DAY 1
A high school boy is summoned to another world. But it must be a dream, right?
THE CLASSROOM
EVERY DAY, I spent the lunch break reading a book. But don’t call me a loner! Although if you did, you wouldn’t be wrong.
Everyone else in the building just kept on chattering endlessly. How could they say so little and talk so much? I was almost impressed. Even though we were sophomores, the topics of conversation were always so juvenile. As if that wasn’t enough, some of them were playing with their phones while they were blathering. I was sitting in the middle of the large classroom, unable to focus on my book because of their cacophonous squawking.
I didn’t get how my classmates sorted themselves so neatly. Everyone was stuffed into one room—the problem kids and the model students. The elite sports teams hung out by the window, and the sporty girls sat closest to the hallway. They were all stereotypical enough to show up as extras on a TV show.
In the middle of the classroom, the straight-A students, the super-talented artsy girls, and the spoiled rich kids all crowded together. The delinquents sat in front, shouting and roughing each other up. The fashion-obsessed mean girls hung out by the window and chirped at each other in loud voices.
The geeks who always got bullied sat in the back, whispering to one another. It was like our class had a caste system. But if you asked me, you might as well put the delinquent bullies and the bullied geeks in the same group. They were all equally loud and insufferable.
I didn’t hate everything, though. I liked books. I’d read nonstop ever since I was a little kid—even picture books. You’d expect my eyes to go bad from all that reading, but I’ve never needed glasses. I’d look awful with glasses, spare me ever having to wear them!
It was too loud here. I couldn’t focus. Would I have to stoop to the level of my classmates and talk to them? It was too loud, loud, loud!
Then I felt something strange.
Huh? What…what’s happening?
Suddenly, the floor started to glitter with unnatural light. Looking at the glowing floor, I could see layers of round discs and strange figures inscribed with riddles and characters. Wait—is that a magic circle? No—yes, it has to be! I mean, if I imagined a legit magic circle, it would have looked exactly like this. From my perspective, the sudden appearance of a magic circle seemed way more plausible than having a pop quiz in math. Bring it on!
I rushed to the back door. It wouldn’t open. I kicked it. It didn’t budge. In a panic, I grabbed a chair and hurled it against the window, but the glass didn’t break. No doubt about it, we’re definitely in a magic circle. I jumped on top of the lockers lining the back wall of the room and scrambled up to the tall locker full of classroom cleaning supplies. Concealed above that locker was an emergency hatch. I jumped up toward the hatch and grabbed the handle. Shoving with all of my weight against it, I broke free to the open sky. I made it; I’m safe!
The shining magic circle intensified even more, and the whole classroom filled with blinding white light. Now on the classroom roof, I started to crawl away. But wait…that magic circle must have summoned everyone to another world, right? I thought that only happened in anime, manga, and light novels. There was no way that this could really happen. Plus, I would much rather if the rest of Japan just went to another world without me. I kept crawling on the roof away from the light. At this point I should be far enough—
I got sucked into the vortex of light, screaming all the way.
Damn it! It got me! I found myself in a completely white room.
With a light that awful and blinding, it couldn’t have taken me to a regular sword-and-sorcery fantasy world. This had to be some sort of sci-fi space invasion. I hoped I didn’t end up in some horror-genre ghost world. But sci-fi didn’t have magic circles, did it? I was brought here by magic, right? No way, that was impossible. Getting whisked away to a fantasy world wasn’t some normal everyday experience, especially not by a magic circle that sucked in an entire class. There wouldn’t be some god that showed up all, “Howdy, I’m just a local neighborhood self-proclaimed god. You’re headed to a fantasy realm! Have fun! Tee hee!” No, this had to be some sort of weird geometry that just resembled a magic circle. But what kind of world would that take me to? A math world? Now that would be a miserable place!
If you asked me what something like “prime factorization” was, I would just stare uncomprehending.
I suddenly realized that I was totally alone. If this were a light novel, someone would have greeted me when I arrived. It’s a basic trope of the genre—and basic hospitality, seriously! Were they out somewhere? If you’re not going to welcome me, then don’t summon me here in the first place!
Nothing to do. Why couldn’t you have summoned me to a bookstore or something, at least? Does Amazon deliver to fantasy worlds yet?
Huh? I saw some old guy appear, and he was looking my way. He looked clueless, wandering around like that. You can’t just end up in another world because you got lost looking for your own house! No, no—could this be a world that focused on the stories of confused old people with dementia?
“What in the world are you doing here, young man?” he cried.
Uh, Gramps, are you hungry or something? You seem kind of grouchy.
“No, I am not!” he barked at me.