Mark had recently arrived in Japan for a weeklong vacation. It was so recent that he just arrived at the Japanese home with the woman that agreed to offer to let him stay with her before he had arrived. The pair had talked online on occasion, and Mark had always wanted to visit Japan but couldn't afford a hotel. With her help though, she promised she would do her best to give him a good vacation, including showing him the culture that he claimed he wanted to see.
Yarima was the Japanese woman that volunteered to give Mark a home. Her home was actually in a house, but she only had the top floor to herself while the bottom belonged to someone else. The building was pure white and had a staircase that led up to her doorway. "Now, I did tell you my place is going to be small. Most Japanese houses are going to be small, unless you're rich."
Mark nodded to Yarima. "Oh yes, you told me a few times. I'm not worried about that though, after all, I'm out here to explore and see everything about Japan that there is, from those mega high tech arcades, to the quiet temples where you do that thing with your hands and the cup thing."
Yarima raised a brow at Mark. She walked up the staircase, and opened up the room to her home. "Did you...how much of the book did you read that I sent you? Do you know any Japanese words?"
Mark shoulder shrugged as he carried his suitcase. "I looked up a video and I saw a lot of places will have that neat little plastic food you can point at and say 'I want that', so I'm just going to do that. You can handle the rest."
Yarima mumbled something in Japanese as she walked inside her home. She was not kidding about her home. There was a stove with a single burner, a sink with barely any room for more than four dishes, and a cabinet just as big as her plate. There was a living room with enough room for a couch, television, and little else, and a small alcove upstairs that had her bed which was just literally big enough for that bed.
"So, where do the ladies hang out? Is there this one huge bathhouse the men and women go to and wear nothing but a towel over their head?" Mark asked. "We've got seven days and I want to see the best stuff first!"
"There's nothing like that around here, and I would assume a bathhouse would be one of the least interesting tourist attractions." Yarima crossed her arms over her A cup chest. "Are you going to take this seriously Mark, or did you come just to flirt with all the Japanese women?"
"The uh...the second thing, the flirt with the Japanese women." Mark said with a huge smile on his face. "I even brought condoms!"
Yarima was taken aback. Part of her wanted to assume that Mark was just being sarcastic, but he sounded quite serious about it. She waited for him to laugh and say he was joking, but didn't come. "I...I think the first place you should see would be the landmarks that we have, and you can visit most of them using our subway system which goes very, very fast."
"Oh come on, can you imagine it if I were to get a girlfriend here? Maybe even a rich one! I could visit here any time I like, or maybe I can stay permanently. I didn't exactly buy my return tickets yet." Mark put his hands on his waist, and puffed out his chest. "What woman wouldn't want a piece of this!? I'm surprised you're not going gaga over my good looks personally!"
He really is being serious. Yarima thought to herself as she stared at Mark. She didn't want to stare too long, just in case he got the wrong idea, but it was hard for her not to stare in disbelief. She remembered the days when she was younger about how she studied magic, and how she mentioned that to Mark online. She knew Mark didn't believe her, after all magic was one of those things that had to be seen to be believed, but depending on how Mark behaved, she was ready to use this magic. The downside was, while the magic she learned was incredibly powerful, she wasn't very good at it. The magic spells often took a long time, usually days, to set in, but she had time to get to know him.
She decided to try to be friendly and make an offer with something he might enjoy. "Perhaps you might like the arcade tower. You do like video games, do you not?"
"Oh yeah, you showed me a few pictures of that. Are there really that many floors to the arcade?" Mark's smile grew wide at the thought of so many video games. "You said you were good at that dancing one too."
"There are, and I am." Yarima said with a small nod. "Once you're unpacked, I'll take you to the city and we can go there." She had to at least give him some sort of real chance before she cast any spells.
Mark was quick to set down his suitcase. There wasn't a whole lot he had to unpack as he had mostly clothes, hygiene supplies, and some entertainment in his bag. He put in an earbud, and then turned to Yarima with a smile once he was set. "Let's go!"
