"Sell all of your toys," The father repeated, knowing well of the hurdle he was putting on his son. "It costs a lot of money to go to Japan. I know some of these scantily dressed miniatures of colorful girls cost multiple hundreds of dollars. If you sell them all, we might just reach the amount needed for a trip to Alibabara." 

He usually tried not to think about it, but he knew well how much Henry was obsessed with those things. He didn't want to go to such a distant country, so he only proposed this deal to stop this conversation from going any further. But alas, as it is common for parents that spend little time with their children, he underestimated his own son. He was also blissfully unaware of the extent of Henry's unhealthy obsession with anything related to Japan and its (anime) culture.

Henry took a deep breath, then, moved by a surge of hopes and dreams, but also a hidden trickle of libido, he gripped the figure he was holding and pointed it at his dad. His eyes shone bright with the light of determination. He tried hard to look cool, but to his dad he just looked angry. (To be fair, the room was quite dark, and the ridiculous pose of the lewd figure he was holding didn't help his look.)

"Pack your bags, dad" Henry proudly exclaimed, trying his hardest not to get a voice crack, "We're going to the land of the rising sun!" 

Immediately, he turned to his computer and opened an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a wide variety of goods and services worldwide.

"I thought you wanted to go to Japan." His dad didn't understand his intent.

...

New life is await

Cavorting through Akiba

Build a harem desu.

                  - A celebratory haiku written by Henry.

It had been almost a month since the battle of wit with his dad, and, as you can imagine, Henry was now standing beneath a cherry blossom, just outside one of the many public parks of Akihabara. He smiled as a small number of pink-hued petals flew past his face. The petals were fake, since he arrived in Japan in June, and cherry blossoms bloom around the beginning of April. Henry was simply too impatient to wait for the next year. He knew the scene of a boy throwing fake cherry blossom petals in front of a real cherry blossom tree without petals must have looked quite depressing for other people, but he was too happy to care. He was finally in Japan, like he had always dreamt! The first few days were filled with waves of emotion and excitement, which were quickly calmed down by a breakwater of jetlag that sent Henry into a 24-hour long nap. But he wouldn't let that day be wasted! He recovered by spending the entirety of the following day running madly through every street and alley of Akihabara. He returned home at dawn pale, dehydrated, holding multiple bags filled with the start of his new anime collection, and ready to face the Japanese school life. He was ecstatic about his classic high school uniform. He had ironed it personally, after asking his dad to teach him and ending up looking at a tutorial online. But he was proud of the job he did and was confident that the slightly burned patch on the back of his blazer was there when he bought it.

"Is everything ok?"

Suddenly, the voice of a young boy brought Henry back into the realm of reality. He looked at the boy, at his black irises, at his jet-black hair glistening under the sun, at the way they unremarkably fell over his forehead, and immediately felt an odd sense of inferiority. He couldn't quite say why, but an unpleasant feeling came from looking at his big eyes. It was as if through body language alone this boy was telling Henry that his life wasn't worth as much as his.

"You just seemed a bit out of it, and I was wondering if maybe you needed help?" The boy said slowly, trying to remain calm despite being evidently bothered by Henry's stare.

"That's it!", Henry thought, "This guy is a normie!"

He was about to dismiss him and leave, when he noticed the rest of his body. That is, he was wearing the same uniform as him (minus the burnt patch on the back).

"Do you go to Kanzen High by any chance?" He asked him in uncharacteristically perfect Japanese.

"Yes! It's the reason I asked you. I don't remember there being a foreigner in our school, but I'm kind of a new student so I might be wrong. I moved here just a couple of months ago."

This came as a big surprise to Henry. He was ready to send him away, but maybe the situation was luckier than he thought. Had he already found a possible companion in his new school on the first day?

"What a coincidence! I just moved here as well! Did you also end up in front of this park because you got lost after you started to point out all the characters you recognized from the countless anime and videogame stores in the area?"

"...Not really. I simply woke up a bit late."

"Oh. But you do like anime, right?"

"I know the more popular shows, but other than that I'm a bit ignorant about it."

Henry audibly tch'd and quickly destroyed the idea of this boy being his new companion, or friend.

"Umm... D-do you need help with reaching the school?"

"Oh, yes, I would gladly appreciate that!"

