Jouya was late, if his friends don't kill him for that, the heat in Shibuya definitely will.

"Crap, crap! Where are they?"

Jouya muttered, swinging his head from side to side as he scanned the bustling ocean of people around him.

Finally, he spotted Chihaya and Kouta waiting for him under the shade of a tree just a few meters away from the station.

"Jouya! Over here!"

Kouta called out, his black t-shirt and red checkered pants making him easy to spot in the sea of people. As Jouya pushed through the crowd and reached his friends, they exchanged a quick high-five.

"Well well, look who decided to show up!"

Chihaya said, crossing her arms, her long brown hair swaying with the light breeze. She wore a white summer dress, her foot tapping impatiently on the ground.

"Come on, is this how you're going to greet me after so long?" Jouya replied

"With 'so long', you mean how long we've been waiting for you? What's your excuse this time?" She replied immediately, raising an eyebrow.

"It is really not my fault this time, but his!" Jouya pointed his phone towards her.

"His?" Chihaya asked, looking at the phone in front of her with a confused expression on her face.

"It's Mr. Mob!" Kouta said, pointing at Jouya's phone with a big, silly smile.

"Yes!" Jouya responded, being really happy that Kouta remembered his phone's nickname.

"Ugh... seriously? This again!?" Chihaya rolled her eyes, but seeing them both grin at each other, she decided to play along.

"Okay.. so what makes Mr. Mob guilty?"

Jouya cleared his throat.

"See, I came home around 2PM and decided to take a power nap, so I set an alarm at 4PM but ended up oversleeping because Mr. Mob decided to play another alarm sound and I didn't.."

"Alright, alright! I get it!" Chihaya interrupted him, and then a small moment of silence followed..

"Come here.." Chihaya opened her arms and embraced Jouya.

Jouya's eyes became watery upon seeing this, and with no hesitation, he surrendered to the hug.

"H-hey don't leave me out!" Kouta joined the group hug, and before he knew it, Jouya got sandwiched between his friends.

"I really missed you guys!" He murmured with his face burrowed in his friends' shoulders.

"We missed you too!" They whispered, hugging him tighter.

After a moment of hugging, Chihaya started letting go slowly, asking the boys:

"So what's the plan?

"Oh oh! I would really like to go for some karaoke today, there is this song stuck in my head all day, and I'm really dying to sing it!" Kouta said while playing an air guitar with his hands, headbanging his silky blonde hair through the air.

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Chihaya stared at Jouya, waiting for his response.

"Karaoke sounds like a great idea, also this stupid sun won't be a bother there either!" Jouya said, as the tree shade started to move away from their spot, exposing them to the strong sunlight.

"Fine then, it's decided, karaoke it is! I have some songs that I want to sing too!" Chihaya replied with a playful tone in her voice.

"Alright!!" The boys high-fived

"Ok, so according to Boogle Maps... it's that way!" Chihaya said, heading in front of them.

"H-hey wait!" the boys shout, sprinting a bit to reach her pace.

After a few minutes of walking and exchanging their news, Kouta pointed at a big flashy screen on a building in front of them.

"Hey look, it's the new Isekai anime that's trending."

"Ugh, not you too.." Jouya grumbled, making a frowning face.

"My professor went on a rampage today about isekai anime and how much of a big fan he is, all because of a stupid symbol from that anime right there!" Jouya said with frustration, pointing at the anime on the screen.

"What really?!" Kouta said, chuckling in disbelief.

"Yeah.. It was a traumatic experience.. Can you believe I keep bumping into Isekais all day?!

Isekai this, isekai that, blah blah Isekai... One more isekai and I'm gonna go nuts!"

"Well.. about that..." Chihaya said, making a weird expression upon seeing the karaoke sign:

< Isekai Karaoke, come inside and get reincarnated as the best singer in the world >

Jouya's expression became dramatically serious, his eyes bulged in, half shut, while his mouth became a straight line, dropping all the way to the bottom of his jaw. He clearly wasn't happy with what he just saw.

"Man, you seriously have bad luck!" Kouta said, bursting into laughter.

"Ok, that's it! I'm not going inside, I'm sure we'll find something better to do!" Jouya said.

