Chapter Text
Koji's internal clock rouses him out of the bed at 4 AM, the air around him still frigid as the previous night. His stomach lets out a noise of violent protest at the lack of substance, making him groan and sit up.
"mm.. What happ- oh yeah.." He rubs the sleep from his eyes, looking around.
The first thing he notices is, he's covered up. He knows he didn't cover up, which leads him to suspect his new roommate may have made sure he didn't freeze to death in the night. The second thing is, there's a neatly folded stack of clothes and a note on the bedside table, in...staggeringly bad written English.
"Suppose claws aren't the best thing for writing." He grabs the note, giving it a quick scan.
"𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭. 𝘐 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘪𝘵."
He gives a small smile, standing up and grabbing the clothes. He starts making his way to the bathroom, walking past Michelle's room, hearing her rather loud snores. He sets the clothes on the counter, and sees a note on a little basket of cleaning stuff.
"𝘛𝘰𝘰𝘵𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦, 𝘛𝘰𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘣𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘩, 𝘉𝘰𝘥𝘺-𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘥 шампунь? 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘳, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘭𝘭"
He lets out a small laugh at her small mistake, noting her incredible handwriting in Russian even if he doesn't understand the language. He strips fast, brushing his teeth and hopping in the shower, bathing as fast as he was forced to do in prison. after he's done, he reorganizes his bathing supplies neatly in the small basket, getting dressed in the admittedly super baggy pants and shirt, a simple pair of grey sweats and a black hoodie, hanging off his more slender frame like a young child wearing their parents clothes. He grabs the basket, taking it back to his room and putting it at the foot of the bed, noting the now absent snores. He lets out a small huff, preparing to explain his sudden departure last night in his head as he leaves the room and walks to the kitchen.
The hallway is neatly decorated, with some photos of Michelle, what Koji assumes to be her squadmates, her parents, and another, smaller Hellbear that would look identical to Michelle had it not been for the lack of scars and the pink and black makeup and dye all over her body, the very definition of 'Hello Kitty Goth".
He enters the threshold of the kitchen, seeing Michelle in the same seat from yesterday. He has a bit of time to get a better look at her now. Her body is incredibly toned, her muscles visible and bulging in most places, and her rare coat seems to almost swallow all light. Her bust is, well, he avoids looking too much, thinking it disrespectful. Her massive paws are gently holding a coffee cup to her mouth, it being the common face many would use to describe the average werewolf, only with bears ears atop her head. Although, the left ear seems too be split in half, as if split by a bullet. Her flaming, almost draconic red eyes, despite being literally on fire, seem to carry unheard burdens. She sets down her glass down quickly after picking it up, spotting him out the corner of her eye.
"Good Mor- PFFTTT" She spits out a bit of her coffee as she laughs "it's eh, a little big on you, yes?"
"Only a little." He jokes, making her let out a snort, as he walks into the kitchen fully, grapping a cup and pouring himself some.
He mixes in some sugar and a bit of honey, sipping it and letting out a groan of pleasure.
"You have no idea how good this is, considering the coffee I've had for the past ten years was made from the same coffee pot that was there when I got there, and I don't think it was cleaned once" He shudders at the still recent but feeling so long ago memory of the bland, possibly mold filled coffee.
"That's horrid. No one should be forced to live in those conditions." She takes another sip, allowing him to see the fact that the majority of her teeth belong to that of a bear aside from her canines and incisors, which are clearly from a canine.
"Oh, that's not the half of it" He chuckles dryly, sitting across from her and sipping his coffee.
"I can bet. Is it as bad as the movies say?" She asks with a small tilt of her head, her tail wagging a bit behind her.
'I dunno, I haven't watched a proper movie in ten years. I mean, they played the news in the caf and had a rec room for good inmates but, I never went to the rec room and the news wasn't too interesting until a few months ago." He takes another sip of his coffee, finishing the cup, slightly amused at her increasingly distraught expression.
"10 years without proper film?! WE must catch you up, as soon as you finish coffee we'll watch something." Her voice booms with excitement, the smile of a movie nerd on her face, her tail wagging fast enough to smack against the back of the chair 10 times in a second.
"Oh um, I was actually planning on job hunting in a little bit. We can later though" He smiles softly, taking the cup to the sink an giving it a quick wash.
Her tails wagging ceases a small bit "ah okay, that is okay. I will likely be working after you get home but, we can do something once you return." she finishes her coffee, standing up, but quickly sitting back down, clutching her side with a slightly pained expression on her face.
"Are you okay Michelle?" He quickly walks over to her from the sink, looking her side up and down with a concerned expression.
