Chapter Sixteen: But Our Princess is in Another Castle!

This was officially the worst idea Trash had ever had in his entire life.

He had been so self-satisfied when he showed them the trick to open the security gate blocking the emergency exit stairway. Once the group realized what the plan was, they enthusiastically joined in. That enthusiasm lasted until the tenth floor.

Trash had made the trip before, but not carrying two bags full of electronic equipment. He should have left it on the ground floor, but considering the whole breaking and entering aspect, he hadn’t even bothered asking if it was okay.

Now, thirteen floors up, Trash regretted everything. This was a bad, bad, bad idea.

「Oh my God. This is amazing. You guys have to see this. 」

Meg called down from two floors above. Saki was just getting there, but seemed too winded to say anything, while Pazu was barely keeping pace with Trash.

It took a couple more minutes of slow climbing, but finally, Trash and Pazu stepped off the emergency maintenance staircase and onto the small platform at the top of the narrow building.

There was plenty of space for them to stand there, but not much more. It was more than a little bit frightening as there was only a thin metal barrier, as high as Trash’s waist, to prevent something or someone from falling off.

Bending over with his hands on his knees, Trash was sucking in air, trying to replace the lung he lost a few floors down. Pazu was not much better off, and was sitting on the roof with his eyes closed.

The girls, however, were in better shape, and were marveling at the view.

「I had no idea it was so close.」

「It’s amazing. Watching fireworks from up here would be the best.」

「That’s the Sumida River, right?」

「Pazu! Come see this!」

Trash straightened up, then took a look eastward, away from the train tracks.

Tokyo Skytree, the new broadcast tower in Sumida Ward, was not open yet, but the main construction was complete, and they had started testing some of the lighting systems. From Akihabara, there were not many places with unobstructed views of the construction, but this condominium currently had one of the best views of the future landmark.

At over 600 meters, the tower was nearly twice the height of the iconic Tokyo Tower in the southern part of central Tokyo.

「Is it already finished?」

「I want to see it all lit up, it should be amazing.」

Trash had guessed right. The clouds actually reflected enough light back down to make it easier to see.

「Just a minute,」 Trash announced.

He had heard that they were conducting tests of some of the LED systems on the tower this month. It was likely the last time until they did the full systems tests scheduled for the late fall.

His contact, another Geek customer who worked for the company that designed the lighting system, promised him that if he went somewhere with a view of the tower from midnight to 12:30 AM on any weekday this month, he should see some of the lights getting activated.

Sure enough, a squeal from Saki a few seconds later confirmed it.

Pazu jumped up to see what they were talking about, then immediately got dizzy and wobbled a bit until Trash grabbed him to stabilize him.

「Whoa! That is… Is it lighting up?」

「Yes! Well, a little bit, at least.」

Trash watched as lines of light crisscrossed across the giant tower.

「Ohh! It’s changing color!」

Unlike the Tokyo Tower, which was painted bright red, then had giant spotlights illuminating the entire structure, this new tower was supposed to have an internal lighting system. They would be able to change its color, or even animate it according to a computer control system.

For now, it just looked like a few of the lights were working, and only small sections were lit up at a time.

Still, this was a sight few people in the country had seen so far, and very few with their naked eyes.

Turning to his friend, he nodded.

「You said you were waiting for the right moment. This is as good as I can do, so why don’t you give it a go?」

With that, Trash started back down the stairs.

Meg, sensing the moment, took one last look at the view, and then smiled at her friend. She patted Pazu on the shoulder and followed Trash down the staircase.

She found him two stories down. They were far enough to give the two above some privacy, but could still see the tower just clearing the buildings across the street. He motioned for her to sit next to him, and she joined him.

「So, is he going to propose or something?」

Trash got a sad look, then shook his head.

「No, probably not. I mean, I don’t think so. Shoot, do you think she expects him to…」

A look of horror formed on his face.

