Swiss darted from attraction to attraction like a dog chasing smells. Or maybe it was more like a cat chasing a laser light…
The first street performer was this dude who painted himself gray and pretended to be a statue. That's all he did- he just stood there.
"TROLOLOLOL! THAT'S SO STUPID!"
The next was a sickly looking man, who when he farted near his candle flame, a great cloud of fire would spawn like dragons breath.
"Awwww.. C'mon man! That's out of order!"
There was a bunch of other random shit that littered the main street. A kissing booth, arm wrestling, dancing, clowns, ladyboys, etc.
Swiss was standing at the back of a crowd. They were watching how a monk wearing a cowboy hat was meditating peacefully on a bed of needles.
"Damn. I wonder how long that took to master." Swiss remarked sarcastically.
That's when an alluring sign caught the corner of his eye.
"!"
[LIQUOR STORE]
"Score!" Swiss said joyfully. He skipped to the store like a sweet summer child.
Inside the artificially lit industrial liquor store, Swiss bumped in between the people and grabbed himself a couple of bottles of sake.
"Here you go," Swiss said as he aggressively whacked some belli onto the store counter.
"Keep the change."
Swiss waltzed out of the liquor store like the opening scene of Saturday Night Fever.
The store clerk gasped as he looked down at the money on the counter.
"Uh, sir, this is nowhere near enough!"
"Trololol! No really, it's fine. Keep the change!"
With bottles of sake, Swiss was now in his element. He got back to blindly chasing whatever caught his eye.
Outside the liquor store, a young mystical-looking man in a purple suit approached.
"Know your future." He said as he handed Swiss a card.
"Nani..?" Swiss looked down at the card with subtle off-white coloring. The hard had a tasteful thickness to it. It even had a watermark..
[KNOW THYSELF]
"Ooo, mysterious." Swiss then flipped the card over to see a crescent moon symbol.
"Hmmm..?" Swiss mused as he inspected the symbol. He then looked around and noticed something down the side road where the liquor store was situated.
It was a crescent moon drawn in chalk on a brick wall.
"Bingo." Swiss followed the sign, deep into the urban labyrinth that is Jam Land.
It wasn't too hard to find where he had to go.
Whenever it felt like he needed directions, Swiss would simply look around and find a crescent moon drawn somewhere.
Left, right, left, right. Through alleyways and under bridges. Past playgrounds and parks, until finally on a narrow road did Swiss find what he was looking for.
"This must be the place." Swiss looked at a sign of a crescent moon and an arrow pointing down some stairs. At the bottom was a wooden door.
The road he was on had a romantic feeling to it.
It reminded Swiss of when he went into google earth and walked the streets of Florence. Only to him, the metropolis of Jam Land felt more like San Francisco than anything else, mainly because of how hilly it was.
Regardless, he went down those stairs and knocked.
A latch at eye level opened and a pair of wily eyes peered through, "Who is it?" a firm old voice spoke.
"Uhh?" Swiss held out the card.
The eyes darted down to Swiss' hands, "Very well. Come in. Someone was just leaving anyhow."
The latch closed, some clinking of locks was heard, and the creaky wooden door opened.
An old man with surprisingly good skin held the door open, "Welcome. And goodbye, sir."
As Swiss walked in, a man about the same size bumped shoulders with him.
"Oh, sorry about that." The well-dressed man with curly hair as gray as smoke politely said. He smiled at Swiss genuinely.
Swiss could not help but feel beholden to the manners of this charismatic man, "You're alright. My mistake." He found himself apologizing without even thinking.
The well-dressed man yawned without looking back, "I'll be off then."
"Come back anytime, sir!" the nice-skinned old man told him.
Then he looked at Swiss, "Right this way, sir."
"Um, okay? But what is this all about? If this is some cult shit then I'll knock you the fuck out right here and now." Swiss glared at the nice-skinned old man with wild eyes.
"Heh heh! No, this isn't a cult. You will understand once you meet her."
"Meet… her?"
Swiss followed the old man down the candle-lit hall, intrigued as to what he'll find.
The smell of incense in the air.
Raito had been having a hard time keeping up with Swiss.
In truth, he had almost caught up to him.
Unfortunately, a pack of ladyboys, who were naked except for the feathers stuck to their bodies, had held Raito up on the account of Raito's handsomeness.
"Ooo, so dreamy."
"What is this headband, are you a ninja? How hotttt"
The ladyboy traced her finger on the outline of the wave carving on Raito's headband as she whispered in his ear.
"Sdfghj! Okay! Have a nice day!" Raito felt a shiver so dirty and violating go down his spine that he instinctively pushed the ladyboys away.
He ran, catching a glimpse of Swiss.
"Swiss?"
He watched how his companion walked between the confusing side streets of Jam Land as if he was a local.
"Where on earth is he going? Oi, Swiss!"
Swiss had turned the corner. When Raito had turned it also, he was met with an empty street.
It was a narrow street. Something about it felt romantic.
"Hmm? Where did Swiss go?"
Raito walked slowly down the narrow street, trying to visually imagine himself in Swiss' footsteps.
That's when a well-dressed figure emerged from down a stairwell.
It was a man around the same height as Raito. He had curly hair that reminded Raito of the ash of a cigarette.
He had a dark gray suit on, with a large dark gray overcoat that he wore over his shoulders with the sleeves flapping in true One Piece style.
He yawned as he walked down in Raito's direction.
"!"
A sixth sense felt like it was blaring at the back of Raito's skull. It was burning hot like electricity.
The gray-suited man's fine quality business shoes clicked against the cobbled road. Each step filled Raito with more and more certainty.
This man was dangerous.
Raito instinctively felt for the tanto blade strapped to his waist.
A bead of sweat slowly crawled down the side of his cheek as he stood frozen in his tracks.
The gray-suited man simply cleaned his ear with his pinkie as he casually walked past Raito.
"Oh, excuse me."
"?!"
Each muscle in Raito's body tensed. He was ready for battle at any moment.
"… do you know how to get to the main street from here?" The gray-suited man asked.
"… Um, down that way." Raito pointed. A wave of relief washed over him and he eased his shoulders.
"Ah, thank you." The gray-suited man continued on his way.
"Oh! Uh, wait!" Raito called out to him.
"Hmm?"
"Did you see a young man, about this height, flowery shirt, circular sunglasses..?" Raito asked him.
"Haha, yeah, I bumped into him. Down there. Bye now."
Raito rubbed his eyes as he saw the crescent moon sign and the wooden door.
Then he looked back to see the gray-suited man.
But he was gone.
"Who was that?" Raito said to himself. It felt like a lion allowed him to live simply out of a whim.
He knocked on the door.
"Who is it?"
… But Raito didn't have a card.
"Um, I'm Musashi Raito."
"…"
…
"Come in!"