Chapter 2

A burning sensation pulsed through Hikaru as he fell further and further into the light. Little by little, his senses returned to him as he felt his old self possessing its body once more. Once his body had fully returned, he was flung out of the radiance and into an empty field. Feelings of familiarity came upon the boy as he rubbed his eyes and took in his new surroundings. It was the field he had stood in before. This time, the sun shone bright.

Had night already turned to day? Hikaru stood with an intense fear of what his father would do, if the old man found out that he had not returned. Shoving his hands into his pockets, he grabbed his phone and lifted the screen to check the time.

Before his brain could even register the numbers it displayed, a large arrowhead swished through the air, punching the device out of his grip.

“WHAT THE FU-”

Another arrow whizzed by his head as Hikaru span to see his aggressor. A band of four giant, armoured skeletons clattered his way.

Lumbering forwards, they raised their rusted swords and bows at the human who had materialised from nowhere; their bony jaws cackling with glee. Behind the vanguard followed what seemed to be a horde of other skeletal monsters. Hikaru recognised some as small dragons and goblins who floated and clambered creakily his way. Others he swore he had never seen in his life, possessing shapes and sizes that were similar to pyramids or flying half horse-half dog hybrids. And behind all of this, was the biggest skeletal abomination of them all. Standing at least fifteen metres high above the ground, a crown atop his head, the skeleton king advanced, gargantuan sword grasped up and pointed to the clouds.

Hikaru began to sprint away as arrows rained from the sky. Panic setting in. How was this happening? How had the shimmer led to this? What was this even, an invasion of earth from the depths of hell? A simulation? Had he been isekaied? Hikaru’s gobsmacked mind raced through all the different possibilities, fleeing from what seemed like certain death. He had to get away, he had so much more to live for, so much still to do. His father would-

Suddenly, he felt the world tumble as he tripped on his kendo bag, which had somehow followed him through the wall. Tumbling a few paces forward onto his front, Hikaru flipped himself over to see an arrow dart down from the clear blue sky above.

Ahhhh, what a special way to die. Undead skeletons. He thought to himself as he embraced the end of his mortal coil.

A slight gust of wind blew overhead. A flash of light followed as an ornate, eye symbol materialised, slicing the arrow in half. Hikaru screamed as the pointed edge continued to descend, preparing to embed itself deep in his skull.

Another symbol materialised, this time of a skull, creating an invisible barrier which reflected the arrow, bouncing it onto the grassy floor. Hikaru breathed a sigh of relief as he felt his brain melt from the adrenaline.

“Yikes, sorry about that. I’m still warming up” a voice called from behind.

Hikaru shrieked and crawled backwards from his spot. A young, white-robed, tanned man had leaped over him and flung multiple small objects from his pouch. They flew into the air, orbiting the army of skeletons and began to wreak havoc. Symbols morphed into curved blades which cleaved away the skeletal bones, whilst others smote their foes dry with golden lasers and projectiles.

“That should be enough to distract them for now” the man said as he turned to see what manner of creature he had saved. His mouth dropped into gaping astoundment.

“You- you- you’re- you’re not, YOU’RE NOT ONE OF US?” He screeched, incredulous and clapping his hands with glee, almost jumping with excitement. A stray arrow flew from the battlefield passing dangerously close. But the man waved it off as another frog-humanoid symbol materialised and flung it aside. Proceeding to flex its muscles in mid-air.

Speechless, Hikaru could only stare as the man helped him off the ground.

“How are you even in here? How did you see the barrier?” The man gasped incredulously, goggling Hikaru up and down.

“I… I guess I just saw a shimmer and then pushed the wall apart and fell through”.

Hearing this, the man burst into laughter.

“By the beak of Horus! Was our barrier so weak? Mr Guan is gonna rip into Bjorn for this one” He giggled and choked whilst trying to catch his breath.

“I heard that; you glorified reed shaper!” A voice screamed from afar as an icicle shard flew, skimming the cheeks of the tanned man, startling Hikaru as he jumped back, with his fight or flight instincts pumping more adrenaline through his system. Seeing the icicle shatter in the distance, the tanned man burst into laughter again.

