---

There was a stutter in the winds above Yokohama.

Four wisps of light danced among the starlit skies, moving much like how fireflies would in a grove or brush. It was an interesting curiosity, but one that didn’t appear to significant. However, as if on command they moved closer and closer to the rooftops of the Japanese city, gaining faster and faster speed as they did so. They were anomalies. Strange fragments of a god’s essence. They were not of this world.

Several centuries ago, the world of Earth had experienced a phenomena with these wisps once before. Four ordinary people were lost to the pages of time and disappeared from the history books. They were nobody who had become significant, but they were far more tailored for what the celestial energy had been tasked to gather. The Hero of Defense, Chōsokabe Kubota, knew how to survive in a hostile environment with the sword and bow at hand. But instead of spiraling toward a soldier or medic, the wisps were confused. Weird energy had tainted the wish to bring new heroes. Instead it was seeking out somebody who would not know how to survive, someone who had questionable morals.

Fortunately, the laws of the universe were empirical and absolute. This would be the case with the would-be heroes as time appeared to stand still the closer the wisps got to the souls that they were linked to. Some might have called it fate.

Nobody would hear it, but the echo of the spell to summon heroes was heard between cracks of the mirror between worlds.

When the wisps found their targets, they saw them like stone figures. Trapped in time as the mirror opened. The world’s clock was stuck, albeit for a moment, on that exact moment where the time hit midnight. Some of the would-be heroes may have been sleeping. Others… not so much. As the energy encircled the four Japanese people the lights around them grew and grew while the four in question were stuck in time.



When Junichiro, Ohta, Kaito, and Hiroko would awaken they would be nowhere near their homes. They would be in Eferion.

It would… be a strange awakening, but their bodies would be made ready for it. As their bodies were placed from wherever in Japan they were to a lone, giant tori in a large forested vale. The feeling of moving between the mirror that separated the two worlds was an odd feeling, though it would only be one they felt as they gathered their bearings and it would be more like a nagging feeling in the back of their head, like a sixth sense. All they knew when they awoke, stumbling as they would, was it was pitch black. After all, the world of Eferion was a natural one and light pollution and other such modern things had yet to light up the skies.

There would be no word of god to guide them. No Eferion sorcerers to greet them on the other side. In fact, back in the capital of which they were summoned a sense of dread had begun to fill the Princess's stomach.

---

It was an awkward beginning.

As Junichiro ran off into the forest, the wind during the midnight hour seemed to get heavier and the presence of a storm beginning to take shape. It was odd though, given how clear the night skies were. No clouds cloaked the moon, yet there was the density of a storm beginning to take shape, or at least that’s what it felt like. This feeling aside, it would not take long to find the “north” star. The path that passed through the massive torii seemed to go on for miles into a deep swath of thick woodlands and ragged, rolling hills. In the distance the moon illuminated a waterfall that flowed downward from on high. A silhouette of something moving in the brush. Local wildlife stirred by the group’s movement perhaps?

A clap of thunder echoed in the distance, but there was no sign of an oncoming storm. No rain. No humidity. No clouds. But there had been thunder. Curious.

Further north alongside the road from the torii stood a statue of two ancient warriors. It would be the next monument forward.

---

As Hiroko and the others drew closer to the statues, the “storm” as it were appeared to draw to a close. The skies were quiet. For now.

The statues themselves were interesting pieces themselves, though they appeared to have seen many centuries of decay. Moss lingered over them and the words engraved upon the base of their feet. Strange words. At first they were totally indecipherable despite seeming like Japanese. The combinations didn’t make sense, or at least, this would be the case until they did.

“I hate of which I am.” The message on the leftmost statue read, his partner to the right would iterate “I shall never forget.”

A poetic sentence, though without context was hard to even know. Unbeknownst to the three it would be the first lesson and skill that the world had granted them. The written language of the natives to this part of the world. It would come in handy in due time, but for now it would be a mild confusion. But in the dark, transported from your home? Would you doubt your own eyes and discard the strangeness of it all? A good question. For the travelers, it seemed like they could follow the road further, though it was not very clear where it was going to lead in the dark. If they were to use their cellphones for light, how long would that even last?


While the majority of the group looked at the statues, Junichiro continued to wander northward through the brush and a bit ahead of them. Another torii appeared in the distance as the road went deeper into the forest, covered in moss and brush. If the three from before were following the road they would end up this way eventually. But perhaps that was a concerning thought for later. The waterfall was his goal. A fresh source of water.

However, before he could get there he appeared to stumble on some kind of campsite. No signs of life and there appeared to be no embers on the campfire at all. No tents. Some leftover pots and gathered berries but nothing much more. Whoever had used the campsite appeared to be long gone, but both the waterfall and the second torii were in distance.