"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We are getting ready to make our approach over Tokyo Harbor and will land at Haneda airport shortly. As we get ready to land we ask that you please return your seats to an upright position and fold up the table before you. It is currently just past 9 in the evening, local time, and the temperature outside is a comfortable 18 degrees…"

Maho didn't pay much attention as the captain continued speaking over the plane's speakers. Instead she simply looked out the window beside her, watching as skyscrapers rose up around Tokyo Bay below. Even with the sun creeping below the horizon and night falling, the bay was as busy as ever, with ships both big and small scurrying across the deep blue water of the bay. One ship stood out from the rest, mostly by virtue of it outsizing them all by several orders of magnitude, but a strange familiarity gripped Maho as she saw the Ark Royal preparing to dock at its equally oversized quay in Yokohama's harbor.

It had been ten years since she left Japan for Germany. Between her studies, her place on the university's Sensha-Do team, then her position first as vice-team captain and later captain of PanzerVerein Essen in the Panzer-Bundesliga had kept her busy, and now she was finally returning home again.

Home…

For some reason, it felt strange to consider Japan home. After so long in Europe, and only the occasional call or visit from Miho or her parents to remind her of it, she had almost begun to consider Japan to be as distant and foreign as the Europeans did. With all that had happened in the last few years, the only image her mind could conjure up when she thought of "home" was the apartment that had been her whole world during the pandemic. Two rooms and a kitchen, the same grayish white on every wall, that was what she considered home nowadays. She would have preferred to imagine the turret of Richard Kramer, the Panther she had been leading the team from as captain, or Reiner Knizia, the Firefly she had commanded when she first joined PV Essen. Unfortunately, that wasn't how memories and minds worked. Not that she was surprised. It had been more than 2 years since all of Germany and the world came to a standstill, and she hadn't even so much as seen a tank since then, at least not in real life.

She sighed quietly to herself and leaned her chin against her hand as she watched the red and white steel of Tokyo Tower creep up beyond the horizon, the pink and crimson light of the sun bursting like a supernova between the metal bars. It was a strange feeling, one she couldn't ignore. She had lived the first 18 years of her life in Japan, and had visited Tokyo countless times, and yet it all felt so foreign to her. Like she had been away for so long she was now a tourist in her own country.

"Maybe I should have just stayed…" she mumbled, although she wasn't quite sure where she should have stayed; If she should have left Japan behind completely and stayed in Germany, now that the world was finally beginning to turn on its axis again and the Sensha-Do season was about to kick off again for the first time in almost 3 years? Or if she should have never left for Hannover, and stayed in Japan like an ordinary highschooler? Both options seemed so tempting, regardless of how they contradicted each other. She hadn't needed so much as a moment to consider when her mother proposed she might graduate early and go to Germany. But she also hadn't needed much time to agree when Kikuyo and Captain Chono asked her to come and join the Japanese Sensha-Do Federation.

She sighed once more. There wasn't really much point in overthinking it like this, and yet she couldn't help herself.

"Excuse me, Miss Nishizumi," one of the flight attendants said and bowed down beside her seat. "We're about to land, so if you would please fold away your table."

"Oh… of course," Maho said, her eyes darting to the still folded-out table over her lap, before she swiftly folded it away into the open space beneath her armrest. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it," the flight attendant smiled, and added "Thank you, and thank you for flying with us," before she walked away to her own seat to strap herself in.

The quality of her flight was yet another thought that had somewhat unnerved Maho. When she had accepted the offer to join the JSF, she had done the sensible thing and simply booked the cheapest tickets she could find. Amsterdam-Tokyo might have been the easiest way to travel back to Japan, only needing the addition of a quick train ride across the Germano-Dutch border, but it certainly wasn't cheap, even under the best of circumstances. The Nishizumi-family's wealth and connections would have made it all a trivial matter, but since the day she had stepped off the plane and first set foot in Europe, Maho had consigned herself to make sure she took care of herself using her own money. Unfortunately, she had made the tactical blunder of telling her mother about her returning to Japan, and how relatively cheap the tickets she had managed to snag were.

