Disclaimer: We don't own KHR at all except our ocs.
"Ouch!" Lana yelped upon landing face flat completely sprawled on what seemed to be a wooden flooring, "Not again…all I feel is pain this time though."
"Dick move, man." Vi lay flat on her back and shook her fist upwards. "So rude. Didn't even answer any of my questions. I will have my vengeance."
As Lana got up from the floor, she glanced over toward her friend only to gasp in shock from what she saw, "V-Vi."
"Hm?" Vi sat up and looked over at the other girl in surprise. "Hey, how can you see me without your glasses?"
Lana bit her lip, realizing her vision was back to how it was during the end of middle school despite needing glasses in high school due to poor habits. Unsure of how to express her words, she slowly managed out, "That isn't what I'm trying to say."
Narrowing her eyes at Lana, Vi tilted her head in confusion. "Is it just me? Or do you look...smaller?"
"It's definitely not just you, Vi." Lana gulped nervously in response to Vi, "We are definitely smaller."
"We?" Vi's eyes widened comically. "What do you mean 'we'?!"
By some mystical power, the two of them had reverted back into the preteen versions of themselves dressed in the same clothes they were wearing as adults except proportioned to fit their de-aged selves.
Lana blinked a few times in disbelief of the return of her former 20/20 vision, especially when she first saw her friend in her former middle school age. Though the phantom feeling of the glasses remained, Lana didn't stop attempting to adjust where the said article used to be. A little bit embarrassed of the action, Lana stopped herself from doing anymore. Next she proceeded to raise her hand, trying to grasp for any hair lying on her back however it was only air she grabbed explaining the missing amount making it seem as if Lana was patting her back. Of what Lana supposed, she did the same thing as before except tracing her fingers around her neck. Bingo! As expected, the hair that was once Lana's long black hair had indeed shortened to shoulder length. A luxury of relief on her back especially. Sending a glance down at her current body, Lana couldn't deny the change in height or specific body proportions which shouldn't be mentioned to a soul. Although Lana decided to confide to Vi later about it since she was also in the same situation of needing clothes for her thirteen year old self. In any case, Lana was somewhat glad that the clothes she wore as an adult had shrunk to a size more fitting.
In a panic, Vi quickly looked down at herself and found that the changes were true. Putting her hands on her head, she ran her fingers through her hair in shock. Her hair had grown from the chin length she had as an 18 year old back to the waist length she had as a 13 year old. In addition to the length, she also gained back the bangs that she had decided were a great idea upon entering middle school. She made a mental note to trim them a little or get some hair clips. Besides that, not much had changed regarding the straight and neat style. Her sight was a bit fuzzy since her contacts had disappeared during the transformation, but she had somehow obtained her old glasses. As she felt her face, she wished she could look at a mirror as her face was a little shorter than she remembered. Putting a hand on her chest, she realized that she was definitely in the body of a 13 year old. She had probably shrunk about half a head shorter and lost some muscle tone she gained in the last couple of years. She added on the the list in her head that she and Lana would need new clothes since the ones in their luggage wouldn't fit anymore.
Abruptly, while the two were reacquainting themselves with their de-aged bodies, the sound of footsteps approached the room.
A familiar face appeared before them, standing in the doorway. "U-uuhhh, hi!"
"Aren't you…" Lana blinked a few times before realizing who it was, "The person who showed me the mood ring!"
"You!" Vi lunged forward in rage.
She tackled the man to the ground as Lana screamed in the background. "It's your fault we're in this situation! Look at me! I have bangs for god's sake! Fix it!" She shook the man after each sentence.
"Eek!" screeched the man, completely overwhelmed with fear, "I-I can't! I'm only Master Checkerface's subordinate in this game!"
Huffing at the man's response, Vi reluctantly released the man and stood up, dusting herself off. "Ridiculous," she sneered at the man as he got up from the ground.
"A-anyways, there were a few more things that Checkerface wanted to pass down to you. Consider them housewarming presents. Uhhh…Let's see…" He searched his pockets until he triumphantly pulled out a small notebook from his inside jacket pocket.
"Hhmmmm, here we go! I am called Tsunomichi. You have already obtained your rings from Checkerface, but for everything else, I will be…your…care…taker?" He paused and brought the notebook closer to his face, scanning the notes again and again and again. "There must be some sort of mistake? Me? I can't take care of them! Oh dear oh my." Tsunomichi promptly fainted in shock, dropping the notebook to the floor.
"Uh…are you okay sir?" Lana waved a hand in front of his face, she kind of pitied the man's situation.
"Well shit." Vi stared at the man and then looked at Lana. "That one's not on me."
Sighing at the other girl and seeing that the man was not getting up anytime soon, Lana went over and looked at the open notebook. "Hm...From what it says here, we're effectively the owners of this house, that he kindly granted us residence in. Our rooms have been already set up with our luggage in our designated rooms. We also have an unlimited bank account for all of our spending purposes. Tsunomichi, the person who fainted, is our caretaker as well as legal guardian since we are currently of middle school age and will be attending Namimori Middle School in the Japan of this world as of next week."
