2016-09-17: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Touring

[Bob Schroeck]

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Touring
by Robert M. Schroeck

Chapter 1: Yesterday In Old Fall River

Motel 6 Fall River
459 Airport Road
Fall River, Massachusetts, USA
Saturday, September 17, 2016, 7:36 AM

"What are you doing drooling on me, Mophead?"

Half-asleep, Hane wrapped her pillow around her head in the hope that she could block out the sound of an outraged Rin, as muffled as it was, and return to blissful unconsciousness. She squeezed her eyes shut tighter than they already were, burrowed deeper into the covers and slid closer to the figure on the other side of the bed that radiated pleasant heat. "Mm, Yume, you're nice and warm," she murmured as she wrapped her arm around her sister, while still doing her best to ignore the sounds of the argument on the other side of the wall.

Then her eyes snapped open. Yume couldn't possibly be sharing her bed. The Club was on a road trip, and Yume wasn't a biker. And Hane had gone to sleep in the top bunk of a very narrow bunkbed in a youth hostel in Kyoto the night before. There should have been no room for someone to be in the bed with her -- but someone was, anyway. In front of her nose was hair the wrong shade of brown to be Yume. "Chisame?" Hane murmured in confusion.

She unwrapped her arm from around the other girl (who slept on, unaware) and carefully rolled over onto her back before sitting upright. (Definitely a larger bed than last night's bunk. And much closer to the ground.) The room that came into view was dimly lit by morning light leaking around curtains that covered a single large window to her left where the room she had gone to sleep in had had two regular casement windows to her right. There was a door next to the window that apparently led outside -- very different from the hallway door that had been past the end of the bunk by a couple meters. The faint light also revealed unfamiliar furnishings including a TV which hadn't been there the night before.

It was also lacking the other four members of the club and Mister Hayakawa, all of whom had been in the remaining bunks of their shared hostel room. Rin and Onsa's voices, somewhat muffled, were still audible through the wall behind her, so they at least weren't too far away. But they still weren't where they were supposed to be.

"Something weird is going on," Hane whispered to herself.

"Sempai?" a sleepy voice came from behind her. "What are you doing in my bunk?"

---

Ten minutes later, Hane and Chisame -- now hastily dressed -- burst out through the door to their room to find (as she'd feared) a sidewalk and not the hallway of a hostel. Almost absently Hane noticed it was cooler than it had been the previous day -- about twenty degrees, almost ten degrees cooler than the day before.^[1] From the other side of the room next door seemingly occupied by Rin and Onsa came Hijiri, Lime and Hayakawa. Of the three, Hijiri was the most obviously distressed.

"Hane! Chisame!" she cried, agitation driving her voice almost up into a shriek. "What happened? Do you know where we are?"

Hane glanced around and shook her head. "I have no idea. It's not Kyoto, though." And it wasn't. The hostel where they'd gone to sleep had been a boxy, two-story structure of dark wood surrounded by densely packed city blocks, with nothing but sidewalk separating them from the narrow streets. But now... now they were standing along the front of a long, white one-story building in what looked almost like a rural area, with thick stands of trees and grassy lawns in every direction. At one end was something that looked like it might be a restaurant.

The only other structures for at least a hundred meters in any direction were three large buildings, one each to the left, right and across the broad highway that ran past the other side of that parking lot separated them from it; a sign where one could turn off the road into the parking lot declared they were at "Motel 6" and "Denny's"; something about the sign seemed odd to Hane but she couldn't put her finger on exactly what. The parking lot itself was filled with cars and...

"Our bikes!" Chisame cried. And there they were, neatly sharing a pair of parking spots right by the doors to their rooms.

Hane was the first to reach hers, and quickly ran her hands over it while checking the paint job. It was, she was glad to see, in perfect shape. In fact, she quickly realized, it was lacking the road dust that had accumulated on their drive to Kyoto. "Someone washed you?" she murmured. To either side of her, Chisame and Hijiri were saying similar things, and looking up, Hane saw that Lime seemed surprised and pleased at the state of her Kawasaki -- before she waved and pointed at the rear of the lime-green motorcycle.

When she pointed at the back ends of the other bikes, Hane stood and stepped behind her Su-Four. It took her a moment to figure out what Lime had spotted.

The license plate was not the one she was familiar with. Gone were the familiar kanji, hiragana and number in green on white. The plate that was now affixed to her bike had red romaji and numerals on it...

"What's 'Florida'?" Chisame demanded.

"It's one of the United States," Hijiri said absently. "How odd. Your bikes have red lettering. Our Ducati's license has green. And why do yours say 'Under 21' below the number?"

"Because we're all under 21 except for Mister Hayakawa," Hane offered. "Speaking of Mister Hayakawa, where is..."

"Right here," the butler said from behind her. She spun, surprised, to see him standing there in a fresh uniform, with a newspaper under his arm. "Good morning, young ladies," he continued, withdrawing the paper and unfolding it. He held it up so they could see the masthead, which read "The Boston Globe" in English. Under it were headlines, also in English, that Hane realized she was reading so easily that she hadn't noticed she'd been reading English. She turned abruptly to look at the sign that had seemed odd and it, too, was in English. That was what had been odd about it.

"We appear to be in Massachusetts in the United States," Hayakawa continued calmly. "And if this newspaper is correct -- and I believe it is, as I have just retrieved it from a stack of identical copies from a vending box a few meters away -- it is September 17, 2016."

"What?" someone shrieked. Hane wasn't sure who said it; all she could think of was how when they'd gone to bed in Kyoto the night before it had been July twenty-third, just a couple days after the start of the summer holiday.

In 2012.

The door closest to them was flung open; Onsa and Rin, still buttoning and zipping up their clothes, charged out onto the sidewalk. "What about September 2016?" Rin demanded. Huh. Hane realized she hadn't heard them arguing for a while now.

Onsa dragged her sleeve across her mouth, glanced around, then added, "And where are we? This isn't Kyoto."

It took only a minute to share what little they knew, and most of that was spent convincing Rin that whatever it was, a mistake wan't among the possibilities. Hayakawa's newspaper went a long way to proving that something weird was going on, much as Rin didn't want to believe it.

"What do we do now?" Chisame asked

"I think," Hayakawa said slowly, "that before we do anything else, it would behoove us to have breakfast." He gestured toward the end of the building, toward what she had thought was a restaurant. "I am reliably informed that Denny's serves a more than acceptable American-style meal."

"Of course it would, we're in America," Onsa muttered.

"How are we going to pay for breakfast if we're in America?" Rin demanded.

Hayakawa held up a wad of unfamiliar-looking money. "What or whoever is responsible for depositing us here has not left us without resources."

---

If being able to read the newspaper hadn't been enough, reading the menus at the Denny's certainly hammered home that everyone could now read English perfectly -- even Onsa, whom Hane knew hadn't been the best in class. Knowing that, she wasn't sure why she'd been surprised when she realized that they all now spoke English as well, and had been since waking, and hadn't realized it until the hostess had greeted them and guided them to a large corner booth.

