The cafeteria food tasted horrendous but Rin forced himself to eat it. His body needed fuel, the doctor had said. Two years of atrophy didn't fix itself overnight.
He sat alone at a corner table with a borrowed tablet in front of him, scrolling through article after article. The more he read, the more surreal everything became.
Dungeons. Monsters. People with superpowers calling themselves Hunters. The whole world had turned into some RPG shit while he was unconscious.
Leo's profile stared at him from the screen. His friend looked different, older, with a scar cutting through his left eyebrow. Rank 47: Lightning Sovereign Leo Penzerio. There were videos of him fighting, electricity crackling around his body as he tore through creatures that looked straight out of a fever dream.
'Good for you I guess.'
The thought came with this weird hollow feeling in his chest. Two years. Leo had been out there fighting while Rin slept.
A notification popped up: Visitor Request - Leo Penzerio
Rin's finger hovered over accept. Part of him wasn't ready for this. What do you even say to someone after that much time?
He hit accept anyway.
---
Leo came through the cafeteria doors fifteen minutes later and his eyes scanned the room before landing on Rin.
"Holy shit." Leo crossed the distance fast and pulled Rin into a hug that would've cracked ribs if Rin wasn't so bony. "You're actually awake. They told me but I had to see it."
"Can't breathe."
"Shit, sorry." Leo pulled back, hands on Rin's shoulders, his eyes wet with joy. "Two years, bro. I thought you weren't gonna make it."
"Yeah well." Rin managed a weak smile. "Guess I'm too stubborn to die."
They sat down and Leo started talking. Words just spilled out about the early days, the chaos, how he'd awakened while fighting some goblin thing in the hospital parking lot. Electricity had just exploded from his hands. He talked about searching for Rin's room but the hospital was evacuating and by the time he got back, Rin had been transferred somewhere else.
"I visited when I could. Between dungeon raids and training. The nurses probably thought I was crazy, talking to you about all the insane shit happening outside."
"I don't remember any of it." Rin pushed food around his tray. "Just blank."
"Better than being awake for it honestly. Those first few months were..." Leo trailed off and his expression got dark. "You didn't miss anything good."
Rin wanted to feel grateful but instead there was just this empty feeling. Everyone had moved on. The world had changed and he'd been asleep through all of it.
"So what now?" Leo asked. "Doc says you need physical therapy, few months of recovery. After that we can get you tested, see if you awakened."
"I've been in a coma."
"Doesn't matter. Some people awaken during trauma, some during their first dungeon exposure, some randomly years later." He leaned forward. "That window explosion, all that fracture energy, you were right there. There's a chance."
A chance to be special, to be powerful and to actually matter in this new world.
The thought should've excited him but it just made him tired.
"Yeah. Maybe."
Leo's grin dropped a bit but he tried to recover. "Hey even if you didn't it's fine. Plenty of people live normal lives now. Hunters handle the dangerous stuff. You could go back to school, get a degree, find some safe job."
Rin shifted in his seat, suddenly feeling the weight of the conversation. He needed to lighten things up before the reality of his situation crushed him completely.
"Dungeons and monsters though?" He let out a short laugh, shaking his head. "Bro, that's literally every manhwa and anime you made me watch. This is straight up Solo Leveling shit."
Leo's face lit up. "Dude, I KNOW! When I first threw lightning, I thought I was hallucinating. Like actually thought I'd lost my mind."
"So how does it work? You just... what, think about electricity and it happens?"
"Kind of? It's weird to explain. You feel this energy inside you, and you learn to channel it." Leo flexed his hand and a small spark jumped between his fingers. "Takes practice though. First few times I tried, I just shocked myself."
"Of course you did." Rin was laughing now, real laughter that hurt his atrophied core but felt good. "Your dream came true, my guy. You always said you wished you lived in an isekai."
"Careful what you wish for, right?" Leo scratched the back of his head, but he was grinning too. "Though I'm not gonna lie, being able to shoot lightning from my hands is pretty fucking cool."
