• Published 23rd Jun 2019
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Sunset's Isekai - Wanderer D



Somewhere, out there, there's a bar with a familiar yin-yang sun on the door.

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Isekai Cast: Random Shenanigans 3

Isekai Cast: Random Shenanigans 3
Where Only The Brave Dare Fly
By Wanderer D

Philine did not know what was happening.

One moment, she had been standing with the other students at the Academy, investigating an ancient design under the Academy Library, when it had suddenly flashed to life! All she remembered was Lady Rozemyne going over to pick up a silver-bound book that was in the middle of the secret chamber… and then…

Green, red, blue, black and white energy had whirled around them in an explosion of light so strong that Philine had feared she would be blinded. Howling wind had drowned her surprised scream and then, suddenly, she was standing in the middle of nowhere.

She stared wide-eyed around her, taking in the expanse of wild grass that grew around thousands upon thousands of crystalline, almost mirror-like puddles. A smooth, rolling sound made her turn around in place to stare at what could only be the sea; its waves gently swishing into the shore before retreating back and rolling over again.

She had never seen the sea. She only knew about it from stories and descriptions from other students, but there was not a doubt in her mind that she was staring at a sea or an ocean. It couldn't be anything else… it just extended beyond sight in all directions not covered by sand and grass. She followed the shore with her eyes, to the right, it was just nothing but flat sand and grass, to her left, the shore merged into sheer cliffs and giant rocks.

She felt an indescribable fear build up inside of her. As wondrous as the sight was, she was not where she was supposed to be! She called out, shouting the names of her fellow retainers, Lady Rozemyne, anyone… teachers, her brother… there was no answer, no one was around to help her.

Her cries simply faded into the air, completely ignored. Well… maybe not completely. Although she had not heard any replies, Philine felt a shiver run up her spine. She stood in silence, petrified, with only the sound of the waves splitting the eerie silence.

But something was watching her. Afraid of being an easy target, but terrified of drawing even more attention to herself, she slowly, very slowly, studied the area around her. At first, she saw nothing, in fact, her eyes passed the spot a couple of times before some sort of instinct drew her gaze back to one of the ponds.

It seemed almost as crystalline as the others, 'But…' She narrowed her eyes, staring at the center of the crystalline pond, where two rounded rocks poked out of the water.

And then they moved.

To Philine, it seemed like they were rolling back in place, slowly revealing a yellow center, with a pitch black split in the middle. It took her only a second to realize they were eyes. And worse, as she took a step back, she suddenly noticed more and more in all the ponds around her.

Stifling a whimper, Philine stepped further back into the sand as the creatures emerged from the ponds.

She had never seen the like. Almost twice as tall and wide as she was, each creature was easily as long as three of her would be, lying down on the floor in a line. Bulky, slimy and rubbery, the creatures flapped in a clumsy manner which would have been funny if they were not so terrifying and not so terribly fixated on her.

Their webbed feet slapped the grass and sand with each fumbling step they took, some of them doing gentle hops rather than steps, but as they came closer, a deep intrinsic instinct told her to run.

She bolted out of there as fast as she could, and thankfully so, as a second later, a long, whiplike tongue smashed into the place where she had stood just a second ago. Gasping, she took out her schtappe, firing a desperate, too-weak shot of magic at the creatures, which only hesitated at the flashing lights before starting to hop in her direction.

Philine took towards the rocks, hoping to hide between them and escape the creatures, running left and right to avoid the whipping tongues.

She tripped once, and the accident managed to save her life, as one of the creatures landed suddenly in front of her, blocking her path to the rocks. Had she not stumbled, the creature would have landed on top of her, but now…. now she was surrounded, and her magic was not strong enough to fight them.

She was about to die. She would never see her brother again. She would never…

Something smashed onto the creature that had jumped ahead of her, sending sand and dust flying into the air. Philine cried out and crouched down, covering her head with her hands as something flew through the air, sizzling like water from a kettle.

