I stare at the screen, mouth agape as I realize what just happened. Mumei is just laying down in her pile of beanbags, celebrating her victory with her snake plush in hand. The controller lays behind her head, discarded and forgotten as soon as the match ended. Nia claps her hands and looks over to her. "Props to ya, birdie. That was mighty impressive." "I can't believe I did that! That was so cool! I just... AAAAAHHHH!" She lets out a high-pitched squeal of happiness as words fail her and she starts rolling around. "Now then, I hope you guys had fun." I quit the game and turn off the PC. "I'd like to go for a bit longer, but sadly, we've all got our responsibilities to get back to tomorrow." My voice cracks on the last word. We all burst out in laughter. "All right, all right, we'll be outta ya hair in just a moment." Nia manages to say after the laughing fit dies down. "Lookin' forward to next time." Nia gets up and leaves. Mumei manages to compose herself and helps me clean up. After putting the plushie she borrowed back, she also leaves the room.
During my usual evening routine, my mind starts drifting as my body runs on autopilot. "Man, a lot of stuff happened today." I think to myself. "It's weird how normal this all feels now. How did this even happen? It doesn't feel like that long ago that this house was way too big for me. Crazy what one can get used to. It still doesn't feel quite real." I shrug. "It is my reality now, however and I just gotta accept it." As I finish brushing my teeth, I spot Fuuka in the hallway. She's wearing a baby blue nightgown. It seems way too big as it covers her almost entirely, from her shoulders all the way to her ankles. It makes her small frame look even smaller. Her demure disposition does not help either. In all ways, she seems so small, so fragile, yet she is a very strong of mind. We wish each other a good night. Back in my room, I grab a few plushies and get into bed.
As I try to fall asleep, I get taken back to the days when this all started. It still seems so surreal to me, but the memory is crystal clear in my mind.
It was a Sunday, there was nothing on the agenda, so as usual I was just sitting in my room playing games. Suddenly, the doorbell rang. With a bit of grumbling, I paused the game and got up. "Was there a package I forgot about? I don't think I have anything coming in anytime soon." I mumbled to myself as I headed downstairs quickly. It was a very rainy day so I didn't want to leave anyone waiting at the door. As I opened the front door, I saw someone. Before me stood a rather young-looking girl with teal-blue hair braided into a ponytail. She was wearing a white dress, a pair of black knee-high socks and some stylish boots. Her grey eyes darted to the ground as soon as she saw me. "Uhm..." She stammered, holding her arms behind her as she made herself small. "I... uh... Can you help me?" I stared at her, completely taken aback by this opening line. "Uh... help with what?" I said as I tried to comprehend the situation.
"I... I just arrived here and I'm not sure what's happening. Could I come in? It's a bit of a long story..." She slightly nudges the ground with her boot. She was clearly uncomfortable. I couldn't exactly leave her standing under the carport. "Sure. Come in." I stepped aside and let her into the back room. She relaxed slightly as she carefully seated herself. "Would you like something to drink?" I asked, not knowing what else to say in this strange situation. "Just a glass of water, please." I go to the kitchen to grab two glasses of water. "Oh god, how am I gonna handle this?" I thought to myself as I sat to her side on the couch. As she drinks, Fuuka seems to calm down a bit and some colour seems to come back to her features. She clears her throat, signalling that she's ready to start talking.
"So, to start at the beginning... My name is Fuuka Yamagishi, I am currently 22 years old, I think. I live in Iwatodai, Japan. So, as usual I was on my way to university when I found myself in this weird blue room. There was a weird man with bulging eyes and a very long nose looking at me. He was also mostly bald, except for his really long eyebrows. It was very unnerving. We were sitting at a table together and he started talking about 'another world' and 'a great destiny that awaits you there.' I'm not sure what it was all about. He showed me a bunch of cards. I think it was some sort of divination ritual? I'm not too sure, but they seemed to be tarot cards of some kind. After that, he said something about a guardian and then a door appeared out of nowhere. He handed me some sort of weird key. I had no other choice so I opened the door and then there was a bright light and I was here... Standing outside your door..."
Once she started talking, the words seemed to just flow forth from her. The sentences got strung together, one after the other, as she outlined the bizarre way she ended up at my doorstep. As the words slowly stopped, Fuuka seemed to snap out of the trance she was in as she realized what she just said. She looked at me expectantly, waiting for a response and trying to read my thoughts.
I blinked a few times, trying to process all the words that have been said and trying to come up with a response. "Okay... So you think that you somehow got transported from your normal life to my place by some weird bald guy with a big nose? That... certainly is quite the story." After I spoke those words, a silence followed. "I find it quite hard to believe. But I'll take your word for it for now. I'll do my best to help you get your bearings. One thing that I noticed about your story is that you mentioned Japan. You're Japanese?" She perked up at my words. "Japan exists here? That's good to hear." She started talking to herself again. "It makes sense. Assuming that multiple worlds can exist, it wouldn't be weird if this world was similar to our own. I mean, there's a TV there and I saw a few cars pass by earlier and..." She looked up at me as she realized what was happening. "Oh, uh... sorry. I'm just trying to make sense of everything." I waved off her concerns. "No problem, we're both trying to understand what's happening here. So, given you're from Japan, I can assume you use the same calendar. What day is it?" "Thursday, 12th of March, 2015." she replied. "Okay... not exactly... but it gives me another indication that our worlds seem to be closely connected." I quizzed her on a few other things, mostly world history and geography. After a little while, we figured out that our worlds are mostly the same but with a few small differences. At one point, she mentioned something about Shadows, which confused me but she brushed it aside as quickly as she brought it up. "Wait a minute... You're Japanese. How is your English this good?" Fuuka looked at me, her expression shifting from confused to thoughtful back to confused. "What do you mean? I'm speaking Japanese, aren't I? So are you." "Well, I'm speaking English and you reply in the same language." We blinked at each other for a bit. "Let's shelve that query for now and get back to more important matters."
Right as I said that, we heard a sound coming from upstairs, like something heavy thumping to the floor. "That sounded like it came from my room. I need to go check real quick." I headed upstairs and checked my room. Nothing seemed to have changed, my monitor was still displaying the pause screen for the game I had been playing. I open the door next to my bedroom, which was the guestroom. A few boxes I had stashed against the wall seemed to have tumbled over, and several new objects had appeared in the room. A yellow laptop I'd never seen before and a grey shoulder bag had appeared on the bed in this room. The bed was different from what I remembered and after looking around the room a bit more, I found a table filled with circuit parts, LED's and other electronics alongside the tools to tinker with said electronics. It was put in a corner where it didn't take up much space. There was even a light mounted above the workstation. "Uhm... Fuuka? Could you come have a look at this?" I said as I went back to the back room. When I showed her the room, her eyes seemed to double in size. "That's... my laptop and my bag... and my bed?" She picked the laptop up and turned it on. "Yeah, no doubt about it, this is mine." As she looked up, she spotted the workbench in the corner. "How? How is all my stuff here?" She asked no-one in particular. No answer came. "Well, uhh... Fuuka, I think I believe you now." I said, scratching the back of my head.