A very big, gracious thank you to those who have reviewed; I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. It always makes the writing so very worth it.

And if you hadn't already picked up, each of the chapter titles is from a song that's from the country/area the chapter takes place in. Chapter two's title is a bit of a stretch, admittedly, but I feel like it still worked.

The last student's father had been a banker, and had brought in free pens for the children. The balding man's shoulders fell as the next parent showed up, along with a briefcase. And when he opened the leather case, and the laser simulation began.

The boy sitting in front of Sherman turned around and whispered, "Dude… Both of my parents are brain surgeons and I'M jealous."

The young boy beamed—If only they knew, he thought with a giggle as he sat for attention during the presentation.

"…Sherman's dad is a dog?" asked another student to himself.

"You're new here, so you get a break, but if that's a problem we can talk about it at lunch," Penny said with a whisper, having leaned forward to the student while clenching a pen in her one hand, pointed side aimed at the student. The student only gulped and nodded quickly, choosing to face straight ahead, sweating and eyes wide.

A knock came from the door, and Sherman and a few of the other students became aware of a black flash hopping up and down in the window of the classroom. Even Peabody, who had been in the middle of his discussion on his occasional spaceflights, perked his ears up and gave a pause as the teacher silently rushed over to the door, opening it and looking back and forth for who could have possibly been there. She nearly dismissed it when she heard the crinkling of a paper bag raised up in her direction.

"Sherman forgot this on the way out," came the quiet voice of the cat, shrinking out of the way of the students who had all craned their necks to see her.

"Thank you," the teacher smiled, having quickly recovered from the presence of the cat in the dull green sweater. Rigby gave a quick wave to Sherman and then rushed away, her head bowed.

"So… Is his mom a cat?" asked the student seated in front of Penny.

"She's NOT my mom," Sherman snapped, having heard the whisper. "She's just staying with us for a little while."

"So'd my nanny before she became my new stepmom," snorted another student.

"How would you like to be eating your teeth for lunch instead of chicken nuggets today?" Penny growled at the student in question, swiveling around and balling one of her fists.

"Now, now that's enough, children. Mr. Peabody, if you'd like to continue…" the exasperated teacher rubbed her forehead and sighed.

"…Yes. As I was saying…" Peabody cleared his throat, and resumed his presentation, looking again to his once-proud son but only noting the folded arms and downward stare.

"Well, I think that went well!" Peabody returned that afternoon from a meeting at the patent office and with a publisher, and Sherman wordlessly hopped into the sidecar. "…And that was very nice of our houseguest to bring you your lunch in the midst of her work. Wasn't it, Sherman?"

"I guess…"

"Sherman, I don't know why you're so convinced that having company over is going to change anything."

"You're all into doing mushy stuff, lately! Don't act like you're not! Come on… Dancing? That's so gross!"

"It was merely a dance, Sherman. Ms. Rogers and I shared one not too long ago. And some talk about art. Nothing really beyond that."

"You like her!"

"I like many people, Sherman. But not with the regard or depth that I do for you. You're my son, and no one else will ever have that distinction. There are different ways to like someone."

"What if… What if you go off and have other kids?"

"I have no interest in doing that—One round of diapers was enough for anyone," Peabody chuckled, reached over, and patted his son's helmet. "Why don't you attempt to spend some time with her, yourself? I'm sure you'd quickly be convinced as to why you shouldn't worry at all if you did."

"You have to do what now?" Rigby turned, still admiring the greens and whites of her kimono.

"Just a meeting with a daimyo for a game of gō. You two should have great fun, even without me!" Peabody laughed vaguely, backing away from the pair. Sherman shrugged this off to the cat and they walked up towards the pristine temple.

"Well, you're the time travel expert. What do we do now?"

"I think we're supposed to both like looking at it," Sherman shrugged, only cicadas in the distance breaking up the silence between the two as they stood in front of the Kyoto temple.

"…Did you want to go explore the woods over there?"

"Huh?"

"Come on," Rigby lifted up the skirt of her kimono just a bit and leading Sherman towards the forest surrounding the golden temple.

