Episode 1
Bound By Destiny
The day was hot, just like every other fucking day in the life of Dizzy. Rolling around in bed, under the sheets, Dizzy pushed them off of his being, getting himself up and sitting right in front of the fan. Even though he was in an air-conditioned house, it was still hot as hell in his room from his constantly running laptop that he had set up on top of one of his dressers in his small room. Putting his face in his hands, he let the rushing air of the fan gently play with his hair as he thought about what he had to do that day.
“Ugh…work. I don’t feel like working today. Already feeling like shit,” he groaned to himself as the sunlight that was seeping through the sheet-covered windows started to make his back a little hot. Falling back, he was lying in an unbuttoned up shirt and shorts that were far too big for him to wear without a belt. “Another day in hell, I guess,” he said, getting up and putting on his uniform for work.
After getting his hair pulled back into a ponytail, he put on his work hat and opened up the door to his room to find a cold blast of air hit him in the face. ‘Ahh, that feels so good,’ he thought, leaving his door open so that it could circulate the stagnant air that was sitting in there from the night before of being on the computer. For the past couple of months, the only friend he had was his computer. There was absolutely no one his age that he could get together with, or really even talk to, without feeling like bludgeoning them over the head with a nine-inch-nail baseball bat for being so stupid. He seriously felt like the smarted person in the town; it was definitely what one would call the Boondocks.
Ever since his plans got fucked over, he had been ping-ponged from one city to another across the country, living with family that really didn’t care about him too much. It was hell in itself just moving from one place to another in such short amounts of time. He really started to get the feeling that the world really didn’t want him alive at all. Or sane…
Leaving the house, he locked the front door and went to his pickup truck, sighing. He really didn’t want to go to work that morning. But brushing that feeling aside, he climbed into it and drove off on the highway. Once he got to work, he clocked in, checked to see where he was stationed to work that day, and started to work.
Everything was fine and dandy until rush hour came. He was working on the grill, but was told to go to the back and help the new person that was in the dish room. Walking in there, Dizzy let out a curse and immediately ran to the back. The dishes were literally backed up to the door. There were no clean pots to cook in for the people that had to cook the food. The managers were really getting pissed off, and so were the chefs.
After about three or four hours later, it was toned down enough for the new guy to get back to it without the help of another. Cursing up a storm, Dizzy walked out of the back, took off his uniform shirt and hat and clocked out, leaving the clothing in the manager’s room, and left the building. By the time he got to the door of his truck, two of the managers and one of the hard workers came out to talk with him.
“Why are you leaving? What you just did a few minutes ago was short of a miraculous thing! I’ve not seen someone work that hard in a long time,” the woman spoke. Dizzy looked up at the three of them, sighed, and shrugged.
“I can’t take it anymore. All of this stress is getting to me. It is literally driving me crazy,” he said.
“Well then, we can cut back on your hours some, but please don’t leave. You have been one of the best workers we’ve had in a long time,” the male manager spoke, but Dizzy was already putting the key into the ignition.
“I’m sorry, but this isn’t suited for me. Get someone else that will work harder and actually enjoy it,” Dizzy said, closing his door, and driving off, leaving the managers and worker in a state of confusion.
‘I’m not of any fucking use around here, or even anywhere for that matter. It seems that death really is the answer to everything that has been bothering me lately,’ he started thinking, listening to Nile’s In Their Darkened Shrines III: Destruction of the Temple of the Enemies of Ra. He couldn’t find his place in the world that was around him; he was far too different. Far too frail…
Getting home, Dizzy unlocked the front door and walked in, seeing his grandfather standing in the kitchen, looking at him kind of strangely.
“What you say? What are you doing home so early,” he said.
“They had enough workers, so they let me go for today,” Dizzy responded right back, without wincing or being slightly nervous about the fact that he had quit that day. His grandfather nodded to him, and went to the living room to watch some TV.
Sighing, Dizzy went to his room and got onto his computer, after undressing himself and putting on the same clothes he wore that very morning. He wanted to cry. Inside himself, he was eating away at his own sanity because of how he was; a spineless little sissy boy that hated confrontation, talking to people in general, and was deathly afraid of water and girls. Even on the internet, he was the exact same way in real life.
Yet, he had all of these people that talked to him. Why did he always get people to flock to him, when he doesn’t even like half of the people that talks to him? Why can’t he just tell them to leave him alone and quit talking to him?
“Because I just can’t…I’m a wimp and a failure at life, plain and simple. No girl likes me, and I’ll never have the guts to talk to one. Why even live in the first place. What is the meaning of living on this shithole called Earth,” he questioned himself, thinking about it while listening to some music.
Minutes turned into hours as he sat there, just looking at stuff on the internet, listening to his music, telling anyone that talked to him to leave him alone. When nightfall finally came, Dizzy sighed and put his computer back on his dresser. Getting up, he dressed himself in very baggy pants with two holes in the hem of the back pockets, a black button-up shirt, and put on a hat, stuffing it over his pony tail. Grabbing the keys to his truck and the house, he left his room and passed by the living room, where his grandfather still was. Going out the side door, he made sure to pick up his dagger that he put off to the side, hidden from the view of anyone that tried to look.
