Chapter 8. Unintended Consequences, and Vending Machines

  Tanya had let it slip her mind that as part of being back in a modern world she would have unlimited access to coffee, real coffee. It took a substantial amount of self-control not to stalk the man back to whatever breakroom these officers had and requisition herself a cup by force.

  Fortunately, Tanya had spent no small amount of time strengthening her will against the likes of Being X. So, she was able to resist her primal urges and return to Visha’s side.

  Seating herself beside her buddy while berating herself for not thinking to have asked for coffee when the refreshments had been offered earlier. Only to bolt upright in her seat as a thought entered her head.

  Why hadn’t Visha thought to ask for it either.

  After years of painstakingly training her into the best possible adjutant. Having also risked her life to save her on multiple occasions. And this is all Visha has to show for it.

  There was a time not long ago that she would have anticipated Tanya’s needs and fulfilled them long before Tanya even realized she had them.

  It seemed like death had really caused her to lose her edge. Well, no matter, nothing a little remedial training won’t fix.

  Tanya began chuckling to herself.

  ~

  Visha Suddenly knew something terrible was about to happen, then she heard the Colonel begin to chuckle. Visha didn’t know what she had done but she knew that she was dead. Killed twice in one day, Lord what did I do. She thought as she saw the way her commander looked up at her from the corner of her eye.

  “Visha dear,”

  “Ye... Yes Colonel?”

  “Visha, did you know that they have coffee available here?”

  Visha felt her back go cold from sweat, this was more serious than she thought. How should she respond?

  If she said yes then she was in trouble for not getting any for the Colonel, but if she said no then she would be reprimanded for negligence at not having bothered to find out.

  “I’m sorry Colonel.”

  “I swear I should have left you on the Rhine.”

  “Now come on Tanya, I know you don’t mean that. How was I supposed to know, this is your worl… country after all.

  “Wait, why didn’t you say anything?

  “And where’s the chocolate you promised me from earlier? Humph! I think that about makes us even.”

  Visha tried to keep a stern face but soon it started to crack, and she found herself giggling softly, not long after Tanya joined in with a few soft chuckles of her own.

  “Alight Visha, you win. Let’s go get you some chocolate, I think I saw a vending machine on the way in.”

  “A Vending Machine?

  “Oh right, it’s a box that has all kinds of snacks or drinks in it, and you put money in, and it drops out the item you want. We have ones that have just about everything here in this country.”

  “So, how does it know what you want?”

  “Well, there are buttons, and… You know what, you’ll see soon enough.”

  A short walk down a hallway later the two found themselves standing in front of a row of vending machines. Tanya even noticed one that sold hot coffee.

  Not her first choice and she debated whether it was worth it to wait just so that her first cup after coming back would be more ceremonial.

  Tanya didn’t consider herself that much of a drama queen, so she decided any coffee now, was better good coffee later.

  Reaching into her pocket to grab a few yen Tanya paused.

  It wasn’t her fault; it was clearly the lack of sleep and caffeine that was making her this forgetful. Yes, that was it, she always had low blood sugar in the morning, and this was just a symptom of that. Tanya rationalized to herself.

  “Problem, ma’am?”

  “Yes Visha, we’re currently broke. I don’t have a single yen to my name. Remember that word it’s the one we use for money here, similar to a Mark. Also, no one uses silver or gold coins anymore, it’s all mixed metal coins, but mostly paper bills, or a smart phone if you have one.”

  “Ok, I’ll remember that, though a lot of those words made no sense to me. So, what do we do right now. Wait you don’t happen to have a deck of cards on you, do you?”

  “Not funny Visha, and a smart phone is what I used earlier to call the police. Look I’ll get one and explain how it works later, for now I think I’m just going to have to suck it up and barrow from some.

  Wait here, no better yet, hold on one sec.”

  Tanya looked over her longtime friend and let a sly smile grace her lips.

  “Visha dear, lean down.”

  Visha was confused but obeyed her commander instinctively, leaning forward. Only for Tanya to slap both her hands on Visha’s cheeks firmly.

  “Wa, what was that for?” she whined, rubbing at her now rosy flushed cheeks.

  “Now be a dear and look up into that light there, no don’t look away keep staring, ok now look down.”

  “That hurt my eyes, I already said I was sorry about the coffee.”

  Tanya stopped to admire her work. Visha’s cheeks were now red, contrasting nicely with her pale creamy skin. Add that to her large now watery green eyes and Tanya was positive that no one would be able to deny her every request.

  Unbeknownst to Tanya this little act of manipulation was going to be the cause of endless problems for herself in the future.

  Pulling Visha along behind her, Tanya quickly relayed her instructions.

  “Gomenasai.”

  “Gomanasee?”

