Getting the shirt was easy.

 

 

A quick call to Mr. Sato and an hour later he showed up with a new shirt and a ride to get Toshi home. As for what the story was, they were going to try and stick with saying as little as possible, since Mieko was such a bad liar. Just getting her to lie by omission was going to be a challenge, but she was willing to go with the plan. If for no other reason than to stick it to whoever messed with her medication.

 

Mieko had no intentions of giving whatever sister (supposedly) was behind it the satisfaction.

 

This resulted in getting home to Hinako who proceeded to interrogate Toshi like he was getting debriefed after a mission to spy in the Kremlin. Toshi spoke of specifics when it was safe, and generalities when it wasn't. Unfortunately she ate up a lot of his time before he had to practice self-defense with his mother and take care of chores around the house. Eventually he would find time to secretly contact Naora. Only to discover she wasn't available to meet tonight. Maybe tomorrow. Toshi thought that was unlikely, because tomorrow was Sunday.

 

Toshi would be going to the first meeting of the displaced inter-dimensional travelers support group Sunday.

 

Haruo and Toshi had talked with Ichikawa and she agreed to meet Kingo. They had all talked and Haruo eventually volunteered his apartment. It was a small efficiency, but had room for four people to meet. He explained that he grew up in a rural village and his mother wanted him to get a good education, so they rented out a small apartment in the city that he stayed in while he went to school. It had a small kitchen area, tiny bedroom, and a single bathroom. Not much, but cheap and on a bus line.

 

The four had gathered there at noon. Toshi had picked up the habit of bringing food to first meetings from his old life. It was something he discovered dealing with Americans. He learned a few yen spent on food earned you much good will with your future partners, so he'd do it whenever possible. It almost made you wonder if they fed their employees in California.

 

A couple bento boxes, some take out pasta and a six-pack of soda instantly made Toshi the most popular visitor from another world on the planet. Greetings were exchanged and the four settled down in the kitchen, Haruo didn't have enough chairs and wound up sitting on the counter, with the rest sitting around the small, square kitchen table. An awkward silence overtook them before Kingo spoke.

 

"Hi. I'm Sado Kingo. I've been in this universe for a week or so. Hard to tell specifics since I was in the hospital for several days."

Everyone else introduced themselves and said how long they had been there as well. The silence returned until Ichikawa spoke up, "So I'm the only girl, huh?" The others all looked at each other.

Kingo cleared his throat, "Actually, we had a talk about that."

The other two looked at him with momentary confusion, but then suddenly realized what he was talking about. Haruo nodded, "Yeah. We did. We came to an agreement."

Ichikawa looked concerned as she looked around, "What agreement?"

Toshi straightened up, "We're going to look after you."

Ichikawa pulled her head back slightly and narrowed her eyes, "I didn't know I needed looking after."

Kingo made a fist and looked rather upset, "Well, You do! I've been reading the Internet and it is screwed up in this universe! Do you have any idea how the laws concerning sexual assault work? I don't know if it is legally possible for a man to commit rape on this planet!"

Ichikawa looked rather shocked, "What?"

Toshi chimed in, "WHAT... he's trying to say, is that there is no law on the book making it rape if a man forces a woman to have sex. It's only rape the other way around." Ichikawa's eyes went wide and she said nothing as the implication sunk in.

Kingo nodded and looked to the other two, then back at Ichikawa, "That's what we're worried about. What if some guy from our world comes here and decides to just... go nuts? They won't be able to even charge him with anything more than a misdemeanor! Since the women here can't protect themselves..." He looked to the other two again, before giving a most serious expression towards Ichikawa, "We are going to police our own."

Haruo spoke up, "And I know you and I... have our problems." He cleared his throat, then raised his head high as he continued, "But I want you to know none of that matters to me if you are in trouble."

Toshi nodded in a somber fashion, "So, I guess we'd like to give you all our phone numbers and if you ever need help, you call us and we'll come running." The other two nodded along to affirm this pledge to her.

Kingo looked especially upset by this conversation, "This place has a rather disgusting, dark underbelly that doesn't present itself easily, so we're going to do what it takes to make sure nothing bad happens to you. Or any women here, for that matter."

Ichikawa looked around, taking in the conversation before speaking up, "Do... you think that sort of thing will happen?"

Toshi shrugged, "We're wondering if there is some sort of pattern. Like, every three months seems to be the case when this thing happens. We have a gap we need to explore. There might be someone out there we've missed, if the every three months theory is accurate."

Haruo added, "And if we are right, there's going to be someone three months after Kingo here." Then jogged his head towards Kingo, "We'll need to find them when they get here and... help them or contain them... depending."

Kingo nodded, "What if the next guy is a serial rapist? What's going to happen?"

Toshi added, "And if he is, how do you rape the willing? Rape is about power, not sex. If he can't find an unwilling woman, who is he going to rape?"

All three boys went quiet as they silently answered the question in their minds, not quite willing to look at Ichikawa. Ichikawa sat there, looking thoughtful, before clearing her throat, "Not going to happen." She said while she raised her head to look at the three of them. The boys all seemed a little confused by this statement. She gave them a reassuring smile, "I have you three to protect me, right?"

 

Ichikawa was young, but not stupid. She could read a room and knew that these three were floundering about, trying to find some way to control their current situation. It was a fear based on an outlier of an outlier situation. The chances that such a person would cross over to this world was almost non-existent. On top of that, it could only happen once every three months. Such a person would have to FIND Ichikawa in a city of millions. Of the many problems they had to deal with, this wasn't one of the concerns that needed to even be contemplated, but that wasn't why these boys were thinking about it.

 

They were worried about her.

 

In this world, she was getting increasingly stressed about how unimportant she was. She had gotten used to having doors opened for her, for boys to go out of their way for her, just because she was cute. She never noticed it before coming here. It was just something she took for granted and now guys were the ones expecting to be chased. She was no longer the one pursued and she had no idea how to handle that. Her new life had a certain amount of freedom to it, but it was nothing she was used to.

Or even good at.

 

Now, in this room, there were three boys who existed in an alien world and the first thing they bring up is protecting her. Maybe in another life she would have acted haughty. Maybe she would have dismissed their concerns. Maybe she would have been insulted, but not now. She was grateful for their mostly empty and futile gesture. She would accept it and be happy.

 

She didn't mean to start crying.

 

Toshi was the first one to grab her hand and ask if she was okay. Kingo did so on the other side, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Haruo hopped off the counter and walked closer, looking concerned for her wellbeing. They asked what was wrong and all of them were worried. She wanted to tell them it was nothing. She wanted to tell them she was just having a moment. However, this simple concern for her, that was only because she was upset, opened the floodgates. All the stress and all the problems and everything came out at once. She'd cried about her situation before, but this was the first time she got to cry WITH someone.

 

They looked confused as she pulled Kingo and Toshi both in closer to hug while sobbing that she was fine. As Haruo stepped up to the table she held out a hand for him, which he grasped. They wound up clustered around her as she cried, looking stoic as they waited for her to cry herself out. 

As boys, it wasn't the first time they had dealt with a crying girl. You said you were sorry. You did what they asked. If you had done everything you could, you offered tissues and waited until she was done.

 

For all them, it was the way of things. Women cried. Men comforted. It wasn't a man's place to understand why she was crying. She was shedding tears and that was enough. In a way, this was soothing to them all. In comforting her, they would feel better for having helped her. She would feel better having been reassured everything was okay. In a normal world, this was the way it should be. They each had a role to play, and they performed it beautifully.

 

 

 

 

 

They reveled in the normality of it all...

 

And for a moment...

 

They forgot they weren't home.