My eyes started to stir, annoyed by chattering and a muffled voice. It had reminded me of when the church by my apartment had their annual fundraising fair. It was always during a bad time, right before the start of finals or right before I had scheduled an important exam that required a decent 8 hours of rest, that I would never get. What really woke me up with a kick to my stomach, and my eyelids shot up. Then I was beyond annoyed, because it was Ainsley's leg that had kicked me and now was resting on my stomach like she was hugging some body pillow.
"You poor unfortunate soul~" she sings in her sleep. I glared at her in the dimly lit room. How ironic that she was singing that, because that was how I felt. I tried to shove her leg off, only to hear chains rattle and a cooler metal chain-like bracelet on my wrists. But before I could get a chance to take a closer look at my own wrists, my eyes were blinded by a bright light.
"Ahhhhh, the light," Ainsley hissed next to me. My own hands went to cover my face.
"And now for the final item! Or should I say two? The first time ever, we have two healthy women! One Asian, and the other white. And for this special occasion, we are offering a package deal! Get one and then get the other, for no extra payment!" yelled an auction-like voice.
"Hold up! We are getting sold at an auction?" Ainsley said springing up, like she wasn't just woken up and blinded by the light. Ainsley also decided to do a jingle-like dance, ending in a little leg kick. I had managed to finally see that we were in handcuffs, with long chains that lead past the velvet curtains behind us. And fortunately, I pulled the other chains that were connected to someplace I didn't know. I was met with a fortunate surprise of Ainsley falling flat on her face.
I couldn't see the audience that was bidding on because of the light that was shining on us in this pitch black room.
"More information on this package deal is that these two young women are complete foreigners in Japan as well! Don't be scared thinking that these women are limited by Japan's borders or language!"
Since the auctioneer was right in front of us walking back and forth from one end of the stage to the next, I was able to make him out a little bit. I had to take a good look at him, because of the way he looked. His hair was blue, along with most of his outfit. He was wearing some version of a suit that reminded me of Victorian age's suits, but I couldn't get over how blue it was. It also matched his hair. On top of that color choice, his face was completely painted white, with only the only dashes of color being his gray eyeshadow, and his red lipstick. The only time I saw something like that was in the movies related to the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland. Realizing that shifted my attention to the topic of what that guy Ota said about being there being 2 Alices in Wonderland. I whipped my head to look at if Ainsley was realizing the implications of what that Mad Hatter just said, but I was sorely disappointed.
She had a face of realization on her, but she started to ask the Mad Hatter, "Okay, just to be clear, I'm being sold right? This package deal is like buy one get one free? But the one you are buying is me, because ain't no way you are getting this for a discount or for free!" Ainsley announced into his mic as she tried to run her hand over her body, but it just looked like someone was having an upright seizure. The audience only fed her ego, because they howled with laughter. Despite being in Japan, the auction was completely hosted in English. Even the prices were announced in American dollars. I guess I should be more grateful to how powerful the American dollar was, because I was not able to do currency conversions in my mind.
1 million, 1.5 million. 3 million. Once it had hit 5 million dollars, the audience had slowed down.
"5 million dollars, going once. Any other offers before it goes to bidder number 5?" The Mad Hatter gives a couple seconds to look around. My eyes had eventually gotten the chance to slow down and take a look at the audience, but I could barely make out anyone due to how far the audience was compared to the stage that we were in. But I could definitely make out that human sized bird cage that we were in. And that the whole stage and experience was like we were the characters in an opera. The format of the room was a huge theatre with those velvet chairs, and there were side balconies as well, but they were screened off so I couldn't even see if there were people in those balconies.
Then, there was this loud buzz from behind making me jump. I turned around to look, and there was this screen that was displaying a bid. 20 million dollars. My jaw dropped? This is how ultra rich people spend their money?
"Woah! 20 million! I was about to be offended at that 5 million offer," Ainsley said. I was still in shock. I sat in silence, as the auction concluded, and the huge bird cage we were in was wheeled to the back. The workers at the auction decided to keep some precaution, because they had covered our cage with a big cover, as we were wheeled to another location.
"We got them boss!" said a man's voice excitedly, as the cover was removed. The cage door was opened and a man with straight light brown hair down to his chin, stretched out his hair to help me out. I jingled the haircuffs instead. Another man chuckled. It was Ota Kisaki. Ota and this new man was the one that unlocked Ainsley's and I's handcuffs.
"I guess you two really fell into our Wonderland," Ota said. I glared at him, realizing that he really was implying that his Wonderland reference was referencing the auction that we were illegally and uncoincidentally a part of.
Ainsley just hopped out of the cage, ignoring the guy's man. I followed after her and walked out of the cage as well.
"Alright! I've had enough of this dream! Hanh, wake me up please! And don't slap me like last time," Ainsley said, nudging me with her elbow. I think my mind and body was crashing from everything that had happened, because I could not find myself caring about Ainsley's little nudge. I did have enough energy to roll my eyes and said, "You are half-retarded. I wish I was dreaming."
