Chapter 1 : A Hopeless Romantic At Heart

“NABI SHIN, WILL YOU GO OUT WITH ME!!!”

To say the boy blurted out those words loudly would be the understatement of the century.

Head bowed in pathetic desperation, posture straight as a whistle, and face as red as a tomato. It would be easy to assume the young man had committed the most shameless of acts.

The girl, no, the victim of such an awkward confession could only look around awkwardly, hoping that nobody in the school courtyard could see them.

“I know you're in a completely different league than me, and probably — no, definitely have better options than me…”

An audible cringe escaped her mouth.

“But I promise I will give it my all and make you the happiest man in the universe!”

Silence. The autumn breeze rushed past her silky brunette hair.

Her piercing brown eyes gazed upon the strange looking boy in question. If she was honest, she couldn’t even remember his name; she had only had three — no — two conversations max with this guy. This being one of them.

“Uhm… Tadashima-kun was it?”

“Yes indeed but you can just call me Haru if it's easier.”

“Well to be honest Tadashima-kun, I already have a boyfriend…”

“I see…”

He knew that was false, he had already done in depth research on her i.e. stalking her social media to confirm that she was completely single. So what she was really trying to say was:

I’m not interested.

Luckily for her, he could read her mind. He had already gotten used to those types of comments.

“Thank you for letting me know, Shin-chan”

Haru quickly exited the situation, staying would only worsen the embarrassment.

In truth, he had already expected this outcome. After all, why would a girl as beautiful as her, want to be with a weird looking guy like him.

In reality, he wasn’t unattractive, nor ugly, but his appearance made him stand out.

His hair was short, black and naturally curled, dropping at just above his eyes. His physique was average on most metrics — albeit his muscles were a bit more toned than the regular boy his age.

But his most distinguishable features, for both good and bad, was his skin complexion and eye color.

His skin complexion was a mellow brown, but not in a way that seemed cross cultural. More…

Alien.

Under sunlight they seemed to glow a golden brown, whilst under dimmer lights they darkened further ebony.

His ever-tired eyes didn’t help either — a faint dull gold — eyes that made him look non-human.

“Yo Haru! How did it go?”

“Do you really want to know…”

“Of course.”

“I got rejected. Said she has a boyfriend.”

“Ah shucks mate! Guess it's time to put the rom-com protag route to bed now.”

The hypocrite who had spoken in such colloquial English terms was none other than Haru’s best (and only) friend.

Short, timid-looking and wearing the iconic otaku glasses from his second favourite anime, Ozu Inoue was the type of friend that would wait outside of school for his best friend, tease him about his various life failures and then go on a long monologue about how his time in England 'fundamentally’ changed him.

“No I refute your dream destroying notions dammit!” Haru grinded his teeth in frustration before continuing. “I will pull a ten out of ten, even if it's the last thing I do!”

“So how do you plan to do that then? Go down the slice of life rou—”

“Truck-kun.”

“Isekai huh, wow you're desperate.” Arms crossed, head shaking in disappointment, Ozu knew his friend had fell to a new low.

“Think about it for a sec, Ozu.” Haru tapped the top of his cranium like he had come up with a master plan.

“I’m thinking.”

Haru ignored his friend's confirmation and continued with the utmost insanity.

“If I go down the other world, light novel transportation route, there would be various girls I could collect into my harem. I could use my natural otherworldly charm to seduce beautiful women, create great inventions and make absurd amounts of money.”

He rubbed his fingers together to signify the exchanging of abundant wealth. His eyes’ glowing for the first time today.

“The rags to riches story.”

“Exactly! Become a super successful merchant, save a kingdom and marry a ten ten elf girl.”

“Wow.” Ozu clapped sarcastically. “So you're gonna jump in front of a truck. Die to hopefully get a chance at being reborn in another world, and somehow become successful with your ‘intelligent’ mind that can’t even pass a simple english language test. And then hope you get born into a wealthy family, all so that you can somehow design a modern invention with limited resources. Oh! And I forgot to mention avoiding cholera and sepsis from badly designed plumbing infrastructure.”

Haru rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, as Ozu smirked at him in perceived victory.

“Didn’t think it through, did ya…?”

“...Should’ve left the sarcasm back in the UK…”

“What did you say?”