The creatures croaked in pain around her, while an ear-deafening roar made all thoughts flee from Philine's mind. She could only feel fear at what was happening around her as the noise rose to a cacophony of squelching, croaks, splashes, crunches and sickening thuds.

She remained crouched until it all calmed down and she could sense and hear movement, but not near her… fading away. She risked a look up, staring in surprise at the few creatures left as they hopped powerfully away.

Around her, she could see what remained of the other creatures: one of them steaming as some sort of liquid ate through its body right before her eyes, another tore open, it's innards still twitching.

She gulped as she turned slowly, her eyes even wider as she beheld the majestic creature that had saved her. Sleek black scales covered almost all of its body, save for its plated belly and underside which was a muddy-yellow. Shockingly white horns protruded from its head, and equally white claws (the ones that were not covered in the blood of the creatures) contrasted with the sheer darkness of its body.

Red eyes studied her with an intelligence far beyond any simple beast, and its massive wings stretched and fanned gently as the regal creature… the dragon… studied her.

Oddly enough, rather than the immediate realization that she was still going to die, her first thought had been, 'How beautiful!'

The massive head came closer and Philine realized this was it. She closed her eyes. At least it wasn't one of those horrible creatures. The dragon would probably just chump down on her and swallow her whole. "I wish Lady Rozemyne could see you," she whispered, ready for the end.

She heard a snort and, despite herself, opened her eyes as the massive dragon—which was now simply glaring at her—snorted again, then shook its head. "Figures," it said.

Mirage Jenius stretched after closing her locker. No matter where she went, there was nothing like being back in her form-fitting piloting overalls. And now that the war was over, she could rel—

The alarms blared and she was already running towards the hangar of the Macross Elysion, and in seconds, she was airborne, with Chuck joining her in the air seconds later. "What's incoming?"

"We have a bogey closing in on Island Jackpot. It's large… about a hundred meters long, and moving at a speed of roughly Mach 3."

"That doesn't tell us much," Chuck said. "Why don't you use that fancy tech and tell us what we're meeting?"

"We are unable to. It didn't appear in radar until recently, and it has some sort of field that messes with our systems. It doesn't match anything we have registered, and does not respond to hails so far. Investigate and engage if necessary."

"Roger that!" the pair acknowledged.

"Man, and here I was hoping we'd only have to worry about regular patrols from now on," Chuck grumbled good-naturedly on the radio.

"You don't think you'd get bored with the lack of sudden, blaring alarms?" Mirage asked.

"I just want to relax, maybe I should retire," Chuck countered.

"Oh no, you're not leaving me with all the rookies," Mirage radioed back. "Anyway, we'll be within interception range soon… Increase speed to mach 5, I want to see what we're dealing with before it manages to see us."

"Roger!"

Soon they had left the city behind and were flying over the Ragna ocean towards the approaching intruder. It didn't take long for them to spot the unidentified object.

"I've got eyes on it!" Chuck said, "but what the hell is it? It looks like some giant lizard!" Chuck gasped as the pair of planes flew by the creature in question. "It's huge! And it has some sort of force field around it, maybe that's what messing with our systems?"

"This is control tower. We can't allow something like that near the city. Engage and deviate its path if possible. If it resists…"

"That won't be necessary," Mirage said. "I got this."

She turned around and sped after the creature. Ignoring Chuck's surprised look on their HUDs.

Earlier…

"Oh, my!" Philine gasped as the dragon smirked. She couldn't help it. The creature was magnificent, beautiful even, but it exuded a deadliness and energy that just screamed danger… somehow she hadn't started screaming and running or maybe even curling up in the ground in horror… and yet, at the edge of her senses, she could feel the sheer terror that should have broken her mind.

Somehow, she knew the creature itself was responsible for her not making a mess of herself right now. She took a deep breath. Lady Rozemyne had faced terrible things, she knew! There was even a rumor she had heard that her lady had faced a Lord of Winter in all its might! There was no way she wouldn't live up to her coura—

"So then, little girl," the dragon said, her voice much softer than the lost noble had ever expected it to be, "how did you come to be in my domain?"

Philine's mind went blank.

