My twin brother's a really 'cool' guy. Kenji Togata's the school prince, with everything. He has the looks, the grades, and the personality. His only issue is that he's incredibly stupid.
His absolute lack of common sense and caution is probably a part of his charm. Girls must see them as, 'the traits of a genius,' but it's really just him being incredibly oblivious to his surroundings.
When we go to the convenience store to pick up food, he always walks out after scanning his items, forcing me to pay for it.
It's annoying because I actually work, and he gets an allowance. Whenever this happens he always says, "Oh I forgot to pay, but it's fine because you have a job to pay for it, so no worries right?" He has not paid me back a single unit of currency in the past 3 years.
He always looks at his phone when he's crossing the street. One time I even had to yank his collar back so he didn't get hit by a car. His response was. "What's up?"
I love him, but I envy how easily he gets girls. I wish I could get girls that easily. Unfortunately, I'm both a girl and shy. Those two traits are typically not helpful in 'scoring with the ladies'.
My name is Aria Togata. I'm a second year student at Sunrise High School. I'm 150 cm tall, I've got black hair, and my only defining feature is my golden-colored eyes. I work at a bike shop after school, and my list of friends can be counted on one hand by a three toed sloth. There's my co-worker Emilia from the bike shop, and my brother.
Emilia and my brother are dating, so it's almost like a two-for-one deal.
I'd like to be able to make more friends, I'm just shy. To be honest, I think I have an inferiority complex towards my brother. He's 30 cm taller than me, his grades are 20% better than mine, and his list of friends is over 10 times mine. He's good at everything, be it sports, art, school, and women. I'm good at observing things. That's it. I'm a perceptive person, if nothing else. Actually, remove the if.
My incredible powers of perception were tested one Tuesday morning. Me and Kenji were walking to school when suddenly, I felt something very wrong. I instinctively pulled Kenji's collar back as a hole opened up in the ground.
"Kenji please pay attention to where you are walking. Mind the gap sir."
Kenji was surprised to see the hole in the ground, as was I.
"It's not my fault this time Aria, this is normally just a sidewalk."
"I suppose." I say shrugging, as Kenji and I look into the hole.
What we see is nothing short of unbelievable. It looks like a castle straight out of some C-tier anime. Fit with a bearded king-looking-fella and several hooded men who look up to no good. They look up at us and scowl.
"Oh Great Hero, please heed our call. Come and save our world from the Demon King." Even this line is like a C-tier anime. I just shrug my head.
"Why would my brother do something as stupid as jumping in a hole to some weird other world?" I ask.
"Aria, is this isekai?" Kenji asks. He's very dense so he has not realized that this is a failed kidnapping attempt. I pity him.
"Yes Kenji, they're trying to summon you to go fight in a war." I say.
"Oh Great Hero, only you can fight the Demon King, your soul is pure and your power tremendous. The Demon King has just awoken and we need your power to fight him. We need your help to save humanity!"
"But you're trying to kidnap him and conscript him into a war that hasn't even started yet. That's pretty moronic Your Majesty." I scoff.
"Miss, I do not care to speak to you, let the hero be summoned." The King booms.
"No, fuck off." I say, flipping him off as I stick out my tongue.
"I AM THE GREAT KING OF SAGELITH, KNOW YOUR PLACE COMMONER" The king yells.
"Um, our place is Japan, not Sagelith, so sorry mister," Kenji says meekly.
Me and the King are silent.
"I may be stupid, but when Aria tells me not to jump in holes, I do not jump in said holes." Kenji beams, a wide smile on his face.
I clap, and show an exaggerated look of pride in my idiot brother.
"B-but you must save humanity from the demons! We're in danger!" The King says, tears in his eyes.
"Don't care, didn't ask. We're busy. Please leave us alone." I say, bowing to King Crybaby. "Kenji, let's get to class, we'll be late if we waste more time with this weirdo."
"I hope their Demon King issue gets fixed. Have a nice day mister King!" Kenji smiles and waves as we walk away.
"HEY! DON'T GO! COME BACK HERE!" The king yells, but the hole closes as Kenji distances himself from it.
"That was weird wasn't it Aria." Kenji says, tilting his head.
"It's like an anime or something, but we're past that now, I hope they just leave us alone." I say, shrugging my shoulders as I pull Kenji's collar again.
"Uwaaa? Is there another hole?"
"No, you were about to cross on a red light."
"Oh, my bad!" He says as I sigh dejectedly.
===
King Orion Marsius of the Sagelith Kingdom slams his fist into his throne.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT. Sir Edels, why didn't the summoning work?"
