“Uwoah!!”
“Kyaaaa!!”
With a piercing scream, my consciousness snapped fully awake.
What!?
As I fell into a mild panic and tried desperately to figure out where the screams came from, an overwhelming sense of wrongness brought my thoughts to a halt.
I can’t… move my body?
Not just that. I had no sensation at all.
I couldn’t speak, couldn’t open my eyes to look around. I know it’s impossible, but it feels as if my body itself doesn’t exist…
In the darkness, only my thoughts race faster and faster, and an indescribable anxiety and fear rush in at this incomprehensible situation.
“Mikoto, Risa!?”
“Yuu…! Are you hurt!?”
“B-Both of you… c-calm d-down…”
The voices that woke me up continued talking among themselves, completely ignoring my confusion, and it grated on my nerves.
“Looks like everyone’s unhurt, so let’s calm down like Risa said. I don’t really understand what’s going on, but I’ll definitely protect you two, so don’t worry!”
““Yuu♡!!””
Why are you flirting right next to someone who’s panicking!?
…Fortunately or unfortunately, my irritation peaked and overtook my fear, letting me regain a bit of composure.
I thought I had no senses… but if these voices aren’t hallucinations, then I can hear, at least?
But I can’t quite put it into words. The voices I hear don’t seem to be coming through my ears. It’s as if I truly have no body, and they’re resonating directly within me…
On top of that, even though I can’t see anything, I somehow understand that the people those voices belong to are close to me.
Well, I don’t really get it, but… this must be a dream.
That was the only reasonable answer I could come up with. Almost the moment I gave up thinking, a voice clearly different from the ones I heard earlier echoed out.
“Hero Yugo, Saint Mikoto, and Sage Risa. Welcome. I greet you.”
Hero…?
I could somehow tell that the others had caught their breath.
The voice continued.
“I understand this is sudden and confusing, but I’ll be direct. A world that exists in a different dimension from your home, Earth, is on the brink of destruction. Please, lend us your strength.”
…Isn’t this a bit too abrupt?
“What do you mean by ‘hero’? This is way too out of nowhere! Weren’t we just hit by a truck!?”
Yugo rattled off his words, clearly flustered.
“Fufu. We transferred you here just before you were struck by what you call a ‘truck’. You’re not dead, so rest assured.”
Don’t ‘fufu’ me! And a truck… seriously? This is such a cliché isekai setup it’s almost impressive…
The setup was so painfully textbook that, if this really is a dream, I feel embarrassed by my own lack of imagination for coming up with something so unoriginal.
“It’s only natural that you’re confused. I’ll answer your questions as much as I can. I’d like to explain further inside. Would you come with me?”
“…Alright. Mikoto, Risa, you good with that?”
“”Mhmm.””
Whoa, whoa, whoa, aren’t you adapting way too fast? And you’ve already wrapped things up like you’re heading somewhere. What about me?
“My thanks. Ah, my apologies for the late introduction. I am Pisoshit, a servant of the goddess Diagana. You may call me Piso.”
“Yeah, nice to meet you, Piso!”
“”Nice to meet you!””
Uh… seriously, what about me?
The conversation moved along at a brisk pace, and the thoughts that had just begun to settle started to waver again.
I could tell that the presence and the voices of the one called Pisoshit and the group of heroes were gradually fading away.
This really is a dream… right?
Now left alone, I once again became aware of my inability to move or speak, and panic began to set in.
If this isn’t a dream… there’s no way I’ll just be left like this forever without anyone noticing, right?
My earlier optimism vanished in an instant. On the off chance, however small, that this might not be a dream, negative thoughts began to spiral rapidly.
Even though I know it should be impossible, something deeper than reason…an instinct without any real basis kept telling me this isn’t a dream. And if it isn’t, I have no idea what I’m supposed to do next.
Am I going to stay like this until I die? Am I even alive right now!? What is happening to me!?
Only dreadful possibilities raced through my mind, and there was no way I could stay calm.
Anyone, please…I’m here! Notice me! Please, someone…
I kept repeating my voiceless cries over and over.
I have no idea how long I lamented like that. With no way to grasp the flow of time, it felt like an eternity.
Just as I sat there, exhausted from despair and numb, a new voice suddenly broke through.
“Oh dear, so Piso’s really going through with it, huh? I wonder if this is going to be okay.”
…!?
“After all the trouble Lady Dia went through to set everything up, I really think we shouldn’t be making weird changes. You’ve got some bad luck too, don’t you?”
The voice continued, sounding as if it pitied me, yet carrying a faint trace of contempt.
“And saying she was too busy dealing with the heroes and then dumped the cleanup on me. That’s not great either. You think so too, right?”
You can… tell I’m here? What is going on—
“Just chalk this up to bad luck and give up this time. It’s unfortunate, but do your best in the next life.”
The moment that frivolous voice declared it so, my consciousness cut out.
***
“You useless fool! Get up! Are you going to trample on your brother’s feelings!?”
The roar of a large man gripping a wooden sword rang out.
At his feet, a young man crouched and trembled, sobbing quietly as he desperately tried to protect himself.
The injuries covering his body were far from minor, and his swollen, darkened ankle told the story that even if he wanted to stand, he simply couldn’t.
“Can’t you hear me!?”
The moment the large man shouted and raised the wooden sword high overhead, the young man’s body stiffened all at once. In the next instant, a full-force overhead strike, carrying the man’s entire weight, came crashing down onto the young man’s defenseless back.
The blade of the wooden sword shattered the instant it struck his back, and after letting out a voiceless scream, the young man went limp and collapsed.
“Hmph.”
Perhaps losing interest when his weapon broke, the man tossed aside the hilt of what had once been a wooden sword and walked away.
The young man Demitri Gradov watched through the edge of his fading vision as his father Boris Gradov left the training grounds. Relieved that he had somehow survived, he finally lost consciousness.
Leave a Reply