Chapter 21

I was two years old today. I remembered being a jaded Japanese salary man until I’d fallen in front of a truck hoping to begin another life. It had been a peaceful two years. There was magic in this world. My mother was a semi-retired mage and my father was a monk capable of incredible ki energy feats.

I was happy until Truck-kun appeared to ruin it all.

He appeared with a burning red flame that leaked around his eyelids but didn’t burn him. He looked around my room at the birthday gifts and nodded as if seeing enough to judge my two-year life.

"This won't do," he said, "you need to be full grown to escape this place."

I stared at Truck-kun, confused but recognizing him. He had facilitated my journey from a jaded salary man to this new existence. I loved Truck-kun. He was a mysterious hero and savior. But why was he here now?

"You know me, child. I’m not sure why but it's been impossible to suppress your memories."

Well, that made me mad. That was a lot to take in, right after nap time and before snacks. I stood my ground, or rather, my diaper-clad legs tried to, and demanded answers from this mysterious spirit.

"Hold on Truck-kun!" I said, my baby voice taking on an authoritative tone. "You can't waltz into my afterlife!" My voice sounded squeaky and adorable even to me. "Why show up after two whole years?"

"Now, now, little one, you haven't been here for two years." Truck-kun’s voice was laced with obvious mockery. "Those first two years were simply a memory created by the Isekai spell. It takes incredible effort to simulate those early years quickly so we skip it and give you false memories of a peaceful infancy."

I blinked. My happy early life had been a dream? But it felt real.

"That's not fair," I said, "it was all just fake stuff to trick me?"

"It's called marketing." Truck-kun shrugged. "What does it matter if it was a lie? I made sure that you had happy memories."

I folded my chubby arms, indignant but not sure how to express it properly. Fake memories? I sifted through my memories. It felt like going insane.

This place was fabricated. Nyarin wasn’t my childhood friend, bound by the same epic curse. She wasn’t the cute catgirl next door and I wasn’t the destined prince of a long-forgotten floating kingdom. She was a Bakeneko?

Truck-kun had awoken in our little “Café Isekai’. I’d failed to stop him. I lit a pathetically weak version of the red flame of True Vision but Truck-kun was too powerful. He made the café disappear with a wave of his hand.

I was heartbroken, watching everything I’d built with Nyarin melt away. The world became fuzzy and the flashbacks started. Truck-kun had brought me here to chat.

I sighed, referencing my stubby little body and my suddenly uncomfortable diaper. “Well this isn’t going to help much. What’s the plan?”

Truck-kun’s eyes glowed and the room shrunk, or actually I grew. I wore adventurer’s garb, complete with a weapon and heavy cloak.

I was tall enough to see the entire room. Nyarin hid behind a trunk, her ears swiveling as she listened. It wasn’t the little girl Nyarin from my false memories. She was a grown woman.

“The plan,” she said, “is to get everyone what they want.” She glanced cautiously at Truck-kun. “The goddess wants worship. It’s our job to get it for her or get punished. And you want a happy place to live.”

I looked between them. “You use deception to get people to throw their lives away.”

Truck-kun frowned. “I won’t be lectured by a man who found shows and video games insufficient, so he sought an Isekai like a more immersive video game.”

“You’re right,” I said, meeting Truck-kun’s red glare, “I’ve enjoyed a lot of escapist books, shows, and video games. Honestly, those were an escape I was using instead of living my life. But my life was a disappointment.”

I stepped up to Truck-kun. “You think I’m pathetic?” Our faces grew close. It was disorienting suddenly growing to an adult height, but I didn’t wobble. “I may not have survived for centuries, but I’m not the only one working a job that makes me miserable.”

He met my eyes then looked away. He was always complaining about his boss.

“Maybe we can all do better,” I said. I sat on the floor, knees underneath me like a proper Japanese. I’d been living in pseudo-western buildings during each Isekai, and it felt like a bit of coming home. “So how about we talk?”

I finally understood the situation and what these people wanted. I was most comfortable at the negotiating table.

They sat.

“I misjudged you,” Truck-kun said, “maybe it’s easier to run over people with trucks and trains if you think of them in a certain way.”

“I’ve been misjudging myself, Truck-kun. Also, that’s like a really inhuman thing to say.”

“Well, I’m not human.” Truck-kun said. “Nyarin proposed a plan, and you need to understand it. Before her plan I was desperate and going to destroy the Isekai spell at its source.”

“Its source?” I asked.

Truck-kun tapped my forehead, right in the middle. “Simple but desperate solution.”

I looked between them, confused.

Nyarin answered, ears wide with worry. “The spell disappears if the customer dies.”

I felt the blood drain from my face. “You could kill me?”

“It wouldn’t be hard with my powers to kill you or the kitty cat,” Truck-kun said.

“No, I mean, you could live with yourself, just kill me and walk away?”

Truck-kun didn’t move. Not a twitch of a muscle, a frown, or even a shrug of a shoulder. “Surviving in our world doesn’t happen if you’re weak. A lot of bad things happen over centuries. I do what I need to survive and accomplish my mission.”

Nyarin folded her arms with her ears low and cautious. “I wouldn’t survive as the spell collapsed. It’s malfunctioning so I can’t leave through the normal path that opens once the customer is satisfied. Bakeneko don’t live for centuries and we’re not strong. We’re expendable. No one worries about a dirty stray alley cat.”

I had always thought of Truck-kun as a happiness-granting-genie slash serial vehicular manslaughter enthusiast. I hadn’t feared him until now.

“Nyarin’s plan gets everyone what they want,” Truck-kun continued. “If it fails, I kill everyone and leave as your head explodes.”

“My what does what?”

Nyarin saleswoman's smile disappeared. She looked vulnerable instead of perky. Seeing her like this, it was clearly an act and a survival trait. “Seo, this is our only chance and it requires everyone working together.”

I nodded, thinking things through. “You both can count on me.”

Truck-kun laughed. “I’m depending on the man who was such a failure he sacrificed his life for a stuffed cat.”

I scowled at him. “So I wanted an escape from a life that was going nowhere and was willing to risk my life for a chance at happiness. Is that any worse than being willing to end my life and Nyarin’s to save your own life, Truck-kun?”

He met my eyes again, shame covered by irritation.

They told me the plan. I couldn’t pull it off alone and they needed my help.

The only thing left to do was begin.

I nodded to Truck-kun.

Nyarin put her fingers in her ears.

Truck-kun raised a primitive but effective black powder pistol and shot me in the face.