Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

Jinah opened her eyes with an effort, her eyes itself feeling dry and strained. She rolls over and taps her phone.

She lifted her body from her bed, a herculean effort, and went to the bathroom to brush her teeth. Once done, she packed the necessary supplies and papers into her bag, took it downstairs, and, putting it on the sofa, greeted her host family.

"Good morning!" she said, smiling.

"Morning," the family's mother, Saya, said. "I made breakfast for you to eat."

"Ah, thank you so much! What about Takaya-san?"

"Ah, he went to work early," said Saya. "His work has been very demanding lately… ah! Ayumi, you're finally up. Eat some breakfast."

"Erm…" Ayumi murmured, rubbing her eyes while in her pajamas. "So tired…hi, Jinah."

"Good morning, Ayumi."

She went over to the table and sat next to Jinah.

"Thank you for the food…" after which she started eating her breakfast.

"Thank you for the food," Jinah also said.

Chapter 8: A Return to Normalcy…Right?

–

Jinah went out the door with Ayumi, who barely managed to get changed and set her hair.

"Ah, we're here," Ayumi said. "See you later."

"You too, Ayumi," Jinah said.

Both parted ways at an intersection, Ayumi going to the left, a private girl's school, and Jinah going to the right, her public school.

After riding the bus, she arrived within walking distance of the school.

"Jinah-chan!"

Jinah looked behind and saw her classmate, Tomochika, running towards her, a hand waving around.

"Ah, good morning, Tomochika-chan!"

"School finally opened, huh," Tomochika said, catching up to her friend.

"Yes, it has been a week," Jinah responded. "It has been… long." (she forgot and remembered the Japanese word for long)

"Should've been longer…"

Jinah giggled at this. They'd have to do some schoolwork when they arrive at school… a lot, actually. Then she thought back to a week prior:

She woke up in a strange room, a room that she later learned to be in a hospital. In a hospital bed next to her was Tomochika. She was wearing the same white gown. Interestingly enough, there wasn't an IV bag or anything similar around themselves.

First, some police officers visited the pair and explained to them that they were in a bus accident, that someone tipped the authorities, assuring that the students were already in a hospital. And, finally, that four people had, unfortunately, died. The driver, the teacher, Shinozaki Ayaka and finally Yuuichiro Kiryuu.

"After seeing the crash site," explained a police officer. "It is suspected that the bus slipped on black ice, causing it to tumble down a hill and throw the four people out of the bus."

While she didn't really know much about Ayaka and Kiryuu, she was quite sad that her teacher had passed away. He'd helped her adjust to class during her first days in Japan.

She, of course, called her brother and her parents about the accident, reassured them and stood by returning to school. She didn't feel like ending her stay here in such a situation. She also had to do the same thing with her host family also.

In the wake of the accident, the school closed for a week for the victims to recover. Two weeks being acceptable for those still shaken.

"Jinah-chan, it's green light."

"Huh? Oh."

Jinah snapped back to the present and started walking to her school.

With the exception of two students, the class was full. Though it may seem unusual to an outside viewer at first, the explanation was even weirder: no one remembered the accident. Sure, they remembered the school trip and going through the tunnel leading to the hotel the class were staying in, but no one remembered getting out of the tunnel. Moreso that they didn't remember what happened after leaving the tunnel.

"Mikochi!" shouted Tomochika to a classmate.

"Oh, it's been so long!" that classmate shouted.

The school buzzer rang and everyone sat in their seats after hearing footsteps outside the door. The door rumbled as it slid open, revealing the figure of a person no one had seen in the school. He looked Japanese enough, but his hair was unusually blonde-ish. Maybe he had a foreign parent?

"Hello class," he said, "I am your substitute until the school finds another Math teacher. My name is Takeshi Yoshida, and I hope that we can, as your homeroom and substitute Math teacher, get along for the week." He bowed, followed by some claps from the students.

"Alright everyone, I'll be taking attendance now–"

BAM!

"GAH!"

"Oof!"

"Ouch!"

Sounds of swearing and cursing loudly rang through the classroom… except there was no classroom.

The teacher knitted brows together, but remained, otherwise, unfazed.

In place of the modern foam ceiling, marble stone-cold floor, chalkboard and sliding door combination of a classroom, they instead were met with the sight of a grassland with vivid blue skies, white clouds and a cool environment, contrast to the cold winter they were just in. The desk and chairs had vanished in the midst of the green grass and soft ground. The lights were replaced by the shining sun.

"What the fuck!?" shouted one student.

"Wow, it's so beautiful," mused another.

I think I must be dreaming again.

This was a thought mostly shared by the class, in some shape or another. That is, until a woman in elegant clothing approached the class, who (besides the still standing teacher) were currently sitting on the grass and staring at her.

She had blonde hair, wore clothes in a purple-white color scheme–

"She kinda looks like a magical girl," Tomochika whispered to a friend sitting in front of her.

–and a face beautiful enough to grace magazine covers of today.

"She… she feels scary, I don't know why," a classmate says to another.

When the woman stepped within a meter of the general area, she finally spoke, smiling harmlessly, "Hello, everyone. It's nice to see you again."

"Huh? Again?"

"What is she talking about?"

"I want her to step on me," whispered wide-bodied Hanakawa to his friend Higashida.

"Shut up," the friend said.

"Huh?" voiced the woman with a frown. She raised her brows as if in mild disbelief "I'm feeling quite upset that you all forgot about me. Hmm… maybe this will jog their memories?"

She pointed at the art teacher and shot her invisible energy, expecting it to hit.

Instead, the substitute teacher, with impossible reflex and speed, dodged out of the way, the podium exploding and sending splinters behind it.

"Oh?" the woman raised her eyebrows. "Humans shouldn't be able to do that. Who are you?"

The whole class was surprised, shocked, and confused, all at once. They were in a bus accident, a sub came in, they were transported to another place, and the teacher had superhuman reflexes and speed.

"Pinch me, Tomo-chan," the girl with a bob-cut, Romiko (Tomochika's seat-mate) requested. "I think I might still be dreaming."

Tomochika squeezed her thumb and index finger on her friend.

"Ow, ow! Stop it! Okay, it's all real, so please stop!"

The teacher stepped in front of the class, as if to protect them from the devil.

"Sage Sion," he said, "the class is under the supervision and protection of the Defense Against Otherworld Transportation Organization. As it stands, I will not allow you to have these children."

"Oh?" Sion replied in response, feeling slightly annoyed.

Guys, I'm going to take a break from writing for now. I discovered the existence of Solo Leveling: Ragnorak relatively recently. So to make sure I get the general abilities of the Sages and, of course, our boy SJW I need to gain knowledge of the lore and their capabilities to rethink how they'd match up. To explain why he needs a teleportation stone, a translator, why SJW felt a little doubtful when it came to the Sages, among other things, I chalked it up to his relative inexperience compared to him during Ragnorak. But while writing this, I felt compelled to reassess how I gather material, so I'm going to return writing when I have finished all 12 volumes of Instant Death and all 200 something chapters of SL: Ragnorak. Well, see you guys then.