Victor portaled back to the peak of Mount Fuji, huddling in his thin t-shirt, hiding between two boulders he'd scouted out earlier in the morning. When Dorian and Maureen appeared at the top of the trail in complementary neon jackets--purple and green--he snuck from behind the boulders, jogging over to them. A few passersby scowled at his supposed-straying from the path, but he simply turned a shoulder and continued down the trail.

Dorian and Maureen heartily greeted him, exclaiming about the lack of cell phone service and the rodents scurrying along the trail and the beautiful rocks of the volcano side. Silently, he nodded along with their ceaseless talk, tagging along while they aahed over the caldera and the volcanic rocks and the snow and the incredible view. He took a few pictures of the two of them atop the peak, grinning beneath sunglasses and windswept hair, backdropped by the cyan sky and the green valley floor.

Then they covertly snuck behind a bend in the trail and Victor portaled them to the alley beside their white-washed hotel building.

"Whew," Dorian leaned against the wall. "I'm beat."

Maureen grinned, unzipping her neon green jacket in the considerable mugginess of the city. "The itinerary does say hot tub time this afternoon."

Dorian sighed. "Thank you, past selves," he uttered to the rooftops.

"Do you have my water bottle?"

"I thought you had both of those."

"Did I?" Maureen slung her backpack from her shoulder, zippers jangling.

Victor tugged out his phone, pulling up the image of the itinerary and squinting at the list for Sunday. Hot tub time until 3:30. "I think I'll go take a nap," he told the Greens, glancing up to find them staring at a v-shaped flight of squawking birds overhead.

"What kind of birds do you think those are?" Dorian asked.

"Probably pigeons, since we're in the city," Maureen said.

"Pretty pale to be pigeons."

"Um," Victor coughed. "Meet you in this alley at 3:30? For," he checked the itinerary again, "tour of Tokyo historical sites?"

"Thanks, Victor," Dorian said, still peering at the sky. "I'm not sure I would've survived trekking back down that volcano."

Maureen patted his arm. "No, you wouldn't have, dear. You should have prepped more."

"I thought we were going to Albany!"

"Alright," Victor shoved his phone in the pocket of his backpack. "I'm going back to my room."

The Greens thanked Victor again, rambling into conversation about ordering room service and ice packs for their feet. Victor sunk into a portal and flowed away.

***

Victor woke in the capsule hotel, his phone alarm beeping a cheery tune. He rolled from the white comforters and swatted at the table. The phone fell silent, lighting up and announcing the time as 3:14 pm.

He yawned, and his phone buzzed again. He rubbed his eyes. It set him slightly on edge that the entirety of one wall was pure glass, never mind the thick curtain drawn across it. It also bothered him that only a thin wall of reinforced metal separated his small room--bed, table, enough floor space to lie down--from those to either side and above him.

The cubic room did remind him of a small space shuttle, but if this actually were a shuttle in the abyss of space he'd feel safer. Here, every move had to be done quietly, lest he bang into the neighbor's walls. He couldn't speak, much less shout, for fear of disturbing sleeping occupants. He kept the curtains drawn over the glass, but what if it left a bare slit exposed and a random stranger heading towards the train station peered in on him helplessly sleeping?

3:30. Tour of Tokyo historic sites. The Greens hadn't informed him what historic sites, so he assumed he'd portal into the city somewhere and they'd walk the rest of the way. Reaching under the bed, he dug out the black, unicorn-emblazoned backpack Ette had loaned him for the trip. He fished around for a pair of socks, coming up with a water bottle instead and draining a quarter of it.

Shutting his eyes, he mentally traced the distance from Shizuoka to Tokyo. Before leaving, he and Dante had used his phone to measure the distance, blue squiggly lines highlighting roadways and train tracks. But the void didn't follow earth-made transportation routes. So they'd swept over the skyline of Tokyo, following the edges of the coast and the distance to Mount Fuji, hoping to memorize landmarks recognizable in the void.

