Once Celty showed her face (ironically speaking) I out of reflex drew my sword and Blair jumped off me onto the nearby countertop out of fear. Odd that seeing humans with extraordinary abilities amuses her, yet a woman with no head freaks her out.
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Shinra quickly stood in between us and told me, "Woah woah woah woah! Take it easy there, Celty is a good person. She isn't a monster, she's a dullahan. She wouldn't hurt a fly, I swear!" I took a minute to calm down and put away my weapon. I vaguely know what a dullahan is. It's a creature from Celtic myth where it is a faerie who rides the countryside with their severed heads tucked under their arm as an omen of death. I never thought they were real. Well if you meet a god from Ancient Greece, then I suppose anything is possible. "Wait, if she's a dullahan, then where is her head?" I asked. "It's in Chicago, being studied." Said Shinra as I raised an eyebrow in question. Celty texted "I gave it up to stay with Shinra." After that little introduction, they invited me to sit on their couch and Celty made a cup of Japanese tea. It was an acquired taste, it was bitter yet sweet at the same time. Blair jumped on the couch with me and transformed into her human form, which gave Shinra and Celty quite a jump, but I explained that she was a magic cat, to make a long story short. I explained my situation in my half truth version, I'm a traveler and Blair decided to join me. I also said that this was my first time in Japan and Ikebukuro by extension. "Oh, why don't you explore the city tomorrow?" Asked Shinra. He was right, I did need to explore my surroundings in order to get familiar with this new world, and it was late at night so I might as well get some sleep and do it in daylight. I agreed and they thankfully let me sleep on the couch. Once the lights went out and everyone went to bed Blair sat next to me in cat form to talk. "Zach. What's gonna happen when you turn into that thing in a few days? Even I'm scared and I'm a cat." She said as though her being a cat made any difference. "I don't know. I can feel it inside me. It wants to get out, bad. And there's nothing I can do about it. Even if I try, what can I do? There's is no way for me to fight it, I just want to fight this thing, but I'm unconscious when it's out." I say, visibly shaken. "Let's just get some sleep and worry about it later." I said, putting an end to the conversation as I lay down on the couch and get some sleep.
THE NEXT DAY The next morning Celty and Shinra offered breakfast but we politely declined saying we would go and get our own. We went down to a nearby diner where we had breakfast, me with a eastern style omelette and orange juice with a cup of tea, and Blair, whom had turned human to avoid any policies on no animals, ordered a mackerel and a cup of milk. Blair started a conversation by saying, "Where do you want to explore first?" She asked excited to sight-see. "I don't know, Blair. Before the accident I would just turn my brain off and let my legs do the work and wander around." When I was younger I used to walk around rooms when I was bored. It entertained me for a while and helped my patience. I continued to eat, the omelette was great, fluffy, a bit of cheese and seasoning. Blair clapped her hands once and smiled, "That sounds like a great idea! Let's just go where our legs take us. Sounds like fun." I finished my food and asked for the check. I managed to pay for our food with the remaining currency I had from the money I won in Earth Land, but the money turned from Joule to the Japanese yen. Seems currency is automatically changed from one world to the next, how convenient. Once we got back outside Blair slyly changed back into a cat and got on my shoulder so we could begin exploring. I gotta say if you thought it was crowded at night you ain't seen nothing yet. People were crammed tightly in the sidewalk with cars, trucks and motorcycles packing the streets. There was very, if any, elbow room at all. Good thing I didn't have anxiety anymore as a result of the accident. Blair had to get on top of my head to get a better view over the sea of humans walking around us. Still, it was an amazing sight to behold. If the nighttime view was amazing, imagine the view in the day time. Huge fifty and over story skyscrapers filling the view, signs advertising multiple shops and stores both big and small alike, sometimes we would even see people dressed in colorful outfits. After about an hour and a half of wandering around we stopped to rest for a bit, well I decided to rest while Blair sat on my left shoulder. It must have been summer because it was hot out here, not as hot as in southern America but still pretty hot. I was never a big fan of the heat. I got back to walking as I noticed a tall, muscular black man with a white chef outfit with a heavy Russian accent was shouting, "Russia Sushi! Russia Sushi! Is Good, Is Cheap! Come anytime!" With him holding out flyers of the sushi joint with with him, so I decided to take a flyer and continue walking. Blair read the flyer with me and looked interested so we followed the address on the flyer till we reached the restaurant. It was a small sushi shop on a street corner with relatively little foot traffic. Since we were across the street we had to cross but no sooner had we started that a dark green van came barreling towards us at high speed, it might have hit us had it not been for the fact that it managed to stop just inches away from us, tires screeching. I was able to get a view of the front seat, the driver was a shaggy, long haired man with raggedy clothes. In the passenger seat was a man maybe in his mid thirties, wearing a green sweater and a matching beanie cap. There were a couple of people in the back, but I couldn't get a good view of them from where I was. The man in the beanie jumped out and apologized. I waved it off