Chapter 0: Return

People always dream of a better future.

They want to live in a better house. They want to wear better clothes. They want to eat more delicious food.

Everyone lives with such hopes in their hearts, and that includes Haran, a woman hurrying through a dark back alley.

“Ugh, creepy… Why is this damn house in such a secluded place!”

She didn’t want to find a house in such a place, where delinquents and thugs occasionally appeared and the neighborhood wasn’t safe, but she had no choice.

With no money or connections, the only houses she could afford were in dangerous places like this.

‘Someday, I’ll become rich and live on the top floor of a tall building instead of in an alley like this.’

As she made that resolution and hurried along, Haran had no choice but to stop in her tracks.

“N-no way… A gate? Is that real? I’ve never seen one before…”

A small gate suddenly appeared before her eyes.

For a moment, she thought that her house, which was already practically a ruin, might really become a ruin due to the appearance of a monster, and her face hardened.

Then, a sigh of relief escaped her lips.

“It’s… it’s blue. I was so surprised.”

Most of the things that come out of gates are monsters, but sometimes, humans who went missing in another world return.

They were called returnees.

She had heard that monsters come out of red gates, but returnees appear from blue gates.

‘…Returnees enjoy wealth and fame with the abilities they gained in another world.’

Jealousy flickered in Haran’s eyes, but it soon faded.

Everyone knew that the size of the gate was determined by the amount of mana the being crossing over possessed, and the gate she was looking at seemed small to anyone.

“Eek! …A-are they naked?”

The small gate spat out a slender girl and then disappeared.

Breasts that, though not large, were still shapely enough to reveal her gender.

Long, sleek legs.

Even the unique black and red ponytail.

The girl’s appearance was so captivating and beautiful that it was impossible to take one’s eyes off her.

“…What is this place.”

“Hiiik! She spoke!”

Haran was startled by the girl’s sudden awakening.

Her conscience pricked her, because she realized she had been staring at her naked body as if appraising it.

The girl rolled her eyes as if trying to figure out the situation, and the moment their eyes met and an awkward standoff continued.

Haran began to hear someone’s voice in her ears.

“…These punks have no business ethics. If you want to do business in this area, you have to pay us, you have to pay us.”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

“We’ve made an example of one of them, so they’ll do it right from now on.”

The voices of thugs, who were said to have a tight grip on the surrounding black market, could be heard.

The voices and footsteps were getting louder. They were probably coming this way.

Haran hurriedly started running in the opposite direction from where the voices were coming from, without even realizing it.

Getting involved with those guys would never be a good thing.

“…What’s this? Naked? Are you a prostitute?”

“Don’t you know you have to pay us tribute to work here? …If you don’t want to pay money, you can pay with something else. How about it?”

As Haran hurriedly left the scene, she faintly heard the voices of the thugs talking to the girl.

When she could no longer hear their voices and felt safe, she let out a breath that had been building up in her chest.

“Haa, haa…”

‘Is that girl okay? She was caught by those guys in that state. It must be dangerous.’

‘No. She’ll be fine. That girl is a returnee. They say all returnees are strong.’

‘But the gate was so small? She might be just a regular person. She doesn’t have any weapons or armor either. Those guys have weapons.’

‘Even the police don’t dare to mess with them.’

‘Should I help her? She must be confused.’

Various thoughts swirled in Haran’s head.

She tried to convince herself that she would be okay, but it didn’t work. All she could think about was the girl being sold off somewhere.

Haran was wracked with guilt, thinking that she had abandoned a defenseless girl because she was afraid of becoming inconvenienced.

“No, I can’t help it… I don’t know what will happen to me if I stand up to those guys. They have a tight grip on this area. So I can’t help it. I can’t help…”

It was an unavoidable thing for a better future.

She tried to think that way, but Haran’s mind was still filled with fog.

What should she do to clear this fog in her heart?

“Ugh, f*ck it…! I don’t know!”

Haran hurriedly turned back the way she had come and called the police with her cell phone.

She didn’t know if there would be any police officers coming to this place at this time, but it would be better than not calling at all.

“Kkyaaaaaaak!”

“…!”

A gruesome scream echoed through the alleyway, and Haran’s pace quickened even more.

Without even thinking about how to save her, she just moved her feet.

“R-run away! I’m here… at this…?”

“S-save me…! Save me! I don’t want to die!”

The scene in the back alley, where she arrived gasping for breath, was quite different from what Haran had imagined.

Far from being brutally violated by the thugs, the thugs were lying around the girl, clutching their arms and legs.

“Kk, kkyyyaaaaak, my head! L-let, let go…!”

“Hey, you got money?”

“N-no… Kkyyyaaaaak! I have it! I have it! Here, in this pocket! I really do!”

“You should have said so sooner.”

Boom.

The girl, who had searched the pocket the man pointed to and found money, lightly blew away the man, who was bigger than her.

As if she didn’t care at all about the man writhing in pain, the girl only frowned as she looked at the money.

“…Tsk, there are no clothes that fit. Just a moment, I will borrow your clothes.”

The girl took off the thugs’ clothes one by one and tried them on, but she frowned as if dissatisfied when the clothes were too loose to wear.

Then, as if she had a good idea, she put on a windbreaker without even putting on the clothes and smiled as if satisfied.

“What, that’s the woman from before. Is there a problem?”

“…Uh, well.”

Haran, speechless at the completely unexpected sight, unknowingly made a suggestion to the girl.

“If you don’t have any clothes that fit, would you like to come to my house for a while…?”

That was her first meeting with the girl.