Chapter 5 — It Looked Like an Adamski
Type...
"Putting the issue of charging aside for now, I guess I didn't glow, so I was
left behind?"
"Do you see something now that you've never seen before?"
"You mean like the logo and mission stuff you were talking about earlier?
No, it all looks pretty much the same to me." He focused hard on his current
field of view, but there was nothing out of the ordinary.
"That's what I thought. The people who glowed could all see information
floating around. Like, a health gauge was always visible in the corner,
apparently."
"That's pretty common in games, I suppose."
"I guess. Mikochi doesn't really play video games that much, so she couldn't
explain it very well."
"This Mikochi is a friend of yours? And she just left you behind and went
with everyone else?"
It wasn't hard for Yogiri to accept the fact that he had been abandoned by
everyone else. Rather, it seemed natural. He had barely ever spoken to his
classmates, after all.
But Tomochika should have been different. Sure, Yogiri wasn't particularly
well versed in the interpersonal relationships of the class, but his impression was
that Tomochika was someone who would have a lot of friends.
"I think Yazaki did...something," she answered with a bitter expression. Of
course, she didn't want to believe that she'd been betrayed.
"If a Beauty Coordinator can manipulate someone's attractiveness, it's
possible that a General can manipulate someone's behavior, I suppose. But with
all this stuff about classes and levels and skills, it's sounding more and more like
a video game." It's interesting for there to be powers like that, Yogiri thought.
"If we believe General Yazaki's words, then there was only one dragon. In that
case, it should be safe for us to go outside now," he continued, looking out the
window at the massive body nearby. The creature was totally unmoving. Clearly,
it was no longer a threat.
"Umm, actually...did you do something to it, Takatou?" Tomochika asked,
her voice wavering slightly.
"It just fell and died on its own."
"Well, that's a lie if I ever heard one."
"Don't believe me, then. That's fine."
"Err...well, it's hard to believe you could do anything, but to think it just
randomly died..."
While he wasn't particularly concerned about hiding his ability, it would
have been a chore to explain it just then, so he decided to leave the conversation
for later.
"The dragon really helps sell the idea of this being a parallel world.
Or...maybe it does the opposite?"
"How could this not be a parallel world?"
"Well, some grossly rich guy could have kidnapped us and is putting us
through some sort of snuff movie performance, right? It's easier to believe the
dragon was made with genetic engineering than to believe we were transported
to another world."
"Well, that's just because you didn't see the Great Sage's granddaughter. She
was definitely using magic! Something came out of her hand and everything!"
Thinking it over, Yogiri had no way of knowing whether Tomochika was
actually telling him the truth. But if he started doubting her, there would be no
end to it, so he decided to believe her for now. If a problem arose later, he could
modify his assumptions then.
"We're not helping anything by staying here anyway, so why don't we take a
look outside?" Stepping over the bodies in the aisle, Yogiri headed for the exit.
Although he had been told the door was unopenable, the dragon's attack had
done considerably more damage. "Looks like we should be able to manage it. Er,
something wrong?"
He was speaking as if Tomochika was right beside him, but there was no
reply. Turning around, he found her hesitating by Kiryuu's body.
"I know there's nothing we can do if they're dead, but I still feel bad just
leaving them here..."
"Ahh." Yogiri walked back down the length of the bus and put Kiryuu and
Ayaka back into their seats. After that, he and Tomochika made their way to the
exit. With one swift kick, the damaged door burst open with a loud noise. No
point in trying to be stealthy now. Without hesitation, Yogiri stepped out onto
the grassland.
"Looks like spring." A gentle breeze washed over the field around them.
"See? This is definitely a different world. It was winter up until now, right?"
"The Southern Hemisphere has different seasons than we do, though. It's still
more believable that they put our bus on a boat or something and took it to
another country."
"You're really stuck on this, aren't you?"
"I think it's stranger to immediately believe we're in a different world."
"There's plenty of proof, though...ah!" She had been looking around
restlessly as they spoke, and it seemed she had found something.
Yogiri followed her gaze...and he saw, floating in the air, a flying saucer.
With nothing to compare it to, it was hard to gauge the distance, but it looked to
be at least a few kilometers ahead of them. There was also some sort of upside-
down bowl-shaped object floating on top of the disk.
As they watched, it began to ascend. Following its flight into the sky, Yogiri
was dumbfounded. Numerous rock formations were floating as well. Many of
them were hidden by the clouds, so they must have been at quite an altitude. As
the flying saucer approached one of these formations, it finally disappeared from
view.
"See?! There are floating castles and everything! This is a different world for
sure, right? There's a whole floating continent!" For some reason, she sounded
rather proud.
"It looked like an Adamski Type, didn't it?"
"Why do you care about what shape it was?! Just admit it! This is a different
world!"
"All right, I get it. Let's say it's a parallel world, then." The hypothesis that
this was just a foreign country had been doomed from the start anyway. For now,
he'd accept the theory that they were in a whole new place.
"But why a UFO?! Couldn't they find something more appropriate?!"
Tomochika suddenly shouted at no one in particular.
"Glad you're doing well, Dannoura."
"So, what do we do now?"
"Well, I guess we need to get moving," Yogiri said, looking around.
The grasslands extended in every direction around them. The distant castle
walls were probably the destination of the first mission that the others had set out
on. If that was north, then the forest he saw some distance away must have been
west. There were gently sloping hills to the south and east, so he couldn't see
very far in those directions.
"City, forest, or hills. Three choices I guess. I suppose we should avoid the
forest, at least."
Yogiri wanted to avoid forests wherever possible. For people like them, born
and raised in cities, a forest would present far too many unknowns. On top of
that, being in another world, who knew what kind of surprises such an
environment might harbor?
"The city...if there are people, it might be the best choice, but..." That's
where the classmates who had abandoned them would be. That might be a bit of
a sticking point for Tomochika. "Let's find our luggage first. They all ran off in
a hurry, right?"
"They did run off with nothing, yeah."
"There might even be a portable charger or something."
"What is with you? You are way too passionate about that game..."
Yogiri made his way to the storage space under the bus, where all their
luggage was kept. The compartment, however, was locked.
"Doesn't look like we can open it. Dannoura, do you have any skill in
lockpicking?"
"Do I look like a criminal to you?"
"I guess it's hopeless, then. It didn't look like there was much of value in the
bus itself...shall we go look around on top of one of those hills?" He thought
there might be something of interest just beyond them.
As Yogiri turned to make his way towards the hills, Tomochika pointed at the
northern part of the sky.
"Hey. Something's coming towards us."
"Another dragon?" Or was it another UFO? Yogiri followed the direction of
her finger.
There was definitely something in the air there, but it was too far away to
make out. At the very least, it didn't appear to be a dragon.
"It looks like Higashida, Fukuhara, and Hanakawa are flying towards us."
"You've got a pretty good eye if you can see them from that far away,"
Yogiri said, impressed by her eyesight.
Of course, Yogiri himself didn't even remember the names and faces of his
classmates, so it wouldn't have meant much even if he could see them.