Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

"...This is really going to be a problem."

With no money, no clear idea of what to do or where he was, the thought repeated over and over in his mind.

But no real solution occurred to him. Everything seemed to lead him into the same pit he had been running from all his life. He couldn't read the language of this strange place, couldn't write it, and didn't even have anything to feed himself decently. The only thing he possessed was a cup of instant ramen he had brought from the convenience store—pork bone soy sauce flavor—and a bag of chips bought at the same place, corn syrup flavor.

Junk food, incapable of helping him in the slightest, except to survive, with luck, a single day. Incidentally, he had already gotten hungry and eaten half of the things that could have been his source of sustenance for the long term.

What was he supposed to do!? He couldn't even think of a coherent way to get a place to sleep for the day. He was completely broke and had no one to lean on.

Oh well, it wasn't entirely correct to say he had 'no' money. The wallet in his pocket was full of money, enough to go shopping if he had to... under normal circumstances. But in this case, "no money" is really the only way to describe this situation.

"Yeah, but the monetary system is completely different here, right...?"

A nervous laugh threatened to escape his throat.

He was the very definition of a 'bum in nice clothes.'

He ended up tossing his rare ten-yen coin with the serrated edge into the air and gave a deep sigh.

He really didn't have any features that stood out. He had short black hair and was of average weight, neither tall nor short. He was a bit muscular, as if he had worked out, and the cheap grey tracksuit he wore fit him quite well. He had small irises, so the whites of his eyes stood out, but right now, with the way his eyes were drooping, he didn't look very aggressive or defensive.

He looked common enough to quickly get lost in the crowd... but right now, most people passing by looked at him out of the corners of their eyes, as if seeing something strange they had never seen before.

But that was to be expected. After all, among all those onlookers, none of them had black hair, let alone wore a tracksuit. They had blonde, red, and brown hair... Some even had blue or green hair, among others. They wore armor or black robes; the kind of costumes a dancer would wear... that sort of thing.

While standing before the waves of stares, the young man crossed his arms and had no choice but to accept the truth.

"This has to be one of those..." he said, snapping his fingers and pointing toward the crowd of onlookers. "One of those so-called 'I've been summoned to another world' stories, right?"

No... it wasn't the same. The thing no longer had its magic; he simply couldn't get out of his head how terrible his situation was. Not after everyone seemed to expect something from him.

Maybe he should try to sell his clothes and phone? That way at least he could get a place to sleep and maybe somewhere to eat for the next few da—!

"Watch out for the cradle robber! Keep your daughters away from the powerful Lolimancer!"

A voice shouted behind his back.

"A-Ah!" he stammered, startled by the sudden shout.

He quickly turned around, only to observe two guys in modern clothing, making a scene and pointing.

"What the he—?" he questioned before being interrupted and pointed at like a circus monkey.

"Half-Elf Simp!" declared a boy of a similar age to his, with black hair and wearing a black t-shirt with the words 'ポルノハブ' written in the middle.

Why would anyone wear that kind of shirt? Subaru didn't understand, but he couldn't judge, given how popular hoodies printed with ahegao faces were.

That someone would simply openly show that they loved that site; well, Subaru wouldn't see it as wrong. Personally, he opined that: "個人的にはエルフを題材にした漫画の方が好きでした’, were much better.

"We finally found you!" exclaimed another voice.

A huge smile shone on the boy's face.

Subaru didn't know what to think; he was too confused to understand what was happening. He had just been teleported to another fantasy world, then a crowd of people began judging him as if his mere presence were a problem, then crowds of vendors happily expected him to buy merchandise, and endlessly more.

Why did everyone expect something from him? He didn't understand, and that made him feel worse.

"Um, uh, eh..." he tried to speak but ended up failing miserably. He hated that his social skills were so terrible. He should have tried harder to speak in online games and not shut himself away in single-player games. "Who are you guys?" He managed to say after multiple errors.

The first boy widened his smile even more, bright as the sun. It seemed he had found the hero of his dreams in front of him. Were they confusing him with someone else?

"Oh, are you talking to, me?" the voice squeaked with excitement, excessively.

This was getting weird.

"Yes?" he hesitated.

The boy's smile widened further. "You see, we're simply fellow Iseka—"

From the distance, a new voice resonated: "YOU!!!"

Once again, everything seemed to take a 180-degree turn.

"Sacha Baron Cohen?!"

He was very confused. "Huh? Who—?"

"BORAT!!!"

Dressed in a silver-grey suit, with dark brown hair—almost black—a Chevron mustache of the same color, a dark green shirt, a brown leather briefcase, and a gold tie. A very angry middle-aged man was running at top speed in their direction.

"Where is my chicken you chicken fucker?!!"

The shout left him more confused than scared.

"What the he—?"

THUD!

Before he or anyone else could react, he watched the middle-aged man ram into and send flying the boy who, a moment ago, was explaining everything to him.

Blood stained the cobblestone street.

A briefcase had slammed into the boy's face, knocking him to the floor and drawing a stream of blood from his nose. He even noticed how his front teeth were dripping blood.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" The hatred in the boy's voice was clear.

He quickly tried to help the boy who was on the ground, struggling against a middle-aged adult in a street fight.

Only to almost receive a kick upon approaching.

"Not again, dammit!" cursed the other boy.

What the hell was happening!?

Part 1.

While the familiar darkness of the night blinded him temporarily, he couldn't help but yearn to get to his room as quickly as possible. He had spent the last few weeks locked in his room, and although he enjoyed feeling the fresh air of the outside world, he couldn't help but feel uncomfortable in case any of his classmates or teachers saw him.

He knew he didn't look good; his long hours of insomnia playing video games had done a number on his sharp sanpaku eyes. His hair was messy and barely groomed with a simple slick-back style, with two strands falling over his forehead.

So, alert for any possible acquaintance, he observed the streets he passed with great care. He quickly made his way to the sidewalk, only to see a green car traveling at top speed, on the edge of the road.

It didn't look like anyone he knew.

...Should I go to a hair salon?

Unconsciously he looked at his wallet, which was barely overflowing with some money and a huge amount of video rental memberships.

Yeah... no. He discarded the idea almost instantly and unconsciously looked toward the night sky, waiting for answers to his misery. It's almost a full moon tonight.

He barely had any money (which he took without permission from his parents). So he didn't have a safe way to go out to get a haircut; the best he could do was learn himself—!

"Eh?" he stammered before having to shut his eyes tight.

A strong light had suddenly flooded his vision, leaving him temporarily blind.

What is wrong with that driver? Ugh, my eyes!…

It took several minutes before he could get used to the sudden shock of illumination. His eyes were starting to burn from the strain.

"I guess anyone's eyes would get tired after locking themselves in their room, playing all day."

He really should think about improving his sleep schedule...

He hoped the sudden change in light wouldn't affect his vision too much. It would be a problem when trying to see if anyone... from, his... school...... saw him.

He looked around slowly and without emotion, unable to comprehend what was happening or where he was now.

"What is happening?" he asked, somewhat scared.

Almost unconsciously, he rubbed his eyes again, unable to process what was before him.

The smooth paved road he was used to had suddenly disappeared, replaced by a cobblestone one, like those seen on historical routes like the Nakasendō or in some regions of southwestern Europe. Before him stretched numerous houses of the same height, a mixture of Baroque and Victorian styles. Behind him resonated the sound of falling water, while the increasing movement of people began to overwhelm him. And, to top it off, the moon had disappeared, giving way to the sun.

• 1. Victorian architecture is a historiographical term that encompasses a series of architectural styles that flourished in the British Empire from the mid to late nineteenth century, and that featured historicist and eclectic references to earlier styles, particularly English Gothic architecture. It is mainly characterized by excessive ornamentation, irregular designs with steep roofs, towers, and so on. It also placed special emphasis on symmetry and decoration, a simple and clear example being window styles filled with symmetrical patterns such as squares, stars, and similar shapes. In addition, the main façades were painted in saturated and bright colors.
• 2. Baroque architecture originated in Rome, Italy, in the late sixteenth century, closely linked to the Catholic Counter Reformation, hence its origin in a religious capital. Some of its notable and distinctive characteristics include curved lines, undulating façades, elliptical or mixed plan designs, a combination of straight and curved lines, and broken pediments.

One that he felt was suddenly watching him.

"This is obviously not fake. Which means..." he blinked slowly again, while slowly his thoughts finally found some kind of coherence toward the reality facing him.

Observing a multitude of semi-beasts walking on two legs and wearing clothes as if it were nothing.

His heart pumped blood like never before, while his eyes burned with hope, one that someone like him never thought he deserved.

"I've been summoned to a parallel world!" he shouted at the top of his lungs.

A euphoria he had never felt coursed through every pore of his skin.

The people around him looked at him with utter weirdness, annoyed by his sudden outburst. Some even began to murmur things like:

—Another one? —Subaru sweated upon seeing a werewolf looking at him annoyed. —I'm really starting to get sick of these foreigners.—

"Yeah." A cat woman complained. "The other day an idiot destroyed my uncle's fruit stand falling from the sky, I hope that idiot is in jail by now."

Quickly another added: "Yeah, same here. My son was almost hurt by one of those idiots who cast a spell in the middle of the street."

A multitude of murmurs began to be heard throughout the area, leaving him confused and estranged by everyone's reaction.

Weren't they supposed to praise him? Why was everyone looking at him with bad eyes? He had barely arrived.

Part 2.

Natsuki Subaru had never been someone outstanding, much less interesting. Born into the yutori education system of the Heisei era in Japan.

He had lived seventeen years, and describing his life would take seventeen years in itself.

Leaving that aside, his current situation could simply be described with a single phrase: "High School. Hikikomori."

Or put in a more detailed way, "A piece of trash who disengages from everything, even his parents, to lock himself in his shell even with entrance exams just around the corner."

There was no reason for his loneliness.

On typical weekdays, sometimes he thought: "Getting up now would be a hassle," and that became an impulse to skip school.

His absences were constantly increasing and, before he realized it, he had become a bona fide truant, the kind parents cried over.

He passed his days in laziness, immersing himself deeper and deeper into the net with minimal communication.

"The result is a summoning to another world," he declared, before deflating against the wall. "Eh... I really don't get it."

His situation for now fit perfectly into all the isekai fantasy clichés he knew: a world full of sub-races like demi-humans, dwarves, knights, magic and, if he was lucky, even half-elves. Ultimately a world full of adventures, magic, and who knows what other wonderful things were in it.

It's just that. "Where is the goddess who summoned me?"

