"Nothing different today with Okinawa. The sun is up, complimenting the sea's breeze. Please note, the weather in Tokyo today might have some of that summer rain. Be careful, dear viewers. Make sure to drive safely and bring an umbrella with you. Now for–"

"Guess I'll have to bring an umbrella with me huh." A boy let out as he turned off the tv.

He grabbed his bento and put it in his school bag, then looked at the place where they kept their shoes, it also had two umbrellas. One for him, one for his grandma.

"Though, I doubt granny would go out today." he said as he put on his shoes and grabbed the transparent umbrella beside the tatami door. The umbrella had his name on the handle-part so as to not confuse it with his grandma's one "Yuuji" written in perfectly done calligraphy indicating that the person that did that practised for many, many years.

It was an old-ish styled home, it had that cozy old vibe that made people feel nostalgic and secure in the embrace of their elders. A mostly wooden house with some modern building techniques to make sure it stands the rain and the storms that Japan faced.

As the boy was about to open the door, an old cheerful voice called out to him, "Stay safe, Yuu." He turned around and gave a simple wave before going on his way to school.

He chose this school out of convenience sake. Somewhere close to his grandma's home, roughly a twenty-minute walk. With his school starting at 8:15 AM he usually went out at 7:30 AM to make sure he arrived on time.

'Though I could go out later..' He thought to himself "Yeah no. I don't want to get an earful from Mr Takashi if I end up late." He spoke out.

Spacing out, he found himself in front of the school's gates and a face he didn't want to see was indeed there.

"Said something, Wakana?" A deep voice called out to him.

"N-Nothing, Mister Takashi. Good morning." Yuuji didn't want to mess around with someone like Takashi.

"Good morning to you. P.E is 6th period, I don't wanna hear that you left early today." He nodded in happiness and reminded the young boy.

Takashi was a well built man. Muscles lining his two arms and height to back up his sturdiness, a frightening man for any P.E skippers and Yuuji was one of them.

"I'll try." Yuuji replied his tone changed and the look on his face also changed.

"You can ask me for help if something happens, okay? Your attendance record is not the greatest.. So, instead of asking for an early leave, come to me and we can fix this together."

Yuuji only nodded to these words, conflicted about his teacher's words feeling something welling up inside of him.

Students kept passing by them during all of that talk until the number of students entering got fewer. It was now 8:00 AM sharp so Yuuji excused himself and headed inside.

The gate had a few trees lining it and many bushes on the pavement, it was a government requirement that the schools introduce more greenery to increase the general mood of the student lot. Whether that helped or not, really was not up to them but up to the students themselves. The gate was your usual school gate, a wide entrance with a brick arch that was roughly 6 meters high.

And then nothing interesting happened until 4th period, when Yuuji started feeling some discomfort and excused himself to the nurse's office.

Slowly reaching there, the nurse was standing outside the door monitoring the halls for any escapees when she spotted Yuuji dragging his feet to the office. She quickly gestured for him to come in in a way that felt like it's a regular occurrence.

Once inside the white decently sized room, the nurse started writing something on a piece of paper. It was not different from any day, 3 empty beds with curtains separating them and blue sheets on top of them were present. The cabin housing the medicine was pinned on top of the desk where the nurse usually sat. Basic measuring equipment were also there, rarely used but were necessary nonetheless.

"Anyone done anything?" The nurse kept looking down at the paper while asking this question.

"Just felt some discomfort." Yuuji replied "Couldn't breathe properly, heartache. The usual."

"Add to it, you're looking more pale than I'm used to, buddy."

"Miss Saori–"

"Here you go, your early leave. Make sure you don't go outside selling drugs or that's in my face." Saori, the nurse, jokingly said as she offered Yuuji a signed and stamped piece of paper.

"There's no shady streets near the school, so you're safe on that part." Yuuji replied back to the bickering, it felt like he was more or less prepared for her joke.

With a bow, Yuuji headed outside the nurse's office, through the halls, and out of the main building's gate.

Takashi was there, but he was sitting somewhere with shade as the rain was worse than the forecast expected.

Yuuji pulled out his umbrella and started walking out of the school gate, making sure to first pass by Takashi to give him the permit.

"Guess it's time to head home."

No sooner had Yuuji said that than he heard a loud car horn blowing his ears out.

And that was the last thing he heard. Darkness enveloped his vision and he could not comprehend what happened.

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"....An unfamiliar ceiling.." Yuuji muttered out as a pure off-white ceiling was the first thing he was met with once he opened his eyes. "Where a–"

"YUUJI!!!!!!!!!!!" A loud voice, enough to wake up a dead person bellowed next to his ears.

Yuuji was all too familiar with that voice, a voice he's heard from middle school all the way until now.

"Kei.." Yuuji replied back with a weak voice. Kei widened his eyes in surprise as if he was in complete shock.

"OH NO! THIS IS BAD!! YOU FORGOT YOUR FAVORITE FRIEND'S NAME?! I'M YAMADA!"

His loudness and trickery only earned him a glare from the nurse attending to Yuuji. As she finished changing his IV solution, she gave a stern look to Kei who bowed with a "Sorry, Sorry." and then she quietly left.

