As the sun rose to the morning hours of August 13th, two displaced Japanese teenagers awoke in the city that held the fate of Europe in it's bloodied hands. The ecstasy from two days ago still ran hot through the veins of the Parisians the enthusiastic drunken shouts of "The Monarchy is dead!" and "Long live the Republic!" was powerful enough to rose when the sturdiest of sleepers.
'A nightmare made into reality.' Seeing the rotten wooden ceiling above his head, a tidal wave of dread threatened to sweep him away as he turned to his side, to see Iroha clinging to him and in an instant there was a rock in his heart standing strong against that terrible tidal wave.
The noise of furious cooking only served to further animate the teenagers from their small pile of hay in the corner of the small and stuffed room, Hachiman pulling Iroha to her feet as the now familiar moustached man already seated at the head of the table.
"Ah to be young again and sleep in like that! Glad to see you two up now get to it and sit meal is about to be ready. Wouldn't want to upset the lady of the house?" With a wink and a laugh the man who had saved them in the alley, waved the two teens over and though they took their places in peace, Hachiman's gaze never drifted off the bloody stains on the large man's shirt. Nor from the tufts of hair hanging off of his shoulder sash.
With great effort and a gulp Hachiman focused his attention to the approaching breakfast three sets of white, blandish looking gruel when Iroha turned to him and in their native tongue asked, "Senpai. What are we going to do?"
Her voice a faint whisper, Hachiman heard the tension in her words clearly he leaned into her, "Figuring out how to get out of here is our first priority. Until then."
Solemnly he clapped his hands and bowed his head, "Thank you for the meal." With some hesitation Iroha followed suit and they dug in, slowly becoming more and more invigorated. 'So this is what oatmeal is like. It's just like rice porridge.'
Yet to the hungry teens that was apparently all the food that was available to the household as the jolly man leaned after inhaling his meal, "So I suppose the recent days were quite tumultuous. Historic even!" He belted out a laugh, his moustache wobbling.
Against him Iroha shivered and Hachiman had the feeling that she remembered the events of the past days just vividly as he did right now.
"Certainly. Bosset-dono." Three meager words were the only thing that Hachiman could bring over his lips as the man shook his head with a heavy sigh looking at the teens like a exasperated teacher would.
"Lad I thought I had told you to call me Jacque and me' wife Celine. And what's that dono-stuff anyways?" Rubbing his neck the man continued, "So I reckon now after the dust has settled a bit and how guys lookin' like startled cats with no idea where to go, how about we go 'round the city and I'll show you around? In this time of place you ought to know where to be and where not -" Anything more was cut off by the wife, Celine, swatting at his head with her spoon.
Hachiman's face curdled up for but a moment before he got himself back under control as Celine reprimand him, "Don't scare the children, look at them! Now behave or you'll have to get your lunch from the Club!"
"I was goin' to have my lunch there anyways wench! Leagues easier to gobble up like than that gruel of yours!" Jacque rose to his feet, stomping over to his wife who didn't give a single inch and instead grew so incensed Hachiman wouldn't have been surprised to see smoke rising from her ears.
"Then don't be surprised if you wake up in the Seine next time you go to sleep here!" Without giving her another chance Jacque bodily grabbed Celine by the hip, and Hachiman's eyes went wide while Iroha let out a strangled gurgle, as they lay witness to the sloppiest and messiest kiss they had ever seen.
'It's more like he's trying to eat her whole.' Glancing at each other the two out of place japanese teenagers wisely choose to stay as silent as possible as the couple separated, Jacque slapping his wife on the bum and Celine slapping her husband across the cheek. With a huff she turned on her heel and went back to the kitchen in the corner of the room while Jacque turned back to Hachiman and Iroha with an expression of such utter adoration that Hachiman was immediately filled with nausea.
"Ah~ What a woman. Saved my life during the hunger days, seventeen years ago." A distant look passes through the portly man's eyes as he shivered from toe to head.
"Y-You must you really love her, sir- Jacque. Sorry." Hachiman scratched his cheek while Iroha coughed embarrassed.
"Oh I do love her. She was so fierce when she marched up to Versailles. And when things got heated and I was about to get speared by one of Citizen Capet's dogs she didn't hesitate to lob off his nose with her knife. In one swing! Ha!" And just like that all colour fled out of Hachiman's as to his side Iroha startled yelp.
"You ought to find yourself a woman like too lad. In these days there is nothing more important than knowing someone has your back and will be by your side come hell or high water." With a smirk Hachiman definitely did not like, a gaze rapidly shifting between Iroha and Hachiman himself, Jacque continued, "Or have you perhaps found that someone already eh?"
For a moment Hachiman thought he had swallowed his tongue and he didn't even dare to look in Iroha's direction, convincing himself that the strange noise he heard from her was one of disgust, spurned him along to divert the conversation as quickly as possible.
"Jacque-d-, we are from a place very far away called Japan. And after gaining our freedom," Beneath the table Iroha fingers dug into Hachiman's thigh but he pressed on. "We'd like nothing more than to return home. However long it may take. But-"
"You two don't know where you are and have nothing but the clothes on your back. Now mind you I don't know where that Japan of yours is but considering the distance that are involved it is incredibly doubtful that it is going to be cheap."
"Regardless we have to try!" Iroha burst out from beside and Hachiman knew better than to reprimand her. The tears in the corner of her eyes did nothing to dissuade the fierceness burning within her intense gaze.
'Like I could hold it against her. Not when I'm about to lose it myself.'