"Sure, Mr. Lightning Sovereign." Rin air-quoted the title mockingly. "That's such a cringe name, by the way. Who gave you that?"
"The media gave me that, not me." Leo tried to sound dignified but his ears were turning red. "Some reporter saw me fight and wrote an article. The name just... stuck."
"Uh-huh. And you definitely didn't lean into it at all."
"I didn't! They just—" Leo stopped, seeing Rin's smirk. "You know what, fuck you."
"There he is." Rin felt something loosen in his chest. This was familiar and normal. "So real talk though, have you met any elves yet?"
Leo blinked. "What?"
"Elves, cat girls, demon waifus." Rin leaned forward with mock seriousness. "Come on bro, if dungeons are real then fantasy races gotta be real too, right? Did you find your harem protagonist arc yet?"
"Oh my god." Leo buried his face in his hands but he was laughing. "I forgot how annoying you are."
"That's not an answer. I'm hearing evasion, which means yes." Rin was fully grinning now. "Holy shit you did meet elves. Are they hot? Do they have the pointy ears? Can I see pictures?"
"There are no elves!" Leo protested through his laughter. "At least not that we've found. Most dungeon monsters are ugly as fuck. Goblins, orcs, these weird spider things with human faces—"
"Human faces? That's some Junji Ito shit right there."
"It's horrifying is what it is." Leo shuddered. "First time I saw one I screamed like a little girl."
"The mighty Lightning Sovereign, screaming at a spider."
"A spider with a human face. A child's face specifically. You would've shit yourself."
"Fair point." Rin conceded. "Still though, no fantasy waifus? That's disappointing. Two years and the world becomes an RPG but no anime girls? What's even the point?"
Leo stared at him for a moment, and then something in his expression shifted. The laughter faded into something softer, more genuine. His eyes got that wet shine again.
"God, I missed this," he said quietly. "I really missed you, man."
The words hit Rin harder than he expected. The lightness in his chest suddenly felt heavy again.
"Yeah," Rin managed. "Missed you too."
"Those first few months after everything went to shit, I'd be in some dungeon fighting for my life and I'd think 'Rin would've made a joke about this' or 'Rin would've called me an idiot for doing that.'" Leo rubbed his eyes with the heel of his palm.
"The other Hunters are cool and all but they take everything so seriously. Everything's about rankings and power levels and who killed what. Nobody just... talks anymore. Not like we used to."
"Well I'm awake now." Rin said, trying to keep his voice steady. "So you're stuck with me again. Lucky you."
"Lucky me," Leo agreed with a small smile. "Though you're gonna have to catch up on two years of drama. There's this one guy, Rank 3, calls himself the Crimson Reaper—"
"Already cringe."
"—who keeps starting beef with everyone on social media. It's honestly entertaining as hell."
"Ah yes, superhuman powers and people still can't resist Twitter drama." Rin nodded sagely. "Some things never change."
"Right? You'd think saving the world would be enough but no, gotta subtweet other Hunters."
"Uh-huh. Can you do the Naruto run?"
"I will leave right now."
"Can you? Can you though?" Rin was grinning again. "Come on, show me. Do the hand signs too. Believe it!"
A wadded up napkin hit Rin in the face.
"Okay, okay, I'm done." Rin held up his hands in surrender. "But seriously though, if you find elves, I want pics. For research purposes."
"Research."
"Scientific inquiry into the biological feasibility of fantasy races in our new reality."
"You mean you wanna jack off to elf girls."
"I mean I wanna jack off to elf girls," Rin agreed without shame. "Two year coma, bro. Let me have this."
Leo burst out laughing again, the kind that came from the belly and made his shoulders shake. "You're the worst."
"And yet you missed me."
"Unfortunately," Leo said with a fond smile. "Unfortunately, I really did."
They sat there and continued talking about dumb stuff.