ch61-ch80 · 072-inter12

Interlude: First Class Reunion

Sai was in his forties.

Though he'd been transported to another world when he was young, he'd of course attended elementary and middle school in Japan.

Just as he'd had relationships with people in the other world, he'd had them in Japan too.

And so it was that the middle-aged man Yamana Saito — Sai — ended up attending the first class reunion of his life.

The venue was an izakaya in a town a little ways from where Sai lived.

The group consisted of people who'd all graduated from the same elementary school, some of whom had also gone to the same middle school.

He was about to reunite with his old classmates.

Sai's heart pounded a little as he made his way to the private room at the izakaya.

There were about a dozen or so people at the reunion.

The gender ratio was slightly weighted toward men.

According to the organizer, more people had shown up this time than usual.

"Yo, long time no see."

When Sai called out, his former classmates who'd already gathered responded.

"Oh, it really is Yama-chan!"

"Whoa, this takes me back! You remember me?!"

"But damn, you're built, aren't you? Were you always this jacked, Yama-chan?"

"The Yama-chan I know was a little more... well, your face is still Yama-chan, I guess..."

The private room at the izakaya where the reunion was held was already in an uproar.

By the way, "Yama-chan" was Sai's nickname from elementary and middle school.

"Man~~~ it's been over thirty years. I'm so glad we got to meet again."

A man with a beer in hand, tears streaming down his face, hugged Sai.

His face was already red, his breath reeking of alcohol.

"How are you already wasted? The reunion meeting time was 5 PM, wasn't it?"

"I had some free time today, so I called a few people and started early."

Looking more closely, there were already several drunk people.

"I see. Well, long time no see."

Sai casually sat the clinging classmate down.

He took another look at his former classmates, but at a reunion after thirty years, there were very few whose names matched their faces.

Honestly, even the names were questionable.

He even found himself thinking, "Did we really have someone with that name in our class?"

It was the phenomenon where, because everyone kept using nicknames, you ended up forgetting their actual first or last names.

So he came clean honestly.

"...Sorry. To be honest, after thirty years, I have no idea who's who..."

When that happened, his former classmates started with "Whoa, you forgot about me!?" followed by "It's me, remember, I sat next to you in art class..." and "We went to the candy store together in elementary school..." and "Wait, when we went together back then..." and "Whoa, that takes me back! The candy store around the corner from Yama-chan's house, right? That place..." — conversations sprawling in unexpected directions, with chatter blooming everywhere.

For better or worse, it was the atmosphere of a real class reunion.

It was tough on a guy meeting everyone after thirty years, but that's just how it goes.

As Sai looked over this chaotic scene, he called out to the organizer — the one he'd been closest to.

The organizer was a friend he'd known since not just elementary school, but kindergarten, and they'd gone to the same middle school too.

He was the one who'd learned of Sai's return through Sai's parents, and could be considered the one who'd called this reunion in the first place.

"What's the best way to handle this...?"

"Just leave 'em. So, what'll you have?"

"Beer, for now."

"Coming right up."

The organizer quickly tapped on his phone.

These days, a lot of izakayas let you scan a QR code with your phone and order that way. This place was that kind of style too, and to Sai — who didn't often go to izakayas — it looked novel.

Once again, he was amazed at how futuristic Japan had become.

Soon, Sai's beer arrived, and a proper toast began.

Most of the people there were company employees, but there were also some running their own shops, and even a few in creative professions.

One thing Sai was grateful for: nobody asked what he'd been doing during the thirty years he was missing.

The organizer explained why.

"Well, we're curious, but you didn't seem like you wanted to talk about it. Plus, we saw your mom and dad looking so down."

"Yeah, yeah! You better be good to your parents!"

"When your parents came to my shop, they were so happy telling me you'd been found."

Maybe this was what you'd expect from a hometown, or maybe it was the result of long acquaintanceships through elementary and middle school.

For better or worse, they didn't just look at Sai as an individual — they included his family in their opinions.

His former classmates had been, in a way, the ones who'd most directly seen Sai's parents searching for him all those years.

"Being good to my parents... well, I'm working on it, I guess."

He'd introduced Hexaria, but he still hadn't told them about his children in the other world.

He still hadn't — and couldn't — fully repay his parents for everything.

"Speaking of which, Yama-chan, what do you do now?"

One of the women suddenly asked.

"Ah, I'm an adventurer now. And an adventurer instructor."

"Oh! So the adventurer named Sai who I sometimes see on TV, that IS you, Yama-chan!"

"Uh, yeah."

