Chapter 14: Side Story 1: My Name is Nagata Tatsuya.

My name was Nagata Tatsuya, or Tatsuya Nagata if you were from the western countries.

I was a Japanese high school student at Shirako High who became 18 years old this year. In other words, I was in my senior years and boy was it annoying. Studying all day just to enter higher education to then get a job. Honestly, it sounded so tiresome.

And, honestly, I could probably slack off a bit. My parents were well-off with stable and well-paying jobs. The problem lay with my parents pushing me to do my best, otherwise they would cut my allowance to buy the things I need to destress — games and manga. I was a proud otaku.

In a way, you could describe my life as pretty good, and, if I wasn’t complaining so much, I would probably agree. I had a mundane and average life. I didn’t go hungry. I could study as much as I wanted without needing to get a part-time job, and I could destress pretty easily if I don’t become a complete couch potato.

The problem was it was feeling repetitive to me.

Waking up in the same nice house, a small breakfast with the family while my dad gorged it all down like a competitive eater to make it to work in time, until I had to go, where my mom would give me a freshly brewed coffee before she had to go to work. I would ride the same train, at the same time, towards my school nearly everybody outside of Sunday.

And just as I said, I was riding the train towards the school right now, sipping my morning coffee made from home. This has been going on for years now.

Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t hate school but it was nothing special. It was a school for either students with rich parents or those smart enough to get into it. I belonged to the former group. As such, I was getting a good enough education.

Still I preferred spending my time in the wonderful world of fiction and video games. It made my heart skip everything when I was done with any school related work, and I could just engross myself in whatever fictional world I was currently hooked on.

Just imagine it; I didn’t have to live as boring old Tatsuya Nagata. When I could have some personal R&R, I could experience the point of view of other people, join and watch their adventure or I could just make myself a character and jump into a world and do it myself.

It was escapism, but who cared? I was doing my duty as a responsible person during the day, and was allowed to do whatever later on. Anything was better to skip sleep because the final and college exams were all coming up next semester.

Urgh, being in the last year of high school sucks… Ow!

“Morning, Tatsuya! You better watch out where you are walking.”

“…Oh, it’s you Kyouya.”

Kyouya Ishiyama.

My childhood and also my best friend. We have been gaming brothers ever since we started spending all our allowance at the arcades, essentially when we were finally allowed to go there alone. Nowadays, we mostly stuck to playing video games together, as his family moved to another neighborhood.

Over time, he developed an interest for the athletic club, so the time we spent together has decreased during high school. Well, it was not like it mattered much. We still met each other at school and our weekends were spent on killing time together.

“I was walking pretty fine just now. No accidents like always.”

I gave him a quick nod that said “good morning” and fixed myself up. Kyouya smacked my back, to wake me up from my daydreaming, which could hurt as he had a pretty good build.

"You say that but what if you daydream and get hit by a car? Those reincarnation light novels are pretty in nowadays, after all."

"Oh please.” I waved my hand in denial, finding his idea absurd. “I might be addicted to video games, light novels, and mangas but even I know that those stories are fantasy. If I get run over by some car, I’ll be dead-dead. Shazu river, take me.”

I clapped my hands, acting like I was praying as a joke. I loved fictional and fantasy worlds, but I was not stupid enough to believe those things could exist. It was worthless wish-making.

Kyouya sighed, shaking his head as we started walking together. “Fantasy or not, a car running you over when you’re not paying attention could become reality.”

“Sounds like something that can spice up my life.”

“Flag raised.”

Uhh, please don’t say that. I don’t actually want to be run over by a car. It’s just a joke!

I grimaced before telling him that he shouldn’t say those things. Kyouya, on the other hand, laughed it off, fully aware of my jokes and going with them. This was how we bantered.

We spent the rest of the remaining way to school talking about the games we played last night. The time we spent talking went by so fast, we didn’t notice we were already in our classroom. Ahh, if only time would take a hint and just slow down when it’s fun.

Then again, until our homeroom teacher arrived, there wasn't anybody who could stop us from continuing our talks. So, Kyouya and I continued.

… Until we were interrupted.

“Good morning, Nagata-kun and Kyouya-kun. You two are as loud as ever.”

“Good morning, Aiko-san. Sorry, if we were disrupting you.”

My best friend returned a friendly smile to our disruptor's intrusion.

“Oh no, don’t worry about it. The class being so loud means it's pretty lively, although I think our class representatives aren’t too fond of it.”

This girl Kyouya was talking to was Aiko Hasebe, our so-called class mood maker. Among the girls in our class, she was the most popular one. I guess you could call us acquaintances due to our dads having a business relationship, but we didn’t talk too much with each other. Then again, we did use the same train to go back home in the evening, so we were train buddies.