Most of the breakfasts in the menu were huge, but that was okay -- Hane was starving, and judging by everyone else's orders, they were, too. Hayakawa was the exception, ordering just a bowl of fruit, which he consumed quickly but elegantly before excusing himself. "I believe I shall take a short walk to learn more about where we are," he said as he handed off the money to Lime. Then he gave the table a quick bow before exiting the restaurant.

"You can tell he was in the army during the Pacific War," Onsa said between bites of sausage. Hane had a couple links of it on her plate, and she thought it was oddly seasoned but still tasty.

"What do you mean?" Chisame asked, a forkful of scrambled eggs halfway to her mouth. Next to her, Hijiri nodded sagely but said nothing.

Onsa gestured vaguely. "Every once in a while he gets all military-like. Like just then," she said. "He's scouting the area like we're in enemy territory."

"Aren't we, though?" Rin asked. "We're in another country, probably illegally for all we know, in the freakin' future, and we have no idea how or why. Someone left us money for breakfast, but we don't know who."

Lime waved for their attention and held up her pad:

"There's enough here for lunch, too!"

Rin rolled her eyes. "Okay, so we won't starve until after it gets dark. Big deal. The point is, we've got nothing but our bikes, the clothes on our backs, and our travel gear. We may have our licenses and all, but they're all in Japanese, and we don't have passports. What happens the first time a cop pulls us over?" She spread her hands with a self-satisfied look on her face. "Enemy territory."

Across the table, Hijiri suddenly got that delighted look she always got whenever she thought she was doing something naughty or "delinquent".

Hane bit her lip as a thought struck her. "We're four years in the future... and we're not any older, any of us." She looked up at the rest of the table. "We've all been missing for four years! Our families must be frantic."

"Or they've given us up for dead," Chisame said glumly, staring into her orange juice.

"That's easily fixed," Onsa declared confidently. "When we're done here, we go back to our rooms, and we call our families."

"And tell them what, Mophead?" Rin snorted derisively. "'Hi, we went to sleep in Kyoto in 2012 and woke up in the United States in 2016? Can you come get us?'"

Onsa scowled at her. "We can at least let them know we're alive."

Rin's expression softened. "Yeah," she admitted after a moment. "You're right."

"I have to admit, I'm curious who is behind this," Hijiri said, then nibbled on a strip of oddly crispy bacon. "As Rin said, the money proves there is a someone. But what can possibly be the motive for transporting us halfway around the world and four years into the future?"

The debate on that topic which ensued lasted longer than their remaining breakfasts, and continued as they left the Denny's and returned to their rooms.

---

Hane bit her lip as she closed her phone. She tried not to worry what it might mean that both her home number and her parents' number here in the United States had netted her "no such number in service" recordings. "Chisame?" she said without looking up from the phone cupped in her hands. "I heard you talking. Did you reach your parents?"

"There's something really wrong here, sempai," Chisame said from the other side of the bed. "Someone answered, but I didn't recognize them. they'd never heard of my parents, and they said they'd had the number longer than I've been alive. When I told them my dad's name, they asked if I mean Nakano Shinya instead of Nakano Kinya.^[2] " Hane looked up in time to see Chisame shake her head. The younger girl normally showed little in the way of emotion, but Hane thought she looked like she was about to burst into tears. Not that Hane didn't feel much the same.

Yume... where are you?

There was a knock at the door, and after a glance at Chisame, Hane hopped off the bed. It was, as she expected, the other girls.

None of them looked happy. In Lime's case, her entire bearing seemed to droop. Hane looked from face to face, and said, "I'm guessing you didn't have any more luck than we did."

"If that means you didn't reach anyone," Onsa said with a grimace, "Then yeah, no luck."

Hane stepped back and opened the door wide. "Come on in."

A minute later the entire club was in a rough circle, some perched on the bed, others sitting in a pair of chairs that flanked a small table in front of the room's picture window. "So now what?" Rin asked, in a tone considerably more subdued than her usual.

"I don't know," Hane admitted, shaking her head.

"Where are we going to go?" Hijiri asked. "We don't have enough money for another night in this establishment." Her eyes widened. "We have no money." She looked like she was about to start hyperventilating.

Chisame rolled her eyes. "Relax, Hijiri. Worse comes to worse, we should still have our tents -- we can always camp overnight."

"Besides, someone left us money for breakfast," Onsa pointed out. "Somebody is looking out for us."

"Well, whoever they are, they could be doing a better job of it," Rin snapped.

There was another knock and the door, and once again Hane got up from where she was sitting on the end of the bed to open it, to reveal Mister Hayakawa.

"Hayakawa!" Hijiri declared as if the simple presence of the butler was a lifeline. "Please tell us you have good news."

As Hane closed the door behind him, Mister Hayakawa calmly replied, "Yes... and no."

"No?" Chisame asked, an eyebrow raised.

He nodded, glancing around the room at them. "I have made several phone calls and learned a few things. For one, the Minowa conglomerate does not exist and never has."

Hijiri shot to her feet. "What?"

"There is not, and never has been, a Japanese zaibatsu by that name, and by extension there is no Minowa family. At least one of great wealth," he replied blandly.

"My family's gone?" Hijiri whispered.

"Well, that's just freaking great," Onsa growled. "Compared to that, what's the good news?"

Mister Hayakawa favored her with a faint smile. "When I returned to my room after my... investigations, I found this." He reached into his pocket and withdrew...

"That's my teacup!" Rin declared. And it was -- Hane recognized the Suzuki cup she'd given to Rin after receiving it from that biker with the robes and the halo that she'd helped on the road to Aomori that one time.

"Indeed it is," Hayakawa said, handing it over to her. "It was in my room, next to another stack of money, on top of this." He held up a sheet of what looked like parchment. "It is, as far as I can tell, an itinerary, sending us to a number of stops along a route that terminates in the state of Florida a week from now."

"Florida again!" Hijiri cried.

"Oh yeah," Onsa chuckled. "Somebody's got a plan for us."

"Someone who keeps breaking into Mister Hayakawa's room," Rin growled.

"While two of the stops are at motels where, it notes, reservations have been made for us," Mister Hayakawa continued, "the rest are at locations with quite odd names like 'The Steeple' and 'Gulfside Rest'. And the first stop, which we are apparently expected to reach by tonight, is 'Douglass Gardens Apartments' -- where, according to a note next to its name and those of its managers, 'All will be explained'."

Onsa laughed out loud. "Like I said, a plan!"

"So that's it?" Chisame asked. "We're just going to bike over to wherever this Douglass Gardens Apartments is?"

"New Jersey," Mister Hayakawa noted, "about five hours away to the south."

"Do you have anything better to do?" Onsa demanded of Chisame, who scowled at her.

"Do you know anything about driving in the United States?" she asked.

Onsa dug into her pocket and pulled out a little leather case, which she flung at Chisame. "I have a Japanese motorcycle license! I can go anywhere in the world."

"I don't think it works like that," Hane pointed out.

Meanwhile, Chisame was frowning at the contents of the case, which had landed open in her lap. "No, you don't, Onsa."

"What?" Onsa gave her a puzzled look. "Of course I do."

