This choice: They arrived at Nemu's home in time for dinner. • Go Back...Chapter #7They arrived at Nemu's home in time for din... by: Unknown Holy shaait!
Danieru wondered whether it was ingrown to the Japanese to be modest when bragging about their possessions, because he could all but help himself from gaping and letting his lower jaw slide across the floor.
When they had driven to Nemu's neighbourhood he had noticed that the suburb they had gone into, unquestionably belonged to the upper classes. The houses became larger, the lawns wider, the cars parked before them increased from the 6-figure to the 7-figure category. It must have been the Japanese equivalent of Beverly Hills! And on the pinnacle of this prestigious area, on the very top of the hill on which this neighbourhood lay, like the cherry sitting grandly on top of the cake, was Nemu's "house".
But that wasn't a house, let me tell ya! Danieru had seen houses and lived them. This wasn't a house. It was a bloody fully-fledged mansion!! The likes of which would put the American President's private residence to total shame. It must have had a 15 acre garden surrounding it! Like those you see surrounding 5-star hotels and royal palaces.
It was a fashionable blend of modern architecture and traditional Japanese exterior design. Danieru could see dragons on the roof acting as gargoyles and golden paper-wicker walls on one side. It had no less than 10 garage entrances. 10!!!
Nemu commented casually that she hoped her home would be alright for Danieru. He nearly fainted and expressed what utter paradise her estate was in comparison to his rundown apartment back in the states. Horrified at Danieru's previous living quarters she promised that he could have the largest room in her mansion and that during his stay with her, she would make his life as comfortable and enjoyable as possible. Nemu again told him that should he desire anything, anything at all, she would get him it.
Danieru didn't doubt her sincerity, and now most certainly didn't doubt her capacity; for it would appear that she had the wealth to buy whatever his imagination could conjure up a hundred times over and still not blink.
But he had his pride: he would refuse to ask anything of her that he didn't need. He would not abuse his position to ask expensive gifts of her. He was already grateful that she had treated him kindly thus far.
He was however understandably excited about the privilege to live inside a mansion for a whole month!
At the main hall entrance, no less than 20 servants greeted Nemu and Danieru; gardeners, maids and security perssonel. Nemu introduced them to him and him to them, all names going in through one ear and out the other, and said they would cater for his every need. All of them were understandably curious about meeting a westerner for the first time, even though most of them could hardly speak a single word of English. And Danieru in turn could only stare at having so many people dressed so posh assigned to him. This truly was amazing to the orphan whom raised himself in poverty.
Next came Danieru's new foster sisters: Nami(aged 13) and Suki (aged 15) were both younger clones of Nemu. Both have inherited their mothers beauty and kindness. And like their mother, through thick accents, could still speak clear, concise English -product of private schooling. Showing the same interest as their mother in Danieru they assaulted him with questions about his homeland and life as an American. At first Danieru was shy, but their enthusiasm quickly ensured that they got along quite well.
Excusing herself, Nemu told the girls to show you to your room, for she had a few very important phone calls to make about the family company. Excitement upwelling, they towed him all the way to his new room. And what a splendid one it was. Like a genuine 5-star hotel room. Only except his bed lay directly on the floor, there were rifled mats and silk curtains and the door was a wicker-paper sideways sliding one, all courtesy of Japanese culture. Danieru thought for the first time that he may actually win that stupid UN-culture diversity report thing; it didn't get more awesome than this. The only thing off, was that his room seemed almost eneffiminate, as if meant for a girl. The colour pink was prominent.
The only thing that kept bugging him was that Nami and Suki kept referring to him as their new "sister". Believing them to mistranslate the word, he tried to correct them: "Girls are sisters; boys are brothers." he said.
But they just exhanged worried frowns:"You don't want to be our sister then?" Nami asked hesitantly.
Fearing he might have offended them and that they had not understood he only meant this to correct their language, he relented to them calling him their sister. What did it matter what they called him anyway? To be referred to as a sibling for the 1st time in his life as an orphan, was heartwarming to him.
