Chapter 13: Meisuke and Joui
The Kobayashi household sat around their kitchen table, enjoying the udon Meisuke had prepared for lunch that day and desperately trying to ignore the muffled pounding and screaming coming from the other side of their front door.
"Y'know," Meisuke said, glancing at Tohru with tired, strained eyes, "Your solution wasn't particularly permanent."
With a moan that rested somewhere between a sigh and a yawn, the young woman replied, "Sure, I've known Joui for years, but I didn't know she was this stubborn! She would normally go home after she realized that there weren't any pools around here!"
Riko glared at the door with daggers in her eyes as she said, "Most people would have gone home after the first four hours of banging on the door! What is wrong with this lady!?"
A moment of relative silence passed before Meisuke finally stood up and declared, "I'm going to let her in and then we're going to have a little chat."
"NO!" Tohru cried, rising to grab onto Meisuke's arm. "She's so annoyyyyyinggggggg!"
Her eye beginning to twitch slightly, the dragoness said, "12 hours, Tohru. She's been at this for 12 hours straight. None of us have slept since she came back last night!" Gesturing at the bowls of udon, she added, "I had to make this with earmuffs on. Do you know how hot your head gets when you're wearing warm clothing near a stove!? Anyone but a dragon would've passed out from heat stroke. If we don't resolve this peaceably now, I'm going to resolve it violently soon."
Tohru perked up at this and she smiled once more as she began to speak before being cut off by Meisuke.
"I am not going to 'Sky Laser' her just because she's annoying, Miss Tohru. No matter how annoying she is."
Beginning to pout, Tohru turned away as she crossed her arms.
...
"Toooohruuuuu!" Elma whined, tears in her eyes as Meisuke sat her down on the couch. "You lied to me! Agaaaaain!"
With a roll of her eyes, Tohru said, "It's your own fault for trying to mess with my quiet, relaxed evening. A normal person would have realized that there weren't any pools near my house after taking five seconds to do an internet search. Heck, most people would have whipped their phones out and searched it the second I brought the thing up."
"Well, yeah, but..." Elma mumbled, tears still falling freely, "...it would have been rude to doubt you, and to lack courtesy is to act in bad faith..." With a shake of her head, she stood up her head and wiped her tears from her eyes as she declared, "But that's enough! You're coming back with me to clean up all the dishes you left!"
Tohru blinked in surprise before asking, "Wait... you realize there's no chance there are any dishes left from last night, right? They definitely had someone else clean them before closing up. You're trying to force me to clean up after a mess that doesn't exist anymore."
Swaying unsteadily for a moment, Elma lifted a shaky finger and replied, "That is... irrelevant, because... they probably have more-" Before she could finish her statement, however, she was cut off by the growling of her stomach. She collapsed to the floor, barely managing to raise her head as she concluded, "There's more... that you could... do..."
Pushing past Tohru to stand before the fallen woman, Meisuke rubbed her neck as she said, "Geez, you really haven't had anything to eat in ages, have you? I can't really say I'm impressed by your dedication, exactly, but I have to admit I'm surprised you managed to stand up straight for as long as you did. Doesn't mean you can forget about taking care of yourself, though." She started to pat Elma's head before adding, "Come have some lunch with us. I can't do much about the sleep thing, but I can at least give you something to eat."
Elma began to push herself into a kneeling position, wavering before finally saying, "Right now I have to focus on bringing Tohru back!" As she glanced away, however, she muttered, "But if you have something small, it wouldn't be bad, I guess... just a little is enough, though..."
With a knowing grin, the dragoness went to the kitchen before returning with a small roll of bread. As she did so, however, Tohru began to pout, griping, "Hey! You can't feed her! She's the enemy here!"
Rolling her eyes as she handed Elma the bread, Meisuke replied, "It's only some bread; not like I gave her a sword or rope or something she can cause trouble with. Plus, if you look at something so pitiful and yet feel nothing, doesn't that make you empty inside?" Her smug grin returning as Tohru turned away with a guilty blush, she amended, "Oh, but that's just my opinion, of course."
Shifting in place with discomfort as she accepted the bread, Elma glanced around with guilty eyes before digging in. As the first few crumbs lit upon her tongue, however, the guilt became delight, and she tore it apart until not even those crumbs were left. Blinking in surprise at her own enthusiasm, the young woman couldn't help but ask, "What... just what was in that bread?"
With a knowing grin, Meisuke answered, "It's regular sugar bread, but it tastes a lot better when it's homemade, huh?"
