The air crackled with tension as Ryan reached into his pocket, a small, sleek canister glinting in the dim light. "Now," he began, holding up the canister, "I think we need to establish a way for us all to understand each other." He tapped the canister meaningfully.
Asta was the first to speak, his brow furrowed with suspicion. "What the heck is this place?! And who are you?!"
Ryan pointed to himself and said clearly in English, "Me? I'm Ryan." Then he gestured around the room with a questioning look, as if to say, "Where are we?"
Eren scoffed, his gaze sharp. „Und was, wenn ich nicht will, dass mir irgendeine unbekannte Substanz injiziert wird?" ("And what, if I don't want that some unknown substance is injected into me?")
Ryan turned to Eren, raising his eyebrows slightly. "Injiziert?" ("Injected?") he repeated in German, pointing at the canister and then making a drinking motion towards himself, then to Eren and the others. He shrugged as if to say, "It will help us understand each other."
Tanjiro, ever the cautious one, stepped forward, his eyes narrowed slightly as he examined the canister. 「副作用はありますか?」("Fukusayō wa arimasu ka?") ("Are there any side effects?")
Ryan faced Tanjiro, tilting his head. 「副作用?」("Fukusayō?") ("Side effects?") he repeated in Japanese, then shook his head emphatically, making a "no" gesture with his hand. He then pointed to his head and made a swirling motion, then nodded, as if to indicate "understanding."
Izuku, surprisingly, stepped forward. 「わかりました.」("Wakarimashita.") ("I understand.")
Ryan smiled encouragingly. 「はい!」("Hai!") ("Yes!") he replied in Japanese, giving Izuku a thumbs-up before administering the suspension.
After Izuku, Tanjiro then spoke. 「私もお願いします.」("Watashi mo onegaishimasu.") ("Please, me too.")
Ryan nodded. 「はい,どうぞ.」("Hai, dōzo.") ("Yes, please.") He then gave Tanjiro the suspension.
Next was Eren. „Na gut," ("Well then,") he said with reluctance.
Ryan nodded. "Gut," ("Good,") he replied in German, proceeding with Eren.
Finally, Naruto spoke. 「絶対やだってばよ!そんな怪しいもん,口になんか入れるもんか!」("Zettai ya dattebayo! Sonna ayashii mon, kuchi ni nanka ireru mon ka!") ("I'm definitely not doing that, believe it! There's no way I'm putting something that suspicious in my mouth!")
Ryan sighed, then pointed to the canister and mimed drinking again, then pointed at Naruto and shook his head with a pleading look. He then pointed at the others who had taken it and nodded.
「ラーメン!」("Rāmen!") ("Ramen!") Naruto then exclaimed. 「もしそれがラーメンの味がするなら,考えてやらなくもないってばよ!」("Moshi sore ga rāmen no aji ga suru nara, kangaete yaranaku mo nai ttebayo!") ("If it tastes like ramen, then maybe I'll consider it, believe it!")
Ryan's eyes widened slightly. 「ラーメン?」("Rāmen?") ("Ramen?") he repeated in Japanese, looking confused. Naruto then made slurping motions with his hands and puffed out his cheeks. Understanding dawned on Ryan. He mimed stirring something and then offered an encouraging nod to Naruto.
After the "ramen" flavoured suspension, and once everyone seemed to understand him, Ryan clapped his hands together. "Alright!" he said in English, gesturing to himself. "I'm Ryan. And you all are...?" He pointed at each of them in turn, waiting for their names
(FROM HERE ON, I WILL BE USING ENGLISH AS A MEDIUM OF COMMUNICATION SINCE EVERYBODY NOW UNDERSTANDS EACH OTHER)
"You just said who we were five minutes ago," Izuku caught himself. Since when was his English this good? He struggled the least in Present Mic's classes but still, he wasn't this good.
"You swapped languages," Noted Ryan, "Its side effect is kicking in."
"What side effect?" Asked Tanjiro, his eyes tinged with worry.
"You'll be swapping languages for a while and mixing up words in languages you don't properly know. It's gonna take a while to get used to but at least we understand each other."
"That makes sense," Muttered Asta.
"Now where were we," continued Ryan.
FIVE MINUTES LATER
"Right," Ryan reiterated, a small smile playing on his lips. "So, you are...?" He gestured to Eren.
Eren, still radiating a bit of suspicion, grudgingly replied, "Eren Yeager." He glanced around the unfamiliar room again, his unease evident. "Where exactly is this place?"
Ryan nodded, making a mental note. "And you?" He turned to Tanjiro.
"Kamado Tanjiro," Tanjiro said clearly, his gaze steady but filled with questions. "Thank you for the... drink." He still seemed a little unsure about the whole situation.
