When Three Gather...
Four friends, thrown into chaos.
In a small office in Shibuya, a man in a suit and his early fifties was thrown against his desk.
“Ooh… what- what is the meaning of this?” he demanded angrily. “Is this how you treat your elders?”
“No,” said the young man in dark clothes and a trenchcoat. Around the young man were four other teenagers in more casual dress. “This is how we treat debtors who think they don’t owe anything.”
“How dare you!” the older man retorted, attempting to stand back up. “You dare to—” The young man, Ishii, swift as a snake, whipped out an expandable baton and lunged, thrusting the baton into the man’s stomach. And before the man could even react to the impact, Ishii raised the baton and struck the man over the top of his head. The man slumped against the desk. Ishii grabbed the man by what little hair he had and held him down.
“Five million Yen you owe. After the initial ¥2,000,000 you barrowed at 20-percent interest, you had plenty of time to pay us back in full.”
“Disrespectful punk,” the man spat. “Where’s your honor? Does your family know how you shame them?”
Ishii almost laughed. “Seriously? You’re talking about shame right now? You made a contract with us. We hid nothing from you. And you think you can just break that contract without consequences?”
“We elders deserve leniency you little shit! We are the ones working hard for society while you reap the benefits.”
“Says the man who came to us for a loan in the first place.” With mild difficulty, he hefted the man up and slammed him against the top of the desk. “I don’t care how old you are or what you do. An old man with a debt is still a man with a debt. So are you going to wizen up or do I need to—?"
A cell phone rang.
Looking around, Ishii handed the baton to one of the other teenagers before swiftly searching the man. He fished the man’s cell phone out of a pocket. His face then adopted a weird expression upon reading the caller ID.
桜 赤ちゃん
Ishii raised an eyebrow, before swiping his thumb on the phone’s screen and raising it to his ear. He listened for a few moments, then made a quiet cough.
“*ahem* I apologize, but Kikuchi-san isn’t here right now. … This is his office. He left for the restroom about a minute ago. Who’s calling? … I see. Should I let him know you called? … I will do that. You too. Have a good day.” Ishii was grinning now. He set the phone down on the desk, noting the wedding ring the man wore. “So… you barrowed money from us; not to pay off a previous expense or invest in a new business venture, but so that you can afford an extramarital affair?” The man perked up, now sweating a little.
“Th-that’s none of your business! You’re just a lender, and a boy at that! Why does it matter what I use the money for?”
“Ever heard of ‘return on investment’? The point of a business is to make a profit. So how am I supposed to make a profit if I just hand over money so a stupid salary man can waste it all on a geisha? With that in mind.” He turned to look at the other teenagers. The next words he spoke were in English. “Pin his arms and legs.” The four teenagers rushed in and pinned the man to the front of his desk, holding his arms and legs in place.
“What? Hey! What are you doing!?”
“Teaching an old man an ancient lesson,” Ishii explained. “A lesson that many men seem to forget.” And, with an unsettling casualness, brandished a butterfly knife. “A wise man is never led by his loins.”
Other people in the building finally called the police when they heard the man screaming. An ambulance arrived five minutes after the police. And the police arrived five minutes after the call; four minutes after Ishii and the culprits left the building.
A stone’s throw away from the Shibuya Crossing; three of the four friends were gathered around the Hachiko Statue. Airi sat on a concrete bench behind Hachiko, grasping her left elbow with her right hand. Takara stood next to her, arms crossed and frowning. And Akane proceeded to pace back and forth, between the bench and the statue.
“Come on Naoko,” Takara quietly said to no one in particular. “Where are you? What’s going on?”
“You…” Airi hesitantly pondered, “don’t think Naoko has a secret boyfriend somewhere?”
“No,” Takara answered immediately. “Naoko definitely doesn’t have a secret boyfriend.”
“Hai,” Akane concurred. “She would be begging us for advice if she actually met a boy she liked.”
“I wish she had someone she liked,” Takara added. “A boyfriend would probably give her more confidence.”
Airi pulled out her phone, the digital wallpaper being a picture of the four of them at last year’s Obon festival. She thought about maybe doing an internet search, only to realize she had nothing to search for that would help them find Naoko. She put her phone away as Akane, still pacing, groaned in frustration.
