Perfection

It had been a while since he had seen her. As he walked home from work,  he couldn’t help but constantly think about her; her silky hair… her  bright eyes… her soft lips… Oh, how he wanted to kiss them.

With  haste, the man started to make his way home, a beat in his step as he  carried his briefcase in his right hand. He had a bit of sweat over his  brow. He didn’t want to keep her waiting too long, now! Huffing and  puffing, the dark-haired man soon arrived at his apartment complex,  jumping up the steps and rapidly reaching into his pocket for his keys.  Fumbling with them for a moment, he managed to steady himself and open  his door, instantly closing it behind him and quickly dropping  everything in his hands. He loosened his tie quickly and adjusted his  dark-rimmed glasses that rested at the tip of his nose, and being filled  with determination, the man ran into his living room and quickly dove  for a PS Vita gaming console, awakening it from its sleep mode and being  greeted with a cute anime girl saying in Japanese,

“Ohaiyo!! How was your day??”

“Konichiwa!”  The man responded, also in Japanese, his face instantly having a bright  blush over his cheeks and his body shuddering in delight upon seeing  his waifu. “I’m good, good! Just got off from work. How is my Hime-chan  doing??”

“Goodie goodie~! Heehee~!” The anime girl said, smiling brightly.

The  man held his nose to prevent blood from coming out, and he chuckled  giddily, standing up rapidly and plopping onto his couch, starting to  press a few buttons and pulling up a main menu.

“Would you like to continue playing with me~?” The girl asked, doing a little kawaii face.

“Yes, please!” The man said, pressing a button and continuing with his save file on the bishojo game.

Every  day, Hirokawa Usui would come home and play with his dating simulator  game. He was a lonely man. A closet otaku. Every day, he would go to  work at EA’s Tokyo company, being a mere grunt worker and set inside a  cubicle. He was a standard Japanese man, and while he had funds, he  chose to live the life of any other otaku. He ate “Cup of Noodles” every  time he could, and would always drink Ramune no matter what. His room  was decorated with all sorts of anime merchandise from the shows he  would watch, and even his bed was decorated with cute anime girl pillows  and sheets. He never did hide his love for anime when socializing with  friends, but he’s never had anyone over to his house either. It was much  too embarrassing to actually see how creepy he was instead of just  talking about favorite tv shows!  

On another note, Hirokawa was  never really good at talking to people in the first place. Sure, he  could talk to other fellow otakus, but they were about as awkward as  him. Where he would get his social interactions would mostly be from the  internet. Tumblr was the main place he would go to for browsing  anime-related things, and he actually had a very popular Ask Blog on a  particular anime series that he still obsesses over today. Well, what  anime DOESN’T an otaku continuously obsess over?

Despite being a  standard Japanese otaku…. He is still a Japanese otaku. He’s a simple  man. Every glimpse of his “waifus” in his bishojo games or in the anime  stores would make him get all giddy; almost like a fangirl. No one  thought strangely of him since so many other otakus would do the same,  and especially since the anime stores were already overrun by their  kind. And despite the otakus’ obsession over anime girls, real women  knew that the otakus wouldn’t so much as touch them since they were  already lame as ever.

All of that aside, as Hirokawa played his  game and continuously blushed every time the anime girls would speak, a  sharp knock came to his door, causing him to jump up in surprise and  nearly drop his PS Vita in his hands. No one ever knocked on the door  unless it was the mailman, and that was normally on the weekends. Today  was Wednesday. Maybe they were late?

With a low hum, the otaku  placed his gaming device down and rubbed the back of his head, standing  up and walking over to his door as the knock came again.

“I’m  coming, I’m coming.” He said in Japanese, now opening the door and  glancing at the figure in front of him. His eyes widened for a moment  when he saw that he was looking at the figure’s chest, and he looked up,  seeing a rather stern-faced man. Instantly intimidated by his presence,  Hirokawa shrank a bit and watched him with concern. “M-May I help  you???”

The stern-faced man, though his muscles were tight from  his faint frown, he was considerably handsome. He had a defined jaw and  cheekbones, and even just the shape of his eyes gave off a dominant  gleam that caused Hirokawa to somehow… appreciate it. Sure, Hirokawa ran  on the straight side of the spectrum, but just seeing this man had his  face get faintly red from just how beautiful he was. How could such a  human be blessed with such sharp features and still be something out of  one of those animes? While Hirokawa secretly wished this man could be  transformed into a woman, he shook that thought away when he met eye to  eye with the stern man’s bright, olive-green eyes.

 

“Usui  Hirokawa?” The man asked, his voice as smooth as velvet, but still  having that gruff demeanor behind it. His Japanese, though it was only a  name, sounded like it had an American accent to it.

