Tokyo Days Part V: Dance Me to the End of Time

As the group stood around searching on their phones for a new target, a disheveled salaryman approached them while smoking two cigarettes at once.

“Trying to find fun?” he asked as he walked towards them.

“Y…yes…” replied Shiona.

“Come with me young people!” he said without a pause.

He continued walking without looking back or waiting for their approval.

“I don’t know guys,” said Kureha.

“Is he taking us to be robbed?” whispered Rin.

“I mean, I think we can take him,” said Kai.

“Not of there’s like twenty of him. What if he’s a serial killer?” asked Kureha.

“I think he’s just a half-drunk salaryman,” said Riku.

“Let’s just follow at a safe distance, see where he’s taking us,” proposed Arata.

The girls sighed then agreed and the six of them moved as quickly as they could to catch up to the stranger. He never looked back but after exhaling smoke from both cigarettes, he tilted his head to his followers.

“So your leg? Dystrophy?” he shouted.

“...Skeletal dysplasia…” answered Riku with a bemused smirk.

“Had a cousin that had rickets,” said the man.

“I… I’mmmmm sorry?” Riku said as he tried not to chuckle.

“Always told him he should have tried out for the Special Olympics. Those cripples were incredibly inspirational when they had the Olympics here back in the day. Y’all like takoyaki?”

“What the hell is happening?” Kai whispered as he held back a burst of laughter.

The man turned down an alley, and the group followed after a millisecond of hesitation. To their surprise, a faint neon glow appeared ahead on the walls and ground.

“Well, if we get murdered, I love you all,” laughed Rin.

“I used to love takoyaki. Ate it every day during the Great Recession. Thought it was good luck. Now, can’t do it. Too salty. Ever had Himalayan salt? It’s pink! Crazy,” said the man as he turned down another alley.

“Am I hallucinating?” asked Shiona.

“Nope,” chuckled Arata as they rounded the corner and to their surprise, were greeted by a building covered in neon.

“What on earth?” asked Kai.

“We’d never have found this,” admitted Rin.

“Takoyaki?” the man asked again.

“Ummmm drinks first? Maybe izakaya? We just had a big meal,” said Shiona.

“Izakaya? Meh! They’ve got something way better in here!” said the man as he opened the unassuming door.

Inside was a scene unlike anything the six of them had ever seen. What was once a simple crummy apartment building was now a hive of dozens upon dozens of bars, speakeasies, izakaya, and more. Every door that once belonged to a home was now a gateway to a completely unique drinking experience. Each room was different, and each room was blaring music. Smoke poured out from several of the rooms as they walked through the low-lit hallway behind their guide.

“Ah! Here!” he said as he opened a pink door and a blast of cutesy blue light struck the friends.

“Welcome!!!!” squealed the adorable voices of several young women who rushed forward in full costume.

“Maids!!!” cheered the man.

“Abe-san! We’ve missed you! You’ve been gone so long!” said one of the girls as she pouted and hung on his arm.

“We’re in an underground maid cafe…” whispered Kai to Arata and Riku, who secretly slapped his hand in a high-five.

The girls all turned to their new guests and jumped into poses of attention and excitement.

“We’re so happy you’re here!” the girls all said in unison.

“Please, sit,” said the man as he pushed the group into a booth and immediately ordered three bottles of nigori sake.

With that, the night began again. At the half-hour point on the clock, the lights began to strobe, and even more maids entered the room. At that point, it was only the six of them and the lone salaryman.

“Dance routine time!!” he cheered as he picked up a pair of glow sticks from the nearby table.

Strobe lights and pounding bass shook the group sober, but it was the glowing cat ears the man pulled from his jacket that brought them fully back to reality.

“Okay, maybe we are hallucinating,” said Kureha.

Music began and the maids all began to dance a choreographed dance while singing. All the while, the salaryman danced for them and with them. It lasted the entire song. He was off rhythm and out of sync, but he was trying. It continued for another song, and the group began to laugh hysterically. Not at him, but with him.

“Fuck it,” laughed Riku as he stood and joined the man to the cheers of the maids and the friend group.

‘Rickets!!” cheered the man as he handed a pair of glow sticks to Riku.

“Skeletal dysplasia!!” shouted Riku as he shook his head and began to dance just as poorly as the man.

