"It's so hot," Akira exclaimed, wiping the sweat off his brow.
The shopping district looked more crowded and lively than usual as it was a holiday that day.
'Why am I shopping in this hot weather and on my holiday? Ahhh, this sucks so much! I wanted to lay down in my room and sleep. Can't my aunt do her shopping? She keeps giving me some work. She either scolds me or gives me some work. Sometimes I want to run away from that house, so I can get away from her harsh words and never-ending tasks, but I don't want to work and live on my own; that'll be too much for me. Whatever, I'll complete my shopping as quickly as possible and go take a nap.'
Akira is a normal college student in his early twenties. He was an average looking guy, with nothing special to speak of. Akira was barely surviving his college degree by getting the required marks to pass his classes. He was quite lazy and didn't show any motivation when doing things. The only things he enjoyed were watching anime, reading novels, manga, or playing games. He would laze around the house all day, just wasting his time. He was sent on an errand by his aunt.
"Akira! What are you doing here?"
Ryota, one of Akira's few friends, called out as he approached from behind.
"Oh, Ryota, I was shopping. What are you doing here? "Didn't you have any lessons today?"
Ryota was one of the few friends Akira had. He had a very small friend circle and was unpopular in his class, so not many of his classmates talked to him.
"Yeah, I skipped them. I was today. I was just coming back from the bookstore. Some new erotic novels had come in; they were quite good. Next time you go there, check them out. I'll buy those once I get my allowance."
"I'm done with my shopping; I'll head there now. If you end up buying them, lend me those, please. My aunt barely gives me any allowances."
"Sure! Oh yeah, did you complete the book I had given you the other day?"
"Yeah, it was a good book; the story was interesting and the scenes were good."
"I'll bring you another similar book this evening. Okay, then I'll be going; see you!"
"See you later!"
Akira and Ryota both liked reading novels, especially erotic novels. People tend to form strong relationships with people who share their interests. Maybe that was the reason they got along well compared to other classmates. Akira often shared his books with Ryota, and even he used to do the same.
'Let's see if I have any more items to buy.'
Akira took out a small piece of paper on which he had written his shopping list. It wasn't a long list, but it had at least 10 items, most of which were small. He went through the list thoroughly so that no item was missed, or else he would get an earful from his aunt.
'Yosh! All items procured, I still have time; I'll go to the book store and check out those new novels Ryota told me about.'
Akira carried his shopping bag and walked to the book store. It wasn't very far from where he was shopping. He reached the book store in about five minutes. After coming inside the store, he didn't see any other books there and headed straight to the erotic novel section without any further searching. He regularly visited this section of the store, so he knew the route clearly. This section was filled with bookshelves containing numerous erotic novels. He began searching on the second shelf, starting from the right corner, and there was the book that Ryota told him about.
'Ah, there it is.'
As he was going through the book, at the corner of his eye, he noticed a book that was placed behind the book he picked. It was placed deep into the shelf and was barely visible from the outside. Akira tried to read the title of the book, but it was too dark to make out anything. He reached his hand into the narrow gap between the books to take it out, but it seemed like the book was stuck.
'Why isn't it coming out?'
Akira thought of giving up, but his curiosity got the better of him. He kept struggling to pull it out. After a long struggle, he nudged it little by little until the book was finally out.
'Huff, finally. Now let's see what book this is.'
Akira tried to read the title, but to his surprise, it was in a language that he had never seen anywhere.
'What are these strange letters, maybe a foreign language?'
All the pages had those strange symbols, and the sentence structure seemed normal.
'I can't read any of this. My struggle was for nothing.'
As he was about to place it back on the shelf, he noticed there was some kind of bookmark placed in the middle of the book.
'Huh, a bookmark? Why is there a bookmark in this? Was someone reading this? Let me see.'
Akira opened the page where the bookmark was placed. To his surprise, that was not a bookmark; it was a white piece of paper with the same weird symbols written on it vertically.
'What is this? "It appears to be ordinary paper, but it has the feel of a cloth.'
As he was examining that, a light orb of white colour emerged from that piece of paper and started floating. It was like a firefly wandering around aimlessly. The paper he was holding disappeared into thin air.
"Wh-what the hell is that?!"
Akira got startled and dropped the book. As if by magic, the paper had vanished into thin air. He didn't notice this; his gaze was solely fixed on the flying orb, and the orb talked.
"You are going to get transported to the other world in 30 seconds."
The voice sounded very artificial, like a female robot. Akira was still in shock and couldn't really understand what he just heard.
"A ghost? A spirit? Ple-Please don't hurt me."
He tried to move his legs, but they wouldn't move at all.
"I'm not going to hurt you."
"What the?! I can't move my legs! Someone help!! Help!!"
"Your movement is restricted so that your body is inside the teleportation circle during teleportation. Others outside the magic sphere can't hear you or see you. Teleportation magic begins in 25 seconds."
"Is this some prank?! Who's doing this?! This is not funny, you know!"
The orb spoke to him again. Akira started shouting around to see if someone was pulling a joke on him. But there was no one around him; the orb was the one talking.
"What do you mean by the other world?! What's going to happen in 15 seconds!?"
"I'm referring to the world that I originate from."
"Your world!? Someone help me!"
"Teleportation magic begins in 10 seconds."
Akira started profusely sweating after seeing that no one came to his aid. He wanted to shout and cry for help, but he held back from doing it, as this might be some kind of prank where his legs were stuck with strong glue or something else. Akira couldn't believe that he was really getting teleported to some other world. He started to look around and shout for help, but there was no answer to his desperate call.
"Teleportation magic will begin in 5 seconds."
"Wait a minute! Wait! Wait!?"
"Teleportation magic will begin in 4 seconds."
"Stop this right now!!"
"Teleportation magic will begin in 3 seconds."
A concentric circle with intricate designs and patterns had formed like it was carved on the floor beneath his feet and started to glow with white light as if it were some kind of light source.
"What the hell is this glowing circle?! No, I don't want to get teleported!!"
"Teleportation magic will begin in 2 seconds."
"Teleportation magic will begin in 1 second."
"Please close your eyes."
"Nooo!!!"
"Teleportation initiated."
The brightness of the circle suddenly increased. Akira shut his eyes tightly because of the glow, but he was still able to see the white, faint glow in his shut eyes. After a short time, his nose was hit with a new scent, the silence was replaced with the sounds of chirping birds, and suddenly he felt a breeze brushing against his skin. He had his eyes still shut, and then the orb spoke.
"We have arrived at our destination! You can open your eyes now."