Chapter 2

With a press of the W button, he ended the battle, releasing the three girls.

“What the hell just happened?” Astill asked, staring at him. Only now did he realize what he had done. He shuddered and took a step back, hiding the controller in his right pants pocket.

“Who are you? What are you doing here? What just happened?” Astill fired a barrage of questions, her eyes glaring sharply at him.

“Now, now, let’s cut him some slack. He did help us,” Syorin patted Astill’s shoulder and took a step forward. She gave him a reassuring smile, like a cute puppy that wouldn't harm him.

“My name is Syorin Alie, but I think you know that already. Nice to meet you.”

“I’m Neila Revemore, thanks for your help.”

“... Astill Erelight.”

The three girls waited for him. He thought hard, but couldn’t remember his given name.

“I’m Kakashi.”

“... Just Kakashi?” Syorin asked curiously.

“I can’t… I can’t remember my given name.”

Astill eyed him with suspicion, but before she could say anything, Syorin stepped forward. “We need to start cutting apart this dragon. Where are you from? We can take you home and talk on the way.”

“Now hold on, who says anything about taking him with us?” Astill exclaimed.

“Well, he helped us. Isn’t that the natural thing to do?”

“We didn’t even know if it was him in the first place.”

Astill had a point. He wasn't sure whether he had anything to do with the event that just happened. He looked down at where he hid the controller.

Seriously, what just happened?

“I don’t mind taking him with us…”

“Hear that? Our driver said it’s alright.”

Astill grumbled some more, but not in a voice loud enough for the rest of them to hear. They get to work. Neila pulled out some glowing bags from her pocket, and the three of them worked quickly, cutting the dragon into smaller pieces and throwing it into the bags. The job took roughly half an hour. The bags shrank after they finished, and Neila returned them to her jacket.

“Come on, this way,” Syorin said. Kakashi followed them through the woods, heading to who knows where.

“Still, I don’t know that you can use Void, Astill. That’ll make a lot of our fights easier.”

“I- I can’t use it regularly. I don’t know why I could.” Astill glared at Kakashi, her attention making him feel uncomfortable. It felt similar to his uncle’s stare, and the thought made him shudder.

“Please don’t fight…” Neila said.

“I’m not even trying to start one,” Astill retorted.

“Still, what was that, Kakashi? Oh, we can call you that, right?”

“Fi- fine by me… But I also don’t know what happened.”

“How is that even possible?”

His words only made Astill even more suspicious of him.

“I…”

“... A lot has happened, huh?”

Kakashi was shocked to hear that, but quickly realized that Syorin might not be talking about his past. She's probably talking about the fight against the dragon.

“Ye- Yeah…”

He found the fight shocking, to say the least. Dragons didn't exist in his past life, not as a real living being. He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw it.

“Where do you live? I don't know about any settlements around this area,” Neila said.

“I… I don’t think I’m from this world.”

All three of them stopped, turning their attention toward him. Syorin urged him to continue.

“I… In the world I came from, we didn’t have dragons, nor magic.”

“Are you sure you don’t actually have magic? And it’s not just that you haven’t seen them yet?”

“Astill, do you know any region that doesn't use magic?”

Astill averted her gaze. “Well, no.”

“That’s not that unbelievable, actually,” Neila said. “I mean, have we ever heard about a magic that stopped us from moving?”

“Paralysis?” Astill asked.

“It doesn’t just stop us, but forces us to move based on the order as well…” Neila added.

“It also forces me to use a spell I don’t know so…”

“... So… what now?”

He couldn’t go back to his house, not like he wanted to go back there in the first place. The girls looked at each other, then turned to Astill. Feeling the pressure from her two friends, she relented.

“Fine, we’ll take him with us, but only for a bit.”

“Yeay.”

“Alright.” Neila turned to Kakashi and pointed at one point in the forest. “The carriage is not far from here. You don’t have to worry.”

“Ok- Okay.” Kakashi could only nod.

•••

After a bit more of walking through the forest, they finally arrived at their carriage. At just three meters long, it was a relatively small carriage pulled by a single horse. The horse seemed delighted to see its master’s return and let out a neigh.

“Sorry, it took too long.” Neila patted its head. She sat in the front, controlling the horse, while Syorin, Astill, and Kakashi sat at the rear. As they made their way toward the next destination, Kakashi began telling them his story. He hid most things that happened with his uncle, and simply told them the kind of world he came from.

“That sounds inconvenient,” Syorin said after hearing him talk about smartphones.

“Inconvenient?”

“If I want to talk with this idiot here, I’ll just think about her, and if she’s free, we can talk.”

“I’m not an idiot,” Syorin pouted. “But I would say it’s a lot more convenient than searching for someone’s contact, although the downside is it’s pretty difficult to maintain during a fight, as you need to concentrate while connected through magic.”

“Is that why you were shouting orders to each other during the fight?”

“Connection magic uses mana,” Neila chimed in, her eyes remaining on the road. “People would rather speak directly so they can use their mana for other things.”

“I see…”

“It's true that the thing about that world's talking magic is inconvenient, but those other things. Can you imagine going around that fast?”

Kakashi had talked about the technological advancement of his world. Cars, trucks, trains, and airplanes.

“It's dangerous,” Astill scoffed. “You won't survive a crash at that speed.”

“Well… don't crash in the first place?”

“Umm… I guess she had a point,” Kakashi murmured. “Accidents happen every day.”

“Idiots can't handle a slow carriage, and you expect them to handle something faster.” Astill folded her hands and shook her head.

“What other things can you tell us about your world?” Syorin asked, her eyes brimming with curiosity.

“Well…” There were a lot of interesting things, and it would take a long while for him to talk about everything.

“We have weapons that can hit a target from far away,” he said, figuring that would be an interesting thing to talk about. They do fight monsters, so weapons should pique their curiosity.

“How far?” Astill asked skeptically.

“Hundreds of kilometers?”

“What's a kilometer?”

“A kilometer is about three hundred carriages.”

All three of them fell silent, probably trying to figure out the distance Kakashi was talking about.

“That's on the short end. Some could reach a thousand kilometers.”

“You know, adding more numbers won't make it easier for us to understand,” Syorin smiled wryly.

“No way…”

“Astill?”

“No way no way no way! You're lying! That's impossible!” Astill shouted while pointing at Kakashi.

“Wh- what is impossible?”

“Astill?”

“Just how far is he talking?”

“That's the distance between here and the Southern Tip!”

“... No way…”

“That's crazy.”

“Ummm… that's still considered short. The longest ones could go beyond five thousand.”

“Fi- Five thousand!?”

“Neila, eyes on the road!”

“Oh, my bad.” Neila was so surprised that she turned around. Kakashi doubted they would actually get in an accident, though, considering just how slow the carriage moved.

“That’s it, I’m not hearing any more of your arguments.” Astill scoffed and looked away.

“I'm not arguing anything…”

Even if they didn't believe him, it didn't matter, as he couldn't bring any of that equipment with him anyway.

“You don't have to worry about her, Kakashi, I still want to hear about the other things.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“Okay…”

Kakashi continued telling stories for the rest of the way.