Ch. 16

I set down my bags in the small guest room of Nemu's house. Then I walked back to the kitchen. The house was a one story building, traditional dojo style. Paper sliding doors. Thankfully, the house was equipped for the modern age. I had already been given the wifi password. I had also seen a ethernet port in the wall. I reached the kitchen. And was instantly mugged by Nemu. She jumped on top of me. Spinning around, I knocked her hand away with one hand and grabbed her other wrist in the other. I twisted her arm behind her back.

"Alright, you win." she exclaimed.

Her dad stood shaking his head at Nemu's attempted and failed attack.

"You know, I have the feeling that Neko had a habit of winning any duels. He seemed to know exactly what you were going to do, before you did." he said.

"Funny enough, you're right." I responded.

"Shut up, Neko." A blushing Nemu said.

"Nope!"

"You… little… " a fuming Nemu said. I recognized that to push it any farther could result in an all out attack.

"Calm down. Anyway, you have anything you want to do?" I directed my question at Nemu. She thought for a second.

"No, not really."

"Ok, I'm going to go set up my stuff. I'll be back in a few minutes."

"Ok."

I walked back down the hall to my room. I logged my laptop onto the network, then pulled up my email. There was one. It was from the guy on the plane, Clark. In it was a picture of me, standing next to a red faced Nemu and a caption.

"Found your girlfriend I see." I muttered the caption under my breath. I typed up a response. He emailed me back saying he was outside. I stood up and went outside.

"Hey ho, there you are." said Clark with a grin.

"Since when did you come here?" I asked. I had a matching grin.

"This is where I went after saying bye on the airplane. Anyway, you be good to my cousin, or I'll flay you alive."

I burst out laughing. Clark gave me a look that said: Is he insane?

"I guess it is a very small world huh? By the way, flay you alive is Nemu's trademark. Not yours."

He burst out laughing with me this time.

"Neko, do you know him?" Nemu snuck up behind me. Turning, I responded.

"Sort-of. I met him on the plane over here. We traded emails and I got one with a photo of you with the red face of doom on it."

Nemu visibly paled.

"P-People took pictures?" she stuttered.

"Why yes, I did. Several. I sent them to the other pe-" Suddenly I yanked Clark down to a crouch, as I knew what was coming. The air above Clark's head emitted a swoosh sound, and Nemu's fist sat in the space where Clark's head had just been.

"Calm down Nemu. Clark did nothing wrong."

"Y-Yes, he did! He took photos even though I said not to!"

I thought back to when I had arrived. I remembered the flash of several cameras. Decided not to mention this to Nemu. One nuclear bomb at a time.

"Never mind that. Go back in, I'll be there in a minute."

"Fine." she walked back to the house.

"Sorry about that" Clark said.

"Meh, I knew it was coming. You aren't the only person that took photos."

"Anyway, I'll let you go back to Nemu. Good luck calming her down."

"Thanks, will do."

As I walked back to the house, I thought about how the community had accepted me as one of their own right off the bat. It was strange. In the US, life was about being friendly to those you knew and ignoring the rest. Here, it seemed, it was about getting to know someone, and then being their friend, right from the start.

"Hey, Neko, is it alright for me to call you Neko? Or should I switch?" Nemu asked as she walked up to me.

"You can call me Neko. I hardly respond to Harry anyway. So, what now? I'm done unpacking. Any idea as to what you want to do?"

Nemu stood thinking for a minute. Then a mischievous grin spread upon her face.

"The guys at a kendo club in the next town over say that I know nothing about swordsmanship. Want to go teach them?"

I felt a matching grin on my face.

"Why not?"

"I doubt you would last 30 seconds." the young man in front of me said.

"We won't know till I duel you."

"Hmpf. Fine. First-strike?"

"Disarm."

"Fine"

The boy took a position 20 meters in front of me. As I took up position, a look of surprise took his face, then exasperation.

"You need protective equipment, kid." he called.

"The equipment will just slow me down. I'll be fine."

"Fine." this time the voice was angry, wanting to show me who was boss. Time to see who that was, I thought.

"Start!"

The boy charged me, hoping to catch me off guard. But his balance was off. I used this to duck under his horizontal attack, then used a reverse grip to knock the bamboo sword out of his hand. The sword went flying, and the boy stood in shock. Then his face cleared.

"T-That was luck! I didn't want to hurt you without protective gear!" he sputtered.

"Then how about mercy rules then?" I said with a quiet voice. I saw the boy's fury. I saw a gleam in his eyes.

"Why not?" he said.