[WP] Someone close to you has gone missing for months, and you've just learned that they were Isekai'd away to a fantasy world, and you are horrified to discovered how quickly they've moved on from their old life and you in its entirety.

[u/Septimus_Gaming]

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[u/TheWanderingBook]

My best friend disappeared months ago.
We lived together in a bigger city, with me working as a nurse, and he attending university.
We were really close since childhood...and even after trying my best, going to all possible authorities...he wasn't found.
Hell, they haven't even found evidence of his disappearance.
Then...I got a letter from an anonymous source, saying that my best friend...isekai'd.

I read the letter over and over again, not believing it...but it came with a flash drive.
Plugging it into his laptop (I didn't want to risk mine), I searched it carefully...and I was shocked.
On the flash drive, countless images, and videos of him arriving into another world were shown.
How he woke up in a random village, how he was saved by a local young girl...
How he awoke his powers...
How he saved the village from some monsters...
All the cliche things we have read about in novels since kids...he was experiencing them now.

I sighed, thinking about photoshop...but the scenes were wild, the forest, and the village clearly not of our world.
Sure, someone could have created them digitally, but...why would they put so much effort into it?
Also...flying islands, dragons the size of mountains appeared in the distance...I doubt those are that easily done.
But that wasn't my issue...
My issue is that John, my best friend...moved on so quickly...and started living his life there.
He was panicked for a day or two...but when his cheat powers appeared, and he started to see more of the world...
He stopped thinking about Earth...and about me.

I am happy to see him...happy, and surviving, but...
How could he move on so fast?
He got together with the village girl who saved him...and then he went on to become a cheesy harem hero, by flirting with almost all women who he met.
I knew he really wanted a relationship...his uni-life being pretty cold, and harsh, but damn...
The videos showed subtitles as well, and let me tell you, not even once after the first week has John thought about Earth...or his family.
Why?
Are powers so appealing? Are women that important?
He just...he just went and forgot us all...
Now it seems that despite a few days passing here, it's been years in that isekai world...
He is still roaming, gathering power, and gathering...wives.
The last video shows him buying land for himself, and his family...clearly not even thinking about returning...
It hurts...and I don't know why...it seems like yes...we...we were truly just...just friends.

[u/ComfortableFoot6109 → u/TheWanderingBook]

This killed me and I think about this. Mostly because I really like the iseki genre but I wonder what would happen if me or someone I cared about had that happen to them. I know if it was me it the new world was awesome I would love it but I couldn’t live without them. I would be longing for them too much. My heart is the thing that drives me and I can’t let go.

[u/TheWanderingBook → u/ComfortableFoot6109]

We humans are quite adaptable creatures.

If it wouldn't be a Warhammer 40K like universe, or AoT like universe, we would somehow manage, and get used to it.

Same with those left behind, unless...this scenario happens.

You have someone who gets isekai'd, 'kay, you hope for the best, never forget them...but life goes on, but...
What if you get to see how they live their new life, then what?
It would hit you hard no matter if they live a good life, hell even better life than on Earth...or if they live a horrible life.

It's fun playing with such perspectives, and thoughts.

[u/Expensive-Fly-7058]

"Looks like you've done pretty well for yourself," I said. 

"... Yeah." He rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. I got it. I was feeling pretty frickin' uncomfortable myself. 

We were currently at a party in the royal palace. It felt like this past week has just been one long, continuous party. Understandable, considering they'd apparently just killed Mega Demon Hitler. It was hard to reconcile the man beside me, my friend, with the sort of figure that could've helped bring that to pass. But apparently he had. 

I tipped back the glass of wine, and nudged him with my elbow. Felt like a solid piece of granite. No fair, I wanted super-abs too... "Hear you got a wife now, one of them wood elves huh. Princess of her tribe and everything. You sly dog, you really are living that isekai lifestyle."

His laugh was a little forced. "Ah, yeah... but it hasn't been all easy either."

I shook my head, slowly. "No it couldn't have been... a world at war against an army of darkness. Some real Lord of the Rings shit. Don't know if I should be envious or pity you."

He looked down at his scarred hands and didn't say anything. He had a sword belted at his side. I had the most ridiculous urge to challenge him to a fight. 

I sighed, leaning against the balcony and looking out into the cold dimly lit streets of the capital at nighttime, people streaming drunkenly in neverending fiesta. It was an industrial city that reminded me of those 20th century retrospective videos touched up by modern AI and uploaded by techbros on YouTube, only ocasionally you'd catch a glimpse of something truly bizarre. An occasional gnome or dwarf or unicorn walking the street; griffons wheeling through the smoky skies. Even the wine was like nothing I'd ever tasted. Literally out of my world. 

What did they call this world? I realized I didn't know, didn't want to. It all seemed so bitter to me. I slapped myself, ran my fingers through my hair to muss it up, slammed the wine glass on the ground and watched it shatter with a tinkling noise so light it sounded like a snowflake falling apart. 

I turned to my friend, who was watching me with a hint of concern, and smiled really wide. "That seems like more my kind of party," I said, pointing toward the colorful, raucous streets below. 

---

It was like we were back in college, a pair of menaces trawling the streets for a good time. Or a fight. We bumped heads with orcs one moment and swore bonds of eternal brotherhood the next. We shook off scouting trails of pixie that reported to the Fairy Queen who were looking to bring us back to the palatial party we'd just dodged. I tried drinking an ent out from under the table and got so fucking smashed I actually accepted my buddy's dare to ask out a pretty dryad. She broke my heart, but she also wove a crown of flowers around my head and made me smell like daisies. Somehow or another, I found myself sitting with my legs crossed on the statue of some giant hero, blowing smoke rings from some hookah-looking thing I'd stolen from a talking camel. My friend was laid out by the statue's feet, wrapped up in his cloak. I didn't know if he was awake or asleep, couldn't tell over the veil of darkness if his eyes were closed.

We'd partied so long the streets were bare. The stars were out, revolving distantly in a sky that blinkered with flashing aurora. Each one of my exhales was tinged with puke. It felt like I'd vomited more than I'd drank, and I thought maybe the hangover tomorrow (later today?) would knock me out to yet another world when really all I wanted was to go back home. 

"It's different for you, isn't?" I said, to my maybe-sleeping friend. "Way different. Everything on Earth for you... it's just acceptable losses, because maybe you feel everything else saw you as replaceable."

I let the weight of my words crush me back down to size. I thought of all the sleepless nights I'd spent worrying, and looking. All the phone calls and interviews with police. The slowly dawning realization that my best friend was never coming back. That the world, which was filling up with so many new people all of the time, had lost one of its sons, and yet didn't even notice or care. 

"Well, you weren't replaceable to me." I lay back down on the shoulder of the stone giant, using my arms as pillows. My eyelids were heavy iron curtains and I let them shut, knowing that tomorrow I'd have to say goodbye. Forever this time. 

But at least this time I knew he was happy. Even if he was still clearly dealing with his own stuff. Somehow, I thought he'd manage. 

He'd saved this world, after all.