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I wanted to burst into the club but Shun wanted Yuki and I to enter like regular customers.
“It won’t take them long to recognize us,” I said. “They know what we look like.”
But then Yuki clicked her fingers and she’d completely changed. I didn’t have a mirror handy but I assumed she’d changed me as well since my red hair would stick out like a beacon in the darkness.
“Smart,” I said.
“It won’t last long but we can avoid attention while we look around.”
It made me wonder why she’d told me to dress up. I could’ve worn my pajamas without a problem.
We walked in and a man in a suit approached us.
“Since it’s our first time here, they’ll bring all the hosts over to meet us”, Yuki said. “We will need to order drinks but don’t worry. They’re so watered down you won’t get drunk.”
When the guy led us into the main room, I wished I had my sunglasses. I never knew a room could gleam so bright. The twinkling lights competed with the chandeliers all reflected in a million mirrors around the place. This is what it’d be like living in a disco ball.
Background music blended with the hushed conversations broken by a braying laugh.
Even though it was an open room, carefully placed palms and other plants gave a touch of privacy to customers sitting at the tables. Damn it. I wanted to look around and take this in.
As we moved to our table, the air became heavier, like the heating worked overtime to keep this place at a near uncomfortable level. And that stuffiness made the perfumes mingling in the air become overwhelmingly cloying. The entire place had a feeling of too much-ness.
We got shown to a booth with velvet seats and sat down.
Two guys also wearing suits joined us at the table then a waiter brought over drinks. I didn’t like being blocked in but there wasn’t much we could do without looking suspicious.
One of the hosts wiped our glasses then he smiled at me. I smiled back but he didn’t hold my attention. I focused on trying to sense the kami.
I let Yuki do the talking. Well, obviously, I couldn’t contribute much to the conversation since I couldn’t speak Japanese but also if we wanted to be rid of them fast, she’d be best for that.
While she chatted, I tried calling out to the kami in my head. I got no response. With the chatter and clinking of bottles and background music going on, maybe I couldn’t get through to him.
That’s if he was here in the first place. Maybe they’d taken him somewhere else.
A guy carried a champagne bottle across the room. I knew that guy. Jin. I bashed Yuki’s leg with my knee to let her know. She barely glanced up but she said something that soon got rid of the guys talking to us.
Then the sparkle dimmed. The lights flicked and a brown slime began oozing down the walls. It looked like the plumbing had burst.
I heard people gasp as they noticed the walls. A few women stood up, one covering her mouth. While the hosts tried to entice them to stay, they put on their coats and picked up their bags.
A strange smell floated through the place as that oozing slime increased.
“Should we leave?” I asked Yuki, then I noticed the glimmer in her eyes.
She didn’t exactly smile but her mouth twitched at the corners. She did this? Nice work.
Within minutes, chaos broke out over the club. More of the women left. A few of the hosts tried to stop them, others attempted to mop up the damage.
Yuki sat back and toyed with her drink, her eyes darting around and shining even brighter.
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” I whispered to her.
She winked at me.
Then I noticed Jin was one of the hosts trying to get women to stay. He didn’t realize it but it looked like he had horrific boils on his face. One of the customers looked at him and shrieked then ran.
Maybe I needed to make more of an effort to stay on Yuki’s good side.
Two of the hosts rushed out of a back room. I gasped.
Hokuto.
But Hokuto with his hair slicked back and a suit on was a whole other level of hotness. Why did he have to be our arch rival? It seemed unfair that the hottest guy I’d ever met in my life was off limits.
“Are they all Snakes?” I asked Yuki.
“No, not all of them. Some are just part of the club, I’d say. It’s a good front. They probably make a ton of money out of it as well as having a base. All we have is a lousy apartment block.”
“We could start a host club,” I said. “Or something, some kind of business.”
Yuki snorted. “We have enough to do.” Then she nodded at a guy across the room. His face shone with perspiration and his hair had become erratic. “He was the one with Jin today.”
When all the guests had left, Yuki stepped it up a bit. Suddenly, snakes squirmed around the floor. Snakes for Snakes. That was a nice touch but I’d have preferred something less crawly. I raised my feet up to the seat even though I knew they weren’t real.
Most of the hosts running around the place rushed out not Hokuto, though. He stood in the middle of the floor. Jin and the other guy joined him
“Yuki!” Jin yelled. “I know it’s you. You can show your real face.”
Yuki turned back into her real self and smiled at me before standing up. She walked over to him until she was right in his personal space.
“You took something of ours and we’re here to get it back.”
