A Trip to Paradise (Part II)

"I-I-I-" Ren couldn't get any words out, he was caught completely off guard, and for all he knew, this guy was some gang member or something along the lines of that, "I-I was just on my way."

Ren's ability to speak English was fine, but being under pressure had made him mispronounce or slur his words a bit, which was only giving him more anxiety. He tried to get himself out of the guy's grasp, but failed. His captor only tightened his grip on Ren's shoulder.

"You heard us, didn't you?"

Ren stayed silent. He wasn't sure whether to tell the truth, or try to come up with an excuse. Ultimately, he decided to tell the truth. He was caught red-handed, it'd be better to come out clean.

"Y-Yes..."

The guy's eyes narrowed as he looked at Ren's face intently. He looked Ren over, in case he had anything that he found odd. All he found however was the box Ren had in his arms.

"What is that?" the guy asked Ren, pointing at the box.

Ren awkwardly brought the box in front of the guy, showing him the front of it, "I-It's a K-Kei-Wahgonu." Ren said.

"So you like tanks, huh?"

Ren nodded, too scared to say anything. He nervously looked around for any way to escape to no avail. Each option he found would most likely fail, and they all include leaving behind the K-Wagen model. He didn't want to leave it, not in a million years.

"How much did you hear?" Ren's captor asked.

"A-Ah..."

Ren felt the hand on his shoulder tighten its grip. It hurt like hell, and the digging in of the nails only added to the pain. Ren opened his mouth to speak, but a store employee had walked by and looked at the two.

"Do you two need anything?" the employee asked.

The guy turned to the employee, putting on a fake smile, "Oh, we're fine, thanks for asking though!"

The employee turned to Ren, who nodded in confirmation, "Alright, well don't be afraid to ask for anything."

The two boys waved the employee as they walked out of view. Now alone again, the pain on Ren's shoulder would be amplified as the guy holding him in place stared daggers into him.

"Let me ask again; How much did you hear?"

"I-I don't know." Ren said defensively, hoping it would be enough of an answer.

It wasn't. The tightening grip on his shoulder and the nails digging into his skin nearly doubled in intensity. A few seconds later however, it stopped. The guy may have let go of Ren's shoulder, but his guard was still up. For all Ren knew, he was part of some cartel or something along the lines of that.

"You heard everything, didn't you." The tone of his voice made it clear that he was stating a fact rather than asking a question. Ren only nodded in response, again too terrified of doing anything that could rile him up.

The guy started walking away from Ren, much to his surprise. Though when he reached the end of the aisle, he turned back to him, "Meet me back here tomorrow at 6:00 pm, and don't you dare tell anyone about this, you hear?"

Again, Ren nodded. The guy had walked out of Ren's view, and he assumed he had already left. Now that he was gone, Ren walked to the front counter and paid for the K-Wagen model. He just wanted to get out.

"That'll be $166.40." the cashier told Ren. He dug into his wallet and pulled out three bills, $100, $50, and $20 respectively. Handing it to the cashier, he gave Ren his change and walked out of the store with his newly acquired model in his hands. He wanted to meet up with Toyamarou as soon as possible, just so he could forget what happened a few moments ago as soon as possible.

His mind only kept going back to what happened in the store. He had heard them mention a Panther, and for a moment he considered that they might be animal fighters making exotic, and most likely illegal animals to fight, but no. He had mentioned "heaps of scrap metal", and it definitely wasn't a coincidence that the German third generation medium tank was nicknamed the Panther. They had to be doing Senshado, but he didn't know how. Guy's weren't allowed to do it.

He had walked around for the past five minutes, and it was only now that he realized he had gotten lost. His walking aimlessly had gotten him what felt like miles away from the Tankery shop, and now he was alone in a foriegn land with an abysmal understanding of its literature.

"Shit..." he mumbled.