This, in Shiho's words, would never do. No daughter of hers would fly in some cramped economy seat between snoring old ladies and screaming children, especially on such a long flight. Instead, she had insisted that Maho rebook her flight so she could travel in the kind of comfort only a Nishizumi-level of wealth could arrange. Maho had tried to explain that she was trying to be frugal and that her bank account couldn't handle such extravagance. This of course caused her mother to only insist further, and explain how "of course she wouldn't expect Maho to pay for something like this and she would simply call the airline herself and ensure Maho got a pleasant flight back." The debate had raged back and forth for what felt like hours, until Maho simply couldn't bother to push back anymore and simply gave in. She paid the fee for canceling her cheap, economy-class tickets and let her mother arrange her place on a different flight.

How much tickets like these would have cost, Maho didn't even want to think about. She barely noticed the impact as the plane touched down and came to a stop on the runway.

A few minutes and a short trip across the sun-heated tarmac later, the plane found its place at the terminal and Maho began to disembark together with the rest of the passengers.

The terminal was surprisingly quiet as Maho made her way through the corridors and past various stores and restaurants. There was the bustle of people all around her, yes, but considering that Haneda had been one of the busiest airports in the world just a few years ago; the relative peace and quiet had a strange eeriness to it. Despite the hundreds and thousands of people around her, clambering up and down escalators and traversing miles of people-movers, it almost felt like she was walking through a ghost town.

"Excuse me, Miss?"

Maho's train of thought, or rather lack thereof, was interrupted by a man trying to get her attention.

"Yes?" Maho answered and turned around, stopping so as to let the man catch up with her.

"You dropped this, Miss." The man held out a small blue booklet. After quickly patting at the pocket of her jacket, Maho recognized it as her passport.

"Thank you," Maho said graciously, and bowed in thanks as she returned the passport to its place, making sure to close the pocket this time. She began turning to continue towards baggage claims, but the man raised a nervous hand to retain her attention.

"Excuse me, but… aren't you Nishizumi Maho?"

Maho raised an eyebrow in surprise. She wouldn't have thought anyone would recognize her, especially back here in Japan. Still, she smiled and nodded. "I am, yes."

"I see…" the man said nervously. "I'm… I'm sorry to intrude, Miss Nishizumi, but… well… If it's not too much of a bother…" The man looked over his shoulder and gestured to a woman and young girl a few meters away, rolling his hand in the air a few times, apparently to invite the girl over towards them. The girl seemed more than content to hide behind the woman, presumably her mother, but after a few seconds she came rushing over to the man regardless.

As the girl came over, and Maho could see her more clearly without the bustle of passengers moving back and forth, she recognized the girl's clothing. A dark green tank jacket with sky-blue trim along the edges, and on her shoulder, a stylized black tank with dice for road wheels and a meeple standing in the cupola with a blue and yellow crown-adorned shield for backdrop. It was the uniform Essen wore whenever they had home matches. Or rather, a somewhat cheap souvenir-version of it, but it certainly looked close enough to the uniform Maho herself had worn during scores of matches over the past few years.

"She's a big fan of yours," the man explained as he put his hands on the girl's shoulders, looking down on her with the kind of pride only a parent could exude. "So… if it's not a bother, of course, would you mind…" he continued, rummaging in his pocket for a second to produce a marker pen.

"It'd be my pleasure," Maho said with a small smile, accepting the pen and kneeling down so as to be more at the girl's eye level. "Hello there," she then said to the girl. "What's your name then?"

The girl squirmed in place for a few moments, looking up at her father for reassurance and guidance, before finally saying "Haruno. Haruno Hitomi."

"Nice to meet you, Miss Haruno," Maho replied and reached out a hand towards the girl, which after another few moments of cajoling from her father she accepted and gently shook Maho's hand.

