The area Haruo picked was rather desolate in the evening.

The overcast skies meant it was getting dark as Toshi arrived. Haruo was already sitting on the bench outside the closed snack shack that was at the entrance to the park. The park wasn't closed yet, but it would be soon. There didn't appear to be anyone else nearby. Toshi waved to his driver, Sato Toshi. He flashed the lights then turned off the car to wait in the parking lot. Haruo sat up at Toshi approached, "Who's that?" Toshi sat down next to Haruo, "My driver. He works for me." Haruo eyed Toshi up and down, "He... works for you?" Toshi nodded, "It's complicated. But yeah. I'll explain later." Haruo shrugged as he leaned back into the bench, "Looking forward to that conversation."

He grinned as he turned up the collar of his coat against the gusting wind, "I guess we both got our ways of making money."

Toshi turned to look at Haruo, but didn't say anything because he spotted a car approaching. It looked like a blue, four door family wagon that was so popular in the suburbs. The car pulled up close to the entrance, parked, and Kingo got out. He looked around, eyeing the black sedan that Sato was sitting in. He looked over at Toshi and Haruo sitting on the bench, back to the sedan, then seemed to make up his mind. He closed the door to his car, flipped up the collar on his jacket, then came stalking over to the bench. His shoulders were hunched as he continuously looked around, paranoid about his surroundings.

The wind picked up as Toshi and Haruo stood up to greet him. They all exchanged half-hearted bows and greetings, then almost immediately the conversation ground to a halt. Everyone eyed each other, waiting for someone to act first. Toshi snapped his fingers, "Ah. Right. Let's start here." He unzipped his jacket and reached into his breast pocket. This made Kingo tense up for a second, but he relaxed when Toshi unfolded a manga. As he offered it to Kingo, Haruo squinted at it, then let out a light laugh. Kingo took the manga and eyed Harou, "What's so funny?"

Haruo covered his mouth with one finger, "Later." He pointed that finger at the manga, "What do you think?" Kingo opened it up and started flipping through the pages. His eyebrows slowly rose higher and higher on his head, "Wait..." he looked up, "Are we in a manga?"

Toshi let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding, "So you did flip." Haruo grinned, "We just wanted to make sure." Kingo looked at the manga then up at Toshi, "Hold it. Are you telling me, all three of us are from a different world and we are now occupying the bodies of our duplicates?" Haruo nodded with a grin, "Yup!" Toshi shrugged, "It would appear so." Kingo looked at the manga again then up at Toshi, "Can I keep this?" Toshi nodded, "Sure. I can just buy another." Haruo interjected, "That manga is the result of someone else shooting her mouth off. Ich-" Toshi hit Haruo in the shoulder with the back of his hand, "Stop." Haruo frowned at him as Toshi explained, "Look. We haven't told her about him yet, so we talk to her first before we go tossing her name around." Harou snorted with derision. Toshi continued, "She did the same for you. Her situation is a lot worse than ours." Haruo lowered his eyes, then nodded, "Good point."

Kingo looked from one to the other during the exchange, "I take it there is a fourth person who... flipped?" The other two nodded. Kingo continued, "Ah. You want to feel me out before you let me know who she is." He sneered a bit at Toshi, "That's funny... coming from you."

Toshi narrowed his eyes at Kingo, "What's that supposed to mean?" Kingo scratched his chin, "Well... I take it you flipped when you died, right?" Toshi thought for a second, "Well... I don't know. I mean, I don't remember what happened, on the other side. From my point of view, I flipped, died, then came around three days later." He lowered his voice and it took on a bit of dread to it, "I take it I'm not alive on the other side." Haruo looked at Toshi with a bit of concern.

Kingo nodded, "So... tell me how you died here, then." He folded his arms and glared at Toshi. This was not a question, but clearly a demand. Haruo picked up on this, "Hey! Why the fuck you so hostile?" Kingo looked at Harou, his expression softening, "Because I knew his sister on the other side." He hooked a thumb at Toshi, "She told me all about her brother." He turned narrow eyes to Toshi, "But I want to hear your side of the story." He rolled his hand in the air, "Give you a chance to explain your actions."

Toshi turned pale as the color drained from his face, ~Oh fuck. It never occurred to me that BOTH Toshi's were a piece of shit.~ He physically staggered as his stomach twisted into knots, ~How do I explain this situation?~ He rubbed his forehead, "Wait. What-" Kingo stepped up, "I want your story FIRST." Toshi looked up at Kingo, then nodded, "Okay. What I remember..."