“I said oh look, Kasiba sensei is behind you!”

Ozu turned on his heel like a gazelle in front of a lion. His eyes wincing in frustration as he took off his glasses and quickly rubbed them for clarity.

“My goddess!”

“Were supposed to be Christians Ozu?”

“It’s a figure of speech okay!”

Haru backed off, content to watch his friend stare into the distance at their beloved teacher.

I can’t deny it. She is stunning.

Miss Kasiba could only be described in one word: Perfect.

She was the quintessential teenage boy, fantasy English language teacher:

Gorgeous – check

Kind – check

Smart – check

Do teenage boys care about anything more?

Ozu waved at her, he was her favourite student after all.

She smiled, her almond eyes peering through her glasses as she walked up to them.

“What are you boys doing here, waiting after school?” She asked softly, her voice as serene as she was intelligent.

“Just going home to study, Kasiba-san.” Ozu said, his expressions reminiscent of a beaming puppy.

“As diligent as ever Ozu-kun, but we’ve already done enough afternoon studying together. Maybe you should study something else?”

“Neve— I mean maybe.”

“Hmmm, and you Tadashima-kun…?” Her eyes gleaned with friendly curiosity. She was the type of teacher who always wanted to be invested in her students' lives.

“Going to my Dad’s old dojo, I need to collect some rent payments from the tenants.”

“Ooh, I didn’t know your Dad owned a dojo?”

There was a beat of silence.

Haru turned sideways, he looked out to the sky for a moment, watching the crows fly across the setting sun.

“Yeah, he did…”

“Did I ask something inappropriate?”

Haru shook out of his stupor.

“Nah it’s fine sensei. It's a mixed martial arts dojo down the river on Takeba street.”

“Ah, wonderful. Well I won’t waste anymore of your time then.”

“It’s never a waste of our time talking to you sensei.’

Haru internally cringed at his best friend's comment. Damn. Talk about a way to make it obvious!

The duo said their last goodbyes and left the school in haste. Ozu continually gushing about his seemingly ‘close’ relationship with his favourite sensei whilst Haru internally mourned over his ever-shrinking dating prospects.

“Y’know I plan to marry her in the future. Make her mine for good!”

“Mhm.”

“I’ll start a social media marketing agency and sell my services abroad to English speaking countries while making profit by paying people from poor countries to do the service!”

“Ahah.”

“What do you think bro, wanna work for me? I can pay you well and you can be my right hand man.”

Haru knew that Ozu was baiting him in for conversation, after all, they both knew that he would never work as a right hand man to his best friend. He had too much pride to do that.

“Sorry ‘mate’ I’m too busy evaluating my Isekai prospects at the moment.”

“Still on that again?”

“Yep.”

Just as they were about to enter the train station, Ozu stopped in front of him and turned towards him on the step above, arms out wide like a bird.

“Look bro, I know you're feeling like a lost puppy after being brutally rejected. Even though I warned you that Nabi’s out of your league, and you needed to go down the friendship route to warm your way into her heart…”

Haru grumbled.

“...But that doesn't mean it's the end of the road for you. Look at me and Kasiba-san, if love like ours exists, then there must be love out there for you as well.”

Haru’s eyebrow lifted.

“I know you're a hopeless romantic at heart, Haru. A man who yearns for connection with another.” Ozu got theatrical, fist to his heart with pure compassion for his brother's anguish.

“But no matter how cool it seems, you don’t need to go to another world to find love and success…” Ozu’s voice dimmed, eyes centred fully on his friend's widening gold.

“No… Let another world come to you!”

Ozu declared this nonsensical statement without any sense of irony, believing that Haru’s widening eyes had come about from the emotional impact of his speech.

But no, the fool was very wrong. What had widened Haru’s eyes was not the ludicrous boy that loved his teacher hopelessly, but the girl that encaptured his heart at first sight.

She was enchanting, mysterious and dream-like in every sense of the word.

Silver-white, armoured boots travelled up the stairs. Coruscant amber eyes reflected in the oncoming trains. Shoulder length bob cut hair, a platinum blonde, flowed in the rustling breeze, reflecting off her fair skin and revealing her most inhuman feature:

Her ears, short and pointed — not human — elven.

It was unquestionable in Haru’s mind. She was from another world.