The night is dark and the moon in the sky illuminates a large room with a single person in it. They look out onto their city with eyes of greed. Eyes of ambition. Eyes that will never take in enough. Different colored lights can be seen as far as can be seen advertising for only the best of what nightlife has to offer. Cars are busily pushing through streets, people are moving about, and money is being made. Money is always being made. Farther out, near the edge of the city, there is an industrial district which emits plumes of smoke into the sky. Looking another direction reveals a vast expanse of open water. Ships passing in the night are only illuminated by the lights they have on deck and the moon.

Black smoke rises from the man’s nostrils as he breathes out a long sigh.

“So, the feeler team was taken out the other day… They say if you want things done right you have to do it yourself. That reminds me though, I still have another option. Maybe I’ll have her help me out a bit this time…”

***

It’s been several days since we met with Director and Akira officially came to work under me. In that time, we resolved a few things regarding her future and how she would go about living life now.

Our first point of business was resolving her schedule now that she had a job. It wasn’t like her school didn’t allow jobs. In fact, most of the students there worked around the city in some way or another.

The issue came with the nature of her job. Working for City Management basically meant giving all your time and effort to the city you worked for. I wanted to leave the decision up to her. In the end, she personally decided that it would be best for her to leave school for now. She reasoned that if she felt like she needed to learn something later, she could always go back.

The second issue revolved around our living situation. Now that we had decided to work together, and she knew that I didn’t have a room to stay in permanently, Akira suggested that I continue using the room I was currently in under the condition that we knock down the wall between our two rooms to make one large room. At first I opposed this due to…. obvious privacy issues, but over the past few days I really have come to enjoy having somebody to come home to and talk with. I suggested moving out once and finding a new place, but she insisted on staying in this particular location. I have no idea why, but when I asked her all she did was smile and look into a mirror for a bit before shooting the idea down.

Due to us living in the same place as we had been, I had been keeping an eye out for people who might be linked to the people who took Akira. Unfortunately, there weren’t any leads. Even asking around town and probing and using some of my abilities to make the citizens more willing to speak with me, I still couldn’t find anything out. It seemed like the people around town didn’t even recognize descriptions of the people I saw that night.

Another person I was keeping an eye out for was Akira’s mother. I felt like this subject just remained unspoken of between Akira and me. I didn’t know what I was going to do when I found her, if I ever did find her. I just knew that somewhere inside me, emotions from that night still lingered. The feelings I felt gnawed at me in my dreams as if they were still searching for a loose end. I knew that one day I would have to face them again to tie up those loose ends. All in time though…

For now, it was time for Akira’s “daily lessons”.

From the moment we got out of the office, Akira had jumped into trying to flesh out the extent of her new found abilities. After seeing me that night when I came to save her, and recognizing some of the other times I had used my ability to manipulate people in front of her, she really seemed to be excited about what she could possibly do…. Which after a few attempts starting from the old man at the convenience store and ending at the old grandma’s taiyaki stand, we found out was actually nothing.

Akira tried multiple times, by of course having me “adjust” the memory of the taiyaki grandma, but she just couldn’t do the things that seemed to be standard for me.

Today after another attempt at the taiyaki stand, she walked up to me with nothing to show for it and we began walking around the streets of the city.

“Kei… I don’t know what it is! I’ve tried and tried. I thought about getting free taiyaki. I asked for free taiyaki. I commanded the old lady to give me some taiyaki. I even started to beg her at the end, Kei. How do you do it…?”

“Akira, it’s fine. I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it soon enough. For all we know it could be me that is the bottle neck to your progress.”

Though when I say that, I don’t believe in it firmly. After watching Akira attempt the taiyaki hurdle multiple times, I get the feeling that what she is lacking isn’t desire… but instead, maybe it’s confidence? While looking at her trying to get the taiyaki, the first thing I notice that differs from myself is the way the taiyaki grandma receives her.

Or rather, how most of the people in the town act when they see her. They seem put off by her almost from the very beginning for some reason. Much unlike me whom they greet and treat normally. Due to that cold, initial greeting from people, Akira also seems to lose confidence in the way she talks and acts.

But even when I first got here, I had no idea what I was doing and had no confidence in myself or my abilities so I’m not sure if this is really the issue.

“I just wish that I could at least get some taiyaki for us. Then I feel like I could be of some use.”

“You are being ‘of use’ to me though. You are helping me solve our number one problem!”

I strike a “guts” pose and smile.

“We have to figure out how to stimulate the economy of this town. I’ve looked around and found that we are surrounded by a lot of mediocrity in terms of production here. The crops grow just enough for people to live on. The towns people produce enough every day necessities to live. Anything else is normally bought at the corner store which receives it’s shipments from another city. Basically… this town as a whole has no real profit.”

“So it’s really just a cycle of money going round and round then…”

“Exactly. What we need is to bring money in from other places. We need a specialty. Something that is going to attract people. I’ve thought of digging for oil, or turning this city into an industrial region, but that takes away from the number one item that our city has going for it. It’s nature.”

