The sun's shining, the cherry trees are in full bloom, and the first month of school has begun.
But nobody's outside.
Why?
Because it's break time right now at Akatsuki High.
In classroom 2B, the students are split up into different social groups.
Most of them are in groups, except for a guy sitting off to the side, reading a book.
Haruto, the self-proclaimed class clown, goes to greet him: "Oi, Shin! Reading another horror novel?"
Without looking up, Shin responds: "Hmm? Yeah, and it's not a horror novel, it's a source book."
"Really?" Haruto glances over his shoulder. "What's with the creepy symbols and scary monsters? Don't tell me it's some Demon Summoning Grimoire."
Shin looks up with furrowed brows. "What? No, it's an eldritch sourcebook."
"Eldritch?", Haruto asks, his voice loud with fake incredulousness. "You mean tentacle monsters like Cthulhu?"
"Yeah, didn't I explain this all to you before?"
Haruto cheekily grins, "Yeah you did, I thought I'd let everyone else know your tastes."
"Bastard."
Haruto pats him on the back, "Well, Imma leave you to it. By the way, it's your turn to bring snacks for the board game meet-up."
"Even though I'm the host?", Shin asks with a raised brow.
"Yup!"
He lets out a sigh. "You're shameless, you know that?"
"I know! I wish I could share some of it with Aika, I swear, she's literally a losing heroine!"
"Losing heroine? The heck are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about how–" A pair of hands clasp over Haruto's mouth. "Mmph! Mmph!"
The owner of the hands – the aforementioned Aika – exudes a chilling aura, contrary to her usual kind-hearted appearance. "What were you saying, Haruto? You weren't talking bad about me, were you?"
Haruto frantically shakes his head.
Aika lets go of him. Haruto dramatically clutches his chest and heaves, inhaling air as though he was actually suffocating.
One person questioned the duo's comedic performance: "What are the two of you doing?"
"Ren!" Haruto immediately hides behind Ren's athletic frame. "You have to help me! I think Aika's been possessed! You hold her down while I get salt and a bible!" He attempts to push Ren forward, but Ren doesn't budge an inch.
"From how I see it, you're annoying people again."
"What!? I'm just–" He quickly makes eye contact with Aika. She smiles, but it doesn't reach her eyes.
He gulps and pretends not to see the demonic yaksha face floating above her head. "I'm just socializing with Ren! He hardly talks to anyone besides us."
"Quit making a spectacle in front of him, guy just wants to read before the next class starts."
"Don't be like that, I was just teasing him."
"Oh really? Since you're having so much fun, guess you don't need to copy Yumi's notes. Right, Yumi?"
Yumi, with twin braids hanging down her back and glasses almost slipping off her nose, looks up from her textbook, confused. "Um, what?"
At the mention of being banned from note-taking, Haruto drops to his knees and clasps her hands. "Yumi Nee-san! Please don't abandon me! I'll be better, I swear!"
Utterly flustered by Haruto's nonsensical behaviour that matches with a deadbeat husband clinging to his fed-up wife, Yumi is dumbfounded.
Ren, retaining his composure, grabs Haruto and tries to pry him off. "Stop troubling her. You're already being annoying as is."
Haruto cries, "You can't do this to me!"
His friend ignores his words and keeps pulling at him.
Desperate, the self-proclaimed jokester clings onto her legs. He tries to appeal to Yumi with crocodile tears. Except he accidentally gets a full view up her skirt.
"Bunnies? Innocent as ever Yumi-chan!"
Ren lets go of Haruto and facepalms.
Yumi's face reddens. Her shadow looms over Haruto as she raises her fist.
He glances up to see what's hanging above him, only to be met with Aika's sinisterly smiling face.
""Die!""
Aika and Yumi simultaneously strike Haruto with their fists.
The accidental pervert lets out a stupid 'eh' before sprawling out on the ground with two bumps on his noggin.
The whole class, quietly observing the skit playing out, erupts into laughter.
Whilst the class was laughing at Haruto's antics, Shin kept reading his source book, flipping to the next page.
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That's my friend group. Now let's talk about me.
Time for a little self-introduction.
The guy reading and minding his own business while his friends play out a scene straight from a highschool comedy is me, Shin.
My real name isn't Shin or Kyoshin. It's Kyoshinja, literally meaning 'cultist.' Surname's Tanaka in case you're all interested.
How I got my name's a funny story. My parents aren't the religious sort, but they're avid participants in politics. Dad's a higher-up in a labour union. Mom is the founder of a small charity organization that helps the impoverished. Despite their left-leaning professions, they're proud self-proclaimed nationalists and right-wingers.
They don't share that extremist Imperialist mindset that prevailed in the early to mid 1900's – thank god – but they can be quite vocal about their views.
So what exactly do politically extreme, possibly atheist parents have to do with naming a child 'cultist?'
I'm getting there, just bear with me.
When I was born, my parents wanted to name me 'Fanaticism.' I think what they were trying to go for was 'Patriotism,' but they liked 'Fanaticism' better, since it sounds more extreme. However, due to an error in the computer system, an extra 'ja' got added to the end of my name.
When the nurse presented my birth certificate to my parents, you'd think they'd curse her for making such a huge mistake.
Well... they didn't. Apparently they thought naming a child 'Cultist' instead of 'Fanaticism' sounded a lot cooler, so they stuck with it. I'm not gonna lie, I kinda dig it.