「Huh? Then what’s the big secret? Why would you drag us all up there for some amazing romantic moment unless…」

He could see her trying to figure it out, so he stopped her before she came up with something even stranger.

「I might as well tell you, whether or not he has the guts, it’s all coming out now.」

Meg gave him a serious look, then nodded.

「I’ve known Pazu since middle school. I used to get bullied-」

「You? Who would dare-」

「Not like that serious stuff. Just kids called me names and locked me out… you know, stupid kid games.」

Her expression darkened. He was sure she understood what he was talking about.

「Yeah. I get it.」

「Well, Pazu… He was the only one who talked to me. We got to be friends shortly before graduation. We met here, actually, in Akiba. He knew why the kids hassled me, but he hung out with me anyway. Even though a small kid like him, that was almost asking the other kids to bully him, too.」

She nodded again, her jaw tightening as she ground her teeth together.

「Anyway, We stayed friends, even after middle school. He went to a good high school while I went vocational. All these years, he and I would roam the streets of Akiba. The geek lords of this place. Trust me, compared to him, I’m a freaking normie. He’s the uber-geek.」

That announcement was met with skepticism, but she nodded again for him to continue.

「So you can understand how shocked I was when he started into this cooking YouTube thing. It was so out of character.」

It had truly been a shock to Trash. The boy who had dragged him down this path was now cooking, opening a restaurant, and getting a girlfriend.

「I’ll be honest, I felt like he was abandoning me. I felt a little betrayed even. Then, one day, he told me the truth. Why he was doing what he was doing, and it all made perfect sense.」

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“This better be good. I’m so tense now if you say this is all a joke, you’ll be flying down.”

「Pazu has always been small, and always been a bit on the sick side. He never told me, but in High school, they sent him to the US to see a specialist. He’s got some kind of heart defect. They say it’s genetic. They say it’s a miracle that he lived to see ten years, let alone twenty. There’s nothing they can do to treat it.」

He heard Meg gasp, but didn’t have the nerve to turn to look at her. He just faced the tower and kept speaking.

「He’s the best guy; you know? He says not to worry about it. He says nobody knows how long they have. Since the doctors don’t know how long he has left, he just wants to keep living like he doesn’t know about it. But he does know; and that’s why he’s such a good guy.」

「What does that mean?」

「The cooking, the streaming. He told me he had a dream one night. He was talking to people, and they were telling him their stories. They were all poor, and forgotten. He listened to them and promised to tell the world their stories. So no one would forget them when they were gone.」

He looked up and wondered how things were going. Was he telling Saki everything? The way he had told Trash?

「To be honest, Pazu is a mid cook. I mean, I don’t turn away anything, and his stuff isn’t bad, but he’s no genius chef. What he is good at, though, is talking. He is good at people. He listens, and he makes you feel better. I think that’s why his YouTube does well. People like to hear him talk.」

Meg nodded. She had noticed that. She had been translating for him for weeks now, and that much was clear. It was what drew Saki to him in the first place.

「So he said that his goal is to make a channel where he cooks food, and then gives it away. He wants to make his restaurant free for anyone who needs a meal. In exchange, they just need to tell him their story. He will tell those stories while he cooks in the videos. He wants that to be the content. The stories of the forgotten people of Tokyo. He said that was going to be his life’s mission, for as long as he has left.」

「So the live-streaming…」

「Yeah. It doesn’t fit his dream. It scares him, actually. His goal isn’t to be big so he can be rich. He never wanted to be the focus. That’s why he was so eager to have Saki join in the first place.」

「Why didn’t he just say that? Why keep it secret?」

「Cause he’s stupid. He’s shy and because he really likes Saki. He knows she has her own dreams and he was afraid if they didn’t align with his, then she might leave.」

“God! You boys are so stupid! So he likes her that much? So much that he’s been torturing her? I outta pound you both.”

It was odd how she kept switching from Japanese to English, but he was finally getting somewhat used to it at least.

“Then what about you?”

