Cap saw where he was looking and chuckled. “Ah, them. That’s my unit from the war. The 42nd Rangers. That was the core group of us who went through basic together. We landed at Normandy in ‘44 and fought our way across Europe. About half of us made it all the way to the end. Fred there – he’s that one – he bought it while we were climbing the Pointe du Hoc. Quite the rascal. If we hadn’t left for Normandy when he did, I think he would have scandalized the English countryside. That there is Jason. He caught some shrapnel while we were moving inland. Taggert and Eric died while we were pushing towards the German border – I was going to be the best man at Taggert’s wedding, but obviously that never happened. He was a weird one – he wouldn’t let anybody use his first name. We always had to call him ‘Taggert’.

    “There’s Flinty, Harry, and Maury – they all bought it in the Ardennes. Harry shouldn’t have been there. He was this family man who had just missed out on the previous war, and felt like he couldn’t sit out the next one. He left his wife and three kids behind. I was the one who had to write the letter to tell them about it. I wrote all of those letters. I wrote a lot of letters.

    “Tracy and George were the last ones we lost – they’re those two over there. A pair of practical jokers right to the end. They once removed a pair of tracks from a Sherman and replaced them with cardboard tracks. I don’t have the foggiest idea where they got the cardboard, or when they made the tracks, but they did it. We lost them on May 1st, 1945. Germany surrendered six days later.

    “After the surrender, I made myself a promise – I would never take another life in battle. I would use my powers to defend people, and fight for justice, but no child would ever lose another father at my hands.

    “As for the rest of the 42nd, well, we kept in touch after the war. But, time takes no prisoners, you know? One by one, we lost them to old age, sickness, you know how it is.” Cap wiped a tear from his eye. “I’m sorry, I really miss those guys. It was a great unit. They were great friends.”

    Daiki blinked. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what to say.”

    Cap gave him a kind smile. “You don’t have to say anything about that. All you have to do is tell me if you like steak.”

    Daiki nodded. “It’s been a while since I’ve had a good steak.”

    Cap grinned. “Well, then, today is your lucky day! I make my own marinade – you’ll love it. And while I get these babies cooking, you can tell me all about yourself.”

Chewing his steak, Daiki looked at Cap, trying to make sense of him. The steak was as good as promised, succulent and flavorful. The beer Cap had brought out was not as good – it had the sort of bland thinness Daiki had always associated with American export beers. All of it wasn’t anything he would have ever expected from the superhero he had met back in the world of his creator.

    “I’ve been thinking about what you said,” Cap stated. “I still don’t know if I believe that all of this is just a comic book, but that would explain a couple of things.”

    Daiki swallowed. “What do you mean?”

    “Even with all of my powers, I do a lot of things I shouldn’t be able to do,” Cap said. “Arrive just in time to save the day when I should be too late, that sort of thing. It’s like somebody has their finger on the scale, tipping it in my favour. A creator telling a story would account for that. It’s far beyond luck at this point, anyway.”

    Daiki nodded.

    “But there’s something I don’t think you’ve realized,” Cap said, taking another swig from his stein. “If what you say is true, then it means that in our stories you and I have never been in a fair fight.”

    “I’ve lost my share,” Daiki said. “Back in the early days, Athena and I spent as much time escaping from battles as winning them.”

    “But you’re still alive,” Cap said. “And you’re fighting battles with deadly weapons. Think about it – how many of those fights would have killed you, if they had been fair?”

    Daiki took a drink from his beer. It was still thin and bland. “I suppose more than a few.”

    “So you told me that you were trying to get back to your fiancee, correct? And that you’re going to try to sort out that Devil King of yours and take Athena back to Osaka with you. Do I have all that right?”

    Daiki nodded and popped another piece of steak in his mouth.

    “Well, if your author, or creator, or whatever you want to call her is dead, then her finger is no longer on those scales. You’re coming back to a fair fight. The things that would have killed you but didn’t are now going to kill you.”

    Daiki swallowed and frowned. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

    “You’re going to need help,” Cap said. “If your creator isn’t there to tip the scales, you’re going to need to find a way to do it yourself. And that means you need allies, the more powerful the better.”

    Daiki chuckled. “You’re talking like you’re volunteering.”

    “I am.”

    Daiki blinked. “Are you sure? Aren’t you needed here?”

    Cap shrugged. “There are other heroes out there who can pick up the slack. Besides, I’ve now been protecting my world as a superhero for almost eighty years. I think I’m owed some pretty hefty vacation time.”

    Daiki shook his head. “Cap, there’s more to how all this works than you know. If you’re not here when the next issue of your comic is released, the information stream will create a replacement you. If you come home after that, it could just wipe you out of existence to remove the duplication.”

    “Sounds to me like if I’m gone long enough my absence becomes a self-fixing problem,” Cap said.

    “If you come with me, you might never see this cabin, or your world again.”

    Cap leaned forward, his eyes earnest. “Daiki, I have spent the last forty years doing nothing other than fighting supervillains, watching television, and reading books about lives I could only dream of having. All the people I ever cared about are gone. I’m the last man standing. If I can leave and this world will still be protected by my replacement, then I’m good with that. Please let me come with you and help. I don’t know if I alone can tip those scales far enough to ensure that you and Athena make it to Osaka, but I can at least tip them part of the way.”

    Daiki closed his eyes and nodded. “Okay. We leave in the morning once the sword has recharged.”

The morning sun shone down on him as Daiki checked the backpack that Cap had loaned him, doing a quick inventory. Even if they would be oversized, he finally had a set of street clothes he could wear if they ended up in another modern story world. Cap had also insisted that they both carry a water bottle, some granola bars, and a sleeping bag.

    Cap shrugged on his backpack. When Daiki had asked if he was going to bring his superhero outfit, Cap had shook his head and smiled. “It’s very bad form to bring your work clothes with you on holiday,” he said. Now he stood in a pair of comfortable looking slacks, hiking boots, button-down shirt, and leather bomber jacket.

    As Daiki pulled on his backpack, Cap looked at him and asked, “So, what now?”

    “I open a portal and we step through,” Daiki said, opening his sword’s interface and selecting Part the veil between worlds. He swung his sword, a swirling gateway of energy appearing before him. “You’d better go first, Cap. I don’t know if it will stay open after I go through.”

    Cap grinned, said “Hooah!”, and stepped on through.

    Daiki took a deep breath and stepped through the portal, into the unknown.

NEXT: “Creation”