I came to without warning.
The first thing I noticed was the ground beneath me. Not concrete. Not hardwood. Something soft, slightly damp.
I opened my eyes to an unfamiliar sky.
Outside, apparently.
Short grass spread across the ground in every direction. Trees surrounded me on all sides ? I was in some kind of forest clearing. At the center stood a large tree stump, and it seemed I'd been sitting on it.
I had no memory of coming here.
…Come to think of it. A moment ago I'd been walking along the sidewalk near the station. The ground was still wet from rain. My foot slipped and ?
I fell. Hit my head. And then ?
"No way."
Something occurred to me, and I tried it. That scene I'd seen in manga and games a hundred times. Picture it in your mind. Want it badly enough.
"Club. Come out."
A club appeared in my hand.
A solid, weighty presence settled into my palm. Wooden, slightly thicker at the end. A club by any definition ? the exact kind I'd seen in games and manga my whole life.
"…You've got to be kidding me."
My voice trembled. Not quite joy, not quite fear. Something in between.
No doubt about it. This was that kind of situation.
So what happened before wasn't a dream.
After blacking out from the fall, I opened my eyes somewhere I didn't recognize. Purple flowers stretched as far as I could see in every direction. A lavender field, maybe. It looked like a place I'd seen on TV once and always told myself I'd visit someday. I remembered thinking beautiful ? the kind of thought you have when your brain is running away from itself.
There was a woman standing in front of me.
She wore glasses and a slim pantsuit. She gave the impression of someone competent, professional ? the kind of person who gets things done. There was only one thing I couldn't make myself accept as real.
Her hair, tied back neatly, was red. Not dyed. Not highlighted. A red that burned, like something that had never existed in the world I came from.
She opened her mouth.
"Asai Yohei, yes? We've been expecting you."
She knew my name. I didn't even have time to be shocked before she said ?
"Please," and extended her left hand toward an empty space.
A chair had appeared there at some point. I sat down as she gestured, because I didn't know what else to do.
"Asai Yohei."
She said my name again.
"You have been chosen!"
The announcement came out of nowhere ? and she was reading from notes.
"Wh? Chosen for what?!"
"You had the misfortune of hitting your head when you fell, and you did die as a result ? but you possessed extraordinary potential. This is truly remarkable!"
Her calm, composed demeanor was gone. She was animated now, practically buzzing.
"In the country you came from, this would be rarer than winning the top lottery prize!"
"And so ? from here, you will be going somewhere very different from the world you lived in."
"Wait, you can't just ? you can't just tell me something like that out of nowhere ?"
"I understand, but this has already been decided, so there's truly nothing to be done."
Nothing to be done, she said ? but something in her expression looked almost apologetic. Maybe I imagined it.
"Don't worry. You lost your life once ? this is your chance to start again!"
The apologetic look vanished as quickly as it came.
She said it with a bright, full smile. The kind that doesn't leave room for argument.
…I turned it over in my head for a while. The last thing I remembered was slipping and hitting my head. I probably really had died. I pinched my cheek. It hurt, like a cheek is supposed to.
"So… what am I supposed to do now?"
After a pause, I finally managed to ask.
"Ah, right! Well, staying as you are would be rather difficult, so ? trans? …that is to say, you'll choose from among these gifts, whichever suits you, and take it with you into the new world."
She caught herself mid-word and changed course. I noticed, but I didn't have the bandwidth to push on it.
She produced a book from somewhere and laid it open on the table that had appeared in front of me at some point.
I leaned in to look.
The pages were dense with ability names, written out in Japanese.
The ability to shape rice balls with exceptional skill The ability to feel vaguely better for no clear reason The ability to occasionally predict tomorrow's weather
…What is this.
I turned through the pages, skimming.
The ability to move people deeply with a whistle The ability to never stub your pinky on the corner of a dresser
Not a single useful thing.
What had I been imagining? Summoned as a hero. Unstoppable power. Surrounded by beautiful women. That whole sequence. Instead I got dresser corners.
"Excuse me ? isn't this all basically useless? Is there anything like, I don't know, obtaining ultimate power, becoming a legendary hero, becoming a deadly sniper? Anything like that?"
"Ahh, well… there were abilities like that, but the popular ones tend to go quickly… There are people being chosen from all sorts of worlds, you see, so…"
Abilities. Running out of stock.
And apparently I lost the scramble for the good ones.
I went through the book cover to cover. Nothing remotely useful. Mastery of all magic. Attainment of ultimate power. Gone without a trace. All that remained was a collection of abilities that might, on a good day, make daily life fractionally more convenient.
"Well then…"
One was as good as another. I pointed at one more or less at random.
"This one. …The ability to summon a club, it says."
"Understood. Please take that with you. Now then ?"
She started to move, then stopped. Something had surfaced in her memory.
"Oh, right ? you can adjust your age if you'd like, but you're young so I assume you're fine as you are?"
"Ah… yeah, I guess…"
"Then that's everything. Off you go~"
---
And then I was here.
I turned the club over in my hands. A plain, unremarkable club. Being hit with this would be considerably worse than ouch, I noted. That was all it was.
When too many things happen at once, you lose track of how to panic about any of them.
"For now… what do I do."
Still sitting on the stump, I looked down and noticed a faintly glowing blue flower near my feet. Nothing like any flower I'd seen in my life.
Another world. Had I actually ended up in one ? a world like the ones in manga and games?
"I should have asked her more questions…"
Who even was she? A god? The outfit didn't fit. A guide for the afterlife? She'd seemed more like someone who managed inventory for a warehouse.
I sat there, at a loss, trying to organize a reality that felt more like a bad joke ?
Then.
From between the trees, at the edge of the forest, something emerged.
It had the shape of a person. Except for the head. Covered in brown fur, its head was something else entirely ? shaped like a beast's, not a human's.
A human body with an animal's head.
That was what was walking straight toward me.