Chapter 8. 最初の友達

Takumi steadied himself. The effect was not huge, but due to lack of exercises Takumi was not built to take it on with ease. Shinta was most sorry for the inconvenience. Takumi sat on the floor for a while and retorted that his first priority now was getting exercises rather than learning about the world.

/I totally forgot about Shinta's family./

A kid approached Takumi and danced about him. She peeped at the tablet and giggled. Takumi tried to react properly, but he had no experience with kids. He felt awkward not being able to respond. His mind raced to no avail. The kid admired the slivers of moons, then danced away and rolled underneath the kotatsu.

/How about wife-equivalent? Is there a wife-equivalent?/

"First painting in the new world. What a complicated painting." Shinta observed, "I'm glad you like our world, which is also yours now."

"Yes, I like it, but the painting is simple. There are just big blocks of colours of the sky, trees, lights and the crescent moons."

"It is an emotional piece."

"Thank you so much for accompanying me to the city hall and treating me to the delicious meal. I must have taken up a lot of your time." said Takumi.

"Never mind that. I like to help new-comers." Shinta smiled.

"Well, you could have spent the time on other things, like entertainment or family."

"Tsk tsk. Attaching arbitrary value to how time is spent. Earth must be a miserable place."

"Yeah, a large chunk of our waking hours is taken away by work... and commuting. What is left is scarce, so needs to be used optimally. And in optimisation, we feel, I feel, ever more anxiety. But how does economy work here?"

"You'll see." Shinta evaded a direct answer, "Aren't you going to learn about Ado Becas Lonpro? See for yourself without prior bias."

/Good job, Shinta, for buying me time to set up the world. Is the dialogue super rough/rude? I was always told that I was rude, condescending... so much so that I was afraid of speaking./

After some rest, Takumi took leave of Shinta to go the tavern. He wanted to keep in touch with his first friend, Shinta, but he couldn't think of a way of expressing his desire.

"Try the onsen at the tavern. It helps with gravity." Shinta suggested.

"Thank you." said Takumi.

"Well," Shinta observed him, "here's my contact method, my alien friend. It's going to take time to get used to a forgiving world as well. Tomorrow's the matsuri. Would you like to join?"

"Sure." Takumi managed to respond as the turmoil in his own being subsided. He was very happy that Shinta gave him the contact method. "We are friends. He didn't find me offensive." thought Takumi. He got excited so that he walked away with a spring in his step. He landed heavily and stumbled clumsily.

"I'll pick you up at the tavern around 10." Shinta shouted after him.

/Whatever 10 means. Hell, Shinta, why did you bring up the matsuri? I haven't set that up yet./