ENCOUNTER!!! Doom delivered in 30 minutes or less, or it's free! [Part 1]

So! After the events from that night, Jack and I officially became a couple! Well, to be more specific, Jack and Lune.

Sure enough, when we went to the ER, I was perfectly fine. An expected outcome, but Jack was still relieved to hear it. Afterward, we took a nice relaxing walk, where we talked about mundane things, like hobbies and such with the intent of getting to know each other better. Course, I already knew all there was to know about Jack, but I feigned ignorance.

Answering questions about myself proved to be tricky. I told half-truths to protect my identity. For example, I mentioned that I enjoy playing video games, but I made it sound as if I were more into mobile games. I left out details such as my love of old, obscure Japanese fighting games.

Better to embellish the truth rather than to tell outright lies that I’m sure I’d forget about.

When it got late, Jack once again offered to walk me home, to which I respectfully declined. There was no way I’d be able to fudge details about my living situation, after all. The two of us then went our separate ways, and I immediately spilled the beans to Belliney when I made it home. “Let’s celebrate!” was her response, and the two of us partied long into the night, stoked for my newfound relationship!

And by “partied long into the night,” I mean we talked for five minutes and then I conked out on my bed, still in my tattered outfit. My excitement that night mixed with a lack of sleep resulted in me becoming a borderline zombie. As the adrenaline wore off, I passed out for the night.

Over the next week, Jack and I would meet up in the evenings following my magical girl rounds. I rushed through my heroic duties so that I could hurry and see Jack as soon as possible. Between school and Jack’s work, we didn’t have much time to spend together.

The first weekend since we officially started dating, I had big plans for a full-on date with Jack. However, my dreams were squashed when Jack mentioned he was going to be working all weekend long. I was devastated.

How long was I gonna have to wait before we could go on a proper date?! Like, go to the movies and then eat out afterward! Or go to a museum together! I’m tired of just walking and talking around the neighborhood every night!

But I digress.

Meanwhile, whenever I saw Jack at school, he never brought up the fact he was dating “Lune.” Things were the same as always between the two of us. I would occasionally get giddy around him, but he never noticed, of course. Deep down I wished he’d spoken about me too, uh, me. Have him say something like “I’m dating the cutest girl in the world!” or “You won’t believe the adorable thing my girlfriend did last night!”

Come on, Jack! You could try bragging just a little bit more! No need to be so humble around me!

Maybe it was because he was worried that I’d feel left out if I learned he was dating someone. Perhaps he thinks I’d get jealous or upset that we can’t hang out as much? It’s okay! I’m cool! Brag away about your awesome new girlfriend!

Because the awesome new girlfriend is me! Heh heh.

“Hey, Daniel!” Jack said after school on Friday. “You wanna hang out?”

“Hang out? Don’t you have work? Don’t tell me, were you fired again?”

Jack put his arm around my shoulder. “Nope! I didn’t get fired for once!”

I was surprised. “Oh! Then how come you don’t have work? Got the day off?”

“…Not exactly,” he said, glancing away.

***

“Huh,” I said, staring at the abandoned building that was a dry cleaner only just yesterday.

Police tape covered the front entrance to prevent people from entering, but they amusingly didn’t bother to block out the smashed windows, defeating the purpose. The inside was barren anyway, so not like there was anything for people to steal.

“The heck happened here?!” I asked.

“Yeah… turns out it was a money laundering operation! Who knew!”

My mouth dropped. “It was?!”

Jack pulled out his phone, bringing up a news report from that morning. Sure enough, what he said was true.

“You aren’t going to get in trouble, are you?” I asked. Since he was employed there, you’d think the cops would question if he was part of the operation.

“Nah,” Jack assured me. “Police interrogated me when I passed by this morning. I told them I worked here. Told ‘em all I knew, and then they sent me on my way. Guess they realized I didn’t have any connection to what was going on.”

“I see. Well, that’s good.”

“Yeah. I’d be in deep trouble otherwise. It sucks that I'm out of a job again. But now I have the evening free to hang out with the most important person in the world to me!” he said, putting his arm around me.

I blushed, then forced back my smile and cleared my throat. “I’m the most important person in the world to you, huh? You sure there isn’t someone else who’s equally as important? Like, say, a girlfriend, perhaps?”

Jack smiled, then slapped me on the back. “Worried that I’d leave you for someone else?”

“I–!!!”

“I’m only teasing,” Jack said as he started walking towards my house. “No need to get so flustered.”

“R-right,” I said, catching up. “Been a while since the two of us got together like this.”

