░▒▓█ 𝙺𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚞𝚒 █▓▒░

-Chapter Five

Roro turned and headed into what seemed to be a kitchen. Gumi sat up from the couch and wiped her face one last time. She had smudged, messy makeup all over. "May I go to your restroom?," she whined, hoping she didn't get any on his couch.
"Help yourself," the strange guy called from his kitchen. There was clanking sounds coming from there while he was digging to find a kettle.
Gumi closed herself into the room and looked for a washcloth in one of the cabinets. Once she'd found one she wetted it, and then began rubbing her face with it. She focused on the mirror for more than one second to realize she saw another "kappa". She nearly screamed!
Gumi turned around to look at it closer. It was pretty big. It only blinked at her in response of her frightened facial expression.
She poked it on what seemed to be its belly. Wow, it was surprisingly squishy. "It's kinda cute," she giggled a bit, still sniffling from choking back her tears a moment ago. Kappa sat and watched her, not really reacting to her. "Hey little guy," she kneeled down and grabbed it. "How are you? Are you that guy's pet?," she talked as if she was talking to a puppy. Of course, the kappa made no reply. It's beaklike feature opened as if it was about to smile or something though, which surprised her. But, all it did was fall over asleep. Sleep bubbles formed from its beaklike feature.
"Alright little guy," Gumi cooed. "Sleep tight..."
After her second encounter with a kappa she felt more sane. She continued working on her face. "Yeesh," she mumbled. "I really am ugly without makeup."
Sighing from remembering what she was told by some kids when she was in middle school, she grabbed a small hand towel and dabbed it on her clean face. She carefully wrung out the now dirty washcloth, and threw it into what seemed to be a laundry pile. She didn't wanna look at that pile for too long...
Leaving the kinda tight space, Gumi looked around to find that the house seemed to liven up just as it was when she woke up. Heading to the kitchen space, she found Roro happily brewing tea for her.
"Finally out of your funk?," she asked, watching him intently. Roro turned around. "Ah, what? What do you mean? Ahahaha..."
Gumi's brow furrowed. "Eh? You were just all depressed and stuff a minute ago."
"I guess I could say the same about you," he shrugged, taking the kettle from the stove. He headed into his living space again and set the kettle down on a low-to-the-ground table. He headed back into the kitchen and returned with beautiful teacups and saucers, and he carefully placed them both on the table.
Gumi sat down on a cushion on one side of the table, crossing her legs. Roro did the same, and poured the fresh, hot tea into the cups.
Gumi perked up and thanked him with a sweet bow of the head, then grabbed her saucer and cup and breathed in the sweet aroma before drinking. She took a large gulp of the fresh tea and set her cup down. She had some running from her mouth because of how large a gulp she took.
Roro, who appeared to be in the clothes she met him in, pulled the sleeve of his peacoat a bit off his arm. Pinching the tip of it, he wiped her face with it. "There you go," he closed his eyes and sighed with contentment. He took a sip of his tea.
"Th-thank you for being so kind to me," Gumi sniffled.
Roro, cheeks all rosy and pink, beamed. "Of course. I'll be taking further care of you if you're still in shock. Stay as long as you'd like," he smiled.
"I wouldn't wanna overstay my welcome..," she frowned.
"Oh don't worry about anything like that. You're welcome as long as you please," he smiled again! Why did his personality change so often..? But that was the least of her worries at the moment.
"Though I would like to stay, I really wanna go back home..," Gumi began to feel sad again. "Is there any way you can help me get back?" She sipped her tea.
"Well you'll have to give me directions! Ahah," he joked, but then felt bad because Gumi didn't seem to be in that kind of mood. His eyes widened and sparkled. "Before you go, I wanna show you around since you've clearly never been here before. This is a very lively town and I'm sure you won't get bored if you stay a while," Roro explained, getting excited.
The lost green haired girl pushed a lock out of her face and behind her ear. "Look, id love to visit-"
She was cut off. "Then let's go into the city!," Roro jumped up and grabbed Gumi's hand. He practically tugged her out of his home while she was yelling in protest. But, she lost the battle surprisingly and was dragged outside of the...apartment? What? It was an apartment room? She wouldn't have been able to tell until she was dragged out of into a hallway which had multiple identical doors. She stood on her feet and brushed off.
Gumi walked beside Roro and followed him to an elevator. There was an awkward silence on the way down to the lobby. They kinda just stared at each other.
Once the elevator landed, they both exited  the apartment.
"Maybe i can find a train that leads to home..," Gumi thought to herself. She didn't wanna have to just leave this guy when he had his back turned though, but she might just have to. But, even so, she might get lost without his help. She'd never been here before.
Just as Roro told her, the city was bustling with...people? There weren't just people. In fact, there were very few people.
"What are all those creatures wandering the streets? Shouldn't they be like, in a zoo or something?" Gumi inquired.
"Silly girl, those creatures are yokai! Have you forgotten everything? Jeez, I'm starting to worry for you because your level amnesia is beginning to scare me," Roro's eyes sparkled when Gumi looked into his.
"N..no? It's not amnesia..I honestly think I'm in some kind of dream...I think..I think I'm just going insane...," she put her hand on her forehead as if she was checking for a fever. "I thought yokai were just fictional..or mythical creatures or something..there's no way this is real..."
"Come on, it's alright! Maybe you don't remember, but I'm sure I can refresh your memory if I help you around some," he beamed. "You remember kappa? He's a yokai. He's very rare, too. A lot of them hang around my apartment so don't be frightened when you see one staring at you out of nowhere. They're quite..brainless to say the least! Ahah. But they can and WILL beat your ass. So you'd better not make one mad or jealous," he warned, perfectly happy though.
Gumi was shocked. How could something so adorable hurt you? Eh, it's not the weirdest thing she's seen here.
As they neared the bustling city filled of crowded marketplaces and stores, the sounds became louder. Gumi was almost scared because the nearer they got, the bigger some of the yokai looked.
"So what exactly did you wanna show me?" Gumi was soon cut off by Roro's voice.
"Get out of the way you ol' slubberdegullion!" He yelled, shooing some yokai out of the way with his hands. They scrambled out of the way and let Gumi walk by. They were all fascinated as if they'd never seen her before. "Don't you remember these guys?," he asked.
Gumi was..once again, shocked. The sound of his voice and some hand motions scared these big freaky monster things out of the way? How??
"N-no, and they don't seem to remember me-," she whispered back, feeling uncomfortable with all the eyes watching her. She and Roro quickly made their way past a crowd.
"So..is there any train station around here?," Gumi shot another question at her. "Oh, uhh..," he thought for a second. "Yeah! But let's look around first. Say..let's go shopping for you some new clothes! Yours are far too ordinary. They don't compliment your beauty," he stated, looking her up and down. "Pleeeeease...it'll be fun..," he begged.
Feeling a little insulted yet complimented at the same time, Gumi gave in to the glowing boy.