Chapter 2: New World
The rest of the day was rather uneventful, but still the best day she ever had. She was happy, happier that she ever felt. Every second thought went back to the girl she met a few hours ago. What was she doing now? What did she like to eat? What kind of music did she like? Maybe she was a fan of B'z, like Tsubasa? Her mind flew through thousands of scenarios. She could hardly await the next day.
When it arrived, she swung herself out of bed. School could not have come early enough, so it can be over just as quick. And then she'd spent time with Kanade.
To her surprise, the girl was already waiting for her at their designated place. "Kanade?", she asked confused.
Kanade smiled brightly at the mentioning of her name. "Hey, Tsubasa! There you are. I was waiting."
"What… what are you doing here?"
"What do you mean? We said we'd meet up here, remember?"
"Yeah, and I was looking forward to it, but…" the grip around the strap of her bag tightened, "I thought after school."
Kanade's eyes wandered upwards as she thought for a second. "You're right, I guess we never talked about what time we are going to meet."
Tsubasa looked to the ground shamefully, "I'm sorry."
"Don't be, it wasn't your fault. But now that I'm already here, how about we hang out?"
"But I have to go to school."
Kanade carried a crooked grin, and without a second thought replied: "Just ditch it then."
Tsubasa stumbled over her words in shock. "I… wha… hu? I can't do that!"
"Why not?"
"Because I'd get in trouble! What if someone sees me?"
"We just have to be careful not to get spotted."
Tsubasa was torn. She never in her life skipped school. The thought never even occurred to her. She knew how important a good education was. Her family always told her to make something out of herself, and that could only happen if she visited school every day. But, on the other hand, Kanade was the first person she could consider a friend. She was the only person who knew how to talk to her and the only person Tsubasa could talk to. And she was scared of losing her.
"Come on," Kanade said, "one time. Ain't no biggie, I promise."
"But what about my dad? The school will contact him."
"So? What's the worst that could happen? Him yelling at you? We are going to have fun. I am pulling you out of your shell. If your father can't accept that, then fuck him."
"Would you please not talk about my dad like that?"
Kanade raised her hands in defeat. "Okay, okay, I get it. Daddy's little girl does not want him to be mad at her and send her to bed without dinner."
That struck a nerve in her. Her voice was meek as she said: "We don't have dinner together. He is just working all the time."
"So, in other words, he does not care about you."
"That's not true", Tsubasa pleaded. She was close to tears.
"Oh yeah? It does sound to me like that."
She could feel the anger swell up inside her. "Well, I'll show you! Come to my house later! You'll see."
The smug grin on Kanade's face was huge. "Deal. But let's go now. The day is young and so are we!" And with that, Kanade walked ahead, forcing Tsubasa to catch up if she did want to lose sight of her.
"Where are we going?"
"Akihabara."
"What? But it's full of people!"
"So?"
"I am not good with people!"
A knowing laugh escaped Kanade. "Trust me, I noticed. And that's why we are doing it. You need to see shit. Live a little."
"I've never been to Akihabara."
"But you've seen pictures, right?"
She nodded, then realized that Kanade obviously did not have eyes on the back of her head and answered: "Of course."
"Anything on those pics caught your eye?"
Tsubasa tried to remember the pictures. It's been a while since she looked up photos of the streets. But one building stayed in her mind vividly: "The Club Sega Arcade."
"The red behemoth. Sure, let's go there. You got money, right?"
"A bit, yeah. I got my allowance last week."
The subway was extremely crowded, like always. People pushed, pulled, and shoved in every corner. Tsubasa could feel her anxiety increase. Her heartbeat pushed itself into her throat.
Noticing this, Kanade stopped next to Tsubasa at the bottom of the stairs leading to the station platform of the subway. "You okay?"
Tsubasa's eyes darted like spotlights over the crowd of strangers before her. Her hands were damp and her breathing fastened with every face she scanned.