“Ya… but do we even have something like that here? I mean, I’ve lived here my whole life but I really haven’t seen anything special being produced here.”

If that was the case, then the special product idea to boost our economy was going to have to wait a while. We needed something that could only be found here to attract people from outside areas. Then we needed to publicize that one thing by word of mouth and other outlets to really get some cash flow going.

“Uwaaaa… This is just a bit harder than I thought it would be. I mean, looking around, everything looks beautiful here. There has to be something that we are missing that can generate some revenue for us. Do you know of any attractions people might be interested in? Maybe a haunted shrine? Or a mythical creature sighting?”

“Hmm.. oh! What about the seven legends of Haila Academy?”

“OK! Now we’re getting somewhere! Tell me about those!”

“Well, the first one is about the taiyaki grandma. I heard that she’s always been on that street selling the same thing every day. Even if nobody comes by for days!”

“That sounds more like a health hazard concerning expired food to me… What’s the next one?

“The second one involves the crops here! They say that there is always a little more yield than they expect each harvest time.”

“ehh… That sounds like a good thing, lets skip that for now.”

“To tell you the truth, that’s really all I know…”

“What happened to the other five!?”

I give her a quick retort.

“Well, nobody wanted to talk about them with me around so I only ever got to hear about the first two so…”

“Ah… you had it hard too, huh…”

Let’s move on from this topic for Akira’s sake.

“So what we have so far is no real resources to speak of, no real markets to feasibly move into, and no real attractions to bring people to this town besides it’s great scenery. This is leading me to one other option.”

“What is that?”

“Let’s go bring some economic stimulation from somewhere else!”

A few hours later, Akira and I are rocking around in the back of a small truck. I looked at Akira, now dressed in different clothes.

As it turns out, the convenience store old man’s wife had a matching suit to the one he had given me that she of course no longer needed, and that he (after some “convincing”) let Akira wear. Though it didn’t fit perfectly, she looked happy to be able to wear something that made her feel like she was working for a company. Her pencil skirt on top of black leggings with a black blazer that covered a white shirt with the top button undone gave Akira a more mature feeling than the normal high school girl look I was used to seeing. On the other hand, my suit was still in dismal condition, but I wore it because I had no other option at the moment.

The man driving the truck was somebody who had passed by us on the road and I waved to the side. He was a nice farmer who was just driving back from his field when he happened to pass by, and I asked him to take us to our next destination.

The place we were going was called Tachiko. I had heard about it from some of the people around Haila as I was digging for information on the whereabouts of the people who had taken Akira. It was the closest “modern” city to our little piece of nature at about a four hour drive away from Haila. From what I could gather, it was basically the place where people went if they wanted a night out, or a day trip.

“We’re just about there!”

The old man said that and I could see the city coming into view down the road.

Akira was eagerly looking over the top of the truck with her hair blowing in the wind as the new city got closer and closer to us. Apparently, she never had the opportunity to come here before, so she was very excited about coming here now.

We passed a sign reading “Welcome to Tachiko”. A cold feeling passed over me quickly, followed by one of isolation. It was as if I was completely alone in a world that was bright, open, and warm only a few seconds ago.

I felt my breathing get faster and my heart start pounding. I put my head into my knees and started to curl into a ball. I felt like I needed to make myself smaller, unnoticeable. I needed to hide. Something was coming. Something was looking at me.

Someone knows I am here.

“Kei? Kei! Are you ok?”

When I look up Akira is next to me, her hand is on my knee and she is looking at me with concern.

She breathes a sigh of relief as I look at her, and right about then the small truck begins to slow down and stop.

“Ehh… Honestly I don’t know why I came out here… But you both should go now, this is where you wanted, right?”

What…? He doesn’t know? I should have already told him when we were still in the city though.

Akira and I get out of back and the driver gives a small nod then drives off back to Haila.

“Well that was rude! He didn’t even take us into the city yet!”

Looking around I noticed that he really didn’t. We were still within walking distance of actually going into what I could see was a small residential area, with a few larger buildings behind them.

“He didn’t… Akira, watch for anything out of the ordinary as we move into this city. I don’t know what about it I don’t like, but we should assume that this won’t play out like it would in Haila.”

“Un.. I’ll do that”

Akira answers me with a serious look and we move into the city.

Walking down the streets, and going deeper in, it’s almost a culture shock for me as I have grown accustomed to the quiet life of Haila. A few cars are passing by, and there are many more people outside than I ever saw walking the streets in Haila. There were areas of densely packed people walking side by side, and some streets that looked like the might offer us an alternate path around the pack.

I looked back at Akira and saw her staring around in wonder. If I thought this felt weird and I had only been in Haila for less than a month, I can’t even begin to imagine what Akira must be feeling right now.

“Akira, we can look around a bit more later. For now, lets try to avoid the crowds, something doesn’t feel right to me.”

