A/N: I feel even less confident about this story than I did about it's predecessor. Oh well! This pairing needs more love, even if it's not absolutely perfect. Fair warning, I'm going to be taking a lot of liberties with the magic world, since very little of it is established or even set in stone within the course of the manga. The summary should make this clear, but this is a direct sequel to 'Capturing Happiness', and will probably be a little hard to understand without having read that one first.
Chisame stared blankly at her computer screen for a few moments before sighing and letting her eye stray to the window next to her. All she could see from her apartment window was the street below and the buildings across the street— no fantastic view for a hikikomori like her— but she wasn't particularly interested in the scenery. She was more interested in watching the people pass by on the street below. Most of them she didn't know; she barely even knew her next door neighbour, after all. But she recognized a few of them as being people who passed by frequently. A woman pushing a twin stroller, her two young daughters laying asleep inside. A teenage cashier from the convenience store was taking his third smoke break. A school-aged boy ran by with two of his friends in hot pursuit, and she could hear his laughter even from her second floor window.
She turned back to her computer screen. The blinking line on her word processor taunted her. She snarled at it and closed the window, pushing her chair away from the desk so she could lounge in the sun streaming through her window. She was supposed to submit a bug report for the ISSDA on a section of code for their new experimental 'extranet' system, a form of internet that would allow instantaneous connections not only between Earth and Mars, but also between the old world and the magic world. Higher-ups kept calling her integral to the project, but even that couldn't motivate her. Before her Mahora trip, it was practically natural for her to spend hours sitting in front of her computer screen; now, it was boring and almost painful.
The idea of happiness had infected her brain.
It wasn't long ago that she had gone to the class 3A reunion party. She had been coerced into going by an idiot who had taken it upon himself to give her some serious life advice, and since then she couldn't stop thinking about—
His advice, of course.
"If you're not happy, go out and take whatever will make you happy!"
Chisame had never thought of herself as a person that was unhappy, at least not recently. Since their encounter with Cosmo Entelecheia, she had always considered herself complacently content with her lot in life. And it wasn't as though she was precisely unhappy with her life as it was. No, it was something less concrete than that. She wasn't unhappy, but she wasn't happy, either. Being happy and being content weren't the same thing.
That irritated her more than anything.
She forced herself to roll her computer chair back to her desk. The idea of actually doing her work seemed almost unbearable, but she knew it had to get done either way. After all, she was supposedly "integral to the project", although she had a feeling that the ISSDA just told her that to try and get her more motivated to finish her work. While she dug through her mildly disorganized files in search of the half-finished bug report she had rage-closed, her eye strayed to the web browser she had left open during her last self-appointed break. She let the search function on her computer work at finding the bug report for her, she pulled up the tab she had left open and skimmed the page.
Explore the wonderful Mundus Magicus! A beautiful and culturally diverse vacation destination is waiting for you!
Every time she looked at it she cringed at the lame sales pitch plastered on the banner at the top of the site, but she enjoyed browsing through the pictures. Most of them were the usual tourist fare— picturesque scenery that most people wouldn't want to dare the hike for coupled with the various tourist traps at the heart of each of the empires. A few of the more wholesome pictures caught her eye, pictures of little outdoor markets or festivals, but mostly she was interested in the vacation packages the site offered. She didn't have much money to her name— the work she did for the ISSDA kept her living comfortably but without much in the way of savings— but the first time she had been to the magic world had also been the last. Some part of her wanted to remedy that. And didn't all of those self-help books and television shows always talk about travelling and seeing the world?
Her search program pinged to inform her that her file had been found at the same time her Snype Messenger went off, signalling an incoming call. She switched from the web browser to the instant messenger, where she was dutifully informed that the caller was Asakura by the little picture of her jumping up and down on her screen.
"Hey, Asakura," she greeted, dragging the web cam window to the top corner of the screen as she pulled up the unfinished bug report as well as the notes she had taken during the testing process.
"Hey, Hasegawa," the reporter greeted in turn. "I was looking into the thing you asked about— planning on going on a vacation some time soon?"
"Something like that," she replied as she reclined in her chair, idly irritated by her unfinished work. "Do you know when I can get a cheap flight?"
"Just call me Asakura Kazumi, travel agent extraordinaire!" she replied with a grin and a wink. "I booked you a flight for two weeks from now and emailed you the boarding pass."
"Ah— without even asking me?" she said, recoiling slightly from her computer screen.
"Hey, you wanted to go on a trip, right? No need to thank me," Asakura said, giving her a thumbs up. "You can just pay me back whenever."
Chisame sighed. There was no use in arguing with Asakura about something like that. "Thanks, Asakura," she said. At least she got it cheap..
