Tokyo Demons Book 1: Chapter 1

The trip to the club was uneventful. The four of them took the train, but as Jo tried to catch a few minutes of sleep, that Sachi kid yammered like a four-year-old. Jo leaned his head against the back of his seat and closed his eyes.

“What kind of music do you like, Ayase?”

“Um…no preference, really.”

“Any dance? Techno?”

“Not really.”

“They mostly play techno at Blue Light. It can get pretty loud in the place–you’ll be okay, right?”

“What?”

“Do you mind loud music? I once brought this kid to a club and he couldn’t take the noise. I like to check first now.”

“…I’ll be fine.”

“Do you dance?”

“No.”

“Do you want to try?”

“No.”

“Are you sure? I’ll go on the dance floor with you if it’ll make you feel better.”

“…”

Jo frowned. She’s a lost friggin’ cause, he wanted to say, but he was more polite than that. The Ayase girl wasn’t exactly a talker, and as Sachi pulled Kiyoshi into his chatter, Jo’s roommate didn’t prove much better. Based on the conversation, Jo guessed Kiyoshi and Sachi hadn’t known each other very well in junior high.

At least Jo was left alone. His brilliant plan to use his roommate to shield him from Sachi’s banter was working. He couldn’t sleep because of the blabbering, but he preferred that to playing an unending game of Twenty Questions.

When they at last reached the club, Jo had to admit that he was impressed. At 6:10 on the first day of school the place was swarming with teenagers. The club itself still had that new feel to it and the pulsing music wasn’t bad. As he flashed his student ID for entrance and stepped into the dark, multicolored atmosphere, he couldn’t help but smile.

Dipping in a damn money jar.

“Jo?” he heard Sachi call over the music. “Do you wanna leave with us tonight?”

Jo hadn’t paid attention to directions. “Sure,” he answered.

“Then what, nine by the entrance?”

“Sounds good.”

“Okay. Have a good time.”

Jo waved a few fingers behind him as he melted into the crowd. Within a few minutes he’d already recognized a number of kids from school, a few even in their uniforms. In the dark and the dancing and the laughing and the music, Jo’s hands moved undetectably. He snagged a wallet before he even finished his survey.

He cracked his knuckles. It was going to be a good night.

As his eyes followed a student who seemed particularly off-guard, Jo bumped into someone. He murmured an apology and tried to slide past, then suddenly realized why they’d collided–the other guy stood dead still in the crowd. Alone. Jo paused a moment and nudged his shades down.

The guy looked vaguely familiar, and even seemed to be…shaking. What the hell? Jo thought. He leaned in and tapped the guy on the arm.

“Hey,” Jo said. “You okay? You need me to get a bouncer?”

The guy jerked at the touch. When he whipped his head around, Jo stopped.

It was the boy from the back of his homeroom. The zombie one. He seemed worse than he’d been in school, and was visibly pale in the flickering lights. He looked strung out as all hell.

Jo could only stare for a second. When he regained himself, he blurted, “Did something happen to you? You look like shit.”

The kid glared daggers. “Leave me alone,” he snapped. Even under the noise, Jo could hear the slight cracking to the classmate’s voice.

A part of Jo knew he should leave well enough alone, but another, louder part of himself was morbidly curious. That, and Jo was flashing back to an old foster brother from years ago. A ten-year-old boy with that look in his eyes…and stories of how his birth mother punished him when he was bad.

Jo pushed closer. The classmate tried to duck away, but Jo grabbed his arm.

“Look.” Jo muttered close enough so only the guy could hear. “I’m in your homeroom, okay? Don’t freak out. Are you coming down off something? Do you need a doctor?”

Jo barely saw the fist coming in time. He swung his head aside, but the guy’s knuckles still knocked his chin. Jo slapped a hand over the forming bruise and in doing so released his classmate.

Who left. The boy pushed his way through the crowd, disappearing into the throng.

Jo grimaced and tested out his jaw. He could tell without a mirror that the fist would leave a mark.

Damn, he thought as he massaged his face. Way to be an asshole. No matter what that guy was going through, Jo had been pretty damn non-threatening.

Oh, well. He’d tried. And what was it his first foster mother had always said? ‘No good deed goes unpunished.’

Which is why I shouldn’t bother. Jo adjusted his crooked sunglasses.

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

Sachi left Ayase and Kiyoshi alone for a while. He’d seen more kids he knew, and besides, he wanted Ayase and Kiyoshi to “relax and get to know the place.” Ayase guessed Sachi would try to get her to dance later, but she sincerely didn’t want to. At least Kiyoshi seemed as quiet and out of place as she.

