Earth 2015
A door opens.
Its old, rusty hinges groaning in protest. A hand emerges from the opening and hovers over the wall to its left. The dim light spilling out from behind could barely illuminate the dark room, so the hand struggled to find the light switch for a moment.
With a soft click, the room was flooded by a bright white light.
A young man stepped into the room, wearing a t-shirt with the slightly faded image of Madara Uchiha from the Naruto manga, staring at the viewer with an awakened Rinnegan. His monochrome shirt was complimented by a set of plain blue shorts and black flip-flops
If his Japanese parents saw him now, they would have scolded him for wearing footwear inside the house, but Ritsuka Fujimaru stopped caring about such things some time ago. After graduating early from high school and attending university, he was now seen as a fully fledged adult by the US government. So he could do what he wants, especially since he wasn't living in his parent's clean, 2-story house anymore.
No. He lived by himself in a run-down suburban home in California. He wore flip-flops because he was wary of stepping on any pests that had invaded his home.
Some of you may be wondering how a university student in his late teens is able to afford a home in one of the most expensive states in America. And the boring answer is, he can't.
He was no homeowner, just a simple renter who pays below the market rate because his parents owned the place. Even so, his parents did not believe in "handouts" and were charging him rent as he attended university.
From what his dad told him, this house was one of the assets his great-grandparents had owned and passed down to them. It was, by some miracle, not seized by the government during World War 2 because of the compassion and kindness of their next door neighbor who bought the home before it was taken and returning it to them after they were released from the internment camps.
It was a neat little house, and despite the cracked paint and old home smell, it was perfect for him.
He walked towards his high-end gaming computer and pressed the power button, the soft hum of cooling fans and the strange computer noises he could not describe displaced the silence of the room.
Compared to the shabby foldable chair and the folded-up futon near his wall, it stuck out like a sore thumb as the most expensive thing in that room.
Ritsuka didn't mind it much, as this was still his room. Slipping his turtle beach headset over his spiky black hair, he turned on his monitor and got to work.
After logging in he was greeted by his desktop background, an image of skull kid from The Legend of Zelda wearing Majora's Mask in a dark forest, followed by their trusty fairy companion. He took a moment to appreciate the art before opening the necessary programs that he needed to start his livestream.
Oh yeah, he was a Twitch streamer; did he forget to mention that?
Ritsuka opened his account and went live, and his animated pre-stream title card showed up. It depicted him in chibi form, marching in place as three dots followed behind him in a rhythmic jumping pattern. It was a far cry from the simple PNG he had commissioned from an artist years ago. He barely had the money to afford anything this nice back in the day, but thanks to various unique circumstances, he was finally able to upgrade his stream.
As soon as the title card dropped, hundreds of people joined the stream. Many of them already having conversations while waiting for him to start. Unfortunately for them, he still had some things to take care of before he could do so.
Putting on his usual gaming headphones, Ritsuka did his pre-stream sound and visual tests. He also opened some necessary tabs on his browser that he would need, just in case he needed to do a quick google search.
After a few minutes of making sure everything was perfect, he nodded in satisfaction to himself before dismissing his title screen.
"Hey everyone! Welcome back to my stream! Hope you guys had a great day today!"
It was a rather mundane and stereotypical intro for his streams, but it was too hard to come up with anything original that stood out amidst the thousands of his competitors on the platform.
However, despite his rather average and dull intro, his chat, on the other hand, was anything but. In fact, despite the single brain cell they share at times, they were more special than the average Twitch chat.
And he didn't mean it in the mean way.
[Gible_Archeologist: Hi Gudao!! |˶˙ᵕ˙ )ﾉﾞ ]
[Electrical★Streamer_Iono(MOD): Helloooo!!! My day was great.♡ ]
[PerfectlySaneHex: Bonjour Gudao! My day is going great so far now that you're here~ ( ˘ ³˘)♥︎ ]
[PsychicMoostache(MOD): What's on the agenda tonight, Gudao? ]
[KicksYouIntheFace193: Wanna Smash? ]
[MalasadaMayhem: @KicksYouIntheFace193: ayo? ]
Ritsuka, or rather, Gudao as his Twitch username was called, rolled his eyes at one of his many regulars. "Kicks, I just got here. Can you at least wait 5 minutes before you start asking me to play Super Smash Bros?"