The dragon's head tilted. "You're an odd one, human. I can feel magic in you. A little wannabe sorceress, perhaps?"

"I—" Philine shook, then, remembering her manners, she curtsied. "I pray for a blessing in appreciation of this serendipitous meeting, ordained by the fruitful days of Schutzaria the Goddess of Wind!"

"Haven't met her."

Philine blinked and stared at the dragon. "Um, what?"

"Haven't met your goddess, Sushitaria, was it?" the dragon said dismissively.

"Oh." Philine blinked, unsure of what to make of that. How did she explain to the dragon towering in front of her that it was the politest way she knew to greet her? Why had she taken it as a sign that she should know Shutzaria personally? It wasn't normal for anyone, or any creature she supposed, to meet a god or goddess, right? Well, unless you secretly had tea with them, like Lady Rozemyne. "I uh… I-I'm Philine," she said rather lamely, curtseying again. "N-nice to meet you?"

The dragon nodded. "You may call me Onyx." They stared at each other for a moment. "I take it you're lost, little girl?"

Philine cringed and nodded.

The dragon sighed. "I thought there were no magic users in this place. That is why I live here for now. Where do you come from? What city?"

"E-erenfest, Lady Onyx."

The dragon snorted. "Lady." She shook her head. "I do not know of your city, but there's a big one with humans a few hours away across the ocean."

Philine followed the direction the dragon was pointing with a sinking heart. "Oh."

"...can't fly?"

Philine shook her head, feeling tears welling up.

The dragon sighed, glaring at her, then looking at the ocean, then back at her. "Fine. If there's wizards here I won't stay too long anyway."

Philine sank back when the dragon reached out with a claw, picking her up from the back of her uniform and lifting her all the way up to put her on top of her head, between her white horns.

Philine's eyes were wide as she held on for dear life as the massive head turned to face the horizon.

"I learned an interesting spell somewhere else… I've been meaning to try it out."

"Um… what spell?" Philine asked.

In answer, the dragon coiled down, then jumped into the air, her massive black wings spreading open as she took them both high into the air, spiraling until it was moving very fast above the ocean. Then, just as Philine was starting to feel safe…

"Raywing!" the dragon roared.

As fast as the dragon was flying, Mirage was much faster. She caught up with it in seconds, then flew in front of it, tilting her plane a few times to make sure it got the message.

Apparently it did, because it glanced in the direction she was indicating, and slowed down from its boosted speed to a much more normal one for a dragon, although she was still fast. Expecting this, Mirage also adjusted her speed, although Chuck wasn't quick enough and shot past them once more.

"We're landing on that small island," Mirage radioed to them, as the black dragon, who had a small child on her head, dipped and started a leisure spiral as Mirage did a quick tour of the area to make sure no vessels were around. "Elysion, Lt. Mirage here, we've got the creature under control, I'll send it on its way soon."

"Roger that, Lt."

"Mirage, what's going on?" Chuck asked, as he followed her lead and changed into Gerwalk mode so they could hover down to the island, where the creature and its small passenger—who he had just noticed—were landing.

"That is what I intend to find out," Mirage said. "I'll do the talking. Make sure you don't provoke her, she might not be mechanical, but she can cause a lot of damage."

"That kid? She—"

"Not the little girl, the dragon."

"How can you tell it's a she?" Chuck asked.

"I have a strong feeling I've met her before," Mirage said.

"Right."

The mechas landed, and Mirage opened her cockpit, which put her closer to the dragon's head now that it was standing on all four. She studied the dragon and the terrified girl. "Well, I can't say I expected to meet you here of all places, Khisanth," she said, taking off her helmet.

The dragon's eyes narrowed, studying her. "I know you," she said, "you were one of the barmaids at the Isekai."

"You're a barmaid?!"

"Shut it, Chuck, if you know what's good for you," Mirage growled, then looked back at the dragon. "I sometimes help there. I thought I recognized you."

The dragon snorted. "All things considered, I shouldn't be surprised you're some sort of knight."