Ren reached for his phone in his pocket to call up Toyamarou and try to speak to him. Dialing his number, Ren brought the phone to his ear. For the next minute, all he could hear was the phone ringing, no one actually picking up. He cursed under his breath, Toyamarou must have been inside the change room in some clothes store and left his phone on vibrate. Ren stuffed his phone back into his pocket and looked around for another one of those maps he had seen when he had first walked in. The mall was massive, so there should be a number of maps to help people navigate.

He continued on down the mall, his model box in his hands, and would eventually see another map. Making his way to it, he scanned it to get a good sense of where he was. He was near the North entrance, not too far from the food court, which was reassuring. If he continues going West, he should arrive there.

His plans however were put to a halt when a familiar voice called out to him.

"Mouri-san! Is that you?"

Turning towards the voice, the same girl who had ran into the elevator earlier with him was now waving towards him. Minako looked to be alone, as none of her friends weren't around. Ren waved back, and Minako walked towards him.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

Ren shrugged, "Toyamarou-san and I got bored at the beach, plus it got pretty crowded, so we came here."

"Right. Where's Toyamarou-san?"

"That's a good question..." Ren sighed, "He said he was going to check out a shoe store, but there are just so many, and he never told me which one it was either. I'm going to the food court to wait for him there. Anyway, where are your friends?"

"Oh, they're at the food court too, I told them to go ahead since I actually left my phone in one of the change rooms." Minako said, slightly blushing from embarrassment.

Ren laughed a bit from Minako's predicament, "So do you have any other plans?"

"Hmm, not really," Minako said, "I really don't like that there's a limit to how much money we can spend, so I have to really choose carefully when out shopping. It's really frustrating too since I just want to buy everything!"

Ren laughed a bit at Minako's plight. He couldn't really relate. Sure he wanted to buy a few souvenirs, but other than the model he had just bought, that was about it.

Minako pouted a little as Ren laughed, but then caught sight of the box in his hands, "What's that?"

Ren was a little hesitant at first, but brought up the box in full view, showing off the front of it to Minako. He half expected her to either make fun of him for buying something so childish, but instead, she had a look of admiration.

"Is that a K-Wagen model?" She asked.

"Y-Yeah..." Ren answered, a little surprised by Minako's expression.

"That was a design from the First World War, right? I've always been interested in those early designs." Minako said, "The innovation that they represented, at a time when the concept of tank warfare had only just proven its potential, I love it!"

Ren just stood there, a little stunned. Hori Minako was the last person he imagined to have an interest in these sorts of things, but here she was, nerding out. For all he could remember, no one really shared his interest with tanks, and those who did eventually 'grew out of it'.

"You know, I never took you for someone who'd be into tanks," Minako said after finishing her speal about tanks, "or maybe you're just into model building?"

"W-Well, I do enjoy both." Ren answered shyly.

"Really? How much did this one cost? I hope you got your money's worth from it."

"Y-Yeah, I do too. It'd be a shame if it turns out to be a waste of 18,000 yen"

Minako gasped, "18,000 yen? That's nearly a quarter of our allowed budget today!"

Ren laughed a bit, "I don't really plan on buying anything other than a few souvenirs, so I should be fine. I think this will be the most expensive thing I'll buy this whole trip." he gestured to the model box, "Say, do you like model building?"

"I haven't really done it in a while, but I did enjoy putting things together with my own hands," Minako said smiling, "it always felt refreshing and accomplishing to finish building a model. Actually seeing you with that now makes me want to get back into it!"

"I'm glad I rekindled a passion in you."

Minako giggled and dug into her pocket for her phone. Flipping it open, she read what Ren assumed was a message from her friends. It was at that moment that he felt his own phone go off as well, plunging his hand into his pocket to pull it out. Toyamarou had texted him.

"I'm hungry and at the food court, I'll see you there." it read.

'At least I know where he is.' Ren thought to himself, "You said you were going to the food court to meet with your friends, right?" he asked.

Minako nodded, "Yeah, did Yoshikei-san text you telling you he's there?"

"Yeah, he did. I'll be off now, I don't want to leave him hanging any longer than I already have." Ren then began walking towards the food court, with Minako following him.

