The Future Will Change

The next day…

Everyone went to their classes at Vanhoover Uni as usual…though one particular individual was missing from the fraternity which caused a few heads to turn when it was time for a meeting.

“...hey, you know where Keiji is?” Vertex asked Rumble as the latter approached the frat house, “I don’t think I saw him anywhere on campus today.”

“Nope. Me neither. I tried calling his phone but he wouldn’t answer,” Rumble explained, “...hope he’s okay, but I’m not quite sure. Surprised that you’re worried about him though, seeing as we just met and all.”

Vertex folded his arms, “I worry about all my brothers. It’s all I’ve got left to worry about. Where did you see him last?”

“Down at the corner before he went off to a craft’s store,” Rumble replied, “But I’m not really sure otherwise.”

“Dammit…no leads,” Vertex swore under his breath as he thought about what they could possibly do to track Keiji down. “Hrm…know anybody who might be able to tell us where he went afterwards?”

That’s when it finally clicked for Rumble. “Oh yeah! Hang on, I just thought of someone.” And he took out his phone to dial Sandbar’s number.

“Yo,” he answered over the phone, “It’s ya boy from House Lambda. What’s up?”

“Yeah, Sandbar?” Rumble began, “Your sister goes here, right? Think we could meet up and have a chat?”

“Sure. But what’s up, dawg? Somethin’ goin’ on?”

“...yeah, you could say that,” Rumble glanced over at Vertex and nodded, “Think we could meet up at Little-Dogenzaka?”

“The place with all the Eastern stuff, yeah? Got it. I’ll tell Coral and we’ll meetcha there in an hour.”

Rumble hung up his phone. “Sandbar’s sister Coral…let’s just say she’s got a lot of connections that could help us locate Keiji.”

“Alright. To Little-DZ then, yeah?” Vertex replied.

Rumble nodded. “Yup. Let’s go.”

The gentlemen took one of the local subway trains in order to get to Little Dogenzaka within Vanhoover’s consumer district. On the way there, Rumble had also gotten a phone call from a perplexed Diamond Tiara wondering why Keiji wasn’t answering his phone. Once she had gotten her answer…

“...so there’s a chance he’s been kidnapped. Is that what you’re saying?” she asked from her end.

“W-well…I don’t really know. Trust me, your fam is probably gonna freak out, but we don’t want that, so don’t let them know he’s missing, alright?”

“Ugghh…” Diamond Tiara grumbled, “...alright, fine. But as soon as you find something out, you better let me know, Rumble. I mean it. I’m not gonna be left behind if Keiji’s in trouble. Got it?”

“Of course, I get you,” Rumble replied, “Alright, see ya.”

Vertex raised a brow, “Was that someone close to him?”

“More or less, yeah,” Rumble looked over to Vertex as the crowded train sped along through the tunnel. “He’s basically got two girlfriends. Diamond Tiara’s one of them. She’s…well, you heard her.”

Vertex chuckled as he leaned back against the seat of the train. “...good for him. I’m glad he’s got folks like you and her that care about him. In that case, we need to work twice as hard to make sure we get him back safe and sound before anything bad happens.”

“Agreed.”

Soon enough, their train would stop at the station and they’d be able to exit. Now they were in downtown Vanhoover, and once they reached the topside of the city streets, both Rumble and Vertex took a hard right and found themselves staring at a wide variety of stores with foreign, Eastern text and characters run by many people from the nation of Japone. This was a part of Mapleland’s bilateral relation with them. Some of their culture was present in their respective cities such as small Vanhoover districts in that nation. And in this case, Japone’s capital of Kyo was allowed to set up various shops to bring their culture here as well.

Little-Dogenzaka or Zakatown as it was informally called.

Rumble and Vertex would eventually spot Sandbar, and Coral Currents who were at one of the cafes. Coral, Sandbar’s younger sister, had grown a tad in the last three years. Now that she had just turned 18, the greenish-blue young woman had grown a bit in all areas and was currently wearing her usual attire of an oversized black jacket and athletic shorts which left most of her legs exposed with sneakers in addition to her head of teal and pink hair flowing down past her shoulders.

Sandbar himself looked mostly the same, save for gaining a few inches and more muscle over the years. Still in his usual style of a tank top and cargo shorts and sandals. “Ey, ya’ll! Over here!”

“Hey you guys,” Rumble greeted them, and looked over at Vertex, “This guy’s our frat house leader.”

“Hello. We’re wondering where Keiji is,” then he glanced at Coral, “...I was told you could help us out with that."

"Sup," she responded with a peace sign, then opened her laptop computer. "And yeah I think I can figure out where he is. Do you have his phone number?"

Rumble nodded, and showed her Keiji's contact info from his phone. "Yeah, right here."

"Alright, one sec."

With a few quick taps and clicks of her keyboard, the black screen would begin to show lines if code, then a satellite view if the city. An arrow was directly pointed above an empty hotel building nestled within a rather rugged, low-income area of the city.

"There," Coral pointed out on her map, "I'm also getting reports of police activity in the area, so we should approach this carefully."

"That's my Cici," Sandbar nudged his sister with his shoulder, earning an aloof eye roll and frown from her that turned into a grateful smile from the acknowledgement.

"You're willing to help us save him?" Rumble asked, "We wouldn't wanna trouble you…"

Coral scoffed and waved her hand with a nonchalant smirk on her face. "Pfft. It's fine, bud. 'Sides. I've been itching to get my other skills back in gear since I haven't had any jobs lately."

"...other skills?" Vertex asked.

Coral held up her right hand and extended her index finger, making a gun-like gesture with it, and pointed at their heads. "Bang-bang-"

"...I see."

Rumble glanced at his house leader with a concerned expression. "...are you gonna be alright? We might get into a fight here."

"I told you already, I'm not leaving my brothers behind," he replied with a determined tone, "They're all I got left, so I'm doing this for him."

"...fair enough, Vert. What's gonna be our plan?"

Coral closed her computer and picked it up. "Rumble, follow me to my whip. Big brother and frat leader guy, back us up."

That little detail caused Rumble's eyes to shoot open. "...wait, you can drive?"