"N-nice to meet you too, Miss Nishizumi…" she mumbled as her face turned crimson.

"So," Maho continued, ignoring the girl's embarrassment in an attempt to reassure, "You want to play Sensha-Do too when you get older?" Once the girl had nodded profusely yet wordlessly, Maho glanced up at the girl's father for a moment to make sure everything was alright. Having received a quick smile and nod of reassurance, Maho then uncorked the marker, gently grabbed the edge of the girl's jacket, and began to sign her name onto it. "Well then, I'm sure you're going to do incredible at it some day," she said to the girl with a wink as she put the cork back on the marker and returned the pen to the girl's father. "I'm really sorry, but I'm afraid I need to run."

"Oh, no, of course," the man said and waved his arms in front of himself. "I'm sorry for taking up your time, Miss Nishizumi."

"Don't worry, it was my pleasure," Maho replied with a smile and a shake of her head. "It was nice meeting you, Hitomi."

"Now, what do we say?" the man said as he knelt down beside his daughter.

"Th-... thank you, Miss Nishizumi," the girl managed after a few seconds. Maho and the man shared a quick nod, and Maho prepared herself to run off.

"You're welcome, Hitomi. Bye!" Maho answered with a smile, and took off.

The baggage carousel for her flight had been mostly cleared out once she arrived, which had the benefit of making it very easy to pick out her own baggage from the few other bags still on the carousel. Grabbing a cart from the stand, she hoisted her mid-sized suitcase off the conveyor belt and onto the cart before lifting her smaller carry-on and placing it on top of its larger cousin. With her baggage recovered, Maho could finally make her way towards the arrivals hall.

As she exited the terminal and entered the hall, a voice called out to her and she was met by a young man in a well-fitted suit holding a sign with her name. She vaguely remembered Captain Chouno telling her that the Federation would send someone to pick her up at the airport and make sure she reached her apartment, but until the reminder that was so glaringly staring at her she had honestly forgotten it was supposed to happen. The young man introduced himself and offered to handle the luggage cart for her; an offer Maho politely declined and instead simply followed behind as the young man led the way to a waiting car outside the airport.

The drive towards Tokyo proper passed in a blur for Maho. She had never been able to sleep aboard a plane and, since her flight from Europe left late in the evening, by this point she hadn't slept in over 30 hours. Thankfully her driver was good at his job and kept his attention squarely focused on the road, leaving Maho to watch as cars, skyscrapers, and neon signs flew past the window as they made their way across the winding web of highways and streets that crossed the city. At some point the car came to a halt and the driver said something, stepping out of the car and opening the door for Maho before unloading her luggage and handing her an envelope with a few pieces of paper and a key. This time Maho didn't reject the offer of help with her suitcases, and once she got inside the apartment and thanked the young man for his help, she closed the door, took off her shoes, walked in to the bedroom, and collapsed onto the bed, falling asleep almost instantly from the exhaustion.


As her eyelids slowly parted once more, Maho groaned and rolled herself over onto her back. The twilight mixture of day and night still filled the windows, so she couldn't have been asleep for too long. Still, she was overcome by a tired grogginess and a reluctance to rise from the bed, wanting nothing more than to go back to sleep, and so she tried to close her eyes again and do just that, but to little avail.

After another half-an-hour or so of trying to fall asleep with no success, she simply sighed and sat herself up on the side of the bed, resting her chin against her palm and running a hand through her messy hair. She remained in place for another few minutes, before finally standing up on what turned out to be somewhat wobbly legs, but after a few seconds she found her footing once more. She would have preferred to switch into fresh clothes after the long journey, but acknowledged that a change in clothes wouldn't suffice. She needed a shower first of all.

