Begin!
~Normal POV
Sendai was a large and peaceful enough looking place. Akira had never traveled this far so this was new territory for him as well. Nothing looked suspicious about it so far. They parked the camper in Mount Aoba Park. Makoto first made sure to ask the park officials for permission to sleep here tonight before they jumped into their discussion.
"Can you still smell it," Akira asked.
"Yes, I'm sure of it." Sophia replied, "There's a Jail somewhere in this city."
"At least we know for sure there is more than one Jail." Haru pointed out. "Which means there likely is one in Sapporo, too."
"A Jail means something rotten is going on here," Morgana said, "We can't leave without investigating."
"And how are we supposed to do that?" Futaba asked, "Sendai is a big place, and we don't know the area."
"We can start by checking the popular sightseeing spots," Haru suggested. "We might hear something if there's people around."
"Great thinking. And what's more, we're right here in Mount Aoba Park, home to the statue of Lord Masamune." Yusuke said, eagerly.
"Dude you can check it out tomorrow, let's get dinner first," Ryuji whined.
"Excuse me." Yusuke replied, offended. "There's no guarantee the statue will still be here come sunrise-"
"Inari, it's a fucking statue, it's not gonna get up and walk away; unless you're having a really bad fever dream…"
Yusuke tried to argue with that point about how they should relish the opportunities they had, but Akira stopped him.
"It's not that far, and Yusuke's not gonna drop it until we see it. Let's just stop there first, then we'll go find a restaurant." Akira said, taking control of the situation. He should have been accustomed to Yusuke and Futaba's sibling-like bickering, but sadly by this point he assumed he'd never get used to it.
~...
They walked up the path to the statue. It was free of other tourists at the moment, thankfully. The statue itself was of a man dressed in regal armor, riding on horseback. It was an impressive piece; they could see why Yusuke was so interested in it.
"Oh, this is what you were going on about…" Futaba commented. "He looks so cool! I bet he'd be cutting down Shadows left and right if he were in a Jail with us!"
"Such remarkable craftsmanship." Yusuke said, ignoring her comment and framing it with his hands in his usual manner. "It's truly the One-Eyed Dragon in all his glory!"
"He is pretty badass," Akira agreed.
"Indeed. I should have expected as much from such an icon," Yusuke replied, "We must come back during the day- hm?"
He looked down at the statue base. For whatever reason, there were a bunch of red and black flyers stuck to it all over. It only just now got their attention. On the flyers was an image of a purple skinned demon dressed like a king.
"The hell? I didn't know you could pin flyers on a statue," Ryuji said, curiously.
"You can't, it's defacing a public landmark," Makoto said.
Akira plucked a flyer off the statue to read it. "It's for 'Prince of Nightmares, Volume 1, 20th reissue celebration.' It's promoting a book."
"What a reprehensible miscreant," Yusuke said, frowning in disgust. "Putting up such tasteless flyers for their own gain."
Given that no one was around, they figured it was safe to take them down themselves. They quickly ripped all the papers from the statue base and disposed of them.
"Happy now, Yusuke?" Ryuji asked.
"Yes, now that I've seen the great Masamune. My apologies for taking so much of everyone's time. Let's move on."
~...
Sophia had picked a restaurant for them in the heart of Sendai. The place wasn't too busy at this hour, and wasn't too expensive, thankfully. The food was exceptionally good. (So much so that it made Yusuke tear up a bit.) Akira overheard a conversation from the table next to them talking about some famous author, but they didn't mention a name so it didn't hold his interest very long.
"Hey, let me have some too," Morgana whispered.
"I swear you are the noisiest cat on the planet." Ryuji whispered back. "Just ask Akira to split some with you."
Akira stealthily gave Morgana a bit of beef tongue to make him be quiet. "There, and if you want more you're gonna have to be patient." He said, quietly. "We don't want to risk getting kicked out."
Morgana chowed down on his treat appreciatively. "Thanks, Akira!"
"Not so loud, you idiot!" Ryuji whisper-shouted.
Their squabbling had attracted the attention of a woman seated at the bar nearby. "Hm? Is that a cat I hear?"
"Oh, shit…" Ryuji muttered.
The woman got up and approached Akira's side of their table, getting their attention. She was an average looking woman of an age they couldn't identify, but she appeared relatively young. She was dressed in a plain lab coat over a light blue shirt with white stripes and jeans. She had long chestnut brown hair with short bangs and a chain accessory hanging over her left ear, and had olive green eyes. She smiled at them in a polite manner.
