Ring ring ring... ring ring ring....
Morning sunlight had long since spilled through the glass windows, washing over the wreckage of the hall. The four of them who had held the party the night before were crammed together, having made do and slept like that through the night.
Ring ring ring.....
"Will someone turn that off!" Sebastian, jolted awake and in a thoroughly foul mood, was the first to wrench his eyes open in fury.
The alarm had been going for a while now, and not one of the other three had so much as stirred to silence it.
Face dark, he cast around for the source of the noise.
He stepped over Kotobuki's arm, trod on Iori's face, and finally wrenched the still-buzzing phone out of the soundly sleeping Tokita's hand.
Once Sebastian had fumbled the alarm off, the screen returned automatically to the home display.
7:48.
Sebastian stared at the number for two or three seconds.
"What time did they say we had to be there today?"
"Eight o'clock, wasn't it?"
Iori, roused from sleep by Sebastian accidentally standing on his face moments ago, was sitting up and rubbing his cheek.
Worth noting: the assembled group were, at this point, largely unclothed. The scene was not easy on the eyes.
"Eight o'clock, right. And it's only 7:40, so we've still got plen—"
Sebastian's muttering cut off. His body went rigid. He slowly looked up and locked eyes with Iori, who wore an expression of identical blankness.
"AAAAAAGH!"
The ensuing chaos — two people sprinting around the room in a panic — succeeded in waking the two upperclassmen still on the floor.
"Do you two have to be this loud first thing in the morning?" Kotobuki rubbed his head and looked at Sebastian with mild reproach.
"You said you were going to wake us up today, senior!!"
Sebastian pointed at him in anguished accusation, addressing an Kotobuki who did not yet appear to fully understand what was happening.
"There's still ten-odd minutes. Worst case, Tokita and I drive you there." Kotobuki climbed to his feet and stretched out a leisurely yawn.
"Then please, let's go now — I am not showing up late on my first day of university!" Iori's face was all urgency.
"Fair enough. Tokita and I will get the car — you two get yourselves together and come out." The two upperclassmen rose with efficient ease and went outside to bring the vehicle around.
"Wait — where are our clothes?"
Iori scrambled around desperately searching for his trousers and found nothing.
"Good morning~!"
Just then, Nanaka — who had slipped away at some point the previous night — came yawning down from the second floor.
"Nanaka, where are our clothes?" Iori rushed over to her.
"Your clothes? Oh — right, you were all throwing them everywhere last night and they got soaked in alcohol, so I went ahead and sent them all to the laundry."
"Nanaka, what have you done!" Iori clutched his head and sank into a crouch in despair.
"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry — you all looked like you were having such a good time last night, I assumed you didn't have anything today.... That said, Iori, you do have spare clothes, don't you?"
"They're all in my big suitcase upstairs, and there's absolutely no time to go digging through it now!"
Sebastian watched Nanaka apologizing frantically and felt a creeping numbness spread through him.
He had exactly one set of clothes to his name — the ones that kind police officer had given him — which put him in an even worse position than Iori.
"Well — we do have beach shorts here for guests. If there's truly no other option, you could make do with these for now!"
In her desperation, Nanaka grabbed two pairs of tourist swim shorts from the rack nearby and thrust them at Sebastian and Iori.
"Is this... really all right?" Sebastian held the shorts and wavered.
"What are you hesitating for, Sebastian?! We're about to be late! This is the brand-new university life I've been looking forward to — I absolutely cannot fall behind on day one!"
Hearing Iori's passionate declaration, Sebastian shed his hesitation on the spot, pulled the shorts on in seconds flat, and charged out the door alongside him.
"Outrageous! This is the start of my brand-new life too — I refuse to fall behind!!"
The two of them burst through the front door just as Kotobuki had reversed the flatbed truck — yesterday's people-carrier — around to meet them. Sebastian grabbed Iori, the two of them launched themselves forward, and they landed together with a thud on the cargo bed at the back.
"Alright, you two hold on back there — I'm going full speed!"
