Sunday morning, we prepared for our departure, carrying the baggage that contained the costume and a bag full of essentials, as we stepped out of the house at seven. Mom already applied makeup to Sera for convenience later, since that's the skill I couldn't master. She wore a hoodie to hide her unusual race before she transformed to Shizu-sama later.
I wore shades and an open leather jacket on the occasion of my dream becoming a reality even if just for once I can flex my confidence when I always interact with the Otaku world. For now, no one would ever see me as the dead kid Kou… I'm in-character as Magnus Kou, but I look like those shady guys recruiting underground idols.
Unusually, this is the first convention I've ever felt this nervous about! Covered with a pasted-on smile, my senses were acute. This wasn't like the previous conventions I attended since I don't have anything to care about. And as far as I'm concerned, Sera might've felt the same, developing the fear of interacting with people by now.
As we walked towards the station, she never let go of her tight grip in my arms. We even passed through the park we usually met before and encountered a sweeper who was a friend of Mom's.
"Kou-kun, good morning," the sweeper greeted with a smile.
"... Good morning, Eiko-san... wait, do you know me?" Pointing at myself with compressed brows of confusion, I asked. I made sure that no one noticed me with my outfit, but her observational skills are exceptional… It was the skill required for sources of gossip.
If one encountered Eiko-san, it was assured that the conversation would take long, while she extracts cues of information from us. We may be late at this point, but I don't want to be disrespectful to her by bailing out of the interaction.
"Of course! Why wouldn't I know Kou? I told you. You look good dressed like that… By the way, is that your girlfriend? Why is she hiding from me?"
My left arm has been extremely shaky. Sera clinged to it as she hid from Eiko-san. I responded to her as a natural response, "N... No, she is Sera, my sister from abroad. I'm accompanying her to a cosplay event we're attending."
"Wow! Like Maki said, she really is a foreigner!" Eiko-san exclaimed with her blooming eyes. Wait… Did the news already reach her?
She soon approached us and clasped Sera's hands, which she tried to avoid by can't, causing her to tremble. "Sera—chan, it's nice meeting you! How is America nowadays? Do you know that I dreamed of going to New York Square once?"
Who the heck wishes to go to a place filled with mafias, gang wars, and teenage party-goers? Sera failed to reply, pacing to nothingness as her trembling went to extremities. Her hands fidgeted, but Eiko-san might've internationally ignored it. Soon , Sera couldn't hold it, slipping her hand out from Eiko-san's grip.
I could see the shock from Eiko-san's hanging mouth. From what I could feel the next consequences were, they weren't going to be good. With a pleasing tone, I said, "Uhmm... Eiko-san... Sera isn't fond of people. Interactions might only scare her."
"Is that so? I'm sorry. I'm just too excited," Eiko-san said and put her hands away from Sera.
Tapping Sera's shoulder, her stare from the ground pivoted at me. Comforting her, I said, "By the way Sera, Eiko-san is a good friend of Mom's. You can feel at ease with her."
After analyzing Eiko-san for a moment, Sera suddenly bows down in front of her, and that posture doesn't change for a few more seconds. I understand her. She just doesn't want to be called a monster again. With her quivering lips, she tried to express her apologies, "... I'm sorry... for my bad manners."
Eiko-san's downturned lips smiled out of relief. She was so emotional, even Mom was careful of her words so that she wouldn't hurt her. She continued, "It's okay, Sera—chan! Don't sweat it. But still, abroad huh? How about you, Kou-kun? Didn't you plan to travel abroad too?"
"I think... I just love the country too much." This is Japan! Anime, Manga, Games, Otaku Culture, Maid Cafes, High Quality Tech, not to mention NSFW content and top-tier inflation, these all exist in here! By the way, I'm only able to say this since I had money and family to live here.
"That's a good thing, Kou, like a loyal soldier. Anyways, it seems that I took much of your time. You should get going now. The station is flooded with people."
"Right, we should get going," I replied, wondering if she was also considerate of others' time by letting us leave her conversational jail.
When we reached the main road, where she once asked the public for a way home, she asked me, "I'm curious, Kou-nii. What are those large and fast metals? I've never seen one like that before."
"Are you familiar with carriages?"
"... Yes." After responding, she pressed her lips and averted their gaze.
"They're one, but don't need horses. They're called vehicles, and mostly, you'll see cars on this large road. Walking civilians like us are only permitted to walk at that white lane over there to abide by the regulations, else we'll be punished like what happened before."
She sighed, her hand flying over her chest. "Is that so? I'm glad that what previously happened wasn't so serious."
That's a million-yen serious! She might've not known the value of money yet. "By the way, I knew that time, you already rode in a car before with me. You may have been just fixated with the idea that we'll kidnap you. I know it's normal for someone to panic when you're dragged elsewhere by someone you don't know."
Pressing her lips, she replied. "I… I just don't have the best memories with carriages…"
"I see. If you're not comfortable, I wouldn't want to pry into that. By the way, we should be going now. We need to catch the early train."
"Train? Are we going to training, Kou-nii?"
