At first, I thought it was an earthquake.
I was thrown into the air even though I was already seated for homeroom.
I realized it wasn't the moment my butt hit the floor.
It was hard.
It had changed into something like marble. The desks and chairs were gone, and all my classmates were scattered around me in their school uniforms, arranged according to the seating chart.
In the spot where the teacher's podium had been, stood our second-year homeroom teacher. She, too, was clutching her backside, her eyes wide with astonishment at this abnormal situation.
"No way," someone nearby muttered.
"Could this be... that famous vanishing act, the 'Kamikakushi' (spirited away by gods)...?"
Kamikakushi.
The word spread like ripples throughout the class.
The boy—Ren Fujisaki—understood. "Ah, so that's what it is." At the same time, he thought, "What terrible luck."
He sighed, looking up at the ceiling.
All the sounds, including the surrounding screams, were swallowed up by the stone temple.
--------------------
The time rewinds slightly.
At Ren's desk, waiting for morning homeroom, his classmate Fuuri Shiina had come over to spill unsolicited gossip.
"I think the Kamikakushi is going to happen again this year, soon."
"I've heard that story so many times already."
When he frowned slightly, suggesting he was bored, the petite, talkative girl chuckled, "Sorry, sorry," and then continued the story.
"But seriously, if it happens this year, it'll be the thirtieth time, right? Aren't you excited?"
"A mysterious mass disappearance is scary, if anything."
However, Ren's opinion seemed to be in the minority. Several groups around the class were discussing the same thing.
Their faces showed no distress. They just had the expectant look one might have for an Olympic-like event.
"Thirty consecutive years of mass Kamikakushi, huh."
"It feels like an urban legend, but it's a genuine incident."
The "Kamikakushi" Ren and his classmates were talking about first occurred thirty years ago. One day, at a certain high school in Japan, an entire class of students vanished without a trace.
It happened in broad daylight, and there were many other people in the school building. It was virtually impossible for an entire group to disappear without anyone noticing.
Naturally, the incident was featured prominently in the next day's newspapers.
Dubbed the "Heisei Kamikakushi," inexplicably, it has continued to occur every year around this time at some school somewhere.
It was nothing short of a bizarre incident.
Fuuri rested her arms and elbows on Ren's desk, her eyes sparkling.
"What do you think the cause is, Fujisaki-kun?"
"I don't know. But if it was a kidnapping, there are easier ways. Like targeting a school trip."
"Then, maybe it really is a Kamikakushi."
Even investigations hadn't revealed much detail.
Apparently, some high school students had recently been taking time off from school out of fear.
Ren was a first-year high school student. This was his first year as a potential target, but he couldn't bring himself to skip school. Although the Kamikakushi generally occurs around this time—about two months after the start of the school year—the exact date is inconsistent. He couldn't just stay home until it was safe.
Besides, there are countless high schools. Since only one class is affected each year, the probability is about the same as dying in a plane crash.
He could understand why Fuuri and the others discussed it as if it were happening to someone else.
Just then, Fuuri playfully poked Ren's arm, looking delighted.
"You're entertaining my story, after all."
"...I'm bored, so I can't help it."
He shrugged.
Ignoring her gaze, which seemed to say, You're not being honest, she began another trivial topic with, "By the way..."
"Oh no. Looks like the teacher is here. See you later."
"You don't need to come back."
Classmates who sensed the homeroom teacher's arrival began moving quickly.
A few minutes later—Ren had no idea at the time that they would become the subjects of the Kamikakushi.
--------------------
"Welcome, new comrades. While I sympathize with your misfortune, I wholeheartedly welcome your arrival."
"Wh-who are you!?"
"Wait, I'm not a suspicious person. I'm a former Japanese person, just like you."
There was another person in the temple besides Ren and his classmates.
A somewhat thin, middle-aged man with glasses, wearing a robe that looked straight out of a video game. As he claimed to be Japanese, his skin, eye, and hair color were familiar.
His gesture of spreading his hands wide to calm them was like that of a stage actor or performer, but—
"Do you... know what this place is?" the teacher asked.
"Ah, yes, I do," he nodded deeply.
"This is the 'Temple of the Labyrinth.' An Isekai (another world) dungeon that summons new victims once a year."
"Another world? This isn't a manga!"
