"Here. Why the hell did you bury your phone on the ground? It's dirty."
I threw his phone at him, and he tried to capture it. He then suddenly turned to me with a shocked face.
"P-Phone…!? Y-You are..."
I then sat while crossing my legs. Then I took a deep breath and removed all emotions, and I put on my poker face.
"In this world, you shall know me as Rize. But in that world, you may know me as the guy that was about to kick your ass and become the first place."
"Huh??... N-No way... Melvin!?!"
Ren quickly turned happy, and I nodded heavily.
No, he became more than happy.
… too happy.
"Bhahahah!!! Why are you a girl now!?"
And… there it is.
"Did you choose to be a girl, here!? Why would you do that?? Haha!!!"
"I did not do this. The fucking gods did."
I said with a really pissed expression and monotone voice while trying very hard not to feel… trying not to feel anything.
Because I'm already beyond pissed. Ren did not come to this world in another body.
Only I did. A very obnoxious appearance too, at that.
"Whahah... And you are holding your anger... That's rare, dude!"
"I have been very angry way too much here... It's unwise to be angry now."
"Oh, so now you are a saint, huh?"
"Well, they did call me The Saint healer."
Hearing that made Ren wonder about something. He decided to sit down in front of me to have a deeper conversation.
We both studied our appearances with each other, and Ren is the first to comment.
"Honestly? Not to sound homo, but you looked hot."
"I know. Sorry, but I have a girlfriend already."
"Damn, and a lesbian."
"I tried very hard not to explode here... You best not keep on pushing."
"Sorry-lorry."
Hearing that expression made me feel very nostalgic. He always says that whenever he feels like he went beyond the limit. And I always stop getting angry at him every time.
We continued studying each other again, and I have come to a final realization that nothing on Ren's body has changed.
"What the hell!!? Your body didn't change a bit! Every single cell in my body changed!! I can't believe this!!"
I finally let out all of my anger by swinging my hands around, and Ren laughed really hard. I can't believe nothing on his body changed, and I can't accept that.
He is wearing a fisherman outfit, so I can tell he must have been a fisherman all this time.
"Judging from your clothes, you became a fisherman."
"And from your hair, you became... a prostitute knight?"
I took out a scythe instantly and aimed it at him.
"I will actually slice your limbs off."
"Wow, okay, you changed!! A lot!"
I placed the scythe back in and let out a sigh.
"So… tell me your story. Start from the beginning."
I said to him, and he nodded. Ren told me his experience from the start to end, how he met and talked with a beautiful lady in his house, and suddenly the space got warped.
Ren, alongside everything inside his house, got transported into a wormhole. He was falling inside the space hole for a long time until he finally arrived here on this island.
His house probably got destroyed during the transport, leaving only his furniture with him.
At first, he wanted to take all the furniture with him, but the fishermen already approached the island. He had to hide really quickly before they found him, but he got found in the end.
Luckily, the fishermen took care of him and guarded his island for him. The reason why they closed the island is because they knew those things belonged to Ren, and they didn't want anyone else to take it or anything.
As for the scavenged furniture, it was actually Ren's doing. He showed me a phone charger he had made on the northern beach, inside a large hollow tree stump. He used the water waves to charge the phone, while he went to the ocean to fish with the fishermen.
All this time, he was living so peacefully with the fishermen, and he didn't even see the rest of the world at all.
"What did the goddess say to you when you met her at your house?"
"G-Goddess? Oh you mean the pretty beautiful and hot lady. Hmm, it was quite vague, but I remembered she called me... A hero?"
"Hero…?"
Is Ren… the hero?
No, that can't be right.
In the end, she didn't only call one hero. She called multiple. Me and Ren are probably one of them, and there's probably more. But between me and him, it's obvious who is more like a hero than the other.
He became a fisherman. I've saved kingdoms multiple times.
"Okay, that's about all of it from me. What about you? Where have you been, in that crazy hot smoking babe of a body?"
I forgot how annoying he is…
I took a deep breath, and told him my side of the story from the beginning. Unlike him, I met the death skeleton person that ended up killing me. And just when I was dying, the goddess came to me and somehow took me to this world.
In the new world with my new body, I had to survive from all kinds of threats, like monsters, enemies, even evil gods.
I told him from start to end, and somewhere along the way, we changed spots to the beach where we can talk more freely. That place started to smell at night, due to the corrosion from the metals.
And at the end of the story, he cried.
