The wind howled as the young man stood at the precipice of the decision before him. The clean snowfield stretched forward in his vision as he could only stand still, unwilling to take a step forward or backward. The picturesque scene was like a photograph. Frozen in time, the scene gave off a sense of unease similar to the feelings the young man held. A fragment of doubt; a picture of regret. Such a thing was truly the definition of picturesque.
In the end, how long the young man would've stood there wouldn't be found out. For there was a quiet sound of crunching snow nearing the shack that snapped the young man out of his stupor—bringing him back to the cold world around him. His pupils dilated at the sound, and his posture tensed as he leaned out of the doorway to see what was making the sound. Identifying it from his left, he looked toward the left side and saw something that made his breath hitch.
White. Pure white. That was the first thing that stood out to him. A young woman that looked about the same age as the young man was dressed in nothing but white. White boots, white pants, a white jacket, white gloves, a white scarf, and a white hood—an inordinate amount of white. The sight was alluring. Under the hood, the face of the girl was pale—creating a smooth, pretty skin color. However, the thing that captivated the young man was her eyes. Two brilliantly gorgeous ruby-colored eyes that stood in stark contrast to the rest of her created an almost ethereal sight. The girl was like a fairy or angel—making her look like something pulled straight out of fiction. Someone like this couldn't have possibly existed in real life, that's what the young man thought.
As she drew closer, he noticed that her gaze was downcast, meaning that she likely hadn't noticed his presence. Additionally, her face became clearer. Her rosy cheeks and red nose from the cold became apparent. Soon, she looked up and widened her eyes when seeing the young man.
"Ah!" She let out a surprised noise.
"Ah…" The young man was going to say something, but he came up short when he realized he didn't know what to say.
If she had been the kidnapper, assuming he had been kidnapped of course, he knew a person that would've been envious of his position. He, on the other hand, hated the idea that she did; just the thought made his heartbeat increase and his fists clench.
"Sorry," the girl began, "I just didn't expect to see you out of the shack is all."
The young man narrowed his eyes and said, "I mean, it's not like I was trapped in there."
He couldn't believe himself. That's how he chose to respond? His teeth clenched at the internal regret.
"I suppose you're right…" she said, musing for a couple of seconds before staring directly into his eyes.
This caused him to avert his gaze. The direct eye contact made his skin crawl as his posture stiffened even more.
"Is something the matter?" She asked.
"Is something the matter?" He repeated under his breath in disbelief. "What do you mean something is the matter!?"
He raised his voice and glared at the girl.
The girl flinched and let out a "huh?"
"I just woke up in the middle of God knows where, and then I have some strange girl talking with me like everything is just normal!"
After he finished, he closed his mouth tightly. A faint tinge of emotion swam through his eyes, but he quickly cleared it away.
"Huh?" The girl now looked confused.
"What?"
"You woke up in the middle of nowhere?"
"Yes! I don't live in a shitty shack like this!"
Her expression looked to reflect some sort of inner turmoil of hers, but the young man had no way of knowing what that turmoil was.
"So…You woke up in this shack with no memories of how you got here?"
"Yes."
"Hm…" She made a humming noise and smiled. "Well, I'm Luna Amaryllis; it's a pleasure to meet you!"
The smile was almost blinding. Once more, the young man averted his gaze.
"What's your name?" Luna asked.
"Huh? Oh, yeah…I'm…Aion…Aion Belial…" Aion said, still refusing to look into Luna's eyes.
"...Aion…Belial…?" Luna repeated, confused.
"Yeah, I know it's a weird name," he said, laughing awkwardly. "I guess my mom was just weird like that."
"Yeah…" Luna agreed softly.
"So, what are you doing coming out here?" Aion asked, turning his gaze toward Luna.
"Ah…I…" Luna seemed troubled by the sudden question. "Sometimes I…I like to go off and be by myself with my own thoughts; is that strange?"
"I guess it isn't."
"Yeah, it definitely is not!" Luna eagerly agreed, causing Aion's expression to turn into confusion.
Her eyes sparkled with excitement as a big smile formed on her face—enhancing the shining scene before Aion.
"So, you're from around here?" Aion asked.
"Ah, yeah, I live in the town nearby."
Aion's expression softened as he said, "Would it be alright if you took me there?"
"Huh?" Luna was surprised.
Is it really that surprising? Aion thought. Wouldn't it be natural to do so after waking up in a shack without knowing how you got there? Is she—
Luna calmed her surprise and said, "Sure, that's fine. So…uh…what were you doing before you got here?"
