“Do you think he’ll go home?” asked Tess.
“I hope so,” said Lee. “I told Toma I’d help him find his brother. It would be nice to keep at least one promise, here and there.”
Tess scrunched her face up at his phrasing. “You keep more of your promises than you give yourself credit for. Though I’m acutely aware of the fact that I still have promised dates left that you haven’t taken me on, yet.”
“Those don’t count. We never set a time limit.”
Tess set her hands on her hips and shot him an exaggerated glare. Lee pulled her into his mystic stream, intending to give her a placating kiss. She let out a gasp and immediately wobbled off balance, falling onto her butt on the grass.
“Sorry!” Lee hurried to help her up. “I forgot about the foot.”
He stared down at Tess’s missing appendage, trying to keep his worry from showing on his face. He let his eyes meet hers, noticed the nature of her smile, and realized she was doing the exact same thing.
“It’s okay,” she said. “We’ll just… have to be more careful about how and when you pull me into your mystic stream.”
“I don’t like the idea of you just falling over every time I do it,” he said. “What if we get you a wheelchair?”
“Seriously?” Her smile seemed to bloom at the idea. “Where would you even find one?”
“Jack’s elderly grandfather used to live in this mansion. I bet you anything they have one lying around.”
“You’ll look ridiculous pushing an empty wheelchair around,” said Tess.
“When has that ever stopped me from doing something before? Besides, if anyone asks, I’ll just say I’m on my way to pick up my girlfriend.”
Tess’s cheeks reddened, and she gave him a nod of approval. Lee pulled her into a hug and kissed the top of her head.
“It’ll only be until we figure out how to undo whatever’s happening to you,” he said. “We will figure it out, Tess.”
“Thank you, Lee,” she whispered. “You really are a great guy. I hope you know that, despite my teasing.”
She squeezed him tighter, as if she never wanted to let go, and he hugged her right back.
Half an hour later, Kei came up to Lee’s room to return his phone to him, along with declaring his intention to join him on the trip to Japan. At Ryoko’s suggestion, Lee and Tess spent a few hours napping in order to preempt their bodies’ reactions to the intense jet lag caused by using her water teleportation to instantly travel across so many time zones.
It was well past dinnertime when they set out. Ryoko also managed to procure a lightweight wheelchair for Tess, and she seemed to enjoy riding in it.
“Remember,” said Ryoko. “In order to find Xepher, you’ll need to ask around using Jack’s name. It may require you to present yourself more openly than you’re used to.”
“Will do.” Lee let out a grunt as he worked the wheelchair through the sand. Kei was already waiting on the pier with the same waterproof bag that Lee and Zoe had used to transport their supplies on their previous visit, and everyone wore swimsuits.
“I’ve seen pictures of the town’s harbor, so I should be able to teleport you fairly close even though I haven’t been there before,” said Ryoko. “You’ll still have to swim to shore, however.”
“We’ll manage,” said Lee. He glanced down at Tess in the wheelchair. She would be fine, but he expected the wheelchair to make swimming rather cumbersome.
Ryoko entered the water without so much as a splash, and a few seconds later, a tiny whirlpool began swirling amidst the rocking waves.
“Ready to go home?” Lee asked Kei.
Kei extinguished his cigarette and nodded. “See you on the other side.”
CHAPTER 17
The water was shockingly cold, and keeping hold of the wheelchair required Lee to do most of his swimming with just his legs. He felt the familiar, stomach-wrenching sensation of Ryoko’s water magic as it transferred them thousands of miles in the blink of an eye, and then the water was suddenly illuminated.
From Atlantic to Pacific, and from night to day. Lee gasped as he managed to kick his legs above water. He heard Tess saying his name in a worried tone, but he couldn’t spare the breath to tell her that he was alright.
“Easy,” said Kei. “I’ll help lift the wheelchair. Just keep kicking forward.”
