The Second Day and Third Wheels

“No man shall say I betrayed a brother, dude.”

Our hotel room was cramped. In one corner was a double-decker bed, and on the next one was a long table, with only a tiny path that served as both our passage in and out of the room and where our bags belonged. The walls were a dull white, and one window where the morning sun was obscured by some tall building.

It came at a decent price, and at least the air conditioning and heating were good.

Standing opposite me by the window was a young man with dark, crew-cut hair, a simple white t-shirt and slacks. He was of a lean build, though a bit of pudge on the tummy and in other places.

This man was Jougasaki, my pal from college.

Also, this man was Jougasaki, my judge, jury, and executioner. And this man, Jougasaki, quoted Sophocles, a person he only knew through a simple web search for quotes about betrayal.

He looked at me with narrowed, judging eyes each passing moment he could. And the only response I could muster was a head bow of shame.

“Dude, you’re graduating way ahead of me. I thought we were gonna cross the true man line together on this trip.”

Jougasaki leaned on the bed frame and crossed his arms.

“I can understand getting an escort, or even heading for the soaps… but how can you explain the girl waiting outside our door right now?!”

“ I already told you all I can last night…”

Indeed, a girl was waiting outside our hotel room right now. Just staying in the halls. I could almost imagine her tapping her toes, waiting for me to head out for a good 15 minutes since she had arrived.

The girl outside was Makoto Shirase.

Jougasaki had every right to be upset. What he expected to be an impromptu, five-day long boys’ night out had become a menage a trois between two brothers and a drop-dead gorgeous lady. He had every intention of taking me for a trip to Akiba today to take in the sights and maybe dole out some dosh for exclusive, limited-time goods.

But things have changed up, and none of us knew what to do.

I may have said that Jougasaki wasn’t the jealous type, but this was something else entirely for both of us. The equivalent of bringing a girl to the all-male computer club.

“I didn’t expect you to cross the line to being a riajuu, my dude…”

He sounded so disappointed.

In some malicious corner of my soul, I had a bubbling urge to simply sneer at him and flaunt my luck at him. But the difference between a person with honor and those without it is the ability to suppress such an urge.

“Jougasaki, listen. I haven’t crossed any line yet. This was all just pure luck. A coincidence.”

“Oh, I see. So you’re both a riajuu and a lucksack.”

…I can’t even deny being a lucksack right now, or I’d be lying to myself.

But, indeed, lines have not been crossed. It’s for this reason that my secret weapon stashed in my wallet had been left unopened since the time I bought it from the konbini.

Yes, that rubber remains unused. An expected outcome, but alas, a disappointing one.

I raised my head and looked him in the eye as I spoke.

“Look, man, can you give me a minute? I’ll talk to her. I’m just as shocked as you are, and I don’t mean to ruin our plans.”

Jougasaki sighed as he scratched his head.

“Alright, dude. Just go to her already.”

“Thanks.”

I gathered my wits and headed out the door, still dressed in nothing but a t-shirt and pants.

As soon as I opened the door, the cold air from the hallway rushed in, as if I had just opened a portal to the arctic. Springtime air in the morning truly is something.

I peered out the door, looking side to side. And to my right, leaning on the wall, scrolling through the contents of her phone, was the girl of the week - Makoto.

Makoto was still dressed like she was yesterday - which struck me as odd; does she have multiple copies of this Miki Starsky outfit, or did she not change clothes overnight? Was she still doing this to aggravate me?

However, it was apparent that she had at least cleaned up beforehand. Her immediate surroundings smelled of fragrant soap and her hair of a pleasant hint of oranges.

Makoto looked at me and grinned.

“Well? Are we good to go, or what?”

“Negotiations are still ongoing.”

It hadn’t slipped my mind that Makoto has to be here. She has to go on this trip with me. I had agreed to her conditions to be her boyfriend, after all. I couldn’t tell if that smile she had was of genuine happiness to see me, or a smug gesture, knowing that she had me wrapped around her little finger.

See, last night, Makoto struck a deal with me.

A simple deal with both expected and unforeseen ripples alike.

