Takemura Itsuki

"Death rules Dansamia. There’s… a lot of death which you’ll have to face in this adventure. P-Probably ours, too.”

“Those were the words Ichika had told me when I’d killed that wolf on our way to Surfurine Town. And… that’s what I remembered when I stood in front of the blazing flames.”

I had my fearless and angry eyes fixed at the flames in front of me, which were sizzling as I looked at them. My hands were clenched tightly, my legs straight, and my arms hanging around the legs. “Death rules Dansamia…” I remembered Ichika’s voice again.

“I was unable to find the body or the blood of Haruto in between that fire. I did all I could, extinguishing a little bit of fire through soil, walking in quickly to see if there’s anybody, screaming his name out, and finding him everywhere.”

“What… am I supposed to do now?” I tilted my head down in guilt. “What… am I supposed to do after this?” A drop of tear ran down the edge of my right eye, ran down my cheek, and then rained down towards the ground. I moved my angry eyes up, looking towards the dark sky embedded with countless twinkling dots, all surrounded by the dark fumes rising up all over the city. “This world… is so insane… so different than ours.” I gulped in. “Seventeen year old shitheads are becoming the ‘best soldiers’, most of the army is made of people of less than the age of twenty. What is this world? Why does it… function so differently than ours?”

“Who knows?” I turned my eyes to the right, looking at the shiny figure of Haruto standing beside me, facing the fire in front of us. It turned its head at me. “Well, you know, maybe because this world was born different than ours.”

“W-What…?”

“Well, pal, this world… has a different history than ours. Maybe that’s why…” He shrugged.

“Why… did you leave me?” I suddenly asked. I turned my head down. “Was it my fault?”

“I… don’t know, pal, but I too didn’t want to leave you ever.” He turned his head to the front again. “It just felt like you don’t really need me now.”

“Tha—!”

“Itsuki!”

I turned my head to the left and noticed the carriage, with Airi at the front behind the two brown horses, coming towards me. It stopped right some steps away from me and Airi got off from the front of the carriage, walked to the left, walked beside the horses as she asked me, “Where’s Haruto?”

“I…” I turned my head to the front. I then turned my head to the ground in guilt, and covered my mouth with my hands. “I don’t know… what to do now.”

Airi turned her head to her left as she stood in front of me, turned to the fire, and then walked up towards the bricks. “Lemme give it a try.”

“I can’t find him.”

“Wait a bit.”

“He’s not in there!” I shouted.

Airi turned her head at the back at me, her right foot upon the bricks. “Lemme give it a try too.” She turned to the front again. “Get me a hand. We together might be able to get him. He’d have suffered fatal injuries; we’d need to treat him as soon as possible.” She stepped at the front, bent down a little, and started to search for him.

***

 “We spend the rest half an hour searching for Haruto in that debris. But, we were still unable to find him—or his body, that is.”

“Where is he even gone?” Airi stepped down from the debris, her back facing the fire, and turned to the left at me, who was walking down beside her.

“I’m sure he fell down here,” I replied. “Where’d have he been gone?” I turned my head up, stepped down on the ground, and turned to the right at her.

Airi had her hands on her waist as she looked at me with her serious gaze. “Maybe he’s already gone.”

I frowned. “What do you…?”

“I mean that maybe he’s gone out of this place to safety.” She turned her head to her right at the carriage. “Ichika might be sleeping inside right now. I made sure she’d slept on our way here.” She turned to me again. “She was already sleepy, so she slept in just a minute.”

“O-Oh…” I turned my head to the front. “I wanna get out of this shitty place.”

Airi turned to the back at the fire. “I’ll make sure it’s over soon, Itsuki.”

I turned back at the fire too. With those flames’ reflection in my dark red eyes, I said, “Haruto is dead.”

Airi turned her eyes to her right at me again. “No, Itsuki, he’s—”

“I don’t need your shitty consolation.”

The fire between the two of us sizzled. Airi had her wet eyes fixed on me. She turned her head down. “Y-Yeah, I guess. Haruto… really is gone.”

“I’m gonna revenge him.” I turned my head to the right at Airi. “I was really enjoying all this new life and shit, but now it’s time we turn serious about this.” As my determined eyes looked at Airi’s wet ones, a drop of tear suddenly fell down from her eyes.

“Yeah, it was my fault. I was enjoying too much in here. But, after I saw him die… after I saw his body falling down the roof… after I saw his body gliding through… I knew it. This shit… This shit is not really how I was looking at it. This shit was far more insane and crazy. This shit is real. And… it was not going to be just a small segment of such a large life of mine. This… was gonna be something else. This was gonna shape my future and me as a person. This was gonna be a secret I’d keep hidden from the world around me for the rest of my life. And… I just lose the only one I was gonna share this secret with.”

I angrily turned my head up at the dark sky, embedded with the same twinkling stars all around, with fumes rising up. “Haruto, even if you’re on your way to God, just hear this out…” I then opened my mouth, took in a breath, and then screamed out, “I’M GONNA AVENGE ALL THE SHIT THEY DID TO YOU, HARUTOOOOO!”

“… And when we’ll return home, you’ll be already there, won’t you, Haruto?”

***

Shiratori Haruto

My mom sat in front of my eyes on the white hospital bed, her eyes silently fixed at mine, as suddenly a drop of tear ran down her right cheek. “M-Mom…?”

***

Isekai’d

Written by Dhruv Pabreja

To be continued in Isekai’d Season-2.