"Hmmm. Something is wrong here."
Sitting on the dojo floor beside Nina as they watch Eris and Isolte exchange blows, Ollie says this all of a sudden.
"What is?" Nina questions him.
She got her ass handed to her earlier by Ollie so he told her to sit down and replay the whole battle in her head and think about a different way she should have approached it.
"You know, recently I feel like I've been losing my characterization." He responds.
"Huh? What are you talking about?"
"I mean I'm supposed to be this unhinged cat boy right? But so far, everything has been really fluffy… it seems like I have to redeem myself somehow."
Nina looks at him with the most confused expression.
"No seriously, what are you talking about?!"
"And on that note! See you later!"
"Hah! Ollie! Where are you going?! Ollie!"
She calls out to him as he starts walking and literally disappears.
She sighs.
Just what is he up to now?
It's a bit abrupt but let's talk about a certain girl.
A young girl of high school age who had her whole life ahead of her, she had friends and family and she was one of the top students in her school… surely life would have only looked up for her but it was not so.
It all happened one rainy night, she was having a dispute with one of her friends, with another one trying to resolve it when a truck had almost hit them but they were saved by the timely intervention of a fat man.
That was all she remembered and the next time she opened her eyes, she found herself in what she later discovered was another world.
Finding herself in a grassland with nothing and no one in sight, she had walked for hours, hungry and thirsty.
She was scared, she didn't know anything about the place she had appeared in. Her friends were not present, who knows what would have happened if she came across some unsavory individuals? She had no intentions of finding out.
But the more she walked, the more her situation seemed hopeless.
Aching all over with a weary mind, just when she was on the verge of giving up, a man had appeared in front of her.
The man called himself Orsted. It seemed like he was a really big deal in this world and he sheltered her.
Orsted was a man of a few words, he was determined, driven and always got to the point without beating around the bush, in a way you could say he was blunt but she didn't mind that, if anything she approved, it meant he wouldn't try to waste her time.
So, in order to find a way to go back home, she traveled with Orsted.
In roughly a year, she learnt how to read and write, she learnt about magic but for some reason, she was not able to use it.
She created a stream of income for herself by introducing some techniques ranging from cooking to sewing from her previous world but just the bare minimum as she had no intentions of trying to upgrade a civilization.
Using the name of Orsted, one of the Seven Great World Powers holding the title of [Dragon God], she was able to establish trading routes.
But all of what she had done was for her one goal which is finding a way to go back home.
Thinking that her two friends might have been transported to the world just like her, she spent some more time traveling around, trying to verify if her friends truly were in the world as well but she didn't come across any information about them.
In her time with traveling with Orsted, they had gotten in a lot of fights and since Orsted was so strong, most of the fight ended in a single strike.
After a lot of traveling, she came to the conclusion that her friends might've not been in the world, then she came across a man who had hypothesized that someone was likely responsible for her summoning.
With that clue in place, she started her research into summoning, which was how she made her way to the Ranoa Magic Academy where she used as her base of operations.
After contributing a large amount of the money she saved up, she bought B rank from the Magic Guild and the status enough to become a Special Student in the academy.
Making use of her connections, she introduced a variety of things to the Academy, among which was school uniforms and educational tools.
With all these, getting to A rank within the magic guild was easy.
And while she was offered S rank if she provided more of her knowledge, she declined it since she had no intentions of giving out such knowledge, everything she had introduced to the world are things that were necessary for her, for her own benefits.
Being a Special Student with A rank, she was given some liberties, so she was able to immerse herself in her research.
After a while, she came across another individual who was similar to herself.
His name was Rudeus Greyrat. A boy who Orsted had technically killed due to suspicions of being an Apostle of the [Man God] who is his enemy. She had been the one who told Orsted to spare his life since she had an inkling suspicion.
Meeting Rudeus was a roller coaster, he had been absolutely scared of her, she couldn't blame him for that though due to how they met the first time so she had offered for them to work together so that they could go back home but it seems like Rudeus was content with his life in this world, so once again she was alone but that was fine. It was better that way.