"Kei Yamada, my childhood friend since middle school. The loudest one, and the most terrible one in grades. Hai hai I totally forgot you." Yuuji's nonchalant attitude made Kei spill out a sigh of relief.

"How mean! And here I thought we lost the great Yuuji!" Kei moved his body in an extremely overexaggerated way, in his own world, he was cheering up Yuuji.

"Hmm. Yes, I'm a ghost now and will haunt you."

"Mom! Dad! Come save me!" Kei's cheerfulness helped Yuuji regain his consciousness slowly but surely.

"In any case! You were out for 2 full days! Doctors said it was due to the surgery so I just waited here for 2 full days!"

"Doesn't seem like you stayed here to me." 

Yuuji's remark was due to Kei being in his school uniform looking very neat and tidy, a sign he was attending school just fine and that he just passed by after school.

While Kei sulked due to that comment, Yuuji took a look around. A normal hospital room with a heart monitor that was unattached to anything, an IV line with a solution bag, white walls, and lastly the very bright blinding lights of hospital rooms.

"You're a meanie! but, I'll let you off because you're sick." With a pout Kei looked back at Yuuji trying to act like a cute tsundere out of a rivals-to-lovers rom com novel, unfortunately for him, he was both a male and not too cute there.

"What happened?" Yuuji jumped to question Kei who immediately raised a finger.

"So. While you were walking outside the school, a car lost control due to the rain and ended up smashing right into you. The doctors say you got lucky and only managed to break 4 rib bones, your left leg, and your left arm."

"..."

Yuuji fell silent upon hearing Kei's explanation. Kei however continued "So, Mister Takashi called the emergency line instantly and did his best first-aid to keep you alive. Doctors really praised him for it too, they said you'd have lost your leg if he wasn't there to help."

And with a final pause, "Doctors said you'll have to spend at least the entirety of summer, fall and winter in the hospital."

Yuuji's head dropped in dejection, "AH! Don't worry! Your grandma was here earlier and I was the one that told her to go home!"

"What about Mr. Wakana?"

"Your dad? Haven't seen him honestly.. It's high time you forgave him."

"Yeah, no. I'd rather be reincarnated as a pig than to forgive him."

With that curt reply both fell silent, it was Kei who broke the silence with his "AH!"

"I brought you something to keep you entertained! Of course it won't last the entire time here, BUUUUT, that means you'll miss me and call me to come over! Oh great Kei-sama! Please, bring me more!"

"You're lucky I have broken bones right now."

"WOAH THAT'S SCARY!" Kei jumped in his chair from surprise, but that didn't stop him from bringing out ten books from his school's bag.

"TADA!!!" He raised one of the volumes triumphantly, "An Isekai novel like you like!" He then proceeded to put the volume in Yuuji's non-casted hand.

"Looks generic to me. However, Thank you." Yuuji bowed as much as he could without causing himself immense pain from his broken ribs.

"Don't thank me!! I'm your friend right? That much is a given! I'll also take notes for you in class! Don't worry about granny, I'll visit her at least thrice a week!"

"Visit time is over, please head out." A nurse opened the door and put a stop to their long conversation.

"Guess that's my signal to leave. Oh, before I leave, The main character–"

"One more word and I'll strangle you with the IV line."

"The look on your face says you're 100% serious! When did you get this scary! Wait no, you've always been!!"

With that little back and forth, Kei left under the supervision of the nurse, who couldn't trust him to leave on his own. With his antics, her actions were reasonable enough.

—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

A few days went by, Yuuji's room felt lonely so he could only watch shorts on WeTube or read through the novel Kei gave him.

The novel had 2 titles, a long one and a short one. It was the trend nowadays for novels to have a ridiculous title that had no relation to the actual content of the novel, or to have a really descriptive title that spoiled the entire series. Those who followed that trend however, were given short titles by the fans during the web novel phase or the webtoon phase and decided to go by it.

"Road to Hero huh." Yuuji muttered that while looking at the spine of the last volume of the novel. "Haven't seen much heroism, more like building a harem with a purple haired elf as the best girl." His complaints fell on deaf ears, as no one was around him to hear them.

He started flipping through the pages, he had a habit of checking out the illustrations first before reading the actual thing. While flipping, he came across an illustration of the hero injured across the chest with a short "Thank god." written in a speech bubble.

"So he sacrifices himself. What an Idio–" before he could continue, immense pain ran across Yuuji's whole body.

His breathing got heavy, his heart ached in immense pain, his eyes started twitching and suddenly a scene straight out of hell appeared in front of him for a few seconds.

A man, half his face hidden by a shadow, with a creepy smile, sitting on a throne in the middle of what should've been a white marble clean room but instead blood covered the floor and the walls. 

Seconds later, Yuuji's soul felt like it returned to his body once again. "What.. was tha–" once again, interrupted. This time, a bright flash of light, like that of a star, covered the entire room.

When Yuuji was finally able to open his eyes, slowly doing so, he was faced with a weird environment.

Wooden walls, wooden floors. Looking down, he saw a weird pattern on the floor drawn with chalk.

'My arm and.. leg.. they both feel fine–' His train of thought was halted before its station by a loud squeal of a girl.

"I DID IT! I DID IT! IT WORKED!!"