[Prelude] The Statue

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CadetNewb
Posts: 296
Joined: Fri Dec 24, 2010 12:59 am

[Prelude] The Statue

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Duncan was the finest America had to offer, hands down, and frankly, America got a little boring for him. Hence, studying abroad. He arrived at Tokyo, and like the stereotypical Semi-Ignorant American, started hitting on girls and speaking loudly in a country where they spoke somewhat quietly. The American eventually went into a well esteemed highschool in Tokyo. "Oh wow! It really is true that Japanese guys are all girlish." he said upon walking into the locker room.

"Leetenbaum-San, this is the girls locker room!" A light yet panicked voice called out.

"Oh. Well. Um." He looked genuinely surprised, mentally grasping for the proper response. "One for the memories then!" Duncan's camera flashed. Despite unruly conduct and being an ass, being disrespectful to Japanese culture and other things, he was still the best performing student in his classes. In his point of view, they made proving American superiority a crime, and persecuted him like Hitler did the Jews. But he still won out anyways, and got the last laugh. Duncan ALWAYS got the last laugh, and he hadn't met any peer that could best him. Yet. He wasn't stupid; the whole point of his traveling abroad was to find a challenge, and so far, Japan was interesting, but just that.

It wasn't until he saw a massive statue in the distance that he realized Japan was more than just interesting. As Duncan stood there in awe, he took in the details; it was of absurdly high quality with every single nook and cranny done to the very last. There was simply nothing like this in America. Absolutely nothing, screw the Statue of Liberty and her damned dress! As he realized Japan had America beat when it came to this, the young Californian simply stood there. His face was set in a solemn expression that had not been there for years; a quiet and serious respect. Tears slowly slid down from his eyes as he looked on in silence. The Japanese bystanders, a little unused to seeing a young, masculine American boy shedding tears, snapped pictures with their cell phones while the girls giggled at the sight. Duncan didn't care; he knew just what he was going to do here in Japan.

As the school year went on, Duncan threw himself into his project while immersing himself in the pop-culture of Japan. There were so many things he'd never seen before that was all fascinating; he used to bully the kids that loved this Weebo shit, but after seeing It, he finally got it. But back on topic; this endeavor was unlike anything he ever did before, and he knew he could get in a lot of trouble for it, but Duncan knew he just HAD to do this. It would require effort. Hard work. Something that the ace simply never had to do. And unlike others pampered by their own superiority, he liked it. For the first time, Duncan had something that took up much of his attention, required the utmost skill, delicate care, and for someone who was used to getting things done and done quickly, patience. He didn't like the last one, but was so anyways.

It was so going to be worth it.

*****

One year later, the day after the end of the school year, Duncan Leetenbaum was in Osaka, moving into his new apartment; he was simply done with Tokyo for now, and transferred out. Everything seemed normal as he opened up his boxes of the few worldly possessions he had and set them up. As he went about doing so, he casually turned on the TV to listen to the news, occasionally stopping to change channels.

"The Japanese Self Defense Forces have scrambled to secure the scene, as -"

"...And this proves that cold fusion is possible! Trace amounts of tritium and deuterium have been detected radiating from within the -"

"At the least, nobody was hurt. I apologize for the tragedy, and am glad that funding for it's -"

The news went on and on, it was just the day after the event. Duncan started to put his numerous tomes of manga onto the bookshelf, closing the door to it after he was done; no need to let the sunlight turn the paper yellow after all. A hard drive containing anime after movie after anime went next to his computer. Just a few plushies and figurines, also anime or manga related, were tastefully arranged throughout the room. Finally, the last item. Duncan reached into the box and pulled out his class's end of the year photo. As they all stood on the rooftop of the school, the RX-78-2 Gundam simply strode to the school before coming to stand proudly behind them all, helicopters and jets flying overhead. Duncan gave an arrogant smile; all the small spells, layered atop one another to control the statue like a piloted golem was a pain and drained him for most of the year, but it was so worth it. As Duncan looked forward to summer break, and the following school year, he thought one thing.

Too bad they didn't get enough funding for the beam rifle to go with it.
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