New Start

When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was Tamamo's face looking at me in a loving way. I was surprised to see it so close to mine, so I tried to get up without noticing that I was lying on her lap, and when I got up, I bumped my forehead against hers.

"Sorry, are you okay?"

"Don't worry, I'm fine," she replied, rubbing her forehead a little.

"What happened?"
"Why was I on your lap? Did I fall asleep?"

"Oh, well, when we arrived, we were hugging, but we were thrown out pretty hard, since we came out so quickly, we hit the ground, and I think you accidentally broke my fall with your body, but you lost consciousness for a few minutes."

"Hey, is it true that this is the planet Earth?"
"It's been a long time since I was here; I hardly recognize anything."
"Do you know where we are?"

Tamamo was right and I could hardly believe it. I was back on Earth and in the world of the living. Despite everything that had happened, I was still here. Excitedly, I looked around to see where we were. It seemed like we were sitting on a wooden bench in a children's park, just the two of us. Around us, it looked like a residential area, although there were several tall buildings nearby and skyscrapers further away. But among them all, one building stood out from the rest despite its proximity, a huge metal tower - it was the Tokyo Skytree. Looking at the traffic signs, it was clear that the language they had really confirmed that the place we were in was Tokyo, Japan. It was a great relief to me because it meant I was one step closer to being reunited with my family. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky, and since the sun was at its highest point, it was easy to tell that it was noon, although the lack of leaves on the trees showed that it was winter. I could also see a city in the midst of peace and life, with its streets in good condition, the sounds of a living city. It was the first time in a long time that I had experienced being in a city that wasn't a war zone. There was no trace of the portal we had used to arrive; there was simply nothing strange around us except for Tamamo at my side.

"So...."
"What do you think of this place?"
"Is this your home?"
"Is this where you come from?" She said with a face that reflected a desire for a positive answer.

"No"
"But at least if we are in the same world"
"Actually, this Tokyo, as I found on the Internet before, was called Edo in the Musashi Province."

"What!?"
"But it doesn't look like anything I remember!"
"There are such tall buildings!?"
"I don't know this place"
"It looks nothing like the capital of Oriente 6, almost all the houses have the same square design"

"I don't know much about this place either"
"But I've been to this town before."
"It was in this city that I saw my sister for the last time.
"She was in a hospital near here.
"Although it was a long time ago."
"Since Japan remained neutral in the war, it is a safe place."
"At least now I'm a little closer to knowing what happened to her since then."

But while I was talking to Tamamo, some people came to where we were and started talking as soon as they saw us. As soon as I thought about why, I remembered that I was still wearing the clothes Momo had given me and Tama was still in her goddess outfit. It was clear that they were talking about us.

"I think without a doubt, our appearance is too conspicuous"
"We have to do something"
"I don't want the police to stop me when I finally get back"

"Seriously?"
"I have no problem with people seeing me as I am"
"But I also kinda want to look pretty for you and there's nothing better than going shopping and getting new cute clothes!"
"But do you have money?"

Oh no, now that I think about it.

"...."
"You know, this reminds me that I have to get money to buy clothes"
"You can wait for me in this park while I get it"
"I won't be long, an hour at the most"
"I swear to you"
"Please wait for me and don't move from here."

"Alright"
"I will wait here for your return"

"Thank you"

As soon as I finished speaking, I started running to look around, I think I ran about 3 blocks quickly trying to find what I was looking for. It was clear that in a city as big as Tokyo, there must be something like this somewhere, I just hope it's not too far from here. But with just a quick glance, I can find it, what a stroke of luck.

There were three men, from the way they were dressed, and seeing that they all had equally distinctive motorcycles, I could see that they were a motorcycle gang, those are expensive motorcycles, and they only had a few metal pipes to defend themselves, no doubt an opportunity. I couldn't believe what I was about to do, I just came back from heaven, I say I don't want any problems and the next thing I try to do is assault three dangerous men to steal money from them. Or well, surely they have more money in a bank, sharing it will not do much damage.

Exactly 47 seconds later

***punching sound***

"And next time, try attacking your grandmother"
"..."
"Weaklings"
"..."
"Alright, it's time to see how much money they have"
"Hell, where do these people keep their wallets?"
"Maybe I should have questioned them before I knocked them out"

While looking for the money, where I did not find their wallets, but when a large wad of cash that one had hidden in an internal pocket.

"No one would carry something like that".
"They're not thugs, they're dealers!"
"Lucky!"
"With this, I make sure I have money quickly without having to cheat innocent people."
"And if I attack dangerous people, they won't be able to go to the police to complain"
"That went unexpectedly well!"
"But it would be better to get back to Tama as soon as possible, I don't want to make her nervous by taking too long."