Between the two of them, they managed to wash themselves ashore. Not only was it daytime in Toyotomi, but it was a completely different climate than the one they’d just left behind. It was a balmy morning, and the sand was hot beneath Lee’s feet as they made their way onto the beach.
“This is it?” he asked.
“This is it,” said Kei.
A rather small town filled with cherry trees stood in the distance, with a skyline of mountains farther off behind it lending the area a rural, open feeling. The harbor they’d come ashore next to had a collection of boats idling within it, mostly fishing ships along with a container vessel with its fair share of rust.
“I wasn’t expecting it to be so remote,” said Lee.
“Not all of Japan is like Tokyo,” said Kei. “We’re in northern Hokkaido, far from anything worth calling a city. Very quiet.”
They found a copse of trees to change out of their swimsuits and into normal clothing. Lee made sure the wheelchair was still in working condition before letting Tess settle back into it. She smiled as he pulled her into his mystic stream and patted her shoulder.
“This almost feels like a vacation,” she said.
“We’re here on business,” said Lee.
“That doesn’t mean we can’t have fun.”
Her smile turned into a fully dimpled grin, and it was hard for Lee to not find her enthusiasm infectious. He pushed the wheelchair after Kei, making his way up a wooden handicapped ramp and onto the street.
At a glance, Lee could have mistaken Toyotomi for any old coastal town back in the US. There was a general sense of age to most of the buildings and vehicles, as well as lots of rusted cars and bikes, buildings with chipped paint jobs, and people loitering outside buildings lacking purpose.
He was surprised by how much attention he seemed to draw as a foreigner. People stared openly and whispered as he passed. A girl no older than ten yelled something in Japanese at him as he passed by that made Kei start chuckling.
“What?” asked Lee.
“She wants to know if you’re a celebrity. They don’t get many westerners here.”
Quite a few people seemed to recognize Kei, and Lee watched him struggle to keep his greetings and conversations short as they continued through the center of town. They veered back toward the waterfront after a little while, following a long road that led alongside a cliff that looked out over the beach and ocean.
The Fujino estate was at the top of the cliff. It was a large Japanese-style manor house three stories high with lots of windows and an overwide thatched roof. A second, smaller house, this one built in a more familiar style of plain Western architecture, stood nearby. A thick privacy hedge surrounded both buildings and the yard, and as they came up the driveway, Lee saw that some of Kei’s family was already waiting for him.
He’d seen Toma and Kei’s mother once before and recognized her immediately. She was standing on the porch, and when she saw Kei, she let out a noise that wrenched at Lee’s heart and ran forward. He watched her pull her wayward son into a tight embrace, crying even as Kei chuckled and spoke in a reassuring tone.
“My father is home,” Kei said in English. “Lee, if he attacks me, please don’t intervene.”
“If he… what?”
“I don’t like this, Lee,” whispered Tess.
The patriarch of the Fujino family—a man with a wrinkled face and thick gray hair—came out of the manor’s front door dressed in a neat suit. His expression was stern, borderline angry, as he approached Kei. The silence held as the tension skyrocketed, and it was all Lee could do to hope he wasn’t about to see the homecoming marred
by violence.
Kei’s father smiled and then pulled his son into a hug. He let out a racking sigh, and as the two men embraced, Lee could see the beginnings of tears in both his eyes. He heard a door open from the direction of the Western-style house and saw Toma jogging over to join the reunion.
The entire family shared a group hug. Lee leaned on the handgrips of the wheelchair as he patiently and somewhat awkwardly waited the moment out. Toma grinned and came around to join him after greeting his brother and exchanging a few words.
“Lee Amaranth,” he said. “You’re a sight for sore eyes.”
“You’re looking well, Toma,” he said, grinning at his friend. It was true. Toma had put on a tan in their time apart, and it might just have been the effect of seeing him in clothes that fit rather than his baggy Primhaven robes, but he looked like he’d been working out.
