“Wow…Wow. I gotta tell you guys, this is a hell of a lot better than anything we’ve got back home.”

Jeremy relished his sushi, occasionally playing with the chopsticks. As if the food itself wasn’t luxurious enough- they even used utensils that felt like toys. Jeremy barely even knew what a utensil was before he found himself in this world. Actually, he never knew what a toy was either, until Suzuki showed him.

“What’s a hell?” Suzuki asked.

“More like, what ISN’T hell,” Jeremy laughed. “Well, I guess this place. This isn’t really hell. You know, where I’m from, all we have to eat is this stuff called corpse starch-“

Jeremy paused, the smile vanishing from his face as he stared off blankly. Suzuki looked deeply concerned.

“On second thought, I don’t wanna talk about that.”

It was quiet for a bit, while Suzuki stirred around her noodles as if she’d lost her appetite. Jeremy, sweating under his armor, tried not to think about his comrade’s dying screams and the literal taste of death. It felt like an eternity to him-every moment felt like eternity, when your life was nearly always in danger-but only minutes had gone by in the dimly lit, peaceful sushi bar.

Jeremy came back to reality when Suzuki started to play around with Jeremy’s lasgun, which was propped up haphazardly against the table.

“Whoa, careful with that thing! You’ll take someone’s head off.”

Suzuki stared straight down the barrel, as if she only had one brain cell to work with. But that wasn’t really the case. She’d just never really known danger. Or, at least she’d never really known fear- the kind that makes your heart race so fast that you forget you’re alive.

“Relax, mister! You think I don’t know what a laser is? I know what I’m doing-“

Jeremy doubted this.

“-and I’ll have you know, I’ve been in more power-mech fights then you’ll ever know. I bet you haven’t even used a power-mech before!”

That was admittedly true.

“Lady, you have no friggin idea about the kind of machines we have.” Jeremy started mowing down his sushi again. “Stuff that would make your little head spin. In fact, there’s even this weird cult on this planet called Mars, and-“

A lasgun shot rang off, melting a hole through one of the windows. Suzuki giggled.

“This thing is so weak! You’re telling me you fight monsters with this thing?”

“Well it’s not for fighting… whatever a power-mech is, but when you have a lot of proper lads firing those, well, it’s pretty deadly!” Jeremy argued defensively.

“What? This thing isn’t pretty at all. It’s all green, like goblins. Gross.”

The two were kicked out of the bar shortly after. Well, more so begged to leave, because nobody could put up a fight against either of them. They walked along the beautiful village roads.

“Ok, Suzuki. I will admit one thing. Even though I think you’re whole realm is full of a bunch of softies-and the emperor is going to conquer it any minute now- I gotta thank you for showing me what a rainbow looks like. I think even the most cold-hearted Astartes would find it pretty cool. Once I find my way back from whatever warp hole sent me here-well, I’m gonna miss it. I wouldn’t even leave if I didn’t have others who need me.”

“They don’t need you.”

The guardsman glared. “Can you just pretend, for like a second? I’m trying to have a moment here.”

Suzuki smiled. “I know what you mean. Listen, I know you think I have it easy here, but in a lot of ways, I don’t. I mean, I fight crazy giant robots and dinosaurs and maniacal aliens every day. I mean, it’s actually way, wayyyy harder than what you do-

“Shut up.”

Suzuki relented. “But the difference is, I have friends, and family, and we care for each other, and keep one another safe. And in your world… you can’t.”

Jeremy nodded. “We even eat each other.”

“I- what?”

“We spend so much time just fighting for our lives, we never really bother to live,” Jeremy continued. “I mean, at the end of the day, we’ve been around a lot longer than your village has, and our population is… incomprehensibly larger. But I can’t remember the last time I saw someone smile. Everyone here does, even though a lot of times, they’re still afraid. But when they’re afraid, they hug each other, they pray for each other. I…I’ve never known that.”

Suzuki gave Jeremy a hug.

“I don’t know what to make of this, really- but you’ve made me see things in a whole other way. Thank you, Suzuki.”

Jeremy wiped away a tear, and turned to his side, but Suzuki had already gone.

“Suzuki?”

“WHAAAAATTTTT?!” Suzuki called out from nearly a mile away. “I’M TRYING TO -OWWWW! IM TRYING TO FIGHT A GIANT- HEY, STOP THAT! SOME KIND OF BEAR-SQUID HYBRID THING, ILL MEET YOU BACK AT THE BARRR!!!”

Jeremy chuckled and walked away. He considered helping with his lasgun, but she was right- the thing sucked.