"China is gonna be a bit more difficult to traverse on hoverboard, so I suggest you travel with us from here on, Luneski." Freddy called out to me, "Once we find a rest spot, we'll have you sit with us."
"Mhm, got it." I nodded quietly, "These symbols... have we already gone full circle?"
What I was referring to were in fact the glyphs on the road signs and similar showing itself the further along we had made it out of India and into China's borders. They were still mixed in with the Indian script, along with a neutral English, suggesting we were still somewhere in between countries, but seeing as we were fast approaching our final destination, the distance between these purely Chinese signs was shortening slowly.
"That's Chinese dude, not Japanese. Though I can't exactly blame you for confusing the two." Issei chuckled, "But yeah, looking back, we've made a full rotation around the Earth. Pretty amazing when you think about it."
"Did you know we technically time traveled a single day into the future?" Freddy commented.
"Eh, time traveled?"
"Time zones, broski." He clarified, "We were moving east, so every time we passed a certain distance, we'd collect an hour or few. Do that 24 times, or an entire rotation around the Equator, and..."
"And the automatic clock on your wrist will tell you tomorrow's date." Juavez scoffed, "But amigos, you realize that even though you're technically on tomorrow's date doesn't mean everyone else is."
"Who's to say - Time is relative, or so I've heard." Issei chuckled.
"Wasn't it proven by Ouroboras to be linear?" I shrugged.
Hearing me mention the Sun God definitely dampened his spirit a little bit, but it wasn't anything he wanted to get held up on for too long, because he instead quickly switched topics to his plans about the future. Stuff like how he can't wait to introduce his family to Othelia and Eleanor, how he wants to travel the world with them this time and show them all the breathtaking sights that we saw...
"How they're gonna have a ton of fun filling out all the paperwork to get their legal documents..." Freddy piled onto the list some more, "And then there's the fact you're all gonna have to get jobs..."
"Wait, I get the documents part, but... Jobs?" Issei raised an Eyebrow.
"You don't seriously think your parents will willingly let you three mooch off of them after you come back, right? Nephew, no matter how you slice it, you guys are gonna have to find a place to work at."
"Perfect! We'll open up a nice little café and work on it together then!" Issei puffed out his cheeks, "It'll be a bit tough for them to learn Japanese though... No wait, we can solve that as well by just going somewhere where they speak English!"
"So you're still gonna end up leaving Japan, huh?"
"Am I not allowed to?" Issei gave him a sidelong glance, "Uncle, you yourself should know just how tough it'd be to live in Japan as a foreigner. It's best I make the transfer for them as simple as possible."
"Your girlfriends, I was wondering about this but..." Sandy thought to ask, "Are they perhaps from that other world?"
"Yeah, as I said before, they should've come here with him instead of me." I nodded.
"But then if you're gonna come back to your world after visiting all the World Wonders, how are they...?"
"Use your brain a little." Freddy talked to Issei over her, "I'm all for you making the process easier on them, nephew, but what was even the point of coming back here if you're gonna leave again?"
"What's the point...?" Issei lashed out, "The point is I get to come see you whenever I want like this! Regardless of where I am in the Vast World, I'll never find a way to talk to you guys, but here I can! And besides, does the fact I came back to this world mean I can never leave Japan for the rest of my life!?"
"No, that wasn't what-"
"Do you know how difficult it was to choose this world over that one!?" Issei was wholeheartedly yelling at this point, "All I've amassed, all I've accomplished, the friends I've made...! All of it, gone! I willingly tossed them aside in favor of seeing you all, my damned family whom I considered more important! And not to mention Othelia and Eleanor, who also have to...!"
"How about you talk about that topic at a later date, amigos?" Juavez stopped them before things got too heated, "Family talks are for family ears. Don't let other people hear, okay?"
"That's-! ...Mn." Issei shut up before continuing onto the next topic after a longer pause, "Then Lune, what about you?"
"Me?" I asked.
"Yeah. You're gonna have a lot of explaining to do to Cecily before things go back to normal, I assume." He chuckled.
"Gah, don't remind me. I wonder if it's possible to somehow Wish for her to not get mad or something..."
"Wish?" Sandy heard a dangerous buzzer word.
Uh-oh. Busted...! Crap, did we tell them about the Wish System? I'm trying to recall and... No, we didn't! They knew of the light and that it has some correlation to me going back home, but nothing else apart from that. Argh, and we were so close to keeping it under wraps, too! I gave away the one thing we were told not to spread around!
"I-I, that's...!" I fumbled around to try and hide it.
"Visiting all the World Wonders grants you a wish." Issei calmly spoke.
"Huh...?" Sandy and Juavez could hardly believe their ears.
"Issei!" Freddy scolded him.
"...is what I heard." Issei looked down, "Man, that'd sure be convenient. You might actually survive Cecily's ass whooping that way, dude."
"Wait, what?" Juavez kept pressing him for answers, "Hold on amigo, what did you just say about wishes?"
