[120]
"Crossroads huh?" Ren repeated the name of the building Morgana was taking them to.
The group, consisting of Ren, Ryuji, Morgana, Ann, Yusuke, Makoto, Futaba, and Haru, were currently in Shinjuku's red-light district. While normally, it was taboo for high school students to be in this part of town at night, law enforcement had bigger problems to worry about with the constant villain attacks going on around the city.
"Ugh, so you're sayin' you don't even know where this place is?" Ryuji whined, turning to Morgana.
"Look, I said I knew about it. I didn't say I'd exactly been there before." Morgana retorted.
The 8 of them had been wandering around for close to 15 minutes now with no luck. Everyone was either too drunk, too busy trying to sell them something, or more concerned with hitting on the girls in their group to actually give any proper directions.
"Excuse me! Young man with the fluffy black hair!" A voice called from Ren's right. Turning to the source, he saw that the voice belonged to a young woman with long blonde hair sitting at a small table in front of an apartment building.
"Sorry, I'm not interested in buying anything." Ren replied, turning to rejoin his group.
"No charge! I sense something...special about you. I simply must do a reading with you, please!" The woman put her hands together in a desperate plea.
"Um, alright. Guys I'll be right…" He looked over, only to see his group had disappeared without him. "Oookay then." He walked over to the stall and sat in the seat across from the woman. Ironically, despite all of the things he encountered in the past few months, Ren was a skeptic and held no belief in the supernatural, but he figured he'd humor this woman. "So do you read my palm or…"
"Here." She held out a deck of cards. "Take 3 of them and set them on the table face down." Ren complied, drawing 3 cards from the deck at random and placing them on the table.
"And now, we shall take a look at your past." She flipped over the first card and an image of a tower being struck by lightning appeared. "The Tower." She said with a sad expression. "You've experienced a sudden and overwhelming change. One that has resulted in great tragedy for you. I'm so sorry for that." Her expression showed genuine sorrow towards the boy in front of her, as if she'd actually glanced into his past.
'That was weird.' Ren thought to himself. 'Pretty lucky guess.'
"Next, your present." She flipped the card in the middle to reveal an image of a naked man and woman with an angel floating between them. "The Lovers. Two major arcana in one draw, I was right, you are special." She said with a smile. "Despite your tragedy you have found people that you love and who love you back. Some more than you may think." She said with a wink. "It's good to see that you seem to be doing well despite what has happened to you."
'She probably just saw me walking around with my friends, that's how she guessed. Still though, weird I drew that card now.'
"And finally, your future. Are you prepared?" She asked, almost as if warning him.
'Well, I've made it this far. Might as well see it through.' He thought before responding. "Yes."
She flipped the final card to reveal an image of a skeleton drawing a scythe along an empty field. "Oh my…" She gasped.
"What is it?" Ren couldn't help but be curious now. He leaned in to get a closer look at the card.
"Your final card is...Death." She said quietly.
"So...I'm going to die soon?" Ren asked, feeling his stomach drop. Sure this was all just make-believe to him, but still...he couldn't help but want to hear some good news for a change.
"Not...Necessarily." She said quietly. "Death can mean many things, it can be a metaphorical death. A death of a part of yourself...But this card…" She turned back to the third card, looking at it as though it was evil. "The negative energy I sense from it...It can't be for just one person. Something...Something terrible will happen in the near future. To the entire city. And for whatever reason...I believe you will be at the epicenter of this." She looked up at Ren with fear in her eyes.
Not knowing what to do now, and honestly feeling creeped out, Ren got up from the stool and backed away from the stall. All the while, the woman stared at him with a shocked look in her eyes. He backed up into the street before bumping into someone and nearly falling onto his ass. He would've fallen, if it hadn't been for the pair of arms reaching out to catch him.
"There you are dude!" Ryuji said cheerfully as he lifted Ren up onto his feet. "We lost you for a bit back there. Where were you?"
"I um…" He turned back to where the stall was, only for it to be blocked by the crowd. "It's nothing. Did we find the place?"
"Hell yeah dude! It's just up the road, c'mon the others are waiting for us!" He guided Ren to the building they were looking for and the two of them entered through the front door.
"There you are Ren!" Ann greeted as the others turned to him.
