Author's Notes: Enjoy!
"Didn't you hear me silly?" Ai giggled as she pointed to herself in front of an utterly befuddled Markus. "I am Ai Hoshino, and we're B-Komachi~!" She said cheerfully as Markus blinked at that.
"…You're telling a complete stranger that you are part of B-Komachi or whatever, despite circumstances telling or teaching you that you should never give out that kind of info to potential stalkers or creeps and the likes." Markus said, completely out of his depth here.
Ai giggled at that. "Well, it's not exactly uncommon knowledge that B-Komachi works for Ichigo Productions really. And you don't exactly strike me as the type to go stalking others considering you didn't even know that we were B-Komachi either; not to mention you didn't react to me at all." She said with something of a pout on her face.
"Am I suppose to be in awe of you being Hoshino Ai or whatever?" Markus questioned dully as almost everyone there couldn't help but gasp in shock of Markus's sheer ignorance of who Hoshino Ai is. "No seriously though, why should I care about you being Hoshino Ai or whatever?" He repeated his question again to them.
"Are you stupid? Even if you were living under the rocks, Ai is currently Japan's most famous Idol!" The old man from before nearly shouted in annoyance. "She rose to the top of the industry from a mere kid in middle school, and then climbed her way to the top on top of an industry filled with Idols like that wish to be at the top, she's the best of the best at what she does and no one else is like her!"
"See all of that would be fascinating if I cared, which I don't." Markus retorted to the old man as he groaned in exasperation at what he was dealing with right now. "All I wanted to do was buy some tickets to see some Idol group that one of my friends wanted to see." He muttered in pain to himself, but was heard quite clearly by others. "Instead, I get delayed looking for tickets for five hours with absolute no progress and now I am meeting this B-Komachi in person." He groaned.
The old man blinked at what Markus said. "Tickets to see B-Komachi? Oh yeah you did mention that, if that was the case then why didn't you just order them online or buy them at the local mart?" He asked as he suddenly flinched as Markus turned to him and he looked very frustrated with what he heard.
"Are you telling me I could have handle this junk without wasting five hours of my time, if I had just done it online or go to a freaking mart of all places to get those tickets?" Markus said in sheer annoyance and exasperation. "Are you saying that I could have saved myself the headache of walking around like an idiot if I had just looked up online or just stop by a mart of some place or whatever?" Markus demanded as his veins throbbed a bit.
"…Yes?" The old man said nervously. "Although to be honest, a number of those services do require having an address here that's local, not exactly suitable for foreigners like yourself. If not that, then you could have also done proxy services that would have gotten you the tickets, albeit more expensive since it would be commission based. If not that, then technically you could have also gotten tickets if you join the fan club, as they do offer ticket sales in advance before concerts. And even failing that, there are those options for buying it at the venue for the day of the concert as well." The old man explained calmly and rationally as he could as Markus looked more and more distressed at hearing that.
Markus was silent and then he turned his back to the group and then suddenly punched the wall on the building next to Ichigo Production and even more worryingly…there were actual cracks on the wall. "Why must I go through this stupidity just for trying to get freaking tickets to see an Idol group of all things!?" Markus groaned as he collapsed to the ground, now completely and utterly spent emotionally.
The others look unsure of what to do, save for Ai, who simply skipped up to Markus and patted him kindly on the shoulder. "Look on the bright side!" She chirped. "You found us, didn't you? And now you can give your friend an even better gift!" She said cheerfully to Markus, who then turned to her in confusion.
"How is meeting all of you a better gift than a requested ticket?" He questioned as the girls squawked in shock at how easily they were all dismissed by Markus. All of them save for Ai, who was now giggling again, as she hasn't been this amused in ages, and found Markus to be refreshing in the way he was not a fan of hers.
"Because silly, you can get an autograph from all of us, and present that as a gift to your friend, instead if you wanted to!" Ai pointed out as Markus looked even more confused at that if possible.
"People want written words of someone related to their hobby or enjoyment instead of preferring the stuff that they actually care about?" He asked seriously as the group looked utterly befuddled by what Markus just said just now and how he was thinking.
"Well in certain cases, people are like that yes, and also autographs are a big thing, and being a celebrity means that people want record of you if possible." Ai explained to Markus.
"That's just weird." Markus retorted bluntly as Ai smiled gleefully at how blunt he was. "I mean what would I even do with an autograph to begin with even?" He pointed out to her.
"Well maybe a collector would want it or if you were a big fan, people would like that a lot actually." Ai pointed out to Markus as a possible explanation.
"Which I am not." Markus deadpanned once again to Ai's amusement at that. "I also personally don't see the appeal either." He added in, that one Ai took offense to.
