As he sprinted through the busy afternoon streets of Pandemonium, desperately asking strangers for directions that could give him a hint where Alice ran off to. Shortly after Oda had woken up Jonathan had told him all about Alice's visit, from when they had lived together Oda had noticed several traits exhibited by Alice that hinted at her being depressed. When he heard Jonathan's retelling of what she had said in that room he could feel a stone form within his stomach. Oda knew that if he did not act quickly then the possibility of Alice dying had a very good chance of becoming a reality, and that was something he wanted to avoid at all costs. Having lived with the young woman for the past weeks he had grown quite close with her and the guilt that her death would take upon him would be enormous. Although every step hurt like hell itself, he forced his body to move against the will of every single nerve in his wounded leg for her sake.

As such he was now desperately asking strangers for hints where that girl could have gone, knowing that he might be the only one to save her from an early death. He pushed himself past a particular section outside a coffee shop where a large crowd of people had gathered for some unknown reason, having no time to apologize for his rude acts, he simply continued sprinting. As he passed innumerable faces on the streets of the city, a particular girl would react to his presence as the two passed each other. The instant she turned around her brain had made the connection between the man who stood just a few meters away from her on the street and the man that had been fast asleep in the hospital room less than an hour earlier. “Hey!” It was a simple catchphrase used in an attempt to get his attention and although the blonde man seemed pained by it he took valuable time away from his pursuit of Alice to turn around and strange the red and pink haired woman who was now calling out to him for some reason.

“You were that man from the hospital right? The one that Alice was visiting.” She asked, wondering why he was out and moving despite having a leg that was mostly covered in bandages. Immediately upon hearing Alice's name Oda would respond with several questions of his own without even acknowledging Evelina’s inquiry. “You meet Alice? Where is she? Do you know if she is alright?”. As the tall man said this he grabbed onto her shoulders in sheer desperation, it was not a conscious decision but rather something done on pure instinct, her reaction was that of surprise but Evelina could discern that Oda did not have any evil intent and as such the shook from suddenly being touched by a stranger was only temporary at best. Doing her best to answer a clearly worried man's question, Evelina would say “I was with her at the train station. She tried jumping…” she could practically see the shock and anxiety on the man's face as she said those words but it was soon replaced by relief as she continued speaking “Thankfully, nobody was hurt, she's on her way back to the hospital right now, something about psychological examination and all that.” his response took a while to come out “So she is still alive? Thank god.”

Oda didn't know what he would do if Alice died, although he had done his best to give her a place to stay and help her recover from her past trauma. It was his way of telling himself that he had changed, that he had become or at the very least was trying to be a better person. If she wanted to take her life even after that, he could come to no other conclusion that he had failed as a human being and as a friend. Still, it seemed like the world was taunting him as he had spent so much effort trying to follow Alice away from the hospital, even going as far as using his injured leg knowing that it would hinder his recovery, just to have her end up back there anyways. Removing his hands from the woman before him, he breathed a sigh of relief. “Yeah… that Alice. She is someone special…” Evelina’s words caught him off guard for Oda was so lost in his own thoughts that he did not expect the brightly haired woman to speak up, still he could not disagree with her words, regardless of what her past had been Alice was not the kind of person one could find just anywhere, and even if it was nothing but a detriment, she was special.

But, he would never expect the woman to say what she said next; “To think that I found someone like her, a magical girl in the real world.” the words were without a doubt strange, no even more than strange they were bordering on the point of nonsensicality. The black haired girl was special, but she was far from magical, perhaps he had taken her statement too literally? Maybe she was only talking about one of Alice’s character characteristics but what she said thereafter shredded any chance of that being a possibility. “It was thanks to her magical power that we managed to survive.” Evelina said as she recalled the sight of the ground opening up beneath Alice, her supernatural power having saved them both from certain death. Having somewhat anticipated this follow up he was able to respond to her quickly. “Are you saying that she's some sort of superhuman?” The pain he felt after running for several minutes caused a small groan to escape his lips after he was finished speaking but Evelina ignored it and responded to him. “Yes, although she herself does not know it Alice has something special, something beyond the understanding of human science within her.” As Evelina uttered those last few words, it became apparent that she was very excited about this whole situation.

A slight pause ensued before she continued speaking “When she jumped from the train platform I tried to stop her, but I failed and ended up tumbling down after her. That's when she did it, she opened a hole in the ground. We fell in and managed to survive as the train rushed past above us, she saved my life.” He found the very idea unbelievable, superhuman powers couldn't exist in the world… But Oda found himself having flashbacks to a certain moment, a single instant frame of time that he never was able to grasp no matter how many times he revisited it. The moment his leg had been broken by that strange man without as much as a hint of movement. Oda had really tried, he had looked over that moment in time over and over again but the logical explanation for that phenomena still escaped him, that is if there was a logical explanation at all.

