A/N: I ended up rewriting segments of this because for some reason I felt too hard on myself and ended up hating the shit out of this chapter. Parts of it feel so boring to me, but I feel like I need to cover describing the landscape and stuff like that. Need to cover how Toshiro feels facing unfamiliar yet familiar japan, etc.
I want to rewrite this again and again. But then I'd never get this damn chapter posted. So here it is.
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The two of them plus Professor the robot stayed in that small town for a week after Miss Aki-Sensei made it clear that the two of them needed a crash course on the current Japanese language if they would ever have a hope of getting around without getting completely lost.
The men didn't mind as they did need to get their bearings and plan what to do next anyways. And this way they could try to make friends with the locals, and learn more about Japan.
They had become something of a minor celebrity group here after everyone found out that not only were they post-war Americans who had come all the way here from the good ol' USA, but they somehow had survived running through the entirety of the old abandoned town of Wakkanai after their ship got sank by a giant creature and forced them to come ashore.
All without even wearing proper armor for the occasion. That was a good way to get yourself skewered on the spear-like claws of those freaky spider-like, long-armed mirelurks who had turned the old town into their entire nesting ground. Guy could call them Takashigani like the locals did but he had to admit that was too much of a mouthful for somebody who didn't speak Japanese. So he was just gonna call those Leggy Mirelurks and get it over with.
On the second day of their stay, both Guy and Toshiro entertained the locals here in the local meeting hall building where everyone often got together to gossip, introduce themselves as new neighbors/citizens, or air grievances with the local leader.
They did so by coming on stage where the Mayor usually addressed the crowds and then mimed every part of their story like a small play told entirely through gestures, with the Professor translating every other word so that the locals could understand what was going on when the simple gestures failed to convey what was going on. They started their story by acting as if they were on a large boat made for two, as they mimed looking through binoculars and mimed driving the steering wheel of a boat, and then panicking when their boat was attacked by something.
And then mimed swimming to shore.
The local kids seemed to especially find it funny when Guy mimed frantically running away from the freaky long-legged mirelurks while Toshiro played the part of the Japanese Mirelurks, pretending to do his best to grab Guy. Probably because Guy kept on making such funny desperate and scared faces as he mimed jogging but stayed in one spot as he did so. And then showed off their exaggerated looks of relief as they managed to escape Wakkani completely at the end of their improv short play.
The adults seemed far more understanding of the dangers they faced than the kids were though, and merely nodded with sympathetic understanding as they commented that they would've reacted the same way.
Meanwhile, Aki-Sensei had a program she had been working on that she needed to convert the RoboCo OS platform that the Professor had on his mainframe, to be more compatible with the Kawa OS that had become so popular in Japanese computing companies and Japanese robotics.
The Professor was somewhat reluctant to let somebody tamper with him like that. But, the steel gray robot had to admit that he wouldn't be able to help Guy and Toshiro gain access to old Japanese computers without a program like this one to help his system connect to the Kawa OS platform that was so popular with all the local computers and robots here. After all, each country deliberately went out of its way to ensure that its local computer systems couldn't be hacked into by enemy computers, and having different operating systems incompatible with each other was part of that security.
Even though the Japanese and Americans had been allies in the past to repel the invading Chinese forces who wanted to annex Japan, that didn't mean that they trusted each other completely to give each other keys or backdoors to each other's systems. A spy could find out about such things and then take those backdoors or keys for themselves, after all. So it took a very skilled person to be able to create a program that could bridge the connection between what was supposed to be two incompatible systems.
It seemed that Aki-Sensei was a woman of many talents-- not only was she both an English and history teacher, but she also had handy technological skills mostly handling computers and robots. She could even build programs from scratch for a lot of robots out there. Because of this, she became something of a fixture in this village as people often came to her for this or that that they needed help with. She was a pretty good teacher to Guy too, by the way.
For instance-- he found out that the Japanese had a tendency to say their surnames first, and then their first names last. Also, it was really rude to say first names so casually without even a respectful suffix attached.
He found this out when he noticed how people kept on calling him "Guy-San" or in the case of one old woman he helped out around the town to help pass the time, "Guy-Kun", and had asked Aki-Sensei about it.
To be honest, he was pretty shaken to find out that he might've been unintentionally rude to Toshiro this whole time, but the Samurai just laughed him off.