He learned much from Suki and Nami in a short time. That they were just like any normal American girls were. They listened to pop groups, they loved shopping, they loved dressing up, went to school. There were the obvious eccentricities that separated them from westerners, but they were in effect not dissimilar. He quickly got on good ground with them discussing anime ( Japanese cartoon animation), and talked about many shows and series they had watched. This was Japan after all, the country in which anime and manga had originated in.
He also learned a great deal about cosplay from them. Cosplay is the re-enactment and dressing up as fictional characters, be they from novels, comics or most traditionally anime. Although in technicality dressing up as superman or spiderman qualifies as cosplay, since it includes the replication of fictional chracters, it was generally accepted that true cosplay, i.e. hardcore cosplay, involved the role playing of Eastern animated chracters or even characters from JRPG's.
Danieru wanted to laugh when Nami and Suki told him they practised cosplay for hobbies. They dressed up as fictional characters in their free time? He thought that ridiculous. However he soon found that cosplay was considered a serious passtime by the Japanese ,since it included a great many conventions held for it throughout the year. Cosplayers also significantly influenced street culture
and participents of competitions could win great prizes for the excellence of their attire and win fame throughout the internet for it.
Cosplay was a trend that had captured the youth of Japan.
A great deal of cosplay also centered around the creation of the character's outfits along with wearing it. Monumental effort was invested in the creation of these attires which was traditionally made from scratch using domestic tools and supplies. These weren't some half-assed outfits swabbed together at the last moment like those at Halloween. Oh no, serious effort sometimes involving weeks to months of stitching and sowing was applied.
Nami and Suki took great pride in showing off their many suits which they had created over the course of many years worth of cosplay to Danieru. They were nothing short of magnificent. Clearly the girls were talented. Neko's, dresses, anthro's, and various outfits way out and awesome lined a room dedicated them. A cabinet containing the winnings of multiple competitions lined a wall.
Nami and Suki offered to help Danieru create his own cosplay outfit during the holiday, and expressed with excitement that a famous cosplay-convention would be held nearby this weekend. They told him that although he wouldn't have enough time to create a respectable suit for himself, he was welcome to wear any of the costumes they had created.
Danieru gave them a funny look and declined, saying he'd rather not since everything in the room was girls clothes.
This earned him funny looks in return from Nami and Suki, but he attributed this to cosplay involving crossdressing as a norm.
A maid came by interrupting their conversations, and stated that it was time for dinner. The dining room was simple considering the enormity of the mansion, a flat table to the ground, with cushions for chairs around it; the Japs ate sitting on the ground, usually on their knees. At the table Danieru saw something which made him laugh outright.
There were 4 seats with 4 pieces of crockery and chopsticks placed to each. A simple yet eloquent meal of noodles and ramen in a great cooking pot took the center. The source of mirth?: a McDonald's meal placed to the side on a hot-plate of one seat.
The cook smiled and explained that he feared Danieru might not find his own humble cooking to his western tastes and had taken precautions to obtain food of American culture. Danieru could freely choose which he wanted to eat if not both.
Danieru could only laugh: American culture? If this was what the Japs thought then it only served to proved Americans had no culture whatsoever.
Danieru asked the cook what the knife and fork was for; the cook replied that he was curious as to how they were utilised for eating, he'd never seen a westerner eat. He wanted to teach Danieru to eat with chopsticks and have Danieru teach him to use a knive and fork; Danieru chuckled and said he would do so gladly.
Nemu had rejoined Danieru and the girls and the evening went on splendidly. Danieru had manage to eat everything on the table, single handedly cleaning out the ramen and noodle pot AND the McDonalds meal: it wasn't everyday Danieru could eat his fill, poverty prevented that. He thanked the cook for his cooking, whom bowed glowing in pleasure and pride.
He failed to notice that Nemu had watched him eat with the utmost attention. Eyes following every piece he had swallowed.
Suddenly Danieru felt as if exhaustion had overtaken him, his eyelids faltered and his lips slurred.
He couldn't understand why he was tired; as if he had run a marathon.
He asked if he could be excused to sleep. Nemu took him by the hand to his room.
There she took him by the face and asked him if he would be happy to be her daughter for the next month, for she would be grateful.
Already drugged, he could only say yes before collapsing.
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