The Hunted Hero

“Hello? Are you awake?”

A muffled voice called out to me, I turned over in my bed trying to ignore them. I had just laid down and really didn’t want to get back up.

“Go away… I need… sleep.” That’s when I remembered that I live alone. I opened my eyes and jumped out of bed. I reached for my cell phone only to find it wasn’t on my dresser, and that the dresser next to me wasn’t my dresser.

“There is no need to be alarmed.” I turned my head to the sound of the voice to be greeted by a large fish standing upright dressed in formal attire. I stumbled back. Did that massive fish just talk? I looked around and realized that I wasn’t even in my bedroom.

“What the hell is going on? Where am I?”

The fish simply looked at me and calmly stated. “Oh, you have died.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, there was a talking fish telling me that I had died? This had to be the most bizarre dream I’ve had in a while. “Dead you say?”

“Yes.” The fish nodded.

“Might I ask how?”

“Greater Identify Soul.” The fish concentrated and suddenly a transparent floating window appeared in front of him. “You are Oda Kazuki, 22 years old. You lived in Osaka, Japan and recently began working for an IT company after you graduated from Osaka University.”

Ok, this is getting a little real, but there is no way this is real. The fish scrolled a bit.

“On July 13, you went missing after a gas leak resulted in an explosion that destroyed your apartment complex.” He flipped the screen around to me, revealing a news headline.

OSAKA EXPLOSION DESTROYS APARTMENT, SEVERAL MISSING

I examined the photo, that was my apartment complex, or at least what was left of it. I felt as if my soul had just left my body, well I guess technically it did because…

I was dead.

My head was filled with a million questions, why did I die? Where exactly am I? Why is there a talking fish dressed in Victorian garments? My brain started to hurt trying to comprehend what had exactly just happened.

“I can tell you’re just a bit confused, allow me to formally introduce myself.” The fish bowed, tipping his top hat off. “I am Ophthalmias, your spirit guide. You have been selected to participate in our Rebirth Program.”

Rebirth Program? Sounds like something that would send me back to earth to be reincarnated as a bird or something.

“You have qualities that make you an excellent candidate to become a hero to another world.”

Back on Earth I had played a lot of RPGs and tabletop games, a popular trope was for someone from earth to be sent to another world to save it, usually gifted with a skill or weapon. I wonder if it’s anything like that.

“When you say other world, do you mean one of those fantasy worlds filled with dungeons, dragons, and magic?”

Ophthalmias nodded in confirmation. “That is correct.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, I get to be a hero? This was a dream come true!

“What kind of quest awaited me? Am I off to save the world from a demon king? Or perhaps a transcontinental adventure to settle a family feud that’s been going on for generations?”

Ophthalmias paused for a moment. “We actually don’t know what you are going to do. We wish to evacuate you and find the best position for you in this world.”

Hm, that’s different. I wonder if I have any say in the matter. I wonder if this means I get some sort of power or magical item to help me. “So, what happens next?”

“You and the other candidates will begin orientation soon. Please, follow me.” Other candidates? Guess I’m not the only one.

The door to the room opened up and Ophthalmias started to walk out. I’m not quite sure what I was about to get myself into, but whatever awaits me face head on!

I followed Ophthalmias in a hallway, which was quite extravagant. Everything was made of marble and dark oak, paintings and statues filled the halls.

He opened the solid dark oak doors to another room. “Please take a seat, you will be briefed shortly.” Several chairs and desks sat in the middle of the room, all taken save one. I walked over and sat down.

I felt a tap on my shoulder, I turned my head to see a girl about my age with long messy brown hair looking at me. “Sorry to bother you, but do you have any idea what’s going on?”

“From what the talking fish told me, we are supposed to become heroes of another world or something like that.”

The girl looked at me curiously, “Did they tell you that… you died?”

“Yes.”

The girl sighed, seemingly accepting the fate that had been thrusted on us. “I see, so this isn’t some crazy dream...”

“I initially thought the same thing, I mean how could you not when talking fish tells you your apartment complex blew up?”

A flicker of disbelief showed on the girl's face, “Wait, by chance was it in Osaka?”

No way, she was from my apartment complex?

“Yes.”

“Intresting, we were neighboors…”

I couldn’t believe it, out of all the people in the entire world, someone from my apartment complex was also here. Maybe everyone here is also from my apartment complex?

“I’m Oda Kazuki, apartment number 403.”

“Fukui Hana, apartment number 503. Oh, also feel free to use my first name.”

“Likewise.”

The quiet murmur in the room ceased to exist as Ophthalmias made his way to the front of the room, our conversation was cut off before it could even begin.

