Takemura Itsuki

I wiped my palms down my cheeks and moved my head up in the process. I snorted too as I wiped my face down. I then opened my red watery eyes and looked into Ichika’s eyes. “You really don’t remember how you were isekai’d here, right?”

“I-I…” Ichika gulped as she looked into my eyes, and clenched her hands tight. “I-I’m afraid I don’t.”

“If you really did remember…” I wiped my right cheek with my hand a little and snorted in again. Then, I looked into her eyes again, and continued with my cracking coarse voice, “I-If you re-really did remember, th-then you must have s-slapped me by now…”

“W-Why, Takemura-kun?”

“I… I was the reason you were isekai’d.”

***

Isekai’d

Written by Dhruv Pabreja

***

We both stood in front of the entrance of the awkward house where we were teleported. I looked into the eyes of Ichika, and she had her confused eyes at me. My eyes were wet and red with tears. I took in a breath as my chest blew up a little, and then exhaled out as a little sigh. I then turned my head backward on my right and looked at Haruto, who stood beside the door of the house behind me. He had his weight onto the wall, and he had his head tilted down and his arms crossed. His dark face conveyed what he was thinking. Then, I turned back my right foot and stepped towards him. I walked to him as I pattered my shoes on the ground once, and then twice. The patter killed the awkward silence of the room as I stepped twice to him and stood right in front of him. He took in a breath with his trembling chest, and then turned his eyes up. He looked at my determined eyes. “I… I wanna do this shit, Haruto.”

Haruto looked into my eyes, and then gulped. He turned his head down again, his hair hiding his dark eyes, as he replied, “Well, what other choice do we have anyways?”

“Yeah,” I nodded, and tilted my head a little down at his knees. “I… want you to assist me… in this mission. I want us to just… get done with this shit as fast as we can… and then go back home.”

“You know, I guess I kinda already miss my normal days. The days I spent studying, cooking with my mom, all evening and night playing games and doing random stuff with you, and the school, and all that stuff.”

“Aha…” I chuckled a little and smiled a little, and then I stood silent for a second, thinking something. There was an awkward silence between the two of us again as we stood facing each other with our arms crossed in front of our chests. Then, I said, “But… d-don’t you think that it’s a way to… start a new life?” I turned my head and looked at him for approval. “I mean… here, n-none thinks of us as killers. Here, people won’t… judge us, or… behave badly with us. You know, like they used to do there.”

Haruto tilted his eyes up at me and asked, “What are you even… saying?”

“I-I—”

“Wasn’t it fun in itself?”

I stood silently as he said those words which literally echoed in my ears.

“Wasn’t it fun in itself?”

He turned his head a little up at me and looked directly into my eyes. “Wasn’t it fun how we used to annoy the shit outta those people? Wasn’t it fun how we were the only ones to have fun together? Wasn’t… those nights fun when we played games all night? Wasn’t that feeling fun when we knew we’re gonna have no one else with us ever, so we cared for each other at every step?”

“Man…” I smiled as I looked into his eyes, and then turned my eyes down and started playing with my right foot, swinging it up and down a little. “You make it feel like we are some sort of lovers.”

“Pal, we are more than that. We are… pals.”

I turned my head up, and then looked into his determined eyes. “Yes, we are.”

He exhaled out his breath, and I turned my head back at the two girls. “What’s the name of this other girl?”

“Minami Airi,” Ichika replied with a smile. “And it’s gonna be dark soon. We needa get back to our house before then.”

Airi turned to Ichika, and then turned her head at me. “I hope you two are feeling alright now.”

“A little,” I smiled.

Haruto pushed his body frontwards and walked to my side. As he came walking to me, he covered my shoulders with his right arm, and said with a large grin. “Don’t worry, all of this shit feeling will be worn out soon.”

Airi smiled at Haruto, and then turned back to the door and walked out. “Come, we don’t really have a lot of time.”

Ichika smiled too at us as she turned back and said, “And I wanna hear out everything about how I was isekai’d. It might ease you two if I remember everything.”

“Nah, you don’t really need to,” I commented as we two walked behind her out of the house. “At last, it’s our past now.”

“Ah, still, I wanna hear what happened that you two were crying so much like little babies.”

“Nah nah, remember all that shit yourself,” I replied with a smile. “And anyways, how has been your life since you’re here?”

“Ah, leave my dumb boring life. Let’s focus on you two’s.”

As we stepped out, I turned my head frontwards, and my smile started to become faker and faker as I looked at all that slaughter all around us. There was red blood all over around us, surrounded by the cut-off pieces and corpses of the brown werewolves. “M-Man…” I said as I turned my head right and looked at the slaughter all around.

“You needa get used to this stuff too, newbies,” She said as she walked to the front.

I turned my head front, and Haruto did too. He said, “Pal…”

She turned her head backward and asked, “Have you ever seen a girl like me in that world?”

“W-We saw you, yes, but… even you were not like this when we saw you,” Haruto replied with a creepy smile.

“Ahahaha,” She turned her head front and walked casually from between all those corpses. I smiled as I looked at her.

“I guess it didn’t take us long enough to be friends again. At last, whatever state we were in, somewhere in our hearts, we remembered how it felt to be with each other and have fun. And, I don’t really think I could have walked upon that shitty slaughter if I didn’t have Haruto and Ichika beside me to distract my mind and share the fright. But, meeting her again after such a long time was an awkward situation in itself, and we two crying while she didn’t understand a thing made it one of the worst meet-ups ever. Truly.”