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Hyoma has never had a more awkward walk home in his life. Rin and Endia stand out, they look like they came straight out of an anime convention (which, in a way, they did). Rin’s still carrying her staff and has made no attempt to conceal it. Combine that with the fact that the five of them are all scraped and bruised in one place or another, it’s no surprise that other pedestrians are leaving the group a little extra space on the sidewalk.
It’s not exactly like Hyoma looks his best either, but hey, it’s hard to come out of a cross-dimensional war looking like a supermodel! He considered asking Rin if she could still use her healing magic in this world to patch up his minor injuries, but given how many people were shooting them weird glances already, decided against it.
For once, he was grateful for just how noisy Shizuku and Hayatemaru could be. The two of them were giving Rin fashion tips at the moment, with Hyoma occasionally interrupting to tell them they all had terrible taste. They fired back saying that he was just jealous because he had the worst taste of them all. He would sooner die than admit they were right.
Ignoring the fact they were literally fighting for their lives less than an hour ago, it felt almost normal. Almost.
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Rin and Endia have been living at Hyoma’s place. He’s pretty sure his mom didn’t buy Hyatemaru’s long winded attempt at an explanation, but as long as they're allowed to stay for now, it’s good enough.
Hyoma’s house isn’t exactly large. Endia thankfully wasn’t hard to accommodate. Turns out when you’re used to passing out on the floor in uncomfortable circumstances for hours on end, it kinda lowers your standards. Hyoma bought him a cheap sleeping bag and that’s worked out well enough so far.
Rin’s been sleeping on the couch for the most part. She seemed grumpy that she couldn’t sleep in Hyoma’s room, but what’s he supposed to do about that?! His room is tiny, there’s no extra space in there! What, does she want him to buy a bunk bed or something?
…
He asked her if she wanted to buy a bunk bed. She’d never heard of them before.
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It’s so hard to tell what Rin and Endia will and won’t know. It took a couple hours to explain Earth’s day/night cycle to them, but they immediately understood what a computer was.
Rin decided to pick up coding. Hyoma doesn’t know how, but she somehow managed to master C++ in a matter of days. She said it “felt similar” to running gate terminals, but Hyoma’s tried his hand at coding too and really can’t see the connection. Coding is hard! What the hell does she see in it that he doesn’t?! Shizuku was impressed at least. She and Rin are now trying to make a video game of some kind, but they won’t let him look until it’s finished.
Of course they won’t. It’s not like it’s his computer they’re borrowing or anything.
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Shizuku said she went to some tiny, geeky store the other day to pick up a video game she’d pre-ordered. She told him she’d almost forgotten about it’s release, but was glad she remembered because they had some other “interesting” looking games in stock. She sent him a photo of her haul later on.
Hyoma didn’t like how familiar the characters on the box art looked.
He left her on read.
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Hyoma’s been finding it hard to pay attention in class. Well, not like he ever really paid attention in the first place, but it’s much worse lately. Sometimes he’ll just be sitting in the middle of some history lecture when he remembers that the origin of all things is called the fucking Egg of the World. The origin of all things, and they named it an egg. Even the Big Bang sounds cooler than that! It didn’t even look like an egg! He kicked its ass too! He fought a god and won.
A fucking EGG is the reason parallel universes and monsters and aliens and every piece of media you’ve ever heard of is probably real somewhere, somehow. Is it possible his life is just a video game in some other universe? His mind and body just 1 and 0s on a screen to someone else?
…
It’s usually at that point he just gets up and leaves class. The teachers have long given up on trying to stop him. He’ll bug Hayatemaru for homework answers later or something.
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Rin’s been saying recently that she wants to try and enroll in school, but she’s worried she’ll stand out too much. Her concerns aren’t unfounded…
It’s far easier for Endia to get away with odd tendencies since he looks pretty young. Little kids are expected to be some degree of weird. Sleeping for hours on end? Totally fine, kids need their rest. Not understanding commonplace things? That’s okay, he just hasn’t seen a lot of the world yet. It just means he’s curious to learn about his surroundings! Thinks he has some sort of greater purpose in the creation of the universe? Children have fantasies like that all the time, let them have their fun!
