A month ago, I had started my third year of law school. Just a week ago, I was lazing around, procrastinating, postponing studying again and again. Just days ago, I thought I had finally felt something when I looked at her. I had everything ahead of me. Youth, family, talent. Even if I didn't have discipline, even if I always promised myself I would start something only to give up a week in, I had a lot to live for.
And today... I am simply no longer here. A road, a night, a moment... Everything stopped. How fragile life is. How ephemeral everything is. You never know when the last hu¡g, the last laugh, the last sunrise will be. We spend our lives making plans, as if tomorrow was guaranteed, as if we had signed a contract with destiny, as if the future was a promise and not a hope. But no.
Nobody is assured of tomorrow. Maybe today you could be reading a story, or out on a date. Tomorrow... you can be just a memory on the mind of those who loved you. And that's what hurts. Suddenness. The unfair. The impossible to assimilate.
I wanted to do something. Even if I could never focus on a task for more than 10 minutes, even if I always left studying for the last day before the big test, even if I started working out only to stop going to the gym a week in, even if basic things like going to the bathroom took effort.
I wanted to be someone.
And as I lied on the ground, dozens of bones broken, I wondered if I would ever get the chance. To be the someone I always wanted to be, even if I did everything in my power to get in my own way.
Maybe in another life.
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Darkness. And... voices. Muffled voices. I felt like I was underwater.
"You absolute moron!" a clearly distressed and angry voice shouted. "Of all people to kidnap, you decide on a dude who was asleep, and we don't know anything about?! Who the fuck is gonna pay the ransom?!"
I slowly opened my eyes. My eyes felt heavy. I blinked a few times, trying to shake off the grogginess. My vision was darkened, as if I was wearing sunglasses, but even then, the world seemed to come alive with almost disturbing detail. I've never seen this clearly before...
"Chill out, man!" another voice exclaimed. "I'm sure the Knights of Favonius would be more than glad to pay for this guy."
Knights of Favonius? The name immediately ticked off my brain. It was a name I was all too familiar with. A name I had heard a lot of times before.
I slowly and quietly sat up. The first thing I saw were two men, the source of the angry voices. Their clothes were very familiar, just as the name one of them mentioned. I knew what the name was, I knew where the bandana masks they wore were from. But it couldn't be, right?
"Idiot! You know the Knights of Favonius will be after our asses, right? Never directly interact with them, I thought I'd already told you that!" He was getting angrier by the second, and his partner in crime didn't seem to be doing that well at calming him down.
I didn't move, or made even the slightest of sounds. Clearly I was... kidnapped. My last memory is of being hit by a drunk driver, being in pain, and then... darkness. And now, I feel like I'm not even in my own body. This couldn't be a...
I shook my head. The most important thing was not being harmed. Doing a quick once-over of the men, I noticed one of them had a crossbow attached to his hip. Running away wasn't an option, so fighting was the only choice. It certainly helped that my hands were unrestrained, and that they were deeply concentrated on their... heated discussion.
Placing a hand on my knee, I slowly stood up and lunged at one of them. I slammed my fist against his jaw, knocking him out cold in one hit-
"Wha—" The other man flinched, flustered by the surprise attack.
I didn't give him much time to react. I was immediately on him, punching his face. A wet, somewhat satisfying crack was heard as he staggered, falling back onto his rear. Not relenting, I punted his head. That seemed to do the trick, as his body went limp, slack-jawed. Hopefully he didn't die...
Panting slightly, I ran a hand through my hair. It couldn't be, right? They mentioned the Knights of Favonius. And the men... they were Treasure Hoarders.
I closed my eyes, raising my head as if looking up at the sky. I took some deep breaths before my mind finally accepted what was happening. The only possible conclusion.
I wasn't in my world anymore. I was in Teyvat, the world of Genshin Impact.
I sighed, running a hand through my hair—which was longer than usual—and opened my eyes, glancing at the Treasure Hoarders. They were both out cold.
