"...Groan…" Subaru's head hurt. Getting up slowly while rubbing his head, he tried opening his eyes. Slowly, he took in his environment. Strange-feeling bed, bizarre craftsmanship of the furniture and room itself, no electronic conveniences of any kind, a cat girl watching over him, the watch still on his wri-
"Aaa, ahh," Subaru starts hyperventilating while looking around. He doesn't recognize this environment, not at all. Where were his parents? Wasn't he just in a doctor's office? There was a cat girl watching over him. Who was she? Why was she here? That watch was still on his wrist, so maybe-
'Ah, think, think, think! The last thing I remember was transforming into that...alien thing, and then the watch started emitting electricity...Didn't it do that when it first appeared? And...that glow...Don't tell me…' Slowly, Subaru took a look at himself and noticed how he contrasted with the environment. He was still in his orange and black tracksuit, but this place was probably something of a medieval theme. The person in front of him was a demi-human, no doubt about it. She'd also been pretty silent, maybe a servant girl who didn't respond well with strangers? Or maybe she was just waiting for Subaru to calm down from his hysteria. Considering the fact that his head hurt and that he blacked out midway through the watch's...whatever...it was the only thing that made sense.
Taking a deep breath, he gathered up his thoughts before making his declaration:
"DON'T TELL ME THIS WATCH TRANSPORTED ME TO ANOTHER WORLD!"
The cat girl fell back and scooted away from him with a cute little "eep," but Subaru was more concerned with other matters. A few days ago, he would have relished the idea of a fresh start in another world, but now?
'What happened?'
He despaired. 'Dad said he was going to reeducate me, and, sure, I didn't think I could do it, but I was at least hopeful of the prospect of trying it...Then I found this thing,...and I became an alien! And now...I might never see either of them again.' Subaru lamented the loss of his parents, who he hoped were unharmed by his sudden transportation.
"..."
As he was thinking about what to do next, a voice called out to him.
"Excuse me, nyan?"
"GAH!" Subaru was so preoccupied with his current predicament that he forgot about the cat girl looking over him. Looking up, he saw her looking at him with worry and confusion in her eyes.
"Oh, right, sorry!" Subaru said quickly. "Er, how can I help you?"
The girl just looked at him blankly. "Actually, it's Ferris who is supposed to be helping nyou."
"Ah, right. And where is this Ferris?"
"...That'd be me, nyan."
"..."
So, not off to a great start with the locals...
"Of course, my apologies Miss Ferris!" Subaru said as he sudden;y shifted to a much more respectful tone. "But, uh, what am I doing here? I sorta can't remember the last few hours or however long I've been out."
"...I suppyose that's to be expected, nyan. You seem to have used teleporting magic-which is really rare-but you hit your head and seem to have a concussion," she explained to the bewildered Subaru. She then added, "So, where are you from?"
"I'm from an island to the east, Japan to be precise." Subaru responded.
"..." The girl just looked at him strangely, Subaru guessed that they weren't familiar with that name, so he could only assume that humans from Earth were rare, if they existed at all. Subaru deflated at the thought of being completely alone in this world filled with alien cat girls.
"In any case, how did you get here?" the girl asked, though Subaru didn't notice the slight suspicious tone her voice was laced with.
"I dunno. I was just at a doctor with my parents trying to figure this thing out," he held up his wrist with the watch on it, "and then it started acting up and blinded us with a flash of light. "Next thing I know, I'm here," Subaru said without much enthusiasm.
"...I didn't understand a lot of that, but in any case, you're trespassing on the Karsten Manor. As such, you'll need to see Lady Crusch to determine what to do with you." She got up. "Also, I'm a boy," she-no, he said with a bright smile.
"EH?!" Subaru screamed in shock at the revelation, as did we all when our dreams were crushed by that revelation.
Subaru and Felix made their way to a set of imposing looking-doors. Upon seeing them, Subaru took a step back, while Ferris just stepped forward and knocked.
"Yes?" a voice asked from behind the doors.
"Crusch-sama! I've brought that boy here!" Felix responded.
"Ah, yes. Come in," the voice now identified as Crusch responded.
Felix opened the doors and walked in, Subaru following behind him. Sitting at the desk directly across from the doors, Subaru saw a woman with green hair dressed in what looked like a military outfit working on some papers. She looked up as they approached, and Subaru could see that she had amber eyes.
"I'm glad to see you've recovered. You had us quite worried there, Mr…." She trailed off.
"Ah, right. I'm Subaru Natsuki. I really wasn't expecting any of this to happen," Subaru responded while rubbing his head. "A thousand apologies if I've troubled you, Miss. Karsten."