The two of them stood against the wall and watched the dancers pulse to the throbbing beat. For a good five minutes neither of them spoke; when Kiyoshi at last pulled a few candies from his pocket and offered one to her, her decline was the first thing she’d said to him since leaving the school lounge.

This is stupid, Ayase thought as Kiyoshi popped the candy into his mouth. I never planned to be this anti-social. Making a few acquaintances wasn’t the end of the world, right? She’d had some in middle school, after all. She slid her hands into her pockets and looked out at the crowd.

“Do you, um, play sports, Kiyoshi?”

He glanced at her. “Hm?”

“Your shirt. It’s got that…swish thing on it.”

He looked down at his tee. “Oh.” He frowned. “Jo didn’t tell me where we were going. But it’s not like I have clubbing clothes, anyway.”

Ayase waited.

“Soccer.” He pushed another candy into his mouth. “I did archery in junior high, but I’m gonna play soccer at Fukuhashi.”

“Mm.” Silence. Ayase tried to think of something else to say, but came up with nothing. Kiyoshi kept chewing and didn’t make any effort to speak. His eyes wandered a bit around the crowds, finally resting on a bar further in the club. He froze.

And choked.

Ayase turned to him as he started coughing and clutching at his throat. “Hey,” she said, reaching out as he doubled over. He started hacking and her eyes widened.

“Hey!” She leaned in. “Are you okay?”

He nodded in-between gags. He coughed loudly into his palm to clear his airway, then closed his hand over the lump of half-chewed candy.

Ayase frowned. “What was that?”

He shook his head, his eyes watery in the dancing lights. “Just down the wrong tube,” he wheezed as he wiped his mouth. “I’m g-gonna go to the bathroom and drink something.”

“Okay.” She watched him as he stumbled toward the bathrooms. Confused, Ayase turned in the direction of the bar.

It was too far. As she squinted against the darkness and the colors, she wondered if he’d seen something–but wondered how he could see anything at that distance in that light. She eventually gave up and leaned back against the wall.

A few minutes later, a few people left the bar. Still curious, she watched as they walked closer, revealing themselves to be a group of several girls. They looked about her age, and seeing one girl’s blatant dye job, they were probably from her school, but nothing particularly interesting caught Ayase’s eye. The girls passed by without incident.

Ayase sighed. Okay, now she was really lame–the life and times of the people at the bar were actually keeping her attention.

I don’t belong here.

Ayase slumped against the wall. She couldn’t relax in this place. She could never really relax around other people–not since she was little. No matter her level of control she was still afraid she’d slip up someday. She’d be scared or something, like that day in class: she’d get surprised, and her control would break, and before she knew it her body would…

She squeezed shut her eyes against the thought. Not now, she told herself. She hadn’t had a real slip-up since she was a little kid, and things were only worse now because of the stress of changing schools. She’d get stronger soon. Things would get better.

Ayase suddenly realized Kiyoshi was still gone. She checked her watch–it had been at least twenty minutes. The club was pretty big; had he forgotten where they’d been standing? She pushed herself from the wall and went to find him.

Following in Kiyoshi’s footsteps was surprisingly difficult. The club was growing more and more packed as time passed, and she needed to cut through the dancers to slip into the hallway in the back. She picked her away around a few kids lounging in the small corridor, but the hallway grew more deserted as she traveled further. She took a left at a fork and found the restrooms. She knocked on the sign marked ‘Men’s.’

“Hello?” She pushed her ear near the door. “Um, Kiyoshi?”

She heard nothing. After another knock, she pushed open the door and peeked inside. The bathroom was deserted–no boys, no Kiyoshi, no nothing.

She frowned. As she walked back down the hall, she found herself stopping at the fork. Maybe he’d taken a wrong turn on the way back from the bathrooms? Figuring it was worth a shot, she started down the deserted second hall.

After the second turn, she guessed Kiyoshi hadn’t come that far–he would have realized he was going the wrong way at that point. She turned to leave, then stopped.

Voices.

Despite the muffled throbbing of the music in the deep hallway, she definitely heard speaking from further in. She tentatively took a few more steps. The voices grew loud enough for her to hear the edges to the words.

“…bullshit, Suzuki.”

“This isn’t…know…hell up. This is good shit.”

A shiver traveled down Ayase’s spine. Of all the doors lined up along the hall, the conversation came from one of the last. The voices exchanged more curses and a bad feeling swirled in her stomach. She stared down the hall and pursed her lips.

A big hand clapped over her mouth. As hot shock raced through her, she felt the edges of her body release.

No!

She squeezed shut her eyes and slammed her self-control together. As her heart raced and she felt her body lock into its form again, she dug her nails into her attacker’s hand and drove her teeth into his palm.

Something hard hit the back of her head. Before the world blinked out around her, the last thing she saw was a single shining insect break free from her falling arm.