[KicksYouIntheFace193: If you wish to surpass me, you will have to work hard everyday to avoid getting rusty.]
Ritsuka sighed, while he was proficient at playing Super Smash Bros, he was nowhere near competitive levels. Sure, he tried getting into the meta, but he always got his ass handed to him on a silver platter whenever he attended the nearby local events.
Chat poked fun at him for it, well, everyone but Kicks, who seemed to be uncaring of his lack of skill and encouraged him to keep playing. In fact, Kicks is considered one of the top players of Smash where she is from, and she took it upon herself to declare him his pupil.
It has even gotten to a point where they have become annoyingly insistent on him playing Smash at the start, in the middle, and at the end of the stream. It was as if Kicks lived, breathed and ate Smash. The only reason they didn't get banned was because aside from Smash, she actually had a solid understanding of Kinesiology and had helped him plan an effective workout routine and balanced diet he could follow to get in shape. That, and they were also one of the few who actively donated large sums of money to his streams.
"Kicks, even if I somehow get better at the game, there's no way you and I will play together one day. Different universes remember?"
If anyone else outside his Twitch chat had heard him say this, they'd think he was crazy. But he was not lying, nor was he crazy. His chat is from another world, a world that Earth is intimately aware of but only as fiction.
[KicksYouIntheFace193: That's quitter talk. It's true we can't play now, but one day, I believe that the mysterious force that connected our worlds will connect us completely someday. And when it does, my Machamp and I will be ready for you.]
Fat chance of that happening. It's been three years and so far, everything in his stream has remained more or less the same as it has been since that fateful day happened.
"No, I'm not playing Super Smash tonight. I was thinking, it's been 3 years since the first time we met, and so I thought it would be nice if we would go back to our channel's roots and play some Minecraft."
Chat was excited to hear that piece of news. Ritsuka hadn't played minecraft in over a year, not since the lava chimney incident.
Seeing their enthusiasm only added to his own, and he opened the minecraft launcher. It was completely different from how he remembered it, but that was to be expected given how long had passed since he last played the game.
He pressed the play button.
The nostalgic menu of Minecraft appeared on his screen.
After taking a second to admire the menu, he came up with a generic name for his new world and jumped right in.
"Ooh, a Jungle Biome. Lucky!" Jungle biomes were his second favorite spawn point, next to the snowy slopes biome. Sure, it took a lot of work to terraform the sprawling wilderness, but, it was always satisfying to tame a wild area and drag it into civilization.
And so, Ritsuka got to work. He talked as he worked, engaged in conversations with his chat about small things. About his day and about his plans for his base. He landed in a jungle, therefore he was doing some forest clearing to make some room for a home.
The sounds of trees being chopped and grass blocks breaking put him in a nostalgic mood, and looking at his chat scroll made his mind wander.
Three years is not a long time, but with how eventful it was, it felt like it was ages ago. He vividly remembers the day when his life changed. Back then, he was not doing so well in terms of views due to the fact he was a male streamer. As everyone knows, if you aren't a female streamer, you are going to have a harder time drawing in, keeping and growing your audience.
He was aware he'd never become the next Pewdiepie or Markiplier, but he was happy with the handful of 11 people he had watching his streams.
Then one fateful day, his viewership of eleven people abruptly dropped to zero.
Seeing his audience just metaphorically stand up and leave during the middle of his stream hurt, a lot. Even the most unpopular people on Twitch had at least someone watching them.
