Chocolates, Math and a Near Miss

It had been a short while since the sun set fifteen minutes ago, but that didn't deter Keizo and Mika on their walk home from their not-so-unexpected detour at the local FamilyMart. They were still full of energy and still taking shots at one another. Their playful banter bounced off the walls of buildings they aimlessly frolicked by. It seemed like every other word they exchanged was about to turn into a fight.

"Boy am I glad to be home again," Keizo says opening the front gate. "If only it didn't take you forever to pick which chocolates you were gonna stuff your face with after you eventually give up on tonight's homework crunch."

"Who said anything about giving up? I'll have you know I intend on getting it right this time!" Mika said, sticking out her tongue. She followed him in through the gate, then through the door at the house.

"Are we alone again?" she asked while slipping her shoes off.

"Yet again, it seems like we are." Keizo huffed as he sat down at the couch.

"Eh? They're still gone on that vacation?" Mika asks, with her hand pushing on her cheek.

"Apparently, yes." Keizo replied, emptying his bookbag. "The last message I got from them was 'Don't fret... Touchdown: Italy.'"

"Sounds like something from one of those spy movies, are you sure they aren't on some secret mission they've been hiding from you? It definitely seems like that." Mika says a bit snarky as she plops down beside him.

"I highly doubt that, my father is a software engineer and my mother is a flight attendant, he just follows where she goes." Keizo replies. "I'm pretty sure their plane touched down safely on the tarmac over there, and they're now soaking up the sun or whatever while I'm stuck here teaching you math..."

"Hey! I actually learned something new in class today; I think I did alright!" Mika exclaims defensively, throwing a piece of paper at him in retaliation.

He catches it and reads it to himself. "Uh... let's see here..." He says skimming through paragraphs of bad handwriting.

"Aha! What's a polynomial?" He takes a moment to pause.

"Mika..?" He calls out with no reply.

Keizo looks up from the notebook to see Mika, who is adamantly fishing for chocolates from a FamilyMart tote bag.

"Really? We were just getting started!" Keizo spurs, looking back at the page to look through more definitions.

"It's... a little something... called... comfort food." Mika manages while scarfing down an unhealthy amount of liqueur-filled chocolates.

"Again, we were only just getting started..." Keizo sits back folding his hands behind his head. "I can already imagine this night playing out with you passed out on my couch from too many chocolates. Why on earth would you start with those?"

"Nearest food is best food." Mika pouts.

"I need a drink..." Keizo says reaching for a chocolate.

✧ ✧ ✧

Izumi had been walking for just fifteen minutes shy of an hour. Though she couldn't really feel any difference, it seemed as if the air was growing colder, causing shivers to run down her spine as she drew nearer towards the pane of glass.

She was still far behind but could make out what was behind the mirror.

It looked like another room. A room not only defined by a singular shade.

This was the opposite of disheartening, rather, it excited her. Finally a chance to see something else. And with that, she began moving even faster along a nonexistent path. As she neared, her breath was coming out fast and shallow. She tried slowing it down, but couldn't seem to get her heart rate under control. When she approached the glass, there it was, right before her eyes.

It was a bathroom, although it was unlike any room she saw before.

Things looked familiar and foreign at the same time. From where she stood, looking down, she saw a basin with a shiny faucet which came up and bent down. She saw a glass box with a strip obscured and outside the glass box she saw a washing station.

What seemed like a typical bathroom to some, was an incredulously odd observation to Izumi. She pressed her hand against the glass in front of her, it felt cold and smooth to the touch.

Looking out, she could vaguely make out the image of a person standing in the corner. It seemed as if they were talking to someone, but her vision was too fuzzy to discern whether it was a man or a woman.

"I'll be back in a bit." The voice said.

He sounded like a young boy, probably only slightly older than Izumi herself, which was only a guess. She caught a quick glimpse of him before she instinctively ducked down, not knowing if she would be seen by him.

Somehow she wasn't.

He was slim, yet somehow looked like he had some muscle on him, he wore a white collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up slightly and a striped tie. His hair was a ruffled mop of black which paired his dark eyes.

"That girl sure knows how to keep things interesting." He said to himself with a chuckle. "If only she knew how to retain info from the math walkthroughs we do, she'd be miles ahead of me, for sure."

Izumi listened in, trying not to make a sound. Even though she felt scared and somewhat intrigued, she remained calm. She tried to be as silent as possible.

