Going through a portal felt easier than you expected. You had to admit that you imagined portals to give people some sort of vertigo or nausea like how plane or ship rides can be, but it didn't. It felt like a short float through and then you were at the location.

You and Lukas walked on the tiled floors. Some people gave you looks for appearing out of nowhere while others just minded their business. Namba Station was the drop off for Dotunbhuri, a very popular tourist spot in Osaka. A food strip, mall strips, and loads of people were just what you guys needed to brush them off just in case they followed.

You checked your watch. It was a quarter to seven in the evening. You both had time to spare to meet up with Mathias and Nick. You can't tell if you and Lukas had some breathing time from all of this running or you can flop onto a bench for some grilled wagyu at this wagyu stall you and Nick really liked from visiting last year.

God you hoped that Nick was going to be okay with Mathias.

"It's alright, for now." Lukas' voice snapped you out from your worry.

While still holding hands, you both made your way out of the station and into Dotunbhuri. It was just as lively as you remembered. Vendors and restaurant staff calling out to locals and tourists alike to try their food. The smell of grilled seafood and the affordable wagyu filled your lungs. There were even ramen shops open and some dessert stalls that mesmerized you to come and eat.

"Are you hungry?" Lukas asked.

It was clear to him that you were trying to hide your hunger and wants to try the food around. Your eyes were just glazing around every stall you could eye while trying to maintain this sort of seriousness in front of him. Even though you were highly aware that you both were wanted people, you couldn't help but give into your human needs with the delectible selection of food around the both of you.

"Is it obvious?" You piped.

Lukas was trying his best not to crack a smile.

"It's alright, we can take a break before we make our way to the tower you were talking about."

Your eyes shone happily.

"I know a spot." You giddily pulled him into the crowd.

There was this hidden seafood izakaya you remembered the last time you went to Japan alone. It was perfectly hidden from the crowds that you wouldn't dare share this spot with anyone on the internet. You feared that your favorite spot would be lined up with tourists and those lines take up hours of waiting time.

Lukas let you drag him through the crowd. Your excitement was something he never dreamnt of seeing again, but you were here now-holding his hand in the crowd. As much as he wanted this moment to last forever, he still had his guard up from any potential threats he could sense. So far, there weren't any in the area. He just hoped that you both wouldn't stand out too much.

You looked up at the neon signs on a particular building. You remembered the characters and the logo. The bright blue and yellow sign of the izakaya was in your view.

You looked back at Lukas and realized that you were still holding his hand. From all of the fear that transitioned over to excitment finally dispersed into awareness, your face grew red with embarassment. You didn't want to pull your hand away to seem rude, but you also didn't want to overstep. Holding his hand made you feel safe and it just felt right. You looked up at Lukas who was just looking at the neon signs.

"Hey, um..." You caught his attention. "Do you mind me still holding your hand?"

You both looked down at each others' hand. You didn't let go, but he didn't let go either. You wondered if it was best for your guys to just lead each other like this or would it be better to stop.

"Do you feel comfortable with me holding your hand?" He asked you earnestly with his eyes shining with blues and purples.

"Yes." You blurted out, growing redder by the second.

"Then lead the way." You nodded and led him into the izakaya.

The restaurant wasn't full as just as you expected. There were two other groups inside, a group of students chattering happily and a family of three. The old couple who ran the izakaya noticed the both of you coming in and welcomed you both warmly. The old woman took notice of you and smiled. She started speaking with you with a sense of love and familiarity.

"You, uh, always here."

You were shocked that she remembers you. The last time you were here was when you had a cosplay shoot fornsome event in Osaka, which was a few months prior to now.

"You remember me?"

"Yes, yes!" She laughed heartily and pointed at a picture on the wall. It was a girl posing brightly in her cosplay in Monster Hunter gear in the bamboo forest.

You remember her. She was a rising cosplayer last year that asked you to shoot for her. Despite having a tight budget, you and her made the shoot work-after all, the model carries essence while the photographer delivers. She was a pretty good model that you even reccomended her to a scouting agent you knew.

"She works Capcom." You whipped your head back at the old lady. "Mocap, mocap."