Yarima opened the door and led the way back out. Rather than take a car though, she took him to the subway. While there weren't a lot of people around where Yarima lived, the subway was another story entirely, the train was packed like sardines in a can.
Mark was amazed with how sanitary the subway was kept, but shocked at how full the train was. He was a bit intimidated about squeezing in, but thanks to Yarima, he was able to. During the whole time, he kept his eyes away from others, and instead locked them onto women's breasts the entire time.
Yarima noticed Mark was ogling women's chests. She couldn't believe how perverted he seemed to be. She was truly beginning to doubt that he was here to explore Japan and learn about the culture. She mentally swore to herself in Japanese before she decided that if he wanted to 'learn' about Japanese women so bad that she'd make sure he REALLY learned about them. The tram in the subway was tight, but Yarima was still able to make the appropriate hand gestures, and start her magic in place.
Eventually the tram arrived at the destination for Yarima and Mark to disembark. Unlike the last stop, this subway was packed with plentiful people, but Yarima led Mark through the crowd, now with a pep in her step.
Mark walked behind Yarima, unaware what had just happened on the subway. He was too busy staring at women's chests. "I guess it's true what they say about Japan. There's not a lot of well-endowed women that live here, are there?" he said with a chuckle. "There's got to be places where they are."
Yarima didn't even seem to be as concerned as before about Mark's rude remark. He wasn't just ogling at women's chests, he was downright sexist! She let it go though. "You'll see plenty of gamer girls at the arcade, will that not be enough?" Yarima asked as she took him to the subway escalator and rode up with him.
"I guess." Mark imagined a stereotypical gamer girl. While the kind of girl was definitely a lot like him in terms of behavior, he was hoping for something more attractive. Along the way, the two passed by many signs written in Japanese and in English. Mark never really did understand much of any Japanese. Even the most simplest of letters and words were complex to him, and he knew the arcade would be full of Japanese words that he would never understand.
The time at the arcade went faster than either Mark or Yarima could have predicted. Yarima helped him get to the massive 20 story arcade building, as well as helped him point out how to get money to use for the arcade, and the many different kinds of machines there were, but Mark's interest seemed little in the actual games, blinking lights, and all kinds of electronic sounds being made. Instead, he seemed far more focused on the women playing the games, and Yarima took notice of this. She watched him ogle at women playing on motorcycle and dancing games, specifically looking at their asses the entire time. Little attention was paid to the atmosphere of the arcade, just the women inside.
After a few hours, Yarima located Mark thanks to a quick cell phone call, and took him back to her place. She half wanted to take him someplace to eat, but she could quickly tell his intentions with the visit to Japan. Even the arcade, the place with the most distractions with electronic devices and hundreds of games that would never exist in the USA for multiple reasons wasn't enough to distract Mark from staring at women. Yarima now had no regrets casting that spell on Mark. It was just a matter of time before the changes would kick in.
Mark left with Yarima back home, a bit disappointed that he couldn't stop by more places, especially places women hung out, but at the same time he was quite helpless in Japan without her. While there were many signs in English, there were also a lot more signs that were not, and he could definitely easily get lost and have a very, very hard time getting back to Yarima's home if he left on his own. He had GPS on his phone, but that still wouldn't have helped him out that much when he had to take 'X' route, and the route was in Japanese with no English words! He went back to Yarima's home with her without complaining out loud, but intent on getting more exploration done first thing tomorrow, somehow.
Once back home, Yarima went up to her very tiny bedroom and closed the door behind her. She pulled out her laptop, and she let out a sigh as she read the previous text messages he had sent before visiting. "One day at a time...you shall see..." she said to herself.
