❝ I can’t say I’m a fan where I get to interact with the anime characters of my childhood… I would’ve been extremely enthralled as a child, yet.. Right now.. I just feel confused.
❞
“Oh! I think I’ve had that before! Oh, but it was one of the sakura-themed ones, do you think they’ll still have it? …Do they have strawberry cream cheese? How’s the chives one?”
“Great! Well, we did have a cherry blossom one during the spring, the flavours tend to change during the seasons, so now you have a lot of coolers instead. Fruit flavoured ones. Wait– I think i’ve seen strawberry in the stories but not in the bagel shops. Chives are great! I love garlic myself but that might be my Italian roots dictating my taste choice.”
“Well! It has been a while since I last ate. Kinda surprised my stomach didn’t start growling but who cares? Is coffee any sweeter over here? Usually it’s way too bitter for my tastes, but I’ll give it a try! What kind of cream cheese do they have?”
“Well we have all different sorts of coffee, depends what you take. I usually love lattes or black coffee depending on my mood, but I might just stick with a Frapechino considering how great the weather is. Cream cheese? Well, we got our regular, and we have ones with chives, some with fruits, you name it we got it.”
“Thaaaat’s a really good question, um…Tourist– nono, no, insider! Insider, yeah, let’s do that.”
“Okay! Insider it is. First of all let’s go down to get some coffee and bagels, you’ve not LIVED until you’ve had a New York Bagel with cream cheese. I assume teleporting makes you hungry, well, it made me hungry when I’ve done it in the past anyway.”
“…Well…I did lie and say I was at a friend’s before we left to fight. If my parents call, she’ll cover for me.
Maybe a quick look around wouldn’t hurt. What’s somewhere you’d say you can’t leave New York without visiting?”
“I could be cliché and say the statue of Liberty? I mean everyone goes there but if you haven’t walked down the strip you haven’t lived, again it’s swarmed with tourists but it’s such a great place to see almost everything. Depends - you want back ally insider New Yorker knowledge or do you want the tourist treatment?”
“….Ohmigod. Oh, gods, if…if I’m in New York, and that’s the really far end of…
…how far away is that? Like, halfway around the world or so? Do I even wanna know? (Do I still have that gift card on me?) Musicals and food don’t sound too bad, but…”
“Yeah, half way around the world seems about right. It’s your destiny to enjoy the New York scene, which is spectacular by the way. And the shopping… Listen, I’m not saying I’m a shopoholic or anything but– okay, I’m totally saying I am.”
“’Cause they’re chicken and they retreat all the time whenever some genius scheme or whatever gets messed up by yours truly. I think they all can, if I remember right. This is the third general, hopefully the last–
…Wait, what do you mean ‘NYC’?”
“You’re officially in New York City kiddo, home of the free and land of fast food and musicals.”
“What? No, it– the facial hair is fine, it’s just the marker mustache on top of it. Unless you’re talking about actually growing a second mustache, in which case I didn’t even know you could do that?”
“Teleporter. Again. Different guy though, and get this– this one? He uses flower petals, this cloud – storm– swirly whatever– of flower petals. I thought I’d just fall through this time, since it’s not a clear portal or whatever?
Nnnnnope.”
“Geez how many people do you know that can teleport you? And why do they keep doing that? They must want you to come spend your vacation in NYC or something.”
“It doesn’t look right when it’s incomplete, it just looks like a squiggly instead of a mustache. And it’s not an achievement, I just thought you looked peaceful enough that I could get away with it and I got bored. I kinda…need to ask something important:
…do you know how to get back to Tokyo from here? I don’t really know what city this is, but I know you guys use the wrong traffic lights. The ‘go’ color is off.”
“I’m concerned and now you’ve made me doubt my own facial hair and that’s made me even more concerned than I should be. It’s my signature do! Why would anyone else want it if it looked incomplete?”
“..Oh, Tokyo huh? Well you gotta take a plane– how’d you get here?”
