“Sorry the entryway’s such a mess. I’ll clean it up now,” Toriko said as she crouched down and started to move aside the mountain of shoes I’d noticed earlier.
“Nah, it’s fine. I’ll just take my shoes off wherever. Are all of those yours, Toriko?”
“Yeah. I can’t help but buy them, y’know?”
Taking my shoes off in the space she’d opened up, I finally took my first step into Toriko’s place.
“Pardon the intrusion...”
Taking the Makarov off the top of her shoe box, Toriko walked in front of me.
Strictly speaking, this was my second time in Toriko’s house. I had come here through the depths of the Otherside once, chasing after Toriko when she’d gone to the other world by herself. But it had given off a different impression then. Last time, it had been an empty room, lacking furniture, or anything else, but there was more to it than just that. I don’t think the layouts even matched. Actually, I couldn’t remember a single detail about what the inside of her place had been like at that time. Had that been a scene that the Otherside, or my own brain, had created to suit the situation?
I took another look at Toriko’s real home. The hall stretched from the entryway, a number of doors on the left and right. The first sliding door on the right-hand side was open, and there was a washroom with a washing machine. In the back of the washroom was a door to the bathroom.
“This is the bathroom. You can fill the tub with hot water, so go ahead and use it.”
“You sure?”
“Of course. I’ll use the time to tidy up a bit and put on some tea.”
Pretty much anyone would want to clean up their home if a guest dropped in without warning. I decided to take her up on the offer and use the bath.
“Here’s a towel. Take your time, okay?”
With that said, she closed the washroom door. I waited for her footsteps to get further away, then stripped out of my wet clothes. After hesitating briefly, I put them into the laundry basket. I’d have to ask to hang them up to dry somewhere later.
The bathroom was large and well lit. I took a shower while the tub filled with hot water. Her shampoo and body soap were both expensive types I’d never bought myself. It struck me that this might be why Toriko smelled so good.
It felt incredibly strange, sitting on a stool in the unfamiliar bathroom of someone else’s house, washing my head with a shampoo that I’d never used before. What was I even doing here? I was at home just an hour ago, yet now it felt so very far away.
Huh? I feel like I felt something similar just recently...?
It didn’t take much thinking before I recalled it. Last evening, I took a bath in the Mayoiga, didn’t I? Assuming that wasn’t a dream or something.
Why am I a migratory bather in other people’s houses? It seemed so nonsensical I smiled to myself.
Toriko probably didn’t get it either. She was woken up, and when she answered the door, there I was, soaked to the bone, with a dreadful look on my face. Yeah, of course she’d suspect I was an impostor.
Especially since my doppelganger had been here before me.
Toriko said the doppelganger crawled into bed with her, didn’t she...? Seriously, what was she up to?
The tub finished filling as I was washing myself, and I rinsed the soap off before getting in for a soak.
Sure must be nice, having a big bath like this, I thought idly as I stared up at the ceiling through the steam.
I heard the sound of the washroom door opening, and Toriko called out, “I’ll leave a change of clothes here.”
“Oh, sure, thanks,” I responded reflexively, but hold on. A change of clothes? Toriko’s clothes?
Oh... Well... I guess I’m fine with that...
Am I fine with that?
The more I thought, the harder it was to settle down. Unable to relax and soak in the tub, I got out fairly quickly. I’d managed to get warmed up, but it was still maybe a bit wasteful.
As I dried myself with the bath towel, I looked down into the laundry basket. I emptied my wet clothes’ pockets and chucked them in the laundry machine. There was a mechanical whine as it spun around. I wouldn’t be able to touch them again until they’d finished drying.
What Toriko had left me in their place was simpler than I’d expected. The sort of plain underwear they sold at Muji, as well as some simple one-piece loungewear. She used me like her dress-up doll at the Mayoiga, so I’d wondered what she was going to make me wear this time, even worrying it might be something frilly. This was a bit of a relief. If she’d chosen it to match my preference for plain clothes, I was grateful. The underwear actually looked brand new.
