"Ha~!" The sound of an exhausted woman reverberated through the busy hospital hallways as she made her way to her patient's room. She yelled out, "My feet hurt!" The frantic clicking sound of her shoes as she ran only added to the feeling of rush.
Today had not been going well for her. It was a busy shift for her where she had not gotten a single minute of rest over the course of nearly 18 hours. Then, when she finally got the chance to catch her breath, an alert rang from her patient's room. He had called for her. "Why did I choose this job?!"
"For the money of course," spoke the little devil on her shoulder. "To help those in need," spoke to the little angel on her other shoulder before she comically brushed it off. "I don't have time for jokes right now!" She said as her panting increased in volume.
More important questions had to be answered! Like why did they place him so far away?!
The clicking and clacking of her shoes on the tile slowed as she finally made it to her patient's hospital wing. "Ha, ha, ha!" She tried to relax. She was almost there. The clicking of her feet slowed down as she turned the corner to the hallway housing her patient. Finally! She had so many complaints for Dr. Arias!
She stopped herself. "No, I need to stay professional!" Walking over to the door and turning the handle, she silently walked in as the slight squeaking of the door hid her steps ever so slightly.
When she did, she saw a conscious Ray silently looking out the window on the other side of the room. His hair swayed as he looked down onto the streets below with little more than the setting sun illuminating him. Although it wasn't all too well as it shined on the opposite side from her own perspective.
Just this sight alone took her aback. It was like she was looking at a masterfully crafted portrait. One that gave you just enough information of the subject to have a general idea as to what they looked like, while still leaving plenty to the human imagination.
Or at least, that remained the case until the man turned around. She immediately blushed bright red as he watched the man give her a beautiful smile, immediately losing herself in his eyes. "Hello, there. I'm Ray," was what he said. Although she didn't understand. This immediately knocked her out of her state of amazement as she sighed to herself.
"Not again." She wasn't good with foreign languages. She silently walked over to him and tried to speak to him slowly. "Do you…understand me?"
He gave her a thoughtful look as he silently analyzed the doctor's face moving a bit closer to her to get a good look. She immediately took a step back as her heart skipped a beat. This would be hard.
Ray sighed internally. As expected, this was definitely a language he had never heard of before. It was clear what she asked him. She asked Ray if he could understand her. He could tell just off of her body language. Unfortunately, that was definitely not the kind of understanding she was asking for. As far as language was concerned, there was nothing.
Ray looked at the small lady with a slightly annoyed face as he analyzed her. He sighed. Well, he couldn't say he wasn't expecting that.
He watched as she panicked to herself, no doubt regarding how she was to talk to him. Ray muttered to himself. "Maybe…" He locked eyes with the doctor before silently motioning to himself, then back at her. He proceeded with a wave gesture, followed by motioning to himself again and nodding with a kind smile. Then he stopped and waited. She seemed confused, which he guessed made sense.
Simply put, he was trying to communicate with hand gestures, although it would probably take a bit of thinking before she realized what he was doing.
A few seconds passed as the woman looked at Ray. Not long after, her eyes widened a bit.
The green haired doctor muttered to herself, "Is he trying to talk with hand signs?" She thought back to the gestures the man gave her before.
Ray smiled at her as he watched the thought click in her mind. She looked around frantically before giving him her own combination of gestures. She pointed at her mouth, shook her head no, pointed out the door then back at her mouth before nodding yes.
Ray's head turned a bit as he thought of this. The first part clearly meant she couldn't understand him. He looked out. Pointing out? He muttered. "I will bring a translator." Is that what she's trying to say? He muttered to himself, "But, could there be someone here that speaks a Terran language?"
He confirmed he likely wasn't on Earth anymore…but then again. If he had somehow found himself in this different world it wasn't out of the question that it could have happened before. Maybe there was someone that spoke a Terran tongue.
He pointed outside, then motioned something coming in before proceeding with the last two gestures he saw her doing. The doctor stared at it for a few seconds before smiling. She nodded.
That definitely meant she was going to bring something. Whether his translator guess was correct remained to be seen though He smiled at her and nodded. He hoped she understood that he was trying to tell her to go ahead.