Where she was transported, Rudeus was reincarnated so he had access to mana and was able to use magic naturally while she couldn't. Due to that, she made a deal with him, he would help with her research and provide magic power for her and in turn, she would help him with all he wants to know while also passing her research theses, information and connections to him when she succeeded.
A give and take relationship.
After traveling everywhere in the world, she had come to one conclusion.
This world is trash.
This world which has no morals, this world where selling a fellow intelligent being is considered as normal, this world where monsters roam about, this world where people die daily just because they are weak, this world where there are no good food, this world where she never asked to be sent to.
This world that stole her away from her friends and family, away from her life, she loathes it.
That's why she would do anything to get home.
And today, "anything" was about to be put to test.
•••
Nanahoshi sighs as Rudeus leaves the room, today's experiments has been a flop as well… just like the few previous ones.
She wonder how long it would take before she makes progress, but she is determined to see it through… she can't give up now.
Unlike Rudeus, she has no attachment to this world, so she has to find a way to go home.
Sitting before a desk filled with various paper containing magical circles, as Nanahoshi begins to make revisions, a voice speaks out to her.
"I see we are working hard."
The voice of the unknown person immediately puts her on edge as she looks in their direction.
Sitting with one leg over the other on the windowsill, his right elbow is resting on his lap while his chin rests on the back of his palm, the unknown person looks at her with amusement in his golden eyes.
He is wearing plain black long sleeves that has white stripes along the arm's length, with grey pants and flip flops, yeah those are flip flops.
His distinctive features are the black cat ears resting ontop his head filled with black hair and the black tail swishing behind him.
Nanahoshi didn't hear the door opening, so that would mean he came through the window, and her current area of residence is the third floor, which means the person before her is that much capable.
She reaches into her cloak, taking out her rings and equipping them.
"You don't have to be on guard that much, you know? I couldn't bring myself to hurt you for any reason."
His voice reminds her of those types that playboys used back in school.
"So, who are you supposed to be?" She asks. There is something about his whole vibe that feels familiar to her though.
"Me?" He asks as he hops from his sitting position to stand. "My name is Oliver but you can call me Ollie..."
Nanahoshi's eyes widen as she listened to him speak in fluent Japanese.
"Y-you are the same." She says, surprised.
After traveling everywhere with Orsted, she didn't think there was another sort of existence that made his way to this world except for her and Rudeus.
"Yes… well not necessarily though, since I am now a cat boy and all." The boy, Oliver laughed as he said that.
"I… you… wha…" Nanahoshi breathes out. "Can I ask you some questions?" She finally settled on.
"Sure… that's why I'm here in the first place."
Walking over to the side of the room, she removes the contents on a spare chair and sets it before the one she had been sitting on. "Here you go." She offers as the boy, Oliver sits on it with a "thanks"
"Okay, first of all… here." She passes him a paper she retrieved from her cloak. "Do you have any recollection of this?"
She watches as he reads the note. "Shinohara Akihito and Kuroki Seiji huh? Sorry… I don't remember the names…"
Nanahoshi feels her heart break a little at that.
No dice huh?
"Are they friends?" He asks as he passes the paper back to her.
"Yeah, they are…" She sighs then quickly composes herself. "So which one are you? I was transported to this world around 5 years ago and I know someone who was here since they were a baby, the so called reincarnation. What about you?"
"Well, I appeared about a year ago in the Demon continent."
What?
A year ago?
She had thought that her arrival was the cause of the teleportation incident but yet, this boy, Oliver claims to have tripped to this world a year ago and thinking back to a year ago, there was no incident like the teleportation incident.
Was her hypothesis wrong?
Wait a minute.
"Wait, are you saying you appeared with feline traits even though you were not reincarnated?" She asks, eyeing his ears and tail.
"Yeah, it's crazy, isn't it? Although, seeing you now, I think I have a working theory." He says.
"A theory? What is it?" She asks, curious, at this point, any information from someone who has an outsider view and context would probably help her in her research to find a way home.