Chisame shook her head. "No, you have a Florida license." She held it up. "Driver License Class E, Motorcycle Only." She turned it around and peered at the front. "And according to this, you live at 809 SE 8th Ave, Okeechobee. Wherever that is."

Mister Hayakawa chuckled. "What a coincidence. That is the address of our ultimate destination."

"Gimme that." Onsa lunged across the bed and yanked the case out of Chisame's hands. "Damn," she said disconsolately. "The same lousy picture of me."

---

A quick check revealed that they all now had Florida licenses. Lime and Mister Hayakawa had full Florida driver licenses with motorcycle endorsements, meaning (Mister Hayakawa explained) that they were both permitted to drive cars as well as motorcycles. To her chagrin, Chisame had a motorcycle learner's license. (But according to her paperwork, Chisame had completed all the required courses and passed all the tests to convert her learner's license into a full license on or after her 17th birthday. So she was somewhat mollified, even if she had to wait nine months.) As for the rest of the club, like Onsa, they had full Florida "Motorcycle Only" licenses.

And all the paperwork had "809 SE 8th Ave, Okeechobee, FL" on it for their home addresses.

"Could they be forgeries?" Hijiri asked with that barely-restrained delight with which she approached anything that seemed the least bit "delinquent".

"I bet you'd be so disappointed if they weren't," Chisame muttered, and Hane giggled.

In the end, they ran out of reasons to delay. There was no point in staying here -- even with the money Mister Hayakawa had found, they didn't have enough for another night. They didn't have anywhere else to be, either, and they'd been promised an explanation by their mysterious benefactor at their first stop. Rin had suggested ignoring the itinerary and striking out at random, but only half-heartedly, and no one else thought that contrariness was a good enough reason to ignore the only lifeline they had in this weird, crazy situation.

They'd packed up, checked out of the motel, and mounted up. A few minutes later they were heading south along the Western Fall River Expressway, which was also Massachusetts State Route 79, enjoying the weather, the ride, and the view of the river to their right, chatting over the radio link along the way.

"All I'm saying is that whatever's waiting for us in Florida, it had better be worth the drive," Rin grumbled.

Hane laughed.

---

809 SE 8th Avenue
Okeechobee, Florida, USA
Saturday, September 17, 2016, 9:45 AM

There was, Molly decided, something distinctly odd about the guy who'd hired her father to do a little fix-up on the house around the corner, and then be something like a landlord for the people who were going to be moving in. There wasn't any one thing that she could put her finger on, but a whole lot of little things that just didn't add up.

She stretched out her legs in front of her as she sat on the hearth of the fireplace that took up nearly a third of the longest wall in the great room, pulled a scrunchy out of her pocket, and gathered her mane of red hair together into a long, thick ponytail with it. Then she leaned back against the cool stone and watched as the guy led her dad around the house, pointing out a host of little things that needed attention. He had a really deep voice, she noticed, that seemed out of place on a guy of decidedly medium height and (fit) build -- a build that was revealed nicely, in Molly's opinion, by the white leather motorcycle suit he wore.

And that was one of the odd things -- she'd never seen a pure-white head-to-toe full-body biking suit with matching boots before. (She was sure they must exist, but she'd never seen one in a catalog or a shop.) It looked absolutely brand new, without a speck of road dust or wear on it, either, even though she'd seen him drive up to their house on a simply massive black Suzuki Intruder. His beanie-style helmet was also pure white, with a green "crown of thorns" design on it that Molly was pretty sure Pastor Williams would call "sacrilegious".

As her dad and his new boss returned from the far end of the house Molly squinted and tried again to get a good look at the empty air above his head. She could almost but not quite see something floating there, and it was driving her nuts. It almost looked like a... a halo, of all things. But that was crazy. She sighed. Just one more oddity about this guy. "We're expecting the furniture to show up on the twenty-third," he was saying, showing her dad something on the tablet he was carrying. "Do you think you can get all that done by then?"

Her father thought for a moment, then nodded. "Yes, that's doable. Fortunately there's nothing really bad that needs attention, just little things. I'll assemble a small crew and we can get it all done, if not before Friday, then on Friday." He grinned at the other man. "We'll just work where the delivery guys aren't if it takes that long."

"Fair enough," he said with a chuckle. "Then I think we have a deal, Mister Ritter."

"Tom, please. And excellent," her dad said, smiling, as they shook hands. "Let's head back to my place and we can take care of the paperwork."

"Paperwork." The other man shook his head with a rueful smile, sending his shoulder-length hair swinging. "The bane of mortal man since at least the Romans."

Her father shrugged. "What can you do?" he asked, then looked over at her. "Well, sweetheart, we're done here."

Molly smiled, and climbed to her feet. "'Kay, Dad."

"I'm sorry I interfered with your plans for the morning," his boss said. "But I'm afraid it couldn't wait. Maybe it'd help if I mentioned there'll be five girls your age moving in next Saturday? I'm sure you'll become the best of friends."

"I don't know," Molly replied doubtfully. "What if we don't have any interests in common?"

"Oh, I don't think that will be a problem," he said. "They're all bikers like you and your dad."

Molly blinked. "In that case, you might be right."

---

---

1. RMS: That's in Celsius, of course -- in Fahrenheit it would be low 70s vs low 80s, which were the actual temperatures for the locations and dates concerned.
   
2. RMS: Chisame's father, Kinya Nakano, is a thinly-disguised version of retired Grand Prix motorcycle road racer Shinya Nakano.
   

[Mamorien]

"I think," Hayakawa said slowly, "that before we do anything else, it would behoove us to have breakfast."  He gestured toward the end of the building, toward what she had thought was a restaurant.  "I am reliably informed that Denny's serves a more than acceptable American-style meal."

"Of course it would, we're in America," Onsa muttered.

Stop me if you've heard this one: Although it presumably never appeared on Bakuon!! due to licensing vagaries and may not actually exist in-universe, Denny's does in fact have a presence in OTL Japan (owned by the parent company of 7-Eleven). In fact, if the club's familiar with the Japanese version, their expectations for their meal may be somewhat skewed. (You may wish to tweak the version going, or gone, to AO3; then again, you may not. If you do, please blame credit me [as Aberrant_Eyes] for picking the nit.)

Motel 6, on the other hand, appears to be exclusive to Unistat and Canada as far as I can discover, or at least the only Google results I got for 'motel 6 japan' that involved location services didn't return any results pointing to a Japanese presence. (When I searched Motel 6's own website for 'Kyoto', autocorrupt autocomplete gave a lot of pointers to Japanese restaurants in places like Severna Park, MD.)

[robkelk]

"I think," Hayakawa said slowly, "that before we do anything else, it would behoove us to have breakfast."  He gestured toward the end of the building, toward what she had thought was a restaurant.  "I am reliably informed that Denny's serves a more than acceptable American-style meal."

"Of course it would, we're in America," Onsa muttered.

Stop me if you've heard this one: Although it presumably never appeared on Bakuon!! due to licensing vagaries and may not actually exist in-universe, Denny's does in fact have a presence in OTL Japan (owned by the parent company of 7-Eleven). In fact, if the club's familiar with the Japanese version, their expectations for their meal may be somewhat skewed. (You may wish to tweak the version going, or gone, to AO3; then again, you may not. If you do, please blame credit me [as Aberrant_Eyes] for picking the nit.)

