(10) Goodbye Dragoon City

Back in the car park, I notice agent phoenix waiting for me. I say my goodbyes to the Director’s assistant and go meet him, we make our way back to the car.

“So what did he say?” He asks while we walk back.

“Did you not get informed?” I confirm, finding it weird that the one that apparently is to bring me doesn’t even know.

He stops to think, then reveals. “Oh, I know I’m supposed to bring you to the airport after lunch, but that’s all I got told.”

“Then that’s all you need to know? I don’t know if I’m allowed to reveal anymore.” There was nothing about that in the contract, but it’s just good InfoSec. Not that I suspect he’s not trustworthy, but I don’t want to tell people more than they need to know, considering there are people after me.

“Makes sense I guess.” He comments as we reach our spot.

He stands by the right back door and opens it. “M’lady,” He mocks, motioning for me to enter with his free hand.

I visibly cringe, eliciting a mocking smile from him, nevertheless I accept his gesture. He closes the door, and from the outside, I hear him laughing out loud.

“That funny?” I ask when he gets into the drivers sit.

He looks back over the headrest - “I’ve never seen someone make such a face over a common curtesy.”

I cross my arms and look away, making him laugh. Still, he starts the car, and in no time, we exit the parking lot.

“So what does the princess want to eat?” He quips.

“Hugh, I don’t know, just some place cheap.”

“No need to worry about money. NWDA pays for your expenses while under our protection.” He reveals, making me think ‘What the fuck kind of security/chauffeur company did the academy hire?’

I consider what kind of food I would want, before realizing I do not know what is normal food here. For all I know, they might eat insects… Most protein rich food I hear…

“Still don’t know… Just some place…” I mutter, completely clueless.

Agent phoenix stays silent as we enter the highway? Seriously, I have no idea what they call them. Skyway, I think, is more appropriate, but I guess it’s just one more thing to add to the massive and growing pile of stuff I need some awners on.

Talking about awners, Phoenix finally gives me one about where we are eating.

“Fine then, I know a place.” - He again looks at me over the headrest and asks. - “By the way, do you have a problem with natural meat?”

“Nope, fine with me.” I quickly respond, making him stare at the road again.

…

…

We spent the rest of the ride in silence, contrasting with the encounter from before. I use this time to look at my phone and search for some things about this world… Or I would have if I didn’t get a data low warning in the middle of my “Googling?”, “Globalnetting?”, whatever the search engine is (It just says “Search” on the browser’s start page). Thankfully, by the time I got the warning, I had already figured out some things. First, the Director had severely undersold how natural Penta-Summoners were, apparently only three confirmed cases had been reported, all 100 years ago and all died in dueling related accidents. This led me to discover how dangerous dueling actually can be. So, kids normally duel using “Duel-Gazers” that utilize some sort of strange AR that only needs one eye to function, it shows the monsters, and dueling with them doesn't deal real-life damage, these are called “Practice Duels.” “Solid-Vision” duels, or sometimes called just “Real Duels”, are the most dangerous and result in real life damage and sometimes death. Yes, that’s right, DEATH. Apparently, it is possible to kill someone in a duel that uses Solid-Vision. Now the GlobalNet Site I found this on didn’t specify how and I think that’s for obvious reasons, but it’s still a terrifying prospect. Finally, there are VR duels, these are middle of the road, the only damage they deal is psychologic, as damage is still felt, but none is actually taken outside of the virtual space.

‘This is… a lot to process…’

Unfortunately, I wouldn’t get to, as I felt the car slowing down and we go down a projected ramp meaning we have arrived. We skip the street and keep going down until we reach an underground parking lot, that for some reason, is almost empty. We park, so I open the door and stand up, stretching in a process. This gets me a reaction from agent Phoenix and ends in severe embarrassment from me when I notice what I’m doing.

After that situation, I decide to follow phoenix in silence and he also doesn’t talk. We go up an elevator that, based on the ones I’ve ridden today, looks particularly older, then a short flight of stairs that leads to the street. This area looks like it has been neglected. Instead of shiny buildings and sleek skyscrapers, I see a run-down buildings plastered in paper… Ads? Oh, purchase offers, nice. With some blocky skyscrapers painted black, also plastered in ads displayed by neon signs, but this time actual ads for products. The streets are still clean and I can see some people walking along… Of course, their clothes also look different, much less slick and more utilitarian. If the earlier city screamed “Utopian Future”, this divinely gives me some “Future Punk” vibes.

“Hey, I thought we didn’t care about money. Why are we here?” I ask the obvious question.

“Well, I know a good miso ramen place here.” - I stop walking and look at him head on. - “Oh, don’t worry, I know the owner, trust me, the only reason he doesn’t leave the public housing area is because he refuses to allow non-meat options in his restaurant… The fool! Could have been rich at this point!” He blurts out.

‘Ok then, sore point. Noted. Also, is there a rule that says every parallel world has to cater to Japanese transmigrators? I was interested in finding out what kind of food they had here… But ramen? Yea, throw my hopes right in the trash, will you? Not that I care too much, it’s just food.’

We enter and the inside is… Familiar, not something I’ve ever seen in real life but in anime. The chef is behind a counter with stools on the other side. There are three other clients here, all scarfing down bowls of ramen like there’s no tomorrow. Agent Phoenix sits on a stool and motions for me to sit down on the one next to him. I do that and the chef comes over to us.

“Well, well, well, Kazu…” He addresses the agent.

“Phoenix. I’m on the job.” Phoenix interrupts him, looked like he was about to reveal his name.