Next, Ryan looked at Izuku, who was still looking slightly bewildered by his sudden fluency. "Midoriya Izuku," he offered, bowing slightly. "This is... a very strange situation."
Ryan then turned to the boisterous blonde. "And you are the one who likes ramen?"
Naruto puffed out his chest. "Believe it! I'm Uzumaki Naruto! And you still haven't told us where we are, mister!"
Finally, Ryan looked at the last boy.
"Asta," the boy said with a straightforward nod. "And yeah, this is super weird. One minute I was with my squad and the next, bam! Here."
Ryan leaned back slightly, taking in all their names. "Well, Eren, Tanjiro, Izuku, Naruto, and Asta. Welcome to... my home." He gestured around the spacious living room. "As for where 'here' exactly is... that's a bit of a complicated question."
Eren's suspicion didn't lessen. "Complicated how?"
"Yeah!" Naruto chimed in. "Are we on some weird mission? Did some bad guys bring us here?"
Ryan shook his head. "No, nothing like that. As I said before, I have absolutely no idea how you all ended up here." He held up his hands in a gesture of sincerity. "I literally just found you all unconscious on my floor."
Izuku, ever the quick thinker, started muttering again. "Unconscious... all of us... at the same time... It's unlikely to be a coincidence. Was there any sign of a struggle? Any... villains?"
Ryan frowned, trying to recall the scene. "No, there wasn't. You were all just... lying there. Peaceful, almost. Which is what makes this so strange."
Tanjiro's nose twitched slightly. "Did you smell anything unusual? Any strange scents?" His heightened senses were clearly on alert.
"Now that you mention it..." Ryan paused, thinking back. "There was a faint... almost electric smell in the air. But it was gone pretty quickly."
Asta, who had been looking around with wide eyes, suddenly pointed at the large window displaying the Orion Nebula. "Woah! What's that outside?! It's all glowy and stuff!"
The others turned to look at the breathtaking view. Eren's eyes widened slightly despite himself, while Izuku's analytical mind was trying to process the impossible sight.
"That," Ryan said, a hint of wonder in his voice, "is the Orion Nebula. A cloud of gas and dust in space."
Naruto blinked. "Space? You mean... like, way out there?"
"Exactly," Ryan confirmed.
A stunned silence filled the room as the implications of Ryan's words began to sink in. They weren't just in a strange house; they were somewhere completely alien.
Eren's voice was tight with disbelief and a hint of rising anger. "Space? What kind of crazy trick are you playing? There's no way we're in space!"
Naruto, equally bewildered, pointed at the window with a shaky finger. "That's... that's not the sky I know! What's going on, old man?!"
Ryan held up his hands again, trying to project calm despite the whirlwind of confusion in the room. "I understand it sounds unbelievable, but look for yourselves. That's not Earth's atmosphere out there."
Tanjiro tilted his head, his brow furrowed. "Space? Like... the really big empty place with stars?"
Asta's eyes were wide. "Stars? You mean like the shiny things at night? We're that far away from home?!"
Just as Ryan was about to answer, a calm, synthesized voice filled the room.
"Indeed. There is me."
All five boys jumped, their eyes darting around, trying to locate the source of the unexpected voice.
"Who said that?!" Asta exclaimed, nearly tripping over a nearby rug.
Ryan sighed a hint of exasperation in his tone. "Oh, right. I sometimes forget he's not... physically present." He looked up towards the ceiling. "That would be Albert. He's... well, he's the AI that runs this house. He handles pretty much everything."
Eren's suspicion immediately shifted to the disembodied voice. "An AI? What's an AI got to do with us being in space?"
"I manage the systems of this residence, which happens to be located... where it is," Albert replied in his monotone voice.
Naruto squinted at the ceiling. "Located where? On another weird part of Earth?"
"Designation: interstellar Orbital Habitat #783-Z," Albert stated matter-of-factly. "Current location: Orbiting HD 34445 b."
Izuku's eyes widened. "HD 34445 b? That's an exoplanet! It's light-years away from Earth! It was discovered using a space telescope!" He looked around the room, his mind racing. "An orbital habitat... that means this isn't even on the surface of the planet!"
Tanjiro looked at Izuku, his confusion evident. "Exo-planet? Space telescope? What are you talking about, Midoriya?"
Asta was even more lost. "Light-years? What's a light-year? Is that how long it takes to get ramen?"
Eren's grip tightened. "Another planet? Beyond the walls? That's... impossible." His worldview, shaped by the confines of the walls, struggled to comprehend such a vast concept.
Now that he thought about it, what the hell even was a planet? Were the walls in one?
Sensing his inner questioning, Izuku broke it down." Planets are massive heavenly objects made of liquids, gases or solids, in rare cases two of the three or in rarer cases all three states of matter that revolve around stars, like our sun, which are bigger heavenly bodies made of burning gases."
