The screen did not explode. Nothing happened to the balcony. No portal opened, no voice spoke, no dramatic light show followed the button press. The Accept button simply depressed under his finger, lit briefly, and then the notification screen dissolved and was replaced by something new.
It looked like a chat interface. That was the only honest way to describe it. A scrollable window, clean and minimal, with a text field at the bottom and a list of names running down the left side. The names were in a simple font, white on dark, with small indicators next to some of them that he assumed meant online or active or whatever the equivalent was in a system that had apparently decided to manifest in medieval airspace.
He read the names.
Rias Gremory. Gojo Satoru. Kakashi Hatake. Hestia. Eriri Spencer Sawamura.
He stood very still for a moment.
He knew those names. Not all of them equally, and he was aware that knowing a name from a manga or a light novel was not the same as knowing the actual person, but he knew them. Gojo Satoru was not a name you forgot if you had read Jujutsu Kaisen. Kakashi Hatake was not a name you forgot if you had grown up watching Naruto. Rias Gremory was from Highschool DXD, which he had watched in his early twenties at an age when he was less discriminating about what he spent his evenings on. Hestia he guessed could be from Danmachi since all were from some sort of anime, if not she could be a different person or the Hestia from Percy Jackson. Eriri Spencer Sawamura from Saekano, which he knew the least about since he had only heard of her once.
Fictional characters. From anime and manga and light novels. In a group chat. That had just appeared on his balcony in a medieval empire.
He sat down on the balcony floor, back against the wall, and looked at the screen floating patiently in front of him.
Alright. Multiverse. That was the framework that made this make any sense at all, and it was the framework he was going to use because the alternative was deciding he had lost his mind, which was not a productive conclusion. In the novels he had read, multiverse theory was more or less accepted as a given once systems started showing up. Different worlds, different rules, all of them real, all of them running parallel to each other. If that was true, and apparently it was, then the characters he had read about were not fictional in their own worlds. They were simply from different ones.
Which meant Gojo Satoru was a real person who could actually destroy things with his hands. That was a thought.
He looked at the chat log. There were messages already, a backlog of conversation that he could scroll through. He did not do that yet. He was more interested in what was happening right now, which appeared to be an active conversation.
Hestia: okay so Bell made it home safely and I made him dinner and he told me about the dungeon run and I was listening but also I was so worried the whole time he was talking
This confirms she is from Danmachi.
Hestia: he went to the 7th floor!! He is not ready for the 7th floor!!
Gojo Satoru: the 7th floor sounds terrifying
Gojo Satoru: is it terrifying
Hestia: yes Gojo it is terrifying for someone at Bell's level
Gojo Satoru: okay but he made it right
Gojo Satoru: sounds like he's doing great honestly
Hestia: that is NOT the point
Gojo Satoru: the point is he's fine and you're spiraling
Gojo Satoru: which is valid but also he's fine
Hestia: I hate that you're right
Kakashi Hatake: the anxiety doesn't go away by the way
Kakashi Hatake: you just get used to functioning while experiencing it
Hestia: Kakashi that is the least comforting thing anyone has ever said to me
Kakashi Hatake: I know. I meant it as solidarity.
Gojo Satoru: speaking of young people doing things that stress their mentors out
Gojo Satoru: [image attached]
Gojo Satoru: Yuta and Maki had a joint training session today
Gojo Satoru: I took twelve photos
Hestia: they are so cute!!! The girl looks like she could actually kill someone
Gojo Satoru: she absolutely could. That's why I like her.
Kakashi Hatake: the quiet one looks like he carries a significant amount of emotional weight
Gojo Satoru: yes
Gojo Satoru: working on it
Kakashi Hatake: good
Eriri Spencer Sawamura: Panda is literally a panda though
Eriri Spencer Sawamura: like a real panda
Gojo Satoru: yes
Eriri Spencer Sawamura: okay just wanted to confirm I wasn't imagining it
Gojo Satoru: Panda is a perfectly normal student
Eriri Spencer Sawamura: he is a panda
Gojo Satoru: correct
[ Noctis Valerius Azor has joined the chat ]
Hestia: oh!! A new person!
Gojo Satoru: new member acquired
Rias Gremory: Welcome. I'm Rias Gremory, I administrate this group. Don't be alarmed by the interface, it takes a moment to adjust to.
Noctis looked at the text field at the bottom of the screen. He looked at the messages. He thought about this for approximately four seconds, then typed.
Noctis Valerius Azor: I've adjusted. How does this work exactly.
Gojo Satoru: straight to business, I respect it
Hestia: hello!! I'm Hestia, it's nice to meet you!