But at that moment, he had no one. He wanted to believe his chat just got accidentally kicked off due to some Twitch glitch, that somehow the people who he had been growing close to were still there. Unfortunately, after an hour of streaming and restarting the stream once or twice, he finally came to accept reality. They had abandoned him.
It was one of the darker times of his life, seeing people just give up on him.
What was the point of playing for an audience if no one wanted to watch him?
Ritsuka had decided at that moment to call it quits; however, just as he was about to end the stream, he saw the zero turn into a one.
At first, he thought it was a returning viewer, but in truth it was actually a new one.
Electrical★Streamer_Iono
Out of the pit of despair, she had brought him back from the brink of ending his streaming career early with a single question.
"What'cha playing?" Was what she said.
Which was weird since it was Minecraft. Everyone knew what minecraft was due to its popularity, but it would seem there were still people like Iono who had no idea what it was.
Not wanting to lose this viewer either, Ritsuka held his tongue and informed her about it. Somehow, someway, she saw something in him and she stuck around. And from there, he decided to continue his streams, even for just a bit, even if his audience consisted of only one person.
As time passed, more and more people started to show up again. More than had ever attended his stream before. All of them were just as clueless about minecraft as Iono was. Well, used to, now it seems they think they are better at playing the game than he does, even when they haven't even played it themselves.
Ritsuka emptied his full inventory inside his chest. Seeing that he had harvested enough stacks of wood to build his home, he stepped outside his small cobblestone mini bunker, and he sealed the room with dirt blocks.
Now it was time to speed up his deforestation efforts.
He selected the flint and steel he had crafted earlier. Then he carefully lit strategic areas around him on fire. The small blocks of fire quickly engulfed the surrounding forest, creating a massive wall of flames that destroyed every wood, vine and leaf block it could latch itself onto.
Looking at his handiwork, he smiled in satisfaction.
[Fyre&Flamez: YES!!! BURN BABY BUUUURN!!! ৻( •̀ ᗜ •́ ৻) ]
[Electrical★Streamer_Iono(MOD): there he goes again, Mean looking us with that signature trademark Gudao smile while he commits warcrimez.]
[Ranger75: a destructive but practical way to clear land. I would have arrested you if you did this anywhere near my jurisdiction, Gudao. That is, if the local alpha pokemon didn't get to you first.]
[SeeDotbyTheSea: Wow, Gudao actually learned from the last time he played with fire.]
[Ranger75: Well, cobblestone is fireproof, so good luck trying to burn THAT box down. ]
[Fyre&Flamez: IS THAT A CHALLENGE?!! ]
[PsychicMoostache(MOD): even the smallest embers can become raging infernos. Take heed of this psychotic display of arson you budding fire type trainers. Do not mimic what our beloved streamer is doing in game. ]
[The-Undefeatable: I'm ashamed to admit, I had a few close calls with my charizard when he was first a charmander. Thankfully it never got anywhere near this bad. Lol.]
Ritsuka shook his head at his chat's banter. Even after all this time, he occasionally still had a hard time believing that his chat was not trolling him.
At first, he thought his new chatters just loved Pokémon so much that they all collectively role-played, or RP, as people who lived in a Pokémon world.
Iono herself proclaimed that she was a fellow streamer and an electric type gym leader of some OC region called Paldea. He, of course, didn't break the immersion because she was nice enough to bring her own followers into his stream.
If he was not as desperate for viewers as he was back then, he would have told them to cut it out, but he was starved for an audience, so he played along.
Besides, he didn't see any harm. He loved Pokémon, and they were not being freaks about it, so he let them have their fun. And it went great for the first few weeks.
But all good things come to an end.
One day, he decided to have a surprise stream for his Pokémon role players and played the game Pokémon White version on stream.
He could have chosen any other Pokémon game, like the original Red, Blue or Yellow, but at the time, Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 were just around the corner, and he thought it would be fitting if he played the original BW before he bought and played the sequels.
As he played the game, his viewership spiked from 100 to 1000. And it kept growing.