“I hate this,” she muttered aloud, drawing a stare from a woman walking past. “I hate this. I hate this.”
“Not at home… Not at cram school…” Takara surmised. “She doesn’t have a boyfriend or a part-time job. Oh gosh…” She sat down next to Airi, slouching over and resting her head in her hands. “I’m getting a headache. And our original plan to visit hedgehogs isn’t helping.”
“Hedgehogs?” Airi asked.
“They have those little, what do you call them? Those little spinning wheels that hedgehogs and hamsters run on.”
“Hamster wheel?”
“Hai…”
“Maybe we should call the police.” Airi suggested.
“I thought about that too,” Takata admitted, “but what if she just happens to be helping out a neighbor or something? I wouldn’t want to trouble the police over nothing.”
“How is this nothing?” Akane questioned loudly, drawing two or three more pairs of eyes. “Has she responded to your call yet?”
“No. But what if her phone—” she stopped midsentence.
“You think Naoko is the type to forget to charge her phone?”
“No.”
Airi pulled her own cell phone and typed out a text message.
Naoko, you alright? Please reply!
“Come on!” Akane suddenly urged them.
“What?”
“Stand up and let’s go!”
“Go? Go where?”
“Anywhere!” Akane insisted. “Seriously, how can you two just sit there?” Airi and Takara looked at each other. Akane was the most active of the four of them, so this eagerness to move was actually not unusual.
“Akane,” Takara spoke calmly, “we don’t have a place to go to. We don’t know where Naoko is.”
“I know that!” Akane snapped, garnering more gazes from passersby.
“Calm Akane, calm.”
“But still! To sit here and do nothing?”
“I understand- we understand. But we can’t just run around aimlessly.”
“She’s right Takara,” Airi suddenly said.
“Pardon?”
Airi slowly stood up. “We aren’t doing anything sitting down. Let’s walk around at least.”
Takara opened and closed her mouth, bit her lip, then nodded before standing up with them. “Okay then. Where should we walk?”
“I don’t know,” Airi admitted as Akane shrugged. “This way?” Airi suggested, gesturing down Jingu-dori.
Down Jingu-dori, past the bus stops under the Mark City Walkway, the three friends found themselves meandering toward the Sakura Stage mall out of habit. Takara attempted to call Naoko a third time, to no avail. Airi caught Akane biting her nails.
“Ge! Sorry, I didn’t realize,” Akane apologized.
“When was the last time you bit your nails?”
“Gosh, I don’t know. Before we met Naoko and Takara?”
“That long ago?” Takara questioned.
“At least, that’s what I remember.”
“Do you remember the first day of secondary school?” Airi asked. Akane responded with a mild groan before answering.
“Hai… I remember everything that happened that day.”
“You make it sound like it’s a painful memory,” Takara noted.
“Shut up,” Akane muttered, her cheeks turning a shade of red.
Smiling to herself, Airi looked across the street. Then she saw someone with a cropped jacket and black hair with dyed streaks of crimson exiting a FamilyMart.
“Is that Mahoshi-san?”
It was. Crimson-dyed hair, cropped shirt and jacket, and that short skirt. Mahoshi was by herself now, and seemed to have a look of concern on her face (which was not a normal expression for her). As she walked, Mahoshi then suddenly turned her head, looking around.
“Okay, I must admit,” said Takara, narrowing her eyes at the gyaru. “This is the first time she actually looks suspicious.”
“Maybe she’s also looking for someone?” Akane suggested. “Her friends, maybe?”
“Wouldn’t she be on her cell phone then?” Airi reasoned.
“True,” Takara confirmed. “Either she’s looking for someone that isn’t a friend, or she’s worried about someone watching her.” As Mahoshi continued down the sidewalk, the three friends looked at each other. Takara motioned with her chin and Akane nodded. After a pair of cars and a bus passed, the three of them used the crosswalk and began tailing Mahoshi up Sakurazaka Street. About four meters ahead, Mahoshi kept walking, looking this way and that. Then she suddenly stopped and ducked into an alley. The three friends carefully approached the alley, before stopping at the sound of the gyaru’s voice.