The warm water pouring over her felt like salvation after her long flight and impromptu nap, washing away the metaphoric dust of the road and properly rousing her from her jetlagged and trance-like state. Having spent the better part of 20 years in Sensha-Do teams and communal washrooms, Maho was used to efficiency and speed when showering, rarely wasting more than 5 minutes on the activity even when by herself in her own apartment. Today, however, she happily remained in the steaming warmth of the shower for more than four times as long.

Once she finally emerged from the bathroom, having cleaned and dried herself off, she opened her bags and changed into a fresh set of clothes; a set of green pants and a simple white T-shirt, adding her black jacket on top for a clean but stylish cohesion. She would have preferred to unpack her bags completely and get everything into its proper place, but there was a simple fact she couldn't ignore any longer; she was absolutely famished. Which seemed strange to her, since she had been given a rather plentiful dinner onboard the plane not much more than an hour before they landed. She shouldn't be this hungry after only a few hours without food.

Grabbing her phone from the nightstand to check the time, she only now realized the reason behind both her inability to sleep as well as her hunger; she hadn't taken a nap so much as she had hibernated. It had been more than a whole day since she landed in Tokyo, and it would soon be almost 30 hours since she last ate anything at all.

The kitchen, fully equipped as it was, would be of no help to her, as it lacked the most important thing for cooking herself anything; namely any food or actual ingredients, and so she would be forced to find some place else to eat. Maho racked her brain for a moment, and vaguely recalled seeing a restaurant not too far away as she stared out the window of the car the previous evening. She had no idea what the quality, and more importantly price range, of the food there was, but there were few other options available and so it would have to do.


The cool air of the evening was both refreshing and invigorating, and the sky was lit up in a vibrant mixture of violets, reds, and yellows as Maho made her way down the streets of her new neighborhood, trying to recall the path that the car had driven and where she had seen the restaurant in question. She could easily have pulled out her phone and brought up a map of the area, or searched for what restaurants were to be found nearby, or even just ordered some food delivered to her apartment online, but where was the challenge in that? When she moved to Germany, Maho had made a habit out of not looking things up unless it was strictly necessary, and instead preferred to walk aimlessly down the streets of wherever she found herself to be living at the time; It provided a much-needed sense of discovery to a move, which helped pave over the uneasy feeling of lostness and uncertainty that could easily take root if one didn't acquaint themselves with their surroundings.

She remembered classmates at university who could barely find their way back to their dorm rooms without a map, and who always marveled at Maho's ability to navigate what to them were completely foreign streets, despite them living barely two blocks away. And while she had never said anything about it out loud, she found that to be an extremely dull and uninteresting way of interacting with whatever city you lived in. Also, her idle explorations and willingness to get "lost" usually helped her discover some of the best places to eat and drink. Places no one else had ever heard of or even seen, as that would have required making an additional turn or two, or walking more than a block away from your local bus or tram stop.

It seemed that this habit of hers had proved useful once again, as she came to a halt in front of a small restaurant hidden down a side street. The tables and chairs outside looked tidy and well kept after, but were left abandoned in the coolness of the evening, despite the pristine white and red stripes of the awning protruding from the wall above to cover potential guests from the elements. A warm yellow light emanating from beyond the large glass panes that filled the warm lit up the street as well as Maho, combining with the scent of basil, oregano, and tomato to provide a gentle sense of comfort. Maho glanced down at the menu posted on the wall for a few seconds, before opening the door and walking inside.

The restaurant was small, but not cramped. Wood painted a dark green was the primary decor for most of the room, with red brick taking its place as wall at roughly shoulder height. A set of booths lining the right wall, a small raised area near the door and windows with two small tables on either side, one for each window, and a handful of slightly larger tables scattered around the room, all covered by red-and-white checkered tablecloths. The restaurant wasn't exactly bristling with activity, but it certainly wasn't empty either, with roughly half the tables having customers who seemed more than pleased with both the food and service seated at them. Maho elected not to take a seat at one of the empty tables however, and instead chose to cross the room in full and sat herself down on a stool at the bar that made up the far wall.