"Oh!" You gasped. "Mocap?! Capcom?"

She nodded with excitement as she led you both to your table. She was telking you more things you couldn't understand, but she talked to you happily anyways. Youbsat across Lukas as she both handed you each the menu.

"Eto... your koibito?" She asked as she gestured towards Lukas.

"Koibito?" You repeated to make sure you heard her correctly.

She nodded, "yes?"

You laughed nervously and looked at Lukas. With all that weebness over the years you still remember a lot of words and sentences. The old lady asking right now wanted to know if Lukas is your lover or not. It made you feel a little bit flustered and a bit awkward. Despite being on your way to success in life, you felt unworthy of having a significant other as you were too focused on a lot of other things.

"N-no, tomodachi only." You explained.

She smacked you lightly like a grandma scolding her grandkids and pouted her lips. Her husband had to scold her for doing that, but you assured him that it was okay. You had your fair share of grandparent-like encounters in your industry, especially when it came to weddings. There were several times that mothers had introduced their sons to you or try to set you up with.

You looked over at Lukas who was having a bit of trouble. He wasn't sure what he wanted or what he should order. His eyes were still glowing, but it seemed like only you can see his eyes glow like that.

"Try their grilled salmon set." He looked up from the menu as you pointed on the picture on yours. "Then some seaweed salad with beer. It might be the simplest ones, but I think it's the best one here for newcomers."

He let you pick out his order as you ordered your own favorite combo with beer. The old couple happily took your orders and proceeded back into the kitchen.

You were finally alone with Lukas. Your mind was running with so many questions for this man. From asking who he really is to how the fuck you were involved with this entire situation, you didn't know where to start. You couldn't seem to pinpoint where you should actually start. Should you start asking his real identity? Or should you ask him how you were related to this entire chase? How is your Uncle Jared related to this? You've never interacted with him for nearly a decade now, so why him?

"I know you have your questions."

Lukas made his move. He knew with all of these things suddenly coming back into your life, without you having any memories of them, was going to be overwhelming. There were things you needed to process and things you needed to be reminded of through time. But he still didn't understand why the association wouldn't just let you go, despite everything he has gone through now. Accidental meetings do occur and he swore to himself that after this Japan trip he'll leave you to your own normality, and he'll let you go.

"Something happened to you years ago." He didn't know how to explain this delicately. "It involved you in a trip."

"You mean that trip to Norway." You followed the context as you recalled the missing memories. "Is that why I have a memory gap?"

Lukas was taken aback by the mention of your trip. Whoever did the memory spell on you probably didn't do a good job on replacing the gaps. He never knew that something went wrong with the spell. There should have been new memories placed into your head along with the magic of alternating your footage.

"Memory gap?"

"Yeah, like, it would be impossible for me to not remember what my thesis was about for me to get featured." You opened up. "The bears and poaching subject never sat right with me because I should have remembered how I wrote it and how it got highlighted. When I reread and rewatched my thesis, it didn't sound like me..."

You trailed off as you placed your palm on your head. Another migraine was coming up, but it didn't feel like a magical anomaly. You started to hear yourself, but it sounded like mumbles and gibberish. You could make out some things that would have made some sense if you had the context for it.

"(Y/n)."

You whipped back into reality as the old lady from earlier served the food. The smell of her cooking filled your senses as the mugs of beers were heavily placed between the both of you. You smiled and thanked the old lady as she smiled and left you both.

"You went somewhere."

"Huh?"

Lukas looked at you with worry in his eyes. During the duration of your episode, you didn't realize that you were muttering the gibberish you were hearing inside your head. He witnessed your eyes glowing as you stared at the table. He tried to wake you up from your trance, but nothing worked until the food came over.

"What do you mean I went somewhe-," Your face grew red as you silently cursed at yourself.

Lukas snorted.

You looked at him, red in the face, as he looked away from your gaze. The seriousness of your talks were suddenly interrupted by your very own bowels of hunger. You quietly started to eat your food as you watched Lukas bite his lip, refraining from embarrassing you even further with a laugh. Lukas was trying his best to keep it in. He found it adorable that despite the changes you have had over a decade, there were parts of you that stayed-no matter how embarrassing it seemed to you now.

