Chapter 3- Sudden and Confusing enocunters

Confusing and sudden encounters.

"Eh?"

The two of them looked baffled. As Riyoko was in panic and did not know what to do, the girl suddenly bowed.

"I'm so sorry!" she shouted, "I didn't think anyone would be here by this time!"

Riyoko stood still, hiding his confusion, "wait… what is going on?" he thought.

The girl pulled out her cell phone in a hurry, "Hello, Reine?"

The girl was wearing modern outing clothes, light blue tights along with a slightly large tucked-in T-shirt. She had neat black long hair and a charming aura.

"This girl… who is she? Is it just me or does she seem familiar?" he thought.

The girl glanced at Riyoko noticing his stare, "ah! Don't worry, Reine will be coming here quick,"

He quickly averted his eyes, "crap I was staring for too long, and who is this Reine?"

"I... I see," he said, averting his eyes.

Silence filled the room.

"This is awkward… should I start a conversation? No… I don't have any idea what's going on, she's acting like I'm supposed to be here while I have no idea where I even am, Is this someone's ploy? A prank? I should be cautious either way, if this isn't a prank, then I should go along with whatever is on her mind, who knows what will happen if she suddenly thinks I'm the one trespassing?"

"Umm, excuse me," the girl said.

"CRAP! Is she…?"

"If I recall correctly you are…"

Suddenly, a strong beam of light emerged from the living room, right beside them.

"what the!?" Riyoko thought.

"OH! She's here!"

As the strong beam of light fades, it could be noticed that the light came from the door in the living room.

"aaannndddd,"

A clouded high-pitched feminine voice emerged from within the door.

"I'm here!"

A girl with short pink hair suddenly came out of the empty room within the door, striking a cute pose with a peace sign on her winking face.

Riyokos expression turned blank stone as he had to conceal his enormous confusion, while the girl behind him began clapping.

"Such a grand entrance as always,"

"hehe! You think so?"

As the two girls approached each other, Riyoko stood still with a blank expression, "I have so many questions…"

"Riyoko! Seems like you arrived earlier than I thought!" the pink-haired girl said, walking energetically towards Riyoko with a joyed expression.

Smacking him lightly on the back, she locked eyes with him as she let out a smile.

Still confused, Riyoko thought that it'd be best if he just played along and let out an awkward smile.

"Haha, seems like you still feel off from your travel huh?"

The girl with long black hair moved towards them, "where did he come from?"

"that one country in the far east," the pink-haired girl answered.

"oh, you mean overseas!?"

"yep!"

"pretty far huh, must have been quite a ride," the black-haired girl said, glancing at Riyoko.

"well… yeah," Riyoko nodded.

"I see, I guess that explains why you don't look so well,"

"I... is that so?"

"Things have been really rough on our end," the pink-haired girl said in a complaining manner, "my mom told me my cousin here was coming soon, but I didn't expect him to arrive this early," she pouted, looking at Riyoko.

"hehe, sorry for the trouble," Riyoko said, still sounding awkward, "I don't even know what's going on anymore!!" he shouted in his thoughts.

Looking at Riyoko, the pink-haired girl stopped for a thought.

"what's wrong Reine?" The black-haired girl said.

"Hey, do you have anything to do today?" she suddenly asked as she got a grasp on an idea.

"eh? Umm, I'm pretty much free, besides the rounds I have to make, I can basically do what I want,"

"Then that's great! How about the three of us go out together? My cousin here just arrived for the first time in this town, so how about we show him around?"

"Sure, I'm in,"

"oh! And speaking of around, how about…"

Meanwhile inside Riyoko's head, "I see, for now, what I should do is gather information, right now all I know is I'm from overseas… where this definitely isn't, despite them clearly speaking my language… and that I'm this girl's cousin, despite me totally having no memory of seeing her once in my life… and as for questions… there is so much that I just want to throw a tantrum and ask for answers, but what intrigued me the most was…" glancing at the empty room where Reine came from, "what the heck was that light? and where did she come from? even more, they acted like it was completely natural…"

"Adipicing!"

Splash*

After hearing a weird sound, Riyoko suddenly found himself splashed with water.

"eh!" taking him by surprise, he quickly glanced at Reine, who was pointing at him with her finger.

"Jeez, you seem to be spacing out so much, why don't you go ahead and take a bath upstairs? Maybe it'll wake you up, both of us will get prepared too," Reine said, pouting

Being rather more confused, Riyoko nodded, and without hesitation, he went upstairs and entered the bathroom he found earlier.

As he closes the door, he flicked the switch beside it, lighting up the bathroom.

The bathroom was white tiled, had a toilet in the corner, separated from the shower area, and a bathtub located by the other side of the bathroom, "this is quite spacy…"

Noticing a towel placed by the holder beside the door, he took off his clothes, placed them in a basket beside the sink, and went into the shower room. As he stood there, he began to be lost in thought.

"what the heck… did I just get myself splashed with water back there? And when I looked at her she wasn't even holding anything… it's as if… magic?" he shook his head, "I feel like this has gone a bit too far for a prank… and assuming this is reality, I doubt that it was…"

Looking in front of him, he noticed that the walls had only contained buttons, and no pipes or shower could be found.

"huh? I moved instinctively assuming this was a shower room because of its look but… there isn't anything like a shower in here… the area definitely says this is one, but…"

He looked closely at the buttons, "the only thing here is… what are these buttons? Hot, cold, warm? Isn't these water temperature levels for a shower?"

He looked around, "should I…" lifting his finger towards the warm button.

With a nervous expression, he gathered his courage and pressed the button.

Suddenly a soft blue light emerged above, "WHAT THE!?"

He was shocked as a glowing blue circle filled with letters he couldn't recognize emerges above his head.

"what is…"

Suddenly, the circle began to release amounts of water similar to a proper shower, pouring directly above his head from thin air.

"huh?" Looking confused, yet amazed, he took a step back and had a good look at the circle.

He was stunned and speechless, after a short moment he went back inside the shower provided by the circle, grabbed a soap from the basket containing bath items beside the but, tons and began scrubbing his body.

"there are no pipes… or anything I can think of where the water is coming from, aside from that thin circle that just appeared out of nowhere… isn't that… magic?"

As he looked forward, he notices a glowing circle placed in front of him, floating in thin air.

"what's this… it seems like… a handle?"

He held the circle and fully turned it around.

"AAH!"

As his voice echoes throughout the house, Reine and the black-haired girl looked baffled.

"what the heck?"

"this cousin of mine… he probably did something with the new shower feature we have,"

"new feature?"

"Apparently, our shower has a temperature adjusting spell now while the shower is running,"

"how does it work?"

"After you start the shower, another magic circle will appear in front of you, and like a knob, you can turn it little by little to adjust the temperature,"

"Oh! So it's like that," she nodded, "wait… then could that sound…"

"My cousin probably turned it too much, eighter too hot or too cold, it should be enough to make him squeal like that,"

She let out an awkward laugh.