This story follows a highschool senior by the name of Hideaki Watanabe. He wasn’t particularly a very interesting student. He gets good grades, but nothing exceptional. He loves Math and Science, but hates History. Hide is determined by the fact that he has never and will never use what he learns in history ever. As for friends, there isn’t a very clear boundary by which you could determine one as his friend or not, it’s far easier to say he has three or so close friends, and the rest are all close acquaintances. Besides his academics he doesn’t have much of a life outside of school—though, that is assuming he has much of a life in school to begin with, which is also a false assumption since he doesn’t participate in any extracurriculars and has never studied, not once. Outside of school Hide mainly watches MeTube, and popular anime. Very rarely he also starts up projects, but usually shuts them down soon after due to a lack of motivation.

Today was a special day though, not only did Hide turn eighteen just a week ago, but it is also New Years Eve, so he plans to turn it all around this next year and start fresh. After all, New Year, New You as they say.

“What should I do, what should I dooo”

He grumbles to himself sitting in his office chair switching between messaging apps to see if anyone he knows is online, only to be met with the fact that everyone is in fact, not online.

“Ughh, it’s not like I need people to be around and hang out with to make my New Year special, I can just treat myself! Let’s see what we’ve got herree…”

Hide flips up his phone case to find out how many stray bills are floating about the inside waiting for him to steal and spend. 

“Oh man! It really is my lucky day! 1000.. 1200.. 1400 yen.. and the tip of an old fortune cookie fortune! I’ll have to get another one later...”

Putting the cash into his pocket he closes up his phone case and shoves that along with the crumpled funds just to end up pulling it back out again to check the time. Being just about seventeen minutes until the new year he pops his head into the living room to see his parents asleep on the couch watching the New Years celebration broadcast. 

Hide quietly slithers to the front door unlatching it and shutting it on the way out, certain that his departure will most likely go unnoticed. Quickly he walks to the nearby convenience store only a few streets down. Despite the quiet nature of the New Years Eve night, some commotion can be heard coming from the corner store.

As Hide arrives he can see a man dressed in his sleeping attire looking quite frustrated and in distress, but this is not very uncommon since Hide doesn’t live in the wealthiest of towns. He easily walks past the man into the store and up to the counter.

“Excuse me… Do you have any lottery tickets…”

The exhausted clerk looks slowly to Hide blinking as if he were a frog, before sighing.

“Majormillions or Supersphere?”

“Do you have any scratchers…”

The clerk gives a slight squint before turning to the back and reaching behind the counter, placing a ticket onto the counter.

“That’s 600 yen… will that be all?”

Responding with only a nod, Hide reaches into his pocket and pulls out the 1000 yen bill. After the transaction he grabs a 10 yen coin from the “take a penny, leave a penny” tray and begins scratching the ticket. After not even a minute, he finishes, his fingers black with scratcher dust. 

“Wait.. I think I won!” 

Rushing to the counter he thrusts the ticket to the clerk and asks him to verify. Wide-eyed and stunned, the man looks over the ticket mumbling under his breath.

“No way—you actually won…”

The clerk takes the ticket and tosses it into the bin behind the counter as he goes fiddling around out of sight from Hide.

“Hey wait! You can’t do that, I just won-”

Just then the clerk’s head pops up from beyond the counter and he reaches out with a check in hand towards Hide with a check in hand with “¥80,000.00” written into the transfer amount box. Hide graciously accepts his prize with an awkward smile on his face. Nothing like this has ever happened to him before and he wasn’t expecting it to either. Looking up to the TV on the wall Hide sees he's almost out of time, only about three minutes remain until midnight.

Hide quickly walks over to the small joined restaurant on the side of the corner store, going up to the counter and asks for just a single fortune cookie, which they surprisingly hand to him free of cost. He immediately begins fiddling with the wrapper struggling to open it as he walks for the exit. Cracking open the cookie he removes the fortune, popping the cookie into his mouth and pushing open the door. 

“Your luck will soon turn around”

As Hide reads the cookie he can’t help but chuckle to himself quietly, thinking that should only be meant for if you have bad luck, and just as he thinks that thought a sharp searing stench hits his nostrils and his eyes begin to burn. 

“GhhhaaaaAAH!!”