"We were allies in battle, and together we bested the most fearsome Yokai that came from the stars. I feel that such experiences create a bond of sorts. As such, I do not mind if you simply call me by my first name." He had said with some help from Professor's translations,
He paused, before adding, "Although I do feel it would be more respectful if you called me Toshiro-san as we haven't known each other this long to be close enough to call each other without the suffix. Also, If I was to introduce myself I would've said Kago Toshiro… but for some reason, All you gaijin and the Star-monsters ordered my name in the records as Toshiro Kago? I never had reason to bring this up or to correct this, however."
His English was getting better, and also getting better at understanding more modern Japanese.
Guy also learned that Toshiro-san sounded how a medieval English man might sound to a modern English person to the rest of the Japanese people here.
Example of medieval poetry called "Piers Plowman" was a good example of this, which Aki-Sensei had shown Guy:
"In a somer seson, whan softe was the sonne
I shoop me into shroudes as I a sheep were
In habite as an heremite unholy of werkes
Wente wide in this world wondres to here…"
It was definitely English, and Guy understood half the words… but only barely. but the way it was spoken and read had him stretching his head and it took him a while to fully translate and parse it in his head as he worked out what each word would most likely mean. It didn't help that he kept on thinking every other word was badly misspelled, instead of simply being the official medieval spelling they had back then.
And so he finally figured out after like 10 minutes of rereading it again and again that it was supposed to read,
"In a summer season when soft was the sun,
I clothed myself in a cloak as I shepherd were,
A habit like a hermit's unholy in works,
And went wide in the world wonders to hear…"
And on top of it, it seemed that medieval prose went by different grammar and sentence structure rules because by modern standards this was not correct grammar-wise.
So by comparison, to modern Japanese, Kago Toshiro merely sounded like he was badly pronouncing words but otherwise was speaking what was the Japanese language.
For example, in the past, the word for Voice/Sound/Music "Koye" would be said how it was written on paper. But modern Japanese had them said as "Koe" nowadays, which made the pronunciations completely different-sounding even though it was technically still the same word as it was before. So to others, Tashiro-san was using the old-fashioned way of saying or spelling the same words that had gone out of fashion a while ago.
Not unlike using the old English word Somer instead of the modern word Summer like in that poem from before.
He wasn't even a language nerd like Miss Aki was, but he found it all very interesting and it helped him put into perspective why Toshiro and the other Japanese people were struggling to connect.
However, neither he nor Miss Aki both realized how bad this disconnect was for Kago Toshiro until the day it was time for them to leave town and travel by train.
~~~~
It was now the end of the week, and everyone had pretty much agreed that it was time for them to leave and explore the rest of Japan.
Aki-Sensei was helping Guy pack some essentials for their trip to explore most of Japan at the local marketplace when the Professor came up to them looking rather agitated for a robot.
"You two haven't seen Kago Toshiro around, have you?" Professor demanded to know.
"Nope. what's wrong?" Guy wondered.
"He left behind a truly disturbing note. In it, he wrote that there was no place for him here at all, and it somewhat implied that he'd be taking his life because he felt like his life had no more value…!" Professor's agitated mood was easily explained when he held up the note that Toshiro-San had left behind.
Guy looked shocked at that until Aki-Sensei held the note up to read it after getting it from the robot and then eyed it critically. Guy looked over her shoulder, and all he saw was a large piece of parchment paper that had brush strokes of Japanese letters all over it. Guy had only barely started to learn the Japanese written word, so he couldn't read it at all.
"This doesn't seem like a suicidal note at all, it seems to be traditional Sosho-style poetry, painted out with traditional ink and a brush into parchment paper. Japanese warriors historically were often encouraged to write out their feelings through poetry as an outlet for their innermost feelings when they weren't able to express their feelings in ways that weren't embarrassing." Aki-sensei explained, "This poem speaks of intense loss, of losing a sense of belonging. Nothing here really outright states that he truly wants to take his life, it seems to be all idle musings, even the parts about death and the afterlife. He seems to be wondering in this part here if there's an afterlife where he could meet all the familiar old faces he used to know."
She then said rather admiringly to Guy, "I knew your friend had fully committed himself to those period drama holotapes while he was growing up, but he really knows his history! A few of those period dramas aren't historically accurate sometimes, so I'm impressed that he did his research so well. He acts the part of the ancient samurai so perfectly I would've sworn he came here from the past somehow."
"Haha, yeah… you have no idea how right you are…" Guy chuckled weakly.
