Chapter Seven: Faith in money will lead you nowhere.

Exiting the station on the Electric Town side, Trash was glad he remembered about the new post office under the UDX building. The old one was over by the Mansei bridge, but this one was on the way to Pazu’s place. Stopping there would save time and effort.

He crossed the street and was relieved that the bank side of the post office was still open. He slid in, then went to the desk where one of the employees was waiting.

「Excuse me, can you help me exchange some Travelers checks?」

「Are they Japan Post issued Travelers checks?」

「Wait, just a minute.」

Trash pulled the wallet from his backpack. Pulling one of the checks out, he examined it and then showed it to the woman sitting across from him.

「It says American Express.」

「One moment, would you allow me to examine that, please?」

The teller slid a plastic tray across the desk to Trash, where he placed the slip of paper. Then she retrieved it before picking up the check and looking over both sides.

「One moment, please.」

Placing the check back on the tray, she picked them up and then walked over to a man at a desk in the back of the room.

They sat there talking for at least fifteen minutes, and Trash was getting nervous. He hated coming into banks. It was always like this. Even the most simple matter took hours, and you never knew what was going on.

Finally, the woman returned to her seat.

「Yes, however, we are only able to deposit the funds into a Postal Bank account. If these were issued from the Postal Bank, then we could convert them directly into currency. Alternatively, we can convert them, but if you do not have an account, we would have to charge a handling fee of 1%. What would you like to do?」

Gritting his teeth, Trash wanted to scream. Why did things need to be so annoying? He dug through his bag again and pulled out his wallet.

It took him a minute, but he eventually located his Postal Savings account cash card. It was actually the only bank account he had, though he hardly ever had any money in it. His grandfather had him set it up years ago so that he could receive an allowance without them having to meet face to face. Those deposits had ended ages ago, so the account was largely unused.

He placed the card into the tray beside the check.

「Can I have it deposited into this account?」

She took the tray back and picked up the card carefully.

Embarrassed, Trash realized that the card, having been stuck in a pocket of his wallet for months, unused, was dirty and maybe even a bit sticky.

He could tell that she was disgusted, but she was not allowed to show it, so she just picked the card up gingerly, with the least amount of contact with her fingers possible.

「May I check on this?」

Trash just nodded, mortified.

She quickly placed the card onto another tray, they took that tray to a machine in the back of the office.

She had a computer right there on her desk; why couldn’t she check without going to another part of the room? Trash was irritated and humiliated and increasingly stressed and impatient at how long this was taking.

After several minutes, she returned and placed the tray with the card back on the desk.

「Yes, this would be fine. How much would you like to deposit? Please note that for traveler’s checks issued by foreign banks, there is a limit of 300,000 yen per day.」

「Then, there will be no service charge, correct?」

「Yes, that is correct.」

Breathing a sigh of relief, Trash placed the entire leather wallet on the tray with the other check.

「All of these, please.」

「I understand. One moment, please.」

He watched as she removed the checks and then counted them by hand. Then, she repeated the count to double-check. She scribbled a note on a piece of paper on her desk, then opened a drawer. Taking a form out, she placed it in front of Trash.

「25 ten thousand yen traveler’s checks for a total of 250,000 yen. Is that correct?」

He nodded.

「Please fill out this form over at that table, then bring everything back to me.」

He wanted to scream. This was taking forever. Looking at his watch, he panicked. It had just passed 4. The bank should be closing.

「Umm, you won’t close, right?」

「Don’t worry, I will wait until this transaction is completed.」

At least she wasn’t rushing him. He guessed they were trained not to do that.

He gathered everything up, including the form, his bank card, and the envelope, and walked over to a nearby standing table.

It was all straightforward, so less than a minute later, he brought everything back and placed it in front of the bank employee.

「Could I get an identification card? A passport or drivers license would be fine.」

Again, Trash panicked. He pulled out his wallet, looking for anything that he could use. He found a card and slammed it down directly on the table.

「How about this? Will this work?」

Picking up the card, she looked it over.

「Yes, this is fine. One moment, please.」

Placing everything on the tray, she took it all back to one of the desks in the back of the room.

Trash slumped down in the chair. Luckily, he had that old scooter-bike license. It wasn’t a full driver’s license, but apparently it was enough. He never actually got around to buying the scooter, but he had optimistically applied for the license a year ago.

Finally, she came back and sat down on her desk. She typed some words into her computer, then pulled a printed piece of paper from under her desk.

Placing the now empty wallet, his ID, and bank card on top of the paper, she slid everything over.