"Hey! There's nothing wrong with our type of music!" Ai argued back. "It's sweet and exciting to get you all energetic and pumped up with excitement.!"
"And you can do that with just about any workout music video on the net." Markus retorted as he slowly got up. "Besides, Gonna Fly Now from Rocky, is clearly the best song if you want to get up all energetic and filled with excitement." He retorted as he now came back to familiar ground.
"That song's just famous because that old 70s movie was a movie about a small-time guy climbing his way to the top and did it first!" Ai retorted instantly.
"And yet despite being a movie from the 70s, the fact is that, that song is iconic enough to remain alive for close to forty years or so." Markus retorted. "Can you think of any Idol song that has such a long lifespan like the one that one carries?" He said as Ai recoiled in shock. "Yeah, that's what I thought." Markus snorted.
"How dare you! We Idols put a lot of hard work into our singing, music, and dancing!" Ai shouted back as she and Markus started a weird debate on the merits and demerits of idol music and their value in culture. Everyone else was just shocked at what they were seeing, as they never saw Ai lose her composure like that.
"This is the first time I have ever seen Ai act like this, Ichigo." The woman said to her husband, Ichigo, one of the big bosses of Ichigo Productions. Ichigo could only nod his head in bewilderment.
"First time I've seen Ai fired up about something not related to that matter, Miyako." Ichigo muttered back to his wife as Markus started talking about iconic music made by famous music related folks like Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, Beatles, and more, and cite their song's ability to remain relevant in the current time despite how old they are.
"Are they actually having an argument over the merits of our music compared to famed musicians in the west?" Takamine, one of B-Komachi's many Idols said in confusion.
"I believe they are." Nino nodded, equally befuddled.
"Not going to lie, it's pretty weird for Ai to argue with someone like this." Watanabe said to the others as the girls nodded at what they saw, and by the end of their little argument, Ai's words couldn't keep up with Markus's ability to cite, in his own words, better songs and music artists. "I would be offended that he doesn't care much about us but this is actually kind of amusing." She added in.
"First time I've seen Ai look close to tears." Nino commented as she saw little tears form in Ai's…eyes.
"You're a bully!" Ai cried out at Markus, who looked completely and utterly unimpressed. "Here I am offering you a free autograph from yours truly and you shrug that off?!" She said to Markus as she got closer to him as they argued over music.
"Like I said, not a fan of Idol music." Markus retorted as Ai huffed and tried to get in his face…only to trip, as her eyes widened as she fell towards Markus, who then reacted and grabbed her before she could fall. "You, okay?" He asked on reflex.
"Yes." Ai blinked only to realize an opportunity and then she snatched off his shades from his face.
"Wha-! Hey!" Markus shouted as Ai pushed away from him dancing as she got his shades in her hands.
"That was retaliation for saying B-Komachi isn't any good~!" She said playfully and then she paused as she saw Markus's eye colors. "They're different." She noted as Markus flinched at that and Ai noticed the way Markus reacted to that, and then he rushed to grab the shades and placed them back firmly over his eyes and kept his distance.
"Alright enough playing around, good evening and good night." Markus said quickly as he moved his way away from the group as fast as he could, unaware of Ai staring at him in interest.
Ai couldn't help but stare at the retreating man's back, he was strange, very strange in her opinion as she tilted her head as she watched the man vanished after he made a right turn. Being an Idol, she had met with all kinds of people, especially among her fanbase, but this is a rarity for her in that she had met someone who had not only not know who she was, but actively argued with her about her Idol career as well, that made him far more notable compared to the vast majority of her fans and critics.
But that was not what captivated Ai most about the Stranger what captivated her the most, was his physical features. "His eyes." Ai said quietly in intrigue. "He has different colored eyes, ruby red and aqua blue." She noted, different colored eyes were a rarity in this world, but the fact that someone out there has the exact same eye colors as her beautiful babies made her very, very interested.
"Ai, you there?" A voice suddenly spoke up in her ears, causing her to jump a bit to see Ichigo staring at her with exasperation. "Please don't tell me that you suddenly fell in love at first sight with a complete stranger now did you?" He said in a tired tone as Ai turned red at that, causing her sudden train of thought to get derailed.
"I didn't!" Ai snapped back. "All I was thinking about was how different he was is all, I haven't met anyone like that guy ever!" She retorted to Ichigo, who looked at her with a curious look at what she meant, causing her to extrapolate. "I mean think about it, someone who's looking for tickets to see our show, and yet he is not fan, and yet despite meeting us, he doesn't care, encounters like that are kind of rare you know?"