Or maybe, my fight-or-flight experience was keeping me more focused to see if there was an opening somewhere, because I did a glance around the room we were in, and it was very fancy looking. There were velvet red couches in the room, on top of marble looking floors. Even the metal pieces in the room looked gold, and whether they were gold was beyond me. Even the sight through the windows made the rest of Tokyo look like twinkling lights, making me guess this was the penthouse suite. My eyes, then, landed on the tall, black haired man that Ainsley and I had run into after that suspicious gun deal in that hallway.
"So we meet again. I guess you really couldn't run away," he said.
"Sor, you know them?" said the light brown man.
"Not really. We had run into each other earlier."
"Hanh, I'm serious. It's about time to wake up," Ainsley said again, nudging me.
I looked over to her, my own lips in a dry smile. "Ainsley, I don't think you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth. We are not in a dream!"
"You know, I never found you that funny, until now," her nudging had turned into jabbing.
"This is boring. You obviously can tell these women are Americans. Now, I'm thinking this was a waste of money," said the man who was hogging one of the couches with his legs crossed, and his head resting on one of his hands. Now, I know that Americans can have a bad reputation among those outside of the United States, but I did not have buying Americans as a waste of money on my bucket list.
"You know I would care about your opinion if you didn't look like you were dropped as a child, and now have mommy issues," Ainsley just blurted out. My jaw just dropped. I couldn't believe that Ainsley had a death sentence and she was going to bring me down with her.
"Woman, are you not aware of what position you are in?" asked that black haired guy. The guy with the chestnut, chin length hair just laughed, and he was joined by that Ota guy.
"Well, they said that Americans are pretty bold too, you know," the chestnut guy said.
"And I would say that is a good spend of 20 million!" Ota chimed in.
"I wouldn't! And they don't have any idea on how to begin to pay us back for it!" shouted Eisuke.
"Oh please, my presence is good enough," Ainsley said. I stomped on her foot, and slapped my hand across her mouth before she could do any more damage.
"She is so sorry! She is just dreaming and not in her right state of mind–Ouch!," I started, before Ainsley chomped on my hand. Everyone's eyes had widened as I tried to at least rub Ainsley's salvia back on her. Ota and the chestnut hair guy started to double over in laughter.
"You are so gross, when all I am trying to do is to help us!" I hissed at her. Once those two laughing guys had calmed down a little, the chestnut hair said, "Eisuke, I think that paid off some money."
"I have an idea, how about one of them picks a person that bought her, and the other picks another? That way whoever they pick would split the 20 million, so it would be 10 million each," Ota proposes. The man that he was directing that suggestion to, Eisuke, nodded.
"Alight, time to introduce ourselves. Hello, my name is Mitsunari Baba, but you can call me Baba. I am 35, single, and ready to mingle," said the chestnut hair guy.
Ainsley looked disinterested and said, "Next." Ota chuckled before starting his introduction.
"Nice to meet you, I am Ota Kisaki, but of course, you already knew that." He flashed a big smile, but it was only met with suspicion on my end.
"Moving on, that scary looking man over there is Soryu! Sor, put your gun away! I can see you reaching for it! Don't try and scare them!" Baba introduces Soryu. At that point, Ainsley no longer looked disinterested. I could see the gears in her head start to shift, and I got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.
"Just to clarify," she started, "You are Soryu Oh, the head of the Japanese branch of the Ice Dragons?"
Soryu looked at us with suspicion written all over his face. He slowly replied, "yes," with his eyebrows furrowed together.
"Are you actually interested in Soryu, and not me?" Eisuke asked, surprised.
"Please excuse us for a second," Ainsley said before dragging me away to some corner of the room. Now that feeling in the pit in the stomach was really taking root. Ainsley was too polite after everything.
"Hanh, I need you to do me a tiny favor, and pick Soryu!"
"How about no? Isn't this your job? If you're so interested, you pick him. I don't feel like messing with the one guy that is pulling out his gun!"
"Because I am too young to be dealing with mobsters like him!"
"What?! Mobsters?! So he's actually a dangerous person!"
"No, not really! I was just looking out for you! You said that you were thinking about writing a novel with mobsters and the underworld! This is a perfect experience for you and the novel! Basically first hand experience! And you have the perfect glare to deal with him, so you two would be perfect!"
"My glares are equivalent to a squirrel when next to a full blown criminal!"
"Oh I am sure that you are going to be just fine!" Ainsley started to push me back to the group, before I couldn't help myself and glared at her.
"See, its perfect," Ainsley hissed at me. My palms had begun to sweat. I was nervous. Why would my own friend basically tell me to get involved with someone that could end my life at any moment he wanted. I sent a silent prayer to God, asking how I got in this position, but also for protection. My nerves started to settle, and I wasn't sure if it was God telling me I was going to be okay, or if it was just my curiosity about the world of a mobster getting to me, or a mix of both. I just prayed a quick "Hail Mary" before I finally faced the men and made our decisions.