Yandere Dating System

The nightmare continued the next day.

It took Aiden a full three hours to clean up the mess in the room yesterday, then he did the laundry--nauseating--and changed the bed sheets. As soon as the bed was ready, he fell asleep within seconds. 

Unfortunately when he awoke from a very deep sleep Aiden still found himself in that same small room. But at least the room was nice now.

--Warning, Host currently lacks energy. Food is required to sustain Host's current health.--

...And those pesky notifications again. Wasn't there a Silent option?

"Food, huh." Aiden mused. "I've been hungry for a while now, yeah." It's just that with all the cleaning the other day, and with how dead-tired he was after, that need was put in the background. "I wonder if this guy has anything to munch on?" 

No luck, after ten minutes of searching he didn't find anything edible. The fridge was threadbare, only a rotten banana peel inside along with some suspicious-looking bottles of what might have been beer--empty, just his luck.  

As for the pantry, apart from some bowls and empty cereal boxes there was nothing there. 

His stomach rumbled.

"Dammit, how can there be no food whatsoever? Where's this guy's wallet?" Aiden thought to go buy something, and thus began searching for any kind of money he could find. 

--Host currently has $500 available. Would Host like to extract funds from the system?--

"!!!" Aiden jerked, caught off guard once more. "Extract?" His eyes narrowed suspiciously. 

What did it mean, extract? Where was this money it spoke of, how the hell would it even--?

--Command confirmed. Designate desired amount-- 

Aiden sighed." I don't know...fifty, maybe?"

--Confirmed. Please wait.--

"Wait for wh--?"

Aiden couldn't finish the question, because just then a dollar bill appeared out of thin air in front of him, glowing a slight green before falling down to the ground.

He was stunned. 

"Holy shit." He marveled. "That was amazing." 

He cautiously examined the bill. "This is...an American dollar?" But it was different. It had a picture of Lincoln on one side, and some palace or something on the other.

Circling around the palace was the words, "United States of New Japan."

"This...what the hell is this?" Aiden couldn't believe his eyes.

New Japan? 

This is obviously an American dollar, but since when was Japan part of the U.S? Rather, vice versa?

But that wasn't the weirdest part. Lincoln? Same face...different style. He was definitely wearing some kind of armor. Like, a knight's armor. Standing with a leg upon a stone, leaning heroically upon a long sword as he stared at you with righteous fury.

"Something is seriously wrong here...." Aiden shook his head. He remembered Cade saying something about this being a different world than his own, but he didn't believe it. Didn't want to. 

Although he supposed if he accepted the reincarnation thing, this much should be nothing. 

"Ah, whatever. Think about that later." 

Aiden locked the door and started walking. Somehow he was pulled in a certain direction, and didn't fight it. 

In the distance he saw tall skyscrapers, but it looked like the immediate area was more rural than that. The tallest building he saw nearby was probably the apartments he came from which had four floors.

He lived on the second.

It doesn't seem like a different world at all, Aiden thought. But if this is a different version of earth, I wonder exactly how different it is.  

Aiden thought back to the dollar. Japan, eh. He visited it a time or two, but his memory of those experiences were blurred with flashes of colorful drinks and several nameless women he'd had the pleasure of keeping company. 

Not that they did much talking. 

His past fascination with anime and manga and light novels let him know a small bit about the culture, but nothing in-depth. He certainly didn't know the language. Yet he spoke it so fluently when he spoke aloud. 

Why Japan, though? 

The gods must be having a laugh, putting him in a country like that. Of course even if he was knowledgeable about Japan it might not help here at all, different world and whatnot. 

That picture of Lincoln, too....

Aiden decided that he should research more about the planet. 

Cade wasn't human, obviously. And the feathers he left behind implied that their powers could be used by anyone with the sufficient knowledge and power. 

Which also implied that there existed people who had both. People who weren't normal human beings. 

People who had...spiritual power? 

Aiden sighed mentally, tired once more. He felt like he was one of those male leads that suddenly got transported to another world, but the world he went to was a strange mix of the modern world and some fantasy one. 

Why did it all have to be so confusing? Why couldn't be he a normal protag and go to some medieval fantasy world where things were simple? Get cheats, become OP, gain harem members, kill some villains, repeat.

With a lot to occupy his mind,  Aiden found he'd come to a small convenience store. 

Finally. 

He entered and was greeted by a bored-looking young man with a nose ring. 

The young man took one look at the newcomer and nearly pressed the button under the table to call the police. The large jacket and sweat pants the kid wore, along with his pudgy face and beady eyes, made him the most suspicious person the clerk had ever seen pass through those doors. 

