Arc 2 - Chapter 1: The Hero Archetype (2/4)

They doubted that their room deserved four gold pieces a month. It was five and a half feet long and four feet wide. It was cramped, with a bed that could fit two people but was not big, a wooden bathtub, a small closet, a table, a chair and a full-length mirror. It was not ideal for two people to live in.

"I don't want to wash front of you, leave this place."

"This is my room too, I paid for it. Okay, you're strong and all, but you can't kick me out of my own room." Yu didn't want to obey. Neko had to understand that Yu had feelings too. "What's next? You sleep on the floor and say the bed is mine?"

"That's exactly what I'm going to say, stupid human."

"Please, if we're going to be a team, we have to get over some things. Let me wash you."

"No!"

Neko went back exaggeratedly and fell into the bathtub. The water splashed all the way down to Yu's sweatpants that he wore after washing.

"Are you okay?"

She might have hit her head and hurt herself, she spat out the water she had swallowed when Yu grabbed her and pulled her out of the tub.

"Idiot! I fell because of you!"

The sweetness he witnessed when he saw Neko's ears drooping down because they were wet, was so sweet it made his heart skip a beat.

"Didn't I tell you not to laugh!?"

Yu smiled without realizing it, but it was a pained smile because he was still sad.

"Come on, take off your clothes, they look like they can't be worn anymore."

He turned around to see Neko in the bathtub taking off her clothes. While she was taking off her dress, Yu took out a t-shirt with a cat girl character on it from his bag, it was a gift from his sister. "It's a good thing we didn't drop the bag, I wonder how we brought it with us from there."

He was going to give the T-shirt to Neko to wear because he had nothing else to put on her. "Our shoes are a mess too, but we'll wear them for now. Let's wash the underwear and put them in the window to dry as long as they can."

Yu had woken up in the afternoon when he was in his world and had been sleepless ever since. Since he was sleepy, he wanted to wash the clothes in a cursory way, let them dry and then go to sleep. After waking up, they could go shopping for new clothes.

"You wash your body while I wash your hair," Yu's hair was also dirty enough to disgust everyone, but it was shorter so it was easier to clean. Neko's hair was long, so the dried dirt wouldn't be as easy to clean as Yu's hair.

Neko surprisingly did not oppose Yu. Yu poured water over her head while Neko silently washed her arms.

"When did you get blood in your hair? Oh- When that clown-" He finished the sentence, realizing at the last moment that it would not be right to mention the person who killed her mother.

Neko had been watching from close by as Yu had savagely plunged the scythe into Sorrow, so the blood had splattered on her too. And because they had slept in the sun, the blood had dried into an ugly mess, which is why it was so hard to clean up.

"It feels very strange to wash her hair. The place where her ears should be is empty and she has big cat ears on the top of her head. Can I touch her ears?" Yu put his fingers to Neko's ears, "Wow, unsurprisingly it feels like cat ears."

"They're not toys." She slapped Yu's hand when she realized he was playing with her ears. "How do you know how to wash hair?"

"That's a stupid question, everyone knows how to wash hair." He didn't understand the logic of the question, was there something difficult about washing hair that Yu didn't know? "My sisters used to let me do their hair sometimes, so I know enough to be a novice hairdresser."

"Why didn't you stay with your sisters? It would have been better if you hadn't come here."

"They're dead." If they were alive, Yu would not go through the door and would stay with them.

After receiving the answer, Neko became silent and didn't speak until she got out of the bathtub.

***

"You... You're a pervert. Why do you have my picture on this outfit?" Neko was wearing the T-shirt Yu had given her. On the white T-shirt was a little cat girl with white hair and red eyes, just like Neko.

"What a coincidence."

"You fucking pervert! You've been after me all this time!?""

"Don't exaggerate, Neko." Her sister's motivation for buying the T-shirt was probably to see the shy Yu wearing it. "Come here, let me fix your hair."

He would have to straighten it by hand because he didn't have combs, but it would have been better than leaving it messy.

"No need."

"Come on."

Like Yu, Neko was sleepy. Instead of arguing, the sleepy girl obeyed Yu. Yu had thought she would be hard to handle, but she had been docile since she got into the bathtub.

When she sat down on the bed, he dried her hair a little more with the towel and began to smooth it with his hand. 

"As you have realized, I cannot read the script of this country." Illiteracy was not something he could hide. He would ask Neko to teach him.

"The alphabet is the same in most parts of the world, are you from somewhere far away? Please don't tell me you are from Ethalot. You disgusting bastard, I cannot live with a worthless bug."

"No, I am not a bug or something. I am from a very faraway place…" If they were to act as partners, Yu would tell him about his past, but he put it off for now.

"Will you teach me?"

"Stupid human, you come to a country where you don't even speak the language."

"I prefer you call me Yu, but stupid human sounds better than stupid creature."

Yu had gone from creature to human in Neko's eyes. Maybe in time she would accept him as a friend.

"Don't try to win my sympathy, stupid human." Neko's voice was as emotionless as if it belonged to a robot. "I'm going to teach you to read and write because I have to, so you'd better learn now before you waste my time."

"Thank you."

When he was in high school, he tried to learn the runic alphabet, wondering how long it would take him, and he did it in half an hour. If he spoke the same language as the people here and each letter of the alphabet corresponded to a sound, he could learn it in an hour or two.

"I don't know what country we are in."

"Rolderhelm." Neko quickly got used to Yu's ignorance and didn't even ask him what he was doing in a country whose name he didn't know. "But our home is in Mora. We came here because my mother wanted to improve herself."

"I don't know anything about this world, you should teach me everything you know."

"This world?"

Yu's choice of words confused Neko. She must have thought he was either completely ignorant or a lunatic.

"Yes."

"You will right your wrong and give me back my mother! So I can teach you a thing or two."

Neko believed that she was going to meet her mother again, or so she said with her tongue to convince herself.

Yu wanted to believe her too, but something inside him insisted that it was nonsense.

"Are you hungry?"

"I'm sleepy."

"Me too, so let's go to sleep. When we wake up we can go buy new clothes, we can't walk around in these all the time."

"Sleep on the floor, I want to sleep on the bed."

As Yu had said before, Neko wanted him to lie on the floor

But Yu had been up all night, except for the few hours he had slept after escaping from Sigma Tower in the morning. All he wanted now was to lie down on a comfortable bed and fall asleep, and the bed was as comfortable as he wanted it to be. He didn't want to leave the bed and sleep on the floor.

"Since I'm the one paying for this place, the bed belongs to me and you can curl up in the corner like any other cat."

"I am a sword fairy, a superior being. I should be cherished."

"You can sleep in the corner of the bed if you want. If we get some more money, we'll look for a room for two with a bathtub in another inn."

He didn't intend to get out of bed, if Neko wanted to sleep in the bed he would have to share it for now.

Yu put his arm under the pillow, stretched one leg out straight, curled the other leg and got into a face down sleeping position. This was the most comfortable sleeping position for him.

After closing his eyes, Yu felt someone reach out to him. It was Neko.

"Sleep well."

Neko didn't answer him.

"I should treat her better." Yu could understand Neko's pain. Yu had felt the same pain, he had watched helplessly. "I want to believe her, this is a magical place, I hope it's true." Turning back time or going back in time? Which was right? "But whatever happens, I can't leave her alone. Even if I've only known her for half a day, I have to take responsibility for what happened to her. Like a big brother... Or a father..."

As his thoughts continued, at some point Yu fell asleep.