Chapter 3 From Black to White

In a black void a young man, Azi Montagne, writhed in agony as the only thoughts he could only muster were of pain. The young man screamed out as if something was attempting to rip him to shreds.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, AHHHHHHHHHHHHH, AHHHHHH, ahhhh, aHH, .aa..Hhh."

His voice slowly became weaker and weaker over time but would then rebound as he would scream out again in even more pain. He felt as if more energy he didn't know he had, forcefully entered into his mind to keep his consciousness alive so that if could continue to be tortured by the hands of pain and suffering.

The sensations of pain changed throughout this experience but were still so unbearable that at one point he could feel as if small chunks were being forcefully pressed into his body while other parts of his flesh were being removed from his body in a slow and agonizing manner that only served to extend his suffering.

With it, was also a feeling where his mind felt as if it were expanding to a point where he could feel his mind explode which in turn made his thoughts go blank. But his mind would rebound and feel itself suddenly reform.

He then felt his mind start to compress, but it was as if the compression had a singular effect on each individual square micron of space on his skull and alternated positions. It was not felt all at once but would instead come in random waves. Sometimes he felt it on the left side of his brain, then the front of his face, the back of his head, his ear, mouth, chin, and then eyes.

This looping of pain and brief relief continued for a time that none knew how long had passed. When Azi still had the perception of time, he felt at first it was maybe years, then decades, then centuries since his time in that black void of space.

But as time passed his perception dissipated and he could no longer even discern hours, minutes, or seconds. All sense of time had left Azi and he soon stopped his screams as his sense of feeling was the next to be forgotten. At the same moment he no longer felt pain, his mind broken.

While he could no longer feel pain, he could now notice that his memories were disappearing. He began forgetting memories like a flaky croissant crumbling away which he previously thought of but soon realized he was no longer able to recall.

A sudden feeling of fear overcame him as his memories began to leave him, Azi clung to only one thing he knew he could remember and was able to use to fight against his fears. This one thing was his name and in hopes to prevent himself from losing whatever he had left of his mind, or even his being at this point. He muttered his name to himself as if possessed.

"AZI AZI AZI AZI MONTAGNE AZI AAAAZIIIIIII, AZI, A, AAAZ...ZIIII, MONNN TTTTTAGGGNNNEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

As he muttered his name, he tried to remember something positive or any kind of positive emotion he could muster from within his very being. The fear he fought made him crave to feel anything else other than fear, so he tried and tried. And after an unknown amount of time, he remembered something and stated it in his mind.

'A game? A novel? No, was it an anime? Wait, what's an anime again? ad ven, ad..ven...tur....adven'

Azi then shouted out in desperation to the void a word he could recall that gave him some form of comfort.

"Ad...venture. adventurer!. ADVEN...TURE!. ADVENTURE!!!"

For reasons Azi could not remember, he felt elated by this word. He thought to himself.

'This word gives me hope, no not hope, A reason to keep going? or to at least to keep existing through pain? or was it a reason to allow myself to keep existing?'

He could not remember much at this point, but an image then formed in his mind and was then displayed in front of him. In the shape of a square the image presented itself, he could see the scenery of a snowy forest with a bright sun shining in the sky above.

The sun in its entire visage could be seen above the horizon cresting down as the sky slowly darkened with the sun yielding to give way to the moon and its night. Azi was fascinated by the sight as it reminded him of a certain scene from a recent memory before his current hellish experience.

It was an anime, but the name was unknown to him. He felt that this anime's world was filled with warmth that was similar to when he felt the sun's rays. He recalled the remaining memory of him basking in the light of a sunny day on a beach and it filled his broken mind with warmth.

The sun in his memory was refreshing as he could recall the heat not only causing him to sweat but was also spreading across his skin like a gentle embrace. But when he saw that the night was approaching in the image, he felt the chilling fear of death as darkness encroached and pushed back the light of the sun.

This fear was then mirrored by a chill of excitement, passion, and drive to run forward to keep the sun in his sights.

He thought to himself that if he could move or run forward, he would be able to have an adventure. In his mind he thought.

'Ad....ven...ture? What is that?'

These thoughts began to explode from the deep recesses of his mind to the forefront as they then became concise words.

In the next moment Azi screamed out.

"I want to go there; I want to be there! I want to see it!! I want to experience it!!!"

He then reached his hand out and touched the image but then suddenly. A rushing feeling overcame his body as he was pulled along into what felt like a stream. He could feel no heat or cold but instead the motion that he was moving faster for every moment that passed.

Suddenly he could feel again, and a sense of falling was what he first noticed but then he felt a sudden impact as his face fell forward into what he could surprisingly feel was a cold and soft floor. The taste of something cold filled his mouth and his body felt heavy.

'Am I dead?' He thought to himself, but this thought was proven wrong as a slight soreness was felt on his forehead.

From the hellish period he had endured he understood that as long as he felt pain or had a sense of self, he was somewhat alive, be it mentally or physical. Either way he felt he was alive and still knew who he was.

His mind felt tired and when he attempted to think about the past, he got a headache and could not remember where he came from or who he was but knew his name. Only a vague sense of self remained which made him instinctively understand that he had fallen on his face.

Azi got up from the soft floor and realized that the floor was covered in snow. Surrounding him were trees without their leaves and he could hear a breeze pass by. Around him were imprints of what looked like stones, but it seems as if the stones had embedded themselves into the ground or were melted.

Azi had no idea of what to make of them but was relieved that he didn't crack his skull against one of those rocks. He then noticed that the pressure of the pain he was numb to was gone as he felt lighter and in addition his memories were no longer being flaked away from him.

