I told Sarasa about Earth, and she gave me a pitiful look.

  “Is your head okay? I can spoil you again today if you want.” We were sitting next to each other on the bed. She leaned forward as if ready to comfort me.

  “No… I’m being serious here. I’m from another world. Dammit… You never get stuck on the details, so why can’t you just believe me this time?” When I invited her over, I was expecting a simple ‘sounds cool, let’s go’ type of reaction. Why did she have to be sane now of all times?

  “If you ask me to disarm a trap, I wouldn’t care. I know I can do it one way or the other. Selling me that another world exists? That’s a different story.” She shrugged.

  “I was not expecting you’d be harder to convince than Ririna…”

  “What can I say? You filled that girl’s head with roses, and now she can’t think straight.” She chuckled. “I, however, am a woman of integrity. Even if I love you, that doesn’t mean I trust you blindly.” She proudly smirked while tapping her puffed chest.

  “You? Integrity? After sucking up to Bea and Galene?” I let out a sigh… “But whatever… If you don’t wanna just believe me, I’ll show you proof.”

  I reached for my things and pulled out my sword. I showed her the compact form and had the sword extend with the click of a button. Sarasa saw the sword extend but didn’t look too surprised.

  “What?” She was even confused, unsure of what the proof was.

  “What do you mean ‘what’? It extended! I told you my world is more technologically advanced, right? My sword is a product of that technology.”

  “Oh really…” She was slightly impressed. “But there are people here that can make extending swords… In fact, I thought Ririna had made that for you.”

  That wasn’t enough? “Yo- you’re joking… Ririna couldn’t-” Actually, she probably could… She made the weird chainsaw axe… An extending blade wouldn’t be out of the picture. The empowering effect is a different story, but it’s not easy to show…

  “Fine, what about this then?” I reached for my stuff again and placed my pistol on the bed, between the two of us. “Know what this is? It’s a type of weapon very common in our world.”

  “Nyahahahahaha! Of course I know what that is, Iroha. Don’t act so smug!” She pointed and tapped my forehead. “They’re super rare, but I’ve heard of them before. That’s a gun!”

  Another failure?!

  “Really cool, though! It’s my first time seeing one… You shot it against the undead, right? Let me take a look!” She eagerly grabbed the gun and analyzed it from every angle. Then she gripped it as intended, pointed it at the wall, and… “Bang!” … “Why didn’t it fire? Does it hate me?” I couldn’t stop her in time.

  “Don’t do that, idiot! That’s dangerous!” Good thing I always take the magazine out like Katja taught me. I forcefully retrieved the gun from her hands and put it away. Sarasa is not to be trusted with firearms. Mental note taken. “*Sigh…* Do you believe me now?”

  “What do you mean? They’re rare, but having a gun doesn’t prove you’re from another world. Is that all the proof you have?” I should have seen this coming… You can equip guns in game… No wonder that doesn’t convince her.

  “This is all I have left, then.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. She was immediately intrigued, then really surprised when the screen lit up. “See? So many things moving…” It’s like I’m speaking to a toddler. “It even plays music.”

  “Ohh…!” Her jaw completely dropped. She grabbed my hand while inching closer and closer to the screen. “That looks like it would sell for a lot. Can you give me that? I’ll turn it into more money than you’ll ever need! I’ll even find a doctor to treat your delusions!”

  “Geez, it’s not a delusion! This is a phone… It’s really common in our world. Hell, I’m even getting you one at some point. Don’t you dare sell it off.”

  Sarasa’s act immediately switched up.

  “Like a gift? Please do! I really want one now! I would never ever sell something someone gave me as a gift! You can trust me on that.” She was now sucking up to me. “I’ll even return the favor… And if you can get me more than one… Nishihihihi…” Seriously… Don’t.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “So, you’re interested then? Will you come see where I’m from? I’ll need a few days to get things ready… And I want to invite Ririna too, but what about it?”

  “Of course, of course… Wherever my lovely girlfriend wants to go, I’ll go! To the land of phone!” I can see the greed in her eyes.

  …

  I went back to the dorm, my head filled with problems to solve. Can’t believe how hard it was to convince Sarasa Earth existed… That is, if I even managed to convince her.

  What should we do when she’s here? We’ll have to get her some clothes, but… What else? I want to show her something fun… Oh, and I need to invite Ririna too… Hope she’s not too busy…

  “Iroha. Sorry, but I didn’t know you were here today. Were you out on a walk?” I was just about to enter the dorm when I bumped into Katja outside.

  “Yeah… I guess you could say I was training…” She was returning from outside the House. Must have gone out again. She’s been pretty busy lately.

  “You’re keeping up with your training, huh? That’s commendable. Saddens me to know I may not have much else to teach you.” She should be happy I’m improving, no? Then again, she does like training people… “Anyway, it’s good that you’re here. Nice timing.” She has to train others since she herself can’t improve…? What was up with that?

  “Huh?” I was in a bit of a daze and took a second to respond. “Nice timing? What do you mean? Is something going on?”

  She shook her head. “It’s nothing serious, but I need to talk with you and the others. Come with me, and let’s see who’s around.” Katja opened the dorm’s door, and we went inside.

  “Who goes there? Uninvited guests will join us as appetizers for tonight’s feast.” Hecate was just about visible from the entrance, busily washing some dishes. She slowly turned her head without stopping her hands. “Well, we make exceptions.”

  “Good thing we don’t get many uninvited guests. I have no doubt you’d follow through with that.” Katja joked while the two of us approached. “Would you mind gathering soon? I wanna talk to everyone.”

