Men and women wearing traditional Japanese clothes were passing by a busy street. Some would stop by to take a look at the youth, wearing a white robe, crouching by the counter of a shop. They would go away as soon as their eyes meet.

"I am not waiting for anyone," Asahi stood from the ground and dusted his clothes. He was teleported to this place called Shizukanabasho. He could not understand why a kid would prank him like this.

He had a bad premonition. If he stayed any longer, he will surely fall into trouble. He moved out of the area. The place looked like a typical Japanese village. He had been to one when he was a child. There were tiled roofs and shifting doors. One thing that he had never seen was that, in every house, there was a long straight line of light lining the walls. It was on the walls of every house.

The lines were filled with magic energy. He could sense it. He felt uncomfortable seeing it. He tried to go somewhere where that line of magic was not there. It felt like it was peeping on him.

He reaches some desolate area. There was no such magic presence. He could see the lines on some walls but it was not shining like previously. It looked like it was depleted.

There was an old cloth store. A fairly young woman was working on a piece of fabric. Asahi had some money on him but it was nowhere enough. He just went into the shop to look around.

“Welcome. How can I help you?”

Asahi just wanted to take a look but the owner was already at his beck and call.

“No. I will take a look a first,”

The woman was looking at him like some bag of gold. Asahi felt uncomfortable by her gaze.

“You have a nice shop here.”

“You are from taiba right?”

"Yes,"

“God, I have not seen anyone from there ever. Wow. Is this the craftsmanship of Sanka tribe. Can I take a look, please? “

The woman was interested in his robe. Asahi let her take a look.

“It is so fine. The raw materials are from the island itself. Wow. Amazing!”

“Do you want to buy it,”

“Will you sell it?“

“If you give me a good price maybe,”

“1000 gold coins. I can not give you more than that,”

“….. Deal.”

That was more than he had expected. A single gold coin could buy a simple house in taiba. Other places probably a months rent. He did not know which planet he was in. He had not learned about every planet. He knew only a few. If he knew some planet resembled Japan he would have started with it first. He sold the clothes, got a

pair of Yukata and the promised 1000 gold in a storage

card. He did not have anything with him. The girl kindly gave him a cheap magical storage card and filled it with money. Asahi was amazed to see the card but he did not show it on his face. He did not want to come off as a country bumpkin.

He went out of the shop and looked for an Inn. Now, when he looked like a Japanese, people were not as unfriendly as they were before which was kind of good but sad.

He went around shops trying delicacies and finally settled into his room. It was not bad at all.

Meanwhile, the officer who was supposed to escort him was standing in the street looking for him. He had dozed off and when he woke up saw an alert of someone arriving by teleportation. He rushed to the place but it was already two hours.

“One day I fell asleep and somebody came. I am going to lose my job. What if the person is a very high ranking magician. I am doomed. “

The officer was frantic. He was a probationary officer that could get kicked out for small mistakes.

After graduating from the training academy it was his bad luck for drawing out escort services. It was the worst job. You have to stay idle every day and escort the visitors occasionally. It was a very boring job. He did not have good grades so he could not argue to get into a good dept and now he was going to lose the job.

He felt like crying.

“Ok. Kuro, do not give up. He might be around here. I can just check the security footage,”

He then clicked on his smartwatch.

"Iris. Please show the footage of this place from 2 hours,"

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A holographic image of the area appeared before his eyes. A man came out from the portal. He was dressed in white, weird robes. He could not see his face. The man walked to the shopkeeper and asked something. He stood there for a while and then left.

Kuro followed the trail until he lost sight of him. There was no functioning magic circuit. That place was the blind spot. There were too many pathways there. He checked the footage of nearby areas. He had lost the man. He asked the shopkeeper about him and

what they talked. He got nothing out of it.

The guy must have been a new magician. He did not even know where he landed. He did not have permission to teleport there.

“Why? God, why? Why on my watch?“

It was a big problem for Kuro. It was an illegal teleport and he had no idea where the man went. He could not hide his mistake. They would check the records and everything would be laid bare.

With a heavy heart, he informed his supervisor. Unlike the expected, he was not fired but told to find him at any cost. He was ordered to amend his mistake. Should he be glad? He checked

every area. He tried to match the physical appearance of the man. Iris was the latest technology. Even when the face was not seen on the camera, the other physical appearances were calculated. Because of the robe, the data was not accurate. It matched with all the people in the vicinity. The result turned out to be data of a few hundred pages. The traits were too common.

A man of around 20-30, 175 cm tall and other body measurements. There sure were too many similar people.

Iris had also taken the head structure into account.