He screams out as he begins to wipe at his eyes with his hands, feeling his clothes begin to stick to his body and the stench assault his nose he hears a voice besides his own—The screaming, it was happening all along—and as he realizes he pulls his hands down, his red irritated eyes meeting another set, similar to his own, only within a man wearing a sleeping gown. Just then the man pulls out a lighter, strikes it and ignites Hide into a huge burning mass.

“AAAAGAHHHA!! AGHHH!!”

Hide desperately begins clawing at his burning clothing and melting flesh. His senses bombarded. He cannot see. The flames burn every bit of his body. He cannot smell anything besides the stinky flames as they consume him. The taste in his mouth as he screams is like that of the putrid taste of hand sanitizer. And his screams, not just his, though, the man’s, and the people from the corner store. They all stand by shrieking as if they were on fire as well. As Hide lays there crying out, trying to free himself, his skin bubbling, and popping like bacon that’s when he hears it, a shriek higher than all those around him, followed by a bone rattling crack as something deafeningly loud bursts over head, and the TV crackles to life—

“Happy New Yearrr!!”

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With a jolt Hideaki bolts upright and twists his head left and right with his face contorted in terror.

“Was it all just a dream—”

As he looks around taking in his surroundings his eyes seem to refuse to focus, everything flooded with a bright white light—or could it be that everything was already white—he couldn’t really tell, but either way that didn’t matter since he was neither in his bed nor on the asphalt of a gas station parking lot, and with that thought he immediately goes to inspect his extremities, all of which are undamaged. The same goes for his clothes as well.

“That was quite… unfortunate”

Hideaki spins around to meet the low voice, but it echoes all around him as if coming from every direction.

“Who’s there?!”

Hideaki shouts back not knowing who it could be, but they have to be behind why he is in such an unfamiliar place. 

“That wasn’t meant to happen.”

“What wasn’t? Who are you??”

There is a long pause, while normally it would be quiet Hide’s heart beats in his ears and his voice continues to echo, fading into the distance of wherever he is.

“Who I am is of no importance, but I do suppose that you do deserve some sort of compensation for your trouble… You shall get another chance at life in a new world. Don’t waste it.”

And with that the all white surroundings begin to warp around Hideaki. Everything spins, twists and melts as he feels his stomach churn and drop. Hide shuts his eyes but it isn’t enough, the nausea consumes him and he opens his mouth and hunches over arching his back. Saliva fills his mouth and coats his throat as his face burns and he proceeds to empty his stomach out of his mouth, with wet chunky pops as it piles between his hands on the ground. Eventually the nausea stops, and the pressure in his head is released. As he opens his eyes he once again is in a new location, this time though he is not in his room, the parking lot, or the white room, he’s in some sort of forest with dense trees and wilderness surrounding him.

“What the fuck—”

Jumping to his feet he breathes heavily, looking around for anything that could prove useful to him, or at least bring sense to all of this. He wipes his mouth clean with his sleeve, removing the remaining vomit and saliva. He then looks over his body once again scanning for any of the previous signs of harm. His phone, remaining yen, check, and fortune are all there in his pocket. Checking his phone it flashes a low battery warning before not powering on again.

“Shit!”

He puts it all back away before taking his first steps in this new area. The cawing and chirping of birds all around is somewhat disorienting. Hideaki begins to move through the trees and bushes, ducking under branches and brushing past prickly vines. 

Hours pass as he searches the forest for an exit, but it feels as if he’s just been going in circles. All of the trees, bushes, rocks, vines, etc., they all look the same, though, eventually he comes across a large rocky wall hidden by some overgrowth. Following along it seems to go as far off in both directions as he can tell. 

“So there’s mountains out here… maybe there’s some sort of cave or crevice to camp out in until I can find my way out of this place…”

After some more searching and getting bit by some small bugs he eventually finds a large rock slab embedded into the mountain, covering an opening. He firmly places his right leg back wrapping his fingers firmly around the slab before giving the rock a tug.

“If I can just free this stupid rock—”

Before Hideaki can finish grumbling out his words his fingers slip and he flies backwards onto his butt with a good thump.

“Owowowww…”

He grabs his butt and squeezes to mask the pain before standing up and dusting himself off.

“Fine, I’ll just crawl in then!”

