he replied with an unseen bow.

His eyebrows shot up as his master muttered "Excellent!".

He was acting like a child that had just received their heart's desire, not like the master of a small world that had just had it's most precious artifact gone missing!

A sharp twinge in his chest reminded Jack of what had happened the first time he'd found himself here.

Now that his eyes had adjusted he could once again make out small colourful shapes drifting at various speeds through the void. He certainly didn't want a repeat experience of being hit by one of the objects at high speed - shudder. But now what? Was being hit a requirement to getting out of here? Was he stuck here forever, in some kind of giant dodg'em-slash-purgatory?

His mind raced at the possibilities.

Jack took stock of his situation. Void? Check. Everything well lit even with no visible light source? Check. Potentially fatal flying objects? Check.

"Also, how am I breathing if this is empty space?", an errant thought chimed in. "Let's... not think about that too hard right now", as he became hyper conscious of his breathing. Everything there seemed to be functioning, so he set that question aside.

Dressed? Yes, and this time in clothes and not mostly wrapped in sheets. Pockets? Pockets! Checking his pockets he found that not only had the clothes followed him here, so had the contents of his pockets! Which amounted to the grand sum of one language orb and several pieces of Mìngmài. Feeling rather hungry, he popped one into his mouth, followed by the thought, "Can I meditate in space? Let's find out!".

He could.

By whatever strange means, the effects of the Mìngmài fruit seemed immune to his circumstance as he felt the familiar warmth gather and sink. The point where it gathered triggered a random memory of a hot Mexican dish he'd eaten once. Anyway, it seemed he wouldn't starve in the short term - maybe he'd get hit again before he died of thirst, or exposure?

Could he die here, given that death seemed to be what had put him here in the first place? He wasn't eager to find out.

Slowly, he began to notice a haze directly in front of him. Near? Far? He couldn't tell. It appeared to be stationary relative to himself, but what that meant he had no time to dwell on as the darkness around him seemed to crack. His entire being felt like it was being turned inside out.

"OH SHIIII...." he managed to yell before his world turned black.