Chapter 2 – Meeting the Girls of Mecchen House

After shaking off my confusion, I paused at the last step on my way back to the first floor. That delicious chestnut aroma enveloped me. I really was getting hungry. I planned to have something microwaveable after I finished my coding, but the udon which Ms. Ishida was warming up sounded a lot better. Of course, it was probably gonna be microwaved as well.

I peeked at the room I thought of as the living room. Katsumi had finished her job on Nathan’s hair and was blowing curling, white steam off her curry rice. Her mouth made a perfect, pink circle. Nathan was bright red with a sextet of bows in his hair in too-short-but-still cute braids. They looked utterly ridiculous. I gave Nathan a sympathetic smile.

Katsumi glared over at me. “Ms. Ishida says your food is ready. If you stay any longer after eating then all three of you will face my full fury. You’ll wish you merely faced death.” Katsumi’s fingers curled like claws around her plate. Nathan retreated to my side.

“And if you dare to remove those braids in my sight, you’ll face even worse than that, Nathan-chan.” She must have found out Nathan’s name in the intervening time. What I couldn’t figure out was what was worse than a fate worse than death.

I took Nathan over to the kitchen. There were three bowls with curling steam above them. Jamie was sitting there, gently sipping from his bowl. Nathan took the chair farthest from the living room and Katsumi. I parked it next to Jamie and picked up my own spoon. Ms. Ishida was seated across from us and was using chopsticks to dive into her curry rice. She used them quite well. I’d had some practice the last time we all ate out at a Japanese restaurant. I knew Jamie would have the most trouble when he had to use them. He’d decorated the floor more than a bit. Nathan, on the other hand, could probably manage. He was always careful when using them.

I edged towards Jamie. There was one girl left I hadn’t seen: Ami. Jamie, I figured, had seen her. So, I opened by telling him about what Nana did.

He responded quickly, “Computer geek, huh? You should get along well.” I probably should’ve taken offense to that, but I was still so impressed with Nana’s set-up that Jamie’s comment rolled off me. We might actually be able to get along well, if only I could figure out what she meant when she spoke. I asked Ms. Ishida.

“Well, Nana is an interesting girl. She’s quite nice. She helps me with dicing ingredients. She’s amazing with a cleaver.” I couldn’t help but find that mildly unsettling. Still, thinking about Nana, I found her somehow familiar. I sipped my udon. Nathan hadn’t started eating yet. He fingered the bows in his hair.

I gave him a little pat on the shoulder. His head darted over to me. “I’m sorry again, Kelly.”

I rolled my eyes. “Come on, buddy. It’s not your fault. Stuff happens. I’m sure we’ll find a way to get home. We’re gonna have a good meal in our stomachs. That’ll help for sure. Come on, cheer up.”

Jamie did a quick sniff after swallowing and looked over at Nathan. “You look ridiculous. I can’t believe you let that chick do that to you. Man, if it were me I’d…”

I could sense an ominous presence in the air. Katsumi staggered into sight and crept up behind Jamie faster than I thought possible, with how loud she’d been before. She whispered in his ear. “You’d… What?”

He repressed a twitch and turned to look at her. “I’d challenge you.”

She leaned in. “Well, girly boy. You might get the chance… Soon enough.” She smiled to herself and walked off. Jamie looked unfazed. Ms. Ishida made motions to apologize, but Jamie waved her off. “Nah, I’ve dealt with her type before. It’s cool. I can deal with her. It’s Ami that bugs me though.”

Finally, the info I was seeking. Her bugging him wasn’t a big deal. A lot of things bugged Jamie.

Ms. Ishida leaned in. “What about her? Is it…?”

“Her room.”

Ms. Ishida’s eyes lit up. “Me too! The clothes especially!”

With that, the two of them were off. I was surprised that Jamie knew so much about the appearance of this girl’s room after seeing it just once, but it wasn’t as great as the shock that he cared so much about how a room looked.

