Tucker woke up as he felt like he had a nice long sleep after getting up early to catch the train. It was only natural for them to sleep in late with them having nothing to do. Lilly, Hisao and Hanako were going to spend the afternoon with them.
Katawa Shoujo- Wiosna
"Good morning, Tucker." Rin Greeted him. Tucker turned his head to see Rin who had her head resting on his neck with her body partially laying on his.
"Oh Rin, I didn't see you there." Tucker began. Rin must've been comfortable, and she wasn't going to release him from her clutches. She opened her mouth wide of a yawn before rolling off of Tucker. She looked at the clock, it was eleven in the morning, they really overslept.
"When was Lilly saying that she'll meet us?" Rin asked. She rolled off her bed while Tucker got up to get himself ready.
"She said she was going to meet us when they finished lunch. We got a couple hours or so. I also decided that we should buy a few snacks to hold us over until Lilly arrives. We usually eat our meals with her as we don't have much money." Tucker explained to Rin that Lilly was going to meet them that afternoon and they'll be heading over to the hobby store. Tucker walked into the bathroom while Rin went off to prepare herself and Tucker something to drink. Tucker looked into the mirror as he strangely felt relaxed. Relaxed for the first time for what seemed to be a long time.
"Oh, and Emi has begun the race, she's doing well." Rin told Tucker about the other news regarding Emi that was going on.
"Tell Emi I wish her luck." Tucker replied to Rin's message. Tucker was busy brushing his teeth to make sure he was going out to see his friends. He wanted to at least look presentable. After spitting into the sink. He knew he needed to take care of Rin's needs before they could head out.
A couple hours later, they had exited the hotel when they learned that Lilly and her friends were on their way, and they were going to meet them at the spot where the cab had dropped them off the night before. Tucker and Rin were sitting on the bench while looking over the magazine that Yuuko had given them.
Katawa Shoujo- Afternoon
"Which one do you like?" Tucker asked Rin. Rin looked over the magazine trying to pick out what she liked.
"The one with the two sets of six looks nice, pretty powerful too." Rin began speaking with a smile. "I bet I want to design a home for this where it can roam happily." Tucker laughed while they were sitting down together.
"You sure you can design something like that and make it without any hands?" Tucker asked. Rin began to ponder for a moment, she was wondering if this was going to be possible to design a home for her wandering hobbies.
"Well, that could be possible if we had a third person with good hands. I don't have any hands myself and I don't know how good your hands are Tucker?" Rin asked as she seemed to be uncertain with what she said. Tucker nodded a bit before flipping the magazine page over to see what kind of snakes they were dealing with.
"These are the rainbow snakes you've talked about in your game?" Tucker asked Rin if this was true. The snake had the colors of red, black and some greens and blues. Rin looked over while trying to decide what she was going to agree on.
"That I can say yes." Rin nodded; she smiled as she was going to be excited. Rin looked at the magazine looking at the various body parts of what seemed to be the snake. "What sizes are we going to see?"
"I don't know actually but if this will be an exciting one, I would say that we should see them all in various sizes." Tucker explained. Someone was approaching them at the stop. Tucker and Rin to see who is coming to them. It was Hanako… and just Hanako. Tucker and Rin looked at Hanako as they were confused. Didn't Lilly say that she, Hisao and Hanako were going to meet them. Why was it just Hanako? Tucker knew that there had to be an exclamation to this. Hanako approached them as Tucker and Rin stood up.
"Hey Hanako, how are you doing?" Tucker began with a friendly greeting. Hanako finally joined their side.
"I'm doing good. I sensed you and Rin had a good night's rest too." Hanako began. She tried her best to put on a smile though something was wrong.
"How come it's only just you… where are Lilly and Hisao?" Tucker asked. He was standing there with Rin as they were confused on why it was just Hanako that was there. Hanako placed her hands to the side, she knew she needed to say the truth about what happened.
"Hisao… Hisao had a heart murmur." Hanako told Tucker and Rin. They both froze at the news about what happened to Hisao. They knew Hisao's heart wasn't the best but what they heard had turned them into ice.
"Is… is Hisao okay?" Tucker asked Hanako about their friend's condition.