Mark went on his phone and browsed places he could visit while in Japan. He was mostly focused on places women visited. He loathed the idea of temples, shrines, historical places that a tourist might visit as he doubted any attractive Japanese woman would visit such places. He noticed that there were various night clubs that he was very tempted to check out, but he knew he'd still have to get Yarima's approval as he just couldn't go far for one large reason. "I just wish I knew enough Japanese to get out and about on my own." He mumbled. He closed his phone, put his hands behind his head, and drifted off to sleep.
Mark awoke the next morning with a stretch and a yawn. He looked upstairs to see that Yarima's door was still shut, and he imagined she was likely still asleep. He thought that maybe he might have been too straightforward about looking for Japanese women, but he couldn't blame himself for that, there was going to be no other chance he was going to be able to meet Japanese women so easily! Mark decided to help himself to a shower and figured Yarima wouldn't mind. He went into the bathroom, and looked at his own reflection. He paused for a moment as he did a double take. His nose seemed smaller, and he swore he didn't have pitch black hair before. His eyes were slightly slit as well, as if he had a hint of Japanese influence. It took him a moment to realize that of COURSE he had a Japanese influence. Part of his very family was Japanese. It was fairly distant down his family tree, but it existed, and it showed in him, even if only partially.
Part of Mark thought it was wrong, but he couldn't think about any other way that it could have been. Lives just didn't change overnight. He started up the shower, tossed his clothes aside, and helped himself to hot water. He didn't need to understand Japanese to know what hot water was. Red was hot, and blue was cold. That was almost universal.
Yarima's eyes slowly opened to the sound of the shower not too far from where she was sleeping. She stretched her arms and made herself some breakfast while she waited for Mark to finish his shower. She set down a box of cereal complete with Japanese words and not a single speck of English written on it. She poured herself a bowl with some milk, and patiently waited.
Mark turned off the shower, dried himself off, and put on some underwear and a new shirt with some new pants. He opened up the bathroom door, and walked over to the small table where Yarima sat. "Morning, hope you didn't mind that I used your shower."
"Of course, I'd be offended if you smelled." Yarima chuckled. Showering was the one thing she didn't mind him doing, even before him transforming. He had already minor subtle changes, changes that he probably didn't even recognize. "So, do you have any ideas where you want to go today? Hopefully somewhere where you can learn about your...heritage?"
Mark grabbed the cereal box and glanced at the lettering. He blinked as he stared at the picture of the cartoon cow, and the words. He could understand the words on the cereal box perfectly. He could read the Japanese words, something he swore he couldn't have done yesterday. He glanced at the ingredients and the diet information, and while he could make out some of the words, he couldn't make out every last bit of it. There was enough detail to get a good idea about what was in the cereal though. "I uh...yeah." He said with a hint of confusion as he poured himself cereal and helped himself. "There's that museum isn't there?"
Yarima nodded. "Oh yes, there's a museum not far from Tokyo. You can learn all about your...who were they now?" Yarima had set the spell in place, but she had never seen it fully in action before.
"Great grandparent from my father's side? He was kind of distant though." Mark said with a casual shrug. He didn't think too hard about it. He swore he had come to Japan for another reason outside of learning about his heritage. He swore he had come there to find a Japanese girlfriend. "Is there bar not far from the museum?" he asked. "There must surely be some places to go where people hang out."
Yarima let out a soft sigh. He had changed alright, but not quite fully in the way she had hoped. A few more days perhaps. She thought to herself. She'd have to likely put up with his behavior for just a bit longer, but she knew by the end of the spell, Mark would be far more than just a little bit interested in Japan. "Let's just go to the museum and we can work our way from there." Yarima said with a wide, fake smile.
"Yoi aidea." Mark smiled at her. "A good idea indeed, let's not waste any time!"
Yarima took Mark back down to the subway and took him on the proper ride to go to the museum. Thanks to the speed of the subway, the travel was very quick, and it wasn't long until they arrived at that museum.
