Chapter Text
Hajime Nagumo was walking to homeroom class again, having pulled an all-nighter again. He knew he’d get teased and mocked, belittled by his classmates. He didn’t really give a crap anymore though… there was no reason to.
“Doomed if I do, doomed if I don’t.” He muttered, before opening the door, and walking to his seat, pointedly ignoring the jeers and taunting. He took a seat, and put his head down to get some light sleep before this hell could get wo-
“Nagumo!” Came a bright and happy voice. Hajime swore internally. The voice belonged to a nice and friendly girl, one of the best people in the school, Kaori Shirasaki. And that was the problem.
“Hi.” He stated, raising his head lightly to look at her. Kaori was definitely beautiful, the school had taken to calling her their Goddess. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m doing well!” She beamed at him, before looking at him in slight worry. “Did you get enough sleep? You look exhausted…”
“Hm.” Hajime made a noncommittal noise before extrapolating. “I just don’t like to waste time with sleep. Minimal sleep, maximum fun and work, you know?”
“Pft, sure, dork.”
“Hey Nagumo. Pull another all-nighter?”
“You truly are too kind, Kaori. Always caring so much about others.”
The three who’d spoken were Daisuke Hiyama, Shizuku Yaegashi, and Kouki Amanogawa. The latter two were massively important figures at the high school, and just as popular as Kaori. Hiyama just didn’t like Hajime and enjoyed making him suffer.
Kouki believed strongly in right and wrong, and everyone who really mattered in the school had given up on trying to explain nuance to him, at least in Hajime’s eyes. In Kouki’s eyes, Hajime was a slacker and lazy person, who couldn’t be bothered to do the least bit of work to better himself, no matter how many chances he received.
And Yaegashi was a nice person, and quite perceptive. Her family also ran a dojo that taught samurai swordsmanship. Hajime occasionally asked her a question or two, offering his standard return in exchange. She still didn’t understand why he had that easy a time offering it. Interestingly, she’d never called up the debt he’d started racking up.
“Hi, Yaegashi.” Hajime acknowledged the only one he felt like doing so to. “Yeah, same old same old.”
“You might wish to take schooling seriously, Nagumo.” Kouki stated, seriously. “It is not kind of you to continually waste Kaori’s vast goodwill.”
Hajime thought to himself, he was taking this as seriously as he needed. His parents were Manga Authors, and he had several jobs that he could easily take once he got out of High School.
He had his life ahead of him, he just needed to make it through this hell of a-
“Alright class, everyone sit!” Miss Aiko called out as she walked in, and began roll call.
Hajime sighed and went though class, quietly zoning out, as he absorbed everything. Class was taking a while, so he started to doze off, ignoring Kaori’s fond looks coming his way.
“Alright class, head to lunch!” Miss Aiko called, and the class either took lunch out to eat, or headed to the cafeteria to get some food from there.
Hajime took his food out, and swiftly ate it in ten seconds.
Literally, ten.
He’d made it and assembled it so that it could be done in exactly ten seconds. As he finished it off and began dozing off again, he didn’t notice an amused face watching.
‘ That is hilarious .’ Shizuku thought. ‘ He doesn’t want attention, and is seen as lazy, but he put that much effort into making a meal that he could eat in less than fifteen seconds. ’
She thought more about the deals Hajime had made with her, and they got the gears turning in her head. He was an Otaku… he wasn’t real devoted to anything but Manga and Anime… and those, he took quite seriously… maybe… wait that’s what he-?!
“Nagumo?” Kaori asked, lightly tapping his shoulder. “Are you okay? Did you eat?”
Shizuku was certain she could hear the curses going off in his head, just from his body language, and given what she knew about his ability to curse, it made her giggle internally.
“I’m fine, Kaori.” His voice was kind and a bit tired. Shizuku theorized, it was tired of people, rather than from late nights. He then added, “I already ate after all.”
As he showed Kaori his lunch she started fretting and asking if he needed more, offering to share it even. Shizuku was torn between laughing and sympathizing. Kaori really didn’t realize that Nagumo suffered from all the bullying and disgust, because he was seen as not good enough for her. She legitimately thought everyone just was in mild awe of him, which was a scary thought to see come out…
Luckily, Kouki came up, and drew Kaori’s attention, which bought him a little time, but also started digging his grave.
Kaori was currently defending Nagumo, saying she liked talking with him- oh… oh that was going to end poorly. Shizuku sighed, before everyone started filtering back in.
She looked around as everyone started to settle down, Kouki even started to filter off. Thank goodne-! Wait, what was that?
Shizuku looked at the silver runic circle that had formed in the room, right in the center.
“Oh f-” She started before it flashed brightly and everyone vanished.
After the light faded, she realized their class was in a giant chamber, surrounded by what looked like priests watching. And they were on a raised pedestal… holy cow, they’d just been Isekai’d.
…
HOLY COW THEY’D JUST BEEN ISEKAI’D!
Shizuku was shaken from her thoughts by Nagumo lightly nudging her, and whispering. “Do you have a spare knife I could borrow?”
Shizuku stared at him in blank shock, before giving the only response she could. “What makes you think I have one?”
Nagumo’s look of raw disbelief was almost hot.
“Yaegashi, I know you always have one. You were trained to defend yourself with a blade, and most of the school, and surrounding schools have a massive crush on you. If you don’t carry something to defend yourself from perverts, I’m obligated to lecture you.” He stated flatly, but under his breath. “And there’s no way it’s a gun, you’re a swordswoman, you won’t use a gun at all.”
She stared at him in awestruck silence, before slipping her hand into her pocket, and slipping him the second knife.
“Don’t lose it.” She stated curtly, as he nodded and slipped the blade into his pocket.
They then looked at the people in front, the Priests if you will, who’d apparently summoned them.
The leader stepped up, and gave a smile.
“Hello. I am High Priest Ishtar. Welcome… To Tortus.”
Things had just gotten real nuts. Shizuku decided to pay attention and try to absorb everything she could. Strapping herself in mentally she started absorbing the information they got.
This world, it was called Tortus. There were a bunch of races, but the main ones were Demons, Humans, and Demi Humans. Monsters were basically just animals. Big ones.
The class had been summoned by the world’s God, the world’s only true God? Ominous. Ehit. Apparently, Humans and Demons were at war, and had been for millennia. There were a few select differences between them, which made the war noticeable.
Humans had massive numbers, and moderate power. Demons had few numbers and massive power, so they were mostly equal. Demi Humans were weaker than humans, and in roughly equal numbers so they were… enslaved. That left a bad taste in her mouth.
The Humans and Demons had been mostly equal, due to their advantages over each other. But now, Demons had an edge. They could control Monsters. Monsters, according to a slightly more detailed explanation Hajime requested, were Animals that had soaked up excess Mana. Mutated and altered.
The High Priest explained that they had been summoned by Ehit to fight in this War. The Demons’ new edge put humanity on the edge of extinction.
And as the cherry on top, they’d gotten special powers, based on their skills and talents. Seriously, a standard Isekai.
But they’d had a tough day, so they got shown to personal quarters. As they did, Shizuku noticed that Aiko was arguing with a Priest, trying to get them sent home. They’d already been told, Ehit had summoned them, so they couldn’t be sent back yet.
Shizuku got to her bed, and after changing quickly, flopped down to sleep.