Quality time in...wait hold up Japan!?!

Chicago the windy city, a place Darren Cross didn’t think about too frequently. Especially because the last time he had been there had ended so great. Well if he was to be truthful the last time he was in Chicago he ran into his best bud Forcewave’s kid from the future or something like that who took it upon herself to call him Uncle. Which of course was a laugh a minute, because let’s all be honest here; Darren Cross was not ever going to be tied down by any old lady. Okay, so truthfully he probably was never going to be ‘tied down’ because if any girl who was remotely attractive looked at him he got flustered and forgot how to speak.

But that’s a story for a different day, today’s story is all about how the Swordsmaster, the Jokster Hobo Kid with a Sword, had actually wandered off to Japan. Yes, somehow he had run all the way from The United States of America to Tokyo Japan. Okay, so that wasn't entirely true and he himself wasn't sure how he had actually gotten to Japan but it had definitely involed some sort of Running! He remembered something to do with water! What he did know was the why he was there as it had something to do with meeting Forcewave about some sort of team he’d been pressuring the kid into joining. Okay so pressuring was a loose term but Forcewave had mentioned it to Darren once or twice and after taking one final look at his Talon’s dog tag, which he still had around his neck, he realized he missed being a part of a team. Okay, so he missed having a place to call home, knowing he wasn’t going to go without food for an extended amount of time, and not having to steal to live too, but being part of a team was definitely on the top of that list!...somewhere.

Running through the streets of Tokyo was nowhere near the same as running through the streets of anywhere America, only New York before it went to shiz came anywhere close. Everyone in Tokyo was different, and a five foot six Australian wearing a super hero ‘costume’ with a sword on his hip was not as out of place as one would think. Except for the fact that he was moving at around a hundred miles an hour weaving in and out of traffic trying to understand the signs that would tell him where he was to meet his bestest bud the wave of force. ‘It totally had something to do with fish or maybe it was sushi, weren’t they the same th-Focus Darren…it has to be around here somewhere. John said something about a giant gorilla statue and that is totally a giant gorilla statue across the street.’ “So the only real question is where John?” Taking his hood off the Australian born native asked himself aloud as he scratched the back of his head in confusion. Maybe he should try using the Talon Dog tag to contact Force…as if John even carried his around anymore, it wasn’t like the Talons had been everything to him.

The reason why John Capore was in Tokyo, Japan was a simple, yet complicated one at the exact same time. Well, that's one way of putting it. Somehow, he had actually managed the seemingly impossible task of convincing his father to let him go to Japan of all places for his girlfriend Tyuki's band's concert tour here. Oh my gah, best dad ever. Totally. It wasn't like he'd be completely lost here across the pacific ocean. John had been to Tokyo once before almost two years ago. Oh, that was such a fun time. What with the almost complete lack of any actual fun that time around. He had been way too nervous back then and spent too much time trying not to be weirded out by the culture, and failing miserably at that. Oh what an embarrassing week that was. It wasn't all bad per say, but it was definitely a week that he often tried to forget all about. Anybody who had witnessed it would probably laugh about it.

Anyways, earlier today he had somehow gotten in contact with Darren who said that he too was here in Japan. John found that hard to believe, but he didn't exactly doubt it. He was more surprised to learn that Darren even knew how to use a phone in the first place. If he was actually here then they might as well go ahead and meet him at some point. So while Tyuki was off with the band to practice for a show tonight, a meeting was scheduled and come the day and time of said planned meeting, John went to the place they agreed on to see if they were to actually run into each other. That is, if Darren were actually here. For all either one of them knew, he could be in Chinatown and just happened to gotten it confused with Tokyo. Nonetheless, here he was at the base of a freaking statue of a gorilla of all things. It was the only thing he could think of as a meeting place that felt like it would work since he was pretty sure Darren didn't read Japanese and wouldn't be able to tell one street from the next. Also why was there a gorilla statue here?

John stood at the base of the weird statue and looked around, but didn't see anyone that remotely resembled the person he was looking for. Perhaps Darren wasn't in Japan after all. Or maybe he hadn't gotten here yet, or misheard him and went somewhere else instead. Oh, so many questions of what could have gone wrong. He thought of just giving up on this little venture until he actually saw him. "He really is here. Wow." he thought before attempting to move through the crowd to get over to him. Once he reached him he tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention.