"Wait. Once a year, you say...?"
"Exactly. I came here thirty years ago. In other words, I'm a survivor of the very first victims of the phenomenon you call the Kamikakushi."
Everyone fell silent for a moment.
"Does that mean all the Kamikakushi incidents until now were...?"
"Yes. They were all caused by the Temple's summons. I have met every single one of them. Before I knew it, this became my role—to guide you."
"Where are those people now!?"
"They are outside. You can't see them now, but a town is spread out all around us."
The structure, like the Parthenon in Greece, had only columns and a ceiling, with no walls. Currently, the surroundings were enveloped in a glow, and the view outside was indeed obscured.
There was no way to verify the man's words, but since so many abnormal things had already happened, saying "it's logically impossible" no longer held any meaning.
"Why were we brought here?"
"The Temple will show you that. The message should appear soon."
The prophecy quickly became reality.
Just as the surroundings, and then the entire temple, began to glow, characters floated into the air. They were unlike any language anyone had seen, yet their meaning was somehow understandable.
The message read:
"Seek, and the world shall be opened. Pioneer, and the world shall be created. O Heroes, become the Saviors."
The glowing script gradually faded after about a minute and eventually disappeared completely.
Simultaneously, a section of the floor slid open with a rattling sound. Several people nearby hastily jumped back.
What appeared was a staircase leading downward.
It was bathed in a faint, mysterious light, so descending didn't seem difficult, but it spiraled down, making the end invisible.
"This is the entrance to the Labyrinth. Conquering it is our mission and a thirty-year-long earnest desire."
"A dungeon that hasn't been conquered in thirty years...?"
They gasped.
A considerable number of people had disappeared over those thirty years. Must they still challenge a place whose full scope they could not grasp?
Then, the man smiled and said, "Don't worry. The Temple grants a blessing, not just a mission."
"What 'blessing'!? This is clearly a punishment!"
"The blessing is the minimum power needed to survive. In most cases, it involves equipment and abilities suited to a specific role, such as a warrior or a mage."
"What is that? It really is like a game."
"Japan is as peaceful as ever, it seems. Please, make use of your experience with advanced games to help conquer the Labyrinth."
Before the man had finished speaking, Ren and his classmates began to glow.
Cries of confusion and excitement erupted. The former mainly from the girls, the latter from the boys.
Some were already starting to adapt—or perhaps, they had no choice but to believe.
And indeed, the 'blessings' began to be bestowed one after another.
"Whoa, my uniform is...!? Is this a sword and armor?"
"Mine looks like a mage's staff!"
Their uniforms vanished, replaced by the gear of novice adventurers. The boy who was now dressed like a warrior seemed, if anything, to have a better physique.
Was this like a starting-bonus character creation in a game?
Thanks to their comrades who had finished first, they knew there was no immediate harm. Ren, too, was supposed to receive some kind of power, and as a boy, he couldn't help but feel a slight anticipation.
If possible, he hoped for a strong and cool profession—
"Oh...!?"
The light receded.
One of his classmates looked at him, their eyes wide with surprise.
Ren would have preferred it if they were looking at him in the brave and dignified form of a hero.
"Who is that? Is that you, Fujisaki-kun?"
A skeptical voice was accompanied by a small "flap-flap" sound of something cutting the air.
He looked down at a body that was petite and delicate, with paler skin. The outfit was minimal, like a swimsuit or lingerie, just black innerwear. On his back was a pair of small, bat-like wings.
Slightly above his backside was a short tail with a heart-shaped tip.
As he frantically looked around in surprise, his dark purple hair lightly brushed his exposed shoulders.
"Wh-what is this?"
His voice felt higher, too. This wasn't what he'd heard, and it made no sense. This wasn't a hero, or even a profession.
"Oh! Is that a demon—no, a succubus? Either way, what a magnificent 'blessing.' Species diversity leads to richness!"
The senior transfer student was clearly overjoyed, but Ren could not bring himself to be happy.
If the man's assessment was correct, Ren was now a succubus.
The characteristics of this species, which occasionally appears in manga and games, are—
"They're good at, you know, doing erotic things with men, right?"
"Seriously? Fujisaki, that's amazing!"
If this were a game, he would immediately hit the reset button, but alas, in reality, there were no do-overs.
