Tokyo Demons Book 1: Chapter 1

Jo was doing well. He leaned against the inside of the bathroom stall and flipped through the paper money in his hand. Damn, he thought as he dragged deeply on a cigarette. Half a dozen kids. Oblivious little bastards.

He shuffled through his empty wallets. He’d dump them around school grounds with the IDs and credit cards still inside–no use for those. He was still deciding whether or not to sell the mobile phones or just ditch those, too. Going straight for cash seemed lucrative enough.

Someone entered the restroom. Jo listened to the footsteps–definitely not purposeful enough to be a teacher–then went back to smoking. His stall door was closed, anyway. He’d learned that most guys weren’t willing to poke into another guy’s stall for any reason, let alone to narc about a cigarette.

The footsteps stopped. Jo paused, then quickly slid his stolen goods back into varying pockets. Half a second later the footsteps flew to his stall and an eye appeared at the hinge.

“Dude,” said a voice. “Who is that in there?”

Jo snorted. “Get lost.”

“Those cigarettes?”

“You a pervert?”

The intruder tried to wiggle a finger into the thin crack and failed. “Help me out?” he asked. “Just one, man.”

Jo sighed. He pulled a stick from his cigarette box and tossed it over the door. He noticed it hit the floor before the mystery fingers got to it.

“Thanks, bro.” Jo heard a lighter snap. “You don’t have anything that’ll help me get baked, do ya? I don’t know how I’m gonna get through today sober.”

I think it’s time to go. Jo dropped his cigarette in the squat toilet and pushed open his stall door. A student about his age with wild orange-dyed hair looked up from lighting Jo’s gift.

The boy smiled around the stick. “You’re a life-saver.”

Jo shrugged it off. “Forget it,” he murmured as he left the bathroom. He didn’t particularly want the stranger to remember him, but figured there was little to no risk of getting reported by a stoner.

The homeroom doors in the hallway stayed open for the lunch period. Jo didn’t see any teachers or anyone patrolling the hall, and there was some kind of dull crowd noise coming from the cafeteria–which was possibly where the teachers and monitors were. There were a lot of students skipping between classrooms with meals in hand, so Jo made a mental note. Lunch could be a good time to rifle through ignored book bags.

A girl suddenly bumped into him as his eyes roamed the classes. “Sorry,” she chirped as she brushed past. Jo glanced at her, then stopped.

Whoa.

She was hot. More importantly, she was working her hot. Her skirt was rolled up and her blouse was expertly tucked around tight curves. She brushed a strand of bleached hair behind her ear and turned a bit to Jo’s admiring glance.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

Jo flashed a smile. “Just promise you’ll never apologize to me again.”

She seemed to like that. She blew him a kiss before breezing down the hallway. Jo let out a breath and took a moment to compose.

Upperclassman, he thought as he at last made his way to class D. With those legs. He was still focused on his casing mission, but he didn’t mind brief distractions when they had asses like that.

His homeroom was right where he’d left it, looking rather empty. Apparently most of class 1-D preferred to eat elsewhere. He flopped in his seat, pulled a convenience-store onigiri from his bag, and peeled off the plastic as he listened in.

“…think it makes me look fat. Does it?”

“Just use a Camp to save before every dungeon, idiot.”

“Ikawa-sensei was staring at my chest the whole class, I swear!”

“I work after school. What about Sunday?”

Blah blah blah. Jo tucked his seaweed wrap as neatly as possible as he looked around. The kogal and her boyfriend were gone, and the two other classmates he’d robbed from class D seemed fine.

He turned his head. The quiet kid with the zombie stare was nowhere to be found.

“…nice place, full of students. The music’s really good, too.”

Jo’s ears perked. It was Spike, leaning in his seat toward his quiet female target. The guy seemed pretty bad at flirting, and it wasn’t like the girl was a catch. Why all the effort? Jo tried to block out the other sounds of the room and zero in.

“It opens around five. Have you ever gone clubbing, Watanabe-san?”

“I don’t…I mean, I thought people go to clubs to drink.”

“Not this one. They don’t serve alcohol because it’s a club for teenagers.”