“Me?”

“You like her too, right?”

Trash started coughing, then slipped as he shifted and had to grab the railing to keep from sliding off the stairs.

「Don’t even try to deny it after that reaction.」

「I… but… I never-」

“Boys are so stupid. I swear!”

「Does Saki know?」

「Huh? Of course, she knows; Pazu knows; Hell, I know, and I barely know you.」

Trash started coughing again.

She stood up and pulled him back from the railing.

“We better walk down before you fall off the side of the building. Saki will never believe that I didn’t throw you off.”

“Do they really know? Since when?”

“You have as much guile as a Street Fighter all-female fighter tournament.”

Trash’s eyes widened at the referential joke.

“Forget it. Don’t even think about falling for me, Cherry-boy. Meg doesn’t swing that way.”

“Huh?” Trash took a moment for that to sink in.

“You mean you…”

“Yup. Got something to say about it?”

“No! No. You’re cool, I mean, that’s cool…”

They kept walking down the stairs in silence. Just before they reached the last flight of stairs, a thought occurred to him.

“You and Saki… Were you…”

He shut up the moment he saw the murderous look in the darkness.

She looked like she was going to drag him back up the stairs just to throw him off, but then her look softened.

“Let’s just say, you and I have something in common besides English, and hanging out in maid cafes.”

“I was just there-“

“Just kidding. I know about your creepy deal. Saki told me. You ask me, You should stay away from that guy. He’s got ‘Poor Decision Making Skills’ tattooed to his forehead.”

“He’s not that bad.”

“Speaking of English, where did you learn English anyway? Saki and Pazu are both useless. I was surprised at how bad everyone is now. I thought things were better when I still lived here.”

Trash was about to answer when they heard the gate open behind them.

A red-eyed Saki and an embarrassed Pazu greeted them, hands intertwined.

Meg gave Trash a grin, then went over to give Saki a hug when the small girl darted away from Pazu and rushed straight toward Trash.

The punch to his stomach was completely unexpected. He toppled to the ground with the wind knocked out of him as he felt several more punches impact against his side.

Meg quickly grabbed Saki, holding her back as Pazu rushed over to block her attacks.

「You asshole! How could you make him climb all those stairs? What the fuck were you thinking? You stupid freeloading piece of shit? I’m gonna-」

Meg was laughing as she held back a screaming Saki, while Pazu tried to calm her down, and Trash just kept sucking in air.

A light went on in one of the condominiums above, so they quickly retreated, and eventually ended up back at the Jonathan’s.

They even got the same booth, and the manager remembered them and comped the drink bars and one of the dishes they had ordered that the kitchen had not started preparing when they had rushed out. It was nice to be recognized as a regular sometimes.

Saki now sat next to Pazu and babied him for the rest of the night, though she still continued to call him ‘stupid owner.’

Pazu sat next to Meg, and he explained how he was learning English for his online business, while she shared stories of growing up in New York.

They ended up staying out so long that by the time they managed to crawl back to Charon, light was starting to peek out on the horizon.

After dropping off the gear, Trash begged to be released, which Pazu granted after giving him a long bear hug.

「Thanks, my friend. You know I’ll always have your back, just like you have always had mine.」

「Comrades for life,」 Trash confirmed.

The morning sun was clearly visible in the sky by the time Trash made it back to his apartment. Exhausted, he simply collapsed on his bed and passed out immediately.

He awoke what felt like a few minutes later, but the sun’s position told him it was now past noon.

Rolling off of the bed onto the floor, he pondered what to do. It was Friday, usually a day when he would hit as many of his hunting grounds to see if he could find any rare items for auctioning online. Stores often dropped extra stock on Fridays in anticipation of heavier foot traffic on the weekend.

But he also realized that he had less than a week before he was going to be evicted. This presented two difficult, but related problems. The first was finding a new place to live. He had done some searching and found a place that would rent a bare-bones one-room closet apartment for around 50,000 a month. After deposits and the first and last month, the down payment could balloon to 25,000 easily, which would wipe him out until the extra payment came through from Danny.

