Umi brained out. After Merlou politely had introduced herself, it was Apollo's turn to speak. With great power came paragraphs of speech. Umi's brain couldn't really handle all of those words mumbo jumbo. If it wasn't condensed into some sort of TL;DR, any concept with a length of over three sentences was lost on her. Her brain made an organic equivalent of the dial-up internet noise as she tossed pretty much everything Apollo said into the proverbial recycle bin. Her brainlessness extended as she didn't even notice the doctor walking in. In fact, she didn't even notice Katsuo make a terrible joke about North Korea that she would have shamed him for. The perfect opportunity was missed, only because she was a brainlet. She didn't even notice Merlou talk about dating apps. Umi's brain swiped left on everything she said.

However, when Millie spoke, Umi's brain suddenly awoke from its primordial slumber. The term "you know healing magic?" had filled her mind. In fact, this was all strange. It was, quite literally, an isekai adventure. Whatever other bizarre situation that others concocted in their mind was false. It was, easily enough, some trash light novel that would probably end up with them trouncing up to the demon lord and beating him up for his lunch money. Apollo then spoke more about this magic nonsense. If this truly was an isekai adventure... wouldn't that mean they are the chosen ones?

Umi also noticed something critical. Everyone around her was a sheep. They all had those newfangled smart phones. But Umi was different. 'SHE WASN'T LIKE THOSE OTHER GIRLS', whatever that dog whistle for sad people meant. For some reason, in the year of 20XX where smartphones were commonplace and actually useful, Umi used a dumbass flip phone. Not a regular flip phone, though. It was one of those stupid, mixed phones. An oversized monstrosity that the size of a regular phone that had a little dumb keypad attached with a janky hinge.

The blue haired twink, however, went to great lengths to hit on one of the nurses. Hell, Umi was pretty sure that was a sad boy move. Hitting on a peasant village girl by showing them the power of technology was something that only happened in trashy light novel isekai adven- wait a minute.

Still, justice demanded retribution. For the sin of DARING to try to romance in Umi's presence, the blue-haired twink would be the first person to taste Umi's 'magic'.

"Kame..." She whispered as she struck a familiar pose.

"Hame..." Her small brain attempted to concentrate every bit of power she could muster between her hands.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" The power was released.

Did it work? Umi was kind of a dunce so her eyes was closed the entire time. Actually, was she even aiming at him?

Listening to the few who paid attention to him, doctor Ferb thought for a second about this person ‘Ayame’. [color=lightlblue]”I honestly do not think I have never heard that name before. Nobody around this town or in the guild named Ayame. Well, none that come to this branch, anyway.”[/color] He leans back and scratched the mop on this head. ”I’m sorry I couldn’t be of anymore help. But, if you go to the adventurer’s guild, then you may find a clue about this person. Adventurers tend to pass tales of their adventures with each other and every guild branch. If you head there, you may find answers you see.” Then he continued, ”As for where you are, this is the town of Initiana. It’s a pretty big city with lots of business here. This is also where one of the main branches of the Adventurer’s guild is. As for the country, you are in the great country of Inaros, ruled by the current king, Rheus XX of the Rheus dynasty.” His words were said with great pride. You could tell that the current king was one people admired. Maybe the whole royal family was worth their salt in leadership. Was his sentiments shared with others around the city? Around the country?

The next question about magic was one that was a bit more involved, to say the least. However, it puzzled him to see people not know what magic is. Everyone knows about magic, it’s how the world operates. It is such a fundamental part of everyone’s daily lives that the question itself made him wonder a lot about their health. However, he felt he needed to see how far their amnesia went, so he explained. ”I am not sure how to answer this question. You know about ‘Actual Magic’ and all. You see magic is everything in our world. The more you are able to store and use, the more status you have in this world. Well, that is if you lived in Dhell or Nehzan. Here in Inaros, we value the arts just as much as power. So, to answer your question, yes I mean magic.” He then grabs the knife from his waist band and pulls it out. You can tell the knife was a finely crafted piece of work but it was scratched and chipped in places, as if it had been used extensively. Ferb then took the blade to his right hand and sliced it open. Blood flowed from his hand in a straight line to the floor below him. It was an extremely deep cut yet he did not seem phased by it. Just who was this “doctor”? He then proceeds to heal his hand. A white, almost yellow-ish light covers his hand. The energy seemed to be repairing each layer of his body. The bones, veins, tendons, muscles, skin, everything seemed to be repairing itself as if you were watching a surgery on television but in super-fast-forward.