***

Back in that quaint coffee shop, Makoto looked me dead in the eye, her finger raised to signal a ‘1’. But that wasn’t all. The grubby hands of that damned yokai were gripping her shoulders too, making me think that this act wasn’t all Makoto’s doing.

“There’s one thing you gotta do for me.”

“And that would be…?”

Makoto leaned back on her seat, tapping the table with her fingers.

“Go out with me. All five - I mean - four remaining days.”

A mundane statement. Far less wild than I had expected, but it still carried many implications that were truly inconvenient relative to my vacation plans.

While I may have expected something about going on dates, this still caught me off-guard. This was still my vacation, and I had plans for all five days with Jougasaki. I had all five days of my trip booked, and on the third day, we would even go on a day trip outside of Tokyo.

To be fair, I had no issue working one or two days for her. This was a lucky break after all, and I’d be damned if I didn’t try to make time for a girl I had an interest in since childhood. But all four days? Come now.

“Makoto… you know I have all four days booked, right?”

She took a sip from her coffee and looked at me with cold, deadpan eyes.

“Yeah? Then take me with you.”

“I have someone with me.”

“I don’t see the problem. I can tag along, can’t I?”

“Aren’t dates one-on-one affairs?”

“Yeah, but I’m willing to compromise.”

I didn’t want to refuse her, but even then, this was a tall order. even then I’d have to replan everything with Jougasaki, let alone explain this entire debacle to him. Plus, my alone time wasn’t critical, but this still meant personal plans had to be changed up.

In a meek voice, I started to plead with her.

“I-I don’t mind making a day or two for you, but… I don’t know if four–”

“Nope.”

So much for compromising. This girl was driving a hard bargain, but I still had no intentions of letting her down. After all, if I lost her now, I’d be letting myself down too. This coincidence was too once-in-a-lifetime to pass up.

Just take the chance.

“Alright, Makoto,” I said, scratching my nose. “If that’s the case, then let’s talk this out with my travel-mate. I don’t wanna miss a day with you, either.”

Makoto’s face went red after I said that, and at the same time, I felt the yokai’s snake tail coiling around my leg again, sending yet another shiver up my spine.

“W-what’s with that? You’re suddenly saying that without hesitation.” she said, looking away from me shyly.

“It’s the truth,” I said with a smile. “I missed you a lot too, so this is the perfect chance to catch up, if you’re okay with it.”

Every second words like that left my mouth, my heart stopped beating. I couldn’t believe what I was saying, and I had no idea where I was even drawing the courage to pull it off. I had every intention of making this work out for me, Makoto, and Jougasaki.

She began twiddling both her index fingers at each other, still diverting her gaze away from me.

“Idiot… of course I’m okay with it. Especially if you say stuff like that out of nowhere.”

Makoto was cute.

She didn’t need to be Miki Starsky to become cute. She was enough on her own. And now it was time to secure this deal in my favor.

I stood up and struck my open palm with my fist.

“Okay then. Makoto? Let’s head on over to my place now!

I’m sure it’ll go well!”

…

It didn’t go well.

When I entered the hotel room with a girl in tow, Jougasaki began freaking out like an overly emotional anime character. It was a funny sight to see, but I knew this meant ill for the future of our trip, featuring award-winning lines such as:

“Dude! Reeeeeee!!”

“Acckkkk!!”

And “Riajuu normie reeeeeeee!”

I could’ve almost eeked out a laugh if the implications weren’t terrifying. Trying to ease the situation, I tried to explain the situation to him: how we met by coincidence, that she was my childhood friend, and that she wanted to tag along on our trip.

He was too red with unrighteous anger to listen, of course.

Makoto bowed at him and (seemingly) sincerely apologized for the intrusion. She parroted the same narrative I did, which surprisingly quelled Jougasaki’s madman ravings. Eventually, we could calmly talk about the situation, and he was pretty amiable about the whole thing.

As amiable as can be - the man was staring daggers into me whenever Makoto wasn’t looking.

When Makoto left for the night, she bade a gracious farewell and told us she’d be seeing us tomorrow morning. This confused Jougasaki as well, prompting him to ask if she didn’t have work or school for most of the day.

