Saun 1 720
Goku awoke feeling extremely tired. It was only an hour ago that he arrived in this strange place and he hadn’t remembered anything since then. A quick look around told him that he was no longer in a torture chamber but a luxurious bedroom lit only by candle light. ”Is it night time? Why are the windows covered up?” It was precisely the kind of room he wished he owned for himself. He tried to get to his feet, but he felt something pressing down on top of him. He squirmed desperately, but there were straps holding him in place. ”What kind of idiocy is this? I have to go to the bathroom!”
It was only after he started shouting that someone finally entered the room. It was a member of some kind of cult family who was carrying a plate of food. “Quiet down would ya? Those restraints are so you’d stop thrashing about. If we didn’t put those on you, ya would have hurt yourself.” Goku was doubtful; he didn’t remember any sort of thrashing about, but then again his memory was almost entirely blank. “What am I doing here? I want to get up,” Goku demanded. The man walked over and loosened Goku’s restraints enough for him to wiggle out. “Thank you,” Goku would say without a hint of gratefulness.
Goku stretched his weary legs and yawned, ”Where’s the bathroom in this place,” he’d wonder. He turned to ask the man who had freed him and did so just in time to see the candles flicker out. Goku saw quite literally nothing now in the pitch darkness. The windows were covered by heavy cloth and no light made its way inside, if it even was daytime. “What’s going on,” Goku would ask hurriedly, “I seriously need to go to the bathroom. Whatever this is it can wait.” He was lying about having to go to the bathroom but he was really running with this excuse.
Goku heard a hollow container being pushed along the floor, “Use this then. But the lights don’t come on until you leave the house. My orders are that you are to navigate on your own in the pitch darkness.” Goku turned his face away from the container.
“Don’t have to go anymore? You’re such a bad liar you know that? I will have you know that you are in no danger truly. You are just to escape this building without being able to see. It is that simple.” It seemed like this was the first relief he had felt in days and he felt like he ought to enjoy it before today’s shenanigans stressed him out. Goku put his head on a swivel but still couldn’t make out anything despite his eyes being adjusted. ”If only I had been blessed with the power of sight in the dark I’d be able to do this in a sinch.”
The blinded hybrid tried to feel his way around the room, but after a couple minutes he had already lost track of where the bed was. He was careful not to knock anything over lest he incur the cult’s wrath, but he’d be generally unsuccessful. Eventually he’d find a doorknob that he’d turn ever so slowly, as if he was expecting a monster to jump out at him. But nothing came. If he had sight he’d have been able to see the incredibly large passageway consisting of over a dozen doors for him to open. This was clearly not intended to be a simple task.
And so, Goku would make his way down the hallway and feel the wall to his left. He walked with baby steps and took his time to make sure he didn’t trip over anything. He felt nothing but doorways until he finally hit a wall. He would run his hand across the wall and find yet another wall. It was only now that he realized that he was probably at a dead end. ”Okay then, I’ll walk back then.” He walked all the way back to his original location and felt another dozen doorways. Was he supposed to look into every single one of these damn doors?
Goku slumped to the ground and thought about what he was supposed to do. He was surprised that he still not seen a sliver of light. That meant he had to rely on touch and sound alone. He was very sad because he was not very good at detecting things so he was going to have to learn quick. If he was good at it he could have relied on sound and seeing in low light to easily spot the set of stairs that led out of here, or used his smell to guide him to the first floor kitchen, or his ears to hear the clock on the first floor that ticked loudly. Unfortunate Goku was unskilled so he could not detect any of that and had to rely on touch. There were so many options that could have helped him out if only he was just a little stronger. ”Okay then, I guess I’ll do this his way and use some common sense. How can they do this to me? I hate this!”
Goku decided to sit in meditation and try listening in on any sounds off in the distance. He dug through his memories for a bit and vaguely remembered on the ground in some kind of forest. ”I had forgotten all about the forest. Are you my ticket out of here if I escape?” He inched himself over to the nearest wall and pressed his ear against it. Nothing, no sounds at all. He was expecting to hear something from outside but for all he knew the wall bordered another part of the building. He also did not have super refined senses so he could not be expected to sense anything far away. Goku got up and walked around the house some more. He tried listening against every wall that he thought might border the outdoors. Three or four rooms later he found one. He pressed his ear against the wall and finally heard something other than nothing. The sound was feint but as he focused on it grew louder.
“I just have to get out of here right?” he said out loud. “I just have to find a window and break out. Or I could break through the wall if it’s weak.” Slowly, the hybrid would feel his way throughout the mansion, but it was different than before. Instead, he now knew where the outdoors was so he was careful to hug that side of the building and feel for windows along the way. Every time he pressed his ear against that side of the building the more sounds he started to hear.
More and more Goku would focus on the sounds. They sounds of running water were growing stronger overall, as if the amount of time he spent expending the effort of detecting it. It grew to a point where he heard it even when he was not actually hearing anything. The sound was stuck in his brain reminding him of how close he was to busting out of here. He willed it to shut up. Obediently, the sound within his ears died down. This was quite unexpected and Goku almost felt sorry for being so harsh. He allowed the sound to grow back to a bearable sound level then tried to figure out if he could cancel out other sounds he heard.
Along the way Goku discovered that he was actually upstairs. He did not know whether the staircase he found led to some kind of ground level or if it was going to a basement. He had to at least try to investigate. He focused on moving down the stairs with careful steps. Goku would slowly but surely check every single room on one side of the hallway until he found his way to another set of stairs. He took one cautious step, and then took the rest of them with confidence. He was becoming more and more comfortable with being blind which was an unsettling experience. ”Pray I never actually become blind like this.” At last he arrived at the bottom of the enormous stairwell and he walked confidently forward, knowing somehow in his heart that this was the way outside.
There was a door that seemed to be blocked off by a number of furniture pieces. If this was not a clue that he was close, he did not know what was. He pushed and shoved the furniture out of the way as best as he could manage. Most of it was heavy so he had to but a lot of muscle behind his thrusts to get the strange furniture to move out of the way. As if that was not enough he had to figure out a way to open the door itself. Goku had thought that he was going to have to resort to breaking something. He slammed his fist onto the door many times and felt heavy resistance. He kept punching at the door in various spots and found that there was some kind of wedge holding the door shut from the inside. He pulled the wedge with all his might and suddenly the door was free. Goku pulled on the handles and light suddenly flooded the room. ”Well that was a lot simpler than I thought it’d be.”
