“Aria! I’m sorry I yelled!!!” Wataru bellowed! Having realized his mistake from seeing the terror on Aria’s face, Wataru immediately dove down to all fours in a dogeza, a Japanese bow reserved for the most extreme displays of apology! And sorry he was indeed, from the bottom of his heart!!
“Aria! Hit me!” Wataru declared with a face as horrifying as a gargoyle’s, leaping to his feet! This was his way of showing how sorry he was! But, of course, it only terrified poor Aria even more! He could not have made a worse decision!
“U-Um, I’m not going to hit you... But what happened to you? I came out to pick some herbs and found you on the ground. I was worried, so I was watching until you...”
“Right! What happened!? I was just going to school like normal, when I was almost run over by a truck! When I opened my eyes, I was here!!!!!!” Wataru shouted from the depths of his soul, lost in complete and utter confusion!
Then, a rustling was heard from the bushes in the distance! Wataru immediately and instinctively clenched his fists, instantly on guard!
“Who goes there!?!?!?”
Two people emerged from the bushes at the sound of Wataru’s intimidating summons! They were massive, tall in stature, with green skin and pig-like faces...! In fact, I’d go so far as to say that these weren’t people at all!!!
“O-Orcs...!”
“Orcs???”
What!? Are!? Orcs!? We’re all screaming it! I know you are!
“Y-You don’t know what orcs are? They’re pig-faced, humanoid monsters. They often attack and rob travelers around these parts!” An impeccable exposition! Thanks for the concise explanation, Aria!!
“Heh heh heh, fork over all you got!”
“That’s right! Don’t you fight back!”
The orcs held up their clubs! Among warriors, this was an unmistakable declaration of battle! Wataru immediately readied himself!
“Are you... the bad guys...!?” Wataru asked, his fists held high!
“Gheh! Do we look like the good guys?”
“Just give us your money, punk!”
With no more time for discourse, the pair of orcs swung their clubs with scary expressions on their porcine faces!
“Ahh!” Aria turned away in fear!
Wataru, however, did not falter one iota!! In fact, he bravely took a single step forward, then dove directly within range of the orcs’ attacks!!!
“Sorry, but... It’s time to do a little lawn work!!!”
He began to throw punch after punch with both fists!!! It was a machine gun-like rush of super-speed punches!! Allow me to explain! This move was none other than Gatling Knuckles, the secret weapon of the greatest boxer in American history!!
(*Gatling Knuckles: Invented by boxer Michael Adur, from Colorado, in the 1960s. His career suffered for a long time due to his short stature, but after inventing, perfecting, and using this move to his advantage, he eventually became the world flyweight champion. However, since this skill requires extraordinary shoulder strength, he was one of the only boxers to have ever used the move successfully. Some boxing fanatics call it the Legendary Attack. [2] )
Fist! Fist!! Fist!!! Wataru’s fists rained down on the orcs like a powerful storm! They didn’t even have a chance to fight back before they were blown away in astonishment! Moreover, Wataru’s rush produced such powerful winds that the grass all around was uprooted and blown away! In an instant, the field became a desert, as far as the eye could see!
The orcs smashed right into a dune! Fortunately, they survived because the sand cushioned their fall! But, they had no intention of continuing this fight!! Naturally!!!
“Wh-What the hell is this guy!? Yikes!”
“He’s too strong! L-Let’s beat it!”
The pair of orcs forced their bruised bodies up and ran off with their proverbial tails between their legs! Wataru had won, masterfully!!!
“Wh-Who are you...?” Aria asked, her eyes a teensy bit wide with fear!
Dear Readers, you already know the answer! That’s right!
Wataru threw back his shoulders and shouted it to the heavens: “I am Wataru Ito! Hot-blooded Fighting Teen!!!” A moment later, he returned to his standard low roar of speaking volume and added, “...But more importantly, where am I!?”
Aria was taken aback by the question! “Where...? We’re on the Wind Continent, of course.”
Wataru’s expression shifted in astonishment!
“W-Wind Continent...!? I’m not in Japan!?!?!?”
“‘Japan’???” Aria tilted her head as she repeated the unfamiliar name! “I don’t know what you’re talking about... But there’s no country on this continent called ‘Japan.’”
“How can this be!?!?!?”
Wataru was confused by Aria’s explanation! This could only mean that the impact of the truck colliding with him had teleported him to a different world! But how could something so unrealistic have happened!? It was impossible!!! The very idea wasn’t just illogical, it was ridiculous! Preposterous!
“But there’s something else you need to know, Wataru.”
“What!?!?!?”
“You’ve hurt your arm.”
“Hrm-mhurm!?!?”
He looked down at his right arm and discovered a tiny scrape. Of course, such a little thing would never be considered an injury to the likes of Wataru, a TRUE MAN! A couple of squats and he’d be as good as new!!
“Let me take a look.”
“Wha!?!?”
Suddenly, Aria gently touched his arm! Wataru’s breath was taken away!
“S-Stop it! A young lady like you shouldn’t touch a man like that!”
Wataru, a virgin, immediately tore his arm away from her hand! For all his mental training, he didn’t stand a chance against the embarrassment of Being Touched by a Girl!
“Hold on! I just want to heal it!”
“What!? Then go ahead and touch me!!!” As long as she was touching him for a good reason!
Aria placed her hand against Wataru’s arm once more, and a bright green glow began to appear where she touched him! Wataru was exactly as surprised as I know you must be at this very instant, Dear Readers!
“You glowed!? Wh-What... kind of martial arts is this!?”
Even more surprisingly, when she lifted her hand, the skin below was completely healed!!
“Martial arts? No, this is magic,” Aria countered, as if this was something Wataru already should have known!
“Magic...!!!”
He had heard of that! Magic! That thing that comes up in a lot of fantasy fiction! That thing!
“H-How could this be...!? Then I’m really...! Not in my world anymore...!?!?”
Not even Wataru could keep himself from feeling a sense of dismay at this revelation! There was no magic in the world he came from, so if there was magic here in this world, obviously it was not his!!
But...!
Another of Wataru’s amazing talents is his alacrity in getting over bad news!!
“Okay, then, Aria!!! Who’s the strongest in this country!!?”
“The strongest? Well, that has to be the Demon Lord...”
“Hm. Zhe Moon Lao, you say... Is he Chinese? If he is, then he must be formidable indeed...”
China had an amazingly long 4000 years of history on its side! Therefore, Chinese kung fu, as it is passed down from generation to generation and being improved upon all the while, would have to be extremely powerful! It was said that a true master of kung fu would be able to defeat any technological weapon of the modern era!! This Master Moon Lao was sure to be a worthy adversary!