Chapter 13 - The Dreams of Mecchen House (cont.)

That certainly was more eloquent than what I expected to hear from Tara, as well as vague. It sounded almost like something Nana would say. I asked what she meant.

She explained thusly, “I don’t know her too well, but Nana moves quietly. She watches. She only speaks when she’s really got something to say. She likes Queen Akara because I think she wants to be like that quiet whisper that helps others. I feel Nana has a really sad place deep in her heart that I wish I could help. I wish that someday she can laugh with a full voice.” Tara sat up and was stoic for a moment, then chuckled and rubbed her hair, amending, “But I don’t know her too well.”

I nodded to Tara and let her get back to her play. Ami’s eyebrows rose. She coughed when I looked at her and said, “Umm… It’s nothing.” She set a couple of magazines aside in a pile but kept her eyes on Tara. I figured Ami wasn’t used to seeing a more serious side to Tara. I had to admit it was an interesting moment.

I mused on Tara’s reflection and thought back to when I first met Nana and the cryptic whisper when she uttered a series of colors. I could only remember emerald, crimson, and azure. If only I’d listened closer. Her touch reminded me of a whisper too. And that statement on the steps was a whisper as well. The air even whispered to me once. I could easily see Tara’s comparison but I still had no idea what it meant for Nana and for me.

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Ami gave a thinly-veiled yawn which brought small shimmers to the sides of her eyes. She flexed her neck one way, then the other, and said, “I thank you all for helping. It’s getting better, but it’s also getting late, and I need to get ready to wind down and prep for class tomorrow.”

We hadn’t made much of a dent, but at least it was progress. Nathan and Tara left first. Tara said she had another outfit she wanted to show Nathan. I suspected that meant I would find Nathan in another dress very shortly. I said my goodnights to Ami and made my way to Jamie’s room. His work on the room was rough, but exceptional for him. He was looking through a series of magazines.

“Anything good?” I leaned over.

He looked up and set the magazines aside. “Not really. How’d things go? Less of a disaster?”

I shrugged. “We made some definite progress.” I explained how the cleaning group split up.

Jamie leaned against a wall. “Show an outfit? Alright. So, what’s up with you?”

I really had no idea where to begin with untangling this mess of every thought I’d wrapped around my mind like a tightly-wound ball of string. I couldn’t even find an end to pull on.

So, I began with, “It’s complex. Tell me what happened with you and Miki earlier.”

Jamie looked annoyed. “She talked for a long time about a bunch of stuff.” That sure sounded like a lazy summary.

“About?”

He counted on his fingers. “Girl stuff. Clothing stuff. Emotion stuff. You know. All that. It’s over though.”

“Really? It helped with how you feel about being here?”

He shrugged this time. “I guess. I don’t think I’ll go running off. It’s not gonna fix anything, and I’m pretty worn out anyway. It stinks that I have to use this weird voice when I want to talk. At least Miki made my hair less of a pain, but it’s offset by how I have to keep all this hair restrained. Oh, she told me about that too, how to do the pins for myself, so it keeps the hair out of my eyes. I still don’t get how you got off with short hair. If this world is responsible, then it’s just as unfair as our old world. It better not make me next to change, otherwise, I’m gonna…”

He trailed off and sighed. “So, do I get to ask questions now?”

I encouraged Jamie to ask whatever questions he had for me in return. His first was, “So, what the heck really happened between you, that weirdo girl, and the other weirdo girl?”

Since Ami was a couple rooms over, I told him, “Katsumi said her usual stuff about wanting to see me change into a girl and if I’d changed any more. Nina though was kinda mysterious. She offered no real answer to what Katsumi said. She told me two important things. First, Ami is being followed by a dangerous spirit and the best way to help is to clean Ami’s room. With what I experienced in her room, I was willing to give it a try.”

Naturally, Jamie then asked what happened. I told him about the dark, the feelings, and what Ami said. He chuckled and asked, “You trying to fool me?”

“Hardly", I assured him.

“You realize I don’t believe any of this mystical junk for a second.”

I coughed. “We’re slowly changing gender in a parallel universe which looks like the most detailed anime I’ve ever seen, and yet you dismiss things which have no scientific explanation.”