Professor huffed angrily. "Madam, Sir, I demand you take this issue seriously. This is a cry for help!"
Guy sighed. "You're right. We should check on him just to be on the safe side. I'll go look for him, okay?"
Professor bobbed his eyestalks. "I'll come with you, then."
~~~~~
They kept on asking around town if anybody had seen Toshiro-san, and eventually, they got pointed in the direction of the nearby lake, which was unimaginatively called Lake Kabutonuma, the same name as the town and the train station itself. There was even an old camping ground outside the town that had the same name too. pfft.
That was where Toshiro was last seen walking, and now Guy was starting to feel worried. What if Professor was right?
But much to his relief, Toshiro-san was merely sitting on a fallen log by the lake, gazing out into the lake with a moody expression on his face. His horned helmet was off by his side as he let the wind blow through his hair, which was done up in the traditional topknot style.
"Hey. so this was where you went off to." Guy said, and then asked, "Mind if I sit down here? If you want time to yourself, just say so and I'll leave you alone."
Toshiro looked at him, and then just grunted.
Guy sat down on the log and then said, "Saw that Sosho poem of yours."
There was some awkward silence when Toshiro-san didn't say anything in response to this as the two of them stared off into the lake.
Finally, Guy said, "I get it, I really do. I also feel out of place and don't feel like I belong anywhere either. Did I ever tell you about where I came from?"
Toshiro-san looked over at him and then shook his head.
Professor then moved closer, stating that he'd be more than happy to translate for Toshiro should there be parts that he didn't understand.
So Guy then told Toshiro-san everything-- or rather the summarized verison of it.
How he grew up in this vault with this childhood friend of his who he thought he'd get married to, a girl named Amata Almodovar. How her father flipped his lid when Guy's father left the vault for mysterious reasons and wanted to murder Guy so he was forced to flee the vault and follow his father. Guy then recounted how he had been sent on a wild goose chase after his father, tracking his footsteps all over the damn wasteland, and finally, Guy saved his father's life in vault 112 from a freaky simulation machine that made everyone think they were living in a peaceful neighborhood. Guy had honestly thought that'd be the end of it then, that he'd go with his father to live in Rivet City and work on Project Purity together.
That they'd maybe start a new life together, father and son. Only for his damn father to die during Project Purity, thanks to the villainous Enclave.
Guy smiled fondly when he brought up meeting Sarah Lyons for the first time, and how strongly she had impressed him, what with her being this bad-ass beautiful warrior who was more than willing to help Guy take his revenge on the Enclave.
"I would've been more than willing to join up with the brotherhood after that as they proved that they were a group of decent, honorable warriors willing to fight all injustices. Unfortunately, the brotherhood was leery of letting outsiders like me join them full-time. I was only an honorary member." Guy said. He then joked only as a hormone-ridden teenage boy could, "Too bad, I wouldn't have minded becoming Sarah Lyons' boy toy long-term. I wonder if women can keep male concubines or consorts?"
At Toshiro-san's unimpressed stare, Guy cleared his throat. "Right, moving on."
He then recalled how Vault 101 had let out a distress signal, and he went back there to help out the place he had considered his home for so long…. Only for Amata to exile him afterward, for murdering a guy who would've murdered everyone else in the vault had he not been stopped.
Toshiro-san blinked at that because that seemed illogical to him. Why should somebody be punished for putting down a criminal like that?
"I hate to admit it, but that hurt me more than it should've. I mean… this was the woman I thought I'd get married to one day. Everyone else said so, and I never questioned it at all because she was my childhood best friend and I didn't mind the idea at all. So for her to tell me that I'd never step foot in the vault again, that I couldn't settle down with her anywhere else because she was now the new overseer? Oof."
He then sighed. "And of course, after all of this shit, I had the bad luck to get kidnapped by those aliens... The same ones who also took you. And when I woke up, it had been 10 years later because they put me in suspended animation!"
He snarled loudly at the end there.
"So, after my 10-year nap and after we defeated those aliens, I find out that somebody murdered Sarah Lyons for political reasons. It was upsetting because to me, at the time, it felt like only two weeks ago that I had seen her last. So it's like I don't even have any love interests or family to tie me to the capital wasteland anymore."