The absence of the heroine, by 2D standards, was an inconceivable act of negligence. Summoning him and leaving him like this was as if they had simply discarded him.

Just in case, he decided to take a look at the alley where he was now.

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Confirming his surroundings once more, he exhaled his umpteenth sigh, defeated.

He had moved from the plaza where he had appeared, uncomfortable, after so many bad comments and unfriendly looks. At that moment he was sitting in a somewhat dark alley.

The ground was paved. Hard work compared to modern Japan, but it wasn't bad.

"Assuming this is a fantasy of a parallel world, I guess it must be standard medieval civilization. I didn't see any machinery that surpassed the Chūse period. Most build with stone and wood... as for the language."

He could easily understand people's comments as soon as he arrived. Communication was no problem.

The reason why Subaru was able to accept and understand this situation was, in fact, that being a modern Japanese youth poisoned by anime and games had something to do with it, and for that, he was grateful. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that as a teenager, this kind of summoning to another world was the kind of thing you expected to happen to you, but as for that.

—Without a bit more of a lifeline happening, a quiet guy like me isn't going to be of any use, you know? —Subaru complained.

He remembered once again the comments and sideways glances thrown at him as soon as he arrived. He often let his imagination fly, so he was more than prepared for his current situation... it's just that, why did everyone treat him so badly?

He almost felt like he was back in his school classroom.

"Don't think about that," he repeated to himself.

This was a new world, where no one knew him. This wasn't and would never be the cradle of his failure.

The most important thing in that situation was to investigate if his money would have any kind of value there. Then he had to calmly analyze the culture of that era and its differences with Japan. Determine any difference in the laws of physics and the possibility of contact with humanoid organisms. These were his priorities.

—Alright, let's do it! —He might have had a bad start in this bad world. But that didn't mean everything would be like this.

It was his golden ticket! He, Natsuki Subaru, would walk toward success and nothing and no one could stop him.

Part 3

Walking through the streets of that strange city. He couldn't help but feel marveled by any tiny thing surrounding him. The sharp noise of footsteps, the murmur of conversations filling the air, fruit stands in the middle of the street, even the trinkets they sold at various stalls, as if it were all a festival.

It felt like traveling to Disneyland and walking on the grounds that had forged his childhood, feeling under his feet every memory as if it were a brick of his oldest desires.

To his right, he saw a giant lizard passing down the street. This produced a giant cloud of dust as it passed, but no one seemed to give it importance, as if they were already used to it.

"It doesn't seem like cars exist here." In front of his eyes, a carriage was being pulled by a giant lizard. "Interesting..."

The allegory of using reptiles instead of horses. It was hilariously logical, within the isekai world. They seemed larger than a horse and their body mass seemed constant in relation to their proportions, but it was certainly disturbing to see reptiles of that size.

"Now that I think about it, I haven't seen dogs or cats around here, I wonder if they exist."

It might not have been long since he arrived. But in the several tens of minutes he had been walking in random directions, he hadn't seen a single animal he knew.

Nor did he seem to have seen any kind of magic or strange technique. It was a pity that this world didn't fit his fantasies; magic had fascinated him forever, and discovering that it wouldn't appear as soon as he arrived disappointed him.

Although of course, there were also cliché novels where magic wasn't the main theme and just a decorative addition. Subaru prayed that wasn't the kind of world he had ended up in.

Even so... this place is quite beautiful on its own. It's quite the Isekai experience. His eyes shone before the magic of his surroundings.

"Hey you!" he felt pointed at. "Yeah you, black-haired brat!"

Just in case, he looked around. He didn't want to look like an idiot.

"Me?" he couldn't help but point to himself.

"Yeah you! God, all of your type are equally dumb," snapped a man with a reddish beard, annoyed.

He quickly approached the tiny stall of trinkets of all kinds, and a hit of the smell of herbs and oil received him before he could even look at the objects.

The man didn't waste time and began to show him a wide variety of objects, which to be honest, were boring.

"Well boy, is there anything you like?" his eyes shone with greed.

This must be a textbook tutorial, thought Subaru, smiling with a certain irony while taking the opportunity to ask his questions.

In almost all RPG games, it was habitual to receive explanations about currencies or how the payment process worked. Personally, those 'tutorials' displeased him profoundly: they broke the immersion and made him feel like a hopeless idiot—which, sincerely, he was—incapable of doing something as basic as asking the price of an object to an employee who probably barely earned minimum wage.

Subaru really hated those redundant explanations, but, at that moment, he needed them. So he could only hope no one judged him.

"And how much is each one worth?" he gave his best smile.

He hoped to see if any special gift activated or, at least, verify if his money worked there.

"Huh?" the vendor looked at him confused. "Don't you see the price? It's here, look."

He quickly pointed to a wooden sign with some hieroglyphs that Subaru didn't understand in the slightest.

"Excuse me... uh, could you tell me what all this means?" Subaru was dying of embarrassment inside.

"Um, Okay?" He quickly began to explain the prices rapidly, without questioning him too much. "Well, which one are you going to buy?" The vendor didn't take his eyes off him.

The truth was that nothing in front of Subaru really interested him. But the vendor had been kind to him, so he pointed to anything that seemed minimally useful.

"I like this lamp." Unconsciously he looked at the streets, only to verify a detail.

There didn't seem to be any lampposts around the zones. It seemed correct to him; he doubted that in that world there were lampposts illuminating the streets.

He returned his gaze to his future acquisition: Its design was simple, almost crude. Small lamps, resembling iron cups or curled tinplate, sharpened at the front and with a short handle at the back, thought to be hung from a simple hook. Inside the vessel was a small opaque crystal, almost transparent; it reminded him of white quartz.

"Excellent choice," answered the vendor, observing the lamp in detail. "That would be a total of 8 silver coins."

His smile twitched upon hearing that, but he kept calm. He had hope.

Without delaying much, Subaru offered what he had in his wallet.

"What is this shit?"

The vendor looked at him as if he thought Subaru was playing a heavy prank.

Subaru shrugged, nervous. "Money?"

"Is this a joke?" he could only give him his best smile.

"...Uh, no?"

"Go to hell!" The vendor ended up kicking him out of his store with a barrage of stones.

It seemed this world used gold, silver, and copper coins. Their value was easy to understand, which undoubtedly fit the fantasy of a parallel world.

And it turns out copper coins were worth almost nothing and basically, in the vendor's eyes, he was trying to scam him with a dumb smile on his face.

A sequence of events undoubtedly unfortunate...

Well, at least I know my money is useless. Could be worse. He tried to console himself.

Maybe if he demonstrated they were from another country he could use them as copper coins?

And it was much worse...

In the end, not only did a single vendor send him to the fucking street with a barrage of stones. But a multitude of vendors who also approached him did the same with a multitude of objects, as soon as it was pointed out that he was without a 'penny' in his pocket.

His tracksuit was now dirty and full of stains that probably wouldn't be easy to clean.

"Go to hell, you damn scammer!" shouted a fat man.

He barely managed to dodge a rotten tomato flying straight at him.

"I'm not a scammer!" Subaru was fed up with everything. "Why is it so hard to understand that I simply—!?"

"It's the Sir Knight!"

Furious, he turned his head and saw an old woman pointing with a hatred that made his hair stand on end. Next to her, there were several tall and burly men, watching him.

"He's the boy who destroyed my apple stand 3 days ago."

"I did what—? Ahhh!" Before Subaru could understand what was happening. Dozens and dozens of people dressed in metal armor appeared from different sides. As if they were damn ninjas.

"Catch the fugitive!" They all shouted in unison.

This must be the moment where my special ability activates.

Subaru smiled confidently, put his hands on his hips, and waited with certain delight for his big moment.

He completely ignored how a semi-human man approached slowly. "Hands up kid, you are under arrest for damage to private property and disturbing the public order." He kept waiting confidently. "Do not resist, please."

He kept and kept waiting.

"You're going to pay me every coin, brat!"

Second by second.

Why is nothing happening? Sweat ran down Subaru's back.

"Leo, do you have a rope?" He began to doubt his own well-being. "Thanks, stay still."

A few meters in front of him, he gave up.

Subaru didn't hesitate for a second more, turned around, and began running for his life. The last thing he expected was to end up in a cell for something he hadn't done.

Where is my gift!? He pleaded.

"WHAT DID I DO TO ALL OF YOU!" Despair ate at his soul. "I HAVEN'T EVEN BEEN HERE FOR MORE THAN AN HOUR!" He shouted, but no one seemed to listen to him.

This was absolute chaos.

None of this was right.

"You won't escape this time!"

He just wanted to start over, clean his image, and make friends. He didn't understand what was wrong with that simple wish. Was it wrong to wish to be loved and recognized? Why was all this happening to him? What had he done wrong?!

"Ahhhh!", he shouted.

A multitude of obstacles painted themselves before his eyes: carriages blocking the path, people crossing non-stop, trash everywhere, poorly placed ladders, stones that made him trip occasionally. Every step seemed like an endless labyrinth.

"Shit, shit, shit," he muttered, turning into any random alley. "What kind of introduction is this!?"

Subaru didn't understand anything anymore. Everything had deviated from what he expected; there was no cliché he could cling to. The only thing that came to mind at that moment was to move his legs non-stop.

"Over here!" The knights were hot on his heels.

His lungs burned like never before, blood boiled in the soles of his feet. He felt like an actor in a poorly paid police action movie.

Only, to top it off, he was the one ending up handcuffed in a seedy cell, in a two-bit prison, with the nickname "the guy who holds everything for you."

Subaru didn't want to end up in a wheelchair. So he ran for the sake of his pelvis.

You have to be kidding... he thought, on the verge of tears of frustration.

A wall of dusty boxes stood in his way. Stacked in such a way that the only way to pass them would be ramming them all... and praying not to break his head. Bad idea.

Subaru took another detour and ran toward the first alley that came into his vision.

"Ha!" Hands surrounded his neck, at a speed he only dodged by reflex. "Tsk!"

His body went rolling by inertia toward the boxes.

This was going to hurt.

God, I know you and I never talk. But please, help me... He was seconds away from crashing. I promise that if I get out of this, I'll make an altar in your honor.

Crash!

His entire vision turned into a festival of greys, like a black and white movie at night. Only to light up suddenly, like an explosion that melted his retinas.

He almost tripped from the shock.

I can't see absolutely anything. His eyes struggled without even noticing his own arms. His hair had become sticky and dirty all of a sudden.

It smelled horrible.

"Gotcha!", a voice made all his hair stand up. Two strong arms pulled him by the chest. "Ha! Your luck ran out."