The doctor looked at her patient. From what she got, he seemed to understand what she said. Right then! She turned around before stopping. Wait, she hadn't introduced herself. She quickly looked back at her assigned patient. "Ema Nara. Dr. Nara." She pointed at herself as she said these two things.
Ray seemed to understand. He pointed at himself. "Ray Vallia." He pointed at her, "Dr. Nara."
She smiled and nodded her head. Good, at least the names were out of the way. With that done, she quickly got back to what she was doing. As she opened the door she started thinking of his name. Is that a foreign name? It wasn't possible to get that combination of sounds out of her language. At least not with the pronunciation he said it.
She muttered, "Well, I guess it makes sense."
She pushed it to the back of her head.
Ray looked at the little doctor as she left the scene. "Ema Nara then, eh?" He used context clues to figure out the second one was her professional name. He muttered, "Ema Nara. Yalani ore Nara."
He cross referenced what he heard with the words he couldn't read before. He put a hand to his chin, "It seems this language has connecting particle words. Yalani was likely the language's word for doctor. Nara was her name and ore connected the two. Together he guessed they meant, "Dr. Nara."
"Interesting. Her name seems English enough. Her name is Ema."
He looked at the side of the machine that caught his interest from earlier. There he could see what looked like a series of paragraphs likely describing something about it. Looking over the writing he muttered, "The smaller particle words. I can distinguish them."
Between longer words he could often see words made up of little more than one or two letters. It seemed his guess was correct. These were similar words to your tos seen in English.
He smiled. It was good that he was quick on the uptake. Most people would have still been lost.
Quickly recovering, he walked over to his bed and sat down. He guessed he would have to wait.
Dr. Nara cursed under her breath as she made her way down the hall of the section of the hospital labeled as Building 3. Of course he can't speak Yiran! Just her luck! She muttered, "At least I can use this as an excuse to speak. She's always so busy."
Making it to the end of the hall, she opened the door and walked in. Inside a woman turned to look at the green haired intruder. "Oh my, if it isn't Ema."
The woman was tall and curvaceous with long dark violet hair and eyes. She wore a black undershirt and pants with a white doctor's coat on top along with, most strikingly, a floating halo-like accessory above her head. She truly was one to catch the attention.
Dr. Nara stood silently as the woman made her way over to her. "Might I ask why you came to visit?"
The little doctor explained, "I…Sorry, I just wanted to ask if you could help me." She looked down as she tapped her fingers together, "You see I have this patient that can't speak Yiran so…"
She stopped as the woman patted her head. "Well aren't you just the cutest?" She giggled to herself, "I understand. You wish for me to translate for you. Is that what you came to request of me?"
"Sorry if you're busy. I just…"
"It's okay. I will help." She looked at the pencil in her hand. "No need for this, for now." Throwing the pencil behind her, she told Dr. Nara. "Let us go."
The little doctor watched as the pencil landed inside of the tiny cubby hole the woman had for it. "C-Coming Miss Diana!" Quickly she ran off with her.
After half an hour, Ray watched as the door opened to reveal the little doctor with her translator.
Ray looked at her. Weird. He could immediately tell she was looking at him like an experiment subject. However, he chose to ignore that for the most part. Instead he just watched as she spoke. The words that came out of her mouth were interesting. She seemed to cycle through various different languages. None of which he recognized. When she finished, she smiled to herself in realization, "Shimexi English dawekru hi mesnesu jima?"
"What?" Ray stopped as he heard that.
Diana smirked as she watched the man before him look at her with a look of bewilderment. She sighed, "I see. This is quite the situation, I must say."
Dr. Nara asked, "What do you mean?"
Diana offhandedly commented, "It appears another ring of the bell is eminent. I wonder how many more strikes it can take."
"What?" Dr. Nara asked with a confused look.
"Do not worry. At least for now, this doesn't concern you." She looked at the door, "I unfortunately will not be able to help. The language he speaks is quite elusive in this world. To my knowledge, counting him now, no more than 4 people alive are currently able to speak that language. Well, fluently at least. There are a few scholars with basic knowledge of that language." She confidently pointed at herself, "Such as me."
