The city of Tokyo was the backbone of Japan.
As such, it tended to be mistaken for its capital city, but there’s actually no legal basis for that, and in fact, though not widely known, there’s actually a debate going on behind the scenes about where it’s capital really is.
Regardless, no Japanese would deny that Tokyo was one of the cities that represented Japan, and that it plays a central role to its economy and politics.
As for which building would be most symbolic of it, well, there are many opinions regarding that matter as well.
There’s the Tokyo Metropolitan Government that’s always being destroyed in stories, the National Diet Building that’s central to Japanese politics, the Tokyo Dome that’s now mostly used for events, and the historic red brick train station. There’s a lot of them, but they all represented Tokyo.
“Wow, it’s my first time seeing it in the flesh!!” Shinichi exclaimed.
Shinichi squealed with uncontrollable excitement the moment he arrived and saw that red radio tower up close.
He could see it from afar on the way, but it was much more dignified when looked up from up close below.
A giant tower built in steel stood before him in red and white.
This was their next destination and was also one of them most popular tourist spots that represented Tokyo City, the Tokyo Tower.
Shinichi looked up at it with sparkling childlike eyes.
Youko had already moved from his head to his shoulders ahead of time to give him space.
“H-Hey, Hina, let’s hurry up and go!”
He excitedly looked around Foot Town in the ground floor, then went to the rooftop to look at the tower from right below it.
The commercial facilities and aquariums they passed by along the way excited him too, but the excitement he showed with the tower was on a different level.
“Ohhh!!”
“E-Ehh?”
Myuhi has been accompanying Shinichi since the first day of his transfer, but she still didn’t understand which things could catch his eye.
“W-What are you being so excited for? I’d understand if you were a Garestonian, but…”
She couldn’t understand his reaction.
Wasn’t this something that the Japanese were already used to seeing?
In Garesto, there were no structures taller than 300 meters because of their dome and walls, and it was curious how such a structure could stand tall for more than 60 years without any defenses.
That’s why the Garestonian students looked up at that tower with excitement.
Even the Garesto Supremacists couldn’t help but be interested and look up in a daze, while the first-year students, that didn’t know about those circumstances, were surprised at their reaction.
“…This is the country I was born and raised in, so I wanted to visit places like this at least once.”
It was curious whether he was looking around him or not, if he actually understood Myuhi’s question or not, and if he actually meant those words for someone, regardless, he seemed deeply moved as looked up at the tower and said that.
Myuhi’s fox ears tilted as she pondered on whether Shinichi’s feelings were those of patriotism or the love for one’s hometown.
Though she didn’t really have a hometown, she did understand attachment to a place one has spent a lot of time in.
It was probably something like that, she thought.
“I didn’t think I’d be able to see the real thing alive…”
“Huh?”
Or at least, that was until he muttered those words that could make a person’s bowels spring up.
Myuhi didn’t know anything about his ‘2 years’ other than the official story.
All she knew was that he’d found himself in Garesto’s Nature Reserve and came to be protected by an amaryllis, but she could more or less tell that that was just a cover-up story.
There were just too many points that didn’t add up.
One thing was certain, though, he couldn’t return to Earth for two years.
Wherever he was, he couldn’t go back with his own power.
Just how much did a normal boy like him yearn for his hometown in those 2 years? For some reason, Myuhi felt as though she wasn’t even allowed to imagine it.
That’s why she understood it painfully well when he said he wanted to visit this place.
That’s why the ruthlessness of the “eight years” of interaction between the two worlds were so painful.
“…In that case, I suppose we’ll just have to get a good look at all the sights here, won’t we? I’m free anyway, so I’ll accompany you!”
Myuhi found herself saying that with a smile as she took his arm in her usual manner.
Shinichi was a little surprised at that, but he quickly nodded, and Youko too smiled from atop his shoulders.
After that, they took turns looking around the tower and the sights from the first floor of the main observatory.
But there was someone that got in the way of Myuhi’s desire to let him enjoy the sights of his hometown to the fullest.
“─────You’re so needlessly sharp sometimes, Icchi.”
It was none other than Shinichi himself.
That was what she had to say after enjoying the view of the special observation deck at the top.
Or to be more precise, that was her impression after all the
“Two cases of pickpocketing, three cases of luggage theft, one case of shoplifting, and two cases of a fight. Were you always like this, Icchi? The kind of righteous person that can’t ignore any wrongdoing occurring in front of him?”
Myuhi said as she clung to his arm, though she also remarked that he didn’t seem the type.
