The Undesired Second Chance

Chapter 5: Welcome to the Village

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

Axel couldn't believe it.

"It's been a while, but it's just as striking as I remember."

The ground felt unsteady under his feet, and everything around him felt... too real. Fake.

It must be. It couldn't be real.

A dream, he thought. This must all be a dream.

"—do you think, A—?"

Someone was speaking, but he couldn't... couldn't focus when the world had gone sideways!

"—el? Hey—"

He could see the world—the village and the trees and the people—but his mind refused it, too shocked to be able to accept reality as it was. And while he could feel that he was standing upright, all but frozen in place, at the same time it felt like everything was spinning. Axel tried to concentrate on his breathing: in, and out. In, and out. Simple.

It should be simple.

Focus.

"Brandt-san?" The voice—newly familiar, not Morimoto—sounded like it was coming from far away, but the sound of his name helped to ground his shattering perception of reality. Footsteps, maybe, and then a gentle hand rested on his shoulder. "Are you feeling well?"

How could he possibly be?

How could he ever be again?

"F-fine," Axel managed, but his accent was heavy with the confusion he was feeling. His voice sounded weak and unconvincing, even to himself. Not that he was really trying to convince himself that everything was alright. He knew where he stood on that front, because he didn't know where he stood in literally every other sense of the phrase.

He was just so lost.

But he needed to pull himself together, and fast. If that village was truly one and the same as the fictional hidden village from the show—well, ninja. Enough said.

Blinking and giving himself a stern mental shake, Axel turned his attention to the concerned voice and its attached hand on his shoulder. His own blue eyes met another pair of worried blue, and he was surprised to find it had been Minato who had reached out to him, cart left unmanned a meter or so away. It made sense, of course. To be worried, that is. Perfect sense. He wasn't quite sure why he was so surprised, given there were only two people with him so really it had to be one of...

And now his fellow blond was giving him a highly skeptical look, single brow raised in concerned disbelief; Axel's one-word, clearly uninspiring attempt at reassurance falling flat in the wake of his distracted silent staring.

But it was Morimoto, watching with concern from where he stood minding the cart, who drily remarked, "Sure you are. Unresponsively staring out into nothing for nearly two straight minutes is perfectly normal."

Correctly guessing what 'unresponsively' meant by context, Axel couldn't do much but shrug. He could tell that if he tried to talk too much it'd likely just come out a stuttering mess. Or in German, which would be colossally unhelpful. Thus, more silence.

Silence which was, thankfully, filled by Minato as he lightly joked, "Don't worry, I'm sure Brandt-san was simply struck speechless by the view."

Axel paused, brain latching on to the more handleable surprise and choosing to blatantly ignore (for the moment) the world-shattering discovery of ninja-anime-is-real-life-now. "Did you... you said it right?"

"Said what— Oh!" Minato smiled, face lighting up happily. "So I did pronounce your name correctly. I wasn't sure, especially since there wasn't much of a reaction earlier..."