Chapter 2: Shopping with Sakura

“Oh, pardon my rudeness. Allow me to formally introduce myself. I am Terra” the winged woman said, turning to reveal her face, which had a pair of glowing red eyes. “Pleasure to meet you.”

“Uh, pleasure to meet you too. I guess.” Akira stuttered in surprise. “How exactly do you know my name? And where the heck am I?”

“Do not worry, for I know all there is in this world, and many other worlds as well. I know who you are, who those lovely girls you’ve met are, where they’re from, but the one thing I know not is what will come in the future. The future is always uncertain, but its course can be altered. That’s why I know that choosing you was the right choice.”

“I’m sorry, choosing me? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’m afraid I can’t tell you, for it may alter the future for the worse. However, you did ask where this place is. We are currently in my home, the Realm of the Goddess. This is a place that few may enter, once they have received my blessing of course. Quite a lovely little place, isn’t it?”

“I mean, I guess the flowers ARE pretty. Look, I was in the middle of a really nice dream where I got sent into my favorite anime, and I was fighting inside this really cool purple robot, so if you aren’t going to tell me anything important, I’d like to get back to that now.”

“Fair enough, but before you depart, allow me to leave you with a piece of advice. In order to create a better future for those around you, you must change your current lifestyle.”

“Huh? Change my lifestyle? How exactly do I do that?”

“Perhaps taking the advice of others to heart may help lead you in the right direction. Paper will be of utmost importance to you, so learn how to use it for your own personal gain. I suppose I could tell you this in a more straightforward way, but I like to keep a bit of mystery.”

The Goddess laughed to herself.

“Well then, I shall see you another time. Farewell for now.”

Just before being sent back to sleep, Akira noticed that the Goddess had been holding something this entire time. It was the purple orb that he found earlier that day. Before he was able to think much of it, he was back to his dreams.

The next morning, Akira was awoken by a knocking at his bedroom door. The door slid open to reveal Sakura, still wearing the shirt she borrowed the previous night, and her hair still in a single ponytail.

“Good morning! I hope you slept well. The other girls are already awake and eating. Oh, I forgot to mention, I made breakfast with what little food I could manage to find in your fridge. Please come to the kitchen when you’re ready to eat!”

Just as quickly as she appeared, Sakura had vanished back to the kitchen where the other maids were enjoying their meal.

After slipping back into his hoodie, Akira headed into the kitchen to find everyone sitting and chatting while eating their breakfast, except Lysia who was busy feeding pancakes to BunBun, who really seemed to enjoy them. Akira sat down next to Sakura and started to eat his breakfast, which consisted of pancakes, eggs, and a glass of water. It wasn’t much, but it sure did taste good.

“So, you told me we’d go out together today. N-not like, on a date or anything, but to go shopping! Remember?” stammered Sakura, embarrassed at how she had phrased her words.

“Mph, yeah, I remember that. Lemme finish this first. It’s really good.” mumbled Akira through his mouthful of fluffy pancakes.

“Now girls, do you all have your lists ready?” Sakura asked the group of maids.

“Yes ma’am.” they all replied in tandem.

“List?” For what?” Akira asked while rinsing his plate off in the sink.

“I’ve asked each one of them to make me a list with the type and color of clothing they’d like to have. I’ve also limited their choice to one outfit each, since you don’t have very much money.”

“Hey, I have money! I just don't spend it on the most important things. A-anyway, shouldn’t we get going soon?”

“Sure, I’ll just go raid your closet for a change of clothes. Be back in a bit!”

Sakura cheerfully made her way to Akira’s room. Akira sat for a few seconds and thought about what she said.

“Hey wait! Didn’t I say NOT to open the closet in there?!”

When Akira got to his room, Sakura was standing with the closet door open, looking through shirts to see which one would fit her.

“Hello? Don’t open the closet. That ring any bells?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot. I don’t see anything in here worth hiding though. Let’s see, clothes, some more clothes, and a bunch of figurines of those anime characters you were showing Amari yesterday. See? Nothing to hide.”

Akira was embarrassed at a cute girl he just met finding his figure collection, but she didn’t seem to care about it. Now as long as she didn’t find his personal manga collection, he’d be fine.

“Here! How do I look?” Sakura asked, twirling around like a ballerina in a tee-shirt she found that had an old school gaming controller on it and a pair of black sweatpants.

