The woman looked taken aback as Mei shuffled a seat over and motioned to the chair next to her. Glancing nervously around and wondering why she kept up with her job and its insufferable customers, the waitress could do nothing but comply with Mei's bizarre request.
"Good," Mei went on, sliding the ridiculously well-shined plate towards the woman who settled apprehensively beside her," Now, what do you see?"
"Erm, miss?"
"Go on, tell me. Just take a good, hard look first."
The woman stared blankly down at the dish of tender beef, her eyes roving its pink flesh for any indication of to what the crazed woman was referring.
"I- I see A5 quality beef, its marbling intensity exquisite, the fat consistency perfect and-"
"Yes, I got that from the menu. But I want to know what you see."
"I see, I-"
"Yes?"
The woman squeaked suddenly, as she finally threw off her brief spell of oblivion "Ok, ok. I apologise, you're right, ok. I tried to stop them and then, then they spat in your food... "
Mei raised an eyebrow as she saw her subtlety was getting her nowhere. The anxious woman rabbited on, continually flicking her gaze from the plate to Mei as she gave a convoluted explanation of what had occurred in the kitchen.
"It was the chefs I mean. Th-they forced me to bring it and-"
"I don't think you're looking hard enough," Mei cut her off, her plan somewhat backfiring.
"Wh-"
"Here, let me help you by removing this tasteless crap."
With a single flick of her wrist, Mei swiped the six thousand yen's worth of Kobe beef to the wool of the fine verdant rug below. The meat bounced awkwardly before scattering in a random arrangement amongst the green of the wool fibres, the cuts rudely resembling the faeces of the animal to whose flesh they belonged.
"Now look again."
The waitress looked about herself helplessly once more, begging someone to notice the commotion and sweep in to help her cause. But to her grief, the surrounding pigs were too busy chowing down greedily on their three-course meals, and the sparse staff present kept well out of earshot, none wishing to attend the plainly dressed woman occupying the lonely corner. The relatively new waitress had drawn the short straw an hour prior, and thus Mei was her responsibility alone.
Despairingly, she looked down at the perfectly reflective dinner plate as ordered, now truly scouring the concave form of the iridescent plate for whatever detail the demented bitch was so worked up about. She just wanted to get the hell on with her shift, now noting with rising irritation that her reflection showed the intricate side plait she'd worked so hard on that morning had fallen out of place. On the cusp of pondering how long her hair had been in such a state, she jerked as the ice-cold muzzle of the shotgun contacted the small patch of skin beneath her earlobe.
Involuntarily, she turned her head upwards to match her physical reality against the reflection of her inverse world, but the sharp jerk of the gun prompted her to keep her head down. The woman watched her own mirror distorted face contort from an expression of dumb shock to one of absolute terror as the ugly weapon further explored her jugula.
"So, do you finally see it?
The woman nodded quickly, now producing her signature squeak in quieter but more erratic waves. It was as though her mouth was clamped so tightly shut hyperventilation had been stunted, bar the tiny gap toward the centre of her lips through which her spasmodic breaths managed to escape somehow.
"Good, for a moment there, I thought we were never going to see eye to eye," Mei fought to keep her voice still, her heart pounding against her rib cage as she regarded the wide, fearful eyes of the woman sat before her.
"Now, we're going to take a walk. Do as I say and you'll come out of this just fine. Understand?"
The woman made an incoherent breathy sound in response. Mei chose to interpret this as cooperation.
"Alright, then. Stand up."
The woman remained motionless for a second; her overwrought mind delayed in jumping the very first hurdle of instruction. Eventually, understanding befell her firing nerves, and as to make up for lost time, she rose quickly to her weak feet, banging her shins awkwardly against the invasive table legs as she did so. Allowing the malice of the gun to guide her, she stepped with greater care out onto the aisle bisecting the two rows of diners.
"Now, we walk."
The butterfly swept screen vanished three paces into Mei's descent through the feeding pit. Mei felt the adrenaline in her gut throb as the herd of mankind flanked her on both sides. The misery of greed crawled around her, the many obtuse faces still unwilling to acknowledge her infernal presence amongst them. This time she didn't tense.
A diabolical sound befell the restaurant. Mei felt her voice crack against her parched throat as she showered the leftmost row with her first scream of piercing threat. She cocked the shotgun, its dry clack enough to bring about the first melodious shower of clattering chopsticks. Mei didn't risk any waste in momentum, swivelling abruptly, she turned the muzzle of unpolished agony upon the right row swiftly raising any half-witted enough to be still seated. Awed by her own power, Mei watched as the disoriented beasts rose to their shaky knees, eyes bulging in panic as the final chopsticks slipped from their sweaty, gold ringed fingers. She inhaled roughly at the very split of time the delectable scent of beef mingled with the foul reek of fear.