She answered succinctly, with a smile:

“Freelancing is a pretty good business, isn’t it?”

Of course. Miki Starsky was basically an independent creator, who has ties to some minor corporate backing but has remained in control of her career so far. I guessed that donations, paid chats, and ad revenue were her primary ways of making big bucks. She had no notable sponsors yet, but I’d wager she’d be hitting it big soon enough at the rate she was going.

As soon as Makoto left the hotel, Jougasaki had begun talking to Ami-chan in our hotel room.

Ah yes, I may have forgotten that Ami-chan was actually with us on our holiday.

She was a buxom, tanned blonde lady, with beautiful blue eyes, and matching hips that would make any red-blooded man drool. Even on our trip, she wore a school uniform with buttons that were struggling to keep a polo together, and a dangerously short skirt which made you wonder why she bothered to wear one in the first place.

She was pretty much the perfect lady.

Except her wonderful, tanned skin was made of polyvinyl chloride and her clothes of a mix of plastic and cloth. Pile on the fact that her luscious, red lips couldn’t open to utter even a single word. And that she was merely 1/8th of our size.

Ami-chan was the perfect figure. In fact, she was quite literally a figure. A collectible figurine.

This was one of Jougasaki’s quirks that only came out when I was the only one in the room. Whenever he had to make some big decision, he would consult Ami-chan about it. He brought the girl with him anywhere he went, which sometimes lent itself to weird stares from guards inspecting our bags for contraband.

At first, it seemed strange, and it still is, but when you realize it’s his way of double-checking his own thoughts, you learn to live with it, making Jougasaki a more complete being, even if a little bizarre.

The verdict was: Yes.

He was okay letting her join in our little joyride, under the condition that we don’t engage in any ‘huggy-wuggy’ or ‘kissy-wissy’ - words I could only categorize under ‘public displays of affections’ - PDA, for short.

I had no plans on doing that. If I can’t imagine myself doing that at home, even more so here in Japan.

***

The sun was high up in the sky, its heat finally leveling out the cool, temperate climate. Shadows of five-to-ten storey buildings shadowed the streets of the city. The muffled noises of pachinko parlors, which would occasionally blare out cacophonous, plinking noises when their doors would open, prevailed throughout every other road. And in every other nook and cranny, you could spot an electronics shop sitting pretty, complete with all the gamey sounds and smells of plastic and metal to go with.

Billboards of anime and video game characters were plastered in every corner, and their advertisements would cycle through multiple screens scattered everywhere.

Beside me was Makoto, who seemed quite used to the sights. And a few paces in front was Jougasaki, who was busy being enamored with a display window full of garage kits and custom-made figurines.

This place is considered the mecca of all Japan media-aligned fandoms throughout the planet: Akihabara, or Akiba, for short.

This was the main stop for our second-day trip in Japan. Even though Jougasaki had already been here yesterday, he never stopped being enamored with the place. In fact, in his hands, were at least two boxes of inexpensive girl figurines already.

I, too, was quite amazed stepping into this place for the first time. Being in Akiba for real was both an overwhelming feeling and a little underwhelming as well. Underwhelming, mostly because I had to be sparing with my money. Overall, it was still unreal that a place like this existed; the sights, sounds, and feel of this place wrapped around me like a mother’s embrace. Or in the case of anime, like a big sister’s embrace - which was nothing like a mother, but was comforting all the same.

Makoto was clearly used to this scenery before. Since she lives in Tokyo, this would be a given, and has probably visited this place many times, given her interests and career.

I turned to her to break the silence between us.

“Hey, Makoto. You been here before?”

“Of course I have,” she answered in a dull tone. “Maybe five or so times. They hold cool events here from time to time.”

“What kind?”

“Idols. Electronics sales. Guerilla concerts. Flash sales. The works.” she said, looking in a different direction for each event she named as if reminiscing venues she has been in.

“Oh, that’s pretty cool.”

Today seemed to be a typical day in Akiba. There were no such idols, sales, or concerts to be seen. Well, live ones, at least. There were monitors all over the place playing back recordings of small-time and big-time idol concerts.