What's more, he smelled unpleasant. 

Aiden noticed the subtle shift in expression as he passed him, but let it go without saying a word. There's a reason this Yuuji had the title Shady Individual. 

It had nothing to do with him, though.

Ignoring the weird, anxious, and somewhat disgusted looks he got from the other customers, he looked around for something to eat and despaired at all the unusual choices he was provided with. 

Finally, after ten minutes of searching that put the other people on edgy due to the way he just aimlessly looked at the produce, he chose some kind of stuffed bread thing and a few other foodstuffs. 

Just as he was about to turn to pay, he spotted an array of familiar-looking bottles behind one of the fridge doors.

Didn't take a genius to figure out what they were.

He hesitated, then decided to go for it.

He took a bottle and went to the store clerk.

The young man glanced at his choices, then sighed. "Look man, you know you can't buy that, right?"

Aiden hid a smirk. He had experience in this kind of thing. 

He put a hand in his pocket--which frightened everyone present and caused them to stiffen noticeably--and sent a mental command to the "system".

Then he confidently--and discreetly--slid a full fifty across the table.

"I think you mean 'shouldn't', not 'can't', right?" A charming smile donned his face, which on the contrary looked rather unbecoming among all the rolls of fat he owned. 

A flash went through the man's eyes, and the money disappeared instantly. 

"Of course, yeah." He nodded easily in perfect understanding. Truly, money alone sets all the world in motion. If you have enough of it then no door remains closed for long.

"I mean hey man, it's your body." 

A tragedy, that, Aiden commented bitterly in his mind.

"Good. And thanks for your concern." Just like that, the interaction came to an end.

Everyone breathed easier once he left.

***

Aiden wandered the streets in a mindless daze. A crumpled plastic bad holding a half eaten bread in one hand and a bottle of some unknown but strong alcohol in the other.

"I don't know what this is, but father would have liked it." He sighed, for what must have been the twentieth time today.

That father of his appreciated a good drink, a real connoisseur.

Aiden could handle his drinks like a champ, but apparently Yuuji was a bit of a lightweight in that regard.

Which meant he was already feeling tipsy. He was sure his face must have a reddish hue to it right about now.

Father, mother....Jess...Ty...I wonder how you all are. 

Aiden had no idea if they were all even alive anymore. Maybe a hundred years passed in the other earth already. Who knew? That's what he resented the most, not knowing what they were doing or even if they were still all in one piece. Not know what he'd missed. 

He wondered how he died. He couldn't recall how himself, nothing at all. 

Maybe it was quick. Clean. He hoped so. He wouldn't want his family to remember him as a messed up corpse that had been hit by a car or mauled by a bear, or worse.  

I don't know if this is really a nightmare or not. Maybe I really am just dreaming it all up.

It was a futile effort, but he still clung to the idea that this wasn't real. 

...I miss you guys...I never knew how much I would until now.

He took them for granted. He should have spent more time with them. 

Now that they aren't here, now that he can't just go home and see his father sitting on his favorite chair or his mother busy in the kitchen...now that he couldn't see jess painting the next Mona Lisa or Ty running around fighting imaginary dragons...Aiden really felt like every moment of time he spent with them was too short.  

That the time he gave them should have been more. 

He hated, now, how often he'd just went out for a night of enjoyment. Time he could have spent with them instead. 

And it would never be enough, he knew. Those fleeting moments of time shared with them could never satisfy him. 

Even if he spent a thousand more hours with them, a thousand more days, it could never be enough. 

Because memories were just that, memories. 

And he didn't want memories. He wanted them. His family. Never before did he ever think he'd want to be with them as much as he did in this moment. 

"I'd been alone many times in my life. But only now do I truly know what the word means."

And as he leaned against the brick wall to his side, taking a long and miserable drink, Aiden allowed himself a second to just remember the good times. 

The first time his father took him fishing at the lake near one of their vacation homes.

The days when his mother read him his favorite stories during his childhood.

The night his sister was born and her tiny hand clutched at his finger, that one simple motion melting and stealing his heart all at once.

The time he took Ty to that renaissance fair because he wanted to fight the evil knights and protect the princess. 

"He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has lost, but rejoices for those which he has." Aiden recited with a sigh. "A nice sentiment, that, but I already lost everything. What do I have left?" He took another long sip of his drink. "Shit. I never thought I'd fall so low as to actually start quoting Epictetus in regards to myself. Although," Aiden tried for optimism, " I suppose I do still have my life...even if it isn't really mine..."

