The first thing Kenji Nakamura noticed wasn't the throbbing pain in his head or the taste of dirt in his mouth.
It was the serene silence.
No honking cars. No chattering students rushing to make it before the first bell. No familiar sounds of the city that had been his constant backdrop for seventeen years. Just... silence, broken only by an occasional creak from bare branches overhead.
What the hell?
Kenji's eyes snapped open, immediately squinting against the dim, gray light filtering down from above. This definitely wasn't the school rooftop where he'd been reading Jujutsu Kaisen during lunch break, trying to avoid another lecture from the student council about his perpetually untucked shirt.
Bare, twisted trees stretched in every direction like skeletal fingers reaching toward a perpetually overcast sky. Their leafless branches created an unsettling canopy that seemed to absorb light rather than filter it. The ground beneath him was hard-packed earth, dotted with gnarled roots and the occasional withered shrub. Everything felt... wrong. Oppressive. Like the air itself was thick with something that made his skin crawl.
"Oi, oi... what the actual hell?" he muttered, pushing himself up and brushing dirt off his navy blazer.
His mom had bought it three sizes too big "so he'd grow into it"—spoiler alert, he hadn't. Now it just made him look like he was wearing hand-me-downs, which technically he was.
This place looked like something out of a horror movie. Dead trees, creepy atmosphere, not a single bird or insect making noise. Either he'd hit his head harder than he thought, or...
Ding!
Kenji froze. That sound... every otaku knew that sound.
A translucent blue screen materialized in front of him, floating at eye level with text that pulsed with soft light.
『 CONGRATULATIONS! 』You have been blessed with the Cursed Techniques System!
Welcome, New User: Kenji Nakamura
Integration Complete
Cursed Energy Level: Grade 4 (Lowest) [ 0/1000 ]
Available NP (Negative Points): 100
IMPORTANT NOTICE:As the only cursed energy user in this dimension, all cursed spirit summons and shikigami will be visible to other inhabitants. User can invest NP to either buy Cursed techniques in shops or increase the cursed energy levels.
"No fucking way," Kenji breathed, staring at the screen. His mind raced through every isekai story he'd ever read. "This is actually happening? I got transported to another world with a cheat system?"
The excitement bubbled up in his chest. After seventeen years of being the most average guy imaginable—mediocre grades, no girlfriend, parents who were never home, surviving on convenience store food—finally something interesting was happening to him.
He could practically hear his favorite character's voice in his head. Time to embrace the protagonist life.
"I'd Adapt—"
THUD.
The ground shook so violently that Kenji stumbled, nearly falling over a protruding root. The system screen flickered and vanished as something massive landed behind him. The impact sent tremors through the dead forest's unstable ground.
Oh shit.
Slowly, very slowly, Kenji turned around.
A dragon stared back at him.
Not some cute, friendly dragon from children's stories. This was a creature of pure power and majesty. Her scales were the color of pale sapphires, each one gleaming despite the forest's dim light. Her head alone was the size of a small building, held high on a graceful neck that spoke of both elegance and devastating strength. Blue-white mist escaped her nostrils with each breath, and her eyes—massive, intelligent, and currently fixed on him—were the color of winter ice.
"Shit, shit, shit," Kenji whispered under his breath.
The dragon's gaze didn't waver. She studied him with the kind of focused attention that made him feel like an ant under a magnifying glass.
"A Human?" she said, and her voice was like roar of thunder—powerful enough to make his bones vibrate, but refined in a way that suggested centuries of noble upbringing "You dare enter my territory uninvited?"
Territory. Right. Dragons have territories. Kenji's brain finally started working again. "Um, look, I'm really sorry about that. I honestly have no idea how I got here. One minute I was on my school roof, next minute I'm... well, here."
"Your school roof?" The dragon's massive head tilted slightly. "You speak as if you simply appeared in my domain. No one can simply appear here, boy. They travel through the established routes, with proper permissions and escorts."
Established routes? Permissions? This sounded like there was some kind of system in place. A supernatural government maybe? "I, uh, I don't really know about any routes or permissions. Like I said, I just kind of... woke up here."
