"This place is a stupid maze...!" I'm definitely super lost. I guess I underestimated just how confusing the layout of the magical academy would be, it's certainly no Hogwarts with flying stairs and stuff, but it's also much bigger than any other school I have ever seen.
And the worst part is that I'm not even supposed to be here in the first place, Eris made it very clear that while she was questing with Nina, I should stay at home for my own safety. I however, am a master of breaking promises, and I also don't buy Eris' paranoia, so I came here.
There's a mystery I must follow after all, I need to find the girl called Silent Seven Stars... What a weird little name, but that aside... Everyone I ask knows about her, yet doesn't know where she stays. Just what's up with this girl!?
Still, right now I'm making my way to another supposed place where she stays, and I had to walk down a bunch of suspicious stairs to get here so... Let's just say that this place is so weirdly placed that someone could probably kill me right now and get away with it.
I knock on the only door down here. "Um... excuse me!" And announce my presence. Man, I really should have waited until Eris came back, because now I'm feeling a little nervous. The only self-defense tool I have is a shitty sword I don't really know how to use.
Thankfully a feminine voice quickly answers me. "Yes? What is it...?" Her tone sounds quiet, if she really is Silent then I suppose it's fate. I don't know where the Seven Stars came from though.
And now I'm close to my goal, I'm feeling a bit nervous. "I'm Subaru Natsuki! I'm looking for someone called Silent Seven Stars! Um... I was sent by Rudeus Greyrat!" If nothing else, dropping his name in conversations has been really useful. Everytime I do so, people start to tremble and give me the information I need.
For a few moments only tense silence answers me. It makes me think that this could even be some secretly genius revenge setup... Maybe Rudeus realized beating me up in public wouldn't be good, so he sent me to meet a psychopath.
I mean seriously! Her room is in the middle of nowhere! And it took me going down so many stairs, it was like going down a dragon's lair! It definitely sounds like the place where the school's Voldemort would do his shit!
Much to my relief however, the door is opened by a woman wearing a mask. She's really petite all things considered, I'm just a bit taller than Eris, but I tower over her, and she also has black hair...
Considering her existence came up while Rudeus and I were talking Japanese, I can only assume she's a fellow Isekai'd person. I don't wanna assume however, so I don't make contact with her eyes, carefully looking just under it.
It's a decision I made recently simply to avoid conflict. I'm Eris' boyfriend now, and I don't want to ever fool around, that's why... I will not risk meeting another soulmate. If she really is from Japan, then things should be fine however, since all my soulmates are from isekai land.
Strangely enough, there's a quiet anger in her voice. "Enter. Sit. I have a few questions." W-wow, she really is silent, and pissed off for some reason, did i come at a bad time or something? Where is my sacred luck buff when I need it?
Entering her room, I see that this more like a laboratory than anything else. It's full of... magic stuff, I guess. There's a few potions there, some drawn circles there... I knew she was gonna be a mage of course, this is a school for magic after all, but shouldn't she keep her test stuff in another room?
Ah, whatever, it's none of my business. So I simply sit in a little chair offered to me. Silent Seven Stars sits on one in front of me, looking directly at my face, though I don't know for sure since I'm avoiding her eyes.
She starts speaking, and in Japanese too. "So, can you follow what I'm saying? I'm fairly sure you can, but I'm just making sure." Her voice does sound cute... Not as cute as Eris though! I'm a loyal boyfriend.
I nod. "Yeah, I can speak Japanese, and I'm from Japan... Am I right to guess you're Japanese too?" If she confirms it, then I can finally look at her in the eyes without fearing being her soulmate.
She takes off her mask, revealing a pretty Japanese face. "Yeah, I'm like you." Now I finally stop looking beneath her eyes, our eyes meet... I feel a shock running through my body immediately, a very familiar shock.
I sputter. "Ah! Don't make my heart tremble when I look into your eyes!" What the hell is this!? Isn't she Japanese!? Please don't lie to me, because this concerns super important matters you know!?
And now the girl sputters too, a red blush on her. "W-what are you talking about!? Are you trying to be some sort of stupid casanova!?" Her reaction is about what I would expect from someone who just received a line like that. It's not my fault though! Of course I would instinctively question the wrongness of this world!
But now that I got the shock out of my system, I'm beginning to rationalize this. She's from my world, so she's definitely not a soulmate of mine, what probably happened is that I tricked my mind. When a person expects something to happen, he can feel it after all.
