The rest of Kai’s first day

  “Yeah, that sounds about right, more or less,” Sheila opined, looking at Kai with gleaming eyes. “Though there is a bit of miscellanea you missed, but it doesn’t matter too much!”

  “Is it normal for people to forget everything about the day they show up here?” asked Kai, as he looked at her worriedly. “Because it really feels like it shouldn’t be.”

  “That’s the funny thing,” the rainbow-haired woman dramatically sighed. “It shouldn’t be, but here we are. Even our best doctors and healers can't find anything wrong with newcomers.”

  “I mean, I doubt they would. It’s all up here, isn’t it?” asked Kai, pointing at his head. “And there isn’t exactly much you can do except take an MRI and do a before and after.”

  “You’d be surprised, Kai!” exclaimed Sheila, lighting up again. “We’ve gotten pretty far by mixing modern medicine from Earth with magical healing! Our trauma teams can put just about anyone together as long as most of the pieces are still in place, and even in the worst case scenario, it’s only a 50-50!”

  Trauma team, trauma team? Trauma team! Kai held his head as the phrase triggered even more memories to flood back into his mind.

  “Well Kai, it’s a pleasure to meet you!” exclaimed Artyom as he stood in King Reginald’s pindrop silent throne room. “Let’s head back to headquarters and I’ll give you the grand tour.”

  Before either of them could take more than a single step towards the closest swirling portal, a female voice spoke up from above them. “Wait! Your magic, it was beyond anything I’ve ever seen! Please, let me join you as well!”

  The two turned around to see a woman in flowing robes, the court mage, quickly descend the staircase towards them. Several of TOAL’s own soldiers readied to attack, but Artyom held out his hand to signal them to hold.

  “What?!” shouted King Reginald. “Today I’ve been insulted more than I have in my entire life, but treason is where I draw the line!”

  Artyom passed judging eyes over her pleading face, and then to Reggie who was now as red as a tomato. It was an amusing sight witnessing such an expression on the king as he wrestled with the light spear still pinning him to his throne.

  After a brief chuckle at the sight, Artyom gave his answer. “Eh… no.”

  The court mage’s eyes turned fearful. Her love of magic was what allowed her to rise through the ranks and become second to none in the kingdom, but her position of court mage wasn’t for any particular love of her sovereign. It was just the easiest way to gain access to the kingdom’s archives and magical secrets. Thus was her motivation to take such a calculated risk, one that seemed not to have paid off.

  “But surely you could use more help with your league?” she began to plead. She would be dead if this didn’t work, so what use was pride? “I’ve graduated at the top of my class at the mage’s guild, been on numerous raids against our enemy, and I’m the top magic user in the entire kingdom!”

  “That education isn’t any good if half of what they taught you is of no use. Unlike on Earth, a fancy diploma alone isn’t going to cut it. Besides, the call was for Earthers, since you know, the organization is for helping other people from Earth?”

  The court mage’s expression fell even further. She had played her cards at the wrong time for just a chance at learning more. If only…

  “Actually, the R&D team could use her,” interrupted Abhi in a distracted tone. “We haven’t fully documented all of the magic available in this world yet, and she could help with that. Not to mention possible tracking magic to find the other Earthers.”

  “Whatever, you can take her with you. But keep her magic nullified, I don’t trust her or anyone else in this place,” replied Artyom with a sneer, followed by a glare at Reggie and the surrendered guards.

  “Wait, other Earthers?” asked Kai.

  “Oh yeah, you and the others here got lucky,” replied Artyom with a scowl. “Apparently, Reggie’s rival actually beat him to the punch and summoned their own little army a week ago.”

  “And by the time we found out about it, they were already deployed to the front lines,” lamented Abhi. “That was before they escaped and went on the run, so now we have to find them wherever they might be hiding in this god forsaken place.”

  “I see,” said Kai, trailing on. So it did seem that there was someone who had the guts to make a run for it. Completely unlike him.

  Oblivious to the conversation, the court mage quickly rushed over to Abhi, ready to throw herself at his feet in gratitude. But instead, he simply asked her to walk slowly and began to make casual chit-chat with the robed woman.

  “Right, so as I was saying, how about if we take a tour of headquarters?” asked Artyom, getting back to the young man in front of him.

  “But what about the other kids from Earth?” asked Kai.