For the first time in a while for Azi, he stretched his legs and arms. Feeling as if he just woke up from a nightmare, the idea of him somehow falling asleep in a place like this crossed his mind.

He still could not recognize anything from his surroundings, so he still had no idea how he came to be where he was, but this thought was soon a moot point as he noticed his clothes were quite damaged.

Numerous holes in his sleeves and large portions of his jeans looked ragged. He tried to remember how his attire got like this, but this suddenly brought on a sudden bout of nausea as he remembered the pain from the hellish time in that black void of space.

He could remember he was in so much pain that he was thrashing around so much that he began tearing the clothes was wearing at the time.

When the bout of nausea passed, he was then able to notice that while his attire was damaged, it still at least covered his dignity with an adequate amount of layering. Soon he realized that his current attire was ineffective as he sneezed after a cold snowy breeze passed by.

The cold felt nice to him as the new stimulus besides pain was refreshing but was also worrying as the temperature felt as if it was quickly decreasing.

"Where the hell am I?" He said in a shivering tone. "I've got to find a place to stay, maybe a path or river is nearby."

Azi looked around and made his way to what seemed like a clearing in the forest of trees. His pace was a bit slow as a chill ran up his legs due to his feet being laid bare to the snowy ground.

From the clearing he could see that he was on a mountain, the trees were on a much lower elevation, and he could see the mountain descended down at an angle that was not too steep. He could also see strange triangular wooden points further down the mountain in what looked like a clearing and he could see smoke.

After looking around for a few more minutes, it seemed that there were no other signs of civilization closer to where he was so he decided then and there that he should make his way to the source of the smoke.

Perhaps he would find people he could talk to and figure where he was if he wanted to have any chance of survival. But the next moments were quite unfortunate.

When Azi attempted to descend the mountain, he ended up slipping as he never had any previous experience when it came to climbing or any outdoor experiences besides running or walking on a FLAT PATH. This realization, combined with his naivety, caused him to curse in his mind for not planning this out more.

While Azi did descend the mountain, he did so after slipping and began violently rolling down the slope of the cliff in an uncontrolled manner. But it seemed that some small amount of luck was on his side as not only did the snow had cushioned his descent, but his constant rolling came to a sudden stop as he felt something grab the back of his collar.

After Azi's eyes stopped spinning, he could see the face of his "savior" from his rolling fate. The man's features were stout, and his face had a white mustache that descended to the sides of his mouth, but what caught Azi's attention were fluffy ears attached to the side of the man's head and the short tail that protruded from his rear.

The "savior" was quite large and was made clear as Azi's legs dangled as the "savior" held him up to his eye level.

"Who are you?" Said the Savior. "And what are you doing out so late boy? The forest is filled with dangerous monsters and animals that could kill a man in moments if you are not equipped properly."

In a meek voice Azi responded.

"Ummm, hello? My name is Azi Montagne and I don't know where I am. I think I lost my way or well it is hard to explain but I think I was trying to go somewhere but I've forgotten. I remember hitting my head, then seeing the smoke up ahead, and wanting to head there by descending the cliff. But I slipped and now here we are"

The Savior gave Azi a scrutinizing look and came to his own decision. With practiced wording he stated to Azi.

"While your claim of slipping is believable as I witnessed it myself, that still does not answer the question of who you are. There is no one named Azi Montagne in any of the surrounding villages."

Befuddled by how a single man could know all the names of the people who lived in numerous villages, Azi asked him. "How would you know that, isn't that too many names to remember?"

The Savior responded with a prideful laugh.

"Bwahhahahahahaha, don't tell me you do not know who I am?!"

Azi looked at the Savior with a questioning gaze and nodded his head in affirmation. This then caused another round of laughter to erupt from the Savior as he made himself known.

"I AM OZEN! LEADER AND KING OF ONE OF THE NATION OF THE GREAT EMPIRE OF YAMATO. BWAHAHAHAHAHA. You must be either uneducated or a lost foreigner to not know this. Well in any case, you will be coming with me, perhaps this is fate that we should meet.

The unusual circumstances of how we met seems interesting enough to support the idea. What do you say, wanna come with me?"

In a casual tone Azi responded.

"Sure why not. I got nowhere else to go and I would prefer not to freeze to death or continue to roll down this mountain. If this is fate, then why not go rolling with fate rather than rolling down a mountain."

"BWAHAHAHAHA, indeed young one indeed. I'll see to it that you are safely escorted to a nearby village personally. Hup!"

To Azi's surprise, Ozen leapt to an incredible height that was almost halfway up an enormous tree that looked to be over 10 meters in height and began jumping from branch to branch to make his way through the forest.

Azi, in his mind screamed as the sudden change in height was too sudden for him to comprehend.

Wanting to start a conversation, Ozen asked.

"So, what can you remember?"

"Well, my name and I remember that I liked traveling? My other memories are hard to fully remember, I can only remember pieces and they are hazy at best. My head feels foggy when I try to think of them."

Azi started to rub his head as if trying to get rid of an itch and asked. "By the way, why are we moving so fast?"

"This place is dangerous and since there are only two of us out here, I believe we should hurry back to ensure we both return safely. I'm going to speed up so hold on tight."

Ozen moved Azi to give him a piggyback and after Azi secured himself to Ozen's back, Ozen began speeding up and began jumping more frequently. Unable to handle Ozen's motions, Azi held on for dear life and felt as if his mind felt faint from all the moving around. Soon Azi's vision went white as he fell unconscious from fear and panic.