"It's nice to see you getting out of your house for once," Asakura said, smiling at her. "I've gotta go get some work done, but you definitely need to send me a postcard when you get there. Ciao!"
Do you even know how much sending a postcard from the magic world costs? She thought, sighing as she went back to working on her bug report, her mind far away.
It had been a long time since she had gone on a real vacation.
The entrance gates of the magic world looked and operated like an airport. People passed through departure and arrival terminals, had their baggage examined, and were either sent on to the old world or welcomed into the magic world. Chisame got through without much trouble, aside from a baggage inspector who was boggled by her laptop and had to be told it was for her ISSDA work before he would let her pass through.
She emerged in a stone courtyard with a sports bag slung over one shoulder and a rolling suitcase in her other hand. They did a good job fixing this place up, she thought, remembering the last time she had been there. She had flown into Wales for the trip, partially out of nostalgia and partially because trips to Wales during the English winter were apparently rather cheap compared to the other entrance gates. Although with all of the help Negi was able to round up, it's not really all that surprising..
"Hey, Chisame-chan!" The booming voice echoed across the courtyard so well that she could hear her escort clearly in spite of the fact that he was still a dark blob on the horizon. She wheeled her suitcase in his direction, and though moving through the arrival crowd was difficult at first, people soon started moving out of the way as they got closer. Jack Rakan grinned at her and patted her on the head when they met in the middle. "You're looking good. Did you get taller or something?"
"I stopped growing a long time ago," she replied blandly, thrusting the rolling suitcase in Rakan's direction. He grabbed it without pause, although the handle was so short in comparison to his height that he simply picked it up and hoisted it over his shoulder. "You must just be delusional. I'm exactly the same as the last time you saw me."
"Heh. Well, I was definitely surprised when you said you were coming for a visit," he said, making his way back through the crowd. Chisame kept close to his side, since the crowd seemed to be rather intent on parting around him like a diver moving through a school of fish— although she could hardly blame them. "Didn't think you'd miss me so much."
"Don't flatter yourself, old man," she replied without missing a beat, a little embarrassed by how easily the back-and-forth was coming to her. "I just needed a vacation, and I figured since you were the one who started on me about all this 'happiness' crap, you should make up for my mental anguish by being my guide. Although I was surprised you agreed so quickly.."
"Ha ha! Well, if you're going to be my pupil in the art of seizing life by the reins, then it's my job to teach you properly, isn't it?" he said. "Can't exactly do that when you're hiding behind a computer screen."
"I don't see why you care," she replied, hoisting her bag further onto her shoulder as they walked down a flight of stairs. The crowd was dissipating slightly as people walked off in different directions, off to meet up with family and friends or to catch an airship at the nearby port. "But if you're so intent on making me 'worldly', then I'm guessing you have a place in mind?"
Jack grinned. "C'mon, we have an airship to catch."
She had sent the letter not long after Asakura had booked her flight to Wales. For almost a month after the reunion party, Chisame's mind had been flooded with the same sort of thoughts that had been plaguing her on that very same day. Thanks to Rakan's unsolicited advice, she had become increasingly disenfranchised with her lifestyle to the point where she couldn't even spend a few hours in the same way she used to spend entire days. That was when she had decided she needed a change.
She stared out the window of the airship, watching the wispy clouds drift by. Rakan sat across from her, indulging in a bottle of grain alcohol that an attendant had brought him free of charge.
"Having a good time, kiddo?" he asked, holding his glass up to her. She raised an eyebrow at him, face resting in the palm of her hand.
"Not as good as you," she replied, closing one eye but continuing to watch him out of the other. "It's still the middle of the afternoon. What are you doing drinking, anyway?"
He laughed, downing the rest of his drink and pouring himself another. "You gotta take things as they come, Chisame," he said boisterously. She rolled her eyes.
"I told you to stop calling me that, old man," she snorted, curling up slightly in her seat. "Just because you're my tour guide, doesn't mean you and I are best friends now or something."
"Ha ha! So cold, Chisame-chan, and after I agreed to do this all for free," he said, his laughter making it clear that he simply wasn't particularly bothered by her supposed coldness. "I even paid for your airship ticket and everything."
"That's your problem, not mine," she replied with a shrug, resting her head against the window and closing her eyes. She heard Rakan chuckle at her response, but she continued to ignore him.
She wasn't even sure why she had thought to send a letter to Jack Rakan, of all people. After she had spent enough time thinking about it, she had decided that the only logical reason he had come to mind was because he had been the one to start the entire ordeal. Not to mention the fact that he was one of the few denizens of the magic world that she could personally call a friend..
"You sure you don't want any?" the man in question asked, holding the bottle out for her. She cracked open one eye and tried to glare, but the effect was apparently lost on him, or else he simply didn't care.