“Cute, now let’s go. I don’t wanna be looking at clothes all day. A new figure preorder drops tonight and I just HAVE to get it.”

The pair left the others behind, leaving Willow in charge to look after the place.

After a short trip on the train and a bit of walking, they finally reached the clothing store, a fancy looking place full of expensive looking clothes.

“Yeah, I don’t really think I belong in a place like this. Everything looks so expensive.”

“How much did you spend on those figures you have in your closet?”

Akira stared at Sakura for a moment.

“So anyway, let’s start looking for the clothes on the list. Who’s up first?

“That doesn’t answer the question, but ok. Let’s see, first up, let’s look for my clothes, since I’m the one here.”

Akira sat in front of the changing rooms while Sakura tried on clothes. She’d then go through the lists and change her appearance to that of the other maids while trying on the clothes each one had on their list. She’d change her appearance to Willow while trying on the types of clothes on Willow’s list, change to Rose while trying on the types of clothes on her list, and so on.

“You know, it’s great that you can do this kind of thing, but I really don’t think you should use your powers out in public.”

“How come? Are my powers a bad thing?”

“No no, it’s just, nobody in this world has magical superpowers like you, so if they saw you using them, there’s no telling what they’d do to you or the others. I just don’t want any of you getting hurt is all.”

Akira blushed with nervousness, and Sakura had a glint in her eyes.

“Alright, those are all of the clothes we need, now to go pay.”

“Goodbye wallet. I knew you well.” Akira said in a monotone voice.

After purchasing all of the clothes, and severely crippling Akira’s wallet, the pair headed back onto the streets to look around town. There were all sorts of buildings, ranging from convenience stores, clothing shops, restaurants, hobby stores, this place had everything. There was a large crossing in the road that was world famous, many tall towers, and many cafes.

“Hey, there’s somewhere I wanna go check out. It’ll be another train ride to get there though, so I hope you don’t mind.”

“Nope! Not at all. As long as I’m with you, I’m willing to go anywhere.”

After about a thirty minute train ride, the two had entered an area unlike any other. There were many arcades full of crane games, buildings dedicated to anime and manga, and plenty of hobby shops full of plastic model kits.

“Well, we’re here. This place is definitely one of my favorites. Look over there! That’s the arcade where I won my favorite anime plushie, the penguin one. Oh, and over there is hands down my favorite figure store. They sell second-hand figures, so they’re all at reasonable prices, and they’re usually in almost perfect condition too. Ah, and we can’t forget that donut shop right there. I heard about it in an anime once. They have this really good golden something-or-other donut, but every time I’ve gone, they’ve been sold out.”

“Wow, you really seem to like this place.”

Akira’s eyes appeared to have stars in them, glimmering in the sunlight. He was in his own personal heaven, and nothing would be able to keep him from having a good time.

“I know! How about we go check out the arcade. I’ll teach you how to play crane games.”

“Sure! I don’t know what that means, but ok!”

The two entered a giant building that consisted of many rows of crane games, some with plushies, and others with figures. Some even had packaged food in them, although they didn’t pay much attention to those.

“Hey, isn’t this one of those girls I saw in your closet? The one with orange hair?”

“Yes, but don’t say it like that. People might get the wrong idea.”

“Oops, my bad. Hey! Look at that one! It’s a super cute cat plushie! Can we try to win one, pretty please?” Sakura begged while looking at Akira with a pouting face, not too dissimilar to that of a dog asking for treats.

“Ah, so you’ve started to see the wonder of this place too, I see. Very well. Let us win a cat!” Akira said, striking a goofy pose like some sort of knight leading an army into battle.

The two spent ten whole minutes trying to win a single cat plushie. In the end, they won it, but for double the price it would have cost them at a nearby reseller.

“That was so fun! We HAVE to bring Lysia here some time. I’m sure she’d love it.”

“I’m sure she would.” A low growling sound emanated from Akira’s abdomen. “Man, I’m starving, but I’ve gotta save what little money I have left for that new figure I want. I’ve been waiting for three months to snag a preorder for it.”

“Where DO you get this money from anyway? I thought you didn’t have a job.”