Then Kai and Arata were there dancing with them. Maids took their hands and pulled them onto stage to show them the routine. The girls cheered and laughed till they cried. Before long, the entire group was dancing to new routines. A karaoke machine was soon unveiled along with even more sake and whiskey. The group was now inebriated, but somehow, the man truly did not seem dangerous. Through it all, Kureha was not sure his eyes opened once. As she watched his face, she swore they were pulled shut in a look that felt like intense sadness.

“Shiona! Sing!!” cheered Rin, to which the man beckoned Shiona to join him in singing a handful of citypop hits.

The night continued on and on, with inebriation turning into drunkenness, but none of them cared. After hours of singing, dancing, and drinking, their thoughts were so gone that they did not even notice that two tall men had entered the space and were shouting at the salaryman.

Riku was the first to become aware of the sinister new guests. Kai turned when the voices rose to shouting.

The salaryman was shrinking in fear as he faced the men. The maids had stopped singing. Only the incessantly happy music continued to play.

“I told you to never fucking come around here again you insane drunkard,” growled one of the men who grabbed the salaryman by his collar.

As the man’s hand clasped his prey, his sleeve slid down slightly to reveal an arm covered in traditional tattoos. The sinister man hurled the salaryman’s head into the corner of the nearest table. The sound of the man’s head cracking against the plastic sobered the friends up instantly.

“H…Hey, you don’t have to do that,” Kai said without thinking.

He regretted speaking almost instantly, as the two frightening men turned their eyes to the group.

“What did you just say little boy?” said the other man as he stepped towards the group.

“Kai…” whispered Riku as he took his friend’s hand to pull him back into the booth.

Music was no longer playing. Blood was already running from the man’s head as his glowing cat ears glitched and blinked. Groans of half-conscious pain came from his lips and the sinister men turned back to him. The two of them stomped his face and ribs with vicious force and another crack was heard even over the shrieks of the maids and Shiona. Rin turned away in terror as Arata’s trembling hand shielded her. The men let out another wave of kicks.

“Stupid! Godforsaken! Drunk!” said the assailant as the salaryman’s hand tensed and reached up for mercy.

“Hey! Stop!” shouted Kai as instinct overtook him.

With a single motion, he was out of the booth and grabbed the men’s shoulders to turn them from the man. Before he could react any further, one of the men headbutted him and broke his nose instantly. Kureha and Shiona let out a scream of legitimate fear. Riku forced himself up to go help his friend, but the men took it as aggression and unleashed a wave of fists into Riku’s head. Then Arata was there. The two men were so focused on Riku, they had not seen Arata leap to his friends’ aid.

Arata lept onto the smaller man’s back and immediately wrapped his arms around his throat to choke him. The man flinched and slammed Arata into the wall before slamming him on the table beside the salaryman. The table flipped and bottles shattered.

“ARATA!!” Rin screamed in horror as he crumpled to the ground.

Riku reached for his friend, but the men’s boots met his face, splitting his lip and cheek instantly.

“I hate you damn kids always thinking you’re tough!” snarled the larger man.

He didn’t see the broken glass bottle being raised behind him. The salaryman’s slice came down in full desperate force, slicing a chunk of flesh from the man’s face as he howled in pain.

“YOU BITCH!!” shouted the man.

It happened fast. So fast, that none of them could even register it until it was done. The man ripped the bottle from the salaryman’s hand and immediately shoved it into the salaryman’s throat, slicing it open fully and killing him.

The maids let out a scream of shock and fell to their knees. Kureha and Rin screamed and hid their faces. Shiona trembled then vomited. Blood dripped onto Riku’s face.

“Oh shit. Oh shit,” he gagged.

“Oh, dammit Abe! Why’d you do that?!” screamed the other man.

Arata rolled over and coughed as a broken rib stabbed him with shooting pain. Kai couldn’t move. His eyes stayed on the salaryman’s blinking cat ears and open, blank eyes.

“You… you just killed that man…” he whispered.

“No shit,” said the larger man as he removed his phone and immediately dialed a number.

He stepped out of the room as the line connected. His comrade didn’t move. The room was quiet now except for the sobs of the shocked girls.

The larger man returned to the room with dark eyes.

“You’re coming with us,” he said to the friend group.

None of them moved. They were too afraid and too shocked.

“NOW!” he shouted.