the start is the same as the one in the chapter "Their Arrival to this world" up until when they get to Melromarc
"Uhuuuuuughhh... Ouch, my head..." Pomni mumbled as she slowly got up, placing a hand to her aching forehead only to be greeted by a cold feeling, she looked at her hands and saw that one of them had a metallic silver handle with gold details and a red and blue gem embedded in the bottom, the item in question being a whip, but more importantly was the fact that her hand was... Normal, it was a normal human hand with five fingers and normal skin tone different from the four fingered pitch white skin she was used to, she was shocked as she looked around to see she was in some type of meadow
"The hell? Where am I?" She asked herself as she observed the environment around her, it looked... Beautifully real, very different from the circus usual visuals and textures of the circus, as detailed as some things were and how good the lighting could be, it was always easy to tell that it was digital from the way things were rendered and textured as it could never really compare to reality. But this was different, it was almost surreal, she turned around and was shocked by the sight awaiting her
"Whoa!" She said as she saw a group of figures getting up through pained effort like her, one was a woman with a almond skin tone of average height, with brunette hair color, her eyes being blue and having a thick hourglass body type, she wore a casual light blue sweatshirt with some white details, having a long dark grey skirt, and red shoes, her hair was curly and reached to her neck
Another was a young black man of average height and physique with dark black hair styled in long braids, having brown eyes, he was dressed in a black hoodie with a pattern depicting a snake bursting out of a skull and had pastel blue baggy pants, wearing yellow sneakers with plain white socks, a very casual look like he was chilling in home before getting here
One was a large woman, being the tallest there and also the widest with a more bottom heavy figure, having a more vanilla colored tone for her skin and pitch black long hair kept slicked back with a white tiara in her forehead to keep the hair from falling in her eyes, she was wearing a black and red stripped long sleeve shirt and baggy grey pants, with black shoes
There was also a person she assumed was a man at first but looking at them better indicated that they were a woman from their chest although they still looked pretty androgynous, they had a umber colored skin, being of more or less average build but with some lean musculature. Their hair was brown. Their eyes were black and their hair was cut short on the sides with long hair on the top styled to the left side, covering a bit of their eye. They dressed in a black leather jacket, having a white t-shirt underneath, their pants were normal blue jeans but that were ripped on the knees, having plain red sneakers
And lastly was a man that looked the oldest among them, around forty if Pomni had to guess, with a warm ivory skin tone and slightly above average height as he was the second tallest there only behind the stripped shirt woman, having unkept long hair in a dirty golden blonde color but with a few white streaks probably caused from stress and a short shaggy beard, his eyes were a navy blue and he was the skinniest among them, he was dressed a purple work shirt and black pants, having a tie around his neck in a chess board pattern
They all did share something with her, as they had metallic silver items in their hands, the young black man had a hammer, the old man had gauntlets, the strangely androgynous woman had a axe, the large woman had a pair of Chakrams, and the brunette had a silver shield, each with a different colored gem
"W-w-who are you guys?!" Pomni said as she took a few steps back in confusion at staring at normal humans, the others finally shook off their confused and pounding heads as they noticed each other and their surroundings, all instinctively crawling backwards on the floor as they stared at each other very confused
"What the fuck is going on here? Who are you... Wait, did I say that without being censored?" The androgynous woman said seemingly surprised as they expected to hear a wacky sound effect when they swore but instead it came out normally, that also surprised the others who had expected a similar result, but the fact that this mysterious person expected censorship when saying something obscene indicated possibly that--
"Oh hey, you sound a lot like my friend Zooble" the old man said as they pointed at the androgynous woman, everyone slowly turning their heads to look at him, as now that they had pointed that out the voice definitely was identical to Zooble's, but for the old man to know that name and the sound of their voice...
