About a dozen of us packed into Mizuhara's "puzzling crypt," a side room on the ground floor decorated in tombstones and casket imagery. There, Mizuhara had her laptop set up for a party game she called Whispers of the Dead. In this spooky guessing game, one team of "dead" players would try to communicate a word or phrase to their living teammate without saying a number of forbidden words. The twist was that one member of each other team could jump in and try to steal a point for their team instead, with the right answer. Each team would take turns for a couple rounds, and we'd see who got the most clues right.
For this game, we split into three teams. Mizuhara and I were on one team with Sasapai and Shinbo. I didn't know anyone on the other teams, but a mummy girl was captain of the second team, and a guy dressed as a viking warrior headed the third team. For the first turn, our team would give the clues. Mizuhara operated the computer from the side, so everyone on the other teams, sitting at the back of the room, could see the word on the screen and the forbidden words beneath it. The representatives of each team, three in total trying to guess clues, went to the front of the room, between the giant caskets.
Sasapai, dressed as a Man in Black, was our first guesser, and we chose a clue theme of popular music. That was pretty much in my wheelhouse; you don't work in a karaoke parlor for long without learning just about everything there is to know about what's popular in terms of music. Unfortunately, Sasapai wasn't all he was cracked up to be. When the peggies came up, I only got through about two bars of "Love Trip" before Team Mummy's captain pounced on it. Fortunately, under Mizuhara's rules, we got a point whenever we managed to have a clue guessed, even if another team answered it, but the other team got a point, too, so it felt like we were treading water a bit. In the end, after Sasapai's turn guessing, we had 12 points. Team Mummy had 7, and Team Viking had 3, so out of 11 clues that were answered, Sasapai only got one for us to claim the double dip.
"Sorry!" said Sasapai when he got back to our group. "I guess I thought I knew more about music than I really did."
"It's all right; it's all right!" said Shinbo. "We'll get 'em on the next one."
We quickly realized that the best strategy was to put our most knowledgeable person about a topic up there to guess. When Team Mummy tried to do movies, Mizuhara was out of her seat and standing up to guess before any of us could talk about it, and boy was she good. She wiped the floor with the others, stealing 8 out of 12 clues. I had never even heard of "Rosebud," whatever that was. Something about a sled?
Unfortunately, Mizuhara had skewed most of the topics toward spooky material for Halloween. That meant an entire category on monsters of folklore, which none of us knew that much about, but Shinbo was going to give it her all. In the end, the Viking dude of all people took home the most points in that category for his team, and Shinbo just tried to get in a staring contest with him to make some play at intimidation. "We know that guy," is all she would say, trying to respect the rules of the party. "I didn't realize he was such a smartass, too."
Then it was my turn, unofficially, as everybody had to go up there to take questions at least once. Mizuhara tried to choose the best category for me—sea creatures. Well, I'd do my best, but I was put up against someone dressed as a tengu and someone else like a woman with snake hair? And I knew if I didn't get most of the answers first, I'd be putting my own hobby to shame.
First clues: "It would stab you if it could!" said Shinbo. I'm sorry, what?
"It needs to be uncaged!" cried Mizuhara.
"Oh, a killer whale!" I answered.
There was a pleasant chime from the laptop, and Mizuhara moved on to the next clue. "They say it looks like a tool!" Sasapai yelled out.
"Hammerhead shark!" said the guy in the tengu costume beside me.
A chime again.
"They waddle, they live on a rocky island…" said Mizuhara.
Oh god, she was describing some kind of bird. My knowledge of sea creatures began and ended with things that swam in the water. Winged beasts were absolutely off limits! My eyes crossed, and I thought of the only waddling bird-like thing I could remember. "Uh… a… porg?"
The room burst out laughing, and it dawned on me with creeping horror that a porg was a bird that did not exist on Earth in contemporary times. It was from a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.
"A puffin?" said the snake-haired woman.
Mizuhara looked like I'd just kicked her in the shin, but she dutifully pressed on the keyboard, and there was a happy chime as we moved on to the next clue. I couldn't even tell you what it was; the whole rest of my turn up there was a fog to me, and I think I only got one or two more points before the timer ran out.
"It's all right, it's hard," said Shinbo, who had taken her cowgirl hat off to make room for the rest of us in the tight space. "We'll catch up."
I just nodded at her and sat back down between her and Mizuhara. "I would've said porg too at first," said Mizuhara. "I didn't know what the real birds were called until recently."
That was nice to hear, but it didn't take any of the sting away. I could've looked cool for a solid minute, and instead I just flubbed it.
Mizuhara liked that even less than my mistake up there in front of everyone. She slapped my back. "Chin up," she insisted. "We're not out of this yet."
But we were rapidly sliding out of it. Sasapai managed to hold his own on clues about racing and motorcycles, and Shinbo stole a couple about British mythology and spirits, but Team Mummy was way in the lead, and Team Viking had edged us out for second place. Though Mizuhara remained steady, I admit I was still feeling down about it. That's not how you should be at a party, and I knew this was just for bragging rights and a paper-thin certificate of superiority. Still, I wanted to win, and it sucked having let the others down.
