Daiki Yamato could not deny it – something had gone very, very wrong.

    He stood on the grounds of what appeared to be a large private school. A sign on the front read “Blue Lotus Academy.” Teenaged schoolboys and schoolgirls milled around in their uniform, a gaggle of jackets, ties, and miniskirts. Some of the ones closer to him stared in curiosity.

    Daiki could hardly blame them. He was standing on their campus wearing leather armour, a blue cloak, and with a sword scabbarded at his side. He looked like he shouldn’t be there.

    Well, that was true enough. He wasn’t supposed to be there. He was supposed to back in the story world he had finally begun to call his own, embracing his demi-human fiancee Athena and getting ready to deal with the Devil King once and for all so that he could return to the story world that was his Japan.

    So why the hell was he here?

    Daiki racked his mind. Last he remembered he had been standing on grounds of the military base in the world of his creator. He had said his goodbyes to Major Atria Silversword, Princess Stellaria, and Colonel Sato. He had activated the “part the veil between worlds” spell built in the Black Sword, as his creator, Akari Soto, had taught him to, and locked it onto his world – specifically, onto wherever Athena was at that very moment. Then, he had swung the sword, opened the portal, and stepped through.

    And that brought him here. A private school, with Mount Fuji rising in the distance to the west. A private school in Tokyo.

    Daiki sighed. The portal must have bounced and knocked him back into the real world, just to some different part of the city. Best that he find a way to call in and let the others know what had happened. Pity he had left his street clothes and almost everything else behind when he went through the portal. The only things he was carrying from the world of the creators was the contract Akari Soto had signed and the engagement ring he had bought for Athena.

    He waved at one of the students who was staring at him, a short but busty girl with pigtails and a tan houndstooth pattern bag. “Excuse me!” he said. “Might you have a cell phone that I could borrow for a moment? I promise that it would be a local call.”

    The girl approached. Three more followed her. “Sure? Why do you need it?” she said.

    Daiki smiled and hoped it looked friendly. “I’m a cosplayer on my way to an event, and I lost my things. I just need to check in with a couple of people and let them know where I am.”

    The girl handed him a pink smartphone, and then looked him up and down. “That’s quite a good cosplay.”

    “Thank you,” Daiki said. “I worked hard on it.” He dialed the operator and took a couple of steps away.

    “Hi there,” Daiki said quietly. “Would you please connect me to the Japanese Self-Defence Force, Eastern Army, at Camp Asaka. Thank you.”

    He looked out at the small group of girls watching him. “They’re connecting me now,” he called out to them. On the phone, he heard the Camp Asaka main desk greet him.

    “Hello,” Daiki said into the phone. “My name is Daiki Yamato, and I’m trying to reach Major Atria Silversword. She’s a foreign officer attached to the Eastern Army under Colonel Hajime Sato. I think he commands the 46th or 47th Regiment. I believe this is her last day, but she should still on base or be reachable. If you can’t reach her, Colonel Sato would be fine too.”

    Still standing at a respectful distance, the schoolgirls stared at him. He gave them a polite wave. The Camp Asaka receptionist answered. Daiki blinked.

    “Sorry, could you please repeat that? There is no such unit there? And you don’t have an officer there named Hajime Sato. I see. Thank you, I must have been thinking of a different base. Please accept my apologies.”

    Daiki pressed the button to terminate the call. A cold, sinking feeling settled in his stomach. Something was very, very wrong. There could be no doubt – he had left the world of the creators. Had he just landed in another, alternate real world?

    “I’m in the wrong place,” he muttered, glancing at the schoolgirls. They waited patiently, the breeze ruffling the miniskirts of their uniforms...

    ...the miniskirts of their uniforms.

    Daiki blinked. They were wearing miniskirts. In the real world – and in his Japan – the skirts of Japanese school uniforms came down to the knees. He had made it to a story world – it just wasn’t his.

    Daiki took a deep breath. Something had gone wrong this time, and landed him in the wrong story, but that just meant he needed to try again. Athena was waiting for him. He put his hand on the pommel of the Black Sword and told the sword’s interface to activate the “part the veil between worlds” spell.

    The interface flashed a warning across his vision instead. “Part the veil between worlds cannot be used for 23:42:17.35.”

    Daiki cursed under his breath. Of course Akari Soto would give the spell a one day cooldown. She had probably even planned a story arc around it to add to the drama of the final volumes of the light novel series.

    “Are you finished with my phone?” the girl in the pigtails asked.

    “Yes, sorry,” Daiki said, stepping over and handing it back to her. She cocked her head and looked at him.

    “Couldn’t reach your friends?”

    “Afraid not,” Daiki said.

    “I don’t think he’s just a cosplayer,” one of the girls whispered loudly enough for Daiki to hear. “I think he’s the new transfer student.”

    “He looks like he could be a transfer student,” another girl said. “But why is he hiding it?”

    “Maybe he’s got a deep dark secret.”

    “You’re just saying that because you think he’s sexy.”

    “I do not!”

    Daiki raised his hands. “I’m not a transfer student. I’m just passing through, that’s all.”

    “You saying you’re not a student?” said the girl in the pigtails.

    “Well, I am,” Daiki said. “At Osaka University. I’m in my second year in the Biological Sciences program.”

    “Ah,” said the girl in the pigtails with a grin. “Detective Natsuki gets to the bottom of it, like I always do.”

    “Why would a university student transfer back to high school?” one of the girls asked. Daiki felt a lump rise in his throat. He had a terrible idea of where this was going.

