(Ryuta POV)
I tugged my robe tighter as I made my way through the winding paths behind the main campus buildings.
The closer I got to her lab, the quieter everything became—until only the sound of my footsteps echoed through the still air. Nanahoshi had chosen the most isolated corner of the campus for her research building. I couldn't blame her. I'd added a few safety measures to my own lab, too.
I stopped in front of the heavy wooden door and raised my fist, lightly knocking three times.
*Click*
That familiar, sharp tongue-click came instantly from the other side, followed by a reluctant, "…Come in."
Yep. Same as always.
I opened the door and stepped inside. The scent of ink, parchment, and faint residual mana hung thick in the air, a side effect of overused Magic Stones.
As usual, the lab was a mess: shelves overloaded with scrolls, crystals glowing dimly in containment boxes, and several failed summoning circles scorched into the floor like old wounds. In the center stood Nanahoshi, hunched over a complex array of Magic Circles, her face hidden behind her pale porcelain mask.
This was an obvious sign of becoming a shut-in.
I could've said something to her about it, but her situation fundamentally differs from mine. She did it because this is a foreign world, and I did it because I wasn't willing to face the outside world for two decades.
"I'm back," I said, giving a small wave.
No reply. Not even a glance. She kept scribbling, muttering Japanese under her breath—something about "useless," if I caught it right. Definitely stuck on her Other World Summoning research again.
I let out a slow breath. That cold shoulder always came out when she hit a wall.
…Maybe it was my decision to stay in this world. Maybe that's what made her feel alone—like no one else understood what she was going through.
While she was doing everything she could to go back, I'd chosen to adapt. That difference between us had created a slow, growing distance. But I wasn't going to let it keep growing. I should be the adult here.
I circled around the table and noticed a fresh stack of papers beside a clear Summoning Circle, glowing faintly under her enchantments. I picked one up.
"Are these the extra scrolls I requested?" I asked, keeping my tone light.
Still no eye contact. "They're done. Just don't mess them up."
Curt. Robotic. Like she didn't even care.
I lowered the paper with a sigh—so much effort, and still not a hint of warmth. Even now, I appreciate her help, but it never seemed to matter anymore.
Then an idea hit me.
Maybe it was dumb. Maybe even petty. But if anything could get a reaction, it was this.
I reached into my robe and opened a small ripple in the air—my personal pocket dimension. Mana shimmered as I summoned an invisible hand to reach in and retrieve a slender glass bottle sealed with wax.
With a soft plip, I popped the cork and raised my free hand, casting a gentle Wind Magic spell to carry the scent through the room like a breeze through an open window.
Nanahoshi froze.
She sniffed once. Then twice. Her head whipped toward me. "Wait… Is that…?"
I smirked. "Take a guess."
She tore off her mask, her sharp eyes wide. She practically sprinted across the lab, nearly knocking over a stool, and stopped right in front of me, face full of disbelief.
"...Is this soy sauce?"
I held up the bottle like a sacred relic. "Straight from the Biheiril Kingdom. Apparently, the ogres there drink it like tavern beer."
Her eyes lit up. She inhaled deeply, savoring it, then looked at me like I'd handed her a piece of home. "You… you brought this back?"
For a moment, the tension in her shoulders faded. The bitter summoner chasing portals to Earth was gone, and in her place was just a girl who missed the simple things from home. Sometimes, you don't need words to close a distance.
Nanahoshi hovered over the bottle like it was a sacred elixir, sniffing it repeatedly. I hadn't seen her look this alive in weeks.
"You didn't just bring soy sauce, did you?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at my robe. "Tell me you brought more."
With a mock sigh, I opened another shimmer in the air. "You wound me. Of course I brought more. You think I'd tease you and not follow through?"
Following her expectant gaze on me, I used two techniques Orsted himself calls unique to my person: a pocket dimension that lets me store all sorts of objects and extendable mana arms I use for grabbing stuff from the pocket dimension and various combat uses.
My mana arm began pulling out wrapped and sealed containers: carrots, onions, garlic, a bundle of leafy greens, some rice flour, a few eggs, and—most importantly—a tightly packed slab of sliced boar meat from the northern forests, marbled and ready for a pan.
I cleared space on a nearby table, putting aside her notes, especially those nearby the table, and set everything down.
"We're keeping it simple," I said, placing a lacquered box beside the ingredients, "but it'll taste like Earth... hopefully."
