A Friend from Home

Satoru’s phone had no mercy.

From 7:00 a.m., it had been ringing nonstop, no matter how many times the Japanese boy turned it off.

He swore he hadn’t set the alarm for that morning, so why did it keep ringing so persistently?

“That’s it! Turn it off, Satoru!” Miho emerged from her room, throwing her pillow at her brother’s face.

“Omph,” the attacked teen gasped. Once he threw the pillow off his face, he responded, “Okay, okay! Jeez…”

Apparently, right after his sister, Silke also decided to appear in the main room, barely awake, muttering, “Was ist los?”

“I don’t know what the hell is wrong with this alarm going off so often,” Satoru murmured, mostly to himself as he went through his smartphone’s clock app. But to his surprise, there were no alarms set. “What the—?” Then he realized something as he scrolled all the way to the call list.

There were eleven unanswered calls from—

“Madoka!?”

“Huh? What about Madoka-chan?” Miho perked up at the mention of the name.

“She’s been calling me since 6 a.m. Do you think it could be something serious?” Now the black-haired boy slowly started to feel guilty. He shouldn’t have ignored his phone for so long, no matter how tired he was. He should have realized that the ringtone and the alarm sound were completely different.

He quickly tapped Madoka’s number on the phone screen and called her without a second thought.

The wait for an answer was nonexistent, as the call was answered almost immediately.

“Finally! I thought you would never pick up your phone!”

The girl on the other end of the call didn’t sound distressed, which calmed Satoru a little. Still, he needed to make sure everything was okay. “Did something happen? You called me a lot. Sorry I didn’t answer right away—I thought it was my alarm clock.”

“You were… worried about me?”

“Of course I was, you dummy! Why wouldn’t I be?”

Morita Madoka had been in Satoru’s life since birth—quite literally. Their mothers had even lain next to each other in the same hospital room, both going into labor within the same week. The distance between them hadn’t increased much afterward either. The Moritas and the Kimuras were neighbors, and to tie them even closer together, fate had ensured that Madoka and Satoru always ended up in the same class, even since kindergarten.

“Oh… Well, nothing happened, really. I just got a bit overexcited, I guess… Hehe~”

“Hehe~ my ass! You woke us all up because you were excited? About what?!”

“Oh, right!” The voice on the other end of the phone chimed. “I wanted to ask for your apartment’s address!”

“...You’ve lived next to us your whole life, what do you—?”

“Not in Japan, you dummy! Here, in Germany, Dumboru!” Madoka cut him off.

And of course she had to use that stupid nickname for him as well…

“Wha—? You’re not making any sense. What do you mean by ‘here in Germany’?”

“You see…” she continued mysteriously, only to suddenly shout the next part so loud that Satoru had to pull his ear away from his phone. “I am in München as well!”

It took the Japanese boy a while to process the words he had just heard.

“You’re here? In München?”

“Yup.”

He looked around the room, still processing. Silke looked completely confused—maybe a bit intrigued—while Miho sat at the table, casually munching on a sandwich she had managed to make for herself in the meantime, probably enjoying the show her brother was putting on with his reactions.

“Okay,” Satoru paused for a moment. “Why, though?”

“Ugh… Just give me the address. I’ll tell you then.”

Always so demanding, that Madoka…

“Fine, I’ll send it through a message.”

“Okay! See you soon, then!” she chuckled, and the call ended.

“So…” Miho started, not even trying to hide her raging curiosity. “What was all that about?”

Satoru sighed as he tousled his hair carelessly. “Long story short, Madoka, for some reason, is here in Germany, and she’s coming over, I guess? Crap, I should have been the one to go to her, shouldn’t I?”

“Nah, it’s Madoka-chan. She’ll be fine. Anyone would be scared to mess with her on the streets.”

It was true—despite his childhood friend looking like the classic gentle and fragile Japanese beauty, her personality was quite brutish.

Only then did the Japanese boy realize that, this entire time, his German friend still looked confused. “Oi, Miho, can you explain the situation to Silke? I don’t know when Madoka will arrive, but I don’t want her to feel even more lost.”

“How caring of you~” Miho teased, making Satoru blush. But he decided not to take the bait.

“Sure, sure. You want me to tell her your girlfriend is coming over, or—”

“Don’t even joke like that! You know she’s just my friend! A nagging sister at most!”

“Fine, fine~”

Looking at Silke’s reaction, it seemed like Miho hadn’t added anything suspicious to the explanation. But just in case, after his sister finished speaking in German and the blonde girl nodded in understanding, Satoru added, “Madoka is like Carina to the Hero in Rainbow Sun—to me.”

He thought that putting it in terms of their favorite game would make it clear. Carina was one of the first characters to appear in the story, the protagonist’s childhood friend. You could have her as a party member, but she was rather weak, so most players stopped using her after the tutorial phase.

Then again, if you kept her in your party the entire time, there was a hidden possibility to unlock a secret ending where she became the protagonist’s love interest. Not many gamers knew about it, so he hoped Silke didn’t either and wouldn’t interpret it the wrong way.

By her reaction, he wasn’t sure. It was hard to tell what was going through her mind.

Maybe he shouldn’t have added that…

He couldn’t dwell on it any longer, as the doorbell rang, which could only mean one thing—Madoka had arrived. But before Satoru could react, his sister was already at the door, opening it for his half-unexpected guest.

“Long time no see, Madoka-chan! Look at you! You’re starting to look more like a woman than a girl!”

“Miho!” The girl with long, dark brown hair hugged Satoru’s sister. “It’s not the same without you in Tokyo! I missed you.”

“How sweet. But I guess you didn’t come here to see me, did you now?” Miho wiggled her eyebrows, causing the younger girl’s cheeks to turn slightly pink.

“Okay, stop making it weird, Miho,” Satoru intervened before his sister could make the situation awkward. “Hi, Madoka. I didn’t expect to see you until the end of our summer break. Like, literally.”

“I wanted to surprise you, and that’s how you react?” Madoka pouted angrily while walking toward him, only to hit his arm with her fist.

“Ouch! Maybe that’s why I react like that! You brute!”

“Now, now, kids, play nice!” Miho cut into their banter while trotting behind Silke to put her hands on the German girl’s shoulders. “There’s one more person you gotta greet, Madoka! This is Silke—she’s living with us for the entire summer!”

“H-Hallo!” the blonde girl awkwardly waved her hand.

Satoru had never seen her so lost in a social interaction. Maybe it was because they were within the safe space of their apartment. None of them—including Miho—had ever brought a guest over, so it must have been a bit uncomfortable, especially when announced so suddenly.

“Hallo,” Madoka responded just as awkwardly before turning back to face Satoru. Her left eyebrow raised high.

“You’ve been living with a girl, huh?”

Well, if this wasn’t a fantastic reunion…