The restaurant erupted.
Heavy chairs struck hard ground as the blubber of fat buttocks left them. The swine waddled in the funk of panic, the exuberance of their pearled collars reflecting the chaos of the slaughterhouse. Logical thought left the building; for every gram of business sense, no suited weasel's fearful glance could comprehend the negotiation of this one-sided deal. A few squirming maggots stared stupidly as they caught the eye of God, an unpredictable gaze the wiser knew to drop as immediately as they found it.
Mei felt the guns rough surface pulsing manically beneath her fingertips, life sparking untamed up and down the sentience of its wooden frame. The demon she clutched made it clear he had waited an achingly long time for this opportunity; Mei relished in the chance to offer it. This was her gift to him in exchange for his awesome power- a truly worthy trade-off.
A flailing woman tripped on an upturned chair leg and fell sprawled across Mei's warpath. Mei felt a tingle of recognition as she looked down into the horrified eyes of the woman who had initially jeered at her. The fear that now laced her dilated pupils did something entirely new to Mei's cascading emotions. The teary woman clutched her Prada bag to her bony chest, as though she might find more protection in its leather touch than the arms of her father who then lurched forward to scoop her off the floor. The pair struggled with gravity for a second too long and were involuntarily swept up in the rush of the stampede half standing, half crawling.
Mei started walking again, going about the upkeep of her reign of terror with freshly renewed zeal, the weight of the weapon in her hands singing with untapped potential. She shifted the gun to the nape of her trembling hostage's neck, guiding her reluctant steps further through the wreck of fallen chairs. The bewildered waitress complied, weak arms hanging loosely down where they did not swing.
The engineered calm of the restaurant was now a far cry from the menagerie that now overwhelmed its austere features. Shouts of names; sons, daughters and fathers, families holding each other whilst girlfriends clutched boyfriends; these were the images that now swarmed the apple of Mei's eye both internal and external. She was a kind dictator, metal finger to the sky; she made it easy for the droves to follow.
The adrenaline surging her body allowed her to ignore the rising discomfort pelting her arms as the weight of the gun gradually began to bear down on her shuddering biceps. She couldn't stop now, not while the buzz of chatter finally died and was now being replaced with the many screams of knowing fear, fear of her untouchable might.
The people at the far end of the restaurant were now aware that the sight they had initially perceived as merely odd was something far more diabolically out of place.
The kitchen doors made a great flapping as they swung back and forth on their well-oiled hinges, revealing the harsh white of the hidden kitchen in strobe-like glances. Staff tumbled from the whitewashed mouth at the sudden surge of commotion, their stretched faces framing an unfaltering degree of confusion as they absorbed the scene before them.
Mei was aware she was shouting again now, but she knew she didn't need to try so hard anymore. Mr Uki had done this before, he knew just where to point his fatal barrel, evoking horrified response one after the other. Head, heart, knee; the flies were swarming, just begging Mei to shepherd them. She couldn't disregard her responsibility. In unison, woman and mechanical abomination sang, praised eternally by their rapt audience. The two of them knew each other so well already, the balance of power shifting from one to the other with enviable lack of consciousness.
The chefs and busboys were all outside now, shouting very quickly to one another in raised, erratic voices. The atonal sound was ruining her symphony; she immediately set about correcting it. Mei knew not one of the grimacing faces before her would dare to be the first to tackle her; it only took a flourish of her baton to transform the discordant bass note into a pulsing undertone of exquisite beauty. The loudmouthed staff were now too afraid of losing their precious kneecaps to leave the safety of the peacock screen against which they all cowered.
Like a leper messiah, Mei felt a faintly twisted smile contort her lips as her flock watched her every move with an unflinching attention of no less than absolute awe. The incessant rush of rain pounding the tiled roof above dominated the refrain, the sizzling of fryers left abandoned by the petrified chefs embellishing its constant chorus.
As though her infinite wisdom knew no bounds, just as she had predicted, the oblivious cashier fronting the exit was the very last individual to become aware of the python that snaked in his wake. Only as her electric breath spiked the hairs on the back of his neck, did he turn to regard her demonic stare. His own eyes, now as round as dinner plates, took in the image of the deer caught between her fangs; the animals rolling eyes indicative of its hopelessness.
Mei sank her pointed fangs further into the soft neck of her prey, fixing her soulless eyes on his. She hissed.
"All of it, out of the register, now."
The man wrenched his eyes from the sparking pools that glared at him, embarrassed by his trembling as he stared down at his own gloved hands. His body's involuntary spasms caused the desk bell to chime dully. With no other option, he opened the register, jumping slightly at its mocking chime before digging his hands into the waves of rolled bills within. Taking the wadded notes by the handful, he dispensed them onto the counter, purposely avoiding Mei's eyes as she leered at him from behind the waitress.