He felt his body being lifted like a rag doll. He tried to struggle, but it was useless; with his vision clouded and his body feeling increasingly tired from overexertion, he couldn't do anything.

"Let me go!" He pleaded.

Despair ate at him every second. He kicked helplessly, but it was all useless. Frustration burned in his heart, making him want to explode with rage. He didn't deserve any of this! This was all an unfair deal! He just wanted to go home right at that moment! He was fed up with all that crap of lies and undeserved mockery in his heart.

Why!? Why!? Why does this have to happen to me? Where is my heroine! I haven't done anything wrong!

From the second one, the moment he set foot in that strange city, everything had gone wrong. People criticized him for no reason, vendors threw trash at him just for having no money, the police of that world were searching for him now, and on top of that now his whole body smelled horrible; as if he had crashed into a shipment of manure.

He wanted to cry from anger.

"Huh? What the hell?" A tickle reached him from the nape of his neck. "Ugh! Oh god, that smell!"

Suddenly he felt his body being launched like a cannonball in an impossible direction. Spinning uncontrollably, floating among flashes of colors that mixed like blurry watercolors, until, suddenly, everything was swallowed by a bluish mist that made him feel tiny, as if the whole world had shrunk beneath his feet.

Wait a second, like what feet? He asked himself, stunned.

"Eh?", he exclaimed, while the wind clashed against his skin with violence.

WHY DID HE FEEL LIKE HE WAS FLYING!?

"They don't pay me enough for this shit," he heard someone complaining from the distance.

"Ahhhh!"

He was literally falling from who knows where! AHHHHHH!

Splash!

The water received him with a cold and wet blow that shook him entirely. The impact left him stunned: blurred vision, body trembling, while the current dragged him downstream without mercy, tumbling him like a rag doll.

Part 4

When he finally managed to get out of the river downhill, his clothes and body were soaked from head to toe. The hairstyle he once wore slicked back had disappeared, leaving only a droopy and pathetic mess.

At least I don't smell bad anymore.

A breeze lashed his weak body, making him tremble like a twig. Yeah, that didn't fix anything. He rubbed his hair furiously, desperate.

"What am I supposed to do now?" he asked himself.

He was sure the guards would keep looking for him and that the people of that strange world would keep looking at him badly... for things he hadn't done.

At least at home, he was to blame for his own misfortune. Here not even that.

It wasn't fair!

—I don't recall stepping on a mirror or falling into a pond —anxiety ran through his whole body—. So, why?

The last thing he remembered was looking at the sky and thinking: It's almost a full moon. And then, suddenly, the moon became the sun.

"Where did my superpower go?" he complained.

The only thing he could do in the face of so many misfortunes was run, dodge, and curse into the air like a pathetic worm. Heh... really, he could only expect that from himself.

Why had he even thought that traveling to another world would change anything? Natsuki Subaru would continue to be Natsuki Subaru, no matter where he was.

He looked at the carriages, pulled by giant lizards.

—That no one else pays attention to those giant lizards kills my hopes that this is all a reality show —he cursed the bastard or bitch who had brought him to that world without his consent—. I want to go home...

He was hungry, his clothes were dirty, his body frozen and, to top it off, he didn't have a place to rest. He had thrown himself under a seedy bench in a dirty alley, with legs and arms extended like noodles.

"What is the point of traveling to another world, if everything remains the same?" He observed the multitude of beast-men passing in front of him. "Why do I even try?"

At that moment, Subaru just wanted to give up.

His stomach roared with hunger. He looked at the bag of junk food he had bought less than an hour ago.

—I guess eating something won't hurt me, right?" He opened the first bag of chips.

Honestly, he hoped things would improve soon. He wasn't so enthusiastic about traveling to another world anymore.

He knew it was a bad idea. But he tried anyway.

"Excuse me, how much are the apples?"

He couldn't give up yet; he had to at least strive for the sake of his future.

I wish I had tried harder when I was home.

The thought of his parents crossed his mind, but now he wasn't in a position where he could just sit feeling nostalgic. Thinking that he had to do something in the current situation.

"Apples? What are you talking about kid?"

Subaru pointed to the green fruits.

"'Apples'," he explained again. "The ones you have on the counter. They are red, sweet and—"

"Okay, okay! I understood you, but those aren't 'apples'. They are appas, so please use the correct name."

"Appas?" he looked at him confused.

The vendor rubbed his eyes.

—I really don't understand —he said—. Why do more fools like you keep appearing? Had none of you kids seen an appa before? Where were you raised, in a desert?

"Ah, right... sorry for the trouble." Subaru nodded slowly. He took out of his wallet all the yen he carried with him, hoping the man would accept it, simply upon seeing a considerable amount of money.

—What the hell are you giving me, kid? —asked the vendor, taking all his money perplexed—. No way I'm selling them. —He shook his head—. Sorry, kid, I only work with real coins. If you want, you can go to an exchange house or whatever.

Another failure to his great list of misfortunes.

He sighed defeated. "Fine, where is the exchange house?"

—On the other side of the city, on North Street. You have to go through the diagonal alleys, then turn toward the district and you'll arrive. —he explained calmly—. Your coins might be worth a few copper ones, maybe even a silver one? —he mocked—. Definitely not gold, that is reserved for nobility.

They returned all his money calmly. Subaru could only hang his head, defeated. Not even he understood what he was doing with his life. He felt like Sisyphus himself, pushing a giant rock up a mountain, only to see it roll down again to the same starting point.

—Understood... —Subaru bowed his head with resignation and began to put away all the money he had—. Have a good day.

"...This is really going to be a problem."

With no money, no clear idea of what to do or where he was, the thought repeated over and over in his mind.

But no real solution occurred to him. Everything seemed to lead him into the same pit he had been running from all his life. He couldn't read the language of this strange place, couldn't write it, and didn't even have anything to feed himself decently. The only thing he possessed was a cup of instant ramen he had brought from the convenience store—pork bone soy sauce flavor—and a bag of chips bought at the same place, corn syrup flavor.

Junk food, incapable of helping him in the slightest, except to survive, with luck, a single day.

What was he supposed to do!? He couldn't even think of a coherent way to get a place to sleep for the day. He was completely broke and had no one to lean on.

Oh well, it wasn't entirely correct to say he had 'no' money. The wallet in his pocket was full of money, enough to go shopping if he had to... under normal circumstances. But in this case, "no money" is really the only way to describe this situation.

"Yeah, but the monetary system is completely different here, right...?"

He was the very definition of a 'bum in nice clothes.'

He ended up tossing his rare ten-yen coin with the serrated edge into the air and gave a deep sigh.

He really didn't have any features that stood out. He had short black hair and was of average weight, neither tall nor short. He was a bit muscular, as if he had worked out, and the cheap grey tracksuit he wore fit him quite well. He had small irises, so the whites of his eyes stood out, but right now, with the way his eyes were drooping, he didn't look very aggressive or defensive.

He looked common enough to quickly get lost in the crowd... but right now, most people passing by looked at him out of the corners of their eyes, as if seeing something strange they had never seen before.

But that was to be expected. After all, among all those onlookers, none of them had black hair, let alone wore a tracksuit. They had blonde, red, and brown hair... Some even had blue or green hair, among others. They wore armor or black robes; the kind of costumes a dancer would wear... that sort of thing.

While standing before the waves of stares, the young man crossed his arms and had no choice but to accept the truth.

"This has to be one of those..." he said, snapping his fingers and pointing toward the crowd of onlookers. "One of those so-called 'I've been summoned to another world' stories, right?"

No... it wasn't the same. The thing no longer had its magic; he simply couldn't get out of his head how terrible his situation was. Not after everyone seemed to expect something from him.

Maybe he should try to sell his clothes and phone? That way at least he could get a place to sleep and maybe somewhere to eat for the next few da—!

"Watch out for the cradle robber! Keep your daughters away from the powerful Lolimancer!"

A voice shouted behind his back.

"A-Ah!" he stammered, startled by the sudden shout.

He quickly turned around, only to observe two guys in modern clothing, making a scene and pointing.

"What the he—?" he questioned before being interrupted and pointed at like a circus monkey.

"Half-Elf Simp!" declared a boy of a similar age to his, with black hair and wearing a black t-shirt with the words 'ポルノハブ'  written in the middle.

Why would anyone wear that kind of shirt? Subaru didn't understand, but he couldn't judge, given how popular hoodies printed with ahegao faces were.

That someone would simply openly show that they loved that site; well, Subaru wouldn't see it as wrong. Personally, he thought that: "個人的にはエルフを題材にした漫画の方が好きでした”, were much better.

"We finally found you!" exclaimed another voice.

A huge smile shone on the boy's face.

Subaru didn't know what to think; he was too confused to understand what was happening. He had just been teleported to another fantasy world, then a crowd of people began judging him as if his mere presence were a problem, then crowds of vendors happily expected him to buy merchandise, and endlessly more.

Why did everyone expect something from him? He didn't understand, and that made him feel worse.

"Um, uh, eh..." he tried to speak but ended up failing miserably. He hated that his social skills were so terrible. He should have tried harder to speak in online games and not shut himself away in single-player games. "Who are you guys?" he managed to say after multiple errors.

The first boy widened his smile even more, bright as the sun. It seemed he had found the hero of his dreams in front of him. Were they confusing him with someone else?

"Oh, are you talking to, me?" the voice squeaked with excitement, excessively.

This was getting weird.

"Yes?" he hesitated.

The boy's smile widened further. "You see, we're simply fellow Iseka—"

From the distance, a new voice resonated: "YOU!!!"

Once again, everything seemed to take a 180-degree turn.

"Sacha Baron?!"

"BORAT!!!"

Dressed in a silver-grey suit, with dark brown hair—almost black—a Chevron mustache of the same color, a dark green shirt, a brown leather briefcase, and a gold tie. A very angry middle-aged man was running at top speed in their direction.

"Where is my chicken you chicken fucker?!!"

The shout left him more confused than scared.

"What the he—?"

THUD!

Before he or anyone else could react, he watched the middle-aged man ram into and send flying the boy who, a moment ago, was explaining everything to him.

Blood stained the cobblestone street.

A briefcase had slammed into the boy's face, knocking him to the floor and drawing a stream of blood from his nose. He even noticed how his teeth were dripping blood.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" The hatred in the boy's voice was clear.

"You know what I'm talking about you mothafucka!"

He quickly tried to help the boy who was on the ground, struggling against a middle-aged adult in a street fight only to be pulled away from them by the other boy.

"Not again, dammit!" cursed the other boy.

'What the hell is happening!?'

