Chicken sandwiches were usually pretty good. They were rather simple in nature a large portion of the time, but what many people didn't get was that there was honestly not much wrong with simple. Simple things were comforting. Not every dish had to have a million ingredients, each baked, fried, cooked and steamed in a hundred different ways. Sometimes all you really needed to have a good meal were some slices of chicken, a slight bit of mayonnaise and some lettuce all sandwiched by two slices of white bread.

"It's a good sandwich." Zane said out loud, his inner monologue accidentally spilling out to the rest of the cafe. This was a nice little place, especially rare for the part of Oak that was, in Zane's opinion, shit. This restaurant was practically like a golden statue sitting in the middle of a sewer. "I must admit, I'm not looking forward to having to eat at some of the less than appetizing restaurants in this area of town." Beelzebub commented, having chosen to listen in on Zane's overly long third person inner monologues. So why don't we just not eat at them?" Zane asked, though at this point the question might as well of been rhetorical. The two had gone over this a few times in the past. "Greed is the desire to have everything, Zane. Everything. And sometimes I hate the fact that the average quality of everything can be... questionable."

Zane sighed and shook his head to himself. He would probably never be able to get through to Beelzebub on the matter. Oh well. At least Zane got to enjoy at least 1 piece of decent food for every 1.5 pieces of horrible food he ate. It could be a lot worse. Finishing up the first half of his evenly split sandwich, Zane's hands greedily moved towards the next one, ready to indulge in the taste of the soft, doughy white bread. This moment would unfortunately be interrupted by a ruckus being caused on the other side of the restaurant. Some thugs seemed to be wandering around, five in total. They all seemed to be part of the same group, most likely just a small time gang of thieves. They were demanding money from each of the customers sitting at the tables. Zane looked over to the elderly man who sat at the counter. The owner seemed to be unwilling to do anything, and Zane couldn't exactly blame him. It wasn't like an old man could do much against a group, even if the 5 thugs didn't seem all too impressive.

Speaking of which, it was Zane's turn. "Pay up. It'll cost you 1000 jewels to eat at this restaurant." Neither Zane nor the thugs were really sure how much 1000 jewels was actually worth in an in-character context. It was pretty hard to ever tell, given that there is a literal fucking rock in the shop that costs 500,000 jewels. Regardless of the absolutely puzzling nature of Fiore's economy, Zane wasn't so willing to give up any of his money to a bunch of thugs that didn't deserve it. "Alright, but first you have to give me 2000 jewels." The thugs all looked at each with a confused look in their face, then the one that seemed to be their impromptu leader looked back to Zane. "I feel like there's supposed to be some sort of punchline that comes with a line like that."

"I thought about punching you, but I feel like that kind of punny humor is kind of beneath me at this point." He admitted, standing up from his chair and readying himself to face the thugs, backing up a few feet from them just to get a better look at their ugly mugs. "I'm more into ironic and extremely meta humor these days." The thugs all looked at each other once again, this time pausing for an even longer amount of time, having no idea what the hell Zane was on about. "You okay man?" The leader asked, seeming surprisingly concerned for a man who was just about to mug some dude in a restaurant. Zane sighed, becoming increasingly disappointed in their reactions. He turned away from the thugs, shaking his head as he paced around the restaurant. "This was my ONE chance this week to have some sort of cool fight like this. Do you know how perfect of a setup this is?" Zane pointed towards the furniture in the room. "Tables, chairs, counters, stools. So much potential for fight choreography, and here you are wasting my time with your extended reactions. Look, can't you just all come at me angrily and demand my money? I thought that would be the main thing that generic thug type of guys like to do."

The thugs looked to each other one last time and all shrugged, eventually running at Zane with their fists out. A huge smile grew upon Zane's face, excited to try out all of his fancy cafe fight scene ideas.

Unfortunately, that's not really how things went. Zane's experiences as a mage meant that all of these thugs were way slower, weaker and less durable than him. He practically just had to punch each one once as they came at him in a line that seemed far too orderly and he was done. The last thug approached Zane, though seemingly hesitated when he saw his companions laying on the ground, their hands clenched to their stomachs in pain. "Just hit me really hard. Please. I'm so bored." Zane held his arms out towards the thug, inviting him to punch Zane wherever he wanted without any worry in the world. "Wait! Are you sure about this Zane? I'm pretty sure this is how Houdini ended up dyi-"

The next time Zane woke up he found himself in a rather odd area. It was a distorted space, full of all sorts of colors. "Where are we..?" Zane asked, wondering if Beelzebub had any sort of idea - he was the last voice Zane heard before being knocked out, after all. Stumbling forward, Zane found a door with a knob on it in this strange place, the only real tangible thing he had come across so far. Opening it up, Zane was greeted with rolling green hills and a gust of wind that caused his blonde hair to sway in a rather magnificent manner. "Baska...?" Zane asked himself. His hometown was off in the distant, just a few minutes walk away from the hill he currently stood on. But there was a key different. There were some buildings in Baska that Zane had witnessed burning down as a teenager. These buildings were never rebuilt as far as Zane knew.

"...Have I gone back in time?" Zane asked himself, still trying to figure out just what the answer was. While Zane hadn't realized it yet, he wasn't a time traveler. Everything he was about to see from here on was his own mind.

PART I END

1000+/1000
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