After we started looking for more normal clothes, we walked south, right to where the Tokyo Skytree was, because there must be at least some stores near it. It took us several minutes and a lot of teasing from people who saw us, this little trip felt like an eternity to me. But to my salvation, I found the store we were looking for and without hesitation, we entered immediately, the truth is that I only entered because I saw that they were selling some shirts at the entrance, but once inside it was a department store so that saved us.

But now I had another problem. I'm just looking for something to cover my tail and maybe a hat, now the question is what to do with Tamamo. I don't have the slightest idea that a girl could like it, and on top of that, I don't think she knows anything about current fashion, because she's probably hoping to get a kimono. While she kept thinking that she would get an employee came to attend us.

"Hello, welcome"
"Can I help you with anything?" She said with a face full of doubt and the desire to laugh.

I have to think of something quickly to avoid getting into an even more embarrassing situation. Anything at all!

"Excellent, we were just looking for someone to help"
"Right now we are recording a video for our website, our users challenged us to come dressed like this and see if we can be as normal as possible and see people's reactions."
"Do you think you can help us?"
"Of course we will pay for the clothes you think can help us"
"We had two levels of difficulty, I played something easy, so I think I'll be fine by myself, but my friend is the one who has the difficult part."
"Do you think you can help her?"
"By the way, she might be a bit into her character, so I ask you to be patient, but don't worry, we don't intend to record in the store."

Ok, even though I had to lie on the spot, it came out almost so natural that it scares me to believe it myself.

"So that's it!"
"For a moment, I thought you were one of those weird customers that pop up from time to time."
"Well, I think it would be fun to do something like that."
"Leave it to me, I will help you the best I can"

"Really? Like, are you going to tell me that this isn't the strangest thing you've ever seen?"

"I'd like to say yes, but after working here for a while, I think I've gotten used to it."

"Hey honey, can you stop and look at these clothes I found?"
"Don't you think it would look very nice on you!?" Tama shouted almost from the other end of the tent to where I was standing.

"But where the hell did you get this!?"
"The idea is to dress like everyone else"
"Don't stand out even more!"

"Not pretty enough?"
"Well, then I will look better!"
"As your wife, I will find something you like!"

"STOP!"

After a while, I got a white jacket and tied it around my waist, so I think it covered my tail quite well, the hat was a bit more difficult because not all of them fit well and others bothered my fox ears, but later, after a long search, I managed to find one. Tamamo on her side was much harder to find, but it was almost impossible. Well, even though she could easily change her shape to that of a normal human, because she was stubborn, she did not want to. First we saw that she had too many tails to wear something normal, and although it turned out that she could hide almost all of them, she wanted to show at least one, just like me, but she didn't want to hide it either, and the same with her ears, she just wanted to show them because she said that she looked pretty with them. At the end of a lot of trying, both the staff and I gave up and just started looking for something she would like to wear.

In the end, she got a pink turtleneck sweater, a short black skirt, and high stockings, she also got some boots with laces, she seemed to like them because she was quite happy when she saw the attendant bringing them to her. So, in the end, I think I managed to hide well, while Tamamo just looked for nice clothes to wear that would fit in with what was being worn now. As for the price of things, well, let's just say that Tama's clothes cost a lot more than I thought possible. We just spent almost everything on her clothes, but it was a small price to pay for saving the embarrassing situation, half of it.

"I really thought you would be against wearing such western clothes, but I see that you really enjoyed looking around the store".
"How do you adapt to the change in style so quickly?" I said to Tama as we walked out of the store.

"Beauty is a woman's war!"
"In a war, the one who adapts the fastest wins!"
"Never have mercy!" she replied with a fiery look.

As we returned to the street, I saw how the sky was now golden as I watched the sun begin to set. Night was approaching. I had almost no money because of the clothes we had bought, we had not eaten all day, and as if that were not enough, I had no place to sleep. I had to get back on track to fix this as soon as possible.

But as we walked aimlessly while I thought about what to do next, Tama spoke again.

"I am very hungry"
"We barely had breakfast.
"Let's find a place to eat," she said with a face that looked a little tired.

I started to check the little money we had left, it was not hopeful what we had left.

"It's okay"
"I got this"
"We still have money to at least eat something small"
...
"How about the coffee shop from before?"

"Coffee shop?"

"Do you even know what a coffee is?"

"Is it like a restaurant?"

"Quite similar"
"There was one I liked the way it looked that we passed on the way here."
"Let's go there"

And with that, we set off to enjoy a little break before continuing with whatever the future had in store for us tonight.