"Who… are you?"
Out from the bath entrance came a girl, one whom I had not seen before. She had long, flowing hair, glittering like flaming rose petals. Her walnut locks glanced at me from the doorway. Her lower torso and body were mysteriously covered by white mist. The room wasn't even misty to begin with. How it got there was beyond me.
With the situation being awkward as it is, I gathered up the courage to tell her to leave.
"This isn't the droid you're looking for."
"W-was that a reference to something?" she reacted.
"How did you get in anyway? Actually, who are you?"
"That's my line!" she said, "More importantly, I'm impressed you're not overreacting after seeing a naked lady."
"What's there to see? It's all foggy."
"I know…" she responded, "Censorship is a b*tch…"
As weird as it was having a conversation with a naked girl at the bathroom, we were just going at it as if we've seen every single cliché in movies. Our interaction was then interrupted by a call from outside:
"Rea! Where did you go?!"
Judging from the pitch of the voice, I could tell it was Chiaki calling.
"Oh! I gotta hide!" she said.
Then without warning, she jumped inside the bathtub and caused a big splash. The impact was so strong that the water hit and stung my right eye.
"Ow!"
She clearly didn't hear my cry of pain as she submerged her whole body under the bathtub. Meanwhile, I stood up, knowing two people wouldn't fit in such a small tub.
Her head resurfaced and she got a clear glimpse of my… thing…
"…You're pathetic." She commented.
"D-don't stare at- wait, what?!"
Then she began to laugh in a high pitch, covering her mouth and hiding her loud laugh.
"D-don't laugh!"
"Oh, it grew."
"Stop staring at it!"
I immediately covered my thing and jumped out of the tub. I returned to the washing area, where my towel and clothes were, and clothed myself as fast as possible. And just as I was about to head out, the bathroom door opened, and the red-haired girl popped out with open arms.
"You're not getting away!" she exclaimed.
As a defensive maneuver, I crouched down and she flew all the way to the exit, hitting the door and hurting her forehead.
She knelt down and tried to comfort her painful bump by rubbing it repeatedly.
"Ow…"
"A-are you okay?"
At that moment, the laundry room's door was opened and that person caught a glimpse of a naked girl rubbing her forehead and a guy crouching as if his life depended on it. I raised my head and saw a furious Chiaki.
"What happened here…?!"
"I-I can explain!"
Before I could, however, she pushed me out and closed the laundry room's door.
When they emerged from the room, the red-haired girl covered herself in a towel and Chiaki carried her by the towel's back.
"Kneel!" Chiaki commanded.
We did as she said and we were scolded for about a minute or so.
"Just what was going on in there?! I could hear shouting from all the way here!" Chiaki mentioned.
"I was just taking a bath when this stranger came in all of a sudden!"
"No! He let me in!"
"Stop lying!"
"I heard some lewd sounds, so I let myself in!"
"That doesn't make any sense! Wait, who the heck are you anyway?!"
In the end, Chiaki gave up after realizing how stupid the argument was getting.
"Okay, I get it…" the apologetic Chiaki said.
"S-sorry…" the girl apologized.
"Same here…"
"Now get dressed. Lunch is almost ready."
"Got it!" the girl exclaimed.
What a bizarre situation, it was. Like something out of a harem anime. And so we did as Chika said and dressed up. I went back to the bathroom to dress up. The girl, however… actually, I didn't know where she changed her clothes. Anyway, after I was done, I went downstairs to eat lunch with everyone.
"We're starting school tomorrow, huh?"
"Yeah, it's too soon, to be honest." Haru replied.
"By the way, what ever happened to that girl you liked?" I asked him straight out.
"T-there's someone else you like besides me?!" Elena exclaimed.
Haru then rebutted, "N-no! It's not like that!"
"Gross…" Alisa reacted in English.
I couldn't get a response from him since the girls kept on interrupting him. How cliché. But it was enough to answer all my questions.
"I get it now…"
"Get what?" Rea asked, suddenly seated beside me.
"This whole situation."
"Really?"
"Yeah... Also…"
"Hm?"
"Get your hands off my leg."
"Oops!" she said as she retracted her hand away and focused on her bowl of rice.
After lunch, everyone went their separate ways again. Haru and Elena went upstairs, Alice played with Seri in the living room and Lilianna went outside to get a whiff of fresh air. Chiaki went and washed the dishes, but because there were two too many dishes, I decided to help her out.
"It's gotten pretty crowded, huh?"
"Yeah…" she replied, in a very faint voice, all while discarding the untouched food into the sink.
"Can you handle it?"
"I'll try…"
"Well, if you need help, just ask."
"Thanks…" she said, again, very faintly.
I decided to keep my mouth shut and focused on the task at hand. And little by little, I could feel the walls of this cliché lifestyle cracking.
I wanted to stay a little longer, but then I remembered I still had to prepare for school tomorrow. So I bid everyone goodbye.
"See you tomorrow!"
"Bye!"
"Hmph!"
That last one was Alisa. And I didn't mind her rudeness. I simply left the house, knowing full well their situation. And as I walked away from their house, the city suddenly got darker. It was about to rain.
And as I continued walking a straight path, someone called me from behind.
"Wait for me!"
I turned around and saw Rea, waving her hand and desperately trying to catch up to me. I stopped and waited for her. She made it, but she was panting.
"H-hey, calm down."
She took a bit of time to recuperate and said, "Why did you leave?"
"What do you mean?"
"You saw their situation, didn't you?"
"Yeah, so?"
"So you know the truth!" she exclaimed.
"…well, no turning back…"
I explained to her why I left Inuzuchi in the first place. It was a horrible truth, but truth nonetheless. There was an affair between their mother and another stranger. Nobody knows who that stranger is. There had been cases in town where a random stranger would enter someone's house and rape mature women. He's never been caught and the victims claimed that they had no memory of such a case happening. No one knew who that person was or where he came from. All they know is that he had glowing red eyes and a very fat build. Some think that he's just a hallucination caused by the town's simple way of life, while others believe he's a demon. But the most accepted answer is that there is indeed someone out there doing all this horrendous things, and they call him "Netorare Oni".
"Eeeh…" Rea reacted as we finally reached our destination.
"Now that I think about it, maybe I shouldn't have left this city. I should've just stayed here and fixed things before it got to where it is now."
"Would that have made a difference?" she asked.
"…maybe…"
"Hm?" she responded as she tilted her head.
"If I never left, I would've visited their house often, and none of this would have ever happened..."
There was a brief silence, then Rea said, "Well, the past is the past!"
"Yeah, I know…"
And so I opened the gate of the apartments and proceeded onwards to my room, with Rea standing outside of said gates. When I realized this, only then did I ask:
"By the way…"
"Hm?"
"I've never heard of anyone in their household called Rea."
"O-oh, really?" she said, stuttering.
���So then…" I said with a serious gaze, "Who are you?"