Though, his audience was not growing due to the reasons he had hoped for. After he got past the first gym, without warning, his chat suddenly turned on him when someone who claimed to be the female game protagonist, showed up in his chat.
Soon, more chatters claiming they were characters from the game started jumping in, and they were making demands of him.
Demands to know who he was and why he was playing a game about their lives.
The meta role-play was fun at first, but that train of thought quickly derailed when they started to throw personal jabs at him and his stream.
But the straw that broke the camel's back was when the chatter who claimed to be the protagonist threatened to report his channel and sue him if he didn't stop playing the game.
He could have done as they asked and quit stream right then and there, but that would be submitting to their ridiculous demands.
Despite how much he had loved his new audience, he also wasn't a wet noodle who let people walk over him. So he just decided to break their immersion, by just stating facts.
That Pokémon were not real, and that they should know when to stop pretending and harassing people on the internet for the sake of their own fantasies.
Looking back on it, his actions could have easily gotten him in actual danger.
He was basically one guy fighting against thousands of what he thought were delusional people at the time, but the increasing viewer count and the abuse thrown his way just got him worked up.
He never noticed anything was off until he logged onto his Twitter account and taunted his chat to try and unload their grievances there. With the amount of viewers logged onto his stream, he had aimed to start a shitstorm that would grow to such epic proportions that it would very likely reach a popular drama channel. Then they could shame these people for what they were doing to him.
That had been the plan, except, no one could access his Twitter account, his other social media accounts, or the websites like Bulbapedia, even when they entered the URLs manually.
This revelation only made the idea of his chat being bots even less likely, given that technology wasn't advanced enough to allow a bot to hold intelligent conversations like he had been doing with them the past few weeks.
The situation was a giant mess, but by the end of it, he and chat came to an understanding.
Pokémon were real, and so were the people from the Pokémon games, yet at the same time, Pokémon were also fictional, but only in his world.
They all hypothesized that some higher power had connected their worlds using Twitch as a medium.
Now, he serves as the sole representative of Earth to a parallel earth that he once thought was fiction. Which is a crazy sentence to say.
After everyone had time to calm down, apologies were exchanged both from himself and from chat and things just miraculously started to go back to normal. His audience was surprisingly forgiving, to his shock, even the people who he had "doxxed" had stayed behind as regulars.
That only made the knots of guilt twist tighter in his gut.
Now that he knew the Pokémon world was real, he had vowed never to play any mainline Pokémon games on stream from then on, out of respect for the privacy of people in his chat. He still played every new Pokémon game in his own time, and he still shared his opinions of said Pokémon, alongside the music from the games and the spinoffs.
Despite the rough start, they mended their scars and became his precious community.
People from the world of Pokémon even went as far as to volunteer to create and maintain social media sites for him on their world and moderate his chat. One of them being Iono, the person who started kicked off this massive clusterfuck.
Since then, he tried his best to diversify his stream away from just games and occasionally did "Earth Tour" streams where he went on trips to the park, the nearby woods or zoo to show off the local animals.
Chat loved those streams the most due to seeing so many exotic creatures, and his audience only continued to skyrocket.
Unfortunately, he doesn't make a single cent from this stream since the bits transfers and subs seem to have stopped working properly for some reason.
By the grace of whatever made this connection between worlds happen, the subs, bits and donations were not in vain. They still converted into something called "Stream points," which were being displayed as a bar at the bottom of the screen at all times. Every time his channel reached a threshold of stream points, they would gain random custom emotes, art, or music for his streams.
Ritsuka was curious and contacted Twitch on his side to ask about a possible hack on his channel, but they could not identify anything off about his connection. Twitch on Pokémon's side; however, had noticed his stream's anomaly. Thankfully, they decided to let him keep his channel since he technically hadn't broken any rules. Whatever hijacked the connection to his chat was something beyond their power. The fact he had not broken TOS, minus the accidental doxxing, was a plus in his favor.