"... Kinger?" Pomni asked as she looked at the man, he truly reminded her of the chess piece in not just in his voice but even his clothing and hair color seemed similar to the person she knew from the circus
"Oh, yes that's my name, have we met before?" The old man who had revealed himself as Kinger answered as suddenly all the others flinched, as the strange feeling of familiarity they felt when looking at each other toppled with the confirmation that the old man was Kinger could only mean that the others were also from the circus as well
"... Holy shit but that would mean, no it can't... I'm Pomni, that's Kinger and Zooble so..." Pomni said as she needed to know for sure as she pointed at the other three, first at the brunette
"I'm Ragatha" the brunette identified herself as the ragdoll they all knew from the circus as now Pomni knew why she looked the most familiar, though it was strange to see her with two normal eyes rather than having a button replacing one, she pointed at the black man
"Jax" the black young man responded as he was the lilac menace, to be honest Pomni expected worse from Jax's real self, as he looked almost innocent and not like a huge asshole
"And I am Gangle" the large woman said, something about Gangle who was represented in the circus as a small and thin bundle of ribbons was extremely contrasted with her human self being the opposite as this big massive woman was something Pomni honestly expected more from the rest of them as for what was worth they were still very similar to their game avatars
"You're not Gangle, you look like you ate Gangle and then went for seconds and thirds" Jax commented as he pointed at Gangle, causing her to shrink upon herself while softly sobbing, insecure about her body and how disgusting she must look to the others
"Jax! don't be mean!" Ragatha scolded the rabbit turned man as that wasn't something nice to say about someone, especially knowing how sensitive Gangle could be at times with her low self esteem
"I actually didn't say that on purpose to be mean, I'm just surprised that small and thin ribbon girl is actually big and wide IRL" Jax responded honestly, without a condescending or mocking tone as he was legit surprised Gangle was so big, she could play at NBA from her height alone and easily crush him with her bulk which was something he never thought of back in the circus
"... Does anybody have a mirror or see a puddle of water?" Zooble asked, wanting to see just what their face looked like, the others did as well and began looking around as well before Ragatha's eyes landed on something
"There's a lake there!" Ragatha shouted as she began running in that direction as the others followed suit, the lake was serene and though it wasn't the best to see, the water still created enough of a reflection for them to observe themselves, with Pomni finally seeing how she looked like, being a woman with vanilla colored skin, with black hair in blunt bangs, having black eyes. She was dressed in a work blazer in a plain white color, having a work skirt in a deep dark ocean blue and black shoes, being a short stack with a bottom heavy figure, she was also surprised with how short she was compared to the rest of the cast, she didn't expect her short stature in the digital circus to be something reflective of her real life, though different from her circus self having noodles for arms and legs, she was fairly more hefty, it could be just because of her height making her look wider but she definitely was somewhat chubby, but not nearly on Gangle's level, but how big her ass looked in this skirt definitely bothered her
"Oh my god... This is my face, I had practically forgotten about it" Zooble said as small tears formed in their eyes, they felt so much better now... This body felt right, different from that amalgam of colorful shapes they were forced to be in the circus, they actually felt a bit completed now
"We are human... I thought I would never see the day..." Ragatha said as she was holding back the urge to cry, it felt good to be human again, though she was a bit bothered she still somewhat resembled her doll self, at least she didn't have that button eye and strange triangle nose anymore as they did bother her sometimes when she looked at herself
"So does that mean... We're out of it? We escaped the circus?" Gangle asked and the rest all tensed up, escaping from that infantile purgatory... It was enough to shed a tear if true, heck, enough to make any of them go into a full emotional breakdown and unleash a flow of tears and laughter. There was only one problem...