”This is magic. The ability to control the force called mana and manipulate it to perform various tasks. Many people use this for their everyday lives. Most cannot perform to this level but most do not need to reattach limbs either.”

Meanwhile, Umi tried to pull a ‘Goku’ on Katsuo for reason that only she knew. However, her attempt to attack Katsuo would end in utter failure. When she thought she released her power, all she really did was gesture and look like child she was. Everyone in the room took note of this and just stared blankly at her for a second. However, there was a notification on her phone after this attempt. Will she read it, or ignore it?

During all of this, the target of her attack, Katsuo, also learned something new. When Alice tried to use the app, she succeeded in taking a picture of Katsuo, however Pictopedia gave her no information. Confused, she turned to Millie and took her picture, again nothing. She then ran all over the room snapping pictures of things but nothing would come from the app. It stayed silent. What was going on here? ”What is this? Why wont it work?” In her absentmindedness, she storms out of the room with Katsuo’s phone. Full of rage, she beings to take picture after picture. This cannot be a good thing. I believe someone should stop her.

Right after Daisuke asked his questions the spy lookalike asked his own questions and he had to admit asking about magic was a good idea. Less impressive was the blue haired kid flirting with one of the nurses and the pink haired girl trying to kamehameha blast him for some reason. Luckily even the doctor and nurses who had no idea of what she was doing just pretended nothing happened instead of assuming some stranger was trying to attack someone with magic, which of course was real in this world.

Ferb's explanation about Ayame was less then useful but the fact that he didn't react weirdly to the group having been brought back to life hopefully meant he knew something about that at least, The explanation and example of magic was also interesting, but before Daisuke could ask his next question one of the nurses ran off with blue kid's phone taking pictures of whatever she could. Confident that the owner of the phone could handle things he decided to ask anyway. "Is there a way to tell how much magic you can use and store?" Sure thanks to his phone he knew how much magic he had in a numerical amount but having nothing to compare it to still didn't tell him much.

As he was happily giving photography lessons to Millie Alice (remember, the brunette), Katsuo suddenly sensed killing intent, a deadly threat blooming from his left. Whipping around, his eyes widened at the invisible power gathering within the palms of the...Yuni? Inu? Umi? girl, who looked so cute focusing on her inner ki that Katsuo forgot that she was trying to obliterate him with her superpowers. But it was already too late for him to do much else, not if he didn't want to get anyone else caught in the crossfire.

So he sighed, and decided that, hey, at least dying to a cute Harajuku-style girl was better than a truck.

But the demise never came, and after a couple more seconds, Katsuo opened his eyes and laughed. "Oh man, Yumi, you almost got me there! Thought you had some secret cheat all ready to go and all, but phew, good thing that wasn't the case, huh?"

What the so called 'blue-haired twink' didn't know, however, was that he was playing checkers and Umi was playing Go on the sixth dimension. While he had been busy playing along with the marshmallow girl's Dragonball fantasies, Alice was literally having an emotional breakdown over her inability to make Katsuo's phone speak when pictures were taken. Yare yare, she looked like a woman ten years older than him but had the emotional restraint of a kid ten years younger than him. While others stayed on their beds and asked basic questions that you'd expect every adult to ask about (you know, magical questions n all, just normal adult concerns), Katsuo hopped off his own bed and stuck his feet into his sneakers. The lightness of his body was a bit odd, and it felt like he was overshooting whenever he took a step forward, but he didn't pay too much attention to it, instead leaving the room to pursue the woman-child that took his goddamn phone.

It was easy enough, when she was stopping every once in a while to snap pictures, at least. Maybe she was insane as well, with her reptition of actions and her expectation of something to change. Before he properly engaged her, Katsuo took a deep breath, relaxed his facial features, and...

Remember, I got a Charm ability. Maybe if I do this...

