Trip To Japan

The next day passed in a haze of blazing sunshine. As it was the day before spring break, none of the trio's teachers gave them any homework. Happily, the weather was becoming warmer, and any attempts made by the government to find Charise would have to wait until school was back in session. The trio was returning to their base, laughing about their day and planning their hasty but necessary trip to Japan.
"Ok, when we get back home, we should be able to just grab our bags and go, right?"
"Yeah, sounds good, Zeke."
"Oh man, guys, did you see that stupid kid in band today? That poor teacher, I'll bet Leeb didn't show up on purpose!"
"No kidding. It's a good idea though. Not show up and have another teacher come take care of us."
"Still…I wish we could've played today. I like all our pieces!"
"You always like very song we play, Mike."
"Because they all sound cool, and I have a cool part!"
"I say play a bass part sometime, and then recast that ballot."
"What, we're talking politics now?"
"Just making a point…"
The three entered the base to find Charise sitting on the couch, waiting for them.
"Hey Charise!"
"Hey guys. I think I've got everything. I ran a checklist in my head probably a dozen times by now."
"If you're missing something, we could probably get it in Japan. A souvenir, if you will."
"Come on, Rachael, we've got to go. Plus, we've got to stop at a bank on the way out of the country. For Mike."
"Wha…? Oh, yes, that's right. Let me go get my stuff." Rachael left and returned promptly with one bag.
"Is that it?" Charise asked.
"Yup."
"Why so little?"
"Think about it. I can control my hygiene at will, and I don't have much care for personal luxuries, so really, all I need is change of clothes and an extra jar of cells. Just in case something happens."
"Oh."
"Hence the one bag. Less money for the flight then. Anyways, let's go! We don't want to miss it!"
"Yeah, yeah, we know, we're coming! Take some time to breathe, man!" They were about to leave when Zeke exclaimed, "No! We can't go yet!"
"Why?"
"Charise is bound to be noticed eventually, we have to change what she looks like!"
"No problem!" Rachael walked up behind Charise and placed a hand on her neck. Within moments, Charise looked entirely different, but sounded completely the same.
"Sweet. Great job, Rachael."

~~~~

The four proceeded to call a cab to take them down to Chicago so they could go to California. From there, they would withdraw Mike's money and board another plane to get to Japan. It took them five hours to get to O'Hare, and boarded their plane as soon as they got there. Zeke, Mike, and Charise all tried to fall asleep, but the flight was full of laughter, games and conversation. They arrived in California 3 hours later, and Mike tried to reset his watch while Charise and Zeke stretched.
"What time is it back home?" Charise asked him, yawning.
"Uh… 11-ish. What time is it here?"
"Um… 8-ish, I think. You might want to wait to reset that, since you'll need to do it again once we get to Japan."
"Good point." The four boarded their plane and left for Japan at 9 AM the following morning after withdrawing Mike's money, and the four engaged in conversation quickly. A few hours later, they got bored and went to sleep. Before Rachael put herself into hibernation (since it was against her nature to sleep), she calculated how much longer it would take them to get there, and she guessed about 10 more hours. She would reset her internal clock later.