Mark read the signs in the subway as if they were nothing. While he still couldn't make out every Japanese word, he understood enough words that a small child might understand. Basic colors, numbers, enough to have a basic grasp of the Japanese language. He had no regrets over studying the language for a few months, although something deep down told him that he didn't actually do that, but what other explanation was there?
The museum itself was a fairly short trip. While there was plenty of history to be had, and Mark understood a small amount of the Japanese letters being said, at least enough to get a grasp on what the subject was, he seemed to be too distracted at Yarima to pay attention to any part of the museum.
Yarima could tell that she was almost being constantly hit on by Mark. It was almost enough to be annoying, but she put up with it, if only because she knew the end result that he was going to go through. She could deal with his hitting on her for a few more days.
Once the trip to the museum was finished, Yarima took Mark back to her place, and the rest of the day was uneventful. She knew that Mark said he had only about a week there, but at the same time, Mark still seemed to have no real interest in learning about the culture of Japan. He just seemed to want to hit on her or other women.
Mark found the trip to the museum boring. Of course part of him was somewhat interested in learning the culture since he was part Japanese, but he could never truly focus enough on it. He had only a week there as far as he was concerned. Sure, maybe he might come back again in the future, maybe to find some of his distant family members, but until then, his goal of finding a girlfriend was the same as it was on day one, and since Yarima wasn't taking him near a lot of girls, he decided to try to hit on her instead, even using some Japanese flirts that he had learned about before. Seeing as none of them worked though, he left her alone for the rest of that morning and afternoon.
Yarima was a bit frustrated with Mark, but at the very least she helped him out with dinner by ordering two pizzas. She got one for her, and one with Mark with his favorite toppings, at least the ones that he had told her about before in the messages he sent her. She took a quick look in those messages, and smiled as she read them. While many of the messages were identical to what she remembered, she knew a few of them were a bit different. "Just a matter of time..."
Mark was grateful for the pizza, but he couldn't help but be incredibly bored being stuck at her place. He knew some Japanese, he could probably get around, but money was also an issue for him, plus he didn't know enough to get him to a lot of places or hold a good conversation. He knew some Japanese, but he couldn't help but think to himself. I wish I could speak even better Japanese.
The rest of the day and night went by quickly. Mark was on his phone for a bit and then watched television. Mark watched television with English subtitles to better understand the television. He was impressed with how many channels that Yarima had, and a lot of them were Japanese anime shows a good season plus in advance that he hadn't seen. The more he watched television, the less he paid attention to the English subtitles as he was better able to understand the television bit by bit. Past the midnight hour, Mark disabled the subtitles entirely as he was able to understand everything that was being said on television perfectly, as if he was completely and fully fluent in Japanese.
After a few more hours, he then went to sleep. He was oblivious to his skin taking on a tanner color, his eyes changing to brown, and his very heritage that changed while he slept.
Yarima just went about her day as she normally did. She was on her computer, watched television, she did her own things while Mark did his. With little going on, there was little for her to do except to wait, although there wasn't much excitement going on, she'd have to think of something to do with him, something she'd enjoy.
The next day Mark awoke with a stretch and a yawn. The past few days had been a little on the dull side. Sure he went to an arcade, and then a museum, but those places were hardly eventful. He knew he could do better than that! He rubbed his temples momentarily as he tried to remember what it was he came to Japan in the first place though. He swore he came there to hit on women, and Yarima was definitely one woman worth hitting on, but at the same time, something told him he came down there for something else. It was the third day in his seven day stay, so he had to figure out what else he was going to do unless he was just going to try to be hitting on Yarima all day and night.
Mark made his way to the bathroom to shower, and to shave, but he took a glance in the mirror and noticed that he didn't have any stubble on his face whatsoever. In fact, his face had a bit of an androgynous look to it. He didn't look feminine, but his shoulders were pushed in a bit more, and while he had some features that made him look male, they were less prominent than they were before, if subtle.