"Maybe, but then why are we in a random spot in the woods? And what is it with the weapons?" Zooble asked as they poked at their axe's gem, the others also took the moment to study their weapons, their intricate design and color palette of gold, silver with black details as well with the gems engraved on them gave them a royal or even divine appearance. But they noticed something
"Uhm... Guys? These things aren't coming off" Pomni said as she tried to pull out her metal whip, but was finding incredible difficulty in the act, with a grunt and with all the strength she could muster, she was able to pull it off from her left hand, only to see it was stuck to her right hand, she tried shaking it off but it didn't fall. The others looked at Pomni's difficult and tried to drop the weapons but they didn't seem affected by gravity as they realized something, the weapons were seemingly attached to them as no amount of pulling or shaking worked, the closest one of them got was Ragatha and Gangle throwing their weapons away, but they reappeared in a glowing flash back at their bodies
"Ah! It doesn't come off! It's trying to mend with our skin to eat us from the insides!" Kinger screamed as he ran away in a circle, his panic was slightly shared with the others as these strange weapons were really confusing them as to why they had them or what purpose they served
"Okay, can someone just explain what is going on?!" Jax screamed to the heavens, wanting to know just what in tarnation was happening to them. Gangle stopped her panicking and began thinking as this whole setup was familiar to her from somewhere, she thought for a few seconds before a lightbulb turned on in her head
"... Oh god we were Isekai'ed" Gangle said as she thought about how this situation was similar to some manga and animes she had watched
"Excuse you? What the fuck is that?" Jax asked the rest calmed down and looked at Gangle for answers in just what was that she mentioned
"It is a type of japanese media, most commonly anime about people getting sent to a different world filled with fantastical elements, like Inuyasha! Or konosuba! Or Rezero!" Gangle said as although she didn't know or watched much of the genre since she preferred reading manga and watching old school anime, but she still knew of such a major player in the anime world in recent years, and from just the four Isekai she watched it helped make out a image of the basic setup and how it fitted in their current situation
"But then how would we have gotten here?'" Ragatha asked as unless Caine somehow ripped a hole through space and time accidentally, there should be no way for them to be anywhere but the circus
"There's only two ways I know of how someone can get Isekai'ed, one is to find an item or gateway that leads to the new world or... Dying" Gangle said as she gave emphasis on that last part, sending a uneasy feeling to the rest of the cast from the implication of it but they kept quiet to listen as she continued her explanation "I think... We all died, maybe the circus glitching and that pain we felt was we dying, maybe our brains were fried or whatever facility that held our bodies burned down or the life support system keeping us alive failed, whatever the case may be... I think we died and that's why we are here"
"Christ... That's dark but it kind of makes sense" Pomni said as it did have some logic to it, after being stuck in the amazing digital circus for so long she couldn't really doubt the possibility of something so fantastical and yet horrifying occurring to her"So what do we do?" Ragatha asked as they were basically without objective or direction at the moment, honestly none of them knew what to do in this situation
"Ummm... We try and find a nearby settlement with people in it and ask them for more information on where we are and what the world is like, maybe they will also have knowledge on what these weapons are" Gangle explained as she laid out a plan for them, as it would be good to get informed of just what type of world they would be in and what they might encounter, as well as hopefully getting a answer in what these weapons were
"Sounds like a plan, let's go guys" Ragatha said as she motioned them to follow her as she started walking in a direction, the rest obliged as they hoped they would find a village or city soon if to just avoid sleeping in the wildness
[Author's Notes]
Just dropping this short while I'm working on the next chapter, I have one interaction planned between Gangle and Jax but I honestly don't know what else I can add, I would like some suggestions especially because after this chapter would be the wave, you can leave a suggestion in the reviews
Here's some human designs for the circus cast, based them mostly on fanart I have seen, particularly basing Gangle's on /Yokaiju interpretation
They wouldn't have monster abilities but they could get more easy access to armor and items so it would be like Naofumi's experience but with more firepower since Ragatha would have five vassal heroes to assist her
The main problem of this particular scenario is the king (who is more unhinged than in canon) and church, as around the second wave the crew would attend the party in the castle since they are humans here and would not avoid going there in fear of being attacked, and unless they had a convoluted reason as to why they should hide their identities as heroes, they would end up revealing themselves (maybe when Motoyasu tries flirting with one of the girls and tries using his status as a hero to impress them) knowing that five of the vassal weapons have new wielders with no knowledge of the world at large in Melromarc would definitely be something the king and church would try to exploit but the problem is that they are a group with Ragatha who is the shield hero, and due to their shared time in the circus, they would be able to see through any made-up lie they tried to make to separate them like accusing her of a crime she didn't commit, and assassinating her just to then basically go "oh the shield heroine is dead, guess you all have to join the other heroes or work for our government/church now" would immediately make them know something is wrong and that Ragatha's death might be the fault of the church and king, if that's the case they might assassinate the rest of the circus cast for not obliging and deciding it would be better to let the vassal weapons "free" to chose new users.
Only way for them to survive past the second wave is for them to not go to the party or hide their identities as heroes, maybe through learning about the shield hero being the devil of the country and that anyone related to them must be killed for being a heretic but that would just mean that some of the cast may just abandon Ragatha, unless they all decide to stay together and combat Melromarc's corruption by learning of their treatment of demi-humans and how they basically doomed the rest of the world by summoning all the heroes to themselves, and even then they could just leave Melromarc as soon as they could, probably going to Siltvelt if they learn that place treats the shield hero as God