"Cool so we've ended up in Japan anyhow." Vi was kneeling on the floor next to the body. One hand was inside Tsunomichi's jacket pocket, while the other was holding a plain black wallet.
Lana worriedly nudged Vi, "I don't think that's the money we were supposed to get."
"Shh, don't worry. It's free money." Vi rifled through the wallet, pocketing the bills and cards. "I'm good now. Wait, on second thought…" She knelt down again and unlaced his shoes, taking them off.
"Vi, why?" Lana just stared at Vi incredulously as she robbed the man of his things. "You can't even use the cards? Why his shoes?"
"I just like to ruin people's day, my friend." She clicked her tongue and held up a peace sign.
Lana sent a frown to Vi, "From the looks of him, it seems like we already did enough."
Turning back to the man on the ground, Lana recalled when he was in the airport. "You know what, he had a booth with a bunch of tourist trap souvenirs along with mood rings. So I tried one on, and I poofed." Lana pondered, staring at her garnet ring.
Lana glanced over Vi, waiting for her to tell her experience with Tsunomichi.
"Gachapon." Vi answered, blank faced.
"That's all that happened? Really?" Lana said incredulously, before muttering to Vi in shock. "You've been conned by this man, I can't believe he made you pay."
"It was a poorly constructed cheap piece of shit gachapon. The stupid thing just popped open and took away all the fun of opening it. The ring was inside. Oh and the guy kept sweating, it was gross creepy." Vi scrunched up her face, remembering the man's many handkerchiefs.
Lana looked grossed out. "Wow." was her only comment.
The duo looked around and found they were in some sort of living room. In the room was a sand sectional sofa, cream-colored curtains, and a tan tinted table. Sitting on top of the table were a map of the town, two keys to the house, and two copies of a black and white checkered credit card. After further inspection, each card had a different name on the front for the both of them.
The both of them each grabbed one of every item and put it away safely.
"Alright so we have everything we need, now it's time for exploration. Where do you want to go first?" Lana asked the other.
"Upstairs!" Vi yelled as she started running towards the black spiral staircase that led to her destination.
Lana shrugged her shoulders, "Couldn't we just explore on the floor we're already on? Might as well become familiar with the ground floor of this house."
"That's boring! Nothing fun is ever on the first floor!" came a voice already halfway up the stairs.
"Well…let's have a look around here…" Lana was going to move on, but then she remembered the fainted Tsunomichi. Feeling somewhat bad for the man, she got a pillow from the sofa and placed it under his head before she left to explore.
Upstairs
Vi snickered to herself as she walked up the rest of the stairs. She reached the top of the stair landing and looked around the small room if you could even call it that. The spiral staircase led to a circular area with four different unlabeled doors, a sunroof, and a set of double doors that appeared to lead to a balcony.
"Ohoho, time to see what kind of neat things are hidden around here."
She closed her eyes, spun in a circle, and chose a door at random. By chance, she happened to end up facing a light green door with a silver metal door knob.
"Alright let's find out what's behind door number one." She opened the door slowly, building as much suspense as possible. Sunlight shined through the door frame as it creaked open inch by inch.
"God bless us. It's a glorious game room." Vi silently thanked Checkerface for providing them with the room and proceeded to examine every inch of it.
There was an HD LED flat screen tv on a black tv stand against the wall, with many consoles on the ground. On the other wall were multiple shelves of game cases organized by name and series. In almost random locations on the walls were a couple of posters from big name games, a poster of the periodic table of gaming weapons, and a poster of ironic video game rules.
Vi was distracted from reading the different game titles when something moved outside a window. She tiptoed over to the window, moved the curtain aside, and peered outside. The window seemed to be facing the front yard and Vi adjusted the map of the house inside her head accordingly. She looked for the movement that caught her eye and recoiled back when a bird flew past the glass.
"Bird! Ahh cheese that was startling. Holy crap, it is beautiful outside." Vi recovered from the shocking bird appearance as she noted what sort of neighborhood they now lived in.
Deciding she was done examining the game room, she exited the room and wondered which one she would enter next. She looked at the remaining three doors.
"Might as well go straight across," she proclaimed as she walked straight across the hallway towards a light peach colored door with a white door knob. She opened the door into a pink beige covered room. "Oh my god, this has to be Lana's room. No one else would get a pink room."
Vi began to investigate the room. "Huh, there seems to be a flower theme going on here. A blue flower coffee table, a red flower bedspread, and, oh wow, actual flowers, that's a bit much, Checkerface. Are you trying to imply that she's a flower? Ohoho~" She snickered behind her hand.
"Hm, very minimalist." There was little furniture in the room, yet it seemed very cozy and inviting.
A brown tall dresser in the corner, a full sized bed with the aforementioned red flower bedsheets, the coffee table with four pillows on the ground around it, and shelves installed on the wall with a couple of books, a few orange scented candles, and oddly a bowl of plastic fruit.
On the walls, there were three posters. A list of astrological signs using a starry night sky background. A poster filled with fun facts about stars. Finally a poster of a periodic table of desserts. The ceiling held three star chandeliers, aligned in a triangle formation.
