kscans

Chapter 1 - An Impossible, Yet Common, Isekai Transition

"Ta-daaa! You have been chosen to be the heroes who will save the world!"

The announcement cut in out of nowhere.

There stood a woman with long, fluffy, wavy blonde hair. Contrary to her choice of words, she had refined features, fair skin that exuded elegance, and was dressed in what I guess you'd call a peplos—a sleeveless, shimmering white garment.

In a word, she was a goddess from a Greek sculpture. She looked to be in her early twenties.

I couldn't help but be drawn to the valley between her breasts.

"Where am I?"

I was supposed to be on a train platform, but this place was completely unfamiliar.

It was a strange space, surrounded by needlessly ornate stone pillars. It looked like a chamber in a temple.

"This is a space where the gods reside. This area is my personal office, you see. And you have been chosen as the heroes who will save the world, you know?"

"No, I'm pretty sure I was in the middle of a battle with a high school girl who'd mistaken me for a pervert."

I glanced around and saw the long-haired girl in the sailor uniform, my opponent from the fight, looking around just as bewildered as I was.

Then she noticed me.

"Pervert! Don't you run away!"

The girl shouted and charged at me.

"I told you, it wasn't me! I've said it a dozen times, I was on my phone the whole time!"

"Liar! I'm not letting you get away with this!"

The girl wouldn't listen to reason.

Besides, she wasn't even the victim. She spotted another girl in the same school uniform getting groped and just grabbed my arm out of the blue.

I didn't even know there was a girl being harassed. That was just her side of the story.

"Dammit, I really want to punch her."

My frustration with this person who refused to listen was boiling over.

"Violence after being a pervert? You're the worst!"

I seriously wanted to hit this girl.

"Um, you know, he's not a pervert,"

the blonde woman interjected, as if she couldn't bear to watch our argument any longer.

"Uhh, you weren't there, were you?"

She had a point. If a woman like her had been on that train, she would have been the prime target.

She shouldn't have had the luxury of defending me.

"Fufufu, I'm a goddess, you see. I can see through anything!"

She had a pretty irritating way of talking. The self-proclaimed goddess waved her hand, and an image of the inside of the train appeared in the air.

The car was packed. A crowd of exhausted-looking salarymen in suits. And among them, one particularly exhausted-looking salaryman stood out—in other words, me from this morning.

For some reason, the old guy was happily tapping away at his smartphone with both hands.

He was even smirking from time to time.

"Hey, don't show me. Show the victim."

I wanted to see the girl getting groped.

"Bzzzt, wrong! If I did that, everyone would see the poor girl getting this and that done to her. That would be an invasion of privacy, wouldn't it?"

"Damn, you're a useless woman, too."

"I'm not a 'woman.' Please address me with respect as Laciel-sama."

"What, didn't you just say you were a goddess? With that body, you're not a woman?"

"My gender is female. So please don't call me 'woman' or 'you.' Call me Laciel-sama."

While we were having this pointless conversation, the video showed the girl in the sailor uniform pushing through the crowd toward me.

She grabbed my wrist and started shouting about me being a pervert.

The train stopped at the station, and I was dragged off by the girl.

"See? I was standing in a spot where you couldn't even see the victim, and I was holding my phone with both hands. It's a textbook false accusation."

"Well, you had the lecherous-looking face in the car. And you were smirking."

That was true. I'll admit I was being a little creepy. But I was innocent.

"What kind of twisted logic is that?!"

"I just knew you were the type who would absolutely do it!"

"You're persistent! I may be a pervert, but I've never acted on it."

The girl looked dumbfounded.

The video ended, and the monitor-like thing vanished.

"No way... But you're..."

Leaving me with that intriguing line, the girl in the sailor uniform collapsed to her knees, her hands on the floor. It was the first time I'd ever seen someone actually collapse to their knees.

I thought she was about to apologize, but she shakily got back to her feet.

"Do you know me?"

"No... I don't."

She denied it, but maybe we'd met somewhere before.

"See? He didn't do it, right? He's innocent, isn't he?"

The girl clenched her jaw in frustration at Laciel's words. She looked like a boxer who had been knocked down by a powerful punch, managed to get up through sheer willpower, only to be crushed by the judge's decision.

Laciel's way of speaking sounded like she was just trying to provoke her.

But since she'd proven my innocence, I decided to keep my mouth shut.

"So we're done here. Glad to see justice prevail. Now, send me back where I was. No, wait, send me to my office. I don't want to be late."

"I can't do that,"

Laciel stated unequivocally.

"You are the heroes summoned to save a certain world. I'm going to have you transmigrate to that world now."

""Huh?""

I and the girl in the sailor uniform said in perfect sync.