  …

  “So…? What’s this about?” Everyone currently in the House gathered at the dining table. Narumi was looking a little grumpy and was complaining from the very beginning. “I was having such a nice dream… I was gonna nap through the whole afternoon…”

  “I want you to listen too, okay?” Katja looked around the table, and someone was missing. “Where is Carol? Is she not around?”

  “She left the dorm earlier to train.” Hecate said. She’s been working hard, hasn’t she? “I can give her a call if you want. Otherwise, I’ll relay your words to her later.”

  “If she’s training, I really can’t bother her.” Katja was proud yet troubled, a little conflicted. “It’s not really urgent… Sorry, but can you tell her later for me?” Hecate nodded.

  “Uhmm… Did something happen with the PSF?” Last time I saw her, they asked her to pay them a visit. “That has to be it… Are we in trouble?”

  “That has been settled… Shinji and I managed to explain what happened both in the harbor and on the cruise ship.”

  “What did they want?”

  “The usual. Scapegoats for problems and laurels for solutions. We got them off our case.” She shrugged her shoulders. Sigh… Anything less than perfect that we did is our fault, but our ultimate success is theirs… So scummy… They better not bother my girls anymore…

  “What I really wanted to talk about was this.”

  Katja brought out a paper cup and placed it on the table. It was the kind of cup you’d see at fast food places, and it was… “Oh! You brought drinks for us? How nice of you… Gah! It’s empty?” Yep. It was empty. Narumi got excited for nothing.

  Hecate and I looked seriously at the cup, but there was nothing wrong with it. Nothing visibly wrong, at least.

  “So? What’s so special about this cup?” Hecate was unimpressed.

  “I’m not sure, but I got this cup like we got that mirror…” Mirror? Does she mean the one from… “When I was going back and forth between the PSF, I got attacked by a monster in an alleyway. It ended up not being that strong, but it turned into a cup when I defeated it.”

  “Another one?!” I blurted out in shock. “Wh- what did it look like? The monster?”

  “Hmm… Like a big snail? Maybe it was more like a crab… It had a tall shell on its back but attacked using pincers. Those were pretty sturdy, but the main body was soft. Once I got past the pincers, it was easy to deliver the finishing blow.”

  A crab… a shell… a cup… Combining that with what Endell said…

  “Either way, I just wanted to share this with you. It’s the second time we’ve come across a monstera that turned into an object, and it probably won’t be the last… Shinji and I sent the mirror to get looked at, but we still haven’t learned anything. Keep your guard up and report anything new you learn.”

  “Hey…” Katja and Narumi didn’t know my secrets yet. I couldn’t just spill everything, but I still wanted to help out. “This is just an idea, but what if the objects we found were turned into monsters and not the other way around?”

  “Yeah, yeah! They do that all the time in FPS games… Wait… was it in magical girl shows?” That’s Narumi, surprisingly on point despite the complete miss at first.

  “I guess it’s a possibility…” Katja more or less ignored Narumi. “But what makes you think that? And does it make a difference either way?”

  “Well… If you turn a cup upside down, doesn’t it kinda look like a shell? Would it look like the shell you saw?” I turned the cup upside down, and Katja nodded while holding her chin. “And it makes a big difference, I think… If it is the objects that are turning into monsters, we can look into why. Why are they turning into monsters instead of why are monsters turning into objects. Maybe there’s a way to stop those monsters from appearing in the first place.”

  Katja seemed convinced… A small smile appeared on her lips.

  “Then we can focus on finding the one making them transform and stop them.” Wait, that’s too far. “If we find that it is someone behind it… Could also be like… A monster creating more monsters…”

  Still possible with what Endell told me. The monsters were born from a skill. Monsters can use skills. Even I’m not sure if they’re human… Though, it seemed likely it was someone in our world.

  “I see… Gives us a goal to work towards… Thanks, Iroha. I’ll discuss it with Shinji. Let me know if you find anything else.” We nodded. I would like to tell her about the dinosaur in the art gallery too, but it’d just arouse too much suspicion.

  Now the only thing left is the stuff with Sarasa… What am I gonna do with her? Hopefully Ririna can come too, so it’d be nice if it was something we could do with a few people…

  “Uhmm… What if we all went to the beach this week-”

  “Yaaayy! We’re going to the beach! No idea where that came from, but yay!”

  “Narumi?! You didn’t even let me finish! It is unrelated, though.” Narumi was immediately on board, but Katja and Hecate were both confused.

  “You want to go to the beach? If you’re asking, I don’t mind, but why?” Hecate brought a hand to her face.

  “Were you asking for this weekend? I suppose I’m free, but I also want to know why.”

  “Who cares why? Let’s go!”

  Narumi wanted to jump to the conclusion, but I explained myself to them anyway. “I have a few… friends… that I want to set up something for, and I thought I could invite you too… Is that okay?”

  “Yep! It’s cool!” Narumi showed me a thumbs up. “We’re all in, and if someone tries to tell you otherwise, ignore them. They’re lying. Carol says yes too!” Narumi made the decision for everyone, even those who weren’t here.

  With how excited she was, there was no way Katja and Hecate would speak against the idea. Not that they wanted to. It’s fine. Guess we’ll go. They smiled while agreeing with Narumi.

  Things in the other world may not have gone great, but not everything’s bad. I’ve made plans with the girls of the House. Need to confirm things with Ririna and Sarasa, and… Was there someone else? I’m not forgetting their swimsuits, though.

  Gotta buy swimsuits for them before we go to the beach…