Eleven dark green impostors

—So, he already told you we were coming?

Sean closed the door, and with the sunlight gone, the main hallway became darker.

Like before, it was Eli who was on the front line of the conversation, covering Ken’s lack of social capabilities and Mirena’s lack of knowledge of this world.

—Yes, we coincidentally talked yesterday and he said that some guys would come to borrow the pants.

They were guided by Sean to a more illuminated room, the kitchen. There, the sunlight entered perfectly through the window, giving the place a bright white aura. There was a round table in the middle with 4 chairs.

—So, this is the guy who’s gonna dress up? —he asked, giving Ken a strong slap on the back. He retained the hate he was feeling and just forced a smile. Even if he didn’t want it, he had to get along with Sean. After all, they needed a favor from him. It’s not like Ken was that interested in cosplaying Mask, but Mirena seemed pretty excited about it and he didn’t want to disappoint her. Also, if he dressed like Mask then maybe, just maybe, there was a tiny possibility of she falling in love with him. Only that thought was keeping a smile on his face in a moment like that.

The trio took a seat, but not Sean.

—Of course, I don’t have any problem lending you the pants. Actually, I’m going to give them away to you.

—Eh? Really?

—Yeah. After the pants incident I took all my saves and bought a lot of formal pants. I’ll come back in a second! —Before finishing that last sentence, he already left the kitchen.

—What a nice guy! —said Mirena, happy with how everything was going—. Right? —she asked to Ken. Then she noticed that one of Ken’s veins was throbbing more than normal.

—Yes. A lovely guy —he said with any intention of disguising his real mood. Since Mirena was getting better at detecting his lies, he saw no point in lying about little things.

—Did that slap hurt you?

—Of course not! But I don’t like being touched by strangers.

—Why didn’t you told him about it? —asked Eli. Mirena was shocked at that question, like if it were the weirdest thing she ever heard.

—Wait, people in this world is honest about their sentiments? —Eli laughed, but Mirena wasn’t joking at all. She really thought lying about the feelings was a thing in real world.

—I mean, yes, you don’t see a lot of people being honest in this country, or in this world in general —she responded—. I guess I’m just being silly, but I would like that we could be more open. If there is something annoying you, you should talk.

—But being honest brings a lot of problems —said Ken.

—Yes, that’s true.

—And there is no use in causing any troubles here. Don’t worry, if there were something bothering me at school or work I wouldn’t tolerate it, but for now just let it be. He’s going to come back with the pants, you’re going to have some chitchat while I listen quietly, and we left. That’s fine.

And that way, two more pieces were added to Mirena’s mental jigsaw.

Some seconds later, Sean came back with the pants.

—Here they are —he said, giving it to the girls. They both inspected the pants, and then immediately said at the same time:

—Those are not.

—Huh? —Sean was very confused. However, even Ken realized those weren’t the pants. Yes, they were formal and dark green, but not the Mask ones. He didn’t say anything because he didn’t care that much, but of course it wasn’t the case with Mirena and Eli.

—Ok, first them all, the ones from Mask don’t have these things over here to use them with a belt. Secondly, the button is golden, and this one is silver. Thirdly, the pockets are different shaped. Fourthly…

—Oh c’mon, it’s almost the same thing —Sean said, but he had a shiver after receiving a deadly glance from the girls—. Ok, ok. The thing is I really loved the color of those pants Arthur gave me, so when I went to buy new ones, I bought a lot of the same color. Now I can’t tell the difference.

Eli sighed, and then stood up.

—Where’s your wardrobe?

—In my bedroom. First door upstairs.

—Ok, let’s go Mirena.

—Sure!

Ken froze of horror on his seat. They both were leaving the room, leaving him alone with Sean. But he couldn’t just stand up and go with them, or this could happen:

“—I’ll go with you.

—No —Eli could respond—, you won’t be helpful since you didn’t notice the difference either.

—I did!

—And you didn’t say anything? —could say Mirena—. You don’t really care about all this, do you?

—Wow, they really have you grabbed from the balls —could add Sean, finishing a catastrophic scenario.”

By all means, he didn’t have to look weak in front of Sean. When people like Sean sense the weakness, instead of saying: “oh, I’m sorry, am I bothering you?” they just continue teasing. Unless Mirena or Eli said something, he had to stay cool in the seat.

And they left, ignoring Ken’s mental prayers and begs.

—Women, they really love clothes, don’t they?

“Oh wow, what a unique and original commentary, huh?” He was falling in despair, but he wasn’t going to fall apart. Instead, he adopted the most confident pose he could: legs crossed, one arm lying on the waist and the other on the backrest of the chair.

—You talk so much dude, you’re going to overwhelm me —he said with sarcasm, and then laughed out loud again. Ken was starting to lose the patience, but he knew he had to endure it. At least until Mirena and Eli could find the pants, so they could whack him in the head and run away with them if necessary—. So, what’s so cool about that cosplay thing?

—Well, this is my first time to be honest, so I don’t really know yet.

—But there has to be something that draws you in. Or are this girls pushing you to do so?

