In the Sekai Hotel, Japan. 00:00
A young man enters the hotel at the start of midnight. He’s carrying two large bags and a case for a cello. Even then, there is a very large line for the check-in, so he decides to just look around the hotel for now. It’s a very large and grand hotel, one deemed prestigious by many people. This also makes it very expensive to stay at. There are people chatting everywhere, and many laughs are heard. It has a very warm, welcoming feeling. Looking further, he sees that there’s a piano being played right now. A young woman wearing a white dress, her long brown hair being very neatly styled. He goes to sit with the small crowd that was already there, closing his eyes, letting the music envelop him.
“I’ve always loved this.”
The woman plays the pieces very well, not letting the crowd’s pressure get to her. After she was done, the man sees that he’s the next one to check-in. He walks up to the reception. He sees the worker doing a very small double take when they look up at his face. After that, the usual question is asked.
“Kikaru Aikawa, is that correct?”
A nod. “Yeah, that’s me.” As he shows a passport.
Kikaru gets the card to the room. He already heard of this hotel back when he was younger, so he was happy to finally stay here. As he takes the elevator to the third floor where his room was located, he quickly checks if he still has everything in his bag, it was a long trip to get here, after all.
With a small ding, the elevator opens. He walks to his room down the long hallway. He finds his room, and holds the card against the lock, after a few seconds the lock goes green, and he enters.
Upon entering the room he lays down his bags, there was quite a lot in it, so he was happy to get the load off his back. The first thing he does afterwards is to go to the bathroom to wash his face. He opens the door and turns on the sink, he splashes some cold water onto his face, admittedly way colder than he expected, so it caught him a bit off guard. He chuckled as he moved his gaze towards the mirror.
His eyes looked at one place specifically. His pure white hair, which was what made the worker do the double take. “It’s not that weird.. right?” his right eyebrow raising a tiny bit as his hand ruffles through the white hair.
“It’s not like I can do anything about it.” He shrugged towards absolutely no one.
Walking outside towards the room’s window, he looks at the city. It’s lights illuminating the night streets, appearing as lively as always to him. This was a habit that he liked doing, however, he didn’t want to accidentally waste more time than he needed to. Quickly stepping back inside the room, he opens his bag, grabbing a pen and a notebook. As he sits down at the desk, he grabs his phone, playing some piano music. He opens his notebook. Gripping his pen firmly, he begins to write.
The First day, June 9th
So it begins. A new notebook, a new time of life. I always dedicate the first page for my notebook as a sort of introduction for who I am. Well, I call this a notebook, but it could also just be a diary.
My name is Kikaru Aikawa, I’m 21 years old. I’m starting this new notebook to chronicle the journey I’m about to embark on. As for who I personally am.. I’m just a regular person who likes listening to music, especially the Piano. Even if I can’t play it that well. There is one odd thing about me.. though. I have pure white hair, which looks very unusual for someone my age. Some people look at me funny because of it, I don’t mind though.
Also, I’m a swordfighter, I don’t think it’s entirely ethical to smuggle a sword into a hotel, but I somehow managed to do it with a cello case, no one suspected a thing! This country doesn’t disallow wearing a sword around your hip, but it’d be weird to just waltz into a hotel with one, isn’t it?
But why am I doing all this? Well…
-Infinity-
An object that has been subject to multiple rumors, they say that the one who finds it will be granted “something special.” The specifics are still unknown to this day. Ever since I’ve heard of it, I couldn’t get my mind off of it. The concept in itself peaks my interest. It isn’t a widely known thing, most people throw it away as some urban legend, or just don’t know about it. I don’t know if my journey will even result in anything meaningful but it never hurts to try, and that I will!
I’m all alone on this journey, it’s currently nighttime as I’m writing this, I can see the night city’s streets from my hotel room, all shining so brightly as always. People chatting, people laughing, bars and clubs opening up for the night. Seeing all the life this city brings makes me happy.
I have a few places I want to visit that may be connected to Infinity, destinations that might bring me outside of Japan. I’ve been doing some research for the past three years. I got my first target ready for tonight, a small bar named Fighting Music. I find the name to be comical, because I don’t know the meaning of it, how can music fight?
Ah, I’m getting off track. Well, that’s all for writing tonight. I don’t want to instantly fill this book like I did the last one.
Kikaru Out!
With a sigh of relief and a few stretches of his right wrist, he closes his notebook. He hasn’t written something down like that for quite a long time. His hands were trembling a small bit, but that stopped soon enough. He looks at his cello case, knowing fully well what’s in there. He closes his room’s curtains, just to be sure that no one’s looking. With a few footsteps he’s standing in front of the cello case, carefully opening it. It reveals a Katana still in its sheath, it’s hilt being a cyan color.
A smile appears on Kikaru’s face as he grabs the sword and unsheathes it. It still looks very good, despite the travels and it’s less than good hiding spot. He sheathes it again but instead of putting it back in the case he decides to put it inside a larger bag that he was carrying.
After a quick change of clothes he left the hotel room. Now looking more like a regular bar visitor, wearing a white shirt with long sleeves, a black jacket over it and regular denim pants, but still allowing ease of movement. He also styled his hair a bit so it doesn’t look like a mess anymore.
A glint in his eyes appears as he calls for a taxi. A small yellow cab stops not soon after.
“Where to?” the driver asks me. “Fighting Music, sir.” he responds, trying to sound as polite as possible. The driver laughed in response, seemingly eyeing him down after his request. “You.. that bar?” He asks. “Well I’ll be damned, take a seat kid. It’s an hour long ride, you aren’t the first to ask me to go to that place.”