He paused, closed his eyes, then started speaking, "I was in a white space. Something happened. Eventually I opened my eyes and I was in a hospital on life support with people I had no memory of. They told me they were my family." He straightened up a bit, "I was told that three days previously, while I was at a concert, some woman drugged me with Rohypnol and Viagra and raped me in a storage room. I apparently had an allergic reaction to the Rohypnol and stopped breathing." He opened his eyes, "That's when I died and because of that, my memory is completely shot."

Kingo eyed Toshi up and down. He thought for minute before speaking, weighing the cost and benefits of what he was going to say next, "Your sister on the other side came to me after your funeral. You and your cheating father were both... terrible. I won't go into your father on the other side, but apparently you were a handful." He held up a hand and gestured into the distance, "Apparently you went to a concert, found some girl, tried to drug her and rape her." Toshi went white as as a ghost. Kingo continued, "Except you got the drugs mixed up. You slipped her the viagra and YOU took the Rohypnol." Haruo slowly turned to look at Toshi, eyeing him with great reservation. Kingo crossed his arms and looked down his nose at Toshi, "Then you had an allergic reaction. You slipped into a coma and died three days later."

Toshi staggered back and fell back onto the bench. Haruo looked at Toshi, "Holy shit. Is this true?" Toshi sat there for a bit, then shook his head, "No." Kingo snorted, "No? You just said-" Toshi cut him off, "How do you know I'm the same Toshi?" He pointed at Harou, "His other body is alive. The other girl's body is alive." He pointed at Kingo, "Your body is most likely alive." He pointed at himself, "So maybe I'm not from the same parallel world." He ran his fingers through his hair, "So... no." He abruptly jumped up, "NO!" He turned and took a few steps away, "NO! That's NOT ME! I DIDN'T DO THAT!"

Kingo took a step back in surprise. Both he and Haruo looked at Toshi in a worried fashion. Haruo was the first to speak, "Hey. Yeah. There could be more than one parallel world. It-" He was cut off by a voice from the parking lot. Sato Toshi had gotten out of his car and was shouting, "SIR! Is Everything Okay?" All three looked towards the parking lot. Kingo muttered, "sir?" Toshi waved and then made the 'OK' sign and gestured for Sato to get back in his car, which he did, reluctantly.

Haruo stepped up to Toshi, "Hey. Like..." He looked around then back at Toshi, "We just met, but... the other girl said you were an okay guy. And what I could find out about you on line said you were a nice guy. So..." He put a hand on Toshi's shoulder, "You say that's not you, it's not you." He smiled.

Toshi looked back at Haruo, put a hand on his shoulder, then nodded. He moved back to sit on the bench, and the other two joined him by it, keeping their voices low. Toshi spoke softly, "Thanks, but... truth is, the Toshi who's body I'm in was an asshole. I mean... an ASSHOLE. He was the WORST. Everyone online thinks I'm a nice guy because they all know me from after I flipped. I've been trying hard to fix all the shit he's done." He smacked himself on the forehead, "Which reminds me. I need to go back to my old school and apologize to people." He looked at Haruo, "Truth be told, this Toshi was a bully and a tyrant. Like, think the worst mean girl in our world you could think of, and that was him. I-"

Kingo interrupted, "So, you COULD be the Toshi from my world, but the amnesia changed you so much that you don't know." Toshi looked up and got angry, but just as quickly got it under control, "I know what you are saying is possible..." He rapped his knuckles over his heart, "But in here? In HERE. I know that I didn't do that." To himself he thought, ~Because neither of them were my body. Fuck. Should I completely explain it? But I can't reach God. If I start spouting that God put me in this body, they're going to think I'm insane!~ He looked from one to the other, ~Or will they? Maybe they'll buy it.~ However, Toshi focused on Kingo's expression and quickly came to the conclusion that he was already on thin ice and shouldn't push things any more than necessary, ~Or I'll explain things as soon as I can confirm things with God and get his advice.~

Toshi held his belly and doubled over, "I think I'm gonna be sick."

Kingo eyed Toshi, then relaxed his arms, "I..." He looked away, then back, "Okay. Let's say that is how you died." Both Toshi and Haruo looked at Kingo as he continued, "You lost your memory. Your in a new body. From what I could tell from Ike, who hates you, by the way, you are at least trying to make up for your past mistakes." He narrowed his eyes, "We're all stuck in this together, for whatever reason, and as long as you don't do any shady shit going forward, let's just let the past be the past."

