The treasure hunt begins!

That way, the main objective changed a bit. The rest of days Mirena would be still training as always, watching anime, reading manga, playing videogames and watching Vtubers. But now, since they already got the sword, that was secondary. The main objective was to find a Mask costume for Ken, and that’s what they did the next day.

That should have been easy, but…

The neighborhood was one of the prettiest in the city. The street was wide and with perfectly smooth asphalt, as good as new. The sideways also were in perfect state, decorated with a lot of green: leafy trees, bushes and grass millimetrically cut. Each house was at a decent distance from the other, contrary to Ken’s neighborhood where they were all tightly packed together.

They were in front of a white house as beautiful and cozy as the neighborhood. It had two floors and an attic, so it was pretty big. She rang the bell next to the dark brown door, and a hysterical Chihuahua began to bark from the inside.

—Go to see who is!! —The raspy voice of a female was heard.

—I can’t! You go!! —responded a male with a dead voice, similar in tone to Ken’s one.

—You’re doing nothing you brat! And lock up the dog before opening!

The male sighed so hard that they could hear him from outside. After locking up the Chihuahua (the bark was still audible though, but more subdued), he opened the door. He was a very handsome man. Not even the tousled hair and the baggy eyes could refrain the beauty of that soft black hair and those blue eyes.

—Ah, Lisa? I didn’t expect to see you today —ha said with a voice that didn’t show any excitement at all.

—Yeah, I didn’t send you a message Arthur.

—Yes, I know. That’s what I’m reproaching to you. —Since his voice was so dead, it was hard to tell which intention were hidden behind his words.

—Ohh c’mon, I’m now you’re happy to see me. Look, I even brought new friends.

She pointed with her hands to a cheerful as always Mirena and a quiet Ken, as always. He looked cool on the outside, but in the inside he was insulting this Arthur for stealing all the handsomeness of the entire world, calling him egoist, greedy, and a lot of others insults I don’t want to replicate because this is supposed to be an all-audiences novel.

—Go straight to the point —said Arthur about to lose the patience (probably).

—Ok then, let’s talk about business. As you can see, this girl over here is perfect to cosplay Mirena.

—Hewwo —Mirena said, while her cheeks were being squeezed by Eli.

—She’s perfect for that, I gotta admit.

—Isn’t she? And this one right here is her cousin, and I think he would match perfectly with her with a Mask cosplay, don’t you think?

Arthur looked Ken from top to bottom, gesture that incremented the amount of insults happening in Ken’s mind. However, all those bad words were silenced at once when Arthur said:

—Yes, I’m agree.

“He’s agree?” thought Ken. Suddenly, his eyes seemed to bright more and his mind was a back and forth of positive and negative thoughts regarding Arthur.

—I knew you’ll understand —Eli said—. So? Will you borrow your costume to us? As soon as you do it, we’ll leave you alone.

—Believe me, nobody wants you to leave as soon as possible more than me. But unfortunately, if borrowing to you the costume is the condition, I can’t accomplish it.

—What? Why?

—Because I don’t have it anymore.

—What did you do with it?

—Let me see… —He saw the sky, trying to bring back some memories from the deepest parts of his mind—. The wig I gave it to a friend some time ago. He wanted to cosplay as another character who is also green-haired.

»To another friend I lent him the pants. He came to my house suddenly, just like you, a Saturday evening. He was wearing a suit, but the pants had a huge red stain. Then he told me that he was going to a party, but he needed immediately new pants because he didn’t have any other. The thing is that I don’t use formal suits never, but since his coat was dark green, the Mask cosplay’s one fit perfectly.

»Some days later, another friend of mine was praising my cosplay, specially the mask. And since I have already given away two parts of the cosplay, I also gave him the mask. I don’t know why he wanted it, but he seemed happy so I’m fine.

»Lastly, as for the upper part, a sewing friend asked me some days ago If I could lend to her some cosplays of mine to study them and be able to create perfect clothes like those ones.

»Oh, I also gave the sword and the knives set to my nephew for his birthday. In conclusion, I have nothing to give you. Sorry, you came too late.

—You gave away such a beautiful cosplay? —asked Eli, like if she were in front of the most despicable human being of the history. Arthur simply shrugged his shoulders.

—I’m pretty sure you have some other friends that made a Mask cosplay —he said. Now it was Eli the one looking at the sky, bringing back memories.

—Nope, actually not.

—Eh? Really? I thought a girl like you was friend of everyone in the world.

—Even I have my limits. But if you don’t have it, I guess it can’t be helped.

—But we need that cosplay! —Mirena cut in to reply.

—Yeah, that’s right —said Eli, with a renovated spirit.