Come to think of it, we’d known each other since our first year at this high school. We had all been in the same class since 10th class, so I guessed you could say that I know everybody here. But just because we were classmate, didn’t mean have a super strong relationship with everybody.

I took a sip from my thermos and bluntly asked Hasebe why she was here, ignoring her attempts to start up small talk. “What do you need from us, Hasebe-san?”

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“Oh, how direct as always. Whatever.” She shrugged. She was used to my behavior at this point. “I wanted to ask you guys if you saw Segawa-ensei when you came to school? You guys are the last ones, after all."

Saori Segawa, also known as Segawa-sensei or Mrs. Segawa, our homeroom and history teacher. During class, also known as our control-freak teacher. It wasn’t malicious, really. Our class actually had a very good relationship with Sensei, but she could be quite scary if you annoyed her.

She didn’t even shout; she would stay calm but you could feel this pure aura of terror coming from her. Whenever she chided you, it could sting with how matter-of-fact she was. Just like this class, our homeroom teacher had never changed once, so we knew how Sensei functioned. She was a stickler, but if you didn’t annoy her, she was pretty chill.

“Uhh, nope.” I shook my head

So did Kyouya. “We didn’t see her anywhere.”

Upon hearing our answers, Hasebe crossed her arms and made a troubled face. This was clearly not the answer she wanted to hear. “Really? But it is getting pretty late. Sensei hasn’t come late once yet in the years we’ve been together.”

"Maybe she's preoccupied with some teacher. Some important matter maybe. She’s still human, guys," I brought up and both them agreed only since we had nothing else to go on.

“Well, I hope everything is alright. I’ll be going now. Nice talking to you two.”

“Likewise, Hasebe-san.”

“See ya.”

She waved at us before returning to our two class representatives. She shrugged and gave them our answers, causing both to scratch their heads.

Mr. Glasses massaged his temple and continued looking exasperated, as he seems to suggest to go ask another teacher if she doesn’t arrive in time. Miss Rep. just looked at us with one brow raised, asking us if what we said was true. Kyouya made a wry smile and shook his head, while I just shrugged. Having confirmed our answers for herself, she let out a sigh and returned to the discussion on hand.

It was nothing I needed to worry about.

"Well, hopefully, what's keeping her away isn't something too bad."

“It’ll be fine.”

It’s understandable that my best friend was nervous, with how we are slowly closing in to our final exams. Every chance wasted to study was a big problem.

“What would the chance be, if she were to be transported to another world?”

“Oof, hopefully that happens after we are done with the finals, otherwise I…!

Suddenly, my words were cut short because a light appeared on the ground. It grew fast and basked the whole classroom in it.

“Huh? What the…!”

“Ouch, who turned the lights on?”

“Wait, where did this light come from?”

---

 

“Yes, glorious! It worked!”

That was the first thing I heard after my senses came back. It was still a bit hard to see because of the fog, but I could hear, feel, smell and taste. Besides hearing that voice, I also picked up the sounds of grunts and moans of people close to me. Some were also panicking but none really shouted.

“Your excellency. The ritual has worked. Our summoning ritual was a success!”

When the fog dispersed, the sight of a bunch of men in white and gold robes appeared. I wasn’t a religious person but the clothing the priests were wearing seemed to resemble the ones western priests wore. It was unlike the ones at our local shinto temple

In the middle of all these men stood an old geezer wearing gaudy and over-decorated clothes, clearing shouting "I am the leader." He held up his gold staff in the air, letting the gemstones on it glisten from the lights of the chandeliers.

“Welcome to our world, otherworldly visitors. We have summoned you to our humble world as heroes. The destined ones to defeat the encroaching evil of the demonkins.”

Upon hearing this, my whole class just went silent. Not only were we shocked at our new surroundings, but we kept our mouths shut as we saw men and women in armor standing behind the rows of priests. Swords were on their hips, and the whole atmosphere screamed at us to be quiet.

How ironic. I had complained about how my life was so boring up until now, but the moment everything changed, I only felt lost. Thoughts crowded my mind on the words we just heard, but there was something even more important I had to figure out first.

I scratched my head in anxiety when I couldn’t find it. The one thing keeping me awake is to attend school and to study. My beloved thermos with the brown liquid inside of it.

“Where…?”

Where is that thing? Huh, where is it?! Where is my thermos? My…my thermos! I haven’t finished drinking it yet! My coffee, where is it! Why wasn’t it transported with me?!

I HAVEN’T FINISHED DRINKING MY COFFEE!

I had not realized at this moment how much of a nightmare this addiction would become.

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