Volume 2 Chapter 20 Unable to Return
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
…Huh? Where the heck am I? W-why am I in a place like this?
I suddenly realize and open my eyes, but it seems like I’m tied to a chair and can’t move at all.
There’s something like a gag in my mouth, so I can’t make a sound…
Oh yeah!! I was supposed to come back to my original world with Ms. Claudel through a gate, but where’s Ms. Claudel!?
At that moment, I’m blinded by a bright light shining right at me, and in that dazzling light, I see something with a frog-like silhouette standing there.
It unties my gag and says,
”Got anything to say before we finish?”
”What the heck are you guys? I’m Kashiwagi Yuuta! I teleported from this world to another world, and I finally made it back! I want to talk to you guys. And… where’s the Elf woman I was with!?”
”Elf woman? …Oh, that female? …Ate her.”
”Ate her? What do you mean?”
”Literally. The Elf female is our top delicacy. But you, being a human male, are only worth as much as fertilizer. So, we’re going to throw you in a blender and mince you up. If you have nothing else to say, this conversation is over.”
”How dare you! Who the hell do you think you are!!”
What the heck. Ms. Claudel got eaten by those frogs!? And me… those creepy frogs carried me and threw me into a big hole in the floor.
I saw a huge blade spinning below me.
”Whoaaaa──!!! Help meeeee──!!!”
……
……
”Darling!! Darling, wake up!! Stay with me!!”
Suddenly, I’m shaken awake. Phew… was that just a dream? Right next to me, Ms. Claudel was looking worriedly at my face.
”Ms. Claudel. I’m so glad you’re okay… I thought for sure you got eaten by a frog.”
”??? The frogs are standing right over there.”
When I look where Ms. Claudel is pointing, oh!? The frog people who tied us up… wait, no. This is… a person in full protective gear and night vision goggles?
I was sitting on the floor of a 20-tatami mat office with Ms. Claudel, which had no windows or desks, and a few strange-looking guys with guns were standing around us.
”Ah, you noticed, huh?”
A voice came from behind, and suddenly a man in a suit walked into the room. I was confused about what was happening when he started talking all on his own.
”Sorry for the rough welcome. I’m Mr. Fishbed from the U.S. Army AWCC. We weren’t sure if the person from over there could communicate, and we don’t know the purpose right away, so as a precaution, we have a rule to restrain you at first… Do you understand my words?”
”Ah, yes. Your Japanese is easy to understand. But wait, U.S. Army? Quarantine?”
”You’re Japanese, right? You can understand Japanese… So, is this young lady here… from a race called Elf? So mysterious and beautiful. What’s her name?”
When I told Ms. Claudel he was asking for her name, she replied in broken language.
”I Claudel Rainsheyn. This Mr. Yuuta, he my first boyfriend!!”
Whoa, Ms. Claudel. What an introduction!?
”Um… what was that last part? First safety? Like, prioritize safety? It’s okay. I won’t harm anyone who’s not resisting.”
Mr. Fishbed smiled.
”Ah, no. Um… don’t mind that. Anyway, I’m Kashiwagi Yuuta. I was originally from this world, but I got sent over there and came back.”
”Oh! Amazing!! I’ll report this up, so please stay in this room for a while. You’ll be here for at least a week for quarantine… so take your time!”
Mr. Fishbed said it was definitely the U.S. military, and when I looked closely, the people standing around looked like regular soldiers, and the guns they had were shaped like the ones I’ve seen on TV.
I thought, at least this place has to be the world I came from.
But still, what the heck is going on…? Even when I tried talking to the people around me, it seemed like they didn’t understand much Japanese, and I’m not great at English either.
Well, there’s no point in panicking, so I kept talking to a worried Ms. Claudel.
After about half a day passed, while I was munching on a burger, someone walked into the room.
”Mr. Yuuta!?”
Whoa, it’s a tall foreigner.
”Yuu!!”
Huh? The person behind the foreigner was… Tomori!?
”Huh!? Tomori… is that really you!?”
”Yeah! It’s me! Yuu!!”
Saying that, Tomori jumped on me. It’s been ten years, and she’s definitely a bit more auntie-like now, but there’s no doubt it’s Tomori. Haha, I’ve definitely come back!
”Ms. Claudel, it’s been a while! You look good.”
”Yeah… but Tomori… it’s so nostalgic.”