Yarima awoke shortly after Mark, and she helped herself to some cereal. She waited patiently for Mark to come to the table once again before she smiled at his new appearance. He wasn't just becoming Japanese, he looked less masculine too, although subtle, she knew there would be more changes, it was just a matter of time. "So, day three, are you going to do anything super productive, or do you just want to go try to spend a bunch more time with me?" she asked as she tried to sound sweet about it.
Mark smiled faintly at Yarima. "I mean, I know I haven't really put much fourth of an attempt, but I know I can make you love me somehow, some way. I studied Japanese really hard before coming here you know! I know how to speak it entirely and fully!" he spoke with confidence.
"Is that so?" Yarima put her head atop her hands, and smiled widely at Mark. "Talk to me in Japanese then. Talk in full sentences. Put up or shut up." She teased.
"I'm talking to you in Japanese." Mark suddenly said in a perfect Japanese accent, as if he were born and raised in the country. "I am also flirting with you, is my Japanese words and flirting working for you?"
Yarima rolled her eyes, but she couldn't break her smile. Just a few days ago, heck when Mark first arrived in Japan, the man knew nothing, but now he spoke perfect Japanese. "No, but if you really want, we can go out to eat at a restaurant for lunch. I know a place that serves pretty good food." She paused momentarily. "But there aren't that many 'pretty' women there, and I know how much you've been trying to look for 'that one' for whatever reason."
Mark knew exactly why he came to Japan, at least he swore he did. There was something about the culture sure, but also finding a woman. He was beginning to doubt that he was going to be able to find any other woman besides Yarima though, and Yarima did seem to be beginning to form some kind of connection with him. He might not have been able to find 'the' perfect woman physical wise, but Yarima felt closer to him than she did a few days ago, and that told him all he needed to know. "Weeeelll you're a pretty woman. If that counts, then let's go eat!" He continued to speak Japanese, not that it was his first language, but he wanted to try to impress her by showing her that he could speak almost perfectly in that language.
Yarima couldn't help but giggle. Mark spoke Japanese so well so suddenly that it was amusing. She could tell there were more physical changes about him, but without looking underneath his clothes she couldn't tell exactly what it was. "It's still breakfast time. We have to wait a little bit before lunch! Is there somewhere else you'd like to go today?" Yarima spoke entirely in Japanese herself, confident that Mark could understand the language.
Mark had to give it some thought. Landmarks didn't really interest him that much, but as he thought about Japan, something nagged the back of his head. "Is there a place where world war two soldiers get buried?" he asked. "I heard my grandpa was a Japanese solider so he was buried here. I'm thinking maybe I can...pay my respects?" The thought hadn't occurred to him a few days ago for reasons not even he could fully explain.
Yarima knew Mark had been changing bit by bit. She could tell he was at least half-Japanese from his mother or father's side, she didn't really know his new history that well. "I'm surprised. I know you've wanted to go after a woman, what's with this sudden change in heart?"
Mark didn't want to say that he wanted her. He figured he could try to get to her by being funny while also being sensitive about his heritage, although his own heritage confused him a bit, he didn't think too hard about it when his main goal was still women, now specifically her. Of course, it was as plain as day he was interested in her, but he wanted to show other interests too. He wasn't a one-track mind after all! "Just uh...you know...curious?"
Yarima casually shrugged her shoulders. "Okay. If you remember his name, there is a way to track him. Let's head off, and then come lunch I'll take you to the perfect place."
The rest of the morning was spent doing as Mark requested. He was half surprised when he remembered his grandfather's name, and there was a gravesite for him. He paid his respects in the style that Japanese people would, and then he went along with Yarima to other places she had suggested. He didn't have that much of a desire to go sightseeing, but at this point it was basically doing as Yarima wanted in hopes of getting her to like him more.
Yarima definitely paid more attention to Mark, although Yarima was more focused on his changes than she was about actually him. She was amazed that he actually had a Japanese grandfather now. She had in truth almost never used the magic spells and to see the magic take effect in places around the world and not just with one person was absolutely a sight to behold. She took him from the graveyards to other memorials, and when lunch time came around, she brought him to the restaurant she had referred towards earlier.