For our last turn trying to give clues for double points, Mizuhara didn't love the options for categories until one of them caught her eye. She turned the laptop toward me. "Shall we give this one a shot, Mr. Fish?"
I looked at the screen and laughed. "I couldn't think of anything better for it to be your turn up there, could I?"
"Why, Mr. Fish, just what are you implying?" she said with a wink, and she hopped up to the front, leaving the laptop in my hands. "Ready!" she said.
The first clue: "Somewhere you can hit a 1 or a 10, and they're both equally good!" I cried.
The room erupted in laughter, and Mizuhara's competitors looked at each other in confusion, but Mizuhara was right as rain. "Bowling," she said.
Correct! For the next clue, Sasapai came up with the first idea. "Where being on the plus side is a bad thing," he said.
Mizuhara frowned for just a moment before it came to her. "Golf!"
Correct! Third clue, courtesy of Shinbo: "It has its ups and downs." I added, "Screaming!" and I raised my hands in the air.
"Roller coaster!" said Mizuhara. Close enough, it was the amusement park, but man, she was good at this. She was good at this, but we trusted her, too, with vague clues that weren't so direct that the other teams would pick up on them immediately. And who knows, maybe we just got a little lucky. After all, who else but God could offer us dating spots and activities as a category to Chizuru Mizuhara?
When our turn was over, Mizuhara had taken 10 of 12 clues, and we'd netted a total of 21 points for the turn. Not bad! It put us all the way in first, however briefly. I knew it wouldn't last long—Team Mummy was only 5 points behind with their turn for double points next—but it was a great feeling being on top for just a little while, and when we headed back to our seats in the back of the room, Mizuhara high-fived with each of us. We were all so pumped up over a party game; it was silly! And it was beautiful, in a way.
Even with Mizuhara's incredible run in the final round, we still came in last place when it was all said and done, but I'll be damned if we weren't the best losers on the planet that night, and once the game was over, we all got to intermingle a bit. Mizuhara and Sasapai went over to Mr. Viking to talk about mythology with him, and Miss Mummy stopped by to talk about the ocean animals, music, and Star Wars. "You knew every single song they had to give clues on," the mummy observed. "That was really something!"
I didn't think it was anything much, just a side effect of my job, but we got to talking, and the mummy promised to take some of her friends to our karaoke parlor sometime. Man, I needed to ask my boss for a referral bonus! Some of the mummy's friends joined us, too, and they were all supportive of my mistake earlier. "I knew what they really looked like," one of them said, "but I'd never heard of a puffin."
Mizuhara had no other games planned, so people could come and go as they pleased after that, and in fact, I caught her trying to stealthily sneak away with her laptop while everyone else was talking. "And just where are you going, Miss Fairy?" I said, catching up to her in the hall.
She shot me a coy smile. "I'm just protecting what's mine now that it's served its purpose. What about you? Having fun?"
"A blast!" I said. "That was such a great party game! Thanks for putting it together."
"Nonsense," she said as she stashed her laptop with some of the other hosts' belongings in an unused bedroom. "I played only a small part. You all made it work."
If I hadn't known better, I might've thought she was playing a role for me again, like the "perfect girlfriend," but this persona she'd adopted for the night was different—not overblown cute and affectionate but more neutral, showing flashes of warmth only when they seemed appropriate, and not as blunt as I was accustomed to her being with me. I'd always thought she was just honest and straightforward in that way, but maybe I was wrong? Was this what she would be like if we'd never met? Or if we hadn't met under such awkward circumstances?
"What's on your mind?" she asked me, arms folded as we stood opposite each other in the hallway.
I told her it was nothing, but she wasn't buying that.
"Well, if you say so," she said, showing me a little bit of that blunt side that I'd been missing. "I hope you don't have some silly idea that you're dragging the party—or anything else—down. It wouldn't be nearly as much fun without you."
Was that what she was trying to tell me? If anything I felt worse that she felt the need to do something to help me realize something so simple, but this was no time to dwell on my insecurities. Even though she was still acting sort of like a stranger, there was some truth to what she was saying, right?
"Anyway," she said with a worn-out sigh, "I should take a look and see how things are going elsewhere. I am helping run this party, after all."
"I'll walk with you," I said.
She'd just taken one step forward but stopped immediately. "You will?"
"If you'll have me, Miss Fairy?" I said, hoping I hadn't overstepped. "I'd like to see a little more of the party, too, and, uh, I know I would enjoy the company."
Mizuhara stared at me for a moment before the corners of her lips turned upward. "I hope you don't tell all the girls that, Mr. Fish."
"I–I would never!" I cried, and if not for my green face makeup, I think I would've been as white as a sheet.
"In that case…" She offered her hand. "Lead the way."
That night was the first time I ever held her hand for real, and even though we let go once we came back into the main room, she looked at me and nodded, and I nodded back at her. It was, like our masks, just for appearances.