Jin laughed.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about but you’re so cute when you get angry.”
Yuki lunged for him but, before her punch connected, she rose in the air just like that box had done.
Jin began to glow, just like he had in her apartment, while Yuki yelled curses and lashed out at him. If she got down from there, he’d be dead.
Before he could move her too much, Shun tackled him from behind, knocking him to the floor. With the connection broken, Yuki dropped to the floor.
Then Hokuto stepped forward.
“We don’t have your kami. I think you should leave.”
My stomach lurched, like I’d been punched hard. I hugged myself, trying to ease that pain. We’d never mentioned the kami. How did he know that’s what we were looking for?
Despite everything Shun and Yuki had said, I’d kinda hoped Hokuto wasn’t that bad, that Shun and Yuki had been exaggerating or mistaken. But nope, he’d been the one behind the attack and he’d used me. That meant I had to hate him.
And he could say that they didn’t have the kami but I no longer trusted him.
But it struck me that maybe we were outclassed here. Shun’s dream eating would do nothing to help us in a fight and Yuki’s tricks would only go so far with them knowing about her powers. As for me, I had no fighting abilities at all. Like maybe I could get a swarm of crows in here, but those crows never seemed that willing to be counted on in a crisis.
Before I could panic too much, Yuki shot a fire ball at Jin.
Whoa.
Who knew she could do that? I had serious Yuki envy.
Jin raised his hand and deflected the ball but it shot upwards, shattering the chandelier. I covered my head as glass rained down on the room. Yuki didn’t stop, though. She moved forward, shooting more fireballs at Jin.
“Burn in hell, you bastard,” she said.
Wow, they must’ve really had a bitter breakup. The fire ball narrowly missed him but I could smell his hair singe.
Shun rushed to me. “The back room,” he hissed. “Look for the kami.”
I slipped out of the booth and headed to the door Hokuto had come out of. It looked like a store room all dark and full of cartons. The perfect place to keep a kami.
I turned on the light and shouted out to him. “Kami, we have chocolate.”
No reply.
“Kami!”
“He’s not here.”
I spun around. Hokuto stood in the doorway. The light shining from behind him just highlighted his perfect cheekbones and that carelessly floppy hair. He moved closer while keeping eye contact with me.
“You took him. Your gang were the ones who broke into Yuki’s apartment. You can’t deny that.”
I tried to back away but there were cartons behind me. Cartons of glasses judging by the way they tinkled when my back hit them.
He took a few more steps, standing so close that my skin prickled. Those deep brown eyes with the long lashes stared into mine. Damn him. Damn his beautiful eyes.
He had super powers of seduction, that had to be it. And he thought he could seduce me into believing him. And, I hated to admit it, but those seduction super powers worked the heck out of me.
“Wasn’t us,” he said. “Trust me, Mori.”
I wanted to trust him. I really did. There were parts of my body that distinctly shouted for me to trust him.
“How did you know we were looking for a kami then?”
“Lucky guess.”
If I didn’t look at him, he couldn’t do this to me. I’d keep my gaze on the floor. The floor was safe. The floor didn’t have eyes I could drown in.
“I’m not an idiot,” I said.
Maybe I was. Because all I wanted to do was look back up at him. One glimpse surely wouldn’t hurt.
“We broke in to the apartment but we didn’t take the kami. That’s the truth. You have to believe me. Get Yuki out of here before she destroys the place.”
Of course it was the truth. He wouldn’t lie to me. He stroked my cheek. Anyone who could touch me so gently wouldn’t be lying.
I shook myself. He had lied. I wouldn’t be fooled by those preternatural seduction powers again. Shun had said he was a demon. Obviously, a sex demon.
Before I could pull away, Shun rushed in to the store room.
“They didn’t take the kami,” he said.
What? Hokuto hadn’t been lying? How did Shun know? And, if Hokuto didn’t have the kami, who did?
“We’ve got to get out of here,” Shun said, grabbing my arm and pulling me away. “We’ve got to find him.”
“I’ll be sending you a bill for damages,” Hokuto yelled at us as we left the room.
“You’re sure it’s not them?” I asked Shun.
“I’m sure. They can’t lie to me.”
We walked back out through the trashed room, glass crunching underfoot. I couldn’t see Yuki anywhere. She was no longer fighting. As we neared the bar, I spotted her. Up against the wall, glued to Jin’s lips.
This was no time for getting it on with her ex. Shun and I pulled her away as she wiped her mouth. We had a kami to find and the clock kept ticking down.
Yuki didn’t even have the decency to look embarrassed.