2 Chapter 2: A New Life
"What the hell," was all Kei could say as the three stood before a gigantic golden mansion that glowed like a beacon in the night sky, the lights shining through the windows illuminating the darkness of the secluded hill it stood on.
"A real work of art, isn't it?" Pekomama smiled at the large building. "There was a lot of care put into this."
"I don't understand why you asked Watson Kensetsu to build this house-peko," Pekora pouted, crossing her arms and looking away from her mother. "I run a perfectly fine construction company you know."
"I really enjoy your buildings sweetie, but I would rather this house be built without this very fine hill being blown up," Pekomama countered, the loving smile not leaving her face as she put her hand on Pekora's head, rubbing her hair as she pouted.
"Hey! Ame breaks the Geneva Convention on a regular basis too!" Pekora shot back.
"What does this have to do with the-,"
"Now, now, we need to get your new husband situated," Pekomama cut in.
"Thanks for reminding me," Both Kei and Pekora grumbled, Pekora adding her signature peko at the end of the sentence as they entered the building. Kei expected everything to be gold plated like the exterior, but it seemed fairly modest for a gigantic mansion. Although the chairs and couches seemed very comfortable, they didn't seem luxurious.
"Well I have to go to bed early-peko," Pekora said, a hint of smugness coming from her tone. "I have a hard day of work tomorrow."
"Oh, no need to worry about that," Pekomama winked at Kei, a foxy grin on her face. "I told Moona that you'll be taking the day off to get acquainted with your new husband."
"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!" Pekora shouted, losing her verbal tick from shock. Kei was going to say something about having manners and not shouting at her mother but was drowned out by her next words, "NOW SHE'LL STOP AT NOTHING TO KILL HIM!"
"Kill me?!" Kei almost jumped. From the little he's gauged from Pekora, he could tell she wasn't kidding. "What the hell did I get into?"
"Don't worry, I made sure that she wouldn't do anything funny," Pekomama replied ominously before turning her attention to Kei. "Pekora's friends are very nice. They're just very protective."
"Protective is a bit of an understatement-peko," Pekora muttered under her breath.
"Never mind that," Pekomama waved her hand dismissively. "Let me show you to your room. Pekora dear, you can head off to bed."
"I'll go do that," Pekora said, shooting Kei one last warning glance. "Don't try anything, alright?"
"I won't, I won't," Kei held his hands up. Pekora just scoffed and walked away.
"I'm really sorry about that," Pekomama said. "Pekora hasn't been very keen on the whole arranged marriage thing."
"I'm still confused on why this is a thing in the first place," Kei rubbed the bad of his head.
"Are you aware of the world of magic?" Pekomama asked, her usual smile fading for an inquisitive frown.
"Of course," Kei replied. Although he wasn't well versed in magic, Kei did know a little bit of magic, as well as well as the world of magic.
"Long ago, your parents… they helped me a lot," Pekomama said, looking down. "I asked what they wanted in return and they wanted to make sure that their child would be safe and secure, so they asked for our firstborns to be arranged in a marriage. I owed them more than my life… so I agreed. I didn't know what I was getting into until I had Pekora. It tears me up inside that she's being forced into this, but I made a pact…"
"I'm sorry," Kei looked down, looking genuinely guilty. "I didn't know I was causing this amount of pain."
"It's no problem. It's not your fault," Pekomama forced a smile, turning the corner. "Here is your room."
"Thank you," Kei tried his best to give Pekomama a reassuring smile.
"Good night, Kei," Pekomama turned away, walking off. Kei opened the door to see a king-sized bed, a fairly large desk, and a dresser. He did admit that it was a lot better than his old apartment. He flopped on the bed, having nothing else to change to.
"Well, I guess this is my life now," Kei said to himself as he closed his eyes. He took some time to process what had happened that day. Despite it being only one day, so many things happened. He got a wife, a new place to stay, and a new mother-in-law all in one day. He didn't know where life would take him next but there was only one thing he could do at this point: go with a flow.
-
For the first time in ages, Kei awoke well rested. Sleeping in a crappy futon didn't do wonders for his back and sleeping in this new bed was a very nice change of pace for the man. He sat up, cracking his back before making his bed. He is living in someone else's house, after all. Although he did like to keep his place clean, he made extra care to make everything look just as he found it.
"The hard part would be navigating through the house," Kei said. He immediately jinxed himself as he opened the door. The smell of cooked bacon wafted into his nose. He was easily able to track the scent into the kitchen where Pekomama was plating a couple pieces of pan-fried bacon.
"Good morning," Pekomama greeted Kei with a gentle smile. "Although we are vegans, I don't mind cooking meat for you."
"Oh, don't worry about that," Kei said, flushing in embarrassment. "You don't need to do that. I don't want you to change your lifestyle because of me."
"Thank you for being considerate," Pekomama dipped her head slightly as she plated the bacon. "Well at least have this for today."
"Thank you," Kei said, sitting down, clasping his hands together in prayer before taking a bite. "Wow, for a vegan, you're really good at cooking meat."
"I've learned since Pekora started having more of her friends over," Pekomama tilted her hands, putting her hand on her cheek.
"Speaking of Pekora, where is she?" Kei looked around. "Shouldn't I wait for her?"
Pekomama looked at the microwave, Kei following her gaze. 8:17 am. "Since Pekora has the day off, she probably won't wake up for another couple hours."
"I see," Kei said, sympathizing a bit with his new wife. He remembers sleeping in after being given a day off. I should probably ask about that.
"Speaking of employment," Kei said after swallowing a piece of bacon. "Shouldn't I be trying to find a job right now?"