Motel 6, on the other hand, appears to be exclusive to Unistat and Canada as far as I can discover, or at least the only Google results I got for 'motel 6 japan' that involved location services didn't return any results pointing to a Japanese presence. (When I searched Motel 6's own website for 'Kyoto', autocorrupt autocomplete gave a lot of pointers to Japanese restaurants in places like Severna Park, MD.)

Well... er... Ah! Nobody said that Denny's doesn't have a presence in Japan, just that Hane thought there was something odd about the sign (North American signs don't have Japanese writing on them) and that Hayakawa wasn't familiar with the establishment.

Besides, the menu is different.

Does that make our saving throw?

[Bob Schroeck]

In fact, if the club's familiar with the Japanese version, their expectations for their meal may be somewhat skewed.

I am amused, because as part of writing chapter 2, I have included (in a footnote) exactly this kind of information regarding Wendy's, which didn't have a presence in Japan in 2012 but did in 2016 -- and also has a very different menu, because Wendy's Japan simply bought an existing restaurant chain called "First Kitchen" outright and turned it into "Wendy's First Kitchen", merging their menus in the process.

As for Denny's, I should probably make the change, given there are nearly 600 in Japan and they've been there since 1984. I don't think I should handwave that oversight, and I should probably make a note to doublecheck that kind of thing in the future just to avoid being sideswiped. Thanks!

[Mamorien]

Does that make our saving throw?

Works for me.

I am amused, because as part of writing chapter 2, I have included (in a footnote) exactly this kind of information regarding Wendy's, which didn't have a presence in Japan in 2012 but did in 2016 -- and also has a very different menu, because Wendy's Japan simply bought an existing restaurant chain called "First Kitchen" outright and turned it into "Wendy's First Kitchen", merging their menus in the process.

I think I'd heard about that, but probably not at the time.

As for Denny's, I should probably make the change, given there are nearly 600 in Japan and they've been there since 1984.  I don't think I should handwave that oversight, and I should probably make a note to doublecheck that kind of thing in the future just to avoid being sideswiped.  Thanks!

You're welcome, and thank you for heeding my jabber!

[Bob Schroeck]

And of course Rob and I ninja'ed each other... I suppose my agreeing to make the change overrides his saving throw. <grin>

EDIT: And in going back right now to make the change, I see that I didn't actually say anything that made it sound like Denny's was strange or unfamiliar -- just, like Rob said, that Hayakawa knows it only second-hand. On consideration, I don't think I need to change anything.

Thanks for pointing out a potential problem, though.

[Dartz]

Could just be another example of inter-worldly weirdness.

Maybe it's not in that variant of Japan. Or the slight weirdness if part of the collision of worlds - like a pub that no longer exists, or famous long dead characters of the city just being around doing their thing. History's as much a story as fiction is.

Send the kids to that park with the slide that goes loop-the-loop.

[Bob Schroeck]

Chapter 2: Deep in the Heart of Jersey

US Route 6 Westbound
Near the Massachusetts/Rhode Island State Line
Seekonk, Massachusetts, USA
Saturday, September 17, 2016, 10:23 AM

"Onsa-chan," Hane said over the radio link, "Should I be worried that I seem to know American traffic rules?"

"Didja know them before?" Onsa asked.

Hane thought for a moment. "No."

"Maybe whoever taught us English taught that to us, too," Chisame suggested.

"That's as good an explanation as anything I can come up with," Onsa admitted. "Not that I can come up with anything that explains the last twenty-four hours."

"You mean the last four years," Rin said.

"I do wonder who it is who gave us our itinerary," Hijiri mused, "and why they simply didn't just present themselves to us."

"Maybe it was a ninja they hired who left it and the money, and they were nowhere near the motel," Onsa laughed.

Rin scoffed. "What, you think America has ninja behind every tree, Mophead?"

"Well, you can't know for sure, can you?" Onsa replied, clearly enjoying herself. "I mean, if you knew they were there, they wouldn't be proper ninja. But if there's nothing there, there might be a ninja. And there's a lot of nothing out there." Onsa's grin was audible. "Am I right?"

"Idiot," Rin muttered as Hane and the other girls — well, except for Lime — laughed.

"Miss Amano's logic is impeccable," Hayakawa interjected, and Hane thought he sounded like he was enjoying himself as he did. "If there is no one there, they must be a ninja. There was no one in my room. Therefore, it was a ninja. Q.E.D."

"Oh, not you, too." Hane was pretty sure Rin was trying not to laugh even as she was complaining.

---

Wendy's
Guilford, Connecticut, USA
12:11 PM

They stopped for lunch and to top off their tanks in a little town in the middle of what Mister Hayakawa assured them was the state of Connecticut. Hane thought it was very strange, compared to a Japanese town — there seemed to be more open fields and trees than there were houses and other buildings, almost like the Americans didn't like having other people too close to them. Even the businesses seemed to only cluster together when they absolutely had to — to share a building, or a parking lot. Others, like the fast food restaurant they'd chosen for lunch, wrapped themselves in open space that seemed eight or ten times as big as the building itself. Some of it was parking, yes (which they'd availed themselves of, naturally), but some of it was an outdoor dining area, and the rest was just landscaping.

Probably in deference to Chisame's Honda scooter, which was smaller and less powerful than the other girls' bikes, the directions on their mysterious itinerary had steered them away from the superhighway — interstate number 95 — in favor of one labeled both "US-1" and "Boston Post Road" that was only two lanes wide and charged no tolls. It was a pleasant, scenic route that had led them through many little towns like the one they were now in, as well as long stands of old trees, and a few places that had looked almost like tiny farms as they'd sped past. There were times she almost forgot they weren't in Japan, and then a building would appear that looked nothing like a Japanese building and she'd remember where (and when) they were.

At least the novelty and the scenery were helping distract her from the weirdness.

She took a bite from her burger and savored the flavor and juiciness. It was different from the few hamburgers she'd had before, and she decided she liked it. Unlike the Denny's, she didn't think "Wendy's" had any restaurants in Japan^[1] ; she would have remembered having a burger like this.

She was startled out of her musings by Rin exclaiming, "We're going to be driving through New York City?"

Mister Hayakawa wiped his mouth with a paper napkin and nodded. "Only very briefly. We will have to transfer to Interstate 95 and cross first the Alexander Hamilton Bridge and then the George Washington Bridge. Between them is a very narrow part of Manhattan, quite far away from anything I suspect you might want to see in the city."

Rin deflated. "Oh."

Onsa patted her forearm. "Too bad. But maybe we'll have a chance to come back."

"I'd like to do that," Hijiri noted. "My parents have told me about their visits to New York, but I've never been." Then she slurped the last of her soda from her cup, noisily sucking air at the end.

Hane tilted her head inquisitively. "You sound like you know the area, Mister Hayakawa."

