"... I agree, my lack of a distinct human feature is... abnormal."
I don't know how, but Akane was talking. She was speaking, yet she didn't possess a mouth.
How is this possible...? How has she been talking to me, and everyone else, this entire time?
"Wait... Then, how are you speaking?" While I was still wrapping my head around this... oddity, I still managed to stay a bit calm. Somehow.
"All of this will be explained soon, Kenji. At least... hopefully." She begins to walk out of the alley.
"Wait a minute, Akane!" Even though I called her, she ignored me and just kept on walking. But, since I'm curious, I follow her. I want to know more about how she turned out like this. It wasn't only odd, it was almost... alien. Everything about her when I first met her was perfectly, genuinely human. Even though I adjust to certain situations easily, this one was going to take some getting used to.
However, despite her appearance, I'm not judging her. It's just plain rude to judge people based on how they look. She's been nice to me, and she even makes me lunches. That's enough to tell me she's not all that bad of a person.
When she walks out of the alley, she quickly turns right. The gravel road led to some average houses, then spread out towards the end of the street, leading to more traditional homes. She walks to the very last one at the end.
"... We're here," she says. "Stay here a moment. I'll go introduce you." She walks away from me towards the entrance.
What does she mean 'introduce' me?
Akane walked inside and closed the screen door behind her while I waited outside.
I look over the house. It was fairly small, but normal-sized for a traditional home. It looked like two, maybe even three, people could live here. It had a tall fence around the entire house, just like the other ones along the street. There was a small patch of plants out front, but other than that, there wasn't much greenery. There also didn't seem to be any windows; at least, not from where I was standing.
Man... All this stuff about Akane seems to be getting to me. Even though I just found out her secret, I feel like it's going to get even more confusing from here on out. Not sure how, but I just have a hunch. I mean, this has to just be a dream.
Heh. If I'm dreaming... then this is one hell of a dream.
"You can come inside now," Akane's voice says, snapping me back to reality.
"Uh, right," I say. I open the screen door -- first setting my shoes outside, as is the usual with traditional homes -- step inside, and close the screen. The first thing I see is a girl, around my age, sitting in a kotatsu in the center of the room. She glances up, and sets down the book she was reading.
"Oh, hello!", she says.
That's odd. I don't recall hearing any other voices from outside... Who is she?
The girl looked exactly like Akane, except she had scarlet eyes and seemed to possess a mouth. She wore a large, dark blue sweater and jeans. "Akane's told me quite a bit about you. You're Kenji, I presume?", she says with a gentle smile. I smile a bit back.
"Um... Y-Yeah, I'm Kenji," I say. I look around the room, but I can't see Akane anywhere. Really, I could've sworn I heard her voice. Did she just... disappear or something? This is getting weirder by the minute.
"... What's the matter?", she asks me. She must've noticed me looking around.
"Oh, uh... nothing."
YOU ARE READING
The Girl of No Words
AdventureAverage high school third-year Kenji Takahashi has lived a normal, boring life in the small town of Okusame, Japan. However, his life is about to get very interesting. One day, a new student comes to his small high school: a cute girl with short bla...