Yokai?

“My name is Adachi Yoshio.”

She looked at him, clearly impressed by the cool name, nodding as if expecting more. Yoshio, however, remained silent, his gaze steady. After a few awkward seconds, she broke the silence in a rush.

“Well, ha-ha, nice to meet you, Adachi-san. I assume we might be around the same age?” She sized him up with a curious glance.

“Perhaps,” he replied, a bit too confidently.

She was left unsure, put her phone in her pocket, and finally found the keys, showing them off to Yoshio.

"We can come in. This is an old building, so please do not be disturbed too much. Also, my apartment is a mess, so I am sorry in advance."

Yoshio noticed that the closer they got to her apartment, the more animated her gestures became, which struck him as unusual.

“I don’t mind. I came because…” He paused, realizing he wasn’t quite sure why he was here. They were already climbing the stairs to her apartment. She looked back at him with a smile.

"Well, because of that knife, of course, it was totally me who forced you, so please, pay me no mind. Maybe I can cook something for us because I was so freaked out, I am starving now".

“I don’t think I should stay for a meal…” he said, still trying to understand why he hadn’t left yet.

 “Well, come in. Here’s my apartment.”

She made a welcoming hand gesture, and he stepped in, taking his shoes off. She followed him, turning on the light. They were in a small studio apartment. It was neat, with a small kitchen, a table for two people, a table for studying, a bookshelf, a wardrobe, and clothes falling out of it on the floor.  However, she did not lie, when she said it would be messy. Clothes and books, papers, snacks, manga, and some pens and pencils. Everything was everywhere, he sighed inwardly thinking that her studies probably take a lot of her time.

"Please sit down, Adachi-san, I will google how to properly handle the knife wound."

She tried to clean up the chair for him to sit on, then gave up, and led him to the bed, which he hesitated to sit on. She forced him, gently, to sit down. He looked up, speaking calmly.

"Well, I have actually already taken it out, while we were walking, " he nodded towards his leg. Since he was wearing black pants it was not visible how much blood had been flowing out of this wound. Sora was immediately on alert.

"Wait, why? I saw on a detective TV show that you should not take these things out just like that! Or was it a medical show?" She looked genuinely puzzled by it.

Yoshio turned his head to the left, looking confused - was she seriously thinking about the TV show now? Sora did not seem to notice.

"Well, I am sure it's a show, not manga. Maybe about yakuza?"

Ok, now Yoshio was utterly perplexed as to what he was supposed to say to that. He looked aloof from the outside though. She noticed his gaze, laughing slightly, thinking maybe she comes off as annoying.

"Sorry, I get like this sometimes, don't mind me! I am already googling the solution! I have like a huge medical cabinet in here, thanks to my dad, so I think we will be fine."

He observed her scrolling on her phone quietly. He wondered what was going on in her head, was it this busy? Also, when did she manage to put the tea cattle on? In no time two cups of steaming hot black tea appeared in front of him, she still reading something seriously. She said,

“I hope black tea is okay. It’s all I drink. I can make green tea—jasmine or matcha—but it’ll take longer.”

“It’s fine. Black tea works for me,” he replied, though he won't drink it just in case.

"Well, Adachi-san, you will have to take your pants off, or we can cut them around the wound since they are kind of already ripped anyway. I can then follow the instructions of cleaning the wound, and bandage it too." She looked up at him, his ears a bit red.

"Um, well, I think we can cut them around the wound", he said slowly.

"Ok, wait, I need to find my scissors. Well, hell, where are they? I have no freaking idea where I have put them, " She began rummaging through the apartment, creating more chaos. It was painful to look at honestly. He decided to stop this, saying calmly:

"Found them!" He held up the scissors.

Sora turned around, looking baffled. “Were they on the bed?”

“No, just here,” he said, pointing nowhere in particular. Sora took the scissors from him, looking embarrassed.

"Ok then, let's start cutting?" She seemed overly excited, almost endearing.

“I still think it’s unnecessary…” He was still puzzled as to why he was staying. She sat down in front of him, scissors ready.

“Oops, already cut some fabric. No turning back now! I guess, it is better to check the wound."

As she cut more fabric away, she realized the wound looked old. There was a scar and dried blood, but no fresh wound. She looked up, clearly confused. Yoshio sighed.