“Good morning, everyone. I’m sure many of you have several questions as to why you are here or what is going on. To simply put, you have all been selected as potential worthy candidates for another world.” The murmures returned, any remaining doubt left in the room had been washed away in one fell swoop.

“This can’t be happening…” someone muttered.

“Huh, so this isn't a dream after all.” someone else stated.

Someone stood up from their chair. “Hey, doesn't this mean we get some sort of overpowered weapon or something?”

Ophthalmias nodded. “That is correct. Before we distribute gifts there is a short video going over the world and why you've been summoned. Please take a moment to watch it.”

Suddenly the lights in the room dimmed, and a projection of a video appeared beside him. “Long ago, Duelmarl was known as a realm of peace, the gods and their people ruled the land in relative harmony, that was until a vicious warlord by the name of Ganbaatar Khan appeared from nowhere. Unmatched in the art of war, he united the tribes of the east and began a bloody conquest. Nations had two choices before them, join his empire as a tributary, or perish. It is now up to you, new heroes of the realm, to stop the khan and restore peace and harmony to the realm!”

Ophthalmias cleared his throat as the lights brighted.

“Over the next few days you will be trained in basic combat and magical skills and assessed to find the best deployment option for you. However, there is an important spell that I must teach you now, so please listen carefully.”

The room erupted in excitement, a magical spell? This was for real!

“For this to work, and by extension all magical spells, you must channel your focus and picture what you wish to conjure…”

Ophthalmias tightened his stance, stuck out one of his fins and closed his eyes. There was a pause as everyone eagerly awaited their first taste of magic.

“Menu!” Ophthalmias shouted as a small menu, similar to the one I saw earlier when he got information about me popped up. The room filled with awe and excitement.

“Soon you will be called to a specific room for the first phase of your training. Please use the menu spell to find the room. Oh, and please remain seated until you are called…”

I guessed now would be a good time to try and talk to Hana, afterall I was in a strange new world, I was only going to get through it if I had allies. As I looked over to my right I noticed she was already facing me.

“Anyways, what did you used to do on Earth before we got vaporized along with our building?”

Hana let out a soft laugh, before returning to her calculating expression “That’s one way to put that.” Hana looked away as a sheepish grin formed “I really didn’t do anything special….”

Liar, I could tell from her body language that she was hiding something. In fact, it seemed like the whole time I was talking to her she had been keeping her guard up.

“Come on, it doesn't matter now that we're all, uh… dead, I’m sure it can’t be that embarrassing.”

She sighed as she looked at me from the corner of her eye, “I’ll tell you, but only

If you promise not to laugh…”

“I promise.”

She paused for a moment, probably contemplating what she was about to say before she finally spoke.

“I was… a Vtuber.”

A Vtuber? That’s actually pretty interesting. Back on Earth, while I didn’t watch any Vtubers I did see enough clips online to be able to recognize one if I saw them.

“Really? Who?”

Hana looked surprised, she turned her head to look at me directly. “KokoKitsune”

I knew that I said I wouldn't laugh, but I couldn't help it. “No way! You’re the hornet nest lady!”

A flustered scowl immediately appeared on her face, “NO! WHY IS THAT WHAT YOU REMEMBER!" I could recall the clip as clear as day, she was opening fan mail on stream and someone had somehow sent her a live nest of hornets.

“How could I not?” I sputtered out in between laughs, “It’s only the most viral clip in Vtuber history!” Actually, now that I thought about it, I did hear some strange screaming and buzzing sounds from the apartment above me the day that “the hornet incident” happened, I guess I just never thought to put two and two together. Hana laid her face on the table in front of her and covered her face with her hoodie sleeves.

“Not fair…” she muttered.

“I swear I won’t tell anyone.” Hana laid there for a moment, but eventually lifted her face upright so I could at least see her eyes.

“...promise?”

I placed my hand over my heart, “I promise.” She stared at me for a moment before letting out a sigh and putting her head back up.

“You better keep your word, because if I find out that you didn’t…” a small, somewhat twisted smile crept up on her face, but it didn't quite reach her now soulless eyes which were looking intently at me. “...I’ll never forgive you.”

Scary.

Her expression suddenly turned back to its ever calculating expression.

“Now that you know what I did for a living, I’d like to know what you did.”

I shrugged, “I was just a normal salary man, nothing interesting.”

“Eh? A salaryman at your age?”

“Yeah, I had just recently got hired.”

“What were you?”

“An engineer.”

Hana winced, “Oof, they must have worked you like a dog.”

I shook my head, “It wasn’t that bad.” At least that's what I tell myself.

“Oda Kazuki,” a disembodied voice called out, “please report to room D4.”