A thump came from above and he jumped. He stared at the ceiling and sighed, running a hand through his hair. He might land in Tokyo just fine, coincidentally right beside whatever historical site the Greens wanted to explore. Or, he might spend minutes shooting the wrong direction from Mount Fuji, soaring into the ocean before realizing he needed to double back.

"It's for two thousand more dollars and the warehouse," he muttered, finally digging out a pair of socks and reaching for his shoes and the phone charging on the table. "Headaches and two days of hardly any sleep are worth that. Definitely worth it."

He tried to make himself believe it.

***

Victor: I got lost

Dante: uh oh. How so?

V: I can find Mount Fuji easy because it's a giant mountain. I thought Tokyo was close to it.

D: it sure looks close in the pictures

V: it's closer to Shizuoka where we're staying, not Tokyo.

D: it's not close?

V: not really, no

D: oh

D: no

D: I guess Friday when we looked at the maps we should've looked at Mount Fuji between the cities

D: Mount Fuji is between Shizuoka and Tokyo right?

V: sort of

V: it's barely a triangle

D: oh no

V: I shot straight from Mount Fuji

V: we ended up in a place called Chichibu because I was freaking out but then I found a town so I left the void. There's no skyscrapers like Tokyo. Narrow streets

D: oof

V: the Greens like here it though.

there was a sign on a gate that Dorian translated with his phone and said something about school

D: oh good 😌😅

V: now I'm just walking behind them on the street. They're talking about the exotic trees and the skinny roads and the orange mirrors beside the roads so people can back out safely. What does that mean

D: I'm assuming back out safely means for cars backing into a road? But maybe in Japan that's not the same

V: maybe

V: you know, Japan isn't that different from Jersey City. Well Shizuoka at least. They both have tall buildings and fat roads. Chichibu is much smaller

D: I'm from a small town

V: 

I'm going to picture this as your town now

D: I'm not from Japan

V: I know

V: but you'd be surprised how similar people are

V: even in giant mushroom cities

D: I guess that's a little true. People are still people in Jersey City as my high school

V: I want to do an experiment

V: we're going back in the void for a little jump to a hilltop

V: I'm going to try texting you in the void

D: ok

V: okay experiment failed. My phone acts out of battery in the void

D: r u sure you don't instantaneously teleport

V: it's just very fast

D: what if you sent me a text and then as fast as possible teleported to me? We could see then. And also you'd be here:)

V: :) except I have headache. I'll do it when we come home from Alaska. You better go to Greens' house then so I don't have to bring them to the warehouse

V: wait I just realized it's middle of night for you

D: I don't mind

D: we just got back from patrolling city. I felt super third wheel and we agreed to leave our phones behind so they couldn't distract us from fighting crime. We found no crime. We found stray cat in a tree who Ette brought down by having the tree bend. The cat almost clawed Ivy's face off

V: :) you should've had Squirrel Girl

D: lol I don't think cats and squirrels agree though

V: but maybe better than cat and strange human? Did you get attacked?

D: no just Ivy. But she's okay. Froze the cats paws before it clawed her face and then it ran away. The ice was already melting

V: that's good.

V: for Ivy and cat

V: what's super third wheel mean?

D: the phrase is usually just third wheel. But I super felt like a third wheel

D: I think it comes from bikes

V: bikes?

D: yeah. Because a bike has two wheels, so an extra third wheel is unnecessary

V: oh

V: so Ivy and Ette are the bike and you felt like an unnecessary third wheel?

D: yeah

V: :(

D: don't feel sad for me 🙄

V: it's ok we'll do it to them sometime

V: when I get back

V: did they make out?

D: so you know what make out means, but not third wheel?

V: yes

D: that's your entire answer?

V: yes

D: well no they didn't

D: but they held hands and laughed at stuff I didn't understand and sidewalks are only designed for one and a half people to walk side-by-side so I walked behind them

V: don't worry

V: we'll do it to them sometime

V: also you should go to sleep

V: like you told me last night

D: what are you doing right now?

V: waiting for binoculars Maureen is using rn. Apparently Dorian can see some fish in the river below the hill.

