The woman most definitely addressed him. He could recognize his name – bastardized, but nonetheless. Of course, everything else was lost on him.

He kept the rifle trained on her all this time, stare focused on the center of mass as well as the swords floating idly. Any semblance of normalcy just went up in flames the moment this military lady showed up, and Walker was already sick of its lack.

She frowned before speaking again. Her speech sounded flowery and again he caught her addressing him by name, but the language barrier was still in the way. "Sorry, ma'am, I don't speak Japanese." He replied flatly. The gun was still trained on her in case she perceived him speaking as an insult. For a moment there was nothing but silence until the swords of the cavalry woman slowly floated down and embedded themselves in the asphalt floor as if it was hot butter. Something to watch out for, Walker thought.

For now however his attention was on the woman who, unusually for herself – not that he could know – was feeling particularly sheepish. To think something like a language barrier would prevent her from coming into contact with this man? She spoke with no problem to the others, allies or enemies, but this man was an exception. Perhaps the reason was that the medium he came from was explicitly not made in Japan. That was Military Uniform Princess' hypothesis.

Well, no matter. Perhaps one of the others spoke English. For now she had to get this man's attention and subsequent trust so he would follow her. No easy feat. Funnily enough, perhaps the best way for that was to just leave and either wait for him to follow or simply come back with someone capable, whoever that would be. The pregnant silence continued for quite some time before she decided to follow the plan and simply leave.

Walker slowly lowered the gun and approached the place where the blades embedded themselves into the floor. He wasn't hallucinating; there were holes left there. Either the hallucination was that bad or he just met something actually supernatural. Maybe he was dreaming all this time and all that happened since he "woke up" in Japan was nothing but a made-up coping mechanism?

She really left. Would she come back? Should he change his location for tonight? Something told him that the military woman would find him anyway. Before he could gather any thoughts however, the cavalrywoman was back already; and this time she had company.

Kirameki Mamika, also known as Magical Slayer Mamika, was having a really bad day.

First came the revelation that she is a fictional character. Second was the even worse revelation that her attacks are so... destructive in this new world of "gods of pleasure", as Military Uniform Princess put it. The collateral damage, the damage inflicted upon this Celesia woman, all the explosions and destruction... it shook her.

And now she was meant to translate for a new person that appeared recently. She knew some English – part of her school's curriculum – but at the same time she wasn't that confident. Plus, Military Uniform Princess asked that she omits a few details during questions, most chiefly that this man is a fictional being like them. As she claimed, it was for his own good. Mamika wasn't sure why that would help, but the girl in a military uniform gave her no reason to not believe her yet, so she was willing to go along with the plan.

The man, however, was nothing she expected. His look and posture were different from others she had seen, allies and enemies alike. His clothing was plain, befitting of a soldier, and there wasn't any flair to it whatsoever. Even Mr. Blitz's coat was more colorful and fancy than this. He regarded her with understandable caution, but there was something in his eyes that rattled Mamika to her very core. The deep blue orbs seemed like two particularly painful flashlights, as if they belonged to some otherworldly creature and not a seemingly normal person. As normal as Creations go, at least.

He was scary, scary on a completely different level than the usual enemies she faced. "Um... g-good evening..." She started, her English heavily accented. The soldier raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. At least he lowered the gun. "My name is... Mamika. Um... I will translate."

"Thank God somebody speaks English in here." The soldier spoke and the magical girl almost jumped, hearing how... odd his voice was. It was as if he was chewing gravel all day, but there was also some tired resignation to it, as if he just wanted this whole ordeal to be done with. She couldn't let herself be intimidated; after all, only she could converse with him. "Get on with it then. What does that lady want with me?" Mamika asked the princess the question, and the princess replied without a pause.

"Welcome to... uh... the world of gods of pleasure, Captain Martin Walker."

"Okay, first? Enough of the cryptic bullshit." The swear made Mamika flinch. Despite that, it seemed that the soldier was not paying much attention to her; his eyes were set on Military Uniform Princess. "You" Again, he explicitly pointed his finger at the mane of silver hair. "have your translator answer all of my questions, no strings attached." Mamika translated accordingly. This was certainly a tense stand-off.

Yet, the silver-maned princess remained nonplussed with the solider's aggressive response. If anything, the magical girl could have sworn that she was smiling a little wider now. "Um... what questions do you have, W-walker-san?"

"First: where the hell are we? None of that "gods of pleasure" shit though, I want a name of the city, the country, the year." Military Uniform Princess replied truthfully to the first two and skipped the answer to the third, unaware – and uncaring – of it. "Alright. Second then; why am I here?" Yes, that was indeed a difficult question to answer. She couldn't just tell him that she brought him here for her convenience, seeing potential in a man who lost everything. That would turn him hostile at worst, and then she would have to put him down like a rabid dog he was.