The restaurant in question lacked chairs and instead had small cushions to sit down on with a small table placed in the center. There were various tables set up, and it served, as the restaurant title read outside, authentic Japanese cuisine. The kitchen was right out in the open too with only the front desk on one end, and a see-through window on the other end that prevented customers from going back into the kitchen for themselves.
Mark arrived there with Yarima. A few days ago he would have called the place they went to quite nice, but now he didn't look nearly as impressed as a foreigner would have been. The red and gold walls, the gold lights overhead, it definitely gave off that vibe that told him that the place was meant to be some sort of tourist trap. He wasn't too interested in the food anyways, he was more interested in Yarima. He ordered his food, and then smiled at her. "I'll take care of our payment, don't worry about it."
"Here I was thinking you would want to go Dutch." Yarima smiled back at Mark. He looked so different compared to when he had first arrived. He was no longer completely Caucasian, but partially Japanese, and the heritage just kept adding on more and more as time went on. Better yet, Yarima knew that was only phase one of the plan was to convert him. The second part of her plan was already visible with some of his feminine appearance. There was of course, one more part to her plan.
"Oh I may not be entirely knowledgeable about Japanese culture, but I know when it comes to money and work ethics, the man definitely must provide!" Mark paid for the meal before they obtained it, something not out of place in Japan. Once they got their Japanese food, Mark getting sushi, he ate it as if he knew how to eat with chopsticks. How much of it was actually Japanese and how much of it was Chinese Mark wasn't sure.
Once dinner was done, the two went back to Yarima's place. Yarima half wanted to help escort him all around Japan to see the sights and culture, but she knew that it was going to likely be meaningless by the end of the 'vacation' for Mark anyways. She just let him watch television, and this time she offered to let him play her video game consoles which had games that were exclusive to Japan.
Mark jumped on the offer for video games when offered. Normally he would have been confused by all of the Japanese text and have no idea what he was doing, but now? He played the games and flawlessly understood the text. He spoke English, he spoke Japanese, and he read both of them perfectly as he was bilingual.
As the night wore on however, Mark's English began to deteriorate. It was something that he didn't even notice as he was surrounded by Japanese words and letters, but had he been playing the same games in English, he might have found himself struggling to comprehend all of the words. His body also slowly turned more and more feminine. He wasn't even androgynous as midnight rolled around. He was flat out feminine. He didn't seem to notice though. Caring would have been a different story, as he definitely would have done that. He went to sleep without a second thought, he thought to himself that he just had two more days after tonight to get Yarima to love him, and he was determined to do it.
The next day, Mark woke up with a stretch. He felt out of it this morning, and unlike the past few days, he didn't wake up to Yarima making breakfast either, something he was a bit disappointed with. "Today and tomorrow are my last days here before I return, I have..." Mark paused in his own thoughts. He was going to finish with that he had to make Yarima love him, that was his goal yesterday after all, at least that's what he remembered. Something felt off about it though, something he couldn't quite place.
Yarima walked downstairs from her bedroom, and smiled at Mark. "Hello there Haru. You ready to go house hunting today? This place really is too small for two people." Yarima knew exactly what had happened, even if 'Haru' didn't quite realize it.
Mark was about to correct Yarima, but the name 'Haru' suddenly sounded accurate. "House hunting?" he was even more confused than before. Suddenly, the realization hit him. He glanced over to his suitcase, and he saw there was a lot more he had brought with him than he remembered. "I...I came back to live with you?" Mark asked with a confused look on his face. "I thought I came here to find a girl, and..."
"Well, you can still go finding girls if you really want to, but we should have a plan B of sorts when you inevitably can't find yourself a woman." Yarima put her hands on her hips, and cocked those hips to the side. "I can tell you that a woman likes a man with a job, and a bedroom of his own so he's not sleeping on his sister's couch all the time."