Hideaki gets to his knees and scopes out the opening, calculating how to contort himself to make entry. Eventually he pops his head beneath the slab, and slides his back along the ground, scooting himself into the much more open interior of the cave. It doesn’t take much more than a few minutes before he is entirely inside. Taking a look around it is quite dark and hard to see, but mostly empty, there’s a few tunnels further in that branch off into more connected caves. After careful consideration by Hide—deciding it’s more interesting than sitting here—he progresses down the cave making his way further inside for an exploration of what his new temporary home has to offer.

Going deeper inside of the cave it quickly gets far too dark to even see directly in front of his face. Hideaki resorts to feeling around and moving slower so as to not trip. Occasionally he stumbles upon what feel like cloth pieces and softer rocks, there are also sandy piles that are scattered about the floor of the cave causing his hands and knees to crunch with every step. The cool damp air clings to his skin causing condensation to form along his arms and on his face. Continuing his exploration of the now less empty cave he eventually feels a soft flat brick beneath his hand as he crawls over a sandy pile. Pulling on it, it easily slides free allowing him to feel it over more closely, coming to find that it feels similar to a book. He slips it into his hoodie pocket and continues to feel around the sandy pile since he got so lucky the first time. One of his hands ends up finding its way into a sticky warm mushy pile causing him to quickly retract it in disgust.

“EUgh! Nasty…”

His voice echoes loudly through the silence of the cave. The silence is deafeningly loud. Hideaki wipes his hand clean before searching around other piles hoping not to have a similar occurrence. This time finding some sort of cold, smooth, light capsule.

“What is this…”

Bringing it to his ear he shakes it hearing a soft, thick glub as a highly viscous liquid sloshes about the inside. Thinking he could inspect it better along with the book when he later has a source of light he stuffs it into his right butt pocket and heads even deeper into this cavernous cave.

Not too long later he hears a sand pile behind him hiss as it collapses. He freezes in place hoping that it was just some sort of coincidence that it collapsed—after all he was crawling about down here over the sand piles. Holding very still, holding his breath he listens closely. His heartbeat pounds in his ears over the silence, yet nothing could be heard. Hideaki sighs in relief knowing that his paranoia must have gotten the better of him. He decides that’s enough exploring today and he should return back to base to rest for the night, since he’s had quite the day so far. Crawling back he ends up bumping into a wall.

“Euf-”

He feels around and moves around it continuing to crawl back only to bump into another similar feeling wall. He groans in annoyance as this continues to happen a time or two more. As he continues to crawl back he feels a light draft tickle the hair on his ankles, causing him to reach down and pull up his sock and pull down his pant leg. He continues a bit further but his foot gets trapped. He pulls on it but it feels like some sort of sharp rocks or something have pinned it well, so he feels down his leg to it, so he can free it. His fingers eventually reach the object that has his foot entrapped and gives it a good hard tap, only to receive a puff of air as it receives the blow.

His foot then starts to burn as something slimy touches it, but his hand cannot reach it since the thing that has it trapped has him enclosed within it. Hideaki starts to panic, bashing it harder and harder.

“OwOwOW! Let go!!”

As he continues to struggle to free his foot something else begins to pinch him on the opposite side of his torso, slowly piercing his flesh. Hideaki starts to cry out in pain.

“AUGHHAAGHH!!”

As he fights back he hears tapping getting closer and closer—no. Skittering. 

No longer confused as to what’s happening Hide attempts to turn over feeling what’s lodged into his side start to peel back the flesh. As he shifts his weight he feels the capsule from earlier crack and then pop as he crushes it, lodging stinging glass shards deep into his glutes. Hide begins to crawl away clawing at the ground. All of the pain is unbearable. Then what has his foot finally stops savoring him and starts to bite down, crunching through his fibula.

“AGHHH!! AEUGHH!! AHHHHHH!!”

He feels his body start to go cold but his leg burns as the creature bites deeper. Finally it bites through his tibia snapping his leg not quite clean in two. Hideaki screams out in pain this time coughing as his throat starts to ooze blood and mucus, but now he’s able to crawl faster, he shoves his hands into the ground dragging his body along, he can feels the dirt and rocks cut and pull back the skin on his fingers as he jams them into the ground and pulls himself along. He can’t help but think that this is all his fault. He would never be in this situation if it weren’t for his curiosity, and now he’s going to die again.

