Amazing, scrumptious curry! Nepalese curry and garlic cheese naan!

[Ding!]

It’s been a while since I gained a Destiny Point from eating. I’m very happy about it.

The restaurant owners have gladly made room for our entire Systemless Squad to get a long table and eat a huge lunch together. I paid them with a gold bar I got from the Santa Barbaran treasury (perhaps the very same bar I sold to them back in my original excursion there), so they seem quite willing to treat us to anything we wish.

“And I wish for more naan!” I shout.

I look around at the rest of the Systemless Squad, enjoying themselves, chatting away and having fun. Even Pablo Rosas, the brooding man, seems more at ease than ever before, at least whenever The Goddess isn’t trading strange glances with him.

It feels somewhat like a cliche to say it, but I think we’re something of a family. We found each other, and in some cases even married each other.

For being in the middle of a multiversal war, I am very pleased to see the way that everyone is able to remain calm and remain happy. Despite everything terrible going on just beyond our fields of vision, we do not falter and do not “doomscroll,” as the U.S. military soldiers at training would always talk about.

I wonder if that’s the reason we are going to win. Because we don’t think about the chances of failure or the arduous road ahead of us. We focus on getting things done, and enjoying ourselves while we do it.

Abby Faulkner, sitting across the table from me, gives me a strange look. I realize that, in my drifting of mind, I probably looked a little goofy.

That’s okay, though. Goofy is good.

***

After our meal, the Systemless Squad wanders around the downtown Tanabu district of Mutsu City, buying up supplies at the mall and purchasing vehicles off strangers by giving them bars of gold in exchange. With most of the Santa Barbaran Army rescuees staying on the MS Zaandam, we have less than a dozen people, but the realities of a hyper-rural location mean that we cannot rely on the wonders of public transportation to get us where we need to go; we have to embrace car culture, as unfortunate as it may be.

It is sad that I never learned to drive, myself. If that lamentable car wreck with that detestable man Buddy had never occurred far in the beginning of our journey, the trip with myself and Francis and Delta would have been a completely different, much less public experience, and I wonder how that could have gone. We could have explored the entire United States with freedom, at the cost of not being able to enjoy the ease and structure of our Amtrak travels.

Here though, we have no choice but to take ourselves by motor vehicle.

Before we head off to the even deeper and more remote mountains, Master Keitou and I have a nice meeting with the Mayor of Mutsu. He is a young human man of the same Japanese background as our system-using ally, although the Mystix-powered aura from him seems much more dim than hers. Perhaps the connection between the two worlds has weakened over the years, and the younger generations have fewer and fewer memories of their old lives to unlock.

I would ask The Goddess herself for clarification, but based on what I know of her administration of the multiverse, I realize now that she likely wouldn’t be able to answer.

So the Mayor of Mutsu and Master Keitou speak, entirely in Japanese, in a deep conversation about the implications of the Systemless Squad’s arrival here. I can only make out bits and chunks of what is being said, perhaps less than half of it all, but I understand the gist of it, especially as Master Keitou stops to occasionally interpret for me.

We are here as a last-ditch effort to save Earth from the United States, she tells the Mayor, and the fact that it has come to this means that things have become incredibly dire already. With the arrival of the MS Zaandam, the entire city of Mutsu is now marked for inevitable destruction, unless we can fight back first. So the quiet rural citizens of this place must mobilize and be ready for such an event to occur as soon as possible. The Mayor, of course, understands all of these things, and he has begun the preparations to aid the Systemless Squad, or even to defend this beautiful seaside town, if necessary. The population here is increasingly elderly, almost half of all people here, but anything they can do to save both Earth and Mystix, they will assist in.

That’s great. We’re on our way, and given provisions of “Omiyage” snacks from the local stores to keep our bellies full as we head to Mount Osore.

It’s about a half hour drive from the Tanabu district to the mystical location we are looking for. A lot closer than I expected, as if they built the direct route in anticipation of our needing of quick access.

Honestly, I had not expected such a welcoming and open relationship with the people of Mutsu. In another situation, it may have looked like we were warmongering colonizers looking to oppress these poor fishers and farmers. Like we would have to use force and terror just like the Americans in order to gain access to the magical powers here. It would expose the hypocrisy of our freedom fighting ways and force us to confront difficult facts about ourselves.

Not so. Thanks to Master Keitou’s lived experience here, we were able to locate literally the only hidden place in the entire planet that we know of that is definitely on our side. The only place in the known world that is defiantly pro-Mystix, and thus on the side of the Solbournes and the Rafatis of this conflict.

Although, as Delta drives Francis and me through the winding mountain path, I wonder just how influential the Systemless Squad may be becoming overall.

Yes, it is just the three of us together. Good times, reuniting ourselves for the first time in well over a year... I’m happy about it.

But Francis is very engaged on his phone right now. Giggling and smirking enough to make Delta glare at him through the rear-view mirror.

“Are you watching an interesting music.ly video clip again?” I ask him. “I sure do enjoy those thirty second shorts that loop endlessly and keep me scrolling whenever I want to see another.”

He shakes his head. “I got banned off music.ly,” he says. “Mixer booted me too, and so did YCast, although I think that one was just a ‘fuck you’ for switching platforms. Nope, I’m with this smaller, more underground platform now, called Vine.”

“I’ve never heard of it.”

