1.1.2

As I trailed my finger across the map looking at the various locations, I looked up for a second and saw I was in more of a sandy deserted area. This seemed more like the empty side of the city where the only things that you could see were sand and tumbleweeds. However, the main concern I had now was that I was quite thirsty.

"Damn, there's gotta be some sort of store somewhere." I looked across as the heat waves just felt like they were rising way too much and saw it. It was a bar. With quick gasps, I dashed towards it as fast as I could trying to get there before it was too late and finally arrived. When I got inside there were many men. The type that would beat you to a pulp for negatively commenting on their haircut.

"This place looks way bigger on the inside..." I murmured to myself quietly.

I decided to approach the main bartender at the front. Without even noticing my arrival or the sound of my footsteps (Everyone's chatter was too loud) He turned around and greeted me.

"Ah...Welcome to my bar. Would you like a drink? My name is Shirakama Hitsuzen but you can just call me Kama."

He adjusted his glasses as he observed me quietly before signaling for me to sit down on a bar stool. Without wasting another breath, I said "Water! Please!"

He then looked at me in confusion.

"You don't seem to be from around here huh? Where are you from?"

I continued gasping heavily, my yells getting slightly weaker by the minute.

"Please! Just give me something to drink! Anything!"

"You seem like a nice fellow though. The half mask and everything is a bit strange but with appearances these days being so distinct, I don't blame ya."

With a ferocious tug at his shirt, I yelled as loud as I could.

"JUST GIVE ME SOME WATER DAMMIT!"

I finally got myself what I wanted and took a large sip.

"T-Thank you. Even though you took way too long, I forgive people quite quickly."

He smiled gently at me while I gulped my water vigorously.

"Anything else you want with that?" He asked sweetly his eyes closed with a gentle smile.

I replied. "No thanks. That's all."

"It was still quite sunny outside. I could get the job another day...Maybe I'll just.."

Everything went black. The last thing I could see was the smile still on Kama's face.

I woke up when it was completely dark. There was only a faint light from a lantern on the wall while the only other person in there was Kama cleaning glasses.

"H-How long was I asleep?" I asked frantically.

"He looked at me and said, a little over 5 hours. Did you get any sleep last night?"

He did have a point. While I was at Omocha's the noises she was making downstairs were quite irritating but still somewhat minuscule so I thought I could push it aside and fall asleep as I normally do. However, that just wasn't it and it took a bit too long and that's why I was sleepy.

"Yeah, I didn't get any good sleep. There were just some...issues." He smiled and noticed the map I was holding.

"So you aren't from around here? Well, the city you were in was called Danketsu. As for where you are now, there isn't a name for this place so its been called 'Nameless'"

"Nameless? What a stupid name."

"Eh...Not like you could come up with a better one."

I should probably stop talking before we continue more irrelevant back-and-forth talk.

"Well thanks for everything but..."

I went outside and as expected, it was night. Around midnight. it seems the moon was glowing quite brightly. And I ended up going back in.

"Yeah, so what now? When do you end up closing anyway?"

"Eh...I kinda close up when I feel like it. But since you're still here and you're a customer, I can't exactly close now. My home is a bit far from here anyway so I'd rather stay here anyway."

I sat down on a stool and pondered before speaking up.

"Mind if I just stay the night? I'm a bit too far from the shop I usually stay at so this place would be nice."

Suddenly, I heard a loud noise from the outside and rushed out to see multiple large red sandworms coming in and out of the ground surrounding us.

"What the hell are those?! I thought this city was peaceful!" I shouted to Shirakama.

He sighed as he walked out adjusting his glasses as he straightened his hair with his saliva.

"Well, I'm afraid not dear Wanderer. These are called Runesukaji. They aren't too common. Especially during the night and in the desert. You must have some sort of way to deal with them right?"

I shook my head. Even though coming from a different world would usually grant that person some sort of overpowered ability, I simply never got one. Shirakama sighed as he stepped forward.

"Well, I guess that's fine. It's more fun for me after all."

All the Runesukaji jumped at him at once causing a huge tremor and a ton of sand to be pushed across the area like a sandstorm.

As the sand cleared I saw Shirakama holding two of the Runesukaji by their teeth in their roundworm mouths as the other 6 were already on the ground dead.

"You...did you just..."

"Heh...I may look like a regular bartender but I can do much more. There aren't many people in this city who can have power like this."

He then jumps up and pummels the worm's faces onto the ground as he bends down and begins wiping the worms' drool onto the sand. It was strange, even though he was gripping their teeth tightly, there was no trace of blood on his fingers.

"Now we should get inside. Oh, and spray this."

He throws a can of what seems to be called Runic Detergent to me as I spray it on my body.

"You don't want any more issues like that happening. Now..."

He took off his glasses and cleaned them before putting them back on and sitting on a seat in the bar.

"You should go back to sleep. In the morning I'll wake ya and help you back to where you were meant to go."

I didn't know what else to say so I just nodded and lay my head on the table while also using my arms to help create comfort as I stared out one of the small windows.

"I'll come back another day. For now, I'll just drift off to sleep now..."

As I woke up I noticed no one else was around. Not even Kama who would usually surprise me with that smile of his. I got up and stretched as I began to walk out and spotted the school was right there.

As I walked, there weren't any children or anything, which must've meant I slept quite early last night. However, I was feeling pumped. As I entered the school and navigated with the metal signs that pointed to different places such as the main office and eventually led me to the principal who stood by his window without looking at me yet.

I decided to speak up. "Hey, I heard there was a job available."

