Chapter Text
The room is leaking. Drip. Drip. Drip. Kazuko’s brain is spinning in her skull. The ropes tying her to a simple wooden chair have rendered her limbs numb. Drip. Drip. Drip. The sound of water echoes around her. It's hard to tell how long she has been here, wherever here was. She blinks, but there's not much to see in the dark, damp room. Kazuko is certain she has never been in this tunnel before, yet-
This place feels familiar.
The sound of water is accompanied by footsteps. Kazuko flexes her arms against the binds and cringes as the tingling sensation she gets in return. The footsteps stop in front of her and a lantern turns on.
“Do you know what an S.E.P. is?” the man in front of Kazuko asks.
She blinks against the harsh light. The spots dancing in her eyes make Kazuko nauseated. “What?”
The Englishman continues as if she hadn’t spoken. “I’m in a bit of a predicament you see? I did some soul searching- er- wondering about of sorts- and I’ve decided I’m not fit to be a gangster. In fact, I’m much better at avoiding the law than breaking it.”
“Stop. Just stop,” Kazuko cuts his rambling off, “Where am I? Who are you? And why was I kidnapped on the most important day of my life?”
“Oh. Yeah. I’m terribly sorry about that.” The man started pacing in front of Kazuko, swinging the light back and forth. He grabbed a wallet-sized device from his pocket and started fiddling with it. “It’s not like I planned to kidnap you on your wedding–”
“Stop.” When the figure stopped pacing, Kazuko tried again. “Answer the questions."
The mysterious man sighed. He was and older white man who sweated more than necessary. Probably because he was fat in a way a walrus has to be fat in order to survive the Arctic waters. It was hard to guess his age because it was so obvious that stress- and poor thermoregulation- has prematurely wrinkled his face and thinned his hair.
“You can call me Adams," he stuck his hand in greeting then laughed when she remained tied up. "I recently defected from The Renovation Society...” Adams' face fell and he turned away to mumble the rest.
Kazuko exhaled sharply, “If I have to repeat myself one more time–”
The device in Adams' hand came to life. The man jumped, almost dropping it. The whirring and beeping and screeching put Adams into a frenzy.
“You’re in Yokohama and it’s 2016!”
Kazuko blinked, “Impossible!”
“Impossible?! No. Highly improbable? Yes, and all the more reason for it to happen. Look, you are a smart kid. Find your fiancee, find your friends, and stop the Society from destroying the world. Here." Douglass held out the device but seeing as her hands were still tied, stuck it between the ropes and Kazuko’s chest.
Kazuko gaped as Douglass hurried back into the tunnel, muttering to himself.
“Wait!” she called, “Are you just going to walk away?”
“I told you this is an S.E.P.”
“Huh?!”
“Somebody. Else’s. Problem.”
Then Adams was gone. Leaving Kazuko stuck in a Yokohama sewer tunnel 23 years in the past.
“Fuck.”