Subaru understood almost nothing. He didn't know much English, in fact he barely knew how to introduce himself in that language. But the only thing he understood is that a crazy fight was about to start.

"F-FUCK YOU!" He stammered while finding the right words. "THE HOLOCAUST NEVER HAPPENED!"

A small crowd formed around the trio whispering among themselves but without intervening about it.

"What the fuck?!" While he couldn't understand Borat, he could understand the boy thanks to him speaking Japanese, although in reality that wasn't helping at all.

Borat held his hand on his chest and took a big gulp of air as if he had been punched with all force in the stomach.

"Y-You are lying" Due to the mini-heart attack of the moment or from not finding the adequate words, he started speaking... Perfect Japanese?

"Oh yeah?! WELL I'M NOT!"

"LIES! ALL I HEAR ARE LIES COMMING OUT YOUR MOUTH!"

"I NEVER LIE IMBECILE!"

"I DON'T CARE!" Borat grabbed the boy by the shirt and lifted him from the floor. "WHERE IS MY CHICKEN, YOU GODDAMMIT ANIMAL FUCKER!!"

"SON OF A BITCH!"

While both argued the crowd started generating their own ideas regarding the encounter.

"Is he perhaps a racist against demi-humans? The guards should do something against that wretch!"

Guards!? He had to get out of there as fast as possible! Subaru had barely escaped by the skin of his teeth last time. Expecting to do it a second time was the same as asking to do a double mortal somersault.

"I'M GOING TO DO THE SAME TO YOU AS TO THAT ANIMAL!"

"I'M GOING TO SLIT YOUR THROAT LIKE A WOLF!",

"Hey, that's offensive!" shouted a werewolf, from the crowd.

"Fuck you, furry. In my town, people like you get sent off to be sacrificed!"

Several demi-humans in the crowd exclaimed offended; it seems that for them now there wasn't just one wretch here.

However, Borat didn't seem to care because he kept insisting on making the teenager retract his words.

Well at this moment both were giving each other mutual blows while rolling on the asphalt like 2 dogs fighting for a bone.

Subaru really wanted to escape from there. The problem was he didn't have the slightest idea what the hell was happening in this city of crazies, and his only opportunity to discover what was happening was being beaten to a pulp.

"I don't understand anything!" He exploded on the verge of a nervous breakdown. "Who are you?! Why am I here?! This is a dream, right? HOW DO I WAKE UP!"

Fuck anime or video games! He couldn't stand living in this circus called 'isekai' anymore; everything around him was an insult to his person. To everything he loved and to his parents.

The first thing he would do upon waking up was get out of his confinement. Resume school and thank his parents properly.

Subaru wanted to wake up from this nightmare.

"Subaru there is no time," he replied, ignoring his pain and his partner's. "I have to tell you something, very, but very important. To tell you."

"WHAT!?" He had said his name, right? Right?! "Wait, what, how? I never told you my name." The words tangled on his tongue.

"That doesn't matter now, we must take you to get mugged and maybe stabbed!"

"WHAT?!"

"NO, I DIDN'T MEAN THAT!"

"THEN WHAT DO YOU MEAN!"

"DON'T YELL AT ME!"

"YOU ARE YELLING AT ME!"

"YOU START—!"

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

Subaru refused to listen and tried to speak, only for a hand to cover his mouth forcefully.

—This is very important! —he insisted for the umpteenth time. That already seemed taken out of a bad alien invasion movie—. All this is very, very important! The fate of the capital is at stake, we need you, Subaru!

Eh? What the fuck did that crazy guy just say?

That he, Natsuki Subaru, was necessary? Could he be a hero? With what powers?! He had already discovered he wasn't different. He had no way to fight or be useful in the face of danger.

Then why did they look at him as if he were some kind of god? The stress of imagining fighting monsters, only to then be beaten to death churned his stomach, as if he were going to vomit at any moment.

"Ah... I think I understand."

If he was wrong again, he swore he would become a Buddhist.

"I think...? This is, without a doubt, the weirdest RPG introduction of my entire life..."

And boy was it.

He had never seen an anime or video game start with the protagonist being insulted, beaten, and chased to be taken to prison. The closest thing to that were the American police chase videos that circulated on the internet.

"What did you say?"

"That this is a game?"

"THIS IS NOT A GAME, IMBECILE!"

"Oops, sorry your majesty, for not wanting to get mugged and then stabbed," mocked Subaru. "Look, I've had a very, but very hard day. So don't expect me to happily accept getting stabbed without even being a hero or something like that."

"Blame Tappei! He wrote this shit!"

Who the hell is Tappei?

Yeah... definitely the best thing was to get out of there. Everything in this situation smelled bad, and Subaru was fed up with things always going wrong.

He wasn't going to be a buffoon for the masses.

—Yeah... uh, no —he said while starting to turn around—. There's no way I'll accept going into an alley to get stabbed.

Only an idiot would accept such a fate.

—DON'T GO, PLEASE! —the stranger pleaded, falling to his knees—. The fate of hundreds of thousands of people depends on you, Subaru! I don't want to die!

Dammit...

—Haa... —he sighed. Sometimes he hated his own heart—. You have thirty seconds to convince me, or I'm out of here.

He hoped he wouldn't regret it.

"THANK YOU! Oh thank you!"

"Hey, hey! Why are you trying to kiss my shoes?"

—Oh, um... right! —he lowered his gaze, got up, and resumed the speech—. A great threat looms over the capital of Lugunica! In a matter of hours, the entire city will be frozen by the Beast of the End. —

"That doesn't sound too bad."

"To death," he added at the end.

"Oh, that makes sense... shit." Subaru ran his hand over his face, irritated. "How do you know all this?! Wait a second, 'Beast of the End', actually that's a very good name. Is that what the Demon King of this world is called?"

"Technically... no, that's not the point. Elsa is going to kill Emilia and with that the whole capital will fall!"

This slowly seemed to take the shape of a plot too complicated for his taste.

"How do you know all that?", he questioned. "Am I the key piece or of what use am I? Do you travel in time or something like that?"

"Stop asking idiotic questions and come with me!"

His questions didn't seem to receive answers.

—Insulting me and then asking me to go on a suicide mission doesn't motivate me in the slightest!

Meanwhile, in the background, Borat kept fighting with the gooner. Without exaggerated movements, he was giving him a genuine beating. The demi-humans only saw two bastards fighting. Meanwhile, the humans even encouraged him to hit harder.

"Give him the chair!"

"Crucify him!"

"TAKE THIS PUSSYCAT!"

"NONONO WAIT WAIT WAIT"

BONG

Part 5.

Subaru felt he had made a monumental mistake by following the stranger. Every shadow in the alley seemed to whisper “damn fool” to him, and he couldn't understand how his life had reached this level of absurdity. He passed a hand over his face, dragging his fingers from his forehead to his chin, as if that way he could erase the whole situation.

“Where the fuck is Reinhard?!”, he screamed desperately.

Silence.

Subaru frowned. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The alley remained just as narrow, just as dark, just as useless.

Subaru didn't understand anything surrounding him anymore. He had followed the order he was asked, but nothing happened.

He no longer understood anything surrounding him. He had followed the order, word for word, he had even wasted several minutes trying to convince the other boy, who did nothing but give him strange orders, as if he were Google. Without really explaining why he was invoked, what was happening, why he needed him; always ignoring him with bad lies.

All so that in the end, he ended up in a dead-end alley.

“Who is Reinhard?” he asked again, tired.

Subaru gritted his teeth. He was tired. He was fed up. He was one step away from accepting that all this was an elaborate and cruel joke.

“You're not helping Subaru...”

“Then what am I supposed to do?” he clicked his tongue, crossing his arms with irritation.

He had racked his brains, trying to understand even a part of what the other boy knew. It wasn't his fault for understanding nothing.

“Subaru I need you to scream ‘Reinhard’ with me again, with the most feminine voice you can make. Do it as if your life depended on it,” he explained hurriedly, gesturing with both hands. “Because it does!”

Saliva fell in front of his face.

Subaru looked at him as if he had just asked him to jump into a volcano.

It really had been a terrible idea, listening to someone so crazy.

“Wait!” He called out on the verge of turning around. “If I call him.... am I going to get mugged and stabbed?”

If that happened, he wouldn't hesitate to turn around and run away. He still had the option of the exchange house.

“No one is going to stab you, idiot!” A sigh of calm escaped his lips. “Just maybe they’ll slice your guts open in a few hours, nothing to worry about. Now scream with me or we will all die!”

Only to end up coughing like a madman, upon hearing such barbarity.

“HOW THE HELL DID YOU CONVINC—! Screw it all,” he took a breath of air and shouted: “REINHARD!!!”

Nothing.

Had he eaten something expired? Weird bread, maybe? He no longer understood what he was doing with his life.

“REINHARD!!” He heard him scream again, the voice charged with pure desperation. “Dammit, it's not working! Subaru, hmm maybe if it's a woman..., Subaru we need you to cross-dress as Natsumi Schwartz or do something!”

The color abandoned his face instantly.

“HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?!”

This was the last straw, no, seriously! Even for him, that turned out excessive. He could stand being belittled, ignored, even insulted, because deep down he felt he deserved it. But being stalked? That was definitely a no.

“Dammit, uh... eto.”

“What do you mean ‘eto’?! You piece of shit.” At that moment the only thing he wanted was to hit him nonstop, over and over and over again. All so that he would expel the answers he needed so much.

He sighed.

“Subaru listen carefully—”

He didn't finish the sentence. Subaru grabbed him by the shirt forcefully and slammed him against the wall.

PAM!

“Oh no! You aren't going to ignore this!” he roared, forcing him to look him in the eyes. “You are going to explain to me how you know my name! Right now!” his breathing was agitated.

An uncomfortable silence filled the alley.

“Do you really want to know the truth?” whispered the boy, tired. “I'm warning you that you aren't going to like the answer.”

Oh, Subaru already knew that kind of story. He wasn't going to feel pity for an idiot trying to take advantage of him. He suspected that, in reality, he wasn't important, just a disposable object used to call the true star of the show.

“How do you know about Natsumi Schwartz?!” he gritted his teeth. “Only my parents know that! Are you a stalker or something?!”

“I-I—”

PAM!

He slammed him against the alley wall again. Harder.

“ANSWER ME!!”

He was fed up. So fed up that he felt he was going to lose his mind if he didn't receive a coherent answer right at that instant.

"Subaru calm down!” He tightened his grip harder, making just breathing a monumental task. “Hh... hhk... okay, okay... God... I'm going to regret this.”

“ANSWER ME!!”

