National Police Agency Opens "Isekai Truck" Returnee Support Desk. "Demon Lord PTSD Not Covered by Workers' Comp"

In response to a recent surge in returnees from “Isekai Truck” accidents—once believed to be one-way trips to other worlds—the National Police Agency on the 5th established “Otherworld Returnee General Consultation Desks” at major police stations nationwide. The initiative was hailed as a groundbreaking measure to support heroes who once saved worlds, but the desks descended into a battlefield of shouts and sighs from the very first day.

On the morning of opening day, young people clad in tattered robes and dented armor formed long lines at a Tokyo station. “So the government is finally recognizing our achievements.” They deposited their holy swords and magic staves in the umbrella stand at the entrance, clutching their numbered tickets with hearts full of hope. They waited their turn, longing for warm blankets and words of gratitude from their homeland.

But what echoed from the consultation booths was the merciless response of bureaucracy. When a former magic swordsman sought workers’ compensation for “PTSD from battling the Demon Lord Army’s Four Heavenly Kings” and “severe dermatitis from slimes at a potion factory,” the officer coldly read from the manual: “We deeply regret to inform you that the Holy Luciferian Empire and equivalent otherworlds fall outside the jurisdiction of Japan’s Labor Standards Act. Therefore, workers’ compensation cannot be approved.”

What made matters even worse were consultations about interpersonal relationships within adventuring parties. When a hero reported harrowing power harassment—“I was called useless, forced to carry luggage, and eventually expelled from the party”—a labor standards inspector on loan simply threw up his hands: “Do you have an employment contract? A guild registration card does not constitute legal proof of worker status.” Their life-risking quests, under Japanese law, amounted to nothing more than “unpaid club activities.”

And then the cruelest reality of all shattered the returnees’ spirits. It was revealed that cheat abilities acquired in other worlds—“All-Element Magic” and “Infinite Storage”—were designed to be completely reset upon crossing the dimensional barrier. A former sage staring desperately at his palm and shouting “Fireball!” couldn’t produce so much as a spark of static electricity from his fingertips. All that remained was an indelible scar on their Japanese lives: a “mysterious 3-to-5-year gap” in their work history.

“First, please face reality and work toward reintegrating into society.” What the officer handed them was a map to Hello Work and a pamphlet on interview preparation. Heroes who once slew dragons and received love confessions from princesses weakly erased the line “Self-PR: I saved the world” from their resumes and trudged with heavy steps toward the employment office, buffeted by the spring wind of the real world.

Stakeholder Comments

• Returnee desk officer: “When they say ‘Status Open,’ the only thing I can open for them is a family register.”
• Expelled former rear-guard mage: “The interviewer’s question ‘So, what were you doing during this 5-year gap?’ burns a hole in my stomach worse than the Demon Lord’s curse.”
• Ministry of Health official: “If we were to recognize otherworld labor, we’d face the serious legal question of which prefecture’s minimum wage standard should apply to goblin extermination.”
• Isekai Truck driver: “My job is to send them over there, but I never expected them to walk back on their own. Young people these days have real guts.”
• Veteran interviewer: “The episode about ’leading a team to defeat the Demon Lord’ isn’t bad as a leadership pitch, but I’d like to see more specific KPIs.”
• Former party pack mule: “Japan’s power harassment prevention law is wonderful. I’d love to make that hero take a compliance training seminar.”
• Holy Sword Excalibur: “I was abandoned in an umbrella stand and am now tied up with vinyl umbrellas at the ward office’s lost-and-found center. Someone please pull me out.”
• Resume gap period: “I never thought my mere existence could drive people to such despair. I mean, I’m just blank space.”
• Labor and social security attorney: “If it were a subcontract through the guild, the new Freelance Protection Act could apply… as if. It’s outside our jurisdiction.”
• Regular job-hunting student: “Lately I’ve been bewildered by a growing number of sharp-eyed rivals at interview venues wearing scraps of capes.”

International Expressions

Haiku

• Spring gale blows— / no magic left, / off to the job center
• On the resume, / “Demon Lord subjugation” / cannot be written
• Cheat powers gone, / only the gap years / remain
• Workers’ comp denied— / other worlds fall outside / the winds of the law
• Sword set aside, / clutching a numbered ticket, / waiting in late spring
• At the service desk, / old potion scars / begin to ache
• Tears of expulsion / dry at last / in the spring breeze
• Even a hero, / back in Japan, / is just unemployed
• Status vanished, / gazing upward / at the hazy sky
• At the end / of reincarnation— / Hello Work awaits

Kanji / Chinese Characters

異世界転生急増 警察庁帰還者窓口5日新設 初日紛糾皮膚炎訴 労基法適用外一蹴 能力喪失履歴書空白残 元勇者無言職安行

Emoji

🚚✨🌍➡️🤕🏢🙅‍♂️📄🖋️🚶‍♂️💼

Onomatopoeia

SCREECH, CRASH! …WHOOSH. CHATTER, MURMUR. SLAM! “Why isn’t it covered?!” RUSTLE… sigh. SHUFFLE, trudge trudge.

SNS

• Went to #ReturneeDesk and found nothing but despair. Give me back my cheat abilities.
• Workers’ comp denied, seriously?! My hand is still numb from the Demon Lord Army’s poison 😭 #IsekaiBlackCompany
• Told the interviewer “I defeated 1,000 slimes” and got laughed at #ResumeGap
• Hey Isekai Truck driver, do you offer a return trip?
• There’s an Excalibur stuck in the umbrella stand lmao #PoliceStation
• Turns out Japanese labor law is the ultimate barrier spell…
• I want to sue that hero party in a Japanese court. #PowerHarassment
• The only thing I can put in my self-PR is “I saved the world.” Do you think that comes off as exaggerating? #JobHunting
• The old guy next to me at Hello Work turned out to be a former Demon Lord. We hit it off and are starting a business together.
• #CheatAbilityLoss should be covered by workers’ comp! The government response is way too slow.