Jack looked over at me. “Has it?”

“Well, you never have a day off, it seems like. You hop from one job to the next without a break. Only time you’re available is late at night.”

“Guess that’s true. I haven’t managed to keep a job long enough to warrant having a day off. In that case, how about we make tonight special, huh? We could go see a movie and grab dinner or something.”

My ears perked up at his suggestion. Can’t deny that that’s exactly the thing I’ve been wanting to do with Jack since we started dating. I might be doing it as Daniel instead of Lune, but I’ll take the opportunity!

Then again, he just lost his job–again–so I don’t think it’d be wise to go to the theater. Movie tickets cost as much as buying a movie on home video. Heaven forbid if you want to get anything from the concession stand.

“In that case, how about we watch a movie at my place and order pizza?”

“Sounds great!”

***

As we headed over to my house, I quickly texted Belliney, saying not to be around the house as Jack and I were hanging out tonight.

(Belliney 2:56 PM):

[Oooo? You planning on going to second base tonight? XD lol]

I corrected her assumption, saying I was hanging out as Daniel and not Lune.

[Doesn’t mean you two can’t still do it lolol::thumbs up::]

“You alright?” Jack asked. “You seem flustered.”

“I-I’m fine!” I replied.

Once she stopped teasing, she sent a selfie of herself in some sort of weird, space-like, er, space. But instead of the space being black, it was white. There was also another girl with blonde hair making a silly face in the background, wearing a similar outfit to hers. Off in the background was a basset hound… also wearing a robe.

[I’ll be in The Celestial Plane if you need me]

One day I need to sit down with Belliney and ask what all goes on in The Celestial Plane.

We arrived at my place half an hour later.

I went inside and fell backward onto the couch as Jack immediately headed for the bathroom. As he went about his business, I checked online to look for the best deal. Hearing the toilet flush and the bathroom door open, I called out to him. “What kind of pizza do you want?”

“Eh, I have no preference,” he called out from the hallway. “Whatever’s…”

Jack trailed off mid-sentence.

“Jack?” I called, turning to face his direction in the hallway, even though he was obscured by a wall. “Wow,” he exclaimed. “I know about walk-in closets, but this takes the cake!”

My eyes just about burst out of my skull as I realized what he was referring to.

I dashed into the hallway, and sure enough, Jack’s head was peeking into the spare bedroom. Though you couldn’t call it the spare bedroom these days. Lune’s closet was more like it.

Belliney had transformed the entire spare bedroom into a luxurious walk-in closet. Built-in clothing racks and shelving lined the walls, filled with hundreds upon hundreds of garments and accessories. The variety of styles to choose from was endless, ranging from casual springtime dresses to extravagant gowns that would overpower the gaudy wardrobe of Queen Elizabeth I.

There were also ornate dressers packed full of undergarments, jewelry displays with LEDs, and rows of shelving for the dozens of shoes and handbags I now owned.

Half the contents of the “closet” were stuff I didn’t even know I owned, as Belliney had increasingly added to the collection whenever she found something she thought would look cute on me. She was like a child playing dress-up with her favorite doll. Just so happens her doll was me.

As appreciative as I was, I couldn’t help but think she was overdoing it. She’d insist and then whine when I argued that I had enough outfits to last five lifetimes. Heck, I was sure I wasn’t going to wear most of it anyway.

“Heck of a collection you have,” Jack said, entering the room. “I never knew you were this into women’s fashion.”

I immediately barged in, got around him, and forced him back out.

“This isn’t what it looks like!” I yelled. “None of this is mine!”

“They aren’t? I don’t remember your grandma ever wearing anything like this. This stuff looks pretty new, too.”

“It’s, uh, because…”

I was in a pickle. I couldn’t come out and say those were all Lune’s. Sure as heck couldn’t say they were mine, either, without coming across as some sort of crossdresser. But if they weren’t mine, then whose could they belong to?

Duh! Belliney!

“They’re a relative’s!”

Jack was shocked. Not surprising, considering I’d never mentioned having such a relative. “A relative’s? Have I met ‘em?”

I shook my head. “They’re the grandkid of one of my grandma’s siblings! Yeah, we go way back. She’s in college. In fact, she moved in with me not that long ago to save on rent and help me take care of the house and things after grandma died.”

Once again, Jack was shocked to hear the news. “Wow. Did you tell me this and I somehow forgot?”

I shrugged. “Pretty sure I did?”

Didn’t take a rocket scientist to see Jack wasn’t exactly buying my lie. I quickly excused myself to the bathroom and pulled out my phone to text Belliney:

[Change of plans. Come back home ASAP.]

