August 2nd, 20XX, Yamanote Line, Tokyo, Japan, 12:13 PM

"Kiriko Kamori, huh" the young man said, looking down at the scrap of fox adorned stationary that was given to him not even an hour ago. His anxieties had mostly subsided, knowing that the familiar, warm and kind face of Angela was only a few minutes away from his gaze. In the time since Aki had left him, Jonathan had often thought about Angela, but he could never even remotely consider her in any way other than a friend, despite how beautiful she really was. She had dated both of his best friends in the past which he felt as though could bring up memories the two of them would rather forget in an intimate moment. He knew Angela probably felt the same way too. She had been dating a woman from Canada on and off for the last couple of years now, though her name escaped Jonathan's memory at that moment. Something like Vivian or Violet? A V name for sure though.
"The next station is SHINJUKU, JY-17, the doors on the left side will open. Please change here for the Shinjuku subway line, the Marunouchi subway line…" the announcer continued on as she did so endlessly and effortlessly time and time again. Jonathan got out of his seat and prepared to disembark as the train began to slowly come to a stop at the crowded platform.

After navigating through the labyrinthian Shinjuku Station trying to find the exact exit Angela was waiting at (there was more than one East Gate in Shinjuku Station after all), Jonathan finally passed through the ticket gate, and for once, he was actually early by about two minutes.
"Makes for a change" he mumbled to himself while checking his watch. After about five minutes had passed, he saw Angela approaching him from the corner of his eye, looking more excited than he was used to seeing from her.
"Heyyy! Sorry I'm late~! The meeting this morning went in a direction I wasn't expecting to, lots of things going on at the department…" she said with a slight bow. Jonathan scratched his head from embarrassment. He was used to these kind of mannerisms from Japanese people but not from Angela. It's not like he was fully Japanese himself, Angela didn't have to be so formal, he thought. When in Rome, do as Romans do, so when in Japan, do as Japanese do, I suppose.

"It's no problem Angela, there's a nice Italian restaurant nearby, you wanna grab some pasta?" he motioned towards the station exit, his mind now filled with images of lasagne and carbonara.
"Sure! I could go for anything right now to be honest, I skipped breakfast, haha" she said, readjusting her white lab coat. Despite the fact that Angela, by all accounts, had an office meeting today, she still insisted on wearing a lab coat to the office she was stationed in while visiting Tokyo. She told Jonathan once that it was to "maintain scientific integrity" but he knew she did it just because she liked the look. He preferred her look in the Valkyrie armour, the suit she wore when her and Jonathan needed to go to Korea back in high school, but she has not worn it since that day.

A day better left in the past, Jonathan thought. For good reason.

Osteria il Leone, Shinjuku, Tokyo, 12:25PM

"Yeah, I'll have the bolognese and he'll have the lasagne"
"Wait Angela, I wanted the tagatel-"
"Understood, your order will be with you soon" the waiter said with a smile as he promptly bowed and took off for the kitchen.
"Oops, sorry!" she said with a cheeky grin, "but I know that you like lasagne too, that's what Aki said to me anyways when I last saw you guys" Jonathan rolled his eyes at the mention of his ex, as Angela often liked to prod at him. She wanted - needed - him to open up, for his own sake, but he never would. She had to get more out of him. Otherwise, she felt like he would never heal from any scars that were mentally left on him. While the two of them seemed to split on amicable terms, Angela knew Jonathan felt worse off than Aki. Constantly he seems to be hit by a string of bad luck she thought to herself. Jonathan felt as though loving someone else was almost an impossibility at this point. His relationship with her fractured his relationship with Aki to breaking point several times. He didn't know why she ultimately stuck with him until circumstances forced them apart. He was grateful for that, but it still didn't ease the bitterness within him, mostly directed at himself.

"Yeah but I was in the mood for something else" he sighed, taking a sip of water from his glass. Angela adjusted herself in her seat and leaned forward, eagerly.
"So, tell me about this girl! What's she like? What does she work as? Is she cute? Does she have big boo-"
"Okay calm down there Angela, jeez" he said, almost choking down his water. "She's…interesting, I guess."
"Oh come oooonnnn, surely you can say more than just "oh she's interesting I guess" like dude, what stood out to you about her!"
"Hmm…I guess, her get up?"
"Her get up?" she said with a puzzled look.
"Yeah, her get up. Like, she had a fox look going for her. I guess she must really like foxes since her whole café is adorned with them and she even decorates her pastries with little fox whiskers. It's an…adorable dedication I guess is the right way to put it. She's got a funny name too, Kiriko Kamori." he said with a blushing smile. The warmth of Kiriko's smile and the taste of that donut flashed in his mind, he couldn't wait to have another one.
"Ah, a native girl" Angela said, rubbing her chin. "Foxes huh? You know I heard a legend that the sun god, Amaterasu, was commonly depicted as a fox…or was it a wolf…"
"...I think it was a wolf, Angela" he said, dumbfounded by a rare moment of Angela idiocy. He knew she was quite serious when it came to learning history, so to see her have this kind of blunder caught him off guard if but only for a moment.
"A-Anyways, that's the third Asian woman you've had your eye on now, seems like you have a type" she said with a playful wink. He rolled his eyes. "Come on, don't be like that. You know more than anyone that I think a person's heart is more important than their race, religion, creed or whatever."
"I know I know, I'm just messing with you. Still though, you'd think that after the last two you'd maybe wann-"
"Leave it, Angela, come on" he said hastily, his anxiety beginning to bubble slowly.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. Did you text her yet?"
"Not yet. I sent her a friend request and she accepted it but I figured maybe she'd message me first" he said, taking out his phone and looking at her profile. Her picture was her beside her mom, Yamagami and a red fox.
"Still as dense as ever, good grief. Let me see that!" without him even realising it, Jonathans phone was now in Angelas' hands and she was furiously typing faster than he ever saw her type before.
"Woah woah Angela what are you doing?" he said with a worried tone. "You better be typing in Japanese!" he said, worried that Kiriko would be put off instantly if she was sent a random message in English.
"What do you take me for, an amateur?" she threw the phone back to him, the iPhone landing square on his lap. He hurriedly opened the phone's lock screen and checked the message, surprisingly written in almost perfect Japanese.

