Reality

—That’s horrible! —yelled Mirena.

—You wanted a lie, didn’t you? Say the lie, or grab another brand of milk.

Ken was pretty sure Mirena was going to give up and get another brand. But he underestimated her stubbornness. She was kind and hated to lie, but she would hate to go back home without having completed her mission with 100% of effectiveness more.

—Excuse me… —said to the woman.

—You again?

Mirena took a deep breath and started, even when her ethic was telling her to stop.

—My younger brother has a bone disease, and that kind of milk really helps him in the treatment…

—Oh my god, I didn’t know that. I’m sorry sweety; sure, you can take it.

As expected from Ken, the lie was a success. The mission was almost completed. But the price to pay was too big.

—She even called me sweety, and I lied to her! —She lamented once she was in the line.

­—I told you, any brand would have been fine.

—I feel so baaad… Oh shit, the timer! —She remembered suddenly the fact that she was against the clock. But even if she wanted, she couldn’t wait faster.

The lines in front of the other box seemed faster, so she switched to another one. But just when she did, that line became slower. The same old woman that was on the refrigerator was the first in her line, and she was taking all her time to take the products out of her cart.

On the other hand, the line she was before moved faster.

—Oh, come on! —One of the universal laws of the supermarkets: the queue you are in will always move slower than the others—. Argh, god dammit.

—Where did you learn insults from? —asked Ken, still pending of everything on the other side—. If I remember correctly, in Sekaunmei nobody says anything like that. Just “bastard” or “insect”, at most.

—I don’t know. I think I heard them when I was walking through the street.

—So just a few hours are enough to learn insults? That really says a lot about our society.

After a few minutes, Mirena finally could pay. The bills system was new, but nothing hard to understand. However, there were only two minutes left in his mental chronometer.

She went out holding the plastic bags with one hand. They were heavy, at least according to the standards of a regular human, but for Mirena they were nothing. In the other hand, she had the cellphone. She was ready to run with all her energies, but then Ken said:

—Since you are there, wouldn’t you go to the pharmacy and buy some medicine?

—What? What about the milk and the other things?

—Oh, it’s okay. It’s not like we need to put them in the fridge immediately. You have time.

—Then I rushed for nothing… —She felt a tad stupid, but then shrugged her shoulders and continued with her mission.

Indeed, the pharmacy was really close. Once there, Mirena bought a cream to calm muscle pain. Since the place was smaller and without costumers rather than her, it was a very easy adventure without nothing remarkable. Then yes, she began the way back home.

Not even 24 hours had passed since she appeared in the real world, yet a lot of things happened.

As an adventure lover, Mirena wasn’t sad or worried. The new world seemed interesting, and there were a lot of things to discover. But whenever she thought about not being able to go back, the sadness appeared.

“In the worst of the cases, am I going to get used to this world?” she meditated.

The walk was quiet. After the gym and the shopping, she was (finally) a bit tired. She wanted to go back to the apartment and have a good sleep. Meanwhile, Ken was still on the phone, just in case she forgot the way.

—Are you okay? —asked Ken, worried due to her unusual silence.

—Yes, just one more street and I’ll be in the apartment.

—Nice. I had my doubts, but you did well.

—Thank you. And sorry for yesterday…

—No problem. You already restocked the fridge, so there are no debts.

—I don’t talk only about that. I was apologizing also for appearing out a nowhere in your house, run away and threat you badly just because I didn’t want to admit the truth.

—Oh…

—At the beginning I thought you were a bad guy but…

—But…? —Ken was exited. He thought Mirena was acting like a tsundere, that she wanted to say something nice, but her shyness didn’t allow her to. But he was wrong. Yes, she wanted to say something nice, but the reason why she stopped was completely different. Something else attracted her attention.

It was a homeless. An old man with long and dirty hair and ragged clothes. His face showed clearly his desperation.

He raised a hand, asking all the pedestrian for help, but everyone ignored him. Coldly, without even a single glance of pity. They just went on their way like nothing.

—Ken…

—Yes?

—Why is there a man asking for help and nobody does anything?

—You mean a homeless? There is nothing they can do for him.

—What do you mean? He’s just begging for money. If all the people here gives him at least a bill, that would be a great help.

—He’s not the only homeless in the world. We can’t help everybody.

—But we can help at least one! In my world…

—This is not your world. Here, there are a lot of villains but not a single hero. Even if you give him money, that doesn’t change anything. He will survive one or two weeks, and then the same thing will happen. There is people who can help him, but not us.

