"So, you have at long last arrived, heroes of another realm..."
A woman caked in heavy makeup and draped in gaudy clothes was putting on a dramatic speech until a deafening boom cut her off mid-sentence. A giant tree about a hundred meters away from us was burning up and toppling over with a loud crack. Not just my classmates-even the soldiers surrounding us were standing there with their mouths hanging open, watching the tree fall.
A series of crashing impacts echoed as a fireball about fifty centimeters across slammed into the falling tree over and over until it blew the thing to bits.
"Uhyahyahya......that Saizo guy's really going all out!"
The one throwing fireballs and striking a total chunibyo2 pose with a smug look on his face was Katsuragi Saizo. Normally he's an otaku3 fat kid who doesn't stand out much in class, but right now he was probably loving every second of being the center of attention.
We'd been waiting in our classroom for the after-school short homeroom4 to start when we got caught up in what you'd call an otherworld summoning. Suddenly, the floor of our high school classroom started glowing with some complicated pattern, and the whole scenery in front of us changed into an unfamiliar grassy plain, surrounded by soldiers in armor carrying spears and some middle-aged lady in flashy clothes.
While most of our classmates were freaking out, the otaku3 was calmly sizing up the situation. When we got summoned from our world, all of us were given magic and language abilities, and Saizo probably got fire magic. The way he figured that out so fast and actually pulled it off-all that daydreaming he does on the regular really paid off.
As for me, I was watching this whole chaos from a VR-screen-like view that wrapped around me front, back, left, right, up, and down. This is the inside of the Item Box-the magic I, Kuroi Yoshihito, was given. From inside the Item Box, I can see and hear everything outside, but nobody outside can see me. It's probably some kind of separate dimension, but the capacity is about the size of a cleaning supply locker, so I can barely stand in here without room to even stretch my arms.
Just like Saizo, I'd figured out what was happening the moment the classroom floor started glowing. As soon as I understood my magic, I hid inside the Item Box. I hid because as any otaku3 knows, otherworld summonings basically come in two flavors: one where you get crazy cheat powers and live however you want on easy mode, or another where you don't get to live how you want at all and get worked to the bone by the locals on hard mode. Until I can figure out which one this is, if I've got a way to hide, hiding is the safer bet. Judging by the sour look on the heavy-makeup lady's face after getting interrupted, hiding fast seems like it was the right call.
"Still room for improvement, innit, but for a first try, that's proper decent, you know?" Saizo said with his arms crossed after blowing the giant tree to pieces. Though he sounded all humble, his flat nose was twitching with pride.
"Whoa......what the heck is that!"
"Whoa, wind came out, wind!"
"Cold! Hey, don't splash water on me!"
Watching Saizo use magic, our classmates started trying out their own magic, and the air that had just calmed down got rowdy all over again.
"Silence! Maintain order immediately!" the big armored captain shouted at them, stepping forward commanding authority. "You stand in the presence of Her Majesty, Queen Alpheria!"
The soldiers surrounding us banged their shields to shut everyone up, but my classmates all had unhappy looks on their faces. Once she confirmed the classmates had stopped talking, the heavy-makeup queen spoke up again.
"Welcome, esteemed heroes of another world..."
"Okay like, just send us back to our world already, lady," interrupted my textbook gyaru1 classmate, Shirakawa Kiyoka.
The queen's face twitched at being cut off again. "L-Lady...?"
"Silence, insolent cur!" the captain growled, stepping forward angrily. "How dare you address Her Majesty, Queen Alpheria, with such disrespect!"
"Allow it!" Saizo interjected, stepping between the captain and Shirakawa. "Everyone just chill and hear them out first, yeah? Look, we can't be making no moves without knowing the vibe, and blamming each other straight off ain't doing nobody no favors, innit?"
The captain clicked his tongue in frustration, clicking his teeth back as Saizo pointed his hand at him in the shape of a pistol, forcing the captain to hurriedly back off.
I see-so he deliberately showed off his power to get the upper hand in negotiations. Honestly though, Saizo's totally acting like he's the main character. I never planned to stand out from the start; I just wanna mess around a bit, enjoy some good food, and get back to Tokyo ASAP. I mean, if you're gonna enjoy an otherworld, having someone like Saizo making a big scene probably makes things more fun-but I'm gonna sit back and enjoy the show from here.
Saizo took the lead in questioning the queen, and apparently we were summoned as heroes to defeat an evil dragon. And just like I figured, each person gets one type of magic and more mana than the locals. Once we finish our duty as heroes, they'll open a gate to send us back......or so the story goes, but who knows how much of that we can trust. For now, we put off deciding whether to join the evil dragon fight, and it was decided we'd all get our magic and mana levels checked.
Trivia:
- Yoshihito's Item Box is only about the size of a cleaning supply locker, which means his hiding spot is extremely cramped and he can barely stand in it, hinting that long-term hiding will be physically taxing.
- The queen's "send back" promise is framed with clear suspicion by Yoshihito, suggesting the story is planting early seeds that the summoned heroes may not actually be allowed to return home easily.
- Saizo deliberately showed off his fire magic as a negotiation tactic, revealing he is far more calculating than his usual quiet otaku persona suggests, which may foreshadow a leadership rivalry later.
Translation Notes:
1 ↩ A Japanese fashion subculture of flashy, trend-forward young women, often with tanned skin, bleached hair, and bold makeup. Kiyoka speaks in a blunt, casual gyaru style that clashes with the queen's royal court.
2 ↩ A Japanese slang term for someone who acts out grandiose fantasy personas, often pretending to have hidden powers. Saizo's dramatic pose is a direct reference to this subculture.
3 ↩ A Japanese term for someone with intense obsessive interests, usually in anime, manga, or games. Yoshihito uses it self-referentially to explain why he knew the two summoning patterns.
4 ↩ A brief end-of-day class meeting in Japanese schools where announcements are made before students go home. The group was waiting for this when the summoning happened.
Notes:
• Saizo - Classmate who was given fire magic. Normally a quiet otaku in class but seizes the spotlight during the summoning. Uses dramatic chunibyo poses and shows off his power to gain leverage in negotiations. Takes charge of questioning the queen.
• Yoshihito - Narrator and protagonist. Given the Item Box magic during the otherworld summoning. Hides inside it to observe the situation and decide whether the summoning is easy mode or hard mode. Wants to mess around, eat well, and return to Tokyo quickly. Never planned to stand out.
• Kuroi - First-person narrator and Item Box user. Male protagonist summoned to another world. Has killed three people. Pragmatic and self-preserving, prioritizing his own safety and return to Japan over helping strangers. Plans to loot the castle and escape. Possesses an Item Box skill that lets him hide and store things, and keeps it constantly active, which may be why his leveling is faster. Cynical and rational, with a forgettable presence that he uses to his advantage. He knows the people of this world are trash and plans to return to Japan. He is a virgin and gets flustered easily by Shirakawa's teasing, often struggling to stay calm when she presses against him.
• Alpheria - Heavy-makeup woman in gaudy clothes who greets the summoned group as heroes of another world. Explains they were summoned to defeat an evil dragon. Her face twitches when interrupted.
• Shirakawa - Family name of Shirakawa Kiyoka, the dark-skinned gyaru and classmate of the protagonist who was summoned alongside him to another world.
• Kiyoka - Dark‑skinned gyaru classmate, blunt, casual, uses feminine pronouns. Survivor of soldier assault, vengeful, threatens captors. Wields Cleaning Magic to purify objects/people, seeks to level up. Freeloader in Kuroi’s Item Box, virgin yet bold, constantly teases, presses against him, enjoys fun in other world, panics under stress, sleeps cramped together.