Traveling through the Void between dimensions wasn’t as fun and exciting as it sounds. In fact, it was quite boring. But boring was fine. I already had experienced enough excitement for the rest of my life. Hopefully, from now on, boring would become my new norm. 

With nothing to see, feel or hear, with my senses completely turned off, I existed as a mere singularity point. That was quite an unusual state of being even for me, who had come through a large variety of extraordinary events. Even if that was supposed to be my second time going through the interdimensional travel, the first time I had been but a normal human from Earth, and so hadn’t kept my consciousness in the process. 

I can’t believe that I won, I thought to myself, for thinking was the only proof of my continuous existence, that woman was hella strong. They didn’t call her Dark Lord for nothing. Though, shouldn’t she have been called a Dark Lady, instead? Whatever, the only thing that matters is that she’s dead, and my mission is complete. I won’t miss that shithole of a world, that’s for sure. 

Chosen Hero. That was the title the people of Luminosa Solum—a very cliché fantasy world—gave me, completely one-sidedly. I had been summoned through an ancient ritual which called upon the powers of their Goddess. Too bad I had never seen that woman in person, otherwise I would have had a word with her. I would’ve explained to her concepts like consent and human rights, things that were so foreign to the barbarians native to that world, and the Empire that had been responsible for my summoning and “education” in particular. 

Forget it man, I told myself, shaking off my negative thoughts, you’re returning to your home world for good, there’s no point in lamenting about the past. 

I lost the track of time at some point, as I entered into the same meditative state that I’d been using to practice my magic. If there was anything good about my ten years of suffering in Luminosa, that was gaining magical powers. Then again, it had been a necessity rather than a luxury. Without them, I would’ve been dead thousands of times. 

I had no idea how much time had elapsed since the start of my trip through the Void when it abruptly came to an end. One moment my entire existence was shrugged to a single point, and another I found myself in the middle of a dark backstreet of New York. Completely naked. And I wasn’t alone. 

It turned out, that my arrival ended up being more shocking to the bystanders than it was to me. Couldn’t blame them—not every day you see a naked man suddenly appearing out of nothing. 

“What the fuck, man?!” a tall and muscular black dude with bleached hair exclaimed as he pointed his gun at me in fright.

Without giving him much regard, I looked around. There were five people here other than me—three armed men, and a frightened couple. The former had an appearance of stereotypical gangsters, while the latter were completely out of place in that gloomy dead end alley. 

“Hello, gentlemen, what year is it?” I asked the most important question straight away instead of trying to play the hero. I was already feed up with that role, anyway. 

“What year is it?” one of the gangsters, a tattooed Latino with a funny mustache, repeated my question. “Bruh, do ya think you’re a time traveler or somethin’?!” 

“Wait, wait, wait!” The third gangster, an Asian guy, bald and as skinny as he was pale, patted his Hispanic friend on the shoulder. “He’s like, ya know… How was he called, again? Oh yeah, Swarznigger! I bet he’s going to tell us to give him our clothes next!” 

“Gwha-ha-ha-ha!” the trio laughed out loud, already forgetting about my completely abnormal entrance. 

My first instinct was to slap them senseless. It had long since became one of my preferred ways to deal with small fries. Thankfully, I stopped myself before it was too late, reminding myself that I’d just arrived here and couldn’t be completely sure about my own situation. 

On the one hand, if I kept my abilities as a Chosen Hero, there was a very real chance that my half-hearted slap could pop their heads like a needle would a balloon. I couldn’t even remember when it had been the last time I faced ordinary people. On the other hand, if by any chance I’d lost all of my powers and had already become an ordinary person, those guys would be enough to make me suffer, that with them being armed.

Ignoring the trio that had already lost most of their wariness towards me and were fooling around, I closed my eyes and inspected my body. My Mana Sense was working as it should, and it took me but a moment to understand my current situation, and it was… great. For one thing, my body had recovered from all the wounds I’d received in my final fight—my left arm was no longer a stump, my lungs no longer had any holes in them, and gashes that had covered most of my torso and limbs were completely gone. In fact, even my old scars had disappeared as wells. I was in the best shape I’d ever had, my body a sculpted killing machine. And the best thing? I was brimming with Mana. 

