When we arrived at the clothing store, we got out of the car.
It was one of those well-known clothing chain stores, and the building itself was fairly large.
“You should buy some clothes here and change into them. Honestly, I don’t think it’s a good idea to walk into a human town dressed like that.”
There were fitting rooms, so I figured we could change there.
“Let’s just grab something quickly. This isn’t the time to worry about fashion.”
“Yeah.”
The two of us entered the store.
There were other customers inside, casually browsing through the clothes.
“I’ll go take a quick look.”
With that, Ayaka headed toward the women’s section, while Elvis and I looked around the men’s section.
“To be honest, I’m fine wearing just about anything.”
“I know exactly what you mean,”
Elvis said with a wry smile.
“Demons and humans aren’t any different when it comes to that.”
I picked out a shirt, a hoodie, and a pair of jeans, paid at the register, then asked the zombie cashier if I could use a fitting room.
After changing, I stepped back outside.
“Guess we wait.”
No surprise—men are usually faster in situations like this.
“Yeah. Looking at you now, you just seem like an ordinary young guy.”
“Thanks.”
As Elvis lit a cigarette, I passed the time by stretching a little.
About thirty minutes later, Ayaka came out.
She was wearing a blue knit sweater with white trousers.
The brighter look suited her surprisingly well.
“Looks good. It kind of feels like we’ve finally come back home.”
“You too, Yuu-kun. You’ve officially graduated from fantasy.”
At first, all of us had been wearing our school uniforms, but before long we’d changed into fantasy-style clothing.
Come to think of it…
This was the first time I’d ever seen Ayaka in casual clothes.
“Finished? Then let’s get going,”
Elvis said.
“Yeah.”
“Lead the way.”
Once we climbed into the back seat, Elvis held up his smartphone.
“I’ll explain today’s route. Going straight through Mount Aso would be way too dangerous, so we’ll take a detour around it. We’ll head west-southwest and pass along the northern side of Mount Aso.”
I nodded.
Looking at the route on the map app made everything much easier to understand.
I wished we’d had something like this in the other world.
“Got it. I don’t know this area at all, so I’ll leave the navigation to you.”
I knew almost nothing about Kyushu, much less where human territory actually began.
“Alright, let’s go. It’ll take less than an hour, so just sit tight.”
Elvis started the car, and I continued gazing out the window.
About twenty minutes later, we left town and entered a mountain road.
The road was fully paved, and we made smooth progress.
Apart from the occasional house, the scenery was completely peaceful.
“So what’s our cover story?”
As I looked outside, Ayaka spoke up.
“Cover story?”
“If we run into humans. We’ll look suspicious, right? Should we stick with the ‘lost couple’ story?”
I did my best not to react to the word couple.
“Yeah, that probably sounds the most natural. We were staying in town and decided to head out for a bit. Elvis, are there any checkpoints?”
“Nope. Nothing like that. Truth is, while most humans evacuated to the big cities, some people refused to leave their homes. There are enough of them scattered around, and besides, towns in Japan are all connected. Setting up checkpoints everywhere would be impossible. Of course, areas that are likely to become battlefields have been forcibly evacuated.”
That made sense.
In the fantasy world, towns were isolated settlements surrounded by walls.
Japan wasn’t like that—houses were everywhere.
“So getting in shouldn’t be too hard.”
“There aren’t checkpoints, but there are plenty of patrols,”
Elvis replied.
“You could avoid them, but it’d be a pain to walk around all day. It’s faster if you just let them take you into protective custody. By the way, do either of you have any ID?”
ID…
“I’ve got my student ID.”
“So do I.”
We both took out our student identification cards.
“Ayaka, this brings back memories.”
The photo was there, but I looked so young…
Or maybe just childish.
“You look pretty cute too, Yuu-kun. Definitely a high school kid.”
Yeah…
I really looked like a kid.
“Would you two quit flirting?”
Elvis sighed.
“If you’ve got student IDs, that should be enough.”
“They’re from a school in Tokyo, though…”
“They’ll come up with their own explanations. Maybe you evacuated from Tokyo, or your family’s originally from around here. They’ll figure something out.”
Hmm…
It didn’t sound nearly as strict as I’d expected.
The car continued onward.
After another twenty minutes or so, Elvis pulled into a roadside turnout.
Checking the map app, I saw we were just north of Mount Aso.
“So we walk from here?”
“Yeah. Things start getting risky around here. Taking the car any farther isn’t an option. We’ll come back to this spot on the return trip.”
I checked how long it would take to reach Kumamoto City on the map.
Walking…
Fourteen hours.
“Let’s say the Self-Defense Forces manage to get us into the city. Just asking—how are we getting back?”
“If we can’t secure transportation, we’ll be walking.”
Figures…
Well, it couldn’t be helped.
Back in the other world, I’d walked even farther than that.
“Let’s go.”
“Okay.”
“Then I’ll shrink down, so I’ll leave the rest to you.”
Elvis used magic to shrink down, so I plucked him up and put him in my pocket.
“You okay in there?”
I asked Elvis, who was in my pocket.
“Yeah. No problem. I’m counting on you.”
We got out of the car and started walking down the road. After about ten minutes, we came out into an open town area—rural, but still a town. However, there was no sign of people at all. Of course, there were no demons either.
“There’s no one here…”
“Kinda creepy…”
It was like a ghost town.
“Naturally, no one lives around here. There might be some people, but they probably don’t go outside.”
“Hmm…”
As we walked through the town, there were supermarkets and drugstores, but the glass was shattered, and peeking inside, they had been pretty thoroughly ransacked.
“I see. It’s an apocalyptic world.”
“Seems like it… Looters, maybe?”
Well, in this situation, yeah.
“Something like that? Can I say something bad?”
“Go ahead.”
“Even if we make it to Kumamoto, do you have any money?”
The demon town ran on mana, but human towns would use yen, right?
“I have about 3,000 yen…”
“I only have 2,000 yen.”
I was a high school student, after all.
“Can we get by on 5,000 yen? I think we’d be fine for food, but…”
“Who knows. I’ve never stayed out at a hotel or anything.”
But 5,000 yen definitely doesn’t seem like enough…
“Wait, are we doing this? Changing Jobs to looters? I’m a Knight, though?”
A Rune Knight—a warrior who can use both magic and swords. Her actual Job wasn’t simply “Knight.”
“I’m an Alchemist.”
“Isn’t alchemy not really about that kind of thing?”
Yeah.
“Don’t worry. Just wait a sec.”
Elvis jumped out of my pocket and landed on the ground. Then, after returning to his original size, he took out a stack of bills from his spatial magic and handed it over.
“Huh? What’s this?”
“I got it from the innkeeper.”
Something humans left behind, huh…
“One, two, three… There’s sixteen of them.”
160,000 yen. Damn.
“You sure?”
“It’s just paper to demons. Just take it. And buy me some cigarettes while you’re at it.”
“Got it.”
“Then I’m counting on you.”
Elvis shrank down again, so I put him back in my pocket and kept walking, checking the map app as I went.
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