"Am I hearing things?" She asked, "I could have sworn I heard a cat…"
Ann, who was sitting next to Akira, discreetly shoved his bag under his chair with her foot before replying. "Uh, nope! Not a real cat, at least… We were just… practicing our cat sounds!"
It seemed Ann's lying skills hadn't improved, and her feeble deception attempt was met with collective exasperation.
"You are so dead later, Panther…" Akira thought, slyly. He then said aloud in a playfully stiff tone. "Yes. Like my girl here just said. Practicing. It's a work in progress though." Ann tried to avoid glaring at him for visibly making fun of her lie.
The woman wasn't amused or convinced. "Oh, come on. You're not fooling anyone. Sounds to me like he's in the bag of the gentleman with the glasses. Aw, that's sweet. You're sharing with your cat? I bet he's happy. You and your cat should partake in the finest beef tongue this restaurant has to offer-"
"Not so loud, lady!" Ryuji said, quickly.
"Oh! Sorry, sorry." The woman said, looking briefly apologetic. She cleared her throat. "By the way, is this your first time having Sendai beef tongue? I should tell you the oxtail soup's to die for! Did you know oxtail soup is packed with collagen? A lot of people seem to think it's good for your skin. They say it's not as effective when ingested, but there's a fair number of reports that suggest otherwise. Human cognition can be quite misleading. You may think you feel a change when none has occurred. This is the placebo effect and…"
She kept going on a long tangent. It was very off putting. There was something odd about her. She seemed pleasant enough but her rambling was so strange. She didn't even notice they weren't listening anymore.
"Does she even notice us talking right now?" Ann asked.
"The overwhelming onslaught of pointless info," Futaba said, observantly. "Yep. We got ourselves a nerd, people."
"Uh, sorry about the bag thing…" Ryuji spoke up, getting the woman's attention at last.
"Hm? Oh, you mean the cat? Don't worry, I won't tell." She replied, simply. "By the way, are you all students? You look quite young."
"Of varying levels, yes." Akira answered, "Why?"
"I see! So, you'll be taking your college entrance exams soon! Decided on a university yet?" The woman then blinked in realization. "Oh, forgive me! I haven't even introduced myself! I'm Kuon Ichinose, I work as a researcher at Toho University. Hey, you guys should come check out the campus! It's way up in the mountains but it's a lot of fun. Lots of bears this season too."
"Bears?!" Futaba said, fearfully.
"We're kinda busy, lady…" Ryuji said, trying to hide his own fearful expression. "We don't have the time…"
"I see, I see." Ichinose said. "Yes, it's important that you do what you want while you're still young. Allow me to impart a little treat till next we meet." She handed Ryuji a small hard candy from her coat pocket. "Farewell, young ones." She then left at last.
For a while, nobody spoke, until finally Akira said, "...What the hell was that?"
"She was… weirdly energetic…" Ann said.
"Perhaps, but we should be grateful she didn't tell on us," Makoto said.
"Sorry, that was my fault…" Morgana said, softly.
"Be more careful next time," Akira warned; he then handed the cat another piece of food before they settled back into finishing their meal.
~...
Once they had finished eating they arrived back in Sendai station on their way back to the park. That business with Ichinose was strange but they figured they didn't have to pay it any mind. She was unlikely to run into them again anyway.
"I'm stuffed…" Ryuji said, contentedly.
"How you can eat five bowls of rice is beyond me…" Futaba commented. "Is your stomach a black hole or something?"
"Look, if they're offering free refills, then you can bet I'm ordering them."
"Indeed. You can eat the first bowl and focus exclusively on the glistening of the meat. Then the aroma on the next and so on," Yusuke said, sagely.
"Pretty sure that's just you, dude." Ryuji replied.
"Well, I will say the food here certainly is delicious!" Haru gushed.
"Yeah, good job, Sophia!" Ann added.
"It was, as they say, a piece of cake," Sophia said, modestly.
"We should leave where we eat up to Sophia now," Ryuji said. He then glanced at a spot near them outside the station. "...What's going on over there?"
They turned their attention to where he was pointing. There was a huge crowd of people gathered around outside. They were shouting excitedly and scrambling to get a better look at someone at the head of the pack. It was a tall, thin, young man with a very suave air about him. He had chin length copper colored hair and a small mole on the left side of his nose. He was wearing rimless, square, rose-colored glasses and had narrow brown eyes with thin eyebrows. He was wearing a handsome black waistcoat and matching black pants, with black driving gloves, and a purple bolo tie. He appeared to be the type of person who took great pride in his appearance. He was accompanied by a guard.
The suave man laughed while addressing the crowd; his voice was smooth and pleasant. "Thank you for all your support! Whoa, hold on now, only one autograph per person, please! Oh, my apologies, but could the men please go to the back of the line? Ladies first, you see."