I straightened my body and explained to her with confidence. "The Shinkansen, or bullet train, top speed is 199mph! This allows you to get to wherever you need it in little time! It is also known for being very fast, located on an island, Nippon, or Japan, and because it travels so fast! It is also called the bullet train because bullets also travel very fast!"
"I'm sorry, Kou-nii. I don't get it."
"Well, in simple terms, it's a fast carriage. You can never tell how fast it is if you haven't experienced it yet."
"I would like to try it, Kou—nii!"
On our tour toward the station, most people stared at us. I can feel that Sera's uncomfortable, judging from her stooped-down head. To show that I'm by her side, I held her hand as we went. She's very foreign to this world, and I can only give her this small amount of confidence.
As we got to the train station, I bought two tickets for a trip to Akihabara. I used my dad's card for allowance, but I didn't expect the ticket seller's eyes to widen.
"Boy, don't you have any adults accompanying you?" He asked.
"... It's only me and my little sister."
He didn't reply back. Instead, he wandered around us because it was pretty crowded. He wrote something on a piece of paper and gave it together with the card and the tickets.
Never ever lose this card, kid. You can feed a hundred kids for a month with this.
What!? I haven't checked the amount yet. But knowing that dad's love for his son is quite excessive calms me down.
I gave the ticket to Sera. We lined up to the shortest lane with me leading. She's wandering her eyes like those countryside girls' first urban place visit.
"Sera, do you see that glowing circle?" I asked, pointing towards the card scanner on the train gate.
"It's like a magic circle."
"That's the train gate that separates the paid area and the general area. Your ticket is like a pass to enter a castle in your world. In your case, it's your identity, right?"
"I don't know, Kou-nii. I didn't experience going out of our castle gates. I escaped once through the hole in the backyard wall."
I slapped my head out of disappointment, forgetting she was an elf with the forest as a setting.
"Never mind. The master of Japan will show you how it's done."
It's my turn to enter the train gates. I put the ticket on the circle so the metal bar blocking me would pull back. I took my ticket and passed through the gates.
Now it's Sera's turn. She watched me, so I thought she understood what I did. She's just there, standing while gazing at her ticket.
"What are you doing, Sera!?"
"What should I do, Kou-nii?"
"You didn't look at what I did?"
"... I forgot..." Her eyes became watery when she replied.
I sighed. "You just tap the ticket over the magic circle. Magic will happen."
"Magic!?"
I can only pinch my forehead to hide how irritated I am because of her stupidity. My screech can be heard from a distance. Approaching her for assistance, I don't want to gather more attention from stares. I also don't want the line to take too long.
"Come on. Give me your hand."
She slowly put her hand near me which I grabbed and dragged all the way to the ticket scanner. The gates suddenly… "It moved!" Sera exclaimed with widened eyes from a simple mechanical magic. Kou pulled her in the paid zone, but a guard spotted and approached them.
"You're a klutz, aren't you?"
A shout suddenly approached me from behind. "Hey you, what are you doing? Only one ticket per passenger!"
Turning back, I saw a guard squinting his brows against us. I scratched my head but didn't notice that Sera was shaking behind me. Sera was comfortable beside me because she was safe, but she didn't expect my answer.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Guard. My sister here is an elf from another world who was just transported here by accident. She doesn't know how to use trains, so I helped her."
That's too direct! That's what her face tells me, her eyes widening, accompanied by a gasp.
"Oh, you're cosplayers! You did such a great job creating a backstory to roleplay. By the way, she looks like… Shizu-sama!?" The guard flinched back after seeing resemblance under Sera's hood. Sera, a puppy that clings to its owner after seeing a stranger, didn't know that the whole conversation made me enthusiastic.
"She does, right!? Do you play FOC5 too, Guard-san!?"
"I'm a Durinda main, second is Shizu because she's a goddess. I have no family so I have most of the free time in the world." Durinda was one of Shizu-sama's followers, the only one remaining in the city or Argovia where the politicians are considered the Gods.
"Yeah, that's cool." He sees family as a hindrance to freedom. What a Chad mindset.
"By the way, what is your name, boy?"
"I'm K... MagnusK, and she's Sera, my sister."
"You're the high-ranking player!? Can I add you to my friend list? I can't let this chance slip."
I thought he was going to criticize how normal it was for siblings to be this close, but he's just begging me to boost him.
"Sure."
I replied with a smile as I gave him my UID.
"But man, you must be blessed with a sister as cute, pure, and innocent as Shizu-sama, you're so lucky. I wish I was younger so I could ask her out."
I bet you were ugly in your teenage years and even your past life.
"Cute... Pure... What does he mean?"
"That's no complex interpretation, Sera. He said you're too beautiful."
Her reaction was rather late. Her face starts blushing gradually with her eyes not able to maintain eye contact.
"T... Thanks..."
"Deeply appreciated. I can also see that you will have a blooming career. There's a great fortune coming to you," the guard replied with a tone like a grand sage.
I'm now starting to think that no one really cared about Sera's ears.