Chapter 9: Japan Arc II: Hidden, Seeking Outburst

8:00 AM – Hotel, Tokyo

The persistent buzzing of my alarm clock made sure that neither Hana or I would stay asleep. I turned it off, and despite Hana's pleas to stay in bed, we had to get up for our breakfast and to meet up with McCree and the others, as we had our first (and pretty much only) educational element of our trip to discover today. Today, we'd be going to the Hanamura Gardens in order to learn a bit more about Japanese History and Culture. Whilst it was the educational part of our trip, I was still interested and keen to learn a bit more about the way the Japanese do things differently to us. Hana and I got dressed and headed down to the breakfast room, where we met up with Lena, Angela and - for some reason - McCree at our table.

"Mornin' Bigshot" he exclaimed. "I take it that you and Ms. Song over yonder had a comfortable first night?" He questioned. I answered honestly, since I had no reason to lie to him.

"Yeah sir, I slept pretty well. So did Hana, I think." I replied. He tipped that damn hat of his in response as Hana and I took our seats. Angela was reading the morning newspaper, looking rather concerned.

"You can read Japanese?" I asked her. Angela had a thing or two for picking up languages. She was already fluent in four, and was seemingly picking up her Japanese. Angela nodded in response to me. "Apparently, that terrorist group Talon have been recruiting heavily around these parts. They're after people our age too, as apparently we have the most potential to evolve through conflict...or some crap like that" Hana's expression grew dim as Angela shook her head as if to say the whole Talon ordeal was nonsense. Talon however shouldn't be taken lightly. They were responsible for that terrible war ten years ago, the one which...I'd rather not really speak about yet to be honest. They were responsible for most of the biggest attacks on governments and civilizations in the past twenty-five years, with their recent attack in Busan claiming almost 50,000 lives. You'd think that the world governments would do something about this, like assemble an elite combat group in order to combat Talon and their highly advanced weaponry, but nope, the UN refuse to do anything.

Hana though, was clearly troubled by this. As our breakfast arrived, I decided to ask.

"Hey, you okay?" I asked, placing my hand on hers. She put on a smile and waved it off as nothing, but I knew that wasn't the case. I decided to let it slide for now though, as I'm sure it's something she'd rather discuss when we're alone rather than in public like this, especially in front of McCree here. After about half an hour, we finished our breakfast and loaded ourselves onto the bus towards the Hanamura Gardens.

9:45 AM - Hanamura Gardens, Tokyo Prefecture (Just outside Tokyo Metropolis)

Mr. Shimada was feeling very nostalgic.

It was the first time that he had been to his ancestral home in over thirty years, and it gave him an "itch to pick up the way of the bow" again. Funny, I never pictured Hanzo to be the archery kind of guy but I guess that this world is full of surprises. Hana was in awe at the vast amounts of beauty that the Cherry Blossom trees provided (in fact, Hana says that Cherry Blossoms were the reason why she chose pink as D. Va's primary colour), Angela was taking some serious notes about the history behind the gardens themselves and Lena was yawning about how boring it all was. The girl doesn't have much interest in history or nature as the rest of our little group. I took a few pictures and sent them to Jack, who would definitely appreciate this kind of gesture from us (although Angela wasn't too happy about getting in the picture, Lena convinced her by saying she'd "make it up to her later"... God only knows what she means by that). Although I feel some kind of sadness in not being able to be here with Jack, I don't take it to heart too much. I'm surrounded by other amazing people. I should make the most of this while I can.

"Why don't we play a game! I'm bored as hell over here" exclaimed the ever energetic Lena. I look at her with a look on my face that just screams "really Lena? Really?" I sighed audibly, to help stress my cringe at the situation. Hana and strangely enough, Angela, were enthused by the idea. Fuck it, what's the worst that could happen?

"What kind of game you thinking of playing, Lena?" I ask out.

"Hide and Seek of course!" she shouted out with her undeniably cheery voice. I facepalmed but hey, it's probably better than just waiting around for an hour before McCree and Shimada get bored of waiting around and decide to head back to the hotel. The four of us gathered round each other to play a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors to determine who would be the first seeker.

"Ready! One, two, three!".

Angela - Scissors.
Jonathan - Scissors
Hana - Paper
Lena - Scissors

Hana pouted but accepted her role as seeker. After all, this is D. Va we're talking about, she's not one to back down from a challenge or anything. She begins her count to fifty as we all split up and try to find different parts of the Gardens to hide in. Lena sprinted across to an old abandoned bathhouse area, and Angela hid herself inside a shrine's inner temple. I decided to be less conventional and hid myself in the museum area, which was practically abandoned apart from a young sounding woman and an older sounding man, engaging in a rather hushed discussion. They hadn't seen me yet, so I decided to sneak in and hide behind the counter opposite the door. I was just about in ear-shot of them. Solid Snake, eat your fucking heart out. I am the real stealth genius. Despite my main goal being to try and avoid detection from Hana, I was curious as to what the couple were discussing. I could barely make out the mans face, though I could tell from his voice that he was aged a bit, and the woman had her back turned to me. In fact the only thing I could make out from here was her height, she was about 5'9''. Pretty tall for a younger sounding woman I must admit.

