Nobina and Her Strange Journey Through Another World

A blinding light found itself hitting Nobina’s eyes as she tried to get her bearings. As she looked around, she found herself in an empty space. Empty except for a single man standing there. Wearing what was akin to a scientist's outfit, he smiled and greeted her.

“Hello there Nobina,” he said as he gave a bow.

Nobina, confused, tries to figure out what to say. She wasn’t really good at speaking with strangers, especially in sudden situations, but for some reason this person felt familiar.

“Do I know you?” she asked, giving her head a tilt.

“No, but I know you,” he smiled. “A woman who’s been living a pretty average life. Aspiring to be a writer, yet never finding the courage to actually write. Never taking that chance. Quite sad really.”

A part of her felt a bit hurt by his words, but he had a point. She wanted to be a writer, but she knew it wasn’t realistic in terms of sustaining herself. That was why she entered the business field and took a pretty average corporate job. There she was, basically going through the motions as she bided her time. At least, that was the plan. However, the truth was she was too scared to take the next step. Too afraid to take the chance and release her work. And now she wondered if she had lost that chance.

“Before you knew it, you got into a car accident. Those automatic cars really are dangerous sometimes,” chuckled the scientist. “So. I’m here to tell you that you’ve died, yet I’m here to give you a second chance.”

She felt a bit of sadness as she listened to his words, but the words “second chance” had caught her attention.

“Second chance?” she asked, wondering what it could entail.

“Yeah! A chance to live in a fantasy world where you can do anything you want! And the only thing I ask is you take this bag.”

Grabbing the bag, she looked it over. Its appearance was that of an old sack. One that would likely just hold potatoes or some sort of vegetable. Looking inside, it was empty.

“A… sack?” she asked, confused by what she was supposed to do with them.

“Well, this sack is special. Cause objects appear in it based on what the entities demand!”

He held out his hands as if waiting for something to happen. Both of them stood there, waiting for whatever was supposed to happen. However, time ticked, and there was only silence.

“…”

Nobina wanted to say something but was afraid of interrupting whatever was supposed to happen. At the same time, the scientist was confused, trying to figure out whether he should say something or not.

After what felt like forever, he sighed.

“Well… Maybe next time. Anyways, keep that sack with you. It’ll certainly help you out when the time comes. At least… I hope so.”

The look of uncertainty on his face made her worried about what this bag was capable of, but she didn’t have much reason to distrust him. If what he was telling her was true, then this was her second chance to live a life cut short. The thing was, she didn’t know what this would entail.

She wasn’t a stranger to the concept of dying and being teleported to another world. In some cases, people were teleported straight there. In other cases, they were introduced to the world by its god or goddess. In this case, she was introduced by a scientist whom she didn’t know the name of.

“Oh,” she said, coming to that realization. “What’s your name?”

“Nonomo my dear,” he smiled. “I’ll be checking up on you once in a while, but it seems it’s the time start off your journey.”

Before she could say anything, she found herself slowly losing vision. Everything went dark, but the last thing she saw was Nonomo turning around and start to talk to what appeared to be empty space. Nobina had no idea what was going to happen, but all she hoped was that she could handle what was to come.

…

Once again, she found herself blinded by a light. When her vision finally returned, she took notice of a luscious forest. It appeared vast as her gaze looked left and then right. She became in awe as she hadn’t been to a forest in so long. It reminded her of a long-gone past, making her a bit sad, but at the same time, excitement started to build in her. This was really a new world for her. One ready for her to explore. She didn’t know where to start, but all she knew was that no matter where she took her first steps, it would be somewhere new. Something that would lead to new adventures. Something that was a change from her pretty mundane office life.

She felt her stomach rumble, making her a bit hungry.

“Man, I could use something to eat.”

As she said that, she felt the bag get a bit heavier. Curious, she opened it and saw oranges inside the bag.

“Huh?”

Her confusion grew as she picked out an orange from the bag. She merely shrugged as she began to peel and eat it. It was definitely an orange, which begged the question of why she had oranges suddenly. Nonomo did say the bag was special. As she finished the orange, she felt the bag once again get heavier.

“What now,” she said as she looked inside. To her surprise, now there were eggs in the bag.

She took one of the egg, deciding to crack it to see if it was indeed an egg. To her surprise, it was boiled, which prompted her to taste it.

“Huh… A normal boiled egg.”

All of this was so strange. Why were these foods appearing in the bag specifically? Did someone hear her request for food and decide she needed these two specifically? Or perhaps she merely received them because they served a greater purpose she didn’t know. Whatever the case was, she had the food she needed, showing the bag really was going to be useful to her one way or another.

“Now… where to go.”

She had a few choices. She could go deeper into the forest or turn around and follow the road. One option seemed safer than the other, but a bit of uncertainty filled her mind. She was never really good with unplanned things like this, and this was as unplanned as things could get. Whatever direction she headed in would decide how things would go.

“Safe is best after all,” she nodded.

Nobina made her way down the road, heading away from the forest. The view was replaced with a pretty open plain full of grass. Looking around, she could see tiny things moving around far in the distance of the plain. Her writer’s mind told her it was likely monsters, but she’d have to get closer to confirm that, which she had no intention of doing. She didn’t know if she had any powers or anything that made her beyond a normal human. The worst case would be that she was just a normal person with a special bag. That meant she could receive a lethal blow and die should fate dictate it.

She knew she had to play it smart. Until she had her bearings and could settle in and learn this world, she didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks.

As she thought that, she felt as if a gaze had suddenly disappeared. She wasn’t aware of it until it was gone either, making her wonder what that was. She suddenly felt relaxed, as if there were no longer eyes watching her. She couldn’t explain the feeling, but the bag itself also seemed to reflect it. It suddenly felt normal. Looking at it and examining it, all she could think of was that this bag was linked to whatever that gaze was. When it disappeared, the bag lost its purpose.

It started to make sense in her mind. If this bag was somehow linked with someone’s or something’s gaze, then when she was hungry, the gaze knew that and put food into it.

“Am I… being watched?”

She began chuckling, thinking about the idea of being watched by some mythical force. Perhaps that is what it felt like being a streamer, having the eyes of others on you as you did your best to entertain them.

“Welcome to the stream everyone,” Nobina spoke out loud, facing a random direction.

Of course nothing happened, but she found the thought to be interesting. Nonomo did say the bag was special and if this was a part of it, then she’d need to experiment more.

“For now… Let’s find out as much as we can about this world. Information is power and all my knowledge of my old world will do nothing if I suddenly get attacked by monsters I cannot escape.”

With that, Nobina set out to find out more about this world, the bag she was given, and all the mysteries that came with it. This was, after all, her second chance.