"Y-you're a knight?" the girl on top of the dragon's head peeked out at her, eyes wide. "Is that your high beast?"

"High beast?" Mirage repeated, blinking. "Wait, I think I recognize that uniform, you're… I think from the Royal Academy?"

"T-that's right!" the girl, encouraged by that, sat up straighter, although she still looked shaky. "Can you take me back to Ehrenfest?"

"Hm. Might be a bit easier to do at the city," Mirage said as Khisanth got closer, allowing the girl to take Mirage's hand and sit on the back seat. "Do you want to come with us, Khisanth?"

"I—"

"Pleeease?" Philine asked. "Could you? I would be ever so grateful! You've helped me so much already!"

"I don't know if the city folk are ready to receive a visitor like this one," Chuck said, opening his cockpit to speak to them, while also removing his helmet.

"That shouldn't be a problem," Mirage said, smirking. "If you don't mind riding in Chuck's plane, it would make things faster, Khisanth."

The dragon studied the other airplane's back seat while Chuck gave Mirage a confused—and worried—look.

"I suppose it will suffice," the dragon said.

Mirage watched with interest as a soft glow enveloped the massive creature and it shrank, until Onyx, which was how Khisanth had looked that one time in the bar, stood on the beach, black leather corset over her white blouse, black leather pants and boots, and a short sword strapped to her side.

"Aren't you going to offer the lady a hand?" Mirage called at the flabbergasted Ragnan.

Chuck shook himself out of his stupor, then lowered one of the Gerwalk's hands down, allowing for the human-looking creature to climb on to it, then from there up and into the back seat of his Valkyrie she went.

Mirage smirked at the worried look in his face as he put on his helmet. "Don't worry… she wont' bite."

"Yet." Khisanth's return smirk made Chuck visibly cringe.

The pair of fighter pilots took to the air seconds later, and Mirage couldn't help but smile at the sound Philine made. "Don't worry, it's at least as safe as flying on Khisanth's head."

"That wasn't safe at all!" Philine said.

"You should count yourself lucky, most people from where you come from will never have a chance to fly on a dragon like Khisanth."

Philine was quiet for a moment. "Most?"

Mirage grinned. "Good catch. Yeah, I know another person from your Academy that has ridden a dragon."

Philine was quiet for a few moments, her gaze on the ocean below. "Who was that?"

"Her name is Rozemyne."

Philine gulped, shifting in her seat. Next to her, a kind-hearted noble just a few years older than her, named Lady Makina, patted her hand encouragingly.

At least Philine thought she was a noble. She did not understand how mana wielding people and people unable to wield mana identified themselves in this world, but according to Lady Mirage, Lady Makina came from a place with similar government, and although they couldn't really seem to communicate all that well, it eased Philine's heart.

She had seen how skillful and even wise commoners were back home, and the thought of offending anyone here because of how her viewpoint was so different horrified her. Lady Rozemyne never put commoners underneath her, and Philine would follow her example, as best as she could.

From what Lady Mirage had explained, Lady Makina and others like her used potent magical music to aid the knights in battle. It was very similar to how priests would pray to the gods to assist the knights in battle back home, in her world.

And this was a different world. Lady Mirage had explained to her that the spell had somehow transported her to this world, far away from her own, and it was very lucky that she had been able to meet with Onyx.

Thinking of the dragon, she glanced at the dark-skinned woman sitting back next to her. Unlike Philine, she exuded confidence and did not seem at all intimidated by anyone here. Even the giant in front of them.

He was BIG! but he was apparently the leader of the knights here, so she had introduced herself deferentially, only to balk at Onyx's dismissive greeting to the man, although he had taken it in stride.

Lord Johnson, as the commander of the knights identified himself (although she was the one calling Lord, the others simply called him 'Captain') was scary-looking, but so far had been kind to them both. Right now, he was apparently trying to figure out what to do with them.

Philine glanced at the windows, her eyes taking in the massive city beyond them. It had to be created with the most potent magic, but it didn't have tell-tale signs of buildings created by Aub magic.

