The door to Nekoya has opened, what will happen now?

 

Riingg–

“Welcome to Nekoya!”

 

Nekoya? Isn’t that… a Japanese name?

I shook my head and looked up. There were lights on the ceiling… electric lights…

For a moment, I glanced about wildly and… are those… Japanese words?! I mean, I could read other world words, but this is clearly Japanese, right? Hiragana and kana and even kanji!

Hambaagu, Karaage, Weekly Specials and, and, the counter! Although the shop has a definite Western vibe to it, the counter was clearly Japanese-style! I have no idea how I know it’s Japanese but the vibe is definitely not-otherworldly!!

“Welcome… hm?” a man in chef’s white leaned out, “You are…”

“I- I’m Mukouda! Mukouda Tsuyoshi!” I screamed desperately.

“Wait, Mukouda… are you… Japanese?”

Tears welled out of my eyes and for a moment I could not help but cry.

“Master! What should I do?” the girl who had greeted us, I vaguely noted that she had horns, so that meant we were still in an otherworld, but that guy, the chef had to be Japanese!!!

“Ah, uh, bring something from the kitchen. Bring my tea set and… some of the riceballs from the fridge.”

“Wahhh!!” Rice balls! Fridge!

“Mukouda-san, please calm down.”

 

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It took a little while, but the dark-haired Japanese-looking man, Mukouda-san, finally calmed down. He had burst into another bout of tears at the sight of the tea and rice balls, but, well, that cemented it. I wondered just how long he had been in this other world to be so desperate for tea and rice.

“Oi, are you done sniffling?” the massive white wolf with red accents on its body snarled.

Although the words were harsh, it did not feel like the dog-wolf was being hostile. There was also a Slime on Mukouda-san’s lap which he was patting as though his life depended on it. There were also two dragons with him, but let’s not think about them for the moment.

“Mukouda-san? Are you alright? I am Mako, Yamagata Mako. I’m the owner of this Western-style restaurant, Nekoya.”

“Boo hoo, Yamagata-san…” Mukouda-san sniffled. “Were  you forcefully transmigrated into this world too?”

“Forcefully transmigrated you say…”

“Wait, why do you have electrical lights? Those are totally electrical lights, just how-”

“Why don’t you have a seat first? Have a meal too, I’m sure your, ah, companions would also like something to eat.”

“Eat?”

“Food?”

Even the two smaller monsters perked up at the mention of food.

“Aletta, could you take their order, please?”

“Oh, um, sure! Hello, my name is Aletta. Welcome to the Nekoya, we have all kinds of delicious food here. Do you know how to read the Eastern Continent Language? Oh my, how about I explain the dishes we have-”

I left Aletta to it and guided Mukouda-san to a table a little farther away. There was nothing much I could do, ignorant as I was of his plight, but I could at least listen to him.

“Would you like a beer?” I asked out of courtesy.

“Heh, no, tea is fine,” he looked around the restaurant again. “This place is… strange…”

“Well, I don’t quite know the details myself, but you can think of this place as something like a pocket dimension of some sort. I’m not… transmigrated.”

“Then, the girl…”

“Ah, Aletta? She’s a native of this world. I am the foreigner here.”

“I see…” he sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Actually, scratched that. I don’t actually know what’s going on, but for some reason, the gods and goddesses are shrieking their heads off in my mind…”

“Pardon?”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. They do that sometimes…”

Mukouda-san had this thousand-yard stare, making it difficult for me to comment on his condition. So, I waited.

“Yamagata-san, was it? Nice to meet you, I’m Mukouda Tsuyoshi,” Mukouda-san had finally composed himself. At least, enough to sit up and give his greetings once again. “Sorry for the sudden loss of control just now, I was just too happy to see another Japanese person after such a long time.”

“Yes, it was nice to meet you too,” I echoed automatically.

“It’s been a while, but I hope you don’t mind us barging into your restaurant so suddenly like this. My familiars tended to eat a lot, if you happen to lack ingredients, please don’t hesitate to let me know.”

In truth, I felt a little offended at this ‘offer’. After all, I had been the owner-chef for Nekoya for a long time and large orders were nothing to me…

 

… actually, I think we’re starting to run out of potatoes. The shrimp and pork were long gone, but more importantly…

“I’m done cutting up these vegetables. Should I bring out some extra meat for the hamburg steaks? I think we also have an order for 50 more Menchi Katsu…”

What was more unnerving was how normal Mukouda-san looked. Well, at least his expression looked normal, even though his eyes were a little… anyway, he was a great help in the kitchen. He was not a particular expert with the knife but was more than an adequate home cook. It was obvious that he was used to cooking large amounts of food in one go-

“Oi! More of this fried food!”

“Dora-chan wants this pudding, Sui wants more of the green fizzy drink. A beer for me-”

“No.”

“A cold coffee float.”

“You can have that one.”

While it looked like Mukouda-san was being bullied on the surface, he did not allow himself to be pushed around when these so-called familiars crossed the line.

“Well, those fellows are kind of my responsibility, you know?”

“Ah, ahem, apologies, I did not mean to-” I must have been staring too hard, how rude of me.

“It’s fine, I wonder about it myself. I try not to let them walk all over me, but there’s only so much an ordinary person like me can do, you know? At this rate, they are more like a bunch of kids I have to look after. Since I have to feed them every day, three times a day… that makes it difficult for me to meet people.”

“Urgh, that’s…” I can’t believe how much I empathise with that statement. “Same here, I sleep upstairs, you know? This place is practically my life…”

“What are you talking about? You have that cute girl with horns…”

“Aletta? No way, she’s the waitress here. Not to mention, we aren’t from the same world…”

“Do you have a way to go back to Japan?”

“Actually, this restaurant is only connected to this place once a week.”

“… …”

“… …”

“Wait, what? You live in Japan?! Do you like, take the subways and go to the bank and stuff?!”

“That… yes…”

“Ugh, what would I give to touch Japanese yen again…” Mukouda looked like he was about to break down again.

Panic filled me as I wondered what to do. What should one do under this set of circumstances?

“Uh, would you like a 10,000 yen bill?” I asked. Because, honestly speaking, I was making a lot of gold just feeding his ‘familiars’. Especially since he also insisted on filling up my fridge with meat and vegetables, there’s also that magic bag of things I haven’t looked inside yet…

“Would you? Can I?”

Once again, I was suffused by an odd sense of guilt and pity. The money he used to pay me was in gold coins, but the pattern on it was different from the one that the people from Aletta’s world gave me. So, there was no telling whether I would ever see him walk through that door again.

Mukouda-san did not say anything, but the way he was stalling and trying not to leave made it obvious that he feared not being able to find this restaurant again. However, the fact that he did not try to ask me for a way to get back into Japan spoke volumes, especially since it looked like he had some direct way of communicating with divine beings from the world he had ‘transmigrated’ to.

“Eh, don’t look at me like that. I’m living pretty well, all things considered,” said Mukouda-san with a laugh. “I mean, it would be great to have a girlfriend or even a nice eye candy… but that’s just how life is, right? I can’t say that my life would be much better or worse if I had remained in Japan. Probably not much better. Those kids are kind of rude most of the time, but I think they mean well. Hahaha.”

What could I do but laugh along with him?

I hope Mukouda-san finds happiness in his life.

 

[Gumihou: Er, that was a little more depressing than what I had initially planned…]

 

 

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