This Strange World Needs A Kicking! – Ch. 41
By Laura S. Fox
Copyright © 2022 Laura S. Fox
All Rights Reserved
Gay Romance
Intended for Mature Audiences Only
This story will contain graphic depictions of sexual intercourse, strong
language and it is not meant for readers who are less than 18 years of age.
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Chapter Forty-One – Isekai Emergencies
"O.M.G.!" Tani shouted. "You found him!"
After meandering through
the forest for about half an hour, they were finally in luck and stumbled over
the others. Kai let Pepin get down carefully, and his sister rushed like a
bulldozer right into his arms. The rest of the group made a circle around them,
excited to meet someone from a different world. A couple of girls ran their
flashlights over Pepin, exclaiming and wondering at his clothes. Kai pulled him
close in a protective gesture when the girls got a little too forward and began
to touch him, too.
"Everyone, this is Pepin.
He's from another world, so please be kind to him," he said in a voice he hoped
to be commandeering enough.
"Are you a prince?" one
girl asked.
"No, I'm a servant,"
Pepin replied dutifully.
"If servants look like
this, how do princes look like? I'm totally shooketh,"
another squealed in delight.
"You're not a servant
anymore," Kai cared to insist.
"What am I?" Pepin asked
and turned his head.
Kai wanted to kiss him.
Yeah, totally, that was the only thing crossing his mind. "My boyfriend,
obviously."
A dreamy sigh emerged
from all the girls while some guys let out a few embarrassed snickers.
"Don't mind these guys,"
he told Pepin. "They're kind of cool once you get to know them. Not that I know
them very well, but they're into isekai, just like me
and--"
Only then, he realized
that he hadn't seen someone he did actually know. "Where is Milo?" he asked Tani.
A flashlight blinded him
for a moment from afar. "Where is Sebastian?" Milo asked as Kai shielded his
eyes. "I looked around and couldn't find him."
Shoot. Now that was going
to be a tough conversation, Kai thought and sighed from the depths of his soul.
"Guys, thanks a lot for helping us tonight, but we need to regroup a little,"
he addressed the little crowd.
"But what about the Blue
Castle? And how did your boyfriend end up here, with you? Did you go there to
get him? How? Show us the gate, man!"
Kai put one hand up to
cool the hotheads. "We'll talk at large about everything. Our parents have our
phones, so we can only communicate while we're in school. But now you're with
us, you know, the inner crowd, and all that, okay? I won't leave my isekai brothers and sisters in this hour of need," he added
with emphasis. "Milo knows where to find you, right?"
There were a few murmurs
of discontent, but they soon died down.
"Fine," a girl said. "But
you better not hog all that Ifigia world for
yourselves, or we're gonna be pissed."
"How do they know about Ifigia?" Pepin asked.
"I told them," Kai
replied. "Not a lot of things, but you know, these people are totally stoked on
traveling to different worlds and stuff. It's quite the big thing for people
like us."
Pepin nodded thoughtfully
and took a step forward. "Esteemed Earthians," he
said in a courteous voice, "I will personally answer all your questions about Ifigia. It must be later, as right now, I must understand
the customs of your world, first." He took a short bow at the end of his
speech, which caused other squeals of delight from the girls.
"Are there girls as
pretty as you in Ifigia?" a boy with a lisp asked.
"Hey, he said he'd answer
everything later," a girl intervened. She grabbed the boy and dragged him away.
"We'll see you guys soon, right?"
"Without a doubt," Kai
confirmed.
***
"So," Kai began, as soon
as everyone was out of earshot, and Tani took Pepin
with her to walk in front, probably bent on filling the poor guy's head with
all kinds of stories about their world.
"So, Sebastian is not with
you," Milo said. He sounded confused and hurt.
"He's not. But, Milo,
man, we gotta find a way to get you to him. He's--"
Kai stopped abruptly. What if they couldn't find it? Would Sebastian—No, he
refused to think that, especially since he was pretty responsible for getting
stabbed like an idiot while in the ice prince's body. "Well, his aunt said that
you must go see him or something."
"His aunt?"
"Yeah, Galien's mom. Fire goddess. Totally cool," Kai explained.
"Anyways, Sebastian is kind of ill--"
"Kind of?"
