The food was absolutely spectacular. A world-class dining experience. Even the excitable Kira managed to sit still, awed by just how delicious each piece of sushi was as it was prepared and presented to us.

The chef started us with a classic dish. Fatty tuna lightly brushed with soy sauce, formed lovingly in the palms of his calloused hands, and placed in front of us. Three perfect pieces. My stomach growled, Hana sighed blissfully and Kira mewled excitedly, licking her lips. The old chef only chuckled and nodded.

“There you are,” he said simply and stood waiting for us to enjoy.

And enjoy we did, all three off picking pieces up with our hands and downing them. Thankfully there was no traditional etiquette to train Kira on here. The correct way that one ate pieces of nigiri at a place like this is just as a cat would. By paw, or rather hand.

Satisfied by our groans and smiles the chef went on to prepare us more and more dishes. From the first pieces he then branched out to several variations of tuna, marked by their varying fat contents. To break things up and cleanse our palette he gave us a small salad of pickles. Once he felt we were ready the chef moved on to increasingly rare cuts of fish.

Kira ate each one happily asking the chef rapid fiure questions about each. He happily told her as she ooh’d and aww’d over each one. Hana merely smiled. She was unusually quiet and reserved but I could tell she still enjoyed the food a lot.

I was loving it. When I’d lived in Tokyo I’d been broke and never able to afford anything like this. But my excitement took a turn when the chef began bringing out fish I wasn’t even certain of. I was getting worried. Hana had said she’d got us covered, and she seemed to know this man well, but could she really get us all this for free? I wanted to confirm it with her but in the close confines of the sushi bar, there was no polite way to ask without being overheard.

The final dish was pufferfish, but unlike any version of it I’d seen before. The Chef leaned in close to tell us this had been farmed locally, not in any of the specified cages in the ocean assigned by the labor board. I felt a thrill run through me. I knew it could be dangerous but I did not want to refuse. Hana bowed and thanked him and ate it. I saw her chew make an inquisitive face and then swallow.

She said, simply, “Delicious!”

Kira sensed my anxiety and looked at me, I had forgotten how connected we were, what I felt she could feel too. “Master, are you okay?” she asked. I looked from her to the chef who raised his eyebrows but didn’t comment.

With all eyes on me, I had no choice. I delicately picked up a piece with my chopsticks and surveyed it then plopped it in my mouth and chewed. Tingly sensations played across my tongue. I swallowed.

“It's.. delicious!” I announced with no word of a lie.  Kira quickly downed hers, squirming excitedly.

Once we were done with our final dish, the chef gave us little dollops of homemade black sesame ice cream to finish, and then Hana and he began saying her goodbyes. I pulled out my wallet and like some sort of psychic the chef’s head swivelled and turned to me.

“Put that away boy, a friend of Hana’s money is no good here,” he barked.

I nodded and bowed, feeling sufficiently chastised and having flashbacks to my schoolyard days. The chef leaned over the counter and looked at the three of us.

“I know that to bring Hana back here, something big must be going on. I only am glad to have fed you well. Know that you have friends in this city if you ever need them.” He handed me his card and then walked over around the counter and gave Hana a big hug. With that, we bowed, Kira lowest of all, making him smile.

Then we waddled out into the neon streets of Tokyo, stuffed and satisfied. Kira held her belly and made a scrunched-up face. Hana put her hand on the cat spirit’s shoulder.

“Oh gods, mistress and master… something terrible… something is shaking inside!” she cried.

Passerbies gave us a wide birth, we must have looked like a couple with a pregnant teenage daughter. Thankfully I had gone beyond worrying about being embarrassed by Kira at this point in the trip.

I was, however, worried about her premonition of something terrible inside of her belly. Was it the pufferfish? Some evil spirit? What was…

B-buuuuurp!

Kira’s eyes were wide and she held two hands to her mouth. Hana laughed uproariously and even I chuckled a bit in relief. Kira went bright red and hid her face in Hana’s chest. I just shook my head.

“Come on girls, let's go for a walk before we go back to the hotel. I think all of us are a little too stuffed to lie down yet.” There was a general agreement and the girls followed me on a tour of downtown Tokyo.

I pointed out various landmarks as we headed towards a local park I knew. At some point, the buildings began to look less familiar and I grew quiet, squinting at street signs in the distance. I wasn’t sure how I could have gotten lost, and the buzz of the good food and company was wearing off. A dangerous feeling had set into me.

“Ryo, isn’t that..” Hana was pointing ahead, stopped in her tracks. Kira stopped too, clutched to her arm still evidently feeling the effects of overindulging.

“It is,” I replied, a sinking feeling washing over me. “The museum. Where the final artifact is being held.”

***

I knew that we hadn’t just stumbled upon the place. Something had drawn me there, and yet, now that we stood, all three of us, in front of the door I couldn’t tear myself away.

“Are you sure we should do this? Shouldn’t we wait for Miku?” said Hana. I saw that in her hand was the gift of the old man, the retractable staff.

Kira opened her mouth, covered it for a moment, and then shook her head. “I don’t feel right master. There is… a darkness here.”

But I didn’t need their warnings to tell me that. The door was ajar and all the lights were off. It was clear that something was awry It was also clear to me that I had no choice. We had to enter. I wasn’t going to let what had happened to Fenra happen to Miku, whatever had happened here, we couldn’t leave it alone and we couldn’t wait.

“Girls, you should stay outside and keep guard. I will go inside. If he is in there, I will face him. And if he has Miku or Fenra, I will take them back. It is too dangerous.”

I felt a hand clap on my shoulder. “We aren’t going anywhere,” Hana said, tapping her staff twice it extended and she gave it an experimental twirl. “Besides, I want to try this thing out.”

Kira, not to be left out latched onto my other side and produced her ring. She scrunched up her face and a beam of light shone out from it into the darkness of the museum. She squealed excitedly. “Look! It works! See master, you need me too!”

I bit my lip, as much as I wanted to protect them and do this on my own, my heart swelled at their support.

“All right, you two. Let's do this.”