When he went to the Shinjuku Adventurer's Guild, between instructing adventurers and the Hexaria situation, he got a fair amount of attention, but it seemed the general public didn't recognize Sai the adventurer all that much.

Different industry, different place — Sai's fame was about this level.

"Wait, Yama-chan is the adventurer Sai?!"

"He's the guy who adventures with that High Elf, right?"

"I told you, didn't I! I said it was Yama-chan!"

"Huh, but his face looks different from the online articles..."

"Whoa, how did I not realize until now..."

...Scratch that.

It seemed his former classmates simply hadn't connected Yamana Saito, their classmate, with Sai the adventurer.

Sai had only become famous in the last few months, and unless you were paying attention to adventurers and Shinjuku Tower, it might've been easy to miss.

But once that cat was out of the bag, the conversation inevitably centered on Sai.

"So THAT'S why you're so buff." "I thought you were a firefighter or something..."

"For now, how about taking off your jacket?" "Ewww..." "No, not like that. He's the same age as us with THAT body. I wanna see it, you know, for reference...!"

That led to...

"Actually, I work at an adventurer-related company now..." "How much do you make, honestly?" "Yama-chan, wanna grab coffee at dawn?" — naturally leading to certain topics.

"So, what's your relationship with that High Elf?"

His relationship with Hexaria was also questioned.

But for Sai, this was an expected question.

"Like I'd tell you, dumbass. NDA."

"Whoa, so it IS like that."

The guy who'd asked nodded with an "I knew it" expression.

Modern society had a magic word.

And that word was NDA. A non-disclosure agreement.

For any decent adult (in their forties), hearing this word made most people back off with a "well, I guess you can't talk about it then." There were some who'd still try to pry, but no matter how much they pushed, Sai could just say, "That's what I've been telling you — I can't talk about it."

It was a word he'd recently learned, and of course, he hadn't actually signed an NDA regarding his relationship with Hexaria. But even if it wasn't written down as a document, they'd agreed among the relevant parties to keep it secret for the time being.

So saying NDA wasn't entirely inaccurate.

Still, he couldn't have everyone constantly directing questions at him.

To change the subject, Sai brought up another topic.

"Speaking of which, the people who didn't come today..."

At a class reunion, this kind of topic — when you're in your forties — touched on sensitive matters.

Sai was born in Tokyo, and his hometown was Tokyo.

So you'd think everyone from his elementary and middle school would still live in Tokyo, but surprisingly, that wasn't the case.

Many people moved away for various reasons, and not everyone could stay in their hometown. The responses were things like, "He's in Hokkaido now," "She's overseas right now."

Up to this point, things were fine.

The problem came next.

"Huh, they died?"

"Yeah. A while ago, in a traffic accident..."

"I see. You wouldn't know that, Yama-chan. And there was someone who died from illness..."

It was at this moment that Sai learned that a considerable number of his elementary and middle school classmates had passed away.

They were only in their forties. An age that should've been far too young to die.

...Sai had lived a life in the other world as an adventurer — a life constantly side by side with death.

He'd had countless moments where he thought, "I was this close to dying."

If even one piece — effort, luck, circumstances — had been missing, he would have died.

That was the life he'd led.

When Sai was young, dreaming of returning to Japan someday and reuniting with everyone, he'd imagined that if he returned to Japan, he could live safely. That he'd return to peaceful, safe days.

He'd thought of it that simplistically.

But reality — even in Japan, people died easily.

Of course, if you talked in terms of probability, or "X out of Y people," the other world was probably riskier. Probably.

But even in Japan, more people had died than Sai had ever expected.

People he knew.

Sai was more shocked than he'd realized.

Seeing his expression, his former classmates kept talking.

"Well, it can't be helped."

"There's also illness."

"Yeah..."

"We're getting older too..."

Saying that, they all raised their glasses slightly and drank.

Nobody explicitly said it was a toast to the departed.

But at this moment, they were honoring the deceased and raising their glasses in mourning.

"I hope everyone lives a long life."

Sai murmured.

"Hey, the one in the most danger is you, right?"

"O-oh, yeah..."

He was called out for saying that as someone who worked as an adventurer.

"Yama-chan, you haven't changed at all."

"Kinda spacey, or, you know..."

And so, the reunion grew lively again, fueled by old stories and recent topics.

Suddenly, as Sai watched his bustling former classmates, he realized something.

Ah, this is just like that.

It's the same vibe as an adventurer's tavern.

Whether it's the other world or Japan, people are people.

Laughing together freely, but quiet when remembering the departed.

It connected to the other world — finding something that never changed. Sai smiled to himself.

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Thank you for reading.