There was no temple either, and although the commoners were separated from nobility, it was simply done by sections of wealth, rather than entirely separated cities. Mirage had intended to take her and Onyx exploring, but the strange, instantaneous ordonnanz Mirage had on her High Beast had ordered her to head back there immediately.

"I am less concerned about Philine than you, Miss Onyx."

Philine watch with interest as the dragon-turned-human studied the giant with half-lidded eyes. "Oh? What's your concern, captain? I haven't bothered anyone since I arrived in this world, and I've been here for a couple of years already. I even visited your cities a couple of times."

Lord Johnson crossed his arms. "I understand, but now that we are aware you're here, I'm concerned with others discovering your true nature, or invading your claimed territory by accident."

Onyx shrugged and looked out the window. "I can always leave."

She didn't sound sad about it, but Philine could only feel bad. "I'm sorry."

Onyx turned to look at her, surprise clearly written on her face. "Why?"

"If you hadn't helped me, they wouldn't know you were here." Philine looked down in shame.

"Don't worry about it, kid," Khisanth said. "Dragons live a long, long time. I'm still young and have some growing to do. I can always travel to another world."

"But do you have to?" Lord Johnson said, drawing their attention back to him. "Mirage has vouched for you both… and I know that she's in the process of finding out how to help Philine here get back to her own planet. You might be a different species than we're familiar with, Onyx, but if you want to try living alongside us, I'm sure we can help make it happen."

Onyx snorted. "Will I get to fly one of your machines?"

Lord Johnson scratched his chin. "It takes time to learn how to do it well, although I suppose you have some instinctual advantage… I can ask, if you truly want to. But given that you can already fly…"

Khisanth shrugged. "I would not mind learning. Besides—as I said—I'm still just a few centuries old, I have time to learn."

Centuries. It boggled the mind.

"You should," Lady Makina spoke up, softly, locking eyes first with Onyx, then with Lord Johnson. "If you can give her the chance, you should do it, Captain."

The Captain of the knights gave Lady Makina a calculating look. "You don't expect her to join Walkure, do you?"

"Heavens, no!" Lady Makina laughed, then smiled a bit mischievously. "Are you trying to get her in a frilly dress?

"No!" both Lord Johnson and Onyx snapped at her at the same time.

"Um…" Philine was about to ask what did they mean when the doors slid open, and Mirage, Lady Rozemyne and another woman with red and gold hair walked into the room.

"Philine!" Lady Rozemyne gasped, moving forward to embrace the startled girl. Lady Rozemyne had always been odd, but Philine was too glad to be bothered by the lack of etiquette, and returned the hug.

"Lady Rozemyne, I thought I'd never see you or Konrad again!"

Lady Rozemyne, stepped back, wiping a small tear from her face, and accepting a handkerchief that the woman that had walked in with them had offered. "I'm just glad you're okay."

Philine nodded, grateful.

"Allow me to make introductions," Mirage said. "Captain, these are Rozemyne, from Erhenfest, the same city as Philine, and this is Sunset Shimmer."

The casualness these people had with introductions and titles! Philine held her tongue, however, when Rozemyne gave her a small smile, leaned in, and whispered: "Sunset is Lena's mother."

"Oh".

'Ooooooooh.' Philine stifled a gasp. This was a goddess! She was the mother of the younger goddess that had visited the Academy not too long ago!

"Lady Rozemyne," Lord Johnson said, nodding formally. "A pleasure to meet you. Miss Shimmer… I have of course heard of you. An acquaintance of mine, Maximilian Jenius mentioned that you and some friends had helped Mirage find her focus, I can't thank you enough."

"I consider Mirage part of my family," the goddess said, smiling. "Least I could do."

"Khisanth," Lady Rozemyne said, turning to face Onyx. "I was told by Mirage that you protected and helped Philine when she found herself in this world. I thank you ever so much," she said bowing formally to the dragon. "I know you're still figuring what to do, so believe me when I say that I can't find the words to express my joy at you helping her. I had been looking forward to meeting you eventually. I pray that Dregarnuhr the Goddess of Time has woven our threads of fate tightly together."

