Junepai's Dream

The memory was faded, shrouded by obscure shadows, the sound of the television muffled gibberish, as if his brain was trying to fill in the emptiness. The television glow blasted throughout the small living room, yet despite its brightness, the only things visible were the coffee table in front of him and the soft-brown sofa on which he lay.
He remembered holding a blanket over his head and parting it slightly so that he could keep an eye trained on the TV. The time was unknown, but what he did know was that it was late.

There was a knock at his door, and he answered without hesitation. There were men in well-tailored suits, filing in one after another. A woman approached him, got onto one knee, and stared into his eyes with deep sorrow.

His parents died that night following the attack of a rogue monster. From that day forward, he would be put to work by the K-Corps youth program. Six years later, at the age of sixteen, he graduated from the youth program and settled his debt with K-Corp, with nothing but a singular dream in the palms of his hands, a dream so close to his heart that he could never forget it. His key to happiness, the one thing he wanted in life: a pretty girl to call his own. Three years later, he believed that this dream was actualized.

Yu, the girl of his dreams, personified. She was cute, her omelets were amazing, and so was the coffee she brewed. No meal tastes the same if it wasn’t crafted by the beautiful hands of the perfect angel that was Yu.

But that she was a he.

“Hello? Earth to Junepai?”

“H-huh?” His dead gaze turned to the man before him. Yuya Sazuki, his new dark-haired, confident-less, strong-cheekboned associate.

“I wasn’t in the bathroom long enough for you to be so consumed by thought.” He scooted forward on the chair he was on.

The sound of clamoring from families and groups of friends blended into a single constant of background noise. Waitresses in maid-like attire and cat ears scurried by, slipping on air and bumping into nothing and making bashful faces.

“Nyah! Sorry, master!” A girl with long pink hair gently bumped their table, dots of coffee falling onto the wood before them.

“Let me clean that for you!” She quickly pulled a handkerchief from her side, wiped down the table, and disappeared.

“A cat cafe, real classy. Hey, have you ever been to a real restaurant?” Yuya slouched back, eyes narrowed on Junepai with a mix of disgust and intrigue. “Or do you frequent all the pervy types of restaurants?”

“It’s not pervy, you jerk. Why would a man looking for love go to a regular place?” He leaned forward with terrible posture, a hand propped onto the table and holding his forehead.

“For love? Do you seriously not know?”

“Know what?”

“The girls at these types of places are putting on an act, a performance, playing pretend. They do whatever they can to make it seem like they like you because that’s a part of the appeal.”

“Seriously?” He looked like his entire world was shattered before his eyes. “So when you were cross-dressing, you didn’t actually like me then?”

“Ok, let’s get serious, please? I may not look it, but I’m a busy guy. You were saying something about the shadow beast before.”

“R-right. I'm surprised you don't know that much about it.”

“Just get on with it, alright?”

“Sorry. Ok, so the shadow beast isn’t really like a tangible thing, at least I don’t think so. No one's seen it before; everything we know either comes from reports or relayed messages. The shadow beast is an anomaly among anomalies; it can affect humans and monsters in a ton of ways. It first appeared twenty years ago around a small town in Kyoto. Weeks before its appearance, there were a crap ton of reports of residents randomly going insane. Some became depressed, others became manic, while some were overcome with a thirst for blood. What was once a quiet and desolate town turned into a nightmare; there were fifty casualties in the first two days alone.”

“And I assume the shadow Beast was behind it?” Yuya chimed in, arms crossed.

“Apparently so. After that first week, a team of researchers and K-Corp members quarantined the town. They found that all the people within this town had their brains altered drastically, and it was all due to a potent magic they’d never seen before. What made it so odd was the fact that no dungeon had appeared there in the last ten years. A week after that, every single person who had their minds altered disappeared without a single trace, and then a distortion appeared in their place.”

“Well, if no one ever saw any beast, then how do they know of its existence? Sounds like a fairy tale to me.”

“Except it isn’t. Researchers made discoveries over the next twenty years of cases eerily similar to the one in Kyoto. What made the theory even more concrete was the fact that the same potent magic had been left at every scene.”

There was a short moment of silence held between them, Yuya silently humming to himself and lost in deep thought.

“Sounds too dangerous for my liking.” He started to stand.

“Hold it!” Junepai practically leapt across the table, hand slapped over his, “It’s not as dangerous as you think. We’re only contracted to station ourselves outside of odd distortions and ensure nothing comes out of them. The dangerous job part comes from going inside them.”

“So you’re saying that all I have to do is stand around with some gear and we’ll get paid for it?”

Junepai nodded frantically.

“Ugh.” Yuya groaned, “Fine, I can do that.” He reeled his hand from under Junepai's, “but don’t touch me like that again, I don’t know what type of things you get into.”

As Yuya began to head toward the exit of the cafe, Junepai could feel his thoughts overwhelm him again.

I don’t like dudes, he thought, the idea of being with a dude repulses me. So why? Why is it that I wanna keep being around this dude? Stupid brain, tell me why!

“You coming? Or are you just gonna sit there with that blank look on your face?” He stood at the door, eyes narrowed.

“Y-yeah, sorry.” He scurried toward the door, exiting beside Yuya.

“The jobs tomorrow, we’ll head to the old shopping district down by Shibuya, where we’ll get a quick debriefing.”

“Right, then it’s fine if I head home?”

“Uh- yeah sure, I guess.”

“Cool, I’ll meet you tomorrow.” Yuya waved without turning, leaving Junepai to stand in the setting sun.

Once he’d gone, more thoughts began to flood Junepai's mind. For the first time in his entire life, he realized how lonely he was.