Soon light starts to become visible as he approaches the opening to the cave, but this makes him drop his guard allowing one of the creatures to jump out and bite his knee on the uninjured leg. He screams out, flips over and swats at the creature with all of his might, just trying to get free. Two loud cracks can be heard, the first at the first impact as his hand collides with the creature and the second as the creature presumably collides with the wall, causing it to let out a weak shriek before a softer thud is heard. Hideaki doesn’t stop for a second, he’s learned his lesson. He feels himself getting weaker and the world starts to feel warm, and fuzzy, but he continues to drag his body along, before inevitably passing out.

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“Man that guy was really torn up, do you think he’ll make it…”

“I don’t know man, but if he does, who knows if he’ll ever be able to function again properly… you know, like, mentally…”

Hearing people talking, Hideaki groggily opens his eyes and rolls over. After blinking away the fog in his eyes he is met with the sight of two guys sitting on a log conversing with one another.

“Woah, he’s actually awake!”

Hide’s eyes widen as he sees these two and begins to remember what happened before this. He sharply inhales as if trying to scream, but is quickly stopped by one of the guys.

“Woah woah, hey, no, we just got you healed up, we are not letting you go and screaming your throat out again!”

The guy loosens his grip on Hide’s mouth as he notices Hide calm down. The two guys look at one another before the one still sitting down, stands and makes his way over to Hideaki and the other. 

“I suppose introductions are probably in order then… my name is Kazuo”

“And I’m Riku!”

The first of the two to speak is a bit taller than the second with a sword set in his hip scabbard, while the shorter one seems a bit more energetic with a small dagger sheathed on his hip and a recurve bow hung on his back. Both of the guys are in leather armor and have brown hair, except the shorter one’s is much brighter than the other's. Hideaki looks between them slowly back and forth, processing what he’s seeing.

“H-hi… Nice to meet you…”

Hideaki glances down at himself, assessing the aftermath of his latest survival attempt. He’s lying neatly on a bedroll, his clothes and skin streaked with dirt and dried blood. Strangely, his body is unscathed—no wounds, no scars, not even a lingering ache. He shifts uneasily, his fingers brushing over the shredded remains of his back pocket.

“Oh yeah, when we found you and fixed you up there were glass shards all in there so we removed them so you wouldn’t get injured again”

Kazuo’s voice seemed to waver a little as if there was something he left off from saying. He looks to Riku and then back to you.

“Do you remember what happened?”

Hide happens to remember all too well what happened, but he doesn’t really remember ever actually leaving the cave so he decides to deny remembering anything just to hear what they have to say about what happened.

“Not really…”

“Well.. We aren’t entirely sure what happened to you either, but what happened for us was we were going out to hunt down some creatures in these woods when we heard blood curdling shrieking as if someone was getting murdered…”

Kazuo pauses for a moment as he looks to the ground and fiddles with his hands.

“We ran straight toward the screaming and found you lying in the middle of the forest.” 

Kazuo’s voice wavers as he fiddles with his hands. 

“Your side was torn open, half your leg was gone, and the other… it was scratched to hell. Your fingers looked like they’d been scraped down to the bone. And there was a trail—a long one—of blood and drag marks leading right to you.”

He and Riku sit quietly there looking down as they recall the sight. Eventually Riku decides to speak up and let Kazuo take a break.

“W-well, after we found you we first thought you were dead, but Yuriko said that you were still alive. She took over from there and we helped move you away from wherever you came from. Yuriko is a great healer, but that was something else… It took her two days to get you to where you are now. First we gave you all of the health potions we had which barely helped. Then she passed out after using up all of her mana the first time, and same the second time. She’s been asleep for the past six hours…”

He turns his head over to face the sleeping girl with her feet poking out from behind the log they were sitting on earlier. She looks slightly pale and malnourished, which is most likely due to her healing him. Hideaki can’t help but feel bad, even though he is beyond grateful to them for saving his life. They put in all that effort into saving him, even though they don’t know anything about him. He really doesn’t want to die a second time…

“Thank you all so much… I’ll thank her personally when she wakes up…”

“Yeah, no problem!”

“Absolutely, we would never let someone in need of help just lay there and die if we could help”

As the three of them laugh together, lightening the mood from the depressing atmosphere it was previously, Yuriko can be heard stirring around. The three of them quiet down and watch her, waiting to see her awaken, which soon she appears to do. She sits up and yawns, rubbing her nearly sunken in eyes, before turning her head to see the three sitting together causing her to smile softly.