—Even I have to admit that it would be a shame not having a Mask with such a perfect Mirena —Arthur sighed—. Okay, I’ll give you the phone and the directions of the five people I gave the cosplay. Maybe you’ll be able to borrow it, at least for a day.

—Oh, it’s like a treasure hunt! —exclaimed Mirena, very excited because of the new mission they had to affront. Find the five pieces of the legendary cosplay and make Ken use it, all in less than two weeks. Even Ken was a tad excited about this new adventure, the last one before the climax: the anime convention.

After getting the information, they don’t bothered Arthur more and left, with the promise of seeing him again in the anime-con. They went right back to Ken’s apartment to do the strategical plans. He prepared some tea while Mirena deployed the small table in the room.

Above the table there was a paper with five names written on it:

Zack

Sean

Bobby

Alice

Colt

—Zack? —asked Mirena—. Isn’t that your work colleague, Ken?

—There are a lot of Zacks in the world —he responded while serving the tea into three porcelain cups.

—Eh? Really? Two people can have the same name here?

—Yeah, I guess that’s not how your things work in your world. —In Sekaunmei, and in fiction in general, you rarely see two characters with the same name. And when that happens, is usually because the characters are father and son or for comedy purposes.

—Your world? —asked Eli. They both, Mirena and Ken, forgot about her since she was being so unusually quiet. He cleared his throat and said:

—Her country, I mean. The culture is so different that I call it “your world”. In that country, for example, is illegal for two persons to share the same name.

—Eh, really? —Mirena nodded effusively.

—Things are very different over here, aren’t they? —she said, followed by a nervous laugh.

—However, why were you so quiet? —asked Ken, trying to change the topic as fast as possible.

—Oh, it’s nothing. Let’s say that I love talking with people, but my energy for that is very limited. So if I spent a certain amount of time with people, I tend to become tired easily. Anyways, a good cup of tea will refuel my energies for sure!

“That’s relatable, except for the part about loving talking with people” thought Ken, carrying the cups and letting them on the table. He also brought some cookies with chocolate chips in a jar.

—Where should we start? —asked Mirena with the mouth full of cookies.

—We just have to call them, right? Any order is fine —responded Ken.

—No, that’s boring! I want to meet them in person!

—We don’t have too much time, you know?

—We still have more than a week!

—Yeah, but we have to prepare some other things, don’t we?

—Oh, that’s right. But I think we would be able to convince them if I’m talking with them in person, don’t you think? —she winked to him. He looked at her, trying to understand what did she meant. And when he realized, his face turned red and his facial expression showed a genuine surprise (and a bit of indignation).

“Do you want to trick them using your beauty? When did this world corrupted you so much?!”

—Also, if we just call probably they aren’t going to attend us —said Eli—. I mean, I usually don’t pick up the phone if an unknown number is calling.

“That’s also relatable!”

—Maybe we should have asked Arthur to call for us —said Ken—. But seeing his personality, I don’t think he would have done that favor to us. —He sighed—. Fine, I guess we can go and meet this people. With whom should we start?

—We should prioritize the most important and difficult to find parts of the cosplay: the pants and the upper part —suggested Eli—. In the worst of the cases, I can use one of my wigs and the mask can be found easily. The weapons are secondary.

—Ok, this is my idea: Tomorrow me and María will go to meet Alice, while you Eli talk to Sean.

Ken had two reason to propose that. The first one was trying to spend the less time possible with Eli, in order to decrease the risk of she discovering the truth of Mirena. But secondly, he wanted to avoid Sean. That guy was the only one who seemed, based on Arthur’s stories, unrelated to cosplays and anime culture in general asides from his little nephew. That Sean guy went to a party dressed formally; that meant, he wasn’t the type of guy Ken could get along. But…

—What? Of course not —said Mirena—. We have to do this together! We’re all going to see Alice, and then to meet Sean. Ok?

—Ok —replied both of them, Eli with way more enthusiasm than Ken.

Eli finished his tea cup and then stood up. He thanked for everything and excused herself. Ken went with her, because he had to open the main door. That way, they both ended in the elevator, alone.

It was a short travel, less than a minute. But for Ken, it felt like hours. That was one of the worst situation a shy introvert can suffer: the moment when the common friend between you and the other person is not there, and you end up alone with someone you barely know. And that in an elevator, which only increased the tension.

Finally, they arrived to the first floor. Ken opened the door and kept it that way until she was out. Before leaving, she turned towards him and said with a beautiful smile:

—It was very nice to meet you! You’ll look great in that cosplay; I can’t wait to see that! Bye bye.

And she left, leaving a very confused but very, very happy Ken.