Faced with three men bearing sharp teeth and black eyes staring into their souls, the duo see that Al didn't necessary check for every variable.
"We know what you are," Lila tried telling them, though trying to fit in 'samito' into an established language like Japanese isn't easy, "you're samito, aren't you?"
It gave the three men pause as they stared at Lila, before the man with the shiny black leather jacket affirmed that they're samebito.
Still samito, but close enough, and it's something the two were familiar with, so that's something.
"How'd you know?" Lila heard the man ask her as the two men behind her and Theodore stare with their heads tilted.
Weakly shrugging, Lila says, "You can say we're travelers and you're not the only ones we met, but look, we don't want trouble, and you don't want trouble with a pair of idiots, either."
Trying to remain civil, Lila used what she knew to communicate with the three samebito, telling them that they're not the only ones and that it'd be better if they don't risk police activity.
"She's right, Ryu, knock it off, I've had enough of you three making trouble for tonight. I'm not in the mood paying off the officers, either," Lila heard a woman abruptly speak up and she sees a woman walking towards them, wearing a black strapless dress with an accompanying black feathery boa wrapped around her shoulders, draped over her pale arms.
Her black heels clacking against the ground, the woman stood adjacent to the five, crossing her pale arms as she looked disapprovingly to the scene, calling out the two other men as Jigen and Saito, they immediately closed their mouths, standing aside as the woman stood in front of Theodore and Lila, looking them over before briefly turning back to the men.
Leering at the men, the woman told them to "smooth their skins" and stop showing their teeth at Theodore, and they listened unquestionably.
Turning back, the woman blinks as she stares at Theodore and Lila.
"Hm, I can see why you'd come after them, but you already made a mess of those yakuza the other week, don't you think it'd be better if you didn't go after the tourists?" Lila hears the woman showing displeasure that the men went after what she called tourists, after killing yakuza not too long ago, before turning her attention to Lila.
Close to see her face, Lila sees the woman clearly, she looked no older than twenty, slightly shorter than Lila, black hair tied in an updo with a red sash, her pale skin smooth, and her black eyes gleamed under the neon lights above.
"You must forgive them, they're prone to acting irrationally when they catch a sniff they like. I try my best, you must believe me, but children often don't listen to their mother very well," the woman apologized for her sons' harassing her and Theodore, claiming that it's difficult trying to raise them, but with a tourist destination like Tokyo, they're bound to cause trouble with someone.
Blinking, Lila exhaled, "Wait, you're their mother, you look like you're fresh out of high school!"
Her hand over her mouth, the woman giggled at this, taking it as a compliment, before telling Lila that she's far older than she looked.
"I am curious, none of the tourists ever knew of our kind, everyone here does through the legends, but we don't want them to know, for obvious reasons," the woman frowns at the end of her sentence, as she stated that they hide amongst tourists and natives alike, well-aware of the chances of their discovery would lead to chaos.
Turning her head towards Theodore, Lila says, "Trust us, we're no strangers."
Looking at Theodore, the woman remarked that he's a demon, but Lila assured her that Theodore's cuddly, aloof, but cuddly, causing her to giggle once more.
"Mama, what do you want us to do?" Ryu asked his mother and she told him that he and his brothers are going to ask for forgiveness from Theodore and Lila, then they'll take them to their bar, pay for their drinks as further an apology.
Crossing her arms, their mother sternly demanded them to beg for forgiveness for acting foolish and almost getting into trouble, again.
The brothers flinched before they saw their mother's ire in her black eyes before they got on their knees and begged for Theodore and Lila's forgiveness and they accepted it.
"I'm curious, where did you come from?" Theodore abruptly asked Mama how she and her sons ended up in Japan, in perfect Japanese, and it stunned Lila hearing the aloof giant converse with Mama as she described how it happened.
It happened during a tsunami, washed them out of the sea, they were injured by the force of the waves and the debris in the water, that they stayed ashore while they healed.
By the time they did, they grew to like Japan, and adapted to it, turning their once sandy scaled skin to the traditional pale skins they saw in the art galleries.
"I figured running a bar's an easy job, humans like their drinks, and I like company," Mama tells them as she walked them along Akihabara, describing how she decided that she'll open a bar, seeing how they're everywhere, and have company willing to talk to her over drinks.
It's small, hard to find unless someone knows where to look, but she gets regulars every night, and she learnt a lot about humans, and what they're like.
Her sons, they're bulls, they're having difficulties adjusting to the humans, but she hoped they'll grow out of it, and soon.
"What about the yakuza?" Theodore inquired about the incident and Mama says that it's a delicate matter for them interfering with humans, but her sons weren't fond of them.
Snorting, Ryu states, "They were picking our neighour, an old lady, over stupid things!"
Next to their bar, an old woman runs a tea shop, and a pair of yakuza threatened her, wanting her to sell her family-owned tea shop so they could put a pachinko parlor there, instead.
Catching wind of this, Ryu and his brothers "met" with the yakuza and discussed their disapproval over the yakuza threatening an old woman who was kind to them, giving them treats.
"You didn't have to bite their arms off, Ryu," his mother told him as she reached out and opened the door to their bar, inside it looked nicer than it did outside, which Mama says that she didn't have enough money after paying off the officers to fix up the outside.