Next to the bed was a dark brown nightstand and on the nightstand was a light pink lamp. Beside the nightstand was a white window framed with light pink curtains with dark pink flowers.
"Oooh another window~" Vi observed as she opened the curtains with a grand flourish. She gazed out into the backyard like a queen overlooking her realm. "We have a fucking pool. Sweet." She thought to herself that if the other room facing the backyard wasn't hers, she might pitch a fit. The backyard was absolutely glorious.
Vi figured she was about done snooping through Lana's room when she spied a glint behind the door she walked through.
"What's this I spy?" She pondered as she closed the bedroom door. Behind the door were two sliding mirrored doors. "Oh it's just a closet. Well, I wonder what kind of clothes Checkerface provided Lana with."
She slid one door open and suddenly she was blinded by a flood of pinks and white.
"Aaaaah it's too girly! How could you do this? I'm blind!" Vi yelled and covered her eyes as she shut the door as fast as she could.
"Oh my heavens," Vi clutched her chest. "I think that's enough snooping in her room for now." She quickly left the room, making sure to leave everything the way she found it.
"Alright, two down, two to go." The girl looked at the three remaining doors. "…Eenie meenie miney moe…Alright front room it is!"
She faced the grey colored door with a silver metal door handle. "Alright it's either Mr. Creepo's or mine," she declared, turning the handle. Unfortunately the door would not open. "Well. Probably not mine then."
A sudden noise outside caused her to jump. She slowly turned her head towards the double doors. Outside, sitting on the balcony was a fat black cat.
"Oh my goodness, you are adorable." Vi immediately stood up and carefully walked to the doors, making sure not to scare away the cat.
She opened a door and delicately placed one foot onto the floorboards. The cat looked up. Vi stared straight into its eyes. The cat stared back. Vi leaned forward. The cat blinked. Vi brought her other foot outside. The cat raised one paw. Vi took a step forward. The cat twitched its tail. Vi raised one hand slowly. The cat put its paw back down. Vi slowly put her hand onto the cat's head and the cat pushed its head into her hand, beginning to purr softly. On the balcony was a standing shelf full of assorted potted plants that Vi paid barely any attention to as she petted the soft cat.
"I have been truly blessed today." Vi shed a single tear as she continued to pet the adorable creature.
After a while, the cat got up, stretched its legs, jumped onto the fence, and presumably walked into their backyard for more sunbathing. Vi followed suit and got up, stretching her slightly cramped legs.
"Aaahh that was relaxing…Alright, I don't think there's anything I can do in opening the creep's room but hey I managed to get to the balcony." She yawned lightly as she exited the double doors. "Aha, I saved the best for last!"
Vi whistled the tune for The Final Countdown as she approached her lavender door with a black metal door handle. At last the final door opened and Vi stuck her head in, only to find to her utter amazement, an exact duplicate of her room from their original universe. Same white wall paint. Same purple bed with lavender sheets. Same white bookcase with the same books in alphabetical order by author. Same black desk table, same black desk chair. Same purple couch with the same black coffee table. Everything in the room was in the exact same position as her original room.
"What the fuck is this fuckery." She deadpanned with a blank face.
As she walked around her room, she took in everything with growing agitation. The room was unsettlingly familiar to her and she had a determined look on her face as she approached a pair of mirrored sliding closet doors.
"I swear if what I think is in here is actually in here, someone's going to pay for this," she muttered darkly as she cracked her knuckles.
She slid one of the doors open and looked down at a plain white dresser. She opened one of the drawers and stared into it blankly.
"Someone is dying today." Vi announced as she looked into her underwear drawer.
Ground Floor
As for Lana, she headed straight into the corridor across the living room, it was an L-shaped kitchen connected to the area specifically for the dining room. The kitchen, divided into three segments, the first consisted of a wall oven, a wall microwave, a gas stove bearing four burners, shelves and drawers filled with necessary cutlery and dinnerware. The second segment had various machinery on the counter tops: toaster oven, coffee machine, waffle iron, deep fryer, ice cream machine, anti griddle, food processor, blender, bread maker, and rice cooker. Finally a well stocked pantry and stainless steel four door refrigerator.
Last but not least the third segment, which was none other than the island which had the sink, cutting boards, and cleaning kitchen utilities.
"…This kitchen is practically like one of those model kitchens used for cooking shows!" Lana exclaimed to herself in shock of everything she found in the kitchen. Internally happy of the fact that she gets to cook in one of her dream kitchens, but at the same times felt weirded out by how on point most of the snacks in the pantry were all of their favorites, "That's kind of stalkerish, and questionable as to how they figured out our taste in food."
Moving onward to the dining room, the area had a similar neutral color schemes matching the living room. A white birch dining table paired with six beige chairs, and a branched chandelier holding electric candles in glass crystal placeholders. Upon turning on the light switch for the chandelier, Lana spotted aqua colored place mats for each chair. Finally a beautiful glass swan vase holding two pink roses, a lily of the valleys, forget-me-nots, and one white lily decorating the center of the table.