“Come on,” said Toma. “My parents will want some time to interrogate and fawn over Kei. Let’s hang out in the guest house. It’s where I’ve been living since I came back.”
He gestured for Lee to follow and they made their way inside the smaller of the two buildings. The interior was cozy with a first floor with a small kitchen and living space, along with stairs leading to bedrooms on the second floor.
“Um, it’s not exactly handicap-friendly,” said Toma. “I guess now is also the time I should ask, you know, what the hell is with the wheelchair?”
“It’s for Tess,” said Lee. “This is an introduction that’s long overdue. Toma, I want you to meet Tess, my girlfriend, and the ghost of a former Primhaven student. She’s been helping me ever since I first arrived at the college.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Tess,” said Toma. “Should I shake her hand?”
He held his arm out. Tess giggled and took it into her own. Toma flinched slightly as she made contact.
“It’s nice to meet you too, Toma,” said Tess.
“She says it’s nice to meet you, too,” said Lee. “And don’t worry about the stairs. She only needs the wheelchair when she’s in my mystic stream.”
“Your mystic… what?”
“It’s complicated,” he said. “I’ll explain it to you if and when it becomes relevant.”
“Right.” Toma scratched the back of his head. “So, I’m curious. What does Tess look like?”
“Brown hair, green eyes, dimples,” said Lee. “She’s cute.”
“Is she tall?”
“More on the short side,” said Lee.
“What about her, uh…” Toma’s face turned red, and he looked like he was trying not to smile. “Well, you know.” He held his hands in front of his chest as though cupping an imaginary bosom.
“Punch him in the arm for me, please,” said Tess.
“Ow! What was that for?”
They headed upstairs and into Toma’s bedroom. Lee was taken aback by the numerous shelves filled with anime, manga, and various collectibles. Toma seemed proud of his collection until they made their way toward the back section, which he moved to physically block them from seeing with his body.
“Oh, this is just… boring stuff,” he said. “Nothing to see here.”
“Let me guess,” said Lee. “Hentai?”
“Tell Toma that I already know he’s a pervert and won’t judge him for it,” said Tess.
“Tess says she doesn’t mind,” he said.
Toma had two beanbag chairs which they settled into, Tess sitting on Lee’s lap. There was a mini-fridge stocked with Sapporo, and they chatted amicably, sipping on their beers.
“Kei didn’t elaborate much on why you were coming along with him,” said Toma.
Lee leaned forward, shifting his hand onto Tess’s thigh. “I’m trying to find a man who might be able to help Eliza.”
He saw Toma’s eyebrows shoot up at the mention of her. “Really? What can I do to help?”
“Show me around the area,” said Lee. “I only have this guy’s name and a general description of what he looks like. Finding him isn’t going to be easy.”
“You’re sure he’s here?” asked Toma.
“Last we heard.”
“It must be for the Hanami Festival,” said Toma. “It runs all week in our town, but there isn’t much fanfare until the final evening, which is tonight.”
“I’m not sure that’ll make this any easier,” said Lee.
“It’s a small festival. Everyone comes out for it, and given how remote our town is, we don’t usually get many foreigners. Trust me, it’ll make him way easier to find since there’ll be so many sets of eyes in the town square.”
“I suppose that’s true,” said Lee.
“I’ll be right back,” said Toma. “I should check in on Kei and my parents.”
He headed downstairs. Lee felt Tess shift, bringing her face in close to his. She batted her eyes and pursed her lips.
“A festival. You do know what this means, right Lee?”
“I’m aware,” he said. “It counts for two dates though, since I’m bringing your wheelchair, too.”
“That’s not fair!”
“Of course, it is. You’re lucky I’m not insisting it count for three.”
“Lee Amaranth, you’re being incredibly insensitive of people with physical disabilities!”
“I’m just being real, Tess,” he said. He couldn’t keep his smile contained as she continued to scowl at him, and a tickle fight broke out on top of the beanbag chair.
