“Hey Kai, right?” asked the armored man. “Did you wash your hands? Sheila wanted me to make sure you did before you headed out for breakfast. Cuz, you know…”

“Huh? Oh yeah, I did,” replied Kai as he exited the bathroom and back out to the bedroom he’d woken up in.

“Great! …That’s great,” repeated the imposing figure, letting the gap between his words sit in the air for much too long. “So, I’m Marnick, by the way.” He held out a hand for Kai to shake.

“Kai,” he replied, slowly reaching out to take the other man’s hand.

“Oh right, I already knew that!” exclaimed Marnick, quickly retracting his outstretched arm to scratch at his hair in embarrassment. It didn’t do too much good, as his entire head was covered by a helmet.

“Uh, right…”

“Oh! Now that you’re out, let’s get you some breakfast! The others are waiting right outside!” The armored man cheerfully turned around and led Kai out the door.

As he’d said, Sheila and the other guard she’d come with were waiting there for him. Prompted by a quick wave from their compatriot, the two lifted themselves up from their comfortable spots on the wall and walked over to the newcomers.

“So Kai! Ready to get some food in ya?” asked Sheila with an accompanying grin. “The cafeteria here has some of the best food in the multiverse! You’re really in for a treat! And we can talk to you about what totally wasn’t a dream while getting everything sorted out.”

“Right, I can’t wait!” replied Kai facetiously, stretching his lips into his own smile that didn’t quite reach as far as her’s. Standing in a windowless hallway lined with plaster walls, a metallically tiled floor, and lit by rows of fluorescent lights, he regarded the three strangers with careful eyes.

“Alright, let’s head out the-” began Sheila, before she paused to look at Kai.

The young man looked at the space behind them with eyes stricken with terror, his mouth agape while he tried to lift his twitching hand to point at the nebulous threat.

His three escorts quickly turned to look behind them, the two armored guards reaching for an oddly colored vial and a now glowing baton each. What stood there to confront them was… nothing. And when they turned around to face forward again, they were once again met with nothing.

“Uh, should I sound the alarm?” asked the first armored man, upon realizing the duplicitous truth.

“Nah,” replied Sheila, with a carefree smirk. “Let him get a look at the place for himself, it’ll be easier than explaining it ourselves. Besides, he’s not the kind of kid to cause any trouble! Well, at least too much trouble…”

Kai ran through the hallway at a dead sprint, intent to get away from his captors and out of whatever facility he was being held at. He started by turning the first corner he could to get out of the line of sight of the three, so they wouldn’t be able to shoot at him or easily follow when he ended up at an inevitable fork in the road.

As he filled his lungs with the fresh, yet sterile air that filled the corridors, he scoffed to himself at the explanation he was given. Whoever these people were, Kai figured they probably looked through his checkout and search history at the library to know he was into all of that. They probably drugged him and showed him some homemade B-movie on repeat to sell him on the idea that he was isekaied.

How could they think he was so stupid as to actually believe it could happen in real life, let alone to him of all people? Kai might’ve still been a kid, but he already learned not to put all of his faith in crack pipe dreams.

Eventually, the young man arrived at the first of the expected forks and quickly turned right, knowing that people tended to most likely choose left when left to pure chance, like he was doing now. And judging by how incompetent those three seemed, he’d be out of here before they knew it.

Regrettably, Kai’s escape route was less than solitary. As he turned the next corner, he bumped into a man wearing blue overalls over a yellow shirt.

“Hey, watch it!” shouted the man, as he quickly recovered from the accidental shove. “We’re carrying a huge load over here!”

“Sorry,” quickly replied Kai, catching his own balance as he tried to walk around the worker.

“Hold up, I said we have a big load here!” the man exclaimed, holding out his hand to block Kai’s egress.

Right as the worker said that, a large metallic structure came out of a corner behind him. Humanoid in shape and gleaming a silvery purple, the figure resembled a massive suit of armor over 10 feet tall. Within its heavy-set arms was an equally massive wooden crate held high above the ground. The ambulatory tank slowly shuffled around the corner and past the two miniscule people on the ground, as Kai stared at it slack jawed. What kind of thing was this?! And why the hell did they need him here?

