Meanwhile, In The Real World

Mirror World Kingo (who is in love with his world's Madoka) has bumped into Real World Madoka (Who is in love with Real World Kingo) and these two love obsessed Tsunderes immediately declared their love for each other, asked the other to marry them, accepted, and are currently making plans to have about twenty babies. They cannot stand to be more than five feet apart from each other for more than a few seconds. Everyone around them is boggled beyond measure, but any attempt to talk some reason into them is risky at best.

 

Back to the story.

 

---

 

Eventually everyone settled down.

 

Ichikawa wiped her eyes as she sniffled, "Sorry. It's just... I was happy and sad and... and..." She blew her nose into a tissue from a box Haruo offered her.

Harou had been surprised to discover it in his apartment in the first place, "I honestly never bought a box of tissues in my life. I'm surprised I had any." He commented in an almost apologetic fashion.

Toshi smirked, "Nobody is going to hold it against you."

Kingo pointed a finger towards Haruo, "This time."

Ichikawa frowned, "What's wrong with him having tissues?"

Toshi turned to Ichikawa, "We're just kidding. You okay?"

She nodded and wadded up the used tissues, "I feel stupid. Sorry. I just..." Her voice trailed off into silence which dragged on for a while until someone else spoke up. 

"It's okay." Haruo said softly, "You've had a rough time." He looked around, "I think we've all had a rough time." He turned back to Ichikawa, "You can let your guard down here." 

Muttering under his breath, Kingo commented, "But not too much." While giving Toshi a sideways glance.

Ichikawa caught this and narrowed her eyes, "Something wrong?"

Toshi returned Kingo's glance with a glare, then rolled his eyes. Haruo looked from one to the other, then admonished Kingo, "Hey. Drop it."

Kingo leaned back in his chair, rapped his knuckles on the table a few times, then straightened up, "Actually. No. She should know."

Ichikawa looked around, "Know what?"

Kingo hooked a thumb at Toshi, "He might be a rapist."

Facepalming, Toshi just shook his head, "We don't know if we come from the same Earth. You only have heresay as to what happened. For all you know that was just a set up to make the Kimoto family look bad!" He spread his hands wide, "I mean it looks like the attack on me HERE was a set up, why not on that side?" He tapped his chest, "Furthermore, I wouldn't do that!"

Ichikawa pushed her chair away slightly from everyone, "What are you talking about?"

Kingo looked at her, "I know that mack in the real world, that version of him-" He hooked a thumb at Toshi, "Died from an allergic reaction to Rohypnol that he tried to give some girl." He paused, "Or... this version of him. Before he flipped." He scratched his head, "This is giving me a headache."

Toshi threw his hands up in the air, "So you were TOLD! You don't know!" His face turned red with anger, "If I wanted to have sex with someone, I could have done it last night! But instead of being a rapist, I was the one who was tied up on his knees in someone's bedroom!" He rolled his hand in the air, "If I'm the bad guy, shouldn't it be the other way around?"

Everyone stared at Toshi in stunned silence.

Toshi froze as he realized what he said, "Uh..." He gave off a soft nervous chuckle then rubbed the back of his neck.

Haruo hopped off the counter, "Whoa whoa whoa... what the fuck happened?"

Toshi rubbed the bridge of his nose, "It's settled. Just drop it."

Kingo's eyes started darting from side to side as he thought. Abruptly he said, "Wait a minute. I heard you were going out with Mieko on a date this-"

Toshi stood up so fast his chair fell over as he grabbed Kingo by the collar. He pulled his other hand back in a fist as he growled, "If you say anything to ANYONE I promise I will fucking end you!"

Harou jumped Toshi from behind, pulling his arm back, "WHOA! HOLD IT! HOLD ON!"

Toshi stumbled back as Kingo stood up to get some distance and bring up his hands in a defensive stance. Ichikawa jumped into the middle, holding her hands up to both of them, "Stop!" Everyone froze. She looked from one to the other, then settled on Toshi, "What happened?"

Toshi scowled, then abruptly pulled his arm away from Haruo. He walked off a few steps running his fingers through his hair. He stopped at the doorway to the bathroom and stared into it while everyone else relaxed, "The date went fine. I dropped her off and saw where she lived and said, 'Oh. you live in a Shinto shrine?'" He glanced back, "Her family owns one."

Toshi turned away and leaned against the doorframe, "She lives in her own... house. I guess that's the word for it. We were just talking. We went inside and she went into the bathroom to take some... I dunno. Medication or something." He turned around to look at everyone and spoke as if he was pleading, "It was her sisters! They fucked with her meds!" He put a finger to the side of his head like a gun, "Put something in it and she lost her mind!" He ran his fingers through his hair again, rubbing the back of his neck, "She couldn't help herself."

Both Kingo and Haruo just stared in silence. Ichikawa slowly walked closer, as if she was approaching a scared animal, "Couldn't help... what?"

Toshi stepped away, holding up his hands out flat to her in a defensive gesture, "Nothing! It was nothing! Okay!" He turned away and tried to put some distance from everyone, but that wasn't possible in the tiny apartment. He wound up staring at a wall for a moment before turning around, "She had some sort of fucked up allergic reaction." He pantomimed scratching himself, "Clawing up her skin and..." He lowered his voice, "She stripped... naked."

