"Come Back, Shin'ya."
The voice echoed through the fading white void, cold and impossibly distant, yet wrapping around his consciousness like a heavy, velvet blanket.
Shin'ya didn't jump. He didn't panic. He didn't even show a shred of surprise. At this point, the phantom voice was practically his permanent alarm clock. He slowly pushed himself up from the ground, shaking the residual dizziness from his head, and looked around.
For a split second, his heart skipped a beat. The air felt crisp, and the sky above possessed a brilliant, clear hue that felt painfully familiar.
"Is this...?" Shin'ya muttered, standing up quickly as a spark of hope flared in his chest.
He took a deeper look, scanning the horizon. The trees were different. The architecture of the distant walls didn't match. The heavy, magical pressure that usually saturated the atmosphere in Yuki's domain was entirely missing. He let out a long, defeated sigh, running a hand through his messy hair.
"No... it's definitely not Yuki's world," he muttered, the disappointment settling heavy in his stomach. "It's another fantasy dimension entirely. That's why the air felt similar at first. Figures."
Looking down, Shin'ya realized he had been sleeping right next to a well-traveled dirt path. The winding road stretched forward, leading straight toward the massive stone gates of a bustling medieval-style city.
He glanced at his boots, then toward the distant gates.
"I am absolutely not walking all that way," he said flatly.
He gripped the hilt of the Ketsugai, seamlessly channeling the dark spark in his chest. Shadow Slip. His physical form dissolved into the earth, turning into a swift, frictionless silhouette that tore down the side of the dirt road. He zipped past horse-drawn carriages and traveling merchants like a ghost, entering the city gates and weaving through the paved streets at extreme velocity before finally shooting upward out of a dark corner.
He stepped out of the darkness and immediately locked his eyes onto a massive, high-ceilinged building right in the center of the district. A weathered wooden sign hung proudly over the double doors:
Oakhaven's Adventurer's Guild - Central Branch.
Shin'ya formed a familiar, slightly mischievous grin. If there was one thing his anime-nerd brain knew back from Earth, it was the golden rule of fantasy dimensions.
He pushed the doors open and walked inside. The tavern side of the guild was noisy, filled with clanking tankards and rugged mercenaries, but Shin'ya walked straight past them toward the front desk.
The receptionist–a stern man with a sharp gaze–looked up from his paperwork. His eyes locked onto Shin'ya, taking a long, calculated look at the 14-year-old kid wearing a dirty Earth hoodie and carrying a pristine, pitch-black tachi at his waist.
The receptionist cleared his throat, leaning forward. "What can I do for you, kid?"
"I would like to become an adventurer, please," Shin'ya said, his tone perfectly calm.
The receptionist blinked, then chuckled softly. "Oh, so a member of the Adventurer's Guild? Sure, sure. Please come behind the building. We will check your skills, see what class you fit into, make some adjustments, and then we'll give you a ranking and your official Adventurer Card."
As Shin'ya followed the receptionist through the back exit into a massive, fenced-in training courtyard, his eyes scanned the environment. He was looking for one specific detail: Magic.
His ears picked up the conversations of several veteran adventurers resting on the side benches.
"So, what's your affinity?" a warrior asked, polishing his axe.
"Fire," a mage replied, conjuring a small flame above his palm. "Just the standard single-point affinity. Hard to cultivate, but it gets the job done."
Shin'ya froze mentally, a sudden realization clicking into place. Wait.... A single affinity ?They can only use a single element here?
In Yuki's world, magic was a vast, multi-layered spectrum. But here, the laws of the world restricted people to just one element. Since Shin'ya's internal magical circuits were entirely tied to the complex laws of his first isekai journey, his standard elemental magic was completely locked out here. He couldn't cast a single drop of traditional magic.
He looked at the receptionist and the burly Guild Evaluator who was stepping onto the dirt field, wielding a heavy wooden practice greatsword.
If I can't use regular magic, I Have to Adapt. Shin'ya thought, his fingers resting lightly on the Ketsugai. I'll just have to make think my single affinity is Shadows.
"Alright, kid," the Evaluator grunted, cracking his neck. "Show me what you've got. Don't hold back, because I won't."
The Evaluator lunged forward with terrifying speed, driving the heavy wooden blade downward in a crushing arc that would have shattered an ordinary rookie's collarbone.
But Shin'ya wasn't an ordinary rookie. His body had been forged in the absolute fires of Yuki's brutal, unforgiving, logic-defying training sessions. To Shin'ya, the Evaluator's "terrifying speed" looked like it was moving in slow motion.
Too slow, Shin'ya thought.
Instead of blocking, Shin'ya didn't even draw his blade. He simply pivoted on his heel, his reflexes completely flawless as the wooden sword shaved past his hoodie by a fraction of an inch.
Before the Evaluator could recover, Shin'ya's shadow violently expanded across the dirt. Shadow Slip. He vanished from the spot entirely.
"What—?!" the Evaluator gasped, his eyes widening as he stared at the empty space.
Zip. Shin'ya materialized directly behind the Evaluator's back, the sheathed Ketsugai already pressed gently against the man's lower spine. But he didn't stop there. Pushing his stamina, Shin'ya unleashed a controlled, low-output Shadow Slash
directly into the empty air above them.
A sharp, crescent wave of pure, condensed darkness cleaved through the air, creating a localized vacuum that tore a massive, clean rift through the heavy wooden targeting dummies lined up at the back of the courtyard. The shockwave of dark energy kicked up a fierce wind, blowing the Evaluator's hair back.
Silence descended over the courtyard. The resting adventurers on the benches stood up, their jaws dropping. The Evaluator slowly lowered his wooden sword, staring at the perfectly sliced pieces of reinforced oak in utter awe.
"Shadow magic... used seamlessly for high-speed relocation and physical reinforcement..." the receptionist stammered, frantically writing notes on his clipboard, his hands trembling. "Incredible. Absolutely flawless execution."
Shin'ya smoothly stepped back, letting out a breath as he pushed the Ketsugai securely against his hip. Thanks to Yuki's terrible, agonizing beatings, his muscle memory was practically high-tier boss level in a standard guild like this.
A few minutes later, Shin'ya was back inside the guild, standing at the reception desk. The receptionist was rapidly filling out a blank, metallic card, his attitude completely flipped into one of immense respect.
"We are finalizing your registration right now, sir," the receptionist said, looking up with a polite smile. "Oh, yes... one minor detail. We don't actually know your full name yet. Not even your first. Would you please tell us kindly what it is so we can stamp it onto the card?"
Shin'ya looked at the metallic card, letting out a quiet, tired sigh. He thought about Earth, he thought about the endless cycle of the worlds, and the weight of the journey ahead.
He spoke, his voice steady and clear:
"My name is Shin'ya Arata."
[To Be Continued]