In any case, it was a rather neat time and money saving feature because he didn't have to look for artists to do commissions for him nor pay any money for it, so he chose not to look the gift horse in the mouth and question it.
Alas, this streaming career is just a hobby. Aside from his IRL tours, gaming, watch-a-longs, and Biology Book Flipping ASMR streams, his channel was mostly just so he and his community could hang out and have fun.
But fun doesn't help pay the bills, so he had to look for a job.
[Ranger75: So how goes the job hunt? ]
Ritsuka deflated a bit. "Not too good, I'm afraid. A lot of jobs are asking for way too much nowadays."
Not having a college degree on top of lacking experience was also a big factor.
[Ranger75: That sucks. (◞‸◟,) ]
"Yeah, I'm getting rather desperate, too. I even applied to this flyer I found pinned on a wooden electrical post on the way home the other day."
[PsychicMoostache(MOD): And pray tell, what is it about?]
Ritsuka furrowed his brows, "Dunno. It didn't specify, but the listed pay was amazing and required no experience to join. The name of the employer was listed as: 'Chaldea Security Organization.'"
[PsychicMoostache(MOD): Gudao, it pains me to say this. Despite your current efforts to improve your bulk, your body type and lifestyle would still hinder your ability to effectively work as a bodyguard.]
[Ranger75: :Nodding pikachu emote:]
[Electrical★Streamer_Iono(MOD): :Nodding pikachu emote:]
[MalasadaMayhem: :Nodding pikachu emote:]
He crossed his arms and gave a dry response to his chat's bluntness, "Wow. Thanks for your vote of confidence chat."
[PerfectlySaneHex: Don't worry Gudao, skinny, fat, or muscular, you'll ALWAYS be my type~ ♡]
[Junior_Researcher: @PerfectlySaneHex geez, thirsty much?]
[PerfectlySaneHex: Like a Vaporeon stranded in Haina Desert at noon. And proud of it! (˘ ˘ ˘) ]
[PerfectlySaneHex has been timed out for 20 seconds. ]
[Electrical★Streamer_Iono(MOD): (ꐦㅍ _ㅍ) Hex. You know the rules. Vaporeon is sacred. Do not taint the blue with white!! ]
[Junior_Researcher: ( ô ‸ ō )....????? Do I even want to know?]
[Ecruteak_Gal: No. You don't… (⊙ _ ⊙ ) ]
Ritsuka chuckled nervously when he saw PerfectlySaneHex got timed out, again.
Hex was infamous for being the thirstiest chatter in his community. She was so dedicated to him that she actually founded his official fan club, which now has thousands of members. Or so people tell him, considering the fact he couldn't access their internet either.
It was a bit off-putting at first to have someone obsess over you as much as Hex did, but he had gotten used to it by this point.
Of course, there were limits; he still had rules for the sake of decency. Despite how dedicated she was to him, that didn't make her immune from the hammer of the mods when she did cross a line.
[Electrical★Streamer_Iono(MOD): @Junior_Researcher Bonjour! Hi hi and Alola! Welcome new guy! That is Hex, our local SIMP. Please do not feed her; she will bite anyone and everyone who isn't named Gudao. ]
[PerfectlySaneHex has rejoined chat]
[PerfectlySaneHex: @Electrical★Streamer_Iono(MOD) yup yup! :animatedLickyLicky emote: :GudaoHoldingHeart emote:]
[Ranger75: Don't pay her any mind. You get used to her… eccentricities after a while.]
[Junior_Researcher: I came here because I wanted to see exotic species of Pokémon from another world, not thirty hoes going gaga over an average-looking streamer on the internet. (¬_¬) ]
[Junior_Researcher: *thirsty ]
[GudakoBot: Gudao's world does not have pokemon. Only boring, mundane animals without magical powers. They are still cool to observe however, so do not let this discourage you from enjoying stream. ]
[KicksYouIntheFace193: @Junior_Researcher Nerd. ]
[SeeDotbyTheSea: bro, what world are you from? That's like, the entire point of the internet.]