"Don't worry about that," Pekomama rubbed Kei's head. "We can provide for you. If you really want to earn your keep here, then you can ask Pekora if you can go with her to work at her construction company."
"So, you two really weren't kidding about the construction company, huh?" Kei rubbed his chin as he wrapped his head around the situation. "Were you kidding about the Geneva Convention too?"
"No, unfortunately," Pekomama replied, not even trying to hide her pride. "The breaking of the Geneva Convention is pretty common upon Pekora and her friends."
"So, what you're saying is my wife's a war criminal," Kei deadpanned.
"Exactly," Pekomama's smile grew wide. "Now if you're done with the bacon, let me show you around the house."
"Of course, but I would like to wash the dishes for you first," Kei said, picking up his plate and walking to the sink.
"Such a polite young man," Pekomama giggled, putting her hand to her mouth. "I won't stop you."
"It's the least I can do," Kei replied, giving Pekomama a polite smile as he washed the dishes.
It only took a few minutes to wash the dishes. "Thank you for that, Kei," Pekomama said. "Now, shall we begin?"
-
"And this is Pekora's room," Pekomama gestured towards the door. Pekora had shown Kei through the whole house to the point where Kei felt fairly comfortable with the layout of the house. "Ah, speak of the devil."
At that moment, Pekora opened the door, her hair frizzy and a cute, tired expression on her face. "Good morning-pe-," Pekora froze as she saw Kei, blinking a couple times. "I thought you were a nightmare."
"I think things would be easier if I was," Kei muttered to himself. "Good morning, Pekora."
"Morning Kei," Pekora grumbled as she rubbed her eyes. "I guess you're living with us now."
"I guess so," Kei agreed. "You have a very nice place."
"Thanks, I guess," Although Pekora wasn't exactly aggressive towards Kei, she didn't seem super happy to see him.
"Alright, so what are we going to do?" Kei asked. After all, it wasn't his house so he didn't know what to do.
"I mean we have a couple hours before my stream, so I guess I can hang out with you," Pekora replied, smoothing out her hair with her hands.
"Hold up," Kei held up his hands, causing the other two to pause, "you're a war criminal who streams? Like on Twitch or something?"
"I'm a VTuber on YouTube!" Pekora exclaimed, Kei half expecting her nose to grow a few inches as she put her hands on her hips and let out a weird, obnoxious laugh. "I'm a part of Hololive's Third Generation!"
"Hololive…?" Kei vaguely remembered Pekora saying something like that when she introduced herself the day before. "You're going to have to run that by me again."
"Oh, Hololive is a group of magical creatures who are given models that make them look like anime characters," Pekora explained. "We're basically virtual idols."
"I can't believe my wife is a war criminal (and a VTuber or something)," Kei muttered to himself.
"Yeah, yeah, shut it-peko," Pekora waved her hand dismissively, flashing a murderous glare at him. Kei shuddered.
Probably shouldn't piss her off, Kei thought to himself.
"Ara, I have an idea," Pekomama butt in, trying her best to keep the peace. "Since Kei had to leave everything behind, why don't we go shopping?"
"I-I don't have any money though," Kei shuffled nervously. Since his employer didn't give him a severance pay, he was pretty much broke.
"Don't worry about that," Pekomama placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "You're family now. A little money can't amount to that."
"I still haven't agreed to this-peko," Pekora muttered under her breath.
"What was that?" Kei could swear he could see a red glint come from Pekomama's eye as she glared at her daughter.
"N-nothing!" Pekora stiffened. "L-let's go shopping-peko! That's a great idea!"
"That's better," Pekomama's murderous gaze subsided. "Now, shall we?"
-
"Don't you think this is too much…?" Kei asked as he carried several bags of clothing as Pekomama carried a flat-screen TV.
"For once, I have to agree with my new husband," Pekora deadpanned, carrying no shortage of bags. "This is a bit excessive-peko."
"Nonsense," Pekomama ushered the two towards the registers. "We treat all our family like this."
"Still, I don't think I deser-,"
"It doesn't matter what you deserve," Pekomama cut in. "You got dealt this hand. Just gratefully accept everything, okay?"
"T-thank you…" Kei flushed. He wasn't used to being gifted so many things. He was always taught and raised to be humble but grateful and decided to be just that.
"Mama!" Pekora shouted, catching the attention of the other two people. "My stream is in fifteen minutes-peko!"
"Crap! We have to hurry!" This was the first time Pekomama seemed genuinely worried. She grabbed both of their hands and started to dash for the door.
"Wait! We still have to pay!" Kei called as they exited the building, security chasing not too far off.
"We'll send them the bill-peko!" Pekora shot back as they started to find their footing.
"I guess this is my life now," Kei grumbled.
"What do you think?" Pekomama asked.
"Honestly," Kei smirked, "it's not that bad."
-
Somewhere in an unknown location, three women gathered around a table, all of them staring at a picture of Takamura Kei.
"What are we going to do about him?" Kiara asked. "Ryan told me not to try anything funny when he was gone. I'm going to assume that includes killing Pekora's new husband."
"He didn't clarify that we're not allowed to kill him," Moona suggested.
"Moona, I would like to keep my precious Little Egg from trying to beat our asses for killing an innocent," Kiara reasoned.
"He's not innocent!" Miko slammed her hands on the table. "He married Pekora!"
"We'll see what he's like," Moona suggested. "If he's a bad person, we'll kill him, if Pekora doesn't get to him first."
"Alright, let's go with that," Kiara agreed.
"I can't believe that we're actually agreeing on something," Moona growled, a dangerous glint in her eye.
"Well he's threatening my precious senpai and your CEO," Kiara smirked. "It's only natural we take action."