“Ya made our day today, bruh,” the black gangster talked to me after his group calmed down their jokes, “so as a special thanks ya can scram away before we big bros get angry.” 

“You still didn’t answer my question, though,” I pointed out calmly as my eyes met his. I had zero reasons to be wary of those mobs. They had no chance to resist a Chosen Hero, guns or not. 

“Are ya still keeping the play?” asked the Latino before he shouted at the couple that was about to sneak away. “Who said that ya people can leave?! Ya still didn’t pay the passing fee!” 

The respectable-looking pair had already recovered their bearings and had almost reached the corner of the street when the gangster’s shout stopped them in their place. Perhaps they would’ve made a run for it if three guns weren’t pointed in their direction simultaneously. I sighed. 

After all said and done, I didn’t consider myself a good guy. Far from it. I’d done some things that would be considered evil by the modern society’s standards. Most of the jobs I’d done as a Chosen Hero could be described by two words—vigilante justice. Or something close to it. In fact, my position had given me the lawful right to punish the criminals, so my actions weren’t illegal, at least not within the confines of the Empire. But my role was that of a detective, judge and executioner, all at once. My moral views had long since shifted from those of most modern people on Earth, so it took me some effort to hold myself back from just directly getting rid of the three criminals brazen enough to threaten civilians right in front of me. This trio was nothing but a bane on the civilized society, the world would only benefit if they suddenly disappeared, but was that a reason enough? 

Calm down, man, this life of violence is behind you, I reminded myself. There’s no point in attracting attention to your persona, right? 

That was when I realized that my peculiar appearance out of thin air had already been suspicious enough and that even the couple could report me to the police, complicating things further. It seemed I had no choice but to “get rid” of all the witnesses…

“Here we go again,” I whispered to myself with a sigh.

“Did ya just say something, Mr. Term-in-motor?” The Asian pointed his deadly toy at me. A big mistake.

There was no point in replying to him, considering what I’d already decided to do next. Instead, I started doing the magic stuff. Following my instinct, I moved Mana inside my body and split some of it into three parts. One became Air Mana, another Electricity Mana, and the last Gravity Mana. The first covered my body like an invisible armor, decreasing the air resistance to a bare minimum and potentially reflecting any projectiles send at me—I had tested it with things more deadly than bullets. The second stimulated my nervous system, accelerating my already superhuman reflexes and agility. As for the Gravity Mana, I didn’t bother with manipulating it in any complicated way and just used it for a Mana Boost—a general full-body empowerment that even a novice Knight was capable of doing back at the Empire. 

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Oh yeah, I also sent a bit of Air Mana outside my body to create a sort of sound isolation that would prevent anyone outside the valley from hearing what was going on here. And also wouldn’t allow

One second I was lazily standing a dozen yards away from the pale gangster, and another I was towering over my opponent from behind with my hand placed at the top of his bold head. It wasn’t exactly a teleportation—not even close, in fact—but I moved way too fast for ordinary people to follow my actions. Plus, I had the element of surprise. 

Unable to realize what had just happened, the Asian slowly turned his to me, his eyes filled with shock. And then a miniscule, by my standards, amount of Electricity Mana entered his brain, making him convulsing for a few short moments before collapsing on the ground like a broken doll. 

Using the brief moment of silence, I sent a bit of Air Mana outside my body to create a sort of soundproof barrier that would prevent anyone outside the alley from hearing what was going on here. And also would stop anyone—including the couple of lovebirds, who had been unfortunate enough to meet the would be robbers and then me—from making it out of here before I was done. 

“Who’s next?” I asked, my voice calm and relaxed. The same couldn’t be said about those who had witnessed my action. 