"Is this everyone?" A deep, gravelly voice asked from the front of the group.
"Yep that was our last person." Ann replied, turning back to the person in front.
"Excellent. My name is Lala Escargot and I'm the owner here." Lala gestured towards the inside of the club. "Now, would you like to go out on the floor or would you like to rent a room for an hour? Rooms are a bit more expensive and the service won't be as quick, but there's a variety of features to entertain yourselves with in there like karaoke."
"We'll just go out on the dance floor, right everybody?" Ryuji asked. The rest of the group nodded and entered the dance floor.
As they got onto the floor, there were colorful lights flashing from the ceiling and a large crowd of people dancing in the center. To the right of the floor was a bar and to the left were private rooms that groups could rent out for an hour at a time.
"It's kind of loud here don't you think?" Ren asked the group, but it was drowned out by the loud music.
"What?" Makoto asked, trying to hear him over the noise.
Quickly, the group of 8 was forced apart as the crowd unintentionally pushed them each in a different direction.
Futaba, being the shortest of the group, and the most socially anxious, was too small to see her friends over the crowd and too shy to push her way back where she came. As she desperately searched for any familiar figures, she was caught by surprise when an elbow hit her on the head and almost knocked off her glasses.
"R-Ren? Ren!" She called desperately, trying to find him. Crouching down and hugging her arms she began to panic. 'I should've stayed home!'
Yusuke, being about as strong as a baby kitten, was powerless to stop the crowd from pushing him towards the center of the crowd. When he finally managed to catch himself before falling, he found himself face to face with a woman in a shining golden dress wearing an ungodly amount of jewelry.
"Hey there pretty boy." The woman said as she turned to Yusuke. "What do you think about my dress?" She smiled and winked.
"Well, if you must know. That amount of gold is garish and harmful to the eye. If I had to make a few changes I would…" He trailed off as he approached the woman and began adjusting her dress for her.
"Hey! Get away from me you creep!" She slapped him and sent him whirling back into the crowd.
Makoto and Haru had coincidentally been pushed in the same direction and ended up running straight into a large man wearing several golden chains around his neck. At first annoyed by the fact that someone bumped into him, his expression changed when he looked down and saw the two young girls in front of him.
"We're very sorry about that sir." Makoto apologized.
"No problem." He responded with a smirk. "You girls 18? How would you two like to star in a movie? You could make a lot of money."
"Oh are you a director?" Haru asked excitedly. "We have a friend named Ann who's a model and aspiring actress! Could she be in your movie too?"
Smiling even wider now, the man nodded his head. "Sure she can be in it too, I think it would make the viewers even happier."
"Nope." Makoto grabbed Haru and pulled her away, much to the latter girl's confusion.
Ryuji stumbled backwards as a large man pushed him aside and ended up being caught by two pairs of arms who helped him back onto his feet. Scratching the back of his neck awkwardly, he turned to the men who had just helped him.
"Sorry dudes! Didn't mean to bump into you." He apologized.
"Oh it's no problem at all honey." One of the men said in a flamboyant tone.
Getting a closer look at them, these two men seemed way too old to be at the club. Easily in their late 40s, one man was dressed in a sweater with hearts on it while the other wore a rainbow sweater. Both men were wearing bright red lipstick and pouting their lips at him.
"Umm, I should go…" Ryuji promptly excused himself before being grabbed by the arm.
"Hold on honey, before you go, we need to adjust your outfit to show off your inner man!" The other man said. "A strapping young man like yourself could use a bit of fashion advice. Come with us." It wasn't a request as the two men began to drag Ryuji off.
"Wait! Wait! R-Ren? Ren!" He called desperately in hopes of being saved.
Ren meanwhile had just found himself in the center of a group of dancing middle-aged women who were incredibly drunk. Judging by the sash and tiara one of them was wearing, he figured he had just stumbled into the middle of a bachelorette party. And the looks these women were giving him scared him more than any villain he had faced yet.
"Um, hi ladies." He gave a weak wave. "Sorry to interrupt, but if you'll just excuse meee." He tried slipping past but was pushed back into the center.
"Look girls! Looks like the stripper made it after all!" One of the women shouted, pointing at Ren.
