Chapter 10 - "Hey, Sekirei"

Ice cream was a good destresser, I found. By the time we made it back home, the thoughts of murderous robots had become less of a concern. Hans had told us a few jokes, and while the specifics had gone over Benitsubasa's head, I still found it funny.

"And then he told me someone was crazy enough to sign up for the shift transfer as Mike Hawk."

I snickered and tried not to laugh. It was a crude joke, but still funny.

We stepped through our main gates, finding them without a scratch. I still remembered how easily Haihane had sliced through them with her gauntlets. Yet, only after a single day, it was as if nothing had ever happened. Had MBI fixed it? I guess we'd never know unless we asked.

"Your jokes suck," Benitsubasa hummed. "If you want to hear something actually funny, then listen to this."

Admittedly, I was a bit curious as to what she'd find funny. Hans, as well, perked his ears up and waited patiently.

Benitsubasa smiled.

"Why-" She stopped and furrowed her brow. After a moment of hesitation, she grumbled out her joke.

"The grass is rotten because it stinks!"

...

I waited. Hans waited. Yet, nothing else came.

Benitsubasa's cheeks turned scarlet.

"Your language sucks! It would have been a whole lot funnier in Japanese!"

She huffed and stormed off into the house. The joke definitely didn't make any sense, but I did understand her frustration. These were the basic problems of cross-lingual jokes.

Hans chuckled at his antics and shook his head.

"I'm going to take a shower and I think you should too."

I blinked and looked down at my shirt. Yeah, it was a bit dirty. There were a few grass stains here and there along with some bits of mud near my pant-legs. My face was probably greasy and sweaty too.

"Also, another one for the road-"

I turned to Hans with a raised brow.

"So, before I came here I used to be a banker."

Wait, really?

No. Obviously not.

"Then I lost some interest and quit."

...

I snickered.

"That's horrible."

He laughed and started on his way.

"Yep!"

------------------

The mansion we lived in was the sort of building where one could bring their entire family over, grandparents, nephews, and even distant cousins and there'd still be space for guests. Suffice to say, after a bit of looking around, it wasn't hard to find a bathroom. The water was nice and warm; some might even call it scalding, but that was fine.

I left the bathroom refreshed and with a goal in mind. I wanted to learn Japanese, or at least start learning it. Doing that by myself would probably take such a long time that the Sekirei games would likely be over by then. Still, relying on Benitsubasa to be our translator would eventually become incredibly annoying.

"Can't you just use those fancy psychic powers of yours to, like, rip the information from my mind?" she asked with a small frown as you found her in the kitchen. "Actually, It's probably best if you do that on someone else. Give me like, twenty minutes and I'll go grab some punk or something."

"Benitsubasa, we can't just kidnap people to run experiments on them."

She blinks, taking a moment to look me over before letting out a sigh.

"You're right. This isn't MBI and you obviously don't like them."

Was... Was this another bad joke? Or was she telling the truth? I mean, I wouldn't have been surprised, but...

"Yeah," I answer hesitantly. "Besides, studying could help us get to know one another better, right?"

She immediately perked up at that. The annoyed frown on her face all but vanished and was replaced with one far more enthusiastic.

"Yeah! That sounds like a much better idea."

I nearly laughed at that. She could be so childish and innocent at times that it made her look so adorable.

"Oh, but I'm not really a teacher," she suddenly says. "I don't think I'd help all that much."

"It's fine," I said dismissively. "We'll start with the basics and work our way up."

It definitely wasn't going to be easy. Still, maybe Benitsubasa's earlier hope might not have been too crazy. We were close and maybe I could somehow use our connection to speed up the process? Or, at the very least, make learning a whole new language a bit smoother?

"Let's do it in my room, ok?" she asked with a small, hopeful smile.

I nodded.

"Don't see why not. Let me just grab a few notebooks and we'll meet there, alright?"

She agreed and was soon off.

A quick look out of a nearby window showed an orange sky.

I only hoped we'd make at least some progress tonight.

--------------

Studying a completely new language was hard and so was I.

Jokes aside, the only thing I knew about Japanese was what I'd heard from in anime.

"At least you know a few words," Benitsubasa said in an attempt to motivate me. "Sure, knowing how to say what, bastard, hello, thanks for the food, and 'you're already dead' isn't groundbreaking, but at least it's a start!"

She wore a loose-fitting t-shirt and short-shorts that seemed to appear out of nowhere. A question had her revealing exactly where she found those.

"Haihane stopped by this morning," She had told me with a look I could only describe as disappointed. "She dropped off my clothes and everything else I kept back over at the MBI building."

I blinked and looked around the room. There weren't many things, but I did spot a few odd bits and ends. The most prolific of all was an odd stuffed animal. It was a big, red bear about the size of a pillow and was resting on her bed.

"But forget about that, you need to focus on learning the language."

What followed were a few exercises she said children would be tasked with. She told me a word, showed me how to write it, and then had me do the same. In fact, she'd been taught how to do these a long time ago herself.

Unfortunately, it was a bit hard to put the entirety of my attention on them. Benitsubasa's clothing wasn't exactly made to attract attention, but the simple things had a charm of their own. And again, they were pretty loose. If she leaned forward enough. anyone could look down her shirt and see the bare flesh underneath. And, well, she often leaned over my shoulder and pointed to my work every now and then to explain things. Sometimes she'd even press herself up against my back.

Calling it distracting would have been an understatement.

God darn it. Was she doing this on purpose? She had to be, right? At least that's what I told myself...

