"…And that's when I decided to come back to the present," Hiro said, rolling onto his back and stretching. "I really wanted to help, but sadly, it didn't seem like there was much I could do."
It was the morning after he'd gone back in time to the university, and Hiro was feeling pretty defeated. Anzu had come out to Kimiko, tried to ask her out, and gotten rejected. Then somehow twenty years later they'd met back up and fallen in love. The fact that Hiro had, albeit indirectly, caused this was still gnawing on the back of his head. Plus, he still didn't totally get why the present-day discovery that Anzu had precognitive abilities was such a hang-up for Kimiko.
"Well, that sucks." On the floor next to their bed, Ando flipped listlessly through an old comic book that Hiro had left lying around. "But hey, at least you know a bit more about Anzu's past."
"But what I know just gives me more questions than answers!"
Just as he said that, Hiro's phone rang. Not wanting to leave the fluffy blanket he was lying on—his trip to the past had worn him out—he leaned over to the bedside table and fumbled around for the phone. He grabbed it just a few seconds before it would have gone to voicemail, not bothering to check the caller ID. He had a feeling it would either be Anzu or Kimiko anyway.
As it happened, he was right. "Yo, Hiro," Anzu's sleepy voice greeted him over the phone. "Listen, man, I'm really sorry about last night…"
"You don't have to explain anything," Hiro said quickly.
"No, no, I do," said Anzu. Upon closer listening, maybe her voice wasn't rough because she was tired—maybe it was because she'd been crying. "Look, Hiro, the thing about me is I've got a bad memory, especially where my college days are concerned. Heck, my roommate was my best bud, and I can't for the life of me remember his name—"
"Taro," Hiro supplied.
"Right, it was Ta—wait, how do you know that?!" Suddenly Anzu sounded a lot more alert. "Hey, Hiro, did you go back in time to spy on me and Kim?"
Biting his lip, Hiro glanced at Ando and mouthed "should I tell her?" Ando shrugged and went right back to rummaging through Hiro's old comics. Hiro made a mental note to tidy those away as soon as possible.
"Actually, don't even bother," Anzu said. "I remember you being there! Yeah, you just showed up one day acting like you had some business with Kim, and we all kinda went along with it. Holy crap," she added, voice dropping a few decibels. "How did I not know what was up when I read about you in Ninth Wonders? You had the same name and everything."
"That is odd," Hiro agreed, shifting his weight from foot to foot as he spoke. He was dying to ask about exactly how things had played out between her and Kimiko, and if they were breaking up or staying together, but he held his tongue and waited for Anzu to bring it up first. "But if your memory's as bad as you say it is, it's understandable."
"Oh, right, that's what I meant to tell you!" Over the phone, Hiro could hear Anzu take a deep breath and let it out as a sort of combination of a sigh and a groan. "The whole thing about me punching the wall? You call mark that down as pent-up anger over being rejected in college. Thing is, I didn't remember it was Kimiko who'd turned me down until that night—or I hadn't put together that it was the same person. And I'm not so sure she had, either… until I pulled out my old artwork and she saw some stuff of mine I reckon she recognized."
Hiro gulped. "Like the portrait of her with the earrings."
There were a few moments of silence, and Hiro was beginning to wonder if the connection had gone offline when Anzu spoke up again.
"Yeah," she said, and this time she definitely sounded tired. "Listen, dude, I… I'm crazy in love with Kimiko. I didn't mean to snap at her like that last night. I just… I want her to love me as much as I love her! Is that too much to ask?"
"Well, don't tell all that to me," said Hiro. "Tell it to Kimiko."
"…You know what? You're so right," Anzu replied. "Bye, Hiro."
She hung up, and Hiro set the phone down with the beginnings of a smile on his face. He hopped off the bed and sat down beside Ando, his back to the dresser.
"I take it they're going to talk things over?" Ando said.
"Yup!" Grinning, Hiro snuggled up against his fiancé. "So… what are you reading?"
"Oh, this?" Ando held the comic up so Hiro could see. When he did, Hiro realized that, despite his clearly having had it for some time, he didn't remember owning this comic. "Anzu lent it to me a few weeks back; she said it had been her most exciting find ever when she bought it at that gay bookstore last year."
Intrigued, Hiro took a closer look at the comic. Apparently it belonged to a series called LGBTokyo: a semi-true-to-life college anthology. The cover showed an open field at nighttime, dotted with a few trees. Front and centre stood a man who looked suspiciously familiar. At the bottom, in flashy red text, there was a text bubble announcing, "this issue: a trans guy and his lesbian roommate receive a visit from a familiar face for fans of the Ninth Wonders series!"
"That's me," Hiro said, fighting back a grin.
"Yeah, apparently this was written and drawn by some dude Anzu went to college with," Ando said. "Although I'm pretty sure he was afraid of getting sued by Isaac Mendez, because he changed your name and made you... well, just take a look."
Ando handed the comic over, open to the first page. Hiro bit back a laugh upon seeing the very first panel—Taro and Anzu in their college dorm, each with a girl hanging around their arm. "It's another ordinary night," Anzu was saying; Taro was replying with "I wonder if anything cooler is happening outside…" On the next page, there was an establishing shot of the campus, followed by a couple panels of Hiro slinking around like a cat, complete with shuffling sound effects.
Hiro skimmed over the next few pages; they were mostly just filler involving the awesome frat party that Anzu and Taro had almost certainly never had in real life. His proper introduction was about a third of the way through the comic, when Taro was chased out of the building by a gang of people shouting slurs. There was a panel that consisted entirely of the word "SLICE!" in big bubble letters, and then a full-page illustration of Hiro in the samurai garb he'd worn in the future wherein New York had been destroyed… only here, Hiro's outfit was in the colours of the transgender flag, and he had a bright pink mohawk. He was cutting down the people who'd attacked Taro, who waited until three pages later to exclaim "I don't believe it!"
"Me neither, Taro," Hiro muttered as he flipped through the rest of the ridiculous comic. "Me neither."
Ando grabbed the comic and rolled it up like a newspaper. Putting on an exaggerated tough-guy voice, he said, "Prepare to be vanquished by me, #1 ally Harou Nakajima!"
"Is that what they changed my name to?" Hiro giggled. Not bothering to find out for himself, he took off his glasses and furrowed his brow. "It's me, Hachiro Nishimura!"
"From hit comic series eighth mysteries," Ando put in.
"Shiro Nakayama from tenth questions."
Ando raised his hand in the nya gesture. "Hewwo, I'm Hiro Nyakapurra, the time-travelling kitty cat!"
Toppling onto the floor laughing, Hiro shook his fist at the air. "I… I'll defend my Clan from college students!"
"Best Warriors OC ever."
"And the best part is," Hiro said, propping himself up to give Ando a kiss on the hand, "he's got the best fiancé in the whole forest."