—But I…

—I’m not homeless, of course, but I also need the money. We all do. Especially now that I have another mouth to feed. —Ken knew about her stubbornness, but he wasn’t going to step back in that occasion. It was a serious matter.

—Can you help me, lady? —asked the man to a petrified Mirena.

—Mirena, without that money you’ll never be able to see Yoriyuki! The entrances for the anime convention are expensive, you know? Please!

—I-I-I’m sorry… —said Mirena with a broken voice and ran away.

—Mirena? What happened? —asked Ken. But there was no response from the other side. He tried to stand up, but the pain was unbearable. Instead, he remained in the bed, seated.

Since Mirena didn’t know how to hang out the phone, he could hear it all: her running footsteps, her sobs, the door being open, the elevator coming down and then up again. He finished the call once Mirena entered the room.

—Listen… —He wanted to explain himself, but Mirena interrupted him by throwing the wallet to his face.

—You’re horrible! —yelled and then locked herself in the bathroom.

He checked the wallet. The money was still there, so at least she had obeyed his petition. However, the price to pay was too much.

He wasn’t lying though. His salary was good for a single person that lives in a small studio apartment, but he was far from rich. For once, all the things he said were true. And that was the reaction he got by telling the truth: anger.

“This is exactly why I always lie.”

—Why don’t you accept this mission? The people is begging! —said Mirena inside the dark tent, illuminated only by a candle.

—I know my limits. That mission is too much for someone like me —responded Mask with a firmly voice.

—But the people…

—It sucks, but there is no use. If we go, we’re going to die. And if we die, who is going to help all the other people? Sometimes you just can’t… help everyone. —He tried to stay strong, biting his lip until it bled. Seeing this, Mirena understood everything, and her heart, once hesitant, was again full of love towards him.

—I see. It’s really sad, but I understand now. We can’t do anything.

Ken remembered that scene from the chapter 5 of the 8th volume. Mirena could be a passionate and impulsive person, but she was comprehensive and good at hearing. At least, that’s how the Mirena of the books was. The real one threw a wallet to his face.

“Maybe is just because I’m not Mask. She loved him, so of course she would hear everything he has to say. To me, instead…”

For someone who is always trying to predict what is going to happen next, it was very silly not to foresee that result coming.

“Did I really thought she would fall in love with me? So stupid. Love is stupid. I’m just going to fulfill my duty, take her to the convention, and that’s it. My problems would end there, and I can go back to my quiet life without disappointments.”

But even if he was able to trick everyone with his lies, he couldn’t fool himself.

Meanwhile, Mirena remembered exactly the same episode.

“What is this feeling I have right now?”

Fury. Another sentiment rarely felt by Mirena in the world of Sekaunmei. Maybe at the beginning she was more irritable, but in the later volumes there was no way she could get mad at Mask. So she really had forgotten how being angry was like.

“Why was it so easy back then to forgive Mask? Is it because I was in love with him? Or just because a superior hand forced me to act like that? Yoriyuki Yamahito, the author, my creator… Is my love to Mask also a lie? A thing he created and forced me to feel?”

At that moment, she heard a strong sound: the sound of a fall. And when she opened the door of the bathroom, there was Ken, again kissing the ground.

—What are you doing? ­—asked Mirena with a dead voice.

—I wanted to reach at least the muscular pain cream…

Mirena sighed and helped him to sit in the bed. Then, she grabbed the cream.

—Take off your shirt.

—What?! —The sudden proposition made Ken’s heart beat faster.

—You can’t reach your back, can you?

—Of course I ca… —In normal circumstances, he could. He had long arms and big hands. But with that pain in the triceps, it was impossible. Embarrassed, he took of the shirt and laid on the bed, with the face buried in the pillow.

Her cold hand made him shudder at the first touch, but it was just a second. He easily got used to the feeling.

She was drawing circles with the cream in all the places of his back, dispersing the medicine all over the muscles.

It was a dream situation. The apartment was a bit dark at that hour, the clouds hid the sun. He was on a bed, with the upper body naked, next to the incarnation of his favorite female character ever, who was spreading a cream on his back. Such a stereotypical rom-com situation. An impossible dream accomplished.

But he wasn’t happy. He wasn’t happy at all. The moment wasn’t how he expected it to be. It was cold, dark and uncomfortable. He wanted everything to end up at once. Return to his older life.

“Expectations vs. reality, huh? Things never go as expected. So I don’t understand why I keep getting my hopes up, if I know how everything is going to end. The reality always crushes those idealisms…”