It's like when you really think you should be fine and suddenly your sickness is gone, or the reverse, thinking you should be sick making you sick. I had so many experiences with this soulmate thing that my brain just expected another.
Still, I ended up saying a really embarassing thing, so I bow. "Sorry! Plesse forget my comments, they are reserved for my girlfriend!" The girlfriend who took my virginity yesterday night. If someone decided to hang me for my flirting related sins, they would probably be right to do.
She takes a deep breath, putting a hand in her chest, it seems that calms her down. "You haven't changed a bit Subaru Natsuki... In fact you have gotten even worse." Wow, you sounds like my parents during my worst nightmares.
Though there is an obvious point to address here, so I raise a questioning eyebrow. "You know me?" I don't recognize her by her face alone at least.
She nods, a pout on her face. "Yes, my real name is Nanahoshi Shizuka... does that ring any bells?" Not really, but I get why you called yourself Silent Seven Stars now, very cool play on words. Still, it seems my silence is getting to her, because her right eye twitches. "Shinohara Akito, Kuroki Seiji, do you recognize those names...?" Nope.
Seriously I never heard of any of them, for a second I thought she would be one of my childhood friends, but it seems this was destined to end up in a disappointing end. Really, I should have expected this, none of my friends probably remember about me, I was just the funny clown who went and did bad things for their entertainment.
She glares at me. "You...!" And then takes another deep breath, I have a feeling Miss Nanahoshi over here may dislike me. "Do the names... Why am I telling you this? Do the names Ugly Gobbo, Sad Stick and Space Wasted mean anything?" That's...!
My eyes widen immediately. "You're Ugly Gobbo...!" A nickname I carefully chose with the intent of ruining her self-esteem. You see... I was a kid who wanted all atention, a kid who wanted to be the most liked kid.
And how do you get liked by other kids? You bully kids who are lesser in the hierarchy of the school. So to make people laugh, I mocked her little group for a day or two... or a few weeks... or a few months... I genuinely don't even think I ever looked at her face, my greatest problem was always with Space Wasted.
She grits her teeth. "Indeed... I am Ugly Gobbo." I can hear the concealed spite in her voice, I'm guessing she never got over the ugly allegations. Sorry, if anyone here is ugly, it's me, just look at my eyes.
I bow yet again, I need to apologize. "My bad, I was a horrible kid." Hopefully she doesn't hold a grudge, most of those days are a blur of happiness and hidden sadness to me, so... I don't really remember what we did to her.
Considering her glare hasn't diminished at all... I'm guessing my apology didn't do much. "You and your little group constantly ruined my homework." Sorry! "You guys threw my Gameboy into a river, I then got a Gameboy Color as a birthday gift and one of your friends borrowed it. Forever." Super sorry! "I had dog poop thrown onto my hair sometimes." Super duper sorry!
She continues. "I used to be into Yu-Gi-Oh, but you threw away all my cards, except for my Blue-Eyes White Dragon, which you stole. When I complained to a teacher, she said there was no way the son of Kenichi would ever do that, and I got suspended." I apologize for leeching off my father to be an asshole without consequences! And also about our biased school... "I attended therapy for a entire year because of you and your cronies." I...
I died once in my life, but now I'm feeling that I haven't been punished enough for my past sins. I honestly don't remember being that bad, but I suppose the victim always remembers things better than the abuser.
I just keep bowing. "I'm so sorry, I submitted you to some pretty heavy bullying Nanahoshi." Ah, as always I want to punch kid me. So much talent and promise, all wasted... He failed to become Kenichi Natsuki, and now I'm paying the price.
She waves me off. "It's fine... Well, it's not fine, but you were just a dumb kid... And you're apologizing now. I never thought Subaru Natsuki of all people would apologize and actually call me by my name." You really make it sound like I'm the devil here.
I raise my head, awkwardly scratching my head. "Still, I'll keep apologizing. It seems I owe you a few gameboys..." Ah, this is super awkward. "And hey, at least you proved me a idiot for ever calling you ugly of all things." Why is it that my default response to these kind of situations has become flirting!?
She blushes, apparently my idiotic flirting has had effect. "W-what!? D-don't go calling me that... Seriously, coming from you it will make me depressed." It seems my bullying of Nanahoshi will truly never end...
Honestly I should probably feel bad abour flirting with her just now, but she's not even my soulmate, which means all my compliments will have zero effect. Ah, it's kind of crazy, but if I confessed she would probably throw up.