Kai sighed. "Because I
got wounded by that Uxilan dude that time, and I was
in Sebastian's body, well, now he's like cursed. And you're the cure. That's
what Seb's aunt says."
Milo stopped abruptly.
"And you're saying it now? Let's go back and show me what you did to go to Ifigia and get Pepin."
"It's not that easy," Kai
mumbled.
"What? Don't tell me that
now that you got Pepin, you don't care--" Milo started to rant.
Kai stepped into his
face. "My dad took me there."
Milo fell silent. "Your
dad?"
"Yeah. So, I'm really
sorry that I cannot take you to the gate or whatever those isekai
people think that exists to go to Ifigia. I simply
don't know how."
Milo covered his face.
Kai put his hands on his friend's shoulders. "Still, that doesn't mean that
it's not possible. We'll search for it. Your Seb is
in good hands. He has two goddesses with him, not to mention Luna who surely
plies him with those delicious mini cakes she makes day in and day out." He
wished he sounded surer than that. Hell, if he thought for one moment that it
helped, he would spend the entire night scouting the woods for that gate.
Actually, it wasn't that bad a thought. "You know what? Let's go where it
happened that I traveled back and forth. Guys," he called for Tani and Pepin. "Change of plans. We need to find a way to
make Milo end up on the other side."
Just as he said those
words, he noticed lights through the trees. Those people were really bent on
searching for the gate, apparently. Kai wouldn't stop them if they wanted to do
so. "Hey," he started to shout. "We're here!"
"They're over there!"
Kai froze as that voice,
grownup and authoritative, was followed by barks. Were those dogs? Just how
many people were into isekai? And who—
The lights drew near, and
soon they were surrounded. A flashlight scanned his face and followed to
inspect the rest of them. "We found them," the man spoke into his shoulder, and
only then Kai realized that the guy wore a dark uniform. "Kids, you're in some
serious trouble."
***
Officially, Pepin was a
cousin from the countryside who was big into cosplay. He didn't have ID on him,
which was a bummer, but it looked like the police officers in charge of
recuperating them hadn't cared to look too much into it, as it was late,
everyone was tired, and they were pretty sure that these kids were no immediate
menace to the society.
Plus, the people at the
police station thought that they would have it pretty bad once their parents
got there to take them home.
Which left Kai with the
challenge of convincing his mom that it was all right to take Pepin home with
him and that without saying the word isekai once.
That could be particularly daunting for Tani, but
everyone was nice to her since she was just a young girl.
Milo's parents were
already there, and soon, the entrance doors flew open, letting Kai's mom walk
in. And he thought fire and ice goddesses were scary. But he was brave now,
right? He went directly to her and caught her hands into his. "Mom, I know
you're mad, but we needed to go and save someone from a terrible fate," he said
quickly. "Just say that you know this guy," he whispered quickly and gestured
with his chin over his shoulder at Pepin. "He's our relative."
His mom hesitated for a
moment, but then her eyes searched his face carefully.
"I'm counting on you,
mom. He's a good guy, and he needs us." Also,
he's my boyfriend, I got him pregnant, and he comes from a different world, but
let's take it slowly, one shock at a time.
She didn't say a word,
but when the police officer came and asked her about Pepin, she confirmed
everything, not one trace of hesitation in her voice.
***
Well, they were home. His
mom had been silent on their way back, and Kai hadn't said a word, either. Tani had followed his example by instinct, and Pepin had
kept his eyes down, his hands demurely folded in his lap. Once in a while, his
mom had stolen looks at them in the rearview mirror, and Kai hoped that she
could see how calm and collected he was.
In all honesty, he was a
bit scared shitless, not for himself but Pepin. They clearly hadn't thought it
through, and how difficult it would be for Pepin to integrate into their world,
seeing how he was practically an undocumented alien. If the wrong people caught
a whiff of his being from another world, the chances were that he would be used
as a guinea pig for who knew what experiments.
Kai shivered at the
thought. His mom gestured for them to get into the kitchen and then pointed at
the chairs around the table.
"Well?" she asked as soon
as everyone was seated. "May I know why I suddenly have a nephew I've never
seen in my life?"
"Pepin is my boyfriend,"
Kai blurted out.
By how his mom's eyes
widened at that abrupt revelation, he knew that he had gotten that ace out of
his sleeve a bit too quickly. "Are you trying to pull my leg, Kai?" she asked
sternly. "I'm not in the mood for one of your jokes."
