Chương 20: Chapter 20: Guests

"Phew, I'm stuffed.", Lala happily said, patting her stomach that didn't seem to change one bit, even after scouring a day's worth of food during dinner.

Maybe it was because she's a girl, but do girls really have bottomless stomachs? Or was that because she was from Planet Deviluke?

"I'm glad you liked it.", I said, while clearing off the char on the iron grill placed in front of us. Similar to how those chefs did it, I used a big iron scraper knife to clean off the charred residue, making it shiny clean again. "And by the way, as your first lesson in earthling culture, we have many different kinds of societies and ways of life. We have a saying we do here in Japan after enjoying a meal.", I said to Lala.

"Oh, I think I know this one. It's 'thank you for the meal', right?", Lala said, imitating as she clapped her hands together after placing her chopsticks to the side. Apparently she knew how to use those too.

"You are well informed. I'm surprised you know how to use chopsticks too. You really do know your stuff.", I replied with interest, taking the iron plate back into the kitchen to store it away.

Thanks to having sukiyaki, there weren't many dishes to clean up after. The main bowl that boiled everything inside, and an iron plate that grilled some meat on the side. I guess you could say it was a mixture of sukiyaki and teppanyaki. It was quite delicious. I could hear Lala's voice giggle as she heard that.

"Hehehe, Planet Earth is quite popular in the Milky Way, you know, even if it's on the edge of the galaxy. And since I'll be intruding on you for the next few days, I could help with the dishes?", Lala suggested, standing up as she brought over a few as well.

"Go ahead.", I said, turning on the faucet. Lala smiled and she approached me, happily humming away. Even if it was back in 2008, I still had up-to-date appliances and all of that. It was just starting to kick off the technology race, but I wanted to see how much of it progressed, considering this was the MCU. The founder of Stark Industries, Howard Stark, was said to have created a flying car for the American government during WWII. His legacy left Tony the Arc Reactor, and Tony himself would continue it, creating a new element and a safe, self-sufficient energy source during Iron Man II. Just knowing that alone made me curious as to what was all available here.

I wanted to see the results of my stat gains today too, but unfortunately that would have to be placed on hold. It didn't take long for Lala and I to hear a buzzer sound off inside the first floor, causing Musashi's ears to perk up and his head cock toward the front door.

"Guests?", Lala asked, letting her tail swerve around a bit as she hummed, doing the remaining dishes.

"Looks like it?", I also questioned, not expecting guests at this time of day, considering the sun was setting. "Mind getting it?", I asked as I found a pause in her washing.

"Hai~", Lala happily chirped, seeing her sprint off to the front door. I could hear some voices calling out to us from behind it, some of them appeared unsure. Lala blinked her eyes hearing these voices as she approached the door.

"Are you sure this is the right house Ayase-san?", A boy's voice called out. This voice sounded familiar.

"You second-guessin' me, Okarun? I ain't known to makin' mistakes like choosin' wrong houses.", A second voice retorted, appearing to be a rough voice of a girl.

"You don't need to bring me into your shit either, stupid granddaughter.", A third rough voice sounded, very similar to the second voice, just a lot more aged.

"Cut the crap Baa-chan, you don't want your granddaughter out alone in the streets, do you?", The girl retorted.

"Pfft.", A fourth voice called out, appearing to be a girl as well.

"And why did you two come along? Don't you got anythin' better to do?", The previous girl retorted.

"Well, like, this is the first you are approchin' a boy's house on your own initiative, ain't it, Momo-Chan?", The other girl answered.

"Miko-chan's right. We totally had to see this. 'Sides, we got nothin' else to do. It's borin' waitin' for the next school day to start.", A fourth girl responded, appearing to be that of a delinquent's voice.

"You two are just up to no good. All I'm doin' is comin' here to apologize for what I caused yesterday.", The first girl said.

"And why bring me again? You're makin' me miss my show, shithead.", The aged voice said.

"That's 'cause you're the only adult here!", The girl retorted.

"Are? You guys seem to be a bit of a rowdy punch.", Lala said as she clicked the lock to open the door, only to see several figures standing outside the front door. One appeared to be a girl with brown hair that curved down the right side of her face, who currently had anger in her eyes with her body turned backward toward the door, currently looking at the aged woman, who was the girl's grandmother.

Seeing a long, pink-haired girl opening the door caused everyone's voice to turn quiet, and their arguing ended. The brown-haired girl could even be seen pulling the lips of the aged woman.

A black-haired boy, who had unruly hair that was very similar to that of a perm, moved his large circular glasses up and down, not expecting to see Lala in front of the door. Even the bag the brown-haired girl was holding dropped onto the ground, creating a momentary echo around them. Thankfully the contents were secure, and it appeared to be a couple of large cakes.

As for the two other girls, one was completely tanned and had the equivalent of that of a delinquent. The other was a black-haired girl who kept it wrapped into a small bun on the top of her head.

"Holy shit, is that cosplay?", The tanned-skinned girl immediately retorted, seeing Lala's weird outfit. Hearing that caused Lala's tail to move around.