Yuuji, huh...not a bad name.

"Make the best of what's in your power and take the rest as it happens." Aiden quoted another gem from Epictetus. "Well, say what you will but the man says some good things. I guess if I'm to live in this world I should stop moping and do something productive, then. But tomorrow. Today let's just drown our sorrows in alcohol."

Strong spirits is a proven way to forget one's troubles, if only for a time. Aiden needed that time. 

**********

"Hey, fatty, open up! I know you're in there!"

A loud knock startled him awake.

Dammit, who the hell is it? Don't people of this world understand it's rude to interrupt a person's beauty sleep? Fuck!

Aiden sat up with a groan, quietly contemplating murder.

He walked to the door and opened it an inch, the blinding light of morning making his alcohol-laden mind to spasm painfully with another piercing headache.

He found that outside his door was a small girl...er, young woman...of perhaps the same age as himself--physically speaking, that is--who wore an off-shoulder sweater. 

And she had beautiful waves of slightly curly hair that fell past those exposed shoulders, which was a peculiar dark auburn color like something you'd see advertised on a box of dye.

She also boasted long and slender legs that were a creamy, tender-looking white, revealed due to the exceedingly small shorts she had on. 

And from the way her bosom stuck proudly out of her chest, and how she filled said shorts, Aiden could safely say that she had curves in all the right places.  

Her face was top quality too, all soft lines and delicate, gently sloping angles that gave a very cherubic appeal. She'd definitely grow even more enticing in the future, Aiden would bet.

But why was a beauty like this here? Aiden felt a very faint click in his mind that said he recognized her, but it was a distant feeling and he was left with only a sense that he knew her. Were these the leftover pieces of Yuuji shining through? If so, good, might give him some useful insight about the world.

Although as for how he knew her, exactly, he had no idea. 

The name 'Hasegawa' floated into the forefront of his mind a second later. 

"Ugh, disgusting." The girl wrinkled her nose prettily. "You reek."

That wasn't entirely fair. He'd been in this world all of three days by now but all he did was sleep, clean and get wasted. Not a good way to start his new life, but then again he was going through a crisis and thought he liked to be clean that need wasn't exactly the first thing on his mind. 

Still, he was much more level-headed now and a shower was just the thing he was currently craving.

"Hasegawa...san..." Aiden added belatedly, recalling that things worked a little different in this country. "Why're you here?"

At this, the girl known as Hasegawa Rumi felt another spark of annoyance. It wasn't like she wanted to be here. 

Although she'd only met this person a few times in the months he'd been here, she hadn't had a good impression of him at all. 

He was fat, greasy-looking, smelly, had small beady eyes and a suspicious aura... He was also scruffy, appearing like he never shaved, weird stains of unknown origins always littering his shirt.

He was just repulsive in every sense of the word.

Were it not for her mother always having her check to see if he was still living, she'd never come here. 

"You know why, idiot." Seriously, this bastard, pretending to not know. Was he trying to get out of it? Fat chance! "Hurry up and get your ass dressed. The ground isn't going to clean itself!"

With that she pointed behind her, where various tools rested against the concrete balustrade

This guy is the groundskeeper here? Or does he and the landlord just have a special arrangement? 

Aiden wouldn't think the boy was able to get or keep an actual job, was this more of a chore? He wondered why. Maybe they lowered the rent in exchange for his service. 

Yeah, that was probably it. Aiden somehow thought that was right, though he wasn't able to explain it.

"Ah, right...but can I take a shower first?" He asked?

Rumi knit her brows. The hell? He never asked something like that before. Rumi doubted he even took showers, she assumed he just cleaned himself with wipes or something. 

Also, wasn't his tone a bit stronger than usual too? Not all low and mumbling anymore. Plus, she now noticed, he was actually looking at her intead of lowering his eyes meekly like he always had. 

Strange, very strange.

But in the end she shrugged the suspicion off. Why should she give a damn if he changed a bit or not? 

It wasn't as if they were friends.

"Fine, go ahead." She made an exasperated sigh. "Just hurry it up!" She paused, once more wrinkling her nose. "And chug a gallon of mouthwash too while you're at it, I can smell your foul breath from here."

It was nauseating.

"Right, thanks." Aiden could tell she was itching to leave, and for some reason he derived a sick sort of pleasure from seeing her so troubled.

He hadn't the faintest idea why.

Maybe his inner sadist was finally manifesting itself? 

Who knew.

He closed the door quietly.