Hades

Chapter Six - The Game

Chapter Six: The Game

A few streets down from Mrs Kamiya’s apartment building was the café that Harusame worked at. It was a pretty, quaint little shop with a light blue canopy which covered a few tables and chairs that were set out for customers to enjoy the sunshine. Across the road was the local park, and in the warm and dry springtime weather now the showers had passed, it was in full bloom with the trees flowering and young lovers picnicking among the greenery. The sweet scents of azaleas and pastries drifted in the breeze to every passer by, enticing them in.

As Harusame and Hades drew near, Hades looked from the café to the park opposite in disbelief.

‘You work here?’ he asked.

Harusame turned to him. ‘Yep!’ she said. ‘I got my job here about two years ago now. It’s lovely isn’t it?’

He continued to stare over at the park. A few older men had gathered, playing games of shogi* on the stone tables.

‘You can’t work here,’ he said obstinately.

Harusame was already disappearing into the café. ‘Have a seat!’ she called back. ‘I’ll be right out.’

Hades seated himself at an empty table, looked longingly at an empty coffee cup and watched the men across the road playing their game. Harusame appeared at his side a moment later wearing her frilly blue and white waitressing uniform, her hair tied back in a ribbon, and plonked a fresh cup in front of him. ‘It’s on the house,’ she said with a wink. He took it gratefully.

‘You’ve really worked here for two years?’

‘Yes. Is it so surprising that I work?’

‘No, that’s not what I meant.’ He looked across to the park again. ‘Why haven’t I seen her before?’ he wondered. ‘This can’t be a coincidence.No wonder the neighbourhood looked so familiar…’

Harusame looked around at the other customers, absorbed in deep chatter or typing at laptop computers. None of them seemed to even acknowledge the strange young man, who made quite the picture sitting alone in his long black cloak, amethyst hair falling into his iridescent eyes. Something suddenly occurred to Harusame. She leaned close to Hades and he twitched as a lock of her hair nearly landed in his coffee. ‘Are you invisible?’ she whispered excitedly.

Hades looked up at her, greatly amused.

‘You can see me,’ he pointed out.

‘Yes, but-’

‘Then I’m not invisible am I?’

‘But…’ she said, ‘those other people don’t seem to.’ She gestured to the people walking by, and the other diners. Hades sipped his drink and peered at her over the rim, drumming his fingers on the tabletop.

‘Those people only see what they want to see. Do you think they want to see their imminent death across from them at their favourite café? Do you think they want to see me passing them by in the street, or sitting next to them in the movie theatre?’

‘You go to the movie theatre?’ asked Harusame, unable to let that one pass.

‘The point is,’ Hades said firmly, ‘that it’s not in their best interests to see me, so they convince themselves that they don’t. Like your teacher, and the other kids at Tokyo Tower. It’s a human defence mechanism.’ He frowned. ‘Clever, yet incredibly ignorant.’

Harusame, who had thought this was quite a lonely existence and was feeling rather sorry for him up until that point, bristled. ‘It isn’t ignorant; it’s perfectly natural to be afraid of death. Most normal people are.’