She motioned with her pale hand for the duo to take a seat at the bar, black granite counters and neon red bar stools, the walls lined with different alcohol behind them.
"So, what are a pair of travelers doing here?" Mama went around the counter to take her spot while her sons took their place at the pool table, playing their games to the tune of clacking pool balls.
Theodore tells her that it was meant to be his birthday celebration and she congratulated him on his birthday, which he thanked her.
She poured him a shot of an aged whisky as a congratulatory drink, which he swallowed in seconds, and it hit his stomach quick.
Smooth, smoky, but not astringent.
"We get birthday revelers more than once, though I think they need to learn more from books than those shows," Mama frowns as she collected the empty whisky glass, pouring him another drink, before giving Lila a whisky glass for hers.
Lila knew what she meant, saying that people don't often think before they do, and get the wrong impression from what they watch.
"I remember when we had some here last year, I guess they played one of those dating games, and tried to flirt with me. Men no older than him, I don't think they figured it out, but they got too ornery for my taste, so I had Jigen and Saito throw them out," Mama recalled an incident with birthday revelers who mistakenly though that the dating games they played would've translated into real life.
Mama didn't know anything about them until after that fact, but it was weird to her that the men flirted with, at least, an hundred year old samebito, but some of those shows and books people read these days, maybe had something to do with it.
They never realized that she wasn't human, just masquerading, and while that was great for Mama, she wished she could've told them that she wasn't what they thought she was.
"I wonder about these humans, sometimes," Mama sighed as she poured Theodore and Lila more drinks.
After pouring their drinks, Mama excused herself to talk with her sons, wanting them to get food in the kitchen started, leaving Lila to reel at the fact that Theodore knew Japanese all-along and never told her.
"You'd think you know a guy after spending time with him from the beginning of the universe's existence to the time we were stuck in that small fishing town in Wales!" Lila crossed her arms as she spoke with Theodore in English and he admitted that he didn't want to tell her this early, but the unfolding events didn't help in the matter.
"Why didn't you tell me, sooner?" Lila questioned why Theodore would keep this information from her, having not simply told her that he knew, and that's why he didn't take up her offer of lending him her knowledge.
Shirking in his spot, Theodore responds, "I wanted it to be a surprise."
He didn't want to tell her until a certain point in the birthday bash, leading Lila to asking him why he would still do it, it's his birthday, he'd have no reason to hide this from her.
"I… have my reasons," Theodore dodged her question, before Mama returned with empty bowls, setting them down in front of them, asking them to stay for a meal.
While they weren't harmed by her sons, Mama didn't want them leaving with a bad taste in their mouths, and wanted to make up for their transgression, seeing how they understood the nature of bulls.
"I'd like to go back to the sea, but I just don't think it's a good idea," Mama held her hand under her chin as she sat behind the counter while looking at Theodore and Lila.
Theodore inferred that it's because of what's in the ocean with them, but Mama gave a pragmatic reason, fishermen cutting off the dorsal fin of sharks and tossing them back into the waters.
It's getting better, with campaigning and protesting, the Diet has taken a stand against the practice, Mama hoping that it blossoms into a full-on ban.
"Yeah, mom never let us have dishes with them for that reason," Lila recalled her mother never letting them having any dish with shark fins in them, even if they were bred in farms, because she found the practice deplorable, and it stayed with Lila since.
Nodding, Mama sighs as she says that it's changing in the youth, they're not finding the dishes delectable like their parents and grandparents did, and taken to making alternatives, making them with different ingredients that mimicked shark fin, but didn't.
It's getting popular and Mama hoped for a better tomorrow for sharks like them.
"They're not blameless, but hopefully, they'll understand," Mama hopes.
Jigen calls out to her, coming around the bar with a tray of food, and she took them before serving portions of rice and beef curry to Theodore and Lila.
The aroma hit their noses and immediately their stomachs howled with desire.
They reasoned they'll just work it off when they're running for their lives again and so they dug in, conversing with Mama as she smoked from a long violet drab, smoke softly plumed.
"I hope you're staying in Japan for a little longer, I'd hate you to cut your trip short," Mama looked between them, before hearing that Theodore planned on staying for a few days, he and Lila were on vocation that correlated with his birthday, so he wanted to enjoy his time.
Her thin lips smiling, Mama suggested areas for them to visit during their stay, and they thanked her for her suggestions.
Helping cleaning up and getting to know Mama's sons better, the duo saw the time, it's nearly three in the morning.
Seeing this, Mama waved them off, telling them they better head out, find their way to their hotel, as the morning surge's always a difficult time to travel in, and Theodore thanked her for her time, but the tiny woman waved him and Lila off, before closing the door behind them.
"They seem nice," Lila commented in English as Theodore pulled on his stitched sleeve.
Nodding, his wild hair bobbing, Theodore says they are, once they aren't after them, and Lila noted that they're no more vulnerable to their urges than humans, although much more capable of causing damages.
"Well, enough of that, shall we?" Theodore sighed as he wanted to leave for their hotel and spend the rest of the night and much of the morning in their suite and Lila agreed, they've done themselves a disservice as it is, and she took his arm before walking with him into a rift he opened that transported them to the hotel.
THE END