"C'mon Sexy! Dance for us!" Another one yelled, splashing her drink onto his shirt.
'I feel objectified.' Ren thought as the women began yelling more commands at him.
Ann managed to be pushed outside of the crowd and in front of a booth. "Damn, clubs are vicious." She said aloud as she looked at the dancing crowd.
"Hey!" A voice came from behind her. "You said a swear word!"
Ann turned around and saw two small children, a boy and a girl, and one baby in a cradle sitting in the booth. "What the?" She looked around but saw no adult nearby. "Someone brought children to a club? Who's kids are these?" She asked but the crowd ignored her.
"Mama's having a party with her friends. She couldn't find a babysitter so she told us to sit here and play with our coloring books." The girl said, coloring in a page with a purple crayon.
"Oookay." Ann said, wondering just what kind of mother these children had. Before she could ask anything else, the baby began to cry in its cradle. When neither of the siblings did anything about it, Ann began to panic. "What's wrong with it?" She asked leaning in to inspect the baby.
"She's hungry. Mom usually gives her milk around this time." The boy said, not looking up from his book.
"Where's her bottle then? I'll feed her."
"She doesn't use a bottle." The boy responded.
It took Ann a moment to realize what that meant, when she finally did her eyes widened in horror. "That. Is not. Happening." So instead, she attempted to calm the crying child by rocking it back and forth.
"ANN! Oh thank goodness!" A voice called from behind the blonde and she felt a pair of arms wrap around her leg in a desperate hug. "I thought I lost you forever!"
Looking down, Ann realized it was another baby in need of her help, only this one had long orange hair and glasses. When she raised her head, Ann spotted the rest of her friends walking towards her tiredly, all in various states of dishevelment.
Yusuke's face had a large red handprint across his cheek. Makoto and Haru were covered in glitter for some reason. Ren's shirt was torn in various places and he had several 1000 yen bills tucked into his waistband. And Ryuji was wearing an entirely different outfit than the one he'd been wearing when they entered, honestly this one looked better on him.
"What happened to you guys?" Ann asked the group.
"I don't wanna talk about it." They responded in unison.
"Where's Morgana?" Makoto noticed the one member they were missing.
As if to answer her question, the blue haired boy appeared nearby. Out of the entire group, he looked the worst for wear. His eye had a bruise swelling beneath it and his nose was bleeding.
"Oh my god! What happened to you?" Ann asked, concerned.
"I...I got into a fight. There were like 3 other guys and they were harassing a girl and I stepped in to stop them. They got a few licks in but I managed to fend them off." He played the situation off coolly.
"Wow Morgana, that's incredible!" Haru commented.
Suddenly, a group of loud college boys passed by and one of them pointed to Morgana. "I'm telling you dude! I saw it with my own eyes! Dude slipped on an ice cube and fell right on his face! I got the whole thing on video, I'll send it to you!"
The rest of the group turned back to face Morgana who just stared at the ground and sighed. "This sucks."
"Hey!" A woman's voice yelled from the crowd. The group turned and saw a middle-aged woman approaching them aggressively. "Get the hell away from my kids!"
A few minutes and an awkward explanation later, the teens finally found themselves in some more comfortable accommodations.
"Ahh, this is much better." Ryuji said, leaning back in his cushioned seat.
After their, less than ideal experience on the dance floor, the group had instead opted to rent out one of the rooms in the back for an hour. The room was stocked full of entertainment, a karaoke machine, a TV, and a table full of drinks (Makoto had made sure to ask for non-alcoholic ones).
"You ever gonna explain how you changed clothes?" Ann asked as she took a sip from her drink.
"Never." Ryuji said, curling up in a ball and shivering. "I never even want to think of it again."
"So, what should we do now?" Yusuke asked, stirring his drink with the straw.
"Ooh! Ooh! I have an idea!" Futaba raised her hand before reaching into her coat and pulling out several thin wooden objects. When she set them out on the table, it became clear that they were chopsticks and each one had a number on it counting from 2 to 8 save for one which had a red tip instead.
"Um Futaba?" Haru asked, examining one of the chopsticks. "What are these for exactly?"
"You mean you don't know!?" Futaba asked, clearly excited.
"We're gonna play the King's Game!"