Chapter 02: Suddenly in a Different World
“Oww…”
Suimei leaked an anguished voice from the pain on his bottom, which was the price for the sudden event to which he couldn’t even react.
It came out of nowhere. Sure, he had forecast that something was going to happen, but it was too sudden to ready himself.
The floor was hard. Probably stone paving or tiles. Falling flat on his backside, his tailbone was in anguish. That happened a moment ago.
So, how did it come this? He didn’t even need to recall it, since it only happened a few seconds ago.
On his way back from school with his two friends, he was pulled into a teleport magic circle that had suddenly appeared on the raod.
And at the teleported destination, he had hit his bottom.
(…Man, what a blunder.)
Suimei had explored secret magic in the modern era with its concrete jungles. He had only started magic around twelve years ago, but was confident in his skills. Yet, he, a modern magician, easily fell for the magic from someone else.
He had sensed it, even seen it, yet he couldn’t react and simply watched.
If that wasn’t a blunder, then what? He felt ashamed and disappointed.
With still teary eyes from the pain on his bottom and the humiliation, Suimei suddenly faced sidewards, worried about his friends who had walked besides him—
“Ow…”
Right next to him, his friend Shana Reiji struggled with the same pain on his bottom like Suimei, who was rubbing his bottom.
“Hey, Reiji, you okay?”
“Yeah, somehow. You?”
“My ass hurts. Like seriously. It split in half…”
“Hahaha, you too, huh— Wait, it’s just you here, Suimei?”
Reiji laughed merrily on his silly joke, but only for a moment. He then noticed the absence of their other friend Anou Mizuki, who had walked with them, and called out uneasy.
She certainly wasn’t here. The girl, who had walked next to them just a moment ago, was nowhere to be found.
He looked around briefly. The round room was enclosed by stone walls and except the old candle stand, which gave a dim illumination, there was nothing. No, there was something: A solid door and a pattern on the hard floor they sat on, the teleport magic circle.
“Y- Yeah, Mizuki isn’t here…”
Suimei muttered still somewhat perplexed in anxiety over his missing friend. Meanwhile Reiji racked his brains with an even more bewildered expression.
“Why… And where are we…?”
“I don’t know either. But I do know that we were brought to this unknown place by someone’s will.”
“…You mean that?”
Reiji looked dubious at the big magic circle on the floor. Suimei followed his suit and looked at it again too. Within one big circle were drawn four more circles and the geometric patterns in it didn’t match the western four or five elements, nor the Chinese five elements. And words he had never seen before on a magic circle were put in place there.
He could tell that the circle was similar to the summoning or séance ones that he developed himself, but that knowledge only applied to him. Reiji, an ordinary guy, obviously didn’t know anything about it. Suimei knew him since middle school, but never told him that he was a magician. Therefore Reiji could only know about the thing at his feet from subcultures like manga or anime.
And suspicion arose in Reiji from that. He only had a vague guess that maybe this thing was the reason for their current situation.
“Most likely.”
“Uwah&h
ellip;”
On Suimei’s clear affirmation to the assessment of their situation, Reiji suddenly made an exhausted look. It certainly was the right situation for such a face. Even Suimei himself had a touch of bitterness on his stumped face right now.
“…Hey, Suimei. Somehow, this out the blue development seems really familiar to me.”
“I bet. The novel from Mizuki the other day had the same stuff.”
“I know, right? It really resembles the plot, where the MC suddenly gets called to another world and is told to defeat the Devil King.”
“Not funny. I can’t laugh at this joke.”
With a face like from a stomach-ache, Suimei answered in an annoyed tone. Upon that, Reiji had an expression of mixed feelings and laughed dryly.
“Ha, Haha… But it really feels like that.”
“Are you being serious, Reiji?”
“Yeah.”
Suimei averted his gaze from the nodding Reiji for now and secretly scanned the surroundings with magic. Ending up in the same development from a novel was too bizarre, so he didn’t accept it, but if this wasn’t Earth, then there should be difference in the environment.
Little by little, he collected information. The gravity was average and the atmosphere had a similar composition as well. It were acceptable values due to regional variation.
Still—
(The Mana’s rich here… Is it the room’s fault?)
Indeed, the source for mystic powers in the air called Mana was very rich here. So rich that it was on par with places like above a spirit vein, a sacred temple or circle and the Navel of the Earth.
However, deciding that this was a different world only based on that would be jumping to conclusions and totally unreasonable. It was possible that they simply chose a place with a rich Mana density to activate the magic circle. Actually, that was the most plausible explanation.
To begin with, Reiji had no means to probe the Mana and wasn’t able to feel a change in it. His hunch must come from something else.
“Reiji, what makes you think that?”
“I just got this really strong hunch.”
“Oh boy, did your brain melt, my dear Reiji?”
“No, not like I was hit by any weird electro-magnetic waves. Just look—”
A loud crash followed Reiji’s words. He had lightly hit the floor outside the magic circle, whereupon the stone floor was smashed to dust.
“Impossible…”
Suimei widened his eyes from seeing that. Even if Reiji was a handsome super athlete, this was going too far. It was impossible. A high force was needed to smash up stones. A mere knock could never achieve that. Maybe if he used his overwhelming good looks, but no, that was going in a different direction.
“See what I can do.”
“Don’t give me that. Stop feeding me strange ideas…”
Damn. A summon magic that permanently strengthen your physique sure is awesome… His thoughts wandered into that direction, but then he suddenly realized that his mind worked like that and analyzed the merits and demerits of magic because he himself was a magician. There were other things to consider first, yet he lacked the tension for it.
“So, what about you, Suimei?”
“…Nope.”
Reiji asked him hinting, but he could only reply like that. Even when he squeezed his fist or transferred Mana, it didn’t feel like he was strengthened at all. Most likely, only Reiji was chosen for the position of the sacred Hero that defeats the evil Devil King. If so, then Suimei was totally out of place here.
He dropped his shoulders, obviously flabbergasted, whereupon the magic circle to his feet suddenly started to glitter. Reiji’s expression became filled with unrest.
“This is…”
“It’s activating…! Are we transferred again or…”
“Teleported!?”
Reiji was quick on the uptake. Suimei put himself on guard while listening to his accurate answer. Then a magic circle of one size smaller appeared in midair.
“Here it comes!”
As soon as a silhouette appeared from the magic circle, Reiji made his move. Maybe he identified what had appeared? His movements were agiler than before. An effect from his strengthened physique.
Thus Reiji caught Anou Mizuki as soon as he spotted her appearing in midair.
“Mizuki!”
“Fueh? Reiji-kun, how…?”
“Good for you, Mizuki. Reiji literally saved your ass.”
And like this, the three of them were reunited in an unknown place.