  “No, Go men na sai, Gomenasai”

  “Gomanasai?”

  “That’s it perfect. The rest just ask in English and you’ll be fine.”

  “But my English is poor at best.”

  “That’s perfect Visha you’ll see.”

  Spotting a target Tanya moved to engage, Visha at her side primed for action.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Stopping in front of a young officer Tanya pushed Visha forward then slipped behind her, seeming to shrink into Visha’s back. Only her head popped out just below her elbow.

  “Go, gomanasai, do you speak Inguish?”

  “Oh, yes, how do you do?”

  “Can I please have some money for the vending machine”

  “Ano, vendiNG m??SHēn, what is a bending machino.”

  “My friend wants to buy a chocolate”

  At this point Tanya was beginning to feel bad for both the officer and her adjutant. However, this is about what she expected. Deciding to pipe up from behind Visha, Tanya put an end to this farce.

  “Excuse me, my friend doesn’t speak Japanese, we don’t have any money on us. She wants to know if she could borrow a few hundred yen for the vending machine. If it’s not too much trouble.”

  Tanya spoke shyly before ducking her head back behind Serebryakov. Visha took this as her cue to bat her eyes and smile sweetly.

  ~

  The young officer found himself speechless at the moment. Two young women, both foreigners from their appearance, had walked up to him and asked to barrow money.

  They were dressed in some sort of military cosplay. He didn’t recognize the characters from any popular anime or manga, but the details were fantastic.

  The shear cuteness overload kept him from feeling embarrassed about his poor English. It was so cute his brain had short circuited to the point that he even forgot his own name, keeping him from introducing himself properly.

  He just dumbly felt himself pull out his wallet and hand over several notes. Watching numbly as the taller of the two took them before they both bowed, thanked him, and scurried off.

  They even high fived each other as the taller one handed the shorter girl the money.

  Too late he realized he should have asked to take a picture.

  ~

  “Misson accomplished ma’am”

  “Excellent work as usually Visha, now let’s get that chocolate.”

  Tanya didn’t feel any guilt whatsoever for making Serebryakov act in such an embarrassing manor. As far as orders go, she figured it was much better than having Tanya order her to divebomb a battleship again, so she shouldn’t have any complaints.

  That and some very tangible rewards were now staring them in the face in the form of a display of various snacks and candies.

  In her last life Tanya hadn’t enjoyed sweet things too much, preferring more savory or bitter treats instead. Only her preference for dark chocolate and black coffee seemed to have carried over into this life. Now though, the packaging of a particular salted caramel chocolate bar was making her mouth water in a Pavlovian response.

  “Which one do you recommend?”

  “I haven’t tasted all of these but, that one should be to your tastes Visha. Hold on while I get us a coffee and we’ll see what else we can afford to get.”

  Tanya stepped over to the coffee machine explaining to Visha how it worked as she pushed the buttons selecting her coffee and pointing out to Visha all the various options. After letting Visha pick her own, Tanya found herself showing a genuine smile at how animated Visha was pushing the buttons. Her fascination with the display screen’s chibi mascot obvious.

  It was a small taste of what the future would hold, watching her buddy experience new, and modern things.

  Coffees in hand the two where once again standing before the snack machine. Visha went so far as to push her head against the plexiglass while the machine rotated to drop her chocolate down. Tanya proceeded to select her own treat, only for it to get stuck. After tapping the side of the machine hoping to jar it loose, Tanya resigned herself, pulling out her money to buy another.

  Only to feel the subtle flair of mana as Visha yanked the chocolate bar down magically. Stooping down Tanya collected her treat, glaring up at her adjutant.

  “Really Visha, a limited lifesaving resource and you waste it on chocolate.”

  “Your chocolate ma’am, I just couldn’t bear the thought of you going without.”

  “You were just worried I’d confiscate yours.”

  Visha took two very big steps away and twirled so that her back was facing Tanya.

  “Why Miss Degurechaff, that thought never even crossed my mind.”

  “I bet.”

  ~

  Visha did find herself enjoying the chocolate Tanya had picked for her, the coffee not so much. Oh, it was better than ersatz, but everything was. Visha wanted to get her hands on some real beans and a proper press. The grimaces that Tanya kept giving her cup were making her nervous.

  She looked around the waiting room while sipping at her own cup again. It remined her of the general staff offices in its utilitarian design but that was where the similarities ended.

  The room like everything else around her felt foreign, alien. From the color schemes to the art works and strange characters that made up their writing.

  Visha started feeling very lost and she found herself hating these quiet moments where her mind ran away from her fixating on what she had left behind in the other world.

  Although she supposed this was better than being dead. She had died, that thought kept coming back every time she gave it a moments chance to. Looking over to her friend sitting beside her, Tanya’s legs dangling in the air. She supposed she hadn’t lost everything, and she knew would make the same choice over again.