"The dining room looks like it can be used for a housewarming party…a very expensive housewarming party." Lana nodded to herself setting the idea as a reminder, "Maybe when we've settled in more, then next time we can do one?"
Continuing to the backyard connected by a sliding glass door paired with a screen in the dining room, Lana spotted a rectangular shaped fiberglass pool which shocked her for a moment.
"A pool…really?" Lana wondered exactly how Checkerface and Tsunomichi managed to get a pool, especially in a cramped town like Namimori. "This house seems more similar to the ones in the U.S. rather than a house in Japan. How in the world were they able to fit a pool?"
Besides the pool, the backyard in general had a zen garden in a small three foot square corner. Strangely enough, there was a fat black cat lounging on the warm sand, disturbing the lines that someone had carefully made. Other than that, there was a white solid board gothic top fence surrounding the area. Simple, but extravagant by all means. Returning inside the dining room, Lana made her way down the small hallway leading to the spiral staircase only to find two white doors using silver metal doorknobs before the stairs. One on the left and the other on the right.
"Let's see…eeny meenie miney moe!" Lana's hand pointed toward the door on the left. Turning the doorknob slowly, she peeked inside to find what seems to be a normal office room. The main internet router was beside the computer and laser printer that were both sitting on top of the black and white checkered desk. Further inspection led to a checkered landline telephone, checkered book shelves, checkered futon, and finally a checkered desk chair.
"Since it's mostly checkered patterned, I'm assuming this is Tsunomichi's office. I doubt Checkerface would use this room due to Tsunomichi being placed as our caretaker," she pondered as she left the room.
Finally the other door was merely a bathroom following the usual color schemes as the rest of the ground floor. Toilet, a silver metal towel rack bearing three white towels, mirror, wall mounted white marble sink with a bottle of aloe vera liquid soap, last a birch cabinet holding toiletries and bathroom cleaning supplies.
"I think that's it for the ground floor." Closing the bathroom door behind her, Lana left to meet up with Vi for what she discovered from the upper floor.
As Lana walked back into the living room, she pondered on what to do next since Vi was still exploring upstairs. "Oh I know." Lana clapped her hands together as a neat idea popped in her mind, "Since have an amazing kitchen, I might as well put it to good use."
Lana silently gushed in bliss as she quickly turned around for the kitchen, "This house's kitchen is practically the dream kitchen I've always wanted." Though an abrupt thought interrupted her small bit of happiness, "Although I find it creepy that they managed to stock the pantries with most of the snacks we've eaten since we were young."
Lana paled while shuddering at a thought. 'What if they were spying us from the beginning?' Shaking her head, Lana pressed onward to make a light meal for Vi and herself, "Maybe a sandwich? Hm, but Vi doesn't like sandwiches with vegetables in it."
"Probably a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for her then?" Lana nodded to herself in agreement of her choices, and proceeded to get the necessary ingredients. Turkey, ham, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, and some mayonnaise for something filling. Then the jars of peanut butter and grape jelly to satisfy our friend's hungry need for sustenance. "Don't forget the bread too!" She reminded herself, but as she grabbed the bread, Lana glanced at the zen garden situated in the backyard from the kitchen window above the sink. "I wonder if the zen garden has anything to do with Checkerface? After all Vi and I aren't fans of these types of gardens, unless we're looking for a place to relax our mind."
Lana continued to preoccupy her thoughts on the backyard and of what she recalled the words of the letter left from Checkerface to Tsunomichi while making six sandwiches. "Then again, I'm kind of skeptical as to how they even managed to fit both a garden and a pool here. I mean…isn't Namimori more of a cramped neighborhood? I could be wrong…but doesn't the name of this place sound similar to that one manga we used to read in middle school? Something about a tutor and an idiot middle school protagonist."
The more Lana tried to recall the title of the manga, nothing would return to her mind at all. Lana mentally shrugged to herself while giving a small sigh. "Oh well, maybe I'll remember it later on."
After a few minutes, Lana returned all of the remaining ingredients back to the fridge and noted in the back of her mind that they might have to restock the fridge once they finished getting familiar with the area of Namimori. Taking the plate of sandwiches into her hands, Lana wondered out loud, "Maybe Vi finished exploring upstairs already?"
Soon a rain of loud footsteps sounded from the staircase, causing Lana to see the aforementioned girl out of breath by the time she reached the last step.
"Lana, holy fuck!" Vi pantomimed kicking a door open and held the pose for a couple of seconds before continuing to yell. "You're never going to believe this! Wait, what the heck? Where did you get sandwiches?" Her train of thought was derailed by the appearance of food. "I can't believe you're eating a sandwich."
"You could have some," Lana offered gently pushing the plate of food to Vi's direction on the table, "There's some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches since I know you dislike the taste of tomatoes."
"Aw yes, sustenance." Vi dropped onto the couch and grabbed a pbj, shoving half of it into her mouth. She attempted to say something but the combination of a full mouth and peanut butter caused her speech to become unintelligible.