Dizzy was tired of life. He was tired of always living the way he did. Nothing good was going to ever come out of it anyway. All of his friends always said to him that suicide was never the answer, but to him, it seemed like the only option he had, if he didn’t want to end up killing them out of insanity. Life was literally driving him crazy; and he’s only twenty years old...
Driving away in his truck, he went to the closest store to get himself an energy drink. After paying for it and leaving, he drove off on the deserted highway, drinking his drink. He was numb inside. Like his heart was made out of ice, unable to be thawed. Finding a good field clearing, he pulled off onto a dirt road and rode it for a little bit, making sure he was far from civilization. Once he thought he was far enough, he stopped, turned off the truck, and got out of it, carrying the dagger in his hand, unsheathed. It was ready to draw blood in an instant. Standing in front of the headlights, Dizzy looked at the knife edge very carefully. It was easily able to go through his skin, which was what he wanted.
“My life always sucked anyway. Nothing good ever came out of it. Even though people say that I’m a good person, in the end I’m really not. I’m a sad person. Someone not worthy of living in a world like this. My meaning of living is dying now…” he whispered to himself, gripping the knife handle in his right hand, placing the blade along the main artery on his left arm.
“I should have done this long ago, and not now, having to suffer all of these years alone. I wish I had never existed here, cursed with the blood that runs through my veins,” he said, raking the blade across his arm. The pain surged through him like molten metal running through his veins. The initial cut opened up the main artery, gushing out blood all over his face and body. With a wry smile across his pale visage, he was truly happy. Now he could die. He could rest from this fucking shithole of a world he had to live in. The last thing that he ever saw before fading to black was a pure white light, with a hint of pink around the edges, and a female figure standing in front of him.
‘Kami-sama…can’t be…Lady Luck...’
The girl had arrived too late. She saw all of the blood on the kid and the ground and knew she could only do one thing to save him, and that was to teleport him to a different universe, using the time shift to reverse his wound from becoming so fatal.
“I can’t believe that this kid was so selfish and depressed about himself to actually go this far. Shin-ou will not be happy with me,” she softly mumbled to herself, her tiny frame dancing around in a circle, waving around a wand to help her use her magic. “I just hope this works…”
After speaking in an arcane tongue, the spell was set. She said the key word, and in a flash of light, both of them disappeared from existence of that universe.
******
Everything was so dark. It felt like Dizzy’s body was in a constant free-fall. Was he falling to hell for slitting his wrist, killing himself? His entire body was frozen when he tried to move his arms. Panicking, he tried to struggle some more.
“Oi!! He’s moving!”
“He’s actually alive!?!”
“Holy shit…”
Hearing distant whispers of people, Dizzy thought they were voices of devils, ready to take his body to the underworld, where they would torture his soul for all eternity. Not like he wasn’t used to it while living on Earth anyway…
“Someone get him to the nurse! Quickly!”
“Call an ambulance!”
“Oh kami-sama, I hope he is alright…”
‘Why would someone be worried about me in hell,’ he thought to himself, opening up his eyes, yet still seeing nothing. But wait!!! He did see something; faint light in the distance. Slowly, his body was becoming free from the paralysis that binded him down. Moving his arms, he brought them to his face, rubbing his eyes. As more light flooded in, like opening up a closed door to a room that was dark, he was slowly able to see figures standing over him.
“He’s opening his eyes!”
“Nani!?!?!?”
“Stand back!!! Don’t crowd around him!”
Puzzled by the voices that he kept hearing, Dizzy kept moving around, getting a clearer and clearer picture of everything around him. Suddenly, a pain shot through his back. Yelping out in pain quite loudly, he pushed his body upwards and to his right, rolling around, screaming in pain from the fall.
The people that were standing around him were wide-eyed in awe. It wasn’t everyday that they saw a person fall through five feet of solid concrete and land right in the middle of a school classroom in Japan. Some of the girls were screaming in horror at the pain that the person was in. Others tried to go help, but were told by the teacher to stop and not interfere.
After a little bit, the pain started to fade away, and he was able to see clearly again, Dizzy opened his eyes fully, seeing dirt and debris all over the place, including himself. Looking at his left wrist, there was not a mark on his body. He couldn’t believe it. Did his body become perfect or something? Was this really what it was like to be dead? He really thought that he wouldn’t be able to feel physical pain once he died, but it seems that he was wrong. Looking around at all the people that were looking at him, he noticed that the setting was fairly similar to something he had seen before. Picking himself up with a groan of pain, he started to dust himself off and look for the oldest person in the room; someone who actually looked like they knew what they were talking about. Seeing a woman in her mid-twenties, he asked her a question.
“Am I really dead?”
Everyone looked at him like he had lost his mind. The teacher was startled to hear such a question from a person that fell through the roof of the school and was standing up in front of her, not a scratch on him. Looking at what he was wearing, she knew that he was not from the country, so she tried to explain it to him.