  “I might be multi-disciplined, but we’ve got better trackers than me already trying to sniff them out. So unless they need a military General or a support specialist, I won’t be of much help. So come on, there’s a whole new world that awaits you just through the portal!” He held out his hands and shook his fingers like he was making a sparkling effect out of them.

  Kai couldn’t help but chuckle in response, and with his concerns sufficiently placated, he followed the strange man through the swirling hole in space.

  On the other side of the tear was a small, dull metallic room. A complete contrast from the ostentatious chamber they’d just come from. The only particularly noteworthy details were several lines and footprints marked on the ground in yellow paint, and an alcove filled with several soldiers in heavy body armor and assault rifles aimed at the two…

  Kai flinched and froze in place as he stared at the firing squad. He would’ve dived behind cover, but the soldiers were positioned such that there would be no hiding from their lines of sight. Kai reigned in his fear long enough to turn around and make a break for the portal, but was stopped by a strong arm.

  “Woah, hold on there, Kai!” said Artyom in a calming tone while barely holding the boy in place, the way one would soothe a bucking horse. “These folks are friendly!”

  “Hello, Artyom,” replied the lead soldier in a thick German accent, his gun still aimed at the duo. “And I see we have a guest! Please walk to the yellow square and face forward.”

  “Just a hello?” pouted Artyom. “Aww Frederik, you’re too friendly. Hello to you too!”

  “We can have smalltalk after you are both confirmed to be who you say you are,” replied Frederik in a total deadpan. “In the meantime, please step up to the yellow squares.”

  “Alright, fine,” sighed Artyom before walking up to the first of the specified markings. “Sorry about him, Kai. Apparently life here at TOAL proved to be too much for Frederik compared to where he was first sent, so he has to balance it out with the ever-boring portal security detail. Seriously, nobody unauthorized ever comes through here, so it’s mostly just him standing around and asking us agents the same questions over and over again.”

  “Wait, first sent?” asked the young man with a confused look. “What do you mean by that?”

  “Right, you’re a rare case,” replied Artyom. “Most of us were also dragged from our homes back on Earth through a portal to some World or another to fight some kind of vaguely terrible evil. Though unlike you, we had to go on whatever quest we were summoned for, whether it was legitimate or a ruse like with what Reggie back there set up for you all.”

  “So I missed out on the adventure, huh?” asked Kai with a sigh, his lips falling into a frown.

  “You missed out what would’ve been the worst years of your life, if that’s what you’re asking,” replied the half-asian man with a playfully lecturing glare. “But you’re not the only one, take Frederik here! Despite being an adventurer, he was always stuck on army bases assigned guard duty or organizing supplies instead of doing any actual adventuring! That’s why all he does here also happens to be guard duty.”

  The soldier scoffed in reply, but Kai could see an upward curve of his lips and teeth beneath his long, fuzzy moustache.

  Kai showed a small smile himself as he slowly followed Artyom’s lead and took a marked square next to his.

  “My name is Artyom Choi, Captain of the Terran Defense Force of TOAL and member of the Executive Council.” As the scarred man completed his statement, a green light to the side of the room flashed green, and a hidden nozzle sprayed him with an odorous liquid dispersed into a fine mist.

  “Uh…”

  “Simply state your name and where you are from, the truth spell will determine the veracity of your statement,” Frederick helpfully stated. “Just please don’t lie, it will make all of our lives less pleasant.”

  “I’m Kai Freeman, from New Jersey. Uh, on Earth. I’m a senior at Walkerman highschool and showed up in a portal a few minutes ago. Also I was eating macaroni and cheese for lunch, or at least what my school calls mac and cheese, it’s the farthest thing from it, honestly. I mean, I’ve eaten some pretty good mac and-”

  “Woah there, Kai!” exclaimed Artyom. “You don’t have to go into that much detail! Just your name where you’re from is enough.”

  “Oh, sorry!” He apologized. “Uh, my name is Kai Freeman and I’m from-”

  The light lit up green while the young man was still mid-sentence. While that didn’t stop his repeat performance, the consequent spray of liquid from a second nozzle getting into his mouth did.

  “Blech, wlaah, ugh! What the hell is this stuff?!” Kai wretched as he tried to spit as much of it out as he could.

  “Disinfectant,” replied Frederik matter of factly. “To make sure we don’t bring any germs from anywhere we’re deployed. Sure, it won’t do anything if you’re already sick, but it’s just a precautionary measure. Gives our doctors less work.”