Ms. Claudel said, staring at Tomori with a bit of a dazed look.
The man who came with Tomori was Mr. George, Mr. Gregory’s brother. Mr. George and Tomori got married and registered their marriage, and now they live in Okinawa with a little boy.
”Mr. Yuuta. We can talk in detail starting tomorrow, but for now, let’s just celebrate our reunion. You must have been surprised when you arrived, right?”
”Surprised? That’s an understatement. I thought I was arriving at Ms. Akari’s backyard. Then I got jumped by that frog person out of nowhere…”
”Hahaha. That frog person is a masterpiece. But… since the incident with Ms. Ellulu and Stanford, we thought it wouldn’t be good to leave that (gate) as it is, so my father worked with the U.S. government to buy this area and turn it into a U.S. military managed zone. That said, officially, we can’t say the U.S. military took it over, so it’s labeled as a pharmaceutical company’s research facility.”
”Is that so? So what about my parents?”
”Don’t worry, Yuu. Uncle and auntie are living in Okinawa now. They’re taking care of Haruto today. Oh, Haruto is our 3-year-old son.”
Tomori answered instead of Mr. George.
”I see… that’s good. Everyone’s safe and seems happy… So Karin has a cousin now. No, wait, it’s going to be a nephew, right?”
”Exactly. So, how are mom and Karin doing?”
”Oh, I brought some photos on my phone… here, look!”
”Wow! Karin’s grown up. She looks like she’s in middle school now. And mom… she doesn’t look old at all!”
”Karin is super energetic and a bit noisy. She’s going through a rebellious phase. I think Ms. Akari hasn’t changed because life in that world is so laid-back, and she’s always calm.”
”I see… Once the quarantine is over, let’s go to Okinawa together and show this photo to your parents.”
* * *
The next day, Tomori and Mr. George said they would come back to pick us up when the quarantine period was over and headed back to Okinawa.
Ms. Claudel and I had a conversation with Mr. Fishbed about the groundwork for friendly exchanges between our 2 worlds, which was our original goal.
”I see. The Elf Queen wishes for friendly exchanges with us… that’s very welcome on our side. It’s not an exaggeration to say that this AWCC was established for that purpose.”
”Um, I didn’t ask in detail yesterday, but what is this AWCC?”
”Another World Contact Center. It was set up to serve as a contact point for exchanges with people from other worlds, aiming to avoid unnecessary confusion and conflict, thanks to the efforts of former Major General Anderson.”
”Oh, Mr. Gregory’s dad. So, what is the Major General doing now?”
”He’s currently the governor of California and might run in the next presidential election.”
Oh, that could speed things up! It feels like Ms. Claudel and I have almost achieved our goal.
”I see. If someone like that understands our position, we might not have much left to do.”
”Yeah, but Mr. Yuuta, can I ask you something? Why did they close the gate over there? Maybe they were scared we’d attack them by taking you and Ms. Claudel hostage?”
”Huh? What do you mean?”
”Oh, you don’t know? After you guys showed up yesterday, the gate over there just vanished out of nowhere. I thought it was just a precaution, but… will it reappear when you guys go back?”
”Huh? What’s Mr. Fishbed talking about?”
I relayed Mr. Fishbed’s words to Ms. Claudel, who looked puzzled and didn’t quite get the conversation.
”That’s ridiculous! The queen or Sistemador wouldn’t close the gate without us knowing! It must be some kind of magic that makes it invisible to us, right?”
I passed Ms. Claudel’s words to Mr. Fishbed.
”No, no. We at AWC staff already believe in the existence of other worlds, so we clearly saw that gate. Plus, it’s not just human eyes; we have AI monitoring it all the time. AI doesn’t have beliefs, you know. It really disappeared.”
”What? Then how are we supposed to get back…?”
Ms. Claudel was speechless, and honestly, I couldn’t blame her. Without the gate, no matter how many tags we had, we couldn’t return.
”Ms. Claudel, let’s just stay calm for now. It might come back after a while, so let’s not panic and just wait and see.”
Even as I said that, anxiety was swirling inside me. Was it an accident or a conspiracy?
Still, after being thrown over there and finally figuring out how to get back, now we had to find a way to cross over again?
Ugh, I guess we just have to trust our friends over there. I kept telling myself and Ms. Claudel that.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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