A Date

Paul had experienced a lot in his life. Failure, the topic of gossip, family abuse, loneliness, but a girl gushing about him? Never. What was this? He didn't understand. He really didn't.

His heart was pounding. His world was spinning. Ordering his ice cream, he barely managed to get out his real voice.

"Chocolate please," Paul murmured. "Sprinkles too."

"Look at him." Ksenia Piatkowski was not very discreet. Her hushes were rather public. "He's hot. Isn't he? Isn't he?"

Pauline, the random stranger Ksenia had decided to choose as her friend, did not reciprocate. "Um, yes. Of course."

"Right!?"

Turning back, John waited for him with a certain edge to his smile. They returned to their compartment. As soon as the door opened and they were out of earshot, John chuckled.

"Looks like you have an admirer," John teased. "I did not expect that."

Paul shyly ate his ice cream and murmured, "Me neither."

The sprinkles seemed to double in number. He quickly licked them up.

At the table, Kazi and Hugo played a game of checkers. Their difference in body language couldn't have been further apart. At the moment of arrival, Hugo threw his hands up.

"Rigged!"

"How do you rig checkers?" John asked, puzzled by his reaction.

"That's why it's called rigging. It's done in a way you don't know," said Hugo. "Rematch."

Kazi chuckled. "Rematch," he agreed.

Sitting down, they played ten games with Kazi who won them all with a cheeky smile. Sun-young and William also came by, though they decided to sit at the table opposite to them for space. Time passed and they played a plethora of games.

Two hours in, John went to the back and fetched a deck of cards. "How about some poker," he suggested. "With steaks?"

"Points?" Kazi said, smiling.

"Points," John agreed, "although one of us will have to be the dealer."

"A dealer, eh?" Kazi stood up and checked their surroundings. His smile widened. "I think I found someone. Gimme a second."

He jumped over his seat and sat on the leather seats behind them. "Hey there. I don't know if you were listening but we're in need of a dealer. Could you help?"

"What's in it for me?"

The man Kazi was talking to was calm and measured. He wore a black trench coat and rectangular sunglasses. Above him was his name, level, and class: Matasaburō Watanabe, Level 13, Amateur Knifeman.

"Fun! Lots of fun!"

Paul cringed and exchanged a look with John.

"...sure."

'Wait, that actually worked!?'

As the man came by to occupy a seat at their table, Paul really didn't understand how he did it. The man was well into his fifties, his hair an ashy grey and wrinkles to the sides of his lips. Matasaburō stole the deck of cards and started shuffling. He was astonishingly deft at it.

"Let us begin," said Matasaburō.

From there, the poker game between Kazi, John, Hugo, and Paul unfolded. The cards were dealt, and the players glanced at their hands.

***

The unsteady rhythm of the train brought a tense ambience to the game. Cards would sometimes slip from fingers and the rush of darkness as they went through a tunnel would cause cracks in their expressions.

Throughout it all, between John's perfect poker face, Hugo's confidence, and Matasaburō's neutral dealing, Kazi came out on top. It didn't matter if they double-teamed. It didn't matter if Paul had a royal flush. At the end of the round, Kazi always had something to respond.

Then there was the fact that every now and then, he would abandon the game to look at the scenery.

"That's Lake Biwa! Did you know that's the largest freshwater lake in Japan!?"

"Mount Ibuki! Some say that's where Shuten Dōji was born!"

"Is that Nagoya Castle! It's gotta be! Right? Right guys?"

Kazi seemed to recognize every landmark they came across. Every major lake, river, or architecture was properly identified and complemented with a piece of lore. He explained that he was an archaeologist and that he studied extensively on the geography of Japan, but for some reason, Paul didn't fully believe him. He didn't think he was intentionally lying. Rather, he was consciously understating his knowledge.

"It's getting dark," John noted. "We should sleep soon."

Hugo let out a sigh of defeat. "Man…"

"Let me guess, it's rigged?" Paul quipped.

"He's the one who brought the dealer," Hugo mumbled in complaint.

"Sorry, never met him before," Matasaburō said. "But I suppose you don't believe that."

Hugo grumbled to himself. Paul didn't blame him. There was winning once or twice, there was winning consecutively, and there was winning without loss. Meeting Kazi's gaze, a strange feeling crept up his neck. It was the same feeling he got when Dasha was looking at him.

"Maybe tomorrow you'll have better luck." From his inventory, Kazi summoned a blanket for himself. "Do you guys need any?"

Paul nodded. Smiling kindly, he handed a blanket over to him. Hugo pretended not to need it. John simply crossed his arms, rested his head back, and nodded off.