“I’m not allowed my opinions? I just don’t believe in ghosts or demons or any of that junk. Us changing and such nonsense doesn’t compare.”

At least Jamie wasn’t yelling, so I decided to leave it be with, “Still, the experience made me feel I had to do what I could to help Ami.”

He snorted, which came out more like a squeak with his voice. “So, what’s the second thing?”

“Nina also said, when I flippantly asked her for something definite, ‘I'm sure you'll be a pretty girl.’”

Jamie folded his arms. “Considering she’s Katsumi’s friend, why should that be surprising?”

“It makes me suspicious.”

He leaned forward sharply. The pins and clip held well. “That makes you suspicious? Let’s look at things in proportion here. On the one side, we have the tower of peculiar things built around Nana. And all around is a scattering of ‘what ifs’. Face it. Focus on Nana and we’re sure to figure out what’s going on. And we can’t get anything from those books. We gotta go to the source.”

My next question was, “So, why are you here and not over wherever grilling her with questions?”

“If it really is her, like fun I’m gonna go running into the lion’s den to meet up with whatever she’s got going on. And why aren’t you?”

“I’ve been asking her questions all along. I questioned Ami and Tara to see if I could find out more about her. Soon, I’ll confront her with what I know and see if I can put together her involvement in things.”

Jamie rested his head on a hand. “So, what are you gonna do now?”

“Well, I’m gonna check around. I suppose I’ll ask whoever else I can about Nana, then I’ll start getting ready for bed. There was a sleeping outfit I considered, so I’ll probably see if that needs washing then I’ll go through the rest and wind down.”

Jamie’s head arced up. “You can actually think of falling asleep like this?”

“What other choice do we have?”

“Man. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get any sleep tonight. I keep wondering if whatever’s doing this will do a heck of a lot more. I mean, consider we’ve had like three distinct changes since we got back here at around lunchtime. That’d be like a good night of sleep. Imagine if it kept going unabated while we slept. What would we look like then?”

He was right. There was no reason why it would stop overnight. I couldn’t offer him any reassurances, so I just asked, “What can you do?”

He looked at me. “What I've been considering for a while. But if I ran, I’d have no one between me and potential dangers. For now, this is the best place out of all, despite everything. As Miki said, ‘at least it’s warm and cozy.’ But I won’t be tied to it if the need arises to get out of here for my own good. Tomorrow, we’re going to take the necessary steps towards solving this. I’m not going to let myself get trapped in a body that makes me suffer. One way or another, I won’t let it happen.”

That felt rather ominous. A memory of the sound of screeching tires echoed through my head. It wasn’t a recent memory. It was much older and felt like amorphous smoke in the shadows.

I set my jaw. “I won’t let you or anyone else take the easy way out.”

“Relax. I told you I wasn’t gonna do that again. I have little tolerance for pain anyway. But being something I’m not is painful as well. I’m just saying I figure something will have to give.” He shut his eyes a moment. That wasn’t particularly encouraging to hear either.

“I will get us home, and I will set things right.”

He sighed and muttered, “Home.” He knocked his soft feet together thrice. Nothing happened. “It’s easier in movies.” Then his eyes suddenly darted open, and he looked around as though something had touched him on the shoulder.

“What is it?”

He blew a long, slow stream of air out of his circle of a mouth and said, “I just had a weird moment there. It felt like I was back in my room. I felt the DVDs to my right and my bed and all the rest. I could feel it like sound bouncing off something.” He stood and felt through the air. “It felt as real as all the stuff you see around here.”

I looked around. Nothing had changed from a moment before. “You felt your room?”

He nodded. “Weird stuff but it was there, more than just a memory, like someone had stretched it out and distorted it and it finally shifted into a recognizable shape.”

I rubbed my head. Despite how weird it sounded, I’d also caught hints of the same sort of thing.

“What do you think it means?”

“Like I would know… Eh. It’s gone anyway. Probably like some messed up form of déjà vu or something. Oh well. It’s not a deal-breaker if this room is weird. I’ve seen the bathroom on this floor, and it is well worth it. I like to be between.”