I chuckle. "My bad, I was trying to make you smile. It seems it's fate that Subaru Natsuki will never get to see such a pretty thing." For some reason... I feel like letting out my inner NTR bastard here is fine... Not that I have one, of course!
But just think about it this way, Nanahoshi will never reciprocate my advances, in fact she's my past bully victims, so she's probably having a euphoric laugh inside of her mind at my cringeness right now, so surely... it's okay to use her as stress relief? That sounded really bad, for some reason this girl triggers my bullying instincts.
She covers her face. "I see you evolved from a bully into a playboy." I sure wish that was the case, but considering my luck with romance outside of soulmate stuff... I'm the opposite of one really.
That said, I have been feeling more confident today, probably because I came inside a hot swordswoman multiple times, that probably eliminated some of my shyness. They can officially put in my grave that while I was never as cool as my dad... at least I had a awesome girlfriend.
I wave off. "And you evolved into a supermodel or something, people change I guess." Quell it, I must quell it the bastard rising inside of me! Even if she will never fall for my flirting, that doesn't mean I should flirt! I have a girlfriend!
She stutters out an answer. "J-just shut up! You want me to g-go to therapy again!?" Kinda...? No! I don't want that! What the hell is wrong with me!? "Not that something like therapy exists in this shit hole of a world." I have a feeling... that she does not like this place.
She sighs. "And speaking of that... have you see Sh... have you seen Sad Stick and Space Wasted?" I shake my head, I haven't seen those guys in years... "I figured, but it was worth a try... They were with me when I got summoned here, so... I've been looking for them." Hopefully they're okay, I have to apologize to them too.
She sends me a serious look. "I'm sorry you died Subaru. Hopefully you find something worthwhile even in this... sad sack of a world." She grits her teeth at the end, it's like a thought, she hates this place.
Still, she just said something very surprising. "How did you know I died!?" I doubt Eris and Nina told her, right!? Maybe... maybe she was spying on us with some peeping magic? I don't know anything about this world's magic system, so I can't confirm if it's possible or not.
Nanahoshi shrugs. "Most people who appear in this world died first, that goddess who reincarnated you and told you you were special... gave you some amazing cheat... She does that to everyone." Wait, I feel like there's a misunderstanding here. "Though there are a few... anomalies around, like me and Rudeus. We sort of slipped by the gods system." So Rudeus was summoned too... Well, obviously.
Still, I raise an eyebrow. "Um... Nanahoshi, I wasn't isekai'd by a goddess... in the traditional way." Now it's her turn to raise an eyebrow. "I mean, I died, but... It was in this world, and I got revived by a goddess, but that's about it." Should I tell her about the soulmate thing?
Probably, because she looks very confused right now. "What actually happened to me, is that a love god brought me to this world. Apparently I have a bunch of well... soulmates, and when I look at them in the eyes, and they look back, we fall in love. Though I don't actually know who my soulmates are." Throughout my explanation Nanahoshi somehow both pales and blushes. Amazing, as expected of Ugly Gobbo.
She gets up and covers her eyes. "Don't look at me...! Now I get why this is happening! You... you... bastard!" Ah, another misunderstanding has appeared, and a very dangerous one at that.
I wave her off. "Ugl- Nanahoshi, it's fine. All my soul mates are from other worlds, it's why the love god took me out of my world in the first place..." I imagine falling in love with me at first sight must be a terrible nightmare for this poor banana.
I mean, I'm the bully who terrorized her during her childhood so I could get popular. And she wasn't even that important either, it was more to target her friend... As far as kids went, he was far too cool, so of course Shitbaru Natsuki got jealous. I'm the definition of envy after all... Well, considering I actually went out to torment him, I guess it's more like wrath?
She uncovers her face. "Tell me that first next time, I almost had a heart attack." She then silently mutters. "Seriously, what the hell is wrong with me? Acting like this is a shoujo manga..." Well, my life has been a NTR doujin recently.
She sends me an apologetic look. "So you got dragged here by some asshole god and died huh? Sounds like them." Oh, she thinks I got dragged here without my consent...? For some reason, I feel like correcting her would be an mistake.
She continues. "And I'm sorry to say, but... if you have passed through the gods system, then you can never return to Earth." To my surprise she's the one who bows this time. "I'm so sorry!" Why is the apologizing now?