--------------------
About a month passed after that—
"Ren, you're out of the party. You're useless."
"Yeah, I'll quit without you even asking! It doesn't matter how many times I say 'I'm a guy,' you never get it!"
Ren, who had come to be known as 'Ren the Succubus,' had a dramatic falling out with his party, composed entirely of classmates he had been with since the transfer.
He grabbed his belongings from the house they had bought together and walked out into the town with nowhere particular to go.
In the corner of his eye was the 'Temple' situated on the high ground. This was the town built around the Temple, the entrance to the Labyrinth. The population was about a thousand people.
Because it was built from scratch by the senior transfer students, it lacked a certain liveliness, but it had most of the things needed for daily life and adventure.
Its greatest advantage was the good public safety for a fantasy-style world, with virtually no suspicious riff-raff.
"...Damn it. Those guys, saying whatever they wanted."
There were many buildings in the town despite the limited population. This was naturally due to the need for necessary facilities like inns, weapon shops, and armor shops, as well as the need for numerous dwellings built for the increasing number of 'new arrivals' each year.
Thanks to this, recent transfer students apparently didn't struggle to find a base. In fact, Ren and his group had acquired a house easily and healed their exhaustion from the dungeon with rest.
That same house was the one he had just been kicked out of.
"There are plenty of empty houses anyway. I don't need to force myself to hang out with those guys."
Taking advantage of the good public order, Ren sat down on a random roadside.
He rummaged through his pack, pulled out a liquor bottle, uncorked it, and drank directly from it.
The strong distilled spirit, as it was classified, could make one quite drunk with a small amount. There was no one here to be strict about things like being a minor, and he was in the mood to get drunk.
"They stop harassing you, and this is what happens? Ren, you're bold."
"It's fine. I couldn't drink much in front of them because it would be troublesome."
He shrugged, shaking the shapeless robe that covered him completely from the neck down.
As a succubus, Ren naturally charmed the opposite sex just by being there. Since he had discovered that covering his skin could suppress that effect, he had been wearing this kind of clothing all the time.
He frowned at the teasing words from a familiar person, took another sip of alcohol, and looked up at the lightly dressed girl standing nearby and peering down at him.
"Why are you here, Fuuri?"
"Because I quit the party too."
The girl, Fuuri—now known as Fuuri the Thief (responsible for finding and disarming traps, among other things)—said this casually and sat down beside him.
She sat so close that their shoulders touched, and then she silently snatched the bottle. He thought she might scold him for drinking too much, but she took two sips, handed it back, and said, "Thanks."
"If Ren's not there, I don't want to be in that place."
"Wh-what's that supposed to mean?"
He blushed, thinking Ah, so that's why she was so close to me.
"I'd definitely get my hands on if I was alone."
"Hey, don't count me as a woman."
"But you're a succubus."
Guh, Ren was speechless.
Fuuri and the other party members had treated him like a girl in this way. It was true that the current Ren had a feminine face and a delicate, 'needs-to-be-protected' aura, but this treatment was unfair.
"Even if I'm a succubus, I'm a guy. My body hasn't become a woman's either."
Ren still had the "things a man should have."
He had become cute, but he hadn't undergone a sex change.
"I know. You even showed me directly."
"I didn't show you, you forced me to look!"
By the way, her reaction at the time was "cute," which was well received. He wasn't happy at all, of course.
"...Look, maybe you've had boyfriends or something. But what's with that attitude towards a guy?"
"Huh? I'm a virgin, though?"
"So don't say things like that so casually!?"
"It's okay. I think of Ren as my girl friend."
Perhaps drunk from the earlier sips, Fuuri laughed merrily and hugged him. He had realized several times over the past month that, despite her small chest, her body was soft.
"Since we're out, why don't we level up and become even cuter?"
"I don't want to level up because I'll become cuter."
Ren took a gulp of alcohol and sighed.
For better or worse, in this Isekai, the specifications were that they would become stronger the more they leveled up—and in Ren's case, he would apparently become more like a succubus the more he leveled up.
He put a hand on his chest, which had already subtly begun to swell.
"What's going to happen to me if I keep leveling up?"
"Well, you'll probably become a complete girl, right?"
Annoyed, he pulled her cheek, and Fuuri laughed, "Ow, ow, ow."
============
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