Ouch, that hurt. I gotta admit, trying to Materialize a portal that takes you to other worlds definitely wasn't a bright idea. But can you blame me? After Issei's enchanting descriptions of this whole other world, I just had to try. Though looking around, it seems it might have worked? Well, I don't know for sure. All I remember is closing my Eyes in my room and focusing my all into Materializing a way to go to Japan. It sapped a lot of my Focus, and I think the floor broke away from under me midway. Sorry, Meil, I'll repay you when I get back. But for now, I better bask in the beauty of this world before he and his duo of lady friends kick me back out.

"I'm back." Issei looked at the incredible skylines in the distance, "This place, the architecture that can't be found anywhere in the Vast World... Japan!"

"So this is Japan, huh." I muttered, though I don't think he heard me.

What is this visage? Inspecting the area around us, we seem to be on top of a large building. I guess we can just walk down the stairs, though, so no issues there. Still, this is one tall building, and yet it's surrounded by hundreds of others at least twice the size of it. I wonder what the view is up at that tallest one? And those lights illuminating the streets below, they're so bright it's actually blinding. Those little guys moving around down there, are they humans? How can they keep their Eyes open from all this illumination? Ah, then again, is that why Issei's Eyes are slanted? Does everyone in his world look like that? No wonder they have no Iros, they wouldn't even be able to use them even if they did!

Still, it feels kind of off-putting. Like, the air is kind of hard to breathe, there are no stars in the sky, and everything feels so hard to traverse. The streets are made of stone and pavement, the buildings are either concrete or glass, it's a real whacky sight. Nothing like Issei's description of a traditional Japanese house, I daresay. Honestly, if I had to compare it to any place I've been to in my world, I'd kind of put it in the same bracket as Bilgam, but like... a helluva lot more modern. Like, maybe Bilgam two hundred years from now.

"Ha-ha... Hahaha! I'm back! I'm back in Japan! Oh God, how long has it been!?" He shouted despite it being night time, "Argh, who cares, it really worked! That bratty Goddess wasn't lying to me, and I managed to get back to my beautiful home world!"

"Man, it's kinda cold here." I shivered before Materializing some warmer clothes.

"All my friends, my classmates, my family - I can finally see them again after so long!" He kept talking to himself before turning around to face me finally, "And I get to do it all together with you, my dear gir-LUNE!?"

"Yo." I waved before glancing around, "Took you long to notice me. Where are Eleanor and Othelia?"

"That's what I wanna know, bastard!" He shook me up before coming to a startling realization, "No, it couldn't be...! At the very end, when the ceiling mysteriously fell on us, did I not grab their hands in time...?"

"...Ohhh." It finally dawned on me, "Yeah, that's my bad. Soz."

"Lune, you're telling me you ruined the wishing ritual and teleported here with me instead of it being with my girlfriends?" He shook with anger, "You...! I need to go back!"

"You just got here, though? There's time-"

"I don't care!" He shouted, "I don't care, okay!? What's the point of coming back to this damned world if I don't have the loves of my life to share it with!?"

"Didn't you just praise it as beautiful and all that like 5 seconds ago, though?"

"Shut up! I don't see why you're so casual about all this, seeing as you're now stuck here as well." He growled.

"Ah, about that. Don't worry, I got a plan." I gave him a hearty thumbs up, "Alright, stand back and wait there, I'll go get you your girls, so stop with the hissy fits."

"Huh? Okay...?" He raised an Eyebrow before doing as I instructed, "Now what?"

"Now... I do the same I did back in Meil's house!" I revealed as I began Materializing the portal, "Hrngggg...!!!!"

"...What?"

"Mnghhhhhhhhh~~~~!!!!"

"Lune, for fuck's sake..."

"Shut up." I quickly muttered before continuing, "Mmmnnn! Bah! Hoo, oof, fugh..."

"Dude, you're gonna accomplish crapping your pants like that." He pinched the bridge between his Eyes and sighed, "God, this is so stupid."

"Huh? But wait, back then, when the floor gave out, I teleported to this world thanks to Materializing a portal, right?" I stared at my hand, dumbfounded.

"No, you idiot. You fell on top of me right when I was about to teleport to this world." He annoyedly corrected me, "And thanks to that, Eleanor and Othelia didn't manage to join me here, and to add insult to injury, you're now stuck here with me as well."

...Wait, doesn't that mean I can't go back home to my world anymore? What will happen to Nelly, Cecily and Cene in my absence? Well, we already kind of answered that question during the Volumes I was dead, but still. No, there's no way I'm just stranded here. Issei's overreacting, I mean, if he managed to get himself sent to our world, then so can I.

"Eh, we'll deal with that later." I shrugged, "Alright, let's go."

"Huh? So quick to dismiss a serious problem!" He jumped, "Hey, wait, where are you going?"

"To an exchange booth." I patted my money pouch, "I doubt you have any money on you, and I really wanna try all the food you've been raving about in the past, so I planned ahead and stashed some of Meil's megabytes."

"...Lune." He looked at me worriedly, "No country in the world uses that currency."

