Chapter 9: Day 4, Part 2

A/N: It's late, I know, but my Cardverse stories have priority. From here on out do not expect regular updates (2 week hiatus tops) because school is starting again for me and I have two stories going at once.


"I forget how much can happen in a year." England mused, searching on America's laptop for the significance of 1904.

"So much blends together now, it's hard to distinguish years from one another." China said, cutting up one of the leftover doughnuts.

"I don't think any of us want to remember this year in particular. According to this website there were four different fires in four major cities across the globe, several uprisings, murders, and the whole mess with you two that eventually involved all of us." He gave a halfhearted glare at Russia and Japan, neither of which seemed all that offended. (1)

"But there was some good stuff too right?" Italy asked, crawling over to take the laptop for himself. "Ooh the Olympics were that year! That's good right? And the ice cream cone was invented~ And there was that boss America had that was actually nice."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean? Roosevelt- both of them- were awesome bosses!"

"Ve~ that's what I said, isn't it?"

"I think that's a matter of opinion, America."

"Franklin saved your asses, dude. That makes him universally awesome."

"We're not discussing Franklin. Theodore and his 'big stick' plan were a thorn in my side during and after his term ended."

"Your side? Amigo I'm the one who lost to him." Despite that fact, Spain didn't seem all that upset about it, unlike England.

"Well Teddy was awesome too, the man behind teddy bears has to be."

"Your president created teddy bears?" Russia asked, seeming legitimately interested.

"'Teddy' Roosevelt, Ruski. He was a big conservationist, part of the reason I have a national park bigger than France. The media went with it and now the entire world enjoys the fruits of my labor."

"I love teddy bears~" Italy said, using his brother as a makeshift one.

"Che. Unless tyranny and oppression are also tied to this guy, he's not helping us figure out the next city." Romano shoved his twin off and ignored the collective frowns from the others.

"Way to kill the mood, Romano." Prussia teased, lazily taking up the entire cabover.

The Italian shrugged. "What? In case you forgot, potato bastard, we're still in Nashville and it's eight in the morning. Am I the only one who remembers we need to get moving?"

"No, but we are supposed to cooperate and actually enjoy this. Or at least, we can tell our bosses that we enjoyed it, then if we fail they can't use it as punishment again." France said, taking one of the little doughnut pieces when China wasn't looking.

"Lovi has a point," Spain blocked a punch from Romano at the nickname, "We know this place will be west of here so we should at least get on the road so we'll be closer to wherever it is once we figure it out."

"We are making this too complicated." Germany said, just loud enough to silence everyone else. "The first hit on Google when I typed the quote is Frederick Douglass."

"Why do we keep forgetting we have internet at our fingertips?" China sighed, realizing how much time they wasted.

"Frederick Douglass was awesome too. Spoke out against injustice and racism." America supplied, silently wishing they could stop making clues about the greyer parts of his history.

"The quote is from 1857." And the smile was gone again.

"Hey Italy, does that website say where the Olympics were held in 1904?" It was obvious he knew exactly where the next city was and wanted to go anywhere but there.

Italy scrolled back up on the screen, "St. Louis. The World's Fair was there. Is there a problem?"

"St. Louis, Missouri is northwest of here, very north. A little farther away than Lexington is, where we just came from, and is the location of a Supreme Court case that may or may not have started a war."

"So what you're saying is we came all the way down south just to drive back up north?" England asked.

"Pretty much. St. Louis is a big city too, but I've got a few ideas on where this key could be." Whatever the history was America clearly didn't want to talk about it, so no one asked. "Well who wants music? I think this thing has XM so we got options."

"As long as there's no Bieber or Cyrus I'm happy." Prussia said, fiddling with the tuner for a good station after switching places with Canada.

"Be careful what you wish for, we are still in Tennessee." Canada warned, having been in the same position before with a brother all too willing to sing along to anything. Prussia, of course, ignored him.

