The old man, Maruyama, as he introduced himself, studied us over the rim of his teacup like we were particularly fascinating insects. "Time travellers," he muttered, half to himself. "Either you're telling the truth, or you're the most dedicated historical re-enactors I've ever seen."
Hongbing's fingers twitched toward his sword. I subtly stepped on his foot under the table.
"Historical... what?" I asked, struggling with the unfamiliar English term. (What does he mean by that?)
He waved a hand. "Never mind. More importantly," He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small rectangular device that lit up at his touch. Both of us flinched.
"Ah. Right." Maruyama chuckled. "This is a smartphone. Like how do we say it, a portable library and messenger combined." He tapped the screen, and suddenly a woman's voice filled the room, speaking rapid Japanese.
Hongbing was on his feet in an instant, blade half-drawn. "WHAT SORCERY IS THIS?"
"NO! not sorcery!" he said quickly. "It's just... technology. Science. Like gunpowder, but it's more advanced."
I placed a restraining hand on his arm. "Stand down. If he wanted us dead, the tea would have done it."
My partner glared but sheathed his sword. "I don't trust this place. Or him."
Maruyama sighed and switched back to Mandarin. "Look, I believe you're telling the truth. Your armour is real battle wear, not costuming. And your speech patterns... no one fakes that level of archaic phrasing." He leaned forward. "But you can't go outside looking like this. You'll be arrested or worse, become internet celebrities."
"Internet...?" I began, then shook my head. "Never mind. What do you suggest?"
He rummaged through a closet and threw bundles of fabric at us. "Change into these. We'll figure out the rest later."
Hongbing held up a garish T-shirt with a cartoon cat on it like it was a dead rat. "You cannot be serious."
I bit back a laugh. "Better than being hunted like animals from another era." But I couldn't help but look at mine too. It was a plain white shirt, not my usual style of dressing, either.
"I know, these may not be the best clothes here! We can buy some new and better clothes after some time!" Maruyama told us, trying to reassure us both.
(OH GOD! We are staying here, aren't we? The reality started to kick in. This is real!! Not some messed up opium induced dream!!!!)
My hands slowly started to tremble a bit as I put my shirt on. I heard Hongbing grumbling something, but it went over my head. (Pathetic! Get it together, Jincheng. You are not a child anymore. You can't cry like a 2-year-old toddler who lost her toys.)
After dressing up, we remained seated while that old man made some calls using that so-called phone of his.
"Hey, are we stuck in this place?" Hongbing asked his was deflated tone.
"Hongbing, I am going through the same thing as you so yeah I guess so..." I repiled placing my finger on the rim of the cup. (That was my third cup of tea.)
Maruyama returned, putting his phone in his pocket.
"So how was it?" I ask, wanting to start a conversation to ease the tension surrounding us.
Silence.....
"Mr Maruyama?"
"Would you both like to do something while you wait?" He finally said as he brought out a round, cylindrical object.
"What is that thing?" I couldn't help but ask him, It seems shiny.
"Have you heard about a pen?" He twirled it around his fingers, lost in thought "Is it like the brushes?"
"It's not flexible, but it gives out consistent ink, you don't have to dip it in," He answered, writing something with that 'pen' on a spare sheet of paper.
"Here...." He handed me the paper with something written on it
"This is an address. I'll drop you off, then you have to meet a friend of mine. He will handle the rest of the process, you don't need to worry, I have explained things to him"
"We don't have to say anything to him?" I reaffirm his statement
The response was a curt nod.
---------
So, according to the old timer. We had nothing on us that would help anybody, "even construction work needs a basic degree these days," I hear him muse aloud as we all leave to meet the other person. 'Technology, ' he told us, was not developed enough to get us home right away. That means we can't go back and will be stuck here for quite some time. Instead of waiting for a long time doing absolutely nothing, he decided we should do something with those hands of ours and in return, he could squander his money on all things useful other than smoking or playing cards in the neighbourhood.
He contacted an old friend of his who was a chairperson of some company as he called it, to help us out (I dont even know what that even meant and I had a lot of questions like what is a chairperson? is he the head of a business of some sort? and what is a company?) now both of us me and Hongbing stood at the main entrance of a large building which looked like an institution of some sort. Maruyama left the premises, citing that he needed to go to work. We proceeded to get inside and came face to face with a bespeckled man who looked about in his early sixties.
The man before us, the old man's so-called "chairperson", eyed us with the kind of scrutiny usually reserved for lab specimens. His glasses caught the light, turning his gaze into something unreadable.
Hongbing shifted beside me, his fingers twitching near his hip, an age-old habit, a phantom reach for the sword that wasn't there. Maruyama had been firm about that. "If you two march in there swinging steel like it's the Warring States period, I'll have more than just the cops to deal with." His exact words. And our assassin boy's glare in response could have peeled paint off the walls.
"So it's you two Maruyama talked about?" He asks us to give him the one over. I had no choice but to force myself not to start fidgeting.
"Come to my office. Let's have a chat"
Oookay? That seemed to be more of a threat than an invitation. Keep calm, get going, I chanted as I followed behind him. My grouchy partner stayed close, thank the heavens!!!!!!. The last thing I needed was him deciding this was another ambush and flipping the table. I didn't need to egg him on like last time.
Since Maruyama is going to spend dozens of dimes on us, I'll have to make sure his money's worth. Every catty penny he dishes out, we will work twice as hard to make it worth his time.
"No identity in official documents." A sharp click of his pen.
"Not a single certificate of qualifications." Another click, click.