Guy sighed. "And Amata's in her late twenties now, so most likely she'll have a husband and probably a kid of her own, having moved on after banishing me from vault 101. I could've gone to see Amata, and see how she was doing… but to be honest I was too scared to find out how much she changed over the years after I saw Butch. He was my bully growing up you see, and when I met with him he was like a completely different person. He was just so friendly to me, acting like we were best buds growing up… it was weird. On top of that, he had gotten so… old. I guess I realized right there that I had lost all the important connections I had to that land because everything had changed so much over time."
Toshiro was silent the whole time he listened to Guy rant a little bit about his life, and when it seemed like Guy was finally done venting about the emotional losses he had suffered, he then spoke up.
"Yes. I felt that way when I did my best to interact with those locals. They look like my people, so I was happy to see them at first. But, their manner of speaking and dress is strange and foreign. The Japanese words are mostly the same, but the way they say them and spell them is… different. Makes it difficult for us to understand one another. I feel like a stranger in a familiar land. But the familiarity makes the differences stand out all the more." Toshiro-san sounded thoroughly depressed.
Guy nodded, that last part somehow resonating with him. He then said, "Well, you shouldn't write things off so soon. We still have all the other Japanese islands to explore… so who knows, maybe we'll find a place where you can belong."
He then paused, before adding, "And if we can't find it? Keep in mind that you already have a place with us on the ship too. Sally and Elliot suffer from the same problem you do, so I think they'd understand your pain all too well. Just as I do. So you aren't alone in this."
Toshiro-san mulled this over. And nodded in appreciation at Guy's attempt to cheer him up.
He stood up and grabbed his horned helmet off the log and put it on. He then said, "We have a long journey to prepare for."
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It was finally time for them to get on the train. They had finally scrapped enough yen coins to be able to get on the train, as the train required a fee to use it. This had been one of the reasons why Guy and Toshiro-san stayed in town for a week, and why Guy had gone around helping out folks in return for a few favors and yen coins.
It seemed that while the Japanese indeed did trade bottlecaps, they used the yen coins more than they used bottlecaps as currency. One dude told Guy that there was a bottlecap hobbyist in an old city called Asahikawa who would be willing to exchange a lot of yen for American bottlecaps.
And the good news was, they were gonna be on their way there after making a pitstop in Otoineppu to meet with Miss Aki's old Sensei who went by the name Samuel, who had taught her everything about English and America. As an old American ghoul, he might have some unique perspective on what Japan was like both before and after the Great War.
Both Pepa-chan and Miss Aki-Sensei stood by the train while they saw Guy and Toshiro-san off but were also ensured that they had everything they needed for their journey.
Pepa-chan held up a bundle of what looked like bamboo boxes stacked on each other, tightly tied together with string. The small white robot practically shoved it into Guy's arms while saying in her usual haughty Japanese, "<Here is a survival kit to help you on your journey. But don't get me wrong, it's not like I wanted to do this for you or anything like that! It… it's just that, you two are such idiots I'm sure you'd struggle without my help. Hmph!>"
In the last part, once she was sure Guy had held on to the boxes, she actually crossed her arms and turned her head away while doing the "hmph!" part.
Both Guy and Toshiro blinked at that, while Aki-Sensei seemed embarrassed.
"<I really should find a way to toggle that Tsundere mode off…>" Sato Aki mumbled under her breath.
Guy burst out laughing at that. He then bowed. "We'll be sure to be careful. Thank you, Aki-Sensei and Pepa-Chan."
With that, they got into the train, which up close, seemed to have a mixture of steampunk and atompunk aesthetics. Not that Guy or Kago Toshiro knew what the proper name for this aesthetic was, just that it was very distinctive-looking.
They wandered down the aisles looking for an open seat with an overhead compartment in which they could put their bags, and when they finally found the perfect spot they sat down. Professor moved to sit between them, as the two men were sitting opposite each other and there was a space in the middle there.
They waited, and after a few moments their patience paid off, as the train started to move.
Toshiro-san seemed awed as the train moved and he couldn't help but comment how helpful this could've been had they had this during his time. Being able to move troops all at once like this would've revolutionized war. He then paused, and added thoughtfully, "<Or made things worse? Like it did in the present time?>"
Guy then mentally tallied up the years' difference. He mumbled out loud, "Let's see… it was during the 1800s that trains got invented. And you were kidnapped… what year?"
"1585," Toshiro replied.
"So that's what, 216 years between your original time and the period that Japan most likely started getting trains," Guy said, mostly just to make conversation.
Toshiro-san mostly grunted in acknowledgment at this, not knowing what to say to that.