He then turned around and spoke up as well. "Quite rude for you to barge in without knocking or anything while also not introducing yourself"

"Ah sorry, sorry, my name is The Wanderer. I came to request the current job position."

He then sat down on his chair still with a blank face.

"That's better. Now... This job you ask for... It's no longer available."

I was shocked. "What?! But it has only been a day."

He only shrugged and replied. "Sorry, but you should've come one day earlier."

"No... You have to be lying. There's no way this job was already taken!"

My complaining got on his nerves after a while, so he finally shouted.

"Alright fine! The job position is still available, but...I'm just afraid you'll quit after only one lesson and It'll just be a waste of you're time."

I shook my head.

"Come on, I want the job. Whatever it is, I can handle it. I've had experience."

He sighed and looked at the papers and the various students before thinking for a bit and finally making a decision.

"Alright then. The job is yours. Just a warning though. These kids will bite."

I nodded. "Alright, so when do I start? Today?"

"You start tomorrow. Now I should probably introduce myself. Call me Principal Sakomoto, please. Your students will call you Sensei or Wanderer-Sensei. Whatever pleases them."

I shook his hand.

"Thank you, sir, I won't waste this opportunity."

After that, he called an assistant by pressing a button on his desk to help guide me around the school.

"Wanderer, this is Miss Emi Fujimoto, she's the home economics teacher but for this hour, she'll be your guide. I'd suggest you get to know the others too if you're willing to hang out in the teacher's lounge safely."

I shrugged and walked with her in the hallway towards the area. She seemed to wear a pink hairpin on her black hair as she smiled innocently at me as I walked. This didn't seem like one of those teachers who couldn't care less about their job. It was quite quiet and relaxing as we walked with no other students around. The windows on the side were decorated with different designs of flowers and vines all a golden color shining from the sun which still had those strange symbols surrounding it.

"The name's Wanderer, right? I can't exactly remember the last time a new teacher came in here for hiring but make yourself at home. You'll love it here."

We continued walking around while she showed me the playground, cafeteria, and teacher's lounge as well as some other important areas I looked around with curiosity as she showed me. She was right about the area being lovely. The aromatic smell was like an explosion of flowers and the serene atmosphere added to the calmness.

"That's all then." She says after a bit over an hour. "I'll see you tomorrow then." She then walked out leaving me in the designated classroom. I took a look at the furniture and stationery that was provided and sighed. So, this is it. The class 1-Y will be here. As long as I get along with them, then I'll be happy.

I then began to take different cleaning supplies from the janitor's closet and began cleaning the things in the classroom. It didn't seem like even the janitor wanted to clean the chairs and tables for these new students. They're just freshmen after all. What harm could they cause? After I finished cleaning, I decided to nap on my desk for a bit and ended up falling asleep for a while until I was woken up by Fujimoto.

"Sleeping already huh? I guess I can't blame ya since you cleaned this whole place anyway. Now hurry up and head to the teacher's lounge. You only get a choice between two desks since you slept through when we were choosing desks."

I groaned and got up as I made my way to the teacher's lounge. When I went in, all the other teachers were either sitting at their desks or standing in the front greeting me just like the strange red-haired man in front of me who also seemed like the youngest out of them all.

"Hey, bro! name's Kenji Nakamura." He said in a lively way. I looked at the staff

tag on his T-shirt and saw that he was a math teacher. His T-shirt himself was quite peculiar showing a nerd face holding a calculator and letters that spell "Maf". After looking around a bit more, the area seemed more open than I thought. This was nice. However, I was going to have to teach nearly every subject to 1-Y so I don't exactly have a good fit in between everyone.

"So, I get to choose one of these two desks?" I pointed to the small desks that were now in front of me.

"Yeah. And the other will go to Miss Akuru who isn't here today." Kenji answered back.

"Thanks," I replied as I sat down to the one that seemed a subatomically scaled size larger.

"This is where I work from now huh? Well, Sakamoto did tell me that I will be getting high pay so I'll be swimming in cash in no time."

After a long day, I decided to walk back to the bar exhausted after all of that setting up, I had to do with the school. I'll head back to Omocha's after I waste myself in the bar.

It was dark and I could hear some strange sounds emitting across the sandy area. I turned around quickly and looked around even more until suddenly, A large sandworm popped out of the ground! Kama was still a bit far from here so it couldn't be stopped

"What do I do." I thought to myself panicking as I gripped my head. It crashed its head back as it screeched loudly at me before jumping at me digging its teeth into my skin and causing my blood to go everywhere as I screamed in agony.

It stings, stings, It stung way too much. My body felt like it was about to melt and burst into a thousand ashes. It all felt numb. I couldn't feel my skin. There had to be some sort of powerful venom in this thing. I guess this is why the outside of the city was scribbled out on this map except for the school. The feeling of being stung gradually built up to being extremely agonizing throughout my body instead as it continued getting worse. My screams become strained now as I struggle to breathe from the intense heat. Damn it. If I died, then I would have to see that stupid void woman again. I screamed for help as the venom was about to reach my heart by traveling through my blood arteries when suddenly, a bright rainbow glow emitted from my pocket as the worm's teeth suddenly broke as if my skin hardened and the feeling of venom flowing through my body completely disappeared. What just happened? Something or someone just helped take out that big Runesukaji.

"And the crowd goes wild for the amazing performance!" A voice that seemed like a male voice but also pretty young. "Two pudgy hands gripped the outside of my shirt pocket as the top of the fedora poked out. The voodoo doll then jumped out doing multiple flips in the air before landing. It was still as small as ever but it wasn't one of those wooden ones but those filled with cotton.

" W-Who are you?" I asked.

He then grinned as he tipped his fedora at me.