"Probably also helped the guy was kind of hot." Nino snickered as Ai's ears flushed at that as her fellow Idols giggled at that bit of gossip.
"Can't blame Ai, he was kind of hot." Takamine gossiped.
"I know right?" Watanabe also chimed in as Ai turned red at the assumptions that they all had about her.
"It's nothing at all like that!" She shouted as her fellow Idols giggled at her, much to her consternation as she kept trying to deny the accusations but made it worse.
Much later.
Ai simply retained a pouty expression as she returned back home with her wonderful babies, and normally they would have been excited to see her return home but right now they were tired and sleepy. After Ai did nothing but practice her routine and songs the entire day, and they ended up falling asleep in the car that Ichigo and Miyako had…which was probably a good thing all things considered so that stranger she met didn't see them and make note of them for whatever possible reason.
But laying her babies, Aqua and Ruby into their beds put a smile on her face as she tenderly patted their head with affection. 'Truly my babies are the best.' She thought happily as they snoozed away and seeing their different colored jumpers suddenly reminded her of her lost thought. Specifically, that of that stranger's eyes. 'Ah yes, that's right, his eyes weren't just different colored and had the matching eye color of my sweet babies, but there was something else as well.' Ai thought internally to herself as she left their room to sit on a couch and think about it.
'His eyes…were covered up those shades he wore.' Ai thought to herself. "And yet despite how exotic they look he really didn't seem happy that I saw them?" She said to herself in a questioning tone as she remembered instantly how the stranger flinched at her seeing his eyes. 'He seemed so confident up until that point then, just what about his eyes could possibly bother him?' She wondered.
Whatever the reason was, she couldn't deny that something about that stranger's eyes fascinated her, in the same way his lack of knowledge and indifference to her Idol status amused her. Something about those eyes made her curious, she wanted to know more, see more, understand more of what lays hidden beneath those two different colored eyes. She believed they were something special, as after all; they were the same eye colors as her beautiful children and had their namesake colors.
'And yet he seems so scared to have his eyes seen.' Ai thought to herself as she thought about what little she saw from his eyes. There was human warmth for sure, that was hidden beneath the shades, eyes that seem to sparkle with life and liberty. But was there also pain those eyes as well? She didn't know for sure, and wanted to see those eyes again to check.
"But will I meet that stranger again though~?" Ai questioned herself as she tilted her head at the possibility. It's not like foreigners on Tokyo were uncommon, and by all accounts, he seems to have found Ichigo Productions by complete and utter accident, so it's not like he was trying to find them to begin with. "But there is still that." She then added in to herself as she remembered that the stranger was trying to find and buy tickets to see B-Komachi and at that, a plan formed in Ai's head that made her smile.
"Maybe we can talk some more if I just offer him tickets to the concert, that way he doesn't have to pay for them!" She said to herself happily. She knew it was a longshot, as he might have most likely bought tickets by that point but she did want to see him again, something about his eyes fascinated her.
But more importantly, far more important than figuring out what about that stranger's eyes that fascinated her as such. She wanted to teaching him the glory of Idol Music! How dare he declare it to be inferior to his old-time music?! So, what if the likes of the Beatles, Elvis, MJ, Queens, and those other western music singers or music bands were far more renowned or whatever!? This was Japan in the East! Idol Music has produced some amazing songs of note and the likes! Especially when they get involved with anime!
So, she was going to teach him a lesson! She was going to make him fall in love with the music of B-Komachi and turn him into one of the biggest fans for their Idol Group, to the point he will join their membership, buy as much of their merch product as possible and do silly poses and hand motions with those light sticks while he shouts out in excitement when they finally come on stage!
Yes, that would be the best way to make that stranger pay for his unkind words and his bullying way! Ai nodded in satisfaction at the elaborate revenge plan that she came up with, although this plan would actually rely on them meeting each other again and the stranger not having to pay tickets yet to see them. But she had confidence that her luck will be strong enough to allow for their meeting to go the way that she planned.
"Just you wait stranger~" Ai said with a cheeky smile on her face. "I will be sure to make you love me as all my fans do~!" She declared as she looked outside the window where she knew the stranger was out there and made a gun symbol with her hand and aimed it at somewhere in Tokyo and mock fired it. Ai smiled widely; she couldn't wait until she sees the stranger again!
Markus managed to get some distance away from Ai Hoshino and the B-Komachi Idol group and breathed a sigh of relief as he managed to do so. He also felt his heart pounding very loudly in his ears and took a moment to do some breathing exercises to calm himself down now. Unlike what most people thought, this wasn't because he saw someone pretty enough to make his heart beat in love or whatever.