"What's so funny about it?" You huffed.

"Nothing." Lukas smiled and continued to eat his food.

You brushed it off as you focused on your own hunger. You hoped that you both would continue where you have left off, without the presence of your untimely human wants and needs.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

After a quiet dinner, you and Lukas still had two hours before the meet up time. The old couple insisted on giving you seconds and free desserts. It took some time, but it did free you both from the stress.

As of now, you and Lukas were waiting for the next train. Lukas received a call from Matthias that they were on their way and that he and Nick were safe. They had managed to catch a ride with an overseas worker, who was apparently friends with one of Nick's mother's friends. It was too risky to commute at that point since they scouted areas and found the same people waiting at bus stops and train stations nearby. They were about thirty minutes away from the meet up point.

The echoes of the arriving train whistled as you felt the rush of cold air into your face. You watched aimlessly at the windows as it slowed down-your unsteady relection against its windows, showing you from ten years ago. You couldn't tell if you were having mental breakdown from the stress or if there was a reason why you kept seeing a younger version of yourself. You realized that this version of yourself appeared frequently ever since meeting Lukas. Whenever you see that version of yourself, you felt this large blanket of melancholia wrapping around your body. It hushed the thoughts of your head away from time to time, but now it was getting out of hand. There were so many unanswered questions and new formulations of experiences that it was becoming hard to keep up with-yet you find yourself not wanting to let those new formulations go. You were aware that you could just find peace if you just ignored and left it where it should have been left, but you also felt like you were robbing yourself of the oppurtunity on knowing the truth behind the decade old mystery of missing memories.

You stared at the window that held your reflection. It was now a steady reflection of who you once were-a feisty and curious student who sought out things she shouldn't be sticking her nose into. Your opinionated persona left you when you first realized that your own thesis was a fraud, even if the footage and recordings clearly had your voice and with the papers printed and signed. You were confidently sure that there was more than just a fake thesis and missing memories-something just as important.

You and Lukas stepped into the train with a lot of other people. Many were on their way home as the mall strips were starting to close. It was a packed train. Tourists and locals alike were trying to make their way back to their homes or hotels.

As if on instinct, you held Lukas' hand as someone tried to lodge themselves between you and Lukas. The man, flustered, quickly apologized when he saw you holding your companion's hand in the middle of the rush. He moved to your side, but Lukas immediately switched places with you. Your left shoulder was against the divider between the seated and the standing while your right against Lukas' chest. The man who was next to you earlier seemed like he was disappointed by the sudden switch.

"Thank you." You whispered at Lukas.

His eyes still shone with their own little Aurora Borealis. You wondered if anyone has noticed how awfully beautiful and mesmerizing his eyes were. Lukas had a well chiseled face with a strong, but gentle gaze. You realized that there was a faint scar above his lip and a scar on the right side of his chin. There was this peculiar whisp of his hair that seemed to be floating behind his neck. A part of his platinum blond hair was clipped back with a white cross. His ears were pierced with plain silver-his right helix and conch with silver rings while both lobes of his ears had a flat pieces of silver with runes carved on them.

"You know..." You tilted your head at him, noticing a runic tattoo below his ear. "You would make a great model."

"You think?" He chuckled silently.

"Oh definitely." You silently checked him out with a quick head to toe glance.

The train came to a slow halt as the doors opened. You were glad that the man who was behind Lukas skidded off the train with, apparently, his toupee and brief case. The train was a little bit less crowded than before, but still had a lot of people.

"Alright, the next stop is where we get off." You took your phone out and found yourself with unread messages from Nick.

We r almost der mah honeyboop <3 - sent 19:30

Tito Rev picked us up earlier - sent 19:30

He gave us free food - sent 19:31

Help!!!!! - sent 19:40

HE THINKS MATTHIAS IS MY BOYFRIEND - sent 19:41

GIRLLL IM DEAD - sent 19:41

You held back a snort. You scrolled down further to see a photo of Matthias and Nick in the car with rice balls in their hands. They looked like a bunch of teenagers who got in trouble with the 0.5x zoom out. You showed Lukas the photo. He cracked a smile. The two looked so at ease that you could have mistaken your group for a bunch of normal tourists who had gotten sepearated during a tour, not a bunch of people being chased down by supernatural forces and weird people.