The chef glances at me, smiles, and looks back at Phoenix.

“You caught a real cut…”

“HEY!” Phoenix cuts him off before he says something stupid.

“Hahahaha, you're too much fun to tease. Now, what are you ordering?”

“A bowl of the regular, please.” He orders.

“Same for me.” I copy him.

“Coming right up.” The chef announces after turning around to prepare our order.

Ten minutes later, our food arrives. It looks like what I expect a bowl of ramen to look like, not like I have any experience with it. The closest thing I had to ramen was cup noodles. I eat in silence while Phoenix and the chef talk with each other.

“So, still not moving out of this shithole?” Asks Phoenix.

“Shithole?” - He looks to the left then the right. - “I don’t know where you are seeing a shithole.”

Phoenix rolls his eyes. - “Come on man, you know what I’m talking about.” - he insists. - “You deserve much better!”

The chef looks at Phoenix and eventually sighs. - “I don’t want to man, this is my home and I’ll probably remain here till I die.”

The agent gets a complicated expression on his face following the statement.

“Wait, wasn’t it about ‘ruining your art’ before? When did you get so attached?” - Phoenix asks, puzzled.

“No, it’s still about that. But I can’t deal with those central city snobs. Seriously, I don’t know how you manage. From what I’ve seen, I wouldn’t last even a week before ‘offending’ someone important and getting fucked. No, this area is way more comfortable for me.”

“*Sigh*, first language. I’m with a client here.” Says Phoenix, exasperated.

“Prime example.” The chef quips.

“Second, did no-one teach you better?”

The chef's smile fades to a serious face. “You know they didn’t, brother.”

I drop my chopsticks.

“BROTHER??!?!?!?” I accidentally let slip out.

They both stop their conversation and stare at me.

I quickly try to catch myself. “Sorry…”

Phoenix looks angrily at the chef, then turns back to me.

“No, we just grew up at the same orphanage…” He reveals. - “Can you please just forget about it?”

I close my mouth and pass two fingers over my lips.

“What does that mean?” Phoenix asks, confused.

‘Oh yea, different world. The whole "Ramen" thing threw me off.’

“*Sigh* My lips are sealed.” I explain.

“OK then. Anyway, I think we have to go. It’s 1:30PM.” The agent reveals.

I quickly finish my dish and we say our goodbyes to the chef after the agent paid for the meal. We make our way back to the parking lot and get in the car, destined for the airport. I sat in the back sit, this time the agent didn’t open the door for me, seems like he wasn’t in a joking mood anymore. I thought about trying to speak to him, but ultimately decided against it and just kept quiet.

We reach what I recognize as an airport. Of course, this being this world the size of it blew out of the water any other airport I knew from my old world. I counted 30 runways… Most of them were wider and lengthier than most from the airports I've seen. Some runways also had back to back massive helipads, “Osprey” style aircraft even occupied some. After descending from the skyway, we enter another parking lot. I get out of the car, and Agent Phoenix hands me my gym bag.

Walking through the airport, I try not to gawk but it’s difficult as the lobby is that impressive. Giant panoramic windows give an extraordinary view of the runways and the gigantic screens dispersed throughout the terminal building display brilliant and colorful adverts. Multiple times the agent had to nudge me to keep going as I would get frozen just taking in the ambient.

Finally, we got to a terminal to which the agent just presented a keycard and we passed, making our way to one of the big helipads where an “Osprey” with “NWDA” written on it was present. A stewardess came up to us.

She lowered her head and then looked at me with a smile. “Miss. Yuumi Matsunaga, we’ve been expecting you. Please follow me and we’ll get you seated.”

I start to follow her, but stop and look back at Phoenix.

“Goodbye then, thanks for the protection!” I say, waving at him.

He waves back. “My job, besides, you essentially defended yourself.”

I enter the aircraft. The inside is not as luxurious as some private aircraft I’ve seen back in my world, but that makes sense when you consider it’s a company aircraft. I sit down after putting my baggage in the overhead compartment. There are other people in here, but partitions isolate the seats from each other like in first class seating.

A voice comes over the intercom. “Ladies and gentlemen, we will depart to the NWDA Academy island shortly. Please put on your seatbelts and enjoy the trip.”

I put my seatbelt on and relax, leaning back on the seat. Then, I take my phone out wanting something to do but remember I have no… Oh; I have a signal? NWDA student network… Well, lucky me. After opening the browser, I am told to download the NWDA App. I do that and after allowing it to access my “Virtual Identity” as it called it (don’t know what that’s about, but I’ll try to find out later) the app opens up to a menu giving me access to a lot of the academy resources. I’ll explore that later, but for now, I just go to the “GlobalNet” menu and accept the term and conditions (Which are basically just “We may track you for any reason we deem necessary” kind of thing.)

First, I search for how the education system works here. From what I could gather, you have your primary, middle-school, highschool and then university/college. Dueling academies like the NWDA can either be highschool college hybrids or just a collage specialized in dueling. The NWDA is an example of the second option. Dueling is taught at a basic level to everyone for self-defense, but only dueling academies may go into more advanced topics, which here extra deck special summoning methods are considered.

In the meantime, through the window, I can see the ground fading away as we got further and further up, then we stop going up and start going forward, I am at the back so I see when the rotors turn from the vertical orientation to a horizontal one.

I look back at the ground, noticing the cars and skyscrapers below going away as the aircraft gained speed.

“Bye, bye, dragoon city, see you whenever.” I mutter in a whispered volume.