Of note were electronic billboards showing off today’s most popular Vtubers; corporate-owned titans of performers that garnered anywhere from three-thousand to thirty-thousand viewers per stream – per day.

In context, Miki could gather around one-hundred fans in one stream on a typical day, and triple that amount on a good day or during celebratory or milestone events.

All things considered, Miki’s career was going just fine. The industry’s biggest had bigger audiences numbers and thus earned more money in a month than I could in a year. Miki’s career wasn’t bad by any means; however – she had a loyal fanbase that would dole out a constant stream of smaller cash to help her put food on the table (fans including me), plus savings.

I half expected Makoto to wince at the sight of all these big boys and girls flaunting their fame on the e-billboards, but she showed no such emotion at the sight of them. This put me at ease – she at least was content where she was, or so I think.

As I watched Jougasaki enjoy his own adventure several meters ahead of us, I closed in on her and decided to liven the day up a little.

“Is there anywhere you wanna go here?”

“Not really? Aren’t you the one on holiday here?” Makoto said flatly.

I chuckled and told her, “Well, fine then. You know this place better than I do, so why don’t you show me around?”

“That doesn’t sound too bad,” Makoto said. She then pointed in the direction of Jougasaki while staring at me. “But what’s he gonna say about it?”

“Our plan was to scour Akiba today. It didn’t have to be together.”

Makoto gawked at me with a scowl, judging me like I had committed some kind of felony.

“You’re really gonna abandon your friend like that? You’re not a bro before h–”

I raised my hand in a stop signal and interrupted her. “Stop! Stop. I getcha’.”

She was right, and I didn’t want to hear it. What kind of friend was I to abandon ‘ol jolly Jougasaki to have an escapade with a girl. What was I thinking? Even if he understood my situation, I shouldn’t be the one to step on his toes about it.

I breathed deeply and smiled at Makoto.

“You’re right. Let’s just enjoy the day with Jougasaki, hm?”

Her look of disappointment transformed into a gentle smile that mirrored mine, as she nodded in agreeance.

“Mhm. I’ll just follow you guys.”

I started walking towards Jougasaki, and Makoto followed closely behind. The man of the hour went from window-to-window, seemingly unable to decide where to dedicate his next half-hour to explore.

I tapped him on the shoulder.

“Can’t decide on a shop?”

He turned towards me, his eyes glazed with the reflections of the thousands of merchandise that lay before him.

“And you?”

“I was thinking of following you, actually.”

Jougasaki rubbed his neck and stretched his back out. He squinted and shot me an incredulous look.

“I was actually thinking you’d bail with Makoto-cchi.”

I laughed at this statement. “Hah hah… I wouldn’t do that, man! Not gonna leave a brother out here in the cold like that!”

“Haha! Right!”

…Except I would have, if Makoto didn’t slap the ever-living sense right back into me. I’m sorry, Jougasaki. I was almost a terrible brother to you.

Jougasaki looked over my shoulder. I wondered exactly what he was staring at, so I also looked back.

Several meters behind me, a good distance away, Makoto watched both of us talk. As soon as she saw both of us look at her, she waved at us.

“Dude, she seems kinda distant.”

“Yeah, I can see that.”

Jougasaki waved at her and gestured at her to come over. She tilted her head in response, wondering what he could have meant with his signal.

I scratched my head and told Jougasaki I had no idea why she was distancing herself from us. “I didn’t piss her off. Promise.”

“Oh no. I get it.” he said, gently pushing me aside.

Jougasaki walked up to her, holding up an assuming pose.

“Yo, Makoto-cchi,” he said, waving at her during the approach. “Why don’t you come over?”

I didn’t move a single inch, but I tried to listen in to their conversation – which wasn’t difficult, as Jougasaki seemed to speak in a volume that intentionally let me hear the convo play out.

“I don’t want to get in between you boys.” Makoto said in a mellow voice quite uncharacteristic of her.

“Foolishness, Makoto-cchi. Foolishness,” said Jougasaki in a deep chest voice, trying to imitate a popular video game character. “I don’t mind you being here.”

