To Boldly Go Where No Heartless Has Gone Before

The first thing Will heard when he came to was water trickling. Opening his eyes, Will found himself laying on the ground near a fountain in a moderately wooded area, with a single bench near the fountain.

'A working fountain implies civilization, nice! I'm not in literal hell!' the urge to do a celebration dance came over his new body. He saw no reason not to and began what amounted to a bouncy wiggle. During Will's celebration, a screen from the System came into view.

[Welcome to the world! For visiting a new world as an emblem heartless, you can redeem a reward!]

[Your choices are:]

[Increase Existence Level by N/A Invalid Choice]

[Raise Strength, Magic, or AP by 5]

[Obtain a new ability at random]

[Increase HP or MP by 20]

'I choose the new ability!' The abilities seemed to all be pretty useful in their own ways so far, Will didn't see any point in choosing anything else.

[Ability generated:]

[Magic Lock-On: One in a million shot.

Automatically lock on to your target when casting magic. Accuracy? Pfft Shmaccuracy. AP Cost: 2]

'Okay, cool! That's pretty useful, too bad I don't have enough AP to equip it. Speaking of abilities, System I want to set my rule with Rules of Engagement. Are there any restrictions to the skill?'

[Yeah, only three though. The rule can only affect you and things within ten feet of you, this includes people. You can't easily make any rule permanent, the only way to do that would be to gain an ability with a similar effect as the rule. The last restriction is that you can't set the same rule twice in a week, gotta spice it up sometimes.]

'Huh, no restrictions like "no using it for love" or "can't raise the dead"?'

[No, you can totally do that. But like I said, it only lasts a single day and you can't use the same rule twice in a week. So uh, your love will probably axe murder you on day two and your resurrected person will be back feeding worms as well.]

'So I'm like a genie-lite. Neat.'

[You have no idea, no hints from me though. ;)]

'Like I need them. Hmm... Maybe I'll save my rule for now then, use it as a get out of jail free card.'

Finishing up his conversation with the System, Will looks around more. The fountain and bench are in a clearing with a dirt road passing through. The road seems to lead from the denser portions of the woods to less dense. Towering over the less dense woods is a magnificent castle with a huge clock. He has a distinct feeling of deja vu looking at all of it. This definitely was a world from one of the games, he just doesn't quite remember which.

'Hmm I could follow the road out of the woods. I could probably find some civilization there. Buuuuut I look like a small child, if that small child had pitch black skin and glowing yellow eyes. I might not be able to get in. I'll go deeper into the woods first, might be safer.'

Turning towards the denser woods, Will starts his journey at a casual walking pace. The woods around him get darker the further he gets, however they seem to stay well lit enough for him to see where he is going. After a short while of walking, he can see what looks like gates to a manor in the distance. He doesn't get a chance to get any closer to the gates, as a woman in a tattered pink dress comes running out of them sobbing.

'Holy shit, I'm in Cindarella!' All the details Will had seen finally clicked in his head. 'Should I chase after her? My Gifting ability can create items so I could make her a dress again right?'

[Quest Alert:

Be your own Fairy Godmother

Objective: Help a girl out, get her to that ball.

Rewards: 1 AP, 10 MP, Mystery Item]

With encouragement like that, he had no reason not to help her now. He started to run after Cindarella, finding her to be surprisingly slow. 'Probably the tears, crying makes everything harder.'

After catching up with her, Will had a new problem. How did he get her attention? 'Fuck I didn't think of that. I can't talk, all I can do is charades. I guess that'll have to do.'

Speeding up ahead of her, Will tried to sign for her to stop. She did, but not before barrelling into him and sending both of them into a tumble on the ground.