From George's notes (updated during long flight in the tube):
Misaki Arashi - mixed-race high school student at Tokugawa Elite from a rich family. An overachiever without any friends. According to Ryu she tried to blow off her brains with her late grandfather's rifle.
Achievements - Physics and Math Olimpics dual winner. 16. No social media under own name, from the looks of it a loner or someone who hates being in pictures, as facial recognition found no pictures of her in any of TEA students' social accounts aside from ones where the whole class was. Interestingly it looks like she liked getting pictures taken during championships, including selfies with other contestents which I found on their accounts.
Identifying her peers there were not any mentions of her passing away, but it can mean too many possible things.
Preliminary assumption of her is of being a loner without friends in shool - most likely confirmed. Maybe aside from couple of teachers I talked with in TEA.
Family belongs to banking elite, almost no public information on them aside from assets, I stopped counting after first 10m$.
Misc: there was a popular pop band called Arashi. Not connected to Arashi banking family, but I liked their music, added it to my playlist.
From a perspective of an ex-intelligence worker; prime material for a spy given some training in soft skills. Well, it doesn't really matter now that I know what actually happened...
I probably should pay her a visit to check up on her before I find a way back to earth, I hope this Zarat place is not on the other side of the globe.
Wearing a three piece suite is not the best outfit for travelling in a tube, at least air is moving around me so I don't get stinky...
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Misaki looked around sluggishly. She was standing on a decorated carpet with some geometrical shapes woven into it, feeling the coarse surface of the tightly knit fiber touching her bare feet.
She was standing straight, but it felt strange, almost as though she was forced to be upright. When she inhaled, the air was uncomfortably warm and moist.
"It worked!" someone shouted in a language Misaki somehow knew.
"Of course it did. Send the messenger!" another man shouted.
Misaki looked around as her eyes regained focus. Around a dozen people occupied the roughly 40-square-meter, windowless room. Most, but four next to her wore armor, helmets and had swords and stood at the distance. They looked scary, as their faces were covered with dark shawls. The four close to her were almost naked, as if they came straight from a beach, tanned and fit.
Misaki's eyes widened; the four surrounded her, examining her from different angles, and the ears... all four had wolf ears. She felt herself in a generic Isekai with a cliche story, and a boring protagonist. Maybe a male protagonist would have enjoyed the way women dressed here.
"How are you feeling?" an older female with wolf ears and golden earrings asked.
"Fine?" Misaki responded, slightly twitching.
"Looking so long at someone's ears is not polite here," commented a younger male with deep grey eyes whose ears were being investigated by Misaki.
Misaki averted her gaze as ordered.
"Of course she looks, there are no kins in her world," the younger female interrupted gently looking at Misaki. "Look as much as you want, heroine!"
"Where am I?" Misaki looked towards the only light source - the violet crystal at the ceiling emanating white light.
"You are in ‘safe facility number 11’. This is a secure and protected place. A day's travel from the capital of our glorious country," the older man said. He had a black beard and a few smiling wrinkles on his face. "We are awaiting escort now, to the palace."
"Palace?" Misaki had imagined this scene quite differently in her daily 20 minutes of daydreaming on the way home; her fantasy didn't have logistics issues and day-long travels on the day of the arrival.
Well, at least it wasn’t a battle royale style of a story type she had a distaste for.
"Yes, to meet the Emperor of Zarat. Allow me to introduce ourselves. I am Lord of Spells Lu, and this is my son <
Misaki understood each word in this unknown language she had heard. Though words <
The man looked barely thirty, and his children around seventeen. It was jarring for her, the possibilities of how it was possible were plenty, so she stopped herself from assuming things.
These were strange tanned people with wolf ears in front of her.
"And the others are bodyguards?" Misaki decided to forgo asking about how old the people in front of her were, it might have been impolite.
"Mostly correct, but we will be waiting for a bigger retinue for our travels," Demiana answered her.
Misaki saw everyone in the whole room looking at her, waiting for something. Her name.
She stalled time a bit. She felt as if a blue window was opened in front of her asking her to fill in "Name?".
There was a memory from years back. A schoolmate gave his handheld to her, so she could try Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, before claiming that video games were stupid. She spent ten minutes that time, so the boy who gave her the console just accepted the default 'Link' option.
The default name wasn't Link this time though. It was Misaki Arashi.
Was she planning to be a Beautiful Blooming Storm? Her mind translated her name to the new language she now spoke. She could tell that Storm wasn't a name in the language she was speaking.
"Do you have some water?" she stalled for more time.
She contemplated about surname Tempest, but she hated that slime character and how easy it was for him... All the languages in her mind became a mess. Whenever she thought of a word, she would think of the closest word in languages she knew, and somehow she knew way more languages than she did before.