"Do you need milk to wash down the peanut butter?" Lana kindly suggested to the girl.
Vi finished her mouthful of deliciousness and cleared her throat. "I was gonna say that this would go great with milk, but nah, I'll get it myself. Anyways, like I started saying before, both of you have to check out your room like right now," she heavily insisted.
Lana held a look of confusion wondering about Vi's insistence before returning her gaze at the said girl, "Why?"
"Just go. You'll see for yourself." She waved a hand towards the stairs, vanishing the door. "Your room is the peach colored door."
Lana went upstairs, curious from Vi's words, and quickly explored the rooms. Lana couldn't believe what she saw, the similarities of the rooms in their original world were uncanny.
She gaped while taking in every detail of the room, "T-This can't be…the ground floor was enough to make me cry for my wallet, but this is beyond the stalking ideas I had about Checkerface and Tsunomichi earlier! Heck there's even actual Gerberas in the vase!"
She flinched, taking one of the flowers out of the vase sitting atop of the coffee table, it was genuine alright. From petal to stem including the fresh scent lingering off the flowers, it wasn't fake at all. Setting the gerbera back to its respective placement, Lana scanned the walls to find three awfully familiar posters.
"How in the world were they able to get these posters?! The astrology posters were only made by my brother, there's no other replica of them!" Lana touched the posters taped on the wall, and froze in realization. Turning her head in the direction of her dresser, Lana's breathing hitched.
"D-Don't tell me…" The girl's face began to drain the more she slowly walked over to the dresser. Placing her hand on the right knob, Lana pulled the first drawer in silence. Until Lana muttered in a monotonous voice, "I don't even want to know how they folded these."
Lana walked out into the hall, unable to comprehend what she just saw in her recreated room. Lana walked downstairs in silence, disturbed from what she just saw.
While Lana was upstairs checking out her room, Vi decided to inspect the ground floor.
Grabbing the sandwiches, she quickly explored the rooms, noting the very fancy kitchen with fascinating cooking appliances, especially that ice cream machine and coffee machine. Setting the plate in the sink, she shoved the last sandwich into her mouth and headed into the dining room.
Vi raised her eyebrows in appreciation of the elegant decor, finding the chandelier extremely similar to the one in her house's living room. "I suppose our bedrooms weren't enough, they just had to steal my chandelier, too?"
Shaking her head at the audacity, she gazed out at the backyard. "Holy dang, a pool. That's not something you see everyday in Japan." Unfortunately for Vi, the cat that Lana spotted had already disappeared when Vi got to the backyard. Well, you can't win them all, I suppose.
Heading out the dining room, Vi walked down the hallway spotting two closed doors. Curious, she opened the first door, only to see a boring office. Frowning, she walked out and checked the other door. "Just a bathroom. Boring."
Walking back to the kitchen, Vi opened the pantry, noting several of hers and Lana's favorite foods. "Well. That's not eerie at all." Grabbing a bag of chips, she set it on the counter, found a nice glass in a cabinet, and poured herself a glass of lactose free milk. "I don't even want to know how they know about my lactose intolerance."
Heading back into the living room with her milk and chips, she set them on the coffee table and flopped onto the couch. She sat up immediately. Something was off.
Leaning back onto the couch, she noticed the couch would shake slightly with each movement. As if one leg was uneven.
"How would a house this perfect have an uneven couch?" Frowning, Vi got up and knelt onto the ground peering underneath the couch. "Aha."
Standing up again and dusting herself off, Vi shoved the couch back. "Nice job, me. Found a trapdoor. Achievement get." Tilting her head in thought, she decided to push the couch back. "I bet Lana hasn't seen this yet. Might at well surprise her. Ohoho." She flopped back onto the couch, grabbing her food.
When Lana finally came downstairs, Vi was sitting cross legged on the couch, drinking a glass of milk and eating directly out of a large bag of chips that was already half eaten. "So was it creepy or what?" She stared daggers at Tsunomichi, who was still on the ground unconscious.
In a slight agitated tone, Lana expressed her dismay to Vi while situating herself beside her two friends, "He got everything in exact detail, even the fresh gerberas sitting in the vase. I can't even believe they managed to get the special posters my brother made for me back home."
Vi's voice escalated as she grew more indignant. "My underwear drawer! Their filthy mitts were inside my drawers! How will I sleep at night?! On silk sheets with satin pillow covers, I guess, since they took those too!"
"…I don't even want to know what they did when they were arranging our clothes." Placing her face into the palms of her hand, Lana mumbled discomfortable of the dresser incident that happened a few minutes ago.
Vi shook her head, getting the bad thoughts out of her head. Changing the topic, she asked, "So Lana, how was your exploration of this ground floor?"
Lana's eyes suddenly sparkled the minute Vi mentioned the ground floor, "We have my dream kitchen! The dream kitchen I planned to have when I retire!"
Her hands were formed into fists, ready to shake in glee as she rambled on and on about it. "Everything down to the separate island to the stove and refrigerator! I'm practically drooling at the multiple types of food I can make in this fabulous kitchen solely meant for the rich!"