The two walked without uttering a word for a while, not knowing what to say. They both haven't talked to each other all too much beforehand, so they were quite nervous. A minute of relative silence between the two had passed before Ren decided to break the ice.

"You said you were into model building before, what made you fall out of it?" he asked. A relatively safe question, he reasoned.

Minako brought her hand up to her chin, trying to come up with an answer, "I'm not too sure, I guess I just did? It's kind of like how you lose interest in some of the things you liked when you were really young."

"I guess that makes sense," Ren responded, "What models did you used to build?"

Minako looked off to the side, as if she were trying to avoid the question, "Um... oh! Look at those boots!"

"I thought you hated boots?" Ren said, "And before you ask, I overheard you talking with your friends in class."

Not seeing any other way out, Minako sighed in defeat, "I used to build magical girls..." she softly whispered.

"Come again?"

"I used to build models of magical girls, alright? Happy?" she nearly screamed back. Ren only laughed in response, "Hey, don't laugh! I was a kid then!"

"Yeah, yeah, it's fine," Ren said, finally setting aside his laughter, "I guess I never grew out of my childhood, I still buy these models."

Another minute passed and the two found themselves at the food court. Unlike before however, there were nearly double the amount of people, some of them having to take their orders to-go from all the boxes Ren saw them carrying.

"I'd be surprised if they found a table." Minako said to no one in particular.

Ren scoured the space for Toyamarou from where he stood, trying to make out his friend in the sea of people that was constantly shifting and moving about. It seemed that Minako was faring no better either, as she also was looking for her group of friends. Ren took out his phone and texted Toyamarou to tell him where he was, hopefully he would respond soon. In the meantime, Ren resumed his search for Toyamarou from where he was.

"Hey, Hori-san!" a feminine voice called out. Ren and Minako turned and saw a group of girls waving at them as they approached, "We've been looking for you! We couldn't stay any longer because of all the people who wanted to have a seat after us."

"Well you found who you were looking for, I'm still on the prowl." Ren said, "Maybe I should have woken us up sooner..."

Minako, now with her friends, would get swept up by them, essentially leaving Ren behind. All he did was sigh and look around for Toyamarou. His mind would wander to what happened in that store earlier however, and what exactly those guys meant. His gut told him they were doing Senshado, but he didn't want to believe it. Senshado's for girls to grow up to become proper women, why would boys want to do it?

Ren sighed again. He knew the answer to that question, and he hated it. He remembers the bullying he got from simply liking Senshado and talking about it at school. He hoped that by hiding it from most people that he wouldn't get picked on, and it had worked up until now. The idea that these guys would go out of their way to do Senshado was crazy to him. Weren't they concerned about what would happen if they were found out? The ridicule they'd get, and not to mention the legal repercussions from even being involved with something like that. Ren could only imagine, and yet it seemed those guys were doing just that.

"Hey, Ren-san!" Toyamarou walked through the crowd and towards Ren, a box from OFC in his hand, "You have no idea how long it took for me to find you! Oh, and I got you some chicken."

Toyamarou handed Ren the chicken, "Thanks, though I doubt you had a harder time than I did. Take a look at the amount of people here already."

"Yeah, I see your point," Toyamarou began to walk off away from the food court, "Anyway, let's get out of here, too many people."

Ren nodded and followed him, making their way to the entrance they had come in from. They had first found a map of the mall and made a route towards the exit. Along the way, Toyamarou tried to strike up some conversation between him and Ren, to no avail. Ren wasn't feeling like talking at this point. He had remembered what the boy had said to him before leaving the store.

"Meet me back here tomorrow at 6:00 pm, and don't you dare tell anyone about this, you hear?"

Ren was conflicted on whether to actually show up or not. The whole ordeal wasn't something he planned on telling anyone anyway, but his curiosity was tearing himself apart.

'Are they actually doing Senshado?' he thought to himself, "But that's illegal! They probably don't care though..."