He shrugged his head, “Impossible, there must be some reasonable explanation to what you saw.” “Why don't we head back to the hospital and ask Alice herself about it?” Evelinas suggestion was logical, instead of arguing about whether someone had superpowers or not the most obvious thing to do in such a situation was to seek them out and confront them about it personally. But as the two walked in awkward silence and eventually made their way to the hospital their hopes of receiving an answer to their questions was immediately extinguished as the receptionist informed them that those who were in the psychological examination section could not receive visitors. Something about it being bad for their mental state and all that which was a reason that neither of them could argue against. As such the two took farewell from another, each being certain, although Oda less so, that they were right abouts Alice’s true nature.

A few hours later, Evelina was rummaging through her pockets for the house key to her fathers rather large villa. The sun had set just an hour ago and it was dark outside, only the streetlamps and the moonlight being reflected on the nearby windows illuminating the world around her. As she finally found her keys and managed to get the door opened she was greeted by a long hallway leading to two closed doors on the right, an open doorway on the left and a staircase to the house's second floor right ahead. After closing the door and removing her jacket, she noticed that the light was still on in the kitchen, most likely one of her parents had forgotten to turn it off. Heading inside to fix their mistake, an unexpected sight met Evelina, both of her parents were sitting at the dinner table. Normally, they would be fine with her running around as she wanted for several hours on end and although she told them that this visit of hers would only take an hour or two but in actuality ended up exceeding more than twice of that with all that happened.

Sitting down at the table, her father had a solemn expression on his face while her mothers appearance displayed only worry and anxiety. She was told to take a seat by her stern father, although the two of them rarely spoke without a reason, she could still make out the emotions the man was feeling by listening to how he talked. Her mother, on the other hand had had a much more intimate with Evelina as she grew up, she had been the main driving force behind her growth and encouraged Evelina to get dozens of hobbies, all in the hope that she would stick around with something long enough to become famously proficient at it. She had tried, dragged Evelina to countless activities and hobby groups but the talented girl seemed to want little more than to be left alone and read.

“We heard about what happened at the train station.” When he said that it was like a bolt of lightning had hit her in the chest, impossible, although the details of such an event was sure to get around eventually it hadn't even been half a day. Along with that, it wasn’t like a news channel had covered the event much less Evelinas involvement in it yet. Still, her father somehow knew about it and that was the reality that she was forced to face. What ensued for the next fifteen minutes could not be described as anything other than a scolding for her so called careless behavior. Evelina saw it as a selfless act to save someone else, but her parents were clearly not of that opinion, stating time and time again that she had put her life at risk for a complete stranger.

She wanted to bring up those American comic books that her father kept around despite being far too old for them, what about their message of selflessness and heroic sacrifice, but after pondering the idea for a few moments while being assaulted by an endless barrage of words she decided not to do it. Still, even after a fifteen minutes long talking to her parents didn't give her any real punishment, all that was needed to satisfy them was a promise from Evelinas side that she would be more careful from now on. Although her father seemed skeptical at first when he saw how well her mother was taking the promise, he decided to believe that she wouldn’t be so stupid as to put herself in danger again, that thing that happened being a one off freak incident. Although she herself wasn't sure that she sounded that convinced her parents seemed satisfied with the result of their little talk, her father revealed that they had bought her a cell phone so they could keep contact even when she wasn't at home.

Less than an hour later, Evelina was heading up to her room with a soft drink in her hand, its signature colors were red and pink, the same as her long hair. As she ascended the staircase one step at a time she sighed, although she wanted to read those stupid magical girl mangas of hers she had a test coming up in just a few days and since she had continuously delayed studying for it time and time again reality would eventually come knocking on her door. For regardless of how talented one was, they would still have to put in some effort if they wanted to succeed in Japanese society. Entering her room, Evelina was greeted by several bright posters displaying magical girls representing various colors. After quickly looking around to make sure nothing was out of place she sat down at her desk where the study material had already been prepared beforehand.

Stolen story; please report.

She placed the soft drink on the right side of her schoolworks before opening the book at page 107. She was learning about Japanese history, or to be more specific, she was taking an in depth look at the ancient samurais. It was impressive really, how they could keep fighting with mere swords and spears for so long after gunpowder was introduced to Japan. But now even they were a thing of the past, if someone claimed to be a samurai in the current age and day they would be laughed at at best. Realizing that she had studied for almost ten minutes without touching her drink and that it must have been heated-up by the rooms temperature Evelina grabbed it and tried to open the beverage, unfortunately, she had been a bit too hasty in her approach and ended up staining her expensive study book with the sugary liquid. It wasn’t a tiny amount of liquid either, her entire desk practically being flooded and several droplets falling down to the floor each second. Looking closer, Evelina hadn't been the cause of this incident, when she tried to open it the soft drink had somehow split apart vertically. She thought it was strange, but chalked it up to a faulty production process, but really, with the book destroyed there was no way that Evelina would be able to pass the upcoming test, it was like someone had placed a curse on her shoulders.