There was no answer. What followed was a brief, but brutal struggle. Kicks, punches, headbutts, neither yielded an inch.

“STOP IGNORING ME ALREADY!”

“....”

“Ple... ase,” he begged on the verge of madness.

“....”

Neither spoke.

The suspense was killing Subaru. There was nothing he desired more in the world than to run and hide from that whole situation.

He was starting to regret being so brutal and rude. What if he hated him and didn't tell him anything? Subaru didn't want to kill his only hope of...

An exhalation hit him full in the face. “Listen carefully...” those words sounded like drops of water, in a desert. “We are in an anime, with gore, that easily if it were a bit more explicit, would be banned in more than 47 countries.”

Then the bomb dropped and left destroyed everything Subaru thought he knew about fantasy.

They didn't let him process anything. “Subaru, we saw your whole life.” Everything became blurry in his head. “You are fucked. But SO FUCKED.”

“W-What?” he stammered.

Strength abandoned him. Subaru couldn't manage to hold what he had in his hands and stepped back. Suddenly, the ground beneath his feet stopped feeling firm.

“That can't be.”

It is said that a drowning man will grasp at straws to survive.

“This is a dream, right?” He wished to wake up; he needed to wake up at that very instant. “This isn't real, this isn't real, this isn't real!”

All of this was a damn nightmare! A nightmare that only screamed obvious things in his face. Why did he even think there would be logic? He wanted to laugh, seriously he wanted to laugh.

“Hahahahahahaha!” And he laughed, laughed like he never could before. “Now I understand everything! All of this must be a hidden camera prank! God... oh god, I feel like a fool.”

He slapped his forehead, and swept his hair back.

He had to admit the whole situation was very funny, he had fallen right into the trap. A complete buffoon.

“How could I believe I was special? Why did I even believe my dreams would come true? Fool, fool, you are a fool: Natsuki Subaru.”

He had no salvation.

“Subaru, I...”

Living in school albums.

“DON'T YOU DARE CALL ME!”

He hated that they felt pity for him. Was he just a toy? What a bad joke.

“YOU! You! I really don't understand how I could even listen to you.”

The truth is that he did understand.

“Subaru really was a fool, a big fool.”

His role was already decided the moment he was born, he was just a clown. With whom others could play and have fun.

“Hahaha! God this is so funny. I mean, I bet you can't even tell me something about me, that hasn't already been sai—”

“Subaru, before leaving, you should have washed the cup.”

The image of his two parents appeared spontaneously in his head.

A chill ran down his entire spine. The blood of his sanity began to drain painfully, it burned, it burned as if he were set on flames.

“H-How... how do you know that?”

Panic invaded him.

He was scared, very scared. For a second he had forgotten how to flee, his heartbeats had been engulfed by unparalleled terror and had paralyzed.

“...We saw everything,” he repeated, with the same damn tone of voice, tired and defeated.

“...”

Liar.

“Liar, liar, liar, liar, liar, liar, liar, liar.”

LIAR!

”We saw everything like in a damn Anime, Manga, Light Novel and all that Japanese shit.”

This was the worst lie he had heard in his life! It was pure trash.

He forced his whole body to return, all to be able to look him in his eyes. All of this was a damn lie, a disgusting and horrifying lie.

“YOU LIE!” he shouted without knowing how to control his voice. “If you saw about me, you should know the name of my—!”

“Natsuki Kenichi and Naoko.”

He felt like a cornered animal.

“...Is this, a dream? Please, tell me it's all a dream,” he begged, squealed.

This had to be a lie.

“I'm sorry...”

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, No! Please, don't say it! I implore you!

“Natsuki Subaru, I am truly sorry.” NO! “But it is the truth.”

“....”

“Why...?”

“Why am I in a place like this?”

He had assumed that everything there was nothing more than a lie, a beautiful and sweet lie.

He wanted to embrace it, love it, he wished with all his heart to merge with it; for all that to be real.

“But not in this way...” He lamented.

What he had seen, the people he had met, the conversations they had experienced, the feelings generated as he remembered them, the events that had occurred... he had seen everything with his own eyes.

All for the desire to be someone, to have a life that belonged to him.

So, he decided to believe with all his heart in those who allowed him to smile even for a second. Year after year, in that horrible loneliness, as if it were the only thing that reminded him that there was something he couldn't disappoint.

Without knowing that the reward for such insolence and recklessness would be to experience such intense pain.

“Damn... oh, damn,” his knees couldn't support his weight anymore. “Either you are the biggest stalker in history or my entire life is a lie.”

He looked at the sky, the clouds, the sunlight.

Was all that fake? He simply couldn't accept it. His heart screamed that every thing he lived through was important, really important to him.

Hunched on the ground, he buried his face in his hands, breathing with difficulty.

“Was it all part of an anime? No... it can't be...”

He lifted his neck, sharpening his gaze. He looked at the boy in front of him.

“I don't know you.” He doubted it mattered. “I don't even know your name.”

That hurt him a lot. He didn't wish to be a toy, he wanted to be appreciated and valued.

“But apparently you know everything about me and I have no idea who the hell you are.”

The whirlwind of emotions overcame him.

“I can't believe absolutely anything you say!” he shouted, spitting on the truth of the world.

If living meant learning to accept that truth, then Subaru preferred to die, locked in his room for the rest of eternity.

The only thing he had left were those stories, those beautiful stories. They couldn't expect to dirty them and twist them in that way, in front of his eyes. And that he would be okay with that.

“You don't have to believe me,” he responded with sweetness. “I'm sorry I had to tell you like this.”

His eyes stung. His nostrils were getting moist.

“You're sorry?” he questioned with a hoarse voice.

He felt dead inside.

Only a few hours ago, he was living comfortably his boring daily life. There was no danger there, in the worst case, he worried about his long-term future. There were no knights chasing him, nor people insulting him for things he didn't do.

Sure, he was a hopeless failure. But that was his fault, not others'.

–– He had just been in a place where at most he only needed to face the gaze of his mother and father.

He wonders what had gone wrong. He had just gone out to buy at a convenience store, anxious for someone to notice him. Worried that someone would notice how he took advantage of his loving and incredible parents. He hadn't been a good son. And thus, he had tasted death. However, he wasn't dead... was he crying?

In retrospect, thinking about it carefully...

“...At least I should have said 'See you later'” He didn't understand. “Why did I do it?”

She had told him ”Take care”, mom had told him ”Take care”, with so much love.... Then, why didn't he answer?

“I didn't wash the cups left in the kitchen sink.”

“Look, I'm just telling you everything I know. And before you say anything, I get it. All this must seem crazy. Being dragged to another world without warning, leaving your parents behind, not being able to read the language here, having no money... hell, not even a place to sleep.”

“I'm sorry...”

He felt his throat closing in a squeal of unimaginable pain and despair. All the emotions he had repressed over the years threaten to overflow him.

“Huh?“

“I'm sorry,“ he repeated.

I didn't wash the cups. I didn't feel like washing the brown stains that were stuck to them after drinking that hot cocoa. If I had responded to mom's voice, if I had started a conversation with her, she would have told me to wash those cups.

“I'm sorry.” tears wouldn't stop running down his face. “I'm sorry, God I really am sorry.”

Subaru tried with all his strength to stop the tears that began to run from his eyes, but it was impossible. His walls that he had built with so much effort throughout those unbearable years of loneliness were breaking slowly.

“Subaru?“, he ignored the voice.

“I'm sorry, I'm really sorry.” He didn't want this. “I'm sorry for being such a hateful son, I'm sorry for being useless, sorry for always causing you trouble.”

He knew it was useless.

“I'm sorry,“ he repeated in a loop.

They were no longer there, he could never again tell them what his heart desired. He would die knowing he always only caused trouble, taking advantage of their love, without ever returning anything of what they gave him.

That is why he cried.

“I didn't say anything to mom or dad, I didn't wash the cups, and then I ended up here. I-I, I, I am so sorry.“

His entire vision had become an impossible-to-recognize disaster. The only sound he heard were his useless apologies, accompanied by his annoying crying.

He looked like a spoiled brat, throwing a tantrum.

Truly pathetic.

“S-So...”, snot was running down his nose.

Subaru's breath got caught in his throat. He didn't even know what he was saying anymore.

“Subaru calm down!” a voice shouted in his ear.

“...!”

Stunned, he hit his head against the brick wall.

“Ahhh!”, he moaned in pain and confusion.

The physical pain, for a second eclipsed the storm of despair he was.

“Subaru, breathe!“, he felt arms shaking him from side to side.

“Huaj, huah, haaa”.

His head burned with inflammation, while tears and moans seemed to surface again.

“Shit, this isn't working.“ His head began to beg for forgiveness. “Subaru don't lose hope!“

He sounded as if he pitied him. It seemed he sympathized with him. It seemed he was trying to take care of him even when he seemed to crumble just like him.

But that didn't matter to him.

“Hope?“, he murmured, with a hoarse voice. “What hope?“

For Subaru, nothing made sense anymore. He had appeared in this world, with the intention of starting over.

He just wanted friends.

He wanted to stop feeling so bad about himself.

So, so disgusting. He hated every part of himself, he hated his laziness, his cowardice, his weakness, his lust, his pathetic and insignificant pride. He hated every part of him.

“The hope that tomorrow exists,” he explained. “You have a future, we have a future... I think.”

That only crushed his spirit, more than it already was.

“What future?“, they had told him everyone would die in a matter of hours. “We will both die, I will die. I will die. I will definitely die without ever apologizing to my parents...“

Without washing the cups, without even saying a word to my good-hearted mother, I will die in this place. I will die, always knowing I shouldn't have been born, only causing trouble, without even washing a miserable cup.

“That's a lie!“, he exclaimed.

Subaru didn't believe it in the slightest.

“There must be a way to return.” He wanted to mock those words. “We arrived somehow, so there has to be a way to return.”

“.... “

Subaru looked at him with dead eyes.

That explanation, although ‘logical’, had no real answer. It was only an assumption, based on stupid and childish desires.

“Traveling between worlds...”

The sole idea of thinking, that even that was possible, was stupidity of the highest level. Such an idea was just fantasy, considered a word-of-mouth joke. An idea to let flow all the things that were hidden and rooted in people's minds, with miserable lives.

Like Subaru.

Expecting to travel to another world by accident was already crazy. Controlling it was a new level. So how was he supposed to return home? Subaru didn't even know where he was. Expecting to return home was nothing more than a stupid dream...

Unless...

“You said my life is an anime, right?”

Subaru didn't care anymore that his value as a person and individual was reduced to less than an object.

He deserved it.