“…Oh.”

“Did you go to dances in middle school? What do you do for fun?”

She stopped a moment. “I dunno,” she said at last. “Read, I guess.”

“Do you have friends around here?”

“No. Nobody I knew in junior high or my Children’s Home came to this school.”

The guy went silent. “That sucks,” he murmured. “I know how you feel. I was with a foster family in Aichi until the end of seventh grade. A lot of my friends from my Tokyo middle school didn’t come here, either.”

Jo bit into his rice ball. Maybe that whole thing about Fukuhashi’s student population having 20% foster kids was true.

“Back to square one with friends, huh?”

“I guess.”

“Then let me start.” The guy smiled broadly. “I’d be honored to be your friend, Watanabe-san.”

The girl paused. “You can…call me Ayase, Sachi,” she answered quietly. “To be fair,” she added.

“Have you seen my wallet?”

Jo froze. His eyes rolled to a nearby classmate who was patting himself down. Jo crammed the rest of his rice into his mouth and slipped the packaging into his bag. He scooted his chair up to Sachi and Ayase.

“Hey.” He smiled coolly. “Mind if I join you?”

Instead of making an excuse or even giving him a dirty glare, Sachi only smiled. “Sure,” he replied. “What’s your name?”

Jo tried not to grimace. This guy sucked at flirting.

“Jo,” Jo said at last. “Ayase and Sachi, right?”

“Right.”

Jo briefly met eyes with Ayase. Up close, he was even more sure she wasn’t pretty.

“Where’re you from, Jo?”

“Huh?” Jo was trying to keep half an ear on the kid looking for his wallet. “Uh, Tochigi, originally. I’ve bounced around Chiba most of my life, though.”

“Are you living in the dorms?”

Jo didn’t actually want to talk to Sachi. The guy he’d robbed was getting panicky. Damn, he’d picked some weak-hearted nerd.

“Yeah. Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.”

“That place you were talking about. The club.” Jo raised his eyebrows. “Where is that, exactly?”

Ayase sighed and rested her head on her desk. “You’re a clubber?” she mumbled, although she didn’t look like she cared about an answer.

“Just want to know where to spend Saturday nights.” Oh, Jo was a clubber. Throngs of rich kids, loud music, bare lighting? It was like dipping his hand in a damn money jar.

“It’s down in Harajuku,” Sachi explained. “It’s pretty new. They only let in high school kids and older, so you need your ID.”

“And no booze? What about smoking?”

“We’re only allowed in because they don’t sell that stuff. I think some people bring their own and I’ve seen people smoking, but it’s not any worse than the dorms here. Hey!” Sachi snapped his fingers at Jo. “Wanna go tonight? You know, the three of us? If we go at six we can’t be out too late.”

Jo tried not to roll his eyes. Yeah, he thought sarcastically. I’ll just hit on this girl all morning and then invite another random guy to go out with us.

“Sure,” Jo replied dryly.

Sachi turned to Ayase. “And you?”

She didn’t lift her head from the table. Jo noticed the panicky kid had left to check the lost and found at the office, so it was time to get out of sight. He pushed his chair back.

“I’ve gotta go to the bathroom,” he said as he stood. “So what, 5:30 in the student lounge?”

“Sure. Do you have a roommate, Jo?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“What’s his name?”

Dammit, he had to leave. “Uh…Yoshi Honda or something.”

“Kiyoshi Honda?”

“Yeah, that’s it.”

Sachi brightened. “Wow! Do you think you could bring him? I haven’t seen him in–”

“Sure.” Jo nodded at the two of them and quickly left the classroom. He made it to the bathroom just as he noticed his victim turning back into the hallway.

Jo pushed the restroom door shut behind him. Letting out a breath, he fumbled for a cigarette and slid it between his lips.

Damn. That Sachi kid had quite the mouth. Still, Jo noted his own mistake: he’d pickpocketed too many classmates in his homeroom on the first day. He’d lay off at school for a few days…and he had to lose those wallets. He checked to make sure no one was in the bathroom before lighting up and pulling his spoils from the recesses of his clothes. The panicking nerd had navy faux leather, right? He flipped through his goods.

