Prologue: 1-A Class Stranded
…Okay guys, line up.
“Is everyone okay?
Wear your coats and maintain your temperature.”
“Uuh…it is cold.”
“I can’t take it anymore…”
“Sensei, can we really make it back?”
“Damn it, why is help not coming?!”
Our homeroom teacher, Satou-sensei, was going around talking to the students.
Everyone’s voices are fragile and dark.
How did it turn out this way?
We 1st years of the East Shinagawa senior high school were on our way back from our ski camp, but were met with heavy snow.
We were also unluckily hit by an earthquake.
The avalanche created from the earthquake dropped the bus from the cliff.
The bus was buried in the snow and it was impossible to operate it anymore.
The heating stopped, and from the openings of the broken windows, cold wind was coming in unceasingly.
More than 2 hours had already passed imprisoned inside this cell of snow.
Our teacher immediately tried to call for help with his cellphone, but there were accidents happening all over the place, and the rescue team is having a rough time.
It seems like they cannot fly a helicopter here because of the blizzard.
My classmates were also spreading an aura of ‘isn’t this already hopeless?’.
No one was saying it out loud though.
Within all this…
“Takki-dono, gaming even at this kind of time?”
“I want to play games in the last moments of my life.”
“You really don’t break character.”
“You think?”
Without moving my gaze from the game screen, I responded to my close friend, Fuji-yan, who is at the neighboring seat.
Cold.
The cold is making it hard to move my fingers.
“Takatsuki-kun, don’t say something so grim.”
The girl that sits at the opposite side of ours reprimands me.
This voice, Sasaki-san, huh.
I glanced for a bit, and she was trembling from the cold as well.
“It was a joke.
It is just boring to do nothing.”
“It is true that just staying in place doing nothing is rough.”
Looking at my side, I see that Fuji-yan is playing a dating sim on his cellphone.
“You are also playing games, Fuji-yan.”
“I am simply replaying a scene that I liked.
Fufu, Kanon-chan really is the cutest.”
On the screen, there’s a cat-eared girl with sparkly eyes smiling.
“Uwaa…”
Sasaki-san is letting out a ‘woow’ kind of voice.
“I understand Takki-dono, but why are you getting creeped by me too!!”
“It can’t be helped, Fuji-yan.
It is a world that girls won’t understand.”
“You guys, we are stranded here.
Have more sense of danger.”
“Don’t you actually want to play too, Sa-san?”
I know Sasaki-san is actually a hidden gamer.
That’s how we began to talk to each other.
If not, an unsocial person like me wouldn’t be talking to a girl.
“W-What are you saying?!”
“No need to hide it at this point.”
“Kanon-chan, haah haah.”
Fuji-yan though, you should at least show some restraint.
“You really do love cat ears as always.”
“That’s not it!
It is not only cat ears, but animal ears in general!
They are all precious!!”
“How philosophical.”
“Are you speaking nonsense already?”
Ah, Sasaki-san got angry.
Yeah, we are indeed talking nonsense.
I went back to concentrating on my game, and while I was playing and speaking, the battery had gone all the way down to ¼.
Judging from the progress of the game, I would say it will last real close to clearing.
I am currently playing an action rpg that I have been into lately.
The main character that had his homeland destroyed by a demon fights in order to exact his revenge; a dark fantasy game.
The class of the main character is hero.
When you defeat your nemesis, the doors to the world of darkness open, and the demon lord that is the string puller makes its appearance.
After defeating the giant demonic dragon, the witch that rules over death, and the fallen hero, the last dungeon appears.
The one at the lowest floor is the last boss, the demon lord.
A cutscene I have seen several hundreds of times.
I confirm my playtime.
Yeah, it is plenty enough.
The demon lord that has a lot of defense cannot be damaged with normal attacks.
Because of that, there’s the need to deal counters at specific attacks.
I have repeatedly practiced the counter timings, and I can now pull them off even with my eyes closed now.
I efficiently shave off the hp gauge of the demon lord, and deal the last hit.
“Clear…”
Best record.
I would have liked to upload this to the internet.
On the screen, there’s the main character that has finished his revenge, walking towards the throne of the demon lord, and disappearing deep inside.
This time around I aimed to clear it at the shortest time possible, so it is the Normal End.
The world is at peace, but there’s no one who knows the main character that defeated the demon lord.
Saving the world, but no one celebrates him.
By the way, my favorite ending is the one where the main character becomes the demon lord.
I would have wanted to see that once more.
I looked around, and my once noisy classmates had gotten silent.
What happened?
While I was thinking that, sudden sleepiness struck me.
I speak to Fuji-yan at my side.
“Fuji-yan?”
There’s no response.
It is just a corpse.
Seriously…?
Sasaki-san on the other side has her head down and I can’t see her face.
She is completely limp.
“Sa-san?
Sasaki-san?”
No response either.
The game screen ran out of battery in the middle of the ending.
My lifespan is on the verge of running out too.
…Haah, it was a short life.
If I get reborn, please make me into a hero.
While thinking about such nonsense, I close my eyes and my consciousness grows further away.
?? I woke up.
“Where’s this?”
I look around, but this isn’t the inside of the bus.
“Isn’t a hospital either…”
It isn’t concrete, but a stone ceiling and walls.
Is it marble?
I was sleeping on a hard and simple bed, with a thin blanket on top of me.
The window seems to be open, I can feel the wind entering.
It is a bit cold.
I don’t know if this is the cold of the afterlife, but I am probably still alive.
There’s a big window a bit further away.
It is bright outside.
It was night on our way back from the camp, so that means I have been sleeping for more than half a day.
“At any rate, how can they leave alone an injured person that they rescued from a snowy mountain?”
I complain alone.
I should check the outside.
I swayed my way to the window.
My head was still hazy.
Someone must have rescued me, is what I thought.
I was feeling grim thinking that they left me sleeping in a weird place.
I stand at the window and look outside.
“Eh?”
The sight spreading before me is…not Tokyo, but a deep forest.
A vast blue lake.
At the back of it, a mountain range like that of the Alps.
On top of the lake, there’s a bird of 7 color wings flying leisurely.
At the lakeshore there’s a dinosaur-looking creature drinking water.
There’s several carriages parked in front of this building.
The ones operating the carriages have lizard heads or even dog-like faces.
“…Beastkin?”
Wa…What is that?
What’s pulling the carriages are birds bigger than ostriches.
There’s also giant lizard-looking things.
“A hollywood movie?”
My voice was trembling.
“Shoot!!”
“““[Fire Arrow]!!”””
When I look below the window, there’s children forming a row in what seems to be a track field.
They are wearing robes, and all of them shot arrows of fire at the same time.
The fire arrows hit the targets and exploded.
The cinders of the explosion and the smoke reached my nose.
The smell of burned wood returns me to my senses.
This is not a dream?
“Aah…”
Is this that?
What I have seen in movies and anime?
…An Isekai.
