Game 26: Hero No More

Takeshi Ishida would never amount to much.

The same shtick, the same schedule every single day.

“All pointless”, he would think to himself. “All of it, pointless.”

School? Pointless.

Work? Pointless.

Hobbies? Pointless.

And the days go on and on, seemingly directionless, perfectly average, numbingly mundane.

C'est la vie, as the French say. Such is life.

There was something, not too long ago, actually, that gave him a meaning in his life. But he was told that he couldn't go back to that life. He needed to live in this life. But Takeshi Ishida was addicted to the life he had lived in the other world. It took him a while to realize it, but he eventually admitted to himself what he should have known all along.

He was desperate to get back into The Game, no matter what it cost.

•

One thing that Takeshi Ishida would not have missed was the constant nightmares.

At first, this one felt like an out-of-body experience for him. He watched helplessly as himself, his body, someone controlling his body, something, was fighting his friend Rita.

“What has gotten into you, Takeshi?!” Rita asked him. “Why are you fighting us?”

“I'm not Takeshi anymore,” he told her as he held up a black orb that looked very similar to the white orb Takeshi used in the Emerald City. “Let's rocket.”

The energy emitted by the black orb gave the swordsman a stony gray armor instead of the shining white armor the white orb would have given him. The Game told him this was the Smoky Quartz armor.

Takeshi could only look on in horror as his body fought all four of his friends at the same time. Takeshi tried to reach out to them, lend a hand, do something, but it would not work. One by one, his friends would be struck down and defeated by the monster that looked just like him: first Proteus, then Aisha, then Makoto, and finally Rita. Each defeat would be accompanied by the sound of “Game Over” echoing throughout the dream.

And finally, the swordsman turned to Takeshi. He was looking at himself(?) face to face.

“And now, it's your turn to die!” the swordsman told Takeshi. Now that he was the target, Takeshi tried even harder to get away from him, but to no avail. The swordsman went in for the attack, and…

•

Takeshi woke up in his bed, safe and sound, surrounded by the remaining schoolwork he had yet to catch up on. An entire week had passed, and to Takeshi, it felt like the schoolwork only continued to pile up.

Despite all of that, he breathed a sigh of relief.

•

That same week had also passed inside The Game. By now, Rita and the gang had to abandon their search for Takeshi and return to the village of Innsbruck.

Waiting for them was a boy roughly Takeshi's age, but who looked nothing like Takeshi.

“You must be Rita and Company,” the boy said to them. A sly smile quietly stretched across his face. He had been waiting for them for a while.

The group sat down at a table in the center of the village.

“I must admit, I am very glad to see you,” the boy told them. “My name is Sora Kanzaki.”

“You've obviously come a long way to find us, so I'll just cut to the chase here,” Rita told Sora. “What do you want?”

“I want to join your team,” Sora told them. “With all the crazy shenanigans going on in The Game lately, it's become obvious to me that the only way to survive now is to become part of a team. And I want to play for a winning team.”

The others were immediately intrigued by Sora's offer. Rita, however, was naturally suspicious.

“What's the catch?” Rita asked him.

“There's no catch,” Sora told her. “Let's just say I've been a big fan of your work.” He then looked across the group: Rita, Makoto, Proteus, and Aisha. “The cool one, the smart one, the brave one, and the mysterious one. It seems like you guys can't lose!”

The gang struggled to find words to say in response to Sora's offer.

Finally, Rita mustered a partial response of “Well, given current circumstances, I suppose we are -”

But the sound of monster activity in the nearby forest interrupted her.

“Alright!” Sora said with intense excitement in his voice. “I get a chance to show you guys my true power. Watch how strong I am!”

Sora then pulled out a sword handle. Not an entire sword, just the handle. The others were not impressed.

“Sometimes it takes a while to… Sweet sauce!” Sora said as the blade part finally appeared. He then aimed the blade to the sky.

“I dunno where we're going with this, but this I gotta see,” Rita joked.

“Henshin!” Sora shouted at the sky. His body began to glow with an intense white light. The others could not see him through the light, so they could only guess at what was happening. When the light faded, Sora was covered from head to toe in shining crystal armor.

“Woah…” was all Rita could say.

“Ooo…” remarked Makoto.

“Nice, nice,” Proteus told him.

“Alright, then. Shall we commence battle?” Sora asked them.

This time, three monsters had showed up to the edge of the village. By this time, farms had started to sprout up in this area in order to support a rapidly growing village. The additional food being grown must have been luring the monsters into town.

Sora approached the three monsters alone.

“Allow me to show you my skills!” Sora told the gang. He then charged towards the monsters, slashing at them with minimal effort. He made quick work of the monsters, but as soon as he defeated one, two more would show up.

“This doesn't look good…” Proteus commented.

“Should we, uh… help him out?” Rita asked.

One of the monsters had punched Sora in the gut, sending him flying into the nearby trees. However, getting hurt seemed to only energize Sora even more.

“Jessica, come to me!” His sword had been replaced by a fireball launcher, which he immediately aimed at the growing crowd of monsters.

“This guy names his items?!” Rita asked. “Lame.”

Sora continued to use his fireball launcher until it was apparent the monsters were building up a resistance to fire.

“Monica, come to me!” The fireball launcher was replaced by a crossbow. “Acid Arrows!”

The gang realized by now this was Sora's magic. By calling out a phrase, he could magically swap out his weapons without needing to reach into a bag. The Acid Arrows substantially weakened the monsters so that Sora could use his finishing move.

“Lightspeed Kick!!” Sora jumped into the air, made a kicking pose, and slammed into the monsters with incredible velocity. In one stunning blow, all of the monsters had been defeated. “Threat… Neutralized.”

•

The bell rang at 3:30; another school day had come and gone. As with every other day, Takeshi Ishida, a very average second-year high school student, headed off on his own path, away from the other students. His whole life up to now has been perfectly unexceptional. Who wants a person like that working for them? Who wants to marry someone so… painfully average?

After a while, he made it to the city park. Same time, same destination, every day. By this time, a light mist had filled the area. Takeshi didn't mind, however; he much preferred to keep to himself. Here, he would be alone with just his thoughts. He would try to tackle those thoughts, but generally to no avail.

Here, he expected to run into Mr. Set, or Eileen, or anyone who would take him back into the game.

Just like every other day, no one had come.