Chapter 1 – Arrival at Mecchen House

I pulled Jamie out from under Nathan. He didn’t fight… much. The color in his face was only now beginning to return.

“My arm hurts…” was all he could manage in a monotone.

The pieces started to come together for him.

“You only hurt if you’re awake…”

One plus one would then equal…

“I was gonna get in front of a bus. I would’ve died…”

I didn’t know if Jamie’s life was passing before his eyes, but I knew that he would be passing out soon enough again if I didn’t intervene.

“Jamie, I know this is tough for you. I barely understand it myself. But we need you with us. We need you now.” Barely understanding was a fair overstatement. I could feel myself trembling. As long as I’d known Jamie, he’d always been crawling into his own little caves to hide, from conflict, from pain, with the easiest way out. I could see in his eyes he just wanted to make it all go away. The bus was just a means to that. Of course, he hadn’t realized it was a bus that would genuinely hurt if it struck him. Maybe.

So far as I could tell, this was some sort of anime-styled world. That didn’t mean it had the same rules as real life. Would someone struck by a moving vehicle bounce around like a pinball and have their wounds magically healed by a giant band-aid? Or would it be more realistic? I didn’t want to put it to the test.

I was willing to give Jamie a few minutes to adjust, but a stream of ants, like a line of small black marks, started exploring him. He dusted himself off and looked at me.

He said ‘okay’ about ten times before finally figuring out what he wanted to say, “Let’s put aside I’m tired. That I’m still not sure about Muscle-Man over here. That I’m also panicked about what the hell is going on and not a single thing makes sense. Let’s also set aside what I just did. With all that aside, okay, I’m with you. I’ll…” He bit his lip. “...I will try my best in spite of logic, good sense, terror, and whatever else.”

I could tell by his eyes he was still pretty spooked and disturbed by the bus incident. The bus driver was still hammering away at the engine. A waif-like, blond boy in a sailor suit walked past. He had shimmering, brown eyes. He had silky blue shorts on that just extended mid-thigh. His almost-white hair stood out like a set of dog ears. He had a little red choker on. If I wasn’t more familiar with ‘cute boys’ from Carolyn, then I would be hard-pressed to call it a boy. Jamie gave me a pained look and added, “So long as you come up with a way to get us out of this place.”

I told Jamie and Nathan about the slip of paper in my hand. I gestured to this so-called “Mecchen House.” Both listened intently. Jamie buried his eyes in his hands. “How does this help with getting us home?” I could sense a groan in his words.

“Well, it’s clearly intentional. Someone wants us to go to this ‘Mecchen House.’ If we go there then we might have a chance at figuring out what’s going on.” I didn’t even feel convincing to myself, but I knew with all the wandering we’d done, I didn’t want to head back into that pathway and not know where we might end up next. I could tell by Jamie’s eyes that he wasn’t looking forward to the climb to “Mecchen House.” Nathan had been quiet for a while. His eyes still seemed moist. He stated, “I’m going to do my best to get us all home. Even if I have to carry everyone to this place. We have to go forward. We’ll find a way. I know it.”

Jamie seemed ready to say something haughty in response. I could just smell the words growing in his mouth. “Didn’t going forward get us in this situation in the first place?” But the words died there, and he swallowed them with a gulp. “Sure. Seems like a lead, at least. We can complain to them.” He picked himself up and dusted off his pants. A brown cloud ‘poofed’ and settled around him. His colorful eyes narrowed. “I’ll never get used to this place.”

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We took the uphill path. It felt like the path we would’ve taken back to the apartment, had we been in that world. It became even more disconcerting when it curved near a gas station. It looked like the one near our apartment too, but then most gas stations looked alike to me.

We passed a demure girl going downhill on our side of the road. She had her lips pursed tight and her head down. It was hard to see her face, but her cheeks were bright and full. She had on a pair of cute jeans. The textures on them were appealing. Her top was a soft, red color. She pinched the material gently. Her hair was a shimmering dark brown and looked like someone had taken care in drawing it. She glanced up and met my eyes.

Her eyes were brown like chocolate. She had a cute mouth-line which curled a bit on her face. She looked vaguely-indignant at my presence. She turned to look at the gas-station. I was tempted to say something to her but held my tongue. I knew it wasn’t a good idea to make an enemy of an anime girl, or else face the consequences.