[I need you to pretend to be my relative]

Belliney was quick to respond, saying she’d be right over. I sighed in relief, only to realize she’ll likely be wearing her Celestial robe. But before I could send a text asking her to maybe change into a more normal outfit, I heard Belliney come in from the front door.

“I’m hooome~!!!” she shouted.

I flushed the toilet and went to the living room. Sure enough, she was in her robe.

“You must be Jack! I’ve heard so much about you!” she said, giving Jack a handshake.

He was caught off guard by her attire, unsure of where to look. “Uh… likewise,” he said.

After the greeting, Belliney came up behind me and leaned in for a hug. “How was school? Did you get all edu-ma-cated?”

“It was fine,” I said, annoyed as she pressed all her weight into me.

She eagerly nodded, now more or less forcing me to hold her up lest we both fall.

Jack couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight. “You two seem close.”

“That’s an understatement,” I said, pushing her off of me.

Belliney collapsed back onto me, resting her chin atop my head and wrapping her arms around me. “He’s just the cutest little thing!” she said in a cutesy voice. “Like a small kitten! Even when he’s angry he’s just so darn adorable.”

Again, I push Belliney off.

She then walked over to Jack and proceeded to hug him as well. “I very much appreciate you always being there for Daniel.”

“Y-yeah. Well, he’s always been there for me too.”

He looked over at me, red in the face from Belliney pressing herself up against him, surely.

“Judging by your outfit and all those clothes in the other room, you must be some sort of cosplayer. Right?” Jack asked.

Belliney blinked. “...Cosplay?”

I quickly brought up the wiki article for Cosplay on my phone and held it up for her to read, just out of Jack’s peripheral view.

“Cosplay…” Belliney said, squinting her eyes to read. “Oh! Yes! I’m a cosplayer. I just love dressing up!”

“And all those clothes in the other room are yours?”

“No, they’re–”

I let out a forced coughing fit, nearly hacking out a lung to cut Belliney off before she could finish her statement.

“You okay?” Jack asked.

“Yeah. Just choked on my saliva. Cough! Cough! So, yeah! Belliney sure does collect a lot of outfits and cosplay. So much so that she had to dedicate an entire room to it. Isn’t that right?”

I glared daggers at Belliney, hoping I somehow managed to attain telepathy.

Thankfully she got the hint. “Sure do! It was so nice for Daniel to let me turn that room into a walk-in closet.”

“I see,” Jack said.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang.

I wasn’t expecting anyone else to be showing up. Weird.

“Oh! I ordered some pizza for you two earlier!” Belliney said. “After you texted me that Jack was coming over. I thought I’d treat you two.”

“Thanks, Belliney!” I said. “We were actually just about to order pizza!”

Belliney replied with a smile. “Don’t mention it.”

I opened the door and…

“Seriously?!” I shouted.

Jack came up to the door and burst out laughing. “The heck!”

“I didn’t know what you guys wanted, so I ordered one of every kind of pizza they had in every type of crust,” Belliney stated proudly.

It sure looked like it!

In the delivery driver’s arms was a massive stack of pizza, towering over her head. It leaned to the side, creating a literal Leaning Tower of Pizza as she struggled to keep it balanced.

“I’m sure this must be an amusing sight and all, but I’d really appreciate it if y’all take these off my hands,” the driver said. “Unless you wanna watch this leaning tower topple over in a sec.”

“Oh! Sorry about that,” Jack said as he took half the boxes.

“Thanks,” the driver said, sighing in relief. “Y’all wouldn’t believe how difficult it was drivin’ around on my scooter with all this. Just about fell over no less than five times.”

“I can imagine,” Jack replied as he handed the pizza to Belliney. When he turned back around and got a good look at the driver’s face, he paused.

The driver, a young woman, appeared confused by how barren the inside of the house looked. One of her cat ears twitched. “I figured y’all were havin’ a party, what with orderin’ all this.”

“Not quite,” Jack answered as he took the rest of the pizza, staring closely at her ears.

Noticing the stare, the delivery girl let out an annoyed sigh. She then spoke as if she were reading a prepared speech that she’s had to read off thousands of times. “Yeah, yeah, I know. Yes, they’re real. No, you can’t touch. If that’s everything, then I’ll be–”

“Didn’t you throw me across the mall a while back at Kuma Cakes?”

My jaw was on the floor, unable to scream at the horror that I had found myself in. The person who stood outside my front door, delivering pizza, was Red Sandrea.