"Milady," Pepin said in a
flawless aristocratic accent, "I can assure you that your son is not joking or
lying. I am, indeed," Pepin paused for a moment, "his boyfriend."
His mom stared at Pepin,
then at Kai. "Why does he speak like that?" She seemed to be beyond puzzled.
"He's from..." Kai racked
his brain for a good lie that wasn't anywhere close to sounding like an isekai kingdom.
"France!" Tani intervened. "Which is in Europe!"
"I know where France is,"
their mom said slowly. "And how had he managed to go through customs without
ID?"
"He came incognito," Kai
explained. Oh, man, the lies he was going to say... Good thing their mom didn't
know one word in French. "He ran away from home."
"Why? Where are your
parents, young man?" Her stern voice was making Kai's heart grow tiny.
"I've never known them. I
was sent into servitude at the age of six, and no one ever told me about who
they were," Pepin replied.
"Servitude?" Their mom
sounded stricken now. "At the age of six?"
Kai put his hand over
Pepin's to stop him from digging himself a bigger hole. "Lost in translation,"
he said quickly. "The thing is that the people who took him in when he was
little treated him like a servant, forcing him to cook all day and sweep the
floors, and stuff like that."
"I enjoy cleaning and
cooking," Pepin intervened.
Now his mom was staring
at their guest like he was growing a second head. "I need to see that to
believe it."
"You'll see it. Pepin
makes killer mini omelets," Kai hurried to say.
"They're not poisoned,"
Pepin said. "How are they killer?"
Their mom crossed her
arms and examined Kai and Pepin quietly. "You, kids, are going to make my hair
turn white before its time comes. What are we going to do with him? Where is he
going to sleep?"
"In my room," Kai said
and knew that very moment that it was the wrong thing to say.
"Under no circumstances,"
their mom countered. "Tani will sleep with me, and
Pepin will have her room. Don't forget that you have school in the morning,"
she added. "Tomorrow is another day, and I'll think of something by then. You
do realize, Kai, that he will have to go back,
eventually. He's practically an illegal migrant."
"No way, we need to keep
him," Tani spoke up.
"Tani,
I don't want to hear a word from you. And Kai, how did you get yourself a
boyfriend from France?"
"Online," he said
quickly. "That's pretty standard with my generation," he added to sound
convincing.
"And did you taste those
killer omelets by taking a bite out of your phone?" their mom questioned
further.
Ah, damn. "No, but I saw
pictures. Pepin showed them to me."
Their mom shook her head.
"Head over to sleep, all of you. I'll show Pepin where to find everything."
Kai had plenty to object
to that, but for now, he only threw Pepin a begging look. Well, if he sounded
weird while their mom showed him where the bathroom was, the fact that he was
from France was as good an excuse as any.
***
Without a phone, it was
pretty damn hard to pass the time until he could be sure that the entire house
was asleep, and by that, he mainly meant his mom. He tiptoed onto the hallway,
wincing at every sound the door to his bedroom made as he opened it. "Like a
ninja," he whispered under his breath as he slinked along the wall and stopped
in front of Tani's door.
He needed to be extra
quiet, but at the same time, avoid scaring Pepin, who would probably be
startled by someone walking into his room at night like a thief.
He managed to open the
door, step inside, and close it without making outstanding noises, and only
after he allowed himself to take in his surroundings. Pepin had fallen asleep
with the bedside lamp on, just like Tani. He was no
longer in his butler livery, and it looked like his mom had found some night
clothes for him to wear. Good thing, Kai's clothes appeared to fit him like a
glove. He had a white t-shirt on and probably pajama bottoms, which was Kai's
preferred combination for sleeping, as well.
Pepin slept on one side,
and he seemed deep in the world of dreams. Kai considered whether it was a good
idea or not to wake him up, but it felt like they had been apart for too long.
He walked over and crouched near the bed. After looking at his boyfriend for a
few more seconds, just to enjoy watching his sleeping face, he brushed against
Pepin's forehead. "Hey, Pepin, it's me," he whispered.
The curly eyelashes
fluttered, and the blue eyes he now loved so much stared at him. "Kai?"
"Hush, not so loud. Let's
not wake up mom."
"All right," Pepin
whispered. He lifted the blanket and held it in invitation. "Do you want to
climb in?"
