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The unlikely Duo and the Digital World. (Korrag4, Chibineko)
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Post by korrag4 on Jan 8, 2016 3:29:35 GMT
As he stepped out of the train, Grahm instinctively lifted his hand to block his eyes from the beaming sunlight. After a brief moment to adapt, he lowered his hand and began to survey his surroundings. Normally one would expect to see just another station stop when they got off of a train, but the environment before him was none so familiar. Grass as far as the eye could see, a seemingly endless plain of lush green and the occasional crater.
Wide eyed and bewildered, he thought aloud "Where... Am I?"
Reaching for the complimentary map of Japan and it's public transit lines he had stuffed in his back pocket, he began to compare and try to somehow make sense of everything around him, but to no avail. It was painfully clear tho him that this area wasn't just not-Shibuya, he was sure that somehow he had been taken off the continent entirely. Shoulders slumped and spirit broken, he finally conceded to being lost. "Damn, I was supposed to participate in that title match in less than a month... I guess I can forget about that, I've got bigger fish to fry, like figuring out where the heck I am."
Arms crossed, eyes closed and facing upward, he began to recount the day's events aloud. "I was using my day off to try out the local bakeries and then I saw that girl drop her wallet. I chased her down to return it, the doors closed before I could get off and then... And then?" With a sad sigh, he put his hand to his forehead "There's no explanation, somehow I just ended up here. There aren't even railroads out here, for crying out loud... Wait a second, that girl, she was with me on the train, maybe she remembers." With that thought, Grahm turned to face the exit of the train to see if his wayward companion was still with him.
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Post by chibineko on Jan 8, 2016 7:20:43 GMT
Haruka looked out of the train's window and blinked a couple times. "Oh my. It seems I took the wrong line." Haruka said with a slight frown. She thought back to the previous events to figure out when she had gotten on the wrong train.
~1 Hour Ago~
Haruka thanked the old man who ran the shop as she took the bag from him. She put her wallet in her skirt pocket and then bowed to the older man and left the store. She looked inside the bag at the purchases she had just made. Several different types of pastries, all varying in size, shape, color, flavor, and ingredients. "This should do for the assignment tomorrow. If I have to make a dual flavored sweet tomorrow, its better to see which flavors would be best suited for each other now then try to just make a go of it in class." She ended that thought with a sigh. She recalled the student who mixed peppers into their pudding... "Honestly, who would bring peppers to a sweets class anyway!" She said it with a little huff of indignation. She shook her head at the thought of some people being allowed to cook professionally.
She glanced at the clock on the station wall. "Oh no. I better hurry or I'll miss my train home." She thought, and then headed in the direction of her line, picking up her pace as she went. As she passed in front of the row of bakeries that signaled where the stop was, she didn't notice as her wallet fell out of her pocket.
And that's when they met.
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Post by korrag4 on Jan 8, 2016 7:31:30 GMT
~continuing the flashback~ As he was leaving the store, stuffing his face and happy as could be, something caught Grahm's attention out of the corner of his eye. A girl darted past him as he walked outside, obviously in a real hurry to get somewhere and obviously too panicked to notice the wallet that just slipped out of her pocket.
After picking it up and looking in the direction the girl was heading towards, he sighed and put on a blank look. "Guess I gotta put my bakery tour on hold, but at least this'll be my good deed for the day. Looks like she's getting on a train too, I better hurry." After wolfing down the rest of his snacks, he took off after the clueless girl, shouting "Hey, wait a sec!" with his half-stuffed mouth, which came out as unintelligible grumbles.
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Post by chibineko on Jan 8, 2016 7:46:53 GMT
~Con't~
Haruka heard what sounded like some muffled talking from behind her, but she didn't pay much attention to it. She got out her phone and without looking scanned the ticket machine which gave a cheerful "Beep!" as it took payment off her app. She put her phone back in her bag as she went past the machine and then hopped on the train.