Jo frowned. He flipped through the wallets, again and again. He knew he had seven of them–half a dozen stolen and his own–but he was down to six. He started patting himself down.

No dice. The wallet of the kid he’d been running from was gone.

***************

5:20.

Ayase stared at her alarm clock, closed her eyes, then opened them again. The bleary numbers were still the same.

She groaned. Had she napped at all? The dorms were loud in the afternoon, possibly louder than they’d been at night. She yawned before groggily rolling to sit. She wanted to sleep. She rubbed her eyes and tried to decide whether to cancel her plans or not.

She still hadn’t met–or even seen–her roommate. A strong scent of perfume and makeup hung fresh on the air, so Ayase figured the girl must have stopped in at some point. At least that means I slept, she thought. Ayase paused a moment, then sighed.

She couldn’t ditch Sachi–the guy had put in a heroic effort to be friendly all day. He was nice without being creepy about it, so she figured it would be cruel (and a little suspicious) to reject a harmless outing for no reason. And it wasn’t like they were going to be alone…which decreased the likelihood of things getting uncomfortable.

Ayase stretched and went to change. She located a pair of newish jeans and a simple T-shirt in her dresser. Pointedly avoiding the mirror while in her underwear, Ayase changed and made sure the T-shirt wasn’t too short. A comb through her hair, a snatch of keys and wallet, and she was off. She closed and lock her dorm room behind her.

She arrived at the student lounge at 5:33. Sachi waited by the entrance, a big smile on his face.

“Hey,” he said.

He had dressed up a little, in a green buttoned shirt that shimmered in the light. It was flashy, but it didn’t look out of place on him. It made Ayase’s clothes feel especially plain, which actually comforted her.

“Jo’s not here yet,” Sachi told her. He glanced at her shirt and smiled. “You look nice.”

Ayase shot him a skeptical look. “It’s a T-shirt,” she murmured. “You don’t have to try that hard, Sachi.”

Sachi laughed. “Whoa,” he called, holding up his hands. “Easy. I just mean red’s your color.” When his dark eyes focused on her again, they glittered with something new. “You’re right–I’m trying too hard. Sorry.”

Ayase frowned. Was she imagining things, or was he looking at her differently? As she glanced into his eyes, his lips closed beneath them in a small smile, she wasn’t sure what to say.

She suddenly noticed Jo. Sachi followed her gaze and turned; his eyes fell on the student with Jo and immediately lit up.

“Kiyoshi!”

Jo’s roommate blinked. He brushed too long, too thick bangs from his eyes and refocused his gaze.

“…Sachi?”

Sachi ran up to Kiyoshi and held out a fist. “What’s up, man? I didn’t know you came to Fukuhashi!”

Kiyoshi tentatively knocked fists. “Yeah,” he said after a moment. “It’s, uh, good to see you.”

That’s Jo’s roommate? Kiyoshi was taller and more filled-out than Jo; Ayase noticed lean muscle on the wiry arms that poked out from his short sleeves. She’d never seen a student so direly in need of a haircut, as his shaggy hair fell into his eyes and nearly hid his pupils from view.

“So where are we going?” Kiyoshi asked.

“Blue Light. That new place in Harajuku.”

Kiyoshi’s eyes widened. “A club?” he blurted. “I don’t…I can’t dance.” He turned to Jo quickly. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Jo lit a cigarette. He was head to toe in black with a pair of red-tint sunglasses. His eyes rolled to Kiyoshi from beneath the shades.

“Your friend wanted to see you. Does it matter where we’re going?” He pocketed his lighter. “You guys should take this opportunity to catch up. I can entertain myself once we get there.”

Sachi gestured to Jo’s cigarette. “You’re not supposed to smoke in the lounge, Jo.”

“Then let’s go.” Jo blew smoke from the curves of his mouth and made for the exit. As they all followed, Ayase found herself beside Kiyoshi and looking into his half-hidden eyes.

“I’m Ayase,” she told him. “Kiyoshi, right?”

He nodded.

“Don’t worry.” She shook her head. “I can’t dance, either.”

Proceed to Chapter 1, page 3–>