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Chapter 10 by VeryBigGuy VeryBigGuy

As if that explained anything.

Mr. Popular

Takane finished getting ready. She had her complete school uniform on now, including her blazer and a thin black raincoat. She looked herself over in the mirror, and then turned around to pose for me. I gave her a lazy thumbs up in return. She looked proud of herself She looked me up, and frowned. Taking my hand, she led me out of her room, through a hall, down some stairs, and into another bathroom. "Pervert, bathe. I will prepare you some clothes in the interim," and then proceeded to leave the room. When I entered the bathroom, I understood why. This one had a western-style shower in it, whereas her bathroom only had a Japanese bath. Man, that girl was clever. She heard me mention the word "shower" once while blowing me and, coupled with the fact that I'm white, she realized I needed a shower shower. I turned it on and waited for the heat to turn on.

This was probably my first quiet moment since yesterday morning, when Mitsuru told me about this plan in the first place. I had thought a lot about what happened already, but what's going to happen now? First, I guess I'm going to out with Takane. It'll be cool to see this parallel version of Tokyo (not that I've been to my Tokyo, but still) and feel out the differences between worlds. Then I guess I'm going to meet her friend and come back here. Takane will leave a note explaining her disappearance or something, and we'll return to my Earth. It bothers me how the heroines seem extremely content with dropping everything for me. It makes me feel compelled to work really hard to be... worthy of that kind of love.

After that, I'll probably get an earful from Mitsuru about wasting time before Invasion day (when I was mainly sleeping) and a different earful from Rangiku about sleeping with Takane before her. I'll be a good boy and go with the heroine they next choose for me. The idea of them arranging marriages for me was weird, but it was the least weird thing that happened all day, so whatever.

I felt the steam of the shower, and knew it was time to step in. A hot shower would empty my mind to what lies ahead or what laid behind.


The walk to the station was fairly quiet. The roads of Tokyo's suburbs weren't particularly busy, and that seemed to bug Takane for some reason, who was pouting despite hanging onto my arm underneath our umbrella. The clothes she gave me were a black t-shirt, gray blazer, my jeans and sneakers from yesterday, and an olive green raincoat. I assumed they belonged to her father, he has pretty good taste, I love this stuff. Fits well, too. Arriving at the station, there were many other people there, several of whom were staring at me or indicating at me to others around them, speaking in hushed tones. Takane seemed to find this amusing, and she held onto my arm and laughed to herself. I wasn't certain what was happening. My best guess was that they were interested in the mid 20's gaijin with the high school girl, but I'd later learn that wasn't the case.

The train was short, several people were on their phone, I noticed at least 2 people take a picture of me, and the view was cool, I saw several neighborhoods and administrative buildings, honestly a laidback, but interesting ride. As we disembarked the train, the first truly peculiar thing happened. A woman, not particularly attractive nor ugly, walked up to us and asked me a bizarre question, "Excuse me, can I take a selfie with you?" She spoke in pretty good English. She clearly had an accent unlike Takane, but I got the impression she could hold an entire conversation if she got the chance. She was clearly directing the question at me, not anyone else. I blanched, very confused at what was happening. I looked to Takane, who had a very smug look about her, and who pointed to a far-off direction. What I saw finally gave me clarity.

It was a billboard, and on it were pictures of various anime girls I didn't recognize all surrounding one guy. He had a brown ponytail and fairly pale skin. He wore what appeared to be a black t-shirt, gray blazer, and olive green raincoat. His lower body was cut off below the billboard. There were 2 titles listed, one in Japanese and one in English: Harem Hero. Looking further around the area I saw other indications of Harem Hero paraphernalia and the name Jason Crane (Seriously, I was Crow in Rangiku's world and Crane here. Why am I a fucking bird?) listed everywhere. I gave Takane a sideways look and finally understood. She was showing me off to everyone. I looked like the perfect cosplayer right now. Apparently this is my look in the anime. I sighed and took the selfie, only for some other girls to run up and offer the same thing. A couple of them touched my butt, some asked for my Instagram (not that they could access it), it was kinda weird.

