The Shadows' Encyclopedia

Chapter 1, in which my Coworker Gets Murdered and is Replaced by an Imposter

"You must be very careful. Kylie is physically weak, but he has mind control powers."

--as described in The Shadows' Encyclopedia

I've worked at the Agency of Parallel Worlds Management for about five years now. Mostly paperwork stuff, you know.

Last month, very unfortunately, a person from the exploration department passed away in a workplace accident. I volunteered to take their spot. That position pays a lot than my current position, and I need more money now that my landlord raised my rent.

My first mission is to World 739. It was first discovered a few months ago. According to the first exploration group's report, it's fairly similar to our world in terms of culture and social structures, but it's a lot behind in terms of technology.

There are five people on our team, including me. The leader is called Sarah. She's the only one who has any experience and had actually gone on exploration missions before. There's also Tyra, who used to be in the paperwork department like me. She's a really nice and diligent person. There's also William and Steven who I don't know too well yet.

We prepare our equipment and pile into the machine. I'm pretty nervous and jumpy, but Sarah reassures us that although people in this department might seem to die a lot, this particular expedition will be very safe.

"See," she says. "World 739 is what we call a newbie world. It has no supernatural or sci-fi elements. The residents have fairly similar moral values and social norms compared to ours, and they're not notably hostile."

Her words calm me a little bit.

She continues and says, "The agency's measuring aparatus (which is high-quality and infallible most of the time) has detected no traces of supernatural and/or elements. We're sending people over just to double check. Just to make sure."

Another team member (Steven) says, "To make sure of what?"

Sarah hesitates and says, quickly, "Um, well, to make sure nothing's wrong. Not that there's any reason why anything might be, but we're a big agency and we always want to double check everything and make sure. Hahahahahahahahaha."

She starts to operate the machine. The process is complicated and involves at least twenty steps. It hurts my head just to look at her.

Suddenly, a painfully loud whirring and banging sound attacks my ears and continues for about a minute. The sound is the most horrible thing I have ever heard in my life. Just as I bend my head to prepare for the puking, it all stops. The door opens. Sarah says something I don't quite catch, and it takes me a moment to realize everyone is starting to leave. I follow the others out of the machine, still dazed, into the open.

This is it. World 739.

We're in an apartment or something like that. Thank goodness the machine is really small and doesn't take up that much space, so it's not too crowded in here. Sarah sits down at the dining table.

"I'm going to do a quick roll-call," she says. "Rules, standard procedures, blah blah blah. When I say your name, say here." She takes out a sheet of paper along with a pen, and then she calls, "Y/N!"

"Here," I say.

"Tyra!"

"Here."

"William!"

"Here."

"Steven!"

"......"

"Steven? I mean, no. That's not your name. Your name is... your name is..." Sarah frowns in concentration. Then, very slowly: "Your name is K... K... Kylie..."