But even rabid dogs had their uses. "You were brought here through the rift in time." Meanwhile, Mamika was really grateful that her curriculum included advanced English to keep up with all the big words Princess used. "That is the doing of the gods – the people who populate this world."

"Gods?" The soldier made a vaguely disapproving noise. "I haven't heard a dumber thing in forever." Mamika flinched a little again, but she wasn't sure of the reason behind that; his attitude or the Princess' unnervingly polite smile.

"Such is the way of things. These gods hold powers of creation. Mamika here is-um, I mean, I'm one such creation." The magical girl quickly corrected herself, an embarrassed blush on her face. The soldier raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. "As you probably know, people look for action, blood and tears in a given medium. It would make for a boring story if a hero never faced adversity, wouldn't it?"

"So what, you're meaning to tell me that I'm a fictional character?" The magical girl flinched slightly, but it seemed to have missed his attention.

"No, you are not. My hypothesis is that the emergence of Creations in the world of Creators caused some sort of rift in the multiverse." The cavalry princess gestured towards the soldier. "You came through one such rift, Captain Walker; a man of duty who only wished to be a hero."

"I'm not going through that song and dance again." Walker replied with a sneer. If his cold eyes could freeze, the silver-maned princess would have suffered from most terrible frostbites twice over. "If you think you can butter me up into doing whatever shit you're up to, you've got another thing coming. I'm done with heroism."

"O-oh, no. Nothing like that." The man seemed incredibly bitter to Mamika and she feared that she would somehow learn the reasons behind this hatred, the sheer scale of his contempt for the fellow man. "If you want to help, it will only be by your own choice."

"Are we done here then?"

"I would only like you to consider. There is another faction out there; one that is more likely to shoot first and ask questions later." Celesia, a girl in a mage's robe... the delinquent in shades, too. This must have been the faction Military Uniform Princess referred to. "Especially in light of recent developments."

"How do you know?" Mamika was lost. It seemed that the princess and the soldier were making a whole new conversation right next to this one. The air shifted again; he was cautious and she was silently triumphant.

"I have my ways. You can be assured the news will be over all media stations before long." What did this man do? Each word that the magical girl translated seemed to be that much more difficult for her to say. "You might find yourself being hunted, Captain Walker." The silence persisted for a few tense moments before Military Uniform Princess simply turned around and gestured at Mamika to come along. "E-er, goodnight, Mr. Walker." The pinkette nervously nodded and joined the girl in the military cap.

The next day was mostly uneventful.

Walker was not pestered by either the woman in the military cap or her pink minion, opting to spend the whole day within the ruins. He was already used to long days with nothing to do but ponder, though this time the conditions were more tolerable. Some small part of him felt he was even being spoiled.

He briefly considered getting some sort of radio to keep track of the events going on, but that notion was soon arrested; somehow he doubted he would be able to find a local station that put out auditions in English. The language barrier was an awful obstacle for getting anything done. Grabbing a drink from a vending machine was easy enough, but everything else would get Walker in trouble. After all, an American soldier stationed in Japan would be expected to know at least basics of Japanese.

Acquiring some spare clothing wouldn't be much trouble; all he needed to do was to catch another drunken salaryman unawares. He still had enough food to last for a while, to exist. Did he want to exist? That was what he was doing back in Dubai, but now... Walker thought back to what he was thinking yesterday; the dumb notions of retreating into solitude, casting off his old name and becoming someone else entirely. Something told him that wasn't possible; if the cavalry cap girl spoke the truth, someone out there would be looking for him. Plus, it was obvious that she had plans for him as well, even if she let him go for now.

That Mamika would come visit him on her own was the biggest surprise Walker had experienced during his stay in Japan so far. She didn't come over on her own – she was being accompanied by a tall blonde that seemed to favor scowls as her default expression – but she also forwent her flashy costume from last night in favor of what appeared to be a school uniform. Walker could only assume this was a token of goodwill; she did seem to be less likely to have ulterior motives than her cavalry cap superior.

More strangely, she and her blonde friend were carrying some packages with them. "G-good evening, Walker-san. I thought we could help you get settled a little." She said, smiling nervously. The blonde said something too, but it was Japanese as well. Strangely, Walker could have sworn she was speaking with a German accent of all things. "We've found some clothes and, um... some food too."

"Is your boss trying to co-opt me with goodwill?" He muttered, staring at the packages unimpressed. "It might just work out if you get me an automatic translator."

"Ah, well... no, it was my idea." She replied with a sheepish smile. This earned his attention; Walker raised an eyebrow, wordlessly asking her to continue. "You were torn back from home due to all this... you must be having a hard time adjusting, so I've figured we could help." The soldier was silent, just staring at the magical girl for a moment before shaking his head.