Haru was still at odds with himself. He swore he came to Japan for another reason, yet he couldn't place his finger on it. He had been there for a good five days already, at least by his estimates, and now he was on his sixth day. "Sister, huh?" It...sounded right. He then looked down at his body, and he noticed how feminine he looked. He could have completely passed for a female, and with wide eyes, he went to feel between his legs where he barely felt anything at all. He still felt something, but it wasn't nearly as big as he remembered. "Wait, what's happening to me sis?!" he didn't even mean to say 'sis', he just blurted it out.
"What do you mean?" Yarima asked with a smile. "You're my brother, you went to live in the US and it didn't work out. You barely spoke any English in the first place!" the entire time Yarima and 'Haru' woke up, they were talking in full Japanese as if it were nothing. "I heard you went there to look for a cute American woman."
Haru was even more confused. Going after a woman definitely sounded right, but he swore he went to Japan for that, not the US. He looked down at himself and noticed his skin color resembled Yarima. He was about to ask, but then his own head told him. He wasn't American. He had largely one ethnicity in him, and that was Japanese. He was a Japanese man, his mother and father were both Japanese, and they were the same mother and father that Yarima had. He couldn't remember his life growing up in the US, but he knew his life perfectly in Japan, and the time he travelled to the US. The memories felt right, but they also felt so off at the same time, as if that wasn't his own life. He dug into his pocket, but then he instead glanced over to the table to see his wallet. He checked his wallet for his ID, and it confirmed his first and last name were Japanese, and that he was indeed from Japan. His passport papers were right with his wallet in fact, passports not to Japan, but to the USA with the intention to migrate there.
"What's wrong, my dear bother?" Yarima asked, but she couldn't resist smiling at him. "You look as if you've seen a ghost." Even she was impressed by how much he had changed so much, and there was still more changes to go! He looked completely feminine. If anyone saw Haru use a woman's bathroom, they wouldn't second-guess him. His hair was long, his face was soft, and he had slight curves that fit a woman far better than a man.
"Brother...I am your brother?" Haru looked up at Yarima, still in disbelief. He had already called her 'sis', but he still was in shock over it. "But...we went out to eat yesterday..." He tried to remember, not his entire life, but the things he had done with her in the past few days. "Why did we go out to eat again?"
Yarima shoulder shrugged. "Because you wanted to try to eat some Japanese food after spending so long in America and eating their less than fantastic food? It was something like that. Anyways, we're not going to get anywhere just talking. Change clothes, shower, eat, and let's go out house shopping!" she paused. "Oh, I get the shower first!" she raced to the bathroom before Haru even had a chance to get up.
Haru watched Yarima rush off into the shower, and he heard the sound of running water moments after she got in. He swore he hit on her a few days ago, and even just yesterday, but that couldn't have been right. The two were brother and sister! There was no way Haru was trying to hit on her. "Maybe I was trying to find a woman, but was it really an American woman I was looking for?" He asked himself as he helped himself to a bowl of cereal while he waited for Yarima to get out of the shower.
After a few minutes, Yarima turned off the shower and hopped out with dripping wet hair and a towel wrapped around her body. She smiled at Haru as she made her way back to her bedroom to get clothes on. The towel more than covered her, but she tilted her hips to Haru with her tongue sticking out.
Haru stared at Yarima shortly. He wasn't sure how to react. She was covered, but definitely suggestive, but she was also his sister...wasn't she? He couldn't remember her being anything else, but that still felt so wrong and he couldn't figure out why. "You have to do that?" he asked with a roll of his eyes. He stood up after he ate his bowl of cereal, and helped himself to a shower before he got the answer, knowing very well that he was going to get a sarcastic one anyways.