"I'm sure," she repeated for what must have been the third or fourth time since the attendant had given him the booze. "Do you get bored in closed spaces or something? I'm trying to relax, since you dragged me straight here from the gate terminal.."
"Hey, if you fall asleep now, you'll miss the view when we start to land!" he said, sounding as if the very idea was unthinkable. "Since I'm supposed to be your tour guide, I have to make sure you see all the best sights, right?"
Chisame huffed at his response. "Well, at least you're taking your job seriously, for whatever that's worth.." she muttered, once again staring out at the clouds.
The letter had been a simple affair— she'd told him to take responsibility for what he'd done to her peaceful lifestyle, and had asked him to meet her at the magic gate to make up for it. She hadn't been all that serious, of course— she had even signed it 'Chisame-chan' to give it a less serious feel, although she had practically felt dirty doing it. It wasn't something she had expected him to take seriously— although whether he actually had taken him seriously was debatable— but nevertheless, he had replied saying he would be there to meet her, and had also commended her for her guts. She had almost expected him to leave her stranded at the gate, but for some reason she couldn't fully understand, she hadn't been all that surprised to see him there after all.
"So I guess you're finally going through that 'wandering maiden' stage of your life, eh?" he said, fixing her with a look like he had suddenly solved some great mystery.
"I told you already, I just need a vacation," she replied, rolling her eyes. "It's all your fault, you know. If you hadn't harassed me into going to that party and started talking about happiness like that, I would be at home and perfectly content right now."
"You really think you would be happy spending your whole life staring at a computer screen, kiddo?" he asked, reclining in his seat.
"It's not like I'm any happier right now," she snapped, although she felt bad for it moments later. Although she couldn't understand why, Rakan seemed intent on helping her— even if she hadn't asked for or wanted his help in the first place. Then again, he wasn't the sort of person who waited for someone to ask for his advice. "..Sorry. Anyway, I'm glad you actually showed up. I didn't want to wander around like some dumb tourist."
Rakan's letter had told her not to worry about travel arrangements, saying he would take care of everything, but even before he had given her that assurance she hadn't thought much about what she was actually going to do on her vacation. The last time she had been in the magic world hadn't exactly been a sight-seeing tour, after all. She wasn't even sure why she had wanted to go to the magic world in the first place— she could have picked just about any location in her own world and skipped the trouble of 'crossing over'. But when she had thought about travelling, the magic world had been the first place to come to mind, and it had refused to leave.
"Ha! Well, no worries about that now," he said, giving her a thumbs up. "I've been all over this world multiple times. I know all the best places to go without falling into the tourist traps."
She gave him a look like she didn't quite believe what he was saying, but was going to give him the benefit of the doubt anyway. She didn't even know where they were going— Rakan had herded her to the airship port straight from the magic gate terminal, without even a chance to rest until she had gotten on the ship. She had tried asking where they were going, but he had merely told her to sit back and enjoy the trip, since he was playing the role of her guide. Eventually she had given up on getting him to tell her and had taken his advice, trying to get some rest before they arrived at whatever their destination was. It had been a long trip, but her "guide" had insisted on keeping her awake the entire time.
"Hey, Chisame-chan, look out your window," he instructed. "We're gonna be landing soon."
"About time.." she murmured, although she hadn't really minded the flight all that much. Flying in the magic world's airships was certainly a much better experience than the plain old aeroplanes in the old world— for one, they weren't crammed into an enclosed space with as many people as the airline could get away with. The two of them seemed to have their own cabin, in fact, although she wasn't quite sure if that was common on passenger flights or if that was Rakan's money and status showing. She had to imagine there were perks to travelling with a famous war hero.
Chisame turned in her seat to stare out the window. At their current elevation, all she could see were the clouds drifting by, but she could tell that they were descending. She glanced over at Rakan to see him staring out the window as well, but immediately looked away when he seemed to notice her attention and glanced back.
When she saw what the Thousand Blades was trying to direct her attention to, she gasped involuntarily.
The clouds parted around their ship as it descended. An attendant made an announcement telling the passengers to prepare for landing and where they could retrieve their luggage, but she only registered it somewhere in the back of her mind. She remembered the magic world's cities as being something straight out of a fantasy manga, but the city that was spread out below them trumped even what she remembered of New Ostia— the sort of place that looked like it belonged in a fantasy game, with huge spiralling towers, historic architecture, and colour. The buildings weren't just brick and limestone as far as the eye could see; it looked like someone had taken great care to use every colour in existence to paint the walls and rooftops.
"Welcome," Rakan announced dramatically, like he was genuinely some sort of tour guide. "To the capital city of the Hellas Empire. The first stop on the 'Get-Chisame-Out-of-Her-Apartment' Grand Tour."