At the end of the day, I really did want to get some studying done. This was a serious matter and giving into distractions would only slow me down. Yey, I just couldn't help myself. I wasn't some iron-willed hero that would easily avoid temptation. I was just a kid that got pulled from his home and dumped in another world.

So, I took peeks every now and then but tried to keep my head in the game.

"Not bad," Benitsubasa mumbled. She leaned over once more and thumbed at a line in my notebook. "You kinda make that curve look like a dead noodle, but I can still sorta make out what it is."

I chuckled and shook my head. It felt wrong, but at the same time, I couldn't help myself. Surely I was blushing, right?

"We can't all be masters of Japanese like you."

She huffed and stepped back at my joke, planting her hands on her hips. Though she wasn't exactly "well endowed," she still had some meat on her bone. The motion pushed the loose shirt against her figure and made my imagination run a bit wild. And, of course, I noticed tiny points pressing against her shirt.

"I'm no master, but I definitely know more about it than you," she boasted and let out a laugh.

"Yeah, well, I wasn't born here, you know?" I said with a small smile.

She rolled her eyes and gently slapped my shoulder.

"Whatever, you'll get better eventually."

I would, but it'd take quite some time.

"Now, I've got a few more exercises. This time, try and actually pay attention!"

My heart had nearly burst out of my chest.

"I know it's really boring, but keep your eyes on the notebook," Benitsubasa said as she gently tapped the pages again. Did... did she catch me? Well, she certainly didn't look upset nor was she acting like I'd expect her to. "You keep looking over your shoulder or at me for help, but I ain't giving you any, ok! The best way to learn is to figure stuff out on your own!"

A small, silent breath left my lips. At the same time, guilt began growing in my gut. The small sense of excitement died down and I turned my gaze back onto the book.

"Sorry, I'll try harder."

Benitsubasa nodded and then smiled warmly.

"Good! I don't mind helping a bit, but no hand-holding!"

She paused, cheeks taking on a tiny bit of red.

"Unless you want to hold hands, that is!"

I couldn't help it. I laughed and shook my head.

"Kinda hard to write with just on hand. The book will just slide all over the table."

She huffed and shook her head.

"Then I'll hold it down!"

Our fingers were then intertwined before I knew it. Sufficed to say, I was distracted again.

Still, some progress is better than no progress.

--------------

The moon was high in the sky and I was just about ready to sleep. Of course, things couldn't be simple. For the second time, Benitsubasa snuck into my room. This time, I was very much awake and she knew it.

"So... come here often?"

Something soft slammed into my side.

"Shut up and sleep. I'm tired."

There wasn't anything risqué, and that was fine. I really was tired, and before I knew it, sleep took me.

When I snapped my eyes open the next morning, Benitsubasa was gone. For such a loud person, she really could be very sneaky when she wanted.

I yawned and then slowly moved to the nearby bathroom. My toothbrush, or at least my new one poked my gums. It was stiff and frankly annoying. A quick shower cleaned the sleep out of my eyes and then I was down in the kitchen soon enough.

"Something smells good," I said with a small smile.

"I'm cooking, so of course it does." Benitsubasa huffed. Indeed, she was "cooking."

"Where's Hans?" I yawned and looked around. My unlikely friend was absent.

"No idea," Benitsubasa answered. "But I heard him snoring on the way here, so probably still sleeping."

I glanced at the nearby clock. It was already ten in the morning. Looked like he was a late riser then.

"His fault for missing breakfast!" She said with a smile. "Here, eat up!"

She carefully slid a plate across the table. Four brown slices of bread were lovingly prepared just for me. The top two had what seemed to be strawberry jam while the bottom ones were more... experimental.

"Is that mustard?"

"Yep!" she said proudly. "It's something I like, so go ahead and try it out!"

...

Her taste buds were seriously messed up. Toast with nothing but mustard and ketchup did not sound like something I'd like.

"Haihane always said I had a shit sense of taste, but I wasn't the one eating those crappy ration bars they gave us..."

She was staring at me with hopeful, joy-filled eyes. It was the sort of moment where turning her down or even mentioning that it was bad would have her heart breaking in two. Well, not really. She'd probably be disappointed and bummed out for a bit.

Was that worth not eating a stupid sandwich?

I blew a sigh and reached for the odd mustard and ketchup toast first. I took a bite.

"Well? How's is it?"

I swallowed and looked her in the eye and reached for the other two slices of toast. I also took a bit from those.

"Honestly, I think I like the strawberry jam ones more."

She clicked her tongue.

"Aw well. What about the other one?"

"Hmm. It's not bad, but I think it's missing something."

"What?" She asked, eyes narrowed and gaze intent. Listening to every word I said, she took down mental notes.

"Maybe some ham? A bit of lettuce couldn't hurt either."

Benitsubasa let out a hum and nodded. Just then, there was a buzzing that echoed through the house.

"What is-"

"Someone's at the gates," Benitsubasa said with a raised brow. "You really should figure out how your house works."

She chuckled and moved towards a small screen by the wall.

"Looks like it's some guy. Should I tell him we're not buying his crap?"

I sighed.

"It might be important."

So I stepped up and pressed the button with a small microphone symbol.

"Who are you and what do you want?"

The guy smiled.

Oh, wait, no Japanese. Shit. Stupid reflex, I guess.

He answered back, but as expected, not in English. Benitsubasa was nice enough to translate.

"Guy says he saw us yesterday and also saw someone stalking us. Wants to come in and talk."