I quickly dried my head, then left the laundry room. Heading towards the back of the hall, I found the living room door open. I poked my head in. My eyes met with Toriko’s as she was rushing around.
“I’m out of the bath.”
“Wha, already? You’re fast!”
At some point, Toriko had changed into a set of loungewear consisting of a black t-shirt with gold lines and a flashy floral pattern and a pair of long pants. Her messy bedhead had been brushed too.
What gives? The way she was dressed before was way more relaxed.
“What should I do? I’m not done cleaning at all.”
Pretty sure that’s because she was getting changed into fancy loungewear. That said, as far as I could see, the place didn’t look especially messy.
The living room was attached to the kitchen with a counter separating them. She had a wooden dining table, and four chairs to go with it. There was a light, beige sofa on the rug, and an LCD TV hanging on the wall. The top of a short bookshelf was decorated with picture stands and framed postcards, potted plants, and dolls that came from a souvenir shop somewhere. It was a well-kept, affluent home—that was my impression. There were books and magazines piled on the table, and a remote control and a tablet lying out on the sofa, but...that’s about all the mess I could see.
“It looks totally fine.”
“Here’s hoping. There’s probably something I didn’t notice lying around.”
She was acting so cornered it was hilarious. With a half-smile, I asked, “What? Do you have that many things that you really wouldn’t want me to see?”
“I dunno... Oh, sorry, have a seat. Is coffee good?”
“Sure.”
She loses her head like this when I come to visit, but she sure was all too happy to barge into my place before. Even went digging through my closet without permission. Well, given the situation at the time, I can’t blame her, though.
I pulled back a chair and sat down. Naturally, the books on the table caught my eye. They had library labels on them. What’s she been reading? I thought, flipping over the book that was on top of the pile. It said, “The Survivor’s Guide to Sex: How to Create Your Own Empowered Sexuality After Childhood Sexual Abuse.”
“Uh-huh...”
I didn’t see that one coming, and it shook me up. Under it was a pile of books about things like the emotional scars of people who have experienced crimes, and specialist literature on domestic violence survivors.
“Ah!” Toriko cried out as she came back from pouring us coffee and saw the book that I was holding. Before I could say anything, she said, “Um, it’s not like that,” as if she were making an excuse.
“Not like what?”
“Uh, well... I was thinking I need to learn about you properly...”
I stared at her blankly. I had no idea what this was about. “About me? Come again?”
“Sorawo, um... When you were little, uh...”
I furrowed my brow at the muddled way she was talking. Then, suddenly, I figured it out.
Toriko thinks I went through something pretty horrible in my past...?
Toriko stood there with a mug in each hand, acting indecisive. I was worried something would make her spill them all over, so spoke gently.
“Calm down... Maybe you want to set down the coffee first.”
“Y-Yeah.”
“Thanks. Now sit down.”
Toriko sat down with her back hunched. I couldn’t tell which of us was the guest.
“Listen... I don’t really have that kind of thing in my past.”
“Huh?” Toriko reacted with genuine surprise.
“I mean, why would you think I did?”
“You said that your family were cultists...”
“Yeah, that’s a fact.”
“And that you almost got abducted, and that you ran away from home and had to keep on running.”
“Those are facts too. But nothing sexual ever happened.”
“Oh... I see.”
“Yeah.”
“Okay then...” Toriko covered her face and let out a long sigh.
“Have you been thinking that this whole time?”
“I have.”
“I wonder if I said something misleading.”
“No, I think I just started suspecting it on my own.”
I cocked my head to the side, wondering, How’d she come to a misunderstanding like this?
“I mean, I know you don’t like talking about that time in your life and all...”
“Well, yeah, it’s not really worth going into.”
Towards the bottom of the pile there were books on child abuse in cults and the problem of second-generation cultists. I opened one, flipped through, and...the text I saw made me feel so unpleasant I closed it again.