Letting out another sigh of disbelief, I knelt down and started... well, looting their bodies. They didn't have much. Expected from a pair of guys who kidnapped a completely random person to get money. Dumb and dumber.
I found a small puch which contained some golden coins with a symbol engraved on them. Mora. Another confirmation that I was truly gone from my world.
I stood up and scanned my surroundings. It was green. Really green. Grass and bushes everywhere; a massive plain that extended as far as the eye could see, but what really caught my eye was the massive tree in the distance. The Windrise tree. It was more imposing in real life, that's for sure, but it also was a gorgeous view of an otherwordly beauty... even if it looked like a place in Europe.
Standing up, I decided there was nothing else to do but head to Mondstadt. The city, that is.
Being in Teyvat was still hard to process, but a small spark of determination appeared in me. Something that I never would've felt back in my world. I always wanted to be someone. To achieve something, to make my parents proud, to make myself proud.
But the same fear caught my heart. The fear of... not being able to. Of being such a failure that I couldn't even muster the energy to survive in this world.
I pushed the thought aside, and started making my way to the city of Mondstadt.
A small smiled appeared on my lips. "I won't fail this time."
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Seeing the views as I walked was a nice experience. I didn't go out much when I was back in my world. I was a homebody through and through... which is to say, I just stayed sitting at my computer doing nothing all day.
But this... this is nice. The breeze, the natural sounds... I could get used to this.
I noticed there was a small pond nearby. A thought occured to me... I felt like this wasn't my body... Right.
I approached the pond and like a child peeking through a door, I sighed as my reflection came into view. What greeted me was a handsome face with blue eyes and messy white hair. I wore a black zip-up jacket with a high collar, slim-fit matching black pants and black dress boots.
Okay. Now this is just...
I took a step back, rubbing my temples. I'm Gojo Satoru. Or at least, I'm in Gojo Satoru's body. This is like the premise of a shitty fanfic...
Before I could think more deeply about anything, I heard a scream from behind. I flinched slightly, and I immediately turned around. A man was running away as four furry creatures followed him with wooden clubs in their hands. The creatures wore masks, and made strange noises as they ran after him.
Hilichurls... How unlucky.
I'm not about to... intervene. I don't even know if I have Gojo's powers. I must have, right? But I don't know...
"I'm sorry, man," I muttered, apologizing to a man running for his life, who couldn't even hear me.
I turned around to leave. But, as the man let out another scream of desperation, I stopped before even taking the first step.
What am I doing?
I'm running again. I'm taking the easy way out, instead of walking down the perilous path. Wasn't that what I hated about myself? How I wanted everything, but did nothing to achieve it? If... If I want to make a mark on this world... then I...
I recalled all those times I could do something, and I didn't. Everytime I told myself I would study in an hour, only to postpone it until I just went to bed. Everytime I could've worked out, but I didn't. Everytime I saw a cute girl, and I didn't approach her. I felt... hatred. For myself. Self-loathing. Why was I like that? Why am I like this? Why?
And as those negative thoughts flooded my mind, I felt a prickling sensation all over my body. A sudden surge of energy flowed through my veins. My heartrate accelerated, blood pumping at overtime.
With a loud scream of release, I ran toward the Hilichurls. I never had ran faster in my entire life. It felt like one second I was dozens of meters away, and another, I was right in front of the running Hilichurls.
I grunted as I slammed my fist on one of the Hilichurl's face, its mask cracking with a satisfying sound and being sent packing meters away with a small shockwave of wind from the pure power of the punch.
Panting slightly, I heard a "Ya!" from behind before I was hit on the head. Staggering slightly, I turned around and kicked the Hilichurl who hit me on the side of its head. A small cracking sound came from its skull as its body skidded on the ground.
I turned to the two remaining Hilichurls. They both took a step back, as if sensing their impending doom... but I didn't relent.
I lunged forward, throwing an uppercut to one of them, sending it up into the air. As the wooden club fell, I grabbed it, and slammed it against the other Hilichurl's head.
I hate myself. I hate myself. I hate myself...