“I see, he woke up… That’s good..”

She stands up and walks over to Hideaki, kneeling down.

“Thank you so much for saving me, if it weren’t for you I’d probably be dead…”

Hide says, putting out his hand to shake. She takes his hand in hers and gives it a good shake before nodding. Hideaki can’t help but stare quite rudely at Yuriko’s pale state. She notices and tilts her head before realizing why he is looking at her so intently.

“Oh don’t worry, I just haven’t ate or drank in two days and am weak from all of the healing, but once I get something to eat I’ll be all lively again!”

She shows her soft smile again with a soft giggle before standing. The others follow her to their feet, and Kazuo offers his hand to Hideaki. 

“How about we head to town and get something to eat?”

“Yeah, I’m starving!”

Riku energetically agrees with Kazuo, not allowing any room for disagreement. Kazuo picks up a large bag and Yuriko starts to roll up her bedroll. After everything is packed up all four of them start heading towards “town”. Paying attention to the scenery Hideaki notices the forest gets less and less dense as they continue. After not too long a lively city is noticed downhill from them. Getting closer the walls seem to grow, towering well above their heads, city guards stand by the gate watching carefully as people pass in and out of the large entrance. 

As they step through the city gates, Hideaki is struck by the sheer variety of people bustling through the streets. Elves with graceful features stroll alongside short, stocky figures he can only describe as dwarves. Some have fuzzy dog or cat-like traits, their tails swishing as they move, while others resemble scaled reptiles with gleaming eyes. Compared to this lively mix, his rescuers seem almost ordinary—comfortingly familiar in their appearance.

“Woah… this place is crazy…”

“You're telling me you've never been to Aetherveil before??”

Yuriko sounds quite perplexed by the fact Hideaki hasn't been here before.

“The next town isn't for about 3 days out and you were up in that forest, it would only make sense for you to have passed through this town before going”

She makes a pretty great point, but after all Hide didn't really arrive here in the most normal of ways. They continue walking through the bustling city when something catches Hide’s eyes, he freezes mid-step, his gaze locked on a towering lizard-like man gnawing on a shimmering purple fruit. The juice dripped from his scaled chin as his bright yellow eyes briefly flicked to Hideaki. It was enough to send a shiver down his spine. 

“Man this place really is wild…”

Not long later they all arrive at a building buried between other buildings from every other side, with a crooked wood slab slapped above the door reading “Fishlips”.

“Fish.. lips?”

“Their buns are so good!~”

Riku, not really hearing or at least responding to Hide’s confused statement, voices his desire and love for the buns this place apparently makes, while the other two ignore the both of them and start to enter the establishment. Soon after getting seated a girl with fuzzy ears, an apron, and a fluffy tail walks over holding a leather-bound sheet of parchment smiling merrily.

“We'll just have some waters for now!”

Hearing Yuriko’s statement the fluffy girl does a nodding bow and walks off back to the main bar area without saying a word. It looks like this place resembles an ordinary restaurant that Hideaki is used to. At this point Hide can no longer put off coming to terms with his current particular predicament.

“Where... am I?” 

Hideaki murmurs, his voice barely louder than a whisper. The table goes silent, all three of his companions turning to him with puzzled expressions. Riku cocks his head, his brow furrowed. 

“Fishlips… duh. Did you get like, a concussion or something we didn’t catch?”

Riku says, his voice tinged with amusement, as he leaned back in his chair, casually flicking a crumb off the table. Hide can't help but chuckle slightly thinking to himself, that it certainly feels as though this whole day's events have been pretty confusing. Maybe he did just hit his head really hard at the convenience store and everything since then has just been some sort of weird comatose dream. If that's the case then he can just continue to live this dream life and wait until he ends up waking up in the real world again. 

Lost in thought, Hideaki’s face twists into a series of odd expressions, punctuated by occasional chuckles under his breath. The absurdity of it all—the forest, the rescue, and now this city—feels like a surreal fever dream. Kazuo, noticing his spaced-out state, places firm hands on Hideaki’s shoulders and shakes him gently. 

“Oi, you good? Don’t go drifting off on us now!”