"Y-yes, I was caught in an explosion a few days before the war ended, my fur grew over it but, there are some pieces of shrapnel that the doctors said will slowly come out in time, it still pains me feeling them move, though." She gives a small, pained smile, relaxing against the back of the wooden kitchen chair.
"Alright...well, I'll be off. I should be back in around an hour or so, I'll be back soon" He walks out the kitchen giving her a wave as he heads to the door, opening it and leaving.
*
*
*
Koji walks up to the store, quite literally a few buildings to the right of the apartment complex. It's a quaint store, obviously well used by the people of the city, looking like a 7/11 but if it was based in Japan.
"Hello sir, anything I can help you with?" A shy looking woman sits behind the counter, with a pale, almost ghostly countance, and super long black hair. She looks to be of Japanese origin, a bit of an older woman, possibly in her thirties.
"Yes, I'd like an application please, if you guys are hiring" He gives her a smile, a calm edge to his voice.
Her eyes light up a bit "Oh we absolutely are! We've been understaffed from nearly three months and its been 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭 on my back." She starts digging under the desk, her ass sticking up a bit. her hair seems to move on it's own, almost like thousands of tentacles, shuffling around as her hands do.
"Your hair is nice, you take a lot of care of it I can see." He leans onto the counter a bit.
Her head taps against the counter a bit roughly, holding dusty papers. "o-oh. Thank you.." Her cheeks are a bit red, and she blows the dust off the papers, holding them out.
"No, thank you. Do you mind if I fill them out here?"
"Not at all, go ahead." She grabs a pen from the cup on the desk, holding it out.
He takes takes it and nods, smiling.
After around an hour of filling out paperwork, trying to remember certain things, and small talk, Koji finishes the application.
"There we go, here you are!" He holds the pen and papers back out, his hands shaking a small bit from using the small pen for nearly an hour.
She takes it, looking it over quickly. "Awesome! You're pretty much gonna get the job, I've just gotta do a background check and you can come back tomorrow for a small interview!"
"Will do! Again, thank you very much!"
"No problem at all, I'm glad someone applied, people like to come in and out everyday but it's just lil ol me running the place." She cracks her back, it sounding like fireworks.
"That's unfortunate, it's an amazing looking place. I'll be glad to work here!" He starts walking towards the door, waving.
She smiles and nods, waving in response.
*
*
*
Koji taps his foot in the elevator, as the door slides open on his floor. He walks over to his door, knocking.
"Hey, I'm coming in!" He announces, unlocking it and walking in.
A soft hum echos around the room, it soothing and addicting but...subtly terrifying as well. The shower is running, a small amount of steam around the apartment.
"Damn, I'll have to ask her about that later." He slips his shoes off, placing them next to the door in an easy to reach position.
He sits down on the couch, the TV running some random show. He relaxes against the back of the couch, his eyes closed, his thoughts running a bit. The shower slowly turns off.
"That you Koji?" Michelle yells from the bathroom.
"Yeah!"
"It just you?"
"Yup!"
"How did it go? You were gone for quite a bit, I was a bit worried."
"pretty good! I'll tell you about it in a bit"
"I will be fast then!"
The bathroom door opens, and he hears her bedroom door open. After about 10 minutes, she walks into the living room, wearing a sports top and some jogging bottoms. Her breasts are accentuated, as are her ass and thighs. She walks over, sitting down next to him.
"So, did you get an interview?"
"I actually pretty much got the job, I just have to go for an interview tomorrow and a background check, which is what I'm most worried about. It's the little Japanese store down the block a bit."
She seems to realize something, her eyes widening "Ohhhh, Anna's store! That's actually Zipangese design, Zipangu being Japan of our world."
"Huh, interesting. What is she, by the way? She was like, moving shit with her hair, it was honestly kinda impressive"
"She's a Kejourou, A mostly human-like Liminal with full control over her hair. If it weren't for certain laws, she would probably have a husband, or hell a harem maybe. Their hair is insanely addicting."
"Wow, that's kind of insane, and your saying women used to just 'claim' men as if this was 1052 but with women instead of men??"
"Yeah. In our world, rape...wasn't what it is here. Women would commonly claim men through sexual assault, coercion, or other means based on their powers. The people of Earth weren't fond of that and there were thousands of deaths and severe injuries post-war. Many many laws had to be changed and passed to save lives and reduce suicide rates."
"That's...intense."
"Yeah, very. It was quite upsetting."
"but, let us not worry about that. Ready to watch some film?"
"Sure!"