"You can't use magic right?" He asks and she narrows her eyes at him.
"How do you know that?" She asks.
He points to his golden eyes. "Back on Earth, my eyes were brown not gold." He says.
"How does that does explain how you know I can't use magic."
"Relax, I'm getting there. When I appeared in what I later knew as the Demon continent, I noticed some changes to my person. These are just theories, so take them with a grain of salt."
She nods as she chuckles internally, she didn't think she would hear that word being used in this world.
"I think I underwent a mutation and that is the reason why I can use magic… my hair color and appearance did not change, the only difference is my now golden eyes and the feline traits." He says, resting a hand on his cheek.
That's…
"That doesn't really make sense but nothing in this world makes sense in the first place." Nanahoshi says as she rests her back to the chair.
A mutation… in this world, every theory about magic is what someone came up with, which means there are a lot of things about it that people are not aware of, so a mutation occurring might not be that far fetched given the circumstances.
It might also be possible that the mana that would have caused another teleportation incident was absorbed by him instead of teleporting everything in the surroundings.
Reaching a hand to her face, she realized that she was still wearing her mask.
"Ah, I didn't introduce myself did I? I'm Nanahoshi Shizuka…" She says removing her mask. "Nice to meet you, Oliver was it?"
"Please call me Ollie… also, you look very pretty, why are you hiding your face then?"
"Because it would cause trouble for me if anyone was to notice." Seeing his confusion, she elaborated. "You see, I've looked like this for the past five years, something like eternal youth, so it would be troublesome if someone was to notice such things. I have no intentions of forging relationships with people of this world so the ideal situation is to not get involved."
"Eternal youth huh? Is that perhaps a type of mutation as well?" He wondered aloud.
"I don't have any information on that yet since everyone I've met doesn't seem to have seen anything like it before." She says. "I plan to research into it eventually."
A thought comes to her head.
"By the way, how did you find me?" She asks.
"Well, it wasn't really difficult, there were basically clues everywhere, the first was a cooking style called "Nanahoshi Frying" then "Nanahoshiyaki" and then when I came across the name "Silent Seven Star" I decided to investigate. It was because of your black hair that I called out to you… I assume that was your doing?" He responds to her and she feels a bit happy at that.
It means that her efforts were not in vain since she has been leaving those sort of clues around for people like her, especially if her friends were to be in this world as well.
"Yeah… I was looking for people like me…"
"I see… you were looking for the people who has those names weren't you?" He asks, more like confirm.
"Yes… you see when I appeared in this world…"
Then she told him about her story so far, of course she left out some sensitive information since she had to be cautious.
But one thing she realized from talking to him was that he seemed very easy to talk to, talking in Japanese like this, she has missed it so much, she and Rudeus communicate using the language of this world after all.
"You have had it rough huh? You have done really well making it this far. I don't think I would have made it this far if I was in your place, honestly." He says sheepishly.
His praises that seemed genuine almost made her break right there. She has been giving it her all, all this time but yet, but yet, she's not making any vital progress. Even with Rudeus mana, she has not made any groundbreaking discoveries or solutions.
She is tired, she wants to go home, she hates it here but she also knows that these are all necessary in order for her to have a chance to go back home, so she would make sure to see it through.
"In any case, where were you born? Oliver, that's an English name right? Are you Caucasian? But you speak very fluent Japanese." She asks.
"Oh, I'm half-Japanese. I was born abroad but raised in Japan." Is his response.
"Oh, that makes sense, your accent is as fluent as a native after all." She says. "So, how about working together to go back home? There is someone attending this school who is also from Earth like us, with the three of us, I'm sure we would be able to make quick progress."
She says, hoping he would accept her proposal. It's also probable that he might be the clue to summoning Magic since he appeared in this world without any incident.
"Ah, I actually have a way to go home."
"…"
Nanahoshi blue screened at those words and without hesitation she pounced on him as they both fell to the ground with Nanahoshi straddling him with her hands on his chest and his tail resting beside him.