To say that he was still nervous that the money would actually show up was a wild understatement. For now, he was happy that he at least had something in the bank, although it wouldn’t solve his problems immediately.

The second problem he needed to solve would be painful to deal with, but considering a week ago, his situation was so dire that he had just written the whole thing off, it now presented a chance for an unpleasant, but workable solution.

Stepping over his shoes, Trash went into the second room on the second floor. This room was completely packed with shelving. Even the floor space between the shelves was covered and stacked with boxes.

The entire room was packed, nearly floor to ceiling. This was his store room. Every bit of treasure that Trash had accumulated was in this room. The full inventory was in a spreadsheet on his phone, and the estimated value was significant. That said, most of the items there were incredibly difficult to sell, so the real worth of it all was highly questionable.

Losing the factory meant losing this storage space. He could rent a storage room somewhere, but the cost and inconvenience would be expensive. Most of them were far outside of town, and the cost would quickly drain any value the items had and render the whole thing a money pit.

He could save a few boxes worth maybe. Beg Pazu to find a corner in his closet for some of the most rare video games. He could also increase the amount of stuff he had in his rental boxes, but that might overclutter them, and could result in lower sales, again further compromising what little leeway he had.

That left divestment.

He could hit the used shops and video game stores and dump everything for a fraction of their market worth.

He didn’t have time to try to put on a fire sale online, and to be honest, he didn’t have the heart. If he had to go over each item one by one, after putting so much work into finding everything, it would drive him to despair.

No, it would be better just to rip off the bandage. Get as much cash as possible from his stock, and put it all together to regroup and find a new path forward.

It was the only rational plan left. If he spent the weekend sorting and performing triage, he could probably get rid of almost everything by Monday, freeing up his footprint to practically nothing. Then, he just needed to find a place to stay.

He hoped he could find a way to stay in Akiba, but he knew from a cost perspective, that was unlikely, maybe up in Minami Senju. He had seen some good prices when he looked it up, and it wasn’t too far away.

The thought of losing this collection was breaking his heart, but having survived the last couple of days, he felt that he was getting stronger. He thought that maybe he could find a way out of this mess, although he wasn’t sure how much of his old self would make it through.

He was about to pick up one of the boxes to check the content when Trash heard his phone ring. It was still on his bed, so he hopped over the staircase and ran back to find the phone in his bedding.

Miraculously, he picked up the call before the caller hung up.

“Hello, is this Mr… Trash?” A male voice said in Japanese-accented English.

「This is Trash,」 He answered in Japanese.

The relieved caller continued.

「Mr. Trash. I’m sorry for the many calls. We have been trying to reach you earlier, but were unable to get through.」

Trash looked down at the screen of his phone and realized that he had slept through at least a dozen call attempts. He must have subconsciously snoozed the calls without even noticing.

「I’m sorry I missed the calls. Could I ask who this is?」

「My apologies again, Mr. Trash. This is the main reception of the Victoria Hotel in Yurakucho.」

Trash sucked in his breath. That was Danny’s hotel.

「Yes?」

「Please forgive this intrusion. This is the emergency contact number left by one of our guests.」

「Danny? Mr. Landis, you mean?」

「Yes… Yes. A Mr. Daniel Landis.」

「How can I help you?」

「Is Mr. Landis with you now, by any chance?」

「That was strange. He was sure Danny would have left for the airport by now.

「Umm. No, is everything alright?」

「I’m sorry to have bothered you. It’s just that Mr. Landis should have checked out, but his room was checked several hours ago, and all his possessions were still in place. We are trying to contact him to make sure he is alright. If you hear from Mr. Landis, could you ask him to contact the front reception at the Victoria as soon as possible?」

「Uh. Sure.」

「Thank you, Mr. Trash, and my apologies again for disturbing you.」