A series of bright flashes erupted from an alleyway. Then a coughing man in a tattered blue jumpsuit stumbled around the corner and onto the street. He quickly patted himself down, as his clothes and hair were peppered with tiny fires. Once he’d protected what little hair he had left, the man turned towards a pair of onlookers.

“I’ve finally found you!” The jumpsuit man exclaimed with glee.

The onlookers, who’d stopped for the umpteenth time that day, looked at him with skepticism. One of them was especially wary.

“You have the wrong person.” Kazama replied flatly.

“N-No, that’s impossible.” The man insisted, stepping forward. “Listen, you may not believe me, but I’m a time-traveler! I need you to come with me and-”

“-Trust me, this happens more often than you’d think.” Kazama shook his head. “Look around. Are you really in the right place?”

The flammable man looked around at the bustling downtown scene. Then he scratched his head.

“Well, it does look a little…primitive.”

“Exactly.” Kazama nodded as he placed his hands on a console attached to the man’s arm.

“Wait! What are you doing!?”

“It’s fine, I have an acquaintance who time travels. She built something similar.”

“How is that fine!? Hey! Don’t press that button!”

There was another blinding flash of light and then the man disappeared. Kazama continued on his way and, after composing himself, Daniel quietly followed. The pair was only three blocks away from The Nood, Daniel’s favorite Asian takeout place. As usual, their trip was fraught with strange encounters.

Two blocks away, Kazama stopped as a notebook suddenly fell from the sky. He picked up the ominous item and tossed it at the roof of an adjacent building. The resulting pang scattered a horde of crows along with a leather-bound man sporting black wings.

With only one block to go, another disheveled man approached the pair. His wrinkled face and a crescent of spindly grey hair at the edge of his otherwise bald head were telling of his age. He wore a robe that might have once been white and gold but was now brown and bronze from dirt and mud. The aged man shook violently as he stepped towards Kazama. Both the man and his clothes looked like they could fall apart at any second.

“I’ve been searching for someone like you!” The man announced. “Child, I may not look it, but I’m actually a powerful sorcerer. I’ve been trapped in this world for -”

“-I don’t need to hear your spiel.” Kazama cut in. He pushed a five-dollar bill into the man’s quivering hands. “This should be enough to get you something to eat. There’s a homeless shelter about five blocks down that way. They might be able to help you out.”

“I think you’re misunderstanding something. I’m…” The old man trailed off when he realized Kazama had already crossed the street.

After some speed walking, Kazama and Daniel finally made it to The Nood. They ordered some food and then fell into their chairs with simultaneous sighs. At first, Daniel had been amazed by the sheer variety of weirdos who accosted Kazama on a daily basis. Now that the two had been acquainted for a full semester, the unpopular boy realized just how tiring those situations could be.

“I’m always amazed…” Daniel trailed off as he slurped some udon through a standard Asian takeout box.

“By what?”

“By the way you’re able to blow people off.”

Kazama raised an eyebrow and Daniel threw out a hand, gesturing for him to wait. After downing another mouthful of udon, Daniel continued.

“I don’t mean that in a bad way. You deal with so many encounters that it would be crazy to hear everyone out. But the way you turn people away…It’s like an art.”

“Practice makes perfect.” Kazama replied with a shrug. Then he put a hand to his chin. “Although there is a trick to it.”

“What?”

“90% of those encounters are scams. If you know that, then it’s easy to avoid them. For example, I noticed that homeless man sleeping in an alleyway earlier this week. He probably fabricated some elaborate excuse that would end in me giving him money. So, I handed him some charity and left.”

“Then, he wasn’t a sorcerer from another world?”

“Common sense would say no.”

“You’re the last person I want to hear talk about common sense.”

Daniel pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. When he opened them, there was a third person sitting at their table. The pair stared wide-eyed at the stranger who promptly opened a $5 box of noodles and began slurping them down.

“It’s a good thing…slurp…that you have such an impressive…slurp…magical aura.” The elderly homeless man spoke while eating voraciously “Otherwise I don’t know how I would have tracked you down.”