With that he snaps back to reality, looking at all of the people around him and the restaurant he's currently in. Maybe this was all just a fever dream—a bizarre fantasy conjured by his subconscious while his body lay in a hospital bed. But the smells, the sounds, the pain... it all felt so real. Too real. If it truly were a dream wouldn't things be more… well… dreamlike? Everything seems not blurry like dreams usually are, while everything seems odd and fantastical, it all has some sort of weight behind it, everything seems to be following some sort of set of laws. And the biggest thing of all…

“I can think clearly”

The table looks at him then back to each other with confused and then somewhat exhausted looks.

“Yuriko, you should look him over again…”

“No no no, wait, I just keep getting lost in thought, sorry. You see, I'm trying to figure out whether this is all a dream or not, since my arrival here was strange and none of this stuff is like the stuff I am used to”

The three of them squint, with Yuriko tilting her head off to the side, and Riku speaking up.

“What do you mean? You don't know how you ended up in Aetherveil?”

“Well, yes and no, I don't know how I ended up in this world”

Riku gives an odd look before looking at the others, and then back to Hideaki. 

“Well you see, when a Mommy and a Daddy love each other verrr—”

“Ew no, stop, that's not what I meant you weirdo!”

Yuriko laughs softly and peaks up a little, deciding to add to the conversation.

“While there have been stories written of people traveling between worlds, there has never been a single documented case where a person has actually traveled to or from another world. I personally have always believed those stories, ever since I was a little girl, but it is still a bit hard to believe entirely, and as for most everyone else in this world those stories are nothing more than just stories to them”

Kazuo and Riku listen carefully to Yuriko’s explanation, and by the end they nod their head slowly, agreeing with her statement.

“Yeah, I would have to say I don't entirely believe the stories, but it's a bit hard to not believe them with you wearing such queer clothing…”

Hearing Kazuo Hideaki looks down at his shredded, dirt-stained clothes, the same ones he’d been wearing back at home. The others, in contrast, wore sturdy but fantastical outfits that wouldn’t look out of place in an RPG. He hadn’t even considered how out of place he might seem. He also notices that he still hasn't actually gotten a change of clothes, so there's a lot of his skin showing. Almost as if reading his mind Kazuo speaks up. 

“Oh don’t worry, it's actually pretty normal for people to be seen in torn up clothes after coming back from adventures or getting attacked”

“Oh, so I'm guessing that you guys are probably registered with the adventurers’ guild?”

Again, as has been happening a lot recently they all look at him confused as if he's speaking in tongues.

“The what?-...” 

They all say in unison. Hide thinks to himself how it's a bit odd that there isn't an adventurers’ guild since in all of the fantasy games, anime, and manga he's consumed there usually has been one. Luckily he's gotten a bit lucky this time—saved from this embarrassment. The fuzzy waiter girl comes back with a tray in hand with four glasses of water and a strange bowl full of brown-scale “O-ring” looking things. After she has unloaded the tray and walks off, Hide begins to inspect the bowl. It smells good, but he still isn't sure what the contents are. Not shying down from an adventure he picks one up and pops it into his mouth.

“Oh, those are fishlips, this place is known for them—”

Hide’s eyes begin to tear up, and his face turns red with blush. He squints his eyes and begins to sway his head from side to side making a grimace.

“Ith stho tewwi… and glothe…” 

“Yeah… they aren't known for being good… their rolls on the other hand—”

Hide violently shakes before hitting the table and throwing his head back, visibly forcing himself to swallow down the nastiness that has entered his gob. As what he has swallowed travels down his throat he slowly tilts his head down, and with a whimper he opens his eyes slowly letting the tears that have built up roll down his cheeks. 

“That was hard to watch…”

Hide looks at Riku and says with his voice still quaking.

“Well it was hard to swallow too…”

The four of them begin to giggle, growing into laughter at that hilarious moment. They all then continue on to eat, drink and chat.

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After finishing up in the tavern the four of them exit with full bellies and high spirits. Suddenly Kazuo looks as if he had just remembered something.

“What is it Kazuo?”

“Well, it’s just that I’m not sure we ever got your name, mister”

Hide looks at them and thinks back to when he first awoke realizing they had gotten carried away and he hadn’t given them his name. 

“Shall we all reintroduce ourselves now that the situation isn’t as weird as before?”