Hikaru turned to where he thought the icicle flew from. He saw a blonde-haired warrior in fur armour, fighting what appeared to be large reptiles with an intricate, decorated spear. On his belt, held a skinned pouch with which water seemed to drip steadily out of, never hitting the floor. He stabbed a serpent through its head with the spear and attempted to pull it back out. Groaning, he realised the spear had been caught on some tough organ and proceeded to shove his boot atop the beast in a crude attempt to yank the spear free. Sensing his prey was now distracted, another serpent plunged itself forward, fangs bared ready to sink its teeth into the man’s flesh. Living waters arose as they froze into icicles and flew through the air, skewering the attacking serpent. The man cried with joy as he ripped the spear out, oblivious to the attack.

“What the hell is going on?” Hikaru cried aloud, sight absorbing as much of the battle as he could physically process.

“You really don’t know? This is a sight to see!”

The tanned man waved beyond Hikaru and yelled.

“Mr Zhao! I think you have a visitor!”

A shadow darted over Hikaru as he blinked and saw a man in a black suit fall upon the skeletal army. His jaw dropped as the man became a blur, cutting his way through the skeletons with ease and tossing bones and ligaments high into the air, as a dust cloud formed around him. Then, the blur leapt into the sky, raising a spear high and descended towards the skeleton king. Time seemed to slow in that moment as Hikaru could make out the red ribbon of the spear, floating in the wind, tied to the spearhead. A flash of light sparked across his vision, blinding him for a moment, before he saw the man landing on the ground, twirling his spear behind his back, and stabbing it into ground. All to the scenic view of the giant skeleton king crashing into the ground, his army a pile of bones decorating the field.

“He does enjoy showing off sometimes” the tanned man remarked, almost apologetically.

Hikaru’s face tensed as he saw who he thought was Mr Zhao begin to walk towards him from the bone party. Mr Zhao wiped his spear off of dust and scowled as he saw the newcomer, his sharp jawline contorting, shifting his sunglasses downward, revealing his deep auburn eyes.

“Seize him” he commanded, as he walked past Hikaru and onto the next matter of pressing business, brushing his long ponytail by Hikaru’s waist.

“Sure thing boss” the ‘glorified reed shaper’ replied as he began to dig through his bag.

“Hey, wait a second”. Hikaru spoke as he began to turn around, having decided his best chance of safety now was to run away from such monsters, curiosity be damned. The sight which greeted his eyes, told him otherwise. The barren field which he had fell out of and stared at just a few minutes before, was rammed to the max from the creation of a new graveyard, fresh monster corpses strewn all around. Hikaru wretched and grabbed his nose in desperation; the smell was pretty bad.

Realising there was no escape, Hikaru turned back and drooped over, surrendering himself in an almost sulky fashion, just in time to see the frog-man symbol materialise beside him and cock a wink with a cheeky smile. Before rearing his arm back and sucker punching the defenceless lad in the face, sending him flying. The proud flex of symboly muscles was all Hikaru could remember as his vision faded away.

Time unknown passed by as Hikaru blinked his groggy eyes awake. Flitting his vision wildly, he found himself encased in a darkness so black, it seemed as though he was blind. Senses returning once more, he felt an object beneath his body supporting his weight. And yet, he realised his hands were bound by a force which held so tight, he could scarcely move. Before he could muster a cry of panic, a face emerged from the void. It was a pudgy face that held a long, curled moustache with a thick bushy beard and a flat nose that supported large, rageful eyes. Eyes which squinted a few inches from Hikaru’s ever retreating face. The face scrunched its nose in an emotion which seemed like disgust to Hikaru and began to speak.

“You sit before the judge of your fate. Do not lie or deceive, for a grave punishment awaits those who sin in the court of the highest”. Suddenly, two other heads crept forth from the dark. One was a pure white face, holding an expression of mocking joy. The other, a blood red skull, which only grimaced towards Hikaru. Shivers ran up Hikaru’s spine as he stared into the large, gaping eyes of the first face.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Speak now! Or your judgment will be harsh and swift!”