"H-Hey, that tail just moved now, didn't it?", The black-haired girl also retorted.

"Who are you?", The black-haired boy with the weird perm hair asked, moving his glasses up and down again.

"That's it, I'm leavin'. You deal with this shit.", The aged woman said, beginning to turn around.

"Oh no you don't. You're the one responsible for takin' us home!", The brown-haired girl immediately retorted, grabbing onto the aged woman's back, preventing her from leaving.

"Tch. You're makin' me miss my favorite show.", The aged woman retorted with a scoff.

This caused Lala to giggle, and welcomed the group.

"Hehe, we were just clearing out dinner, so we weren't expecting some guests to arrive. Are you guys Baki-kun's friends? You can call me Lala, by the way!", Lala happily said, welcoming the group.

"Lala, is it? Is that outfit real?", The boy also said. Considering he was a nerd, he too had interest in this field. Though what he mostly liked were magazines that detailed the supernatural. In particular, unidentified flying objects, aliens, and things along those lines.

"Of course it is. Baki-kun, it seems some of your friends have come over.", Lala said, turning around. As she did, her tail swerved some more, showing that she was happy.

"H-Hey, my eyes really ain't playin' tricks on me. That tail moved...", The tanned-skinned person said again.

"Oh shut it, will you? You can go back home if you're that bored.", The black-haired girl retorted.

"Well, we did come to see what we wanted to see. I didn't think Momo-chan would come to a boy's house like this.", The tanned-skinned girl responded, placing her hands behind her head.

"Can it. Just take this in, will ya? Damn freeloaders.", The brown-haired girl said, grabbing the bag that had a couple of large cakes in it.

"Now why do I have to take in the shit you brought?", The tanned-skinned girl said with a frown.

As the arguing began again, I finished the cleaning, and walked up next to Lala, only to see a few people at the door. I immediately spotted Momo. Next to her was Ken, who was in the same 1S class that I belonged to. Next to the two I could assume were Momo's friends, Miko and Kei. As for the old woman, she was definitely Momo's grandmother, and a spirit medium at that.

And aside from Gojo-sensei, this old woman was likely my key ticket to unlocking Cursed Energy. They say to become a medium, one must come into contact with a cursed object, and I'm sure she or Momo could point me in that direction.

"Is that you, Momo-san?", I said, approaching Lala's side, welcoming the group. "And you were Ken-san, right?", I said, welcoming the two. Momo looked at me, but as for the other two girls, their mouths just went agape.

"Holy shit, this guy's actually a hunk.", The tanned-skinned girl said.

"You did seem quite muscular during the outburst yesterday at the entrance ceremony. I didn't think you'd be this packed.", The black-haired girl also said with a surprised look in her eyes.

"See. I knew I got the right house. So stop your complainin'. This is for you, Baki-san. I really am sorry for what happened yesterday.", Momo said, punching the arm of the tanned-skinned girl. That jolted her from her shock, and she proceeded to hand a bag with a couple of fancy-looking cakes inside of it over to me.

"I told you it was nothing already, didn't I, Momo-san? You didn't have to go out of your way to give this, but since you went through the trouble, we can share this back inside. And this is Lala, by the way, as she just said earlier.", I said, accepting the cakes.

"That's right! You can all call me Lala. I am Baki-kun's new fi--?", Lala tried to say as she raised her hand in the air to welcome the group, but quickly realizing what she was about to say, my hand covered Lala's mouth, feeling a hot breath of air tickle my hand, causing her words to get muffled.

Everyone just blinked her eyes seeing me do this.

"She, like, totally was about to say fiancé, wasn't she?", The tanned-skinned girl retorted, becoming surprised again.

"Mm-mm.", The black-haired girl quickly nodded her head too.

"...", Ken tried to utter, only to look back my way. I could see a hint of jealousy in his eyes. Tough luck, kid. Good thing she didn't appear randomly inside your house, eh?

Jokes aside, I quickly changed the subject.

"Just ignore Lala-chan's meddling. She's a friend. I am quite curious as to what happened to you two though. You seem different.", I said, calling out to Momo and Ken.

Hearing that, Momo scratched her head, unsure how to go about explaining it. They did seem pretty different compared to yesterday, so I'm guessing something happened. They had a pretty different atmosphere around them too.

"Well, how should I put it? This nerd here only believes in aliens while I only believe in ghosts, so we did a challenge, and I kinda got abducted by an alien while Okarun here got possessed by a ghost, haha.", Momo said, scratching her head, trying to explain the situation that struck them. At the same time, the aged woman slapped Momo's head.

"And I keep tellin' ya aliens don't exist, Momo.", The aged woman said. "And might I add, stop wastin' the air here. Yer keepin' yer friend out on the porch. It's late so let's head inside." The aged woman continued to say, snapping the group back into reality.

At least for now, I did what Momo's grandmother suggested, and Lala and I invited the group inside to have some fun. I didn't think she'd take her time out of her schedule to apologize like this, so I could only return the favor by letting them inside, right?

*****

The name of the manga is actually Dandadan. I had an extra N in there.

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