They all make noises of agreement nodding with one another before turning to Hide and staring at him awkwardly. Eventually he picks up on the fact that they are waiting for him to introduce first since they’ve already introduced themselves already.

"My name is Hideaki Watanabe, a cool guy from another world! It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance!" 

Hideaki swings his arms out dramatically and performs a showy bow.

Kazuo rolls his eyes but grins. 

“I’m Kazuo, the fighter of the group,” 

he says, with a hand resting on the hilt of his sword. 

"And, of course, I’m also the packrat."

He pats a large bag slung across his back, which looks stuffed to the brim with all sorts of equipment. Despite its size, Kazuo doesn’t seem fazed. He’s clearly the strongest of the group.

Riku steps forward next, flashing a wide smile. 

“I’m the archer!” 

he says, lifting his bow in one fluid motion. He then shows off a dagger strapped to his waist. 

“I’m also the most agile out of all of us and, of course, the best at sneaking around.”

Yuriko beams, stepping forward with a quiet confidence. 

“And I’m the healer. I specialize in healing spells, though I know a few others as well. While we can all use magic here—pretty much everyone can—I’m the best when it comes to casting.” 

She gives a small nod, acknowledging her expertise. Yuriko smiles before going to Kazuo and jumping up at him as if she’s trying to jump up on him. She grabs at the bag on his back, and he kneels down realizing she’s trying to get into the opening at the top, and after a little digging she pulls out a grimoire. 

“Here is my grimoire, it contains all of the magic I know, how it works, and more! It really is amazing~”

“Wait!—”

Hideaki shouts looking at them with wide eyes, before going up to Yuriko. He places his hands on her shoulders and looks down into her eyes.

“Everyone can use magic?? Does that mean I can too??”

Yuriko looks at him startled, thinking to herself. Everyone, at least to her knowledge, is capable of casting spells, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they can.

“Well… I don’t see why you couldn’t, but it is difficu—”

“Can you teach me?!”

Hide doesn’t even attempt to hide the fact that he is so desperate to learn magic. If there was some sort of positive he could take away from all of this hell, it would have to be magic! Magic alone could make up for it all. No matter how it worked, he’s seen enough shows, movies, anime, and games to know that if you train enough that you can do anything you could possibly ever dream of.

Yuriko’s shocked expression spoon fades, and she smiles softly nodding her head. 

“I can teach you some time, but for now read about how magic and mana work in my grimoire…”

She hands him the thick, dark leather bound book slowly and carefully. Flinching slightly as he takes it from her. Her expression is slightly pained, and a bit stern. 

“If you so much as tear a page…”

Hideaki, so far decently well-versed in fear up to this point, is still shaken as Yuriko glares into his soul. He can’t help but feel chills throughout his body and the world feel so unimportant.

“Y-yes ma’am!”

Hideaki bows quickly, placing his hands upon the ground and his head upon his hands. 

“I am honored to be allowed to read from your grimoire!”

Peeking his head up Hideaki is in turn greeted with the same smile he has seen up to this point laid upon Yuriko’s face. As Hideaki stands the other three begin to talk amongst themselves, and as he places the book into his tattered waistband he remembers the book he had placed there before. Wondering where it has gone, he decides to speak up.

“Oh yeah, hey, do you guys know where the—”

“Oh you’re still stuck in those torn up things! Let’s go get you some new clothes, you can’t keep wearing those torn up rags!”

Yuriko interrupts not hearing Hideaki. She begins to walk off talking to Kazuo and Riku. Hideaki can’t help but feel somewhat depressed about being interrupted like that but he decides to forget about it and go clothing shopping with them. He quickly hurries his pace catching up with them walking down the streets of Aetherveil. 

Many hours later after going from shop to shop, even some stalls, it began to get dark and everyone's energy levels began to deplete. Yuriko yawned in the middle of sentences. Riku was nodding off in random corners. Kazuo was groaning from having to carry all of the stuff… and Hideaki is actually asleep.

“Wake uppppp… Hideeeeeee…”

Hideaki groggily stirs as someone gently shakes his shoulder. He blinks a few times, his vision blurry and his head foggy. The world is spinning, and for a brief moment, he wonders if he’s still dreaming.

“Five more minutes…” 

He mumbles, his voice thick with exhaustion, then promptly falls back into his makeshift pillow—a pile of fabric he’s somehow ended up curled around.

