It happened every year about the same time. Shiro would open the bar around five and the first ones would start drifting in as he was setting up. He would nod and smile, pull down bottles of sake and start pouring.
As the evening wore on, more of them would come. Some of them were famous, idol singers, race car drivers, boxing champs, some looked quite ordinary. It was a mix of people you didn't often see in one place. There was something though, something they all had in common, some feeling that you got when you saw them, something that united them.
He pretended that he didn't know who they were, the celebrities especially. They didn't come there to be recognized, they came there to see their friends and comrades. He poured the drinks, fetched the snacks and wiped up after any spills.
It was always in the early spring, the air would still be crisp with winter chill and the first shoots would be just beginning to poke their heads up out of the dirt. He could tell when it would be by a certain quality in the air, a feeling of expectation as all of Tokyo seemed to hold its breath.
This year he came a little early, feeling it more strongly than he usually did. It had been a hard winter; the SGS team had finally stopped the people who had terrorized the city only a few weeks before. His bar had received no damage, which was something that he had long since taken for granted. There was always someone who would show up and ward off any attacks, always a different person, but always someone. He didn't know how it was decided, it just was.
That afternoon, as he approached the bar, he saw why he had come early. There were three young people standing around in front of the door looking somewhat lost.
"Can I help you?" Shiro asked with a soft smile and they all turned to face him. There was something about them that he recognized, though he couldn't have explained it if asked.
"Our Master said we should come here today and help you out," replied the slender dark haired boy in blue.
"There is training in your work," the girl in yellow added and Shiro smiled.
"That was kind of him." He opened up the bar and let them in. The one in red began wandering around staring and pointing, asking questions.
He soon knew their names, Jan was the strange boy in red, Retsu the quiet one in blue, and Ran was the serious girl in yellow. He set them to cleaning the counters, mopping the floors and all the other minutiae of getting the place ready for customers. He never bothered asking who their master was, or how he knew to send them to his bar, it didn't really matter after all.
Around five o'clock the first ones started to drift in. A group of older folk in their fifties, they came in laughing and talking, gesturing widely as they told each other stories. His young assistants looked up as they entered and gave a proper greeting, which pleased Shiro.
As the hours passed, the bar filled up and he excused his assistants from work, letting them sit and listen to the stories that were being told. Inevitably, someone would come in who didn't belong. Shiro would look up from whatever he was doing and shake his head at them.
"Private party," he would inform them and they would go away quickly. Something about his customers all turning and staring blandly at them would drive the interlopers away.
Shiro never had to tell anyone twice.
"Oh, you kids had it easy!" laughed one of the older guys, his hair going gray and his eyes filled with mirth. 'We fought for three years!"
"You say that every year, Kaijou-sempai!" laughed one of the younger men and the whole group chuckled.
It would be like that all night until finally, leaning on each other and still laughing, they would exit the bar. Alone or in pairs and groups, they would step back out into the night, stopping to pour a libation at the small shrine just inside the door.
"For those who didn't make it through and those who have died since," they would mutter, sometimes adding a particular name. It was the only solemn moment in an otherwise boisterous evening.
Once everyone had gone, the three young people turned and bowed deeply to him, the blue one with his hand on the back of the red ones neck, to get him to the proper level of respect.
"Thank you, we have learned a very great deal," Retsu murmured and Shiro nodded and smiled.
"Then I will see you next year," he answered them and saw Retsu's eyes dart to the shrine.
"Yes, next year." With that, they left and Shiro finished shutting down the bar.