At least the ones in this world seemed harmless. The watchers from before were cute too. I glanced over my shoulder at the brunette. I wondered how she’d look in a skirt. I blushed brightly and got a quizzical look from Jamie.

The path turned left onto a series of stone steps. The stone looked like someone had been painstakingly using a brush on them all day. I felt cautious to step on them, lest I smudge the art. But this work, like the one across my body, had no chance of being smudged.

Nathan blew his nose with a bit of tissue he had in his pocket, then rubbed it. He looked better, more composed. Jamie forced his mouth line in an upside-down V and folded his arms. “Steps? Why do we have to go up steps? This just means we have to go down them when they toss us out.”

“They aren’t gonna toss us out.” Yet, I mentally added after responding to Jamie.

We trudged up the steps. I led. Jamie and Nathan kept behind me. Jamie watched the vegetation along the path with the same sour look. Nathan looked too and seemed cautiously captivated by the flurry of colors. I should have been looking ahead instead of at them because I nearly tripped with my next step. I would’ve gone tumbling all the way back down to the street. Usually just a ‘flesh wound’ for your typical anime protagonist, but it was not something I wanted to test out in this new reality.

At the top of the steps, we could finally see this ‘Mecchen House.’ I was impressed.

It was three stories tall with an ornate wooden overhang at the front. The ledge sloped low on the first story, like a red, pleated skirt encircling the building. Above that, the ledge on the second story jutted out straight, like commanding arms holding back the advancing trees. Above the second story, a final ledge curled upwards like the bottom of a crown. A single, triangular point at the top was painted blue like the sky beyond it, such that it appeared almost transparent. The covering all around the structure was tinted blue as well with sections of gold and green. They were pleasant colors, soothing and disarming. The front projection, though, gave the impression of a duet of stacked heads sneering back at me. I noticed a pair of balconies off the side of the second and third stories. The second was larger than the third.

Nathan looked it over and scratched the side of his head. “We have no choice really, huh?”

Jamie let his arms fall. “Huh. We really have no choice?”

I didn’t say anything. I just advanced on the door. It was a large, glass shoji door with a latch. Fortunately, it was unlocked. I slid the heavy door carefully and peered in. There were shoes on the wood floor, a table with books and a small, potted plant as well as a lovely painting (‘Or is it a painting of a painting?’ I wondered.) of a bamboo forest on the wall. I leaned in. Everything was quiet. I stepped inside. Jamie and Nathan were right behind me. I recalled entryways from anime shows. If I remembered right…

“We need to leave our shoes in this area.” Jamie poked a finger in his ear. “What’s that? Why? I don’t want to leave my shoes behind. I paid more than a hundred bucks for them.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “You got them for twelve bucks at the Goodwill.”

Jamie smooshed his face-line up. “I’m frugal. You sure it’s safe to leave them here?” Nathan bent over and undid his laces. He looked at me and asked, “Where should I put them?”

I had no clue myself, but I figured an empty spot would do fine. Nathan sat on the upper ledge and carefully undid them, pointing the shoes towards the front door. He stepped lightly onto the upper area. Jamie plopped down on the ledge, yanked off his shoes, and set them haphazardly on the floor. Nathan glared but said nothing.

I was impressed that he was so aware of Japanese tradition. I knew he watched the anime I had on sometimes, but I figured he was just idly peeking in.

I followed Nathan’s example for shoes and set them towards the door.

The floor was nice, polished wood. There were paintings on the walls on either side. They were all in black-and-white. The nearest was actually a framed photograph with a calm young woman standing on a beach with a tall, muscular, and handsome young man. He looked very happy to be with her. There were a few more of these painting photographs. One of them seemed to depict the construction of this building. The man and woman were in it as well. They were holding hands. A child sat to the side, playing amongst some rocks. Her face was turned away, but she had long, grey hair. I assumed she was the young woman’s daughter.

Then, turning left, I looked over a living room with two couches and a footstool set in the middle with a number of bookshelves. They were turned towards a really nice television.

So far, I’d marveled at this world and concentrated on the skill that had to have gone into each view. Looking at this room though, I felt less of an artistic sense than just feelings of it as a place to relax. I rubbed my eyes and we ventured onward.

Past it was a small room with a black, desktop computer. Small, but functional. Past that was a bedroom area. I just took a glance, but it didn’t look much different from my own room. Girls on posters and a fair number of figurines. There was another bedroom across the hall. It was locked. At the end of the hall was a set of wooden steps. They smelled nice, like chestnuts.  We couldn’t find anyone to talk to.

