“—And that’s how I safely defeated the Demon King, tossed aside every reward the kingdom and the gods tried to give me, and made my glorious return home.”
Taketsuru finished recounting his tale with immense satisfaction, practically radiating pride.
Our current location wasn’t the usual terrace outside the student cafeteria, but my apartment room instead—a room I had finally prepared properly by stocking the complete manga collection of a somewhat obscure series.
A standard one-room apartment built for college students.
Monthly rent: an astonishingly cheap 31,000 yen.
In exchange, loud banging frequently came through the walls from neighboring rooms, but honestly, at that price, it was within the margin of error.
Though I still felt vaguely conflicted over prioritizing cheapness over “normalcy,” sometimes survival came first.
My landlord, who lived next door, occasionally asked me things like:
“Has anything unusual happened lately?”
But honestly, nothing stranger than suddenly developing hallucinations had occurred.
And so, in my tiny apartment, the three of us—me, Meiko, and Taketsuru—sat around drinking tea while listening to the complete story of Taketsuru’s otherworldly adventure.
A grand tale spanning nearly five years.
Taketsuru finished narrating it with tremendous emotional intensity.
And my impression after hearing it all was—
“A classic hero story without even a single romance subplot is shockingly boring to listen to.”
“Having romance would’ve been a problem, dumbass!”
Well, true enough.
Taketsuru had been so utterly determined to return to this world that he’d apparently skipped every single event involving emotional hesitation, personal growth through companionship, or bonding with women along the journey.
The result was basically a Demon King Subjugation Speedrun carried out with terrifying optimization efficiency that horrified the locals.
As a story, it lacked dramatic tension.
“I don’t think it was that standard of a hero story at all, Gouto-kun,” Meiko chimed in. “Honestly, because he used absolutely every available strategy, listening to it was surprisingly stress-free.”
“Most of those strategies came straight from Nekoyanagi-san’s ‘guidebook,’ though…” Taketsuru muttered. “People over there got weirded out by it pretty often.”
“Hehe. You’re making me blush.”
Meiko, I’m pretty sure that wasn’t praise.
Apparently the strategy guide she’d handed him contained not only orthodox combat methods, but also all kinds of ninja-like dirty tactics useful in another world.
Honestly, was it really acceptable for humanity’s legendary hero to spend the decisive war against the demon race obsessively organizing starvation sieges?
Humanity probably had mixed opinions about him too.
“Anyway, enough about me,” Taketsuru said, suddenly pointing at me. “Let’s talk about you, Kirishiro.”
“I’m just an utterly ordinary college student you can find anywhere. Don’t expect an interesting story from me.”
“Cut the crap already and explain what the hell you’re seeing. How did you know I was going to another world?”
Well, technically I was only seeing hallucinations, but if he wanted answers, I had no reason to hide anything.
Honestly, consulting Taketsuru about these appraisal-like hallucinations had been part of the plan from the beginning.
If anyone would know something about mysterious status windows and supernatural abilities, it’d be someone who’d actually experienced another world firsthand.
As Meiko liked to say:
“Other worlds are basically the homeland of appraisal skills.”
So if possible, I wanted to use Taketsuru’s knowledge to finally rid myself of these hallucinations.
“—And that’s how it happened. Ever since this morning, these game-like status windows have just started randomly popping up in front of me.”
“There was absolutely nothing in that explanation that even remotely hinted at a cause.”
“That’s exactly why I’m troubled! I don’t know how to get rid of them! As someone who’s experienced a real fantasy world, I’d appreciate any insight you might have.”
If I’d had any clue myself, I obviously would’ve tried investigating already.
But I genuinely had no idea.
I simply woke up one morning and started seeing hallucinations.
I hadn’t hit my head.
I hadn’t saved a mysterious old man.
I hadn’t visited some suspicious shrine.
I’d just gone to university on a perfectly ordinary Monday and come home afterward.
If that was enough to awaken appraisal skills, then half the human race should’ve already unlocked supernatural powers by now.
“Anything come to mind, Taketsuru?”
“Hmmm.”
Taketsuru stared at me intently, deep in thought.
Then he spoke.