[PerfectlySaneHex: @Junior_Researcher How dare you! Gudao is not average, he is perfection!
( ｡ •̀ ᴖ •́ ｡)]
[Junior_Researcher: @PerfectlySaneHex yeah, perfectly average. ]
[PerfectlySaneHex: *gasp* you take that back!! ( ◺˰◿ ) ]
[Gible_Archeologist: Well, I'm glad to hear you are trying to be a responsible member of society. It's a shame we can't help you financially due to the whole isekai situation. :sadPikachu emote: ]
"Guys, it's fine. You don't have to feel responsible for my financial situation. It is what it is."
He tried not to bring it up on stream. He didn't want to come off as needy; he just wanted to have fun. So what if his streams didn't make revenue? He can always find other ways to pay his bills.
He decided to try and change the Chat's attention back to the game.
The once lush and dense forest was now a small grassy green hill.
The fires he set had eaten through a large area of land. Enough that he had room to build a medium-sized mansion.
"Looks like we made a good enough clearing. Now we can move out of our cobble box and make ourselves a proper home."
Ritsuka selected his shovel and continued to terraform the area. After cleaning up a decent plot of land, he started to build his house.
Suddenly, a sharp knock on wood caused him to flinch in surprise. His headphones became crooked, exposing his ears to the outside world.
Almost as if by fate, Minecraft decided to play one of its random, unsettling sounds at the worst time.
Another knock, this time much more audible than the last.
Ritsuka furrowed his brows before glancing at his clock, his eyes widened in disbelief and indignation.
Who could have the audacity to knock on someone's front door at 12 AM?!
Another knock, this time much clearer than the last.
Ritsuka was considering ignoring the person, but curiosity beat his annoyance.
With a sigh, he decided to stand up and check whoever was at the door, despite his chat's protests.
Unbeknownst to him, as soon as he got up to make his exit, the camera on stream did not stay fixed in his room.
It started to follow him.
[JigglyWiggly: What the heck? ]
[MalasadaMayhem: Spooky… ]
[GroundHippowdon: Holy crap! Gudao got a floating camera and didn't tell us?!! ]
[SeeDotbyTheSea: I thought Gudao broke his GoPro camera????]
[Gible_Archeologist: He did. That's why he's been working hard to find a job recently. ]
[Ranger75: Oh SHIT. The stream's resolution just jumped to 4K at 60 fps?!!!!]
[GroundHippowdon: Nice. I've never seen such a clean, high quality stream before. Look, you can even see that tiny brown, hairless Joltik crawling across Gidao's carpet!! ]
[Gible_Archeologist: iirc, Gudao called that bug a cockroach. Its a pest who eats his food and spreads disease. ]
[GroundHippowdon: oh… ugh. (·•᷄ࡇ•᷅ ) well, at least he doesn't have to worry about a joltik infestation. Those are THE WORST. ]
[Ranger75: What the... I can't switch back to 144p. Resolution is still 4k. ]
[Electrical★Streamer_Iono(MOD): Lol. Bro, what? Why are u watching Gudao on potato? (>▽<) ]
[Ranger75: I am a ranger working in a remote wild area. The Internet is limited here. If I go beyond 144p, the video stutters. But it seems like that isn't the case anymore. The stream is running smoothly at the new resolution, even out here. Any option below that is greyed out.
Which is weird since on any other page I try to load, aside from Gudao's stream, it's as slow as usual. ]
[Electrical★Streamer_Iono(MOD): That's IS weird. O _ o]
Ritsuka entered his sparse living room.
The warm glow of a nearby lamp barely illuminated the small space, and the comforting sounds of minecraft from his headphones grew distant as he approached his front door.
Another knock.
This time, for some reason, chills ran down his spine. His gut was telling him something was off and that what he was doing was a stupid idea, but he pushed past those feelings and continued to walk to his door.