“Aaaah! I’m Hikaru, Hikaru Izumi. From Japan!” He cried aloud, fear attempting to force his eyes shut.

“Hikaru! You are charged with the sins of trespassing into realms divine! What say you!”

Words turned to sludge within his mouth as Hikaru struggled to form a sentence in response.

“I-i-i-i-“

“WHAT SAY YOU! HIKA-”

The darkness disappeared as a bright light switched on.

“Hey, boss. Mr Zhao wants to know if you want your fish and chips deep fried, like they do in the British Isles, or if you just want them smoked”.

Hikaru witnessed the truth. The pudgy face in front of him was not just a face. There was a pudgy man beneath too, dressed in black robes possessing almost a beer belly, which supported the now pink face. On his raised hands were two masks which had the white and red faces of ‘judgment’ plastered on top.

Hikaru lips trembled in irritation as he saw the tanned man peering his head through the door into what was actually just an empty room.

The pudgy man’s body began to shake. “Seti. What, did I say about disturbing me?” He forced out through gritted teeth.

Seti gulped as he slowly nodded a response “Right. Deep-fried it is”. The door closed in a hurry as Hikaru heard the scamper of feet slowly fade away.

The pudgy man shook his head as he turned back to face a less than amused Hikaru, who sat in his chair nodding slowly, mouth pouting to show his disappointment.

“Greetings…” the man smiled awkwardly as he lowered the masks on his hands, face blushing a deep red. Whether it was from hyperventilated anger, or extreme embarrassment, Hikaru could not tell.

“…I’m Guan Yu. God of war. Can we start over?”

“It was just a bad attempt at a prank. I wasn’t trying to harm you” Guan Yu sulked, rolling his eyes. Despite the shamefully fake display from earlier, Hikaru still could not comprehend the literal fact that Guan Yu, the Chinese god of war, was…well was alive for starters. And he was sitting across a desk from him, stirring coffee. Still, he decided he needed to keep up the act of bravado, if only just to trick the old god enough to give him the answers he desired and confirm this wasn’t just a sick, reality tv show.

“Well, that was just an extremely sad attempt at a joke. I’m shocked you gods even exist. Hell, even have time for this stuff”.

“Oh, give me a break! If I had a cup of wine for every time that good-for-nothing Loki played another trick on my pantheon with his fellow partner-in-crime Hermes, then my vineyard would be larger than that of Dionysus and Acan combined. And that’s only listing his ‘jokes’ against us Chinese gods!” Hearing this, Hikaru’s jaw dropped, this live action roleplay was becoming far too convincing.

Guan Yu let out a heavy breath. Lifting his cup off the ceramic plate, his giant red lips parted and sipped the coffee. With a sudden grimace, the old god choked and began to cough. Seti, who had been standing by the side of the room leaning on a wall; decorated with traditional art of a man staring towards a crescent moon, quickly ran over with handkerchief and glass of water ready.

“Too bitter, far too bitter.” Guan Yu choked as he devoured the water in one, ravenous gulp. Glass included.

The heavenly image of the awe-inspiring warrior who carried his guandao by his side and slew the foes of his kingdom with ease, the legendary general of old, the mythical god of the three kingdoms, were fast erased from Hikaru’s memory bank as he sat there watching Guan Yu. If it were not for the battle he had found himself in earlier, and the god straight up eating glass cups whole. Then this would have seemed extremely unhinged to Hikaru.

“Wait, did you just say Loki and Herm-”

“-es. Yes, yes I did. The gods exist, all gods exist.” Guan Yu finished the sentence, waving the question off as if it was obvious from the start. Then, he leaned forwards and joined his hands together near his face and put on a face of seriousness, as Hikaru felt his brain turning to mush with every word that continued to trickle its way through his ear.