"Hey, Ren-san, is there anything you want to do before we head back to the hotel?" Toyamarou asked, finally being able to pull Ren out of his thoughts.

"O-Oh, I don't have anything in mind, do you?"

"No, but I don't feel like heading back just yet." Toyamarou said, "I want to make the most of this trip, but I don't know what exactly I want to do."

Ren nodded, but didn't say anything. He was still thinking about the encounter with those boys in that shop.

'Maybe I should find something to clear my mind...'

Ren thought of a few things he wanted to do, the first being to go back to the hotel and print out his photos and to upload them to one of his files, but he could do that later. He could also go out to take pictures of the city and get as many memories saved on his camera too.

"Let's just go around the city, I want to take some more pictures." Ren said.

"Fine by me."

The pair would spend the next three hours just going around the city of Honolulu, taking pictures of the different places and just having a good time in general. Ren had accumulated a dozen new photos that he deemed were worth keeping, despite the numerous retakes he made. The photos he took included another sight of the ocean, the skyline from atop a tall building, and the Saunders School Ship that was docked in port.

Ren and Toyamarou would decide to get something to eat before heading back, choosing to go to a Big M that was along the way back to the hotel. The interior wasn't crowded at all, with the place being only about half full. After the two sat down in a booth, the discussion began on who would order their food.

"I didn't score all too well in our last English quiz, you go." said Toyamarou

"You were tutored by You-san, and you scored in the 70s last I checked, you go."

Ren and Toyamarou bickered for the next minute before Toyamarou gave in and went to order their food, leaving Ren to his thoughts. He had been able to push away that encounter in the mall while he and Toyamarou went around Honolulu, but now that he had some down time, he couldn't help himself from thinking about it.

Without realizing it, Ren had pulled out his schedule, specifically 6:00 pm tomorrow, "I'm free..."

With the receipt in hand, Toyamarou sat back down in his seat, "What're you looking at?"

"The schedule. When's the food ready?"

"They'll call the number on the receipt," Toyamarou answered, "You're getting the food, I was the one who ordered it."

Ren sighed in defeat, nodding his head and putting away the schedule.

'Am I really going through with what that guy said?'

Ren opted to just look out the window and wait for the staff to call their orders, in hopes of clearing his mind. The skies were still clear and the sun continued to shine on the tropical city, but the same coastal view from before was nonexistent now that Ren was deeper within the city. It was still scenic however, just from looking out the window.

"314!" an employee called out from behind the counter. Ren looked over and saw a bag of food as well as some drinks on a tray. Grabbing the receipt, Ren walked up to the employee and took the tray with his food, saying thank you before heading back.

"It's our order, right?" Toyamarou asked, "They may have mixed it up, it's happened before."

Ren peered into the bag, seeing two boxes that looked similar to the Big-Dicks he usually ordered back in Japan. Though he couldn't be all too sure, the letters look about right.

"It looks right, let's just eat."

Sitting back down, Ren placed the tray between him and Toyamarou, who had already fished out one of the burgers and some fries. Ren got his food out of the bag as well, opening the box holding the burger. He then brought the burger to his mouth, biting down.

"I don't know what it is, but this tastes a little better than the ones we have at home." Toyamarou remarked.

Ren finished swallowing before responding, "I wouldn't know, I've never actually gone to Big-M before. I get all my food from the market or a convenience store."

"Yeah, well the burgers they have back home taste like rubber." Toyamarou said, taking another bite.

Ren would finish his burger shortly after, wiping one of his hands on the napkins given to them before taking a french fry and eating it.

"Is there anything you want to do?" Ren asked Toyamarou, who shook his head side to side.

"Nah, I'm good for today. I'd rather save my energy for tomorrow."

Ren nodded and ate another fry, "I feel like these are saltier than the ones back home."

"Adds more flavour." Toyamarou said.

A few minutes went by and the two were now on a bus on their way back to the hotel, both tired and exhausted from going around the city for the past few hours. Ren reminded himself to print off the photos he took for the day, especially the one he promised to send to Kay. He put his hand in his coat's pocket to feel if the slip of paper Kay had given him was still there, which it was, much to his relief.