Yarima giggled as Haru went in and helped himself to a shower. She could tell that he had no intention of hitting on her anymore, although other women was anyone's guess. She'd let him shower and leave him be until he got dressed though. During the time she waited, she helped herself to cereal, and smiled as she remembered his face. He just looked so much like a woman, but she knew Haru wasn't female, not quite yet anyways.
Haru took a long hot shower to try to gather his thoughts. He didn't even bother to look down at his mostly feminine body. He wasn't surprised by what he saw, and he didn't even know if he should have been surprised by it. He was Japanese. He didn't have a job as he recently came back to Japan, but he was looking for one, and a place to live with his sister; these memories were the ones that radiated the strongest with him, so they are the ones he went with.
Once Haru was done with his shower, he left the bathroom and put on some new clothes. "So, house shopping today then?" he asked to Yarima. He still felt perplexed about why they were house shopping now when they could have been doing that earlier, but his memories told him how they were just having fun as brother and sister for the first few days he had come back. It didn't have to all be about business with the two of them.
Yarima grabbed Haru's hand not long after he asked that question. "Yup! I have a few places in mind too, but they're a bit smaller than your American houses, though you should know that about Japan."
Haru walked out with Yarima with a nod. "Yeah, yeah, Japanese houses you have to expect small. I'm NOT sharing a bedroom with you though!" Haru still thought it sounded so off, but he wasn't going to ask too much about it. The two were brother and sister, so sleeping in the same room would have been awkward, especially around their older ages.
Both Yarima and Haru went out and about Japan, not to look at any of the sights, but rather to find a place for the two of them to share a place together. Yarima was pleased with the progress Haru had made, and how completely different he was compared to the first day, but there was still one more day she had to deal with him before things were finally fully changed. She knew that what they were doing today would likely be the start of the norm, but she was fine and happy with that. The two found a potential place in the city, they grabbed dinner, and Yarima even helped Haru look for a job! The day continued, as normal as any other, and soon the two were back at Yarima's place later that night, and spent the rest of the night being lazy.
Haru didn't change his old habits that much. He may have looked feminine, he may have had a high-pitched voice, long hair, and curves that fit a woman better than a man, but he still hit on women on occasion, even if he swore he went to America and did the same there. He may have been Haru, but deep down, he was still his normal old self, though he no longer hit on Yarima. His love for her was no longer the kind an unrelated pair would have, but his love was a platonic kind of love instead.
He went to sleep later that night after he spent the day watching more anime as his English deteriorated, unaware to him. He didn't lose his English entirely, but it would be much more difficult to speak it now than it was a week ago. There was also one more change that night, one significant change that he'd wake up to the next morning...
Yarima woke up again with a stretch. She awoke this time first, and the new memories flooded into her mind, the new memories that made her grin with excitement. The transformation for Mark was finally complete, and she was the first in the house to wake up to them. "Hina! It's time to get up! I have to go back to my own work and I'm taking you with me! Knowing my boss, you'll be able to work with me just fine!"
'Hina' as she was called woke up from the same couch she had been sleeping on for the past three days. Before she opened her eyes, she was ready to correct Yarima about being a woman, but then once she opened her eyes and fully woke up, she paused her thoughts shortly. 'That's right...I am a woman.' She thought to herself. 'For a second, I thought I was a guy named Haru or Mark or something, hah can you imagine!' She thought to herself with a soft smile. "You're not going to let me say no to working with you, are you?" Hina said in her female voice with her full-fledged female body. From the top of her head and long hair down to her small dainty feet, she was a Japanese woman, a younger sister of Hina by a few years.
"You know I'm not going to." Yarima giggled. The two of them spoke perfectly in Japanese since yesterday. It was their main language after all so it was only natural. She doubted Hina knew too much English either as with her new history she wasn't in America nearly that long. "So get dressed, and let's go." She felt as if she had said that so much already, but now she knew that Hina's transformation was finished. Hina was now not only a Japanese woman, but Yarima's sister, and together, they would get a job, a home, and a happy life together. Just not quite in the way Hina had first imagined.
