Somewhere above the Pacific Ocean – Around 11 AM

My thoughts wander like scattered raindrops across the sky. The last few days rush by my internal vision as I stare outside the window at the nearly completely risen sun, shining through the clouds. Hana is asleep beside me, Lena and Angela behind me with Gabriel and Fareeha in front of me, talking about some weird drinking game involving a deck of cards that they couldn't wait to try out when they got to the hotel. Heh, I'd like to see them try and procure some alcohol in a country that's somewhat stricter with alcohol enforcement than the one we come from. McCree is – of course – asleep with that damn cowboy hat on, and Hanzo is busy reading some book that I can't really identify from back here. The airport in Tokyo was only two more hours away. I smiled a little bit as I laid my hand against my face and went into a little nap, putting my hand on top of Hana's (making it look coincidental, of course).

Tokyo, Japan – 3:30PM

"Now hold on y'all, before we go wandering about like a bunch of sitting ducks, we got a few ground rules. Firstly, stay in yer damn groups. I don't want anybody going missing on the first damn day. Secondly, use yer brains and street smarts. We're giving you some free time to let you get used to yer surroundings but for the love of all that's holy we don't wanna hafta call the undertaker on anyone here. Thirdly, y'all have mine and Mr. Shimada's contact numbers. If anything does happen – which it shouldn't – y'all can call us. Y'all understand?"

The whole class nodded. McCree smiled in return. "Good. Now, y'all can scamper off for a few hours and have some fun. We'll meet up at the hotel at 7 before heading out to dinner. See you there, kiddos."

And with that, our Japanese adventure began. Angela appointed herself (predictably) as the 'leader' of our group, not that that meant much to any of us as we all just wanted to head to the Game Centres in Akihabara. Angela facepalmed and somewhat begrudgingly tagged along with us. It took us about half an hour (with the convenience that is Google Maps) to walk to Akihabara from where we were previously. Once we got there, Lena and Hana's mouths dropped at the size of some of the arcades and Game Centres that were there. I was surprised that Hana, as rich as she is, has never come here before. It wasn't long however until we found a Street Fighter II machine, one of the Super Street Fighter II Turbo Variants. Hana and Lena locked eyes with each other and that meant only one thing: we have – unbeknownst to everyone else – a D. Va vs Tracer matchup right here! They both inserted a coin each and proceeded to the character select screen. Hana chose Ken, a safe but steady choice. Tracer chose Chun-Li, who she has always associated with Speed and precision. The game loaded up the fight, and after a few seconds, the fight began.

Hana started on the offense with a Hadouken-to-Tatsumaki Senpukyaku combo. While the Hadouken hit, Lena predicted the second special and managed to block it, jumping over Hana's Ken and attacking with her Hyakuretsu Kyaku which did significant damage. However, Hana wasn't phased as she blocked and then countered with a Flaming Shoryuken followed by a Hadoken, stunning the Chun-Li. Hana then swept in with a Tatsumaki Senpukyaku and won the round.

"I am unstoppable" claimed Hana, quoting one of her many catchphrases from D. Va

Lena however would not give up. Round Two began with Lena jumping in with a Kikouken, catching Hana by surprise who couldn't counter with a Hadouken quickly enough. Hana jumped up in the air to try and gain the advantage, but Lena was cunning in her strategy. As soon as she was in range of Lena, Lena unleashed the Tenshou Kyaku which pummelled Hana straight to the ground. With only a meagre 10-15% health left, and Lena in perfect health, Hana began to change a bit. She smirked slightly and spurted out "playtime's over" and began to increase her button input speed tremendously. Her face and aura reminded me a lot of last night, the way she was filled with determination and an almost evil aura was almost frightening. She began spamming a Shoryuken-to-Hadouken combo which was unstoppable since Hana didn't give Lena any time to counter. And with one final Tatsumaki Senpukyaku, Hana Song had beaten Lena Oxton, or if you want to be technical, D. Va beat Tracer.