Rias Gremory: The short version is that this is a cross-world communication system. Everyone in this group is from a different world. We can talk through this interface in real time regardless of where or when we are. The system invited you, which means it determined you were a viable candidate for inclusion.
Noctis Valerius Azor: Viable candidate meaning what exactly.
Rias Gremory: Honestly, the system hasn't been forthcoming about its criteria. We've speculated but nothing confirmed.
Kakashi Hatake: When I joined I asked the same question. I stopped expecting a clean answer.
Noctis Valerius Azor: Fair enough. So different worlds. As in the multiverse.
Gojo Satoru: oh good he already knows the concept
Gojo Satoru: last time we had to spend like twenty minutes explaining parallel existence to someone who had never considered it
Eriri Spencer Sawamura: that was me and I had considered it, I just didn't expect to be in it
Gojo Satoru: fair
Rias Gremory: Yes, multiverse is the correct framework. Each of us exists in a separate world with its own rules, history, and physical laws. The chat system bridges the gap. We can communicate but we can't access each other's worlds directly, at least not through this.
Noctis Valerius Azor: Can I ask what world everyone is from. Generally.
Hestia: I'm a goddess! I live in Orario, it's a city built around a giant dungeon. I run a small familia which is basically a guild, my member is an adventurer named Bell.
Hestia: he just went to the 7th floor and I am not calm about it
Gojo Satoru: we were just talking about that
Gojo Satoru: I'm a jujutsu sorcerer. Teacher. Both. I fight cursed spirits which are basically manifestations of negative human emotion that have developed enough mass to become dangerous. My world is modern Japan, mostly.
Noctis Valerius Azor: Modern Japan.
Gojo Satoru: yes
Gojo Satoru: your world is not modern Japan I'm guessing
Noctis Valerius Azor: Its an empire. Magic exists but I'm not a practitioner.
Hestia: oh interesting! What kind of magic?
Noctis Valerius Azor: Mostly elemental from what I've seen. Elves are the primary practitioners. Humans use it less, there are battle mages in the imperial army but it's not common.
Kakashi Hatake: My world uses chakra rather than elemental magic in the traditional sense, though the elemental applications overlap. I'm a shinobi. Village of Konoha.
Noctis Valerius Azor: Shinobi.
Kakashi Hatake: Ninja, roughly translated.
Noctis Valerius Azor: Right.
Noctis sat with that for a moment. He was talking to Kakashi Hatake. Who was explaining that he was a ninja. In a group chat. On a floating screen. On his balcony. He had processed stranger things in his life, technically speaking, but the list was short.
Rias Gremory: I'm from a world that coexists between human society and the supernatural. Devils, angels, fallen angels, gods, dragons. I'm a devil, from the Gremory clan. I'm also a third-year high school student and I lead a peerage.
Noctis Valerius Azor: A peerage being.
Rias Gremory: A group of devils reincarnated into my service. It's a chess-based hierarchy. I have a recently reincarnated member who is adjusting.
Gojo Satoru: how is the new guy doing
Rias Gremory: Enthusiastic. Very enthusiastic.
Gojo Satoru: I love enthusiastic
Kakashi Hatake: I've had enthusiastic students. It's a mixed experience.
Eriri Spencer Sawamura: I'm Eriri. I'm a high school student, I'm also a manga artist. My world is also modern Japan, nothing supernatural, I draw for a doujin circle.
Noctis Valerius Azor: An artist.
Eriri Spencer Sawamura: Yes. Is that surprising.
Noctis Valerius Azor: No. Just noting it.
He was noting quite a lot of things. The casual way Gojo typed, like someone who found everything mildly entertaining and was never fully at rest. The measured quality of Kakashi's messages. Rias conducting herself like someone used to being in charge of a room. Hestia, who was clearly running on genuine emotion and had no pretense about it. Eriri, who was newer to this than the others and had a slightly cautious edge to her messages, asking and confirming rather than asserting.
None of them matched exactly with what he had read or watched, because of course they did not. These were real people living real lives, not written characters. But the shapes were recognizable and that was strange in a way he was going to have to sit with for a while.
Noctis Valerius Azor: Does the system explain why it builds these groups. What the purpose is.
Rias Gremory: No. It gave me admin access when I joined and has been silent since. I've been working on the assumption that the group exists for information sharing and mutual support between worlds, but that's my interpretation, not anything the system stated explicitly.
Gojo Satoru: I think it just wants us to be friends
Kakashi Hatake: That seems optimistic.