"Evening, Miss," the bartender nodded as she sat down, setting the glass he was polishing down on the counter. "What can I get for you?"

"I'm not sure," Maho said as she picked up the menu that had been lying on the bar and looked it over. "I am famished though. Any recommendations?"

"Our chef makes an excellent Risotto, if that would suit you."

"Sounds good," Maho nodded and put the menu down. "One Risotto, then. I'll have an Old-fashioned to drink as well, please."

"Excellent choice, Miss," the bartender nodded, jotting down her order on a piece of paper and handing it to one of the servers who was on his way into the kitchen before beginning to mix together her drink. "There you go, one old-fashioned."

"Thank you," Maho said and took a sip from the drink she had just been handed.

"The risotto should be out soon," the bartender added and returned to polishing glasses.

Maho gave a quick nod in response, but let him return to his work as she sipped her drink and started looking at her phone as she waited for her food to arrive.

"Wait… Nishizumi? What are you doing here?"

She looked up from her phone somewhat reluctantly, not really feeling up to writing autographs for fans or giving comments to some journalist, but instead she saw she had been addressed by one of the servers. A woman her own age had just come out of the kitchen, holding a trio of steaming plates of pasta on a tray in one hand, dressed in a white shirt with a black vest and a long black skirt while her waist-length, mint-green hair was tied up into large pigtails with black ribbons.

"Anchovy?" Maho said in surprise, recognizing the former commander of Anzio's Sensha-Do team.

"Anzai," the woman quickly corrected, simultaneously trying to look away with an embarrassed blush and also glare at the snickering bartender. "Anzai Chiyomi. That nickname, it was… well… you know… We were teens, and I wanted to stand and seem cool, so… yeah… but now, well… it's just… it's just a bit embarrassing, I guess…"

"Oh, sorry," Maho said and bowed her head in apology.

"No, no, it's fine, it's just, you know…" Chiyomi replied, before realizing that she was still holding a rapidly cooling plate of food. "Hang on, I just need to… you know…" she said and rushed off into the restaurant to deliver the food to the waiting guests. "Sorry," she said sheepishly as she came back.

"It's fine," Maho replied, nodding understandingly. "And yeah, sorry for calling you Anchovy."

"Oh, yeah…" Chiyomi blushed again, scratching her neck for a moment as she looked away. "It's… it's fine, really. Just… yeah… Still," she continued, looking back at Maho with a smile. "It's good to see you again. But, what are you doing here?"

"Having dinner?" Maho posed with a smile.

"Right," Chiyomi laughed. "I meant, what are you doing back in Japan? I thought you were busy being a hot-shot Sensha-Do player in Europe."

"I used to be. But then the JSF asked me to come and work for them, and I decided to say yes. So, here I am."

"Oh, that's cool. Sounds like a great fit for you."

"Thanks."

"You look a bit rough though," Chiyomi said, looking at Maho with an eyebrow raised in concern. "Everything alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Maho lied. As good as it was to see a familiar face, her and Chiyomi hadn't exactly been close back in the day. They were commanders of rival teams, and knew each other as such, but not much more, so she elected to keep her doubts and worries to herself. "Just a bit jet lagged is all. I arrived late last night, and slept through most of the day."

"Oh, yeah, that must have been rough."

"Yeah," Maho chuckled, swirling her drink around her glass for a few moments. "What about you? What's happened in the life of the great Duce?"

Chiyomi gave Maho a dour look at the teasing question, but quickly let her expression soften.

"Well, there's not a ton to tell, really," she shrugged. "I always said I wanted to go into education like mom and dad, but once I started actually studying for it, it turned out it wasn't for me. So I switched tracks, went into culinary school, and well, it's been a lot of waiting tables and helping out in kitchens ever since. Turns out it's really expensive to open your own restaurant," she added with a sigh. "Maybe one day, but who knows…"

"Sorry to hear that," Maho said and bowed her head in sympathy.

