Apartment 107 was, on the surface, not what one would consider a cozy place. It was hidden away in a maze of concrete. It didn't have a single window. Being lit by artificial light at all times gave it an uncomfortable sense of disconnection from time. Although it was well furnished, the structure itself was very Spartan, with concrete walls and exposed pipes on the ceiling. It was quiet there for most of the day. This was part of the reason all of its residents enjoyed mealtime so much. The delicious smells and surge in activity helped give it a sense of home.
"So, how was everyone's day?" Asked Seto, filling his plate with food. After a long day on the job, nobody would begrudge him the extra calories.
"It was really good." Said Marie. Her plate barely held any food. From anyone else, this would have been worrisome. "Kido and I went to the used book store."
"You can take as much as you want, Marie." Kido said, looking at the lanky figure still sleeping on their couch. "Looks like I made a lot more than we need."
"What about you, Kano?" Seto asked.
"Let me guess," Kido said dryly, "you wandered off to some dark corner of the city and did nothing all day?"
Kano's answer was to give his usual coy smile while chewing a mouthful of pork.
"Of course."
"What about you?" Seto asked, turning to the last member of their group. "You've got an awful lot going on, don't you?"
Takane looked up from the sparse food on her plate. "I'm doing my next stream tomorrow. I've got some no-name shooter lined up for it. Konoha and I practiced it today."
"You did, really? Is he any good?" Seto asked earnestly.
"Well, not yet, but he'll remember it all soon." Takane glanced at one of the end tables. It had an unopened box of drawing pencils on it, covered in a thin layer of dust.
"Well, that's certainly good to hear." Kano said, "But tell us, what about your other project?"
"Yeah. How's he doing?" Seto asked.
"He needs more time." Takane replied, abruptly looking away. "He'll probably never be ready, really."
"Really?" Kido asked, her annoyance obvious. "You keep saying that. Why not? What are you waiting for?"
"He's not changing. He's never going to change. He's just going to make everything worse."
"Takane, you can't really mean that. " Seto said. "You keep trying. You have to think it's going to work, right?"
"I'm not doing it because I want to! I don't have any choice!"
"Don't worry, Takane. I believe you." Kano said.
"Really now?"
"Of course. I think that you really feel like you don't have any choice but to help him." Takane stared, waiting for the other shoe to fall. "It's really obvious how you feel about him after all."
"You want to know how I feel about him?" Takane said indignantly. "I don't ever want to see his face again!"
Kano smiled, looking as confident as ever. "I know. You complain about him all the time. But it isn't the first time you've had a boy get on your nerves this much, is it?"
Takane glared at him for a moment. Then she went back to her dinner, making an effort to avoid eye contact with anyone else.
"We should just invite him here." Marie said. "He'd be happier with us."
"Why do you say that?" Takane asked. Her voice was calm and gentle. She could never bring herself to raise her voice to Marie.
"Because I know what it's like to be alone."
"He's not alone. He's got his mom, and sister, and-"
"You?" Marie asked.
"Not exactly."
"Takane, please."
Takane sighed. "I'll check in tonight. Okay?"
Marie didn't say anything, but her smile showed a great deal of gratitude. Takane couldn't help but smile back.
SCENE
"Ene?" Shintaro said. He worked his jaw, trying to get more words out, but his brain, trying futilely to comprehend the jumble of characters in front of him, was having trouble picking between the two questions he wanted to ask.
"Yes, Master?"
"Why?" was what he eventually settled on.
"Well, you and that other guy were arguing earlier, remember?"
Shintaro thought back to earlier that evening. He had once again been discussing an anime online. Like many shows, it tried to use a foreign language in a few places to add some flavor. Like many shows that attempted this, it got it wrong. When someone else had praised the show's botched attempt at German, Shintaro had taken the time to carefully explain all the mistakes the show had made, in a matter that he felt was exactly as polite as the situation warranted. It wasn't his fault that the other person simply refused to admit that Shintaro was right. The ensuing argument, and its not-so-gradual transition to an exchange of puerile insults, was definitely not Shintaro's fault. At all. Totally.
"I… remember that."
"Well, I was really surprised. I never knew you knew German so well. So I figured, maybe you'd want to use that more."
"So you put some language filter on my computer?"
"I made it myself!"
"In a few hours?" Shintaro asked in disbelief. Ene's skill with computers was honestly impressive, but he wished he could see it turned on someone else once in a while.
"Well, I'm not a hundred percent sure that it's completely right. I can't help it if Japanese is different from every other language on earth. But it should be pretty accurate."
