Chapter 2

A/N: Just to warn you guys, I'm a slow writer, so I won't be able to keep up with updating constantly like some of the more talented people here. Also, please don't expect sunshine and rainbows the whole way. It'll have both good and bad, happy and sad, albeit mostly positive, I suppose. This is wish fulfillment, but not to the fullest extent. Just wanted to get those two things out of the way to avoid certain expectations I might not be able to live up to.

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While waiting for the girl whom he spoke with on the phone to show up, Ken resumed his exploration of the house. Modern amenities around the house indicated to him that the house was either built within the last decade or was recently remodeled. 

Either way, he concluded that his family in this alternate world was a bit more well-off than when he grew up in his original world. Furrowed brows indicated Ken's indecision on how to feel regarding these changes. 

Lost in his thoughts, he wandered around the lower floor. Upon finding a tall cabinet that had separate photos of both his mother and the Asian man sitting on a shelf, he stopped. He noticed golden bowls full of sand used for burning incense. For a moment, he couldn't react at all, but then his heart dropped. His stomach churned upon realizing what it meant.

Face contorting in disbelief, he grumbled, "Hah. Haha… You've gotta be kidding me."

Unable to tear his eyes away from the picture of his mother, he suddenly felt rather lonely. The thought of seeing her again despite finding himself in an unfamiliar and possibly parallel world gave him something extra to hold onto, but now that extra stability slipped out from under him.

'It's already been a couple months since I last saw my parents, and now I have no idea if I'll be able to see them again.'

Unsure how to proceed, he opened his smartphone with the fingerprint ID and searched for the proper method of burning incense. 

Before long, the burning fragrance of incense lifted into the air. Ken remained on his knees in front of the Kumotsu in silence while it burned. His eyes refused to leave the picture of his mother. He burned the image of her wide toothy smile, wild and curly brown hair, and happy hazel eyes into his brain. He even activated his eyes to illuminate the translucent blue lines on the picture until he figured out how to imprint the image in his active memory. It strained his eyes until they were bloodshot, but he thought it was worth it. 

Eventually, Ken closed his eyes and quietly stated, "You and dad did your best to raise me well, so in the event that I never see you again, I'll do my best to prove to the world that you raised a good son."

With that, he breathed deeply through his nose and opened his eyes. His heart felt a little more clear. No matter the world, no matter the circumstances, he was still himself, and he could only choose to do his best here like his parents would have wanted.

"Haha. Dad would laugh if he saw me being so sappy," Ken mumbled, his lips rising into a wry and self-deprecating smile.

Leaving things here, he rose to his feet. He turned his back on the pictures and walked toward the stairs nearby. His steps felt a little heavier than before as though laden with sandbags. He couldn't help but wonder if he needed to actually mourn or not since his parents were probably still alive back home. 

'Now is not the time to worry about it. I should try to establish a knowledge base about my new environment. I can rest and consider such things once that is done.'

Settling that in his mind, he walked upstairs and explored the rest of the rooms in the house. He left the meticulously cleaned master bedroom untouched and explored the other rooms until he found one that looked like a teenage boy's bedroom. A messy pile of laundry overfilled a laundry basket in the corner. Manga filled a small bookshelf. A nearby trash bin nearly overflowed with snack wrappers, empty soda cans, and used tissues. The bed with dark blue blankets looked like it had not been made in months.

'Yep. This is definitely the room a high school me would have had.'

The first thing he did was remove the red robe. Now completely naked, he carried the robe over to the trash bin. Part of him wanted to be rid of the robe that reminded him of that dead world, and in turn, the family members he thought he might never see again. For nearly a whole minute, he hesitatingly held it above the trash bin, yet he found himself unable to let go. Finally, he sighed and pulled the robe away from the trash bin. 

'Since it has a supernatural origin, I'd better hang onto it for now no matter how I personally feel about it.'

Reasoning to himself to hang onto the red cloak, he stuffed it in the back corner of the closet on the other side of the room. While there, he grabbed a pair of jeans and a graphic tee to wear. The English words on it wrote out 'King of the Popcorn', but he didn't really care how corny it was. He also found some boxer briefs and socks to wear. He thanked his lucky stars that he didn't have to wear whitey tighties. Those things would have been too tight on his jolly logger.

Content with the basic apparel, he looked around for more personal belongings. Before long, he found a school bag containing his school ID. He did not recognize the name of the school, though. It looked fairly generic.