The box I pulled out from my inventory, along with other utensils, revealed my latest invention: a magic-powered stove. It is sleek and rune-etched, with a heat-adjusting dial and a small Magic Stone tucked into the core. It was compact, efficient, and far better than cooking over an open flame.
I set it down and twisted the dial. A faint orange glow lit the metal surface.
Nanahoshi stared at it, then at me, like I'd conjured a microwave from nothing. "Wait, you made a portable stove?"
"Yeah," I said, cracking an egg into a bowl. "You're not the only one revolutionizing the world."
She muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "show-off," but there was no bite in it.
Then we got to work. No words, just instinctive rhythm. I chopped; she stirred. I passed seasoning, and she mixed it into the meat. When the soy sauce hit the pan, the sizzle rose like applause. The smell was nostalgia made real.
As steam curled through the room and savory aromas filled the space, I saw her icy exterior melt. She wasn't smiling—yet—but her shoulders eased, and her motions grew less tense.
"This…" she said, taking a bite once we plated the food, "this actually tastes acceptable."
I gave her a lopsided grin. "Told you the ogres knew their stuff. I had to barter weirdly to get that bottle, though."
She looked up. "Barter?"
"I may have healed a drunk ogre who dislocated his shoulder during an arm-wrestling contest gone wrong. Although I'm unsure if what they did was still considered arm-wrestling or just wrestling."
"…Seriously?"
"Dead serious. Not sure if his arms were muscular or just swelling. Either way, he challenged someone else five minutes later. Talk about muscle for brain."
She laughed—just a dry chuckle, but genuine.
After that, we ate mostly in silence—not awkward silence, just… peace. For a brief moment, our opposing goals—her desperate search for home and my choice to stay—felt far irrelevant.
Just a boy and a girl (who are NOT in a relationship) sharing a simple, nostalgic meal made with soy sauce.
***
Our quiet ended when I cleaned the dishes and put away the stove.
As I scrubbed the plates, Nanahoshi hit me with a comment I didn't expect from my isekai tomodachi.
"Are you getting old?"
That landed like a gut punch from Orsted, totally out of the blue.
Physically, I'm around eighteen. Mentally, thirty-seven. Doesn't change the fact that no one likes being called old.
"What makes you say that?" I asked, trying not to sound offended.
"No, I mean… your hair. I think there's a white patch starting."
"…There is?"
I promptly stopped my cleaning, and Nanahoshi handed me a mirror.
I angled it carefully, brushing my bangs aside with my free hand, and there it was. A patch of white, right above my right temple. Subtle now, but definitely spreading. I was on my way to match a certain greatsword-wielding lunatic.
"Oh crap… I am getting old."
"Are you sure you're not sick? It could be a symptom of a disease."
"I… I don't know. Maybe it's genetic? Or something's changing inside me?"
Like I've said before, we don't know how I got here, or what exactly this unnaturally strong body is. Orsted himself admitted he's never seen anyone with my traits. And if he doesn't recognize you, that usually means one of two things: you're insignificant to remember for his plans against Hitogami… or you're an anomaly like me and Nanahoshi.
"Maybe you should let Karowante examine you," she offered, with a flicker of concern.
"Maybe. But… none of his familiars like me."
Perugius might be a legend and fairly interested in the Magic Tools I create, but after the incident in his flying castle, his familiars have been on edge, especially around newcomers like me.
"When's the last time you slept or ate before today?" Nanahoshi asked, narrowing her eyes.
I looked away. That's a very complicated topic for me.
My new body can go three to four days on a single full meal. I only need to sleep six to eight hours once every five days. This allows me to be more productive, especially when crafting Magic Tools.
"I think I've got a diagnosis," she said dryly. "Workaholic."
How dare she! And to think I used to carry her around whenever Orsted wanted to move fast.
I still haven't told her everything about my past. Maybe because I don't want to admit how much of this is psychological—some leftover complex from my old NEET life.
"I can't just sit around," I murmured, staring at the floor. "I don't know how to explain it… but I feel like I have to do something. Anything. Just to be useful."
"Useful for what?" she asked softly.
"…I don't know. Maybe this body just rejects laziness."
Nanahoshi let out a quiet sigh and leaned against the edge of the table, arms crossed.
"You're still an idiot," she said, softer this time. "But I guess... if you're going to burn yourself out, at least watch yourself for whenever Orsted sends you out."