"It's our home." The words struck and not just with Hachiman but with their hosts as well. Jacque's brows furrowed and he looked back to meet his wife's very compelling gaze, before he rose to his feet.
"Come on you two. At the club there ought to be people who'll know how to help you."
Without further ado the trio was back on the streets of Paris,following the wide Boulevard de la Madeleine away from the marketplace. Their path was covered in hay and horse droppings with street vendors selling their wares, keeping their goods right next to the wooden barrels that as Jacque told the two teens held the supplies for an entire neighbourhood. He took them further still past the sounds of shouts, applause and rallying coming the Place Vendôme.
And everywhere they looked there were flags, pamphlets, crier boys relaying the latest news for. "We're almost there. You see that conquered monastery? That's our home. The Jacobins!" Jacque pointed at his strange red cap with a tricolor cockade and letting out a jolly laugh he greeted a few passerbyers and the further they went the more people with the red caps appeared to stop and greet their guide like an old friend.
Yet for Hachiman ease of mind was no where to be found. Everywhere he looked people were armed with knives and swords, clubs and cudgels to pistols and long muskets. From around a a large complex of buildings each made of the same faded white stone and the bright red roof tiles came a cacophony of music with drums, flutes and string instruments.
"Senpai, do you trust him?" With the din of the music as cover Iroha whispered her question into Hachiman's ear, who scoffed almost immediately. "I don't trust anyone here as far as I can throw them. Yet the man saved our lives and is our only lead on getting back home." His stomach curled a thought he desperately tried to push beneath the surface, swept onto the shore of mind.
'Yet our home may only be a home in name and place. What if we can't find a way back to our time? What if it is entirely out of our hands? Komachi.' Gnawing at his lips Hachiman tore himself violently from the spiraling thoughts that threatened to drag deeper into places of never good and despair.
"I have faith in you senpai. As long as we work together we can get back home no matter what." Iroha gave his arm a reassuring squeeze, squishing herself tighter against his arm Hachiman felt himself grow a little bit hotter as his thoughts drifted.
Grumbling against Iroha's cheeky smirk, her first smile ever since they arrived, Hachiman let her have her victory as they passed gate guards and entered the monastery. Instantly the smell of alcohol, tobacco and sweat assaulted their noses as the music was replaced with noise of celebration and fierce debate.
"To the left is the choir room now a place of revelry and when our leaders discuss matter of the club and the state are debated! To the right is the chapel where the votings are held." Jacque's bombastic voice easily carried itself over the chaos as men and women reveled.
"People are still a bit over the clouds over kicking Citizen Capet into the dirt on the 10th!" Hachiman did not miss the emphasis Jacque had put on the name 'Citizen Capet', the sheer glee visible to even a blind man.
"And for debates of a bigger size, well for that we use the former church hall!" Stepping through another door Hachiman and Iroha entered pandemonium. Filled to the brim with people, singing, dancing and drinking by a set of wooden barrels.
Hachiman blushed at the sight of various men and women indulging themselves in a more open form of revelry than he had anticipated. Glancing at Iroha, Hachiman did a double take and hurriedly covered her eyes only for her to futilely attempt to bat his hand away.
It was however in their mix that Jacque seemed to find a certain someone as his eyes lit up and with large strides made his way over. Parting the mass of people between him and his target like the sea, Hachiman and Iroha swiftly followed as their looked up from entertaining himself with two hefty looking women and grinned from ear to ear.
"Jacque!"
"Georges!"
"My Man!"
"Ma' Man!"
The two large men collided with each other in an powerful brotherly embrace that would've pulverized lesser men. Patting each others back heartily Jacque turned to the two japanese teens looking at the scene with weariness and slight bemusement on Iroha's part.
"Let me introduce you to Georges Danton! The godfather of my children!" For a split second a grimace crossed Georges face and he patted Jacque's shoulder surprisingly softly.
"He's one of our leaders! Geroges, these two are foreigners from Japan, Hachiman Hikigaya and Iroha Isshiki." Jacque looked at Hachiman an especially at Iroha to see if pronounced their names right before he continued without missing a beat or waiting for an answer from them.
"They're freed slaves and seek to return home." At that Georges nodded and quickly moved to the two teens. While the man was leaner than Jacque his frame was just as heavy set with muscles as Jacque with greyish-brown hair he also towered over the two teenagers as he embraced them both.
"What sufferings you two must've endured at the hands of your oppressors. LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION!" In an instant his shout captured the entire church hall who joined his shout and redoubled their revelry.
"With the monarchy gone we can bring justices to the prejudiced and give all men the dignity they inherently deserve. However, Japan lies further than even China does it not?" At Hachiman's nod Georges sighed.
"Such a journey will not be cheap, nor easy and fraught with peril. However it is your will and desire that I shall endeavour to aid you as much as I can. Do note, this will take time."
"We're grateful for any kind of help-aid, you will give us." Georges turned about snapping his fingers shouting and gesticulating wildly when a woman passed him quick as a lunging snake Georges hand roughly grabbed her by the rump, squeezing her so tightly Hachiman's eyebrows shot up to the hairline. Before he could process what the man had done the woman turned around and crushed her lips against Danton's with vigour before continuing on her merry way.
"Woah." Iroha's breathy whisper pulled Hachiman out of the surreal moment before his eyes when a man holding a large piece of paper.
"This is a map of Paris which will be helpful to you during your stay here. I'll check up with the foreign ministry. However fear not, for you two are free men no matter what." Suddenly something seemed to flash through Georges eyes as he pulled a bundle of money from his pocket and stuffed them into Hachiman's already full hands.
"Also do use the Assignat. Long live France!"