Chapter 2

"Hey, I've started dating this girl!"

"---Huh?"

In front of Yura Natsumi, the face of his childhood friend suddenly appeared.

"Huh, w-wait. What? I'm back!?"

Looking around, he saw middle and high school students walking with their phones, adults in suits, and cars driving on the road. It was the familiar everyday scene.

"Natsumi? What are you talking about?"

His childhood friend, Mihara Yuto, looked at him with a questioning gaze. Yuto was taller than Natsumi, with neatly cut light brown hair that fell below his ears, giving him a clean-cut appearance. Despite being only in his third year of junior high, he had a mature aura. Although Natsumi had long detested him, seeing his face after 'several years' made him feel nostalgic.

"Are you doing well? No, really, it's been so long! You still seem to be popular, which is great! Well, I have something to do, so see you later!"

"Wait! Natsumi!?"

Ignoring his childhood friend's voice, Natsumi couldn't help but run away. The feeling of his sneakers hitting the asphalt, the playful laughter of boys and girls his age, the convenience store that sold everything, the supermarket that had been there since he was a child, the neighborhood restaurant run by an auntie, the slightly stylish café—everything was 'nostalgic.'

Natsumi finally realized that he had 'come back.'

He understood that he had returned to the day he was 'called to the other side.'

"I'm back!"

Surprised gazes gathered at Natsumi's sudden shout, but he didn't care.

(Six years since I've been back in Japan! On Earth! In my world!)

He felt like crying from the emotion.

Finally, finally, he had returned.

(From that damn other world, I, I---)

"I'm back, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

In his perception, it had been six years.

In this world, it was just a short while ago.

---Yura Natsumi was summoned as a hero to another world.

In that other world, he was told the cliché story that to return to his original world, he had to defeat the Demon King, and he fought desperately. He joined the human side, which sought to eradicate the demon race, even betraying his own kind, and fought against the demons, who united to claim their right to live in the world. He was used and placed in a terrible war, wishing not to die, and fought. He killed monsters, demons, humans, spirits, beasts, and even gods, and finally returned to Earth.

"Hahahaha, take that! Stupid, stupid! You used me as you pleased, if you want to keep fighting, go ahead and die! I'm out of here!"

Thinking of the people from the other world whom he would never see again, Natsumi continued to shout.

He was surprised that time in this world hadn't progressed when he returned, but he was grateful for it. It was good that he wasn't considered missing or dead. It was reassuring that his family hadn't been saddened. Most of all, he was happy to the point of tears that he hadn't wasted his precious teenage years in that world.

This body was not the one he had grown into in the other world.

It was the thin body of a fourteen-year-old junior high school student. He was of average height, not particularly handsome, and his legs weren't especially long. He came from an ordinary family.

But this ordinariness was dear to him.

He was grateful to have his current self back.

"What was tonight's dinner? I can't remember. Oh right, the mail order is arriving today. I used all my saved pocket money to buy the sneakers and clothes I've always wanted as a promotion gift! Ah, I want to go home quickly. I want to eat my mom's cooking. I want to sleep in my own bed!"

He ran, out of breath.

Feeling the difference between his body in the other world, where he could run long distances without tiring, and his original body, he realized he was back. He wasn't out of shape, but his body wasn't special, so he got out of breath after a short run.

For the first time in a long time, he wanted to ride a bicycle. He never wanted to ride a wild horse-drawn carriage again.

Running through the familiar route to school, he saw the two-story house with the red roof.

---My nostalgic home.

"I'm home! What's tonight's dinner!?"

---

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