Yeah.  Hirokawa definitely felt like he was talking to an anime man now. Not  exactly a bishie, nor was this man really a bara type of guy either. He  was already much too skinny to be considered bara nor was he skinny  ENOUGH to be considered a bishie. He was just the perfect size for the  medium between the two. Could such a person really exist?!

“U-Uh..”  (sounds like a grunt of agreement, basically) Hirokawa agreed to the  man’s statement, nodding lightly and giving him a curious expression.  “May I help you?” He repeated.

“Let’s have a talk. Would you  mind if we got some coffee together?” The man asked, rather politely  despite his tensed expression.

Hirokawa was definitely caught  off guard by this question, and since Hirokawa was a man of action  rather than thought: “U-Um… I don’t really like coffee…”

“How  about we get some takoyaki, then?” The man asked, his expression  lightening slightly and causing Hirokawa to once again be caught off  guard.

How was he supposed to respond to this? Some random man,  who looks like he was straight out of an anime, is suddenly appearing at  Hirokawa’s door and wanting to hang out with him?? Why was this  happening? It’s like right out of an anime in itself!! Could Hirokawa  really pass up this sort of opportunity? Sure, it disappointed him that  it wasn’t a woman instead, but when would he be able to do this again??

“U-Um.. well, okay.. “ Hirokawa finally came to agree, causing the man to smile down at him.

“Perfect. We shall leave right away.” He said, causing Hirokawa to gasp and awkwardly look back and forth.

“U-Uh, wait! I-I need to change real quick!” Hirokawa exclaimed, running away into his room so he could throw on some clothing.

The  man merely walked away from the door, smiling lightly to himself and  walking down the steps as he brushed a few white strands of hair away  from his eyes. He paused at the bottom of the staircase, glancing once  to the golden watch on his wrist before looking back up the stairs and  putting his hands in his pockets. Hirokawa eventually came running out  of his apartment, locking the door before flying down the stairs,  throwing his coat on over his white long-sleeved shirt. He panted  faintly and looked at the man, who didn’t even wait for him to catch his  breath before he started walking out to the street.

“A-Ah! Wait! What’s your name, anyways?” Hirokawa asked, following after him despite stumbling slightly.

The man glanced back at him slightly, hand still in his pockets as they walked. “You can call me Moeko.”

Hirokawa  blinked for a moment, but only nodded at him. What a girl’s name! He  wasn’t exactly sure how to think of that since first of all, he was  pretty handsome. And second of all, Hirokawa even WISHED for him to be a  woman! What was going on???

“…You seem troubled.” Moeko said,  still watching him for a moment and causing Hirokawa to exclaim out in  surprise and sweat drop a bit, waving his hands dismissively.

“Oh! No no no, I’m not troubled! I’m just curious as to why you’re doing this with.. um.. me.” He said, laughing awkwardly.

“Well…  I’ve heard that you work at a rather important place here in Tokyo.”  Moeko calmly said, following the sidewalk and looking ahead of him.

“H-Huh??  Oh, you mean EA games?? W-Well, it is a big gaming company and I get  some of their games, b-but I don’t actually hold a high position… I just  type up stuff and print it out for them… Sometimes I don’t even know  what I’m typing about, haha!” Hirokawa said, laughing lightly. When  Moeko didn’t really react with a laugh, Hirokawa awkwardly looked off to  the side and remained silent.

“Even so…” Moeko had suddenly  said to break the pained, awkward silence. “You seem to be a busy man.  Have you ever gone out to relax a bit?”

“…Um… well, yeah… I go out with my coworkers and friends a bit, I guess..”

“What do you do?”

“Uhh…. I don’t know… we go out to eat, get some merchandise from stores…”

Hirokawa  wasn’t exactly sure how to process what Moeko’s intentions were for  asking him all these personal questions. He didn’t even know why he was  even telling it to him! Could it be that he was just so handsome that he  felt scared that he would be rejected for not telling him anything? No,  that’s absurd. Wait, why was he even thinking of being rejected in the  first place?! This wasn’t a date!

“I see…” Moeko had said,  finally coming into the city area and glancing around slightly, his  olivine eyes grazing the streets as if searching for prey, even if he  was just looking for a takoyaki stand.

Hirokawa gulped slightly  at that and adjusted his glasses for a moment, also glancing around in  search of the food stand. “S-So what exactly are you here for? Why are  you doing this with me? W-We’re just strangers to each other… We just  met… “

“You could say what I’m doing is a sort of scouting  mission.” Moeko said, eyes flickering to one side and then his body  starting to move. He found the target.

 

“S-Scouting mission? Are  you thinking of hiring me for something??? I-I mean! N-Not to be rude..”  Hirokawa said, watching him go before jumping forwards and after him.