I stood up from my chair, guessing my conversation with Hana was over. She seemed alright, maybe a little crazy, but then again I think most Vtubers are a atleast a little crazy.

“It was nice to meet you, Hana. Good luck out there.”

She nodded in response. “Good luck to you too, Kazuki.”

I made my way back to the hallway, now I needed to figure out how to get to this place… I closed my eyes and focused, trying to picture the menu in front of me. “Menu…” Suddenly, a screen appeared in front of me. Wow, I can’t believe it, I just casted my first spell! The menu looked a lot like a normal computer application, with different categories. I tapped the one that said “map” and a top down map of the facility appeared, each room labeled. I moved the map around until I found the room. When I tapped it a line began to appear in front of me. A wavepoint marker? I followed the line, passing room, after room, after room.

. . .

Eventually after what felt like an entirety, the line stopped in front of a door. I looked up to check the sign.

D1.

This must be the place, I opened the door and closed it behind me. The room was quiet, and completely devoid of any objects, save a table and 2 chairs. Behind the table was some sort of potted plant creature, made of floating vines. “Welcome, Oda. I am …Vitis. Please take a seat.” His vines slowly crept up to the chair and pulled it out for me, I took a seat and he abruptly pulled me forward. “This won’t take very long, I just have a few… questions for you so we can better understand you.”

Oh, so this was some kind of interview. I worked quite a few jobs in high school and college, so I've done my fair share of interviews so I’m not too terribly worried about what kind of questions they might throw at me. “Alright.”

Vitis picked up the paper in front of him. “First question... if you were a mythological creature, what would you be?”

Well that’s a new one. I wasn’t really sure how to respond to this, nor did I really understand the purpose of the question.

“I’d have to say… a phoenix. It doesn't matter how much I've been beaten down, I will always return.” Vitis stared at me as he wrote down my response on the paper. I couldn't really gauge how he reacted to my response thanks to my lack of experience in reading plants, but surely it couldn't have been that important of a question.

“Second question: What is your greatest… fear?”

Greatest fear… I was about to instinctively say heights, but I felt that Vitis was expecting an answer with more meaning behind it. I ran though a list in my head before landing on an answer that I thought was true but also had meaning behind it.

“Losing my sense of purpose.”

“...why?”

“If you have no sense of purpose, you lose motivation to do anything… It would be a pretty boring existence.”

Vitis scribbled on the paper, “I can agree… it would indeed be… very boring.” He looked up from his paper.

Something about this guy just didn’t seem right… he seemed to be moving slower than a snail. Maybe he was bored?

“You have been given a rare opportunity, most people would do anything for a second chance at life, even if it’s in another world… What will you do with this second chance?”

Second chance… What exactly do I want to do? Back on Earth, I nearly worked myself to death in school and at my job. I always dreamed of seeing what the world had to offer.

“I will travel the world, immerse myself wherever I am.”

Vitius nodded, “Don’t worry… as a hero you'll be doing plenty of traveling.”

They really didn’t tell us much about the inhabitants of the world during that video. I began to wonder if there would be other races besides humans.

“Next question: To you, what is success?”

Success… That seemed like an easy question.

“Success is progress towards an overarching goal.”

Vitis looked up from his paper, “so… you would describe it more as more fluid rather than a yes or no?”

“I would say so.”

Vitis wrote something down on his paper, “I see… one final question for you… would you rather have a weapon, or a skill?”

That had to be the most important question of them all. A weapon would be way cooler, but I could get stuck with something I don’t like. A skill would be more versatile and could be applied to several different fighting styles.

“Skill.”

Vitis scribbled some more, “well that was the final question… This concludes… the first phase of your evaluation.” The door I had entered opened on its own. “Please make your way back to the conference room, the next phase shall begin soon.”

I pulled up the menu and marked the room on my map. I also noticed that not only did each room have a number of some sort, but if you tapped on it you could see more information.

ROOM T23 "Conference Room”

This room is used for large important meetings. THis also includes hero orientation.

I left the room and started to make my way back to the conference room. Vitis looked at his paper, it was filled with doodles and incomprehensible nonsense.

“Ah… it seems I have done it again.” he said apathetically. “Now I don’t know what skill to assign him… I should have foreseen this coming.” He opened up a menu filled with skills, staring at them trying to figure out what to do. “Wait… foresight… that's it!” He slowly scrolled down the page and selected a skill. “Hopefully Ophthalmias won’t notice the lack of documentation…”

. . .

I arrived back in the conference room. It looked like mostly everyone was back, I went back to my seat.

“Oh, you finished.” Hana was in her seat, “I’m surprised I finished before you.”

“How long have you been here?”

Hana thought for a moment, “About 10 minutes.”