“Come on, we’ve been at this for hours!” 

Yuriko’s voice rings out, tinged with both exasperation and amusement. 

“You can’t sleep now!”

“Ugh...” 

Hideaki groans, pushing himself up slowly, his legs feeling like jelly. 

“I swear... you guys should’ve just let me sleep in the alleyway or something.”

Riku, who has been half-leaning against a shop corner with his eyes barely open, snorts in amusement. 

“You wanted to come, remember? You practically begged us to let you join.”

Riku spouts out an obvious lie as Hide wasn’t actually asked his opinion on going shopping. Kazuo grumbles, adjusting the weight of the bags slung over his shoulder, his brow furrowed in annoyance.

“Not to mention, now we have to deal with this.” 

He gestures at Yuriko, who happens to purchase many things that she definitely doesn’t need.

Hideaki half-smiles, trying to shrug off his earlier annoyance from being awoken. 

“Fine, fine, I’m up. What are we doing again?”

Yuriko stares at him as though he’s lost his mind. 

“Clothes. Hideaki. We’ve been getting you new clothes for the last few hours. You can’t keep wearing those rags. You look like you crawled out of a trash heap.”

He looks down at himself—his ripped, patched-up shirt, torn pants, and worn-out shoes. It’s not a pretty sight in the slightest, but he’d been too distracted by other things to care. Magic, the grimoire, everything. Who had time for clothes?

“Okay, okay. I get it, but you have to find something that doesn’t look so weird” 

He mutters, more to himself than to her. Kazuo stifles a chuckle. 

“Took you long enough to realize... Don’t worry, though. I’ll pick you out something decent.” 

His eyes glimmer with mischief. 

“I have excellent taste!”

“That’s a lie.” 

Riku interjects, casting Kazuo a sideways glance.

 “You picked out those awful leather pants last time. You know, the ones that were too tight?”

Kazuo’s grin widens, ignoring the jab. 

“Hey, those were fitted pants! Fashion, Riku, fashion!”

“More like failing fashion!” 

Riku quips, and Yuriko chuckles softly under her breath.

Hideaki, now fully awake but still bleary-eyed, follows behind them as they navigate through the streets of Aetherveil, the soft blue glow of lanterns lighting the cobblestone path as dusk sets in. The city is bustling with life, but his attention keeps wandering. Part of him still can't believe he’s in a completely different world—one where magic is real, and, for some reason, everyone seems so normal about it.

“So, what’s the deal with magic here?” 

he asks, his voice slightly tentative as he tries to steer the conversation. 

“Like, do I just... wave my hands and say something, or is there more to it?”

Yuriko’s eyes light up at the question, her enthusiasm clearly visible. 

“Magic here is tied to mana, the life force that flows through everything. It’s not quite like waving your hands around all willy nilly. Well, it can be, sort of, but that’s just the easy part.”

She pauses, glancing at him with a mischievous grin. “You have to breathe the mana, not through your mouth or nose, but through your soul. That’s the hard part. Everyone has a differently woven soul, so not everyone can use magic the same, and some people practically can’t use it at all, though that’s mostly due to skill.”

“Wait... so I could be one of those people who basically can’t use magic??” 

Hideaki asks, feeling his stomach drop a little.

Yuriko shrugs, a playful glint in her eyes. 

“Possibly, but I highly doubt it. Most people can at least tap into basic spells. You just need to get a feel for it, and understand more of how it works. Just read my grimoire a little and start with the easy stuff, okay?”

Hideaki nods, and soon the group arrives at another shop, its windows filled with all manner of clothes. This one looks a bit fancier, the kind of place where you’d find something really nice—not the ragged stuff he was still wearing.

“I swear-...” 

Kazuo mutters, eyeing the price tags as they enter. 

“The prices here are absurd...”

But despite the price, Hideaki knows this is his chance to finally get out of his current gear. He grins, almost bouncing on his feet. 

“Let’s get me some new clothes, so I can read up on magic!”

Yuriko leads him toward the racks. 

“That’s the spirit!”

The playful banter and teasing continue as Hideaki takes a deep breath, already feeling a little lighter. In a strange way, even though he’s in a foreign world with no idea how to navigate it, he realizes one thing for sure: this is his party now, his new family, and maybe it won’t be all that bad.