Every time I tell someone my name for the first time, they do a double take and ask me to repeat myself.
Okay, so I didn't have much of a religious upbringing. How did I get into the whole creepy 'otherworldly tentacle entities' trope?
It wasn't anything too dramatic. Back in middle school, I had a pen pal from the West. He's an avid fan of D\&D.
One day, I got dragged into an online session and was instantly hooked. It's just as, if not more fun than the games that that hardcore gamer, Yoshida, from the Otaku group hanging around the corner keeps trying to sell me on.
FYI, my favourite class to play was the Warlock. One of the most background flavorful classes to create and play as.
They even have several Subclasses related to Eldritch Beings. One of my favourite aspects of the game.
Just imagine it, having an all-powerful Lovecraftian deity who makes the heavens tremble and the gods shudder as your sugar daddy.
'Mwuah!' Chef's kiss! Only thing that can top that is being a Necromancer, which I also play often, to my friends' annoyance.
Don't get me wrong, I just have a fascination with the occult. Mostly things related to the dead or mysterious beings beyond human comprehension. Though I am impartial to Demonology once in a while.
Yikes, I'm trying to clear my name. Here I am, digging a deeper hole for myself...
In my defence, it's not like I perform ritual sacrifices at home, whine about the meaninglessness of human existence or purposefully act gloomy and make others hanging around me uncomfortable.
I even abhor piercings and loud rock music.
Also: No, I'm definitely not a chuuni. That role belongs to Kantoro, who hangs out with his hodge-podge of misfits.
Surprisingly, he doesn't hang out with the Otaku squad in the back. Guess he isn't extreme enough.
Anyways, back on topic: The reason why I'm so invested in Eldritch lore and horror is simple.
It's fun to read.
That's it. Kinda like one person is interested in history but can't wrap their heads around science, while the other takes joy in math but detests creating haikus. Or how people are passionate about that manga series about pirates, but find the sequel to that ninja series spits in the face of the original. In my case, however, I'm interested in reading about Eldritch entities. Not exactly popular with regular folks. Though I do enjoy a fair bit of Western classics as well. 'The Great Gatsby' is one of my personal favourites.
'Different strokes for different folks,' to put it in my pen pal's words.
Anyways, back on topic: The reason why I'm so invested in Eldritch lore and horror is simple—it's fun to read. That's it. Kinda like one person is interested in history but can't wrap their heads around science, while the other takes joy in math but detests creating haikus. Or how people are passionate about that manga series about pirates, but find the sequel to that ninja series spits in the face of the original. In my case, however, I'm interested in reading about Eldritch entities. Not exactly popular with regular folks. Though I do enjoy a fair bit of Western classics as well. 'The Great Gatsby' is one of my personal favourites.
Unfortunately, everyone seems to get the wrong idea.
For some reason, whenever someone's not into shonen manga as a boy or shoujo as a girl, but instead some obscure genre filled with horror and gruesome gore, they get labelled a deviant, to put it bluntly.
In any regular highschool, someone like that is going to be isolated and get bullied. In a regular highschool, that is.
The one I attend is Akatsuki High. Not to brag, but it's the best school in this province—one of the top thirty schools in Japan. Personally, I don't find this school to be all that elite.
Aside from the well-maintained facilities and the various events students participate in, there's hardly anything worth noting.
Everyone's got decent grades—even the worst in this class is above seventy—but we can't be called geniuses or elites. There are some outliers, but you get them at pretty much every school.
Luckily some old acquaintances of mine, Haruto, Aika and Ren, are popular with the class and help me build bridges with them.
For the most part, everyone's chill. Even the trio of delinquents who're arguing about something – I think it's something about who has the cooler tattoo? – are relatively decent individuals, as long as one doesn't piss them off. Although they're nice, my classmates treat me with caution. I'm the kind of guy you'd want for a group project, but not to hang out with. Doesn't really bother me though, I get enough social interaction with sports and the board games club.
Pitiful, really. I know.
So, it's a typical sunny spring day in the first month of my second year in high school. I'm just sitting in class during lunch block, reading my shiny new hardcover Eldritch source book I've been dying to get.
The two thousand yen I spent was definitely worth it, so much interesting and new lore. I should use Shub or Yog for my next campaign. There's only so many times a person can-
Uh, sorry... Anyway, let's get to what actually matters.
Of course, we're starting things off with a classic.
Good old summoning circle. Everyone's minding their own business when a giant glowing circle appears beneath our feet.
How cliche.
Pretty much anyone who's ever read manga or light novels can guess what happens next. The circle shines brightly with a divine golden light and the next thing I know, me and my classmates all appear in a fancy castle or pristine church.
Some guy tells us to go fight a Demon King, we agree for some reason, go on some adventures, slay the Demon King, then go back home.
That's the typical start to any good old isekai.
Now, I know what you're thinking: 'Another trash isekai? Let me guess—the main character is just going to be a wuss, or a pervert!
They get some special ability and then go around collecting women like Monpoke Cards, gain the power to mess up the entire world order with a single spell, have the inhabitants blindly worship them for things that are common sense on Earth. Yada yada yada.'
You'd be partially right. Yes, there's magic. Yes, it's in a fantasy world. Yes, everyone gets some special abilities. But bear with me for a minute or two.
What happens next is extraordinary.
For me, at least—everyone else gets the classic package.
Let me explain.