“Who the hell’s in that thing?” Kai wondered aloud.

“Nobody, I’m in here!” came a high pitched voice from above him. Sitting above the crate was a tiny woman who waved down at the two with a free hand, her other held out straight ahead. “And slow down, you’re going to hurt yourself if you run through the halls!”

“Uh, ok. Thanks,” replied Kai as he forced his mouth shut and continued past the three flesh and metal bodies in a stiff shuffle.

“Kid looks like he’s never seen a golem before,” replied the woman sitting atop the box, almost out of Kai’s earshot.

“Maybe he’s one of the new ones?” replied her denim-clad compatriot. “I didn’t see my first one until after I joined.”

Once Kai was truly out of the strangers’ sights, he shifted back into his previous sprint. If something that scary was here, then he wanted to spend as little time as possible in this god-forsaken place. And if he stayed put, they’d probably piece together exactly how “new” he really was.

So what was this place? With that giant metallic monster, it seemed like some kind of secret government lab or military base. Did they kidnap him so they could train him to pilot one of those things? But then why the hell would they need to abduct him? If they’d ask, he and probably his entire school would say yes without even a second thought!

Well, whatever was going on here, there was more to it, and Kai figured he’d probably escape before he got to the bottom of things. He really hoped that would be the case.

Soon enough, the teen ran into his next fork in the road. Unlike the lack of any noticeable sign of his pursuers, there happened to be several on the walls. Each metal placard held an engraved arrow and some text, waiting to direct any who may pass them by. And right now, they were blessed to answer the needs of Kai Freeman.

There was a four-way intersection in the corridor, the pathway split by another perpendicularly. The signages of the left and right paths read “Combat Training” and “Portals.” The one in front read “Recreational Area” and the one behind said “Living Quarters.”

Yup, that was definitely where the young man came from, but where would he go? The presence of a “Combat Training” area confirmed his suspicions that this was some kind of military base, and he definitely didn’t want to head towards any trained soldiers. Sadly, none of the signs read “Exit.” But “Portals” sounded close enough to a way out that he was willing to take that risk.

Kai turned right once more and headed down the brightly lit hallway. What he hoped would be the final leg of his journey was interrupted by another chance encounter. Kai dug his gliding feet into the ground, skidding to a halt, as he came upon a man in a white lab coat and a golden retriever wearing a bowtie staring him down.

Kai stared back at the two, especially the dog, mostly worried that they were sent to sniff him out and apprehend him. But at the same time, the teen was intrigued by the dog's sense of fashion. Were they really there to take him in, looking like that? Nah, not something that adorable.

“What the hell are you looking at, kid?” asked the dog in perfect English, somehow looking quite annoyed despite its canine features. “Never seen a man get polymorphed into a dog before?”

Kai stared dumbfounded at the creature. Whatever was going on in front of him, it at least led credence to his earlier theory of being drugged. In this case, it appeared that those drugs hadn’t entirely worn off yet. Yeah, that was totally what was going on.

“Woof!” The man in the lab coat barked.

“Don’t worry Spot, I’m working on it. We’ll find someone to reverse this soon. Hey kid, have you seen anyone from-”

Before the dog could finish, Kai had already turned around and ran through the nearest intersecting corridor.

“Huh, I guess he hasn’t. You think he’s one of the new kids, Spot?”

“Arf!”

Kai was certain of two things now; the lack of his sanity, and the fact that he needed to get the hell out of here right now. Fate seemingly answered his call, and he came upon a row of metal doors each labeled some variant of “Portal Room” along with a number from 1 to 9. Making his way up to the first door, he began tugging at the handle, unable to make it budge.

He tried the next door, once again to the same effect. And the third, and fourth, and so on. All of them were locked. In a fit of anger, he kicked at the last door, creating nothing more than a dull thud on impact. Wait, hold on. The doors were all made of metal, but the walls were covered in nothing but plaster! Kai raised his foot and shoved it into the drywall next to the door frame, confident in both his new idea and the strength in his legs.