"Y-You went through so many terrible things... Sob. And I... thought it was difficult being a fisherman... Sob."
"You are hopeless, dude."
"I know, bruh... But hey, I didn't get gender switched."
I lifted my hand to smack him and he moved to react, but I didn't end up smack him. And just when he moved back down, I smacked him.
"Dude! That hurts!"
"Your words hurt even worse. So shut up."
"Right. Sorry lorry."
After hearing his story, somehow I felt something was off. I didn't remember a... Wormhole...
Somehow his story felt really short. When mine was filled with deadly and dangerous adventures, his is more of a peaceful and slow life.
But, I still think there's something missing.
"You are transported here, so you might also have abnormal magic abilities. When you first came here, did you feel like your body was… super weak or something?"
"S-Super weak? No? I came here pretty strong! I was able to reel in a large fish that only exists in this world during my first day of fishing. It's like the air is filled with steroids or something. Why?"
Hearing that made me pissed even more, but the pieces are starting to get together.
"Have you… ever tried using magic?"
"Not exactly. I did hear they do exist here, but I never exactly tried them. Even though I really wanted to!!"
I can see the desperation in his face. Then I grinned evilly as I formed a blue fireball in my hands.
VWOOM!!
"D-Dude!!! That's so unfair!!"
"Hey, you want to fight the god of orcs?? What about being in this body, huh?? Go ahead, switch places with me."
"R-Right. But, you gotta teach me how to use magic."
"I'll think about it."
"Y-You..."
He may be my rival back in the day, but he is still my best friend. The two of us fought the bullies by ourselves back then, even though we lost in the end, but it is still a solid friendship.
Having him here might be the greatest gift from the other world… Not to sound homo, but I genuinely felt that way.
"By the way, I heard the other side of the continent is being engrossed in a war or something."
He finally entered the topic of this world. One that he has only heard from over here, while I was the one experiencing it over there.
"Yeah… that stuff. Damn, I got here so I can forget about those things, but you reminded me."
"Well sorry, but I am very curious!"
"... How about we take a visit?"
"What?"
I stood up and pointed my hand forward. I tried imagining the form, the shape perfectly, and my shadow magic slowly taking the form really quickly.
Before long, an airplane that looked so much like a Quinnjet is made above the waters.
"D-Dude! You are like a black green lantern!... A black lantern!"
"That's… one racist way to describe it. Can you leave this place?"
"Yeah, the people on the beach will guard it. Let's just go!"
I opened the hatch and entered the airplane, followed by the fish boy. I lifted the plane up by using the fire magic on the jets behind the plane, and it boosted forward at high speed.
"Woah!! This is insane!!"
There weren't exactly windows installed because the shadow magic would just shatter by the wind force if I made it too transparent. So Ren had no choice but to see from the small opening on the butt of the plane.
"It will be a lot easier if I just fly like a bird, but I kind of want to try this too."
"You can fly like a bird!?"
"More like… a devil. But yeah, wings."
We flew above the capital city of Naverne, Ralouyne. Ren had been to this city a lot of times before, and he had seen many beautiful things up close. But he never saw something like this.
"I always wondered, would I like living in this world? At first, I hated it. Because the language symbols are different, plus the people are too mean and barbaric.
But then I gradually loved it. And then there's these things where it's just... hard to move your eyes. I have fallen in love with this place."
He said while glaring down, but I shook my head.
He loved this world more than our home. Certainly, it was because he has yet to see all the negatives of this one. I cannot see that perspective the same way, unfortunately.
"So? Where were you living again? Mazino? Do you think we can go there?"
I turned to him and put on a confused face.
"Going there will take about three hours. It could be faster with my wings, but-"
"Then let's just use your wings! Can you like grab me with some giant eagle claws or something?"
His idea is exactly like what I have been doing in the past. The two of us just work at the same brainwave or something.
"... Are you sure you are up for that?"
"Try me."
The next minute, Ren is screaming in the sky from excitement.
"Woooooo!!!"
He is enjoying the quick wind as well as the high altitude. Well, he is the type to enjoy when riding some dangerous rides at an amusement park, so it's understandable that he is enjoying this.
"This is amazing!!"
As he shouted, I created a protection around his body so that the wind pressure doesn't destroy his eyeballs. At this speed, that is highly possible without protection.
He shouted from excitement, and I let out a sigh while grinning. Deep down, I am also glad he is here.
"This fucking guy…"
I am… not alone.