"He's going to be okay. His murmur had passed though he hasn't been taking his heart medication for the past couple of days. Me and Lilly were conflicted about what we should do next, but Lilly told me to have a nice day with you while she took Hisao back to the summer house for him to rest and recuperate. This is going to be hard on us as Hisao and Lilly aren't going to enjoy the day out here."
"But… you still have us, right?" Rin asked Hanako if today was truly going to be alone. Hanako looked up as her mood began to brighten up a bit.
"I will." Hanako responded. Rin walked over as she tried her best to hug Hanako. Hanako hugged Rin back. Tucker felt left out in all of this and decided to walk over and decided to hug them. Hanako and Rin were taken by surprise as they had their friend join them.
"So, who's ready to go to the shop?" Tucker asked them. Hanako and Rin released each other before Tucker released them. They both looked at him rather excited over the prospect of the shop.
"We do." They both said with excitement. Tucker nodded before he began to lead the two girls to the hobby shop that Yuuko had told them to go to.
The three of them approached the doors to the shop while looking at the large building, it seemed to be bigger than any other building in the town. It looked like it was going to be a good time today. Taking a deep breath. Tucker entered inside. Hanako was holding a camera while Rin seemed nervous but very excited to see where this day was going to take them. Hanako and Rin entered first before Tucker followed inside. Rin and Hanako's eyes lit up with excitement as the wonders of the giant hobby shop had caught them by attention. The three of them walked over to the booth and spotted someone inside that was collecting money for tickets for those who want to tour the shop.
"How many tickets?" He would ask.
"Three tickets needed." Hanako told the man that she was buying the tickets for the group. The man nodded before ringing up the price. Tucker slid the Yen over before the man slid the tickets.
"Enjoy your day you three." He warmly told them. Rin headed in first as Tucker and Hanako followed in behind.
Lisa Mitchell - Neopolitan Dreams
Rin took off first as she went straight for one of the tables to see what was going on. Like a little kid excited to see the trains heading along the tracks if they were real. The miniature train passed Rin's eyes as she looked on with awe. She was really drawn into what the train had to offer. Tucker and Hanako walked over as another miniature train passed them by. Hanako got out the camera before snapping a photo of it. It seemed to be really exciting to her.
"These are so cute, and I didn't know these things were real." Rin began as the smile on her face was gigantic.
"Yeah, me too. We got to thank Yuuko the moment we see her again." Tucker told Rin that they needed to thank their librarian. Hanako looked at the two snakes meeting each other heading in the opposite directions. Rin continued to stare at them even though this earned a tap on the shoulder from Hanako telling her that they were moving on. They moved to the next table as Hanako pushed one of the interactive buttons, the chickens came to life as they bobbed their tiny heads, eating the grain that had been put out for them. Another miniature train passes by them in the background. The three of them continued to stare at it while they were contemplating what they were going to do next. Hanako turned the camera to them all while getting them lined up for a shot.
"Smile." Hanako told them. Hanako snapped the photo of them as the flash of the camera was seen for just a moment. Once after getting the picture, Rin turned to see the rest of the train disappear off into the distance, this seemed to be something she was really drawn into. They decided to move on as Rin wanted to follow this train in particular. Tucker, Hanako and Rin went up a small set of stairs to the next level where Rin's train continued to traverse the steel rails it was traveling down. Rin looked on with excitement.
"There it is." Rin called out with excitement. They looked down to see the train meander its way through the forest with the creek running alongside it. Hanako looked around to see if she could spot anything else that would be interesting to her. The train rolled along into another set of rails before coming to a stop at the signal. Rin was confused to see what was going on.
"Why did it stop?" Rin asked. She seemed rather puzzled, was the train broken or something. The three of them couldn't come up with an answer as they tried their best to figure out what had happened. Suddenly, another train heading in the opposite direction came along with a bunch of coal hoppers behind it. The smoke belched from the funnel of the locomotive as the mechanical sound of the miniature train was heard, the train came along and passed the train that was stuck on the siding.
"Look! Look! Rin, there is another one." Tucker called out to Rin. Rin looked at the train meeting as Hanako got out her camera and snapped another photo of the train heading in the opposite direction. The two toys met each other as they ran alongside each other. Rin watched the meet as this seemed to be the one thing that made her truly excited.
