Chapter 2 Imprisonment.
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"Ugh...I can feel my stomach rolling."

I try to push the damned sandwich back to where it came from. My thoughts are swirling and driving me more nauseous.

'WTF exactly did he do to my soul? This doesn't fucking sound like a happy farming novel! I want neither my soul nor my body ripped in two, I just got a new body an hour ago, for crying out LOUD!!!' 

I slam my hands on the table, rising to my feet and shouting: "WHY is there a modern building here!??? This should be a medieval world!!! I should be an OP existence! Why do my hands hurt like a normal person's!?!?! No one writes about a farming MC in modern time!!! This isn't the slow life I wanted!!!" 

I vent, pointing a finger at the piece of magical plastic, but the little shit isn't responding. I continue to let curses fly, till my throat starts to feel a bit sore. 

"Haa…haaa... I could probably become an opera singer with a bit more training like this one, and an opera house nearby, and a spare heart if there are more surprises on the horizon. Ok, ok, ok that building is not too close, somewhere between 1-2 km. Maybe... maybe it's just a kick-ass noble mansion? and in reality there's a rural village spread out in the forest, that I just can't see from here!?" 

I look at it as hard as I can...

'It got plenty of large windows, no matter how hard I squint. I still need to be sure, just need to stay in the forest and out of eyesight.' 

I get back on to my feet and drag myself to the kitchen, throwing the dishes into the sink and washing up my face. 

'Should I take a knife with me, or just be ready for a mad rush back at any moment? No, it will doom me for good if I'm caught with a weapon, running it is then. Do I have keys for the front doors?'

I walk up to the front door, still feeling tense. 

"I have a building with a magical cloaking function and no locks, terrific! These glass doors and windows better have a magical lock somewhere." 

I walk out, taking in the air and notice that yes, indeed, my HQ is fully air-conditioned, somehow including the roof. "Damn building has 10 times more blessings than I do."

Walking around the exterior, I see that I'm in a circular opening devoid of trees. 'I am a sitting duck here, hopefully the cloaking prevents anyone but me from seeing it.'

I make my way towards the direction of the building i saw from the roof. I move slowly, stopping every two minutes to listen for any sounds. 'Birds and leaves in the wind, great relaxing BGM, if not for the fact that my life may suddenly go down the gutter at any moment'. 

I check the map app on the tablet, seeing it slowly fill in the greyed out areas as I walk."Why do I get a big, fat, FY instead of any spells or abilities?"

I walk for half an hour, the trees are becoming sparse and i finally reach the outermost tree line. A stretch of 20 meters till the building. I move behind the closest, thickest tree to observe the situation. 

'Yup it's a modern building with electricity, a large housing maybe, it has a metric crap-ton of windows on this side. University dormitory mayhaps? I can blend in just fine then, come up to a guy smoking, talk naturally, tell him I'm new and ask some common questions, just like in the old days. I did get the language comprehension blessings. Right?'

I stay in place, watching, listening for any banter to hopefully get an idea if I did actually get the blessings, or if I'm neck deep in bullshit. No one is walking outside and plenty of windows have blinds. 

'The message mentioned over 1000 girls, but this building doesn't look like a barrack, so I'll low ball it to 500-600 people max judging from what I can see of it from this side. This must be the outskirts of a city, considering  the lack of car and factory exhaust or the quiet sound of nature. Haaa…' 

I stay still for another half an hour, catching glimpses of movement here and there. I contemplate if I can just risk it and walk out in the open, lacking any concrete information I lay in wait a bit longer.

I hear a distinct clanking of a window, someone is fully opening it for fresh air. I focus on the first floor, a bit to my left. I widen my eyes and gawk at the girl leaning out of the window. She's wearing a camel blazer over a white, long-sleeved shirt, a red cravat on the collar and shoulder-length black hair. 'Something feels wrong here, even from this distance, something ain't right here.'

I focus, trying to make out any sensible words, among women's laughter coming out of the window. I catch a few more glimpses of more girls, wearing the same tops and what sounds more and more like bits and pieces of Japanese language. I have watched plenty of anime and the more I look, the more those people look like anime high school girls.