"The two of you are going to join forces and defeat the Demon Lord!"

"What Demon Lord? Are you an idiot?"

"Bzzzt, wrong! I won't accept any objections. We're on a tight schedule, so let's move this along. As a blessing from a goddess, I will grant each of you three special skills. Please pick them out real quick!"

A monitor appeared in front of me and the girl.

A massive list was displayed on it.

"What the hell is this list? It's way too long. I can't read all this."

"She's right! I can't process this. Stop pushing things forward on your own!"

the girl in the sailor uniform protested to Laciel as well.

"Isn't it your fault for starting a fight the moment you got here? The time humans can stay here is short, you know. You'll just disappear. You two are lovers, so you need to get along, or else! Bad!"

"Hey, you saw the video. We just met, and as far as she's concerned, I'm a criminal."

"I'm sorry for treating you like a criminal. But saying a middle-aged guy like this is my lover is just cruel!"

"You're still insulting me?"

"Ugh, I'm sorry. But you're just not my type, physically."

When I glared at her, she averted her eyes. That hurt more than being called a pervert.

"That can't be true. There's no mistake in my selection. But we don't have time right now. Just hurry up and choose your special skills."

I had no idea what kind of force was at work, but the tips of my feet were starting to disappear.

It seemed she was telling the truth about being out of time.

I looked at the list, but nothing registered. There were just too many options.

And most of them were filled with incomprehensible but dazzlingly edgy keywords that a chuuni would jump at, like 'Ultra Annihilation Self-Destruct Blade,' 'Wrathful Roar Beam of Destruction,' 'Dark Oblivion Wave,' 'Advent of the Great Dark Demon Lord's Grand Laughter,' and 'Dark Smile.'

"Hey, tell me which ones you recommend."

"I recommend all of them!"

"Dammit. At least tell me what kind of world we're going to and what we'll need."

"You're going to a wonderful fantasy world of swords, magic, and adventure! I was actually planning to show you a super epic video that took one year to plan and one year to produce, but you insisted on seeing the footage of that stuffy, crowded train..."

It's not my fault she was giving me that accusatory look. In any case, a fantasy world, huh?

Given the abundance of super-aggressive words, there must be enemies like monsters to defeat.

・Party-wide Acquired Experience Boost
・Party-wide Rare Item Drop Rate Boost

For now, I picked two skills whose effects were clear and seemed useful. Next, 'Goddess Summon' caught my eye.

Even if I call on a dumb woman, it won't do any good, I thought, but I chose it as my third skill.

The girl in the sailor uniform seemed to have finished choosing, so I took a peek.

・Super Kill
・Super Save
・Super Expansion

"'Super,' 'super'... what are you, a supermarket employee?"

"Eh? What's a supermarket?"

She replied with a straight face. Is this what they call a generation gap? Seriously, this girl has been chipping away at my HP from the start.

"Fufufu, you've chosen a nice set of related special skills. The three of them work together, and as you level up, higher-tier skills will activate!"

"Are you serious?! You should have said that from the beginning!"

Maybe I should have gone with all 'Dark' skills. Or maybe I should have picked one more party-related skill and made a wonderful party.

While I was choosing my skills, my body had disappeared up to my knees.

I was surprised, but there was no pain, and I could still feel the parts that had vanished. I could even walk normally. It was a strange sensation.

"Well then, I'll create your character sheets for after the transfer. The name and some other information on these sheets will be visible to everyone, so they'll serve as your identification. Please tell me your names."

This woman summoned us without even knowing our names?

"I'm Yamase Mizuki."

The girl in the sailor uniform introduced herself. Her name was similar to the heroine of an eroge I was hooked on.

"Does it have to be my real name?"

"Mmm. It's not ideal, but we're out of time, so I'll allow it."

"Then I'll go with Mash."

Pfft.

Mizuki snorted next to me. When she noticed my glare, she quickly bowed her head.

I wanted to tell her at length about how I'd saved countless game worlds with this name. But it seemed likely I'd just be mocked even more, so I held my tongue.

"Okay. Since I'm the goddess of adventure, your profession will be 'adventurer.' It's a great class, focused on fieldwork skills, decent in a fight, and able to use a little magic."

"A jack-of-all-trades, master of none. The kind that becomes useless at higher levels."

"Ugh, if you're going to be like that, then try saying 'Storage Open.'"

"That's just one of those embarrassing things where nothing happens, right?"

While I was doubting her, Mizuki next to me chanted, "Storage Open."

A storage space appeared in the air in front of her.

"Amazing!"

"Whoa! For real?"

Mizuki was excited. I was surprised, too.

