A collected-looking man was sat down in his office.
His hair was slicked-back with gel. His glasses reflected the light that emanated from the computer screen in front of him. His eyes were locked onto the screen, with faint bags under them as his pale hands typed away.
The chair below him creaked as he rocked his body from left to right, the chair was a regular office chair. Cushioned, with arm rests at either side.
The linen that covered the cushioning was worn out, revealing the yellow filling inside.
In any direction he saw, he'd only find plain, white concrete walls.
A ceiling lamp and a window were the only hints of decoration the room had.
From the window's view the man could glance at the city outside his building. The sprawling Tokyo streets, every corner lit-up with life. People could be seen walking, from the distance appearing as if they were ants.
The light pollution didn't allow for any stars to be seen, the sky was navy blue color, its endless reach covered most of the view.
Looking back at his computer screen, the man only saw spreadsheets, symbols and numbers.
Working as a financier, most of the job was staring at those characters all day, every day.
"Only a couple more days of overtime..." The man muttered to himself as he typed out an email to a business representative, informing them about loan interest rates.
In his second monitor, a booking website popped-up as one of the man's previous web searches.
The site showed the image of a beach, crystal water over the beige grains of sand below the bright sun and blue sky.
He had a family trip planned for the summer, a trip to Hawaii. All he needed was a break from his dull, monotonous job that had made his days blur together.
Before he could send the email, his vision began blurring as a throbbing pain manifested in his head.
"AAGH-" the man dropped his head onto the desk before him, the keyboard spammed nonsense as his head pressed every key.
Headaches were a common occurence from his lack of sleep and overuse of caffeine, but this one was unlike any other headache.
He felt as if nails were being hammered into his brain all at once, his hearing was next to give out, a loud piercing sound was all he could listen to.
The man thought he was about to die, this was it, lived so long for it to end like this.
His vision proggresively blurred more and more until he was effectively blind.
* * *
The man woke up in a cold sweat, finding himself on rough concrete in the middle of a street.
He looked around trying to make sense of his surroundings, he could only see the endless black void in either ends of the street.
As he looked up he saw single family homes surrounding him, along with apartment complexes in the distance. It seemed like the average urban Japanese street.
Pushing himself up, he stood, as he paced around.
People walked along the sidewalk, but they didn't seem to mind his presence in the street. Along with the indifferent individuals, the street was completely empty, no cars or bikes went by, yet he was the only one there.
Deciding to join the crowd of people, he walked along the sidewalk in harmony with the rest. There was an empty bus stop. Would buses even pass by if cars don't seem to exist here?
It didn't matter since no one was waiting for a bus anyways.
He approached the void at the end of the street, finding himself unable to go further. It felt like touching a window. Completely solid, emitting a short clink when touched, yet fully invisible. As if his senses were betraying him, he felt dizzy the more he touched the invisible wall.
Looking around, he noticed that the street was separated from the single family houses by a tall brick wall, it was around the height of one and a half of his bodies.
Both sidewalk crowds walked in opposite directions, seeming to pop in and out of existence as they approached the void, like an endless cycle. It reminded him of videogame NPCs, programmed to do a single task forever.
He crossed over to the other sidewalk, deciding to investigate it too.
He emerged out of the crowd as he saw what resembled a convenience store. It had a neon sign, bright with green, blue and red lights. The windows around the building felt almost unreal, like an opaque videogame texture, he was unable to look inside the building.
As he approached the entrance, nothing happened. Usually the doors would open on their own automatically, but these stood completely still. He tried to open them manually, but they wouldn't even budge. They felt unrealistically solid, like even if he ran them over with a steamroller, nothing would change.
Trying to take a look inside the convenience store, a bright, pink reflection caught the man's eye. It seemed to come from himself.
In his confusion, he hadn't even bothered to take a look at himself. As he looked down, he noticed his clothes were completely different. His white button-up shirt and black tie were replaced by a loose pink hoodie, and his black silk pants were now black oversized jeans, both legs torn at the knees.
The movement from looking down made his hair obstruct his vision, it was long, white strands, completely opposite from what used to be short, black hair.
"Wait-" He muttered as he grasped his chest.
He let out a short scream as he realized, his pecs were now breasts. No longer a man, but a woman in this new world.
It felt almost perverted to be checking himself out now, but it was his own body, right? So it was not a weird thing.
He paced around the parking lot next to the convenience store, trying to wrap his head around what had just happened.
"So. I passed out, woke up here, a contained place, and I'm a woman!?"
In his focus, he bumped into one of the stationary shopping carts in the small parking lot. It only had space for 4 cars, with the shopping carts in-between the slots.
The impact made him snap back to reality, shortly before hearing a man's voice.
"W-Where am I!?"
She followed the voice back to where she had appeared just minutes ago. There was a man standing in the middle of the street.
His hair was short with defined curls, wearing a beige button-up shirt and brown linen pants.
"Are you alright?"
The strange man jumped back at the sudden interruption. "W-Who are you!?"
"I'm-" She stuttered, she had forgotten her real name, and almost out of instinct she said, "I'm Meshi."
The man relaxed his shoulders as Meshi introduced herself. "N-Nice to meet you... I'm Kaizo."
"Kaizo..." Meshi muttered below her breath. The name felt offly familiar to her, but she couldn't exactly pinpoint why it did.
"Where t-the hell are we?"
Meshi, looked around, trying to figure out a way to explain their current situation, but she was just as confused as him.
"We've been... transmigrated?"
"Transmigrated? What's t-that?"
"It's when your soul is moved into another body in another world."
Kaizo let out a groan of desperation as he sat down on the concrete, wrapping his arms around his legs in a vertical fetal position. "What the hell do we do now...?"
Meshi let out a sigh as she sat down in front of Kaizo.
"I don't know."
Their loathing didn't last long before they heard the loud thud of a switch flipping down. Both of them instantly looked over at the origin of the sound.
From the ground emerged a small building, its walls made out of blue, and its windows crystal clear.
An unlit neon sign lied above the main entrance of two wooden doors, it shortly lit up.
[ Detonator Sushi ]
Meshi and Kaizo stood up in curiosity. They began examining the building before them. The inside was a revolving sushi restaurant, a long conveyor belt wrapped itself around the main dining room.
You could also see inside the kitchen thanks to a large glass window so you could see the chefs as they cook your meal.
The whole vibe of the restaurant was a rustic one, the decoration was traditionally Japanese.
Tatami matted the whole floor, and cushions were laid down around the conveyor belt as seating for the customers.
Their examination was interrupted by the sound of glass breaking behind them, the sound seemed to come from behind the convenience store.
Meshi and Kaizo glanced at each other, giving a nod before heading out to investigate together.