Wayne hummed around another sip of coffee before moving on. If he noticed anything amiss in her answer, he didn’t say. “I sent a car to pick up Takako. She should be here any minute now.”
As if on cue, the doorbell chose that moment to chime. Jo’s eyes lit up at the promise of her friend’s arrival. When she didn’t automatically get off the couch to answer the door (it wasn’t her home, after all), Wayne laughed, motioning with his chin in its direction as if to say,Go ahead.
Jo got up at once, rushing with probably enough eagerness to look a bit silly, but it didn’t matter. Seeing Takako over a hologram screen was one thing. But seeing her in person? Knowing that she really was alive and safe? That was something Jo only just then realized how much she’d been craving.
The moment the door swung open, Jo couldn’t stop herself; her arms were wrapped around Takako’s shoulders in an embrace fierce enough to have her stumbling back a step, bags clattering to the floor. She seemed stunned enough that she remained frozen in Jo’s arms for a long moment, but then, with a soft chuckle that Jo could feel vibrating between them, Takako hugged her back just as fiercely.
“It’s good to see you too, Jo,” she said on a heartfelt breath into Jo’s ear. Jo’s heart soared, arms tightening for a split second before releasing Takako from her death grip—only releasing her to arm’s length, where she could look her over with an awed smile.
Takako was wearing what appeared to be the casual version of a military uniform: a simple coat that ended at her waist and a well-tailored pair of pants, both in deep maroon. A badge was pinned over her left breast, little beads dangling from it. Her hair was noticeably longer than Jo remembered, enough to merit the ponytail it was currently wrapped up in, but in every way, she was still the same girl Jo had come to know and love.
“Are you going to stand in the foyer all day, or are you going to let Takako inside?” Wayne’s voice echoed from back in the living room, once again startling Jo out of her thoughts. At the look of fond amusement on Takako’s face, Jo decided not to fight back the blush that rose to her cheeks, smiling at her friend as she grabbed one of the bags off the floor and slung it over her shoulder.
“Right, sorry. Come on in.”
“Thank you.” Takako nodded, picking up the remaining two bags and heading inside. By the shape and size of one of them, Jo wouldn’t have been surprised if it held some variety of firearms. It was with that realization and the full recognition of the military uniform that a new concern fell into place.
“Is it really alright for you to be wearing that here in Ameri—I mean, Aristonia?” Jo asked, gesturing with her free hand at Takako’s uniform as she deposited the bag next to the couch with the other. For a moment, Takako only looked down at herself in confusion, and Jo quickly continued, trying to clarify, “It’s only 2058. I saw in a documentary that there was still a war in this time right around my timeline’s World War III . . .”
“Oh, right,” Takako smirked. “Apparently in this version of the world, our kingdoms actuallylikeeach other. The Federal Isles even offered support to Aristonia during that war against Taristin.”
“No kidding...” Jo grinned, putting her hands on her hips. She’d no doubt flipped the channel before the documentary had gotten to that bit. “Well, Aristonia appreciates your support, I guess?”
Takako laughed. “I guess.”
After that, Wayne left the two of them alone to make lunch. Jo chose not to mention her lack of appetite and instead settled easily into a conversation with Takako. It was clear that the other members of the Society had been released from the bodily restrictions they’d experienced in the mansion—they now seemed to feel hunger and exhaustion as keenly as any other normal human. So where did that leave her? That was an answer Jo wasn’t rushing to find.
“So where did the timeline spit you out?” Jo asked as she curled up into the corner of the couch, second cup of coffee balanced on her knees. Takako sat with her legs tucked beneath her, cradling her own mug in both hands.
“I’d apparently served long and successfully enough in Hajisha’s Special Forces Unit to merit paid leave.”
Jo whistled in appreciation. “Impressive.”
Takako just chuckled softly to herself. “I’m sure it was. Can’t remember any of it though.”
“Me neither.” Jo nodded in agreement. “Not the war, but . . . anything of the life I’ve supposedly been living.”If there’d been a life to live at all, Jo added mentally. She still wasn’t convinced there had ever been a Josephina in this world.
“I’ve been spending the last year since I woke up with my family,” she continued, smiling down into her mug. “I requested that leave the second I realized they remembered who I was. No tragedy like Mt. Fuji, no war to fight, plus the added bonus of my family actually recognizing me when I showed up at their door? I mean, I sometimes wonder if I should feel guilty for reaping the benefits of a soldier when I don’t remember actually fighting as one... But how could I not?”
The look of easy happiness on her face as she spoke about her family was unfamiliar to Jo, but beautiful to behold. Even if the love for their families had persisted in the Society, it had always been hampered by the knowledge that those family members no longer knew of their existence.
“I don’t think you should feel bad at all.” Jo rested a hand on Takako’s. “I would’ve done the same in your shoes.”
After getting up-to-date on each other’s lives—a process that included Takako cursing impressively over a black disk until it showed some holo-images of her sister’s twins—they settled in to wait for the rest of their team to arrive.
Except Samson didn’t arrive for another two days. And when he finally did, he was alone.
Jo pulled Samson into as equally fierce a hug as she had Takako, though she could tell by his body language that it would be wise not to smother him too much. Still, Samson returned the hug eagerly, relaxing a bit into her embrace before pulling away and regaining an anxious sort of full-body tension.
Aside from the way he was slightly curled in on himself, his smile a bit forced, he looked good. His bright orange hair was shaved short on one side and styled in tight braids on the other, his outfit casual but new and fashionable. He had brought with him a rather impressive collection of bags, most of which Jo assumed contained his tools and projects worth traveling with.
Though it itched at her to ask about Eslar, instinct told her to let Samson settle in first, picking his brain about what he’d been up to since he “woke up.” Though he seemed less willing to offer up detailed information than Takako had been, he talked enthusiastically enough about his new life.
He’d woken up in a kingdom called Riviah—what in Jo’s world had been India—and had spent the last year in the far north of the Luanian Empire, near the western side of the Kingdom of Brulith, around what Jo knew to be Spain. When she asked him if Eslar had woken near him (since they were clinging to each other at the end of the Society), Samson mumbled something incomprehensible and changed the subject, rambling happily on about his current setup as an independent craftsman with an extensive list of loyal patrons.
It was Wayne who eventually brought up the elephant in the room.
“So what took you so long to get here?”