Rin looks like a teenager. It’s a bit weirder for her to not know what an airplane is.
Hyoma gave her the link to Khan Academy's K-8 lessons. He figures it’s a good starting point since she can skip around to focus on whatever she doesn’t know, and if she gets something wildly wrong, it’s no big deal.
Though given this is the same girl who mastered C++ in two fucking days, she’d probably breeze through this too.
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The three of them pooled together enough money to buy Rin a phone. It was important that they be able to contact her quickly for convenience and safety’s sake. After all, the dangers on Earth are far different from those on Endia.
Part of that money came from Rin herself who had started taking coding jobs from strangers online. Hyoma would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little bit annoyed about how much time she spends on his laptop, but given all the other problems moving dimensions has caused for her, it’s the least of his worries.
Hayate created a group chat for them called “Can I offer you an egg in this trying time?” Rin didn’t get the joke. Shizuku thought the whole thing was hysterical, Hyoma did not.
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Hyoma’s been looking into how to get Rin and Endia citizenship. It’s a mess. What kind of proof of identification do people from an alternate dimension have? He doesn’t think an old urban legend will hold up as an excuse in court. Does fleeing from another world count as being a refugee? How do you get a birth certificate for someone with no parents? Should he just try to forge one?
…Nah. Hyoma’s not exactly known for being the most law-abiding citizen out there, but even he knows that sounds like a bad idea.
Maybe if Rin makes enough money off of odd coding jobs they can hire a lawyer or something.
They’ll deal with it later.
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Career guidance meetings began the other day. Hayate and Shizuku met with their counselors already, but Hyoma wouldn’t have his for another week or so.
Shizuku said she was going into game design. Hayate wants to enter the movie industry.
What are your plans, Hyoma?
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Hyoma got into an argument with Shizuku the other day. He doesn’t even remember what it was about, probably something stupid. He told her to shut up, she hit him with her fan.
It’s been weeks now, but the papercut still stings.
She should really be more careful with that thing.
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He’s been getting into more street fights than he used to before. He’s also winning more street fights than he used to before. He won against a guy with a gun the other day, that was something. It should have been a big deal, but he didn’t feel like it was. After all, Hyoma’s fought far, far worse. The rest of the people in the McDonald’s parking lot seemed concerned, but who gives a shit about them?!
…He hasn’t been back to that McDonald’s in a month. Just in case.
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Hyoma had a dream last night that he never left Endia.
His first reaction was one of excitement. He was back in the magic dimension where you don’t need to understand geometry and a flaming sword can solve most problems. People respected him here, or at the very least, respected him as a formidable foe. Plus, it would be nice to see the others again!
His second reaction was one of shame. You care about everyone else trapped here, right? Just because you don’t have your shit figured out on Earth doesn’t mean everyone else is as much of a mess as you. Just because you’re in no rush to find a way out doesn’t mean everyone else wants to take their time too.
His third reaction was one of pain- he’s just been stabbed. Ah, right. Almost everywhere in Endia was dangerous and he’d managed to get lost in thought in the middle of a battle. A battle on one of the lower levels of the tower no less. Way to go, smart guy. He regained himself quickly enough to take his opponent down with relative ease. DAMN this stab wound hurting like crazy though… but that’s okay! He usually carries plenty of healing supplies on him.
…
His items are gone. Where the fuck did they go?!
That’s okay too! There are plenty of people in their ranks who know healing magic or who won’t have suddenly lost all of their supplies. He scanned his surroundings again, this time in more detail. First thing he realized: he was completely surrounded- outnumbered to a degree he’s never seen before. The second thing he saw was Rin, also cornered. Hyoma noticed her just in time to watch her get hit by a devastating blow and crumple on the ground. He screamed. The enemies took his moment of distraction to land a decisive blow on him. Hyoma felt himself fall to the floor, his body in excruciating pain. No, not now--! They were so close to their goal too! The top of the tower wasn’t that far off, they were so close to ending it! The world blurred around him before fading to black.
He woke up sweating.
He was very glad he didn’t buy a bunk bed.