Chapter 1: An Ordinary High School Student You Can Find Anywhere—Wait, No, I’m a University Student
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“Yuu Taketsuru”
72 hours, 12 minutes, and 53 seconds until summoning to another world.
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That was the information currently floating in front of my eyes.
I rubbed my eyes several times, hard enough that they began to sting, but the words stubbornly remained exactly where they were. They didn’t flicker. They didn’t distort. They didn’t vanish like an ordinary hallucination should.
Still, I decided to treat them as one anyway.
After all, I was “a perfectly ordinary high school stude— no, university student you could find anywhere,” and my childhood friend Meiko had thoroughly educated me on what counted as “normal.”
Normal people did not suddenly start seeing mysterious text in midair that looked like some combination of Appraisal Skill and Future Prediction.
Therefore, the correct course of action was obvious.
Ignore it.
Completely.
“Oi, Kirishiro. What exactly are you staring at?”
The one speaking to me was, as you may have already guessed, a guy named Taketsuru.
At the moment, the two of us were sitting side-by-side in the university cafeteria, shoveling down bowls of the cafeteria’s notoriously cheap curry.
Calling it “curry” was honestly generous. There were no visible chunks of meat or vegetables to be found anywhere inside it—just a thick, vaguely curry-colored liquid with enough viscosity to cling to rice.
And yet, thanks to the absurdly low price of three hundred yen in this economy, it had become wildly popular.
(According to Meiko.)
Now then, about this man named Taketsuru.
Average height. Average build. Slightly better-looking than most. Friendly, easygoing, bright with everyone he talked to, and generally well-liked by the people around him.
One of the very few people at this university who actively went out of his way to talk to me.
We’d first met here at Heidan University during the entrance ceremony, and even now, a month and a half later, we still hung around together frequently.
Despite the fact that, unlike me, he almost certainly had plenty of other friends besides just one.
At this point, it was probably fair to call him my best friend.
According to the data I had collected, ordinary people were supposed to make at least one close friend at school.
There were apparently multiple schools of thought regarding whether that friend should be male or female, but Meiko had firmly insisted:
“Make it a guy. Absolutely a guy.”
And thus, Taketsuru had neatly settled into the “best friend” slot.
I had been quite satisfied with my steady progress toward becoming a perfectly ordinary person.
Which made it rather irritating for a hallucination to interfere now of all times.
“Taketsuru. There’s something I want to ask you.”
“Hm? What is it?”
“Do you happen to have any desire to go to another world?”
“…Huh?”
Taketsuru blinked at me in genuine surprise, spoon halfway to his mouth.
To be fair, I had formed exactly one hypothesis regarding this hallucination.
Namely:
While I was indeed an ordinary university student, perhaps my exceptionally refined powers of observation had unconsciously allowed me to perceive the hidden truths of the world itself, which were then being displayed before my eyes in the form of hallucinations.
If that hypothesis were correct, then Taketsuru secretly possessed a deep longing for reincarnation into another world, and sometime within the next three days he would take actions leading toward that outcome.
In other words, I was subconsciously sensing his intentions.
That was the theory.
Taketsuru answered a moment later.
“No? I mean… even if you ask me that, I’ve literally never thought about it.”
“That creates a problem.”
“Why?!”
There went the hypothesis.
Meaning this hallucination was not the product of my superior observational abilities.
Which left only two possibilities:
Either my brain was broken, or my eyes were.
Not exactly comforting conclusions.
“You seriously don’t have any interest? Like wanting to jump in front of a truck because you suddenly feel compelled to go to another world in three days or something?”
“…Are you secretly plotting my murder right now? Is this some kind of setup where you get me to say something incriminating while recording me?”
“Ordinary people do not do things like that.”
“O-okay…”
To begin with, killing someone just because you disliked them was not a normal solution.
A normal person would have many more practical options available for removing someone from their life.
And since I was a normal person, if I truly needed someone removed, I would use money or connections.
“Taketsuru. We’re best friends, right? Isn’t there something you’re hiding from me?”
“…Are we best friends? We’ve only known each other for like a month and a half.”
“The duration of a friendship is irrelevant.”
“Well… I guess that’s true.”
This was getting nowhere.
Eventually, I decided to ask directly.
“Listen, Taketsuru. I don’t intend to stop you if you truly want to go to another world in three days. But I have my own circumstances too. Couldn’t you at least postpone the isekai trip until after we graduate university?”
“I keep telling you, I have zero plans to go to another world. And even if I somehow did, I’d come back eventually.”
“Mm. I see.”
Apparently, Taketsuru had no desire to build a harem in another world.
If he intended to return to this world afterward, then perhaps the only issue was the length of his stay.
“Then fine. You’re free to go to another world if you must, but at least come back within a week. I need a best friend in order to maintain a normal university lifestyle.”
“I’m still deeply confused about why you’re treating my trip to another world like a confirmed event, but… sure, I’ll do my best.”
With that, the problem was resolved.
My ordinary university life remained smooth sailing.
All was well with the world.
Feeling reassured, I returned to the important task of eating curry.
And then, for some reason, the hallucination updated itself.
“Yu Taketsuru”
72 hours, 08 minutes, and 39 seconds until summoning to another world.
※ At this rate, he will die in the other world. Good luck!
That was a problem.
Of course, if Taketsuru wanted to die in another world, that was technically his freedom.
But university life had already begun a month and a half ago.
It was too late to restart from the entrance ceremony, and securing a replacement candidate for “best friend” at this point would be difficult.
“Taketsuru.”
“What now?”
“We may need to seriously consider what you’ll require in order to survive in another world.”
“Could you please just let me eat my curry in peace?”
Cutting me off entirely, Taketsuru focused on his meal.
Meanwhile, I sank into thought.
Seriously… what exactly was I supposed to do about this hallucination?
Taketsuru could happily shovel curry into his mouth because he knew nothing about the situation.
But I knew at least a little.
And terrifyingly enough, everything displayed by this hallucination had, so far, been accurate nearly one hundred percent of the time.
Which meant that if things continued like this, Taketsuru would die in another world…
…and I would lose my best friend barely a month and a half into university life.
Now then.
Before continuing with Taketsuru’s story, I should probably talk a little about this morning.
About the moment I first started seeing these hallucinations.