Jonathan thanked the kind nurse in his broken Japanese once again, he had just been released from the hospital after a miraculously short stay. His beard was well neatly and symmetrically trimmed unlike how it had been when he first entered the building, all the empty time that had been suddenly thrust unto him needing to be filled with something. He thought that barbering his own beard would be better than nothing and as such spent almost an hour each day doing so, although he still occasionally twitched due to the pain that he felt in his body. Grabbing the backpack that housed the few belongings he had brought with him to Japan, Jonathan gave the nurse one last smile as he left the hospital. Not knowing what to do as he mindlessly walked the streets of the snowy city, he opened his personal cell phone and the first thing he noticed was the date. The twenty eighth of November, he had spent more time in that damned sanitized building than he had wished. But well, the ideal thing would have been to not spend any time at all in that place.

The man who had arranged his vacation on Jonathan's behalf had been an old friend of his; they had undergone military training together although he had not been deployed in Vietnam unlike Jonathan. They had kept in touch through the years and this had been just another act of kindness between the two men, the two were very close friends, yet unlike Jonathan who had neither a family or a woman to call his own, his friend had both of those things. He worked as a sales manager at a large company and could afford a big house and nice cars, Jonathan on the other hand could barely hold down a minimum wage job for more than a couple months at best. Still, he had a large inheritance at his fingertips which allowed him to easily afford a small apartment in a rather popular city.

His fingers began working their way through the phones user-hostile displays until he could see his friends number and name in the center of the small screen, then he pressed the ‘call’ button without as much as a second thought. During his stay in the hospital, the two of them had kept contact and he was the only person aside from the police officer whom he trusted enough to disclose what had really happened in the alleyway that day.

Eventually, he would hear the tone that indicated that the person he was calling had picked up as he could hear his friend call out from the other side of the line. “Jonathan, it's good to hear from you again.” The connection bruised up for a moment which caused the bearded man's first response to fizzle, although mere seconds later he was able to voice a response to his friend's greeting. “You as well David, I’m finally out of the damned hospital now.” Jonathan managed to take another few steps forwards before he almost collided with a stranger that was busy reading a book as they walked, really, people these days needed to pay more attention to their surroundings, even in the safest countries all that was needed was a moment or two of inattention for one to traverse the border between life and death. But the war veteran was given no time to ponder the issue before his friend's voice once again rang true from the other side of his handheld device. “That’s great to hear, I assume the pain is mostly gone now? What do you plan on doing now that you're back out there?”

Jonathan thought about the question he had been given, although David had asked him two things only one of the inquiries truly needed to be answered. “I don’t really know, it would feel wrong to just go back to America when I know there's so much planned for this vacation, at the same time it feels weird to stay in this place after what happened.” Like on command, David responded without missing a single syllable, from the way he spoke it sounded almost like he had trained for this occasion. "Maybe it would be better if you returned early then, I know a guy from the navy that works on a cruiser now, last I heard from him he said he would be doing a trip from Japan to America in a few weeks. I could probably get you unboard that ship by pulling a few strings.” It was a compromise between enjoying his vacation and going back to America as soon as possible, although Jonathan could likely make his way back to the land of capitalism and freedom by simply riding a business-class airplane that wouldn't feel like a proper way to finish his time in this country.

Thanking David for his kindness, the two of them continued to speak for a few minutes before his wife called out to the man on the other end of the line that lunch was ready and their conversation was quickly ended as a result. The bald man sighed as he put the phone back into its pocket, he was turning 51 in just a few months and had a feeling that David would try and throw a surprise party for him. It was strange really, he had no idea how the two of them could get along so well, but their friendship didn't seem to care about his opinion on its likelihood. As he passed one unfamiliar face after another on the street a young woman suddenly stopped as their eyes meet for an ephemeral moment, at first he did not recognize her but after a second or two he connected the dots, although Jonathan was just about to speak up it seemed like the brightly haired female was just a moment faster than him as she took the initiative and spoke the first few words of their conversation.

