CHAPTER 2

"Norio the Imposter"

As soon as he started walking, he noticed that absolutely everything was written in a language he could understand, Japanese, and that the layout of Le Vega resembled Ashbury Heights on a larger scale. He had a relative idea of where the inn would be if he followed the way the Heights looked. There was a motel right outside of the neighbourhood, past the Ashbury Mall, past Ashbury High School, and past the Burger King on the corner of Twine and Abbott Street. There it stood, like a carbon copy of the Winston Motel, except it had been named the Hinston Inn. Norio swung the door open, an annoyed expression etched upon his face, and he was surprised to see Ben Winston sitting behind the desk. He had the same blue hair, and the same pissed-off expression as he had when Norio was still in Ashbury. It was like Sean had taken Ben Winston, copied, and then pasted him into his novel.

Ben smiled, "hi, and welcome to the Hinston inn! I'm Wren Hinston, would you like a room?" At this, Norio burst out laughing. He couldn't take the cheap rip-offs anymore, Wren freaking Hinston!

"Sir, are you okay?" Ben—Wren asked, looking genuinely concerned.

Norio pulled himself together, and faced Wren-Ben. "Actually, I have a reservation for Yamaguchiya? But I lost my keys."

At this, Wren-Ben's eyebrow lifted, and it seemed he had finally noticed the blood lathering Norio's every inch.

"I can pay you." He took a twenty out of his pocket, and smiled a hopeful smile, hoping Sean hadn't bothered to make up a currency for his crappy fantasy world.

Ben-Wren took the twenty, smelled it, and then handed him a key, "enjoy your stay." He said wryly, and dismissed Norio. He guessed Wren-Ben was just as bi-polar as the actual Ben was. Norio shrugged and tossed the keys up and down as he walked up the ratty stairs. The inside of the Hinston Motel was the same as the Winston Motel in Ashbury – he only stayed there once when Sean had done something unsanitary in his living room and he had his carpets fumigated – but it looked almost exactly the same, same scruffy carpeting, still smelt of vomit, and the bedrooms looked like something you'd buy from an IKEA rip off. He fell down on the hard bed, with sheets that probably hadn't been changed in years, and sighed, looking around the drab little room. He saw a couple of Marcus' things lying around, like a dumb good luck charm hanging from the window, and his shoes along with Norio's standing idly by the door. If he had to admit it, he felt slightly guilty, but then again, Marcus Yamaguchiya was the most generic character in the entire world, so he couldn't feel all too bad about it. After a while he got up, and rummaged through Marcus' things, his clothes were relatively Norio's size, but his shoes were too big. He found a really cheesy picture of Marcus' family, on the right stood his burly father, pulling a funny face, next to him stood a young woman, a little on the large side, but beautiful nonetheless. On the father's neck was a little boy, about eleven, making bunny ears behind his father's head, and next to Marcus was a boy who was smiling in another direction like he thought the camera was there. Finally there was a girl, she stood out among the rest, not only because she had lily-white skin and stark white hair, but also because she was so petite Norio thought she'd probably crush every bone in her body if she tripped. Then he found a diary, probably Marcus'.

Dear Journal

Marcus here! I'm officially in Le Vega, and I met this hot girl in the marketplace! I can't wait until my family arrives!

Norio stopped reading there because the rest seemed like a bunch of boring teenage blabber, and because shit now he was going to have to pretend to be someone's child. He had absolutely no idea when the Yamaguchiya's were going to show up, and if they were just all going to bring futon's and sleep in this dingy little room. His mind went into overdrive, and he looked around for any sort of correspondence. Surely enough, inside of Marcus' bag, was an out-dated Nokia, with hundreds of text messages from someone called Astréa. The most recent said they were already in the Le Vega marketplace. Norio typed a quick "be there in a sec" response and dashed out of the Hinston Inn as fast as he could. He had no idea what Marcus' mannerisms were, no idea if they would speak a dialect, or pure Japanese. He hadn't read Sean's bad manuscript with the eyes of a detective, he'd read it with annoyed eyes, not caring about specifics, because he'd just wanted to get the awful storyline over with. There could have been something paramount hidden between the awfully generic things, something Marcus does often, something he says often. As he was running through the larger scale Ashbury Heights, he pulled the picture out of his pocket, he was looking for the most mismatched, anime looking family he'd probably ever seen, it couldn't be that bad, could it? Unfortunately, the Le Vega marketplace was filled with anime looking families. Norio swore audibly, then looked up to the sky, as if to apologize to his mother, but he knew she probably just twitched back in Ashbury. He put on his best smile, and went around looking for the Yamaguchiya's. He had on one of Marcus' shirts, just to be safe, but it sure as hell wasn't helping him find the mismatched family. He caught sight of white hair in the crowd, praying to every deity he could think of that this was "Astréa". The petite little girl turned to him, and her entire face lit up in a devilish smirk as she ran to him, full force, and aimed a kick in his direction. Norio was quick to dodge, and let her fall beside him. She looked at him with a look that could actually kill, and spoke in pristine Japanese, "you're not Marcus." On the outside, Norio was holding the pose, smiling sheepishly as he'd read Marcus do various times, but on the inside, he was hyperventilating.

"You caught me off guard." He said, in the same pristine Japanese as she had used. Two could play at this game, he thought. His mother wasn't a Japanese teacher for no reason.

"Astréa!" A voice echoed from within the marketplace, and the entire Yamaguchiya family emerged from seemingly nowhere. Norio offered Astréa a hand, but she swatted it away, got up, and flashed a dazzling smile in the father's direction.

"You found Marcus?" The woman asked.

"Yes, mother, he's over here." Astréa sent him a look that said "I'm onto you, bitch".

Norio's autopilot took over, and he functioned in that way he always did when he couldn't understand the situation. How in the hell did these people not recognise their own child? He put on that polite smile of his, and walked with his "family" until Astréa pulled him into an alleyway. The rest of the family followed.

The mother looked at Astréa with sceptical eyes, "Astréa, what are you doing?"

"Seeing if this is really Marcus." Astréa said, and no one seemed to oppose her.

Norio exhaled, looked at her, and aimed a kick at her side before she could say anything. His eyes clouded over with focus, and Astréa was on the floor. He was not prepared to answer questions about Marcus Yamaguchiya, he could care less. The family wasn't in the original manuscript anyway, so they were probably unimportant, he reasoned as he aimed for the seemingly blind kid. He was the easiest, he could barely dodge Norio's punches, the same with the eleven-year-old. He just looked at Norio with these eyes and said, "please, do not hurt me I am innocent." At this Norio shook his head, knocked him upside the head, and turned to the shocked woman. He offered her an apologetic smile, before poising a kick at her stomach, and spinning around to face her burly husband. He stood there with literal stars in his eyes.

"Is that karate?" He looked at Norio like he was impressed. Norio shook his head again, punched the guy in the face, swept his feet from underneath him, and made sure his head hit that concrete hard. He surveyed his work, eyes going wide, and then ran like a scared child.