Paul sat at the window seat and could see the darkening horizon. A flicker of orange light descended till it was fully gone.

His eyes closed and he fell asleep.

***

Screech!

The train was coming to a stop and his head lurched forward and hit the table. Just his luck. Waking up brought in a world of pain. Paul groaned as the screeching brakes echoed in his ear. The train doors slid open and a rush of cool air swept through the compartment.

"What is—ngh—going on?" Paul kept his head to the table, groaning. At the neighbouring table, Sun-young and William were fast asleep. Seemed like Paul was the sole victim of head bashing.

"The train stopped. I'm going to see what's up," said Kazi. No discord or sign of weariness in his voice. He was up and ready to go at a moment's notice.

Hugo yawned and went back to sleep. The stillness of the train was pleasant.

"I-I'll go with you," said Paul without thinking.

Outside, a rush of cold wind hit him and Paul immediately regretted leaving his comfortable blanket. Passengers from neighbouring compartments formed a scattered congregation of curious onlookers. The platform they stood on stretched into the darkness, and a distant whistle echoed through the night.

"No need to panic—"

"Woah!" Paul flinched and stepped. A red raccoon had appeared beside his knee, bestowed with the name Danzaburou.

"I'm your conductor, idiot." The raccoon—sorry, tanuki—stood up on its legs and put its hands on its hip—or its sides. However its anatomy worked.

"S-sorry." Apologizing to a talking animal. What was his life?

"We're stopping to fuel," Danzaburou explained. "So don't get your panties in a twist. We'll get there. We got three more stops after this. You better be ready.."

A tall buff woman in a ponytail came beside him. It was Ksenia and she crossed her arms and asked, "How long do we have left till the end?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Danzaburou threw his paws (they were paws, right?) up. "You're the riders, you should know."

"Excuse me?" Ksenia scoffed. "Why I outta—"

"Between Kyoto and Sapporo, on a rough estimate, it's about a thousand five-hundred kilometres. In other words, we're going from one side of the country to the other; south to north," Kazi explained. He stared at the stars above, the train, then back to the station. There wasn't much to see due to the shadows. "We saw Nagoya Castle. I guess we're at Nagoya Station then?"

Kazi hummed to himself. Honestly, Paul didn't have a clue, so he exchanged looks with Ksenia. She didn't know either, it seemed, and took him for his word.

"Great." Ksenia clicked her tongue and looked at him from the corner of her eye. Never facing him, only checking. "So…it sure is cold, huh?"

Paul blinked several times. Was she talking to him? She was. Oh. "Um, yes. Very cold."

Ksenia was taller than by a couple inches, not to mention visibly stronger. Paul struggled between being intimidated or in awe.

White tape wrapped around her hands and she wore a white sleeveless gi. A martial artist, obviously, but clearly belonging to a guild. There was a stamp or a symbol on her. There must have been magic in the fabric because otherwise it would have been impossible for her to cope with the chill without blinking an eye.

"We shouldn't have eaten that ice cream, huh?" Ksenia said.

"I guess not."

"Say, you're pretty strong. Level 20, one level higher than me." She nodded appreciatively. "I've been working my ass off to do that. How'd you do it?"

She spoke quite casually. Too casually. It threw him off. 'How I got this strong…'

"You didn't have the hunger to grab your desires in the previous world. Don't make that same mistake again. Sink or swim, Paul. Sink or swim."

"It's sink or swim in this world. I chose to swim," Paul replied, bitterness seeping through. Ksenia broke into a grin.

"I agree! This new world is full of opportunities for people like us! We just gotta do our best!" Her mood suddenly had an uptick. Did his words really resonate that much with her? "Say, you should, uh, come to my compartment. To talk," she said unconvincingly.

"Uhhh…" Paul looked to Kazi who gave him a thumbs-up. A thumbs-up, yeah. Did that mean to join her? Strangely enough, he wasn't against it. He remembered what she said before.

'I think she's flirting with me. I think.'

"Okay," he ended up saying. "Let me grab my blanket."

"To snuggle? My, my, you're more daring than you look, Paul!"

His cheeks flushed. "That's not what I…"

She bopped him on the nose, her pony tail swinging as she leaped back onto the train. "I'm looking forward to it! I'm at the first compartment, by the way, next to the kitchen!"

Paul was left there, alone with everyone else who were busy talking to the tanuki. He touched his nose, which also felt red.

'What…what is even going on? Is this…a date or something?'

All his life, Paul had never gone on a date. He died a girlfriendless loser. So what was up with her? Why was she so interested? It had to be a trick. She was strong and pretty and the total opposite of him.

Why him?