He was met with another dull thud, as his foot sank an inch into the wall, and was met with another barrier. Kai dug his limb out of the gaping hole he just made, sending pieces of sheetrock falling to the ground, his jeans now covered in white dust. He coughed as he took a step away to inspect the damage, taking note of the thick slab of metal placed inside the wall.

“Damn it, I was sure that would work! But what did I expect? Secret government facility and all that. What good would it be if someone could wreck the place by just kicking it?”

“Hey buddy, do you have an appointment?” came a masculine voice to his right. Kai turned around to see another heavily armored man giving him a quizzical look, and beginning to grow peeved when he saw the damage he’d caused to the wall.

Kai didn’t deign to answer the man’s question, and simply turned around to flee down another branching path. Confident that he wasn’t being followed, he slowed his pace down from a dead sprint to merely a mad dash.

This time, after only half a minute of running, he’d made it to a room labelled “Outside Viewing Area.” Not wanting to give the guard a chance to catch up to him, he quickly ran inside and looked for a door. Instead, what met him was a room filled with various tables and benches, and a massive, clear window with nothing but pitch black on the other side.

Perhaps it was just night time, and the site didn’t have any outside lights in order to not attract any attention. In that case, they must’ve been out in the boonies, and he’d have to find a car or something to drive back.

Luckily, Kai still had his phone and the flashlight feature to find such a vehicle, but he’d have to hope the keys were still left inside. Or that he could sucker-punch somebody who had them and steal the means of escape for himself.

Either way, there wasn’t any door, so Kai would have to make one, and hopefully he’d be successful this time. Rather than just relying on his own strength alone, he turned around and picked up a sturdy looking chair, heaved it into the air, and began to throw it at the glass with all his might. Right at the apex of his swing, he stopped. The chair dropped out of his hands and onto the ground as he stared at the first thing he saw outside.

A humanoid figure in a crinkly, white full-body outfit more akin to a spacesuit floated past him. It regarded Kai through the glass and simply waved at the young man as it continued across the inky black voidscape. Kai realized something just then. Even though there were no artificial lights, it was still pitch black. Where were all the stars?

“I’m not even on Earth anymore, am I?” he asked the nothingness before him.

“Not anymore, you chose not to go back,” replied Sheila.

Kai quickly turned around to find himself face-to-face with the young woman. Her security entourage stood far behind her, just outside the room, looking in worriedly through their blue-tinted visors.

“Do you think it looks beautiful outside?” she asked, the cheer in her voice slightly dropping in exchange for a touch of melancholy.

“Can’t say,” Kai replied softly. “There’s no land, no stars, no moon. Nothing.”

“A lot of people really appreciate that nothingness, they feel like they can create their own beauty out of it. That’s what we did, in any case.”

“Where the hell am I?” Kai looked back outside at the empty black that surrounded them.

“On a little shard of shattered space-time, floating through the void between Worlds. This just so happens to be where we’ve set up shop, so far away from anything, yet as close as we can get to the people that need our help.”

“Close to who? Who even are you people?!” shouted Kai. “And why the hell am I here?!”

“You chose to come with us Kai, you just don’t seem to remember. It’s apparently a trend with everyone who shows up here for the first time, but nobody’s ever reacted the way you did. They usually take me up on my offer for breakfast first, and come to accept their ‘dream’ after a hot meal.”

“You didn’t answer my question,” replied Kai in a low growl.

“Because you already know, silly!” Sheila exclaimed with a chuckle. “We’re close to the people of Earth who get dragged over by jerks to other Worlds to die for frankly unworthy causes. Like you, for instance.”

“Like me?” Kai clutched at his head with his right hand, grimacing as a once lost memory made its way back into his conscious mind. “Wait… I-I think I’m remembering. It wasn’t just a dream, was it? I was… in a portal. But then… who are you people?”

“Officially, we’re the Terran Otherworldly Advocacy League, or TOAL for short. We show up when people like you get stuck in a bad situation to get them out. Though a lot of people, especially anime fans from what I’ve seen, like to call us ‘The Isekai Police’.”