NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 3 - Another World Part (2)
“Mi――ka!”
“Huh!? Wait, wait!! What!?”
Suddenly embraced by a young girl, Ritsu let out a loud exclamation.
“Hey! Wait! Just wait a minute!! What!?”
He tried to wriggle free, but his body didn’t respond as he intended. He was wrapped in sheets and had become a child, so his movements were limited.
However, amidst this chaotic situation, he didn’t have the composure to think rationally. Ritsu’s struggles would be comical to anyone watching.
“Haha! Ahahaha!”
The woman who had been talking to the girl earlier, seated on a chair beside the bed, burst into laughter. She slapped her knee, a thoroughly uncle-like gesture. After enjoying Ritsu’s futile struggles for a moment, she wiped away tears and spoke to the girl.
“Haaah… my stomach hurts. Loretta, ease up a bit. Pu… Hahaha… Mi…ka-kun is in trouble.”
“…Because…”
The girl called Loretta didn’t let go; instead, she continued to hold onto Ritsu. The sound of her sniffling echoed near his ear, indicating she was crying. Ritsu, who was beginning to calm down slightly, tried to comprehend the abnormal situation.
“…Loretta? And Mika? Mika must be referring to me in this context.”
He attempted to understand, but it was beyond his capability. Ritsu felt an inexplicable warmth from the girl’s embrace, as if he should remember something important. Yet, he couldn’t quite recall it. It was like searching for something that should be there but couldn’t be found—an unsettling feeling.
Then, suddenly, a flood of connected “information” rushed into his mind. It was akin to a disconnected circuit being reconnected, allowing the smooth flow of electricity. Numerous pieces of information that had been previously closed off were now accessible. Locked memories opened up, giving him a coherent sense of understanding.
“…Sister, could you let go?”
Still confused but now armed with a bit more knowledge, Ritsu carefully chose his words. He tried to gently extract himself from Loretta’s hold, but his body remained small and uncooperative, making his efforts futile.
“Huh? W-What’s wrong, Loretta-san?”
“I was going to prepare Mika’s meal, but I need to inform Mother too. She must be terribly worried…”
In a fluster, Loretta moved towards the door, but as soon as her hand touched the doorknob, she gasped.
“What’s the matter, Loretta-san?”
“I need to inform Mother about Mika’s awakening and…”
Not knowing what to do, Loretta hesitated. Observing her distress, Ritsu decided to assist the situation.
“I’ll talk to Sister Radi. Don’t worry. I think Mika is fine now.”
“Eh, but…”
“I won’t take long. You should prepare Mika’s meal. Otherwise, I might get hungry and faint again.”
Loretta smiled weakly and nodded. After promising to handle things, Ritsu approached Sister Radi.
“Sister Radi.”
He called out to the woman in the nun’s habit and made eye contact, silently urging her to help. Though Radi appeared a bit perplexed, she agreed and began questioning Ritsu about his condition.
“Is there anything unusual with your body? Any pain or discomfort? Please tell me everything.”
“Well, as of now… I think I’m okay.”
“That’s good to hear. Would you like something to eat? It’s probably best if you have a meal. Don’t overexert yourself.”
“Ah, I am hungry.”
Ritsu replied, and Radi quickly left the room. Meanwhile, Loretta, who had been waiting anxiously, seemed to relax a bit.
“Thank you very much for helping, Sister Radi.”
After expressing her gratitude, Loretta headed toward the kitchen to prepare the meal. Left alone, Ritsu lay down on the bed, taking a moment to reevaluate the situation and process the newly acquired information.
Mika Noisheim. That was the name of the owner of this body—a seven-year-old boy. The girl, Loretta, was his sister, and Amalia was their mother. Mika had been raised in a loving environment, mainly by his sister and mother. However, there was no information about his father. He had either passed away or had been absent for several years, given the lack of memories related to him.