"Hello? Tsubasa? You there?", she asked, waving a hand in front of Tsubasa's face.
"I… I don't think I can do this", she forced out. The lump in her throat seemed to grow larger with every second, forcing her to swallow hard.
Kanade sighed. "We are doing this so you can get over that shit, remember?"
"I know, but…" A woman in a business suit bumped into her, interrupting her train of thought.
Kanade, voice filled with rage, yelled after the woman: "Hey, watch where you're going, dumb cunt!"
Her choice of words made Tsubasa gasp and widen her eyes in shock. She turned back to the woman, expecting her to run back and give both of them a piece of her mind.
But the woman just moved on, her mind most likely so filled with all the work waiting for her, she did not even hear Kanade. She probably did not even notice bumping into Tsubasa.
Kanade huffed. "Some people, honestly…"
"This was a bad idea. Let's go home", the blue-haired girl pleaded.
At this moment, their train arrived, on time like usual. Kanade shook her head and walked towards the opening doors. "Well, I'm going. It's your decision if you come or not, but remember, if you don't you'll miss this once-in-a-lifetime chance."
Tsubasa yelled after her to come back, but to no avail; she already boarded the train. For a few breaths, she stood at the bottom of the stairs, unsure what to do. She could just go back to school, think of an excuse on why she was so late. If the teachers even noticed her absence.
But then Kanade would be disappointed. After all, she was doing all that to help her. Did she really want to put this friendship in jeopardy, the first and only she ever had?
No.
Tsubasa took a few deep breaths, steeled her nerves and entered the train. The doors closed behind her. Now there will be no turning back.
Tsubasa could not see her friend in the crowd, but she knew she was in here somewhere. At least she was able to acquire an empty seat, saving her the stress of being locked in between people. She liked being able to breathe, thank you very much, and her butt is safe from the potential molesters she read and heard about. Hopefully, Kanade was equally as lucky.
They both knew their stop, so when they reached it after a few minutes, Tsubasa just had to wait for Kanade to push herself out of the train between two men.
"Man, I never get used to those rides. You okay?"
Tsubasa giggled softly. "Yeah, thanks. It was not as bad as I thought."
"You see? I told you so." She pointed to the stairs leading up to the street, "Let's go have some fun then."
The wave of noise washing over her as she reached the street was almost deafening. The sidewalks were nowhere near as densely packed with people as she'd expected, although there were still many on them. But the cars rushing by, the advertisements playing on every corner and building, and the different music blaring out of every store, were all threatening to give her a sensory overload.
"Woah", she whispered, her eyes huge to take in every little detail.
"Amazing, isn't it?"
Tsubasa couldn't do anything but nod. She was absolutely speechless. Her vision scanned over the buildings and multiple names – some familiar, some she never heard of - and finally, she saw the big red building at the corner of the street, its blue letters silently screaming at every passerby.
"There it is", Kanade said, pointing to the building that Tsubasa had been looking at, "the arcade you wanted to go to so badly."
Tsubasa took a careful step forwards, her eyes glued to her destination. The building was on the opposite side of the street, so the first thing she had to find was, of course, a traffic light. Almost unwillingly, she pulled her vision away from the building and looked around. She noticed one at a crossroad, conveniently next to the arcade.
"Someone is excited", Kanade teased.
She might be, but Tsubasa was still very careful when walking past people. Whenever she passed someone, she made sure to turn and twist her body far enough that absolutely no accidental physical contact was possible. She held her breath and turned her gaze downwards with every person that walked past her.
She did not have to wait long at the traffic light, a few seconds at most. But her heart pounded and her mind went into overdrive that the short waiting felt like minutes. As soon as the light allowed, she crossed the street with quick steps and finally reached her destination.
The building stood six stories tall and open fronted, inviting anyone inside who might have some time and money on their hands. The music coming out of it was energetic, but not annoying. The colors and sounds inside aroused Tsubasa's curiosity.
"Well, what are you waiting for?"