“Really?”

“Really, really. A friend of my brother is a friend of mine. Besides, if we’re having a holiday, you can have yours with ours! Just come on over when you’re ready!”

Jougasaki marched back in my direction while Makoto followed him at a much slower pace. He went beside me, slapped my shoulder, and whispered in a menacing voice.

“Remember, just no ‘huggy-wuggy’ or ‘kissy-wissy’.”

“Y-yeah, none of that.” I said, nodding nervously.

Again, I had no intentions of engaging Makoto in that way today – though the more Jougasaki insisted, the more tempted I was to try and provoke him by doing the exact opposite of what he wants.

Jougasaki went into the shop, with Makoto and I following closely behind. The shop in front of us had window displays full of official merchandise from anime and video game franchises we knew, and even more that we didn’t. Its hallways were teeming with young people who looked to be in their late teens at most and early 40s at their oldest – primarily male, with an occasional female.

Inside, shelves of unopened merchandise of all kinds lay waiting for a loving fan to take them home. Its halls were not quite spacious, and when a person had parked themselves in front of a shelf, you’d have to squeeze behind them to pass. The shop smelled a mix of cardboard and old paper, mixing with the different odors of its visitors - both the good and the bad. It was quiet inside, save for some subtle, low-volume pop music playing on the radio.

From there, our window-shopping adventure began.

The three of us went through the halls of Akiba’s shops, spending as much time as we could sifting through the mountains upon mountains of collectibles that decorated every single hallway and display of this massive city segment.

The variety was insane. There were small trinkets like keychains and stickers, up to expensive, non-sensical ones like old Gameboy shells with peculiar prints, and even lifesize dolls fashioned to look like characters from popular shows that time.

Makoto, Jougasaki, and I hopped from place to place, from store-to-store. Our pace was slow and leisurely, taking in as many sights as possible.

I barely bought anything bigger than the size of my hand, except for a few limited edition, hard-to-find books of some of my favorite franchises. Jougasaki came out with a small box every other store, making me wonder just how much dough this guy was making to be able to afford this much expenditure.

Jougasaki and I had a great time chatting about the events of our beloved hobby whenever we would run across a poster or a figurine of something we had watched or played before.

But every other moment, I’d look behind me.

Makoto would be looking at a different shelf than us, and occasionally glancing at us from afar.

Makoto was, unsurprisingly, keeping her distance from us boys.

Despite our invitation not to worry about getting in between us, Makoto still looked like she was agonizing over it.

It was a strange feeling.

One would expect that in this kind of scenario, it would be my friend who would be sidelined to make way for this new, blooming couple to spend their day.

But that wasn’t the case today.

Instead, Makoto herself looked like the third wheel.

I knew about my deal with Makoto. I also knew I couldn’t abandon my Jougasaki and leave him out to dry. It was all wrong, and I knew I had messed this all up somewhere in the back of my head.

But I had no idea how to make this thing right for Makoto.

With each hour that passed, I did enjoy my time in Akihabara but always felt like it could’ve been better if I urged Makoto to get in between us more.

Then again, after all this time of being apart, I actually had no idea what her particular hobbies were outside the ones she advertised in the guise of Miki Starsky.

And in that, a dreadful realization.

That perhaps, I didn’t know Makoto as much as I thought.

I no longer knew what anime she liked, what things she liked to do in her spare time, or even what she now looked like at her best, and at her worst.

Much like how you can change your favorite TV show in the span of a decade, or how some event in your life can spoil or alter how you viewed your once favorite anime, what more changes can a person go through in around a decade?

With each colorful shelf we passed and every shop we visited, my anxiety grew and grew, as I observed Makoto doing her damn best to keep her distance from us.

It horrified me because, despite my insistence, there was a good chance that I could have been wrong.

Makoto, you haven’t changed.

But what if she did?

And Makoto wasn’t even the same girl I liked back in the 9th grade?

It was unrealistic to expect her to remain that same old girl-next-door she once was back then.

Perhaps this was a mistake.

Or maybe even, the yokai wasn’t real, and it was all in my head, hoping I could score a date with one of the few girls I had truly grown attached to.