"Wha-what… did you… just say? I-is that… true?" She stutters as she asks the question slowly, afraid that the answer would run away if she asked too fast.
He nods. "You know these people called Mikos right?"
Miko, she has read about it but she has never actually met one in person. People who are born with special abilities that differ from magic. If it's a beneficial ability, they are called Mikos or Blessed children and if it is not a beneficial one, they are called Cursed children.
"Well, I have an ability that should let me go back to Earth… but there is a condition that needs to be met for it to work." He says looking at her who is still straddling him.
"What is the condition?" She asks, already she was feeling hopeful. This is the closest she has been to something that has a chance to take her home.
"In order for it to work, I need a recipient of the world I'm trying to teleport to."
"Aren't you already a recipient of the previous world?" She asks, not really understanding how that is a condition. Doesn't that mean he should be able to go home anytime?
"Yes, but I specifically need someone else who came from the same world as I did." He says.
"Then you can do it with me right?!" She says, bringing her face closer to his, as her excitement rises. "Come on, let's try it out! Ah, but since you have not tried it before, we need to take precautions… perhaps we should see if we can try something smaller first, or let's see how it works first." She rattled off to herself.
"——"
"What was that? I can't hear you." She says, wondering why his voice is low.
"That's not the only condition. The recipient needs to be in love with me!" He yells out.
Nanahoshi stares at him for a long moment as her face gradually reddens.
"What sort of bug is that?!" She yells.
"Hell, if I know! It's ridiculous but that is my only lead." He replies.
Hearing that, she sighs then stood up off him.
"This world really is worthless." She says rubbing her forehead as Oliver stands up as well.
"A recipient huh, so it's something like a reverse summoning where it would only work with someone who is not a native of this world… and that person must be in l-love with you." She says looking at him.
"Yes, yes, that's exactly how I think it works as well." He responds.
"What sort of ability is that? How troublesome, as expected of such a useless world."
"Well…" He starts as he walks to her desk looking over her sheets of magic circles. "It could be worse, you know…"
She knows that dammit. This is the only obvious clue she has had in almost 6 years after all. It could definitely be worse.
"And Rudeus, the other one like us is a guy… I don't suppose you swing that way?" She asks with raised brows.
"Look, I'm so straight that if a guy calls me Ollie instead of Oliver, I would break their head."
Of course, it's not going to be that easy.
Wait a minute, wait a minute. Are you saying she has to fall in love with this guy in order to get home? Sure, he is very good looking and she can't deny that the cat ears adds a certain charm to him but! This is too sudden… she has not even technically experienced a first love yet. What is with this badly written rom-com situation?
"Well, anyway. I have to go now."
"Ehhh?? You are leaving already?" She asks.
"We have been talking for more than two hours you know."
Really? Had it been that long?
"I'll give you time to sort out your thoughts and then we can decide what to do." He says as he walks toward the window. "Ah! if you want to contact me, knock three times on the restroom door and call out my name." He says.
"What are you supposed to be, Hanako-san?!"
Nanahoshi watched with a smile as he laughed seemingly content she played the straighman in the joke.
This nostalgic feeling, this guy really reminds her of home.
"Anyway, let's meet again, Seven."
Seven?
"Oh, before I forget." He snapped his fingers and pointed it behind her. "A present…"
When Nanahoshi looked back, she was shocked.
"Impossible…" She whispered because it truly was an impossible thing.
When she looked back to the boy, Oliver, he wasn't there anymore. He was gone, like the wind.
She walked with slow steps towards the table in her little research room.
With trembling hands, she reached for what Oliver had called a "present."
Cylinder shaped, it had water droplets on its red colored aluminum surface due to the chilled content.
She cradled it on her hands as if it was the most valuable and delicate treasure in the world, the nectar of the gods… it might as well be for her.
After all, this was the proof that she could go home, that she could find her way back home. That home was not far away.
Standing at 330ml, what Nanahoshi held was a can of chilled Coca Cola.