The butler nodded. "I do and I don't. After the end of the Pacific War and before I took my position with the Minowa family, I traveled quite widely." He smiled. "I wanted to see more of the world than just Japan and a Siberian gulag. I had some money from my family as well as my military pension, so I was able to visit Europe and the United States, among other places." His gaze grew distant and his smile became fondly nostalgic. "I traveled light, and camped or stayed in hostels to save my money whenever possible. And I spent almost a month in New York City, which in the post-war Shōwa era was quite a different place than it is today."

"A month?" Chisame asked. "What did you do?"

Mister Hayakawa's smile grew even fonder. "Oh, everything I could. I explored the city from top to bottom, visited landmarks, went to theatres and night clubs and dance halls, tried every kind of food imaginable, and made many friends. Even now, I still count it as one of the best times of my life."

"Wow," Hane breathed.

"I shall have to do some reading to see what still remains of the city I remember," he added. "If we do have a chance to return, I should like to play tour guide for you girls." He shook himself and seemed to come back to the present. "But before that, I believe we have a destination to reach first. Has everyone finished eating?"

Everyone gave some manner of affirmative response except Onsa, who held up a hand while frantically finishing her soda. She finished with an echo of Hijiri's earlier slurping and slammed the cup down on the table, making a hollow "bop!" sound. "Okay, now I'm good!" she declared.

Mister Hayakawa nodded. "I suggest everyone make use of the rest rooms, and then we will leave."

"Oh, yeah," Rin said, and hopped out of her seat — followed shortly by everyone else.

Ten minutes later, they had disposed of the remains of their lunches, and were once again mounted on their bikes. As they pulled out onto US-1 south and accelerated, Onsa suddenly exclaimed over the radio link, "What's up with that WcDonald's across the street? The W is upside-down on their sign!"

---

As soon as they crossed the George Washington Bridge they transferred from Interstate 95 back to a smaller local highway — in this case, Route 46 to Routes 1 and 9, which after they met up all seemed to be the same road. (And Hane wondered if this Route 1 was the same Route 1 they had ridden in Connecticut.) The neighborhood they had passed through after getting off the bridge, full of densely-packed houses and grubby-looking businesses, almost immediately gave way to more open space and businesses surrounded by big parking lots, even more so than they'd seen in Connecticut.

The traffic was heavier than she was used to — Hane had been slowly acclimating to it since they'd left Fall River, and she'd expected it when they got on Interstate 95 (which seemed to her just like a Japanese expressway) to cross Manhattan. But as they drove deeper into New Jersey the traffic was heavier than anything she'd ever seen on similar Japanese roads. It was like everyone in America owned a car, and they were all on their way somewhere right now. Most of the drivers were careful around them, but a few seemed almost angry that they were forced to share the road, the way they drove around their group. For her safety, they made sure Chisame stayed on the outside of the road where she could get off of it quickly if she needed to, and they closed ranks defensively around her.

They passed through a city called "Newark" on a different road, New Jersey 21, and then found themselves back on Routes 1 and 9 again. The names of the towns they passed through were all exotic and foreign, and as they drove Hane tried them out, to see how they felt on her lips: Clifton, Passaic, Lyndhurst, Nutley and others. She felt almost disappointed that they seemed so normal for her to say, unlike their destination, Okeechobee. And some of them she actually recognized, although she'd never thought she'd see a town called "Elizabeth". That was a name you gave a girl — or a guitar, she thought with a grin as she remembered an anime she'd been watching before their trip to Kyoto.^[2]

Just before they passed a couple of large shopping centers, Routes 1 and 9 went their separate ways — Route 9 veered off to the left while they continued on Route 1, which turned into an almost perfect straightaway through nearly constant stores and shopping centers for another thirteen kilometers — or should she say another eight miles, since they were in America? Then Mister Hayakawa led them onto a little side road right into a biggish town and onto what looked like its market street. This took them to a bridge over a wide, slow-looking river. After passing under a highway that ran along the other side of the river, they turned right at a stoplight onto a road (it looked like it was called "Johnson Drive") that curved around a tall white building surrounded by a thick line of trees.

Johnson Drive weaved back and forth then ran under a railroad bridge that looked very old to Hane, curved sharply to the left, then straightened out and brought them to another stoplight. It was a strange intersection — to their left was a tall stone wall like she'd seen around the bases of some temples back in Japan, and across the cross street from that was an odd little octagonal tower-like building that was only two stories tall; to their right on either side of the cross street were buildings of red brick — a tall one that looked old-fashioned to her eye, and across the road was a long, low and much more modern building with a sign reading "Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum".

The light changed and they continued onward, Buildings of red brick and brown stone surrounded them on both sides, and the light poles bore red banners reading "Rutgers". Hane kind of recognized that — wasn't it a school of some sort? A college, maybe? They kept going straight, and after they crossed a busy street with lots of cars on it the brick and stone buildings were replaced mostly by older-looking wooden houses.

"We're almost there," Hayakawa informed them over the radio link. "Remember, we're looking for someplace called 'Douglass Gardens Apartments'."

"That's where we'll get an explanation of what's happened to us?" Chisame asked.

"That's correct," he said. "The managers — Bob and Peggy ... Shrohk, I believe it's pronounced — should be able to answer our questions."

"Let's hope," Rin grumbled.

"It'll be all right," Hane declared confidently. "I'm sure of it!"

In just a couple of minutes they came across two long, low brick apartment buildings studded by multiple entrances and windows, with a street separating them. A red and gold sign in front of the first door on the right-hand building proclaimed that it was Douglass Gardens Apartments.

"Looks like we're here," Onsa declared. "There's parking lots 'round back, we can park right behind the managers' office."

"Excellent idea, Miss Amano," Mister Hayakawa said.

They were getting off their bikes just a minute later when what looked like the back door to the managers' office — or was it an apartment, Hane wondered, or both? — opened and a blond man with a mustache stepped out. He closed the door behind him then hopped down the brick steps that led up to it. He had a ballcap on, and wore jeans and a "Hard Rock Cafe" T-shirt. "Hi," he said, stepping forward, "welcome to Douglass Gardens."

"Hi," Hane said as they finished dismounting. "Are you Bob, um, Shrohk?" Closer to him, she could see that he was older than she had thought at first — late forties, she guessed, or maybe early fifties.

"'Shrek'," he replied goodnaturedly as he corrected her pronunciation. "Yes. You wouldn't happen to be Hane Sakura, would you?"

Hane turned around to look at the other girls and Mister Hayakawa. "See? I told you it would be all right!" Then she turned back to Mr. Shrek. "Yes, I'm Hane, and these are all my friends from the Motorcycle Club at Okanoue Girls' High School."

He nodded as if he'd expected that. "Like I said, welcome. I guess I don't have to explain what's happened to you, then?"

Rin and Onsa laughed, and Hane bit her lip. "Well, actually, we were told to come here and you would fill us in."

"What?" he asked.

---

Douglass Gardens Apartments
Somerset, New Jersey, USA
5:30 PM

It was hard to believe, like something out of an isekai manga, but there was no denying the proof that the Schroecks (that was the proper spelling of their name, according to the itinerary) had shown them.