Feeling eyes on him from years of experience in avoiding his middle school bullies, Izuku slowly turned around and noticed everyone looking at him. He blushed before turning his head the other way then looking down and rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.
"A..at least, ", he spluttered, " that's from what i remember reading online."
Ryan nodded slowly. "Something like that. It's a more complex topic to explain but that's the gist of it. A long story we can discuss later"
"Long story?!" Naruto yelled. "We're in freaking orbit around some planet we've never even heard of! That's not just a long story!"
Tanjiro turned to Ryan, his expression serious. "Orbiting? What does that mean? Are we going to fall?"
Asta pointed at the nebula outside. "And what's a 'nebula'? Is it dangerous?"
Ryan sighed, running a hand through his white hair. "Okay, okay. Slow down. An exoplanet is a planet that orbits a star that isn't our Sun. HD 34445 b is one of those. Orbiting means we're going around it like the way the moon goes around Earth, so no, we're not going to fall... well, not in the way you're thinking." He gestured to the window. "And a nebula is a giant cloud of gas and dust out in space. It's very far away and mostly harmless to us from this distance. But you can still admire its beauty."
"Whoa... another planet?" Naruto mumbled, still staring at the alien sky. "So... like, not home?"
Tanjiro looked at Izuku, his eyes full of genuine curiosity. "Midoriya, you seemed to know some of those words. 'Exo-planet'... what is it?"
Izuku, despite his own shock, took a deep breath, his analytical mind kicking in. "Well, um... think of our Sun, the star that gives us light and warmth on Earth. There are tons and tons of other stars out there, way farther away. An exoplanet is a planet that goes around one of those other stars, not our Sun." He gestured towards the window. "HD 34445 b is a planet that orbits a different star, very, very far from where we know."
Asta scratched his head, looking utterly bewildered. "So... we're on a planet that goes around a different shiny thing in the sky? That's... trippy!"
Eren, though still sceptical, was listening intently. The sheer impossibility of the situation was starting to sink in. "And this 'orbiting' thing? You said it's like the moon around Earth?"
Izuku nodded. "Yeah. Earth has something called gravity, which pulls the moon towards it, making it go in a circle around us. Planets have gravity too, and they orbit their stars because of that pull. This 'Interstellar Orbital Habitat #783-Z' must be going around HD 34445 b because of its gravity."
Before anyone could fully process this new information, Albert's calm voice interjected. "Perhaps a visual demonstration would be beneficial."
Suddenly, a shimmering blue light materialized in the centre of the living room, solidifying into a large, holographic screen. On the screen, a slightly grainy image played. It showed the living room as if they were currently in it, but moments before they had woken up.
In the centre of the room, a swirling vortex of blue light appeared. One by one, the figures of Eren, Tanjiro, Izuku, Naruto, and Asta materialized within the light, as if being dropped gently onto the floor before the blue light dissipated completely.
The five teenagers stared at the holographic replay of their arrival, their mouths agape.
"What... what was that?!" Naruto stammered, pointing at the fading image on the screen.
"That," Albert stated simply, "is the security footage of your arrival."
Izuku's eyes widened, his analytical gears turning rapidly. "A teleportation? Some kind of... interdimensional transport?"
Tanjiro's hand instinctively went to the hilt of his non-existent sword. "Magic? Was someone using some kind of strange art to bring us here?"
Eren's gaze was fixed on the screen, his expression a mixture of shock and dawning realization. "So... we didn't just... appear here?"
Asta, as usual, voiced the most immediate question. "But... who did that?! And why us?!"
"So you're telling us," Eren began, his voice still edged with suspicion as he stared at the space where the blue light had been, "that we just... appeared here in some kind of light show?"
Naruto crossed his arms, his usual boisterousness replaced with a wary frown. "Yeah! And you still haven't told us why you knew who we were the second we woke up!" He pointed an accusing finger at Ryan. "You said our names like it was no big deal!"
Tanjiro stepped forward slightly, his gaze sharp and observant. "It's true. You knew our names immediately. How could you have known that if you just found us unconscious?"
Izuku, ever the pragmatist, added, "It's a reasonable question, Ryan. It's quite a coincidence that you'd know the names of five strangers who suddenly appeared in your home on another planet."
Asta just nodded in agreement, looking from Ryan to his newfound companions with a confused expression. "Yeah! How did you know us?"
Ryan sighed, running a hand through his long white hair again. He looked genuinely perplexed. "Look, I know it seems impossible, but I truly have no idea how you got here. As for knowing your names..." He hesitated, a strange look crossing his face. "Well, that's... that's a long story, and honestly, it's something I doubt you'd even believe."