I get up too. "Hey Nanahoshi, you don't need to apologize for anything. You didn't do anything wrong after all." Also, it feels weird to hear my poor victim apologizing to me. I should be the one bowing here!
She ends her bow. "I know, but... I know it must be really scary to be all alone in this world. Specially if you didn't even get a cheat, so... I'll lend you some money at least, I became rich, so it's no trouble." Money! I want it!
No, I need to calm down first. "Wait, why can't I go home in the first place...? Is there a way to go home in the first place?" Eris wants to go to Belzerg so we could find some clues, but maybe Nanahoshi has already gone there?
She looks down, seemingly feeling bad for me. "Because... Those who passed through the gods system are linked to this world now, and so without their permission they cannot return. Rudeus and I are different, since we are anomalies... We don't even fear my benefactor, though that's a story for another time." A benefactor...? So she had an Eris?
She continues. "And as for the second... there needs to be. And if there isn't, then I'll make one. I'm currently working with Rudeus on a project..." Oh? Maybe you can heal his heart? That would be nice, specially when I steal you too. Shut up NTR man.
I raise a hand. "I see... by the way I don't think I passed through the gods system too." Her eyes widen. "I mean, when I died here, the goddess tried finding my paperwork, and couldn't. That probably means something important, right?" Like the love god hiding it or something.
Immediately she turns around and walks towards her equipment. "I need a blood sample and a urine sample, you're staying in this room until further notice... So make yourself comfortable." Wow, what's with this sudden attitude!?
I take an awkward step back. "Why...?" If I stay here for too long, Eris will probably try raiding the school. She's definitely crazy enough to try, and honestly? She might be skilled enough to succeed. She's a terrifyingly amazing woman after all.
Nanahoshi taking out syringes from drawers. "Because I need to see if you caught some virus, in fact I need to analyze your whole body. There are many things the gods give reincarnators... I'm surprised you're even alive, or that you somehow learned this world's language." Scary!
But... "Well, I have been in this place for three weeks already, and I certainly haven't dropped dead. Also I came in, and immediately knew the language." Did she appear here without even knowing that? Talk about nightmare difficulty...
She pauses and turns around. "Seriously...? Then maybe you did pass through gods system..." She shakes her head. "No, we still must make sure. It's dangerous to just ignore the possibility of you dying due to mana poisoning or something." I feel like I could have met several bad endings if I had worse luck...
I get closer to her. "Nanahoshi you... have been through a tough time, haven't you?" I kind of... want to acknowledge her struggles, I guess. And now I feel even worse for Rudeus, since he must have went through the same.
Her body trembles as she nods. "Yeah... it's been hard. It's been really hard..." She clenches her fists. "My body is constantly at risk of dying because I have no mana, and...! And I couldn't talk with anyone for a year! Not a single person!" Yeah, that sounds way more horrible than death by frogs.
She hugs herself. "And my body is... frozen in time for some stupid reason! And the only stupid idiot in this world with a similar condition is some mass murdering psychopath who kidnaps girls...!" You just dropped some scary words. "Can you believe that!? And the bastard tried to kidnap me too... if it wasn't for Orsted, then I...!" I'm guessing that's her benefactor?
Nanahoshi sighs. "I hate this world, it's hard to live in it. People have no sense of morality, and evil monsters like the Witch's Cult are just wandering aroung like they own the place... I wanna go home. I wanna go home now." Well, only one thing I can do now.
I hug her. "Nanahoshi, you're strong. Somehow I'll help you get home." I pat her head, now hugging her with only one arm. "Take it as an apology for what I did in the past." I have two soulmate goddesses, surely I can pull something out of my ass.
She blushes in my embrace, it would make me get ideas if I didn't know it was impossible for her to be my soulmate. "Thanks, you really grew up Subaru." I haven't.
Suddenly the door opens. "Nanahoshi I came here to..." I turn around to see the sound... As luck would have it, it's Rudeus Greyrat again. "Oh, fuck this." And he closes the door, never even entering.
Nanahoshi, still being hugged by me, raises an eyebrow. "What's that all about?" Just the universe trying to show that I'm a horrible person, nothing special or unusual!
I awkwardly look away. "Ah, he's probably mad at me, because I stole his girlfriend." As expected Nanahoshi immediately ends our hug and glares at me.
"Shitty playboy." I'm just shitty! Not a playboy, I swear!
AN: Banana sexo.