"No crime data records." He swiped something off the tablet, lips pursed.
"Nor alternative identities." The pen twirled between his fingers, his eyes sharp with something between fascination and suspicion.
I was sweating now. This wasn't an interrogation, it was a dissection piece by piece.
"And no hospital records... Impressive." He leaned back, steepling his fingers.
The screen, which was bright before ('a computer,' he said), flickered to black as he faced us again.
"So it was true after all, you are indeed travellers, there is nothing to verify you with, even with the advanced tech we have"
I blinked. Was that... good? Bad? His brows dipped when he realised what he was dealing with here...
Two 'time travellers' with nothing on their backs.
"Since you don't have an identity per se. We can forge one instead, and it might make the rest of the process easier, " He sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
"I do not wish to offend you, sir, but isn't forging documents a crime?" I ask him doubt colouring my features. (It is, in my place, forging any document is equivalent to having your head on a platter straight to the executioner's block without trial)
"Since I am forging it for you, the crime is ruled out," he told me.
"How the hell does that make any....." He cut me off with a raised hand, plucking a pen from its holder, one of those clicky, modern ones Maruyama had used to scribble the address. The click, click, click as he tapped it against the desk was like a hammer to my skull. Gods, I missed brushes. Silent. Reliable. Not designed to drive men mad.
"Okay, so here is how we are going to do it. Both of you were college students who went on a trip to the mountains
Hmmmmmm...okay, why the mountains though?" I couldn't help but ask
"I don't know, kids do crazy things all the time!!!!" He told me his cheeks turned a little pink
"Now I am feeling a little offended," I muttered under my breath as I gestured to him to continue his story
"Anyways...." he barreled "Your car", he points to me "was hit by a truck, you lost control of the vehicle, and it fell down a cliff. Both of you were severely injured and ended up in the ICU"
"I don't know what an ICU or a truck is. Is an ICU a vehicle of some sort?" I interrupt him for a moment.
"An ICU is for those who are critically injured, while a truck.... uh.... how do I say it? Wait, I'll show you both a picture of it on the phone."
That tiny box could take pictures, too? If my brother gets his hands on it. He will have a field day with it, no doubt.
My breath caught. The image on the screen, a massive, roaring metal beast on wheels, was unlike anything I'd ever seen. Hongbing's eyes narrowed, his warrior's instincts no doubt calculating how to take it down in a fight.
My assassin buddy crossed his arms. "So. Fake pasts, fake papers. What do we do here?"
The man leaned forward, a glint in his eye. "You go to college, study whatever you can. Get a part-time job alongside it, earn your keep. And try not to remind anyone that you're essentially ghosts with no history."
I exhaled.
(Well, at least we weren't being thrown into a dungeon.)
(Yet.)
---------
"The semester starts in April, so buy what you need from Maruyama and be prepared for it as early as possible. I will enrol you and him as foreign transfer students, do you understand?" Mr Tanaka glared at us as we were preparing to leave the building
("April....April.....April, What is that? What even is April? Since he said it starts, maybe it is a time or something?)
"Do. you. understand?" His brows furrow as he approaches me, and my partner reaches for his nonexistent sword. He might have sensed the aggression that was flowing out of that chairperson guy.
"Crystal clear...Sir," I audibly gulped as I replied. (I am not going to cause a commotion here, nope, don't even think about it. Think about Maruyama!!!) while one of my hands was gripping Hongbing's sword arm quite tightly. 'God Hongbing, please don't cause a commotion, I beg of you. I don't want to go to a dungeon!!!" I didn't tell him this outright, but my gaze was enough to send a message. He shakes his arms and frees himself before walking up to Maruyama, who looks just as uncomfortable as we both were.
"Unbelievable!!! What's going on with him?" Maruyama muttered as we entered his car.
"Wait, wasn't he this way?" I asked, tilting my head in bewilderment.
"I've never seen him snap like that. He's usually so gentle with strangers," Maruyama murmured, speeding up. (So this is unusual... Could it be our fault? )
"Hold on—what did he even tell you guys?"
"To prepare for the semester, something of that sort. By the way, Mr Maruyama, can I ask you something?"
"Yeah.....speak up"
"What is April?" I asked sheepishly, by the way he looked at me, I guess this was a stupid question.
We entered his gate by then. The engine's idle rumble filled the garage as his keyring stilled mid-turn. The question hung like a struck gong Then, his head snapped toward me, keys biting into his palm.
"Are you being serious right now? Did your time period not have calendars?" He stared at me like I'd just sprouted antlers. (Calendars, what are calendars now? And did I... did I just get out-evolved by something called a calendar? Was this man questioning my fundamental grasp of time itself?)
"Oh my god, are you serious?! How are you even going to survive college?! They'll sniff you out in, like, two seconds if you keep this up!" Maruyama threw his arms in the air as he got out of the car.
"Stop. Rewind. Basic literacy check: When someone says 'October 12th' - does that MEAN anything to you?"
"October 12th?" I look at him. (Why is he looking at me like that? Stop looking at me like that!!!!!)
"Yes, October 12th, ring a bell? Have you heard about the Gregorian calendar at least?"
"Gregorian Calendar?"
"Okay, " he grabs my shoulders as he breathes deeply, "before we go to college or anything else, we need to establish if you understand the CONCEPT of Mondays."
"Since you both don't know anything, we have to do this from the beginning, starting today", Mr Maruyama said, handing us some towels "Freshen up, take a bath, come to my study after you finish that"
I nodded as I dragged my partner to our newly assigned rooms.
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