The dragon's eyes narrowed. "You claim ignorance of the most basic protocols, governing travel through supernatural territories? Either you are lying, or you are remarkably foolish."
"Probably the second one," Kenji admitted, shoving his hands deeper into his pockets. "I'm not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. But I'm definitely not lying about not knowing where I am. This place..." He gestured at the dead trees around them. "It's not exactly in any travel brochures I've signed up for."
"This is the Familiar Forest," the dragon said, as if that should explain everything. "A neutral ground where contracts between devils and their familiars are forged. No human should be here without express permission from the Devil Council or sufficient supernatural backing."
Devils. Familiar Forest. Something clicked in Kenji's mind—fragments of stories he'd read, anime he'd watched. But this was real. Actually real.
"Devils," he repeated slowly, trying to process it. "Like, actual devils? With the whole... supernatural thing?"
The dragon's expression shifted slightly. "You speak as if the existence of devils surprises you. Most humans aware enough to find their way here already know of our kind."
"Right, yeah, of course," Kenji said quickly, realizing he probably sounded like an idiot. "I mean, I've heard things. Rumors about supernatural stuff happening around the world. But hearing about it and actually meeting a dragon are two very different things."
The dragon didn't sound convinced. "And what, exactly, is a human who knows nothing of devil society doings, wandering alone in the Familiar Forest?"
"That's... a really good question that I don't have a good answer for." Kenji's hand went to the back of his neck, fingers picking at a loose thread on his collar. "Look, I know this sounds crazy, but I honestly don't remember how I got here. I was just a normal high school student, and now..." He trailed off, not wanting to mention the system.
The dragon remained silent for a long moment, those piercing blue eyes studying him. When she spoke again, her voice carried a weight that made the air itself seem heavier.
"I am Tiamat," she declared. "The Chaos Karma Dragon. This forest has been under my protection for centuries, and I do not take kindly to trespassers."
Tiamat. One of the Dragon Kings. Kenji felt his stomach drop to somewhere around his ankles. He was standing in front of one of the most powerful beings in this world, and she was clearly not happy about uninvited guests.
"I am Kenji. Kenji Nakamura." His voice cracked slightly on his own name. "And I really, really don't want any trouble. I'm just trying to figure out where I am and how to get... well, somewhere that isn't here."
"Kenji Nakamura," Tiamat repeated, her voice rolling the syllables around like she was testing them. "A Japanese name. Yet you carry no scent of devil, angel, or fallen angel. No magical signature that I can detect. You appear to be completely mundane."
Good. She can't sense the cursed energy. "Yeah, that's me. Completely ordinary. Nothing special at all."
"Hmm." Tiamat's massive form shifted slightly, and Kenji caught a glimpse of just how enormous she really was. Her body disappeared into the shadows between the trees, but what he could see suggested she was easily the size of a passenger jet. "Ordinarily, I would incinerate any one foolish enough to wander into my territory without permission."
Kenji's heart did something that felt suspiciously like trying to escape through his throat. "O-ordinarily?"
"However," Tiamat continued, her tone almost conversational, "it has been quite some time since anything has genuinely puzzled me. A human who speaks of supernatural rumors yet claims to have simply appeared in the Familiar Forest with no memory of how he arrived..." She leaned forward slightly, bringing that massive head closer to his eye level. "Quite intriguing, won't you agree? Little one"
The system screen flickered back into existence at the edge of his vision, completely invisible to the dragon. Kenji could see the shop menu was still available, showing his 100 NP and the various techniques he could purchase. The Frost Calm was still highlighted for 5000 NP.
"So tell me, Kenji Nakamura," Tiamat said, her voice dropping to something that was almost a whisper but still carried the weight of avalanches. "Should I simply kill you for your trespass and be done with it? Or would it be more... fun... to discover what other surprises you might provide?"
The dead forest seemed to hold its breath. Even the occasional creaking of branches had stopped. Kenji stood frozen, very aware that his next words might determine whether he lived to see another day in this strange new world.
Well, he thought, staring into those massive blue eyes, this is definitely not how I expected my isekai adventure to start.