Shiratori Haruto

“I still can’t believe that even though he’s played millions of games, he’s still so excited when he starts a new game. I still don’t know if it was his excitement, or perhaps his nostalgia with the isekai games that he was being so excited about. Nevertheless, when I looked at him shaking his feet and staring at the screen smiling non-stop, I had a smile too. He really was recovering from his past, at last.”

***

Isekai’d

Written by Dhruv Pabreja

***

I deliberately opened my both eyes, and looked at the slanting blur vision of the television open in front of me, showing some text with ‘What your real name, superheroes?’ I closed my eyes for a moment, and then opened them again. I noticed the console kept in between the television and my eyes, and a bunch of wires running between both the devices and running to my left eye which was tilted upwards the right eye. I then turned my eyes at the soft pillow-like thing under my right ear, and looked at the black thick cloth. My right hand pushed down the ground and I moved my body up, and turned my head at the right, and looked at the body of Itsuki. Itsuki’s head was tilted at the bed on his right with a drool of saliva coming out of his open mouth on the bed, and his hands down on his right thigh, with the black controller beside his left hand on his thigh and his right hand stuck between his body and his bed. My hair was messy and my mouth and eyes were still sleepy and half-closed. I moved my hand up on his left shoulder and jerked him to wake him up. “Wake up, Itsuki.” First try failed. Then, I jerked his body again and shouted in my sleepy low voice, “Itsuki?!” Still no reply. So, I pushed him onto the bed and shouted, “Itsuki!” His chest hit the body of the bed and his head was dragged inwards. He frowned with his closed eyes and then moved his right hand up which had a lot of temporary depressions which were made due to the pressure on the skin in the way he slept. He scratched his messy hair and moved his body up from the bed. He turned his head at me and looked at me with his frowning narrow eyes. He then turned his head frontwards on the turned on the television screen which showed the white Japanese text, ‘What your real name, superheroes?’ “Man, did I sleep while playing games today again?” He said in his woke-up coarse voice.

“I don’t remember what happened, to be honest,” I said to him and then gulped. “For how much time did you play this game, then?”

“About nine hours, I suppose.”

“WHAT?!”

He turned at me and asked like nothing happened and I was over-reacting, “What?”

“N-Nine hours?!” I shouted with my wide open eyes.

“Yeah, the game said that it’s only nine hours long, so I thought to complete it in one night.”

“A-And when did you sleep?” I asked.

“I guess around seven in the morning.”

“I-I-I…” I stuttered as I looked at him with my concerned eyes. “Y-You will go blind someday, you idiot.”

“Nothing of sort happens,” He turned his head on the screen again. “Many other players play for like twenty-five hours a day.”

“A week.”

“A day,” He corrected my correction. “And they don’t even wear spectacles.”

“T-Twenty five hours… a day?”

“Or maybe twenty six, maybe.”

I took in a breath with my noisy nose and facepalmed. “There are only twenty four hours in a day, I guess.”

He turned his eyeballs at me. “Did you fail in pre-school?”

“THE—”

“Okay okay,” He said with a smile as he turned at me. “I was just kidding.” He then turned his eyes at the game, and so did I.

“What’s this, though? You said you’ve completed the game.”

“This game, before this question, asked how many people were currently in this room.”

“Strange.”

“Indeed,” He nodded. “And that’s why I can’t really decide if I should write the name of us two or not.”

“HUH?!” I was shocked. I turned at him and said, “What harm will it be if you type our names out?”

“I—”

“You can’t even decide this?! And you completed the whole game here, pal!” He shockingly said as he raised his hand at the screen. He then turned his head at the screen too. “Just type our names. I’m expected a thank you note or a congratulations screen.”

“O-Oh yeah, that’s to be expected too,” He replied in a seemingly low voice as he clicked on one of the two lines and a virtual keyboard with Japanese kana letters showed up.

“Then what did you expect?”

“That this game would isekai us.”

“Wha—”

“Just kidding, man!”

He quickly moved the arrow beneath the letters here and there and clicked on them. They made a tiny sound effect as they were moved and clicked. I looked on the screen, sitting beside him, and then stood up on the ground and walked to the left corner of the room towards the door. “I needa go to the toilet.”

***

I closed the door behind me and then turned to the small toilet of the washroom just in front of the door beside the basin. I turned to it, opened my zip, and then pointed the liquid coming out from between my legs inside the open toilet. I stood there for some seconds to empty my bladder as I turned my head up and looked at the small window on top of the toilet. It was blurry and nothing was visible from either side of the window. Light came in from it.

“WELCOME TO THE HELL, TAKEMURA-KUN AND SHIRATORI-KUN. I… AM…” The coarse hard robotic voice entered from the other side of the door.

I turned my head back at the door. “Maybe the ending credits have started.” I zipped my pants and then stepped in front of the basin. I rotated the knob and the water started coming out of the tap below it. I washed my hands and soon took up the white soap beside it and rubbed it all over my hands. The water was crankling through my hands on the basin and then flowing off as I rubbed soap in my hands.

“HARUTO! COME OUT! YOU NEEDA SEE THIS!”

“I’m comi—”

“COME REAL QUICK, YOU ASSHOLE! SEE THE SHIT WE’VE BEEN CAUGHT IN!” His voice was kinda torn off as he screamed on top of his lungs.

“I’m co—”

“COME QUICK, YOU DUMBFUCK! COME OUT!”

“WAIT FOR A SEC, IDIOT!” I shouted back at him and rotated the knob the other way and the water stopped. I opened the door and stepped out, and looked at Itsuki looking at me with his shit scared desperate eyes and his trembling hands and chest.

“H-Haruto…”