"I told you, it will heal by itself..." He pushed her hand lightly. She, however, refused to let go,  looking around the wound, thinking maybe there was the real wound somewhere around it. But there were none.

"What, how?" Her hands, unconsciously running around his tight, he immediately started to feel discomfort.

"Just forget it." He took her hand and put it aside. "I can clean the blood off myself. It is okay, see, there is no need to care about these matters anymore, I can leave now."

"Wait, stop," she said, grabbing his arm with a serious expression."You can not leave now. First, I want to know how you did that, who are you, and are you some kind of deity from anime? Secondly, I promised I would cook, so you can not possibly leave me alone now, to eat here, with the possibility of my stalker coming again to knock on my door. This day’s been a disaster, and you are here already, and I was hoping you were not the stalker, and some actually decent person, who I can cook for.."

"Oh god, stop this, okay. " Yoshio felt overwhelmed by her rapid-fire speech. It took all of his strength for him to be calm. His head started to swell from this lightning-speed speech she was producing again to bewitch him, he was certain. "I will eat with you, but then I am leaving. Under the condition that you do not ask me any questions. Are we on the same page?"

"Oh, what a shame, I was actually going to ask you a million questions..."

She saw his annoyed look and immediately continued with "...but of course, I will not. I will greatly appreciate Adachi-san's company for dinner!"

There was a moment of silence, where she rapidly stood up, smiling at him.

"So I will continue cooking, you can maybe stitch that hole in your pants, in the meantime. Can you sew? I had my sewing kit somewhere, I think..."

"I can sew, I think it is not a bad idea I do that while waiting", he said, thinking that it was stupid, as he could just teleport home and switch his clothes in an instant. Also, she might spend the next hour looking for that kit in this mess. "Well, if you don't mind, I can look for the kit, if you point me to the area where I might be..." he said cautiously, remembering the stalker allegations.

"Uh, of course, it is somewhere on the bookshelf, so there is nothing too precious there anyway. Please do not look into my wardrobe though.." She seemed a bit embarrassed finally noticing a bunch of clothes beside the drawer. Showing them inside, pushing heavily, she mumbled, "I will then, cook us some rice and chicken in soy sauce, if you eat meat?"

"No, I don't."

"Tofu, kimchi, and pickled daikon it is! I hope you like Korean food.”

“Sounds good.” He felt tired. 

"Then I will go prepare everything" She clapped her hands enthusiastically and turned to the kitchen counter.

He nodded. When she turned around the sewing kit appeared in his hand, he did not make a single move. He started looking inside of it, searching for the black thread and needle that would fit. He easily put the thread through the needle and started sewing, annoyed that he could not just change his pants, or use magic to remove the cut from the fabric. After several stitches though, it seemed to feel somewhat relaxing.

Unconsciously, both of them went silent for a good fifteen minutes, being occupied by their tasks. Occasionally one of them would glance at each other working. Quickly averting their eyes before the other notices. After another five minutes of feeling extremely impatient, Sora said,

"Adachi-san, we can eat now!"

He looked up, calmly. "Sure, let's eat, I have also finished." He showed her the stitching, which looked very neat. Sora seemed genuinely impressed, which flattered him enough to smile at her slightly. He stood up and walked towards the table, which had some sides arranged in little dishes. Everything looked nice and delicious. She gestured for him to sit down, put some small cups, and poured some freshly made jasmine tea for him, after noticing that he had not drank the black tea she had given to him earlier. She then sat down herself, looking very enthusiastic about eating, took her chopsticks, and nodded to him, wishing them a good meal. He noticed that her method of holding the chopsticks was somewhat unconventional, however, still worked. He was deliberating whether he actually wanted to ask her anything about herself, given that she was supposed to be saved by him and that's all.

"So, khm... "he felt a bit self-conscious, "What about that stalker you mentioned?" He looked up at her, slowly taking his first piece of tofu. She was already eating her third, chewing. She smiled, swallowing.

"Uh, well, yes.. There is always one, you know? No matter where I go, there is always some random creepy dude following me, leaving me notes, and photos, and stealing my clothes. You know, the usual stuff."

Yoshio almost felt a chill from these words. They made him angry, however, he remained calm. He decided to continue with the questioning.

"So has it been a long time since you have a stalker?"

"Well, you know, today I was so terrified, because I almost thought it will be the date I was finally killed os SA'd, given all the circumstances, I have been getting myself into lately. "

He raised his eyebrow, "What type of circumstances are you referring to?"