The two lapsed into friendly silence as they watched the landscape outside move by.
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After doing things like meditating or eating the bento boxes that Pepa-chan had packed for them along with checking out the medical kit she also gave them, they finally arrived in the town of Otoineppu in two hours.
According to Guy's Pipboy GPS, going to this town on foot would've taken the two of them 19 hours on foot. Indeed, those trains were a total time-saver.
Otoineppu seemed to be the same as Kabutonuma in that this was originally just a prewar tiny village built around a train station. But unlike Kabutonuma station originally only had a handful of pre-war buildings, this one had far more prewar buildings. But like Kabutonuma they did have the shacks made out of metal and wood on the outskirts circling the town.
Aki-Sensei had told them while they had been planning their trips out in advance, that historically this place used to be the smallest village on the island of Hokkaido, but now that was no longer the case. Instead, it was now in the top 10 of Hokkaido's largest human settlements… although it was at the bottom of the list there.
When places like Toyko and other major cities got bombed to hell, the surviving refugees headed to places that were the least irradiated and the least touched by those bombs. The island of Hokkaido had amazingly been nearly untouched by the bombs, with Sapporo only suffering from minor fallout as the main city of Hokkaido got the smallest bombs dropped on it compared to other cities in Japan. So villages far away and isolated from fallout like this one started to swell in size in terms of citizens and buildings.
And now it was one of the biggest towns around, to the point that they couldn't put in a security fence around the town itself as Kautonuma did. So instead by the look of things they had patrols walking around and security checkpoints coming in and out of the town. They even had farms and stuff here nowadays by the looks of things.
But they weren't here to sightsee, they were here to see Samuel. So they asked around to see where the local school was because according to Aki-Sensei the teachers liked to live close to the school in an apartment building nearby, as there weren't that many functional cars or buses anymore. So you could find Samuel by going to the school or the apartment building across the street.
They walked around, briefly exploring the town before they finally found the place.
For a place that was originally supposed to be the smallest village in Hokkaido, they had a lot of really distinctive-looking prewar buildings. Like the old elementary that was now a multi-purpose school teaching everyone from elementary to college education, for instance.
Guy initially thought it might be a police station or the local meeting hall, because there was a star over the doorway, and there was this fancy-looking deco-style portico that had a large dome roof on it that looked as if it had been made out of shiny bronze at one point but were now rusted green. And both sides of the building extensions that flanked the doorway initially were nicely painted a nice grey neutral color along with a green rooftop, making it one of the prettiest buildings in town even now after the paint was now halfway peeled off. So imagine his surprise when he realized this was the school they had been looking for.
In contrast, the two apartment buildings across the street weren't winning any beauty contests.
According to Nora, Guy wasn't sure if he got this right, this distinctive style the Japanese apartments had was called brutal architecture. They seemed to be made out of ugly streaky concrete blocks and that's how Nora had described the style as. He didn't get what was so "brutal" about this sort of building unless that name was short for brutally ugly.
Normally Guy wouldn't even care about sort of thing, a building was a building to him. But after listening to Nora talk his ear off about all the different building types… well he couldn't help but notice some of these things more. Especially when right next to the ugly brutal apartments was a funky-looking small building, that was
a traditional Japanese store.
The stylistic choices were all over the place here. But Guy didn't mind that at all, because the more distinctive things were the easier it was for Guy to not get lost at all. Contrary to what people thought, Guy could easily get around provided that there were enough visual landmarks and easily read signs pointing the way.
The capital wasteland hadn't much of that at all, as literally, everything was full of rubble, and pretty much grayscale at times if you wandered into certain places. And if you wandered out to the wild, then everything was sepia-colored there. When almost everything was monochrome colored to the point that everything just kinda blended in your mind, it was easy to lose your way!
Especially if you hated being so dependent on your Pipboy for everything like Guy did. (although he really should've depended on his Pipboy more for directions, instead of being so typically stubborn about it.)
There was a guard outside the school gates, so they went over to him and asked him if he knew a man by the name of Samuel.
The guard reacted weirdly when he saw Kago Toshiro in his full samurai getup, and practically legged it all the into the building after he stammered something like "I'll get the school authority."
Toshiro and Guy looked at each other puzzledly but merely shrugged their shoulders. They waited outside for a few moments before the guard finally came back outside with a bunch of Japanese men of varying ages and one ghoul.
