A/N: Apologies for the broken original version of this, a kindly reader alerted me about it. So for those of you waiting for this, here's the real first chapter!
When Gerry's body began to regain sensation, the first thing he was aware of was the stinging on his face. Eyes still closed his hand reached up to touch it, only to be met with a cotton bandage taped in place. What did he get up to yesterday? His hand swung to the side to reach for his cellphone on the nightstand, but it was just met with a hardwood surface. Something was out of place.
His eyelids peeled open and once his vision cleared he was greeted with unfamiliarity. This were not the sterile white ceiling he woke up to every morning, but it also wasn't any place he had seen before either. Nowhere he knew of had a wooden roof, it wasn't a common thing people could afford around where he lived. Using index finger and thumb to rub his eyes he slowly leaned up and at the same time swung his legs outward to the side of the bed.
Except instead he just slammed his heels against the floor. Why was he sleeping on the floor, and how was it that comfortable? Gerry's body wouldn't let him sleep just anywhere, if it the firmness to softness ratio wasn't just right he would toss and turn for hours at night. Taking a glance behind he saw that he'd been sleeping on what appeared to be a futon, and a very luxurious one at that.
All right, now it was just getting bizarre. Was one of his roommates playing a strange, elaborate prank on him? Looking down at his clothes he saw they weren't even his, though he wouldn't mind given it was a silk robe with a vibrant floral pattern. It felt nice against his skin, but he was too concerned about his whereabouts to think of such things.
Continuing to look around he noticed that other than the lavish bed it was fairly empty. A table sat against the wall with numerous potted flowers on it and a kotatsu, but other than that it was plain. Gerry scratched his head before standing up, still sore from whatever went along with injuring his face. Turning on his heels he meandered over to the door, which was a traditional sliding door he noticed, and moved to open it. Just as he did, however it started to shift from the other side.
Not prepared to meet whoever it was on the other side, Gerry stumbled backwards in a hurry and ended up falling onto the futon that helped cushion the blow, unfortunately he still winced from pain seeing as there was a lot of falling in his life lately. Why couldn't it be a normal bed he could hide underneath?
His panicked expression then met with a plump middle-aged woman whose smile could melt the coldest of hearts. She gasped in surprise when she saw that not only was Gerry awake, but staring at her like a cornered rat.
"Oh deary me, you're awake! I'm sorry to have startled you, I assumed with that goose egg you've got you'd have been out for a while." She explained kindly as she came into the room carrying a cloth bag.
"Goose egg, what are you talk-," as he spoke Gerry reached a hand up to rub the other side of his head only to wince at the touch. "Oh, that one." He muttered.
"Let me tend to your bandage, my name is Kushi by the way," she mentioned to him sweetly as she delicately peeled the current bandage off his face and began patting the area down with a wet rag.
"Pleasure to meet you Ms. Kushi, I'm Gerwald. Do you mind telling me where I am?" He inquired with impatient eyes, appreciative of her kindness but not fond of the mystery.
"The master of the house brought you here, you were out cold and we didn't know where your home was. This is Master Yamamoto's estate," she answered him happily as she hummed along to her work.
Like that was much help, he didn't know any Yamamoto's, especially not any rich enough to afford a place like this. He resorted to being quiet while she finished placing a new bandage on his face.
"If you ask nicely, Master Yamamoto would probably let you live here too. That is if you don't have a home to go to," she broke the silence while tying up her bag of medical supplies.
"I'm sorry, what was that?" Surely Gerry didn't hear her correctly, because if he did then this woman was as off her rocker as he was beginning to suspect.
The woman stood up without a word and bowed politely after she did so. As she approached the door she paused as if to say something. She must have changed her mind as she shook her head to herself and made to open the door.
"Feel free to leave this room, I believe someone is preparing breakfast right now. The Master is out but he should be home before long." Then she nodded, more to herself than to Gerry most likely and left him alone.
Nice lady or not, that whole encounter was just strange. Who just tells someone they should try to live in a strange home? And since when was indentured servitude in popular practice? Gerry got more questions than answers from speaking from the old lady, and frankly at this point he was just irritated.
When you see an injured person, you should take them to a hospital! Or at the very least call an ambulance. As these thoughts bombarded his mind, it also begged to wonder, how did he get injured in the first place? Most importantly, did he make it to his test yesterday? Assuming he'd only been asleep for a day, how was he to know?
Hurriedly he stood up and marched to the door, slid it open, and stepped out into the hallway. He nearly slipped when his socked feet touched on the smooth hardwood, but managed to regain his composure. Gerry had had his fill of falling for a lifetime. He used his nose to lead himself to an occupied kitchen.
An older gentleman kneeled on one of the mats around a very long table in the adjacent room the kitchen opened to. A younger male who looked just a bit older that Gerry himself stood next to a hearth that held a pot of rice porridge, and place around it were skewered fish. At the same time as himself a young woman and child came and kneeled at the table as well. She was the first to see him completely gawking in the doorway, and in hindsight he probably seemed rather rude.
"Oh! Our guest has awoken!" Her loud, optimistic voice startled Gerry, and before he had time to calm down he had three more sets of eyes upon him with varying levels of enthusiasm. The old mad offered a brief glance before going back to his porridge and reading what looked liked a piece of parchment. The child hid behind the young woman, occasionally offering nervous peeks at him before hiding himself again when they would make eye contact. The man over the cooking, however, just looked at him with pure disdain. It was so chilling in fact that it sent a shiver up his spine.
Despite all the reactions the girl rushed to stand up and walk over to him and clasp one of his hands to start dragging him towards the table. Unable to fight anything with the man staring at him, Gerry just obliged the woman and kneeled on the mat beside her. It was a much more uncomfortable act than one would assume, for him anyway.
"Welcome to our home, honored guest! I'm Ami, and this little one behind me is Yui," as she introduced the child Yui waved a little bit at Gerry, and he offered her a small smile in return. "What's your name? If that's okay for me to ask, sorry was that rude of me?" She tripped and faltered over her words, but her offer seemed much more endearing than Kushi from before.
"I'm Gerwald, and no it's fine!" He held his hands up in a soothing gesture, not wanting to do anything that might upset this kind girl that's approached him. In his day to day life he never met people this kind, hell his family wasn't even this considerate.
"So, em, Ami right? Can you tell me where it is I am exactly?" Hopefully Ami would be less cryptic than vague hinting old lady was. As he asked this question the man walked over with several bowls of porridge. One for the two girls, Gerry, and the man himself. He took his further down the table resorted to eating in lone silence.
"This is Lord Yamamoto's estate, isn't it such a lovely home? Yui and I have been living here for a couple of years now and I swear I find a new room at least once a week!" She was quite the chatty person, and while he did enjoy her exuberance she was still no more help than before. Did these people also not know where they were, was everyone here a prisoner of this crazy Yamamoto they all spoke of? They spoke of his name with honorifics, but how truthful was it?
"Sorry I missed breakfast this morning everyone, I had some things to att-oh! You're awake now!" Gerry turned to see the person behind the voice, wondering who else was living in this house and was shocked to see he could be awake.
Oh! He knew this man, this was the guy he bumped into on the bridge yesterday. He was wearing the same suit and still had the same smile on his face. Just as Gerry's face was about to twist up to demand to understand his whereabouts, he saw all of the people around him bowing their heads to the floor.
"Welcome home, Lord Yamamoto!" Everyone chimed in together, and as they did Gerry's jaw dropped a little. This guy, not much older than him, was the lord of an estate? Though after this morning, nothing should surprise him anymore.