"-believe me just watch-" Prussia immediately switched the station.

"Hell no. I've heard that same damn line too many times." He received mutual nods of agreements from the others. It wasn't a bad song per say… just on the radio every five seconds.

"-jealousy. But you'll come back each time you leave…" Prussia turned to the others to ask yay or nay and just kept the song when no one answered.

"So how long until we reach St. Louis?" Japan asked, hoping it wouldn't be impolite to ask for the bed in the back since it was almost midnight at his place and the lethargy of so many of his people was finally getting to him. Jet lag sucked for humans, but it never went away for Nations.

"Five hours max, dude. We'll wake you up when we get there. If anyone else wants sleep now's your chance." Japan nodded in gratitude and the ride was relatively calm after that.


"Hey, Japan. Time to get up, eh." Canada gently nudged the only other occupant of the RV awake. "We're here."

Japan slowly sat up, noticing the lack of noise. "Where is everyone else?"

Canada sighed. "I fell asleep and they left both of us behind. We're not that far from where I think they are, so come on."


"Alfred, you have the strangest monuments. Greece's Parthenon, four faces carved into the side of a mountain, giant metal bean, and now this. The handle of a shopping bag stuck into the ground. What's next? A recreation of Stonehenge? Or maybe the Brandenburg Gate?" England stared up at the massive metal structure gleaming in the sunlight, really wondering just why someone decided to build it.

"Remind me to never take you to Nebraska then… or South Dakota. No one's afraid of heights here right?"

"Wait you go inside the thing?" Romano asked, from the ground it looked like you'd be packed like sardines in there.

"You know me, everything's gotta be interactive here. Ivan you might want to stay down here though, I think you're too tall." America patted Russia on the shoulder, eyes not leaving the monument.

"What makes you think a key will be in there?" China did not seem too happy about having to go up there, nor did he know how one got up there in the first place.

"It's called the Gateway Arch, gateway to the West. In other words it's a monument to expansion and free land, the exact opposite of tyranny and oppression. But you can ask Iggy all about that one."

"Belt up, git. You proved your point long ago." (3)

"Unless someone else wants to, I'll go up alone and see if it's there. If it's not… we'll get to that later."

"I kinda want to see it actually." Prussia said, nodding to himself. "I'll come with you."

"We'll be back guys, hopefully the key will be easy this time."


Italy watched as Prussia and America returned empty handed. "It wasn't there?" America shook his head with a shrug.

"Worth a shot."

"So where to nex-"

"Hey where's Kiku?" France asked, craning his neck to scan the surrounding area.

America face-palmed. "We left him in the RV, dudes."

"Well I'll go back and get him, you continue on to wherever the key is, we'll catch up." China said, walking away without further discussion.

"So where else would this key be?" Germany asked.

"I think someone should go with Yao, make sure he doesn't get lost. Maybe two or three should go with him actually."

"Alfred, quit changing the subject." England said sternly.

"Whatcha talkin about, Artie? I'm not changing the subject. You know there's a great tea place around the corner, got your flag and everything hangin' outside, my treat."

"I'm flattered." The blonde deadpanned. "Either you tell us or Google tells us." He threatened, pulling out his phone.

"Who wants to see if iPhones can float? I hear the Mississippi's a great place to test that."

"Alfred."

America sighed, realizing nothing he said would get him out of the situation. "The Old Courthouse, right over there." He pointed at a green-domed white building right across the street. "There was a case there that the Supreme Court decided. Four years later my Civil War started."

"Does this case have anything to do with Frederick Douglass?" Russia asked, obviously enjoying how uncomfortable the superpower was.

"Shut it Ruski, you know exactly what it was about."

"Well the rest of us don't so spill it or the Internet will." Prussia said.

"Damn the Internet. It's not important who it was about. That's what the quote was for, that's all that matters. We go in, we go out, alright?" America led the way across the plaza in silence. (4)


"I think you are lost, Matthew." Japan said softly, not wanting to upset the blonde.