“What? That’s impossible, it took me like 10 minutes just to get to the interview room.”

“Oh, mine was right across the hall.”

What the hell? Why did she get one so close?

“Strange…”

The lights in the room dimmed once again, the chatter slowly faded as Ophthalmias returned to the front of the room.

“Everyone, may I have your attention please. The first phase of your training is now completed. We shall move on shortly to the next phase, however, before we can continue I must distribute your gifts. The gift you received was carefully based on how you answered your interview questions.”

I was filled with a sense of excitement, I wondered what I was going to get? Skills could be a lot of things, maybe I’d get the power to stop time, or perhaps the ability to make obscenely powerful magical items. No matter what it was, it had to be cool on some level.

“I will now distribute the gifts. If you asked for a weapon please DON’T use it in the conference room, there is a training ground to practice in.” Ophthalmias summoned a menu and tapped around in it. Suddenly, a white pulse echoed through my skin, it didn’t hurt, but it just felt kind of funny. A robotic voice called out to me.

“Skill acquired.”

I summoned the menu, I looked through the tabs until I found one called “Status.” I opened it and found a section labeled “skills”, which was completely devoid of anything, save one singular skill.

Second Sight

User may see into the immediate future.

“Hm, interesting...” Hana muttered, as she stood behind me.

I jumped out of my chair a bit, I didn’t even realize that she’d moved behind me.

“Now that you all have your gifts…” Ophthalmias continued, “you will undergo combat training for the next few days. Please make your way to one of many training grounds.”

I pulled up my map, there were several identical training grounds so I just picked the one closest to us.

“Want to go to the training grounds?”

Hana nodded, “Sure.”

We both began walking to one of the training grounds, many others were doing the same. As we were walking I thought about what would pair well with my skill. Magic sounded cool, but realistically I'd get more use out of something that required quick in the moment precision. Maybe a longsword, or even a greatsword? After some time we finally made it to the one of many training grounds with a group of other people. Entering the room was more like entering another dimension, there was a bright blue sky, a dirt floor, and no walls in sight.

“You can’t even tell we are in a room…” I said out loud.

Then I felt a small poke in my leg, I looked down to see a tiny, chunky, terracotta soldier poking my leg. It noticed me looking at it and jumped in surprise.

“Greetings, we are Jiti. We shall assist you in your training endeavors."

We? I looked around and noticed that this wasn't the only soldier running around, there was quite literally a small army of these guys running around. Hana looked down to see what was speaking, and almost immediately her cold gaze melted into one of wonder and awe.

“Oh my gosh! Look how cute it is!” she explained as she picked it up, “this has to be the cutest thing I’ve ever seen!”

The small soldier wiggled around, flailing its stubby arms like they were pool noodles, but it was no use. Not sure how Hana was able to go from ice princess to KokoKitsune so quickly, but I digress.

“Please, put us down!” it cried.

I couldn't help but laugh, Hana looked at me puzzled.

“What’s so funny? Is it wrong to like cute things?”

She put the golem down, it had seemed to have calmed down a bit and reclaimed its composed stature.

“Please, follow us to the armory.”

We followed the small warrior to a large, stoney, two story building. Off to the side of the building there were larger terracotta soldiers working at what appeared to be some sort of blacksmithing shop. We entered the building and were greeted by the glistening steel of weapons that rested on racks. There were so many of different kinds… I had never actually seen any real weapons before, yet from my years playing RPGs I could just about identify every single one of them. I walked up to a rack and picked up a sword. It was one of a western design, a shortsword. I moved it back and forth in my hand, getting a feel for it. I looked over to Hana, who was admiring a case filled with knives.

“Cool…” she said to herself.

“Please…” Jiti continued, “Take whatever you would like. If we do not carry something you desire, please notify us and we will do our best to fulfill the request.”

Hana was entranced by the knives, she picked one up and ran her finger lightly across the edge. Her eye darted to Jiti, who jumped ever so slightly

“By chance do you have any magical tomes or staffs?”

The soldier nodded, “Yes, if you go to the second floor you’ll find all of our magical equipment.”

“Is that so?” Hana closed the case, heading for the stairwell up to the second floor, she stopped midway and turned her head back to face me. “Kazuki, meet me outside once you have all your gear, I’d like to spar.”

Hana disappeared up into the second floor, leaving me alone with Jiti. For a moment, we just stared at each other in awkward silence. Is this guy going to leave?

“Don’t you have somewhere to be?”

Jiti shook its head, “No, I am here to assist you and your friend.”

“Right…”

It looked like a normal training ground, save the small terracotta soldiers running around.

[THIS CHAPTER WILL BE EXPANDED ON AT A LATER TIME.]