Gojo Satoru: I'm an optimistic person
Kakashi Hatake: You really aren't.
Gojo Satoru: rude
Hestia: Noctis what's your world like? You said its an empire, are you royalty?
Noctis Valerius Azor: Second son of the previous emperor. My brother is the current king.
Hestia: OH. You're a prince!
Noctis Valerius Azor: Technically.
Gojo Satoru: he said technically like it personally offends him
Rias Gremory: I understand the sentiment. Titles carry expectation.
Eriri Spencer Sawamura: Does it feel strange talking to people from completely different worlds.
Noctis Valerius Azor: Yes. But I've had stranger days.
Eriri Spencer Sawamura: That's kind of reassuring actually.
Gojo Satoru: okay important question
Gojo Satoru: what do you DO in a medieval empire when you're not doing prince things
Noctis Valerius Azor: Teach reading and maths to the local kids. Play football. Work on some mechanical projects.
Gojo Satoru: you teach kids
Gojo Satoru: Kakashi he teaches kids
Kakashi Hatake: I read that.
Gojo Satoru: we're the same
Noctis Valerius Azor: I'm not a teacher. I just do it because they'd otherwise not get access to it.
Kakashi Hatake: That's what teaching is.
Hestia: what are the mechanical projects?
Noctis Valerius Azor: Mostly a bicycle frame currently. Some weapons designs I've been sitting on.
Eriri Spencer Sawamura: A bicycle in a medieval world?
Noctis Valerius Azor: The concept is ready and in my mind. It's just slower to actually build.
Gojo Satoru: he's building a bicycle in a medieval empire
Gojo Satoru: I like this guy
Rias Gremory: The weapons designs you mentioned. Is there a conflict in your world?
Noctis Valerius Azor: Developing. Border tensions to the northeast. A garrison fort was taken two days ago.
Rias Gremory: Are you at risk personally.
Noctis Valerius Azor: Not yet. Possibly eventually. It's part of the position.
Kakashi Hatake: If you want to talk through it, that's what the group is here for.
Noctis read that message twice. It was a simple thing to say, and Kakashi had said it like it cost him nothing, but there was something in it that landed differently than he expected. He had spent most of his life here making things work with what he had, processing things quietly, managing his own reactions because that was simply easier in a world where most people would find his actual perspective completely inexplicable.
A group chat was not therapy. He was not under any illusion about that. But the idea of having people to talk to who existed outside the frame of his world, who had no stake in the politics or the titles or the expectations, was something he had not realized he wanted until it was sitting in front of him.
Noctis Valerius Azor: I'll keep that in mind.
Hestia: we're glad you're here! It's nice to have more people
Gojo Satoru: agreed. Also I'm sending you a picture of Inumaki because he signed something today and I'm proud of him
Gojo Satoru: [image attached]
Eriri Spencer Sawamura: why does he look like he regrets the photo being taken
Gojo Satoru: he always looks like that
Kakashi Hatake: He looks like a reliable person.
Gojo Satoru: he is. They all are.
The conversation drifted after that, moving between Hestia updating the group on Bell's progress and Eriri asking Rias something about devil society that turned into a ten-minute explanation. Gojo made observations about everything with the energy of someone who found the world consistently entertaining. Kakashi contributed exactly as much as was necessary and no more.
Noctis mostly read. He asked questions when something was unclear. He did not volunteer anything about himself that he had not been asked, which was a habit he was not going to break for a group chat he had been part of for less than an hour.
At some point he realized he had moved from the floor to leaning against the balcony railing again, and that the chill in the air had gotten real enough to notice. He checked the screen. It had been almost two hours.
Noctis Valerius Azor: I'm going to sleep. It's late here.
Hestia: goodnight!! Come back tomorrow!
Gojo Satoru: sleep well, medieval prince
Noctis Valerius Azor: Don't call me that.
Gojo Satoru: okay medieval prince
Kakashi Hatake: Good night.
Rias Gremory: Rest well. The system will keep the chat history. You can catch up on older messages when you have time.
He closed the interface. It folded shut with a faint light and then was gone, leaving just the balcony and the night and the stars.
He stood there for a moment, hands on the railing, looking out at the tree line.
Gojo Satoru was real. Kakashi Hatake was real. Rias Gremory, Hestia, Eriri Spencer Sawamura. All of them real, all of them in their own worlds, all of them apparently fine with spending their evenings in a cross-dimensional group chat arguing about whether a panda was a normal student.
He had spent eighteen years being the only person he knew who understood what a bicycle was. That had just changed, in the most indirect and impractical way possible.
He went inside and went to bed.