They weren't just in the future, they were in an entirely different universe. That had an anime, all about them!

It took only one episode to convince them, even Mister Hayakawa.

Meeting Hokago Tea Time and Wakaba Girls was just the cherry on top. And getting what amounted to a private concert when they invited the club to sit in on their practice was so far beyond anything they'd expected that Hane didn't know what to call it. One end of the rehearsal room became an impromptu stage, and Hokago Tea Time quickly set up a dozen or so folding chairs facing it for the Motorcycle Club and whatever band wasn't playing, not to mention Mr. and Mrs. Schroeck, who only stayed for the first half hour or so before slipping quietly out of the room.

It was a wonderful and strange experience, Hane thought. Hokago Tea Time didn't sound as polished and clean as the recordings made for the anime did, and there were fewer instruments as well. Mugi-chan's keyboards were much more prominent than they'd been on any of the tracks from the anime, too.^[3] But there was an undeniable energy and fun to the songs, even if their sound wasn't as rich as the studio musicians made it, and Ritsu occasionally drifted off the beat, and their voices didn't quite match her memory of the actresses who'd played them in her world. They were real, and they were playing because they loved it, not because they were being paid to.

If only seeing Yui and Ui share a quick hug as the bands traded places hadn't reminded her that Yume hadn't come with them. She managed to hold back tears at the thought that Yume might be... she couldn't even think it, she didn't want to think it. For a moment she found herself hating Yui for having her sister with her when Hane had lost hers, but the feeling vanished as quickly as it had seized her, wiped away by a surge of shame.

She squeezed her eyes tight, trying to suppress the threatening tears. But as Azusa-chan and her band settled into place and began counting off, Hane realized that she had to get away, to be alone. As Wakaba Girls launched into a bright-sounding guitar riff, she rose from her seat and slowly slid back to the door to the hallway.

I'm packing up my doubts, I'm leaving them behind,
Got my heart on my sleeve and a fire in my mind.
The world's a little wild, but I'm ready for the ride,
With every step I take, I feel the fear subside.^[4]

Azusa-chan's voice followed her out into the hallway until the closing door cut it off. Hane turned right and dashed for the bathroom at the end of the hall she'd spotted on the way in. She'd barely had time to close the door behind her and drop onto the seat of the solitary Western-style toilet in the tiny room before the sobs erupted.

She wasn't sure how long she'd been crying when there was a soft, almost tentative knock on the bathroom door. "Hane?" Yui's voice was muffled but not impeded by the door. "Are... are you okay?"

Hane gave an unconvincing laugh that warbled with an interfering sob. "No?" she ventured.

There was a moment of silence. "Do you... want to talk about it?"

Hane thought about it as Yui waited patiently on the other side of the door.

"Yeah," she said, standing and reaching for the knob. "Yeah, I do."

---

So here I am, in a world so bright,
Finding my way, chasing dreams in the light.
Every hello feels like a brand new start,
In this place full of life, I'm opening my heart.
I'm opening my heart.^[5]

As they hurled themselves into the outro of Wakaba Girls' newest song (the last in their very limited catalogue, and just written the day before so they were still experimenting with the arrangement), Ui spotted the door of the rehearsal room quietly opening. Ui smiled gently as Yui peeked in, looked about, and then drew Hane by the hand into the room with her. Ui's smile briefly fled her face when she realized Hane looked like she had been crying, and that she was clutching Yui's hand like it was a lifeline.

Then her attention was taken up by the rush into the song's conclusion as she focused on staying in sync with the rest of the band to end abruptly on the last word of the lyrics. As they looked at each other, everyone grinning broadly, the Motorcycle Club and the members of Hokago Tea Time burst into applause. Ritsu had two fingers in her mouth and was whistling loudly — at least until Mio karate-chopped her on the head.

Azusa traded grins with Ui, and nodded. "Yeah, I think that ending works a lot better than the first one." She looked over her shoulder at Sumire, sitting at Ritsu's yellow drum set, and then to her left, where Jun stood with her head still down over her bass, and Nao sat at the keyboard of her laptop. "What do you guys think?"

Jun looked up, smiling broadly. "Well, since it was my idea..." she replied smugly.

Azusa rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes, you're a genius, we know." She was still grinning, though.

"And don't you forget it!" Jun said with a smirk as she unslung her bass and carried it over to where its case lay across a pair of folding chairs.

"Well, that's one vote," Azusa noted as Ui giggled.

"I liked it, too," Sumire offered as she laid down her drumsticks, then stood and stretched. Ui shook her head in disbelief. It never ceased to amaze her just how different Sumire-chan's English was from her Japanese. Just listening to her back in Japan, you'd've never guessed she was Australian, but her voice felt... brighter somehow in English, with a bouncy pacing and a more musical sound. Like she was more relaxed. Or maybe... more herself? Ui would have to think about that. Regardless, it was very easy to tell her apart from the Americans they'd met over the last few days.

"Yeah, it really worked well," Nao said, her head down over the laptop and her hands dancing across the keyboard. "I'm marking that as 'final'." She glanced up at the rest of the band, looking over the tops of her glasses. "We still need to work on the transition out of the bridge, though."

Azusa nodded, then sighed. "We need a better vocalist, too. I'm really not the best choice."

"I wasn't going to say it," Nao noted blandly as she turned her attention back to her laptop.

Azusa mock-scowled at her and Ui giggled again as she took off her own guitar and crossed over to where she'd left its case. She glanced over at her sister and Hane while packing it away, and her brow furrowed infinitesimally at the sight. Hane still hadn't let go of Yui's hand, and if she wasn't mistaken, Hane was trying to hide a heartbroken expression and failing badly at it. She nodded once to herself, briskly, then made her way between the folding chairs to seat herself gently on the other side of Hane from her sister. "What's wrong?" she whispered.

Hane gave a little whimper, and Yui squeezed her hand. Yui caught Hane's eyes with her own, and the younger girl nodded. "Hane's little sister Yume didn't come with them," she whispered back.

Ui's eyes grew large, and she raised her hand to her open mouth. "Oh, no." Then she leaned forward and wrapped Hane up in an embrace. "I'm so sorry for you!"

Hane took a deep breath and swallowed, but didn't say anything. Yui looked across at Ui and said softly, "Think you can make room for another big sister?"

Ui smiled. "Of course." She gently squeezed Hane again, and the older girl raised her hands to hold onto Ui's forearm. "I'm here for you, onee-san," Ui whispered into her ear.

Yui leaned in and whispered into her other ear, "Now you have an emergency backup little sister when you need one." Hane squeaked, half-laughing and half-crying.

"I couldn't impose..." she began.

"Don't be silly," Yui declared. "You may not realize it, but you're family. If Onsa had had a drum set instead of a motorcycle, you'd've been me. If Ritsu had been riding a bike instead of playing drums, I'd've been you. It doesn't matter that you came from another universe — you're just as much my sister as Ui is," she declared with absolute certainty. "And that means Ui's your sister, too. Let us help!"

Ui glanced at Yui in surprise. That was... surprisingly deep for her occasionally ditzy older sister.

And yes, she wanted to help.