"hey, it's that guy from this morning, jonathan. thanks for helping me out, it was nice meeting you! maybe we can meet up again, perhaps for dinner tomorrow? your choice, my treat!"

"My treat?!" he said with an annoyed and worried look. "What if it's a fuckin' expensive ass Michelin starred place?" he said, reflexively putting his hand on his front pocket where his wallet was.
"Well I had to say something that would entice her, nobody could say no to free food after all" Angela said with a smirk as she began to pick up her glass. "Besides, what's the worst she could say ba-"
"She's typing"
"Oh boy"
"She said yeah, she wants to go to Akihabara for Ramen"
"Jonathan you are SO in with her"
"Don't put it like that Angela, we barely know each other…" he said, lightly face palming himself. "But yeah, 7PM tomorrow at Yokohama Family Ramen near the Akihabara Station"
"Well, I'd never thought I'd see YOU dating again!" she said with a sincere smile. "Good things come to those who wait, speaking of which, I think that's our food!" Angela said looking over Jonathan's shoulder with excitement as a plate of bolognese and lasagne approached them.
"Please, enjoy your meal!" said the waiter with a pep in his step.
Maybe Lasagne isn't so bad right now Jonathan thought with a smile. And why wouldn't he smile? He finally began to think things were MAYBE looking up for him, for once these past couple of years anyways.

Jonathan Cujoh's Apartment, Ueno, Tokyo, 21:00PM

After their lunch break Angela said that she needed to finish up a few more things at the lab, something about a critical test result coming in or something like that. Jonathan went out to do some shopping, but skipped buying his usual pack of UCC instant. Angela didn't forgive him for it when she got home later that day. The rumbling of the trains in the distance at the station was an ambience that Jonathan found relaxing. The repetitive nature of the clacking was somehow appealing to him in a way he found difficult to describe. Angela thought it was more annoying than relaxing but considering the price he got the apartment for, it was a "reasonable enough" concession to make for such a place to live in, especially in an expensive metropolis like Tokyo. The thoughts of his date with Kiriko though replaced that relaxing feeling with one of the familiarity of anxiety. But this was a different kind of anxiety compared to what he was used to. This was almost existential. This was his first chance in years to actually try and get his life and himself back on track. Aki gave him a good foundation at the time but her distance and their constant flare ups never let that foundation blossom into anything more than what basically amounted to fuck buddies who lived together and occasionally said "I love you" to one another (Aki certainly said it more to Jonathan than Jonathan did to Aki).

"You nervous?" Angela said, sitting beside him on his bed once more as she did the previous night.
"A little, I'm not gonna lie."
"Don't be" she said, turning his face to look directly into her blue eyes, clasping his cheek gently.
"You will be fine, trust me" she said in a tone that Jonathan could only describe as motherly. "Just go with the flow, and be yourself." she said with a warm, loving smile. She knew she had to try for him to get him to feel confident about anything. That's half the reason she would ever come to Japan. She didn't particularly like the country that much but she knew she had to make sure he was okay, she made a promise to both McCree and Hanzo that she would. Of course, Jonathan didn't know this, but they also knew that it was important for him to try and be positive and confident.
"Get some rest, Jonathan, tomorrow's a big day for you" she said, returning to her own bed to try and get some sleep, as Jonathan did the same, telling her "goodnight" in the process.

But it would not be a pleasant sleep, or good night that matter, for Angela Ziegler.

Earlier that day…

Hanzo entered the lab, flashing his government ID at the security guard briefly before turning his attention to Angela.
"You have a stain on your face" he said in a blunt tone. She licked her finger and rubbed it against her face, lo and behold there was a tomato sauce stain there. Should've gone to the bathroom before I got here…she thought to herself.
"Anyways, what are the results of the scan?" he asked, sitting across from Angela's desk on a small leather stool.
"Well, I still need to run way, way more tests but…preliminary analysis shows us it's a 90% match" she said, her voice filled with worry.
"90? That's way too low. Are you sure that you did everything correctly?"
"I am a doctor, I don't let anything slip. The calculations and procedure were by the book" she said, producing a document onto the table, sliding it to the older Japanese man, who opened the file.
"I had to go through so much red tape to get this but, I fear that at least with these results, our hunch was correct…that damn cowboy is never wrong" Hanzo sneered. If it were any other situation, he could hear McCree's laugh echoing in his head, but a situation like this wouldn't allow for it.
"So…you think…" he said, stroking his beard
"Yes."

"Hana Song is possibly still alive."

(A/N: Hey guys, sorry for the delay on this chapter. I find it a bit harder to write in third person but I think it's a bit easier to digest with the story that I'm trying to tell here. Anyways I realised that when writing this chapter that it's actually been EIGHT years since the events that took place in Hana's house, not seven, so from here on out I'll try to be more careful when it comes to continuity stuff like that. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed. I tried adding some comedy in here and there throughout this chapter. Added a few narrative hooks too, the story will be a bit slow for the next chapter or two I guess, but character development and interactions are important! How could Hana have survived her accident all those years ago? What will Jonathan and Kiriko's date be like? Let me know what you thought with the always appreciated reviews! Thanks for reading this far, hope to see you again in the next chapter!)