It was beyond impossible to get him to move or clean up. But, as I thought back, I did notice things from time to time. I’d left my clothes in the dryer once, and then when I came back from a presentation, they were all neatly folded on my bed and my bed was made too. I figured that a friend who’d said he’d stop by had done them, but I never really pried. I was just glad it’d been done. Had Jamie actually been responsible for that? What about the time I discovered dinner prepared for me in my room after falling asleep at my desk (leaving a keyboard imprint on my face and an infinitely-long series of S’s on my screen)? Was that the work of Jamie as well? I couldn’t imagine it.

I took a long look at Jamie, which prompted him to glare at me and wipe his mouth between mentioning the askew CDs in Ami’s room.

He continued with, “I mean, she professed to have boys in her room all the time. But I think it’s more likely she doesn’t dump them; they’re just trapped under a series of newspapers.”

Ms. Ishida giggled. “I’ve considered the same. But Ami's a good person. She means well. She comes from a rough situation. Did you at least spirit away the older plates I told her to bring back?”

Jamie shook his head. “She wouldn’t let me. Said she was keeping them for some reason or another. I dunno.”

Ms. Ishida stirred her curry rice. “That’s quite alright. I’ll get them when I can.”

Jamie chewed on his lip in quiet reply, then said, “Well, I think we should really get out of here as soon as possible. I mean I know Katsumi is just one person, but mainly I want to get back home.”

I had to agree with Jamie. So far, Mecchen was producing no leads to get us back home. But what Nana had implied to me made me wonder if leaving was really the best course of action.

Ms. Ishida smiled. “I understand completely. I mean here, especially. I imagine it’d be tough for the three of you to be so outnumbered by us. I feel outnumbered with just Katsumi. But you bear with it. There are always fun times, no matter what grief you get. But, basically, you three are welcome to stay, if it were all up to me. I know, I own the house, but new residents are approved by a majority of the current residents. It’s usually something of a formality. No one was very fond of Reiko, but still no one opposed her joining the House. I have a feeling it might be a tad tougher for the three of you. But we’re not quite there, yet. Come, tell me more about yourselves and where you’re from. This whole ‘Real World’ business has me intrigued.”

I wasn’t quite sure where to begin for her, so I gave her a basic intro. I told her I was a computer programmer. She said she used to be one many years ago. And Katsumi loved to write programs too. This raised my eyebrow.

“What kind of programs does she make?” I asked.

Ms. Ishida took a sip of water and explained, “They’re like dating sims. Only, well… Consider her personality. She makes games where she’s edited still images and art which a friend of hers draws. And she makes them into games where boys turn into girls. They’re clean.”

“So no nudie anime. I make them for myself. I like them.” Katsumi had her arms folded behind us. For a girl who made a heck of a lot of noise, she sure could sneak up like a little ninja when she wanted.

“What was that last one you made, Katsumi-chan?” Ms. Ishida put a hand on her cheek. Katsumi ‘hmmm’ed to herself and rubbed the back of her head. “Well. You know. It was the one I made for you. I was a little worried about doing it, because it involved you-know-where with nasty critters and you-know-where with nicer creatures.”

Ms. Ishida smiled at Katsumi. “Well, if you have demon and angel characters, it’s hard to avoid those places.”

Katsumi grimaced. “I know you love those sorts of video games so much, but it just kinda creeps me out how casual you are about them. I don’t want to have to hire a mystic when you suddenly get spirited away by… oni… *meep*” Katsumi blushed bright and her voice rose in tone. She squirmed a little. “But, I’m glad you liked it. I’m gonna go watch TV again.”

Nathan held a hand close to himself with the other near his hair and watched as Katsumi slowly morphed into a cute girl. He watched as she ducked behind the wall again. Then, she bounced back. All she said was “Braids!!” But that was enough to hold Nathan in line. He didn’t even seem aware that he’d begun fingering his braids, but he dropped his hand like he’d touched a hot plate.