“I didn’t think so. It’s not an app the mainstream media would tell you about.”

“Is it possible for me to learn more about this app?”

“Not from a normie,” he says. “But me? I’m totally into the shit. It’s basically the same thing as music.ly, but they’re super strict about the time limits. Gotta be fifteen seconds MAX, none of this forty-five second nonsense. And it’s also not very music centered, so a lot of people post messages on it and stuff like that. But yeah, there’s still a lot of music and dancing, because it’s the internet.”

“So, what are you so glad about?”

“Well, they’re super pro-free-speech and sticking it to the man, which means... Look.”

He shows me the phone, and I see it.

A man in a pink wig, clearly slipping off as he talks in his bedroom with the front-facing camera at him.

“Dude, Eryk Solbourne is totally innocent,” he says. “And I have PROOF. The U.S government’s been lying to us all. Why do all the soldiers have superpowers now in exactly the same way as Solbourne if they hate Mystix so much? Gottem! America’s using magic too! Spread the proof!”

I’m flabbergasted. “There are those who don’t buy into the propaganda?” I ask.

“Not just this guy. There’s a bunch more.”

Francis flips through more videos of other people with pink wigs, or even dyed pink hair. They chant for us, or do silly dances to music. One young boy has a cardboard sword that he slashes around set to music by a band I am told is named Nickelback. I enjoy this song greatly. The man sings that he is not a hero, but it is ironic considering his bravery in posting subversive anti-state material such as this.

There’s a treasure trove of videos under the Solbourne tag on Vine, including several videos set to fast-paced pop music in an unfamiliar language, featuring low-quality recordings of me from my California trip days, zooming in to my cool stunts while timed to the beat of the tune. They call it “fan cam,” I believe. It’s exciting.

“There’s thousands of these already,” Francis says. “There’s a lot of people who are really into us. We actually kind of have this shit, I think. At least among the rebellious counter-culture youth.”

“We’ve always been cool for punks,” Delta says. “Two queers and an alien on a road trip fighting oppressive power structures. Now we’re actual rebels against a world government. Nothing is more punk than that.”

“Damn, I never thought of it that way,” Francis says. “Are we OGs?”

“Maybe. Just maybe.”

“I would be honored to call myself a punk,” I say. “And you two are my punk-mates!”

“As long as you never say the word punk-mate ever again,” Delta says.

***

We finally arrive at Mount Osore.

The strangest thing about it is that it’s not actually a mountain. There is no one specific mountain called Mount Osore. It’s actually a small plateau of sorts in the midst of many other mountains surrounding it. A large freshwater lake called Lake Usori (don’t ask me about the names. I don’t know either) marks the boundary of the area, with the large Buddhist temple sticking out in the scene beautifully. To ancient travelers, our half-hour car ride would have taken half a day’s travel or more, considering all the uphill climbing, and this scene must have been a wonderful respite from the great struggles.

The magical aura here is intense and wide-spread. I can sense every bit of the magic flowing through me, almost like I can reach out and touch it. It’s a thick fog.

Also, um.

It smells really bad here. Like eggs two weeks past their expiration date.

“Good old sulfur,” Master Keitou says. “Oh, how I missed it.”

“These mountains are actually pretty famous for the hot springs around them,” says Francis. “I read it on the tourist guide. There’s some onsens a little to the east, and then up north in the town of Kazamaura, they have a ton of really famous baths.”

“Ah, hot springs,” I remark. “It truly brings me back to our time in Paso Robles.”

“Don’t remind me of that wretched place,” Pablo Rosas says, brooding next to us. “I will have nothing to do with it any longer.”

“My apologies,” I say. “Whatever your past may have brought, Mutsu City will bring you much greater spoils in its pleasantness.”

He nods a few times. “I hope you’re right.”

Poor man.

I almost regret running away from him in battle and stealing his car in the process. It was dishonorable, to be sure.

The Goddess, still in her strange human form, takes in Mount Osore with wide open arms. She is absolutely ecstatic to be here.

“Wow!” she shouts. “I have no idea how this came to be! But I’m right happy about it anyway! I almost feel like I have powers now... Positively wonderful.”

“I agree,” I say. “I’m more connected to the Destiny Deck than ever before.”

“That’s it all right. The etherflow of the mortal plane,” she says. “Invisible but all around us.”

“Am I supposed to be able to see everyone’s power levels? As numbers floating in the air?” Julie asks.

“No you absolutely ain’t,” The Goddess says. “But that glitch is just gonna have to work in our favor. You gotta help me and your daughter build the multiversal transmission device.”

Esther perks her head up. “Mom, you’re going to help us? I’d be delighted if you did.”

“I don’t know anything about it, but I’ll do my best.”

“Great,” The Goddess says. Then she turns to me. “As for you, mister pink-haired hero, you’ve gotta train up. Don’t be looking like no slouch out here. Make sure our whole crew’s up to speed.”

“I escaped forced training, only to train more people,” I lament. “Ah, well, such is the life of heroism.”

“Right. Now get to it.”

I’d love to start training right this instant, in the sulfur-filled volcanic portal area known as Mount Osore. The yellow rocks and boiling water pits certainly provide an interesting scenery, and the magic energy here is immense.

However... I’m already starting to get a headache from the fumes. That will be something to adapt to, for sure...