    “Maybe he’s a delinquent and he’s being held back a year.”

    “But he’s a second year student.”

    “Maybe he’s being held back two years.”

    “I don’t think that’s how it works.”

    Daiki tried not to wince in front of the girls. Of all the story worlds he had to land in, it just had to be a high school comedy.

    “I’m not transfer student,” Daiki said. “I was just in Tokyo for a cosplay event, I lost my belongings, and I ended up here. That’s all there is to it. When I’m gone, I’m going to head back to Osaka and I’ll continue my studies at OU.”

    “They’re about to start serving lunch,” Natsuki said. “You should join us. The food’s good here.”

    “Really, that’s not necessary,” Daiki said. “I’ll pick up something in town.”

    Natsuki put her hands on her hips and stared at him. “How? I thought you lost your belongings. Or did your wallet magically reappear?”

    Daiki sighed. “Okay, I suppose it can’t hurt to turn down a free lunch. But after that, I’ve got to go.”

In the end, it was Daiki, Natsuki, and three other girls sitting at the table together. Daiki ate quietly, trying not to keep looking at Natsuki, who he found staring at him every time he looked up. The other three girls chatted about and around him.

    It was, admittedly, a nice change from the battlefield, and the hospital.

    “He’s totally a transfer student,” one of the girls said.

    “You’re just saying that because you like him and you want him to stay, Sayori,” said another.

    “I do not!” Sayori protested. “It’s not like I like him at all! Besides, you’re making eyes at him too, Yuri.”

    Daiki suppressed a grin. He’d spotted the tsundere.

    “I just know what I like,” Yuri declared, crossing her arms and raising her chin. “Men are like fine wine, and the older they are, the better. You should refine your tastes, Sayori, and one day you’ll be a connoisseur of men just like I am.”

    Daiki almost choked on his drink. Chuuni spotted.

    “We’re talking about the same man!” Sayori said. “But I’m not saying I like him!”

    “When I find the man I like, I’m never letting him go,” the third girl said quietly. “Anybody who tries to take him away will be very, very sorry.”

    “Don’t play with your knives in front of him, Yukari,” Yuri said. “You’ll scare him away.”

    Yukari just looked at him and grinned.

    Daiki swallowed. And that would be the yandere. Best to be careful around her.

    “Enjoying the meal?” Natsuki asked.

    Daiki met her eyes and nodded. “It’s very good, thank you.”

    “Dinner will be even better,” Natsuki said. “Today’s the day they bring in a special chef. It happens only one Friday every month. He does great things cooking with sake.”

    “I really should be on my way once we’re done here.”

    “Osaka’s a long way away,” Natsuki said. “What are you going to buy your train ticket with, o walletless one?”

    “Oh, please stay,” Yuri pleaded. “Our literature teacher is sick, so they’re just showing us Kurosawa movies until he gets better. They’re putting on Seven Samurai today.”

    “I don’t think your school will be very happy with a second year university biology student dressed in armour and a sword sitting in the back of your classroom,” Daiki said.

    “Seems on point for Seven Samurai,” Yukari muttered.

    “You have somewhere else to be, Daiki Yamato?” Natsuki asked with a grin. “Or are you really that eager to dash off to the train station without any money?”

    “It has been a while since I’ve seen Seven Samurai,” Daiki admitted.

    Natsuki leaned forward and beamed him a smile. “Don’t you worry about a thing. I’ll tell them that you’re my cousin from Osaka. Detective Natsuki is on the case.”

The movie was as good as Daiki remembered, although he was pretty sure that no school in the real world would have given the class the entire afternoon to watch it. At the end, he followed Natsuki and her friends back to the cafeteria for dinner. The food was as delicious as Natsuki promised.

    “That’s a very nice sword,” Natsuki said as they ate. “Where did you get it?”

    “Online,” Daiki replied.

    “Must have cost you a fortune,” she said. “You never put it down.”

    “It was expensive.”

    “I’ve got better knives,” Yukari muttered.

    “Don’t bring them out to show him,” Yuri warned. “You’ll scare him away.”

    Sayori gave the Black Sword an appreciative glance, and then looked away. “I could take it or leave it. Swords aren’t really my thing.”

    “Do you have a place to stay the night?” Natsuki asked.

    “I’ll be fine,” Daiki said. “I should be on my way after dinner anyway.”

    “It’s already dark out,” Natsuki said. “You’re going to go out into the city dressed like that, with nothing to your name but a cosplay sword?”

    “There’s a spare room in the girl’s dormitory,” Sayori declared. “You could stay there for the night!”

    “I’m sure that’s just for girls,” Daiki said.

    “They won’t care,” Yukari muttered. “We’ll just tell them the spare room in the boy’s dormitory is occupied.”

    “I think it was occupied,” Yuri said. “The occupant just made a big mess. And this is why somebody with a true appreciation for the finer points of men always chooses an older one. They’re just tidier.”

    “It really wouldn’t be appropriate for me to stay there,” Daiki said. “I should just find a place in the city.”

    “With no wallet?” Natsuki said, grinning. “Detective Natsuki doesn’t think you’re being very practical. Or do you really prefer spending the night on a park bench at the end of October?”

    Daiki sighed. As much as he hated to admit it, with all of his money having been left in the world of his creator, this was the best offer he was going to receive. Besides, he’d be able to leave in the morning.

    “A soft bed would be nicer,” Daiki admitted.

    Natsuki grinned even wider. “There you go. Detective Natsuki has everything covered.”