The sunrise over Mount Fuji was a revelation. They watched as the first rays of sun painted the mountain's snow pink and gold, its perfect reflection shimmering in the tranquil waters of Lake Motosu. For Padmé, accustomed to sunrises over Theed's domes or Coruscant's artificial horizons, this raw, natural beauty was overwhelming.
They stayed silent, simply observing, until the sun was high in the sky.
"I've never seen anything like it," Padmé whispered. "It's so... peaceful."
"Told you," Kaelen replied, smiling. "Welcome, officially, to the Yuru Camp universe."
Padmé looked at him, confused. "Yuru... what?"
"It's the local name for this... cluster of realities," he explained vaguely, simplifying a concept he barely understood. "Basically, it means 'Relaxed Camp.' Seemed appropriate."
He stood up and began dismantling the small tent. "And now, part two of our honeymoon."
"I thought this was it," she said.
"This was just for sleeping. Now, the cultural exploration." He reached into his pocket and pulled out two small gray pills. He offered one to Padmé.
"What is this?" she asked, examining the pill.
"A fast-acting universal translator, courtesy of Rick," he explained. "Swallow it, and in five seconds, you'll understand and speak fluent Japanese. It has a slight aftertaste of failure and whiskey, but the side effects are minimal."
Padmé smiled and swallowed the pill. She felt a slight tingling at the back of her brain, followed by a torrent of knowledge: kanji, grammar, regional dialects. She blinked.
"すごい (Sugoi)," she said, surprised by the words coming out of her own mouth. "Incredible."
"便利でしょう (Benri deshou?)" Kaelen responded with perfect fluency. "Convenient, right?"
He opened another portal. This time, it led to a quiet alleyway. Stepping through, they found themselves on the bustling yet orderly streets of a city. Small shops, electrical wires crisscrossing overhead, and people walking and talking in the language they now understood perfectly.
"Kyoto," Kaelen announced.
They spent the day as they never had before: as anonymous tourists. No one knew them. No one looked twice. They were simply another couple, exploring.
They visited Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion, and Padmé marveled at the reflection of the golden temple in the pond, an image as perfect as any Naboo palace.
They strolled through the Arashiyama bamboo forest. Light filtered through the towering green stalks, creating an otherworldly atmosphere that, ironically, felt more real than anything they had experienced in months. Kaelen, who could analyze the molecular composition of bamboo, found himself simply enjoying the sound of the wind through the leaves.
They ate at a small ramen stall, sitting on stools side by side. Padmé, who was accustomed to state banquets with dozens of courses, found that a simple bowl of hot, savory noodles, shared with the person she loved, was infinitely more satisfying.
Their last stop was the Fushimi Inari shrine, with its thousands of vermilion torii gates winding up a mountainside. They walked the path, the late afternoon sunlight creating patterns of light and shadow through the gates.
"This place..." Padmé said softly, stopping to touch one of the wooden gates. "It feels... sacred. Tranquil. As if time doesn't exist here."
"It does," Kaelen said. "In this reality, faith isn't based on a mystical Force moving the universe. It's based on finding beauty in small things. In nature, in tradition, in connection with those who came before."
He paused and turned to her, taking her hands. The setting sun painted her face gold.
"I wanted you to see this, Padmé," he said earnestly. "I wanted you to remember what real peace feels like. Not the absence of war, but the presence of calm. This is what we're fighting for. Not just to survive, but to have a place, a feeling like this, that we can call our own."
Padmé looked at him, her heart filled with a love so deep it ached. In that moment, she was not a Senator, and he was not a cybernetic genius. They were just two people, standing in a sacred place, making a silent promise.
He leaned in to kiss her, and as he did, a small stone fox, a kitsune, seemed to smile at them from its moss-covered pedestal, silent guardian of their stolen honeymoon and the fragile moment of peace they had found in a borrowed universe.
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AUTHOR'S NOTES
I have created this new Fanfic, if you can go check it out, here is a synopsis.
Trapped in a life of humiliation and contempt, Kenji Tanaka is the black sheep of an elite Japanese family, a powerful blend of corporate conglomerate and yakuza clan. As the middle child, he's constantly overshadowed by his successful brothers and scorned by a father who values only strength and power. Weary of being a ghost in his own home, Kenji makes a desperate choice: he flees and enlists in a private military company, hoping to find death or rebirth in the fires of war in Africa.
But his destiny takes a far stranger turn. On the brink of death, an otherworldly system activates within him, granting him the skills and templates of the legendary soldiers from Call of Duty: Ghosts. Reborn as "Kage," an operator of supernatural effectiveness, he begins a meteoric rise in the mercenary world. His power grows exponentially as he discovers that, with money, he can summon the most iconic soldiers and commanders from the Call of Duty saga. Soon, his organization, the new "Shadow Company," boasts an impossible general staff: the corporate pragmatism of Phillip Graves, the ruthless strategic brilliance of General Shepherd, and, as a moral counterweight, the unwavering honor of Captain Price and the legendary Task Force 141. For the dirtiest wars, Kage creates a secret black operations division, "Gruppa Konni," led by a Vladimir Makarov bound to him by absolute loyalty, unleashing the "Chaos Insurgency" as a scapegoat to sow discord among the world's superpowers.
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