The Labyrinth City, Orario.
The Pure-White Sanatorium.
A girl in the Dian Cecht Familia's uniform, with silvery, fine hair cascading over her shoulders and a doll-like, flawless face, knit her brows. Amid Teasanare's cool, pale-violet eyes rested on the unconscious brown-haired boy lying in the bed before her.
"Lady Hestia, this patient is… unusual. His body is perfectly healthy. As for the cause of his coma, it may have been triggered by something else."
"I see…"
The black-haired girl called "Hestia," her long hair tied into twin tails, wore a complicated look on her youthful face. Her figure—downright staggering for someone with such a baby face—jiggled when she suddenly stood up. Thankfully, the blue ribbon across her chest kept things from getting too out of hand.
"Miss Amid, do you have any way to help him?"
"Not for now."
Amid shook her head lightly. The patient's body had suffered no injury; her magic, "Dia Fratel," and even panaceas had no effect.
In other words…
It looked more like a wound to the mind.
She lifted her gaze to the "poor goddess" famous throughout Orario standing across from her.
"Lady Hestia, pardon the bluntness, but… what is this patient to you?"
"H-he's… my Familia member!"
Hestia's eyes were firm, but the waver in her voice was hard to miss.
She could hardly tell Amid the truth—that she'd been kicked out of a friend's place, was wandering Orario looking for somewhere to crash, and just… happened to pick the boy up along the way.
"Whether he wakes from the coma will come down to his own will."
Amid tried to phrase it gently, but seeing how Hestia's eyes hadn't left the boy's face even once, she added, "To you, he may be a burden."
"At present… there's probably no one in Orario who can cure this."
"A burden…"
Hestia knew Amid was speaking objectively. Money was tight, her own future uncertain—she wasn't blind to the reality.
But looking at the boy, deep in unconsciousness with his brows still furrowed, she made up her mind almost at once.
"I think…"
The corners of the girl's lips lifted, and on that childlike face bloomed a rare look of steady resolve. "Meeting this kid has to be a kind of fate."
—
Inside a pure-white palace of memory, after absorbing everything and figuring out the situation—after realizing he'd crossed over into a "second run" life as the legendary Healer who rewinds the world—Keyaru couldn't help but hum under his breath.
As is standard for transmigrators, the remake method was simple: he pulled an all-nighter, went out to buy breakfast, and hit the jackpot.
Ran into Truck-kun on the highway.
Gave it everything he had—and lost.
The good news: he didn't die all the way. He crossed into the world he knew by heart from his past life…and even skipped the pitiful prologue of Keyaru's original timeline.
As for what came next, flashes of plot unspooled in his mind.
…"Selection."
…"In that instant, I seized the future."
…"Please allow me to give myself to you, to atone."
…"I can't be gentle today!"
Those who truly want to win don't smile. Even as a Healer starting a New Game+, Keyaru faced a very practical problem:
How do I skip the whole power-up grind?
From the audience's seat, sure—Hero World is a top-tier isekai classic. But even on a second run there are rough patches you'd rather fast-forward.
Having Keyaru live through them himself? Hard pass.
Do I really need to endure all that just to savor the catharsis at the end?
Yeah, no. I'm not a masochist.
"Finding a fast track to power is crucial."
When he finished absorbing the memories, the palace around him visibly cracked apart. Pure white light wrapped his soul. Like a seabird finding an island after drifting too long, he felt it—being alive. Control returned to his body, and he slowly opened his eyes.
The glare made him wince.
And then—
What came into view was the exact opposite of his expected second-run starting point. This wasn't a remote village with a tiny wooden house where he lived with his sister.
It was a pure-white, palatial room.
The furnishings were unlike anything he'd ever seen. One thing was certain: no commoner's home in that world could have décor like this.
"Did the timeline go off the rails?"
…
Keyaru's eyelids twitched. The thrill of becoming a Hero evaporated as he combed through the anime's plot in his memory.
The Kingdom of Jioral.
Flare Arlgrande Jioral.
Don't tell me the villain princess already dragged me off from the countryside to the imperial capital?
Except—
Just as that thought formed, a gentle, unfamiliar voice spoke from not far away:
"He's awake."
A maid assigned to watch him?
Keyaru turned his head, and when he saw Amid Teasanare, his mind stalled. He'd seen her somewhere, he was sure—
But definitely not in the royal dungeon.
The girl's face was like a porcelain doll's, features fine and elegant; her silver hair was tied high in a ponytail, and surprise glinted in her pale-violet eyes.
Something was off…
She looked familiar, but the name wouldn't come.
He braced a hand on the mattress and slowly sat up. Then he saw who she'd been speaking to—and the confusion on his face froze into shock.
A girl in a white dress, poised between "young lady" and "loli" at a glance, her beauty like a small miracle from the gods. Sleek black hair tied into twin tails. A face still a touch babyish paired with a frankly unreasonable figure.
Hestia.
Blue ribbon.
Where the hell did I end up?
"The Redo Healer meets cute girls in a Dungeon!"
Keyaru's feelings were hard to put into words. He'd laid so much groundwork, all for the day he could reboot his life and stage comeback.
And now…
Good news: he'd become the Healer.
Bad news: this is the DanMachi world.
"My Setsuna…"
Well, there were plenty of cute girls here.
And catgirls.
He'd take what comfort he could. On the bright side, he'd neatly sidestepped the whole palace-dungeon clown show from the original.
As for DanMachi, he remembered the gist well enough. The gods bestow their blessings—Falna—on those below, granting the right to gain strength and level up. Around labor and coin grew the Familia system.
Familia vary wildly in size and character.
But only when both deity and members are present does it count as a Familia.
At the core is that Falna: receive it, and you get something like a status screen that displays your abilities. Adventurers with the "vessel" can, through delving the Dungeon, draw out their inner potential—magic, skills, the works.
"Fine…"
"I can live with this."
Having accepted that he'd transmigrated as the Healer… just in the DanMachi world, Keyaru fixed his eyes on Hestia nearby.
Before he could ask what was going on, the girl—every inch a goddess, her brows arcing sweetly as warmth flowed off her—spoke up first.
"Um… do you feel unwell anywhere?"