Haruo's eyebrows arced up high on his forehead. Kingo just looked confused. Toshi stepped up towards Kingo, "Oh don't give me that look! She took me off guard, okay? If I had been ready she wouldn't have got the drop on me! I could have taken her in a fair fight!" Kingo just backed up a step and held his hands flat towards Toshi in a gesture of surrender. Toshi stared at him for a moment then backed off, "I'm tougher than I look. I could have taken her..." He rubbed the back of his neck, "She saved my life. I didn't want to hurt her. I was pulling my punches." His voice had a tone to it that sounded like he didn't believe what he was saying, while at the same time trying to convince himself that he spoke the truth.

Nobody said a word.

Toshi paced like a wild animal trapped in a cage while muttering to himself, "Wasn't her fault! She was drugged out of her mind. Yes, she tied me up and started to cut off my clothes..." He started to talk with his hands, stabbing at the air to punctuate his words, "But she didn't finish!" He looked up, "She came to her senses. She stopped, so... it's fine! Right?" He pointed at his crotch, "My pants never came off! So... nothing happened! Right?" Everyone else remained silent as Toshi resumed pacing and muttering, "Nothing... important happened. Nothing I didn't... choose to do. I... She... needed help." He started to nod, "She needed help. You have to help someone who is hurting. Right?" He stopped dead, staring at nothing, "I made the right call." He made a fist with one hand, and repeatedly hammered it into the palm of his other hand, "I didn't do anything wrong."

"That's right."

Toshi looked up. Ichikawa was standing next to him and smiling in a reassuring fashion, "You didn't do anything wrong."

Toshi blinked at her. She gently put a hand on his arm, "You made the right call." Toshi stared at her as he talked. It was as if he was talking PAST her, not quite hearing what she was saying, "You have no idea how fucked up her family is." He started to rub his eyebrow with a trembling hand, "Fuck, It's my fault. I was just joking around and I pissed them off! I provoked them! They never would have fucked with her like this if I hadn't-"

Ichikawa cut him off, "NO." Toshi stopped talking s he refocused on her. She continued in a soft voice, "You didn't do anything wrong." She gently took his hand, "You aren't the one to blame."

Toshi abruptly pulled away. He stared at her for several seconds before turning to Kingo, "You have no idea how screwed she is. You cannot talk about this at school!" He walked up to Kingo causing him to retreat a step. Toshi noticed this and stopped a few steps away. Toshi continued, but it was more begging, then talking, "My sister would kill her. It would ruin her life and Mieko isn't to blame!" He swept his arms to the side, gesturing towards the window, "When she finally recovered, she felt so guilty. She wanted to turn herself in! If she had intended to hurt me..." Toshi stood there, trying to think of  what to say. He held his hands as if he could physically manipulate the thoughts in his mind with his hands, "She can't report this to the police. That's what her sisters want. She a victim too."

 

Toshi tapped his chest again, as if the very act made his words more true, "And I'm fine."

 

Kingo swallowed deeply for his mouth had gone dry, "No." Toshi was taken off guard at his bullshit being so blatantly called out to his face, Kingo rubbed his mouth for a moment before finishing his thought, "You're not fine. But..." He took a deep breath, "I won't talk about... this. You have my word."

Toshi laughed and backed up, "What?" He thumped his chest even harder, "I'm fit as a fiddle!" He looked around at the other two witnesses in the room, "I'm fine!" He laughed again with a tone that smothered in denial, "I mean it! Seriously. I'm fine." He turned away to avoid direct eye contact as he tried to compose himself. 

Kingo spoke softly, "I'm sorry."

Toshi snapped his head to look at him, "For what?"

Kingo looked distraught, as if he was realizing a new reality. Up until now, getting stuck here was weird, strange even, but it wasn't dangerous. He didn't think that perhaps it was possible for this world to wear you down. He just assumed he could push through all this, but witnessing Toshi having what was some sort of crisis made it quite clear to him that this world could break you, if you were not careful, "For accusing you. It doesn't matter what you did back in the real world. I'm... letting my feelings for Naora get in the way. You... the you here, whoever you are, is nothing like that guy." He slowly shook his head, "The Toshi I heard about and the Toshi before me, as far as I can see, are two different people."

Toshi paced from side to side, turning this way and that as he covered his mouth with one hand to rub before speaking, "Well. I'm glad you finally figure it out." He stared at the ground, trying to find some solace in this unexpected victory, "Look. I really don't want to talk about this, Okay? Can we drop this, because I wanted to talk about normal stuff not all this crazy shit in my life."

Haruo leaned closer to Ichikawa and stage whispered, "Naora is the girl they are both in love with." She turned to look at Haruo with wide eyes, then back at the other two.

Kingo gestured towards Toshi, "We have a gentleman's agreement. We're going to leave it up to her to decide which one of us she wants and try to be civil with each other."

Toshi jogged his head towards Kingo as he looked at Ichikawa, "What he said."

Haruo clapped his hands together. Everyone looked at him. He looked around, "I miss the music. All the music here is weird, right?" He smiled as he tried to change the subject, "It's like two thirds of the music is something I never heard before and the other third was recorded by a different artist."

Toshi stared at Haruo, then nodded, "Yeah, actually." He snorted lightly, "You know what's weird? I don't have any skill at music back in the real world, but since I got here, I seem to have picked up all the skills this Toshi had... when it comes to music, at least."

Ichikawa looked interested, "Really?"

Toshi nodded as he fished out his phone, "In fact, here. I have some songs I... well... I guess you'd call them covers of songs from our world. This Toshi has whole set up in his room for recording and remixing and doing virtual instruments, It's quite impressive." He started scrolling with his phone, "Here." With a swipe of his finger, the phone started playing songs from their world, but obviously sung by Toshi.

 

 

 

Given how tense everything had gotten, everyone welcomed the break and listened to the music in silence.