"Aww man, you're so good at this game!" cried Lena in defeat. Angela walked over and gave her a pat on the back, as if to say "well done darling you tried your best!". Hana's aura seemed to go back to her usual, somewhat timid self and muttered out a simple GG to Lena, who replied with a GG of her own. We continued to mess around in the arcades for a while, finding ourselves immersed in the wonderful world of Japanese pop-culture and gaming. I managed to finally get my first victory over Hana in a game of Initial D: Arcade Stage (and when I won I walked over and whispered into her ear " D. Va 0, Bad Guys 1" and gave her a cheeky wink). Angela and Lena managed to find their rhythm together in a few games of DDR (how Angela kept up with Lena is beyond me), whilst Hana and I continued to check out a few more retro games in the old retro corner of the game centre (Hana managing to beat most of the High Scores, even in tough games like Donkey Kong and Pac-Man, signing her name as "DVA" of course). We messed around and played some really weird Gundam and Evangelion mecha-suit games with really awkward control schemes (though Hana really, really enjoyed being a Mecha Pilot, for some reason) before we decided enough was enough for today and headed back to the hotel to regroup with McCree, Hanzo and the rest of our class.

Hotel, Restaurant – 7:30 PM

"Now, I'm gonna give y'all yer room keys. Keep in mind that it's two per room, and while I don't mind boys 'n girls bein' in the same room together, just keep in mind that I don't want no funny business happenin' here. That goes double for you, Reyes" said McCree, pointing out that Gabriel probably wanted to find some schoolgirl to bring back for the night. Classy, I know, but it's not a totally far-fetched assumption. "This list has the groupings. Mr. Shimada will give y'all a copy." Hanzo began distributing forms to us all. Surprise Surprise, I've been booked in with Hana.

I gave McCree a look, to which he replied by beckoning me over with his finger. He wrapped his arm around me and huddled me in.

"Look Bigshot, I know you may be worried about the rooms but I think it's best you stick with Song as much as possible. Try to see if she's settlin' in an' all that." Before he let me go however, he left me with one final sentence.

"Like I said, no funny business."

"Yes sir" I responded.

McCree gave me a smile and patted me on the back as he left me to go and address a few other students. Lena zipped on over beside me.

"Oi Jonathan, what was all that about?" quizzed the ever-quizzical Brit. I sighed and stated that he just wanted me to keep an eye out for Hana. Lena believed that, however she wasn't done toying with me yet.

"Oh, you'll 'look after' her alright" she said with a little wink. I chuckled at her remark.

"Oh yeah, just like how you and Angela took care of each other at the party, right?" I wink back at her, her face turning a shade of red the likes of which I had never seen on the human face before.

"S-Shut up! You didn't see or hear anything!" she says, embarrassment clearly in her voice. Before I could retort, Angela herself interrupts us.

"Dinner is waiting for us, let's get a move on." She says promptly, still thinking that she's the 'leader' of the group. Lena and I, along with Hana, follow her into the dining suite of the hotel.

The food presented to us was typical Japanese cuisine, none of which I was overly familiar with so I asked Hana – who despite being Korean, probably knew a thing or two about Asian cuisine – what I should have.

"E-ehm…m-maybe you could enjoy some beef ramen? It's just noodles with some beef cuts on top, and a bit of vegetables and narutoyaki too. It's quite tasty actually" she says, looking at the menu. I reply with a simple "sure" and we place our orders via an iPad on the table, which made things pretty convenient. The four of us were sat at a nice round table which was decorated with a traditional Japanese tablecloth, coloured in red, white, and pink. Hana snapped a few pictures of the tablecloth, whilst Angela and Lena took a selfie together. I smiled a bit at that. Ever since Jack left, Lena and Angela have basically been my best friends. Whilst I never imagined seeing them 'together' since I always imagined that Angela was as straight as straight could be, I couldn't be happier for either of them, Lena more-so than Angela.

