I pressed a hand against the train window as it passed the old playground, doing my best to stifle a smile of childish excitement.

"Hey, don't leave me in suspense. What has you smiling like a grade schooler, Kotonoha-san," Kenta said, grinning.

"I wanted to show you some places that have made me feel at home after moving here as a kid. This first place in particular I liken to both a literal and figurative stronghold of my childhood," I said, smiling fondly at the rays of sunlight casted on the play castle that created an unparalleled glow unmatched by any in a children's storybook.

"I never thought I'd find someone more passionate than Hayato," Kenta said, scoffing while comfortably hanging his arms over his shoulders.

"Is that bad," I asked, putting a hand to my chest.

"No, not at all," Kenta said, staring directly forward. "I'm just barely starting to realize it, but sometimes he has a point."

His narrowed eyelids opening wide at this revelation, lowering his arms to his sides.

"He seems to be a reliable friend. How did the two of you meet," I asked, leaning close with a curious eye.

"Pretty serious question for an unofficial date," chuckling as he scratched the nape of his neck. "Where do I even start with that guy?"

He cycled through an interesting sequence of emotions as he recalled his memories of Hayato. First a minor annoyance that briefly flashed in his furrowed brow, to a hearty laugh that belted from his diaphragm accompanied by creases in his eyes that could only manifest with a genuine smile, and ended with a weary sigh.

"I was playing basketball alone after school a couple years ago at my old middle school, and while I was practicing a few new moves, a dumb tan kid asked to play a quick game against me. To my surprise, he ended up beating me, and even more surprisingly, I didn't feel the urge to beat him black and blue. I asked for a rematch, and were great friends ever since."

"So you were an angry kid, back then?"

"I was, but something in me changed that day. But it seemed to be all for nothing, because now I'm angrier than ever."

"But you seem so relaxed, I couldn't imagine you raising your fist at anyone," I said, remembering his lazy demeanor in class.

"Well, I guess that means I've done a great job at convincing everyone, then," he said.

"The rumors, you mean?"

"Yep. The best way to kill a school rumor is replacing it with a different one. I'll take the laidback, lazy persona over the terrifying, violent tyrant everyone seems to know me as," Kenta said, his throat scratchy.

"Yeah. I wish I could do the same thing, honestly," I said with a croak.

Ever since I became a fan of Super Ranger Ravagers, I wanted the type of personal mythology that the teenagers in the show developed with their heroics. But that would mean also taking responsibility for the parts of your history that your fellow classmates and family didn't like. I assumed I wasn't as emotionally impulsive and reckless as the teenagers around me, but I developed a messy mythology all my own. And it all began with an innocent quest for an answer to a question from my childhood.

My title as the Blue-Eyed Terminator of Romance was my own, and I couldn't just discard it.

"What if you were like one of those android assassins like in that one American movie, but you were reprogrammed for the purpose of protecting someone," Kenta said, smirking as he potentially realized the absurdity of his own statement.

"What," I said, breaking out into a raucous laughter that forced my body to rock up and down.

"It actually makes a lot of sense. The potential to change your own narrative is always there," He said.

The train lulled to a gradual stop. Both of us rose from our seats, our figures bathing against the flood of light that poured in with the opening of the double doors next to us. The automated voice blared the name of the stop one more time.

"Well, were here. Let's go," I said.