“Yeah? Look I don't like where your thoughts are going“, he ignored the last part.

“How do I go home?“, he demanded.

The boy in front of him seemed to know more than he appeared. So much so, that Subaru couldn't even imagine, how much he knew.

“If anyone else told me my whole life was entertainment, I would tell them to fuck off”, he explained. “But ‘you’, you are special. If anyone knows how to go home, it must be you. Tell me please.”

He didn't hesitate for a second to get on his knees and beg.

Subaru didn't know where he had gotten such a terrifying calm. Maybe he had cried so much, he was now empty? Or maybe he was simply too tired? The truth is, it doesn't matter. He didn't matter, only expiating his sins mattered.

“.... “

“Well?“, he waited impatiently. “How do I go home? I will give you everything I have, just answer me, please.“

“... You know I would like to ignore you right now and pretend everything is fine”, he began very unpleasantly. “But I know you will kill me if I do that.“

“Exactly. And very painfully, by the way,” he thought.

If that man turned back, after destroying him so irreparably. Subaru would do things he would regret for the rest of his miserable life.

“So, yes or no? Shakespeare.“ He hated moments full of suspense.

“The truth is I don't know”.

A painful void returned forcefully to Subaru's insides.

“I figured...”

Fool and naive. Fool and naive. He really doubted there existed anyone more stupid than him.

“But that doesn't mean I don't have ideas.“

His eyes almost popped out of his sockets.

“Huh? “

Subaru was now very confused. Wasn't he supposed to not know how to return?

“How?“, he demanded.

“Look, this is too long to explain. But throughout your work, I have seen, read and heard a multitude of theories or ideas to return to Earth.”

Great, just what was missing. Now it seemed he had a huge list of stalkers, from the eighth dimension.

“Just get to the point, please“, he snapped.

“Fine, fine. I was getting to that actually“, he grumbled. “Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, theories and strange texts.”

A nervous tic grazed Subaru's eye.

“Stop joking, or I will break your face.“

He wasn't up for jokes or pranks.

“I know. I'm just trying to put my thoughts in order. How do you explain to someone a world where magic and the impossible are real? And make it make sense.”

That was reasonable. He would also go through the same, if he tried to explain to one of those peasants about the Internet or automobiles.

“Fine, I'll start by explaining the most probable and quick explanation I can think of.”

Finally getting to the important part, Subaru complained mentally.

“Look, in this world there is a nation called Kararagi, a few weeks of travel from the capital of the country we are in. There, there is a ‘Great Geyser’, a massive rupture in space and time that manifests as an ordinary, everyday water geyser. Anyone who falls into it disappears from this world, some theorize it is a gateway to another dimension. It is, by far, the fastest and simplest way I can think of to send someone beyond the great waterfall.”

Of all the terms mentioned, it was the one he least understood. At least he could understand without so many problems about that ‘Great Geyser’, which was just a, wormhole? The truth is he wasn't sure anymore.

“Hey, aren't black holes supposed to be absurdly compressed matter that absorbs everything? If so, how are we talking? Shouldn't this world have ceased to exist?”

“No, dummy! If you got into a black hole you would just stretch like a noodle. The correct term is wormhole,” he explained with a playful tone, lifting a finger as if he were a professor giving a lecture.

“But that doesn't answer my question. A wormhole is just two points connecting distant places in space and time. Black holes are supposed to function as entry points, right?”

“Emm... well, I... uhhhh... damn, I shouldn't have based all my knowledge on tiktok shorts,” he hesitated. To tell the truth, it seemed he had hit the mark. “And how do you know all that?”

“I'm a neet, good for nothing. With a lot of free time.”

“Yeah, sometimes I forget that little detail about you,” he murmured barely audibly. “Well, the truth is I don't know exactly how that fragmented thing in space and time works, but at least I know it is stable. And that it sends anyone who approaches to the other side.”

That didn't resolve Subaru's doubts at all. On the contrary, it made him question everything he thought he knew. Had he wasted years of his life reading and watching fantasy just so that, when he was finally inside one, he understood absolutely nothing?

“I really shouldn't feel hurt by that comment...”

But he was. It hurt.

“....”

“Emh.. I'm very sorry if I was very rude, but did you understand what I told you?”

The only thing I understood, is that he didn't understand anything either.

“Yeah uh... of course”, he smiled bitterly. “I'm fine, it's just that I have no idea what the Great Waterfall is.”

He had found the word ‘Great Waterfall’ unknown. Sure, he knew what a waterfall was, but, a waterfall big enough to be named ‘The Great Waterfall’? Could he even imagine such a thing? No, even more importantly, what was the connection between this great waterfall and returning home?

“Oh right, I forgot for a second that you've been here for less than 1 or 2 hours, since you arrived. Ups, hehe.”

“....”

“Well the Great Waterfall is the edge of this world, you can consider it the end of our existence.“

Unconsciously a mental image painted his imagination. Video games like Far Cry 3, GTA San Andreas and Minecraft came to his world.

“The end of the world? That sounds like the exploration limit of a video game.”

The problem, is that his world wasn't a 3D video game... I think.

“.... How does that work?“

Subaru didn't understand anything.

“Look, I don't want to sound rude“, he began. “But I'm not good at philosophical and metaphysical things. This is a serious topic.”

“Subaru“, said the stranger no longer so unknown. “I am not being metaphorical or philosophical. I speak very literally, the Great Waterfall is the end of the world.“

“....” He blinked several times. ”Is this a joke?“

His face looked like a dried raisin just considering that the universe had an end. Something that was noticed.

“Subaru!“, he reprimanded annoyed. “How can you believe I'm joking? “

They had literally told him to go to an alley to be mugged and stabbed. Was he supposed to not take everything with humor? Subaru wasn't a masochist.

“Sorry, sorry”, he apologized. “It's just that... I quite like how that sounds: ‘the edge of the world’”, he joked.

That was a lot to process.

“Bruh.”

“Ooh, sorry because I like the concept of the end of the world being a waterfall. It does sound very cool...” He defended himself as best he could. “God, I feel like I'm in some divine pantheon, do gods exist in this world?“

“Oh yes, several”, he explained. “In fact we are in the presence of one, at this moment.”

“WHAT?!“, he shouted and looked everywhere. “Where?“

He quickly looked around. But didn't manage to find anything.

“You are breathing it, you are stepping on it and you are feeling it right now.”

That sounded like Buddhist trash.

“What on earth does that mean?“

Subaru pointed at him with a face of confusion. He and his whole family were atheists.

“Oh, better forget it. We are straying from the topic”, Subaru accepted reluctantly. “The point is that if we go to Kararagi and wait for the ‘Great Mogolade Geyser’ to appear, yes, that is its name. There exists the possibility that we return home”, he explained.

Subaru felt there was hope.

“Great!”, he exclaimed. “There is no time to lose, we must hurry.“

He quickly grabbed him by the arm and prepared to run off, to sell his things to the exchange shop.

“Hey, hey! Wait a little”, he reprimanded him. “I haven't even finished explaining everything to you, you know?“

“But what about the ‘Great Mogolade Geyser’? If we don't hurry, one might start and we get trapped here, for who knows how long.”

In Subaru's mind, he could imagine getting trapped for decades. And only returning when his parents had already died of old age.

“Firstly, I don't think one will appear soon, they only appear every certain time. Secondly, how can we even ensure that returns us home? Or furthermore, will we survive the currents of the typhoon? Our bodies are quite weak, Subaru. I don't think we'll last more than a few seconds, before becoming meat paste.“

Subaru paled, imagining how he could have happily jumped to his own death.

“Then what do we do?“, he questioned him.

“I was getting to that. Look I know a person who might be able to help us, the problem is I have never spoken to him. So I don't trust him to help us blindly.”

“Man that sucks.“

They were back where they started.

“I know“, he said shrugging. “Fine, second option. We can try to investigate magic, so as to create a spell that allows us to travel between worlds and... why are you looking at me as if I had a mental disability?“

“Maybe because you are saying nonsense?”

Actually it was better to say, that all of this was nonsense.

“It is not nonsense!”, he complained annoyed. “Magic can do very crazy things, you can literally summon a damn meteorite!“

Subaru didn't buy the story a third time. He had accepted he didn't have real value, he bet an ant had more value than him.

“That sounds like something only a world top could do.” Subaru thought a little. “Something like Madara Uchiha.“

“Meh, yes and no. In general we could learn it, it's just a matter of having enough magical knowledge and the mana to do it.“

“Friend, with that explanation. Even you and I could make a nuclear bomb, with enough knowledge and resources.“

He was already starting to discard that second idea.

“Shut your snout Subaru”, he silenced. “And let those who actually know how everything works here speak“

“Tsk! “

“Fine. Look I faithfully believe that we can create spells that modify reality in our favor, I mean, I know a guy who managed to create 3 spells capable of modifying the laws of space and time. Allowing him to be immune to any attack or teleport, the last one I don't know what it was. But before that, he managed to create a damn black hole.”

“Why are you staring at me?”, he continued. “Is it because I'm Japanese? “

“Forget it“, he dismissed with his hand. “The point is that it is possible to use magic to return.“

“Fine, I'll buy it with a grain of salt“

“Oh wow! Incredible, thanks Mr. Half-Elf Simp.“

“I don't even know what simp means!“

“Whatever, would you like to hear the third plan I can think of?”

“The truth is I'll pass on it, I already understood your point.”

“And what point would that be?”

“That there is no easy way to return home. One way or another, we will have to spend a lot of time here.”

“It won't be many, like 2 years or around there, maybe 1 at most if we are lucky. Of course if we survive today's threat.”

“That doesn't make it better...”

Honestly, Subaru was actively struggling to process everything that was and had lived throughout the last two hours. He doubted he could really listen and on top of that process another crazy idea.

“For me it does.” He looked at him waiting for explanations. “I mean, it's just 1 or 2 years. The truth is it's almost nothing, for all the madness we are living, one would think it would be decades or centuries.”

“I guess... you're right.”

How annoying.

“Exactly man! Don't be so negative, Subaru.”

This very same felt a pat on the shoulder.

“Never lower your gaze, because if tomorrow exists, hope exists.”

“From what site did you get that cheesy phrase?”

“Oh, well I think I got it from a video about—, Hey!”

“Pfff!”, he did his best not to laugh. “Hahahahahahahahahaja!”

He didn't succeed.

“Hey stop laughing!”

“Hahahahahahahahaha! I'm sorry, but it's just—, Hahahahahaha!”

“You are rude!”, he complained.

But he didn't seem annoyed, instead he smiled. He seemed to enjoy that the tension had diminished.