Much to their surprise, the eldest human one then barked out in loud Japanese, "<Alright, what the fuck do the nationalists want with one of my school staff?>"
Guy and Toshiro both looked horribly confused. Both their Japanese was getting good, but some of this was lost on them even after the professor helped translate the words they didn't understand.
"I don't understand, we're Americans who were traveling here but then our boat sank. Aki-Sensei told us to see Samuel as he would help us learn more about the history between America and Japan." Guy said in English.
Toshiro-san then added, "<Ye shall have to explain this Nationalism thing?>"
Professor translated all of that into words the school staff could understand, and then another one yelled out, "<Bullshit! Look at that armor, only the Japan First Nationalists wear that!>"
The Ghoul squirted his eyes at the symbol on Toshiro's armor and then said in Japanese, "<Look at that symbol. That's the symbol they used in the Azuchi–Momoyama period for the Oda clan. The nationalists don't use that symbol at all, far as I know. This might be a rogue scav using his own symbol, or a raider. I've been hearing of raiders stealing the samurai armor off the nationalists and spraypainting their own symbols on it to claim them.>"
The others relaxed slightly at this, but only slightly. There was still an air of tension around them.
The ghoul then raised one nonexistent eyebrow as he said, "<as for their other claim… let me test them.>"
He then asked in English, "Where in America are you from?"
Guy responded back, "I'm from the capital wasteland… which is in DC. To be more exact, I'm from Vault 101 in that general area. See this vault suit?"
At this, he turned around to show off the number on his back, before facing the ghoul again.
The ghoul, who Guy was already suspecting was Samuel, stroked his chin. "Not bad, not bad… not many people here know about Vault-tec as they didn't have that many projects here in Japan. But a well-seasoned traveler could easily find out about them."
He thought of a question to stump Guy, before finally landing on, "Who was the president in 2077, and what was his unofficial reputation inside America as opposed to the propaganda that was broadcast overseas?"
Guy shrugged. He then started rambling, blurting out what he could remember as he went along.
"Some dude they called President Dick, from what I hear? I also heard that it wasn't his real name though, but that it was a nickname they called him because he was such a raging asshole who fucked up everything in America. That's all I remember from history as that wasn't my strongest point in class. And the one before him was just as bad from what I heard as he kept on complaining about getting shitty wine when even that was a luxury item. I heard that one had multiple attempts on his life before he got impeached and replaced by President Dick."
Samuel snickered at that. "Yup, sounds about right."
"Right… so favorite food?" Samuel tested Guy again.
"Peanut butter. Goes great with everything, but man is it so fucking hard to find in the wasteland. I also love some Blamco Mac and Cheese and a soda float. I really miss the soda floats. Apparently, vault 101 was the only one who made them. Have to yet to find another place that makes them." Guy's answer was shorter this time.
Samuel nodded. "Alright. Final test. Should you take your shoes off when heading indoors anywhere, or not?"
Guy looked puzzled but answered the question. "Why should we do that? Like do you know how much rubble and shit there are in old pre-war buildings?? We'd be without feet protection. So I prefer to keep my shoes on all the time, okay? Not to mention they could get stolen if you left them unattended."
He paused, and then added, "Aki-sensei did make us take our shoes off when we went into her home, though. The only reason why I obliged was that it seemed clean on the inside and didn't seem like it'd have any pointy bits on the ground I'd have to watch out for. But it seemed odd to me."
Samuel started chuckling loudly. "You're definitely a pure American, fresh from its' shores alright. Even the third-generation families with American ancestors here get culturally weird about removing shoes when entering a home."
He turned around to the rest of the school staff and said in Japanese while gesturing at Guy, "<they're clear. This one seems to be an actual pre-war American, believe it or not. Seems like after all this time they finally sent somebody over here!>"
The rest of the guys who seemed so ready for a throw-down before now seemed awed and skeptical.
Guy then remembered something, and then pulled a scrolled-up letter with a dirty worn ribbon tying it together out of his bag. "Oh, this is from Aki-Sensei."
Samuel took it, and then said, "Well, come in then, we can chat in the teachers' lounge."
Guy and Toshiro both nodded and followed Samuel into the building, with the armed school staff following right behind them.
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A/N: I don't know why, but I hated this chapter. I guess because I was trying so hard to make everything seem interesting despite Guy and Toshiro needing the time to acclimate to Japan and Toshiro's character development when he realized he couldn't get his Japan the one he was so familiar with, back at all.
