Gravebound : The Pact Of Names

With a sharp gasp, Yuki's torso arose from its position—he was alive. Yuki looked around; his clothes were missing, and he was dressed in some kind of cotton tunic and very thin pants—where was he? The place Yuki had awoken in had a soft but very medieval-style bed. The room was illuminated by candlelight. Was this time travel? No, it couldn't be. Something felt… off. The walls were lined with a paper-like wallpaper, not like the ones Yuki was used to. The ceiling was lined with—and supported by—wooden beams. The house Yuki was currently located in was nothing like that of Tokyo.

A middle-aged looking woman with fiery red hair—her hair looked more alive than she herself did—walked through the empty doorframe, dressed like common folk from around ancient Anglo-Saxon times. What was going on?

"Not to seem rude, but who exactly are you?" Yuki asked the woman, hoping to find out more about what had transpired and where he was.

Yuki was still in his original body, and everything about his physical state felt the same, except for the slight bruise-like pain that draped down the right side of his body.

The woman was slightly startled but recomposed herself.

"Oh, you've finally woken up. That's good news," the lady said with a soft smile—one that could only be seen as genuine. She seemed like a sweet lady. "Forgive me for not saying so sooner, but you were out cold when we found you by the river, so I had no chance to say—my name is Mary Emberveil. What's your name, dear?"

Yuki noticed that the lady, now known to him as Mary Emberveil, didn't have the same voice he had heard when the world went black. Who was that voice?

"My name is Yuki Kurobane, and if you don't mind me asking, do you have a daughter with a kind of soft-spoken voice?" Yuki knew that the woman was caring, so he had no reason to lie to her. This fact also made him believe she must've been a mother due to these maternal characteristics.

Mary chuckled at Yuki's perceptiveness, although in reality, it was just an educated guess.

"Why indeed. You certainly have an eye for these things, despite only just meeting me. Although her voice doesn't fit your description—she's much more loud-spoken, with a harsher tone of voice." Mary chuckled once more at Yuki's miscalculation.

"Who was that voice? And judging by the fact I was found by a river, that girl must've thought I was someone else—just a simple mistake," Yuki thought to himself before speaking up again. "Where are we?" Yuki was starting to think he had actually died and been sent to a new world. He had seen it in anime and other forms of media all the time, but he didn't think it could actually happen—but it was the best guess he currently had.

"The town of Vaustrim, of course. Didn't you know that?" Mary spoke with a concerned tone, assuming that Yuki may have lost his memories due to a fall of some sort—quite the worrying injury if that was the case.

"Huh? Do you have a map anywhere?" Yuki had never heard of such a place. Fearing his new world assumption might be true, he knew there was only one way to find out.

"Yes, we do. It's framed and hung in the hallway, so if you can, could you stand up for me, please?" Mary offered a hand to help Yuki stand, just in case he didn't currently have the physical capability to.

"Don't worry, I feel fine now—I can stand." Rotating his body so that his legs were now off the bed, Yuki stood up, noticing his right leg was hurting more than the left. Once he had stabilized his balance, Yuki followed Mary into the hallway.

After entering the hallway, Yuki looked around at the many closed doors until he eventually noticed a slightly open one. Inside sat a beautiful girl, who looked to be around the same age as Yuki, sitting on a bed. She had fiery red hair and amber-red eyes, which differed from Mary's hazel eyes. Either way, there was no doubt the girl was Mary's daughter.

"Here it is," Mary interrupted Yuki's sightseeing and pointed to a large map that hung above a table. On the table sat a wet, smashed-up phone and flattened house keys. "I found these objects in your pockets when I found you. What are they?" Mary held up the objects to Yuki.

"That's just my phone and house keys, although my phone seems to be broken." Yuki then glanced up at the map. It looked nothing like the map of Earth. On top of that, the map had a title. Written at the top was the word Nehzara. Yuki's fear had been confirmed, and his hypothesis had been correct—he was in a different world from his own.

"N-Nehzara?" Yuki tried his best to cover his fear. He was afraid he'd be seen as a monster or freak because he was from another world, so he opted to keep what happened a secret for as long as he could.

"What's a phone? And these house keys have a very strange shape." Due to her lack of knowledge about the objects, Mary felt slightly scared—not because she thought Yuki was bad, but simply due to her fear of the unknown.

"It's broken, so the phone is useless—don't worry. And the keys are shaped that way due to the fact they got broken when I went homeless." Yuki began to slowly look around, keeping calm and slightly thankful that Mary didn't notice his stutter when he spoke the name of this new world. "Where are my clothes, Miss Emberveil?" Yuki planned to go outside to get some air.

"They're just this way—I was drying them by the fire. After all, it was raining when I found you." The lady began to lead the way. Her short but somewhat assertive figure guided them toward what seemed to be a dining room. "Also, there's no need to be so formal. You can just call me Mary, sweetie."

Upon entering the dining room, Yuki went straight over to where his clothes lay, not interested in taking a break in the dining room just yet.

"Where is the bathroom?" Yuki asked, hoping this world wasn't so different from his own that they did their business in the bushes.

"It's just over there." Mary lifted her arm and pointed one of her hands—both soft yet also rough-looking—toward a door on the other side of the dining room. The door looked fairly crooked. This didn't bother Yuki, as he already assumed this family wasn't particularly well off. Yuki finally entered the room. It strangely smelled nice—Yuki hoped that wasn't due to some weird, otherworldly phenomenon.

After about seven minutes passed, Yuki emerged from the bathroom adorned in his black shirt and trousers, along with his brown trench coat. He asked Mary where the entrance to the house was, and she led him outside. Once outside, he looked up at the clouds, which were about as grey as a dead man's emotions.

"It looks like it's going to rain pretty badly tonight. Do you have a place to stay, Yuki?" Mary was concerned for both Yuki's living situation and his health, not wanting him to be alone in the rain.

"I don't, but I should be fine. Does the sky always look like this?" Trying to learn more about the world he would now spend the rest of his future in, he questioned the common color of the sky.

"It's been dark and gloomy for as long as I can remember. It only gets this dark when it's about to rain." Mary then shot a stern look at Yuki. "You know, if you have nowhere to stay, you're more than welcome to stay here." Yuki felt as if Mary wasn't actually offering, but rather telling him he was to stay in the house he had awoken in.

Sarcastically, Yuki responded, "Do I have a choice in the matter?" Although, even if he did, Yuki was going to take her up on her offer anyway—he didn't want to die a second time, at least not yet.

"I see you've made up your mind, then." Yep—Yuki's sarcasm backfired, and she was going to make him stay anyway. Perhaps she might even be too kind for her own good. Now practically dragging Yuki by the arm, Mary led him back inside to the warmth.

"Since you're going to be staying here, you should probably introduce yourself to my daughter. I saw you looking at her earlier, so I have no doubt you already know which room is hers." Yuki began to walk toward the daughter's room when Mary suddenly spoke up again. "Before I forget—you're also going to help out with housework. I'm basically going to treat you as if you were my son."

"I don't look that young, do I?" Yuki sarcastically retorted before starting to walk to the daughter's room once more. Yuki always wondered what it was like to have a mother—maybe he would finally get to feel it.