The first thing they did was climb of the nearby maples, "I thought it'd give you a better look of the roof!" Rigby explained, holding onto Sherman's hand as he helped him balance on the branch of the tree. "See, you can check out all of the tiles there."

And indeed he did, now seeing the glinting tiles for all of their brightly-colored glory, "Woah…"

"Yeah… My mom did this when I visited Japan with her to get me a better look over a set of palace gates."

"You traveled around with your mom?"

"Yeah. Well, not in time or anything… But around the world. She was a photographer," she answered, enjoying the new, bright gold that her glasses allowed her.

"Hey, look!" Sherman exclaimed, turning and balancing along another branch as he heard the rushing water.

"Haha, wait just a second!" Rigby laughed, following after the boy as he hopped down from the tree and towards the large river nearby. "Looks like there's another temple over there!"

"We can cross this!" Sherman pointed over to a fallen log, and it was at that point Rigby felt something rise in her stomach—Something that wasn't relating to overeating, for once.

"Maybe we could just look at it from here, Sherman. Sherman!" she called out.

"It's okay, it's dry," he replied, taking a few steps on the log, balancing his sandaled feet on it. Rigby bent down to four paws, and started her own balanced walk across it, her throat drying at the rushing water underneath her.

A bird fluttering its wings in the distance was enough to make the cat, already on edge, jump forward, bumping into the boy, and this in turn led to Sherman tumbling off of the rock and into the water.

"No!" she gasped, watching him flail in the waters that were deeper than she'd even imagined. "S-Sherman! Hold on!"

She paced back and forth along the log, watching him struggle while she struggled with the river under her feet.

It was with a cringe that she leapt off of the log and plunged into the water after him—Just in time to recall that she couldn't swim.

The water burned Rigby's throat and nose. She felt a slight pinch against her neck, followed by her head raising up from the water. She was battered occasionally by something she couldn't place at the time, but that she later realized was a paw in the midst of a doggie paddle.

The next thing she recalled, after blacking out, was the sound of coughing. This was followed by a wet nose pressed against hers, and a pair of paws compressing her chest. And unmistakable smell of wet dog, vaguely covered over with cologne…

Rigby pushed the dog off of her by his shoulders and started her own coughing, while Peabody rose in his drenched blue kimono, wringing out the corner of it.

"Are you both all right?" he asked, having wrung out the hem to his satisfaction.

"I think so…" Sherman said, followed by another cough.

"Good…" Peabody's expression then hardened as he turned to Rigby. "Now explain to me WHAT happened?! How did he get in the water? How did you get in the water!? Do you KNOW what could have happened?"

"Mr. Peabody, it wasn't—"

"You're right," Rigby stood shakily. "I'm sorry. I should have paid more attention. I thought we could get across that log and I totally misjudged it."

"I can't tell you how correct that assumption is! I just…" Peabody made a growl as he paced back and forth. "That was COMPLETELY irresponsible!"

"Yeah, I know. Sorry," Rigby's eyes fell to the ground.

"Sherman, come on… Let's get you dried off," Peabody helped the boy to his feet, rubbing the child's shoulders to stimulate at least a bit of warmth as they passed the cat. The dog gave what she could swear was another low warning growl, and stormed past her.

They came up to a main road, Sherman still coughing occasionally, when they heard the stomping of hoof prints against the dirt. Atop a straining horse was a man dressed in a dark kimono, a young boy clutching to his back. As they hurried down the path, the young boy turned upon seeing Sherman, and threw a wrapped package to him. The boy stumbled forward upon taking hold of it, and gingerly unwrapped it, revealing an ornate gold mask.

"I'm sorry! It's for my son's sake!" shouted the man who rode the horse.

"…Mr. Peabody, who was that?"

"Why that, Sherman, would be Ishikawa Goemon and his son. Ishikawa was known as Japan's Robin Hood in the sixteenth century, adopting the life of a—"

"THIEF!" barked several armored men as they, too, ran on horseback. They stopped short at the cat, dog, and boy, though, catching a glimmer of the golden mask.

"That's right," Peabody sighed, seemingly unfazed by the swords surrounding them. "I do believe we've been made his patsy."