...placed a hand on Alice's shoulder. With a steady, even tone (people sounded more credible when they spoke at a slightly slower speed than they usually did) and a lowered pitch for his voice (deeper voices were associated with more adults, after all), Katsuo looked the nurse in the eye and smiled. "Calm down, Alice, there's a very simple explanation for this," he said, "This 'smartphone' can only be fully used by the person who owns it, being myself. You will be able to create instant, hyperrealistic pictures, but many of the more complex functions, such as the text you read, won't function if I'm not the one taking the picture."

The youth allowed that to sink in for a moment, still trying to channel the sauve, seasoned, super smooth secret spy that he totally was, before continuing, "I apologize for making it seem as if you'd be able to do everything that my smartphone enables though, Alice. Can I do something to make it up to you?"

This was charming, right? Not just creepy and patronizing? Goddamnit, the line is so blurry.

Apollo nodded slowly as the doctor answered the questions that were put forth. When the doctor injured and then healed his hand, Apollo's eyes widened. It was real. He was watching for any amount of sleight of hand, prosthetics, prop magic. No sign of deceit. This was big. If what the doctor was saying was true, this isn't just 'some lucky few' with magical abilities. Magic was commonplace and used everywhere. "Fascinating." He said as he leaned back in his chair. He then remained there silent lost in his thoughts.

That was until the young girl, Umi, decided to try and blow everyone up in the room with a Ki Wave. Luckily it didn't work. That would have been a horrific way to die...again. Thankfully this brought Apollo back to the present. By the time he brought his train of thought back to the task at hand, he saw Alice storming off with Katsuo's phone, and Katsuo not too far behind. He was inclined to help, but he dug that hole and he had to dig himself out. He looked back to the doctor. His mind now back to their current situation.

"Okay! Magic Power is equivalent to your status. Got it. I appreciate you answering our questions, and I realize you must be a busy man. So I will only ask one more question. What do you know about us? You see we have but just woken up and I can't speak for the other, but I feel completely alien to the world now." He asked putting on a sincere smile. He wanted to know exactly how much the doctor knew about their situation. The doctor's lack of knowledge of Ayame makes him feel like he doesn't know that we were all just brought to this world. "Also, you said you were the head of the Adventure guild in this town, right? Well, I would very much appreciate, when we conclude here if you or one of your lovely assistants can show us around town and then to the guild. If that would not be too much to ask, of course."

Well, that was a disappointment.

Umi's attempt at blowing Katsuo's dome off (in a very friendly and non-murder way!) ended in a very sad failure. While she intentionally blocked out the long winded questions and answers this time around (rather than just braining out), she did gleam some useful information. Magic was power to move people and everyone had magic stewin' in their guts. Really, it sounded like magic power was just an allegory for chalupa night. Chalupa night being when Umi had the power to move people out of the room with what was stewin' in her guts.

Like any other teen, she grabbled her phone the second it went off. Of course, she didn't answer it like any normal human. No, that would be much too... intelligent. Instead, she struck a pose with absolute confidence. She rapidly extracted her phone from her pocket, swinging it out with enough force to destroy a thin paper wall. Leading into her second pose, she slowly moved the phone in an arc around her head.

"Notification..." she said, with enough enthusiasm that would have made one think she was transforming in her own personal sentai show, "GO!". With the sudden exclamation of go, she flipped her phone open, reading the notification out of the corner of her eye.

Dr. Ferb was perplexed at how much these people did not know. Everyone knows about magic. Kids are introduced to it as soon as they are born. Mana literally welcomes every living being into the world. ”You guy’s really must have bumped your head.” The dark haired man said scratching the back of his head. ”Yes we have ways to determining how much magic you can use. In fact we have a system to determine your actual potential as a whole.”

As he spoke, his line of answering melded right into the questions of Apollo. ”I am actually curious to know your potential myself. Those strange devices have my curious about who you are. A group of unknown people who just appeared right outside of town. It’s quite odd, to say the least.”. He then gets up and walks towards the door and gestured for everyone to follow him. ”If you want to see the guild though, look no further. This hospital also happens to be the Adventurers Guild for this town. I’ll show you around and get anyone who wants to registered.”