Heartily nodding in agreement, Elma rose to her feet with a confident smile. "With this inside me, I'll surely be able to defeat Tohru and bring her home!"
"Ooooor," Tohru said as she walked over with a tray of piping hot loaves, "You could take all of these, go home, and let the rest of us go have a decent nap."
"..."
...
"Goodbye!" Elma called out as she rushed down the hallway, a ziplock bag full of bread in her hands. "Don't forget to do the dishes next time, Tohru!"
"Yeah, yeah," The woman in question replied as she waved off the busybody, "whatever. Just don't come back, okay?"
...
A knocking at the door disrupted the peace of the Kobayashi apartment, commanding the attention of its caretaker. Rising from her seat on the couch and laying her magazine to the side, she muttered, "It's too early for Miss Tohru or Riko to be home, that coworker of hers hasn't come back in a few days now, and I don't think any packages are due today." Walking to check the door, she couldn't help but wonder who had come calling.
Makoto was the last person she had expected.
"Hey there, Meisuke!" The dragon greeted, smiling sheepishly at the dumbfounded housekeeper. "Sorry for dropping in without calling first. I wasn't planning to stop yet, but... well, my schedule opened up pretty unexpectedly."
Meisuke blinked in confusion before fully opening the door and ushering him into the apartment before saying, "Come have a seat and fill me in."
...
Pinching the bridge of her nose and screwing her eyes shut to assuage the fierce headache their conversation had spawned, Meisuke said, "Let me get this straight... so that sea monster that they kept ranting on the news, that was you?"
With a polite nod, Makoto replied, "Yep! I have to admit, the police were a surprise; who knew that tourists knew the Japanese emergency number?" Sheepishly scratching his cheek as he glanced away, the dragon muttered, "Those 'JSDF' people were even more of a surprise..."
Meisuke cringed at this before asking, "Why even do all this?"
"To find a home in the human world, of course!" He answered with a smile. "Whenever you talk about living here, it sounds like so much fun! How could I listen to that without wanting to try it out for myself?"
The dragoness cocked a suspicious eyebrow at this, asking, "And how much research have you done, Mr. Enthusiastic?"
"None at all!" Makoto replied without missing a beat.
"That's what I thought." Meisuke muttered before rising to her feet. "Come on, Makoto; we're going on a walk."
...
Makoto blinked in confusion, staring at the unassuming storefront before him as though waiting for it to do something. After allowing it to spend a full minute disappointing him, the dragon finally turned to Meisuke and asked, "And this place will help me find a home?"
"Sure," Meisuke replied, cocking her eyebrow as she said, "If you have your legal documents in order and money to pay for it." Allowing her head to droop with a sigh, she concluded, "...and I'm sure you don't have either."
With a shake of his head and a clueless smile, Makoto said, "Nope! I don't know what those are at all, so I probably don't have either!"
"Of cooourse not..." The dragoness hissed with a small, irritated flick of her forked tongue. Taking a moment to collect herself as she pinched the bridge of her nose, she adjusted her glasses before asking, "You didn't do any research before coming here, you've been stumbling around carelessly since you arrived, and you act like you have no idea where you want to go from here..." She paused to glare suspiciously at Makoto before saying, "Y'know, for someone who came here because it 'looked like fun', you've been pretty lacking in the 'looking into it' department..."
Smiling awkwardly as he clapped his hands together in supplication, he replied, "Sorry, Meisuke, but I wasn't exactly telling the truth when I said that." His smile losing any pretense of discomfort as it shifted to a shameless grin, he said, "Honestly, I did this because of... well, because of you, I guess."
"Do tell." The dragoness replied, crossing her arms in impatience. "And try to keep stick to the truth this time; it's hard to help someone who can't help themselves or help lying to those who can."
A noncommittal shrug was all Makoto offered to her hostility, choosing instead to address the irritant dragoness's question as he said, "Well, ever since you got here, you've gotten a lot more... open, I guess." Noticing Meisuke's sharp glare at this, he stuck his tongue out at her before continuing, "C'mon, you know how you were back home; it wasn't so much that you actively avoided others or broke the rules, it's more that you... couldn't be bothered." Pausing for a brief chuckle, the dragon continued, "Seriously, it didn't matter what rules you broke or who you annoyed if it got you just one inch closer to whatever goal or knowledge you were going for. I mean, you were a part of the chaos faction, but that was more about your whole 'I do what I want' thing than agreeing with their ideas." His face fell for a moment and his eyes grew distant as he added, "Of course, there was nothing that could stop you... even if it meant, say..."