“You were that guy who protected Alice, right? Do you think you could tell me all about what happened?” Even if Jonathan told her the whole truth he severely doubted that she would believe him, even Johan himself had a hard time believing his memory and so did the police officers who had investigated him about the incident. “Truth be told, I would rather not speak about it. This Alice, is she a friend of yours?” Evelina took a few steps away from the road, heading further up onto the sidewalk to give space for a passerby. “Well we haven't really talked that much, but I already like her quite a lot. I believe that we will become excellent friends.” A momentary silence followed her dual sentences but just as Jonathan was about to say something to break it Evelina spoke up again. “... I know that it might be an uncomfortable subject, but I really want to know how you saved her. I think it would do you some good as well.” She had slowly inched closer to Jonathan, as a result he could now smell her feminine scent and feel her soft breath against his skin, seemingly alien to the concept of personal space the huge man leaned away from the much smaller woman. “Well, if you insist I guess there is no harm in telling you a detail or two.” Jonathan's mind began to wander as he recalled that day.

He told Evelina about how he suddenly had heard a woman scream as he was taking a ciggie break, wanting to investigate the source of it, he rushed into an alleyway not far from where he had been standing to see Alice and her assailant. Jonathan explained how although he had tried to defend the girl he had been beaten easily by her attacker, but strangely enough he did not describe them in the slightest. The last thing he could remember was being sent flying in the air with a light punch, then everything went black. “But… What about the attacker?” Evelinas' inquiry was quickly voiced after hearing his retelling, for some reason he did not seem comfortable sharing the details of his attacker. But, that was not enough to deter the nosy woman from digging through the pasts of others. Over the course of the next few minutes their conversation keeps looping back to the subject of the attacker not thanks to any effort on Jonathan's part. Eventually, he gave in to the energetic curiosity of this girl that he had only met once before. “Alright, alright, if you want to know that badly I will tell you. But you won’t believe a word of it.”

The two started walking as the tall man told the substantially shorter girl about his encounter with the monstrous woman that put him in the hospital with merely two light taps. She was either taking in what he was saying surprisingly well or she was just very good at hiding her disbelief, regardless her reaction did not discourage him from continuing speaking in the slightest. After he was finished with his description of the event, she would ask him an straightforward question; “You did not see what happened then?” It was disappointing, she was certain that Alice had only been able to survive due to her magical powers after hearing Jonathan's retelling but since he had been knocked unconscious before it happened there were no eyewitnesses to the event. Other than the attacker and Alice herself, and out of those two there was only one that could truly be considered viable to talk with. As such with a smile and a wave Evelina bid him goodbye as her excitement grew in anticipation of getting a chance to speak with Alice again. After all, Evelina was convinced the black-haired girl was the closest thing one could find to a magical girl in the real world.

Just as the brightly haired woman started to disappear from his sigh Jonathan could hear a voice that he could only connect together with a face after a few seconds of thinking. “To think that we would run into each other again like this.” Mifuyu, the younger man who seemed to be in his mid twenties and had long bright hair. Unlike Evelina's hair which was red and pink, his was a pure white. Jonathan did not know for how long he had been in the vicinity, but it was clear that he had been around long enough to at least see some of his conversation with Evelina as made clear by his next statement. “So what was that about?” Mifuyu said as he nodded towards Evelina right before she disappeared behind a crowd of businessmen who seemed to be going somewhere important given the quick pace that they all held. “I just happened to run into a girl I met in the hospital.” “Two coincidences in a row then, all you would need is a third meeting like this and it'd be a pattern.” He responded with, referencing an old saying.

Mifuyu paused for a moment, “You meet her in the hospital huh? What business would a man like you have there?” he said, referring to Jonathan's large size and bulky muscles. “Well, even I can get beaten, you know.” the shorter guy would nod upon hearing this statement, there was always a bigger fish somewhere out there, a truth he had come to accept long ago. Still, Jonathan could not get over the fact that he had been beaten by someone so tiny, whoever that tanned girl had been, she was more akin to a monster wearing human skin than a real person. He would sigh just thinking back on that terrible day, still, even after such a defeat Jonathan went on with his life. Sure it was embarrassing but it's not like it was the end of the world, and somehow, everything turned out alright in the end. “Well, I have found myself frequenting that bar quite a bit lately.” The white haired man said, referring to the place where they first meet each other as if by fate, the way he chose to word his sentence made it sound almost like an invitation.

“I have been taking it easy ever since the hospital, don't want anything like that happening again.” Mifuyu would nod his head upon hearing this, it was a wise decision. “Well if you ever find yourself having nothing to do, you’ll know where to find me.” He began walking away from Jonathan, but after just a few steps he suddenly stopped and spoke without turning around. “That girl though… she seemed interesting… almost like an magical woman.” With those words Mifuyu disappeared into the river of people that moved up and down the street, leaving Jonathan not only confused but also alone. After a few moments he decided to head back to his hotel and he himself became a part of the river as he pondered what the white-haired man had meant.