After a while, Takane and I managed to slip away, and she had a big smirk on her face "I'm glad you enjoyed that," I said to her dryly. I wasn't bothered, per se, but she was clearly using me for street cred.

She laughed in response, having reattached herself to my arm in ownership "fufufu. Now now, Jason, you seemed to be enjoying the popularity just as much, if not more. No doubt you're planning to slip away and cavort with women younger than me now that you've discovered your popularity. You'll abandon me and your mission and find yourselves constantly trading girls in for the newer models and leave a trail of broken hearts in your wake, as a perverted husband like you would," she spoke as if writing a bad doujinshi.

"Takane, if I were to go any younger than you, I'd be in trouble with the authorities. I'm not a weirdo." I responded.

She scoffed, "Naturally a beast of sexual desire like you would latch onto that part. But enough about your perversions, Jason, we've arrived."

Her antics were amusing and I loved them already, but I rolled my eyes regardless. In front of us was a restaurant, and we entered accordingly, sat down, and waited.


The restaurant was a bog-standard American diner, complete with the bar resembling a diner car on a train, which is where the term came from. After sitting in a window booth, I ordered a tea, and Takane ordered black coffee. I had a feeling she and Mitsuru would get along. Actually, now that I thought about it, this girl was basically Japanese Mitsuru... if Mitsuru were hot and had time superpowers. Not that I'd put it past Mitsuru to build a time machine before long. I'm sitting in a parallel universe because of her. Hell, I'm sitting in the literal universe of a manga. The shock was finally dissipating and I was able to laugh about it. "Is something the matter, Jason?" Takane asked me, after taking a huge gulp of piping hot coffee. My mouth hurt just watching it, "Perhaps you were imagining chaining me up and forcing me to recite one-sided wedding vows while you whip me with a flail made of the hair of your other women?" She always does this in the manga, she disguises her true desires in a gaslight for Takashi to imagine.

I chuckled again, this time about her, "I bet you genuinely want to recite one-sided wedding vows to me," I said confidently, pretending that I was just reading her like a book when that was kind of what I specified to the AI to find this version of her (again, Mitsuru's idea). She did a small spit take, and attempted to recover through **** chuckles.

"f-fufu, of course a... uh.. a self-centered pervert like you would jump to that assumption." And hid her face behind her coffee mug. But her ears were bright red. I gave her some relief.

"So who are we waiting fo-Wait!" I exclaimed, surprising her, "Are we waiting for Eri?"

She blinked a few times, "Well, yes, but Jason, how do you know Eri? Is she part of the manga?" I sighed and nodded, wondering why I hadn't realized it until now. There aren't many characters in the manga, after all. It's like Takashi, Takane, Eri, Eri's girlfriend, some jock who whales for gacha girls, and some foot fetish one-off guy. If Takane's introducing me to a friend, it's not like the list was particularly extensive. "Then what's the issue? Eri is an attractive woman. Naturally you'll want to bed her, pervert that you are."

Uh oh, "Wait, what? You want me to bring her home with me?" Takane seemed puzzled, and then nodded like it was obvious. But there were obvious problems with that for me, "The probe is expecting 2 people," I said.

"I'll sit in your lap. I'm certain it'll work out." she said, 'sipping' once again on her coffee

"She doesn't have any superpowers." I felt bad about saying that one.

"Trust me, husband. You'll have many 'ordinary' wives if your manga is any indication."

I looked out the window in exasperation, and saw what must have been Eri Evergreen approaching the diner. I recognized her immediately. A beautiful girl with silver hair and slightly more modest proportions than Takane wearing revealing clothing and looking as ditzy as can be. I made my last point to Takane, wondering if I was pleading with her or myself, "Takane," I almost whispered, "Eri is gay."

She laughed at that, quite hysterically into the back of her hand, "Oh my sweet, sweet pervert. You're Jason Crane."

"No one's that gay."

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