  “And there’s the Frederik I know!” chuckled Artyom as he regarded the soldier as if he were a long-time friend. Probably because he was.

  “Of course! I simply didn’t want to waste my time on an imposter! So it looks like our visitor is from Earth, no? Where else would he be from if you were treating him so well.”

  “That’s right!” replied Artyom. “Fresh from the portal, in fact, as he said. He didn’t want to go back to Earth, so he’s going to be our guest for the foreseeable future. Hoping we can find him a new home on some Fairytale World or maybe even here?”

  “Really, now? In that case Kai, I welcome you to TOAL and the multiverse at large,” said Frederik with a smiling yet somber nod. “Whatever life you lived back home, I guarantee that before long you’ll consider it downright boring compared to what we have in store for you here.”

  “Uh, thanks,” replied Kai with a curt bob of his own.

  “No worries,” chuckled the soldier. “Before long, I bet you’re going to want my position as well! Here, let me open the door.”

  With a press of a button, the metal gate in front of the duo quickly slid open, revealing a corridor covered in white plaster and fluorescent lights.

  “Now we can finally begin that tour in earnest,” started Artyom.

  Before he could continue the sentence, the group was interrupted by a shout coming from behind them. The two turned around to see a man in chainmail armor bleeding from his left arm. His right hand held a half-rusted sword pointed at the duo, his eyes screaming his hateful intentions.

  “For King Reginald!!!” he shouted before charging, sword raised in front of him. He didn’t make it two steps.

  “Open fire!” shouted Frederik as soon as the words left the anachronistic soldier’s lips. The German man and his compatriots were on the intruder in a heartbeat, showering him with a rain of explosive screams.

  Lead pierced the man’s pot metal armor, leaving pink holes in the front and red stains oozing out the back. He was thrown to the back metal wall, which absorbed the residual energy from the shots, letting the deformed bullets safely fall to the ground.

  After 3 seconds of sustained fire, the intruder was dead. His eyes and lips remained open with the same rage he had in life, now sharing space with his dripping blood.

  “Huh, guess I spoke too soon,” mumbled Artyom as he eased himself out of the shock of the ambush and subsequent firefight. “Sorry you had to see that, Kai. Now let’s… Kai?”

  Kai Freeman ran down the harshly lit hallway as fast as he could. His mind was filled with nothing but static and a single goal; survive. It wasn’t the first time he’d ended up inches away from a gunfight, and that prior experience ingrained the proper response into his subconscious. And he was simply acting on that proper response.

  “Kai, Kai!” came the vague sound shouting from behind him that was drowned out by a painful ringing deep in his ear.

  He didn’t dare stop. Not until he was sure he was far enough away. And after a few more seconds of running, he felt that he was. Kai came across a corner and dived behind it, hunching over on the balls of his feet.

  He kept his head behind the wall and attempted to listen out for anyone approaching despite the ringing in his ears making it quite difficult. His face had an almost vacant expression that belied his sole directive.

  As he finally started calming down, Kai felt a hand fall on his shoulder, making him jump forward and turn around to face its owner. Before him was a lady with dark red hair wearing a thick, white coat with a large, red plus symbol plastered on the center. There was a small group of people in similar uniforms behind her.

  “Do you have any other injuries?” asked the lady, her voice perfectly audible now that Kai’s hearing suddenly cleared up.

  Kai, still in a state of fight-or-flight, jumped back and raised his fists in a defensive gesture.

  “He’s going through shock. One of you stay back and sedate him if necessary.”

  “Kai, Kai!” shouted Artyom from behind him. He ran up while waving a hand, trying to get the medical staff to not take any drastic action with him.

  Kai turned around again, ready to throw a punch, but eased up after seeing Artyom with his hands raised in supplication. He lowered his own until they were by his side again.

  “You alright, there?” asked Artyom. “That’s honestly never happened before, and I’m sure after the security team hears about this, it’ll be the last.”

  “What have I gotten myself into?” asked Kai.

  “Hopefully a better life,” replied Artyom with a guilty smile. “Sorry that this had to be your first impression, we’re usually better than this, but we’re still not perfect.”

  “Artyom, we’re headed to portal room 3, what’s the status?” asked the lady who had healed Kai.

  “Everything’s under control, Claire,” replied Artyom. “One of the enemy soldiers snuck through the portal and tried to jump us, but the guards were able to stop him. None of us are injured and there’s probably not much left of the soldier to work on.”