She just chuckled in response. "Oh, it's no trouble. Really, it seemed like this was an accident on your part, and Felix is the best healer in the kingdom. It would've been rude not to..." Her gaze narrowed. "But I must say, I've never seen someone in such foreign garments…" She looked at the watch, "...or with such a unique accessory. If I may ask, where are you from and how did you get here?"
Subaru flinched and looked away. "I come from a small island to the east, and I came here against my will."
Crusch's eyes widened. "You're saying you were kidnapped?"
"Well…I'm not exactly sure."
Her eyes hardened. "Wat, you said that you come from a small island to the east, but Lugunica is the easternmost nation at the edge of the world. That ought to warrant suspicion, yet I can tell you haven't lied about anything."
Felix spoke up from behind them, scaring Subaru who'd forgotten about the catgi-no, the catboy. "Crusch-sama, I believe that he may be under the effects of brainwashing magic. Most likely, he's what you'd call an unwitting sleeper agent." He locked eyes with Subaru. "If you deny this, then you'd surely be okay with me checking if nyou've been affected by any nyasty magic lately, riiiight?"
"Uh, sure…" Subaru didn't have the slightest clue what to do here, and his confusion certainly wasn't alleviated when the cross-dresser started invading his personal space. Before he could protest, however, a blue light emanated from the boy's hands.
"…Huh? His gate hasn't interacted with magic at all! I don't even know how that could happen without someone dying from mana poisoning..."
"Er, well…where I'm from, we don't have magic or anything like that…" Subaru started rubbing his head in discomfort, hoping that the two would ease up if he said that he wasn't familiar with magic...
*Stare*
'Well, that didn't work at all!' Subaru thought. The two of them just started looking at him with even more intensity, and even the very dense Subaru could sense that they wanted him to explain just how that was possible.
"Well, uh…" Subaru trailed off, not even remotely sure how to approach the situation.
'Wait...' Upon reviewing his words in her mind, Crusch came to a sudden realization. "Subaru, do you mean to say that you come from beyond the Great Waterfall?"
"Eh? Nyou're kidding, right!?" Felix exclaimed as he looked at his mistress.
Said mistress turned her eyes to her subordinate. "It's the only explanation that makes sense...aside from him being insane. But that doesn't explain how he hasn't died of mana poisoning, does it?"
"... Nyou're right, Crush-sama...but couldn't he just have come from a place that blocks out mana? Surely a place like that exists, right?"
The Duchess nodded. "True, but you haven't noticed the most obvious sign."
"Hm? What's that?"
She pointed to the boy in question, prompting the feminine feline boy to turn back to the boy in question.
"..." Said boy simply stared at the two with a very dumbfounded look on his face. "…I'm sorry, do I come from beyond the great what?"
"Hm? So you really don't know of it?" Crusch stood up and turned around while talking to the strange boy that she and the cat boy with her had found. "At the end of the world, water rushes straight off into the void. The force is so powerful that it's said that no one can escape it if they get caught…and they'll get swept off the face of the world."
Subaru paled, but the woman didn't notice his shock. "In addition, occasionally, people claim to be from beyond the waterfall, which no one has geared witness to. Typically, such claims are lies, but you seem to be an anomaly." She turned to the boy before concluding her thought. "So? Can you confirm this?"
"…" Subaru was shocked, not really knowing what to say…but if he continued stuttering, he wouldn't get anything done, and he'd at least agreed to try, even if his parents no longer had any expectations for him to live up to. So, he took a deep breath before answering.
"Well, I come from a world that's round, and the idea that the world is flat was disproven a really long time ago, but you talk about it like it's documented, so I'll assume what you're saying is true. In any case, we've no 'Great Waterfall' or anything like that, but we don't have things like Demi-Humans or magic either, so I can only assume that this is another world." Subaru looked directly in her eyes as he said this to emphasize his certainty. Technically, he'd already figured he was in another world, but surely it didn't hurt to point out the obvious differences.
"…" The woman was shocked at his answer: not only was he from beyond the Great Waterfall, but his world was apparently different from hers in so many ways, from its shape to not having magic or Demi-Humans, which Crusch couldn't even imagine. But…
"Most of what you said is foreign or downright unthinkable to me," she closed her eyes, "but I can tell that you're not lying. So, would you mind retelling us how you got here? It seems there is a lot to unpack here."
Subaru grinned. "Sure!" He began explaining what had happened a few nights ago, how he was walking to the convenience store-"Uh, a convenience store is a small market that exists pretty much everywhere. It's wide-spread."-with his father, and how on the way back a pod appeared right next to them with the watch inside. They were going to leave it, but Subaru tripped and fell right beside it. When he tried getting up, the watch jumped on his wrist, and they went to the doctor-"A doctor is a healer who uses 'modern' medicines and 'technology' to help people instead of magic"-to help Subaru get it off. There, he inadvertently turned it on and transformed into an alien-
"Hold on!" Crusch put out her hand, signalling for him to stop. "What is an…'alien?'"