"Let's hurry then, class will start soon!"

The two teenagers began hurriedly walking towards the distant school. Henry was secretly very happy about being late for school and had already decided that the next day he would be late again on purpose. Only this time he'd be ready with a slice of white bread to hold in his mouth.

"I forgot to ask," the boy spoke up, "What is your name?"

"Henry, Henry Tailer."

"Mine's Rohou Hikujitou. Nice to meet you, Henry!" He said, flashing a smile.

"That's a peculiar name, which kanji do you use to write it?"

"Don't worry about it!" He said, flashing a smile. "So, how long have you been in Japan?"

"Less than a month."

"Really? Your Japanese is very good!"

"Oh! Can you say Nihongo jōzu?"

"Haha, sure! Good Japanese!"

"Darn, the translation ruined it..."

"I'm surprised you sound so natural."

"Not to brag, but I spent tens of thousands of hours watching anime."

"T-Tens of thousands? That's... still surprising. People in anime don't really speak like in real life."

"I guess I also spent quite a lot of time reading and writing comments in Japanese porn sites."

Slight pause for added comedic effect.

Rohou didn't immediately answer, as the slight pause implied, but felt he had to say something after noticing how serious Henry was.

"...Haha... You have no shame, uh?"

"Why would I be ashamed of my passion?"

"Well... Anyway, that is hardly a good way to learn Japanese."

"That's not true, I found so many words that they never use in anime, like man—"

"Careful!"

In a fraction of a second, an oddly shaped object came crashing down on Henry from an unknown location, but he was pushed out of the way at the last second by Rohou, who selflessly sacrificed himself and took the hit straight in the chest. What had landed on them was a heterogeneous amalgamate of plastic, metal, and wood, neatly wrapped around the body of what could be barely distinguished as a high school girl. Still somehow, through what can only be described as divine providence, not only both Rohou and the girl had managed to come out of that situation unscathed, but they had also managed to wrap themselves around each other's bodies, chest pressed on chest, and their faces just a breath away. Whoever the deity distributing providence was, it had impure intentions.

This kind of situation was exactly the overused trope that Henry was looking for. There was just a small problem.

"Why did he get to be the protagonist instead of me?! It should've been me, not him!" 

"Oh, Henry! Are you alright?" Rohou asked as he shyly but rapidly unwrapped himself from the girl.

"Why did you push me out of the way?!"

"What!? Because there was some sort of flying saucer about to collide with you!"

"And you just assumed I didn't want to get hit in the face by multiple pounds of scrap metal? How presumptuous!"

"Rohou, are you ok? I really hope you didn't get hurt!" The girl got up and began to seize Rohou up worriedly, checking for injuries. 

"Wait a moment, you know each other?" Henry asked, also seizing Rohou up but for different reasons.

"We're in the same class..." There was a little bit of worry in his words, worry that Henry might think he had a similar personality to the girl who just crash-landed on them.

Now that she was free of the weird trash-cocoon she descended in, it was easy to see that she wore a high school uniform bearing the symbol of Kanzen High, same as Henry. Although, the rest of her get-up might've stolen your attention from it. She had gotten herself into a dangerous situation, but she came prepared. Helmet, shoulder pads, wrist guards, sports corset, shin guards, anklets, groin guard, metallic boots, chest plate armor beneath the corset, waist guard made of iron plates with a dragon insignia. Lying on the ground there was even a damp mouth guard. Actually, it would've been fair to miss the school logo.

"I'm alright." Rohou reassured them, "And if Henry can scream like that, I'm sure he's fine too."

"I actually am hurt, thank you very much. Just not physically."

"What about you?" Rohou ignored Henry's remark and turned to the girl. "How did you end up in such a situation?"

"I was late to school!"

Both Henry and Rohou were waiting for her to continue. Such an answer was far from being a sufficient explanation, but the small silence that followed her words quickly became worryingly long. Only Henry had the courage to break it.

"You think that's enough for an explanation?!"

"I thought you could guess the rest from what remains of the vehiball..." She lamented, pointing at the now pile of trash next to them.

"Are we supposed to guess from these debris? Isn't that too hard? What even is this bouncy plastic stuff?"

"That's an inflatable human hamster ball."

"Your standards are inhumane." 