---

Elsewhere in the rehearsal room, the various other members of Hokago Tea Time, Wakaba Girls and the Motorcycle Club congregated and split up and reformed into different groups as they got to know each other better. Although they didn't seem to be doing it intentionally, somehow they all managed to stay on the far side of the room from Yui, Ui and Hane, giving the trio their privacy while showing no sign whatsoever of even knowing they needed any.

In one corner, Azusa and Chisame were comparing notes, and coming to a very similar conclusion to the one Yui had drawn.

"So your family name is written with the same characters as mine," Azusa noted.

Chisame nodded. "And your father is a professional musician, while mine is a professional motorcycle racer."

"And we're both the most skilled members of our clubs," Azusa noted. Mugi-sempai wasn't in the Light Music Club any more, after all, now that she was in college.

"At least the most experienced," Chisame amended. "Except for Lime-sempai, of course. And we're both the youngest members, too, having joined a year after everyone else."

Azusa nodded, then reached up and touched her hair. "And we both wear our hair in twintails."

"Mine are shorter than yours, and my hair is brown. But yeah."

"And we both have sempai who we wish were a little more 'together'."

"Yeah. I guess there's only one conclusion," Chisame said, shaking her head with a smile.

"Oh?" Azusa asked with a knowing smile and raised eyebrow.

"We're the same person," Chisame declared matter-of-factly.

Azusa laughed. "No," she finally said, shaking her head. "Well, yeah, kinda, but no. You're way too short to be me, for one." Chisame snorted; she was the only person in the room shorter than Azusa-san. "We're more like, um, two different models of guitar by the same manufacturer. Similar, but not identical."

Chisame nodded. "Like two similar bike models? Okay, I can go with that."

"I don't think we're close enough to qualify as sisters, though," Azusa continued.

"So... cousins then?" Chisame peered up at Azusa, her head tilted quisitively.

The (relatively) taller girl considered this, then nodded. "Yes. Cousins. That works."

"Well, I'm glad you two got that sorted out," Jun said, walking up.

Azusa and Chisame shared a grin. "So are we."

Jun shook her head. "It's just weird, though, watching the two groups of you talking to each other. Like funhouse mirror reflections. Or like your show copied ours." She grinned broadly.

"I know," Azusa said in a conspiratorial half-whisper as she leaned toward her bandmate. "The craziest pair has to be Mio-sempai and ..." she turned to Chisame. "What's your blonde friend's name again?"

"Rin Suzunoki," Chisame said with a grin.

Azusa nodded. "Right, Rin-san. She's like, the complete Anti-Mio."

Chisame giggled. "You think maybe they might annihilate each other if they touch?"

"Let's not find out," Azusa declared with mock-seriousness.

Jun guffawed. "You know, I introduced myself to her — 'Hi! I'm Jun Suzuki!'" She wrinkled her nose. "And all she said to me was," and here she tried to imitate Rin's voice, "'That's a good name.'"

It was Chisame's turn to laugh. "Yeah, that's Rin, all right. Big fan of all things Suzuki, and nothing but Suzuki."

"Ah." Jun nodded knowingly. "Well, that explains that."

---

"You seem to be taking being displaced very well," Hijiri noted in yet another corner of the room. Not far away Mio, Nodoka and Rin were engaged in a quiet conversation of their own. "You've only been here, what, a week?"

"Not even that," Mugi corrected her. "Five days. We woke up in the sitting room on Monday morning."

Hijiri nodded. "I am even more impressed by how well you're coping."

Mugi smiled sadly. "Not really. We've all thrown ourselves directly into both school and our music to distract ourselves. It's helped, somewhat. Plus Yui and Ui have each other, and Sumire and I, as well."

"Sumire?" Hijiri looked about. "I'm afraid I don't remember..."

"Wakaba Girls' drummer." With the point of her chin, Mugi indicated the other blonde where she sat on the far side of the room in deep discussion with Onsa and Nao as Lime-sempai stood nearby, participating in her own quiet way. She smiled, more happily this time. "My sister, in all but blood."

Hijiri studied Sumire then turned back to Mugi. "Please, tell me more about the two of you."

---

When hunger finally drove them out of the rehearsal room, they found dinner was waiting for them in the dining room of the community center. Mr. and Mrs. Schroeck had laid out an assortment of foil and plastic containers in the kitchen, along with plates and both chopsticks and Western silverware. As they streamed into the kitchen, Hane was surprised at the familiar — and appetizing — scents filling the space.

Ritsu and Hijiri were at the front of the crowd. "Oh, cool, Midori!" Ritsu inexplicably said, and Hane turned to Yui for an explanation.

"A restaurant nearby," Yui whispered, understanding her glance, and Hane nodded.

Ritsu meanwhile had turned to Hijiri and said, "Good food, almost like home. They also do this teppanyaki kinda stuff the Americans call 'hibachi' for some reason, and that's pretty good, too."

"Come on in, everyone. Grab a plate and serve yourselves," Mrs. Schroeck instructed, and that's what they did.

Hane was surprised to find that, just as Ritsu assured Hijiri while they started serving themselves, the food was good. And she wasn't the only one to think so — for at least fifteen minutes virtually all conversation ceased, replaced by the clink of utensils on plates and the appreciative noises made by the diners. It wasn't until empty plates and satisfied grins both appeared that they started talking again, in twos and threes.

"So... what now?" Hane asked, looking between Yui and Ui.

"Let's watch more of your show!" Azusa suggested.

"Yeah, it's only fair," Ritsu declared, leaning back in her seat with a smile. "You got to see our show back in your world, after all."

"I wonder," Nao mused. "Would we have eventually gotten your show in our world?"

Jun rolled her eyes. "Who cares? We have it here and now. Let's just watch it."

And that's what they did. After leaving their dirty dishware on the table in the dining room, they all trooped back out to the room with the big sofa and the huge TV on the wall to settle down. Hane, still accompanied by Ui and Yui, wasn't sure she could face watching Yume, even an animated version of her, but she let herself be led in and sat with the sisters to either side with their arms around her.

To her surprise she found herself caught up in her own story — and she realized that it was her story, at least more hers than any of the other girls'. Seeing so many moments of her life from the outside was disorienting, and there were moments where she remembered events ever-so-slightly differently than they'd appeared on the screen. She wondered whether it was her memory or the anime which was wrong... or if it were just the point of view changing how things seemed.

And she was sure the program was hinting at something about Lime-sempai, but for the life of her she couldn't put her finger on exactly what.

---

"Oh, god," Rin moaned shortly after the start of the fourth episode. "They're showing that time at the hot springs."

"What about them?" Azusa asked.

Despite herself Hane giggled. "That's when we found out Rin's definitely a Suzuki girl for life."

"Huh?"

Onsa smirked. "She's got..."

"Don't you dare, Mophead!"

Onsa's smirk grew larger. "They're going to find out in a minute, Rin-chan." She turned back to the other girls. "She's got the Suzuki logo branded on her butt."

Ritsu looked impressed. "That's hardcore! How'd you get that done?"

Rin scowled at no one in particular. "I didn't do it on purpose. It was because of my stupid father!"

