Somehow, it got spread around in her group that she was in Japan.
It would've been okay if her group was filled with normal, sensible people who possessed a mature outlook in life, especially now that they are in college.
But her group was filled with men.
No, 'boys' to be exact.
It was filled with man-boys who started blasting the chat group with requests for hent**'s and f****lights.
At first, they started asking autographs for some celebrity stars. And Inna thought it was actually a sensible and normal request coming from them. After all, it's pretty normal for a fan to ask for autographs from actresses.
So she decided to consider one of these requests.
Until she searched the names of the 'stars' they wanted an autograph from.
They were stars, alright.
Just not the kind of 'stars' she needed to know about.
After that incident, she began to trust them less and less and so she began to ignore their messages. It resulted to her phone buzzing nearly every second from her friends flooding it with weird requests in hopes that she'd get tricked again.
And it was then when she realized... she truly regretted being in Japan.
After a few minutes of her ignoring them, she started to receive freaky stares from the people around her when they heard the constant vibration near her butt.
That's when she knew that they surely misunderstood...
And so, with an annoyed expression, she got her vibrating phone from her back pocket and began to dim down the heated discussion in the chat by rejecting everyone's 'needs' and requests.
And while she finished doing so, she looked through the train's window to find out whether her stop was near...
Only to realize that she totally missed her stop.
In fact, she missed a lot of stops.
"Shit."
She cursed under her breath as she looked at the previous messages sent by her friend. After scanning through the directions he sent, she began to panic when she didn't see any instructions on what to do when missing a stop.
That was when she realized she fucked up.
She had no idea what to do after a missed stop. This was her first time riding a train alone. She tried calling her friend and sending him messages for help but for some reason, his phone can't be contacted and he didn't reply to any of the messages she sent him.
He probably turned it off out of fear of being chewed alive for tattling on her.
So, after a few slow breaths, she just figured that the most reasonable choice was to get off the next stop. She'll probably calm down enough to know what to do next when she's not on a moving train anymore.
But when she did, she regretted it even more. Because when she got off, the realization that she absolutely had no idea where she was grew heavier and that added more to her nerves.
She started to look around for certain clues or other tourists that might help her. But the station looked deserted, save for the two grannies chatting loudly by the side. Sadly, she couldn't understand nor read fluent Japanese. She can comprehend only bits and pieces of it from what she read before. And so, she tried reading the signs there but aside from knowing how to read the station name, her head was blank. She tried asking the old people for directions but they just looked at her funny.
She knew she was directionally challenged and it has been a proven fact in the last eighteen years of her living. But at least, she knew that she can still survive if she can ask around.
But the people she saw all looked scary and mean, especially the old ladies raising their eyebrows at her.
She swallowed her fear and tried again to ask them using body language and hand gestures to better explain her situation. But it seemed to just only confuse the old ladies more that they ended up tilting their heads and looking at each other while shrugging.
After seeing their exchange, Inna was at her wit's end. So, trying her luck, she decided to just ask her friends.
"Guys, help!!"
She chatted on her phone. Thankfully, there was enough reception for her to chat with them.
"What's wrong??"
"You need help choosing mags?"
"I recommend the mags with a young cover girl."
"Eww, that's your thing huh? I'm calling the cops!"
"Pedo-alert! Pedo-alert!"
It's nice to see that at least one out of the fourteen people online in her chat group care about her.
"Guys, help!! I'm fucking lost again!"
She typed it with force as she tagged everyone in her message.
"Didn't you just get directions from Aki? Why'd you get lost?"
Thank the heavens that someone was actually concerned.
Wait... How did he know she asked Aki?
Ahhh...
Inna gripped her phone tightly as she began to deduce.
It seems like Aki, her dear Japanese friend who is also a blabbermouth, told Stuart about her being in Japan.
"LOL. Stuart, you're talking to the famous Inna Lovenhart who can't find the bathroom even in her own home!"
"THAT WAS ONE TIME."
"Once, twice... doesn't matter how many times. All that matters is that it happened. LOL."
It seems like the chat started to go out of topic so she typed again, this time with all capital letters to show the urgency that she was feeling.
"GUYS, SERIOUSLY, I NEED HELP. I NEED TO GO TO HARAJUKU AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE I AM."
And in just a few seconds, her savior finally arrived.
"Chill, Nana. Missing stops is a normal thing. I've tried that last year when I was in Japan."
"Huhu, Kevin, my savior, help me~"
She pleaded as she quickly typed.
"I'm lost again huhuhu... help me~"
"Sure, Nana. You're going to Harajuku, right? Can you picture the station you're at?"
She did what Kevin asked and took a picture of the station name, then sent it with a crying emoji.
"Okay, I got it. I'll send you the directions in a while."
But for some reason, because of those friggin 'directions', she's currently in Akihabara.
"I see. So Aki told Stuart and that little shit must've leaked the info to the rest of the group. Bob was most likely the mastermind since he had the motive. That means he made Kevin give me those motherfucking directions."
She muttered to herself darkly as she bit her nail.
Those fucking minions better get themselves ready.
After hearing that Inna was suddenly silent on the other end, Bob tried testing the waters, hoping that she already calmed down. He spoke slowly, his tone similar to a man coaxing an unreasonable child, as he insisted on his request.
"Now, now, Nana. Breathe in, breathe out. I'm sorry for tricking you but just do this for me, please!"
Inna held in her rage as she tried to calm herself down. Her throat has been hurting from all her screaming so she decided to stay silent for once. And when she did, she finally noticed the amount of attention she attracted and she blushed slightly in embarrassment.
Wanting to decrease the number of eyes staring at her, she decided to continue her silence as she focused on not blowing up again. So despite feeling triggered from hearing Bob's words, she simply answered with silence to calm herself down.
But this only made Bob a bit more brave with his request.
"Who knows, you might even find the anime event there fun!"
Inna hissed at his shameless statement and Bob whimpered in fear. But he still wouldn't let it go as he insisted.
"P-please just get me this manga with the mangaka's signature and I'll make it up to you! I-I'll… I'll treat you to fried chicken for a month!"
He hastily added. Not expecting that, Inna briefly considered it before fiercely whispering.
"Bob, fried chicken isn't enough to exchange for your life! Any food expenses I make, for the next month, you better shoulder it! Buffets included!"
"Noooooo....." Bob groaned sadly but Inna could still feel that smile forming on his face over the phone.
"Hmmm? Do I hear complaining?"
"No! I-it's a deal!" He agreed with slight hesitation.
"Name?"
"Bob Leslie Jr., ma'am!"
"Not you. The name of the fucking manga, you dumbo."
After getting the manga's title and the author's name from him, Inna began weaving through the crowd while trying to ignore the incredulous expressions the people still wore when they heard her earlier outburst.
Going deeper towards the event, she received a pamphlet that showed the different sections of manga and entertainment shows based on genres. She decided to go to the "Reincarnation" section, the genre Bob wanted, which was on the south end of the venue, deep into the crowds of people.
But as she was nearing the section where the Reincarnation genre is, she heard a loud commotion. Her eyes tried to look for its origin and found that a huge crowd had formed towards one of the big stalls near the area. She was really curious about it since people seemed to always rush over when they caught sight of it. And, judging from the sudden cheers and yells that just erupted, it seemed like someone was also effectively hyping them up.
Inna looked at the event pamphlet again.
Hmmm... It seems like in every genre, there's a huge publicity stunt thing or big shows that are held in the designated area. And the shows seems to reflect the respective genres of the locations as well.
And that big commotion by the distance must be the publicity stunt of the Reincarnation genre judging from the huge stage, speakers, and lights that Inna saw by the distance.