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

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"Hey." He smirked as he led me through the bustling city, "Still mad about that? Come on, there's no way you thought it was that simple, right?"

"Of course I am!" I swung the pouch up above my head, "Seriously, what's even the point of lugging it around if it's not worth jack anymore?! Might as well throw it on the ground!"

"Ah, ha-ha, good joke, good joke!" Issei very awkwardly forced a fake laugh before taking the pouch from me and whispering, "Oi, don't make a scene! Apart from the fact you're embarrassing us here, you might actually do something that'd get us in trouble with the police!"

"Eh? So what, we'll just apologize and go on our merry way."

"In what language, dipass? No one here speaks English, well, barely anyone at the very least." He shot down another one of my ideas, "In any case, we absolutely can't have you doing anything illegal. The first thing cops ask of an adult is their ID, something YOU don't have."

"ID? Like identification?" I tilted my head, "What do I need that for?"

"Well, everything, basically." He scratched his head, "Without an ID card, you can't do anything from buying alcohol to leaving the country. It's best we get that settled for you ASAP if you're gonna be staying here for a while, but first we should go see my parents."

"Argh, more tedious paperwork..." I sulked, "But hey, I don't remember you ever telling me much about your family. What's a standard day in the Issei household look like?"

"What's it look like?" He smiled nostalgically before replying, "Well, we're a pretty normal family, all things considered. I'm an only child, both of my parents work, and we're kind of what you'd consider rich, when I look back at my upbringing."

"You're a richboy? That's a surprise."

"Yeah, we have family all around the world on my dad's side, so we traveled a lot when I was younger. I was kinda young to remember all the places I visited though, but I definitely had fun seeing the world."

"What~? Your parents took you around the world as a tyke? Lucky~" I folded my arms, "Tch, my parents would rather throw me in the mouth of a dragon than go traveling with me..."

"By the way, are dragons an actual thing in your world?" Issei recalled, "I never actually saw any, but I heard a lot of proverbs and rumors about them wherever I went."

"Yeah, of course they are." I shrugged, "Or well, I think they are. Hey, now that you mention it, I've never seen any in my life either."

"Then, you think they're fictional? Mystical?"

"Maybe."

"...Spiritual hero who appears in you to clear your view when you're too crazy."

"Hm?"

"Nothing, just lyrics from an old song I liked listening to." He then remembered his phone in his pocket, "Oh, speaking of, I can finally connect to the internet and play it for you! Let's see... Eh? What the...? This is..."

"Something wrong?"

"Yeah, it won't let me buy internet, even though I definitely had some credit left on my phone..." He then shook off the worries, "A-Anyways, we'll just grab the wi-fi from my parents' house."

"Wife Eye?" I furrowed my brows, "Won't that hurt her?"

"No, wi-fi!" He corrected me, "We use that to connect our phones wirelessly to the world wide web."

"World wide...?"

"Ack, this is like teaching a caveman how to do polynomials..." He gave up, "Look, we're here, so come on."

"This doesn't look like your parents' house." I looked up at the foreign characters displayed next to a ton of arrows pointing in all sorts of directions, "Looks more like a wagon stop."

"Yeah, only way faster and more comfortable." He patted me on the back, "My house is a bit away from the hustle and bustle we're in, so we'll need to go by the shinkansen."

"The shinkan...?"

"The bullet train." He then facepalmed at himself, "Oh right, no matter how much I try to explain it to you, there's no equivalent to your world, so just sit here and wait while I get us our cards."

"Huh? But wouldn't that cost money?"

"Yeah, I actually forgot to tell you a secret." He took off his shoe to reveal a few very old and very crusty money bills in it, "A traveler always carries some money around. In my case, I had this stashed away from before I even got sent to the Vast World over a decade ago."

"Oh. Ew!" I grimaced, "But well, that's good though. Wait... Why didn't you say anything earlier, jackass!? I wanted to try that takoyaki thing you were praising before!"

"I only have enough for our cards, so we'll eat when we get to my parents' house!" He shot back, "The food in the city is expensive, y'know!?"

"How would I know!?" I raised my voice, "I've never been to Japan before!"

「おい、静かにしろ!」Some old grumpy officer shouted.

「あ、ごめんなさい!」Issei took a deep bow towards him before chewing me out, "Dude! I told you to keep quiet!"

Ah, so this is considered "causing a scene" in Japan? How boring, this is just a regular Tuesday wherever you go in my world. Besides, some loud thumping is coming from that tunnel over there, and it's a billion times louder than we were. I wonder what that... is.

"There we go." Issei smiled at me confidently, "That's our ride. A-Ah, I forgot the tickets, damn!"

"Dammit, I miss my home world..." I sobbed in place, "Though it does make me a lot more sympathetic for Issei's situation."

Hold on, am I gonna have to spend the next decade and a half in this world just like he did? Screw that, Issei started from nothing and painstakingly made his way up, whilst I already know how we traveled to this world, so I'm at a pretty significant headstart. Right, I'll be back before the month ends, surely! And when I do, I'm shouting at the nearest officer I find! Yeah, those guys are chill unlike these uptight idiots, they'll let me shout to my heart's content!