“I suppose this should be everyone we need.” He said now that the girl he called out for had arrived. “Now let’s head out.”

“Don’t remember accepting your invitation.” Amasa responded, arms crossed and unwilling to budge from her spot.

“And I don’t remember being invited.” Of course, there was also Fukuna who felt the need to make her presence known. “We’ve known each other longer, how come you never think of getting me too?”

“I thought you were going to be with your own friends during this excursion.”

“They can join us too.” The two girls standing behind her verbally agreed, though their body language read that they could take it either way. “You’re fine with that, right?”

“Sure, the more the merrier.” Tahiko was not one to turn down what he perceived to be a good time. “Now come on Amasa, you shouldn’t allow yourself to be left out.”

“Fine.” She relented. Though it had nothing to do with the feeling of getting left out. The girl would’ve much rather separated from him and be on her way. However, that plan changed the moment Fukuna came into the picture with her friends.

Ever since the sudden so-called friendship between that girl and Tahiko. Something seemed a bit weird to her. Mainly in that Fukuna appeared to be quite interested in the boy despite barely knowing him. Of course, she chalked that up to being enamored with him after saving her life.

So it was entirely possible that girl would even admit to being in love with him. Though chances were that those feelings would fade, just as Amasa had always seen when it came to kids her age. They always thought things would be forever, when they’d stopped caring in less than a week.

To be fair, a week can feel like a long time when you’re young. And seeing as Tahiko had only been here for said amount of time, it felt like a lifetime.

“Great, now let’s head out.” He took the lead. The boy took a second to look back though as he considered how strange it was that he was the only boy in the group. It was a strange position for him to be in seeing as his knight teams were typically filled with just men, with maybe one female knight in the ranks.

“Do you even have any plans for where you’re going?” Amasa was already questioning his ability to lead, seeing as they were just wandering around the grounds. Seeing as that boy wasn’t even native to this world, how could he possibly navigate himself around here?

“That is a good question.” There was no proper response from him. “Does anyone have a map?”

“Eh, who needs a map when we’ve got each other.” Fukuna didn’t mind getting lost with the group. Of course, she could probably live without this boy’s sister complaining the whole way through though. “Isn’t the sense of adventure nice?”

“Finally, someone who gets it.” He was pleased to hear that enthusiasm from her. Being stuck with the downer attitude of Amasa had left him feeling like every person on this planet wasn’t enamored with trying to explore the world. “Is this land just so beautiful?”

“It is!” Amasa rolled her eyes in the sight of those two being so chummy with one another. This was the last thing she wanted from this trip. If those two got closer, then she’d be forced to interact with a girl she held deep disdain for.

“Say, Ida?” There was something Tahiko noticed as they walked on the trail. The quiet girl was doing what she did best. Which was not talk while they were holding their own conversation and just silently walk behind them. In fact, she had even fallen behind a bit from their quick pace led by him. “Is there anything you’re intrigued by here?”

“Well, I…” She was at a loss for words from being suddenly asked a question. It wasn’t something on her mind and now that she had to think about it, she was panicking from not delivering and answer in a timely manner. “The grass looks nice.” Then she went and kicked herself mentally for saying something so nonsensical.

“It does.” He didn’t notice just how awkward that sounded to the rest of the girls. “Thought it’s nothing like one Ena… I mean, like from where I’m from.” The boy nearly tripped up on giving up his identity. Sure, half the girls were aware of the truth already. However, that was only half at best.

“Actually, where are you from anyway?” Asked one of Fukuna’s friends. Everyone had assumed he was from near the area due to being adopted by one of their classmate’s parents. Of course, he had no way to answering given he didn’t know where anything was or what it was called. The boy even had not much of an idea of the current town they were living in.

“I’m from…” He hesitated, which would sound weird seeing as someone should know where they were from. Especially when they acted like it just moments ago.

“Tokyo.” Amasa quickly came in for the save. This was another reason why she joined along. When there were people who didn’t know the truth, he was going to need help to keep the secret. Honestly, this boy sucked at not being found out. “That’s where we found him.” That much was true, and they were now living somewhere not so close to it anymore from where he was teleported to.

In essence, he merely spent a night in Tokyo.

“That’s pretty cool, it’s a big city.” Fukuna followed up to not allow her friends or Chisa time to think critically about that statement. “Anyway look, this view is amazing.”

They had found themselves at a section that overlooked the nature preserve before them. It was magnificent the way the sunlight shone over the greener pastures and a river flowing where animals were gathered at for hydration.

“Wow!” Tahiko’s eyes lit up upon seeing everything. It reminded him of his old home as he took in one deep breath. “It’s so beautiful.” For a moment, he looked down to collect himself. The boy was overcome with emotion in seeing one of the many things this world had to offer. To think that these two worlds had something in common brought about a tear on his face.

“It’ll be fine.” Amasa took note of it and patted him on the back, calming him down from feeling this way where no one understood. “It’s nice, isn’t it.”

“It is indeed.” He smiled from seeing her open up, even if only slightly.

“Don’t look at me that way.” She immediately returned to her usual self and walk away with head hung up in snootiness.

“We should take a picture together.” Fukuna had a typical suggestion from a girl like herself. Being surrounded by her usual friends meant they should show off and post this online when they got back to the urban world and its internet. “Here, Amasa should take the picture.” Then she handed her phone to the girl.

“Fine, whatever.” Amasa didn’t care for being called by first name from this girl. Though to be fair, that was likely because Tahiko was here and it’d get confusing since they had the same family name. “Go ahead get together so we can get this over with.”

“But don’t you wish to be a part of the photo?” If she was the one taking it, it seemed she’d be left out then.

“I don’t care about that kind of stuff.” She replied. “Now get in.”

“I can’t.” He refused her. “That image will be shared, will it not? I can be the one to take the image.” The way his eyes spoke to her cued in what the boy was concerned about. As of right now, neither of them were planning on him staying here forever. He’d be finding a way back home to Enatis one day, so the boy didn’t want them to have images of himself for them to remember him by.

Though that was just the stated excuse to her. Really, he didn’t want her to yet again exclude herself. As it turned out, there were times when he could put on a good show.

“Aww, but I wanted to take a pic with you.” This part was lost on Fukuna, who whined about losing such a wonderful opportunity in her eyes.

“It’s not like I want to be in the photo either.” She hesitated as he beckoned for the phone. “Plus, you don’t know how to use one of these things.” The group argued back and forth a bit on how this picture was to be taken and arranged.

“Um…” Chisa spoke up as they had continued this on for a minute. “It’s not going to look great, but why doesn’t someone hold it like we’re taking a selfie? That way no one gets left out.”

“Kind of missing out why some of us don’t want to.” Amasa complained, but Fukuna didn’t care anymore and just wanted to finish this before lunch.

“Let’s do it.” She took her phone back and dragged the siblings by the arms to standing next to her with everyone else. “Now, everyone say cheese!” Everyone but Amasa smiled as she snapped a photo of the group. While it would’ve been nice to have all of them in bright spirits, it was good enough for them.

“Gosh, you guys really like torturing me.” She quipped as they took a look of everyone standing next to one another with the scenic background behind them. “Can’t you ever just leave me out of your schemes?”

Maybe we should…” He replied, staring at how he fit into this group right besides her. “But, maybe we shouldn’t.”