Ritsuka was too distracted by the eerie feeling of having someone knock on his door this late to notice the floating chat box trailing behind him.
[JigglyWiggly: This looks like a scene straight out of a horror film. ]
[Junior_Researcher: Are we sure that Gudao doesn't have Pokémon in this world? I can't find any explanation as to how this is possible without the aid of a Rotom or Poryphone. ]
[Electrical★Streamer_Iono(MOD): @Junior_Researcher Yes. Yes, we are. He went on a few trips outside with his old GoPro, RIP btw, and gave us a tour of his world. No Pokémon in sight, only animals. There's no denying it. ]
[SeeDotbyTheSea: Huh. So this is what the rest of his house looks like. ]
[PsychicMoostache(MOD): This is the first time he's shown his house aside from his usual bedroom, except it seems like it's without his consent. ]
[Junior_Researcher: Can't blame him for it. This place looks like a dump. ]
[DragoonRuleZ: Sucks that he can't cash donations. He could have used those to fix up this run down home or move out! ]
[PerfectlySaneHex: My Oshi's living conditions are worse than mine. And that's saying something because I live in a swamp because the rent is cheap.
(˶ㅠ︿ㅠ) ]
He neared the front door of his house and peeked through the peephole.
There was a hooded man outside his door.
He decided it was in his best interest not to open the door and ask him what he wants.
"Who are you? Why are you knocking on my door late at night?"
The figure outside didn't speak for a moment. As if it was gathering its thoughts. Then, it spoke.
"I am with the Chaldea Security Organization. We are looking for the applicant that goes by the name of Ritsuka Fujimaru."
Chaldea? The guys from the job application? What could they want at this hour?
This was too suspicious and it was obviously a trap. While his home was a bit run down, it was still located in a safe neighborhood, in a safe town. So he never had to live in fear of any drive by shootouts or running into tweaking homeless people when he took his nightly walks to the park. Though that point is now moot considering he was responsible for bringing danger to the neighborhood. He cursed at himself for not being more careful about what shady place he applied to. Now he had to figure out a way to get out of this mess.
"Sorry, but I don't trust you. Please leave, or else I'll call the police."
Silence.
The hooded man stood there, motionless, not making a single sound. Ritsuka tried his best to memorize every detail about him, but even at this close distance, it was difficult to see the man's face due to the unnaturally dark shadow his hood cast over his face.
Ritsuka watched as the man lowered his head, then slowly moved it in a circular motion, as if inspecting the door for weaknesses.
Then, the man shifted his gaze toward the peephole. Ritsuka nearly stepped back in fear as their eyes met, his hood made it impossible to see his eyes but Ritsuka could still feel the intense stare piercing through the shadow and through the tiny opening of his door. The man spoke again, this time his voice carried a heavier weight than when he last spoke.
"Please open the door, Mr. Fujimaru; we don't mean any harm."
[PerfectlySaneHex: Said the creepy guy knocking on someone's door at 12 AM. ]
[Junior_Researcher: That guy can't be serious, right? What kind of idiot would be gullible enough to open the door to a complete stranger this late at night?! ]
[PsychicMoostache(MOD):????!!!! ]
If Ritsuka could read his chat right now, he would agree with them. And yet, despite the overwhelming sense of danger, something deep in his subconscious urged him forward, like an invisible force compelling him to act.
Before he even realized it, his body moved on its own, his words slipping out before he could stop them.
"Okay."
With a quiet click, he unlocked the door and pulled it open, leaving his viewers in disbelief.
[Junior_Researcher: … I have no words… except two. Fucking moron. ]
[Electrical★Streamer_Iono(MOD): GUDAO, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!!! Σ(°△° ꪱꪱꪱ) ]
[: pikachu shock emote:] x10
[PerfectlySaneHex: NOOOO!!! DON'T DO IT!!! ]
[Ranger75: Dude, I know it's tough to find a job in your world, but you shouldn't be risking your life for the possibility of a paycheck!! ]
[PsychicMoostache(MOD): Gudao, SNAP OUT OF IT! ]
Light returned to Ritsuka's eyes, he felt the sensation of a spring breeze caress his face and suddenly, the fog that clouded his mind had been blown away.