"What did he do?" Ritsu pressed.

"Flashback!" Onsa announced, pointing at the screen. Everyone stopped talking to watch an adorably tiny animated Rin get catapulted off her father's motorcycle to land on a hot car hood.

Everyone winced. "Ow," someone whispered.

"Was that what really happened?" Hijiri asked. "You were rather vague when telling us about it."

"You're lucky you weren't hurt worse," Ui whispered, her eyes wide.

"Just another day with my dumbass dad," Rin spat.

Onsa turned to the other girls, and with a conspiratorial grin, noted, "The animated version of her butt has nothing on the real thing. Why don't you show us, Rin?"

Rin leapt to her feet and glared at Onsa, her fists planted on her hips. "I swear, Mophead..."

"Show it, Rin," Onsa began chanting, still grinning. "Show it!" And in a moment, the rest of the room was giggling and chanting along with her.

"Show it, Rin, show it! Show it, Rin, show it!"

"What? No!" Rin shrieked.

"C'mon, we're all friends here, right?" Ritsu joined in. Hijiri and Mugi's eyes both grew wide; Hijiri's with delight as she clapped her hands in anticipation of possible delinquent behavior, Mugi's growing starry at the thought that things might go into unexpectedly explicit terrain. Sadly for both, Rin adamantly refused to bare her bottom for the room.

---

Not long after this, the Schroecks set them up with keys to apartments they could use for the night — well, some of them. Hayakawa got an apartment to himself, while Lime and Hijiri shared another, and Rin and Onsa a third. To Hane's surprise, Chisame was staying with Azusa and Jun. And to her relief, she herself was informed in no uncertain terms that she was staying with Yui and Ui.

An hour later, Hane found herself in her pajamas, her clothes in her hands, standing at the end of the hallway of the apartment the Hirasawa sisters shared with their friend Nodoka. Behind her was the bathroom where she had just changed, and to either side was a bedroom. Straight ahead the hallway vanished into the darkness of the living and dining rooms. She'd left her shoes and overnight bag there before they'd turned out the lights. She bit her lip, uncertain what to do next.

"Good night, Hane-chan." Hane jumped in surprised and looked to her left. Nodoka, in pajamas and sans glasses, was leaning slightly out of the bedroom there, with one hand on the door and the other on the frame.

"Good night, Nodoka-chan," she murmured. Nodoka smiled in acknowledgment, then retreated into the room, closing the door behind her.

Ui appeared at the doorway of the bedroom to her right. "Hane-chan," she said softly. "In here."

Nodding, Hane trotted into the room, which was furnished with two surprisingly large Western-style beds, a pair of dressers, and two desks, each with a computer on it. The wall over one of the desks had pictures of some sort tacked up haphazardly all over it. A pair of stands next to the desks held Ui's guitar and Gitah.

"You can put your clothes on one of the chairs," Ui said with a gentle smile.

"Okay," Hane murmured. Indulging her curiosity, she chose the chair under the pictures, which she realized as she got closer were drawings and other artworks featuring all the girls from K-On!

Ui spotted her looking at the pictures, and her smile got larger. "Yui has started collecting fan art of us," she explained.

"Ooh," Hane breathed, still studying them. "I wonder if there's fan art of the Motorcycle Club."

"Oh sure!" Yui said from where she was already burrowed under the light covers of the nearer bed, surprising Hane. Until she'd spoken, Hane had thought she'd been just a lump of messy blankets. "Danbooru — that's a site on the internet full of fan art — has a couple hundred images, although some of them are terribly naughty." She giggled. "I did a quick check while you were changing."

Hane blushed and spun away from the pictures to face the sisters. "I don't think I want to know."

Under the covers, Yui giggled again. "Don't worry, the naughty stuff is mostly of Rin-chan."

"Really? I suppose that makes sense," Hane murmured, still blushing.

Ui just rolled her eyes, while still smiling. "There are just too many horny otaku drooling over pretty anime girls," she said with a giggle of her own. "All the pretty anime girls."

"Now, c'mon, get in bed." Yui lifted the blankets next to her.

"With you?" Hane asked, her eyes wide.

"We're not going to let you sleep alone, silly," Ui said, gently steering her to the edge of the bed. "You're sleeping with your sisters tonight, onee-chan."

A minute later, Hane found herself comfortably bracketed with a Hirasawa sister on either side of her, wrapped again in their arms. A sliver of light from one of the street lamps outside cast a narrow wedge across the darkened room, just enough to faintly limn everything in pale gray. As she burrowed into their embrace, a tiny knot of tension in her chest slowly started unwinding for the first time all day. She took a deep breath and, eyes closed, allowed herself to relax.

"Hane-chan," Yui murmured near her ear.

"Yeah?" she replied drowsily.

"Is Chisame-chan as adorable as Azu-nyan?" Yui asked, her voice thick with impending sleep. On Hane's other side, Ui gave an amused-sounding sniff. "I didn't really get much chance to talk to her."

Hane didn't know how to answer that, so she decided to answer Yui's question with one of her own. "What is it with you two, anyway? Your show never says."

Yui didn't reply right away, and Hane wondered if she'd drifted off already. Then she murmured again, her warm breath tickling Hane's ear. "I really don't know. Sometimes I want to carry her off to bed and kiss her until she passes out... and sometimes I just want to hug her like I hug Ui, for the same reason. I guess I love her, but I suppose I still haven't figured out in what way, and I keep going back and forth."

"I wonder if Kakifly^[6] knows, and just isn't telling you or anyone else," Hane mused as her own drowsiness started creeping over her.

Yui giggled softly into her ear. "Maybe I should write him and ask."

"You do that, onee-chan," Ui said with a trace of laughter in voice. "Let him know the whole band wants an answer."

Yui giggled again. "Can you just imagine the look on his face, getting a letter from one of us?"

Hane grinned in the darkness. "He'd probably jump on the next plane to the United States."

No one said anything more after that. Hane closed her eyes and let herself start to drift off as Ui and Yui's breathing slowed and deepened. Her last thoughts before sleep took her were of Yume, and for the first time since arriving in this world, they came without tears.

---

---

1. RMS: Hane is both right and wrong. In 2012 there were no Wendy's restaurants in Japan; however, in June 2016, Wendy's Japan bought the First Kitchen chain and turned its 136 restaurants into "Wendy's First Kitchen" stores. Unfortunately for Hane, their menu is dramatically different from the American menu.
   
2. RMS: The anime is, of course, K-On!, and boy, is she going to be surprised in an hour or so.
   
3. RMS: Much as in this live version of "Fuwa Fuwa Time" from the 2011 "Come With Me!!" concert, where they're very much in 60s rock organ mode and right up front, with Minako Kotobuki getting an extended solo.
   
4. From "Step Into The Spotlight" by Wakaba Girls.
   
5. From "Finding Myself" by Wakaba Girls.
   
6. RMS: For those who aren't K-On! readers, Kakifly is the pseudonymous mangaka behind it.
   

[Bob Schroeck]

...so, I'm kinda surprised no one has said anything about the Wakaba Girls MP3s in the last three days. Were they that bad?