"This is so cool." Rin called out to Tucker. Tucker held Rin in his arms and tried his best to lift her to give her a better look. Rin looked at the train as the tail of the passing train was seen marked by a different color tail tip. Once the meeting train passed by, the other train that had stopped earlier began to move again. Within moments, it began to disappear into the tunnel as Rin was watching from the side, curious to see where it was going. "Where is it going? Come back." Rin called out for the train to poke its head back out from the hole. It didn't listen, it continued to slither its way into the tunnel as Rin seemed to be upset about the one thing she liked disappearing from her very eyes.
"We'll find it Rin. I promise." Tucker told Rin to not get upset about it. He placed Rin down before they began to walk off together to another section of the table. Rin watches the tail tip of her train disappearing into the tunnel. She followed Tucker and Hanako feeling defeated. Tucker continued to look at the table's scenery as if he was climbing up the hill with the girls being his sheep. He looked out ahead and spotted something. He knew that he needed to make Rin excited. "Rin look!" Tucker called out. Rin peered into the table, trying to figure out what it was that Tucker needed her to look at. She did so as her train was still meandering its way along. Rin smiled again as her train had reappeared.
"There it is!" Rin called out with excitement. The train rolled along to see multiple tracks containing cargo of anything they could imagine, goods, fuel, scrap metal, grain, anything they could imagine, neatly stored up into several tracks that they couldn't imagine existed. The train stopped before part of the body disconnected, the three of them stared in awe as the train shoved the piece of the body that broke off into one of the yard tracks, the yard spider was sorting cars and stopped briefly as the engines slowly made their way down the yard, they hooked up to the cargo they needed and slithered their way out of the yard. They then coupled up to the rest of the train before they departed the yard. Tucker, Rin and Hanako watched as they were in awe.
"That was so interesting. I hope we can experience more of it." Hanako admitted while they were looking at the yard. Rin however wanted to continue following the train to see where it was leading them. It was wandering around in her mind. Tucker and Hanako followed a couple moments later. They were going to follow the train. They both arrived at an open field as Hanako went over to push the next button, the tractor with the threshing equipment began to make its way around in a circle as if it was harvesting the wheat, two figures stood in the background with hoes as if they were helping harvest the wheat. The train went by in the background as Rin continued to stare at it. Tucker and Hanako meanwhile watched as Hanako got out her camera and snapped another photo.
"Is that train so interesting to you?" Tucker asked Rin if this was something she was inspired by. Rin turned to Tucker and began speaking to him.
"It's like a cloud, big, slow and sometimes white." Rin told Tucker that this was something she enjoyed. "We talked about this when we were heading back to Yamaku from the Shanghai." Rin reminded Tucker what they were doing and compared the moment they had to a time not too long ago. Hanako looked at Tucker and Rin and expected them to line up.
"Line up you two." Hanako told Tucker and Rin. They both lined up as Rin tried her best to hug Tucker. "Smile." The two of them smiled as Hanako got the picture she had desired. Rin turned and she continued to look at the train disappear into another tunnel. She wanted to follow it and see what kind of journey it was going to go through. Hanako and Tucker wanted to move on and continue exploring the hobby store. They continued to wander around before discovering the odd-looking house on wheels.
"Does anyone live in this house?" Hanako asked nervously. Tucker didn't respond and Rin looked over to see what kind of car this was.
"That's a Caboose, it's on the end of the train like the one I was watching, I'm not sure if these are still in use anymore." Rin explained what this car was. She walked over as it was clear that they could enter. Rin went up the stairs first as Tucker and Hanako followed inside. This car wasn't made in Japan, but it was transported from another country due to the information. They headed inside.
The inside seemed to feel like a mobile home on wheels. They began to look around as Rin found the coal fired stove of the car. Hanako and Tucker sat down at the table, and they began to look around a bit. This definitely felt like a summer house, but they would be traveling to different parts of the country, a new part every day. Tucker relaxed and began to speak.
"I wouldn't mind living here, I will admit, doing paperwork while Rin gets to help take care of the place. I still don't mind being an engineer, but this is the job I wouldn't mind taking up." Tucker admitted. "If I still have two working arms." Tucker sighed as he began flipping through the pages. Rin looked around before she smiled.