"My mom used often told me how the kitchens are at her work, but having your own private kitchen to serve good meals is practically a dream come true." Lana was close to drooling at the thought of what else she could make in that kitchen. "Oh gosh, we can make so many types of food now to satisfy our stomachs."
By the time Lana calmed down, remembering that she needed to mention the other parts of the ground floor, she asked Vi out of curiosity. "Did you manage to see the other rooms besides the amazing kitchen?"
Vi nodded. "Our dining room is pretty nice too. Very fancy decor. That chandelier bears too much a resemblance to the one in my house though."
"Yeah, I'm still in amazement as to how they managed to fit a pool and a zen garden in the backyard of this house. I mean isn't Namimori a small town?" Lana pointed out, unsure if she was seeing things right or not.
"Hm." Vi hummed softly. "I only glanced at the backyard quickly, so I didn't see the zen garden. I did think it was odd we have a pool in Japan. I mean who has a pool in Japan?" She shrugged, making a face. "It is a mystery."
"A mystery that won't be solved." Lana added on to VI's statement, while to mention the remaining part of the ground floor. "The last place I saw was an office completely checkered themed across from a small bathroom."
"I'm assuming it's for either our dear caretaker that's currently fainted in the middle of the entrance way or for the person who placed us in this game." Lana had some doubt on the latter being true, since Tsunomichi would be the only one with them. No Cervello or Checkerface to watch their every move, only poor weak-hearted Tsunomichi.
Shrugging again, Vi replied. "Offices are boring. By the way, there's a locked room upstairs that I'm guessing is the bedroom of our 'dear caretaker' currently KTFO." She put up air quotes around the borrowed words, making sure to put as much disdain into her words as possible. "I'm pretty sure Checkerface would not live with us, but personally I'd prefer a Cervello instead of this dude."
"Me too." Lana nodded in agreement. "Yeah so I think I got everything that's on this floor."
Grinning mischievously, Vi looked at Lana intently. "Are you sure that's all on the ground floor?"
Lana made a questioning sound. "Yes? Is that a trick question?"
"I don't believe you've seen all the secrets this house holds." Vi stood up, gesturing grandly. "Prepare to have your mind blown!"
Confused, Lana watched as Vi pushed the couch back, then widened her eyes in surprise. "Oh my."
"Ta da! Trapdoor basement!" Vi made jazz hands as a mysterious wooden panel was revealed. "I bet you haven't explored this!"
Lana's eyes widened in surprise, making a few side glances back at Vi while staring at the panel in disbelief. "Is this for real?"
"Do you need me to pinch you?" Vi moved towards the other, making crab pincer motions.
"No!" Lana raised her hands in a protective stance, taking a few steps away from Vi. "Your pinches are terrible, especially when your nails are long and filed!"
Grinning widely, Vi raised up her hands like a cat. "Nya."
"Please not now." Lana silently pleaded, feeling a sense of dread.
"Ny'all."
"Why." Lana narrowed her gaze at Vi, wanting to face palm herself.
"Because your face. Ohohoho!" Vi snickered at the other girl's reaction. "Anyways, trapdoor! Explore!"
"What if there's a possibility that we might die the moment we enter the basement?" Lana brought up, wondering why the panel was hidden on purpose.
"Then we die like men. Or teenage girls. Or young adult women stuck in the bodies of teenage girls. Who needs specifics?" Vi lifted the trapdoor. "Shit that's dark."
The trapdoor opened to a small square hole leading to a mysterious darkness.
Lana could feel her adrenaline rushing at the sight of the trapdoor, "That just screams death on many levels."
Vi crouched down and felt a metal ladder on one side of the hole. "Well, my bud. Curiosity killed the cat. Nya." She dropped down into the hole, grabbing onto the rungs and ignoring Lana's screaming above her.
"Vi!" Lana screeched in pure horror, and ran after her friend into the trapdoor.
Downstairs
"Oof." Vi slid down the ladder a little too quickly for her liking. "Note to self. Wear gloves the next time you do that. Assuming we're still alive for a next time."
Lana carefully climbed down the ladder after Vi, making sure her shoe hit the step while going down the notch. "Unless we do die."
"Wow, Lana." Vi shook her head at the other girl in the dark, even though she couldn't see it. "That's. Pretty dark. Situational humor. Ha." She turned around, trying to sense where the walls were.
"I'm just being serious if it does end up happening." Lana shrugged while hoping in the back of her mind that the situation doesn't escalate to it.
Moving towards Lana since she was closest to the wall, Vi swung her arms around trying to find a light switch. "I don't think they'd put something in this house to kill us. Unless it's a burglar trap. Or unless they thought we wouldn't find–Aha! A light switch!"
"Wait don't turn on–ah! My eyes!" Lana covered her gaze once light blinded her field of vision.
Vi gasped at the sight of the basement. "Oh wow. This is definitely something else."