Luna's expression seemed rather serious for such a dull question. Aion looked down, refusing to face such a serious face head-on—doing so would only lead to more discomfort.
"Nothing in particular, just attending college," Aion answered vaguely.
"..." Luna was silent for a few seconds.
Aion, unable to see Luna's expression, felt his heart rate rise. Has she—
"College?" Luna asked.
"Yeah, college," Aion answered back as he looked up to her face.
She looked lost. Her expression seemed to have failed to understand something that Aion had said.
"What is college?" Luna asked.
The words washed over Aion, but they didn't seep through. Such a statement was enigmatic—completely preposterous. A—presumably—grown woman didn't even know what college was?
"College, you know, the place where you get a higher education?"
"Higher…education?" Luna echoed back the words, understanding still not crossing her face.
Unbelievable. That was the only word Aion thought at that moment. Perhaps more verbose and evocative language existed to describe the situation; however, Aion believed that the simple word—unbelievable—was more than enough.
This naturally stunned Aion into silence. Being so ill-equipped for such an absurd situation naturally leads to nothing but painful silence for him.
"Ah, sorry, I guess I'm supposed to know what that is, huh?" Luna said, trying to smooth over Aion's blatant distress. "I mean, I'm sure I can name some things you don't know, like…um…have you ever heard of fire turning a purple-like color?"
Aion sighed and said, "How purple are you talking about? Because you could be talking about adding potassium or caesium to the flames."
"Huh?" Luna seemed quite shellshocked at the statement.
Her eyes were wide, making her ruby irises all the more dazzling.
"But seriously? If you're going to try and confront me with something I don't know, you have to try harder than that."
"Okay…How about the fact that you can throw some metals in water and they just explode?"
"You mean alkali metals?"
"..."
"..."
"You know, you're not a very fun person, are you?"
"Of course I know; I'm the least funny and most boring person I know."
"That's…" Luna trailed off and averted her eyes.
"Anyway, clearly the one with a deficit of knowledge is you, so not knowing about college is more embarrassing than anything you can throw my way."
"Oh yeah? Then how about this!" Luna shot a glare up at Aion; a look of pure determination swam through her eyes, causing Aion to flinch. "You said you aren't from around here, right?"
"Yes, something along those lines."
"Then, did you know real miracles occur every Winter Solstice?"
Aion raised an eyebrow and said, "Oh yeah?"
"Yeah!"
"Well, too bad that I can't see it for myself. What a shame, truly," Aion prattled off, turning his attention toward the forest.
"You can though; it's only a little under a week away!"
Aion paused, or perhaps even froze; however, his cessation of behavior was apparent, causing Luna to tilt her head at his stiffness.
"The winter solstice…is about a week away?" Aion asked slowly.
"Yeah, that's what I said."
Aion bit his lower lip at the information, causing blood to draw, filling his mouth with the familiar taste of iron. It was revolting.
"That's…" Aion tried to say more but released nothing, coming up with only streams of nonsensical information whirling rapidly throughout his mind.
However, a small, almost imperceptible, look of discomfort was forming on his face. An expression a layer beyond his previous discomfort, digging deeper and more potently than anything before it. A nagging, reminiscent type of feeling that would only bring unease.
"...Luna…Amaryllis, right…?" Aion asked.
"Huh? Are you already forgetting my name? That's so rude!" Luna puffed her cheeks in a big huff.
"No, it's not that…" Aion said as he brought his right hand upward, placing some of his fingers over his mouth as he entered contemplation.
"Is something the matter?" Luna asked; her expression had returned to normal.
"Ah…Sorry…Your name was just…No, just forget it…" Aion dropped his hand from his mouth.
Luna's mouth opened slightly before she shut it and asked, "Is my name something that bothers you?"
"No, it's nothing, as I said."
"It's clearly not 'nothing.' You're just dragging this out unnecessarily."
Aion sighed and asked, "Fine, what's the name of the village?"
"Huh?" Luna's eyebrows scrunched in confusion before she replied, "Magna, why?"
Aion's jaw tightened, creating a tense expression on his face. A small, almost unnatural coincidence had happened before his very eyes. A coincidence that could be nothing more than that—nothing more than chance, because otherwise, it was simply impossible.
"Sorry, it was just a weird coincidence. It was unsettling, to say the least, seeing something that should be fiction almost come alive."
"Fiction?" Luna's confusion only grew.
"What's wrong?"