No, Markus was trying to calm his rapidly beating heart because he was having something of a Panic Attack. Someone saw it. Someone saw his most uncomfortable physical secret; someone saw his eyes. And to his utter misfortune it was someone famous who saw the eye colors he hid beneath his Lucky Shades.
He didn't expect Ai to get close to him to get in his face, then trip up, and then use that moment to snatch his shades from his face and then getting a good eyeful of his different colored eyes. Markus could feel himself flinching when Ai commented on them. He hadn't felt that uncomfortable in ages, not since he had to go running into Boomer Territory and outrun their artillery barrage shots.
Markus finally began to calm down and as he looked at his hands and the likes, he frowned as he realized he still hadn't bought the damn tickets yet for Kai-Ming's birthday for Wu-Fei. Meaning he was going to have to go out there again to get the damn tickets and look for a mart or whatever to get tickets to see B-Komachi. But right now, though? Markus was feeling mentally exhausted and it was already pretty damn late to begin with, and it's not as though Wu-Fei asked for the tickets so soon, just before Kai-Ming's birthday is all.
"Fuck it, I'll try again tomorrow." Markus declared to himself in English as he decided to head back home to his apartment. This day was a bipolar episode of feelings and luck. And it was honestly getting late, even though Markus could do with less sleep, courtesy of the unwanted surgery that the fucking brains at Big Empty did to him when he first got there, he still liked sleeping a lot still.
Besides, he was still trying to see if it was possible to recreate certain stuff from back home, and/or study how much similarities they had and how they function. It would be really nice if he could somehow recreate Microfusion Cells of all things, but judging from what he was able to learn about this time is that while they were more advanced in technology like say those cellphones, smart phones, or whatever, those tablet things, handheld computers, and stuff like that. Weapon Science has taken a decline in exchange from what he can tell.
There were no mentions of lasers, plasma, gauss-based weaponry anywhere, as well as the lack of mention of Powered Armor, Combat Automatons, and so on. In fact, from what he heard so far, almost all of the tech he mentioned was said to only be theoretical at best while the others bits of technology were only starting to reach the research study stage or something like that. Which honestly kind of amazed him when he really thought about it, all things considered.
Energy Weapons were well understood and researched to a point that non nationalized companies were able to produce their own energy weapons to sell to the public, the Wattz 1000 Laser Pistol, the Wattz 2000 Laser Rifle, Glock 86 Plasma Pistol, and the Winchester P94 Plasma Caster came to mind. Although to be fair, he had only seen and used the Plasma Guns mentioned in question before. But it was apparently harder to get the Wattz Series of Laser Weapons the further East you go, as apparently the AER9 Laser Rifle was far more common for some reason unknown to him. Probably had something to do with the fact that apparently it was more government focused before the Great War and thus limiting access to civilian grade Energy Weapons.
Although he had heard word that there was apparently a model of the AER Series known as the AER12 that was apparently very high end deployed in Specialty Units. Considering his own AER14 Prototype, Markus didn't exactly think it would be that special. Besides, he had never once seen or heard of anyone owning an AER12, and that led to one of his biggest indifferences to the gun, apparently while state of the art, was apparently crappy and fragile, so he honestly doubted any of those guns survived the war. Give Markus a reliable sturdy customized AER9 Laser Rifle any day of the week…he also missed that gun a lot, it was damn versatile and reliable.
But back to his train of thought, weapon science has taken a decline here for more civilian grade type of science, not something he was honestly against all things considered. But that meant there was a lot of scientific fields that was left behind or neglected. Something that Markus could potentially use for his own advantage, if need be, though he was trying to figure out what was the power source of his Teleport Gun, current leading theory on that is that it was running on some kind of Microfusion Breeder like the Recharger class of Energy Weapons did.
If the Teleport Gun did, indeed, run on a Microfusion Breeder, and it was meant to sustain constant teleportation like he had in case of emergencies. That would mean the Microfusion Breeder inside the Teleport Gun, was a step ahead of the Microfusion Breeders found in the Recharger Weapons. And if he could crack the secret to that, this could in turn allow him to theoretically find a way to charge up Energy Weapons for his own usage if he ever had to take to combat again if need be.
Too bad he didn't have any of his Energy Weapons when he got teleported from his world into this world. He honestly didn't expect to get trapped in another world and as such packed what would make sense for a casual collection of acceptable weapons to carry indoors. But he had to pack them up since he got here. Now they were locked up securely inside his case, also carrying his gold bars inside his room hidden in the closest.
Besides, he hadn't gotten into any actual fights since he got here, that one fight involving those thugs didn't count as a fight in his book. After all, it was hard to consider something a fight when in reality it was a complete and utter beatdown. But it felt weird to him, he was used to fighting or killing something or someone, and not having done that for close to three months or so was really, really weird on his body.