The room was sectioned off diagonally in quadrants, each with a different flooring. In the middle each wall, besides the one behind them, was a plain white door with a sign. The left door had a very brightly labeled 'DO NOT ENTER' sign, which seemed very suspicious. The middle had a fancy, overly floral 'Bathroom' sign, which would have seemed out of place in the room, but somehow managed to fit in perfectly. The right door had a big gray sign with pictures of guns, swords, and other general weapons, which may have seemed odd, but was pretty normal considering the room they were in.
The secret basement was in fact a state of the art training room.
"Lana, holy shit." Vi looked around the room in amazement. "Are you seeing this?"
"My eyes are still blinded, and this kind of makes me miss my glasses but just give me a few seconds." Blinking a few times, Lana slowly opened her eyes to find an organized training room instead of supposed death. "Whoa." She mumbled to herself in amazement.
The section they were currently in had a hardwood flooring. Behind them was a mirrored wall with a wood balance barre. In the corner was a couple of rolled up yoga mats.
The left section had a vast array of cardio machines. A treadmill, an elliptical, an exercise bike, and more things that they couldn't remember the names of. Taped onto the machines were brief instructions on how to use them.
"Hm, fancy." Vi nodded in appreciation.
The section across from them appeared to be a sparring area with a cushioned mat. A couple of sparring dummies were stored in the corner. In contrast to the other walls, the wall had several targets on it, presumably for target practice.
"Oh wow, a target practice." Lana pondered to herself, "This would be quite useful if we needed to do better on our aim for long range attacks."
The right section was almost a mirror of the left, except there were weight machines instead of cardio. In addition, the flooring was black tile, the opposite of the white tile of the cardio section. There were a couple of dumbbells in the corner, starting from 2 pounds all the way up to 20.
"Do you think this was created to increase our training compared to our time in that void with the Cervello?" Lana asked Vi, unsure of whether it was Checkerface who made the training room or the Cervello themselves.
"Oh god, if we're going to be put through training again, I think I'd just rather die." Vi groaned in agony. "I'd rather this just be our own optional gym. Emphasis on optional."
"Well they gave us our weapons for a reason." Lana pointed out at first, but paused for a moment. "Wait a second, does this mean Namimori isn't a normal place here in Japan? The training room kind of raises a lot of questions even though we were trained in that weird void."
Vi opened her mouth to respond, then paused. "That. Is a very good question. What kind of world are we in that would require these kinds of weapons and training. And what the hell is up with fire rings? What was that? Nobody answered my questions! I have so many!" She threw her hands up in the air in frustration.
"Maybe that guy, Tsunoimichi I think, knows something." Before Lana turned around to head over to the ladder, she spun around to face Vi to point and remind her. "Don't scare the life out of him this time. We need answers first."
Vi pouted. "I promise nothing. The virtue of my underwear drawer was destroyed." She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest.
"You can mention that after I get the answers we need from him." Lana resumed her first action and made her way over to the ladder.
"Mmm." Vi tapped her finger on her chin. "Compromise. I will try very hard not to murder him immediately on sight."
Ground Floor (Again)
The two had just closed the trapdoor and pushed the couch back when a groan from the ground sounded. It seems like their dear caretaker decided to regain consciousness at a very poor time.
"Good morning, you creepy pervert." Vi suddenly appeared in his line of vision.
Tsunomichi, only barely conscious moments before, screamed bloody murder as he scrambled to stand up. Once he was righted, he coughed a few times in embarrassment before trying to regain a little of his dignity.
"H-hello…again." Poor Tsunomichi trembled in fear of the girl's increasingly aggressive behavior toward him. He almost immediately regretted what he said next, "How have you been finding everything? I hope it's been satisfactory?"
"Satisfactory?!" Vi was about to murder the poor quivering man, but restrained herself somewhat. "If you think that finding out that you somehow copied my underwear drawer is satisfactory, you've got another thing coming!" she snarled out, baring her teeth like she would rip his throat out without a second thought.
Lana watched Vi threaten Tsunomichi, who looked ready to faint again. She debated internally with herself what she should do.
In his fear, Tsunomichi managed to yelp out, "Wait! There's still important things I haven't told you about the game!"
Vi paused and narrowed her eyes at Tsunomichi. In her head, she weighed the pros and cons of letting him talk or knocking him out again.
Lana, finishing her short inner turmoil, removed her face from the palms of her hand. She marched her way over to Vi who was currently terrifying the supposed subordinate of Checkerface.
"Vi." Lana set a hand on the respective shoulder of the girl, not wanting to yell at Tsunomichi, since he didn't see what Checkerface had in store for him. Although deep down, Lana wanted to do the same thing Vi was doing to Tsunomichi; however the man was attempting to say something. Thus the need for them to stop shoving their complaints at Tsunomichi was brought to her attention, "He's trying to say something to us. Let's hear what he has to say first of all, and push our anger toward Checkerface since he's the sole reason as to why we're here. Tsunomichi was probably only following orders like an obedient assistant."
Tsunomichi literally wanted to cry, though he felt somewhat grateful of Lana being there to stop them.
"I'll listen to what he says, but I don't have to like it." Vi walked past Lana and turned to face Tsunomichi. Quickly, behind Lana's back, she made eye contact with Tsunomichi and drew a finger across her throat.