and he introduced himself as Kyohei Kadota. The two people jumped out from back and I was able to get a better view. One of them was a boy, maybe sixteen or seventeen wearing a loose white hoodie and denim jeans. The other was a girl about the same age wearing a black sweater, sweat pants, and a black beanie cap. The boy had a face that looked like a snake, no joke; but the young girl was pretty cute for her age. Kadota spoke first, "I am so sorry, sir. You just appeared in our lights all of a sudden." I waved it off, "It's fine," I said, "It's not the first time I was almost hit by a car, and I have a feeling it won't be the last. You guys hungry? I was planning on going to this here sushi joint." I said pointing to the shop ahead of me. The girl spoke up, "I'm starving! Come on Dota-Gin! Let's eat." Kadota chuckled, "Alright, alright. I'm a bit hungry myself. As an apology for nearly hitting you, sushi is on me." We all head inside, well except for me because the owner won't allow pets, i.e Blair. I asked everyone if I could invite a friend and they approved. So I stepped out for a second and let Blair become human for a while. She stretched and said, "It feels so good to be human for a while." As she stretched the skin tight shirt she was wearing seemed to get smaller, revealing all her curves and a bit of skin which admittedly made me blush a bit. She must have seen me looking and smirked, "See anything you like?" She said flirtatiously. I quickly shook my head and came back to my senses. "Let's just go eat." "Party pooper." She said in a pouty way as she followed me inside. The inside was fairly well decorated, with red walls and gold trimmings. At each table there were thin turquoise walls with a very low table and instead of regular seats there were a bunch of plush cushions, like those you see on a fancy sofa. The place had a very friendly atmosphere with customers smiling and laughing. I'd be lying if I said I didn't smile as well. Kadota led us to a stall on the east wall right in the middle and we all took our seats. The young lady addressed herself as Erika and the young man was called Davis (give me a break I haven't seen the show in a while). They were both avid otakus, a Japanese term for anime and Japanese pop culture enthusiasts, constantly making references to various anime and other Japanese media. It was kind of refreshing to see people like this, with not a care in the world. Blair was giggling, apparently thinking the same thing. Since we were new to the place Kadota went ahead and ordered their usual party platter with tea, with an extra order of sushi for us. The tea came first and it's at this point where I should point out the difference between Eastern tea and tea in the west. Eastern tea is when the leaves are brewed in hot water in their respective cups with no tea bags as compared to tea in the west. According to the people who drink tea like this you get a more natural flavor for the tea. Our tea was served in tall glass mugs with brass handles, you could see the steam rising off it. I was about to reach for it when Kadota said, "Woah, easy there. Might wanna let it cool for a minute. It's a metal handle." With that I withdrew my hand and sat back and we all chatted. Kadota asked me what brought me to Japan, I was about to ask how he knew I wasn't from around here and he said, "This isn't the first time I've made friends with a foreigner." A sound argument so I said I was looking for something very important to someone. Thing was I didn't know where to look. Finding Iolo would be like finding a needle in a haystack in this city, plus I barely knew my way around town. How was I gonna look for an ancient, magical owl on vacation? "Well, there are some ways to get info in this town. You could ask around, but that might take a long time. If it's an old relic there are a few museums in the city. Sometimes they auction off pieces to rich people or other museums." Kadota explained after I explained my situation as a half truth. Mortals can't know about the gods. Clearly Kadota was sharp enough to see that I wasn't saying the whole truth but he didn't pry. A sudden look of realization appeared on his face and said, "we have a lot of info brokers in town if you want to contact them. They're smart, but seedy so be careful. Especially for one called Izaya Orihara, he is the smartest and most cunning bastard I know." He said with bitterness in his voice. Don't contact this Izaya guy, noted. The sushi came soon after, and it was bizarre even by sushi standards. Rice with octopus, steak and a few with wait, is that cheese? Erika must have noticed a weird face I was making and laughed, "it's not as bad as it looks," as she picked up an octopus sushi, dipped it in a small bowl of soy sauce and popped it in her mouth. I gotta admit these Russians sure do have some skills the sushi wasn't that bad, the one with cheese surprised me, it had the sharpness of cheddar with the bland flavor of rice making it a pretty good combo, the soy sauce gave it a bit of bitterness too. Once the tea was cool enough it was bitter but not too bitter. The tea leaves in it did make the flavor more pronounced. This was not a bad place to eat, I'll make a note to come back here next time I'm in this town. Kadota offered to tell me if he knows the guy so I gave him the description. Very wise, probably older than he looks and may have some bird like features. He closed his eyes and hummed in thought. "Sounds like he may be in an older part of town. I wouldn't recommend going there. A lot of gangs and bad guys have more freedom there. There are some old buildings a few blocks from here you could start with. There may be a few people there who might know this guy." He explained. "Thanks, that's very helpful and regarding the seediness I can take care of myself." I lay out a bit of money as gratitude for the meal and we get up to head in the direction of my lead..