Harou looked from one to the other, then nodded, "Yeah. Clean slate. All of us." He smiled a bit then looked at Toshi, "Besides, even if you were a rapist, we don't need to worry about that any more." Kingo looked at Haruo, "What the fuck do you mean?" Haruo looked at Kingo, "Oh. It hasn't sunk in, has it? Allow me to explain." He cleared his throat and started counting off on his fingers, "One, there is no law on the books in Japan that makes it rape for a male to force a female to have sex, as long she is of legal age. At worst, it's sexual assault." The look of disbelief on Kingo's face was cranked up to eleven. Haruo held up a second finger, "Two, the legal age of consent for girls here is thirteen." Kingo's eyes bugged out of his head, "WHAT?" Haruo ignored him as he continued, "Three, every female in this world is as horny and desperate to get laid as boys in our world."

Toshi interjected, "I tried to talk to my sister about my rape. When I brought up the possibility of her getting raped, she laughed and said, 'Toshi, women can't get raped'." He looked up at both of them, "Even my psychologist agreed. MY FUCKIN' PSYCHOLOGIST!" Harou looked around and then motioned for Toshi to keep his voice down, "Hey. Lower your voice, man!" Toshi looked at the ground and looked like he might curl up in a ball, "Sorry! Sorry... I just..." He held his head in his hands, resting his elbows on his knees.

Kingo looked thoughtful as he tried to work this out in his mind, "Wait... you are telling me I could grab some girl at random and force her to have sex and..." Kingo's voice trailed off as he seemed to be thinking of the implications. Toshi felt his anger start to build, "Yes." He abruptly stood up, "And since nobody would press charges against you, I promise you if you pull that shit..." Toshi held up a finger in Kingo's face, "I'll personally take your EYES." Kingo held up his hands and backed off, "WHAT? No! I'd never do that! Fuck! You're the pervert around here!" Toshi bared gritted teeth as he growled at Kingo, "I don't care what you think of me. I find out you-" Haruo jumped in between the two of them, "WHOA! Whoa!" He put up his hands flat towards the two of them, "Calm DOWN." He looked from one to the other. They both backed down and looked away. Haruo looked from one to the other, "Okay? Chill?" They both remained silent and only glared at each other.

Haruo slowly lowered his hands, "Look... Some unfounded accusations may have been made. We don't know each other that well, but from my point of view, I think all three of us are fairly upstanding and decent guys, right?" The other two nodded. Haruo nodded as well, "Good. So, we acknowledge there is a problem, and we pledge not to take advantage of the situation because it disgusts all of us, right?" The other two nodded. Haruo then added, "And... for what it is worth, I get it. I... had my virginity taken from me by Ich-er... I mean, the other girl's duplicate. She came to our world and... I fell in love with her. Having sex with her was the best thing ever."

He looked at the ground, "And then I came here and find my world's version of her here and... she hates me." He put his hand over his heart and clutched it, "It hurts. It goddamn hurts." He looked up at the other two, "But if anything happened to her, I'd lose my mind." He tapped his heart, "I get it. If either of you touched her against her will, I'd fuckin' kill you. Because the law would ignore you." He spread his arms wide, "Whatever is going on, is continuing. We might find more of us. So, we need to step up. Keep any guys from our world from losing their shit." Toshi and Kingo looked at each other, then back at Haruo. Kingo nodded, "Yeah. You're right. We have to make a pledge. Here and now. We have to protect the women of this world from any predators from our world."

Toshi tightened a fist, "Yes." He looked from one to the other, "I have no idea how this happening, but we need to make sure the women here are safe, even if they don't believe they are in danger." He thumped his chest, "We're fuckin' men, goddamn it. This world might treat us like women, but that doesn't change who we are and our obligations as MEN." Kingo suddenly thrust his hand out. Harou looked at it and stepped up next to him to put his hand over Kingo's. Toshi grinned and completed the circle with his hand on top.

Kingo nodded, "As men, we swear we will protect the women of this world from ourselves and from any other men that come after us, because we're the only ones who can." Toshi puffed out his chest, "As men, we swear." Haruo echoed the other two, "As men, we swear." There was a long pause as they just stood there. Harou broke the silence, "You know, this isn't how I imagined this was going to go." Kingo looked at the other two, "yeah..." A pause and Toshi asked, "Should we hug?" There was a moment of silence where you could only hear the rustling of leaves as the wind blew through trees in the darkening twilight.

All three burst out laughing.