It was one thing to read about people being able to speak new languages when reincarnated, it was different to have a mess in your own head while trying to create a name for a character you are going to play for your whole life.
She wanted to go with Zelda; she always liked how the name sounded. She tensed up. No, the question was not in the name, or how it sounded. The question was about the legacy of the Arashi family. Legacy of people who won’t even think about her three days after she died.
Painful. She felt bitter. Her ashes lay for less than a week and no one she knew thought of her. She remembered daydreaming of this, and there she was, but she felt no excitement somehow.
"Sorry, I am figuring out how to translate it," Misaki continued to drag on the time.
"Take your time, darling," Damiana said in a motherly voice, "We know that heroes take time to make up names for themselves, as our languages differ."
She liked the way her name sounded, and it didn't correspond to any bad word in any language she knew. But she felt bitter that nothing she ever did was enough for Arashi, and almost no one used her first name.
An image appeared in her head: If she chose Zelda, there was a chance that Nintendo would come and drag her back to Japan, and there would be a court case to sue her for copyright infringement…
She smiled to herself, at the image she made.
She started mumbling to herself in Japanese; there had to be a pattern in the language craze she was experiencing, like there was a pattern on the carpet she was standing on, the clothes of people had these oriental woven patterns too, capturing her attention.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
"Aya..."
"That's a nice name, Aya!" The young handsome battlemage Lycarion wore something like boxers and a colorful shawl, partially covering his chest, so Misaki tried not to look at him.
"Just let her take her time, Lica," Demiana interrupted her son.
"Whatever..." she thought to herself. The word referencing the woven pattern sounded quite pleasant if pronounced like a Western name. It felt like this Lica-rion just pressed the ‘Accept’ button on the random letters she had inputted in the ‘Name’ section.
She neither minded nor wanted to press the ‘Back’ button to make another name. Everything was better than making decisions at that moment.
"Theodora," Demania spoke with a commanding voice, "accompany the heroine to the wardrobe, she must feel incredibly hot in her clothes! Also, that blood on her is dirty? There is no wound, but she needs a bath."
She looked down and saw that her clothes were still covered in dried blood, her hands were in dried blood too. She felt the remnant of piercing pain in her chest, coming and going like a phantom, leaving a lump in her throat.
Theodora accompanied Misaki to a bathroom a corridor away. A small red basalt room with a mosaic on the ground, with a brass sink and a chair Misaki was told to sit at.
The wizardess waved her hands and lines of light appeared coming from her fingertips. She was drawing with magic in the air, chanting something in a mumbling voice.
"What's that?"
"A <
Misaki felt something above her, and when she looked there was water gathering into a swirling ball.
"Close your eyes and hold your breath!"
"Huh?" She quickly inhaled, as the warm water enveloped her, currents in it moving in opposite directions for a few seconds. She was spinning a little but when she tried to hold on to the chair, she started to spin with it. Her hair covered her face completely and her balance was lost, so she moved her hands chaotically hoping that this strange waterboarding would stop.
The water moved down, opening her head. "What was that?!" she protested, taking a deep breath in.
"A quick shower. Mage style. Escort can be any minute, and we have to move quickly. So I will dry you and give you clothes."
"Why?"
"Security concerns." Theodora dropped the water ball and proceeded to use hot winds to dry Misaki at an uncomfortable speed.
The clothes selection wasn't great either. All clothes dedicated to the hero were for a male, but she still opted for them instead of Theodora's spares, as male hero's clothes weren't akin to halter-bikini bras. That choice didn’t require a lot of mental fortitude.
The clothes were some oriental-looking red and white fabrics with metal pieces around the collarbone. They were baggy on her, giving her a bit of a fantasy hippy look.
"You look like a bard, Aya," Theodora commented when Misaki left the room.
"Thank you!" Misaki smiled.
"That was not a compliment. Time to go."
Misaki pressed her lips when Thodora turned back. She wanted to think of a clever retort, but that felt like too much work.
The group of mages and two dozen guards gathered above, on ground level, in a place with wooden gates and a plain carriage. It was so hot there that Misaki slightly regretted not taking the revealing outfit, as she started sweat. The Lord of Spells grinned gently and chuckled when he saw Misaki's outfit.
Her regrets vanished though, when she and the mages entered the unnaturally cool carriage, as if it was a car with an AC turned to the lowest possible temperature. Plain on the outside, it was silk, suede, and gold inside, reminding her of Disney's Aladdin cartoon.
"I see you are a little rebel," Lord of Spells Lu finally commented on the outlook of the newly summoned heroine with a warm smile.
"Cultural preference," Misaki quickly retorted. "Of not being naked," she thought to herself.