"Thanks. It's been a while since I've had someone actually be nice to me." The last time would be Falcon-1. They were just doing their job. Hell, he got them to Dubai in the first place; they followed his distress signal and yet... Walker gunned them down to a man. It felt strange thinking about it now, in a safe situation, a different situation. "So is your big scowling friend on that plan too?"

"Oh, Alice-chan came along to help too." Mamika smiled and gestured to the big scowling friend. "She's a great person once you get past the, um, the crusty exterior." Unimpressed silence was Walker's answer and once more the magical girl felt small and threatened despite the fact that the man hadn't even made a hostile notion. "I just figured that... it would be so much easier if we could get along. Me, you, Military Uniform Princess... the other guys."

"So you had a run-in with this other faction?" He watched the two put down boxes, unable to help but wonder where they procured all of this from. Perhaps less than savory methods were used to create the illusion of good intentions. Then again, Mamika there seemed like someone who wouldn't be able to harm a fly. Now, her scowling friend... that might have been an another story.

The pinkette nodded hesitantly. "Yes... we had a fight yesterday and-"

"You exploded someone out of the skyscraper." Mamika looked up sharply at him, almost dropping her box. Jackpot. "I've seen some tidbits from far away."

"I didn't-I didn't mean to! I—"

"I'm not judging. It was a fight. You had to kill an enemy in front of you. It's as simple as that." Walker shrugged indifferently.

"B-but killing is wrong! I didn't... I don't, I don't normally... do such things."

"You don't normally show up in a whole another world." Mamika flinched again, though again the soldier did not notice. "That war you people are having, it sounds like you absolutely have to annihilate the other side. How you do it is not my concern. Which... brings me to another point." Idly, Walker picked up one of the boxes. A set of shirts of various colors on top, followed by some jeans. "You might want to throw that idea of getting along away."

"What? But why? It was all just a misunderstanding and—"

"Something tells me your boss is thinking otherwise. Besides, killing someone in a fiery explosion isn't grounds for friendship with that person's friends."

"...she's not dead." Now that got Walker's attention back to the magical girl as he put the box away and looked at Mamika. This time the blonde scowler got in the way, gently moving the pinkette away and standing in front of the soldier, calling to him in a vaguely threatening tone. Of course, since she was speaking in German-accented Japanese, Walker saw fit to ignore the unknown threat. The magical girl in the back was quick to try and calm Alice down, switching back to her native(?) language. The two conversed for a while, for a moment there was doubt in blonde's voice before she finally stepped back and let Mamika do the talking. "Sorry. Alice-chan j-just worries about me, is all."

"Anyway, um... yeah, Celesia-san is not dead. I guess us Creations are a bit tougher than... um... men like you, Walker-san." She would be surprised, Walker thought grimly as he recalled the various damages and body trauma sustained during his visit to Dubai. "A-and I didn't want to kill her, anyway... I just... I wasn't aware how strong my attacks are."

"How so?"

"From... from what I understand, I... back home, the explosions are, um, smaller... and there's no blood, or all the destruction..." It checked out; Mamika did look like a character from a dumb kids' show, so it was only fitting that her world would be devoid of grittier aspects of violence. Walker couldn't help but think this must have been one hell of an enlightening experience. By comparison, the blonde scowler could come from just about any medium in that blue clothing, though the way she carried herself suggested a large presence. A knight, perhaps. Of course, that did little to narrow down the search. "It all caught me off guard..."

Funny. If he tried, he would be able to find the media these two – as well as that cavalry cap girl and the other faction's members – came from, and learn from them, hopefully.

"It gets easier." He said quietly. "Over time you won't even notice."

"But I don't want it to be easier..." She sounded almost disappointed in him. Took her long enough, Walker thought in grim amusement. "If this is how fighting is, I'd rather we all try and talk it out."

"Wonder if they, or that Princess of yours, feel the same." The flinch seemed to suggest that Walker's assumption wasn't far off from truth. "Anyway... thanks for the help. I'm not planning to move from here for a few more days, if you ever need to try to recruit me again." Mamika's shoulders slumped a little dejectedly, but she replied with a nod.

"Goodnight, Walker-san..." And then she turned to leave, definitely upset about this whole ordeal. Alice didn't join her right away, instead first watching her go and then looking at Walker with open aversion before she joined her pink friend.

"Yeah. Goodnight."

Argh. It's like I said; writing this is proving to be super diffcult. It's the worst kind of feeling; you have some bits and pieces planned out in the middle or even at the end of the story, but first you have to try and lead it there. Walker's character feels a little slippery to me; I can only hope that it is truthful to the source, as are the Re:Creators characters.

No promises for when the new chapter shows up, but I think there will be more Creations appearing. You could say it's all Walker's decision if you want to get meta. Anyway, please feel free to review it and point out any errors or ask any questions you have in mind. :)