「Please check to make sure everything is in order. Thank you for using the Postal Bank today.」

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Trash grabbed everything. He stuck the cards back into his wallet, then put both wallets into the pocket of his bag. He scanned the receipt, and indeed, he saw his balance was now higher than he had ever seen it. The number made him feel almost dizzy.

He stood, and as he was walking out, the employee was standing and bowing to him politely. Taken off guard, he instinctively turned and returned the gesture, then stepped outside.

Before he had taken a dozen steps, he turned around. Inside the entrance of the post office bank, the was an ATM. He couldn’t resist.

Fishing the card out again, he placed the bank card into the machine. He noticed that the card was now clean of dirt, and whatever sticky residue had coated half the cards in his wallet. She must have cleaned it somehow. That thought was more than a little embarrassing, but he was focused on something else.

The total for his account was glowing from the screen.

[272,421]

He wanted to jump in triumph but refrained. Instead, he had to quickly decide what to do next.

He punched a few buttons, then stared at the screen again. Changing his mind, he hit more buttons. He did this two more times until the machine seemed to lose patience with him and started to beep angrily.

For the last time, he hit the number pad and then waited.

The cash dispense counted out ten crisp 10,000 yen bills. Not quite half of his new net worth. He placed these bills into the leather wallet and put them back into his wallet.

He knew that this was not the solution to his problem, but he couldn’t help but feel a giant sense of relief. If anything, he was even more motivated to close the deal. Having money in your bank account felt very nice indeed.

Now, he was ready to head to Pazu’s. But before then, he still needed to make a couple of quick stops.

Walking around to the side of the UDX building, he went into the side entrance behind the coffee shop.

This was one of his secret bathrooms.

Part of living in in a city like Tokyo is knowing where the good public bathrooms are hidden. This was especially critical in places like Akihabara, where many of the buildings were old and decrepit, and clean, public restrooms were rare.

As a new development, UDX had nice, state-of-the-art bathrooms that were kept clean, making the hidden one on the ground floor, was a critical resource for Trash.

As one of his rules was that he never went home halfway through the day, he often needed somewhere to clean up.

On days like today, he was already feeling pretty gross. It was hot and humid, and he had been walking by through the exhaust-filled air all day. He was sweaty, dirty, and in desperate need of a bath.

The large sinks in the bathroom gave him the next best thing, and they were convenient and free.

The toilets weren’t as nice as the ones on the 5th floor of Yodobashi Camera, the floor where household appliances were on display, and they made sure that the toilets there were always pristine and top of the line, but the UDX secret bathroom was nice and clean, and the important part was that very few people knew about it. There was even a place to hang up his bag and jacket, which he did before pulling out a pack of deodorant wipes from his backpack.

He didn’t want to show up to Pazu’s like a homeless guy, although the truth was not far off. Pazu’s restaurant was a nice and respectable establishment, and besides, Saki would be there.

Wiping his face and neck, then his arms, he even used the wipes to clean the sweat off his chest, back, and under his arms. Thankfully, he pulled off the maneuver again as no one entered to witness his whore’s bath. He checked himself in the mirror, wet his hands, and ran them through his hair, trying to make it a bit less of a mess, then chided himself for doing something so embarrassing. Who cares what he looked like? Pazu had seen him at his worst. He threw on his jacket and grabbed his bag, throwing it over one shoulder, he walked out.

He felt compelled to make one more quick stop since he was here.

Stepping onto the road, just a few steps away from UDX, he found the hidden alleyway.

Walking on the street, you would pass it without noticing it all. The entrance was so narrow it just looked like a seam between two neighboring buildings. Even standing in front, staring directly into it, this did not look like somewhere anyone could enter.

Holding his backpack in one hand to keep his profile narrow, Trash slid between the two buildings and entered the dark alleyway.

It was narrow, and there wasn’t even a proper place to stand or walk. There was only the ledge from one of the buildings that was wide enough to shimmy through. As soon as he entered, it was dark, with the only light filtered from the narrow entrance behind and from the thin bit of sky, almost entirely blocked by the tall buildings on both sides.

He continued to slide along. Very few people knew about this place, and even fewer would visit, but Trash wasn’t sure what he would do if he ever encountered another person here. There was no space to breathe, so any meeting here would be awkward in the extreme.

He passed the first buildings and kept going. Eventually, walking almost the entire length of the block through this narrow corridor. Once upon a time, it was possible to get here from the other side, only a few steps in, but now, construction tents blocked that way, so this was currently the only way in.