~~~~

Exactly 9 hours later, Rachael awoke with a start. She accidentally elbowed Charise in her gut in the process, and inevitably woke her. Charise groaned and pulled out her headphones and plugged them into the armrest. Rachael blinked and looked outside the window. Water, water, and more water was all she could see. But suddenly, she spotted something else. It was only a little red spot on the water, but after watching it, she realized that whatever it was, it was following the plane, and doing a pretty good job of keeping up. Rachael magnified her focus on it, and she found it was a little boat, with what looked like a pagoda on top. She watched it intently for a moment.
"Rachael? Rachael!" She turned, only to see a very large version of Mike's nose. She yelped quietly and closed her eyes.
"Rach, what is it?"
"I was looking at something outside and my eyesight's kinda messed up." She explained. "Hang on…"
A minute later she opened her eyes. She looked outside the window at the water, but her pagoda boat was gone. She turned back to Mike, a little frustrated that he had pulled her focus from the boat. He shrugged. "Math?"
She smiled through her annoyance, and stuck out both her index fingers.

~~~~

As the plane touched down early the next morning, the four were now awake, though the other three (aside from Rachael) were still drowsy. Zeke led the way out of the airport into a small area. A little sign labeled CUSTOMS sat near the door. A little Japanese woman sat at the counter. The four walked over. She looked up and smiled. "Oh, hello dears! How may I help you? Oh, but that must be a silly question, considering what this is for!" She laughed. "Come for the customs, I'll say. Yes? Of course. So I'll get right to it, shall I? What are you here for? Have you been here before? You four are a group, right? Why do you all come together?"
Charise nudged Zeke out of the way, and started speaking fluent Japanese. Surprised, the little lady started yammering back, and within moments, she was writing up the papers and whatnot that they needed. Astounded, Mike and Zeke stared in confusion while Rachael laughed under her breath. The little lady wandered off behind the counter, and Charise turned to the others.
"How…? When…? I didn't know you could speak Japanese!" Zeke said, flabbergasted.
Charise shrugged. "Neither could I, but after Rachael woke me up, I listened to a Japanese radio station, and I guess I picked up some things."
"Some things? Sheesh, I'll say you picked up the whole language!" Mike joked.
"What did you tell her?" Zeke asked.
Charise shrugged again. "Well, I told her that we're all cousins and that we're taking a holiday to Japan. A family outing, if you will. That and we're here for training in martial arts. She said if she sees us before we leave, she'd like to see progress. I think she was joking…"
"Hey, whatever works." Rachael said. "Let's go."
After the little lady had written down all the answers she needed, Zeke led the way out of the area again, and they found themselves in a small station. They sat on a bench and Mike looked at his watch. He groaned as he realized that he had not bothered to change the time on his watch in the airport, and he had no idea how many time-zones they had passed through.
"9:47," Rachael said, reading Mike's expression of dismay. "A.M."
Mike looked at her, to say thanks, but she was not looking at him. She was on her feet, looking down the train track towards the water. She had seen the pagoda boat again. Mike tried to follow her gaze, but couldn't see anything around the wall, so he rose and stood next to her, putting his hand on her shoulder in the process.
"What are you looking at?" he asked. She blinked and looked at him, surprised, and then quickly turned her gaze back to the water. She stomped her foot in frustration.
"Nothing. Nothing but water."
Suddenly, the bullet train silently pulled up next to them. They jumped, and Mike went back to their seat and retrieved both of their bags. Rachael nodded her thanks, and then boarded with the others. The four chose a compartment to themselves, and Mike and Charise promptly fell asleep next to the window, as it was the middle of the night back in their hometown. Zeke fought to stay awake.
"Zeke, I appreciate you trying to stay awake to accompany me, but you should sleep."
"Can you fix it for me, please? I want to stay up with you. Company will make this trip go by faster, you know?"
She hesitated a moment, and then placed a hand to his forehead. A few minutes later, she returned her hand to her side.
"Thanks, Rachael. I've noticed that the sleep thing doesn't always work."
"Yeah, I'm not sure why, but the more I do it the less it works."
"Yeah, but when it does work, it's getting better."
"It's a kind of trade off, I guess."
Zeke nodded, and Rachael looked outside the window. She saw that the bullet train was on a monorail out in the middle of the water, between two islands of Japan. She heard a shuffle, and she turned. Mike had fallen onto Zeke's lap, and Zeke had a very bemused look on his face. Rachael considered laughing, but something pulled her attention outside again. It was the pagoda boat. This time she watched it, determined not to loose it again. She heard a thunk and a moan, and she turned. Mike was sitting up now, his hand on his head.
"Mike! Zeke! Come look at…" she trailed off as she turned and saw that the boat was gone again. "Never mind." She finished.
"Anyways, I hope you like it here. It was really intense the last time I came."
"For good reason." Rachael had turned back to face Zeke.
"What makes you say that?"
"Well, think about it. You were going to further training in martial arts, but instead you left knowing dinuclecium alchemy."
Zeke shrugged. "I suppose that makes sense."
Rachael glanced outside the window again. "I don't know about you, but I think we're being followed."
"Why's that?"
"I don't know. It's just a… feeling." She purposely decided not to tell him about the pagoda boat. She had already seen it three times, and she didn't want to scare him about possible tricks of her mind.
They sat in silence for the rest of the ride.