Additionally, there was another woman, Sister Radi, a nun living in the village church. Ritsu mulled over this information, trying to make sense of the extraordinary situation he found himself in.
“How did I obtain this information? It’s because these are Mika Noisheim’s own memories.
The reason I didn’t have these memories when I arrived in this world is probably because there was no trigger. Memories are interconnected, and when you recall one thing, associated information comes flooding back. However, unrelated information doesn’t just spontaneously appear. If memories are stored in the brain, there’s nothing surprising about recalling Mika Noisheim’s memories; after all, this body belongs to Mika Noisheim.
What’s truly mysterious is why Ryuto Hisahashi’s consciousness is here and why I exist in this world. Those are the questions at the core. Predicting these matters feels futile, and most importantly, there’s no way to prove or demonstrate any of it.
If we assume souls exist and there was some sort of switch, even then, once that consciousness entered Mika Noisheim’s body, it should be nothing but Mika Noisheim’s consciousness. The brain contains only Mika Noisheim’s memories. Ancient philosophers believed ‘thoughts occur in the heart (soul),’ but that notion is as absurd as it gets. It’s an outrageous situation for someone like Ryuto, who has lived in a world where scientific civilization thrives, to accept.
(What am I supposed to do with this?)
It’s clear that simply calling the police to go back home won’t cut it anymore. If I try to explain this situation to someone, they wouldn’t just disbelieve me; they might even label me as ‘possessed by demons.’ It seems this world has a cultural level where such things are taken seriously. Faced with this harsh reality, I squirmed on the bed in frustration.
“… Mika, are you okay? Does something hurt?”
Watching Ritsu writhing in discomfort on the bed, Loretta worriedly called out.
“I’m just… too hungry.”
“Oh, Mika.”
Loretta finally smiled. Just moments ago, she had harbored an underlying anxiety: ‘What if he never wakes up…?’ But seeing him as the usual ravenous Mika put her at ease.
Loretta brought a tray with soup and bread on it.
(Oh, so this is what they mean by ‘breakfast in bed.’)
It was a luxury I had seen in movies but never thought I’d experience myself.
The soup placed in front of me was the expected vegetable soup. Most of the Noisheim family’s soups were like this—cabbage, onions, broccoli, soybeans, and tomatoes, with a hint of flavor from a small amount of smoked pork and salt. The variety of vegetables changed with the seasons, and although there were many types, the amount of ingredients was always small. Comparing it to the memory Ritsu had as himself, it felt lacking, but for a seven-year-old Mika, this might be just the right amount. Considering I had collapsed the other day, this was a meal to be grateful for.
Saying grace, I took a sip of the soup. It was light on salt, but I could taste the umami from the vegetables and the smoked pork. It was quite tasty. Although I had forgotten due to everything that happened, I was genuinely hungry. Once I started, I couldn’t stop eating.
“Oh, Mika, you’re not even saying your prayers!”
Loretta, looking at me in disbelief, scolded me. I devoured the soup so quickly that I couldn’t even talk. Silently, I held out the soup plate to Loretta, acknowledging my rudeness. She huffed but went to get me a refill.
“Would you like more?”
Dumbfounded by the speed at which I was eating, she asked if I wanted a refill of the soup. My mouth was so full from stuffing bread that I couldn’t reply properly. Despite my internal complaints, I handed the empty soup plate to Loretta.
“Unbelievable, Mika!”
After quickly finishing the soup, I started on the bread.
“Do you want seconds?”
Still surprised by my speed, she asked about more soup. I was chewing bread so much that I couldn’t speak. I replenished my mouth with some soup and chewed.
(I’ve heard about this, but it’s really something else!)
I had heard stories about hard bread in the past. Apparently, people used to soak it in soup to eat. In this world, too, the bread was hard. In Mika’s memories, they ate the bread by dipping it into the soup. I tried it, and the soup’s umami and saltiness enhanced the taste significantly. After finishing the second bowl of soup and all the bread, I finally felt satisfied.
