The small room was a shrine to all things otaku.
Posters of 2D anime characters covered every inch of the walls.
A bookshelf strained under the weight of stacked manga volumes, many read until their spines gave out.
There was one small bed, three fluffy pillows...
And, proudly claiming the fourth spot—
A body pillow printed with none other than the Shadow Monarch himself.
A computer hummed quietly on the desk, its screen paused on an anime episode.
The silence broke with the slow, ominous creak of the door.
Creek.
A figure stepped in.
A girl in her school uniform—socks mismatched, hair slightly messy from the wind—entered in a hurry.
She slammed the door behind her—
—but stopped it just inches from fully closing.
"...That was close. If it slammed, the landlady might've woken up," she whispered.
Carefully, she eased it shut.
On the back of the door was a sticker:
"Aiko" – written in bubbly letters, with a tiny cartoon chibi next to it.
Aiko threw herself face-first into bed.
"Ugh… today was exhausting.
She rolled over, eyes darting toward the clock.
"Only 30 minutes of break before my side job…"
Her hand flopped over her forehead.
"And tomorrow is my exam. Ugh. Should I just give up already…?"
A long pause.
Then Aiko sat up, fire in her eyes.
"No way. I'll never accept defeat! I can do this. I will go to my dream college! That's my ninja way!" (・o・)
Suddenly—
"WHY ARE YOU SO LOUD, AIKO?!"
The voice of the landlady echoed from downstairs.
Aiko flinched.
"S-Sorry!! "
She sank back into bed.
"Still… I deserve this 30-minute break."
Her gaze landed on the computer screen.
"Oh right… that episode. Still paused."
She squinted.
"What anime was it again? Oh yeah—isekai."
A wistful sigh escaped her lips.
"I wish I'd get isekai'd too… no more problems, no more part-time jobs…"
Her eyelids fluttered shut.
She drifted into sleep.
A soft, blue light began to swirl around Aiko's body.
It glowed brighter, pulsing in rhythm with her breathing.
The air shimmered like heatwaves in summer.
Slowly, Aiko lifted off the bed—floating gently in mid-air, as if caught in a dream.
And then—
SHWUMP!
She was yanked straight down into the bed, as if the mattress itself had become a portal.
A second later, silence returned.
Until—
KA-BOOOOOM!!!
A truckexploded through the third-floor wall, obliterating manga stacks, posters, and even the sacred Shadow Monarch body pillow.
The front bumper stuck halfway into the room, smoke hissing from its dented hood.
From the driver's seat, a man in sunglasses leaned out and scanned the now-empty space.
"...Tch. Too late."
He opened the glove box and pulled out a clipboard titled:
Isekai Transfer List – Today's Schedule
Hiro Tanaka – Reincarnated by Magic Slime
Rena Akimoto – Transported via Exploding VR Headset
Aiko Mimori – Magic Circle✓ ✓Truck-kun Pending → COMPLETED
The driver sighed and clicked his pen.
"Man… a rare double-fate case. Haven't seen one of those since 1987."
He tossed the clipboard onto the dashboard, shifted into reverse, and calmly backed out through the destroyed wall like it was just another Tuesday.