A Hero's Calling

Yusato’s hand dangled in the air, his mouth left agape in shock. The warmth from Tomoki’s wrist had disappeared in an instant.

“What just happened?”

His mind was going haywire as he tried to process everything. There was a bright light. His friends all just vanished in the blink of an eye. And he was standing all alone in the middle of the park.

His friends all just vanished…

His friends vanished?!

“Guys?! Guys! Where are you!” Yusato called out to him through cupped hands. “Tomoki! Azumi! Mahina!”

He frantically hurried through the park as he desperately called their names. Not a single response from any of them…

Leaving the park, he made his way through the city’s shopping district. He continued to call out to them. Onlookers were giving Yusato strange looks as he shuffled through, still crying out his friends’ names at the top of his lungs. Muttered insults entered his ears, but they left as quickly as they came.

He didn’t have time to worry about that right now. All he wanted was to find his friends. “If this is supposed to be some sort of prank, it isn’t funny!”

They couldn’t really be gone…Could they? No, that was impossible. Nobody just vanishes into thin air like that. But as much as he tried to rationalize it, there was no escaping the truth that was staring him right in the face.

There was no other explanation. That was exactly what happened. He didn’t know how or why, but that was the truth. As he began to wonder if he’d ever see his friends again, that same bright light appeared again, showering over Yusato.

It was instantaneous. As if he had fallen asleep and awoken the next morning. All of a sudden, he was standing in the middle of a massive throne room. The sheer size of it was impeccable. The tall ceiling that could fit a giant reminded him of the museums he always loved to visit. Though, those were nothing in comparison to this beast.

The shimmering ruby red and golden walls were pleasant to look at and they had dozens of beautiful paintings lined across the walls. Along with the paintings, there were several shelves with the husks of dead and animals and other creatures he didn’t recognize.

The large and fancy room had him so distracted that it took him a while to realize. Yusato was standing front and center in the middle of a crowd. Everyone studied him closely.

Their low chattering reminded him of when he was walking through town just moments ago. Once again, he couldn’t focus on that too much as he had other things on his mind.

Where was he? This place certainly didn’t look like home. Then, he received his answer.

“Four heroes, huh?”

Yusato lifted his chin to see a man sitting on the throne. His long white hair draped over the armrests as he lifted his chin from his hand. A crown embezzled with every jewel he could think of sat atop the man’s head.

A king?

The man slowly got out of his throne. Walking over to Yusato, his long fluffy red cape dragged across the floor. His amber eyes ran over Yusato while the man stroked his long beard that reached past his torso.

“Well, I certainly won’t complain about extra help.”

“Excuse me, Sir? But what are you talking about?” Yusato asked, his eyebrows creased.

“YU?! Is that you?!”

That was a voice Yusato knew all too well. A much welcome one too.

“Azumi?!”

Azumi broke through the crowd and ran toward Yusato without delay. Her head bumped into his chest as she wrapped her arms around him. “There you are!”

Yusato smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. His heart settled down a little. Finally, he could relax. “Azumi, what’s going on?”

“Honestly, I’m still not too sure,” Azumi admitted. She fiddled with a strand of her hair. “They were just telling us about how were summoned to this world as heroes to help them fight off an invasion. Then, you showed up.”

Tomoki and Mahina made their way over to Yusato and Azumi. “Pretty much,” Tomoki said.

“So, you guys were here too?” Yusato asked, looking at Tomoki and Mahina.

Tomoki nodded. “Yep. Really, it’s a bit over my head right now too.”

Yusato noticed Mahina folding her arms and looking off to the side. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Thought we finally got rid of you.”

“You are so rude!”

“Ahem!” The king cleared his throat. “If I may continue, I’d be happy to explain the whole situation to you all.”

Azumi turned around and bowed to the man. “Yes, of course! We’re really sorry! Please go on, Your Highness!”

“You have my gratitude,” the man said. “My name is King Aster and as your friend said, you have been summoned to this world to be our heroes.” King Aster motioned over towards a women in a lavender cloak and matching hat.

She held a clean and pristine book in her hand which glowed with an ethereal radiance. Yusato was stunned just looking at it. The woman herself was also pretty stunning with her mature figure and long glossy black hair.

“This is my primary Court Mage, Dadilda. She is the one who brought you here.”

“Pleasure to meet you all.” Dadilda shut the spellbook she was holding and adjusted her glasses. “Listen well, young heroes. We summoned you here because we’re about to face a monster invasion and we need your help.”

“Really?” Tomoki scratched his cheek, looking rather perturbed about this whole situation. “You guys need our help? You have mages, but you need us? Don’t you know we’re just ordinary humans?”

Dadilda shook her head. “Quite the contrary. You see, whenever an otherworlder is summoned here, they gain an increase in all their physical capabilities. Ones that well surpass our own. Not to mention, the magic they gain is just the right amount.”

“What do you mean just the right amount?” Mahina asked.

Tapping on her spellbook, Dadilda faced Mahina. “In this world, those who have too much magic are at risk of polluting our mana stream. While those who have too little obviously would not be a good fit for combat. However, you all are summoned here with the highest level of magic possible before it starts to become a problem. That is precisely the reason why we summon heroes whenever we have a crisis like this.”

“And in this case, I was able to use a spell to summon three…excuse me…four heroes. It’s not often we get more than one, but I guess we were lucky this go around.”

All of this was a lot for Yusato to take in. He could barely keep up with it all. But he did get the general gist of it. Put simply, him and his friends were brought to this world to be heroes. That in itself got his interest, but what really brought a huge smile to his face was the simple fact that this meant he would get to spend more time together with his best friends. And that meant the world to him.

“So, basically, you want us to risk our lives fighting for you on the front lines?” Tomoki scoffed at the mage. “Hell no. I’m out.” Turning on his heels, he started to leave the room.

The onlooking crowd all gasped in shock at Tomoki’s blunt rudeness. They mumbled things about how he was ungrateful, uncivilized, and a brat.

Yusato scowled hearing those comments and was just about to speak up when Dadilda appeared in front of Tomoki.

Tomoki stopped in his tracks. “Send me back home already.”

“We’re not asking you to risk your life,” Dadilda assured him. “As I’ve said, you have powers that surpass even my own. She snapped her fingers and her spellbook floated over to Tomoki. “Go on. Try it.”

Clicking his tongue, Tomoki peered at the spellbook. Seeing his face, Yusato couldn’t help but think Tomoki still wasn’t truly convinced. Honestly, he wasn’t either. He certainly didn’t feel any different than he did before.

However, all that changed as Tomoki stared into the spellbook. “It’s blank?”

“Of course it is. All you need to do is focus.”

Doing as she suggested, Tomoki closed his eyes and then opened them again as he looked deeply into the spellbook. Bright orange flames spiraled around his hand and a large blast of fire shot out from his palm.

The crowd backed away in a hurry. Tomoki grinned, staring at his flaming hand. “Awesome…Alright, guys. I guess we should start preparing for the invasion.”

Yusato smiled at Tomoki. He was happy his friend was on board. Now they could spend even more time together. Not to mention he was also excited about what kind of magic he would have.

“Preparing?” King Aster frowned. “It appears you’re mistaken. The invasion is right now.”