UzaGaku!

The school bell rang. Suruj hurried towards the front gates. He did not know why, yet his body was drawn towards it. As soon as his foot touched the tiles a blunt met his face.

“Aray!...”

A woman in a red tracksuit brandished her ruler. “Tsk tsk. You’re one minute late.”

“Ghhh… Ayai Toya?...” Suruj got up from the floor. “What am I late for?”

“For school. Now you’re tardy. And you too as well!” Toya flung her ruler sideways. It thudded with something as it fell to the ground. In the bushes, Jose lifted and scratched his head.

“Punyeta… I was so close!”

Toya stomped her way towards him. “Climbing the fence doesn’t count. You’re all late.”

Suruj wondered what was going on. He obediently listened as Ayai Toya guided them inside the school. It was different from any other school he’d been to, taking off his outside shoes and using indoor shoes provided in the locker which… had his name on it? Even so, he did everything naturally as if he had been there for ages.

Suruj, Jose, and Toya stood in front of a classroom door. Toya slid it open to reveal a full classroom of students. The desks were arranged neatly in rows, and the teacher stood patiently by the chalkboard in the sunlight. The windows broadcasted the morning, as the sun’s rays peered into the classroom. Toya bowed and walked away.

But… The students he saw… Saya, Mouka, Jun, and the others? Uncomfortably they seated themselves down, as the teacher stepped forward.

“If it so pleases thee, I shall introduce myself. I am Kwazhak Laoyuang, and I shall be your homeroom teacher.” The teacher threw his hands up into the air. Suruj became all the more confused. “Welcome to Uzamotobad Gakuen- However, we are not in Azutami anymore… we are rather in Japan!”

The revelation hit Suruj like a truck. So that’s why everything felt off, he thought. “So everyone… got transported to another world, in high school?”

“Indeed, Zundui-san.” Kwazhak nodded, “We have all been transported from Wakoku into another world as some part of a high school production… I believe the younger ones here call it ‘reverse isekai’…”

Jun raised his hand. “Isekai? What’s that?”

“I know! It’s a term for ‘another world’!” Saya blurted out, and stood atop her desk. “This is exciting, I can feel the excitement of our classroom power!”

“...”

Everyone went silent at the word ‘classroom power’. Saya coughed nervously and sat back down. Then Ki Lanu slowly lifted his hand.

“Laoyuang-sensei, when can we return back to our world?”

The true question echoed throughout the classroom. In all of its weirdness, there wasn’t an answer. They were transported from Yahmajo Alautl to this world. But more or less, a high school by the name of Uzamotobad, a famous institution in Azutami.

Kwazhak walked to his lectern and put on a pair of glasses. “We are not sure whether we can return back to Yahmajo Alautl. One can assume we are stuck here for quite some time.”

“No way teach, that actually looks good on you.” Jun completely ignored his answer.

“What do you mean by ‘we’? There are others in this school?” Suruj’s anger rose, as he stood up.

The bell echoed again through the empty halls. Soon everyone went silent, as Kwazhak sighed.

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

“As much as I’d like to enlighten thee on thy questions, I’m afraid I must start class now.”

From there, Kwazhak began his instruction. Although his wording made it hard to understand, Suruj recognized everything as basic in terms of Yahmajo Alautl’s educational standards. A little more than a couple of hours passed until the bell rang again.

Kwazhak finished writing on the chalkboard. “Ah, I believe that it is lunch period. Class, thou mayest head over to the cafeteria now.”

As some of the students stood up, they realized something.

“Sensei, we don’t know where the cafeteria is.” Mouka flicked her silver hair as she brought it up. The other students nodded in agreement.

“The cafeteria is located on the first floor to the first left,” Kwazhak answered, closing his book.

In the cafeteria, they broke off into groups, each eating with different people. To Suruj, it seemed that they were the only students in the school. He found a secluded spot near a few vending machines, and decided to eat there. He remembered the best spot back in his school in Buhanggilog.

“This food looks to be Azu… Right?” Mouka stared at her tray and leaned against the wall.

Saya stuffed the noodles into her mouth. “It definitely tastes like it. Trust me, I’m an Azu. Tvuj can confirm!”

“Y- Yeah.”

“Oy.” Suruj stabbed his tempura with chopsticks, “Why did you guys come over to me?”

“Ayaya, aren’t we going to discuss the matter of what is up in this world?” Mouka leaned in and smiled.

“Mouka is right,” Ki Lanu walked towards them, “But I don’t think we need to worry. This place honestly seems better than Wakoku right now.”

“...” Suruj sighed and stretched his back against the wall. “On that level, I agree. But I can’t grasp this feeling about how familiar it all is. I’d like more time to process this world.”

“That is what I am going to do as well,” Ki responded, before walking off. “It’s best that we stay to our own devices and explore the school by ourselves.”

They all watched as Ki strolled away down the hall. Then Mouka began to chuckle. “That’s the first time I’ve seen that kid talk.”

“Yeah, but he’s right,” Suruj said while continuing to eat his lunch. There had to be a catch for this place. For now, they should try and observe what would happen in this strange place.

After lunch period, they returned to their classroom. To Suruj, the school was just like any other school he had seen, except that the technology used in this school was not sahar-powered. The lights, toilets, and other appliances did not use the particles.

“Did you guys notice the absence of saharic particles?” Suruj whispered to the people next to him during the lecture.

Mouka was the first to lean her head back. “Yeah, now that I think about it. I haven’t sensed any.”

“A world without sahar?... That’s crazy.” Hyun-woo commented also.

Kwazhak smacked the chalkboard with a ruler. “Students, I believe this is not the time to be distracted. Dost thou not want to learn about how appliances work in this world?”

Immediately everyone turned their heads. They wanted to learn about this new energy system that powered this school. It did not run on sahar, which was unfathomable to think about back in Yahmajo Alautl.

After an hour, Suruj understood at a basic level that this world revolved around the use of ‘electricity’. It was used to power this school, and ultimately everything in it. It was different from sahar, and Suruj thought of experimenting with ‘electricity’ when he had the chance.

At the end of the day, most of the students slacked at their desks. Suruj still kept his back straight, staring out the window.

Saya raised her hand. “Mr. Laoyuang, when school ends, where will we go?”

“Excellent question, Miss Saya.” He packed up his papers and materials into a neat stack. “There are already arranged dorms within this campus. It is there where one shall live.”

As the sun set, the class of 1-DC huddled along the sidewalk, coming to the edge of the school gate. Kwazhak escorted them, as they exited the school and went to the right. When they arrived at their destination, a large residential complex towered over them, similar to what they would see in an apartment building back in the original world. Shaped like a cubical C, the modern lights of the residence blinded them.

“This is crazy…” Suruj stopped in front of the door to his room. He looked to his left and right, to see Ki Lanu and Hyun-woo. The boys and girls were sectioned off into opposite sides of the complex, which made sense.

“They be wildin’ if you want me to live here…” Hyun-woo fumbled with the key card in his hand. Suruj swallowed and stared at his own. He brought it up to the door, to which it sounded a bleep. It was completely different from the door locks in Yahmajo Alautl, where the doors were locked with sahar.

He pushed it open, to see the decent accommodations before him. A single sized bed, a small bathroom, and refrigerator. A lone couch hid in the corner of the room, while the bed’s short side hugged the wall.

Suruj dropped the key card on the table and collapsed onto the bed. They were in a parallel world, or ‘isekai’, as they called it. There was no way in which it could be called normal.

“A country called Japan, huh…” He whispered to himself, while he slept the night away.