(Phew… I’m full.)
As Ritsu, it felt like there wasn’t much food in front of me, but for Mika, it was clearly enough. In fact, I was practically stuffed with the second helping.
“You seem really energetic now,” Loretta commented, half amazed and half delighted, as she cleared the tray. Sitting on the edge of the bed, she looked straight at me and smiled.
“So, Mika.”
In a gentle voice, Loretta asked, “Why did you go to Cotton Tessa all by yourself?”
Feeling something crawling down my spine, I got goosebumps.
(… What is this?)
Puzzled by the strange sensation, I tried to understand Loretta’s words.
(Oh, this must be Mika’s reflex.)
It seemed Mika’s subconscious was sounding an alarm. The voice was genuinely angry, urging me to run away. Though it sounded gentle to me, Mika’s brain and body sensed a dangerous signal.
“Mika.”
“Uhm…”
Desperately, I delved into Mika’s memories. What was Cotton Tessa? I didn’t even understand what the problem was. As I explored his memories, I finally concluded that it had something to do with Mika’s actions just before becoming Mika and what he did after becoming Mika.
That day, Mika was helping out in the fields with the neighborhood children. It was slightly away from the village along the main road, not far from here. It was a normal occurrence. However, during that assistance, Mika spotted a wild rabbit.
Wild rabbits weren’t particularly rare; they were everywhere. Loved by commoners as a food source, they were abundant. However, this rabbit was extraordinarily white, with incredibly fluffy fur.
Around here, the wild rabbits came in various colors—white, black, gray, brown, but completely solid-colored ones were a bit rare. Most of them had a mix of colors, like spotted patterns. Since they were wild animals, getting dirty with mud or tangled in weeds was common. However, this particular rabbit didn’t have any of those signs. It was truly pure white.
Apparently, its beautiful appearance had captivated Mika’s heart. With a gasp, his eyes were fixed on the rabbit. Overwhelmed with emotion, he began chasing it single-mindedly.
Of course, being a wild animal, the rabbit would naturally run away if pursued. And Mika, completely engrossed, chased after it.
Gradually moving away from the fields where the work was happening.
The surrounding fields were no longer vegetable gardens but cotton fields for the textile factory, but he didn’t notice. Lost in the chase, he didn’t pay attention.
After chasing for a long time, he suddenly noticed a buzzing sound.
It was the annoying sound made by a hornet, that irritating “Bzzzzz.” A species known as the red hornet. They weren’t particularly aggressive, but they were quite large—about the size of an adult thumb or even larger. Although not particularly aggressive, they would counterattack if provoked and would attack anyone who intruded into their territory around their nest.
It seemed Mika had unwittingly entered their territory.
The hornets, emerging from their nest, started intimidating him with their numbers. The fear from that moment was enough to make even Ritsu shiver just by exploring the memory. These large hornets, with their vibrant red color, were making that awful buzzing sound to threaten him. Given their size, the sound they made was appropriately loud.
Crying in terror, Mika fled. He ran away at full speed, completely losing himself. He stumbled multiple times in the fields and continued running even after he jumped out onto the main road.
While I don’t know how the bees in this world behave, at least the bees from my original world would be cautious of anything that moved quickly, especially something making a lot of noise.
And running while crying loudly made Mika a high-priority target for the hornets. He continued to be chased for quite a distance.
The hornets maintained a certain distance, possibly observing their target, or maybe they were just following a preset boundary. In the end, the fear and confusion overtook Mika. He fell down in the very spot where I woke up and couldn’t move. Ironically, it seemed that once he stopped moving, the hornets’ alertness eased, and after a while, they returned to their nest.
Unfortunately for Mika and for me, he had fled in the opposite direction of the village.