Kai sighed. "I shouldn't
because I only wanted to see how you were doing... but why the heck not?" He
snuck under the blanket and enjoyed how quickly Pepin's arms wrapped around
him, holding him close. "So," he started, "how do you deal with everything? I
mean, you must have been shocked by our world, at least a little. By the way,
kudos on keeping a straight face at the police precinct and everything."
"I understood that we
were in danger. Why do the rulers of this world consider it important to have
their guards follow you?"
"Tough to explain, but
I'll try. Here, the police serves the people, and it was my mom – and Milo's
mom and dad – that called them. Trust me, it's not easy to be a teenager around
here. Just dare to disappear from home once because you got isekai'd,
and everyone will be up in arms to get you."
"It does sound tough,"
Pepin admitted. "But now tell me, how come you have a fountain in your home,
when we're so high up? And what a magical contraption, that carriage that took
us up here, through that mine-like shaft!"
"By fountain, do you mean
running water? Well, that's pretty standard. And it's very convenient, you'll
see. I'll show you more how to use everything tomorrow."
"Your mom explained a few
things to me. Is this imaginary France I'm coming from a backward country
compared to here? I felt like your mother had a hard time explaining everything
to me."
"No, it's totally cool,
and Tani has this idea that all pretty anime boys
must come from France, hence the whole thing. They're just different people
there from here, and I bet that my mom didn't want to insult you by just
assuming that you were familiar with the same appliances back home. By the way,
I can barely wait to show you the fridge and my mom's favorite non-stick pan."
"I cannot wait for you to
show me everything," Pepin replied excitedly. "But Kai, are you in trouble
because of me? Your mother seemed quite upset."
"Well, I did spring the
whole boyfriend thing on her out of the blue, so I cannot really blame her. But
everything is going to work out. And as soon as I graduate, I'll find work and
a place for the both of us."
"Work? Shouldn't I work,
too? Are there many openings for servants in your world? There's hardly
anything else I know how to do."
"Don't worry about it for
now. And like Tani said, you could be an idol or a
model. I bet you'll end up bringing the big dough home."
"Dough? Is it important
to have a lot? For making bread?"
Kai kissed Pepin on the
tip of his upturn nose. "I mean money. You know. Like coins, but there are
actually bills or just a piece of plastic. I'll explain everything to you."
"All is so amazing,"
Pepin said dreamily. "I hope I won't embarrass you too often."
"You can't do that even
if you tried, and if anyone looks funny at you, we'll just say you're a
foreigner, and that's it. I should thank Tani for
coming up with that France idea."
"What happens if we
actually meet someone who's from there? I don't know the language or anything
else about the place," Pepin pointed out.
Kai kissed his forehead.
"I'll buy you a phone, as soon as I get my hands on some money. While he was in
my body, Sebastian blew my savings away on getting a tattoo. This one," he said
and showed it proudly to Pepin. Even though he hadn't been the one to suffer
through the making of it, he felt like he could brag a little about looking so
badass now.
Pepin caressed the lines
of the skin art. "What is a phone?"
Right. They needed to
start from the bottom, like with the fundamentals.
***
Sebastian was slouching
on the throne, ignoring the constant pain like usual. After all that drama at
the Shimmering Cavern, Luna, Reya, and Fiana had taken turns to fuss over him. He felt slightly
better as Luna had dutifully had taken upon herself to warm his body the same
way she had done the last time. That granted him a few hours during which he
could see about his duties as usual, and he didn't want to neglect them, not now,
when his days were numbered, and the people of Ifigia
would remain without a ruler sooner than everyone thought.
He had noticed the guards
casting glances at one another and then to the floor. At one point, he thought
he heard someone sobbing but pretended not to notice. These people were
obviously in pain because they had to watch him in that sorry state. They might
not have to endure that for long, he believed.
Not that he was as strong
as others were led to believe by his curt manners. He had his regrets, and the
knowledge that he would never see Milo again was carving a wound inside his
chest that hurt differently from the one inflicted upon his body by that Uxilan dagger.
Fiana
liked to think Kai and Pepin were no longer in Ifigia
and returned to Kai's world, but Sebastian wasn't sure of it. After all, Kai
might be capable of moving between worlds because of some uncanny abilities,
but Pepin had no such skills in his possession. For their own sake, Sebastian
hoped that they were somewhere far enough to be sheltered from Reya's wrath. He could tell that his mother was by no means
appeased but refrained from talking about Pepin's fate – and Kai's as a
consequence – only because she finally understood not to upset him more than
needed.