"It's embarrassing to admit one of your plans failed, ok?! I woke up late and needed a faster way to get to school, so I rummaged through the trash bags outside my house and used what I found to build something to drive to school. It just didn't work for long."

"...I'm surprised you managed to make it work for even a second. Who throws a human hamster ball in the trash?"

"Oh, that I just had at home."

"Let's just be happy no one got hurt." Rohou said, not wanting to indulge in her madness.

"About that! I'm so sorry!!" 

She began bowing profusely and energetically. In doing so the bike helmet she was wearing, whose straps were damaged by the fall, came loose, and flew directly into Rohou's stomach.

"Oh no! I'm double sorry!!!"

"I-It's ok. At least the helmet is light, haha."

Rohou played it cool, and it was showing. He leaned to pick up the helmet from the ground, not knowing that the girl had the same idea. The two heads made a clunking sound as they collided.

"Ouch!! I'm triple sorry!"

"I need to be careful when I'm near you, uh? D-don't worry, I'm fine."

"Ah but I got you so dirty! Here, you can use my handkerchief."

"Oh, thank yo— Ouch!"

The moment Rohou grabbed the cloth, dozens of tiny splinters and small pieces of plastic punctured his hands.

"I'm starting to think I might not be fine..."

The girl did not say anything this time, but simply got close to him and slapped him loudly in the face.

"Why on Earfh did you do that?!!"

"It would've been unlucky to leave it at a quadruple sorry!" 

"Ha, I get it!" Henry excitedly exclaimed, "It's because in Japanese culture the number four is considered unlucky!"

"You didn't need to explain it..." Rohou said, trying to hold back tears. And failing.

The girl suddenly looked at Henry with a puzzled expression and approached him.

"Please don't slap me."

"I won't, don’t brand me as a violent person! I was just curious about this."

She extended her hand towards Henry's face. An odd feeling filled his lungs; a mixture of embarrassment and excitement that came from knowing a girl was about to touch him, but also fear from knowing what happened to the last boy she touched. Inadvertently, he closed his eyes. He even flinched when he felt something touch his hair.

"Where does this come from?"

When he reopened them, the girl was holding a petal, pink and with the vague heart shape cherry blossom petals are famous for.

"Oh, it's not real...", Henry told her with a small voice. He was about to explain to her how it had gotten on his head, but came to the conclusion that he wanted to at least try to leave a good impression, and so just followed it with 

"It's a long story."

"You're weird."

The girl seemingly judged him, but stamped on her face was a wide smile, coupled with a bright and curious set of orange eyes. Now that her helmet was off, he could admire her brown ponytail and extra lock of hair going down the side of her face. Finally, Henry noticed it for the first time: She was something that he could've recognized as cute, despite her three-dimensionality and lack of dragon wings.

It was then that the iconic chime of a school bell rang through the air. They didn't notice it at first, but they had gotten pretty close to the school.

"Shoot! I forgot we were late! See you later!" Faster than the two boys could react, but definitely not faster than she arrived, the girl grabbed the corpse of the vehiball and dragged it along as she ran towards the school gate. The sound of plastic and metal scraping on the solid ground was hellish.  

"She left before even telling me her name!" Henry was frustrated. "Rohou, tell me what her name is!"

"I think we should focus on running to class for now! I'll tell you later."

"Tell me on the way there!"

"Actually, you go ahead. I think I'll make a quick stop at the infirmary first..."

And so Rohou left, wobbling slightly. A lot had happened before he even started his first day at school, but that only made Henry more excited for what was coming. After all, it was now time... 

For a self-introduction!

 POSTFACE

I changed my mind about changing my mind; I will attempt the glossary again.

- A FAILED ATTEMPT AT A GLOSSARY 

Haiku: a type of short poetry native to Japan. It consists of three lines, with the syllables disposed in a 5-7-5 pattern. Henry's haiku breaks the rules of English grammar and uses uncommon words and a Japanese locution to forcefully meet the syllable quota. Therefore, it sucks.

Normie: If you don't know the meaning of this word, you are one, run before it's too late. If you already know the meaning of this word, you are jealous of the guy who didn't know. 

Nihongo jōzu: Not sure, I've never heard it before.

Man**: And that is all for today's glossary! See you next chapter!