"Huh?" She was completely flabbergasted. What did she mean, only 4 people? Did that even make sense? A language with just 4 true practitioners? Isn't it in danger? The little doctor turned to the man, "Then, what am I supposed to…"
Diana stopped Dr. Nara by placing her hand on her shoulder. "Do not worry. One of the 4 is currently located in this hospital. We need only ask." She asked the little doctor, "I have a question. Were you personally assigned to that man by Dr. Arias?"
"What?" Dr. Arias? Why was she… "I think so."
Diana smirked to herself, "I see." Diana turned back to look at Ray. "I believe I am starting to see the full picture here." She turned back to Ray and bowed, hoping he got the idea, before turning to leave. She was quickly followed by a confused Dr. Nara.
Once again, Ray was left alone. Ray leaned back as he watched the door close. "There's a conspiracy here." That was one thing he got out of that. That lady. He put his hand to his chin. "She looked at me with a look of realization when she asked me about English." Yalani ore Arias. "Who are they talking about?" That name came up almost immediately when she found out about him speaking English.
Ray clicked his tongue. "What the hell is this?"
Walking down the hallway, Dr. Nara asked Diana, "Um, so you have a plan, right?"
She smiles at the little doctor, "That is correct. We will go and ask for Dr. Arias' assistance."
Dr. Nada jumped, "Wait, just…"
"No need to worry." She smirked, "He'll listen. I highly doubt he will want to miss out on this." She sighed to herself, "The real problem is finding him. He isn't one to stay put very long."
"You…seem oddly comfortable talking about him."
"I have my reasons for that," she commented.
An hour passed as Ray silently waited in his room. "This thing is fascinating." Having locked his focus onto one of the devices he had seen littered around the room, he had found that while he couldn't read what it said he could get a general idea of how it functioned. And for the most part, it was very similar to what was in his old world. The machine had a touch screen which itself had what he assumed to be buttons that controlled various things within.
Most of the functions locked him out though. For the most part he was only scrolling through the main hub of the device. Catching himself leaning forward as he tried to make sense of the device, he stopped and sat up, "I should probably stop messing with medical equipment." He had gotten what he needed.
He needed to check this world's level of advancement. With what he saw so far…he closed his eyes. "It's more advanced than Earth but not by much. Maybe 50 to 75 years give or take?"
"Granted, it seems this world isn't using electricity." Throughout his search that was one major conclusion he ended up with. As for what they were using in place of that energy source, he didn't know. He guessed the strange blue tubes lining most technological equipment had something to do with it but there wasn't much else he could find.
His eyes snapped open as he heard the door open. Turning to look, he watched as the two women from before walked in alongside one more. He seemed to also be a doctor although he looked strange. He was a tall guy with brown slightly graying hair, yellow eyes and square glasses. The man was wearing tight fitting black pants, a black shirt, gray shoes and a long, white, dirty doctor's coat. However, that wasn't what caught his attention. The look in the man's eyes did. His body language seemed normal at first glance, but his eyes gave a different story. He looked at Ray like he was some sort of lab specimen as the two locked eyes. The doctor smirked.
Silently waiting for him to speak, the room was filled with a short bit of tensity. Then, in fluent English, he said, "Hello. I believe this stands a better chance at matching your vocabulary, correct?"
"You can speak English?" Ray asked.
The man smirked a little wider, "Naturally. For one such as myself, it should be no surprise."
Ray couldn't help but try to get a read on him after hearing that. He's certainly not normal. Was this arrogance? No. Ray's eyes sharpened. He was just aware of his own abilities and acted on it. He was by no means truly arrogant. Ignoring what the man said, Ray asked, "Where did you learn it? To my knowledge, it doesn't appear to be common."
The man chuckled, "Do not think it would be that easy to get an answer out of me." He stopped for a second before adding, "I would recommend you not think too much about that at this point. I doubt that information would be useful to you right now."
Ray looked at him after hearing that come out of the enigma's mouth. He felt a feeling of unease before answering. "You're trying to control me."
"Hoh? Quite the accusation." He walked over to him and stopped smirking, "Care to explain how?"
"Do not think it'll be that easy to get an answer out of me." Ray calmly quipped back.
