Realist Approach (Grimgar x CoTE)

"Awaken."

Hearing a voice, I opened my eyes.

'It's dark. Where am I?'

My butt was a little stiff as I sat on the ground. Rock? Am I in a cave of some sort?

It's dark. Not completely dark, however. There were candles stuck to the wall above my head, lined tidily as far as the eye could see. Regardless, it still didn't give me enough light to see my own hands and feet.

Looking around, I could only faintly make out what lay beyond this darkness. I saw several humanoid creatures moving around faintly. I could hear their breathing, vaguely. It seemed that besides me, there were other people who realized that they aren't alone.

"Um... is anyone here...?" said a boy.

The next moment, various replies followed, with me following suit.

"Yeah," I said almost at the same time as another boy.

"Looks like it."

"Yep!"

"Present!"

"The heck is this?"

"I-I'm here."

"Where are we...?"

"Are you joking with me?"

"Hm..."

"Fuck this shit."

12 people, huh?

8 boys and 4 girls, counting from the number of voices that spoke up and their faint silhouettes, that includes me.

'Well, whatever.'

I stood up, walking after the candles on the wall.

"W-Wait! Where are you going!?" said one of the girls who stood up as well.

Her outfit is daring for a woman, with a cuff almost to her armpit and a skirt that makes her thigs visible. Furthermore, her exposed belly is for the world to see.

"Following these candles," I replied simply.

Soon, the others followed suit.

'Still, why can't I remember anything before this...?'

Except for my name, Kiyotaka, I don't know anything besides that. There might be exceptions of basic knowledge such as math, social studies, and so on, but that's not what I got a problem with here. To be more precise, I can't remember any events before this.

When something that I thought was the cause of why all this happened appeared, it quickly disappeared before I could reach it. I don't think my memories were erased, but rather locked away in the deepest part of my brain, to the extent that I couldn't easily access them.

'This is going to be a bit tricky.'

The road was rocky, and it kept going straight. We all fell silent.

From the look of this cave, it was obvious that someone had made it. Actually, in addition to the path following the candles, there's a path in the opposite direction that had no candles at all. I had thought about going down that path myself, but it wasn't clear what was out there, so I decided against it since it could be very deadly.

Coming to the light that apparently came from the lantern on the wall hanger, there's an iron gate plastered on the side. I pushed it hard, forcing it open. Behind it, there's a stone staircase that led to a moldy corridor connected to another stone staircase. There were no candles, but there seemed to be a light source coming from nowhere. Everyone immediately formed a line and began to ascend little by little. At the top, there's another gate, but this one wouldn't budge.

A silver-haired man, with a gangsta outfit on him, step forward as he quickly banged the door a few times with his fist. "Is there anyone there? Open the gate!" He shouted, sounding very angry.

The flashy-looking girl behind me joined in, shouting with all the air in her lungs. "Is anyone there! Open the gate!"

"Hey! Open the gate quickly!" Another person behind them, a boy with a curly-hair, followed suit.

I don't know why, but I felt kind of rejection to follow their lead. Banging the door, and shouting like that.

Well, something happened shortly after, though. The silver-haired boy withdrew his hand from the door and backed away slightly. It seemed like someone had come behind the door. The curly-haired and the flashy went quiet. There's the sound of a glass being dropped before the door opened.

"Come out," someone said. I got the feeling that it was the voice of a man. He's probably the one who opened the door.

The stairs led to a room built of stone. There were no windows, but the lighting was kept on in the room. There's also a set of stairs that led to a floor other than the one we're on. The room itself looked rather primitive and smelly; for sure, it was not a room like most in this day and age. The person who opened the gate was also dressed strangely. And what made it even stranger was that the clothes covering his body were not only made of cloth but also of metal. Steel?

And the one covering that person's head was a war helmet. The thing hanging from that person's waist was not a stick. It was a sword. Armor, helmet, and sword. This situation caused me a little weirded out.