Darren was totally lost he simply had to be, there was no possible way the gorilla statue he found was the right gorilla statue and John was probably off waiting for him at some other gorilla statue, or making out with Tyuki having giving up on waiting for his hobo friend. Spinning around he continued to look for the wave of force until he felt a tap on his shoulder which of course caused the hoodless Australian to spin around on the tip of his toes to face his best bud who he was just noticing for the first time was the exact same height as he himself was. “John! Japan is so weird! And that is coming from me.” Those were the first words out of his mouth upon greeting the other boy.

“How are you doing? Where we going, can we get food? Let’s go get food…but not fish apparently the fish is raw here and raw food isn’t good for my stomach. How about some rice, rice sounds good…hmmm food.” Darren grinned blabbering off as fast as he could, he was excited and was in somewhere new with a friend who had money. Money meant he didn’t have to steal to eat, not having to steal to eat meant he could actually eat decent food and a decent amount of it as well. Sure, it wasn’t as much as he could actually eat because robbing John out of all his money with the amount of food he could eat was not on the list of things to do while in Japan.

The first thing John heard from Darren after getting his attention was about how weird he thought this country was. "Yeah, if you say so." he said awkwardly in response to that. John didn't find it that weird to be honest. Sounds like somebody was just a bit in over their head due to the culture being different from what they are used to.

"I am alright, and sure, we could go get something to eat." he said as he looked around for a sign of a place to eat. His ability to read the various kanji scattered about was a bit rusty. He couldn't tell what some of these signs mean't at all. Looking back, John wished he had remembered to study the language before coming back to this country. It would make things a lot easier. "Only the sushi is raw. The rest is all cooked in some manner, but maybe I'll find us something." he then noticed what he could identify as a restaurant nearby. "There's one. Let's go." John told Darren and started trying to walk through the crowd to get over to it. As they were slowly heading towards it, Darren's mentioning of wanting to eat rice reminded him of something. He turned to him slightly as he said "I bring grains of truth. Did you know rice is the common food staple in the world?" he concluded before bumping into someone slightly and making him realize he needed to pay better attention to where he was going.

Darren was paying practically no attention to John even though he had just been reunited with his best friend, okay so really John was his only ‘friend’ that allowed him to stick around but that’s simply a minor detail. Instead Darren was more focused on the sights that were around them. The buildings, the neon lights, anything that at all seemed interesting caught his attention and everything in a new place seemed interesting to a kid who had ADHD and not only ADHD but a superhumanly small attention span at that. Making sure to keep John in his peripheral vision Darren ran from place to place checking out the sights poking around in one place and then moving onto the next in the ‘small’ area or block they were on.

Of course that was until he saw John abruptly stop which meant he must have either realized Darren was not behind him anymore, which honestly wouldn’t surprise him because it would have been easy to tell by the awkward silence. Or there was some other completely illogical reason that in no way would happen. Running back over to be once again behind John he realized getting there why John had stopped, and it was because he had bumped into someone, someone who he wasn’t quite sure who. The lighting was a bit weird and it was taking his eyes a couple of seconds to adjust because he was no longer viewing it at super human speed. “Sheez John why you gota go bumping into people, that’s not exactly a nice thing to do.” Moving in front of John Darren held his hand out to the person “Sorry about my friend there, he wasn’t watching where he was going, something about rice or another. I’m Darren and the guy who still needs to say sorry is John.” Blinking a couple of times Darren’s eyes finally adjusted to the lighting….

This is what happens when you are not paying the remotest bit of attention to where you're going while walking through a busy area. You wind up bumping into somebody, knocking them straight to the ground and nearly falling over yourself. All and all, it leads to a bad moment for all involved. That of course, is exactly what just happened to John. All because he went about trying to make a rather poor attempt at humor. Stupid quote he felt like, well, quoting. He was surprised he didn't run right into the front door considering how little he was paying attention.

The person that he had ran in to was a young woman, or teenage girl. It was hard to tell what age she was. She was of course, Japanese because why wouldn't she be. They were in Japan after all. Based on what she was wearing, she also worked here, probably as a waitress since she was carrying a notepad. "Great, I'm going to have to tip heavily." he thought as he tried to help her out.

"Sore o mi." she spurted out as she looked up at him angrily.

"Sōrī." he replied. Surprisingly enough he remembered how to apologize in Nihongo. Nihongo being the native language in Japan. John knelt down and offered his hand out to help her up. She took it and got to her feet, but still looked upset about it even as she said "Arigato." she walked away as another waitress came over and led them to their seats.