The morning had just
started, and only a few of his subjects had presented their grievances so far,
and he already felt tired. He would endure it just a bit longer, he decided,
before showing any sign of weakness in front of these people who had come to
believe in him as their trustworthy ruler.
One man well into his
late years was explaining in a soft trembling voice that his sheep had gone
missing again and that he suspected his neighbor of tempting the four-legged
creatures with some tastier pastures when the doors to the throne room flew
open, and two of his guards marched in dragging with them a young man.
Sebastian stared at the
scene nonplussed for a moment.
"We caught a spy, Your
Majesty!" one of the guards announced.
The young man was dressed
in what Sebastian had come to know as hipster fashion and probably fancied
himself an explorer by the looks of his backpack.
"I'm not a spy," the
visitor protested. "I was just looking for the Blue Castle!"
"Shut your mouth, spy."
The other guard smacked the visitor upside the head. "And address His Majesty
as you should. Kneel."
The young man was about
to protest when Sebastian pushed himself up to his feet. "Let him step
forward," he ordered the guards.
The visitor straightened
up his clothes and walked purposefully toward the throne. Two feet away, he
hesitated and finally bent the knee. Sebastian huffed in annoyance. "You don't
have to do that," he said impatiently. "Come closer."
Eventually, the young man
stopped in front of him and shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other. Then
he rubbed the back of his head. "Um, Your Majesty, can you please not order my
execution? It's the first time in my life that I get isekai'd."
Sebastian kept from
rolling his eyes with some difficulty. It seemed that there were others like Kai
Martin in that world. He gestured for the visitor's backpack. "Do you have a
phone in there?"
"They confiscated it from
me," the visitor accused and pointed at the guards behind him.
"Give me the phone,"
Sebastian ordered. The guards traded a perplexed glance. "That object you took
from this young man here."
He hoped the guards
hadn't destroyed it, afraid of its magic. But all seemed fine, he noticed with
a sigh of relief as he grabbed the phone from the guard's hand. "Get me in," he
ordered to the visitor.
"Your Majesty, do you
know what this is?" the young man asked, gaping like a fish, as he took the
phone and unlocked the screen so that he could hand it back to Sebastian.
"Of course, I know,"
Sebastian replied. "It's a smartphone," he said with self-importance, and the
entire court gasped in disbelief as he began to type in what used to be his own
number until not so long ago.
***
Kai couldn't stop
wondering what Pepin might be doing at home by himself. He had caught on
quickly how to use all the appliances like he hadn't just been transported
there from a different world and had even put together a delicious breakfast
under Kai's so-called supervision. His mom had been impressed but hadn't said
much as she hurried to get to work, but Kai could tell that she was thawing
slowly, seeing how dutiful Pepin was, as well as talented, in everything he
did.
If only school didn't
have to take so much of his time, he thought with a sigh. At least, he had the
phone with him, not that he could use it during math class. Still, he could
steal a moment and check the isekai forums for any
sign of Ifigia appearing on the map.
To his surprise, his
phone buzzed, and he noticed an unknown number on the screen. Maybe it was one
of those people who hunted the gate to Ifigia, so he
stuck his head under his desk and answered.
"Yeah?" he whispered.
"I'm in the middle of math class, so if it's not important--"
"Is this Kai Martin?" an
authoritative voice asked from the other side.
Kai smacked his head
against the desk, breaking the stupor that had engulfed the entire classroom
like a blanket while the teacher was droning on about something they mainly
were too stupid to understand, without a doubt.
"Mr. Martin, what are you
doing?" the teacher shouted.
He got from under the
desk, holding the phone. Then, ignoring the teacher completely, he turned
toward Milo. "I have Sebastian on the phone," he whispered like he couldn't
believe it himself.
Milo looked at him in
shock for about one second and then jumped to his feet, snatched the phone from
Kai's hand, and ran out of the classroom, with Kai following.
"Mr. Bennett! Mr.
Martin!" the teacher sputtered, not believing what they were doing.
"Sorry, teach," Kai threw
over his shoulder. "This is an isekai emergency!"
TBC
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