It kind of felt like we were a family.

After around 12 minutes of waiting, our food finally arrived. Hana bowed her head slightly before beginning eating, showing her Korean values hadn't disappeared since she moved away from Busan. I looked down at my bowl which consisted mainly of noodles and beef, along with a cut of what looked like fish and some chopped carrots and celery. I took up the chopsticks and began to eat the food. I was surprised by how sweetly salty the noodle broth was, but it complimented the savoury flavour of the beef and noodles perfectly and the vegetables added some needed zest to the mix.

"Damn, this is some good food!" I exclaim to Hana, giving her a thumbs up. She blushes and looks back at me, twirling her hair around her right index finger.

"I'm happy you like it. Perhaps I could make you some sometime? F-For lunch in school of course not for dinner or anything totally indecent like that!" she says waving her hands about trying to fool both Lena and Angela. They weren't paying any attention to what it was that Hana was saying though, I we looked at each other and giggled a bit. Hana stopped first and asked a question.

"Hey Jonathan, do you mind if we get a p-photo together?" she asked, somewhat nervously. I look at her in slight surprise but then smile.

"I don't mind. Let's do it" I say to her with added warmth in my voice. I shuffle my chair over to beside Hana and fix up my hair to look somewhat respectable. Hana opens up her phone and activates her front facing camera. She takes a quick pic of the two of us smiling together, and after editing the resolution a bit, she actually makes it her phone's wallpaper.

"Wow, I am honoured to be the wallpaper on you know who's phone" I say in a joking tone. Hana looks back and sticks her tongue out in a cutesy fashion. "You're even luckier to be dating you know who" she says back. We sit around and make small talk with Angela and Lena for a while before we head back to our rooms together.

Hotel Room – 9PM

Our room wasn't what I was expecting it to be. For one, it was quite smaller than I had imagined. Secondly, there was a double bed and not two single beds. For the sake of his professionalism as a teacher, I hope McCree made an honest mistake with the room booking. It was a bit weird but I didn't have too much time to think about it. I was dead fucking tired considering I barely slept on the plane here and I didn't have much time to sleep last night thanks to Hana's activities. I got changed into my pyjamas (Which were just a pair of tracksuit bottoms and a loose t-shirt) and slid right into bed. Meanwhile, Hana took her time. She was in the bathroom getting changed into her pyjamas but she also said she had to call someone too. It was certainly taking a while and I didn't want to go to sleep before she got into bed. Eventually, she did come out, wearing – of course – her D. Va branded pyjamas.

"Someone's clearly in love with themselves" I quip towards Hana. Hana replied with a sticking out of her tongue and said "well yeah, I make some good clothes. What can I say?" in a cheeky tone of voice. I chuckle a bit and readjust myself as Hana gets into bed beside me. There's a part of me thinking that this is all happening too fast, but the more I look at Hana and see more of her, the more and more I fall for her. She leans in to me and puts her arm around me.

"Good night, my love"

I smile back and say "Good night my darling" and kiss her lightly on the lips.

And that's how our first day in the Land of the Rising Sun ended.

Elsewhere, Location Unknown – Time Unknown

"….yes…I'm keeping an eye on them both. Their friends? Well, The Swiss girl seems very astute, she could be of use to us if we…convince her, but that Brit with her is quite the annoyance…yes…I see…I'll be joining with them once they leave Japan anyways…they have no information on me yet, other than nationality and gender….yes….of course, I will make sure they know that Talon will rule all. Just give me time, my master."

(A/N: And we are finally in Japan! Don't worry though, things are just getting started as we begin to see the true plot begin! As always, thank you for your support and interest in this fic! Please, leave more reviews and favourites/follows they really do help me out with writing this stuff. See you in Chapter 9 when the Japan Arc of Trapped in the Heart of a Gamer continues!)