I chuckled, scratching the back of my head. "I'll take that as approval."
She didn't smile, not really—but the corner of her mouth twitched, just a bit.
We stood there for a moment, the silence no longer cold or distant. Just quiet.
Then she turned away, muttering, "Will you be staying at the school for now?"
"I'm not sure. Orsted's assignments are rather erratic in terms of time ratio because of several events worldwide. But I should have time for a breather. At least for now."
"And by breather, you mean a visit to the brothel?" Nanahoshi subjectively asked.
"Give me a break. A man needs something to blow off steam. And this body is still young."
Nanahoshi rolled her eyes hard enough to cause a mana fluctuation. "Disgusting. You're practically a pervert uncle now."
I let out a bark of laughter. "Hey, I said I was young, not dead. Besides, my self-restraint is impeccable. You'd know if I was out of control."
One of the downsides of having so much stamina is that I have difficulty getting satisfied. If I wanted to feel decently quench my lustful thirst, I would be broke by the end of the session.
Nanahoshi isn't interested in such things, so she doesn't understand my struggles with this body bursting with youthful energy.
Although it does ruin my non-virgin life, I'll probably forever struggle with this problem unless I manage to get myself a harem. However, that is practically impossible with my lack of social interactions.
Then again, it's not like I'd be dying if I didn't. But it's good that someone with high stamina works in Sharia's red light district to deal with my problem.
Instead, she crossed her arms tightly, feigning indignation. "Somehow, I doubt that."
I smirked and returned to drying the last plate with a flicker of low-grade Fire Magic. The steam wafted up lazily, and as it faded, I caught her eyeing the bottle of soy sauce sitting peacefully on the shelf behind me, almost reverently.
"…You're welcome, by the way."
Nanahoshi scoffed. "I didn't say thank you."
"You didn't have to. Your stomach did." I pointed to the way she'd leaned back in her chair earlier, satisfied and still rubbing it like a cat curled up by a warm hearth. "Your face after the first bite was the closest thing to a religious experience."
She didn't respond—just turned away and mumbled something about me "needing to stop acting like a shounen protagonist trying to cheer up the childhood friend before the last arc."
I didn't bother arguing. That scene had already played out enough.
I set the dried dishes aside and grabbed the stack of summoning circle drafts she'd finished for me. They were clean, precise, and inscribed with Nanahoshi's typical obsessive attention to detail—every angle correct, every mana channel carefully balanced. This summon will be nothing this world has ever seen. Oh, how much I await the day I will bring forth my next special familiar.
"I find it crazy how you try to summon something that surpasses this world's expectation."
"Says you. You don't understand how beneficial this will be once it's finished."
I'm trying to create a familiar that shares traits from some of Perugius's spirits, but I'm trying to bypass the limited lifespan or lack of learning of a spirit.
Perugius's spirits can be resurrected within the castle known as [Chaos Breaker] and recharge from its mana source.
I confirmed it when I asked him directly, and he commended me for figuring it out, but also added that I can't recreate the creation that is the flying castle itself.
I took that as a challenge and am preparing something to knock him out of his socks.
"Be sure to add in the total obedience factor," Nanahoshi said with a hint of concern.
She refers to the tragedy of a witch who was eaten alive by the summoned fiend.
I don't plan on creating a massively powerful brute, but an intelligent underling for intel gathering and observations.
However, her concern about incorporating the obedient factor that Orsted knows wasn't a bad idea.
I gave her a two-finger salute, tucking the last of the summoning diagrams under my arm.
"I'll make sure it obeys," I said with a grin. "Can't have it deciding I'm the appetizer."
Nanahoshi rolled her eyes but didn't argue. Her gaze lingered on the notes for a second longer, then drifted toward the still-warm bottle of soy sauce behind me.
I headed for the door, pausing just before I opened it. The air outside was still cool, the sky beyond the high windows bleeding into twilight.
"…Thanks for the help," I said quietly, not looking back. "And for the food company."
She didn't respond right away. Just as I pushed the door open, I heard her voice—soft, almost an afterthought.
"Next time, could you bring some of the soybeans. I wanna try making miso."
A smile tugged at the corner of my mouth.
"You got it."
With that, I stepped out into the fading light, the door clicking shut behind me, leaving the lab's scent of mana and soy sauce hanging in the air like an echo of something warm.
For now, the world could wait. I had other tools to tinker with.
///