  It was terribly funny how wrong she had been about Tanya in the past. She had been convinced that her commander was the most righteous patriotic soldier in the Empire. Oh, she could just imagen how Wiess, Grantz and the others would react if they found out how much the vaunted Rusted Silver wanted to sit behind a desk and shuffle personnel around.

  How often her zeal for battle was just a show because she worried she wouldn’t be respected or worse, that she’d be overlooked for promotion.

  It was nice to see another side of her friend that was more normal, if normalcy could ever be attributed to Tanya.

  Visha smiled to herself imagining a future where the two of them got to do regular people things, like shopping or going to restaurants without using ration coupons to order their food. But her happy thoughts were soon interrupted.

  “Visha it’s time.”

  ~

  While incredibly nervous at first, Tanya’s many concerns for Visha’s interview turned out to be unnecessary. In most ways it was even less stressful and involved then hers. Visha’s case was a pretty cut and dry case of human trafficking as far as the police were concerned.

  The only questions they were interested in asking were about how she was transported and her view of the event leading up to the rescue. Questions about her past were dropped after she explained about her father selling her to a gang in Russia. It helped that the language barrier was frustrating the interviewers.

  The only interesting point would end up being when Tanya was again asked to step out so they could make sure Visha wasn’t being coerced into staying with her.

  Visha stepped out of the interview room not five minutes later with big crocodile tears in her eyes. Flashing Tanya a smirk when no was looking.

  Tanya thought it was a bit overkill for her to run over and jump into her arms. She even went so far as to wrap her legs around her, effectively making Tanya carry her as she was hugged by Visha.

  Through Visha’s hair Tanya noticed the tender looks the interviewers were giving the two of them

  Though the scene must have looked comical given their height differences, Visha’s legs instead of being around Tanya’s waist as would be normal in this position. Were instead curled around her calves due to Visha being nearly 43 centimeters (a foot and a half) taller than Tanya.

  Despite her frustration Tanya patted Visha’s back to complete the scene. Having to hold back the warm bubbly feelings of anger stirring in her heart. Setting Visha down she looked up over her friend’s shoulder at the officer, getting his attention.

  “What’s next?” She asked

  “Well, this is just the initial processing, for you two and several others the Immigrations Services Agency has been contacted, and they will be getting involved from here on out. But for now, bentos have been prepared for you to take with you on your way to the hospital for your medical checkups.

  “After that we prepared a residence for all of you to stay while we wait for either family members to come or in your case the Immigration Agency to make their decision. Rest assured, both of you at the least qualify for special refugee status, and as such are permitted to seek asylum in the country until your refugee status is amended.

  “But that’s talk for another day head back to the others in conference room 32b down the hall, someone will be along shortly to take you to the vans going to the hospital. Do you remember the way or would you like an escort.”

  “Thank you, officers, we remember the way.”

  Tanya bowed followed shortly after by Visha who was still getting the hang of it. Then the two of them made their way down the hall and back into the original conference room they had been waiting in with the other victims. Sitting down the two prepared themselves to wait yet again.

  Little did they know but a pair of young eyes was watching them carefully.

  ~

  Hina was convinced that God had sent a pair of angels to rescue her. When she looked into those other worldly glowing silver eyes in the darkness her body froze. Only to fill with terror as the creature smiled maliciously at her. Then she saw the other pair of bright eyes shining in the darkness over the scary one’s shoulder. This one smiled gently like an older sister always looking out for you.

  She calmed down as the first one began to speak into her ear asking her about what was going on. She didn’t put it together then, she had been too frightened, but later when the two came back, she saw them for what they really were. God’s angels.

  Being from Okinawa it wasn’t that uncommon to come from a Christian household unlike everywhere else in Japan. So, when she once more saw those glowing eyes return to tell them that they were going to be rescued. Hina knew God had sent his angels to save her. First his Destroying angel to smite the wicked, followed by her partner to bring comfort and glad tidings.

  None of the others believed her when she talked to them about it. Except that one girl who was convinced they were an oni and her subordinate yokai and kept repeating Buddhist mantras under her breath. Everyone else seemed to think they were just a couple of ordinary girls.

  Hina decide to pay special attention to both of them either way. As the morning dragged on and things started to feel more normal. She too found herself doubting their divine origins. But she just couldn’t forget the way she had felt when the Destroyer had crouched over her, the cold hand of death coving her mouth. She swore she could taste blood on that hand. Maybe she was a devil.

  However, nothing strange happened after they were rescued, and here the two were now waiting, just like the rest of them. Be they angel or devil, why did they not return from where they came from. Maybe the others were right, and they were just people.

  Hina decided she would keep an eye on them for the next few days either way.