I remembered. Jamie made a big deal of having the middle bedroom in the apartment. Nathan liked having the first one, and I went with the last one in the hall because it had a great view out the window. It must’ve been unconscious habit that we settled into the same general arrangement here. First, middle, and last. But my new room’s only view was of a flat-chested boy-hater.

Jamie cracked his colorful knuckles and said, “If there’s nothing else, my questions are satisfied, and I have stuff to deal with. I figure I might as well sift through those dumb books a little more, just in case.”

We ventured down to the first floor but parted company when Jamie picked up a couple of the books set aside and his bag. I picked up my bag and dug through the box. I found the outfit which caught my eye before easily enough.

Beyond that, I was interested in a pair of flannel pants, despite the fact they were much too small for me to wear. If I continued to change then it might fit.

I noticed a conspicuous lack of personality to the pants and jeans compared with the girliest of clothing in the box. I was glad there was something unisex for me to dress in and I didn’t have to lose money to get it.

I went inconspicuously by Reiko’s room. I didn’t hear anything out of the ordinary for studying. I clutched my overfilled bag with one arm and scurried over three flights of chestnut stairs to the top floor. I saw Mami’s door wide open. I could hear music playing through the opening. It wasn’t loud but it was loud enough to sound like pumped in Muzak. I peered through the opening.

Mami sure seemed like the sort who would live a consumerist life, so the simplicity of her room surprised me. There were no frivolous items scattered about. It wasn’t perfectly organized, but things seemed to have their place. Her music player looked nice but not expensive. Everything had a sense of someone who obsessed over coupons and discounts. It hardly seemed like the room of a girl who would bet an entire debt on winning one figurine.

She was resting on the end of the bed with her legs draped over the side and her arms above her head. The music was instrumental, and Mami hummed along with it. I made an intentionally-loud footfall, nowhere as loud as Katsumi’s but loud enough to get Mami to turn her head and glance over at me. She sat up with her legs folded under her and asked, “You need something?”

“The door was open, so I wanted to see if you were alright… since we’ll be sharing the same floor.”

The music reached a crescendo. She shrugged. “Nothing that’ll kill me, just some disappointment in myself.”

I rubbed a hand. “I can’t say much about what happened. I don’t know you very well but that seemed like an… unequal wager to make. Kinda odd too.”

“I had my reasons. Can I leave it at that?”

“Sure…”

She tapped on her feet, bowed her head, and came back with a silken smile which seemed to reignite the flame of her locks. “With that aside, I’m always open to new propositions. I’ve taken some of your finances and said a few things that… well, I’m guessing that isn’t quite as embarrassing as what is happening to the three of you now. Still, I regret the latter. Just so you know.”

She leaned on her arm nearest me and offered a conciliatory smile. I told her that it was fine. Really, with everything, I hadn’t thought much of it.

She added, “Also. I want you to know I will offer you the chance to win back your money, especially if it comes to a critical point. I’m sympathetic to those who have…monetary concerns. Not to say that it would be free…”

I looked around her room. I noticed a few, stray stuffed animals. “I appreciate that.”

“Just who I am.”

I had to wonder if she was applying some sort of strategy she’d learned from class for dealing with and manipulating people to her advantage. I set aside those concerns and went for my key questions. Since she shared a floor with Nana, I figured she might know more about her.

“Excuse me. What can you tell me about Nana?”

She leaned forward. “Are you looking for roommate general impressions or something of the deeper sort which may have a certain… value?”

“If you could start with something free, that would be better.”

Mami made a muted raspberry with her mouth. “Well. I haven’t been here for very long. Nana was the first tenant when Ms. Ishida took over Mecchen on her own. She actually kinda arrived like you guys did. Ms. Ishida was thinking about continuing things as a house for high school girls, but she was just musing on it. Then, Nana just appeared one day on her doorstep. She says that was her inspiration to go forward and reopen the place. She told me once that Nana always felt vaguely-familiar, although she could never place her. And she mentioned… uh well, as I said, she’s always been curious about her.”

Mami’s pause made me wonder and her statement made me feel guilty I hadn’t said more to Ms. Ishida about the photos I found. I made a promise to tell her the next time I saw her.

“What do you think?”

