Chapter 6: The Situation
We ate apples while looking out the window. Fields and mountains were visible—it looked like nothing but a Japanese landscape. Except the one driving the car was a goblin.
“Hey, is that mountain with no trees like that because of the war’s aftermath?”
I pointed at the bald mountain we’d seen while walking.
“Huh? That’s probably from a volcano. Beppu is one of the top hot spring towns, after all. You guys are from this country, right? How do you not know that?”
The goblin knows more than us…
“We’re from Tokyo.”
“Another faraway place.”
“We were high school students attending a Tokyo high school.”
“Hmm… kids suddenly getting sent to another world, that’s rough. And ten years at that… what happened?”
Elvis seems like a mature adult somehow.
“It’s an absurd story.”
“Everything’s already absurd. Us coming to this world, and you guys claiming you went to another world.”
That’s true.
“We were suddenly transported to another world during class. And a god ordered us to defeat the Demon King.”
“Hehehe. That really is absurd. A god and the Demon King, huh? And then?”
“We went on a journey, and many things happened. But both Ayaka and I lost friends along the way and became discouraged. We couldn’t continue the journey and were stuck in a certain town, but a different classmate defeated the Demon King, and we came back.”
So many things really had happened. Fun things… and painful things…
“Hmm… you lost friends. Killed by monsters?”
“Yeah.”
“Let me tell you something. Mourning your friends’ deaths and regretting things are important, but don’t let it consume you.”
“What would you know about it…!”
Ayaka’s voice was filled with anger.
“I do know. I told you there was a war, and it’s still ongoing, right? My comrades died too, and vice versa. Yuu, Ayaka, don’t let yourselves be trapped by your friends’ deaths. People like that don’t meet good ends.”
A good end…
“Do you think so?”
“Demons and humans are the same. They really don’t meet good ends. Come on, hold hands for a moment.”
Huh?
“Why?”
“Just try it?”
Umm…
“Brother, this is where you smoothly take her hand.”
Umm…
“Is this okay?”
“Yeah yeah.”
Ayaka took my hand from her side.
“How is it?”
Warm… and soft…
Ayaka’s hands are small, aren’t they?
“Well, what about it?”
“Don’t look too much at the dead. Look at the comrade beside you. You two aren’t alone yet, and life goes on. Think properly about what you should prioritize.”
…………
“Got it.”
“Right… Yuu-kun, and Mayumi, Hina, Omura-kun, and Matsunaga-kun are all here.”
That’s right.
“…So it’s not just you two who came back from the other world.”
Ah, right!
“They came back too!”
And they’re in the same situation. At worst, they could be right in the middle of a demon town.
“That’s right. Elvis, do you have a phone charger or anything?”
“Charger? I have a mobile battery. Here.”
Elvis took a mobile battery out of his spatial magic and handed it to Ayaka.
“I need to contact them… huh? It won’t plug in?”
“Huh? Let me see.”
Elvis held out his hand while driving, so Ayaka returned the smartphone and mobile battery to him. Then Elvis stopped the car and looked at the smartphone and mobile battery.
“Ah… it’s an old type. Can’t be helped after ten years. Let’s see…”
Elvis opened the dashboard and searched around. Then he took out a cable and connected the mobile battery to Ayaka’s smartphone.
“This should work. Here.”
He returned the smartphone to Ayaka, and the car started moving again.
“Should I call?”
“I just started charging it. I don’t even know if it’ll work…”
That’s true.
“How many others are there besides you?”
Elvis asked.
“I think there are about thirty people. Among them, four are our comrades.”
Minato, Riku, Omura-san, and Kitaura-san.
“Are they about as strong as you?”
“Some are stronger than us. At the very least, there’s someone who defeated the Demon King.”
“Is that so… sounds like things are going to get chaotic…”
Probably.
“Hey, you have a smartphone too, right? Can you contact your friends or anything?”
“I can, but my acquaintances are all in Beppu, you know? I don’t know about other towns. Well, maybe I can check online.”
The internet, huh.
“Hey, I don’t know about this war or whatever, but the infrastructure is still there, right?”
“Both humans and demons have maintained that. It’s hilarious looking at social media. Humans and demons are having flame wars, and weirdly enough, some strange associations have formed. The most representative one being that Succubus Church I mentioned earlier.”
What a world it’s become.
“What’s the war like?”
“Things have calmed down to some extent now. But it depends on the location. Around Fukuoka seems pretty intense. I don’t know about Honshu.”
Honshu…
“How about Tokyo? Is there any information on social media?”
“Ah, you guys are from Tokyo, right? Family?”
“Yeah. Haven’t seen them in ten years.”
“Of course you’d be worried. Hold on a sec.”
Elvis took out his smartphone and started operating it.
“You’re driving.”
“Shut up. Well, I guess there’s no rush. Jeez…”
Elvis stopped the car.
“News or something like that?”
“That side’s dead. Nothing but fake news in a situation where nothing can be trusted. There’s no one to hold anyone accountable, so it’s a mess. Whatever you do, don’t look at video sites.”
Sounds like there’s a lot of unpleasant stuff.
“Then how do you search?”
“Social media. Tokyo… since it’s on the human side, the damage isn’t that bad. Look.”
Elvis showed us his smartphone, and Ayaka and I looked. The screen showed an image that looked like the Shibuya cityscape.
“Looks normal. Doesn’t seem to have changed much.”
“There don’t seem to be new buildings, nor does it look destroyed.”
“Well, in a situation like this, no one’s actively rebuilding skyscrapers. Do you guys want to go to Tokyo?”
Tokyo…
“Yeah. I want to see my family.”
“Of course.”
Ayaka and I nodded.
“I see… I received mana from Yuu. So I can give you information. Will you hear it even if it’s painful information?”
Painful information…
“Tell me.”
“I see. Then here it is. A considerable number of people died in Tokyo during the war. Since the top leadership of this country was there, it was the fiercest battleground. The good news is that the humans won that conflict. However, on the other hand, everything around Tokyo except Chiba and Kanagawa is demon territory. Most of Kanto, Chubu, and Tohoku.”
So they’re surrounded.
“Is it difficult to get there?”
“If you can successfully deceive the demon side, there’s hope. But the borders are heavily guarded everywhere.”
Of course they are.
They’re at war, after all.
“We’ll still go.”
“Yes.”
Ayaka and I nodded deeply.
“I see. But don’t rush, okay? If you search, there’s a way. Those who rush die. Remember that too.”
“We know that.”
Because we went to another world too…