The Undesired Second Chance

Chapter 8: Unpacking

To distract himself from the confusing mess of impossibility that his life had apparently become, Axel worked hard to help Morimoto unpack the boxes and otherwise get the house set up. He still hadn't figured out why they were working to make the old house livable again, but at least it gave him something to do. It was an effective distraction, even if some of the contents only served to remind him where he was; many of the boxes held tools or jewelry-type things, but there were others filled with weapons like kunai and shuriken.

Axel also wasn't sure how Morimoto expected to sell all these things quickly enough to get back to his son before the teen burned something down. Not that Kichirou would purposefully torch anything, but, to be fair, he had a tendency to get a bit distracted at times. It was an almost valid concern.

Kicking out the bottom of one of the last cardboard boxes and folding it flat, Axel tossed it onto the pile with the others. After a full week of mindless busywork, distributing the contents of all those boxes—weapons included—around the house, they were finally nearing the end.

Morimoto, who had been doing something in the forge area (yes, this house had a forge and it was amazing), came into the room with a suspiciously happy grin. "Nearly wrapped up here?"

"I think?" replied Axel, half because he wasn't sure how long it would take to unpack the rest and half because he wasn't sure about the use of 'wrapped' in the sentence. "Just three more boxes."

"Fantastic!" The blacksmith walked over and popped one of the last boxes open, nodding to himself as he recognized whatever was inside. "Oh, right. These. Best save them for later, actually."

Choosing not to question it, Axel only shrugged.

Morimoto took the silence as a chance to push for something he had been trying to get Axel to do since that first afternoon in the village. Namely: "I need to get some more things for the forge, fuel and the like. Want to join me?"

Now, just because Axel was no longer in a state of shock due to complete-world-flipping didn't mean he was quite ready to face that flipped world. Thus he had avoided going outside or even looking out the windows for too long. Using a rather lackluster excuse, he answered, "It gives so many things here that I still need to do."

"I think you mean 'there are'. As in 'there are so many things', which I suppose is true." The blacksmith paused before pointedly adding, "Or at least was true. I think you can spare an hour or so."

Axel's eyes darted to the door, then back to the man attempting to convince him to walk through it into the world beyond. That strange world beyond that should be fiction. "I still need to, uh... I-I could... clean more?" It came out as a question.

Not impressed with either of the lame excuses, Morimoto crossed his arms and gave the blond a stern look. "I don't know what you're so scared of, but it's not going to work itself out in here."

He started to protest, but the words died before he could even finish a full sentence. It was true, Axel realized. He was scared. At this point it was more than denial or unease or discomfort; it was fear, plain and simple.

It was about time he faced it.

"Besser spät als nie," he said to himself, cementing his decision. "I... I guess I need to sometime."

The blacksmith's stern look melted into a pleased smile. "Good! I was planning on restocking the forge, you know. This is a good chance for you to see how it's done."

Not quite sure what was meant by that, Axel asked, "Why would I need to—"

The question was swiftly interrupted as Morimoto ushered him to the door. "Anyway, let's be off! Places to go, things to buy, and only so many hours in the day."