“Come on, pick up!” She was on the phone? Airi craned her neck to look around the corner. Mahoshi was standing in front of a green-colored payphone, covered with vague graffiti. Mahoshi frowned at the payphone, holding a small notepad in her free hand. Then her expression lifted as her call connected. “Hey, it’s Keiko.… Sorry, I am neither living nor dead. And can you tell ani-san how difficult it is to find a working payphone in Shibuya?!”
“What is she doing?” Akane asked quietly.
“She’s using a payphone. Quiet.”
“Hai hai!” they heard Mahoshi snap. “Listen, I finally got the info. That brain-fried cram student didn’t even bother to ask why I wanted to look in his bag.… Hai. It’s a place called: Chiteki Printing.… No shit, it’s fake! That’s why I dug a little. The real group is called: Katayaburi Solutions, they have an address in Uguisudanicho…. You already know- then what the hell am I doing here?... Oh… the Kigyo? Hai, I get it…. What? Iie, I don’t care…. What? That stupid Hasegawa girl?” Airi and her friends perked up. “She’s no friend of mine! I could care less what happens to her…. Hey, if she’s mixed up with Katayaburi Solutions, then she’s not as smart as she let’s on. I mean, even I can get a passing grade on those exams, and I don’t even try! If anyone is stupid enough to buy test answers, then they deserve whatever happens to them.”
What? Airi could barely believe what she was hearing. Buying test answers? Naoko?
“Anyway. So, is that it?... Hai…. Hai, I understand. Oh, and remind Daisuke to check Tosho for the bango-gacha on his way home. Hai, talk to you later.”
Airi urgently waved a hand. The three friends quickly backed away from the alley before turning and dashing across the narrow street and into a sideroad.
“What did we just hear?” asked Akane. “What did we just hear?”
“Give me a moment,” Takara managed, clearly trying to gather her thoughts.
“Naoko was buying answers for the exams?” Airi asked aloud. “That… that isn’t like her, right?”
“Of course not!” Akane quickly answered. “Mahoshi-san must be talking about a different Hasegawa.” She gave Takara an anticipant look. “Right, Takara-chan?”
“I…” Takara faltered. “I wish I could say the same. But… this isn’t the first time.”
“Pardon?” Airi asked.
“Not like that. She hasn’t cheated on exams before. But there have been times when we were younger where Naoko had something to hide. I don’t know why I didn’t think about it before, but the few times she does hide something it becomes apparent. She becomes quiet, more than usual. She has a hard time sleeping and she tells lies based on truths. She has been going to cram school, so that’s what she tells us when she’s doing something else. The last time she did that, it was after her cat died and she didn’t want to bother anyone by crying during class. Instead, she would lie about her family being busy before going straight home to cry in her room.”
“This isn’t a dead pet though,” Akane pointed out. “This is cheating on exams.”
“I know! I know!” Takara forced herself to take a deep breath. “Sorry, I’m not trying to defend her. If anything, I’m frustrated that I didn’t notice earlier.”
“And… Mahoshi-san?” Airi asked. “Does she have anything to do with this? Because it sounded like she was talking about it, but not in a familiar fashion.”
“That’s what I thought too. She said something about getting information from another cram student.”
“The Katayaburi Solutions thing in Uguisudanicho?” Akane recalled.
“Hai. That must be where Naoko is getting the exam answers.”
“So… call the police and say… our friend cheated on her exams and the answers are sold here?” Takara ventured. “Sorry, I don’t think that’s going to get us anywhere.”
“True,” Airi concurred, “since, as far as I know, cheating on your exams is not a crime.”
“But, there’s still the chance that Naoko will be there, and she has yet to respond to our calls.”
“Then let’s go to Uguisudanicho,” Akane urged.
“Wait,” said Airi, “what about the people Mahoshi-san was talking to? She said she didn’t care, but whoever she was talking to might have other ideas.”
“Over exam questions?” Takara inquired. “I doubt it. Come on, let’s find Naoko.”
As the afternoon crept on, the three friends entered the Uguisudanicho district. They found themselves meandering mostly small stores and apartment blocs.
“So…” Akane finally broke the comfortable silence, “now we know where to go, but don’t know where to find it.”
“Now you say it,” Takara commented, rolling her eyes. They continued down the street, eventually coming across a neighborhood ramen bar with one of the workers bidding farewell to a customer.
“Pardon me,” Airi greeted the worker with a nervous bow. “We’re looking for a business called Katayaburi Solutions, do you know where that is?”