A selfish thought.

…

Hours passed, and the shadows of the buildings loomed over the streets, as the sun began to sink down the west. The streets started to bustle even more, as teenage school kids began coming out of the woodwork, and early-out workers ended their shifts and visited the streets of Akihabara.

We were just about ending our rounds around the place, with many a fond memory – bonding over shared interests with Jougasaki, eyeing out themed, specialty restaurants and cafes, ogling at cute maids advertising their cafe services, and even spending an hour trying to defeat random strangers in the local arcade in our favorite fighting game.

If you cropped out Makoto from a photo of each scene, it would look perfectly normal and happy.

But her presence, though I appreciated, felt like I had failed her today.

“Whew, what a ‘fudging day, dude,” Jougasaki said, as he walked beside me. “And boy, am I loaded right now.”

He raised his hand, carrying almost five plastic bags filled to the brim with small and large merch. Surprisingly, all things considered, his biggest purchases were at the very beginning of our outing, and he was content filling his bags with trinkets, and odds and ends - spending his cash conservatively.

Then again, we still have a good 2-3 days to go, after all. There’s no way his reserves were infinite.

He continued. “You got a lot of goodies yourself.”

I raised a plastic bag of trinkets, and anoter filled with all sorts of books and art collections. “These? They’re not much.”

He glanced back and turned to Makoto, who walked a good meter behind us.

She raised only a small, plastic bag. She smiled faintly and giggled.

“This one’s mine.”

“Aaah, right. You’re from around here, you don’t need to splurge as much as we did…” said Jougasaki, sighing happily.

“You boys were having so much fun, I couldn’t help buying a little something for myself.”

Curious about our next destination, I raised a question at Jougasaki. “So, where to next?”

“I dunno, dude,” Jougasaki, all hands full, rubbed his shoulder against his neck to scratch it, replied. “I was thinking of dropping our stuff at the hotel and heading out for Fun Night.”

“Really, this soon?”

“Having second thoughts already?”

“Not really. Just thought you’d be doing that on day 4.”

He looked at me with disbelief, tilting his head and staring me in the eye.

“What do you mean ‘you’? I thought you had plans for Fun Night, too?”

“D-did I?” I asked nervously.

While I did have these wild, imaginative thoughts of hitting up local hostess bars or soaplands, I thought he would take it as a joke and not put me up against it. But here he was, questioning my motives.

“Of course you did. Unless…” he said, looking at Makoto from the corner of his eye.

“No, man, you got this all wrong.”

Jougasaki backed off and let out a relieved sigh.

“Ahh, that’s fine, dude. If you don’t wanna, I ain’t gonna force you.”

Makoto leaned forward and tilted her head.

“If you don’t mind me asking… What's ‘Fun Night’?”

I turned towards her, my legs shaking and hands sweaty. I couldn’t possibly tell her the context. There was just no way she’d look at me in the same way if she knew.

“O-oh, Makoto. Yeah. Uh. Fun Night is… Fun Night, where we boys just hit the town and do… nothing in particular.”

Jougasaki, realizing the topic he had just raised in front of a lady, also chimed in, jittering. “Yeah! That’s totally what we planned!”

“...Really? Is that what guys your age do for fun?”

I answered her almost immediately. “Y-yeah! We guys like to toss rocks into rivers, so this is more of that same nonsense!”

“Yeah, what he said!” Jougasaki said.

Her expression turned deadpan as she eyed both of us suspiciously.

“Okay, whatever you say…”

While we were trying to cover our little misspeak, fortune smiled upon us in a roundabout way that allowed Jougasaki and I to skip the topic immediately.

Earlier, we had passed a cute, petite girl dressed in a maid uniform while making our rounds. A few hours ago, we were charmed into a sales pitch for her local maid cafe, of which only Jougasaki was an active participant since only he could speak fluent Japanese.

Now, we just so happened to pass her again.

The moment we passed the signboard that said Meido Galore, Jougasaki turned around and scanned the area for the same girl.

“Ria-san!” he called out, as he waved at that same girl, standing around a tree, holding out a placard for her shop. The girl waved back, happy to see his return.