"This is an excellent place to call home. I wouldn't mind making this my home. I get to do what I like with the free time I have and not deal with everyone telling me to make art. It's a very relaxed kind of pace that we don't really see in Yamaku. I'm still thinking about what I want to do, and I will continue to debate about it in the near future as I'm still not entirely sure what to do." Rin explained that this would be her in her element, riding along the rails and looking at the window and keeping an eye on things regarding the tracks ahead. Tucker knew that Rin's lack of arms was going to limit her if she was going to climb straight up.
"I don't know about climbing straight up, you can tell the engineers that you paint with your feet though. I bet they'll find one that suits your needs as not every one of these comes in this shape." Tucker explained to Rin that there will be something for her regarding the disability and this particular one's shape could be limiting due to the fact that Rin had no arms or hands to hold onto anything. Rin sighed before looking ahead.
"I'll just handle all the paperwork while you keep an eye out for us." Rin explained with a smile. Tucker nodded as Hanako was taking pictures of the place. She was definitely enjoying this. Tucker headed over to find the beds of this car. It was meant for long distances and if they were going to be away for many days, they were going to need time to kill off the boredom when they finished the paperwork. Hanako continued to take pictures as they exited the car.
Tucker, Rin and Hanako approached another table as a couple of small kids were happily playing around, and they scurried past them. Rin was busy staring at the table while Hanako and Tucker looked around trying to find where this adventure was going to take them. They spotted something at the table, they thought it was something really interesting.
"Rin over here." Tucker called out. Rin walked over as the train scurried its way across the table.
"That's the train we rode on yesterday, on our way here to Hokkaido." Hanako explained what the train was. The three of them continued to stare at the train, scurrying along the table. They began to wonder if there was a Hokkaido station or even better, a station at Yamaku where their school was. "Yamaku Academy has to be around here somewhere." Hanako stated. They began to look around the table to see if they could spot their school. They began to circle around with their eyes trying to spot their school on the table. One of the men who worked in the club walked over as he was curious to see what the teenagers were trying to find.
"Looking for something?" He would ask them. Hanako snapped her head up to see who this person was as she began to sweat nervously over his words. Tucker walked over and decided to do the speaking.
"We were looking for Yamaku academy on this table, we spotted the train we took on the way up here and we wanted to see where the school was." Tucker explained to the man. The man nodded before smiling at the three of them.
"I know where it is, follow me." He kindly told them. He turned before walking over to the section of the table, Tucker, Rin and Hanako followed. After what seemed to be a minute of walking, they spotted the school on the table, it looked like Yamaku Academy, but it was much smaller, the train scurried off into the distance.
"I never knew a place such as our school could be modeled like that." Rin told the man. He nodded, he needed to get to know the three of them more.
"You three are from Yamaku Academy, right?" He would kindly ask them. Rin looked at him before nodding.
"Yes, we are, we came up here for our break." Rin explained to the man. The man nodded before he began speaking.
"I was a modeler during my time at that school when I worked there many years ago. I bet you three have heard of one of my former colleagues Shinichi Nomiya." He would say to them. The name lit up in their minds as they knew who he was.
"Yes, he's our art teacher and based on your models you seem to have everything down to the smallest detail." Rin told the man that she was amazed, she nearly stuttered in her words, her choice instead was to babble it all out. The man laughed.
"I see. I think you three seem to enjoy anything. Except for Mister Nomiya. We used to be friends but not anymore." He would explain to them. Rin gasped, Hanako held her tongue and Tucker knew he needed to ask about it.
"What happened?" Tucker asked.
"Well… Mr. Nomiya is one to express that he gets angry if it means he can't get what he wants. He's been looking for a good artist for years and if he gets a good artist under his belt, he could show that he isn't some slouch for falling out with me. I think he takes advantage of anyone with talent and sticks them into rooms where they could get their scholarships to Tokyo, and they do nothing but do art and I ask him; can't the students have a little free time to do other things and he said no. That's how we fell out." The man explained how their relationship ended and Shinichi would take advantage of anyone that had the slightest artistic talent. Tucker froze and began to think about Eleanor, was she really going to go out of her way to fulfill Shinichi's desires and if she did. And now with her plans in motion, Tucker didn't know if he was going to stop Eleanor and make her reconsider her decision.