“Ok, Kei. All I can really say about all this is ‘Wow…’ I never thought so many people could be walking on the street at the same time before…”

“Ya, it’s pretty amazing isn’t it. One day Haila might have this many people walking around it.”

I look at her with a smile and think about how happy I am to have Akira with me to make that dream a reality.

We continue down the less populated streets, trying to not get too close to populated areas as much as possible.

The feeling from before is still present, however. It is making me want to hide. To find a small dark space and curl up in it to avoid being so exposed.

After a few more turns we make our way onto a large street with buildings lining each side. The sky was blue, the streets were clean, the sidewalk on either side was decorated with trees and various store fronts. But as we walked down this street there was one thing missing.

Where are all the people… It’s the middle of the day, there should be some people on this street but there’s nobody!

I am fully alert at this point. Akira can see that I am tense and that only makes her more wary of our surroundings. We are both looking around trying to find any forms of life.

I can’t even see any birds or other animals on the street. It is completely empty. Completely devoid of everything.

As I was thinking that thought I see movement. From behind every corner, coming out of every shop. In a matter of seconds we are surrounded completely.

People, both male and female, all dressed in fine black business attire. They stood at the ready and their circle closed in on us.

“Akira, don’t worry, we are going to be ok.”

I give Akira a reassuring look and a small smile.

She responds by grasping my hand and squeezing it.

What do you mean ‘We’ll be ok.’?! What will be ok!? These people obviously are bad news no matter how much you look at it. I need to find a way to buy some time…. Or find a way to make sure they don’t take care of us right here!

A representative steps forward from the group. A tall, muscular man with sunglasses on addresses us.

Akira and I both look at each other and nod knowingly.

“”He’s so bald!!!””

The baldy speaks:

“Both of you: state your business here. Let it be known that a less than favorable answer will have dire consequences.”

The man moves his clothes around slightly along with the others in the group. They are armed. All of them. Some have guns, some have knives. Some don’t seem to have anything, but they appear confidant that they don’t need anything.

I take a breath and begin to speak.

“I.. We, just came from a neighboring city, Hai-“

“We know you’re from another city! The question is, why are you in this one!”

“We were looking for something to help our city thrive. We thought we might be able to find something here.”

I can gather from the feel I am getting from these people that they are in some way related to my “line of work”. So telling them the truth might be a way to get them to understand what we are here for.

“So, you think you can just come in and take it from us then?! You think you have the right to come and deprive us of the things we have worked so hard for just because you don’t have them?!”

“No, I-“

“I don’t want to hear it! In fact, I’ve heard enough! Those that come to take from Tachiko, that come and take from our boss, they end up dead! At the ready!!”

On baldy’s signal the people around us raise their weapons.

“Aim true, we don’t know what this one is capable of! Don’t let them off lightly!”

 “Wait, I really think that-“

“Take your marks! Read-!”

“WAIT!”

Akira screams as loud as she can to grab the baldy’s attention.

“Wait! You have it wrong! We didn’t come here to take anything! We just want to establish some sort of mutual relationship!”

“That’s right! We obviously can’t expect a one-sided relationship! We never had the intention of harming this city or your boss!”

The man paused for a moment and considered it.

Akira and I let loose some of the tension we were holding in.

“You… you thought I would fall for such a lame excuse! An excuse like that has already been used once before, and there is no way I’ll ever make that mistake again! Ready!!”

“WAIT! You can take me but let her go. She doesn’t deserve this! Please!”

“NO! Please let him go! I promise that taking me will be much better for you! I’ll do anything so please let Kei go!”

“… Kei, huh… At least I know the name of the man I am about to kill! Ready! Fi-“

Akira and I squeeze our hands together one last time, and I move my body to try to shield hers as best as possible.

But the sound we are both waiting for doesn’t come.

I can feel Akira’s small body shaking in my arms, and she looks up at me with tears in her eyes. I look down at her with a confused expression, and then out towards our assailants.

I can see baldy standing still in front of us. Nobody is moving. And then suddenly…

“Follow me. The boss would like to see you both.”

Akira and I both look at each other hesitantly.

“You have no choice, you come, or you die here.”

We began to follow the group down the street to a tall building. From seeing the city once from a distance, I notice that this is the tallest building in the city.

They take us into the building and up an elevator to the top floor. Finally they bring us in front of two large oak doors and the baldy and another suit open the doors for us.

“Go in, the boss will see you now.”

We go into the room and the baldy and extra suit follow us in.

The room is large. It seems like it takes up the entire top floor. There is a window that wraps around on all sides so you can see the entire city.

A woman is standing with her back towards us as she is looking out on the city. She is wearing a long purple dress, and has dark black hair that is curled slightly at the ends and extends down to her waist. If I were to describe her figure, I would say it is a “mature sexy” more than anything else.

She turns to us. Her purple dress moves like water over her body and the front exposes most of her upper chest.

She gives Akira and I a small smile and says one thing in a clear voice:

“Welcome to Tachiko.”