The truth is Subaru was the same.

“Hahaha... haha... ha, ahi wow, that was incredible.” He wiped tears of joy from his eyes. “My apologies, man. The truth is I needed it, I felt I was going to die of suspense, before we got out of this disgusting alley.”

“It's okay”, he accepted his apologies, with a smile. “The truth is I needed it too.”

“Excellent. I'm glad to have helped you, uh, fellow isekai?”, the truth is he didn't even know his name. “Sorry, the truth is I don't know what to call you or, even what are you? Not to be rude, but you don't seem to be a wretch like me.”

The guy knew where they were, what they should do, how to return home, hell. Most likely he was a better protagonist than him.

It wasn't very difficult in fact. Subaru was a disaster in everything he did. He didn't doubt in the slightest, that he would be replaced as protagonist and end up relegated as a secondary character.

“What am I? Hmm, well I am a middle-aged man. Who was watching television and suddenly was taken to this world, for no reason.“

Subaru thought he heard wrong.

“Excuse me, could you repeat what you said?”

“The part about watching television? If it's that, well I was watching Golden at 3 am. And let me tell you, television sucks. Never waste time on it, better watch Brazzers.“

“Brazzers? I don't know any studio like tha—!”

“I never said anything about it being a studio... Could it be that you already knew them from before?”

“Wait a second, what? No!“, he denied quickly with his head. “That wasn't what I wanted to talk about, it was the other thing!“

“About getting Isekai'd out of nowhere? “

“Yes!“, he squealed. “How is that possible? Aren't you perhaps a kind of demi-god, like Captain Atom. Who came to help me, in my future misfortune?“

Something like Navi from Ocarina of Time.

“Friend, you should stop watching so much anime. It's melting your brain.”

“Then what was I supposed to do?“, he complained.

He had too much free time, to just sit there like an idiot.

“Touch grass? Talk to a woman?”, he suggested. “I don't know.“

“Hey! That's offensive.”

“When was the last time you touched grass?“, he questioned.

Subaru wanted to say it had only been a few weeks, but he kept and kept traveling back in time.

“I think it was six months ago”.

The truth is he doubted it was just six months. Maybe even seven or eight.

“Bruh.”

“Enough already!“, he complained. “Can we stop talking about me?”

“Then what do we talk about?”

“About you!“, he pointed at him furious. “You literally told me you got isekai'd, just like me.“

“Exactly. “

“Then who are you?“

“A normal guy?”, he responded very confused.

“B-But...”

He had no words to describe his doubts.

“Did you think, I was a guardian angel or something like that?“

“Well, I... suppose.“

He shrugged, not daring to look him in the eyes.

“Meh, sorry man. But no, I think God abandoned us or maybe hates us“, he added. “I am simply a normal guy, just like you. That's why as soon as I saw you, I begged you for help“

“That doesn't make much sense”, he questioned. “Then how is it that you know so much about me? I don't remember there being a series about me on Earth and much.“

He did his best to remember he had Alzheimer's. But, no? He hoped that wasn't a bad thing.

“Multiverse”, he responded.

The word sounded very familiar to him.

“Multiverse?“, more words resonated in his mouth. “Hey, I'm not much for reading American comics. So I only know the basics. So I'm sorry to ask you so much, but how are you so sure about that?“

He wished infinite realities didn't exist. Oh that would make his mission to return home, already difficult, into something impossible.

“Well let's say that not only me, you and my companion were teleported here out of nowhere. In fact dozens and dozens of people appeared too, without any context.“

Dammit, just what was missing.

“WHAT!?”

“Yes, it's crazy. Hell, Sacha Baron Cohen is here saying he is Borat and we are all pretty sure he is the real Borat, with a life completely separate from all this in Kazakhstan.”

“...The real Borat? How the hell is 'the best reporter of the glorious country Kazakhstan travels to America', here!?"

—Subaru believed he was in some kind of comic arc, a kind of Crisis on Infinite Earths from DC. But unlike that, here there were only ugly and poor people. What a misfortune, thought the narrator.

"Thanks to the multiverse? Look, not even I understand what is happening. Just accept it.”

“B-But...!”

“Just accept it, man, it's not that hard!”, he interrupted him brusquely. “Speaking of the multiverse, I don't think your life was a lie. I am sure you lived a completely real life, just like me. I mean, I am here. And I can say you are as real as me, or even more. So don't belittle yourself thinking nonsense, okay?”

Didn't this man know anything else, other than hitting him where it hurt most?

“.... I'm sorry, but I can't”, he apologized. “Everything is going too fast, I can't keep up with this.“

“Just keep it simple. Use the idea that: ‘a wizard did it’“, he explained. “And you'll be fine.“

“That doesn't reassure me, regarding my identity crisis.”

“Well, if it serves as consolation. At this point I don't even know, if everything I saw or read, is real.” Subaru didn't find that last comment funny. “Besides it doesn't matter much either, because we are on the verge of certain death without the walking nuclear bomb called ‘Reinhard van Astrea‘. Much less can we ask the thing that brought us here to return home.”

“So, are we going to live or die?“

If he was going to die, at least he hoped to know.

“Who knows. At this point the situation of this world, is like giving a shotgun to a monkey”, he explained. “With so many people changing the plot, no one knows what's going to happen. Just like the monkey with the finger on the trigger.”

“He will pull the trigger and we will die, I suppose?”, Subaru resigned himself. “Look I try to be positive, but it seems everything will end badly.”

“Maybe yes, maybe no. Like I said: no one can really know what that monkey will do”, he added. “He can perfectly stick his penis in the shotgun barrel and pull the trigger or shoot us to death.”

“What the fuck is that metaphor?! Was that comment about the monkey even necessary?!”

Disgust filled Subaru's entire mouth, a very clear and graphic image, remained engraved in his soul.

“Yes, it was very necessary. To quantify how bad off we are“

“...”

“That was totally unnecessary.” he insisted.

Really his companion was a complete madman.

“Think what you want.”

Subaru just sighed dejectedly.

“Look, I think you are being too negative. Even if your knowledge doesn't seem so reliable anymore, at least it must serve you for something. Like for example, who are my adventure companions? I don't think I could have overcome this first act, alone.” he reasoned. “After all, I am a disaster of the worst kind.”

That whole situation sounded like he was in a coma. Natsuki Subaru was despicable trash, him being the protagonist, sounded like a bad plot.

“Well, your companions were supposed to be here for this first arc. One was Reinhard, but he didn't appear and the other neither.”

“Other?”

“Yes it's a girl named Emilia. You helped her recover an insignia for saving you from some muggers”, he pointed to the alley where they were. “And incidentally you fell in love, to then simp for her nonstop.”

Sounded like something he would do.

“Was I that pathetic?”, he questioned himself.

“Yes”, he affirmed without doubting. “You caused a lot of second-hand embarrassment sometimes, but even so, you are loved with your defects.”

“Hey... that was a low blow friend, a very hard one by the way.”

Unconsciously he couldn't help but touch his side and moan in pain. One thing was that they saw him as a pathetic insect, but a very different one was that they accepted him with that.

It felt like talking to his parents, regarding his continued failures.

“Yes and it is good, that you realize, your own defects. I wouldn't like to see you repeat the same mistakes.”

A grimace of pain formed on his face.

Most likely he was going to disappoint him, Natsuki Subaru was a failure.

“Eh, hey. I think it is too much on your part, to prevent that”, he argued.

The Subaru this guy knew, seemed to be one with experiences and very ahead of him. He doubted it was coherent to compare two men, where one was imaginary and the other real.

Oh well, the line of real and unreal was so diffuse. That it made no sense to compare it anymore.

The only thing that still kept Subaru standing, was a line from René Descartes: ‘I think, therefore I am’.

“I'm sorry, but seriously, listen to my opinion”, he insisted uncomfortably. “Emilia I don't think is something I recommend to you, she is too slow with her feelings.”

“I don't think it's that bad.”

He seriously wished it wasn't that bad.

“You confessed to her and kissed her. Then we waited for her answer for more than a year.”

Please, please, please. Leave me something good for once.

“But in the end she said yes?”, he prayed hopefully.

“Damn pigeon, eating crumbs.”

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

“Hey! Yes or no?”, he prayed pitifully.

“Meh, the truth is you are still waiting, when they took me here.”

“FUCK ME!”

“I told you”, mocked the idiot in front of him.

“Fuck off!“, he insulted resuming sense. “But, didn't you see my whole life? Do you not know my ending?”

“Uh, no.”

He watched with desperation, as he scratched his ear and picked trash out like a monkey.

“Why!?”

It is said that a drowning man will grasp at straws to survive. That was the definition of Subaru at that moment.

“How to give you an example, Hmm...” he thought about it. “Have you watched all of One Piece?”

“Yes”, he looked away, ashamed after realizing he confessed watching more than 570 episodes of an anime in his time of idleness.

“What? Really?”, he exalted. “Well I haven't damn it, how do I explain this to you?”

“Fine, Subaru you have to understand something. Your work had so many episodes and novels that I was too lazy to read it all. I think no one here has read fifty or seventy books of hundreds of pages each, much less the side stories where they celebrate your birthday...”

FINALLY SOMETHING GOOD!

“That means I have friends?”, asked Subaru, excited.

“...Well you have me, right?” Then he added. “And probably everyone in the inn. I mean, six of us joined your camp, just to help you and make your life easier, I guess.”

“Huh?”

Resetting system: Error 245–326, rebuilding database. ERROR, ERROR, ERROR.

“Hello? You still there?”

Error, error, error. Checking system backup.

“Um, oh, y̸e̶s̵ ̷I̶'̵m̶ ̵f̶i̴n̶e̴.”

“Sure? You sound weird.”

Subaru shook his head from side to side.

“Y-Yes, only I hear you said I had friends.” Subaru's mind was spinning everywhere. “Excuse me what did you tell me after that?”

He couldn't help but feel like a fool, just imagining that he, had....

“That we are.... friends?”, he heard the boy say.

A tear fell in that alley.

“I have... friends?”, he thought confused.

The word sounded so alien to him, that he felt he was living, a lie, a sweet, sweet lie.

Tears threatened to overflow him again.

“Look if it bothers you, I understand. I barely know you, so I'm sor—”

A whiplash whipped his whole body.

“No, no, no.” He quickly denied with his hands. “I am the one who must apologize, uh, friend? Man this is weird, I haven't had a friend since preschool.”

“Don't you dare cry, don't ruin this.” He bit his lip, making it almost bleed.

“Since preschool? Wasn't it just that you didn't talk to a girl since preschool?”

Good news, he wasn't going to cry.