“Now, down to business. If you do not know how you saw and broke through the barrier Bjorn put up, then it can only mean two things”. Guan Yu’s face, lowered even further below his hands to emphasise his point.

“The first, is another god messing with me as a bad joke or prank by giving you the ability to see the shimmer, and forcing you through the barrier, to become a nuisance at my side. As I said earlier, Loki is a prime suspect if that were to occur”.

“But why would they do that to you specifically?” Hikaru asked, incredulous at the thought that he himself had no purpose and was just a pawn in a random god’s prank.

“Well, you’d be surprised at how bored some gods can become, or how jealous they get when you slay a monster that they had apparently marked”. Guan Yu shook his head with disappointment. Waving a hand, he materialised another ceramic cup into existence. An intense aroma wafted from within as he lifted the cup and began to drink. Hikaru wondered why he even had Seti bring him water if he could just magic liquid from thin air.

“So, what happens if I am just a part of another god’s prank?”

“Well, that would be quite unfortunate for you. Normally, if a pawn of a prank had made it this far, then it’s likely it would have been enchanted with a curse.”

“What does that mean for me?” Hikaru asked. Paranoia descended upon the boy as he wondered what manner of horrors a god's curse could entail…was his thinking now a part of the curse too? Was his paranoia being manipulated by the gods? He shuddered at the thought.

“But it seems you do not possess any cursed properties that I can sense, so it appears you’re safe”. Guan Yu shrugged, taking another sip.

“And what would those properties normally be?”

“Oh. Well, normally the bodies just combust and transform into animals, usually goats or chickens. Then they just decide to defecate all over me” he spat, scrunching his nose as he remembered the hours spent cleaning his favourite hanfu robes.

“It’s great to know I’m not cursed then” Hikaru breathed with intense relief. Oddly enough, it did not seem farfetched to him that gods would be capable of such things, especially from the stories he had heard growing up. After all, he had been victim to a prank of Guan Yu’s not too long before this conversation.

“I’m glad to have not been noticed by you unstable deities for so long, if that’s what you immortals from myth do for fun”.

Hearing this, Guan Yu raised a questioning eyebrow and produced a smirk. “Immortals, heh. The only real myth is immortality”.

Just as Hikaru opened his mouth to question the off hand comment, Guan Yu interrupted and continued.

“The other option of course, is that you, Hikaru, are part of a god’s divine plan”.

Hikaru’s eyes shot open as he heard the revelation. “I…”

“Yes, Hikaru. You were noticed by an ‘unstable deity’. And that deity, has clearly taken a shining to you”. Guan Yu chuckled. “However, for what this plan is or who the deity may be, that I have no clue”.

The memory of the flames he embraced when the barrier first broke tore through Hikaru’s mind. The voice, that divine voice. With his heart pumping, he understood that the flames were most likely the god who had chosen him.

“When I broke the barrier, I didn’t do it alone. There was, a flame. It was a fire that burned me to pieces and ripped away my body. A sensation I had never felt before”.

“Oh? Is that all you can recall?” The old god asked, interest piqued.

“I remember the feeling was intense. And there was a voice too. It was so divine and majestic. It called me child and asked if I wanted to pass through. I told it I did, and the entity pushed me through to the field where your warriors were”.

“Ah! So that’s how you got through!” Seti yelled from the side. Guan Yu’s face flared red as he turned and shot Seti a look of 'Shut up or I will gut you'. The tanned man tightened his jaw as he dropped his head and looked away. Satisfied, Guan Yu’s cheeks decoloured, and he span back to Hikaru.

“Well, it seems this god chose to hide itself from you. In this day and age, I can’t think of any god who would do such a thing” Guan Yu stated, twirling his moustache as he fell deep into thought. “But I do know this. That god has entrusted you to me for a reason. Why me specifically, I can’t say either. I mean I’m just a fat oaf who owns a coffee shop now. But I digress-” he took another sip from the cup before saying “-Therefore, two options present themselves to you”.

“The first is that I erase your memories and return you to your normal life.” A rustling sound began to sound beside them, as Hikaru turned to see Seti rummaging through his pouch with extreme enthusiasm.