Markus shrugged, it wasn't important in the grand scheme of things right now, he was going to go off to sleep and try again tomorrow…after he completed all the appointments he needed to do of course. It would be in bad form if he took an unannounced break and didn't do his jobs, trust is important between a contractor and a client. If one fails to uphold the word or spirit of the agreement, then trust is broken and can be used to negative effects by others, and Markus would rather not be the one to break the spirit of any job.
Markus sighed as he headed back home, got to his apartment, dropped his tool kit, and then changed and ate dinner before making some minor progress on his personal pet projects. Then he stopped working on it and headed to bed and set his alarm once again to wake up. This day was normal for the most part and then it ended up on a crazy note when he met Ai Hoshino and her Idol Group, and then she got see his eyes.
Markus, really hoped that the encounter was just a one-time thing again, he wouldn't know what to do if Ai actually got interested in talking to him and wanted to see his eyes. For strange reason, Ai just puts him on edge, he honestly didn't know why, but something about the girl just puts him on edge. It was as though when she talked and when she moved, there's a strong sense of…fakeness coming off of her?
Was it that? Or was it something else about her that unsettled him? Markus didn't know what or why exactly, but there was definitely something about her that puts him on edge. Markus didn't like that feeling, because whenever he met people that put him n edge, they were usually pretty damn dangerous or held to a belief in a way that makes them almost fanatical. And if there was one thing for certain, Markus hated fanatics, Caesar's Legion is one such "fine" example of how fanatics can cause so much trouble.
And then there was the people that had managed to put him on edge for one reason or another, Elder Elijah, Joshua Graham, Ulysses, House, Caesar, Marcus, and his own Brain were some of many that have managed to unsettle him. The commonality between all of them is that they had strength of some kind, be it in intellect, determination, conviction, charisma, wisdom, or being so unsettling that one cannot be focused. Which led to the question about Ai, what about her that made him feel unsettled?
Markus honestly did not know and that actually kind of scared him more than he would be willing to admit. If this was back home, a threat that nobody understood or can figure out was always the worst kind of threat to be, especially since anything is possible and everything is permitted. Thankfully for Markus, Ai did not strike him as a malicious kind of woman, if anything aside from the unsettling feeling he got from her, she struck him as more of a…goofball?
Yeah, that sounded accurate, Ai struck him as more of a goofball than anything else. With his thoughts now placed into order and everything he had ready for tomorrow and the likes, Markus decided to engage in sleep mode. Though as he slept, his dreams would be filled of many things, but one new major element into that dream was the addition of a certain new Idol.
The Next Day
Markus simply went through the usual motions of life for him when he got up. He cleansed himself, ate his food, went to various locations all over Chinatown to help people out with their issues as a Handyman. Nothing that eventful was happening, save for that one fucking massive cockroach infestation, but he refused to talk about it if he could. The only thing he was willing to acknowledge about it was he may have gotten a bit…fiery in dealing with that matter. That was it, end of discussion.
Nothing of note happened!
He most certainly did not get pissed at the local delinquents fucking with the family with the cockroach infestation, by being the cause of said infestation to begin with. He most certainly did not catch all of them on foot and started delivering some righteous ass kicking for that. He most certainly did not force all of the delinquents to hand over their money to the family they were fucking with. And he most certainly did not force them to confess their actions, recorded their confession and used it as blackmail against them if they tried to do anything else to cause trouble.
Aside from that, nothing interesting happened, and after he did all of his appointments for the day, he started looking for the B-Komachi tickets once again. He also made sure to ignore the locals this time around since they clearly weren't going to be helpful at all. And he also made sure to check the labels on the tickets sold in the mart to make sure he wasn't getting scammed or forced to put down personal information that they could use against him or whatever.
As he was walking by, to find some place that wouldn't try to screw him over for tickets, he bumped into someone when turning around the corner. "Ah Crap!" Markus muttered in English as he stopped the person from falling over. "Sorry about that, didn't see you around the corner…" He said as he then trailed off as he saw the familiar hair color and the eyes of the one person he was trying to avoid.
"Ah so we meet again!" Ai said happily as she found Markus. "I must say, I didn't expect to see you here, but I was trying to find you, so you can say this is good luck for me~!" She said with a wink as Markus's right eye twitched at what he just heard. Against all odds, he had somehow encountered Hoshino Ai again, and she also wanted to talk to him as well, in this Markus could say one thing that came to mind.
"Such misfortune." He sighed in English as Ai giggled amusingly at him as Markus cursed his extremely bipolar luck.