Prologue: Fictional world tour guide

From Worldsofharuhi

Celestia/Slider Academy/ after the yearly entrance exam

It was dusk and the sky was dyed with gold and red colors. Kanata Izumi let out a deep sigh of relief as she stared at the empty field where the entrance exams took place earlier today. Total of 1000 hopeful students applied this year. Only about 500 students were accepted today. It was not because the school was tiny that they had to cut down the number of students that applied. Training to become dimensional slider is an extremely dangerous process. Therefore, they had to choose only the students that were capable of surviving through the rigorous training. Still, studying in this academy isn’t all blood and sweat. All the student’s living expenses are provided by the academy since residing inside the dorms is mandatory for all students. The dormitories are top class and are comparable to homes of the most rich residents of Celestia. Basically, the students are pampered whenever they aren’t doing anything related to school. Also, the size of the campus is actually comparable to a medium sized city. So there is no reason what so ever for applying students to get denied because there’s not enough room.

Kanata started to walk back to her residence. It has been a tiring day for her. As a Councillor of the academy, she was required to organize the yearly entrance exams. All the exams are taken in a different world artificially created by Kanata herself. The world would be altered in a manner that will fit the requirements of whatever the exam would be. For example, today’s exam style was a two versus two tag tournament. Therefore the field was transformed into a stadium world where Kanata would be able to observe closely all the matches that took place during the tournament.

Kanata’s house was located near the harbour at the South end of the academy. Usually the harbour was busy only during the morning hours where supply ships would come in and deliver all the necessary equipments. But today…. there were unusually large amount of students gathered near the harbour than usual afternoons. Thinking this as really odd, Kanata stopped one of the students to ask why.

“Kuroi-san, do you have a minute?” Kanata called out to Kuroi Mato, the first year student who was just accepted today.

“Evening Kanata-san, Thanks for the exam today. The idea of a tournament for an exam was rather interesting if you ask me. But it was fun never less.” Kuroi said while bowing politely.

“You were great today; too bad you lost in the semi finals. Still, you tried your best until the end and that’s what counts the most.”

Kanata smiled as she recalled the semi final match. The matches got really tense as it got near the final round. Kanata had to focus real hard prevent any accidental damages to the audiences that could have occurred.

“By the way Kuroi-san, do you know why there are so many people here?”

“You didn’t know Kanata-san? Maguro-san is coming here today. He sells some pretty cool stuff. I heard that he gets all his items from different worlds. It’s too bad I used up all my cash on traveling expenses just to get here.” Mato sighed as she showed Kanata her empty wallet.

If you want to sell anything inside the academy, you need to get permission from the Councillor. Being an academy Councillor herself, Kanata knew for sure that she had never given permission for Maguro to sell anything inside the academy. “Thank you Kuroi-san. See you during classes.” Kanata’s pace quickened as she walked towards to harbour. She had to stop that lousy pirate from selling any more weird objects to her students.

Kanata started walking towards the crowd of people gathered around the harbour. Kanata tried to see above the crowd of people, however she was too short. Cursing her height, Kanata tried jumping but she still couldn’t see beyond the wall of people.

“Thank you for gathering, now I’m turn off the cloaking device from my ship so I can show it to all of you.” That was Maguro’s voice.

“That guy…” After hearing Maguro advertising, Kanata became enraged. With strength seemingly unnatural to person her size, Kanata started to push through the crowd. After few struggles Kanata finally was able to face Maguro. Maguro looked same as ever, exactly what Kanata remembered. He was wearing a blue pirate captain outfit, and on his hat there was a picture of Maguro’s banner, which was two fish bones crossed together.

Kanata had met Maguro before. Maguro is one of the gods of Celestia. Although Kanata haven’t seen him act like one. Using his powers he somehow succeeded in building a ship that could travel between many worlds that existed in a fictional realm. The technology to travel between different worlds was deemed impossible long time ago. Many scientists in Celestia had tried to develop the technology to do so, but every one of them gave up sooner or later.

Currently in Celestia… or maybe even across entire fictional realm, the only way that one can travel between worlds is either by using slider techniques or by Maguro’s ship. Maguro uses that fact as his advantage to collect money. He’s an owner of his own one man tourism company. He takes residents of Celestia that cannot travel across the worlds on a tour with his ship. Because of his job, although Maguro is a god of Celestia, he spends most of his time outside of Celestia. He has probably been to more worlds than even the most experienced of the sliders.

“You better have a good explanation for being here.” Kanata stood face to face with Maguro. Maguro looked down at Kanata and grinned. “It’s been a while Kanata, how’s the life in the academy?” Maguro’s tone had a hint of sarcasm. It was clear that he knew why Kanata was so angry.

“It’s been fine until you showed up.” Kanata shot back. “Who knows what you could be selling to my students? It could be something dangerous.” Maguro shrugged and replied. “Well, too bad for you. This time I have a permission to be making money here.”

Kanata raised her eyebrows. “Really? I don’t remember giving out any permission like that.”

Maguro sneered and took out a paper that read. ‘I give Maguro to sell anything he wants for 1 day - Kelona’.

“It was pretty easy getting this too. All I needed to do was give Kelona a rare pudding that I got from the Netherworld.”

That sweet toothed commander… Kanata let out a sigh. However, if Kelona, the vice commander of all sliders gave the permission. There was nothing Kanata could do to overrule her decision. Kanata sighed and scanned the objects that were being sold. She couldn’t sense anything dangerous from the objects.

“That will be fine. I hope you have a nice day.” Kanata turned to leave. “Wait.” Maguro stopped Kanata. Maguro handed over to Kanata what looked like a box of puddings. “Kelona said give some to you as well. According to Kelona, it’s so good that it’s an insult to not share with others.” Kanata stopped and gave Maguro a questioning look. “I don’t know much about sweets but since I’m giving it to you for free, take it.” Maguro said as he forced the box in Kanata’s arms.

Kanata took the box then stared at Maguro. It was unusual for this greedy pirate captain to give out anything for free. Still thinking this behaviour from Maguro weird, Kanata managed to say “Thank you” Then took her leave. As Kanata left Maguro’s advertising could be heard behind Kanata’s back.

Arriving at home changed into her pyjamas and got ready for bed. Just before she was about to go to sleep, the box of puddings that she got from Maguro earlier caught her eyes. Kanata opened the box. As expected, there were bunch of puddings that were neatly packed. However, it wasn’t the puddings that caught Kanata’s attention.

What’s this? It’s… a book? The cover of the book read. ‘Fictional World tour guide’. Half smiling at Maguro’s idea of a joke, Kanata put the book aside and said to herself. “Box of puddings… yeah right. You obviously want me to read that book. I’ll read it sometime tomorrow. I’m just too tired right now.” As Kanata fell asleep she thought. ‘Kelona, Maguro what are you two up to?”