"Nah, don't worry about it,'s fi-"

"Anzai!" a voice yelled from the window into the kitchen, interrupting their conversation.

"Right, sorry, chef!" Chiyomi called back. "Sorry, Nishizumi, I gotta…"

"Of course," Maho nodded, watching as Chiymoi rushed away through the kitchen door and re-emerged a few moments later with another tray full of food.

"I think this is for you," she smiled as she set down a steaming plate of risotto on the bar by Maho, a small mound of shredded parmesan and a few leaves of fresh basil decorating the dish.

"Thanks, Anzai," Maho nodded. "It looks great."

Chiyomi gave a quick smiling nod in reply. "Enjoy your meal," she added, and continued into the restaurant with the rest of the plates for other tables. Maho followed her path with her gaze for a few seconds in amusement, but soon began digging into her food. Perhaps it was because of her empty stomach, or her jet lagged state, but it certainly felt like one of the best plates of food she had ever had.


"Thank you very much, Miss," the bartender said as he accepted the bills Maho handed over to pay for her food. "I hope you enjoyed your meal."

"It was delicious, thank you," Maho replied, and rose from her seat. "Have a nice evening."

"Have a nice evening."

The gentle chill of the late evening air felt refreshing after the warmth of the restaurant as Maho stepped outside. She paused outside the door, closing her eyes and taking a few deep breaths as she let the cool of the night brush against her skin. Seeing the bright white disk that was the moon peek out beyond the roofs of the buildings around her, she checked her phone and realized she had spent the better part of three hours in the restaurant. Which shouldn't really have come as much of a surprise. Not only had she taken her time enjoying her food, as well as an excellent Tiramisu for dessert, and had three or four drinks, but she had also spent a lot of time talking to Chiyomi. They hadn't had time for a lot of long conversations, with Chiyomi constantly rushing in and out of the kitchen, but whenever she had a moment of respite from her role as server, Chiyomi had taken the time to stand around and talk with Maho, reminiscing about their time as high about the various turns their lives had taken since.

It was strange to think about. It had been so long since she left Japan, since she had talked with her old teammates and opponents, that she wasn't even sure she was the same person any more. She sighed and shook her head as she felt all her doubts and worries over the paths she had chosen in life flood back into her mind, washing over her like a tsunami on a bright summer's day.

"Nishizumi?"

Looking up, Maho saw Chiyomi standing beside her, now in a far more casual outfit consisting of a set of red pants and a blue hoodie covering a white blouse, her hair now unified into a single long braid instead of the twintails she had worn earlier.

"Oh, hey Anzai."

"What are you still doing here? Something wrong?"

"Nah, just reminiscing is all," Maho said and waved her hand reassuringly. "It was good seeing you again. Have a nice night, Anzai," she added, and began walking away back towards her apartment.

"You're heading this way too?" Chiyomi asked as she took a few quick sprinting steps to catch up, before slowing her pace to match Maho's. "I'm going the same way, so we might as well keep each other company, right?"

"I guess that's fair," Maho smiled and nodded.

"It's fine if you call me Chiyomi, by the way," Chiyomi said as they continued, turning onto the larger street. "If you want, that is."

"Alright. Then you can call me Maho," Maho nodded, reaching out a hand towards Chiyomi, who took it in her own and shook it.

"So, how does it feel being back in Japan?" Chiyomi asked.

"Not sure… I haven't really had time to think about it yet." Maho admitted. "If anything, I think I'm maybe starting to feel homesick," she added with a chuckle, awkwardly scratching her neck.

"Homesick?" Chiyomi asked with a confused look. "For what?"