—No, it’s not that! — “Why does everyone thinks the same thing?!”—. It’s just that… It’s hard to explain. Specially for someone that is not into the anime and that stuff.

—Yeah, I don’t know anything about those things.

—Probably you even find it cringe, so there is no use in explaining it.

—Cringe? Hmmm, well, maybe. I mean, I suppose is normal to find “cringe” things that you don’t like or you are not used to. But that doesn’t change the fact that you should be respectful about other people’s tastes. —Finally, Sean said something that didn’t make Ken feel angrier—. I’m pretty sure I like things that you find cringe.

—I don’t think so.

—What do you think about… let me see… football?

—It’s fine.

—Oh c’mon, be toxic. How about rap? Or popular music in general?

—That’s good too…

—But?

—…

—C’mon, I’m pretty sure something is bothering you. Say it or I’m not going to stop. —Ken sighed.

—Well, I don’t like how they treat guns and drugs as toys or something to be proud of, I found it very immature, ok? Also, we all like big butts, there is no need to sing songs about it —Ken finally said, feeling immediately embarrassed because of his sudden explosion. He, talking so sincerely with a stranger? Since when something like that could happen?

And Sean’s reaction was only a laugh.

—Well, that’s a bit stereotypical, but I can understand it. But as long as you respect it, I don’t think there is anything wrong.

—You can’t like everything in the world, can you?

In the same way, he understood that he couldn’t get along with everybody, and there was nothing wrong about it. He could never be friends with someone like Sean, not in a thousand years. But he realized that he could (and should) respect him, as long as it is mutual.

If Mirena were there, she would have obtained a lot of pieces for her mental jigsaw. But unfortunately for her, she wasn’t. Instead, she was in Sean’s bedroom. All the 12 dark green pants were displayed on the bed, and they were inspecting them trying to find the real ones, the ones that belonged to Mask cosplay.

—How much money does this Sean has? Oh my god —said Eli, a bit jealous watching his wardrobe—. It’s going to be very hard to find the…

—This one —Mirena cut in instantly.

—Eh?

—These ones are Mask’s, for sure.

Eli was speechless, but after looking in detail, she had to be agree.

—I’m amazed you could tell so fast! You’re such a big Sekaunmei fan, aren’t you?

—Yes, I am —she responded with a bit of melancholy. But then, immediately, the energy returned to her voice—. Ok! Let’s go back then.

They both went back to the kitchen and, just as Ken predicted some paragraphs above, they had a small chitchat in which Ken just listened quietly before leaving his house.

That way, the first day of the treasure hunt concluded with a complete success.

Ken lay down on his bed, absolutely exhausted. It had been a while since the last time he walked and socialized for so long. His feet were hurting and his mouth was dry. And the worst part was that his vacations were over. Next Monday he had to go back to work, and that caused an extra mental pain, along with the worries: Eli wasn’t free the Sunday. Because of that, Mirena and she would go alone to meet Zack on Monday. Was Mirena going to be ok? Wasn’t she going to need the help of the self-proclaimed lying master?

On the other hand, Mirena was just humming happily after such a fun day. But as expected from a real human, even she was tired. Specially having in count that they both didn’t had the best of nights. So they had dinner and went to sleep pretty early, ready for the last day of the week.

Quick and extra lesson.

The static image of an anime girl was shown in front of a beautiful colored city. Below her, a text was being displayed.

Yasori:

Heey, Ken-kun, don’t leave without me!

Ken:

You’re so slow, I’m tired of waiting you.

Yasori:

You’re so mean! But I love you anyways.

Ken:

???

Don’t say such things on public! We’re just friends.

Yasori:

Hahaha, you’re blushing!

Ken:

Yeah, ‘cause I’ve been waiting  to someone standing under the sunlight for too long.

—What the hell is happening? —Mirena asked after some minutes of quietly being assimilating what was going on.

—This is called: “visual novel”. It’s like literature, but accompanied with images, music, and sometimes even voice acting, animations and mini-games.

—Ohh I see, this seems fun!

—It is. Unfortunately, the gender is still quite new and unexplored. I must warn you, it is full of lewd and generic content.

—L-lewd?!

—Yes. But of course, I only care about real stories like this one: Waku Waku Cinematographic Club. It’s a visual novel famous for parodying and subverting the typical clichés of generic visual novels. I’m sure you’ll like it.

But also, it was famous for being extremely scary, thanks to the meta-horror, that destroyed the forth wall, and the unexpected screamers. That was Ken’s revenge for the horror stories night.

He left the apartment, while Mirena was still reading the visual novel. However, when he left, she closed it. It was ok, but she was interested in another thing.

—You don’t care about lewd visual novels, you say? I don’t believe you at all.

So she searched and searched, until she found a folder where he had all his visual novels. She chose one randomly, and started to read. The things she saw turned her face into red, then white, then blue, and basically all the colors of the rainbow.

When Ken came back, she was acting very weird, like shocked. He smiled smugly, thinking, delusional, that his plan had been a success.