"Well... This creep has been leaving cryptic messages around my apartment, and today this dude just happened to follow me, as if fulfilling the creep's wishes and promises that it is inevitable that someone will harass me. I am so tired of this, honestly, I just wish they all give up on me already..." She sighed, and continued eating fast.

"Do you still have the messages?" Yoshio's interest was peaked, now he wanted to see what types of perverted shit those creeps would leave on the girl's doorstep.

"Sure, after we are done with dinner, I can show them to you if you want?"

He nodded, putting some more tofu on his plate.

"So, Adachi-san, I know you said no questions, but..."

"I will not be responding to any indeed, so you may just give up now." His response was firm. Sora, it seemed, did not really care.

"Sure, Adachi-san, however, I asked you one question before this rule was established.. So I think this should be fair that you answer me?" She somehow made her eyes look huge and teary almost, leaving Yoshio feeling lost. He averted his gaze from those eyes at the piece of kimchi between his chopsticks, cursing inwardly.

"What do you want to know?"

Excited, Sora's face glared up. Yoshio looked at her, feeling annoyed. "But," he continued, "No more than one question then."

"Well, technically I asked you two questions..." Seeing his cold gaze she nodded politely, "Of course, I will not force it, Adachi-san, I will ask you only one."

"Go on, then."

"Adachi-san, are you some kind of yokai?"

He looked at her, under his frowned brows, contemplating seriously what he should do. His status should technically be a secret. Maybe? He has been fighting other men without hiding his powers though. He then looked a her seriously, not noticing how a piece of kimchi had fallen off of her chopsticks comically.

"If I say yes, will you be afraid?"

She looked as if she received candy.

"Well, it depends, Adachi-san, first thought of mine would be like this - this person is insane, as there are no such things as yokai, according to science. However, on second thought, I love these types of anime and fantasy novels when there are hot fox demons, so I would think that maybe I just got lucky to see one in my lifetime. You see, there is this anime, where there is this girl, and she meets a diety, and then she has to live in a temple, and there is this hot fox-demon, and there are other cool sexy tengu guys, water yokai snake one, but him I do not like.."

Yoshio was again floored with the amount of information that spilled at him in a minute. He simply could not comprehend all of what she was saying, thinking that she should definitely be insane, reacting this way. He touched his frowned brows, closing his eyes, trying to compose himself. Sora was still talking about something. He lost that train of thought though. But then she shut up, looking up at him, question in her eyes. Yoshio did not hear the question, looking back at her, confused.

"What did you ask?"

"Adachi-san, sorry, I might be talking too much, and sometimes I feel like my Japanese is not perfect too...I asked you if you were a fox demon?"

His face looked ugly, and she immediately realized that she guessed wrong.

"Oh, I am sorry, Adachi-san, I should have thought about it more, of course, you can not be a fox, you are bold!"

His face underwent another transformation, embarrassed he wanted to fly away that instant. He looked at his rice bowl, trying to think of how to react, while Sora, continued as if she was not rude a moment ago.

"Oh well, you know, nothing wrong with being bold, I did not mean it negatively, it's just that fox demons usually are pretty hairy in the novels and stuff. My mistake. I won't be able to guess then. I am sorry. Actually, in anime, the bold guys are pretty cool, you know? There is this one guy who is so calm, and composed, he reminds me of you. Only if you had several piercings and dark glasses." She put her hands up, making a frame out of her fingers, looking at him, " I think you would look identical, he is extremely hot! So no need to be embarrassed of that, you look great!"

This Yoshio could not stand anymore. He stood up rapidly, his ears red, as well as his eyes for some reason. He felt the most humiliated he had ever been in his life. Ready to leave immediately he started to walk towards the door when he heard Sora's confused voice.

"Wait, what about the creep's messages, didn't you want to see them?"

He instantly paused, hesitating. He had to look at them, but now he was too angry and embarrassed to look at her.

"I will come tomorrow after seven, you will show me", he said without turning his head towards her.

"Ok, but you still have not yet finished eating..."

He disappeared before her eyes. She looked at the empty space in front of her. Slowly putting her chopsticks down, her smile disappeared.

Was I too much? I always am, but usually, guys run away way earlier, this one is patient as hell. Also, he did disappear just in front of me just now?