Treasure Buddies (Prologue | Maguro)
The laundromat was hardly as interesting as the other places Hiroto had discovered on the first floor (especially compared to the entrance hall itself), but he nevertheless felt himself drawn to it. Maybe because the atmosphere seemed ordinary, and while familiarity usually deterred him, he found it to be a nice reprieve in this case.
Because as much as he hated to admit it, this situation was starting to worry him. Yes, at first he didn’t think the note on the bulletin board was unusual, but then he noticed the hatch, the guns, the cameras. He even noticed how confused everybody else seemed. It was as if everyone was just as in the dark as he was.
The laundromat, by contrast, was quite bright, just like all laundromats seemed to be. Then again, he had only been to one once in his lifetime. (When he was nine, he got drenched in cold water as the result of a bucket-over-door prank after school. He was ushered to the laundromat located a block from school so he could at least have a warm jacket for the cold walk home in the middle of January.) Nevertheless, he was willing to bet they all smelled like soap and felt cozy.
He propped open the door using a small table, so that the room wouldn’t get too stuffy. Then he sat down against a washer that was warm despite not running and started unabashedly flipping through a tween fashion magazine.
The sound of footsteps alerted him somebody was approaching. He looked up from the personality quiz section to see an unfamiliar person walk into the room… Well, they weren’t totally unfamiliar. He recognized them from the room where they all first woke up. Their name escaped him, however, as did their talent.
“Hey,” he said. He figured they wouldn’t be a bad person to ask when it came to answering this next question. “I’m Hoshi Hiroto. And weird question, but do you think my style is more fresh, edgy, or sweet? I’m thinking one of the first two, but I kinda want someone else’s opinion.”
A pause, then what he said next he did so with a completely straight face. There wasn’t any trace of humor in his voice.
“This is to see who my future pop idol husband will be, according to this magazine. And I swear if you choose an answer and I end up with Takuyo Tadashi, I’ll wreck you. I’ve gotten him for the last three quizzes and I’m fucking fed up. No more.”