Meanwhile, Alice(the blonde, check the character section) was all over the place snapping pictures and failing to get the results she wanted. It was frustrating her. Katsuo gave chase but he was not fast enough to catch her. Pretty sure she was just a nurse though. Maybe looks are deceiving. She ran up and down the place and ended up in the lower tavern where many people were laughing and playing. Most of them were loud and rambunctious people sharing tales of adventures triumphant and disastrous. Still it was a merry place to be.

The reception table had two people greeting and handling business. One male and one female who seemed to be dressed similarly. Across from them was the bar whose bartender was a larger burly man who seemed as gentile as could be. Yet, it was this triangle of administration that kept everyone in line. This was the Adventurer’s Guild.

As Alice weaved her way though, she was slowed down by men who were trying to get a bit hands-y. Katsuo recieved just enough help to make it close enough to her to turn on the Charm. But, when he got to her, two men jumped up and impeded your route. Unfamiliar with you and upset you had the gaul to try to hit on their goddess, they confront you. However, your Charm was turned on and the simpleminded men fell prey to your cuteness. ”We don’t know anathin bout no smart phone. But if you need us to do anything to help you, just say so Brother.”. This turn of events was probably unexpected however it’s something. Your phone vibrated with a notification but Alice has your phone. How will you check it.

Luckily, the Male receptionist caught Alice running around and stopped her. She immediately ceased her antics as she was casing a ruckus among the people. As she was being lectured, the vibration caught her off guard. Looking at the phone, she turns back and sees you. ”HEY KATSUO!! THIS THING SAYS NOTIFICATION!!!”. She is waving at you to come over to her. Be cautious, other guys are eying you with malicious intent and the Barkeep is waiting for something to happen. Be on your toes.

The fact that there was indeed a way to see how magic people had would be helpful."Also, you said you were the head of the Adventure guild in this town, right? Well, I would very much appreciate, when we conclude here if you or one of your lovely assistants can show us around town and then to the guild. If that would not be too much to ask, of course." Daisuke realized he had a point and wondered if there was any way he could make some money without having to risk his life by joining the adventurers guild, even though he figured it was probably inevitable that he would. He then remembered his merchant class and wondered if he had anything to sell.

"Also is there any shop that buys and sells unusual things? I'm pretty sure we're all broke and such want to sell this. Daisuke pulled out a blue wallet made of fake leather and 10 dollars in the form of a five dollar bill, two one-dollar bills, four fifty cent coins, three quarters, two dimes and a nickel and showed it all to Dr. Ferb in hopes he could help him find a place interested in it.

Wow, were nurses actually ninjas? Even though Katsuo felt like he was moving way faster than normal, Alice (the dirty blonde that could be mistaken as a brunette in the right lighting) still remained out of his range, her frenetic steps carrying her into an open area that definitely looked like an Adventurer's Guild. With the whole tavern-esque atmosphere and all the people openly carrying weapons on their persons, dressing up to match their 'class', Katsuo felt like he had exited a hospital ward and truly entered the fantasy world.

Made lots of sense, really, to have an infirmary attached to the place where all the people who fight and kill monsters(?) for a living go to.

Before he could thread the needle through the crowds and catch up to Alice, however, Katsuo’s charming nature grabbed him the attention of two burly-ish men instead. Widening his eyes, first at how friendly they were, and then at the notification that pinged from the phone, the blue haired youth did what any reasonable Japanese high schooler would do: politely extract himself from the situation and properly pursue his goal. Those two guys might not be cute girls in bikini armor, but that didn’t mean he had any excuse to be rude towards them. “Ah, thanks a lot,” he said, flashing a smile, “Name’s Katsuo. You two?”

He gave them just long enough for them to introduce themselves, before waltzing over to Alice, pluching his phone from her grasp and checking it out.

First thing: Alice can read Japanese, or English, or whatever this language was. That’s good. It meant all those hours studying classic lit at school wasn’t a waste. Second thing: Holy geez, Charm sounded edgy. Temporary slaves? He’d have thought that it was much more subtle than that, but man…isn’t this a bit powerful? Third thing: literally everyone around him was giving him the stink eye now. Was it his blue hair? Had to be his blue hair.