“I got absolutely nothing. What the hell is that? Terrifying.”
“Meiko. Prepare the bubuzuke.”
“Calm down for a second.”
Just as I was considering politely throwing this useless hero out of my apartment, he raised a hand to stop me.
“Think about it logically,” he said. “Your appraisal thing already knew what kind of world I got sent to, right?”
“Well… more or less.”
“Then you should already know that world didn’t have stuff like appraisal skills or status windows. The entire setting is different from your weird ability.”
“…Now that you mention it, that’s true.”
The world Taketsuru had gone to apparently leaned more toward realism than game mechanics.
Magic existed there, sure, but it wasn’t the kind powered by visible MP gauges or numerical stats.
“So even if I’m technically the hero who saved another world, I can’t help you with this,” Taketsuru declared. “And from here on out, I plan to focus entirely on living happily with Sumire-neesan. I’m not carrying any more weird responsibilities. Go ask somebody else.”
“Your best friend is suffering and this is the response I get. How cold-hearted.”
“Even heroes have limits.”
And just like that, my hallucination problem was back to square one.
Or so I thought—
Right then, Meiko returned from preparing the bubuzuke and quietly muttered:
“Honestly, Gouto-kun… why are you so desperate to get rid of Appraisal in the first place?”
“What kind of question is that? You’re the one who said a college student with appraisal powers isn’t normal.”
“But still,” Meiko insisted, “you suddenly gained this amazing special ability. You’re basically becoming the protagonist of a story… and yet you want to throw that away? That’s weirder than the hallucinations themselves. Normal people secretly long for the extraordinary somewhere deep down. Stories begin the moment they obtain it.”
I’d noticed this before, but Meiko seemed strangely happy that I could see hallucinations.
And now that I thought about it, the “ordinary high school protagonists” from all the educational light novels she’d lent me often gained mysterious powers too.
…Hm?
Then maybe me gaining hallucinations was proof that I’d been an ordinary college student after all…?
Well, whatever.
“Meiko. Think carefully. Those protagonists may indeed get dragged into extraordinary situations. But why do they fight in the first place?”
“Because they fell in love with the heroine at first sight. Personally, I respect that kind of straightforwardness.”
Well, sure.
Stories like that definitely existed.
But protagonists driven entirely by raw desire weren’t exactly my role models.
“They fight to protect their peaceful everyday lives,” I said. “Or to reclaim the normal life they lost. And at the end, after reaching their happy ending, most of them willingly throw away their powers just to return to ordinary living.”
I raised a finger confidently.
“In other words:
Gain power → abandon power → become normal again.
That’s the correct narrative flow. What people truly desire in the end is ordinary everyday life. Right, Taketsuru?”
“Yeah. I get it.”
“Taketsuru-kun actually understood him…”
Taketsuru nodded deeply, clearly moved by my conclusion.
As expected of my best friend.
Even so, Meiko still looked reluctant about the idea of me losing my hallucinations.
But in the end, she could never fully refuse my wishes.
Pouting unhappily, she finally gave in.
“Mmm… okay then, Gouto-kun. There actually is one thing I’ve been thinking.”
“What is it?”
“What if you try appraising yourself using a mirror? Maybe then you’d learn something about the appraisal skill itself.”
“…I see.”
As expected of Meiko.
Truly astonishing insight.
I couldn’t summon the hallucinations completely at will, but if I concentrated hard enough and mentally shouted appear, appear, appear, they often showed up.
So if I used a mirror to look at myself, maybe I could finally learn something about the hallucinations attached to me.
It was a genuinely good idea.
“Here, use this hand mirror for now.”
“Much appreciated.”
And so, borrowing Meiko’s personal hand mirror, I stared into its reflective surface.
Hallucination, appear.
Appear.
Appear.
And finally—
It appeared.
The result was this:
──────
“Hand Mirror”
Purpose: Reflects whatever is shown within it
Comment: When you gaze into Appraisal, Appraisal also gazes into you
──────
“Meiko. According to the hallucination results, I’ve successfully confirmed that this object is indeed a hand mirror.”
“…It’s mocking you.”
Yeah.
Getting rid of these hallucinations clearly wasn’t going to be easy.
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