Chapter 6:

Mail for the Lemon Quartet

Former Magical Girls and their Daily Lives


Megumi woke up to the alarm clock, but she didn't get up or even open her eyes because she expected that someone else will turn it off, which did happen. However, she wasn't allowed to sleep for longer.

"Hey," Kasumi said, "Wake up." She gently shook her. "It's morning."

"Five more minutes..." Megumi said.

"Ugh. Get up. I can't make my futon with you in it."

"No."

Megumi heard a sigh and footsteps that walked away from her. She took a pillow and shoved it into her own face. She heard a curtain open, and the heat from the sunlight touched her hands.

"C'mon. Get up."

She didn't respond to that statement.

Kasumi must've given up because she said:

"Risa, what are we eating today?"

"Well... I guess the leftovers are the only option. You really made too much food yesterday, Megumi."

Megumi dug her face into her pillow.

"You're the one who pressured her into making that much."

"What? No, we had to cook all of that food."

"Fine. Let's get the leftovers."

Kasumi and Risa went to the kitchen.

Yuri was changing in the bathroom when she heard a knock at the front door. She walked out of the bathroom and opened the door. There stood a man in a dark suit. In reality, you couldn't really see any part of the man. He wore a mask, a hat, and two gloves, and his suit and leather shoes didn't reveal any part of his body.

Yuri stared at him without greeting him to see what the man had to say.

...

No one said anything.

The man pulled an envelope out of his jacket pocket and handed it to her. She took it, and the man tipped his hat and waddled away.

She closed the door and looked at the envelope. It said 'monthly money' on the back, but it was in English, and she didn't know any English, so it was Greek to her.

"Where are all the leftovers?!" exclaimed Risa after she opened the fridge and found it empty.

"How could this happen?" said Kasumi. "I didn't eat it."

"I didn't eat it either!"

Megumi was playing dead in her futon in the other room, overhearing everything that was going on.

"No one can eat that much! Yuri, did you do anything?"

"No."

"The only person left is Megumi then. Megumi, how did you do it?"

"I'm asleep!" Megumi replied.

"No, you are not! Get over here!"

Megumi decided that there wasn't anything left to do other than to run. She started to book it to the front door, which was only a few meters away from the futon.

"Don't think you can get away from me!" exclaimed Kasumi. She picked up a pillow and pitched it at Megumi, knocking her out instantly.

Megumi was passed out on the floor for the second time in 12 hours.

"Okay, we figured out who did it," Kasumi said, "What do you have there, Yuri?"

"Envelope."

"Let's open it then."

They ripped it open and found a pair of extra-large tightie-whities.

"What?"

Someone knocked at the door again. The three girls ran to open it, avoiding stepping on Megumi's body. This time the man wasn't there, but there was a normal mailman.

"Mail for the Lemon Quartet?"

"Yeah, that's us," Kasumi said.

"And I'm assuming that she's the fourth one?" he said, pointing at Megumi's body on the floor.

"We don't talk about the fourth one." Kasumi took the envelope from the mailman and closed the door.

"Okay, let's see what's in here," Kasumi said, ripping open the envelope. She pulled out a stack of 10,000 yen bills.

"Is that real? Who's it from?" Risa said.

"Welper, Inc," read Yuri.

"Do they really expect people to not figure out who they are?" Kasumi said, "They literally just changed the first letter in their name to 'W'."

"I mean, it does mean something else. So, the only people who would question it would be people who already know about them." Risa said, "Hey, look. There's a note attached."

The note read, "Dear Lemon Quartet, this small amount of cash is a monthly thank you package for your service. We hope that this is sufficient to survive in any part in the world. The amount of money in your possession is 1 million yen. Thank you."

"A million?" Risa said.

Kasumi held the stack of cash in her hand and looked at it. What could you do with a million yen? She looked behind her to see the passed out Megumi. There wasn't time now.

"Is there a place to put this?"

"Here." Yuri held up an empty shoebox.

"That seems good." Kasumi put in the money in there. "Let's figure this out later. We have school."

"Okay." Both girls said.

Kasumi went to Megumi and shook her awake.

"Wake up. We need to eat breakfast."

Megumi woke up with drool on her face.

"Yeah, what's for breakfast? Did I make it?" She looked at her own swollen hands.

"You ate everything in the fridge."

"Oh, right. Sorry about that."

"We have to go to WcDonald's. That means we have to go on an earlier train. That means that we are leaving in 15 minutes. I'll be honest. You stink. You should take a bath, but we don't have enough time. So, you have to suck it up and take a cold shower if you want to remove that stink you got from cooking yesterday."

Cold shower it is. Megumi nearly froze to death in the shower. Cold water in their house apparently meant that you couldn't heat the water at all. The water was as cold as the ice you could sell to an Eskimo. It was a great start to a productive day. Weird thing to do.

Does a cold shower make you more productive? That's something that self-help gurus claim all of the time. It's like you become a working machine by stepping over a hurdle the first thing in the morning. Megumi doubted that's how it worked. Being productive won't suddenly manifest by doing one task. It might help, but you are missing the bigger picture. What if you are lazy like Megumi? Jumping over hurdles seems easy, but it's not a magic trick. You can't just do one thing. She guessed it was a little habit that nudged you into doing more, but that didn't seem like how most things worked. Your habits won't change because of a single habit in the morning. Cold showers aren't even that bad. It can feel pretty good once you are used to it. It's like saying making your bed will fix everything. The rest of your room is still a mess. How will that help with any-

"Megumi! Get out! We are going to be late!" Kasumi yelled through the door.

"I'm hurrying!" Megumi shut off the water and threw on her school uniform. She grabbed the nearest hairbrush and shoved it into her backpack. She stumbled out of the bathroom and ran out of the front door successfully.

Kasumi was wondering why she heard the front door slam. She ran to the front door and saw that Megumi was walking back to the house with her head down.

"I don't know where the train station is."

"That's fine. Just wait for us. We will be out soon."

Parsatag
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