"Ah, it's like…hm. An alien is what we imagine life looks like on other worlds. But we've never actually met any aliens, so a lot of people don't believe in them. As far as we know, we humans are the only sentient species in the universe and-" Subaru stopped, noticing the blank look on her face. Turning back to Felix, the cat boy was equally lost. "Uh, the universe is what we call the place where planets and stars reside, though it's possible that we're now in an alternate universe."
"…I don't understand it all, but please continue."
"Right, moving on! So, while we were there, I pressed this button, which I hoped would get it to detach.…" He held up the watch and pressed the green button on the side, causing the faceplate to extend and change from an hourglass to a diamond shape. A silhouette could be seen on it. "Then I pressed down on it again, seeing that it didn't do anything, and that's when I transformed. Like this!" He pressed the faceplate again, enveloping the room in a green light.
*FWOOM*
When Felix and Crusch adjusted to the sudden change in light, they opened their eyes…
"HAH!?"
…only to see Subaru replaced by…well, they had no idea what it was, aside from being an "alien" that Subaru talked about. Indeed, it certainly was strange for a Demi-Human. It had giant pointy ears, for starters. And its eyes…were not on the center of his face. No, they were all over its body! Speaking of his body, it was yellow and brown, with black pants covering up its legs. In the place of a belt buckle was the top part of the watch, now colorless.
"Oh my!" Crusch held her hand to her mouth.
"Incredible, nya!" Felix got over his shell-shock to comment on this foreign creature in front of them. Crusch agreed., but she also noticed that what must be Subaru seemed confused, as his eyes were glancing around nervously and he was…looking at his hands? Well, he didn't have eyes on his face, so he technically wasn't doing that. Actually, Crusch noticed that he had eyes on the palms of his hands, as well.
"…Subaru, is this not what you turned into before?"
"Hm?" Felix perked up at this, looking at Subaru with curiosity in his feline eyes.
The eye monster just shook its head and spoke.
"No!" His voice sounded warbaly. "I turned into a rock-like guy before, not this one!…Oh, wait! I remember how to change back!" His palms began hovering all over his body until he found the faceplate. He touched it, then another green light filled the room. When it died down, Subaru was back to normal.
"Ah, thank goodness!" Subaru exclaimed while smiling and looking at his hands.
Crusch cleared her throat. "Ahem…Well, then, Natsuki-san. Putting aside the topic of your…'wauch' for now, would you mind telling me how you know of Demi-Humans and magic despite neither concepts existing in your home?"
Subaru looked up. "Oh, well, in our world, things like fiction are really developed, so we often imagine how life would be different with non-existent concepts like deities and aliens. Hence, most people are at least familiar with the general ideas of fiction…Oh! Also, when I changed back into a human, the watch suddenly started acting up and that's when I was transported here."
Crusch put a hand to her chin and frowned. "I see. That is certainly interesting."
At this point, Felix piped up. "Wow, your world must be rather plain if you have to imagine all this stuff."
Subaru just turned to him and shrugged. "Yeah, but it's typically thought of as a lot better than a medieval-fantasy world like this one."
"What does 'medieval' mean?" Crusch asked him.
Subaru's expression changed. "Ah…well, it's sort of a way of saying that something's from the distant past…?"
"EH?" Crusch was silent while Felix voiced out his confusion.
"In other words, the land you come from is extremely advanced in comparison to ours, correct?" Crusch bluntly asked.
"…Yes." Subaru hung his head ever so lowly in shame.
"Raise your head up, Subaru Natsuki! I've no idea why you feel bad that your world is so ahead of us, but it does you no good to cloud your own sight like that!"
Subaru raised his head and stood back, slightly afraid of the intense woman addressing him.
"She's right, y'knyow," Felix chimed in behind him.
"…Alright then." Subaru was scared of saying anything else, so he just agreed.
Crusch smiled. "Now then, that was indeed a lot to unpack, but first: If you came here due to an accident, it stands to reason that you're completely lost in a foreign land with nowhere to go, aren't you?"
At this, Subaru looked defeated. "Ah, yeah. I almost forgot about that."
"I see." She shared a nod with Felix. "Then in that case, how would you like to join my camp?" She extended her hand to the boy, who looked at it in wonder.
Hey, all! Sorry for not updating in a while. I had writers block on this story. Anyways, hopefully the next chapter will be out within a week!
P.S. Someone mentioned a "team harem"" in the reviews. Is that something you all'd be interested in?
Edit: I've now revised chapter 3 (which is now a combination of chapters 3 and 4, meaning that the next two chapters will be fused together in the revision). Chapter 4 will be revised later today.