“I don’t. Well, not really. Sometimes I can manage to sell a drawing or two, but it’s usually just me getting an allowance from my parents and rent money from my grandma. Oh, and sometimes I sell a few rare trading cards from my collection when there’s something I REALLY want.”

“Wouldn’t getting a job be easier? Then you wouldn’t have to rely on other people, and you wouldn’t have to get rid of your collection either.”

Sakura brought up a good point, but Akira had heard it all before.

“Yeah yeah, I know. That’s what everyone tells me. Sure, I could get a job somewhere and not worry about going broke, but then I wouldn’t have enough time to myself to watch anime or play video games.”

“Have you ever considered getting a job where you can do both?”

“Easier said than done. The industry is a tough one to get into. I’m not confident enough in my drawing skills to draw anime frames, I could barely make it as a colorist, and don’t even get me started on something like sculpting figures. Those people are on a completely different skill level that I could never even dream of achieving. I have nothing but respect for all of those people.”

“What about writing manga?”

“I thought about it before, but I don’t even know how I’d get published, other than by sheer luck.”

“How about making your own video game?”

“Tried it a few times already. Tons of files sitting on my desktop collecting virtual dust from abandoned game projects. I’ve got 3D models, pixel art, concept drawings, sound effects, all of it. The one thing I don’t have is code for a game. I have no experience with that at all, and it’s too confusing to try learning.”

“Well, I guess if there isn’t really anything you can do, and you aren’t hurting anyone, then there’s nothing wrong with your current lifestyle.”

The two were nearing a fast food place to eat a cheap and quick meal.

“Sure, from my perspective, things are great. I sit at home all day and do basically nothing. I get to enjoy my hobbies, and I don’t have to work. From someone else’s perspective though, I'm just a NEET who doesn’t have a job, any friends, or a social life. They see me as some sort of failure, just sitting in my room all day, rotting away in front of a computer screen. I’ve done nothing productive with my life except graduate high school.”

The pair entered the fast food restaurant, ordered some chicken nuggets, and sat down at a table in the corner.

“Well, what do you want to accomplish with your life then? You know, so people don’t see you as a supposed failure.”

Akira sat in silence thinking for a moment before answering.

“I wanna contribute something creative to the world. I want to be able to entertain people. I want to have made something that people can read or watch and be able to laugh at, to cry at, to really resonate with in some way on a personal level. I’d like to really connect with people who enjoy what I do and encourage me to keep going, to do what I love and am passionate about.”

“Then why not start now? There’s no reason not to start now and see where life takes you. So, why haven’t you?”

“Even if I did do what I want to do, there’s no guarantee anybody would see it, let alone enjoy it. I don’t really have many friends, and I don’t have any sort of fame to be able to promote my work either. If I made something really near and dear to me, I'd probably be the only person who’d see it. Well, except for maybe one other person.”

“Yeah? Who would that be?”

“My mom. I don’t know how she does it, but she always somehow manages to find what I’ve been working on. Kinda scary to think about sometimes.”

“I’ve never heard you talk about your mom before. I mean, I’ve only known you for about a day, but who cares. Where is she anyway?”

“Somewhere far away. An entirely different country to be exact. I moved away from my hometown when I was twenty. I came here in hopes of pursuing my dreams, but I ended up never waking up from them.”

“Oh. I see.”

Akira and Sakura both ate their meals in mostly silence, save for the occasional chewing noises.

After picking up some groceries for the week, mostly picked by Sakura, the two went back home.

“We’re back everyone!” announced Sakura.

“Miss Sakura! Did you buy the thingy I wanted? Did ya?!” asked Lysia, while anxiously hopping up and down in place, BunBun imitating her.

“Yes, of course I did. It’s in one of these bags somewhere. Everyone, your new outfits are in these bags. Your lists are also in there so you don’t forget anything. I’ll have to wash them first, but they should be ready by tomorrow.”

“Thank you Sakura. We all appreciate you going in our place.” Willow said while bowing.

“No problem. Speaking of appreciation, thanks for looking after everyone today. Nobody gave you any trouble I hope?”

Willow’s face seemed to give a slight twitch for a moment.

“Of course not! Everything here went perfectly fine. Nobody caused any problems for me. It was quite an easy afternoon for me in fact.”

“Hey, aren’t we gonna tell her about the-” Yuri whispered to Rose before getting elbowed in the side by her to stop her from saying anything else.