The boy began doing his business, presumably peeing, due to a sound of splashing water which went on for an oddly long time. It hadn't hit Izumi until now, but there was another world in front of her, one with people and strange devices that looked like futuristic adaptations of what her world knew.

"There's an actual living person in front of me..." She said in the quietest voice, so small that she hardly heard herself say it.

The 'living person' was Keizo Tezuka, although that was yet to be discovered.

"Hm? I could've sworn I heard something..." Keizo murmured.

Izumi quickly covered her mouth to muffle the sound of surprise and froze with eyes wide when she realized she spoke aloud. He turned his head, and looked up and around to see where the voice came from. He assumed it was Mika loudly mumbling to herself. "I'll be right over there!" He finished up washing his hands and closed the door behind him once he stepped outside. Izumi lay scrunched up in a fetal position under the mirror, breathing slowly and deeply in attempt to quell her heartbeat which was practically pounding its way out of her chest. After a few anxious moments, she finally decided to slowly stand up straight and peer into the bathroom, careful to avoid almost running into anyone else again.

No one was around.

"Oh dear." She whispered. She took a closer look. "This is insane, is there really another world beyond here?" She thought to herself. Izumi took another glance inside the bathroom. "Hm, not much to go on." She sighed. Her eyes then shifted down to find something by the sink. It looked like tiny brush of some sort next to a tube of something and soap, all in a neat rack with nothing else besides it.

She at back down, facing away from the mirror looking on at the light dimly illuminating the floor.

"This world seems far more advanced than Magnaria, if these are their bathing rooms, what other crazy wonders are over there?" Izumi thought aloud. "This has never happened with other banishments before." She thought. "Was this done on accident? It can't be a fluke, or was it? Did they mean to banish me here?"

The door flung open suddenly. Izumi thought it must've been the boy again, but this time it sounded like a girl, who also sounded a bit sick.

"Too many chocolates..." She murmured before retching quietly.

Izumi winced as she heard her gag and dry heave. "Ugh, damn it. This is bad." The voice said.

"You alright in there Mika?" The boy called out from behind the door.

The girl laughed weakly and answered, "I felt sick and kinda puked up stuff, Keizo."

"Their names..." Izumi said to herself. "They sound similar to names from my homeland."

"It's those chocolates, man, you ate way too much... If you need to go again, do it but don't make a mess." Keizo says.

"Don't talk about it, the less I think about it, the better." Mika says fidgeting nervously.

"Well, okay, come out when you're feeling a bit better," Keizo replied.

"Okay," Mika said softly. She paused. "Wait."

"What's up?" Keizo asked in concern.

"Um..." She hesitated. "It's nothing..."

"Mika... I know when you're lying to me..." Keizo warned.

"It's just... uh..." Mika trailed off sounding hesitant again.

After a short while of silence, she continued to speak. "Do you have a spare toothbrush?" She says quietly with embarrassment colouring her cheeks.

Keizo chuckles lightly, "Not really, why? Do you want to use mine?" He asked behind the door.

"Oh geez... Sorry, I shouldn't-"

"Hey, relax." Keizo chuckled. "Just reach for it whenever you want to, okay? I'll buy a new one later."

"R... Really?" Mika asked, sounding surprised.

"Yeah! Use whatever you need, you're pretty much always going to be my mathematically challenged guest anyways." Keizo laughs.

Don't push it... jerk..." Mika says before hurling again.

✧ ✧ ✧

Mika came and went, taking Keizo's toothbrush with her as a reminder to never overdo it with sweets. It was late, but not to the point where her parents would be in any state of panic, being at friend's places up until this time was pretty normal.

Keizo shut off all the lights and made his way upstairs heading to the bathroom for a bath. He ran the faucet, filling the tub with water that could only be described as "too hot to handle" and proceeded to soak himself fully.

As he sat in the water, he thought about today and about Mika.

What was she thinking? Did she not want help anymore and felt bad about saying anything which made her overeat? Or maybe she's just easily distracted when food comes around?

Either way, Keizo felt bad. He wished she would confide in him and tell him how she really felt, instead of bottling her feelings up within herself as always.

✧ ✧ ✧

Keizo lay in bed, unable to fall asleep in a puddle of sweat.

Even though it was going to be the weekend tomorrow, it was just one of those nights where sleep just seemed so impossible.

His intrusive thoughts got the best of him and he sprung himself off his bed to grab a washcloth to wipe himself clean of his night sweats.

He turned the door slowly and flipped the nightlight on.

Nothing could prepare him for what he saw when he looked up at the mirror in front of him.