“I’ve never heard of it,” the worker answered, wiping his hands on his apron. “What sort of business is it?”
Exam answers.
“It sells study guides for students.” More or less.
“Study guides… I don’t know if it’s who you’re looking for, but there is a new office building that way.” He pointed eastward. “Close to the rail line tracks. I don’t think it’s called Katayaburi though.”
“Thank you regardless, sorry to bother you,” Airi thanked the man. The three friends immediately headed east. It took only three minutes to cross the length of the neighborhood. They passed a hair salon, an izakaya, and a-
“Is that a college library?” Takara asked aloud.
“It is,” Airi confirmed, noting a sign. “Nikkeidai, Shibuya Campus.”
“Maybe we’re in the wrong place,” Akane thought aloud. “If I was selling exam questions, I wouldn’t want to be found out by the university right next door.”
“Maybe not,” Takara countered. “How well do you remember Natsume?”
“Natsume?”
“Natsume Soseki.”
“Eh… a little.”
“Rinsing one’s mouth with a stone and laying one’s head on a pillow of flowing water.”
“People who behave opposite of expectations?” Airi asked.
“Exactly.”
“You think a university is making cheat sheets?” Akane ventured.
“Iie,” Takara shook her head. “But I do think that these people would be next to a university library.”
“Because it would be the last place anyone would look?” Airi suggested.
“Hai. After all, you wouldn’t look for a mouse next to a litter box.” They strode off the street, down an alley to the next street over. A pair of clothing stores, an empty lot, another hair salon, and an office building built in a newer style. Its ground floors were decorated with stone, but the upper floors were made of large windows and apparent vertical slats of wood. The first floor was raised above street level and connected to an outdoor staircase along the lefthand side. Airi looked the building up and down before suddenly stopping, reaching out to make her friends halt.
“There, that sign.” On a stone wall, beside the entrance, was a dark green plaque with cyan letters reading: 知的 印刷
Chiteki Printing.
“Chiteki Printing?” Takara read. “Isn’t that the other name Mahoshi-san mentioned?”
“That’s what I thought,” Airi said. “But, didn’t she say the group was fake?”
“Maybe she made a mistake in her research,” Takara suggested. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she did, she is a gyaru after all.” The three friends immediately turned around and walked back, stepping into the empty lot behind the small hair salon.
“So, what do we do now?” Akane asked.
“I have no idea,” Airi admitted as Takara pulled out her phone again. “With everything Mahoshi-san said, I don’t think we can just knock on the door and ask for Naoko.”
“Hai…” Akane agreed. Takara listened to her phone for several seconds. Again, Naoko didn’t answer.
“Come on Naoko,” Takara said to herself as she put her phone away. “At least let us know if you’re alright.”
Airi found herself crossing her arms, thinking back over yesterday and the last two weeks. Two weeks of Akane freaking out over the exams and which materials would be covered. Two weeks of Takara calming Akane down and bringing up old study guides with a graceful ease, much to Akane’s chagrin. Two weeks of Naoko nodding off during class, faint circles under her eyes. Two weeks of asking Naoko if she was alright and if she was getting enough sleep. Two weeks of the same answer.
“I’m okay, really.”
Two weeks… she wasn’t okay. For two weeks, why hadn’t she said anything? Now she was probably in the building next door, maybe struggling to work off a debt or something. And they are just standing there?
“You think we could- iie,” Akane started before stopping herself.
“What is it?” asked Takara.
“I was thinking maybe we could call Chiteki Printing, or Katayaburi Solutions, and pretend to be interested in buying some exam answers before asking about Naoko. But then I realized that might get her in more trouble.”
“Most likely,” Takara agreed. “Now I am thinking about calling the police.”
“Would they help?”
“Not likely.”
“Aragh!” Akane was bouncing on the ball of her sneakers. “As much as I want to go home right now, I don’t want to just give up on Naoko! Please tell me you have an idea—”
“Let’s sneak in.” Akane and Takara looked at Airi; Akane stopped bouncing.
“What?”
“Let’s sneak in,” Airi repeated.
“Umm…”
“Let’s go up the stairs on the side and enter through the roof.”
“I wasn’t wondering how,” Takara clarified. “I was wondering if I heard you correctly in the first place.”
