As I browsed through the channels with my remote for a while, I heard a newscaster’s voice, then the screen changed to a hero broadcast. Kaijins holding an avant-garde vase appeared on the screen.
“I see you’re still up to no good, kaijins!” called out the hero.
“No good? We’re just selling vases on the street! We’ve done nothing wrong!” replied one of the kaijins.
“Don’t give me that! You take advantage of people’s emotional weakness and force them into buying your wares at exorbitant prices!”
“N-Now hold on! Wait just a minute! All we did was put a slight premium on the prices! ‘Exorbitant’ is a bit dramatic!”
“There’s nothing ‘slight’ about it! You’re guilty of fraud and violation of public order and morality!”
“S-Stop! We haven’t committed any violence! What kind of hero attacks someone who isn’t resisting? You cruel, heartless monster!”
“Silence! Take this! Big Bang Smaaash!”
“Noooooo! He isn’t listening! Someone call the police! Aaaaaah!”
The poor kaijin was hit with a ball of fire before he exploded. Yup, it was just another peaceful day in Japan.
Eldrid stared at the screen blankly. The violence aside, the hero had blasted the kaijin with absolutely no intention of hearing it out, so I couldn’t blame her. It’d been a surprising development even for me, and I was already familiar with heroes.
“What was that?” she asked.
“A hero of justice defeating bad guys,” I said.
“Just to make sure, the ones holding those weird vases were the bad guys?”
“That’s right.”
“I-I see...”
“There have been a lot more kaijin appearing lately, so maybe the heroes have been told to resolve things more quickly,” I said.
Eldrid seemed perplexed for a while, but then she stared at the hero as if drawn to him.
“He’s strong,” she said.
“Yeah. Very strong,” I agreed.
“He’s small, though,” she added.
“D-Don’t say that to his face, okay?!”
I didn’t even want to say what had happened to the last kaijin who’d uttered those words. It was now treated like a forbidden word, and it was considered taboo even among kaijins.
After we browsed through the channels for a while longer, I turned off the TV.
“Well, I’m gonna go change. Wait here,” I said.
“Right.”
I quickly got dressed and returned. Eldrid stared at me and blinked, but I was just wearing a normal sweater and a pair of pants.
“That looks good on you,” she said.
“Well, I did pick it out because I like it.”
“Why don’t you usually dress like this? Your usual outfit is kind of weird—I mean, unusual.”
“Everyone seems to think so. Is it really that strange?” I wondered.
“It doesn’t really suit you,” she said.
They were tough critics. It seemed the safari style looked odd to the residents of Do-Melta.
“Anyway, let’s go outside,” I suggested.
“Yeah! Let’s go! I can’t wait!” she replied enthusiastically.
We were about to leave the room, but then I realized something.
“Oh, one sec, El,” I said.
“Hmm? What’s up?”
“Uh, that thing on your back...”
“My sword? What about it?” she asked.
“Well, I was hoping you’d leave it in my room.”
“Huh? But what if we run into trouble?”
“Don’t worry, that rarely ever happens,” I said.
“Hmm... Okay,” she said hesitantly.
Despite that, she kept glancing over at her sword. Maybe she was feeling reluctant, or she was feeling anxious going to an unknown place without her trusty weapon.
“You know, maybe I should bring it after all? We never know what’ll happen,” she said.
“Nope. The police will arrest you if you walk around with a weapon. Well, they’d probably let you go because you’re a minor, but the whole day would still be wasted.”
“I see,” she said, visibly disappointed. She really was easy to read.
“Besides, if we do get in trouble, you still have your claws,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, but I prefer my sword,” she said.
The sword presumably had much higher firepower. But she had that crazy special technique called the Woof Buster, which she’d used a while back, so it wasn’t as if she’d even need her sword. Anyone she’d encounter in Japan would be reduced to dust with one hit of that attack—which meant I couldn’t have her using it here.
Eldrid kept glancing back behind her until we left my house.
First things first, we needed to get some breakfast. Come to think of it, neither of us had eaten this morning, so we definitely needed to get some food in our stomachs. I’d treated Scrael to an unagi bowl, but I wasn’t sure what to get for Eldrid. It would’ve been ideal if there was a place that served braised pork on a Sunday morning, but since there wasn’t, I figured I’d take her to some chain restaurant.
Eldrid made low surprised noises at the cityscape and cars driving by, then her expression grew intense.
“Akira,” she said.
“Yeah? What’s up?”
“What kind of dungeon is that?”
I said nothing. This was my second time being asked that here, so I knew what she was talking about without even looking. Everyone from the other world seemed to assume the entrance to the subway was a dungeon entrance. I mean, we’d technically be diving underground through there, but still.
“And no one’s even carrying weapons!” Eldrid went on. She really thought people were going down there to fistfight.
“El, El. That isn’t a dungeon,” I explained.
“Really? But everyone’s in a rush, and they have this intense look like they’re going into battle.”
“I guess they’re heading into a battlefield of sorts, especially because it’s the weekend.”
It was Sunday, yet some people were heading to work wearing suits. I really couldn’t blame them for looking so frantic. Adulting seemed hard—and scary.
Anyway, we moved on and found a burger shop nearby.
“Oh? Sandwiches?” asked Eldrid.
“Hmm? Those are burgers,” I said.
“But it’s stuff between two pieces of bread, right?”
“Yeah, but...”
I wondered if there was something lost in translation. Hamburg steaks supposedly originated in Hamburg, and it inspired hamburgers in America. Meanwhile, there were theories that the word “sandwich” could be traced back to the name of some earl or city. Hamburgers were patties between pieces of bread, which could be considered a type of sandwich. Maybe I’d look into it later. I had the power of Google and Yahoo backing me, so I could look it up with ease.
I decided to have Eldrid sit and wait while I went to buy some food.
“Oh yeah, are these chairs okay for you?” I asked.
“You mean my tail, right? Yeah, no problem,” she said.
“Yeah. I was wondering if certain types of chairs were uncomfortable for you.”
“Some can be, yeah, but I just need to move my tail toward the side by my leg like this.”
I’d assumed a stool would be more comfortable for her, but she seemed to be fine.
As I left to order, I suddenly felt a strange sense of déjà vu.
“Wait... Didn’t something like this happen before?” I wondered aloud.
I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but I faintly remembered having left someone behind just like this while ordering food.
While I was ordering a few burgers, I heard a couple of guys trying to flirt over where Eldrid was sitting.
“Hey girl, you alone?”
“Wanna get some tea with us?”
By the time I remembered, it was too late. Eldrid was getting hit on. What kind of pickup line was that, anyway? I would’ve expected them to ask her to hang out with them or go somewhere quiet to talk or something. Maybe they needed to get some tips from a real pickup artist. Anyway, Eldrid wasn’t Scrael, so I figured it’d be fine. I kept glancing back while paying for the food and found her ignoring them as if they didn’t exist. The two guys were gesturing with their hands and talking her ear off, but she just looked annoyed with her chin resting in her hand. I could see her irritation in how she was tapping the table with her finger. It was actually painful to watch. I had to get over there and end this.