“Shut it! We were told not to say anything, remember?” snapped Rose in a quiet but angry voice.

Yuri’s face turned a bright red.

“Sorry!” she whispered.

“What are you two talking about back there?” asked Willow in a slow voice while slowly turning to face the girls.

Willow’s gaze struck pure fear into the hearts of Yuri and Rose, sending shocks and chills coursing through their entire bodies.

“N-Nothing! I was just telling Yuri to stop being such an idiot is all” stammered Rose.

“Ah, I see. That’s good to hear.” Willow said, her piercing gaze returning to her usual friendly one.

Rose and Yuri let out a deep sigh of relief.

Lysia skipped over to Akira and tugged on his shirt to get his attention.

“Mister Akira, why do you look so sad?”

“Huh? I’m not sad, this is just how I usually look.”

“Well look happier! Look, BunBun wants you to be happy too!”

Lysia held BunBun up to Akira. BunBun smiled, in its own strange way.

“Alright alright, I’ll try to look happier, just for you two.” Akira said laughing, putting his hand on top of Lysia’s head and ruffling her hair a bit.

Akira looked around and noticed someone was missing.

“Hey, where’s Amari?”

“Oh, yes, she said something about looking for more manga to read. She should be in your room.” replied Willow.

“Oh great, I just love having girls rummage through my room while I’m gone.” he replied sarcastically.

“Please, you’re probably just happy to finally have a girl in your room at all.” teased Rose.

“Ha ha, very funny. I’ll be back.”

Akira went back to his room and sure enough, Amari was there sitting on the floor with her legs crossed, sifting through a stack of manga.

“Oh! H-hello… I didn’t expect you to be back yet. S-sorry for looking through your stuff without asking first.”

“Don’t worry about it. At least I have someone else I can talk to about this otaku stuff without being made fun of.”

“Mhm! I just finished the manga about the guy who got sent into another world.”

“Do you have any idea how little that narrows it down?”

“You mean there are a bunch of manga where guys get hit by trucks that send them into magical worlds with cute girls and demon kings?”

“Well, yeah. That’s kinda just a THING that manga does. It’s sort of its own genre by now. Magic, demon kings, cute girls, and trucks are all commonplace in those sorts of manga. That’s why I like the ones that have dudes who go to other worlds through different ways.”

“If it isn’t too much to ask, I want to go to a bookstore some time.”

“Oh yeah, I did say I’d take you to one, didn’t I? Well, alright then. You’ll have to wait a while so I can get some money saved up just for you. If we’re gonna build you up a manga collection, we’re gonna do it right. Can you wait just a few more days?”

“Sure! I’m not used to having people do nice things for me, so I can wait a few days.”

Amari was smiling again. It seems as though she’d always been the one nobody ever saw or paid any attention to, even when she wasn’t invisible. Perhaps her power manifested because of how other people viewed her, or in her case, didn’t view her.

“I’m gonna go finish reading the one with the skeleton guy!”

“You do that.”

Amari went back to the living room to read. Akira got on his computer and started looking at the upcoming figure pre orders he had been impatiently waiting for. There were some figures he was waiting to buy after he moved out, but now that he had the girls living with him for what seemed like the near future, he thought it best to hold off a bit longer on those.

*knock knock knock*

“Come in.”

It was Sakura. She had brought Akira a can of soda. She herself had a cup of green tea and sat down on the side of Akira’s bed.

“Whatcha doing?”

“Looking at figures. Glad you came in here instead of Lysia. She doesn’t need to see these sorts of things.”

“Oh, you mean like that big pillow cover with the cute anime girl you have under your bed?”

Akira choked on his mouthful of soda.

“I’m sorry, the what now?”

Sakura laughed.

“I’m kidding, I haven’t looked under your bed.” Her expression changed to a cunning one. “Or have I?” She questioned.

“I would sure hope you didn’t. You didn't… right?”

“Of course not. For real this time. Anyway, Amari seemed happy. That’s pretty rare for her. Did you tell her something that would make her happy?”

“Yeah, I told her I’d take her book shopping in a few days. Speaking of, I have something important to do tomorrow, but there’s no way I’m gonna go alone. This task is a grueling one, and I’m gonna need some help doing it. Care to help? I’ll treat you to coffee at a really nice cafe.”