We trudged down the hall the other way. Neither Nathan nor Jamie had much to say. Jamie had given a note of disgust when we came to the steps, but that was it.

There were a few more rooms. First, a laundry room. Then, a bath, and past that was a fair-sized kitchen. It was here we finally found someone. Not surprisingly, she was living-anime as well, and she was cutting a series of carrots on a carving board. She wiped her hands carefully. Each motion seemed calmly focused. I wasn’t sure whether to approach her, since she seemed so dedicated to her work. Ultimately, my indecision was rendered moot.

“I won’t have enough for guests, but I can make you something if you like, no trouble.” She looked over her shoulder at us with a smile that reminded me of my mother. Her eyes curled into the same, friendly black dashes I’d encountered a few times in this world. It was beginning to seem a little less disconcerting. In fact, it felt comforting. I’d always found anime faces a lot easier to read than human ones.

Nathan bowed his head solemnly and seemed to make himself smaller. “We’re so very sorry to intrude, ma’am. But it’s a matter of the utmost importance. We wouldn’t have come in if… If… it was any different.”

Jamie grabbed a chair and leaned on the table in front of him. “Whatcha cooking?” His wide, anime eyes seemed to droop a little and then dart back open.

The anime woman turned again while wiping her cutting board and said, “You may sit where you like. Stay awhile. Tell me what’s wrong, and I’ll see if I can help you. Oh, and I’m making curry rice.” Like an echo at the end of her words, I noticed a foreign tone. It sounded like the speech patterns of a Japanese speaker. But it was flawless English. Wasn’t it? None of us had used anything but English, and yet there was something different about the words said. Even what Nathan had said had a softer intonation. And what Jamie had said, especially so.

It was as though a female, Japanese voice actress was trying to do his voice in English. Quite well, I might add. But there was something subtly different about it. Both of their voices had changed. They still sounded like their voices should sound yet as though they’d been altered since we’d conversed on the path. It was like subtle amounts of helium had begun to permeate the atmosphere and creep into their lungs. I had to test my voice.

“Thank you for not kicking us out… Umm…” My voice was even weirder. Had it been like that a moment ago? It sounded so pubescent, like a younger boy. I tried to deepen it a little at the ‘umm’ but it sounded unnatural. I coughed a few times and then tried my best to ignore my voice and explain. “We received this paper, and we have no clue what’s going on. We’re really confused.”

I left out the whole ‘oh and the world suddenly turned anime’ part, for now. She turned off the rice steamer on the counter and looked at the piece of paper I was holding out. She wiped her hands on her apron and held it for a better look.

She had beautiful hair, like shimmering gold. It caught the sun through the window behind her in brilliant, almost-white streaks of paint. Her eyes were reddish-brown, massive orbs that took up almost all the white of her eyes. Her nose looked like a cute backslash from this angle. Her hair arched at the front of her face like angel-wings, and curled towards her neck like perfectly-cooked strands of noodles. She seemed so young, not much older than me, but her presence was just like my mother’s.

Her eyes squinted ever so faintly at the text, creating a lovely set of black creases above her eyes. She read silently, then looked at the three of us in turn while saying, “I placed this ad not too long ago in a local publication. Are you three here to rent a room? Oh my. I didn’t expect this at all. You must forgive me. I’m a bit flustered. I never expected men to come asking about the rooms. But… 'Any may rent'… As it says. How did you find it? The ad is supposed to run next week in a teen girl’s magazine that’s only available through subscription.”

She did indeed seem a little flustered, and so did Nathan. Jamie seemed to be taking a nap. So, I fielded her questions, “Well, the thing is… We’re not entirely sure how we found it either. Something happened and I just discovered I had it. Umm. It’s been a weird day for us. We seem to have… lost our way back to our apartment. And we’re trying to figure out a way home. This slip of paper was our only clue to finding a way back to where we live.”

She handed the paper back to me with a concerned look. Despite this, she was able to fry a couple of slices of beef in a pan without being distracted. “Do you have an address for your apartment?”

I took a deep breath. “3287 Rock Lane.”

She whirled around and nearly lost the balance on her pan. “Why, that’s here! Same city?”

I had a gut feeling about that and also what she would say when I told her the town we lived in, “Brookville.” She blinked. “Do you mean Ogawa? Here? But this is the same place. That’s not possible. Who are you?”