“Well… hai. I mean, it’s either sneak in to help Naoko or go home and wait for news from her parents.” The mention of Naoko’s parents made the other two grimace, as though they had forgotten that the Hasegawas were also looking for their daughter.
“Alright,” said Takara, “assuming whatever door on the roof isn’t locked, we go in, look for Naoko, and try and get her out?”
“Or at least check if she’s there,” Airi explained. “If she is, then we can call her parents who will then call the police.”
“Right, that actually sounds like a good plan.”
“Hai hai,” Akane concurred while raising a hand.
The three friends clambered onto the staircase, with Akane needing a boost from Takara, and ascended four stories to the roof. They passed two rows of air conditioning units and reached the rooftop door. Airi grasped the doorknob, only to find it looked.
“Well, I guess this is as far as my plan goes,” Airi admitted, accepting defeat.
“Maybe it will open soon,” Akane wondered, looking at the asphalt beneath their feet.
“How do you figure?” Takara asked.
“Because someone smokes up here.” True, there were no more than a dozen cigarette butts scattered about within arms-reach of the door.
“When do you think their next smoke break will be?” Airi asked, pulling out her phone. She had to tilt it, to negate the glare of the afternoon sun. It was 2:42.
“I don’t know.”
Takara stepped to the door and leaned in. She pressed an ear against the door, frowning to try and listen through the no-doubt thick door. But after a few seconds she started and eagerly urged them away with her hands.
“Someone’s coming!” she hissed. The three friends hid around the corner. A few seconds later the door opened and a man in business slacks and a visibly wrinkled flannel shirt. He scratched his chest before stepping away from the door and pulling a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. The door remained partly open as the man lit a cigarette and began to smoke. Akane carefully tapped Takara on the arm and pointed toward the door. Takara raised one of her own hands: wait.
There was a melody of beeps and the man answered his cell phone. Stepping further away from the door, the man proceeded to loudly talk to whoever was on the other end. Takara finally lowered her hand, gingerly stepping toward the still open door. Airi and Akane followed in her footsteps, slipping through the door as the man began to loudly complain about “how long it takes to get those papers together.” The three friends crept downstairs and into a hallway of the fifth floor.
“Hoo…” Akane breathed out, “that was easy.”
“Quiet,” Takara hissed. She leaned against a door, listening for a few seconds before stepping away. “Not this way, I can hear two people talking.” The three of them descended to the third floor. The door to this floor was already open. They entered the hallway, turned a corner and found an indoor window overlooking something like a factory floor.
A printing floor, they realized.
Across one side were three pairs of shelves bearing boxes and perfect stacks of oversized sheets of paper. Some of the paper would be taken to the first pair of machines, which would cut them down. The cut paper would then be loaded into the next set of machines in line; a pair of extra-large printers that were more like several printers jammed together. Then the printed paper was placed on a pair of conveyor belts with rollers. After that, the paper was fed into another set of machines. These last two machines outputted completed booklets. Airi strained to make out the characters on the front covers.
Comprehensive Exam Guides.
“Do they really need printers that big?” Akane asked.
“I guess?” Airi said. “There has to be reason, otherwise they wouldn’t use them.”
“This is where they put the guides together,” Takara observed, “so where do they actually write them?”
“Maybe on another floor,” Airi reasoned. They proceeded across the way and through the door on the other side. Down another hallway, they passed by a handful of office doors and almost ran into a pair of young men, one was in his twenties and dressed casually, the other wearing a dark green school blazer. Fortunately, the two guys were engrossed in their quiet conversation and didn’t notice the three of them. Forcing herself to take a deep but quiet breath, Airi followed them to another door next to an indoor window. The young men went through the door and the three friends snuck up to the window. Looking in, they saw other adolescents and young adults, sitting at tables and scrutinizing packets of paper while writing in notebooks or typing on a handful of computers.
“Those packets must be the exams,” Akane reasoned.
“But I don’t see Naoko,” Airi whispered back.
“Maybe they have different teams working in different rooms,” Takara suggested. “Let’s go back and check out the next floor.” Nodding at this idea, Airi led the way back up the hall, across the way overlooking the printing floor, and back into that first hallway. She reached for the door knob to the staircase, when she suddenly saw stars.
Then blackness.