“How do you know such an exact fact?!”

Bad news, it was discovered that his social level, had stagnated at the preschool level. Most likely if he looked for a partner, he could only have a chance with preschool girls.

And he wasn't a lolicon.

“Details, details, it's simply that I am a great fanatic—, Dammit!“ Subaru got scared seeing him almost tear his hair out, abruptly. “That is not the point, we are straying from the main topic again.”

“And what is the point Sherlock?” his voice sounded slightly more animated.

“Okay, the point is that surely there is a way to return to your home” He took a pause and saw the empty alley where there were supposed to be thieves or handsome swordsmen.

There were only poor and pitiful people.

“There is always a but...”

“But it won't matter because the only person who can save all our lives without casualties on the first try, is not in the capital and we are all going to die. Thanks to the fact that everyone here is civilians who are going to have to face a damn Dark Souls Boss in 1 vs 1 without knowing how to wield a damn sword well.”

“Friend, we already talked about this. Don't be so negative.”

It was ironic that he said it.

“Besides, I know I don't know you in the slightest, but honestly you are doing a terrible job convincing me to save your world with my isekai power or whatever. I don't think you truly expect me to go save the capital from the Demon King just like that”.

“Oh right your power, that.........”

“Does that mean I do have a power?” His doubts dissipated quickly and his mind traveled to the fact that he had an OP isekai power, ignoring that maybe his whole life was a reference to the Truman Show, but made anime and everyone knew his darkest secrets.

“Well hehehe“, he said regretting it. “You have the opportunity to do something very incredible, that counts as a power” he half-lied.

“And how do I activate it?”

Subaru already knew this move.

“....”

Most likely he had to force him to tell him-

“Subaru I don't want to die.”

“What?” An uncomfortable silence ran through the whole alley.

“Is it a joke?”, he asked very confused by the change of tone.

The truth is Subaru didn't know how to differentiate a joke from reality anymore.

“No.” he said narrowing his eyes and hunching over.

This one unconsciously looked behind his back, where a giant lizard was pushing a cart, like a mule blocking one of the exits of the alley vanishing all of his hopes to avoid this conversation.

“Why upon activating my power would you die?”

“...Look it's not because of your “ability”, I can't tell you more without risking myself...” He approached Subaru's ear ”Think that its activation method is like in... Persona 3” He said everything very carefully and fear? He didn't understand why he said Persona 3 in English instead of Japanese he was pretty sure he spoke good Japanese but quickly forgot that detail.

“Maybe I am a persona user!”

He understood that his activation method was like in the game, being on the verge of a situation of extreme stress so he could understand why he didn't like the idea of telling him how his ability worked, although he believed he was exaggerating with risking himself by telling him.

He thought about making a reference to how they were summoned in Persona 3 to lower the tension, but he retracted at the last moment. For fear of appearing as crazy as his Isekai companion.

“...Yes, forget all that it was stupid it's not like in that game.” And that was how his dreams died.

He continued. “And actually......... you don't want to know the answer. If we get lucky, maybe you never have to use it”, he added. “Another important point is that you and I can use magic. Except that well... we need to pay money to wizards to learn it, you know, hehehe, nothing is free in this world.”

“Makes... Sense?”, he tried to console himself. “But, doesn't that mean we could all be equally strong?”

“Well.. Yes? I mean, I don't know what you expected to get out of this situation.”

‘And there go the dreams of being an OP protagonist with a harem of super cute elf girls. I am just as incredible as everyone else. Yippee?’

Sigh

“I suppose there is no way to make us so OP in a short time”, what a shitty isekai. “And that's why you know what will happen in the future? Like in those weird light novels where readers end up inside the story to save the protagonists from their final fate?”

He prayed it wasn't like that.

“Ehhhh, well...”

They were lost.

“Dammit! Why is everything so horrible here?”

This didn't seem to have a good ending. He already saw himself failing and dying in a pathetic way. Without special abilities or powerful companions, he was nothing more than a piece of trash.

“How am I supposed to save this place!?”, he vented. “I am literally a first-rate loser! I dropped out of school, just because I was too lazy to attend.”

He kept and kept thinking of ideas. But no ideas occurred to him.

“Subaru”, they called him.

“Why am I even the protagonist!?”, all of this made no sense. “Furthermore, why would anyone even like to see me as a protagonist? I am a complete loser.”

Why would a loser be a protagonist? And on top of that he wasn't a funny loser, he was a pathetic, boring and annoying one.

“Subaru”, he repeated.

“I bet 90% percent of my damn work, is me rambling like a useless idiot, while others do all the real work!”, he bit his thumb nail. “Useless!”, he shouted.

“Subaru!”

“WHAT?!”

He turned to look at him frustrated and tired.

“Everything will be fine.”

“How do you know!?”

He wanted to say in reality: ‘You don't know me!’. But that seemed impossible, that man and many others, supposedly knew him better than himself.

It was so annoying.

“Because I know you well and I know the kind of person you are.”

“And what does that have to do with it!?”, he pulled his hair frustrated. “I keep and keep thinking of ways to emerge victorious. But I am just a normal guy, without anything relevant!.”

Idiot.

“That is why we will win, dummy.”

“What?”, he stared at him for several seconds. “Excuse me? Did you hit your head?”

He didn't want to have more problems on his huge list.

“You wish, idiot”, he joked with a bitter smile. “You know, at the start when I saw you, I really didn't have hopes that you could really be useful, beyond attracting the idiot Reinhard.”

Ouch.

“You didn't have to be so direct, you know?”

They ignored him.

“You are a fool, petty, naive and even somewhat cowardly. But I don't think that is a bad thing”, he wanted to refute him. “With every second we chat in this alley I have realized something very important.”

“And what is that?”, grumbled Subaru.

“That you are Natsuki Subaru, the real one. Not a dirty imitation.” He announced, as if that solved his problems. “That is why, I know, that in the end we will win. Because I have the real Natsuki Subaru on my side.”

God, this guy had a fearsome gift for killing the mood.

“If this is a joke, I swear I will hit you.”

“As stubborn as always”, he initiated with a mocking smile. “Even when I only say crazy things, you listen to me and trust me. Only you would do something like that.”

“Stop mocking!”

“I am not mocking you.”

That threw him off completely.

“We have you, so we will win.”

“B-but, then... why do you say that? I don't understand.”

Natsuki Subaru was a loser, weak, a failure, petty, he was a dirty drone who only knows how to take advantage of others.

He hoped naively, that the isekai would change that irrefutable fact. But it wasn't like that.

“Natsuki Subaru. You are an amazing guy, I sincerely know that, if it’s you then it’ll certainly be alright.”

“.... What the fuck did you just say?”

Subaru felt he had been slapped.

“You are a cool guy Subaru, I admire you a lot.”

Oh, there it was.

“.... I'm sorry, but I am not the person you think. The person you think I am, is just a lie.”

This man was seeing an idealized version of him. Not the real Subaru, the one who was just a failure and a crybaby.

“No, no, no.” He started denying and smiling. “I know perfectly the man I have in front of me.”

“I mean it seriously, you are confusing me with another man”, he insisted. “The, 『Natsuki Subaru』 that I know is a hopeless idiot, weak, petty and irredeemable. Don't put your hopes on someone like that.”

Come on, insult me. Hate me, disappointing.

“That isn't bad.”

Of course that was bad.

“But...”

With a grimace of disgust and a gesture of disapproval, Subaru arched his eyebrows in response, to who had whispered helplessly.

“....?”

Observing and cursing in silence, he contemplated the man who had just pronounced the words he had yearned to hear his whole life.

That was...

“I think that is what makes you incredible.”

...........That was the most honest opinion, devoid of all exaggeration and raw that there was of himself.

And he couldn't help but shed a tear again.

“Hhggh... ahg...”, he moaned, trying desperately not to ruin the moment. “Why won't it stop?”

He wiped and wiped with his sleeves. But the tears didn't stop.

He fell to his knees.

“I-I, hic... regret so much that I...” his tongue died, feeling how someone caressed his hair.

“It's okay”, they whispered in his ear. “There is nothing wrong with crying.”

That was all he needed, to unleash everything he had repressed a short while ago.

“Aaaah... aaah...!”, he kicked and moaned like never before.

All the emotions he had forced himself to reserve during all that chaotic day and during his whole life, came to light. He cried for his weakness, for being a failure of a son, for his hatred at not being who he was supposed to be, for a horrible protagonist, etc.

Time became so diffuse he didn't know how long, the only thing he knew is that his knees felt dead, from sitting for so long.

“Better?”

“Y-Yes... Snf... hic...”, he wiped the snot with the sleeve of his tracksuit.

“Excellent, it is good to have you in your best mental state.”

Smiling, he offered him a hand. He hesitated a second to take it.

It was weird for someone to worry so openly about him.

“Thanks, I guess?”

He didn't know how to take that compliment. So he just accepted the hand, as a gesture of reciprocation.

“You're welcome”, he responded in good humor.

They kept silent in a pleasant and comfortable silence.

“If what you say is true, then what are we supposed to do?”

Now Subaru feels much more lucid.

"I think we have to gather everyone at the inn and make a plan", suggested his friend. "What do you think? Are you ready to save this world?"

"The truth is that, no." He was sincere the best he could.

He didn't feel he looked at him with disappointment or disgust. That made him feel very happy.

"Then why don't we start with saving our lives?"

A hand was extended in front of his eyes.

"Fine", he accepted. "I think that is something I can do."

He accepted the hand and smiled from ear to ear.

"My name is NATSUKI SUBARU!" He put his hand on his hip, separated both legs and raised his finger to the air. "!Not only am I lost but also broke and maybe my whole life is a lie!" a smile appeared on his face, the spirit returning to his body despite everything.

"And what is your name isekai companion from another world?"

"You are incredible..." he whispered with amazement. "My name is Phil, just Phil."

A blush filled Subaru's face.

He used that as fuel.

"Then Phil, let's save this world from the claws of destiny!"

"YES!", shouted Phil.

Both raised their fists in a way that made Subaru smile with positive emotions.

"By the way, aren't you worried about your friend?"

"Altair?", remembered Phil. "Nah he'll be fine, others had worse luck on day one. It's not like he's being crucified or something like that."

"I just wanted to take a picture with Subaru!"

"Shut up already!" "Mimimi, 'I just wanted to take a picture with Subaru.'"

Altair was being crucified in the middle of the plaza by a bunch of demi-humans.

A few meters away from him was Borat. Being crucified just like him, wearing a mankini.

"You stupid autist, I should have sacrificed you the moment I saw you."