“Iris Pls can you narrow it down. I can not ask every person,“

Filtering the data…

Criteria- people without a valid ID…

Result- 50 people found…

“That is what I needed,”

“Master, you need to give accurate instructions to save both of our time,” Iris responded.

“Ok. What should I do now?”

“Manually check the data… Master, I do not have human intelligence. Do not rely on me for everything.”

“But you talk like one,”

“I have been trained to,”

“Alright show me the data,”

The data had 50 identical people. They did not have valid IDs and were in the town for 2 hours. He started checking the people one by one.

“Master friendly advice. Take backup. Some of them are likely criminals,”

“..Eeeh,”

While Kuro was looking for him, Asahi was having his time. The Inn had a hot spring. He enjoyed all the services and rested in his room. At night he was having the same dream again.

He was dreaming that he was drowning. He had almost drowned when he was a child. He had forgotten the incident. But for some reason, he kept dreaming about that day. Asahi woke up, drenched in sweat.

“Hah. Maybe this place does not suit me.“

Asahi thought about others. He had grown quite attached to them. He wanted to go back to Taiba.

He got off his bed. There was water, on the bed, the floor, the cupboards, everywhere. It was flooding his room. 'Where did all this water come from?'

He checked the washroom. It was dry. He looked into the

hallway. It was dry as well. Only around his bedroom had a puddle of water. He scratched his head. He checked the balcony. It was not raining. The water cannot seep in through the roof.

Finding no clue, he decided to sleep back. He was dreaming about drowning and there was actual water around him.

The next day, he tried to find out a port, to go back to Taiba. One year was equivalent to ten years in taiba. If he stayed any longer, a lot of time would pass over there.

He went to a nearby airport.

After finding out there was not any scheduled Spaceship to Taiba, he booked a private ship. He had a lot of money to go back. He was planning to come back with Taiba’s raw materials like wool and silk. He can be a merchant. Asahi started daydreaming when the port workers asked for his information to register.

He was not asked for ID. The security system was very lax. He gave his real name ‘Nakamura Asahi’.

The man looked back and forth at him and his name.

“Are you sure that’s your name,”

That was a weird question.

It was the name he had bore since birth. How can he be not sure? He thought about the meaning of his name. It was not anything weird.

The man told him to come after 2 hours. His flight will be ready by then. He roamed around the city and came back. When he came, there was a lady, she asked him to come to her office.

The lady was polite but her demeanour was like a police officer. He looked at the agent he asked to arrange his flight. He had a nervous expression. Did he land into some trouble?

After getting into the office, the lady asked for his name again.

Then he was placed under house arrest. It was not anything bad. He was provided with everything. He was housed in a two-storey bungalow with a garden in the front. There were guards stationed all over. It was nothing less than security for a president. His actions were monitored.

The house had AI butler that did everything for him. It was called Iris. It did not have any physical form. It projected holographic images anywhere on the walls of the bungalow. The house was laced with high-tech appliances, which did not need manual handling.

He was given access to everything except going outside. He wanted to know why he was under house arrest. He did not know where to begin with.

He simply asked Iris why he was arrested. To this, Iris threw him some article about the genocide done by the Nakamura Royal Family. They disappeared from the face of the Elysium and now he showed up. The surname, Nakamura, was only used by the royal family.

And here he thought giving his real name will not cause any issue.

There was a separate article saying that the Royal Prince surrendered for the misdeeds his family had done. It said something about atonement.

“Atone your #₹&&) (“

Asahi could only swear.

Only because of his name, he was arrested and now being used as bait. Yes, he was bait. There were several articles about him, showing his blurred image.

There were a lot of articles. Either he was a notorious terrorist who terrorized the world or an important political person. The crimes that were mentioned was genocide but there was no definite proof of it. Many articles said the Nakamura royal family were defamed. And the biggest proof that proved otherwise was that the Nakamura family was wiped out totally in the same genocide they were responsible for. Asahi felt like they became a scapegoat.

There was nobody left for defending the family, so they bit the bullet while laying down.

Asahi spent his time, browsing the web, watching movies and everything he could do while cooped up.

He was allowed to walk around in the garden. He would run around the garden looking for a gap in the security. He was now understanding what freedom meant.

He wanted desperately to go out.

In the meantime, he had few uninvited guests. He had no idea who they were. They asked him if he found the treatment fair. Those people were very much polite towards him. He was supposed, a prince. He went along with the ruse. Even if he refused now, well, the water had gone overheads. Nothing could be done.

He was hoping for those people to come out, for whom the bait was laid. He was bored out of wits. He simply wanted to get done with it. He did not know what outcome will be, he was just too bored.