Trash wondered if someday both entrances would be blocked off. Or maybe the other side would finally be opened up, and the secret location would finally be revealed to everyone who walked by.

He didn’t want to see that happen, though. Trash liked having his secret places. He liked knowing things that no one else did and the feeling that only he understood the true nature of these streets that millions of people walked around every day. It gave him the only sense of power and superiority he had ever felt in his life.

Finally, he arrived at his destination. It was so dark, and mostly covered in shadow, but as he stepped into a small void between the buildings, he found himself standing before a small shrine.

Trash was not a religious of overly superstitious person, but he did have a few traditions. This was one.

Before doing something big. Before a major decision, or a big event, he would come here and make a small offering. He never went to the big shrines for New Year’s or other auspicious holidays, but he would come here.

He knew very little about this shrine. Who maintained it, or even what it was properly called. He knew it was a fox shrine. That, he could tell from the small stone statue at the entrance.

He’d heard about it from a 2ch thread a few years ago and sought it out. At first, he couldn’t find it at all. He’d walked past the entrance half a dozen times, his eyes passing over the gap as though it wasn’t there.

When he found it, he was sure it was a hoax. That narrow passage couldn’t possibly lead anywhere.

When he finally worked up the nerve to travel through the dark path, and found the secret space hidden in the middle of a block of ordinary office buildings, he was inspired and impressed beyond words.

It was one of the first, true, hidden treasures of Akiba that he had found, and the one that inspired him to look for more. He wanted to search for all the secret shops hidden in the basements or on the high floors. To learn the patterns of the sales, and product rotations. Trash wanted nothing more or less than to be able to say that no one knew this place better than he. That he alone had been to all the secret places and found all the hidden treasures.

He stood before the stone fox statue and reached into his pocket. He pulled out the coins left over from his change from the maid cafe. It was just a couple of small coins, but he placed them in the offering box. He prayed for the success of the deal. He wished everything would work out and that he would be able to stay in this place somehow.

Clapping twice, he bowed his head. Waiting to see if his feelings changed. If he could notice something different.

Of course, there was nothing. It was just a silly superstition, and he was not a superstitious person.

Sliding down the path, back to the exit always felt faster. Perhaps it was because he could see the street up ahead. A light at the end of the tunnel, letting him know he had not been taken away to a land of spirits and ghosts.

He finally stepped onto the street. He swung his backpack onto both shoulders to take the stress off his one arm, and started to make his way up the street.

He was leaving Akihabara. Just going a few blocks North towards Ueno. It always felt strange to leave Chiyoda City. As he crossed the border into Taito City, he smiled.

That was another secret of his. It wasn’t a hidden secret, in fact, it was advertised by nearly every street sign he passed. It was just a secret that people found surprising because it went against conventional knowledge.

People ignored the truth because it was easier just to keep repeating what you were told by others. You just accepted what you heard without questioning it, even when the evidence was right in your face.

That’s what normies did. That’s how they lived. Whatever happened in the future, Trash could not accept a life like that. One where the truth mattered less than a comfortable lie.

“Akihabara” wasn’t in Akihabara after all. Trash knew this because he lived in the real Akihabara. The town of Akihabara was located in Taito City, just a few blocks to the east of where he was right now. The station, all the maid cafes, and electronic shops. They were all in Chiyoda city. An entirely different city. Maps don’t lie. But people do.

People lie.

Finally, Trash reached his destination. A small restaurant on the ground floor of a small four-story office building.

The restaurant had a rustic facade, with wooden planks and a faux garden along the front.

Above the entrance was a small, hand-painted wooden sign with the name written in three languages in neat, ornate script.

Charon’s Cafe

(χάρων)

喫茶カロン

Pushing the door open, He entered.

An amazingly delicious aroma filled the small restaurant. Pazu was cooking.

A small bell rang as the door closed behind him, but the room was silent and empty. It was early, so no customers would be there yet.

He sat down at the counter table along the wall and placed his backpack on the floor. He took a deep breath and analyzed the fragrance with closed eyes.

Saffron? Cumin? Lots of spices, some kind of curry. Sweet and savory mixed together and ignited his appetite. His stomach growled.

A loud thunk brought him out of his meditation. Someone had just slammed a glass of water onto the table in front of him.

He was too scared to open his eyes, knowing who had done it.

「Hey, owner! The freeloader is back!」

Slowly, Trash opened his eyes and turned to face the owner of the voice.

「Hi, Saki. Been a while.」

「Not hardly long enough, freeloader.」