Tanaka made his way through the darkness of the cave. His eyes had now adjusted to his surroundings, although he could only see a short distance ahead of himself. Tanaka slowly walked with his hand on the wall of the cave. He needed to be cautious of any threat that he might come across, especially with the earthquakes from earlier.
He walked on for more than an hour before he noticed any changes to his environment. It was a very slight change, but in the darkness of the cavern, it remained very noticeable. Along the walls of the cavern, some of the crystals glowed very dimly. It was only a few of them. Tanaka would come across a cluster of them from time to time.
As Tanaka walked on, he began to feel his stomach growling in hunger. He remembered the dripping water that woke him up earlier, and he started to think: 'Maybe I should go back. I have no idea how long this pathway goes on for.
Tanaka sighed heavily, stopping for a moment. He looked back the way he had come and wondered if he'd truly be able to survive long in this unfamiliar terrain. 'If I go back, I could probably find a way to collect that water and survive. But for how long? A month? I'd just be waiting to die. No one will be coming to save me, not in another world.'
"Darnit!" Tanaka sat down whilst grumbling. He clenched his fists tightly. He was frustrated. And for good reason: 'Even if I do go on, I might not survive. Cave explorers on Earth don't always make it back out. And here, there are monsters on top of the already existing dangers of exploring a cave system. Especially without any equipment.'
Tanak looked down at himself, only just barely to see his hands. They were covered in dirt. He could only imagine how he looked now.
Tanaka chuckled. 'Ma would freak if she saw me like this.' He shook his head when he remembered his mom's cooking. 'Man, I could really go for some of ma's cooking. Some rice with stew and a steak, or some pap with some sautéed kale and boerewors. Sigh, this sucks. Why can't I get sent into a world that's amazing? Like that Planum place Bell told me about, he said I'd like.' As Tanaka reminisced on his time on Earth, an idea suddenly struck him.
A smile crept onto his face as he thought for a moment. 'Wait, didn't Bell say he'd been to another world? Then maybe he's just in another world, or maybe even in this one. And if he's in this world, shouldn't I be able to contact him somehow?'
Tanaka placed his hand on his chin as he thought for a bit. He thought back on when Bell had first appeared in his life. He'd heard other whispers during the days preceding his first meeting with Bell. Although he hadn't been able to tell what the voices had been saying at the time, he concluded: maybe there was some kind of disembodied realm which Bell used to get to Earth. It would explain why he couldn't hear what the other voices were saying back then. Maybe he couldn't understand what they were saying because they weren't on Earth.
Tanaka then sat up and went into a meditative position. He didn't know whether or not his theory about there being some hidden realm was true or not, but if it was, he was going to try to get into contact with it.
Right now, his most pressing problem was his lack of information. He couldn't tell if there were any monsters, like wyrms or earth dragons, in this cave system. And that wasn't even considering him securing a way out of this cave system, or how he would get any food once he was outside. He had no real experience with survival in the wild. All he knew about such matters was either from what she'd learnt from school, and what he'd seen on those wilderness survival reality shows. The former hadn't given him much information, and the latter was partially or wholly unreliable. It was supposed to be entertainment after all.
Tanaka thought that even if he did somehow connect to this hypothetical realm, and he didn't find Bell, he could just ask one of the other disembodied voices for help. It wasn't like there would be any drawbacks from trying anyway.
Tanaka took a deep breath in, trying to recall the feeling he had when he'd first heard the whispering voices. He then attempted to invoke that feeling onto himself as he continued to try, his breathing started to become laboured and shallow. Then his skin tightened, and the hairs on his body stood on end. He felt cold as he felt himself drifting out of his own body.
He could hear them now, the many whispering voices all around. He tried to listen to them, hoping to pick out his friend's voice from among them, but the jumbled cacophony of voices was indiscernible to Tanaka.
Realising that he needed to change strategies, he spoke. [Bell! Where are you?] His voice now also resembled the whispers that surrounded him. Another strange thing occurred. Tanaka could feel himself travelling with the words he spoke. Almost as if he had become the words he spoke. He could feel himself passing through the other voices, as if they couldn't hear him, just as he couldn't hear them.
He continued to travel through the space until he felt it. He had been heard. A connection had been made.
[Hello there. It seems you're looking for someone. Someone I might be able to help you find, but first, you're going to have to answer a question for me.] The whisper that spoke to Tanaka was a feminine voice, but it also felt very cold. Cold enough to cause him to shiver. Or at least the disembodied version of a shiver.
[What question do you want me to answer?] Tanaka asked with his hope attached to his words.
[WHY DO YOU DARE TO INVADE MY WORLD!!!?]