The hooded men shiver at their ruler's wrath. Their supposedly foolproof method of summoning had just failed after all. They were just as confused as their King.
"It seems as though that girl knew the hole was coming and pulled him to safety before he fell in."
"Sir Edels, how can she predict the summoning circle if there's no mana in that world."
Sir Edels had no answer that could satisfy the King. The Summoned Heroes of yore were always taken from worlds that were not tainted by mana, which allowed them to harness incredible power upon their transfer, holding little to no inhibitors to the magic energy. The ability of that girl to detect the flow of a completely foreign energy and react to it instantly was inexplicable.
"However you look at it, Your Majesty, it doesn't make any sense. Detecting the flow of mana should be impossible for somebody of that world. We will try the summoning again at a later date. It must have been a fluke."
"If it wasn't we need to prepare methods to convince him to come to us. Let's bring out my daughter Princess Nerea and promise her to him! Bahaha, that should work, she's the most beautiful woman in the Kingdom. Now be gone."
The hooded men leave to prepare for the next opportunity for summoning.
"Butler, send in Nerea."
"Yes Your Majesty."
A tall and beautiful woman with golden hair and striking blue eyes enters the room.
"Hello Father, what do you need me for?"
"I need you to seduce the hero we are attempting to summon, He is quite stubborn and seems to have a companion who's able to detect mana."
"So I will be promised to the hero to lure him in. I would assume that once the Demon King is vanquished we will renege on that deal? A commoner like a hero is not fit to be part of the Royal family of the great nation of Sagelith.
===
Five days had gone by for Kenji and I since the failed summon(kidnapp)ing attempt. It's now Sunday afternoon and we're hanging out in the park, eating ice cream that we bought from the convenience store.
"Hey Kenji, move about two meters to the right really quick."
"Alright" He says, moving.
A hole opens up in the ground where Kenji stood. It's that kidnapper King again. This time however, he's with a beautiful woman who's probably his daughter. I get this really sadistic and malicious vibe from her. Yeah, she's totally my type.
"Oh Lord Hero, I beg you, please save my home! I wish for the safety of my citizens but without your help the Demon King will overrun our lands, please help us!" She says. Damn, yet another woman only focused on Kenji, but I'll let it slide in this situation.
"Hello Mister King and Miss Princess!" Kenji says, beaming. The Princess doesn't change the look on her face, continuing to put on that fake smile.
"Uwaa~ She's so pretty!" I say, holding my hands to my face. "Kenji, Kenji, it's a real black-hearted dominant princess! She's just my type! She'll probably break off whatever engagement she makes with you the minute you beat the Demon King. That's so cool." The color immediately drains from the princess's face.
"She looks nice though Aria." Kenji says, looking stupid.
"That's what she wants you to think Kenji, you see she has nothing to lose and everything to gain here, we don't know anything about her or any of these people except for the fact that they want you to be there, because once you are, you can't go back. They seem too stupid to unsummon a person." I say with a smile.
"I am not a black-hearted person or anyone who would do any of those things! I am a kind person who just wants the best for my people, and I've fallen at first sight for the Great Hero!" The princess says.
"Aww, that's too bad, I was hoping you'd at least be honest about your maliciousness."
"My daughter is the most beautiful woman in the land Great Hero, if you kill the Demon King, she will be yours!"
"Sorry Mister King, I already have a girlfriend." Kenji says deadpan. The princess's face flushes red with anger.
"You, you're just a commoner, I'm a princess, if you were to come kill the Demon King and marry me, you'd have it all! You could even have other women, I don't care!" She says, clearly annoyed.
"Do you have ramen?" Kenji asks in the most serious tone I've ever heard from him.
"What's that?"
"Goodbye." He walks away from the hole and it closes. I burst out laughing. He just rejected a princess over not having ramen. His powers of aloofness have reached new heights, and for once it's actually amusing to me.
We walk away laughing and talk not about the strange people in the hole, but about the upcoming assignments in school.
===
A week later, Kenji and I were mugged and killed in an alley on our way to school. I knew the man was wanting to rob and kill us, but there wasn't anything we could do.
We awoke in a forest. I had a horrible, sinking, feeling about this.
===
King Orion was mad. He had failed to summon the hero twice. He summoned the great mage, Sir Edels, to perform the summoning ritual again.
"Your Majesty, it's not possible to do the summoning now."
"What do you mean Sir Edels, are you saying you're too weak to summon him, are you useless?"
"No Your Majesty, it seems as though, somehow or another, the Hero and his sister are already in this world."