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December 1, 2010
I edited this chapter by adding references in brackets [like this]. *I made minor corrections, too.*

Thanks for reading this! The corresponding chapter of the public domain Don Quixote translation that I'm using is at {www. online-literature. com/ cervantes/ don_quixote/ 6/} (cut and paste inside the {funky brackets}, and remove the spaces to get the correct web address).

Dan's First Excursion
Chapter 2

In the cool air just after dusk, Dan zipped along on his Ducati toward Center Gai. Glowing streets signs provided Dan a beacon toward the street that registers the pulse of Tokyo fashion and youth.

As he neared a corner, he was dwarfed by a two-story television ahead. A commercial persuaded the viewing audience that their product would ensure the honor of the ancestors and the undying respect of a wife and child. Dan paused on that corner. He wavered and wondered what he was really doing out here, alone, without a family or a home.

Dan wondered if he was the real thing. Maybe he wasn't ready to fight for justice and right wrongs. What qualified him as a hunter of the mortal enemies of all mankind?

He shook the thought from his head, certain that he would be vindicated sooner or later. He also thought he ought to somehow dress himself as a novice, but figured that he'd sort that out when the time came.

He stopped pedaling his bike and patted his illusion of Roc, muttering, "This would make a sick graphic novel. Me, on Roc, heading out to meet my foes for the first time. They'd write, like, 'SFX: Pant, pant.' And then they'd be all, 'He has his goals.' And then they'd show me thinking about Dana and I'd murmur, 'What a lovely face she has!'"

Dan prowled the Center Gai, seeking his mortal enemies. He wound his way through the rivulets of trendsetters and foreigners streaming in and out of nightclubs. It became late in the evening and he retreated through back alleys until he came across a hole in the wall image club.

Two maids dressed in goth array were milling around at a door hidden in the shadows. He rolled over to them and looked them up and down. He fancied they were as cute as his Dana, and so he decided they were the good guys. "You look lovely tonight." He swung one leg off the bike and nearly toppled over. The girls covered their mouths with small black nail-polished fingers and tittered to each other. Dan recovered his balance and said, "My bike is rather large, you know." The girls glanced and each other and giggled. He looked each of them roundly in the eyes and expounded, "…!"

At that moment a Shibuya Center-Gai Patrol [SCGP] whistle was blown. Dan turned his head toward the mouth of the alley and squinted his eyes. Five youth at the street corner pried themselves from the shadows and wandered out onto Center Gai. The men in the SCGP jackets continued on their way.

Dan pulled his bike closer to the working girls. "The rest of Tokyo might need a safety patrol, but I can protect you even better." The girls exchanged glances but held back their laughter.

The door swung open to reveal a rotund man who looked Dan over and then glanced at the maids. In a voice roughened by tobacco smoke he barked, "The only room open is the maid cafe."

"Thank you, Senpai," Dan said, with a bow. "I'm but a humble hunter. I need no rest from the plunder."

"Tch. So now I have a rhyming sideshow to entertain the men playing Go [a board game]." The shopkeeper turned back inside but said over his shoulder as he went, "The bike will be gone if you leave it outside. Take it to the back entrance."

Dan wheeled his bike behind the store and leaned it against the back wall. A door was propped open with a bottle so he wandered in through a costume dressing room and entered a door with a "Maid Cafe" sign. He found himself behind a cafe counter and turned round about three times, looking for a way to reach the tables on the other side. The two goth girls who had been outside hurried to the counter and lifted the counter-top open. "Welcome home, master!" they chorused. One girl took his arm and led Dan over to a small, square table with a tiny white table cloth. He sank into a black wooden chair. As he sat down another girl hurried around the counter and brought him a plate of crisply burnt grilled dried fish and bowed.

As one girl poured him rice wine and held it to his lips to sip, the other maid alternately fed him bites of fish, like he was a child. Dan felt the cheap sake burn into his veins and eased back in the chair, wondering when he would find a sensei.