"Sorry, I guess I should've said this earlier; however, your vocabulary has been rather strange at times. You're using words I've never heard of before, like 'fiction' or 'alkali' or even 'shitty.'"
Aion quietly inhaled—holding his breath at the declaration made by Luna. A justification could've been made for the words. A justification had to be made for the words.
"Is that so? I suppose it's not too strange to not know all those words," Aion said with a tense smile.
"Hm…I think it is, though. I mean, all the vocabulary I know of should be the only words in this life."
"Isn't that rather arrogant?"
"Oh no, of course not!" Luna shook her head and said, "I would never dare to say I'm an expert on the subject; Mr. Dolion would probably be a better person to ask. However, I've read through the dictionary before, and I've never encountered those words before."
Aion blinked in silence, disbelief covering every part of his face at such an absurd statement—reading the dictionary? Absolute insanity.
"Well, I guess you got a defective copy or something like that," Aion said, refusing to address the issue at hand. "I guess it doesn't matter all that much; we should just head to Magna."
Luna frowned and said, "No! It's really bothering me that you are using words I've never heard of before."
"Why? Does it hurt your pride or something?"
"Yes," Luna's casual admittance caused Aion to pull back slightly, his eyes flickering between bewilderment and sympathy before morphing into annoyance.
"What a dumbass thing to be prideful over," Aion muttered under his breath as he heaved a heavy sigh.
"Dumbass? What does that mean?"
"Look in a mirror and you'll find your answer."
"Uh…That doesn't narrow it down…However, that seemed like an insult…"
"Perhaps," Aion said as he started walking past Luna. "Are we going to get going or what?"
"Wait, hold on. Since you're new around here, shouldn't I give you a rundown of things?"
"Nope."
"I'm going to do it anyway."
"Please don't."
"You see, our village is split into—"
Aion groaned, blocking out the oncoming rambling he had no desire to hear; however, simply blocking out her rambling only reminded him of his creeping concern that ate away at him.
"—are you even listening?"
"No."
"That's so rude!"
"I said I didn't want to hear about that, so how is it surprising that I ignored what you were saying?"
"You could at least have the courtesy of pretending to listen."
"Is that so?" Aion asked rhetorically.
It wasn't as if he weren't aware of such etiquette. Of course he was; it was something that he was sure many people were aware of.
"Of course," Luna said, nodding to herself with some semblance of self-satisfaction. "You seem pretty maladjusted to conversation."
Aion sent an annoyed look toward Luna's direction.
"You're not even going to say anything?"
"Nope."
"Why not? Shouldn't you try to defend yourself from my barrage~?"
"Not interested."
"So you're fine that I view you as a completely socially inept person?"
"Yep."
"Isn't that rather sad?"
"God," Aion groaned. "Do you ever shut up?"
"I do!" Luna protested. "Also, I've been wondering what does the word 'God' mean?"
"Seriously?" Aion grumbled.
"Yes, I'm serious! I mean, I suppose that by standard language conventions it may mean a male version of the Goddess, but that seems rather pointless."
"Pointless?"
"Of course it is! Lunalis is the one and only Goddess; having a male God is completely blasphemous."
"Great…" Aion rolled his eyes, the words Luna said not quite hitting him at first.
However, Aion soon stopped in his tracks.
"Hm? Aion? Is something the matter?"
"Did you say…Lunalis?" Aion asked slowly.
"I did. Is that strange? I mean, Lunalis is the one and only Goddess."
"No, it's nothing strange." Aion closed off Luna's question as his mind wandered elsewhere.
Luna, Magna, Lunalis, the lack of vocabulary, the winter solstice—all of this is… Aion's thoughts trailed off as he shook his head. It's all a coincidence; being in a fictional world is simply impossible.
"Actually, Luna," Aion began to speak up.
"Hm?" Luna looked toward Aion with eyes brimming with curiosity.
The look made Aion's body tense.
"Do you know someone named Alphonse?"
"Huh? How did you know?"
"No reason, you mentioned him during your incessant droning. I just vaguely remembered that from when I zoned out, so I just wanted to confirm the name."
Luna looked into Aion's eyes, her expression blank. The apathetic look sent chills down his spine, or was that merely the cold? It must be, Aion thought. Luna couldn't manage to do something like that.
Then, after several long seconds, Luna beamed a smile and said, "I guess I did."
"See? Nothing strange at all," Aion replied while smiling.
And now Alphonse, Aion's thoughts from earlier continued. Everything is pointing toward the fact that I am in that world—Crystal Machinations—but such a thing…
…Is impossible.