'Please God, don't let it be a zombie anime world, or a super powered, brain-dead anime school. I am as fragile as a normal person, thank you for asking.' 

Three hours pass and I get the sinking feeling in my stomach, that I have seen and heard the same things again and again: more girls moving about, opening and closing of windows, women's voices, and I'm 50% sure I hear Japanese words. No explosions or demons/angels flying around beating each other up were noticed by me so far. It could be explained away with magic cloaking, or some other anime logic, so it's better to keep an eye on the sky.

'The sun is setting soon and I'm still as clueless as before, not one person came out for some evening jogging around the building, or to smoke, or anything! This is getting frustrating. Where are all the damned shitheads hiding!! Sigh... Recon in force would be unwise, stealth mode it is then.'

I stretch my legs and arms, take a minute to double check that no one is looking out of their rooms, and sprint for the wall, slowing down for the last leg. Upon reaching the wall, I quietly press my back against it and wait to hear anything apart from my heart beating. I pick up on the sound of a TV, playing some movie, in the room behind me.

'Yeah, definitely a Japanese movie, and i kinda understand what is spoken more clearly with each passing minute. Language cheats are a must for any world traveler. Knocking on the window and hoping for the best is more or less an attempted suicide considering my situation, better look around and try to figure out if I know what fictional world resembles this one the closest.'

I walk along the wall, stepping lightly and controlling my breathing. Waking up to the bend, I stick out my head to make sure there is no one outside. 'Looks clear, this building is in the shape of an H, hmm... twice the capacity I thought, maybe this is the female wing and the one over is the male one? Nobody is by the windows, I can pull down my hood and just run over for cover among those trees and bushes.'

I make it over without incident and press myself against the wall once more. This dorm is connected with what I assume is a rectangular school building. I continue sneaking along, listening to more women's voices and feel my stomach dropping, just like after I read the last message on my tablet. Through the large entrance I can see that the rectangular building has a spacious courtyard, with some trees in the center and some manner of structure behind them. I feel my legs becoming wobbly jelly and my heart beating like a mad drummer. I voice my thoughts aloud for the first time, after 4 hours of trying to keep my shit together.

"No, not this bullshit ... please..." I raise my awareness to the limit, twirling my head around, to make sure I didn't miss anything because of the hoodie. I walk towards the entrance, to make sure whether my bad feeling is true or not.

As if by divine intervention, the last rays of sunlight fall on the oppressive, brown brick, short structure at the center of this massive mess I found myself in. 

"I need to run or I will die."

I turn around and practically sprint all the way back, fighting the desire to gag as bile bubbles up my throat. I make it to the tree line and push myself to 110%, dodging trees to get as far away as I can. Not that far, as I come face first into a fence after ~10 minutes, taking shallow breaths I drop to the ground and laugh, laugh and laugh hysterically.

"AHA.HA.HA.HA... HA.HA.HA!! THIS ..HA.HA ..IS THAT.. ANIME ...PRISON.. HA.HA.HA.HA ... PRISON SCHOOL."

I find my situation very amusing because my laughter isn't stopping and neither are my tears, although my breathing is and it's getting painful to laugh. The sun is setting, it's getting dark and cold laying on the ground.

"Nietzsche was right,

Spoiler

God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?

[collapse]

God is dead, I made a deal with a devil and this is hell."

"This is bad, bad, very bad... Fuu..fuu..Do I count as an illegal alien? Am I a protected species now? Shit, I have zero ID here. I'm a foreigner with no ID, a male foreigner trespassing on academy property I have no business being near to, an academy filled with vicious women prone to violence... I'll be dead before the police get here."

'Think, think as your life depends on it. Ok what do I remember about this hellhole... There is an ass pervert in charge, a crow tamer with eyes everywhere, half a dozen crazy women that can hit hard enough to make men cough up blood... ruptured organs will make my death slow and painful, great! Five freaks that can take that kind of abuse and walk it off.' "Where is my anime logic regeneration, ah!?!? This is a fucking execution!!!"