"Wait, where am I?"
"Tch." He heard a click of the tongue from the guy that was standing in front of him. Wait, wasn't he the sketchy guy who had knocked on his door earlier?
Before he could gather his bearings, the man blurred from existence.
An aggressive hand grabbed him by the collar of his anime shirt.
"Eh?!"
And yanked him out of his house.
The abrupt motion was so fast that his mind barely had time to process it. By the time it did, it was already too late.
The figure had already flipped him around and locked him into a full nelson.
His heart hammered in his chest, his brain in a state of panic.
"AAAHHH-Mph!"
Suddenly, a third hand emerged from nowhere.
It forcefully clamped a damp, chemical-soaked cloth over his mouth and nose, cutting off his scream for help.
The sheer force being exerted on his face caused his teeth to creak, it felt as if they were one moment away from falling off his gums.
Ritsuka had seen enough action movies to recognize what was happening.
He was being kidnapped.
Instincts kicked in, he held his breath and thrashed, twisting his body, trying to break free.
But it was useless.
His captors held him tightly and no matter how hard he tried to overpower them, he was only one guy.
He tried kicking the one in front of him.
!!!
Pain coursed through his lower foot as he felt he had just kicked a solid concrete wall.
Then, his gut exploded in pain.
A fist had struck him in the stomach.
His pained gags released precious oxygen from his lungs, and by reflex, they tried bringing in more air.
But instead of fresh oxygen, he inhaled the fumes from the rag, they reeked of a strong cleaning detergent. Ritsuka's lungs tried to push the toxic chemicals out, but they harder it tried to, the faster it depleted what little precious oxygen remained in his system.
His vision blurred, and his limbs grew heavier as a fog of darkness pulled him closer into its embrace.
"Congratulations. Your application has been approved."
This was the last thing Ritsuka Fujimaru heard before he went limp, and was consumed in the drowsiness the chloroform had induced upon him.
The hooded man looked at his accomplice and gestured to the road with a quick tilt of the head.
One man grabbed Ritsuka by his legs, while the other released the full nelson and readjusted his grip to help carry their unconscious victim to the street.
[Electrical★Streamer_Iono(MOD): OhCrapOhCrapOhCrap \(˚☐˚")/ ]
[HippityHoppip650: Hey, this is an act, right? Right?!! Please tell me it's an act!!!]
[PerfectlySaneHex: MY OSHI IS BEING KIDNAPPED!!! SOMEONE DO SOMETHING!!!! ( ˶óᯅò) !! ]
[Junior_Researcher: Don't look at me! It's his fault for opening the door!]
[HippityHoppip650: Someone contact the league!! ]
[MalasadaMayhem: WHICH 1?! ]
[HippityHoppip650: Any1!! EVRY1!! ]
[SeeDotbyTheSea: WE CAN'T!! OTHERWORLD REMEMBER?!! ]
[Junior_Researcher: He's fucked.]
[MalasadaMayhem: Guys, you hear that?]
The roar of an approaching engine cut through the silence of the night, its rumbling grew louder and louder as it came closer. A bright light washed over the two men holding Ritsuka, then, the wheels of the vehicle screeched like a banshee as it came to a halt beside them.
It was a white, windowless van.
Its side door violently swung open, revealing two more figures lurking within the pitch black interior.
They helped the other two carry their victim inside.
The door was slammed shut, the inertia of the door shaking the van slightly.
The driver wasted no time.
The van's tires screeched as the driver stomped on the accelerator and gunned it toward the nearest freeway.
All the men inside the van believed that their mission to retrieve the 48th Master candidate had gone off without a hitch. Completely unaware that the entire operation was recorded live, in front of an audience of thousands of people.