D: nice

V: go to sleep

D: you didn't last night when I told you

V: if you go to sleep right now I'll listen to you tonight

D: cheater 😑

V: miss you :)

D: miss you

D: miss you

V: miss you

D: miss you

V: good night

D: fine

***

"Off to Tokyo!" Maureen raised a fist in the air. The binoculars caught the sun's reflection and Dorian yelped in blinded pain. "It's dinner time!"

"No guarantees," Victor muttered, gritting his teeth and opening a black-violet portal in the scrawny grass. They sank into the void, hilltop and river and the sprawling suburb of Chichibu fading into dim blankness.

Victor floated the frozen forms of Maureen and Dorian after him, one with raised binoculars, the other squinting, mouth open to object to something. Reaching around to his backpack, Victor pulled out his phone. Just like last time, it stayed dark. He wished he could take a picture of Squirrel Girl's parents like this, victorious and outraged, to show Squirrel Girl. Her parents seemed to be having the time of their lives, even when Victor landed them in the wrong city.

Of course, Victor was the ultimate third wheel here. He tried not to feel bad Maureen hadn't even offered him the binoculars to stare at the apparently golden fish in the sluggish, green river.

"Just for the two thousand dollars," he muttered. "For two more days."

He sped through the void, arrowing back towards Mount Fuji. His head ached, but he focused on the looming sense of a towering mountain in the blank void.

He remembered the way back to Shizuoka. A faint trail lingered where he'd traveled before, like wheat in a swaying field bent to the memory of a person walking there.

He followed that trail all the way to its source, to guarantee he'd hit the ocean somewhere he was familiar with. Then he curved north, another meaningless word in the void, but along the coast more towards Mount Fuji than away from it.

Keeping himself along the coastline, he reached his senses outward for bustling cities, booming docksides sitting on the water. His temples ached with the strain. Zig-zagging up the uneven coast, he dragged Dorian and Maureen's increasing weight in his wake until a towering city bubbled into his awareness.

He pushed into the city, and surfaced from the void in a park, dotted with trees and streams and winding paths, the sun beating down. Dizzy stars danced in his vision and he closed the portal beneath them.

"Dear, are you trying to blind me with those binoculars!" Dorian protested.

Maureen lowered her hand. "My bad."

They both looked around the park, but Victor just rubbed his temples and stumbled over to a park bench, slumping to his side. "It seems we've arrived," Maureen's gaze tilted up, taking in the rows of silver skyscrapers lining the park.

"Ah, Tokyo," Dorian planted his hands on his sides. "We meet again."

Victor gave a puzzled frown at his backside.

"Dor, that was a dream," Maureen handed him the binoculars. "See any birds up there?"

He tugged off his glasses and scanned the skyline through the binoculars. "Not yet," he slowly lowered his hands. "Where should we eat tonight?"

They both turned to Victor, pausing with open mouths at the sight of him sprawled on the bench.

"You okay, son?" Dorian asked.

Victor grimaced at that. "I've got a bad headache."

Maureen marched over, lips pursed. "Anything we can do for you?"

"I'm just exhausted from portaling so much, that's all."

"Well," she patted his arm. "You did get us to this lovely park in Tokyo."

"Yes, that's really quite impressive," Dorian nodded.

"I hope it's not too much to ask to get us a smidge closer to the center of the city?" Maureen took the binoculars back, turning Dor around so she could slip them into his backpack. "The imperial palace gardens and the Tokyo tower aren't that far from each other. And I hear there's a delectable restaurant selling grilled chicken right in the same ballpark. Maybe getting some food in you will help."

Victor sighed, pushing himself to a seat. "Can you pull up a map of where those are from here?"

***

Victor: Tokyo was fun. Saw some imperial gardens and a tower and a Buddhist temple. Didn't know two of those were things before today

Ms. Marvel: neat

V: 

this is the only picture I took. M and D got lots in the temple and gardens though.

V: how about you guys?

MM: not much. I'm lying in bed waiting for Muneeba to inevitably enter with the vacuum

V: oh

V: good morning then.

MM: good night to you