Then, he walked downstairs again. He wandered over to the TV in the living room, found the remote between the couch cushions after a brief search, and then surfed through the channels until he found a news channel. While letting that play in the background, he also started searching up information about his current situation on his phone.

Almost immediately, he raised a brow and thought, 'Southern end of Yokohama… So I'm near Tokyo? I guess that is convenient. Pretty close to the coast, too, which could be good or bad depending how I look at it.'

In the background, he heard the news channel switching to a live report about a collapsed building in a nearby prefecture that resulted in a few casualties and hundreds of injuries. Upon hearing the report, he raised his eyes from his phone and narrowed his eyes. Although slightly concerning, an accident further away in Kanagawa was not quite close enough to concern himself with. He merely made a mental note not to visit that area for another few weeks.

'No, wait.'

Feeling uncomfortable for some reason, he looked up the contact information of the Naru girl who called him before. Seeing the address listed in his phone, he frowned.

"So she lives over there but not close enough for it to matter. That collapse happened before she called me, too, so she should be safe. I worried for nothing."

Deep down, he noticed that a part of him wanted to cling to this connection now that he knew he might not see his parents again. He did not know if the girl was an actual sister to this world's version of him, but he assumed she was related in some way. Before even meeting her, he already found himself worrying about her well-being.

Amid his pondering, a doorbell rang. Assuming it was the girl he spoke with before, he stood and sauntered over to the front door. Without hesitation, he opened it. Seeing the person waiting there made him raise a brow.

On the other side of the door, a girl about the same height as himself adjusted a pair of thick foggy glasses sitting loosely on her nose. Two messily braided pigtails of light brown hair fell behind her back. Other than that, Ken's eyes immediately dropped to look at the glaring red sweatshirt with yellow letters that spelled out 'SALEM' on it. He also noticed the slightly mismatched tan skirt that didn't quite go with the sweatshirt. Then, he looked her in the eyes again.

'She's a nerdy type?' 

Was his immediate conclusion. However, her clothes could not hide her fit figure. Even if she looked nerdy, he could tell she either exercised regularly or had enviously good genes. She also had clean skin with zero signs of acne. 

"That was quick. Were you waiting for me?" The girl asked. 

"Sort of."

"Hm. You're wearing the shirt I got you."

"..."

'With that sweatshirt, that checks out.'

"What are you looking at me like that for?" The girl asked, tilting her head slightly.

"No reason."

"Hm. Whatever. So, do you want to go now, or do you want me to make you some food here first? I doubt you've eaten since breakfast considering how you usually act."

Upon hearing the options, his eyes twitched slightly. Out of curiosity, he willed the blue lines and symbols to light up just enough so that he could read into them a little. Reading into the blue lines intersecting all over the girl, detailed information about her entered his mind, including her genetics that partially matched some of his that indicated they were either cousins or second cousins, some of her recent past, and even some weird things. 

For one thing, his eyes picked up a form of supernatural element on her, but he nearly gawked at the form it took. 

'A supernatural inability to cook??? What kind of weird world is this?'

"What's with that look again? You still think I can't cook? I practiced this week. I'll show you that I can make something you'll like this time!"

Before Ken could say anything, the girl stormed past him into the house. He scratched his temple and followed behind the willful young lady. A slight chuckle slipped from his lips while he closed the door behind him. 

Inside, he saw the girl solemnly staring at the lit incense in the other room. She then turned around and looked at him with a slightly hunched over posture.

"Um… sorry. I didn't realize you were… Well, anyway, I guess we can go buy lunch somewhere if you're hungry right now."

"Whatever's faster. I haven't eaten anything in a while."

Indeed, he hadn't eaten since well before he found himself in that barren world of sand. His stomach was not rumbling yet, but he certainly felt peckish.

"May as well go out now, then. We can stop by WcDonalds on the way."

'That's a weird pronunciation,' Ken thought. 

So, he followed 'Naru nee-san' back outside. For a few moments, he watched her back in silence. Although he just met her for the first time, the small connection helped ground him in this unfamiliar place. 

Then, he looked up at the blue sky in a grateful manner. Although the last however-many hours stressed him out, the warmth of the sun reminded him that he could still reach for a bright future here. 

"The future is bright."

"Stop looking at the sun or you'll run into a pole or something, Ken-kun."