"Okay, I'll give you some money, so please put it in there. Here's your starting equipment, an iron sword and a leather chest plate. I'll also give you 'The World's Guide,' which I personally supervised. It's quite a volume, so please read it when you have free time. I especially recommend the special feature on lovely date spots at the beginning. You two must go together, okay? Oh, and if you want to see the character sheet we just made, just think about it. It has a help function, so you can check anything you don't understand."

There was too much information being thrown at me to process. For starters, I should probably skip the intro.

The money I was given was 100 silver coins.

"How long can we live on this amount of money?"

Mizuki asked.

"At a regular inn, about ten days."

"That's pathetic."

I guess you can't complain about unearned income. I also summoned my storage and put the silver coins and equipment I received inside.

I tossed in my work bag for good measure. I also put the smartphone I took from my suit pocket in there. It's not like I'd have a chance to use it anymore.

Before I knew it, my body had disappeared up to my hips.

"Well then, I'm sad to see you go, but it's time for your journey. I'll make you bilingual so you won't have trouble with the language. When you get to the other side, head for a town first and stop by the Adventurers Guild. Also, please offer a prayer before my statue in a temple every now and then. Donations are also welcome. And then, you must defeat the Demon Lord."

She'd been rattling on at an incredible pace for a while now. Even the lilt at the end of her sentences was gone.

"If we defeat the Demon Lord, will you return us to our original world?"

Mizuki asked. If she was going to be that polite to this girl, I wish she'd show me some respect, too.

"That's... well, yes, I suppose so. Let's think about it once you've defeated him. But we don't have time right now."

"Wait, are there any others being transferred besides us?"

"This time, you are the only ones I have summoned. The other gods have also summoned two transmigrators each, just as I have."

"This time? And there are other gods?"

There was too little information I could make sense of. I could ask about the destination world once I got there, but I wanted to ask about the gods now.

"Hey, tell me more about the gods."

"Fufufu, are you asking for my three sizes?"

"Not that. But of course, tell me your three sizes as well. And what I want to know is what you all are planning to do by summoning us."

"My three sizes are a secret. We summoned you, of course, to defeat the Demon Lord. You must defeat him before the other heroes do. Now, it's time to depart!"

I was filled with nothing but anxiety, but even if I returned to my original world, I'd still be treated as a pervert on the commuter train, and my life would be as good as over.

Even if I could avoid that, I'd just be continuing the endless days of a middle-aged man.

Maybe starting over in a new world wouldn't be so bad.

"Wait."

Just as I was getting into the mood for departure, Mizuki stopped me.

"What is it?"

"Really, I'm sorry for treating you like a pervert. I saw a girl in the same uniform as me get her butt touched, and I wanted to help, so I just... If it'll make you feel better, you can hit me."

So it was for a stranger? Her sense of justice was way too strong.

"Why would I have to hit you?"

"Because you said you wanted to punch me earlier."

That was just a figure of speech.

"I see. That'll do, then."

"Ugh. So you're really going to hit me. Go ahead."

She probably thought she'd be let off with just an apology and wouldn't get hit.

I was certainly pissed off about what happened, but hitting her wouldn't solve anything. In fact, I've never hit anyone in my life. The feeling of being seen through was also unpleasant. I needed a different kind of resolution.

Mizuki, having steeled herself, turned her face toward me.

I observed her intently.

Long, straight black hair. A small, beautifully proportioned face. Not as much as Laciel, but her chest could be called buxom, her waist was well-defined, and her butt was probably firm and peachy, too. Even through her sailor uniform, I could tell. She had the beauty and figure of a gravure idol.

And now, she was closing her eyes, offering her lips defenselessly.

Was she inviting me?

I cupped her cheeks with both hands and pressed my lips against hers.

"Ngh, mmmph!"

The surprised Mizuki let out a muffled groan. She tried to pull away from the kiss, but I wouldn't let go.

Waiting for her mouth to open, I slipped my tongue inside.

I then proceeded to explore the inside of her mouth.

Mizuki shoved me away. Then followed up with a slap.

"Wh-what do you think you're doing?!"

"You looked like you wanted it. Besides, you said you'd accept your punishment, didn't you?"

"I did not! And that was my first kiss!"

She glared at me, wiping her mouth.

That was unexpected. She looked pure and innocent, but I assumed she'd be super popular and would have been around the block a few times.

And I'll keep the fact that it was my first time, too, to myself.

"You know, I was about to be socially erased because of you."

"Now, now, you've made up with a kiss, so please continue to get along as lovers from now on."

It seemed Mizuki was retorting to Laciel's clueless comment, but I couldn't hear anything.

Her body had almost completely faded.

Mine probably had too. My consciousness was fading.

"Well then, you two. Have a good trip! Bon voyage!"

Laciel was waving.