Mei was overwhelmed by pulsing exhilaration as the thrill of what she'd done repeated on her body sparing no relent. The room was tethered by a strangled quiet; all hundred pairs of eyes strapped on her every move. The power was incomparable to any she had previously held; its grip utterly unreal.
Mei waited as the man obeyed her command wordlessly, drugged with power. She laughed a cry of internal lunacy; what had taken her so long? The whole experience mesmerised her senses; apprehension had been left to die under the scorch of the red sun, and raw power had taken its rightful throne within her pumping heart. Invigoration was hers. She was so entranced she didn't even notice the pad of the cat-like footsteps behind her, reacting too late as the cold steel of the kitchen knife met her bare throat.
The mirage obliterated. Mei's head automatically jerked upward, revealing more of her throat to the caress of the blade. The gun muzzle slipped awkwardly from the back of her hostage's neck, causing the woman in question to tense suddenly. Mei could only stare, horrified as the fleeting chance offered was taken, her bargaining chip so easily ducking to freedom from the might of her previously invincible grip. Then just like that, her power was taken, rendered entirely obsolete in the face of a mere kitchen implement. Anger was an understatement.
"Alright, miss. Easy now, just drop the gun, and we won't have any problems."
Mei's racing breath hitched, she gritted her teeth in disbelief masked as defiance as she recognised the intonation of the all too familiar voice. The fox-like man shifted his wrist, enunciating the ease with which he could open her throat.
Mei lowered her advantage, the shineless wood of the gun now once more lifeless in her clammy hands.
"I said, let it go."
Mei detected a stench. She squirmed as she recognised the reek of her fear, its putrescent scent consuming her last delusion of power.
Mei felt the knife's hard edge tease the thrum of her jugula. The panelled wood below cried out as Mr Uki collided with its fragile surface, slipping almost too readily from her weak grip.
He lay achingly still before her, entirely unwilling to move as he watched the fox play with the diminished spirit of his master. Mei knew it then; she could see it rolling in the gnarled smile of his unpolished hilt; he wouldn't help her now. His strength belonged only to the bloodlust of a predator and never to the fear of the prey. Trapped like this, she was dead to him.
"Midori?"
The violently shuddering waitress turned her trembling head slowly to the call of the man who now held her captor entirely at his mercy.
"Honey, are you hurt?"
"N-no, Taki. Oh, thank God, she just, she just- the bitch tried to-"
"I know, I know. But it's over now, you're safe, and I'm here."
The woman's shoes squeaked on the panelled floor as she moved suddenly, longing to fall into the familiar security of the man's arms. Mei felt his body tense against hers in reaction. The waitress stopped abruptly, his warning hand motion enough to bring her back to her senses; it quickly became painfully clear to her that holding Mei captive, he himself couldn't move.
"I'm sorry pumpkin pie, but I need you to do something for me first, ok?"
Mei hyperaware sensed the other woman nod frantically behind her.
"Go to the phone in the kitchen and call the police, ok? You can do that right? Don't worry about her; I'll handle this now, you just get going, sweetheart."
Mei registered the infuriating squeal of the mousy woman's shoes as she shuffled off, the sound gradually growing dimmer and then vanishing altogether as she squeaked to the back of the restaurant. At the telling flap of the double doors, Mei felt the blade at her throat shift dangerously once more, the fox flicking his threatening attention back on her.
"I don't know who you are, where you came from, or what your reasons are; no matter how good. No one screws with my fiance."
Mei shrunk under her captors glistening intent, his difference from the others plainly apparent in the shuddering tension of his body. His fear of pain had been diminished in the face of losing something precious; with this, she could not contend. Mei swallowed, her throat pushing warningly up against the flat of the blade. Her onset of dizziness increased. Exhilaration and fear were potent enough alone; one after the other, their mix was almost fatal. She could barely stand anymore.
"I understand now all I saw was insanity out on that pavement," the man started," I was an idiot to invite you inside; a mistake I'm about to revoke. Now, move over to that corner, slowly."
He stole a glance over his shoulder," Hey, stop standing around with your thumbs up your asses and come help me."
At the lone rangers call, a gaggle of under-qualified staff stumbled forward. The hesitation in their expression and body language alone, making it patently clear that they still had no idea what they should do.
"Get going," the man pressed again, as Mei seemingly refused to heed his instruction.
Mei still didn't move. She remained motionless as the man's baseless words slipped through her, distorted as though by the ongoing rush of a raging river's current. Fear paralysed her.
"Lady, I swear to God, I will open your throat if you don't start moving."
Mei finally opened her dry mouth, but the witty response came before she could voice it.
"And I'll open your skull if you don't drop the knife right now, jackass."
Mei's throat collapsed as the quip of the instantly recognisable voice resonated against the heat of her eardrums.
/