"I am not, eh." Of course Canada wasn't lost. He'd been to Missouri tons of times, especially St. Louis- his only baseball team played them all the time.

"Do you know where you're going?" The question went ignored. "Maybe we should ask the others for directions." The blonde had been adamant about asking the others where they were or how to get there, he was navigating on a hunch alone. So while Canada took it in stride, Japan decided to text somebody and ask for directions. China beat him to it.

Yao: Where are you two? I'm at the RV.

Japan glanced up at the street signs and inwardly shrugged.

You: Ten minutes away.

He convinced Canada to turn around and head back the way they came, despite the fact that they'd been walking in circles most of the time, not that Japan minded too much.

China was waiting impatiently in the parking lot. "It's about time you got here, I've been waiting for ever."

"Sorry, Yao. But you guys left us behind in the first place." Canada said pointedly.

"Aiyah that's not the point! The others said they're at a courthouse so let's go." Canada and China walked in the front together, the latter complaining about western incompetence and the former trying to get a word in, both were ignoring Japan trailing behind.


"Why do I get the feeling we are missing something obvious?" France asked, staring up at the domed ceiling inside the courthouse.

"Until you have a more solid premonition I'm staying here. The building won't be too hard to search." England said, the others having fanned out across the bottom two floors.

"It just feels too easy."

"At least we're not having to book plane tickets to fly across continents to get to these places. It's relatively straightforward."

"That is the problem. Nashville was a nightmare, the mall was a nightmare. This city is huge and already we're in the location we're supposed to be. That's too straightforward, non? Too easy."

"Well you'd better knock on wood, frog. We could do with a little simplicity."

"Amigos!" Spain appeared on the second floor, waving them over. "You're not gonna believe this."

"So me and Lovi were just searching the rooms and look what we found." The brunette said excitedly, opening one of the courtroom doors to find Romano lounging on one of the chairs.

"Oi, bastardos." Romano held up something in his hand, "It was just sitting on the desk over there."

"Is that seriously it?" England asked, walking over for closer inspection. "What if it's a fake? This was way too easy."

"Would they really do that? It looks real to me." Spain left to gather everyone else.

"Would it be wishful thinking to believe they gave us a break?" Romano asked, turning the key over in his hands.

"After the hell we've gone through already, I doubt they would ever give us a break. We're not even halfway across the continent yet."

"Dudes is it really in here?" America and the others arrived, all crowding around to get a look at the stupidly easy find.

"So no one else finds this the least bit suspicious?" Germany asked, naturally being the killjoy.

"West, let's not look a gift horse in the mouth. Picture time!"

"Is China back yet with the others?"

"Yeah we're here." Canada answered, stepping forward with his phone for a camera, leaning it up against one of the chairs. No one smiled this time.

"Hey Japan I can't see you." Canada called, looking up from his phone when he got no response. "Japan?" He frowned, doing a headcount. There were only eleven people in the room, all spouting different theories.

"Problem, Mattie?" Canada double checked that they were indeed missing a personification before answering.

"Yeah… Did you see Japan come in with us? He was right behind me, I swear."

"Dude he's right-… huh." America, of course, did his own head count, naturally getting the same results. "Guys has anyone seen Japan?"

"I'll just text him, maybe he's downstairs."

"I never saw Japan come inside, just China and Canada." Spain said, a concerned expression marring his usual smile.

"Alfred, look." Canada held out his phone, the screen reading 'message send failure'. So he tried calling.

"What's going on?" England asked, which quieted the rest of the side-conversations.

"No answer. Can anyone get a hold of Japan?"

"I thought this was too easy." France had an I-told-you-so-face on.

"Look, maybe he dropped his phone and it broke or something. He knows where we are and if he doesn't show then he's probably back at the bus." America said, taking the key from Romano and heading back into the hall.