When they rode, she wanted to look outside, but the curtains were closed, and she was asked not to open them for the first few hours. She didn't want to talk, as she felt completely exhausted after dying twice, and luckily for her, the people in the carriage weren't initiating discussions either.
She could see that Lycarion was trying to come up with something a couple of times, but got stern looks from his mother, keeping him silent.
She slept for a few hours, and when she woke up the curtains were finally opened, revealing hillsides covered in flowers and greens, mountains in the distance, and small villages made of small beige stone houses. A caravan of camels passed near the carriage, but looking around she couldn't see the escort.
It was objectively beautiful, she was in a dozen countries in her sixteen, but this was different, as if even the sky had a different tint.
In a minute, she was in her thoughts she couldn’t remember, but when she snapped out, the feeling of awe had vanished and the world started to look bland.
"Where are the others?" She asked the mages.
"If you don't see them, they are doing their work properly," Master of Spells responded with his calm and mellow voice, raising his eyes from a grimoire he was looking through.
"Where are we?" She asked.
Lu looked at his son, giving him a nod, as if allowing him to speak.
"On the way to Zarat, it won't be that hot outside if that's what you are asking. Zarat is in the middle of the mountains, a big trading city on the way from East to West. You will love it when we get there," Lycarion was talking with the voice of a guide. "There, in the distance, you can see the <
Misaki looked carefully at the flowers as the cart passed next to the field; it looked like Papaver somniferum, commonly known as opium poppy. She had a small shiver.
"Interesting..." Misaki's blank expression was something she was called heartless for starting in middle school.
"This road is fortified with magical stone, keeping it smooth, and our travels without a hitch. By the way, if you are getting too cold I can change the weather here." Lycarion had it written on his face that he was expecting at least some reaction.
The carriage was indeed sailing smoother than a car.
"It is," Misaki nodded groggily.
He waved his hands with glitters coming out of his fingers as he chanted for a few seconds and the carriage quickly became warmer.
"Why don't we just open the windows?" Misaki inquired. For her, it looked like she was in a car with an AC on when the weather outside seemed just fine.
"Barrier, the carriage is protected by it. Very few can sense it, but if we open a window, it will be easy for any mage to spot us. The security measure," Master of Spells joined in.
"Is it dangerous on the roads?" She inquired.
"For us? Always. Petty and untalented, filled with jealousy are eager to try to blame anyone but themselves and their laziness. Even their attempts are lazy, but still, it's more comfortable to travel on low profile, without having to take their miserable lives." Lu was speaking as if describing something casual, like dresses and cooking.
Misaki nodded. Jealous people had tried to turn her life into hell before, and when she thought about them she felt a strange sensation of electricity running through her, but it was her electricity, not harming her. She felt alive for a second.
"Don't try using magic yet, it would not be nice if the barrier went down from too much magic inside." Demania put her hand on Misaki's. "Don't worry, you are safe here." As the power inside her calmed, that feeling of awe died with it.
An hour later Lycarion returned to being a guide, describing the majestic battles that took place in the region in the last millennium as they passed the ancient battlegrounds with terrain that looked like it was bombarded with heavy artillery a long ago.
"The town ahead is Makarta, the biggest and open <
"Huh?" Misaki looked at the handsome wolf-eared man describing people as merchandise. She thought about saying something about slavery being evil, but there was no point in that. Why would they even listen to her opinion?
"We can get you a serf or a slave in the castle, but I don't think we will be able to go shopping soon." Lycarion's face reddened a bit.
"Lica, she is from a place where people don't have many slaves," the Master of Spells explained to his son.
"Do you? You behave like someone who was surrounded by servants and slaves."
"I was..." She couldn't describe the eight servants who worked at the mansion as slaves. She wanted to ask on why and how, and if maybe the translation in her mind was wrong, but she didn't. She felt apathy towards some people whom she hadn’t even seen, for all she knew, people worked themselves to death in Japan too.
"It is what it is," she whispered in English. After all, what was she going to do about that?
"Don't worry, we will find you a few that are up to your preference!" Lycarion looked at his father, with a small glint of victory in his eyes. His father looked back as if gently patting his son on the head.
The last three batches of Otherworlders 80, 200, and 320 years ago were known to be big trouble for slavers, but it turned out that Lica's assessment was correct. Heroine was a noblewoman, she was one of them.
Misaki felt hazy and turned to the woman who was seemingly looking after her. "I'm sorry, but my mind is still in a haze from everything, wake me up when we arrive." She leaned her head on the soft pillow and closed her eyes.
"I am in a slave and drug trading world," she thought to herself. The world reminded her of so many novels she listened to on her way home, and rarely did Isekai protagonists solve slavery and not become compliant by buying them.
Now she knew why. She was alone, lonely, and tired in an unknown place. She didn't want to fight against the world. She desperately wanted to fit in and feel alive.