“W-what have ya done to Kusogaki?!” the Latino shouted at me as his trembling hand pointed his weapon at me. A yet another big mistake. 

Another second, another burst of speed, and then there was one more body laying on the cold asphalt of that gloomy alley. I cracked my neck and gave the one remaining gangsters a radiating smile. 

“They pointed their guns at me and look what happened to them.” I shrugged with a helpless expression. “But I’m a generous man, you know? How about this? I’ll allow you to shoot me. Just one shot. Do you want to try?”

The gangster vigorously shook his head in denial and made a few steps back. He would’ve probably tried to run away already if he thought that such an action would make any difference. 

“Don’t worry, I won’t kill you,” I promised honestly. “Well, as long as you don’t try anything stupid and do what I say. Just shoot at my six-pack. I want to check if it’s strong enough to endure a bullet. I trained it a lot, after all!”

As he hesitantly raised his gun at me, I added, “If you aim for my head or heart, you’re dead, though.”

By the way, I also cancelled my Air Armor. Just to be fair on him. And of course I also tensed my abs. 

“Y-ya damn crazy motherfucker!” The man gulped down and tightly gripped his toy with both of his sweaty hands.

Thankfully for him, the unlucky lad did exactly what he had been told. He aimed for my abdomen and pulled the trigger. Even with my accelerated reaction speed, I could barely follow the bullet with my eyes. If I wanted to avoid being hit after it had already been shot—dodging by predicting its trajectory beforehand would’ve been a child’s play—I would’ve needed some mental preparation and a high expenditure of Mana. But there was not even a point, considering how utterly low the danger of that sort of attack was against me—I had numerous ways to just block them altogether. Or just to endure the impact. Why would I need to dodge from something so harmless? 

The bullet hit me an inch above my navel. And then it bounced off my chiseled abs, that were hardened even further by the Gravity Mana. Which, by the way, was extremely effective even when used in the most primitive way. Anyway, long story short—I barely felt the attack. It tickled me a bit, but hadn’t left any trace on my skin. Would the story have been different if I hadn’t used any Mana at all? I was too cautious and not curious enough to find out. 

“F-f-f-fucking monster!” the black man screamed as he fell on his ass and tried to crawl away from me. Too bad that his brave retreat was blocked by the wall soon enough. It was a dead end alley, after all. 

How stupid those gangsters should be to rob people with the wall behind their own backs and without even blocking the road of retreat for their victims? I thought with amusement. 

Realizing that he had nowhere to go anymore, the man aimed his toy at me in desperation mixed with shock. His already lacking mental facilities weren’t enough for him to realize how futile and stupid any sort of resistance was. And how idiotic it was trying to annoy me. 

A few more bangs sounded, but this time I didn’t meet the attacks with my bare body. Instead, I decided to do something fancy by creating a gravity field around me that sucked off most of the mass of anything below a certain level. I couldn’t be sure about the science behind of that kind of stuff, but at one point in my adventures I’d had that genius idea, and it had worked after some experimentation. In simple terms, if something was 100 grams normally, it would be 1 milligram when within the field—and it affected the mass, not just the weight. That was a relatively expensive way to use my Mana normally, but I didn’t plan to get in any serious danger anytime soon. And I doubted that many things on Earth could threaten me, anyway. 

With the laws of physics altered, the bullets didn’t just bounce off me—instead, they were pulverized into dust, for they became extremely fragile after losing their mass. And thus, even the desperate attack of the man ended up being completely futile.

“Now it’s my turn,” I said when the black gangster ran out of bullets. “I have a gun of my own, by the way.”

I made a finger gun gesture and pointed with my forefinger at my opponent, who had already shitted his pants, judging by the stench. 

Ouch, one less person to choose clothes from… 

Thinking silly thoughts, I sent a bullet made of pure Electricity Mana, hitting him right in the forehead. And thus, our “fight” was over. But there were two more people to deal with. 