"And if he isn't there then what?" England crossed his arms, an accusatory glare sent in his ex-colony's direction.

"We go from there. He's got twenty minutes to get here, it's kinda hard to miss and we weren't parked that far away."


Japan never showed.

"What do we do now?" Italy asked, incredibly worried about his old ally.

"The city's too big to search on our own, it'll take forever." Romano said, stretching out on the courthouse steps next to his brother.

"We can't do anything without him so we're stuck here until he's back."

"You don't think something happened to him do you?" Italy suddenly panicked, coming up with increasingly worse fates for the Asian Nation.

"Nah, this is Kiku we're talkin' about. He's resourceful."

"Well we can't just sit here. How long are we supposed to wait for him before actually taking this seriously?" Prussia said, chipping rust off the key out of sheer boredom.

"He's got until midnight to make an appearance. After that we can involve the cops."

"What if whoever kidnapped him used the key as a distraction?" France asked.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on a sec. No one said anything about kidnapping, French Fry." The last thing America needed was a national crisis due to a kidnapping in St. Louis of all cities.

"Think about it. The key was just sitting there on the table practically waiting for us. Is that not even a little suspicious?"

"That doesn't mean anything. Whoever it hypothetically was would never have known we left him behind in order for that to happen." England spoke up.

"How do you know that? They could have watched us leave this morning and moved the key to an easier place for a distraction. The previous locations were a mall, a theme park, a cemetery, and a museum. Doesn't a national landmark seem out of place?" France's speculation put everyone on edge. No one liked being watched without knowing.

Suddenly Italy jumped up and sprinted down the stairs. "Japan you're okay!" Italy launched himself at the man, nearly throwing both of them to the ground.

"Where were you?"

"Gomen'nasai. I dropped my phone down one of the sewer drains, it took longer than expected to get a replacement." Japan held up the receipt for a shiny new smart phone and continued making apologies.

"Hey un-awesome losers!" Prussia yelled, smirking at the various annoyed expressions. "Can we just retake the picture and go?"

Ten minutes later they were back in the parking lot, hoping to take advantage of getting two keys in one day.

"Didn't we park right here?" Spain asked, staring blankly at the empty parking space.

"Do you see any other massive recreational vehicles around here?" England gestured at the near empty lot, obviously lacking their current mode of transportation.

"Ve~ where did it go?"

"I found it." Russia said, staring at the bridge crossing the river.

"Where?" America asked, following his line of sight.

"Up there, driving away." Everyone watched as an RV- their RV- slowly vanished from their line of sight across the Mississippi River.

"Did you guys lock the door after you left?" America asked, turning to Canada.

"Nope."

The blonde slowly nodded his head. "Well this sucks."


Ha, ha! Plot twist! You didn't seriously think it would be such a rigid plot did you? Apologies if it feels rushed, it felt a lot slower when I was writing it all out. I tried better humor this time, did I succeed?

Footnotes:

1. Russo-Japanese War (Japan won). Fires in Toronto (Canada), Baltimore (USA), Ålesund (Norway), and one other city were devastated by fires. Uprisings in South Africa against colonialism (I think).

2. Theodore Roosevelt- US president got us back into the world and forever destroyed the stupid idea of isolationism by crushing Spain in war, slowly removing Britain from the world stage, and being the namesake of teddy bears. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Yes, they're related)- US president elected four times, saved us from the Great Depression and involved us in WWII after Pearl Harbor. Yes, to save your asses, Europeans.

3. When we were little colonies, Britain banned Americans from settling past the Appalachians to appease the Canadians, who's land was on the other side at the time.

4. The Dred Scott case. The Supreme Court ruled that even in the North (no slavery) blacks weren't technically citizens of the US so they had no legal right to sue anyone. While it pleased the South the northerners were far from happy and that was one of the major accelerators of the war.

Music: Uptown Funk- Bruno Mars, Blank Space- Taylor Swift.