"Killing humans." Meisuke supplied with crossed arms.
"Yes, that." He answered. His grin lost its humor as he said, "In our old world, you did anything you felt you had to do and pushed everyone away. The only people who stuck with you were the ones who demanded nothing, and that always suited you perfectly. Here, though, ever since meeting Tohru, you've been... different." Finally the last vestige of humor fell from his face and a soft, open countenance took its place as Makoto said, "Ever since meeting Tohru, you've been seeking to connect with others. Instead of just crashing around and doing what you wanted, you care about what others think. Trouble used to trail you, but now you actively hold it at bay; now, you protect others from it. Cooperation and compassion have replaced the cold you once held in your heart, and I think Tohru the cause." Glancing away from Meisuke, Makoto concluded, "...but humans don't live forever... and when she's gone, will you go back? In the world we came from, will you be who you once were?"
Meisuke pondered this for a moment before finally offering a shrug as she said, "Who knows...? Maybe I would, maybe I wouldn't. But that's not going to matter anyway." Taking a moment to stretch, pushing her arms into the heavens as far as they could go, she continued, "Miss Tohru isn't forever. I knew that since first meeting her. But I'm not going back to our world ever again. Sure, one of these days she'll leave, and I'll be sad, but... that sadness isn't the end. Not for her, and not for me; as long as I'm alive, I'll remember her... and as long as I remember her, that memory will be proof that she existed. I never could go back to our world after that, because it wouldn't be the same place anymore. What was it before I left? No idea, and I don't care to make one up. But I do know what it would be now: a world in which Tohru doesn't exist." Offering a small, certain smile, the dragoness concluded, "I could never act like that in a world where Tohru doesn't exist because all the little humans would remind me of her."
Reflecting on this for a few moments, Makoto began to nod as he said, "Well, it's decided, then."
"What is?" Meisuke asked, blinking in confusion at this sudden declaration.
With a smile, the dragon explained, "Before, I was really just here to keep an eye on you and see how you changed, but after hearing that... now, I really want to stay in this world! I want to see what humans are like if the efforts of just one was able to change you this much!" His nodding growing in fervor, he declared, "There's no way I could stand on the sidelines; I have to live with a human in this world!"
Meisuke paused for a deep breath, releasing it with a sigh as she began, "Sure, you can say that, but that doesn't mean some random human is ready to just ta-"
The dragoness ground to halt, rubbing her chin as she said, "Actually... now that I think about it, there might just be one you could get along with..."
...
"Yes, what do you..." Takeshi began as he cracked the door to his home open, trailing off as the single eye he allowed to peek through lit upon the pair waiting outside.
"Meisuke? And... yes, Takiya, wasn't it?" The dark man asked, pulling the door open inch by laborious inch before his confused expression could be just barely made out. "What has brought you to my doorstep at so early an hour?"
With a soft sigh and a few second thoughts, Meisuke replied, "It's actually about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, you know..." Shaking her head as she pushed her reservations aside, the dragoness continued, "Anyway, sorry that it's kind of sudden, but... well, Makoto here was thinking about staying here in the human world for a bit, and he didn't have a place to stay, so..." Pausing to form an awkward half-smile, she asked, "Is it alright if he lives here?"
Takeshi turned his glare to the dragon in question and began to look him up and down, the man's gaze lingering for half a moment on Makoto's horns. Finally turning away with a sound somewhere between a grunt and a groan, Takeshi muttered, "It is agreeable. Somewhat."
Blinking in surprise, Meisuke asked, "Wait, really? Just like that? Not even a bit of pushback?"
Nodding with a vague indifference as he fully opened the door to his home, the dark man said, "Loath as I am to concede Tohru was correct about this monster fad, I cannot deny that the man before me has all of the traits I value in a true butler. Knowing this, there is no method by which I could deny him such a request. He is welcome in my home."
With a smile and a nod, Makoto said, "I will be in your care from now on." Pausing to bow, the dragon followed as Takeshi led into the house.
For a moment, Meisuke tottered at the door, worried about whether or not this arrangement would work. As she did so, however, she heard voices float back down the hall.
"Ah, by the way, the game we played at the party..."
"Hm? Would you be referring to Whispering Spirits?"
"I... guess? I think so, anyway. Are there anymore like it?
"Oh yes... Many more." This final statement was followed by a malevolent cackle.
Deciding that this was her cue to leave, Meisuke couldn't help but think as she sped away that maybe these two ought to be together after all.
***End of Chapter 13***