"Vi, I saw that." Lana gave a huff and pointed at the kitchen, "Go get some chips from the pantry and sit at the couch. Don't make me go confiscate your DS that's probably in the game room I saw earlier or better yet, I'll change the wifi password to make the internet only accessible without you."
Vi sighed heavily. "Alright, mother." She flopped onto the couch with exaggerated movements and shoved a handful of chips into her mouth, somehow managing to pout with a mouthful of food.
Tsunomichi straightened his tie and cleared his throat before beginning, "What you two have been given are called the Sky Rings. Each flame color has a characteristic and ability attributed with them. Orange sky, cielo, is harmony, which depending on the kind used is stable or powerful. Red storm, tempesta, is disintegration, which can decay whatever it touches. Blue rain, pioggia, is tranquility, which can be used to induce stillness. Yellow sun, sereno, is activation, which has the power to stimulate activity . Green lightning, fulmine, is hardening, which can strengthen or solidify objects. Purple cloud, nuvola, is propagation, which can increase the size and number of items. Indigo mist, nebbia, is construction, which aids in the creation of illusions."
Lana raised her brow at Tsunomichi as confusion filled her face, "But mines is practically a mixture of red and orange. How am I supposed to tell it's Sky or Storm?"
Tsunomichi blinked. "Oh yes. Um, well...Checkerface mentioned about yours. Your ring is indeed sky, just a different shade."
Lana stared at Tsunomichi in disbelief, feeling that there was something odd with that statement, but didn't persist in looking into it.
Vi looked down at her own ring. "So this is a mist ring, huh? Interesting."
"Your primary flames, the moon and star, are slightly different in a sense that they are not native to this world. They are a newly made, original flame that belongs to you only. The moon is a balance within itself, a balance of creation and deconstruction. The star is relatively powerful in both supporting and inflicting different statuses on others. However, in terms of power and ability, that is completely dependent on yourselves and your imaginative ability." Looking up from his notes, he jumped slightly at the duo's intense stares. "It is uhhhh…Probably better for you two to experience it yourself first. We do have a-aa-a practice room available downstairs, if-if you looked down there already…"
"Actually, why don't you join us, I'm sure we could use your guidance." Vi smiled innocently, all trace of the previous girl who was ready to murder hidden behind a sweet mask, "You would be a great help to us."
"Could you please stop bullying him?" Lana frowned at Vi, dissatisfied with her response to Tsunomichi, "We'll figure it out on our own; otherwise I'm adding more to the punishment that's willing to be set in motion."
"R-right…" Gulping down his choked saliva, Tsunomichi brought up a topic in particular, "Oh that's right! Master Checkerface didn't finish mentioning the rest of the rules for the game, correct?"
Taking out a folded piece of paper from his dress coat, Tsunomichi straightened himself to announce the complete set of rules for their game, "First and foremost, you two aren't allowed to tell anyone about your primary flames. Due to them being foreign from this specific world, it is a taboo to say a peep of it! Second, you mustn't say anything about your true age. It'd be definitely quite a disastrous situation if the people of this world find out your true age. You have to keep in mind that you are middle schoolers going to Namimori Middle School while playing the game. Third, in this game you're not allowed to interfere into the plot already situated in this particular world. Fourth, just as serious as the previous rule, this one reminds that none of you are to kill any of the main story members. Last but not least, none of you are allowed to tell the characters residing here the truth about themselves in your world. It would upset the balance of the storyline and cause massive confusion for the characters realizing their true identities."
Finishing off the list, Tsunomichi quickly handed the list of rules to Lana, as he was beyond terrified of the other. Running, I mean, retreating to a safe distance at first but resumed his original position, he coughed to regain their attention. "Your uniforms will be arriving tomorrow, as well as some student identification cards, and then you two will be going to school next week! In the meantime, feel free to explore Namimori at your leisure, as it will be your residence for the foreseeable future. If you need me, I'll be in my office." Once he finished, he turned to the hallway and entered the room on the left.
Once the door shut behind him, Lana stared at the paper in her hands. Then returned her gaze over to Vi.
"Should we look over the rules again?" Lana proposed, taking the paper over to Vi.
RULES
1. No telling about the primary flames
2. No telling about your true ages/backgrounds
3. No interference with the main storyline
4. No killing of main characters
5. No telling characters the truth about themselves in your world
Vi scanned through the list quickly. "You know, these rules aren't very specific. Lack of clarification means loopholes. Whoever wrote this list should never be a lawyer."
"Maybe we could tweak them a bit?" Lana suggested finding the rules not as concrete as she expected them to be.
The duo decided to make a list of the ways they could bend the rules without getting punished on the back side of the sheet they received.
LOOPHOLES:
# No telling = No saying. We can "demonstrate" in other ways.
# It's only recommended we act our age.
# Main doesn't mean everything or everyone.
# It doesn't say that we can't hurt the main story members
# There's really no point in doing so.
After making the list, they were satisfied with what they had come up with and decided to listen to Tsunomichi for once and venture outside.