She turned to Kanade. Her smile was encouraging, giving her the strength to take the first step into the building.
The first thing she noticed were the advertisements. At the stairs leading up to the next floors, in the small walkway flanked by crane games, in the glass displays in the corners.
Everywhere she turned she saw bright colors, anime characters, most from an idol show she'd heard much about, and large letters.
A few steps deeper into the building there were crane games everywhere, filled with little plushies. There were stuffed Pokémon, figurines from popular shows and games, bags… Tsubasa was not sure where to look first.
"This is amazing", she whispered in awe.
Kanade giggled. "And that's only the first floor. We got five more to go."
When she said that, Tsubasa felt her breath shorten. Five more floors? She'd completely forgot that there was still building left to explore in her excitement.
For a short, fabulous while she forgot she was in an unfamiliar place, surrounded by strangers.
Suddenly, the temple of joys and wonders she had entered felt like a prison to her, the walls seemingly getting closer. She knew it wasn't the case, but something in her mind still told her she needed to get out of here.
She turned around and, as fast as lightning, bolted past Kanade towards the exit.
"Was it too much for you?", Kanade asked, concern apparent in her voice.
The fresh air outside hit the young girl like a tidal wave. She took quick, hectic breaths. The world spun before her eyes, and she had to fight down the blackness trying to creep into her field of vision.
"Sorry", Kanade said as she forced herself into Tsubasa's field of vision, "I didn't mean to give you a panic attack."
Tsubasa forced herself to calm her breathing. She shook her head. "I'm okay. Just… just not used to this."
She could feel her muscles relax, her heartbeat slowing down. But then Kanade looked to her left and uttered a concerned: "Oh no…"
And her heart jumped into her throat again. "What's wrong?", she asked, turning her head to follow her friend's view, seeing nothing out of the ordinary.
Just a regular crowd of regular people doing regular things. Well, there were two men talking to each other at a gumball machine a few meters down the street from the them, looking in her direction.
But they looked completely normal.
"You see those two guys at the gumball machine over there?" Kanade asked with a whisper.
Tsubasa nodded carefully. She decided whatever alarmed Kanade, it would be better if she acted like she was unaware of any potential danger.
"Those two are from my school. They are part of the faculty. We have to get out of here." She took careful steps back to not alarm the two men.
"Why?" Tsubasa asked, following her friend equally as carefully.
"We are skipping school, remember? Do you know what would happen if they recognize us as students?"
Tsubasa's eyes widened when it hit her. Should they contact the school or even the police… "We'd be in trouble."
Kanade nodded. "Deep shit would be my choice of words, but yeah." And suddenly, she turned around and ran, as fast as she could.
Completely out of reflex, Tsubasa wanted to yell after her, but stopped herself just in time. She turned around to the men at the machine, and with shock saw them moving towards her.
She never ran so fast and long in her entire life. She never was the athletic type. In PE, if the activity demanded the class divided into teams, she was always picked last. Never putting much effort into those practices and events, she was almost always last place. She never saw a reason for physical activities.
But now there was a reason to run. A very good one. If those two men caught her and informed the school – or worse, her father – who knows what trouble would await her.
She ran down the road she assumed Kanade at. She lost sight of her the moment the red-head tried to escape the two men. Tsubasa's legs grew heavy and her lung burned when she heard a little yell out of a small alleyway. She stopped to look where the sound came from and discovered her friend in the shadows.
"Did we lose them", Kanade asked.
Tsubasa looked back the road she came from. No pursuers. She nodded. "Yeah, seems like it."
With a sigh of relief, Kanade stepped out of the alley and next to her friend. "Way too close", she said with a smile.
"What are we going to do now?", Tsubasa asked nervously.
"Well", Kanade said, combing her hand through her hair, "the arcade is out of the question. If you want we can walk and talk for a bit."
Tsubasa stole a quick glance back down the road, just in case the men had decided to follow them. They hadn't. She nodded. "Sure, that sounds nice."