Shinichi too had been touring normally. The only strange thing he did was that he refused to approach the Great Shrine of Tokyo Tower, muttering that it would surely be destroyed if he did.
But along the way, he intentionally bumped into pickpockets to expose their loot by scattering them on the spot, tripped luggage thieves, stared at shoplifters from up close to discourage them from committing the crime, and then put an end to arguments by pouring oil into the flames to change the target to himself before extinguishing it by letting the fire burn out.
“Pestering people like those is a hobby of mine. It was fun, right?”
When he said that with a smile, Myuhi’s shoulders dropped as though she’d expected this answer.
He hadn’t done any of that out of a sense of justice, but purely because he wanted to pester those people.
His actions weren’t wrong in the grand scheme of things, but his motives were impure and gave her a headache.
When she thought of how she was a terrorist he was tolerating, that headache became even worse.
“Sigh, you have such a homely face, but you’re actually a naughty bully.”
Before long, she stopped clinging onto him and started holding on to him tightly.
But Shinichi didn’t refute her words and just smiled nostalgically.
“Haha, my childhood friends did always tell me how much of a scam my face was. They would say stuff like, ‘usually, you’re a cabbage, but sometimes you’d turn into a cabbage roll packed with laxatives’.”
“That’s not an issue of being a carnivore or an herbivore, Icchi.”
That was a kind of harassment too, but it was different from the herbivore and carnivore talk associated with men.
“If they were going to liken you to food, they should have at least made it a Maultasche or something… Either way, I owe you one.”
Said Wernher Braun, one of the victims of the pickpockets.
The students could pay for everything with just their Foster back in Kutoria, but outside there were stores that couldn’t accommodate that payment method, so it was thoroughly mentioned in the guidebook to bring cash.
By the way, Maultasche is a local dish of a certain region in Germany. It is pasta dough stuffed with minced meat, spinach, bread crumbs, onions, and other ingredients, then boiled.
In other words, what Wernher wanted to say was that despite looking soft on the outside, Shinichi was actually filled with all sorts of stuff inside.
And such a description was indeed apt, but unfortunately, it wasn’t a well-known dish in Japan, so all he got in return was a question mark on Shinichi’s head.
“M-Mauruta? Anyway, you need to be careful, Werbra. Japan might be relatively safe, but there are still plenty of criminals around.”
“I’m really ashamed. Actually, it’s my first time to Tokyo Tower too, so I was a bit too excited. When I think of how this is that
“W-What? 20 Times!? Where did you hear that!?” Myuhi said.
Myuhi became really flustered when she heard that, but Shinichi had to apologetically inform her.
“Umm… He probably got it from anime and some SFX flicks,” Shinichi said.
“…Oh, that,” Myuhi said.
This was how Wernher usually was, but she still couldn’t help but look at him with doubt and dismay.
A look that pondered on whether the person before her had started to mistake fiction for reality.
Indeed, that was how a normal person would view a person Like Wernher, Shinichi wryly smiled.
Wernher did tend to blur the two lines when talking, but regardless, there was no stopping an otaku that has started to talk.
“The destruction at the start of Grandfizer’s decisive battle was particularly impressive! Episode 13’s ‘Break Through the Barrier of Absolute Zero!’ The key scene to a reversal where the main character was driven into a corner, so he broke the tower and threw it, really got me fired up!” Wernher said.
“What!? The ally of justice broke the tower? He threw it? Is that okay!?” Myuhi said
“Don’t worry, Hina, because episode 14 is a summary episode that restores the Tokyo Tower.” Shinichi said.
“Icchi, this isn’t an issue of whether it could be fixed or not!” Myuhi said.
“It was really amazing. A divine episode! They made it look like a summary episode, but in fact, it was a child’s take on the events after a city’s destruction that’s common to robot shows like these! In fact, the episode is so good it’s still highly praised today!” Wernher said.
“What’s admirable is that the main characters started avoiding fighting in the city since then,” Shinichi said.
“Exactly!” Wernher said.
“…”
Unable to keep up with these two boys that have started talking about a different world, Myuhi had no other recourse than to keep quiet.
As she held on to Shinichi’s arm, her brows knitted together, and she muttered to herself.
“…Maybe I should watch it sometime too.”
The two boys were too caught up in their talk about Grandfizer to pick up on that, but Youko heard it loud and clear from Shinichi’s head.
A smile surfaced on her as though to say, ‘this girl is surprisingly loveable.’
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