It wasn't until she sat down and reached for her wallet to check the receipt that she noticed it was gone. She blinked a couple of times and stood up, patting both of her pockets. "Ara? Thats odd.... I wonder where it went." She looked around the train, thinking it just fell to the floor.
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Post by korrag4 on Jan 8, 2016 7:57:48 GMT
~Con't~ After seeing her pass the ticket machine, Grahm groaned out loud. "Damn it, I don't have a Japanese phone and there's no time to buy a ticket... Guess I gotta take the express lane, I'll deal with the repercussions later!"
Cringing in grief as he knew the trouble he'd be in, he leaped over the machine and began to dart down the hall, ignoring the station worker that began to yell at him. He almost didn't make it, but just as he reached the car that the girl had boarded, Grahm put both his feet forward to skid to a stop before side-stepping between the closing doors of the train car.
After dusting himself off and shrugging off the feeling of guilt, he flicked out his right hand towards the girl who was currently patting herself down in a frantic motion. Speaking in well-practiced Japanese but not turning to look at her, he spoke calmly. "Looking for this, miss?"
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Post by chibineko on Jan 8, 2016 8:58:43 GMT
Haruka looked up as she heard someone speak. She saw the owner of the voice, an American, not too much older than her, with bandages on his face. He wasn't looking at her, so she wasn't sure if he meant her. She was about to ask when she saw him holding up her wallet. She took it from his hand and smiled brightly. "Oh thank you! Im so glad it didnt get left behind or stolen! My school ID is in there and I cant go to class without it."
She tucked it safely in her purse then turned and bowed to the young man. "Thank you again. I'm very grateful." She straightened and smiled brightly. "You deserve a reward!" She opened up her bag from the shop and pulled out a creme puff and then handed it to him. "Here, please take this!"
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Post by korrag4 on Jan 8, 2016 9:34:06 GMT
Hearing the girl's gratitude filled Grahm with a sense of satisfaction, after she was done speaking he closed his eyes and, with a nod replied "Don't worry about it, I don't mind helping out when I see someone in need."
With a smile, he turned to face her "Don't worry about any kind of reward, I just didn't want you to lose thi....."
There it was, his nemesis. The one thing that Grahm would always have a struggle against, his own fruit of knowledge, Coach says no but his stomach says yes, his greatest temptation: Baked sweets. Without so much as a hesitant thought, he took her gift and shoved it into his mouth. His reaction was of pure joy, he was loving every second of this, savoring every little detail of the flavor. Once he was done, he realized what he had done and faced the floor with a shameful look. "S-Sorry for snatching it like that, I can't help myself around baked goods."
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Post by chibineko on Jan 8, 2016 20:31:10 GMT
Haruka just smiled. "That's quite alright. Sweets are a powerful thing. They help us to overcome many things." She looked at the bag and smiled. "I hope I can make sweets that bring that kind of emotion you had to other people's faces."
She blinked a couple times then hit her forehead with her hand lightly. "Where are my manners! My name is Kanatae Haruka. It's nice to meet you." She bowed slightly to him. She straightened up and smiled. "So you're taking this train too? I'm glad I caught it in time, the next one was about half an hour away. Glad we're on our way now." She looked around. "Although... usually there are more people." She said, seeing that the car they were in was empty save for the two of them.
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Post by korrag4 on Jan 8, 2016 20:41:19 GMT
With that, he perked up a little in curiosity. "Wait, you actually make stuff like this? That's amazing, I never was much good at cooking classy food so I always admired people who had that kind of talent. My name's Grahm and I-"
Midway through his admiration, his mind went back to the fact that he WAS on a train, heading SOMEWHERE that he was not familiar with. In a panic, he turned back and saw the station begin to trail off. "W-What?! I didn't mean to get stuck on here, I was just trying to get your wallet back to you!"
With a groan, he leaned his head on the closed doors of the train and silently submissed to the situation. Turning back to face Haruka, he whined and said. "I don't mean to trouble you but where exactly are we headed? I'm obviously not from 'round here so.."