CHAPTER 18
Lee and Toma spent a couple of hours playing video games and doing slightly more than the socially acceptable amount of day drinking. The change in time zones, combined with a light buzz, left Lee feeling a bit out of sorts as the day wore on.
“My father wants us to eat lunch with him,” said Toma. “My mom and Kei headed into town, so it’ll just be the three of us.”
“Is this normal for your family, or…?”
“We almost never eat meals together. If I had to guess, I’d say he wants to interrogate you.”
They headed into the main house and then the dining room. The table was of the traditional, short-legged variety, only a foot or two off the ground with thin tatami mats in place of chairs. Takero Fujino was already sitting to one side of it, and various crackers, chopped vegetables, and finger cakes had been set out.
Lee settled in next to Toma, feeling rather conspicuous as nobody said a word for the first minute. When Toma’s father finally spoke, it was in Japanese, though he looked directly at Lee and made him the clear target of his words.
“He thanks you for helping Kei come home and says he’s heard much about you from his son,” said Toma. “That’s me.”
“No shit,” muttered Lee. “Tell him I appreciate him welcoming me into his home.”
Toma translated, and Takero spoke again.
“He wants to know what your intentions are in coming here,” said Toma. “I already told him earlier, just so you know, but I think he wants to hear it from you?”
“Tell him that the life of a friend of ours from Primhaven hangs in the balance, and there’s a man named Xepher here in town who might be able to help.”
Again, Toma translated. Lee thought he saw a subtle change in Takero’s expression at the mention of Xepher, but he couldn’t be sure. Takero responded, speaking slowly and softly.
“He says he’ll help in any way that he can,” said Toma. “He also wants to know your thoughts on the conflict between the Order and the Independent Coalition.”
“I think it’s stupid,” he said, without hesitation. “Lots of posturing on both sides. Lots of gearing up for battles that will likely only end in bloodshed.”
The back and forth between Toma, his father, and Lee proceeded much as it had before.
“He wants to know which side you think is just, and which side you think will win.”
“Neither,” said Lee.
Toma translated his single-word answer, and Takero began chuckling. He clapped Lee on the shoulder and began pouring a clear liquid
into one of the bowl-shaped cups on the table. Lee took a large sip, anticipating water and getting sake. He coughed at the alcohol’s strong, slightly sour flavor.
“I see where your drinking habit at Primhaven came from,” muttered Lee.
“It was more of a hobby than a habit,” said Toma.
Kei and Toma’s mother arrived back a few minutes later. Toma’s mother immediately began fussing over the men in the family, eventually beckoning Lee to stand up. She motioned with her arm in a sideways direction, and he stared at her, dumbfounded.
“What’s this, now?” asked Lee.
“She wants to take a photo to commemorate the occasion,” said Toma. “She’s trying to tell you to step to the left.”
“Oh. Duh.”
He moved to stand with Kei, Toma, and Takero, holding his smile as she got them all into frame. He and Toma headed back into the guest house once it was done, and the afternoon slowly gave way to evening.
“We’ll head out in a few minutes,” said Toma. “I need to talk with my parents for a bit, first.”
“About what?” asked Lee.
“My allowance. I’m broke and would prefer to have at least some spending money if I’m heading into a festival.”
Lee was tempted to make a few choice comments about Toma begging his parents for money and still living at home but was too appreciative of his friend’s hospitality to pluck the low-hanging fruit. He checked the funds in his own wallet, which were more than sufficient, though he’d need to find somewhere or someone to exchange his money into the proper currency.
“Lee!” said Tess. “Check it out!”
He turned around and blinked in surprise. Tess was wearing a traditional Japanese robe and had put her hair up into a neat bun using a pair of hair sticks. She grinned and spun in a circle, letting the fabric of her sleeves flutter sideways.
“It’s called a yukata,” said Tess. “The locals wear these to festivals, sometimes.”
“It looks good on you,” said Lee. “Really good.”
Arcane Dropout 6 Page 9