“I’m surprised you are not. You just went through five feet of solid concrete a minute ago. But no, you are in a Japanese school. Very much alive and well, from what I can tell,” she said to him. Obviously she said the wrong things to him, because he suddenly became very angry, looking homicidal.
“WHAT!?!? You have GOT to be shitting ME!! I fucking slit my wrist for this shit!? To still be fucking ALIVE in Japan, of all places,” Dizzy almost literally screamed to the teacher. Everyone started to look at him with fearful looks in their eyes. He was ready to destroy something. Though he had always wanted to go to Japan, he knew he would never be able to socialize with anyone because of how he was. But at the moment, he was in a fit of rage, unable to think rationally, and the teacher noticed that.
“What do you mean slitting your wrist? Do you mean you tried to kill yourself!?”
The students looked at the kid in disbelief. Half of them started to feel sorry for the person that was in front of them then.
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I did. And for a time, I was actually successful. But before all of the blood poured from my body, a being showed up in front of me, and from what it looks like, saved me through some ridiculously miraculous ways, and sent me here for an ungodly reason,” Dizzy retorted. Kicking a piece of gravel from the roof, it shot through a window and looked like it had gone into orbit.
Everyone saw that and started to back away, even the teacher. A person with that kind of strength could do just about anything.
Suddenly, a man wearing a black shirt and had really long silver hair and long ears burst into the classroom, with a more muscular man running right behind him, his slightly pointed ears twitching.
“There he is! I can’t believe that Teila would screw up that badly as to send him through the roof of the school that my daughter was in! She could have been killed!”
“Aye! And my Sia could have been hurt as well. For now, I’ll help with this mess; you take care of our new responsibility.”
The silver-haired man nodded his head, running up to Dizzy, waving his hand in front of the ornery kid, causing him to fall asleep almost instantly. Catching him in his arms, he was surprised that he was unscathed from the fall. Irritated that Teila messed up as bad as she did, he didn’t hear his daughter talking to him.
“Father!!”
The man looked up and at a blue-haired girl with long pointy ears, very much like the man that was in front of everyone now.
“I’m sorry Nerine. It will have to wait until everything is settled. It seems that our new arrival here isn’t happy to be alive, sadly enough, and needs to be taught a lesson that is most important to us all. I’ll be at home by the time school is out,” he said, running out of the room and out of the school.
Many of the students that saw the man carrying the kid in his arms thought that he was rushing him to the hospital, since Dizzy had fallen through the roof, but he wanted to get to an open and safe place before his spell wore off on him.
Running through the town, he was able to get to a fountain in the middle of the park before Dizzy started to shift around in his arms.
Dizzy felt like he was being carried. It was somewhat comfortable, but he had a bad feeling about something, so he violently shifted, falling to the ground with a loud thud. Looking up, he saw the same man that had put him to sleep and got up immediately. He grabbed at the collar of the man’s shirt.
“What was the meaning of that!? And a bigger question, how the hell did you do that!?” Dizzy was confused now. He knew that magic didn’t exist in the real world, but he still thought he was in the real world.
“Calm down, young one. No need to be so rash-“
“Fuck that!! Yes there is! I wanted to die, but instead got sent here through some strange means! Why can’t people just mind their own fucking business and leave me alo-“
SLAP!
The older man slapped the younger one right across the face, silencing him rather quickly.
“Quit being so pathetic and self-centered. Everyone has a destiny to fulfill in life; you just have to find out what it is. Obviously you know nothing of the real world, and are actually quite lucky to be given a second chance as you have now!” The man looked sternly at Dizzy, a flash of power showing in his eyes. The younger one could only look away, averting eye contact.
“Why..? Why me? Why couldn’t it have been someone else, someone who actually deserves a second chance…” Dizzy looked to his left, eyes downcast as he continued on. “But you are right: I do know nothing of the real world. I’ve always been shut away from it, afraid of everything that I should experience, but don’t want to. But, in all honesty, I don’t want to know. Nobody will accept me for what I am, and that is a fact-“
“How do you know? I didn’t think you were omniscient,” the man retorted, getting a flushed response from Dizzy. “You truly know nothing of the ways of acceptance, though you have done it so many times, yourself, through your lifetime of making friends.”
Dizzy couldn’t respond to that. He knew he had lost the war on words. It was so very true. He was too much of a nice guy to truly ever turn down the hand of someone who was in need. With a clearer mind, now he saw why so many people liked him, but was that him, or what he wanted other people to perceive him as?
The man saw the question and doubt in the kid’s face and pat him on the shoulder. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. Let’s take things one at a time. Come with me.” He extended his hand out to Dizzy, who reluctantly took it.
Dizzy didn’t know what to expect now. Everything was so unclear again, just like last time. But, from what it looks like, he will be having help to find what his meaning in living is all about; whether Dizzy likes it or not. Accepting the hand that was offered to him, he grabbed the silver-haired man's hand in gesture and was lead out of the park, getting a few strange stares from the onlookers and the people who had heard the outburst only a few seconds ago.