  Claire nodded in response and motioned the small group behind her to follow as she made her way towards the carnage. After they’d left, Kai was still taking deep breaths in order to calm himself down.

  “Listen Kai, I know that this isn’t what you had in mind for a ‘magical isekai adventure’, but truth be told, neither did anyone else here when they were shanghaied from Earth. How about if we grab some hot chocolate and calm our nerves?”

  “Yeah…” said Kai, letting out most of his tension in a heavy sigh. “I could go for some hot chocolate.”

  Back in the cafeteria, Kai’s brain worked overtime to process the memories that were finally made available to his conscious mind. He tried to stand up from the wire frame chair, but immediately began to shake.

  “Woah there, Kai. Kai?” asked Sheila in concern as her eyes began to widen. “Shit, I need help here!”

  A trio of the closest diners rushed over to Kai and grabbed onto his shoulders, sides, and waist, as they slowly eased him back into his chair.

  “Thanks, you three,” replied the rainbow haired woman with a kind nod. “You alright there Kai? What did you remember?”

  “Ugh, something bad,” he replied, slowly rubbing his forehead with an open palm.

  “Damn, what’s going on with him?” asked one of the helpers. “Does he need to get checked out by Claire?”

  “Don’t worry,” replied Sheila with a sigh. “It’s just his second day here and he’s still dealing with residual amnesia, he probably remembered something bad.”

  “Where the hell did you pick him up from, a Grimdark World?” asked the second helper, eyeing Kai to make sure he wouldn’t faint on them.

  “Nope, fresh from Earth!” exclaimed Sheila, her wide grin not quite reaching her eyes.

  The third helper whistled in response. “Shit, what kind of a life that must’ve been.” He then placed an encouraging hand on Kai’s shoulder. “But hey, you’re at TOAL now, so things are going to get better!”

  “Thanks,” said Kai, trying his best to sound grateful as the dizzy spell began to fade. “But the memory was from after I showed up here.”

  “Wait, after?!” the three exclaimed in unison.

  “Hold on…” said Sheila, putting a finger to her chin as she sat deep in thought for a quick moment. “The security breach! You were there, weren’t you? We had an intruder that we had to take down, and I’ve been told the sight of the incident wasn’t pretty.”

  “Y-yeah,” replied Kai with a slow nod. “I don’t do too well around guns.”

  “Hey there, don’t worry about it! Any guns here only get fired to protect you and the rest of us, and that was the first time something like that’s happened in years,” said Sheila as she placed her own soft, comforting hand on Kai’s other free shoulder. “Remember that, they’re your guns. And you won’t have to ever get near one either if you don’t join the Terran Defense Force.”

  Kai let out a sigh as he crumpled into his seat, the stress leaving his body through his breath. “Thanks, everyone. I’ll make it through, don’t worry.”

  “In that case, I’m going to get back to my meal,” said one of the helpers. “Hope your time here’s better than yesterday, in that case.” The other two followed him back to their own tables.

  “You know, I just remembered,” said Kai, suddenly raising his head. “I haven’t seen Artyom yet, I’d like to meet him again and thank him properly for bringing me here.”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry!” replied Sheila with a cringing smile. “He got deployed on another mission this morning. Like, super early.”

  “Oh…” His head sunk back down to the table.

  “But don’t worry, you can see him again once he gets back! I’m not sure exactly where he was sent, but someone like him should only be away for a few weeks, maybe even one or two if you’re lucky!”

  “Yeah, alright.”

  “Speaking of your time here,” began Sheila, brightening up again. “Most people face a lot of homesickness when they get dragged away from Earth. I know I did, so I’ve planned out a full schedule with plenty of activities for you while you get settled in!”

  “Huh. I honestly doubt there’s much for me to miss from back home, but I’ll bite,” said Kai with a curious gleam in his eye. “What do you have planned?”

  “For starters, you’re really new here. So to fill in the gaps of what you don’t know yet, you’re headed to school!”

  “Wait, school?!” all but shouted Kai as his jaw dropped into his empty bowl of oatmeal. “I thought I’d be doing magic, or exploring some medieval village, or something that actually sounds like an adventure. Not school!”

  “Well, you have to learn about those things before we can let you do them safely, so you’re outta luck,” she shrugged.

  Kai groaned as he leaned back in his seat. “Of course, the first thing I do after I get isekaied is go to school.”