“Sure! I don’t mind going out with you. I’ll ask Willow to hold down the fort again.”

“Alright, I’m counting on you Sakura. Thanks for agreeing to help out.”

“So, what is it you need to do anyway?”

Akira pulled out a large binder. It was full of trading cards. They were all super shiny and metallic looking.

“I’ve got a bunch of cards to sell to people tomorrow. They agreed to meet up at a park, not far from where we bought clothes today.”

“You’re selling these cards to people? Aren’t these an important part of your collection though?”

“Nah, I don’t really have any attachment to these ones. Besides, my main personal collection is the one with my favorite monster, which is separate from these.”

“I see. What’s the money gonna be for?”

“Secret.”

“Come on, can’t you tell me?”

“Nope.”

“Is it a figure?”

“Nuh uh.”

“You sure it isn’t a figure?”

“Positive.”

“Is it for a girl?”

“Perhaps.”

“Can you give me an answer that’s more than one word?”

“All signs point to no.”

“Alright, you win. Don’t tell me.”

Sakura folded her arms and made a pouting face.

“Alright, I’ll tell you.”

“No, I don’t wanna know anymore.”

“You sure seemed like you did just a few seconds ago.”

“Well I changed my mind.”

“Alright, I’ll go tell someone else instead.”

“No! Tell me tell me tell me! Pleaaaase?”

“Alright, but it’s nothing special. I’m selling some cards so I can buy Amari her own manga collection.”

“That’s it? You made me do all that pouting for that?”

“Well, there is one other thing, but that one IS a secret. Don’t worry though, I can tell you soon. I just can’t say anything right now. Well, I CAN, but I don’t want to. Gotta leave you in suspense.”

“Fair enough. I’ll allow it this time, but only because it’s you.”

“Cool. So anyway, what was up with Willow earlier?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it’s just the way that she looked at Rose and Yuri. It was as if her eyes were slicing through them like a knife.”

“Really? I didn’t notice that at all.”

“You’re kidding right? There’s no way you couldn’t have seen it. That woman has looks that can kill, and I don’t just mean her beauty.”

Sakura looked jealous when he said that.

“Man, now I really wanna know what happened here while we were gone. Nobody has spoken a word about what happened here, which seems awfully suspicious to me.”

“Well, why don’t you go ask then? I don’t know because I was out with you all day, but someone else should know.”

“I guess, but Rose doesn’t seem to like me, Yuri probably forgot by now considering how often she’s hit her head so far, Willow would probably stare into my soul if I asked her, Lysia might not know at all, Amari would probably be too nervous to tell me, and BunBun just can’t speak at all. So, it looks like we’ll never know.”

Akira took a sip from his soda can that Sakura brought him, while she took a sip of her tea.

“Hey, this is completely off topic, but I wanted to ask, why do you only seem to drink soda?”

“Blame my grandma. I used to visit her all the time when I was living back home, and she’d always buy me soda to drink while I was there. I sort of got used to drinking it all the time. Really helped out when I needed to pull an all-nighter while working on a project or something.”

“So it’s your grandma's fault?”

“Nah, not really. It’s really my fault for telling her to keep buying it. It’s pretty unhealthy, but when has that ever stopped me?”

“Your grandma sounds nice.”

“Yeah, she is. Maybe someday, we can all take a trip back to my hometown and you can meet my family.”

“Are they all as weird as you are?” Sakura teased.

“Nope, they’re all even weirder, so you better be prepared for it.” Akira teased back.

“Well, I’ll leave you alone for tonight. I have to finish cleaning the new clothes for the girls anyway. I’ll be ready for our trip tomorrow. Night!”

“Night.”

Sakura left the room.

Akira began flipping through his binder of cards. With every flip of the page, a wave of nostalgia rushed over him.

He remembered when he got a rare card from a special event, or when he got one for his birthday. He reminisced on the times he opened cards with his brothers.

Some of these cards held a nostalgic memory with them, while others he saw purely as a means to monetary gain.

After a long day of being out and about with Sakura, Akira was more than ready to go to bed. He threw himself under the covers and began to doze off. He thought about his plans with Sakura for the following day. He saw visions of what he would do with the money. Through all of it though, one question kept creeping its way back into his mind.

What had gone on with Willow and the others while he and Sakura were out for the day?