Grimacing at what other horrors could lay within the pouch, Hikaru calmed himself and faced Guan Yu once more.

“The second option. Is that you join with me, leaving your past life behind and serve as an intern under my champion”.

“Wait sorry, what? I just join with you and work under you?” Hikaru asked, confused at how easy this seemed.

“Yes. If I take you in, then I’ll have another gods debt for my collection. Which is fine by me, you never know when you might require help from other old farts like myself”

“But I can just leave if I want?”

“Free will exists, my dear boy”. Then, the old god sat still, and waited.

Hikaru sank into a time of contemplation. He thought about the things he had seen since passing beyond the barrier. There was danger. Monsters and bloodshed galore existed within this new world he had entered. Was this the unknown he had wanted so desperately to brave and venture through? The new path that he had been so adamant to walk upon. Maybe, it would be better to return to the mortal world and seek a regular life. Life as a student in a foreign country would be just as exhilarating, whilst having none of the occupational hazards that a life with gods and monsters would no doubt contain.

The boy shook his head and sighed. All of these justifications were lies in the end. Hikaru knew within his heart of hearts that he would be a fool to lose such an opportunity. To walk upon the world of magic and myths unchained; was a dream that any man would give their all to possess. Suddenly, a memory returned to him. The residual recollections of his family gripped his mind as he remembered a promise he had made to his father. A debt to settle remained. Calmness flowed through Hikaru as he stared deep into the old god’s patient eyes.

“I want to join. But, there is still something I have to finish at home before I leave it all behind”.

The god of war nodded in response, a silent understanding passing between the two. Rummaging through his pockets, he produced a gold coin and tossed it to Hikaru, who caught it as he scrambled his hands in the air.

“You have twenty four hours, my boy. That is enough time to pay your dues. If, within those twenty four hours you have not returned, your memories of this realm will be erased, as will the memories of all the people who you told about this.”

With a deep breath and a nod, Hikaru accepted the task which had presented itself before him and sniffed the delicious smell of cooked food which had suddenly began to waft through the air. Steam poured into the room as Mr Zhao entered from the back kitchen, dressed in an apron that sat above his smart shirt. He held two metal platters which were each hidden by a lid, signalling the start of dinner. Setting the platters down with a slight bow, he grabbed a chair and sat himself down adjacent to Hikaru and Guan Yu. The old man rubbed his hands with anticipation as he grabbed the lid and lifted it off. A golden piece of fried fish atop chips lay, ready to be devoured. A pair of knives and forks materialised as Guan Yu stuck a piece of fish into his hungry mouth. Choking.

“Zhao Yun. This has no taste” he stated as he begrudgingly swallowed the food.

“You didn’t give your preference. Seti told me you wanted deep-fried. There is deep fried fish” he shrugged and pointed at the meal he had prepared for Guan Yu. He lifted the lid off his own platter, procuring an aromatic smell which graced the senses of Hikaru as he saw a gourmet meal of a tender, roasted lamb decorated with red wine and fresh thyme.

“What, is that?” Guan Yu forced out, as his eyes stared down towards the more appealing meal, being consumed by his champion.

“I didn’t want fish” Zhao Yun stated blankly as he began to pick at his food.

With heavy breaths Guan Yu turned back to Hikaru saying, “I think, you should get started on your little quest”. Rummaging through his pockets with an intense force, face becoming ever redder, his hands shook as he procured another coin. Holding it between his two fingers, Guan Yu slid the coin down through the air. It vanished.

A portal materialised from the fabrics of reality. The view of Hikaru’s home shone through the mystical doorway, as a breeze of evening wind blew into the small dining room. With his goal firmly set, Hikaru walked over to the door and saw Seti smiling at him from the side, head nodding in an entertained fashioned, whilst Guan Yu began to bicker with Zhao Yun in the back. He was clearly not pleased with the dinner arrangements. Sighing, Hikaru walked through and returned home for the last time. The portal flickered shut behind him.