"I feel sorry for those students. At least I was smart enough to reconsider my decision." Rin admitted. She closed her eyes before taking a sigh to herself. Tucker knew he needed to ask him about Eleanor.
"What about Eleanor, how can I tell her that what she is doing is dangerous? I tried telling her so far and she gets very defensive and shoved me off." Tucker asked the man if he had any tips and advice on what to do. The man began to think about what he could do for Tucker and how to bring the issue up. He sighed before he began to speak.
"Well, I can contact Mr. Kagami, he's also one of my friends as he helped me build this place." He told Tucker about it. Tucker's eyes lit up as he thought there was still one last bit of hope to try to get Eleanor back on the right path.
"That's my dad." Tucker told the man. The man paused a bit before he told Tucker.
"Give me a moment, you can continue exploring the rest of the hobby shop if you wish and I'll meet you by the end if I have any news." He told them that they could continue looking around the hobby shop. Tucker sighed as this man was going to take a bit, but that didn't mean that they weren't going to spend the rest of their afternoon exploring the place. Tucker and the others moved off to continue exploring the rest of the shop.
Katawa Shoujo- Nocturne
"Hey Rin, what should I get?" Tucker asked. He wanted to pick out something small from the souvenir shop. Hanako had already picked something out, but she was getting something done with her camera she had on her, it was clear she had taken a lot of pictures while exploring the place.
"I think that J class Keychain would do you good, I think you and I should get the same company as it will compliment us perfectly, I'm already getting a Class A in a snow globe. This number is the only 2-6-6-4 left in existence. It'll be perfect for us." Rin explained to Tucker. Tucker handed the number of the engine that was on the keychain and the keychain was made out of brass. Rin nodded. "Yep, not only is that thing still around but I think this engine is still running, I have to look it up when we get back to Yamaku." Rin explained to Tucker. They both walked over as Hanako was busy getting the pictures. She turned around and knew she needed to speak.
"I have to make a scrapbook of what we did today with Lilly and Hisao. It might rain tomorrow so that will give us something to do." Hanako began as she sounded unusually excited. Tucker sensed it and knew that Hanako had a few things on her mind. They went over and began to pay up. Tucker bagged all of their souvenirs together when the man that they were talking to earlier that they ran into had appeared.
"Hey Tucker, before you go. Can I speak to you and your friends for a moment, I got back from a phone call with Mr. Kagami, your dad." He began. Tucker turned to the man as he was wondering about what he had in mind.
"Sure, what is it? We're in no rush." Tucker replied.
"Good. I got on the phone with your dad, and I explained the predicament you've been facing, and he wishes to see you in person tonight when he gets out of work. He's working in the Hokkaido area, and he said he'll be on his way." The man laid out the situation. Tucker nodded before smiling.
"That's the good news that he's on his way. Tell him to meet me in the village if we decide to make the walk back to the village this shop is located in." Tucker began. He was astounded with the news. The man laughed before Tucker began to speak again. "Should I include Rin Tezuka into the conversation, or he wishes to speak to me alone?" Tucker asked curiously.
"I told him about Rin, and he said that he received a letter from you a few days ago and now he wishes to speak to you. He won't be writing back this time." The shop employee told Tucker. Tucker nodded as they had a plan in place. Tucker nodded as he finished paying for their belongings.
"Well tell my dad that I am looking forward to seeing him." Tucker explained to him. The man nodded with a smile.
"Anyways, have a nice rest of your day." He told Tucker. Tucker smiled.
"I will thank you." Tucker, Hanako and Rin left the hobby shop. Tucker was excited to be seeing his dad again, but he felt nervous now that he was bringing Rin into the situation. He knew he needed to get himself prepared. They decided to take the walk back to the Satou Summer house as Tucker knew he needed to collect his thoughts.
His dad could make the difference in difficult times.
[A/N]: This chapter deals with them exploring the Hobby shop that Yuuko had told them about. Now Tucker is going to face his father as there are some things that definitely need to be explained. Plus Mr. Kagami is going to be meeting Rin for the first time. Next chapter will be picking up where the events of this chapter have left off. See you until then. Goodbye.