He rushed in her direction and chatted her up, leaving Makoto and me a great deal away from him. Talk about an escape plan.

Taking the chance, I thought it would be a good idea to sort a few things out with her, while Jougasaki occupied himself with his ‘Ria-san’.

“So, uh, Makoto, about today…” I said, still not facing her.

I felt a sudden chill down my spine.

That same chill from before.

But it was different. It felt nothing like a simple blast of cold wind from air conditioning. It felt more like winter had come in the vicinity of my back.

The Nure-onna.

Knowing there’s no getting around this encounter, I turned to Makoto, bracing myself for whatever was happening right now.

And then, I saw it.

A large, long-haired lady with raven-black hair draped over her face, bloodshot, red eyes peeking through the gaps, towered over Makoto’s back. A 4-foot creature, its body an amalgamation of a naked, adult woman and a real anaconda snake, coiled itself around her body without choking or crushing her, and simply using her body like some perch.

It stared at me, and I couldn’t make out its expression. Its stare and aura froze me where I stood, the sheer cold of it burning my face.

And Makoto’s expression: That seductive smile and sultry eyes, just gazing straight at me, as a black cloud of smoke billows from behind her.

They both did nothing but stare at me.

I quickly turned back and signaled at Jougasaki as calmly as possible, even if my legs could barely move.

Jougasaki was no longer where he stood, but was actually headed towards me, the maid ‘Ria-san’ walking right beside me.

“Hey dude, guess who’s hanging at a maid cafe tonight?” he said calmly.

My blood ran cold as more of the cold blasted the skin of my nape. I then spoke to him.

“That’s cool, man,” I said. “By the way, Jougasaki…”

“Hmm?”

“D-do you see anything… you know… weird behind me?”

He answered sarcastically, as the maid just watched us have a conversation that she couldn’t understand fully. “Yeah? Everything’s a strange sight in Akiba.”

I waved my hand in front of me, signaling him a ‘no’.

“No, I mean, do you see something unusual behind me? Like… like a snake, or some weird lady standing right there?”

He looked over my shoulder and winced.

“Dude, that’s kinda rude, calling Makoto-cchi ‘weird’ or a ‘snake’. I thought she was your friend?”

“N-no, I—”

He interrupted me with a pat on the shoulder and a whispered consolation. “Dude, I think we gave her a hard time today. Why not take this chance to make some amends? Just you and her.”

“Why don’t we go toge–”

Jougasaki grabbed my shoulder and tightened his grip on it, as he pulled me a little closer.

“Nah man, this is me time. Go be a good friend, or boyfriend or whatever to Makoto,” he said, a smile passing him. “Besides, couples have no place between me and Ria-san.”

Jougasaki released me with another shoulder pat. He spoke a few words to the maid by his side, as they walked over to a nearby, newly built building with multiple signages plastered on the walls.

“Jou, wait…!” I said quietly, reaching my arm out at him.

I turned again towards Makoto, still feeling that chill on my nape. And that huge yokai was still there, standing menacingly, coiled around my childhood friend.

I had to accept the facts.

Judging from the pedestrians minding their own day like there wasn’t a gigantic snake standing at least four feet above everyone else, and from Jougasaki’s chastising of me, only one truth remained.

I was the only one who could see this.

“Uhh… Makoto? Are you okay?” I said, as my teeth clenched and my feet planted firmly onto the ground.

Makoto began slowly walking towards me. Her stride was completely different: she walked like an ordinary woman before, but now she was strutting towards me, her legs crossing over the other with each step, like she was on a fashion show runway. Her hips swayed in a mesmerizing but slightly exaggerated way.

As she stopped in front of me, she looked at my frightened face. The snake towered over me - if it could cast a shadow, I would be entirely obscured by its darkness.

Makoto’s eyes narrowed, and she closed in on my ear. Her breath was hot, tingling my skin, goosebumps raising all over my body. My loins tightened as the smell of her shampoo intensified itself near me.

And then she whispered, in a sweet, chipper voice, uncharacteristic at all of the Makoto I knew.

“Please. Call me Miki.”