The two remaining witnesses were hugging each other at another side of the alley and watched me with terrified eyes. I hadn’t missed their attempts to run away from here while I’d been dealing with the thugs, but my Air Barrier wasn’t something a normal person could overcome. 

With the most friendly smile I could muster, I approached the couple as I stepped over my three victims. Both seemed to be in their early twenties and from well-off families. Both were model-looking, with the girl being a bombshell blonde with an hourglass figure, and the guy a typical frat-boy type, handsome and athletic. What they were doing here was a mystery to me. 

The two didn’t look that grateful to their savior, if the looks on their faces were anything to judge by. I was truly appalled at how rude some people could be. Though wait, the girl seemed kind of off…

“Hey there, you two!” I waved my hand to them. “What a nice evening for a little talk, don’t you think?”

“Y-yes, v-very nice evening, i-indeed,” the man mumbled, too scared to look me in the eyes. I never considered myself an intimidating person, some people were just afraid of everything for absolutely no reason. It wasn’t like I planned to fry them alive with my lightning, or anything. I just wanted to talk. 

“I have many question for you two,” I said, “but, just to be fair, you can ask me anything first. I won’t be angry, I swear.”

“D-did you kill—” the guy was about to ask something important, when the girl interrupted him. 

“Do you have a girlfriend?!” she asked enthusiastically as she pushed away her companion and grabbed my hand. 

“What?!” both me and the guy exclaimed. 

Now I understood what was strange about the girl. She hadn’t been trembling from fear, but from excitement. She hadn’t been avoiding my eyes from being intimidated, but from being shy. No, in fact, she wasn’t just completely looking away from me—she was giving short glances to my crotch from time to time… 

What the actual Puck? I thought. Pucks were a kind of demons that had caused me some trouble, and their name was used as swearing back at Lumenosa. Did she hit her head when they tried to escape my barrier? 

“Yes, I have a girlfriend,” I replied with all due seriousness. “In fact, I have two...”

…and their names are Left Hand and Right Hand, I added in my mind. 

Jokes aside, I’d had already tasted how terrifying women could be, so my interest in dating was barely existent. A girl would need to be really outstanding to catch my attention. As for that one, who was ready to abandon and disgrace her current partner for the sake of a suspicious naked guy she had just met… I’d rather face the Demon Lady again than consider someone like that as my partner. 

“There’s no harm in having one more, then!” she declared with a smile, not even noticing that I’d already pushed her away from me with Air Mana. “By the way, I’m Sarah, and I’m single!” 

I decided to just ignore that pest of a woman for now. I would deal with her soon enough, anyway. 

“Did you kill them?” the guy muttered his previously interrupted question with a crestfallen expression. At least he didn’t look that scared anymore.

I feel you bro, I expressed my condolences in my mind, women can be so ruthless at times…

“Kill them?!” I faked an offended expression. “Puck, no! Why would I kill such nice gentlemen?” 

Sarah giggled as if that was the most funny joke she had ever heard… That girl was beginning to scare me, for real. I even felt an urge to erase her memories without waiting for another second.

Endure, man, endure, I told myself, they still need to answer your questions, don’t do anything rush…

“Seriously, though,” I said, “they’ll wake up in a few hours, so no worries. I’m not a mindless murderer, after all.”

They will lose their recent memories, but that wasn’t something those two needed to know. The same fate waited for them, after all. I didn’t want anyone to threaten my everyday life by knowing and seeing too much. 

Yeah, the time for killing is over, I mused. No more murders. No more meaningless violence. My life on Earth will be peaceful and full of joy and happiness. Let’s leave all the bad stuff at that shithole of a fantasy world. 

Just when the guy heaved a sigh of relief, I added as I patted him on the shoulder, “You don’t need to be so stiff, man. If I wanted to hurt you two, you would have no way to resist, anyway! Now with that clear, it’s my turn to ask the questions…” 

And on that happy note—after receiving a nervous laugh from one person and a flirty smile from another—I started my cross-examination of the two modern humans. And I wasn’t exactly glad to hear some of the answers…