"Who's that?" Ryuji asked.
"I don't know, but he looks pretty popular," Akira said.
"Someone in the crowd said something about a book." Makoto added. "He must be a writer."
"Anyone you know, Akira," Morgana asked.
Akira looked at the man again curiously. "...Nope, doesn't look familiar to me."
The "writer" happened to notice the gang standing around away from the rest of the crowd. It made them appear very out of place, since they weren't vying for his attention. He did a double take in Haru's direction. He then smiled and fixed up his already perfect hair before approaching her.
"Hello there." He greeted, flirtatiously. "Are you looking for an autograph, as well? Or perhaps a handshake?" He didn't seem to notice Haru had her arm around Ryuji's, which is usually a sign of someone being "unavailable" for such comments. As a result, this willful ignorance was making Ryuji pissed off, but he tried to keep a lid on it to not cause a scene.
"Oh, no thank you-" Haru said, politely, but the man interrupted her.
"Oh, how terribly rude of me to keep such a lovely fan waiting…" The man continued. He then got down on one knee in a grand gesture and pulled a small novel from his coat pocket to present to her. "Please, accept this as a token of my apology, yes? Don't worry, I've already signed it." He finished, flashing her a charming smile.
Haru shifted uncomfortably from the sudden gesture. "Really, there's no need. We were just passing by…" She said, trying to remain friendly.
The man seemed to hear her this time. "Ah. Is that so? Sorry, it seems I got a little ahead of myself."
Makoto was standing nearest to the scene, and read aloud the title of the book he was holding out. "Prince of Nightmares by Ango Natsume."
Ango stood up and dusted off his pants as if nothing odd had happened just now. "Yours truly. Ango Natsume. It's a pleasure." He said, bowing.
"Prince of Nightmares…" Haru repeated, thoughtfully. "That's the name from those flyers on the Masamune statue."
Ango blinked in shock at this information. "My flyers on the Masamune statue!? Surely, you don't think that was my doing! Ah, I think I know what happened… That's most likely the work of some of my more zealous fans. I appreciate them promoting my work, but it appears they went overboard somewhat. Honestly, they can be a real handful sometimes." He then switched back into his flirtatious manner. "Allow me to apologize on their behalf. In exchange, allow me to offer you a kiss-"
Ryuji couldn't take another second of this and finally snapped. "Uh, no, you creepy bastard! That's my girlfriend!"
Ango looked at Ryuji as if he'd just noticed him for the first time. "Your girlfriend?" He then chuckled deeply and addressed Haru. "You would shine your light of love onto this boorish ignoramus?"
Haru narrowed her eyes in offense. "Yes, I would." She said, coldly. "He's a lot more respectful than you. Now, if you would kindly stop intruding upon our company? We're busy with our friends here."
"More respect-" Ango said, indignantly. "Do you seriously think you can get away with speaking to me like that?!"
"If you got a problem, talk to me, asshole." Ryuji said, glaring at him.
"Mr. Natsume…" The guard said, checking his watch.
Ango sighed. "Ah, it seems I must be going. I've got a magazine interview to get to." He turned and bowed to the crowd of adoring fans. "To all those who have read my book, I thank you from the bottom of my heart!" He then left with his escort while the crowd applauded.
"Oh, he's so dreamy!" One delusional woman said. "I'll have to buy ten more copies tomorrow to show him just how much I care!" Once the crowd finally dispersed, the gang was left to process what just happened.
"Ugh, who was that repulsive man," Yusuke asked.
"I don't know if he was some local bigshot or something, but he sure was pissing me off," Ryuji said. "You alright, Haru?"
Haru hugged his arm gratefully. "I'm fine. Thank you, honey."
"He was a strange one for sure," Sophia chimed in. "But the people around him seemed really happy. Why was that?"
"Good question," Ann said. "How did a jerk like that get so popular? It doesn't make any sense!" She glanced at Akira, who was distractedly watching where Ango walked off to. "...Akira?"
Akira was busy thinking. As a lover of books, he personally didn't agree with the idea of autographing them. He understood the mentality behind getting an autograph, but to deface a precious novel with a pen was a crime he couldn't forgive. Even if it was from the author who wrote it. But that wasn't what put him on alert. It was the comment that one woman in the crowd had made just now that set him off.
"...Who in god's name buys ten extra copies of a book they already own?" Akira asked, aloud. "That is fucking ridiculous…" He smirked as one possible explanation dropped into this head. "Guys, I think we might have found our Monarch."
~End of Chapter