"Haha, did I get you?" He chuckled, "I'm just joking, calm down."
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
"There's no way that was a joke, JP!" Sandy's Eyes twinkled, "Is that really true!? So is that how you'll get England back to his own world and your girls to ours!? We can wish for anything once we touch all Seven World Wonders!?"
"Gah, I already regret saying anything..." Issei covered his ears, both corners of his lips inching upwards, "Well, if you guys wanna know whether or not it's true, I guess you'll just have to find out for yourself."
That idiot, he's pretty easy-going about telling people such a big secret. I really don't wanna get on the Gods' bad side again, but... A part of me is glad he told them. They're friends, and I'm sure they deserve whatever their hearts want them to use their wishes for...
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"So, what are you gonna wish for, Brazil?" Sandy was still very much excited to learn about this new phenomenon, "As for me, I'm gonna wish for an airbike just like Nyork's! Then I'll use it to pick up the woman of my dreams, and we'll travel the world together forever!"
"Yeah, cause that's totally working out for me..." Freddy sighed.
"As for my wish..." Juavez nodded with a sombre smile, "I have two younger brothers, so I'll wish for them to grow up to live happy and healthy lives."
"Hm?" Issei tilted his head, "That's all?"
"I have nothing in life I really desire. I dance and practice capoeira for my meals, and I am content with that. A simple life. But my brothers on the other hand are... not so fortunate."
"Heh, if you call that life of yours fortunate, then what the hell is their problem?" Sandy smirked.
"Their father. In other words - My stepfather." He revealed, "My mother had quite the poor taste in men all throughout her life, it seems. My father was a useless drunk who never provided for us and quickly found himself under a set of tires on the way back home from the bar one night. Mother grieved that bastard for a while after, but if only I knew how good we actually had it with him..."
"Whoa, I didn't... Sorry..." Sandy immediately quieted down.
"Then what is your stepfather like?" Freddy asked.
"He... started off good." Juavez hesitantly revealed, "A kind young man who seemed to truly harbor feelings of pure love for both my mother and me. They had two kids together, and I love those little tykes like they are my own. However, that man quickly fell into a dangerous group of friends..."
Juavez is being pretty open about this topic. He's never talked about his past nor his family situation before, but I imagine he must be sharing it with us now as a way to return the favor for us telling them about the Wish System. Still, you couldn't get this out of me even if you were Ed or Meil.
"Those friends of his were your basic mafia gang. Selling drugs, shooting up enemy gangs, repo-ing stolen cars... I assume my stepfather saw the money they were making as an opportunity to give us a better life at the start, but it quickly corrupted him." Juavez clicked his tongue just thinking about it, "But the deeper he dove into the business, the more stress it caused him, so he would often times argue and beat my mother while I hid my brothers away from him."
"Oh geez..." Issei yelped.
"It was back then when I learned capoeira from an old classmate's dad, actually." He then smirked, "I wanted to learn to fight the man that fought my mother, and do so in a way that my siblings could see as cool instead of traumatizing."
"So what happened after? Where are they now?" I asked worriedly.
"I beat that man up like there was no tomorrow." He looked down, "I kicked him out, told him never to show his face again, but even that came at a cost. Our family is quite poor, and we can't even afford an education for my brothers. Mother is working three jobs just to try and scrounge something up."
"...Then what are you doing here?" Freddy asked, slightly ticked off, "Why not help them by working some yourself?"
"Because my mother kicked me out after I beat up her abusive husband." He said softly.
"What...?"
"Apparently what I did crossed some kind of line for her, so I was told never to show my face to my siblings or her again. That foolish woman, I tried offering her money for them, but she wouldn't even take it. So now, I sit alone on the street, occasionally breaking off into song and dance whenever the emotions grow too rampant from within."
"That's... heavy." Issei commented.
"Yeah, sorry for opening up old wounds." Freddy looked awkward as well.
"No, they say facing your past is good for you. That's how you grow." He returned a warm smile, "So regarding any wishes I'd like to make... I only wish for them to live happy, healthy and prosperous lives, with or without me."
"...But, it's a wish, right?" I looked up, "You CAN be a part of that family again, you know. Just wish for it!"
"Amigo, is it a true family if it takes something like a wish to become real?" He asked me, albeit with a calm and carefree smile, "Altering their perception of me is like killing off the ones I know, the ones that are, and replacing them with my own idealized version. I cannot accept that, even if it means they'll never let me back in again."
Such a heavy burden to carry on your back... But I can understand what he means. If I was in his shoes and wished for my family to love me, I'd probably hate myself too. But I still hope and pray for them to look past his actions and find it in them to get along...
"And you?" Freddy turned to glance at Sandy, "You got any deep, depressing backstory of your own?"
"Nah, I grew up in a healthy environment with both parents, got top grades in school and worked my ass off to pay for this vacation trip." She shrugged.
Ah, there goes the emotional climax.