"How did you even know enough to do this?" It wasn't that he wanted to know what she had to say, but the alternative was to keep trying to read the now-incomprehensible text.
"I did some travelling before I settled down with you. I picked up a lot." She had learned a little about other languages back when she had her body. She was far from fluent in anything but Japanese, but she had learned some English, Chinese, Russian, and Portugese. Mainly things to yell at players in other countries who were getting on her nerves.
She didn't know a single word of German, but Shintaro didn't need to know that.
Shintaro knitted his brow. 'Settled down'?
Ene suddenly perked up and started staring at seemingly nothing. "Ene, what's going on?"
"Oh, sorry. I've got to go now. See you later." She hastily excused herself, and flew off the screen. She found an out of the way place in the system files of Shintaro's computer. She closed her eyes and turned her thoughts inward. The random flashes of light grew brighter, before coalescing into the image of a room. It was plain and unfurnished, except for the occupied chair on the other side.
"Hello, Ene." The other occupant greeted her curtly.
"Hello, Takane." Ene replied.
"I'm talking to you because-"
"You'll be pleased to hear that nothing's changed with Shintaro since the last time you asked." Ene said, her usual cheer mixed with a note of anger. "How about you tell me why you're really here?"
"I told Marie I would."
"You knew the answer at dinner. Why not just tell her?"
Takane continued to give her an annoyed glare.
"C'mon, why go through all of this? Don't you think it's weird talking to yourself?"
"You're not me."
"Uhh, yeah. I kind of am. We share everything that goes on in our head. You just don't want to admit it."
"If you know everything that's going on in my head, why do you keep asking me questions?"
"Well, you know how much I love playing with people." Ene punctuated the statement with a broad grin. "Because you need to say it" flashed through Takane's consciousness. She ignored it. "Besides, if I weren't you, who would I be?"
"You're the thing that came back with me from the Daze. The thing that gave me these." Takane pointed to her eyes. For the other members of the Mekakushi-dan, their eyes turned red only when they used their powers. For Takane, her eyes had simply turned red and never turned back. "The Splitting Eyes Snake."
"You really don't think that I'm you?"
"Yes."
"So, you don't care what I do?"
"No."
"Alright. As soon as we're done here, I'm ordering a box of chocolates for Shintaro. And I'm sending this letter with it."
Takane flinched as the image of the most sappy, overwrought love letter ever conceived flashed through her mind.
"No way in hell I'm letting you do that!"
"Why not? You just said you don't care what I did."
Because it's way too embarrassing. "Don't you think it's mean to Shintaro?"
"Not really. It's not any worse than what I usually do."
"Don't you think it's wrong to lie to him like that?"
Ene didn't say anything. She looked down and gave a small smile. Takane swore she could see a faint blush on Ene's cheeks.
"You're not lying, are you?" Takane said, looking at Ene the way she would look at an oncoming train. "You're completely serious!"
"Yeah, I am. Do you think he'd like flowers, too?"
"No."
"Flowers it is, then."
"Why?"
"Because I always mess with him? In case you haven't noticed, that's a big part of our relationship."
"You like him. Why? How?"
"He makes me laugh. Sometimes, he even does it on purpose."
Takane's glare told Ene that was not the answer she wanted.
"He's more than just the jerk we knew back in high school. He is intelligent, he is creative, and he does care about people. He's just awful at showing it. Like us!"
"You really think you understand him?" Takane asked, clenching her fists.
"Yeah, I do. Shintaro doesn't know himself as well as we know him."
"Stop acting like you know everything! Do you have any idea how arrogant you sound? You don't get to control his life." Or mine, she thought to herself.
"What life? He's just wasting away in there. We can't just ignore that."
"Then find somebody else."
Takane flinched as an idea flashed through their shared consciousness. Ene rubbed her chin in mock contemplation. "That is the interesting thing about this situation: I don't actually need your approval." And with that, the whole "room" melted away, and Ene was once again in Shintaro's computer.
She glanced out the screen, and saw a very frustrated-looking Shintaro. "Okay, I'm calling bullshit on this being anything but gibberish. Seriously, what kind of language would have a sentence like 'Druk drie keer op dezelfde knop'?"
"Aww, you caught me. Guess I'll have to uninstall it now."
"What are you up to now?"
"Trust me, Master." She said with unusual gravity. "You're going to love this."
Author's Note: I wanted to do something for August 15, so I decided to dust off an old, half-finished story and post it. Though I guess this story isn't done yet. I'm sorry I haven't been posting more, but my life has changed quite a bit in the last year. I don't seem to have as much time for writing. Still, I've never liked leaving something unfinished. And yes, I'm using "Marie" instead of "Marry".