Kotobuki, from the driver's seat, saw them land on the flatbed and floored the accelerator.
Vrrrmmm — VROOM————
Under Kotobuki's handling, the little truck hurtled onto the road at a speed no little truck had any business achieving, screaming all the way toward Izu University.
...
"Uuugh...."
Outside the gates of Izu University, Iori was hunched under a large tree, retching without pause. Sebastian crouched beside him in a vague gesture of comfort, patting his back in an occasional, half-hearted rhythm.
"Please — stop patting my back and find me some water." Iori turned his head with great effort and looked at Sebastian in appeal.
"I don't have any money." Sebastian answered honestly.
"You—!" Iori started to say something sharp, but his stomach lurched again and forced him to turn away and continue being sick.
Kotobuki and Tokita, having parked and folded themselves out of the cab, strolled over with their arms crossed, looking rather pleased with themselves.
"Well? Didn't I say I'd get you both here safely before eight?"
"Getting us here, sure. Safely is debatable." Sebastian said flatly.
For reasons he couldn't quite explain, Sebastian seemed to have developed a certain resistance to dizziness. Perhaps the system's habit of walloping the back of his skull had produced some unintended benefit.
That thought reminded him — he still had five unspent mission points sitting there untouched.
He couldn't really be blamed for forgetting. Ever since he'd anesthetized the upperclassmen, his head hadn't been in a particularly clear state, and it simply hadn't occurred to him.
Five points was now enough to redeem an ability fruit — the kind that enhanced his physical capabilities across the board.
Use it now, or hold onto it in case something comes up later? Sebastian turned it over in his mind.
Reviewing his time since crossing over, he figured a daily mission came in roughly every three days or so. At that rate, the odds of accumulating more points were decent enough. There wasn't much reason to hoard these five.
Forget it — spend now, think later.
Sebastian made up his mind and opened the shop. He selected a fruit that enhanced baseline physical functions.
Why that one specifically? Fast alcohol metabolism.
In all seriousness — beyond the metabolism boost, a baseline physical enhancement fruit improved lung capacity, muscle strength, reflexes, and more. At this price point, it was comfortably the best value among the available options.
People who cross into other worlds get flashy magic and supernatural powers. Why is it that my grand adventure in another world consists entirely of drinking?
Sebastian grumbled inwardly as he reached out and tapped the translucent shop interface.
In the next instant, a small red fruit — vivid as a cherry — materialized in his open palm.
Without a word he pinched it up and put it in his mouth.
The moment it touched his tongue it dissolved immediately into liquid.
The warmth spread down his throat and moved outward through his limbs and veins, and gradually Sebastian felt his whole body fill with a deep, comfortable heat.
His blood quickened. Cells surged and renewed. Muscle fiber tightened and swelled.
The sensation lasted two or three minutes. When the warmth finally faded, Sebastian could feel plainly that something about him was different.
The world, which had always carried a faint haze for him, was suddenly sharp and clear — as if a pane of smudged glass that had been sitting between him and everything else had been shattered. Every detail before him stood out in crisp relief.
He closed his hand into a fist. The strength coiled in his palm was startling — the surge of it gave him the fleeting, heady impression that he could punch a bull to the ground.
Beyond the strength, even his breathing had changed. Each breath came easier than the last, as though he'd set down some weight he'd been carrying so long he'd stopped noticing it.
Three minutes ago, Sebastian had been an ordinary university student — one whose body, if anything, was on the fragile side.
Now, he felt as though he could hold his own against a professional athlete.
"That really is... something."
Sebastian murmured, eyes closing as he took in the changes moving through him.
When he opened them again, the excitement in his gaze was barely contained.
Things like this — strange, impossible things — were going to be a part of his everyday life from now on.
From the perspective of any passerby at the gates of Izu University: a young man wearing nothing but a pair of beach shorts, crouched next to a completely naked man who was still vomiting, suddenly leapt to his feet in the middle of the crowd and shouted:
"New world — here I come!!"