In that direction, there seemed to be a town called Cotton Tessa. Whether his sense of direction got messed up while chasing the rabbit or if he was simply too confused to consider that far ahead, it was unclear. If he had run towards the village, the people working in the vegetable fields might have noticed and come to his aid. When I woke up, I might have even seen the village or the fields.
Well, saying that now wouldn’t change anything.
But the fact that he had walked in the opposite direction and ended up in Cotonthesse depressed me.
(I’m really unlucky, drawing the short straw like this. What rotten luck.)
If only he had chosen to move towards the mountain rather than away from it, he would have reached Rish Village before collapsing. Perhaps he could have met someone there. At least, if he had seen the village, he could have walked with hope. The feeling of despair, walking endlessly with no one around, was truly harsh.
(Well, even with a 9 out of 10 chance, I managed to draw the short straw. Maybe I should establish some rules for moments of indecision in the future.)
If he established a rule to follow no matter what, he would eventually get results close to the probabilities, no matter how many times he drew the short straw… in theory. Of course, the best outcome would be to never experience something like this again.
“Mika?”
While I was lost in these unrelated thoughts, Loretta called out to me, sounding concerned. Whether she thought I was contemplating things or sulking, I couldn’t tell.
“…I’m sorry.”
I apologized sincerely.
After delving into Mika’s memories, I understood the general situation. Regardless of my subjective experience, objectively, a seven-year-old child had tried to walk all the way to Cotton Tessa alone and had collapsed midway. It was only natural for an older sister to scold him. Moreover, there was a selfish motive—avoiding revealing myself through a poorly thought-out excuse. I couldn’t tell the truth. So, this was a strategic apology.
In my mind, I pictured those press conferences on TV. Several important people bowing their heads in unison. Every time they opened their mouths, it was “I apologize sincerely” repeated over and over, artfully dodging the core issue.
(Well, I’m not that conniving, but…)
From my perspective, I had simply made a wrong choice due to insufficient information, not embarked on a death march willingly. If I had known there was a village nearby, I would have happily gone there.
However, that couldn’t be used as an excuse. Regardless of the sudden, unfamiliar location I was thrown into, my chosen actions had caused Mika’s family immense worry. A seven-year-old child had collapsed alone on the roadside, covered in blood, unconscious. How much his family must have agonized over that, I couldn’t even fathom.
Listening to Loretta recount the events after I collapsed, I felt truly sorry for Mika’s family.
Once again, I sincerely apologized from the bottom of my heart.
After a while, Amalia, who had returned from work, embraced him while still crying. When he received her hug, her breath still ragged from running, Ritsu was overwhelmed with guilt. Guilt for exposing Mika to danger and guilt for the fact that Mika wasn’t here anymore.
It wasn’t that Ritsu blamed himself for Mika’s consciousness not being here. He didn’t know what had caused it, but he considered himself a victim as well. Yet, he couldn’t shake off the guilt of impersonating Mika and keeping the truth from them.
(…Is it okay to keep deceiving them like this?)
He kept questioning himself, but he couldn’t convince himself that telling them the truth was the right choice. If there was a chance that Mika could be found, he should search for him no matter what. No matter how painful it might be, he should accept the truth and search desperately.
But what good would it do to tell them, “Mika’s body is here, but his consciousness isn’t. Mika isn’t here anymore”? Who would that serve? What would be left for them afterward? Even if there was a glimmer of hope, if there was a slight chance, it should be included as an option. However, such hope seemed non-existent.
And that applied to Ritsu himself.
(…Can I never go back anymore?)
There was nothing in the world he came from that could explain the calamity that had befallen him and Mika. Perhaps there might be an “answer” in this world that could explain it. However, it seemed like nothing more than a delusion, at least for Ritsu at the moment.
He couldn’t act based on the presumption of “something existing” when he had no clues whatsoever.
(…I have no choice but to keep living. As Mika Noishaim.)
Ritsu lifted his head, looking at Amalia and Loretta, and forced a smile on his face. A smile tinged with a bitter resolution.