Mami stretched a leg. “I think it’s unfair how some people label Nana as a weirdo. Mostly people around school. I feel like she’s someone whose thread has been broken. You know, separated from who they care about. Alone. And that room… I don’t want to mess with it. The glow that comes from it is enough to make me shiver. We did have a business relationship for a while but it’s like she doesn’t care about money, so I couldn’t continue it. I really feel for her sometimes, you know, especially how she’s viewed by others.”

Mami pulled her legs close to her. She brushed her hair back like a nervous flame. “And it’s really hard to get a new label once someone finds one for you. All you can do is be good-natured about it and try to really play it up and burn through it.” She leaned back on her bed and let her legs slide out. She had really curved legs. Not as much as her triangular hips but they still caught my eyes. The fleshy part seemed focused on the front. It was a bit sobering to ponder that my legs weren’t vastly different from hers.    

She sat up and yawned. It was an adorable, anime yawn. “Anything else? I was just going to take my bath. Want to join me? I’ll wash your back.”

I looked at her, stunned as to what to say in response. She smiled and added. “What better way to get great photos of your change? Speaking of that, I need to go get my camera.” I wasn’t about to let myself be photographed nude in such a state, let alone any state.

I heard thundering steps across the floor. It had to be Katsumi. I saw her long-haired visage pass a moment through the door frame. She stopped and looked in.

“Oh. You two. Can I borrow a pencil, Mami?”

“Usual loan fee?”

“Fine…” She went into her room and came back with a couple of yen coins. Mami passed her a pencil in exchange. Katsumi paused to look at me. “You bathe yet?”

Mami jumped in. “We were just discussing that. He says not yet, so I proposed a group bath.”

“No. I remember the last time I bathed with you.”

“Aww… Sweet little me?” Katsumi rolled her eyes. “Not tonight, and not with any cameras of any sort. I’ve learned that lesson.”

She looked at me. “And not tonight for you either, unless your changes speed up a little. You can go ahead and take a bath. I have stuff I need to do first.” Her heavy footfalls left the room and faded away. Mami slapped her knees. “Well? Bath?”

I looked around. “Wait. Are you serious?”

“Sure! Why not? There’s a couple of towels in the closet. I’ll let you borrow one.”

I felt flush. “Because, no matter what’s happening, I’m still a boy.” Mami shrugged and pulled on her top. “You sure don’t sound like one, and you look less and less like one all the time.”

“Why would you want to?”

“Call me old-fashioned.”

“I don’t follow…”

“Well, you may come from another universe or something, but last century communal, opposite sex bathing used to be the norm here. Then things changed. Public baths became separated and, lately, even public baths have been on the decline, along with awareness of history.”

She slipped her top off with a good pull, revealing her off-white, silken bra. The waistband was creased in the back. She smoothed it out and looked to be slipping it off.

I stammered a few sounds out before she stopped and looked. “What is it?”

“I just don’t feel comfortable with this. Please.”

She slipped her hands away from her back. A smile blazed on her face. “Alright. I won’t take long. If I don’t see ya before tomorrow, sleep well.”

That was a peculiar reversal. The whole incident felt more like something Sumi would pull. I’d expect Mami to charge for co-ed bathing and a washed back.

“That’s it? I don’t understand.”

She snagged a towel and wrapped it around her shoulders. “Really? Just because Ami is the drama queen doesn’t mean she’s the only one who can act up a storm.”

I rubbed my head. This definitely put a wrinkle in things. If she was toying with me then how much could I believe of what she’d said? She squirted something on her hands and added, “You learn a lot about people when you ask them to be vulnerable or let yourself be vulnerable too. How they respond to that can tell you much about them.”

I pinched my nose and sighed. “So, you never intended to bathe with me?”

“I don’t know you that well, but I do favor communal bathing, so I’d have done it. I’ve never gotten embarrassed by bathing in groups before, so it wouldn’t bother me. Ask me again when and if your change finishes.”

I felt utterly perplexed. “If you were acting, how much of what you said to me was true?”

She tossed her hair like flames caught in a sudden breeze. “There’s more truth in what I said than you’d suspect.” She winked and waved bye to me.

[Mami]