"...what about the American?" asked the man, in a grouchy, American accent. Despite presumably being older, I couldn't rule out any possibility he could be my age either. There was something off about the whole situation here.

"He's not particularly busy right now. He's twiddling his thumbs, awaiting orders. Should I have him commence the operation?" asked the woman, in a vaguely fake American accent.

"No, not yet. Wait until they go back. Remember, when you join with them, that young man and that possé of his will join us, then our agent will be ready to commence his op. You're good at recruiting, especially men. That American boy certainly fell to your charms quite easily."

"For obvious reasons…"

"Perhaps...but for now, stay on mission and keep tabs on them. See to it that you try and get him to become enamoured with you, even if he is currently betrothed.

"Your wish is my command, master". The man and woman left the room at opposite ends. What the fuck did I just hear. Was this some sort of weird ass cult or did I just hear some kind of evil world domination-esque scheme? I mean what i heard certainly wasn't natural conversation betwee homosapiens and now I am quite worried as to the state of my future heal-

"Got'cha!"

Hana managed to find me and in the process of doing so, scare the living shit out of me.

"OHJESUSWHATTHEFUCK!" I shout out, and quickly cover my mouth in remembering where exactly I am located.

"W-Woah there J-Jonathan, are you okay there?" asked Hana with concern seeping through her words. I took a second or two to catch my breath.

"Y-Yeah I'm fine, you caught me by surprise! D-Did you catch the others too?" I ask.

"No, not yet...I wanted to catch you first...hehe" She says with a blush on her face. I smile back at her, trying not to think about what the hell happened before she came in here. Hana meanwhile, was looking around the now deserted room, minus the two of us of course.

"Perfect." She says. With that face, The one she had on the night she told me who D. Va was. The one that says "I'm fucking horny" all goddamn over it. Despite wanting to engage with Hana in our carnal desires, I knew that this wasn't the right location or time for it.

"No, Hana, not perfect. We need to actually talk about this for a second." I say with a serious tone. Hana giggles in response.

"Hahaha, what's there to talk about? Hurry up and f-u-c-k me Daddy." she wraps her arms around my neck as she whispers those words into my left ear. Goddamnit not now…

"S-Stop Hana, you're not acting normal You said we would talk about this!" I say back, pushing her off with a bit of force. Suddenly, the crazed look in her eye goes away, and she goes back to being the shy, timid Hana Song that I had (rather quickly) been accustomed to.

"J-Jonathan...I'm sorry...it's just" She takes in a deep breath.

"Whenever s-s-s-sex or arousal come into my mind, it like, flips a weird kind of mental switch in my brain. I suddenly become more competitive and confident. I don't know if it's my D. Va personality bleeding into my actual personality, but that's what it feels like. I-I don't know why it does, and I've asked several doctors about it, and all of them have either said I'm a nymphomaniac or just crazy. It's such a weird and specific thing but as soon as I start thinking about how hot you are, she takes over and only a certain knowledge of not being able to have sex brings that back down, or of course, having sex."

"Hana, this is fucking weird and barely makes any sense. If at all. I know sex addictions exist but, you've only had sex once, right?" I say, questioning her.

"W-Well, y-yes and n-no…"

"What do you mean "and no"?" I ask.

"Well, b-back in Korea in my last year of school there, I needed some money because I was still trying to find a decent streaming crowd. I had won the StarCraft nationals but I hadn't made it big yet. I lived by myself because of the Talon Attack in Busan. I had to...w...wh...whore myself out a bit to make a few extra bucks, to save to move away from Korea…" She begins to shed a tear.

"But Hana, why? You had become famous by the end of the year right? Surely you could've gotten a job or something at like, a convenience store, right?" I ponder to her.

"No matter where I went, nobody accepted my resumé or Application. So I turned to local call girl clubs and s-sucked dick to earn money to move away. I'm sorry, Jonathan" she begins breaking down into tears. Goddamnit, while it may not have been the best news to hear, I still can't let her feel like this. I walk over to her and hold her in a tight embrace.

"Well, you're here now aren't you? And you're with me too. I'll make sure that you'll never have to do that stuff again for money. You hear me?" I hold her face and stare into her beautiful brown eyes. She wobbles a smile out and hugs me tightly.

"Yeah, thank you Jonathan. I love you so much."

"I love you too, my darling. Let's go find the others now." I say with a warm voice.