Dr. Nara spoke in the background, "W-what's going on? This looks scary!" She had no idea what was happening but the air was more than enough. These two were having a spontaneous standoff.
Diana patted her head in a frankly kind of demeaning manner, "Calm yourself."
Ray and the man looked at each other for a few seconds as they sized each other up until suddenly…"Alright, I'll stop then." The man leaned back as he grunted. "My name is Dr. Arias, just so you know. You already figured that out, yes?"
Ray chose to stay quiet at that. Dr. Arias continued, "So, I was brought here due to the apparent language barrier between you and your currently assigned doctor." He frowned a bit, "Truly an unfortunate outcome, I must say."
"I sadly am unable to directly respond to your complaints at this time so…" He trailed off as he reached into his coat, pulling out an impossibly large book from within. Not long after, he held it out for Ray to take. "Here you go. This'll help."
Ray read the cover, "Yiran for Dummies." Below the title he read further, "Written by Dr. Cain Arias 5 minutes ago. Enjoy the special book!"
"What the?" He looked up, "What is…" He looked back up to realize something.
He was gone. What? Did he run out immediately after handing him the book? He confusedly turned to look at the two women who were still there. Diana shrugged to herself before motioning a small apology with her hands and leading the little doctor out.
Ray could hear the sound of the soft air blow by around him. What the hell just happened?
He looked at the book and opened it. "Written five minutes ago? What did that mean?"
He opened the first page to see what was inside. There, written inside, the words, "Yes, I wrote it five minutes ago," written in perfect English.
"What the?"
"Surprised? I wrote this book to teach you the language of this world. Don't bother skipping ahead to throw this book off. It won't work."
He flipped to a random page. Written on the margins there was a note, "Go back to the first page."
He skipped to another random page. Again, written in the margins, "Just go back to the first page."
He went back to the first page and read the next sentences. "Told you so. Just read the book. Assuming you understand my wording, you'll know Yiran by the end. After all, you are quite the smart one. Granted, not as much as the great me!"
Ray felt his eyelid twitch. "Who the hell?"
Was this some sort of magic? That was the first question that came to mind. He had been stuck in the hospital room for the most part so he couldn't confirm it, but he did note that what was now happening around him reeked with a minor fantasy vibe. Not to mention just now he witnessed the enigmatic doctor pull an impossibly large book out of his coat.
"That would also explain the strange blue lines running across the equipment." Magic power was usually portrayed as shining bright blue in fantasy. In that case then it could be explained that the energy running through the technology of this world used magic rather than electricity. He sighed.
Yet another thing he needed to know about his situation. He turned back to the book. "You truly are a curious one, aren't you Mr. Ray Vallia?"
He sighed. "This is going to be an annoying read."
Once again Ray Vallia was left alone. This time for a few days as he read through the book.
Reading through the book turned out to be an experience just as strange and off-putting as meeting with the doctor himself. The book was odd. It wasn't a book that he had to look through to learn.
No, rather as he read the book it flawlessly guided him through his preferred method of learning and even often went off track mid-paragraph to answer questions that came to mind in real time. It was freaky. It was written like Dr. Arias had already predicted everything Ray was going to think in advance and planned for it. Even when he would take breaks, he would close the book, open it back up and keep reading to find a list of answers to all the questions that came to mind when he wasn't actively reading the book to get answers.
That experience only led to him coming to one conclusion. Whatever this world was, it definitely had magic. It was a conclusion that he was already on the verge of confirming even without the book given his strange void experience and the fact that he saw some form of beastmen outside.
However, despite the odd feeling he got as he read, he continued to push through, finishing the book in five days. When he did, he put the book on the table to the side of his bed and collapsed. He turned to the big window outside of his door. The sun was setting.
He smiled, "I think it's about time I take a rest."
He woke up to the sound of knocking at his door, followed by the green haired doctor walking in. She spoke up, "Er, sorry. Dr. Arias told me it was time I came to check up on you. Sorry if you can't understand me. He told me to speak Yiran."
Ray sighed. At this point it seemed like that guy was all knowing. He responded, "It's fine. I should be perfectly fluent by now."
The girl's eyes widened as she heard him. He was not only speaking Yiran, but he even went out of his way to mimic her accent. "Already!?"