Half an hour passed by the time the two had arrived at their hotel, now waiting in front of the elevator to take them to their room. Ren let out a yawn as they heard a ding sound, signaling that the elevator was now on their level. The doors opened to reveal a few other guests who filed out of the elevator, leaving it empty for Ren and Toyamarou, who walked inside. Ren hit the button to close the doors but stopped when he heard a familiar voice call out to him.

"Wait for me!" Ren looked up to see Minako running for their elevator, and waited for her to get inside. She slowed to a stop right as she entered, and Ren hit the button, closing the elevator doors and sending the elevator to their floor.

"What do the Americans say? 'Deja vu'?" Ren smirked. Minako pouted and slapped Ren's shoulder. She hadn't put much force into it, but he still felt it, "Ow, what was that for?"

"Hmph, for making fun of me!"

"This has happened twice, how could I not?" Ren said, laughing a bit as Minako hit him again, "Okay okay, I'm sorry."

Toyamarou just watched as Minako 'assaulted' his friend, pulling out his phone and texting some of his other friends about their plans the next day. About a dozen or so slaps in, Minako finally let up on Ren, who had also stopped laughing.

"Look, if you don't want me to poke fun at you, maybe try to be on time for the elevator? You're always one of the first to class." Ren said.

Minako sighed, "E-Elevator's are unpredictable, okay! I was also talking to my friends, so I nearly missed it."

The elevator stopped rising and the doors opened up on their floor. Minako went to her own room while Ren and Toyamarou went to theirs. Ren, who has the card to unlock the door, opened the door and made his way to his bed, falling upon it face first.

"Hey, it's only 8:00 pm." Toyamarou told Ren, who just grumbled and pulled a pillow underneath his head, "I knew you always slept late and woke early, but damn, you really should start working on your sleep schedule."

Ren groaned, lifting himself up off of the bed, "I'm going to change."

"It's only 8:00 pm..."

After getting a change of clothes from his suitcase, Ren walked into the bathroom and locked the door behind him. He changed from his jeans and black dress shirt into gray sweats and a black long sleeve shirt, while also donning a black zip-up sweater. He walked out of the washroom with his old clothes in hand, folding them neatly and putting them in a separate bag from his clean clothes.

Toyamarou meanwhile was on his phone texting his friends again. He looked up to see Ren putting his clothes away before putting his phone back into his pocket, "Are you sure you want to change into that now? We've still got 3 hours left before curfew."

"It's fine, we won't be going out for anything else today." Ren replied, "Though I probably should have taken a shower too."

"Well there's apparently some people playing Shogi on the ground floor, wanna go?" Toyamarou asked.

Ren thought it over, putting his hand to his chin, "I don't really know how to play Shogi in the first place, but I'm fine with going down."

"Heh, neither can I." Toyamarou said, "Let's head on down then, you lock the room."

"You go without me, I'll just stay here."

Toyamarou shrugged, "Suit yourself. Come down if you feel like it."

Ren nodded, watching Toyamarou leave the room. Now that he was alone, Ren took his camera's memory card and inserted it into his laptop, uploading the photos to a file. He took the slip of paper he had gotten from Kay and searched for her email address. Typing it into BMail, he clicked on her profile and sent her the photo he took on the beach with her and her friend.

With nothing to do, Ren fell on his bed, looking up at the ceiling. He began planning what he wanted to do the next day in his free time. Of course, the question of whether he really was going to go with that guy was on his mind. It's a bad idea, he knows that, but a part of him didn't really care. The whole point of Senshado being for girls was utter bullshit now that he thought about it. There are separate leagues for gender in every other sport, so why not Senshado? Why shouldn't he go?

'Because it's wrong,' Ren thought, 'If I get caught, who knows what will happen?'

He'd lay there for half an hour before finally getting up, his mind having been made.

"I'm going..."