I only heard the repeated thumping and wet cracking of blood and bones. I didn't know how much I hit that poor Hilichurl. I just knew that... I hated myself.
I heard ringing in my ears. I heard my ragged breaths. Below me, a mangled face with a fluffy mane of hair. My face was wet with blood. The adrenaline wore off. My shoulders slumped and my legs trembled slightly.
Turning around, I was met with the terrified face of the man I had 'saved.' I stopped before I could take another step, taking in his widened eyes, his trembling. He was scared. Of me.
I dropped the wooden club as I looked down to the ground, walking past him. "Be more careful next time," I muttered.
Right... I was making my way to Mondstadt.
I heard the man scrambling away, but I didn't look back. There was nothing to look back upon.
A few thoughts formed on my mind. I killed living beings. With my own hands. It felt... strange. A pang of guilt was there, sure, but... also a weird sense of satisfaction. That I did something. That I didn't run away again.
And also, that energy I felt. Could it be... cursed energy? I started feeling it after... I recalled those memories. Bad memories. Negative feelings...
I was so lost in my thoughts I didn't even realized I already had crossed the bridge, and was already at the entrance of Mondstadt. I heard a boot thumping on the ground as a sword cut my path off. I looked up from the ground. It was a knight.
"What's your business in Mondstadt? You seem like an outlander," the knight said, his voice gruff and weary.
I stared at him for a moment before speaking. "I'm an... I'm an adventurer," I responded. "I was out doing commissions."
He must've seen my bloodied face, because he raised an eyebrow and his eyes narrowed, a look of slight skepticism crossing his features before he lowered his sword. In the end, he seemed to believe me, if at least somewhat. "Go ahead," he said, gesturing with his hand for me to pass before standing straight again, ever vigilant.
"Thanks," I muttered before walking past him.
I let out a shaky sigh. Man, I felt exhausted...
But exhaustion wasn't an impedement to enjoy the views. Mondstadt was... gorgeous. A city full of stone; the houses reminiscent of a medieval era. There were multiple sets of stairs, leading to the upper parts of the city, and above it all, a giant statue depicting the Anemo God, looking upon its loyal followers.
My mind was a mess, but I had to set some order. First thing firsts... I had to find a place to stay. I had the mora pouch I stole from the Treasure Hoarders, so I could at least sleep one night in a warm bed. I wasn't too hungry, but that wasn't going to be true in an hour or so...
I ran a hand through my hair as I sighed, gazing at the giant statue. "Yeah... A warm bed sounds nice right now," I muttered to myself.
I wandered through the streets. The people seemed a bit on edge, if still carefree. Expected from the land of freedom, I guess.
Still, their slight guardedness told me that I probably arrived when the Stormterror crisis was ongoing...
In the end, I arrived at an inn. The Mora I had allowed me to pay for two days, leaving me a small amount leftover. I went upstairs to my room, and opened the door.
It was simple, really. A small window with the curtains drawn, where the orange-hued light from the sunset trickled in. A bed on the middle of the room, and next to it a nightstand. On the corner of the room, there was a wooden closet.
I walked up to the bed and immediately plopped down on it with a small sigh. Today was a... weird day.
One of the weird things that happened, apart from all the... body switch and not being in my world anymore... was using cursed energy.
I used it... so that meant I could technically use Gojo's abilities, right? I closed my eyes as I tried to muster some cursed energy.
Negative emotions... I recalled some bad memories, but it was still hard to call upon cursed energy. It... didn't make much sense. My vision was heightened, that was for sure, so I had the Six Eyes. I should've had control of cursed energy at a molecular level so... why was it so hard to control? I felt like my grasp slipped on a slimy substance each time I tried to move it around...
I clicked my tongue as I let go of the cursed energy. It was no use thinking about it. I needed a good night sleep. I could figure out everything tomorrow...
...Yeah. I always told myself that. Tomorrow I will study, tomorrow I will work out... But I almost had no tomorrow. If I had died for real... then what?
...
I hate myself, but I'm all I have in this world right now. I don't know if that's reassuring or terrifying.