"Oh, come on Jouya! Stop being dramatic, we're in Japan and Isekai anime are literally everywhere, get a hold of yourself!" Chihaya tried to kick some sense back to Jouya, but with no success.

"No, you don't get it! They're after me! It's like the universe does it on purpose just to get on my nerves!" Jouya explained furiously.

"So? It's not like you're going to get isekai'd or something, so get inside!" Chihaya said, pushing Jouya towards the door.

"Ugh..fine fine!" Jouya surrendered with no further resistance, and with that, the three of them entered the karaoke.

Upon entering the karaoke, they got greeted by a young lady appearing to cosplay as a goddess, wearing a blonde wig and a white, shining dress with brown sandals.

Her soft and cute voice filled the room with joy and a playful vibe.

"Hello kind travelers! Welcome to Isekai Karaoke, how may I assist you?"

Jouya rolled his eyes in disgust, while Chihaya tried to cover his rudeness nervously, replying:

"Eer, we would like a room."

"Ohh certainly, please pick one you'd like to be reincarnated into, we have plenty of fun themes to choose from!" The young lady showed them a catalog with the available rooms and prices.

"OH! There's a sci-fi room let's go with that, please! I wanna feel like those K-pop bands in their futuristic videos." Kouta said with eyes like those of a child's.

"Alright, we'll go with the sci-fi." Chihaya replied, closing her eyes and pinching her nose.

"Yeah, we're gonna rock this!" Jouya said, looking Kouta in the eye.

The young lady guided them to the reception to register as members.

Jouya was the first one to finish and browsed his phone, while taking small walks around the place to pass the time. Due to how absorbed he was, he bumped his head onto the cosplayer lady's back.

She quickly turned around, and both had a very awkward eye contact.

How embarrassing! I need to say something to play it cool, or she'll think I'm some stupid weirdo. Jouya thought.

"Uhhm... I wondered.. don't you feel embarrassed playing this role, wearing these?"

Jouya felt pressured to say something fast, letting his intrusive thoughts win, as he immediately covered his mouth, upon realizing what he just said.

Whaaaaat, you stupid!! Jouya screamed internally.

"What did you say punk?!" All of a sudden, the sweet voice of the young lady from before turned into an intimidating and masculine one, with her face radiating a murderous vibe.

"Uh...." Jouya was at a loss for words due to the shock caused by what he just witnessed.

"Didn't ya hear me?" The young lady said angrily.

"O-oh look!Did you hear that?! I think my friends called!" Jouya quickly turned his head around, clearly making that up.

"Tsch!" The young lady glared at Jouya as he rushed back to his friends, looking quite shocked by that strange encounter.

"Are you ok Jouya? You look as if you saw a ghost!" Chihaya asked him.

Jouya took a look behind him, seeing the young lady staring at him menacingly as he replied:

"N-no no, I'm fine I just need to go to the bathroom!"

"Right now?" Chihaya asked.

"Yeah, don't worry, go ahead and I'll catch up later!" Jouya said seeing the young lady approaching to guide them to their room.

He jolted down the narrow hall in front of them like a rocket in search for the boys restroom. Jouya slowed down for a brief moment as he got a strange feeling.

He soon noticed a sign showing the boy's restroom. Something about this place felt... off. He reached the bathroom door and pushed it open.

The restroom was painted in a deep gray color, with blue LED lights decorating the bottom half of each wall. A strong light bulb was above each sink, with a big mirror covering the upper half.

Jouya entered the second cabinet, closing the door behind him as he stood in front of the toilet.

He unzipped his pants, letting them fall to his ankles, and began to pee.

Suddenly, right after Jouya began relieving himself... he vanished! Poof! He was gone! Leaving not a single trace behind him!

And just like that.. in a faraway world, Jouya reappeared out of thin air, like some prankster played jokes on him, making him flicker in and out of existence just for fun.

He was surrounded by a vast grassy field, a bright blue sky above him, and a cool breeze brushing his... exposed lower half.. He blinked in confusion, slowly realizing that he wasn’t alone.

Behind him, a strange creature loomed, watching him...