Whenever Konrad blinked, Tokyo's scenery changed.
And not even a little.
This time, the GPS had led him to a quiet district with spacious family homes and no traffic whatsoever. Not a single car in sight. Only the narrowest streets, with elderly people strolling.
To think this place was less than ten minutes from that bustling school.
Now, it felt like he was walking through a sleeper village rather than the capital—but only until he arrived. Then, he'd stare up at a huge, monolithic building, checking the address twice.
The street signs left him no doubts.
Had he known what to look for, he could have found it without Kaede's phone, too.
Six stories of a bright yellow slab in the middle of nowhere.
A plain concrete block that towered over the rest of the district.
In downtown, he might have missed such a thing, but here? It was impossible.
It was visible from all the way of the school's windows. He even wondered how this big, ugly building ended up in the suburban sprawl. It stuck out like a sore thumb.
Way too modern, way too bright, and more or less featureless.
Almost like Ejtyangard's Tower of Illusion, which was—hmm, yeah.
Now that he thought about it, that used to be Maou Midori's old mage tower, too.
Then, this could have been the Demon Lord's castle in this world.
It made a lot of sense that he'd pick something like this, except—
Konrad couldn't help but think Kaede paid everyone's rent in this city.
Why else would she work so many shifts? Or why did her phone keep buzzing?
She told him not to read her messages—as if he'd ever consider such a thing—but now?
This girl was either crazy popular or it was all work-related. No, Konrad never got this many calls even as a working adult. What if she got into trouble for missing any of these things?
Phones these days seemed too important, yet she handed it over without hesitation. He could never have betrayed her trust, no matter how much struggle it was to contain his curiosity.
But man—he would've done anything, if that meant he didn't have to enter that building.
All he managed was to walk up to the front door and stare at the terminal's numpad.
Of course, he didn't know the code to enter, but there was a huge list of tenants right next to it. Midori's name was also listed as living on the top floor, in flat 513. Where else?
Should he ring him up? Would he let Konrad in, of all people?
He knew that in a reverse scenario, he'd pretend not to be home, but—
He hesitated long enough that the question became irrelevant.
The solution came in the form of a small, old lady-shaped tornado.
She had greying hair and way too many groceries, holding out a bag towards him with a trembling hand. Konrad took it without thinking, and the woman punched in the passcode.
"Arigato, Midori-chan," she chirped and was through the door before he'd blink.
Midori-chan? They didn't even look alike.
But he was one second late to protest, and with that, he missed his only chance to talk.
"Wai—"
His voice echoed through an empty hall, leaving him with no choice but to follow with her bag. Another moment later, the main entrance closed behind him with a loud click.
Well, he was inside, but it felt like he committed a crime.
"Hold on, I'm not," he tried again, but this stranger waited for no one.
Whether she was deaf or in a hurry, her humming came from far ahead.
She fumbled with her keys.
The moment he finally caught up, she switched to chirping like they were age-old friends.
"There was a thirty-percent sale in the convenience store, and I might've bought too much tofu. But who could resist that, desho?" She used a dialect that Konrad couldn't recognize.
Deciphering it took him so long that he had no time to form his own sentences.
But he could still see.
Her steps seemed so shaky that he grabbed her other bag, too. At least he made himself useful.
The last thing he wanted was for her to collapse, and then he'd have to explain what happened to the neighbours. How the hell did she even carry everything before they met?!
Was it that she wasted all her lung capacity on words now?
"Because when my old man used to come home from work on the weekends, he always asked for a good curry. Chicken curry. Poor soul died ten years ago, but I still won't skip a Friday."
She opened the door to her flat and disappeared inside, leaving him stunned by the entrance.
Konrad could still hear her speak, though he long lost track of what she was talking about.
"And then in that other drama, this onna was like—"
Yeah. As it seemed, he didn't miss anything important.
"Oh, but Rojin-san is boring to you, isn't she?" she said as she returned to the front door. "Kids these days don't watch the good old period dramas, desho? Western movies and anime, huh?"
She finally paused to take a breath and looked Konrad straight in the face.
For whatever reason, he held his breath, watching the old lady's eyes widen a fraction.
It was over. She'd call the police now and—
She laughed, yanking the grocery bags out of his hands before he blinked.
"Gomen, gomen, you're not even Midori-chan," she noted. "Watashi no sei. You foreigners all look the same to me. But your uniform—you must be a classmate, desho?"
Not a beat she missed. And no chance to answer her first question, either.
"Bet he skipped school again," she chirped, disappearing inside with the bags once more. "He does that sometimes, then that kawaii joshi kosei shows up and scolds him. Energetic, that one."
She reappeared in the doorway a minute later, holding a tiny candy wrapped in paper.
"She always takes the stairs to the sixth floor, even though we have that elevator. Come on, now, take it. It's a little something for helping this silly Rojin-san without even knowing her."
"Sorry for not saying anything," he mumbled as he took the candy, not even sure why.
"Daijoubu, daijoubu," she said, waving him off. "Midori-chan is a good kid, but go, give him a piece of your mind. I'm glad to see he has so many friends, despite acting like a hikikomori."
Yeah, no, he felt even worse now.
Good kid? Friends? Not on any worlds, not in a million years.
But had he not bowed and made a run for it, the old lady would have kept him until morning.
Clutching the candy, he aimed for the stairs, taking the same route Kaede was.
Because, yeah, who else would visit this guy?
He had to look up that last word on the phone, though—and catch his breath five floors later.
Hikikomori: reclusive adolescents or adults who withdraw from social life. They will often seek extreme degrees of isolation and confinement. And that was coming from Wikipedia.
A Demon Lord leading a hundred thousand nomads.
Somehow, that phrase didn't feel like an exact match for the Maou Midori he knew.
But when he finally reached the 513th flat with the door open by a crack, he had to think again.