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Post by chibineko on Jan 8, 2016 20:49:45 GMT
"Oh dear! I'm so sorry Grahm-san!" She fretted. "Um well this is supposed to go into the Tokyo area. That's where I live." After saying that, she brightened. "Oh I know! In order to apologize for inconveniencing you, why dont you come to my house? I'll make you some dinner and you can call your family to tell them where you are. That way they dont worry." She brightened completely at her good idea.
She looked out the window and then blinked. "Oh my...." Looking back at her companion, she laughed a little nervously and pushed her two index fingers together. "It seems.... I got on the wrong train as well....eheheh....There arent normally any trees on my route." She put her hand behind her head, looking out the window at the forest outside.
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Post by korrag4 on Jan 9, 2016 0:09:44 GMT
Her words ran through him like electricity, Grahm rarely talks to girls on a personal level and yet one had just invited him to her home for dinner. He knew she couldn't possibly be interested in him or anything but it came as a surprise nonetheless. "N-No way! I mean, uh, I, I, I can't! I can't possibly impose on you! It'd be rude, plus what would your parents think about you bringing home some random guy?! I mean...!"
In the middle of his panicked ramblings, he noticed that she was right. This wasn't Tokyo, he wouldn't be able to tell where they were until the tree line passed and he could see the coast line and possibly the closest town. "Aw damn it, I guess that makes us both lost huh? I'll just call my coach and see if he can- Huh?" After digging around in his pockets, what Grahm removed looked nothing like his usual, outdated flip phone. Was it some kind of toy?
"What the heck is this piece of junk?"
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Post by chibineko on Jan 9, 2016 4:37:41 GMT
"My parents wouldn't be home til much later. Plus, why would having a boy over be a bad thing?" She tilted her head, confused.
"Oh good idea. I should call my parents too. Not that anyone is home right now though..." Haruka pulled out her phone from her bag then blinked a couple of times. "Huh..my parents must have changed my phone again." She looked over the device in her hand. It was oval like, red and white in color, with a small grey antenna. She tried pushing one of the buttons. A small map came up with a couple of dots. "What's thi-" She was cut off as the train jolted and she fell forward blacking out.
~Present Time~
Haruka rubbed her head where she bumped it. "Right. That's what happened. Hope Grahm-san is okay." She walked out the door and saw him. She smiled in relief. "Oh good. You arent hurt."
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Post by korrag4 on Jan 9, 2016 4:54:15 GMT
With a sigh and a nod, Grahm hesitantly smiled at Haruka. "Yeah, I'm fine. Took a hard knock and blacked out when the train bumped, but I guess you felt it too from the look of things."
Arms crossed, he turns to face her and, with a shake of his head and a sigh, begins to inform her of the situation. "I don't where we are or how in the world we got here (and on the train, no less) but this topography doesn't match any in Japan, we would be able to see the water from any of the plains this big on the island. Simply put, we're quite a ways from home and I'm not remotely sure of how we're getting back... But don't worry, stick with me and I'm sure we'll figure it out"
With a hand on his hip and a raised thumbs-up, Grahm faked a look of confidence. "Probably"
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Post by chibineko on Jan 9, 2016 5:51:16 GMT
Haruka giggled. "That's some confidence you have there. Makes me feel better already. I don't know what I would have done if I had ended up here alone." She smiled at him and then blinked. "Topography? Like a map?" She remembered before the jolt there had been a map on her new device.
She pulled the device out of her bag again and pushed the button. The map came up again, showing two dots next to each other and then a different colored dot a bit farther away. "What are these dots I wonder?"
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Post by korrag4 on Jan 9, 2016 5:59:05 GMT
Grahm tilts his head in confusion. "Wait, what the heck is that thing? [in english: Looks just like the piece of crap I found in my pocket."
After digging around again, he lifted the strange gadget up to meet hers and with a mechanical hum, it lights up a matching map. After fidgeting around for a few seconds, he believed he was starting to get a grasp of it. "Maybe... The two dots our us? Then, what's that over there?"
With a chuckle, he looks up at Haruka and inquires. "Want to go check it out?"
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