Then again, trips by yourself or with Nick were never normal. You both were magnets for all things supernatural and superstitious.

Nick had sent more photos. This time they were photos of the people after you from Kyoto. You thought they could be in league with the people after you in Tokyo, but they were different from them. The people in Tokyo had uniforms and an organized motive. These people in the photo were dressed normally as tourists, but with a pin on the collar of their shirts. You could've mistaken them as a company on a vacation or a tourist group.

The train was finally slowing down to the next stop. You slid your phone back into your pocket. Once the train stopped, you and Lukas exited the train as a new batch of people were coming in.

You were about to lead Lukas towards the nearest exit until squeezed your hand pulled you towards the opposite direction.

"Don't look back and keep walking."

You could feel the hairs on your skin rise up as you and Lukas tried to walk calmly as possible. You tightened your grip on Lukas' hand, afraid that you might lose him in the crowd.

"How many?" You asked him.

"Three."

You took a deep breath. You let Lukas lead you through the exit as you slowly calmed your nerves.

Lukas did expect that you both were going to be followed eventually. He sensed those men as soon as the train stopped. Luckily, those men seemed like they were getting on the train you both just got off. But he knew you both weren't out of the blue just yet. If there were three in this station, there could be more.

You could hear your heart pounding. Lukas was rubbing his thumb against your hand to help you calm down, which was kind of working. You didn't know who these people were, and you lacked context on why they were after you, but there was a nagging voice in your head telling you to avoid them at all cost.

You took a look at Lukas. His monotonous expression hid his anxieties well. You wondered on how much time and pressure he had experienced to be this good at keeping his emotions. Maybe it was because of whatever job he had or whatever shit he has gone through. You realized that you have never asked him sensible questions besides why he felt so familiar to you. You felt dumb for not being at least a bit cordial towards him.

"If it helps you, do you want to talk?"

"Is it safe to talk like this?" You were nervous.

"Are we not normal tourists?" Lukas glanced at you with a smile.

You honestly thought he was messing with you while thinking that he was right at the same time. If he wanted to olay tourist, then he will get it.

"Alright then, babe." You called him with a bit of honey in your voice.

"My god." He chuckled at you.

"What?" A small smile curved up on your lips. "Too cringe?"

"Nope, just something I didn't expect you to say..." He trailed off.

"To say?"

You could sense the hesitation in his voice. You couldn't tell if this was a good time to ask him now or if this was too dangerous of a situation to be opening up about it now. You couldn't even tell if this was going to be an awkward converation between the both of you or a controversial fast talk.

"I never though that I would hear you say it again." He finally admitted.

You stopped in your tracks. You had this unreadable expression on your face. You can't seem to grasp the emotions you were feeling right now. Yes, you were aware of Lukas losing his lost love—but it wasn't wrapping quite right around your head that, maybe, you were that person. Maybe you were getting it wrong, maybe you understood him right. This revelation was not clear in your head at all yet you knew this was a good start. It doesn't make sense now, but sure enough it will.

You found yourself walking hand in hand with Lukas again, but now you were leading him instead. You pulled him into the late Osaka streets. A smile was oddly plastered on your face. You looked back at Lukas who had this shocked expression on your face.

"You have a lot of explaining to do later," you whispered, "Bondevik."

You were finally getting a start towards the answers of all your unanswered questions.

Hi how r y'all babes and honeys?

I don't know if you could tell, but I'm trying my best to create this shit as slowburn as possible. I planned more angst for this so I hope y'all ready. Also I want to be clear that I do intend to add more mature topics here rather than just sticking to the old plot itself with trolls and everything.

ALSOOOOO I plan to rewrite the first book a little bit because I want some sort of continuinity with the writing. I won't be removing the first version, would never tbh because I enjoy looking back at the comments. This isn't final btw, just a plan. My ass procrastinates a lot.

Auf Wiedersehen for now!

-Pumpkin