When the man in armor pulled something fixed to the wall, the walls and floor trembled slightly, and a heavy sound echoed throughout the room. Some parts of the wall moved and opened slowly. The stone wall entered, and a square-shaped hole appeared before me.

"Get out," the man in armor said once more, pointing his chin at the hole.

The silver-hair and I exchange glances for a split second. I left first, followed by him, and then the flashy-looking girl. Then, the rest of the people simply followed the flashy, as if they were being pulled by here.

'Outside.'

We went outside. Was the time dusk or dawn? I can't possibly know. The dimly lit sky stretched endlessly in all directions. We were standing on top of a fairly high hill, and behind us, a huge tower towered high. Had we been inside the building? Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that we were just below it?

The boys here are the silver-hair, curly-hair, four-glasses, eccentric-looking, buzz-cut, bear-sized, and sleepy-eyed while the four girls were the flashy-looking, shy, airheaded, and little girl, so the total number was 12 people. The atmosphere was still dark enough that I couldn't see everyone's figures in detail, but judging from the figures, clothes, hairstyles, and general facial expressions... I didn't recognize them at all.

"It looks like a city, huh?" said the eccentric-looking boy.

He pointed in a direction beyond the hill.

When looking in that direction, I could see buildings crowded together. It really looked like a city. Around it was a tall fence... no... it wasn't a fence. Rather, it was a solid wall that towered high.

"It looks more like a fortress rather than a city," I glasses spoke up.

"A fortress, huh?" the four-eyes whispered to himself.

'It certainly sounds suspicious.'

"So... where is it?" The shy girl nervously asked from behind me.

"There's no point in asking me. I'm the same as you," I replied.

"Ah, sorry. Does anyone know? Where are we?"

No one knew anything, unless there were some people who were deliberately giving the shy girl trouble, or if there were people who withheld information for some reason.

"Seriously?" the curly-haired boy said while combing his disheveled hair.

"I've got it!" said a man who looked like a playboy, clapping his hands together. He wore a bordered cut-and-sew outfit. "Why don't we just ask that dude?! Y'know, the one who was in, like, armor or whatever!"

All of us turned our attention to the door. Finally, we realized something. The door. It was getting narrower and narrower.

The stone was rising from the ground, and gradually closing the gap through which we had come out.

"Whoa, whoa, wai—"

The eccentric-looking guy made a panicked run for it. He was too late. The gap disappeared, and turned back into a wall that seemed as if it had never been split.

The entrance vanished, leaving the spot where it had once been indistinguishable from the surrounding wall. He tried touching and hitting the wall in all sorts of places while crying out things like, "Oh, come on, you can't be doing this! Wait, wait, stop it! Please, man..." But nothing happened.

After a while, he sat down, dejected.

"Well, this is a problem," said a girl with her long hair in two braids. She said the word "problem" with a funny accent.

"You said it," replied the curly hair, crouching down and hanging his head.

"Seriously...? Seriously?"

"And, now, with that perfect tiiiiiiiming!" a high-pitched woman's voice rang out—

'Who?'

There were four girls in our group: Flashy, airheaded which is the one with braids, the petite and timid one, and a tiny girl who had to be shorter than 150 cm. That high-pitched voice didn't sound like it belonged to Flashy, Airheaded, or Timid. It probably wasn't Tiny's voice, either.

"I appear, you know. I take the stage, you know. Where am I? I'm right heeeere!"

"Right where?!" cried Eccentric, standing up and shouting.

"Don't paaaanic! Don't be alaaaarmed! But, still, don't relaaaax. Don't pull out your hair, eiiiither!"

Singing something like "Charararararahn, charararararahnrarahn." a woman poked her head out from the side of the tower, where she had apparently been hiding.

'Is that what you call "twintails" hairstyle?' I wondered.

"Heeeey. Is everyone feeling fiiiine? I'm your guide, Hiyomuuuu. Nice to meet youuuu. Let's get along? Kyapii!"