Eren's suspicion intensified. "Try us."
Ryan shifted uncomfortably. "It's just... your names, your appearances, even some of the things you've said... they're all very familiar to me. In a way that shouldn't be possible." He paused, choosing his words carefully. "It's like... it's like I've known you... from stories." He shrugged, a wry smile touching his lips.
Five pairs of eyes stared back. They held shock, then confusion before the faces turned flat
"What?" asked five flat voices.
"See," Ryan said
The five teenagers stared at the screen, a mixture of shock, disbelief, and dawning horror slowly spreading across their faces.
"What... what is all this?!" Eren demanded, his voice trembling slightly. "Are you saying we're... we're just characters in some kind of show?"
Naruto slammed his fist on a nearby table, his usual boisterousness replaced with a dark fury. "This is insane, believe it! Who would do this to us?! Who would watch us like... like we're not even real?!"
Tanjiro, his expression a mask of controlled shock, spoke with a low intensity. "Those... those moving pictures... they showed our battles, our losses... our lives. How could anyone know so much?"
Izuku, his mind racing, muttered, "It's... it's like looking into a mirror of my entire life, but... but it's not me. It's someone else's interpretation. The level of detail... it's overwhelming."
Asta, his usual loudness subdued, looked around at his companions, his voice barely a whisper. "Are they... are they making fun of us?"
Ryan watched them, his initial confusion slowly morphing into a grim understanding. He had to try and calm them down, even if he wasn't sure they'd believe him. "Look, I know this is a lot to take in. It's... it's strange, even to me. But I promise you, I had nothing to do with this. I don't know why you're here, or how this happened."
He took a deep breath, trying to choose his words carefully. "Maybe... maybe if you told me what you remember... the last thing you remember before you woke up here. Maybe that will give us some clues. Try to remember where you were, what you were doing, who you were with..."
The teenagers exchanged uneasy glances before slowly recounting their final memories:
Eren spoke of a battlefield, the ground shaking, the air filled with smoke and the stench of blood. He remembered the crumbling remains of his Titan form and being pulled from it by Mikasa and Armin.
Naruto described a stone bridge shrouded in mist, facing a dangerous woman. His teammates were injured and vulnerable, and he was suddenly unable to move as his power was being painfully drained.
Tanjiro recounted the shattered remnants of a train, the heat of battle, and the fading light of dawn. He remembered the broken bodies of his friends and the overwhelming power of his enemy. He was determined to protect them and his sister.
Izuku remembered being in his room in the dorms, having changed into his sleeping clothes and then suddenly being pushed back and falling.
Asta recalled a cavern filled with despair, the overwhelming power of an enemy, and the desperate need to protect his friend. He remembered throwing himself in front of a deadly attack.
As each of them spoke, their voices trailed off, their eyes losing focus as the memories faded into a sudden, blank darkness.
Ryan stared at each of them as he listened to each story. He didn't let his unease show. They were right there, alive and breathing—each plucked from fictional stories he knew better than his own reflection. This wasn't fanfiction. This wasn't a dream. If they were figments of his imagination, then Albert wouldn't have noticed them. Everything was real.
And that was the problem.
These were characters who died. Or were fated to. Their stories were completed long ago, yes—but none of them existed here, in his world. Not physically unless in a pencil drawing on paper. Not unless...
There was only one explanation. One horrifying, logical conclusion that clawed its way up from the pit of his thoughts:
They're dead.
Not in a poetic way. Not metaphorically. Kinda like how you can only be reincarnated in another world after you die in your original one.
Imagine a hamster wheel that you can't get off.
That's kind of like Samsara in Buddhism. It's a never-ending cycle of being born, living, dying, and being reborn again. What keeps the wheel spinning is your karma – the good and bad things you do. These actions decide what your next "spin" on the wheel will be like, maybe as a happy creature or maybe in a tougher situation.
Buddhists believe that to reach a peaceful state called Nirvana, where they're free from all the ups and downs of the cycle, they have to break out of the cycle of endless death and rebirth. However, each life is different from the previous and next ones. It's like lighting a candle with another different candle. Both candles have their own flames but the flames themselves are connected.
This however was a different case.
Their bodies weren't torn or bloodied, but that was the point. Something must have had brought them after the end, their end. After their final breath, when their souls were entering the Samsara Cycle. And whatever force had done it... it hadn't brought them back to life.
It had brought them elsewhere.
Here, in his home.
How and why were questions for later. However, if his thoughts and theories were actually true, If they aligned with facts and trivia, even by a little bit, then this changes everything.
He looked at them, these five teenagers from different worlds, now standing before him, confused and wary. And the truth hit him like a physical blow.
"You're... you're all dead," he said, the words hanging heavy in the air.