'Is there anything I can use? Any secret treasure? All-powerful backer I can get on my side? Anything more then a buried porn stash!?' "Ugh... all I remember is those five assholes being inhumanly durable, having their stuffing kicked out of them daily and the ass pervert crashing a chopper in to the prison block."

'The building and trees were fine, so I'm not past that event, can't think of anything good happening or anything to use to my advantage.' I get up feeling cold, nervous, hungry and turn on the tablet to check my position in this dark forest. 600 meters from my HQ and since I haven't heard any cars or other city noise I'll bet that it's beyond my safe travel distance, meaning I'll be damned if I stay and damned if I go.' "I need a shower and alcohol, lots and lots of alcohol"

I hesitate to turn on the flashlight, so I walk slowly guided by the map and the screen's brightness, 10 minutes later I walk up to the glass doors, nothing looks disturbed. After grabbing a banana from the kitchen I go for the shower, just letting the water fall on me for over half an hour, finding the magical water disturbingly calming, refreshing and almost invigorating, I mumble "this water may be drugged, created to pacify me."

Mentally exhausted, I shamble down to my room and just crawl under the cover in mental stupor. Keeping hold of a minuscule hope that this is not happening and I'm simply in a coma, or anything else. With exhaustion of both mental and physical aspects of my frail body, I sleep like a log, a dreamless night takes pity on me and I slumber without worry.

---

Alarm playing (Gorgeous Nightmare by Escape the Fate).

I stir in bed listening to the song playing, taunting me, reminding me that this is not a dream but a nightmare come alive."FY and that demon…demon..D.E. mother fucking.. mon, yes… fucking hilarious!"

I swipe at the tablet and check the time. "I hate it that I feel refreshed and energetic at 7 a.m in the morning. I should be feeling like a turd, run over by a garbage truck, cooked under scorching sun and NOT THIS!"

I get up and perform the morning bathroom routine letting my mind wonder, "maybe I was on to something about this magical water, not like I can go out to fill up some bottles…no, too risky. Ok first order of business - find some booze to dull my clear head, wallow in self-pity and if I'm lucky wake up tomorrow in my own world."

I head toward the kitchen and start my quest to get wasted. Searching the kitchen twice over nets me a bottle of apple vinegar, the bar on the roof grants me cocktail glasses. If not for the limited resources and my dire circumstances, I would have started thrashing everything in a blind frenzy by now. The closest thing to stress relief I found are dried nuts and berries, not even the chocolate covered ones, just plain old healthy snacks.

Like a responsible and desperate adult I take my snacks and water to the rooftop to chill. "This isn't even living, it's just a tortured existence."

I pass the time with the tablet, trying to gain something positive and failing to make any progress. "I'm good on water and shelter, the food will last for 2 weeks of good variety and hopefully another 2 of eat what you have, not what you want. Can't live like a hermit for years, I'll die of boredom without a pc and the internet. Eventually I'll have to either seek out help or explore that gate connecting to possibly hungry man eating monsters."

"Man hating women or man eating monsters? Which one has the smaller probability of me perishing in agony? There could be a different solution, just need to think from some new angle... haa…I really need a drink."

In dire need for a stress outlet, I move to the gym to vent my frustrations on helpless sandbags and sturdy metal weights. I spend ~ 3 hours exercising and taking breaks, until I get bored and hungry for lunch. A quick shower later, I decide to try on the chef's uniform and put my sweaty clothes in the washing machine for a short spin. "The only good thing of being here, is that everything in the HQ is made for me personally, with uncanny perfection. Considering my body was created by that demon, I don't know how to feel about it."

I make myself at home in the kitchen and marvel at the fact that I instinctively know what and how to do. Tenderizing a couple slices of pork, I cover them is egg, spices and breadcrumbs and leave them to rest for a moment, moving on to boil rice and using up fresh veg for salad, before they start to go bad. Couple minutes of frying the thin meat later, I put my food on plates, leave the dish washing for after and move to the roof to get some sunlight. "Living underground, regardless of magical air conditioning and lighting makes me uncomfortable, subconsciously looking for a window."

"CAW"

Spoiler

Image made by Zero AkumaImage made by Zero Akuma. Retrieved from https://www.artstation.com/artwork/rAV4De

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