With the way he specified that place, Kikaru got a bit confused, “Is there some sort of stigma surrounding that bar?” as he unknowingly put his right index finger and thumb on his chin, deep in thought. “No.. I’m not going to back down already, even if that bar is bad, I’ll go there.” He strengthened his resolve. Watching as his cab drove him deep into the night city, until stopping at a specific street. Upon paying his rather large fare he thanked the driver for bringing him here. Before leaving, the driver told him one more thing.
“You better watch out for that bar, kid. It’s not something a person like you should casually enter.”
Kikaru didn’t even know what to answer, before he could open his mouth the driver was already gone. He just raised his eyebrow in confusion, crossing his arms in the process too.
“What?” was the only thing that crossed his mind, but he decided to not linger onto that thought for too long. He stood in front of the building, noticing the logo of the bar first. A man with a saxophone and the words FIGHTING MUSIC. Kikaru still didn’t get why the name was that way, the only thing he could get out of it was that it was something music related.
With no time to waste, Kikaru stood in front of the door, slowly putting his hand on the knob and opening it.
Fighting Music, Japan, 02:00
Kikaru opened the door, noticing a flight of stairs going downwards. “An underground bar?” He thought to himself, he was quite enjoying himself as he walked down the stairs. Once he got downstairs he saw another door, upon opening that he’s immediately greeted by people laughing very loudly. They appeared to be very drunk. There was a festive vibe surrounding the bar, and true to it’s name, music was being played live. There were instruments on the wall, free for anyone to play. This sparked a fire inside Kikaru, he really wanted to play something right now.
However, he first wanted to find out more about -Infinity-. He walked towards the barman, as some people in the crowd said hello to him. The barman was cleaning some glasses as Kikaru sat down.
“Hello, sir.” Kikaru said.
“Goodnight to you, Young lad.” The man responded, a chuckle followed soon after.
“Aren’t ya being a bit too formal there, I haven’t seen you here before? Well, this bar welcomes everyone… as long as they can legally drink. The name’s Tom, i’m the owner of this fine establishment.” He bursted out laughing.
Somehow, this calmed down the nerves that were currently building up in Kikaru. He thought he could be a bit more looser.
He chuckled in response. “Don’t worry, I’m old enough to be here. The instruments on display here are very nice, Tom.”
Tom nodded in response. “I used to be a musical traveler, seen my fair share of things happen. I see that fire in your eyes, lad.” Kikaru couldn’t hide it, they talked some more about how this bar was created, tiny chatter that made Kikaru more at ease as it went on.
“However… do you know what the Fighting part of this bar means?” He asked, his tone not changing a bit. He had seen right through Kikaru.
“Ah.. no, I don’t-“ Before he could finish his sentence, he felt someone tap on his shoulders.
Kikaru turned around, seeing a person as tall as him with brown hair that was a bit of a mess. Wearing an orange jacket which was unzipped. His flaming yellow eyes looked at Kikaru. “Hey, you!” The boy said, his voice was loud, yet only Kikaru and Tom could hear him. “I challenge you!” He boldly proclaimed.
There was a few moments of silence, Kikaru’s mouth nearly hang open. “C-challenge.. what? Why?” He asked. Tom just laughed very loudly, which echoed throughout the room.
“So I see! You didn’t know, well! Let! Me! Tell you!” He said in a rhythm.
“This bar is a legal ground where fights can be hosted! Either inside or outside, this street is my land! No killing allowed, we operate on honor! Just like back in my days!” He laughed some more, looking at Kikaru’s very shocked reaction.
“Exactly, and I see something about interesting about you!” The brown haired boy responded.
“Wh-.. what?! why?! what do you see?!” The confusion got to Kikaru, he should’ve suspected the fighting part had prominence, but he just assumed it had to do with rhythm that was so good it kicked your ass. Metaphorically.
“The name’s David! And I don’t know exactly! Which is why we must engage in a fight.” David just laughed, enjoying the looks on Kikaru’s face.
“Well, MR.White Hair? What will it be.” He pointed at Kikaru’s white hair. Not yet touching it. Kikaru sat there in a few moments of silence, internally thinking. As he closed his eyes to regain composure, his thoughts began to collect.
“I haven’t asked about -Infinity- yet. I never expected this to happen. But… David’s energy is very interesting to see, I want to trade blows with him. What is going through his head?” Kikaru opened his eyes, his fiery eyes looking at David, raising a fist towards his face.
“You’re on!”
David smiled in response, putting his fist against the one Kikaru’s holding out in front of him. “Alright! Now for the weapons we use..” David closed his eyes in thought. Before he could say anything further he noticed the sound of a bag being ruffled through.
“I got my weapon right here.” Kikaru said, showing his blue katana.
David just laughed. “Come on man! Using a katana in a fight like this?! I don’t want to kill you with these.” He unsheathed both his katanas, they were both smaller than the one that Kikaru had in possession. The noticeable thing was that they had a pure black blade, something Kikaru had never seen before. The right Katana also had a small red string bound to the base of the katana.
Kikaru was a bit surprised by the confidence that David had in his words, not just suggesting that he’d win, he outright claimed it as a fact. David put both his swords back in their sheaths. “Nah, we’re gonna use these.” he dramatically raised both his fists. Kikaru couldn’t help but laugh and repeat the motion that David made.
“Alright then, David. Let’s take this outside.” He said, his smile giving off a feeling of whimsical fun. Tom called for another worker to stay behind the counter
“I need to see these two fresh bloods fighting it out, they seem like an interesting lot.”