I was particularly amused. It seems like there was more to this girl than the posturings of a feudal lord. I went back to sipping the udon and endeavored to explain the concept of the ‘Real World’ to Ms. Ishida.

I stammered a lot. Then, I scratched my head. Eventually, I put it like this:

“The colors in this world are diverse, but their composition is different where I come from.”

I found myself staring at my hand while I flexed it like a crab claw. Were things really all that different in composition? Certain items and aspects of people seemed quite a bit different, while the sheen of the wooden floor looked perfectly how I’d expect it to be back in our world. I held onto a silent moment and the only thing I could finish with was, “The composition is different.” Perhaps I had a photo in my pocket? No, but even then, with how completely we had changed, how did I know that a photograph wouldn’t just alter to fit into this world?

Ms. Ishida listened sympathetically, stirred her curry again, and ate. “I… See.” It seemed like she was being kind. I wouldn’t have bought my argument either. We were interrupted by the front door sliding open in the background. Animated whistling filtered in, along with the half-remembered chanting of what sounded like a J-pop song. A form darted into the room with a bag of items under one arm.

“ISHIDA-SAN! We are baaaaaa…ACK!” Apparently, the presence of guys in the room got people every time. Her eyes darted over to us in surprise. Alarm filled her face, and she did what seemed to be a few tentative kung-fu maneuvers before looking over at Ms. Ishida, who smiled back. That seemed to be enough to cause her to crack a smile too.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know we had company. Welcome to Mecchen House. My name is Yamamoto Miki. And I’m just as tough as that sounds. Friend or foe, all will remember my name. My figures are 12.9, 62.2, and 294.44.” She folded her arms proudly.

What on Earth sort of numbers were those? They certainly weren’t Miki’s body, unless she was secretly a very thick-bottomed tree. I looked at Ms. Ishida. She elaborated, "Those are Miki’s time results in the 100-meter dash, the 400-meter dash, and the 1600-meter run.”

Miki tossed her hair with an arm and let her bag drop to the floor. “But, of course. Best in the history of Azako High School, naturally.” She seemed to take after Katsumi. The air of overconfidence. The look to her smile. The way she folded her arms. Her hair was an arrow pointed skyward like a missile prepared to fire. It matched her deep, brown eyes.

Her body was small, like Katsumi’s too, but she had more chest to speak of. She was wearing the same color gym shorts as Katsumi. Her top was blue with lavender stripes like they put on racing vehicles. Her arms and legs looked slender but refined. I certainly didn’t find her intimidating. So long as she didn’t hassle Nathan like Katsumi, I could stand this annoying-girl variant.

But she had to test her luck with me. Her eyes went wide, looking past me.

“It’s a challenger! Geez! Look at those muscles. Do you wrestle? You can see the veins!” She darted over to Nathan’s side, and I already had a response poking its way out of my mouth.

“Nathan doesn’t have time for any more silly games.” That did come out a bit presumptuous though.

She glanced over at me. “Oh. Games? I was just thinking something like a race, but mostly I wanted to say hi. You’re one of the few guys I’ve seen who looks like a worthy challenger, if you’d like to spar that is. It’s cool though.” The girl gave a little bow. Katsumi had some submissive traits as well, so I kept my guard up. Were they gonna put Nathan in pink gym shorts next? A sports bra? Who knew with these girls. They made me feel suspicious, concerned that they might try to make us one of them.

Ms. Ishida seemed trustworthy and compassionate. Thus far, she hadn’t tried to do anything crazy. Nana seemed too wrapped up in her own little worlds to take much of an interest in us. Ami might give us trouble, but Jamie seemed unconcerned, except about Ami’s living habits, so I couldn’t help but follow suit. Still, that left half of this house’s inhabitants unseen.

As for Miki and Katsumi, I had to keep my guard up.