Onyx looked slightly embarrassed by the words, and simply nodded. "Yeah. That sounds good. You know about me and my relationship with gods, right?"

Lady Rozemyne smiled sweetly. "Of course, but where I am from, it is a way of wishing that we might meet again."

Onyx rubbed her head. "It's sometimes better to speak directly, you know?"

"I do, but it's too much fun to watch people get confused by these greetings I had to memorize."

"Lady Rozemyne!" Philine gasped, eyes wide.

Her friend and Lady turned to her, blinking. "Oh my, did I say that out loud?" she laughed nervously. "I intended only to think it!"

"So, I managed to hear what you were offered, Khisanth," the goddess, Sunset, spoke then. "It's entirely up to you. I can take you somewhere else if you want."

Onyx gave the others a considering look. "If I can get some training, I wouldn't mind staying for a while."

"That won't be a problem," Mirage spoke up, smiling confidently. "I can do that."

"Are you sure?" Lord Johnson asked. "You know she's a dragon."

"Captain, I have experience with dragons. Besides, I promised Hiccup he could visit one of these days, I think between the both of us we'll have it covered."

"Who's Hiccup?"

Philine stepped gratefully into Lady Rozemyne's room in the temple. Fran was the only assistant there, and he had already prepared a table for them with tea and sweets.

"Fran, I need to talk to Philine alone for a little while, can you please give us some space? Please inform Ferdinand that I have returned from Sunset's Isekai, and that I need to discuss this with Philine before returning to the Academy."

"Of course," Fran bowed. "Allow me to prepare your hidden room."

It had taken but a few minutes, and then they were alone, the door magically locked with only Ferdinand being the one person outside of the room able to access it.

"How do you feel, Philine?" Rozemyne had asked after a moment to let them both settle in.

"I'm… not sure." She had been intrigued by the Isekai, but the thought of being surrounded by gods and goddesses was too much, even if Lady Rozemyne had insisted it was fine, and the goddess had offered her to stay for a bit, Philine desperately needed a sense of normalcy for herself.

She had almost died, met a gigantic, ancient dragon, met knights from another universe whose High Beasts could transform and fly faster than anything she had seen before. She had met a giant, and seen a structure so huge it dwarfed everything she had seen, even the palace, and if she believed what they had said, it was Lord Johnson's High Beast! He had to be even more powerful than the Emperor!

There was too much, and although she felt safe and protected enough, it was nice to be back home, where things made sense. Sometimes she felt she was getting closer to Lady Rozemyne, and then things like Lena's visit, or this unexpected adventure happened, and she was reminded that the Saint of Erhenfest was far beyond her.

With a sigh, she spoke. "It amazes me, Lady Rozemyne, that you can talk to dragons, gods and even people from a world so different than ours with… such confidence."

"They're an excellent source of books!" Lady Rozemyne said, nodding firmly. "Of course I would make sure to deal with them as best as I could."

Philine stared at Lady Rozemyne for a second. Then she started laughing.

True, Lady Rozemyne might be too amazing to catch up to, but she would never give up on her love of books, and that… that was normal. That was Lady Rozemyne's passion, and Philine would be there to help her achieve her dreams.

And maybe… have tea one day at the Isekai. Just to see what it was like.

End Shenanigans 3

Author's Note:

Cast:

Philine: Rozemyne's laynoble retainer, Philine shares a love of books and writing with Rozemyne, and declared her intentions to support her no matter what early on.
Chuck: A flirt, Chuck Mustang is both an excellent pilot and a restaurant owner in his planet, Ragna. He runs the RaguNyanNyan restaurant and loves food and sharing Ragnan delicacies with guests.
Captain Johnson: The Captain of the Macross-class ship, Elysion, he's half-human, half-zentradi in charge of Delta flight and Walkure. He's very loyal to his troops and a capable officer.
Makina: One of the members of Walkure, she's a cheerful and reliable member of the group who is noted for being upbeat, kind and understanding.

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