“Well…  yes, I am thinking of hiring you. Though where I work, I can’t tell you  much about. It does pay well though, and the actual labor is pretty  decent. And you’ll actually be walking around instead of stuck sitting  in some dusty cubicle.” Moeko said with a playful tone, shooting a small  smile towards the smaller man.

“Is that so…” Hirokawa looked  down in thought, his brows furrowing slightly. It would definitely be  nice to no longer live in an apartment and work away from a cubicle…  plus, he could pay off some more of his student loans too. This was  definitely starting to form into some kind of anime. Wouldn’t it be cool  if he could be able to learn some awesome martial art or control a  giant robot?! Hirokawa smiled to himself giddily at the thought, and  then turned his head back up to look at Moeko. Could this man really be a  new opportunity for him?

The rest of the day was spent  interacting with this Moeko man. Hirokawa, for the first time in a long  time, started to feel comfortable around a stranger after a few talks.  Something about Moeko was endearing and warm, a truly charismatic  character. When the duo went their separate ways for the night, Hirokawa  actually went home and went straight to bed. He didn’t even take a  glance at his video games, though he still had to cuddle his body  pillow. THAT was something he couldn’t separate from.

Moeko  visited frequently after that. The two quickly became friends and often  went out to have chats about their lives and work life. Though, every  time Hirokawa asked the newly acclaimed Dr. Moeko, the latter would  always change the subject to something else. Hirokawa was at first, very  oblivious to this, but he had started to notice these subtle changes in  tone. After all, Hirokawa wanted to be a good friend to Dr. Moeko; he  didn’t want the man to hide anything from him.

One day at a coffee shop, with the Doctor drinking coffee and Hirokawa drinking some tea, Hirokawa asked once again:

“So, did your boss finally let you work on the patient this time?”

Dr.  Moeko was silent for a moment as he sipped from his coffee cup. “… No.  The patient had a terrible stroke the day of. It’s unfortunate… I was  hoping to save them somehow. But… he’s allowing me to work on another  one this time. He’s giving me a simpler case, as much as I dislike it.”  He said, his tone grave and his expression sunken in a bit.  “…But  enough about me. How has your relationship moved with that woman I  introduced you to?”  

Though… as that was said, that was the last  time the two had met with one another. Dr. Moeko never came to visit  again, and Hirokawa couldn’t help but feel extremely worried for him.  Multiple phone calls were made, but when the doctor never answered,  Hirokawa started to believe that maybe he was getting busier in his  work. Maybe he got a promotion? Hirokawa wouldn’t be surprised if he  did. After all, Dr. Moeko was a good man and hard worker, he was sure  that the doctor could manage it. But… without answering calls and texts…  Hirokawa couldn’t help but feel abandoned. The one person who was able  to break him out of his shell and become one of his true friends… left  him. A feeling of both spite and betrayal started to boil within  Hirokawa over the years, but of course… there had to be a time where all  would have to be forgotten.

Years had passed since their last  meeting. Avalon started to make itself known throughout Japan with its  military-tech advancements, as well as the Delphi issue becoming a  controversial issue within the country. That was the first time that  Hirokawa got a taste of this organization, but it definitely wouldn’t be  the last. A couple of years after that incident, a very, very old  friend came back from the grave…

A subtle knock on the apartment  door. Hirokawa glanced over and put his Nintendo 3DS down, calling out,  “I’m coming, I’m coming.” However, when he opened the door, his eyes had  widened immensely. Standing before him was a decrepit-looking man(?),  yet at the same time, it looked so… clean.

The cheeks and skin  were so tightly stretched over this monster’s face, that it outlined the  edges of his human skull. Without hair, the monster’s flesh curled over  itself at the top of his head, almost looking like an exposed brain of  sorts. The coloration of the flesh was a sickly pale yellow and orange,  and it surprisingly was very thin. Some of the blood and veins could be  seen pumping throughout the monster’s body, but that wasn’t the main  thing. This monster also had two rows of human teeth, one row a bright  white over rotten lips that hid a row of dark yellow teeth. This  creature was an abomination, something that caused everything within  Hirokawa’s body to just freeze up. What exactly WAS this??

But  the one recognizing factor that Hirokawa couldn’t deny, was the fact  that this man had bright, olive green eyes. No other person he had seen  had these kinds of eyes. The eyes that bore into your own, eyes that  make your knees shake and heart stop. No matter how nice this person was  on the outside… his eyes would end all assumptions and make them  reality.

 

“D-Doc-“ Hirokawa was about to exclaim out, but Dr.  Moeko quickly shot a needle into the side of his throat, the liquid  quickly going to work and causing the smaller man’s eyes to flutter. He  then leaned forwards and collapsed to the ground, the tight corners of  the doctor’s mouth starting to crinkle a bit with a smirk.

Now was the time for Hirokawa to start his new job.