“Weird stuff to be sure,” Katsuo nodded, before flashing a smile at the receptionist that caught Alice. “Thanks for the assist, friend. Definitely couldn’t have caught up with her myself. Anyways, uh, you have your line up and all, so I don’t wanna stall too long, so I’ll just…back off and all.”

Retreating away from the line, he breathed in the atmosphere a bit more, before putting his attention back onto Alice. “So, this is the Adventurer’s Guild, right? I basically have no idea at all how it works, so could you maybe give me a rundown of how everything functions here, Alice?”

Alright, let's try this Charming thing again...

A lopsided, boyish smile emerged, copied right out of a men’s magazine he collected from the recycling bin back when he was still in Japan.

“Please?”

Umi checked what the happening on her phone. A notification. Pure magic was to be unlocked when three prerequisites were completed. Well, seven prerequisites. Four of them were technically different flavours of the same thing. But that was a clue. Even a dumbass like Umi could figure out how to do all of those things, right? This was now her quest to get the mythical pure magic so she could blast Katsuo to the moon with a kamehameha wave.

"Let's go get my magic tested," she said before adding in a little flourish to her statement, "so I can dab on these haters."

Really, everything she wanted in this world was to get to the moment where she could do some dumb shit like flying around blasting people with kamehamehas with one hand and eating the everything burger on the other. She would complete her mission at any cost. Her hopes and dreams would not be stopped. Unless she died again. But what were the odds of that? NIL, ZIP, NOTHING. SHE WOULD LITERALLY REFUSE TO DIE THE SECOND TIME AROUND. That's all there was to it. If there was magic, she could probably just live via purity of will. But that was some bizarre manic thought process that she had thought up of in a random tangent. In the mean time, she could train her magic. Quickly, she rubbed her hands together. Like some caveman, the thought of heat = fire was in her mind. She would make fire and master it. Same with some other elements. Anything for the kamehameha.

Jumping to attention, Merlou eyes widened as she somewhat frantically searched the room that everyone had disappeared from. Shit. Where did everyone go? She asked herself, silently shunning herself for getting lost in thought and not paying attention. God, she could be such an airhead sometimes. Merlou shook her head, trying to clear her head though she was a tad nervous that she was alone now.

Takibg a step forward, the tall woman weighed her options: Either she could stay and wait for them to maybe come back, or she could go out and ask around, that is if they were far enough away from her. They shouldn't be too hard to spot considering both of the younger ones had colored hair and were rather unique. Yeah. That's what she would do.

Merlou exited the room, looking both ways for the group, finding that it was quite rowdy outside of their quiet room. I thought this was a hospital of some sort...not a...bar? She questioned, nervously entering a room that seemed to be some sort of receptionist area but was also connected to the bar. Walking up to the main desk, she glanced down at them, making sure to keep a lookout for the rest of her group.

"Ah, hello, have you seen some small teenage looking kids running around lately? One with blue hair and another with pink?" Merlou asked a bit quietly, mostly concerned for the young teenage girl. "Oh, and a doctor of some sort, what was his name?.. Ah right, his name was Ferb, yes? Yeah, that sounds right. I think. But anyway there's also a guy around my age I think who might be with him...but I can't remember his name, sorry," she ended, hoping that they understood who she was talking about. Suddenly, she remembered that she had forgotten to introduce herself. "Oh yeah! I'm Merlou!" She introduced a little too forcefully. "Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to say that so, uh, loud. Sorry."

Apollo

Apollo watched as several of the others left the room. He was happy to know that the hospital was also the Adventure's guild. It made logistical sense to do so. Adventurers, in almost every sense of the word, were injury prone. He then smiled widely at Ferb. He wanted to know his potential as well. The membership to the guild seemed like a good idea as too. If the app, About Me, was any indication raising his stats seemed important. Being apart of an adventuring guild seemed like a natural start to his new life. He stood up and motioned for the kind doctor to lead the way. "Measuring potential seems like a decent start. I also would like to get registered as well."

He then heard the coffee man, Daisuke ask about selling items. Reminding him of something, Apollo flicked out his phone and double checked his 'status page'. Sure enough he had the Merchant skill. "Yes, I am indeed broke and would love a place to sell some unusual wares as well. "