"It's… it's complicated," Maho replied. "I guess… I guess when you've spent a decade somewhere else, it's hard to know where "home" even is…" She stopped walking, and looked down at the pavement. "Sorry… I guess that doesn't make a ton of sense…"

"No, I think that makes a ton of sense, actually," Chiyomi said after a moment, and leaned down so her face appeared in Maho's field of vision. "Life's weird like that sometimes," she added, and stood back up so that Maho was forced to look back up as well. "Still, I'm sure you're going to figure it out sooner or later." She clasped her hands behind her back and idly walked away a couple of steps, before leaping towards a lamppost and grabbing it with one hand, planting her foot against the base as she spun around it. "You're in the biggest city in the world, after all. It'd be weirder if you didn't feel a bit lost," she laughed, dropping down from the lamppost and continuing down the street at a slow pace.

"Right," Maho laughed, and continued walking to catch up with Chiyomi. They continued another couple of blocks, talking as they went, mostly focusing on exchanging information on what little they had heard of their former teammates and rivals, until Chiyomi was the one to stop in place.

"Well…" she said and pointed at the door of the building she had stopped by, "This is me…"

"Oh… right…" Maho said, nodding in understanding. "Well…. Go-... good night then, Chiyomi. It was good to see you again."

"Yeah… It was great. And I really enjoyed this talk," Chiyomi nodded, and looked down awkwardly at her purse as she fished for her keys. "Good night, Maho.

"Well… I'll… I'll be on my way then," Maho added, and turned to walk the final few blocks to her own apartment. "Good night."

"A-actually!" Chiyomi called out after Maho had just taken a few steps.

"Y-yeah?" Maho asked as she turned back to look at Chiyomi.

"Do… I mean…" Chiyomi said awkwardly. "I really enjoyed this talk, so, I don't know… Do you wanna… come up for a cup of tea, or something, and keep it going a bit? I think I've got a good bottle of wine that needs drinking, and I can't drink it all on my own…"

"I…" Maho said just as awkwardly, but began taking a few slow, cautious steps back towards Chiyomi. "You know what? I'd love to."


Maho groaned quietly as she felt the light of day make itself known against her face, and turned herself over in bed to avoid the sunlight that breached the blinds and tried to break through her eyelids, but it was of little help. She sighed and groaned once more, before rolling onto her back and slowly opening her eyes. Despite the obvious brightness of the day outside, the room was only slightly more than dimly lit thanks to the blinds, but it was obvious that she had slept long past morning today as well. She didn't feel anywhere near as groggy as she had when she woke up the previous day, but the remaining jet lag as well as the alcohol from last night more than made itself known to her as she lazily reached a hand out towards her bedside table, blindly groping for her phone. Instead, her fingers only found thin air where the table was supposed to be.

Focusing her eyes a bit more clearly and sitting herself up in bed, Maho realized there was a very good explanation for the missing table; The small room with white-painted walls she found herself in wasn't her bedroom. Her clothes sat neatly folded on top of a chair in the corner, and on the other side of the bed she saw a small nightstand, with a folded-up piece of paper with "Read Me" written in hastily scribbled kanji on it. Grabbing the paper and leaning herself back against the pillows and wall behind her, Maho folded it open and began to read.

Hi Maho. I really enjoyed last night, but I have a shift today as well. You looked really cute sleeping, so I didn't want to wake you. Besides, you looked like you could use the rest. It was great to see you again, and it's great to have you back in Japan. The Federation is lucky to have you. If you want, I'd be happy to have another "chat" with you sometime again. If not, that's fine too.

Either way, you know where to find me if you want to talk or do something else. I get off work at 9 o'clock.

Love, "Anchovy"

080-8873 9612

P.S.

There's a key on the table by the door, so just lock the door and drop it in the mailbox when you leave.

P.P.S.

Feel free to help yourself to something to eat in the kitchen.

As fragments of the previous night began returning to her memory, she blushed and giggled in awkward embarrassment, even if she couldn't help but smile as she read the note over and over, before finally closing her eyes and leaning back against the wall, taking it all in.

Whatever doubts she had had when she accepted the position in the Federation and chose to return to Japan, all the worries over what "home" even meant to her, had disappeared from her mind, and she found herself feeling more certain than she had ever been before in her life. She had made the right decision.

She was home.