Mayu

Chapter 6: The Maneki-bar

   Later on, at night, Mayu, Marina and their friends have left the restaurant. They're on their way to go to Shinjuku Golden Gai as they walked in the sidewalk, chatting. "Thank goodness the night has fallen, girls," she said as they all went in the Kuyakusho-dori street. The girls looked in every direction as they stopped to see the other side of the street and saw many passing cars before moving on. After the vehicles passed, the girls arrived in Shinjuku Golden Gai, the small area of Kabukicho and composed of a network of six narrow alleys.

"Oh, wow...what is this place?" Mayu asked with curiosity.

"Shinjuku Golden Gai." Marina stated. "This is where Jiki Fusako is living."

"How many bars we'll find, Marina?" said Azumi.

The girls looked for many clues and noticed many bars still open at night. One of them is abandoned and has a sign with a Maneki-neko on it. It was called Maneki-bar, a bar where whose products are foods and drinks. "It was abandoned years ago." Marina said as she saw many dishes, chopsticks and figurines.

Hisa noticed an Maneki-neko figurine in a shelf and picked it up. "Girls, they got a Maneki-neko figurine," she said as she observed at it before turning it around and noticing its back with a broken hole on it. The blonde gasped in surprise as she explained, "There's a hole in that figurine!"

"Oh my stars! Don't they have glue or something to cure that poor cat?" exclaimed Mayu.

"Give me that!" Kira snatched the cat from her. "Broken maneki-neko figurines means bad luck!"

Marina snatched it as well, "This figurine was broken by Jiki Fusako."

"Hey, girls!" Tamayo opened a door in the floor, revealing the passageway to the basement.

"The basement below the bar. I want you girls quiet, allright?"

The girls went to the basement to look for some clues below the building. A porcelain figure stepped out of the shadow and revealed herself to be Jiki Fusako, the only person who is living in the bar and is a porcelain version of the real Fusako. In the ground below, Mayu and Marina looked for clues. They saw more Maneki-neko figurines in a shelf below another with broken dishes. "Jiki Fusako broke some dishes in half," she said as Jiki Fusako appeared mysteriously behind Azumi.

"Fusako?" She asked, only to see her face with an evil expression. She screamed in horror as she realized that Jiki Fusako is real. "Mayu! Marina! It's Jiki Fusako!"

"What?" Mayu asked as she and Marina rushed to see Azumi and Jiki Fusako. "Oh my stars, we better run!"

Seeing the porcelain girl, Mayu and her friends found themselves pursued in order to escape from her. The fake Fusako showed her evil grin as the girls went to the corridor with five doors. Jiki Fusako has arrived and looked around where Mayu and her friends are. She opened every door to see where the six girls are hidden, only to see nothing. The porcelain young girl opened, opened, opened and opened, in the same thing. She noticed Mayu and Marina helping Azumi to climb an broken ladder.

"C'mon, Azumi! You can do it!" She encouraged her quickly.

"I don't know! This ladder is missing its bottom part!" stated Azumi.

"The porcelain doll's get you if you don't climb!" said Marina.

Azumi shivered with fear as she looked for something to reach for her friends. "Oh, darn. Where is it? Where is it?!" She said as she noticed an old chair. "Oh, yeah!" exclaimed Azumi in excitement as she saw Jiki Fusako entering the room. The nerdy girl picked up the chair as she reached for Marina's hand while Mayu helped her as well. Both girls succeeded by bringing Azumi into another room below the basement as Jiki Fusako ended up stripping the blue-haired girl's pink jeans off in process. After escaping and avoiding being dragged, Azumi has let out a sigh of relief. "Whew...thank goodness."

"That was close, Azumi." said Mayu. "or not."

"Let me see..." Marina has bend down to see where Jiki Fusako is still there, only to realize that she disappeared, "She's gone." she said as she picked up Azumi's pants and stared at her, who is now left in her underwear after escaping. "Jiki Fusako did that, didn't you?"

"Yeah...she did." Azumi blushed as she looked down to her pink panties.

Later, the trio has met up with Kira and Tamayo in the surface after losing Jiki Fusako. "Kira! Tamayo!" Mayu exclaimed as she wiped the dust from her kimono. "Jiki Fusako exists!"

"Jiki Fusako? The porcelain Fusako?" Tamayo asked.

"Are you serious? Jiki Fusako existed?" Kira asked.

"When we split up, we found more Maneki-neko figurines and some broken dishes. This means that Jiki Fusako broke them in half." Marina remarked.

Azumi pulled her pants up, "She's a duplicate of Fusako, girls. But, where's Hisa?"

"I'm right here!" Hisa showed up as she pulled out a note from her pocket. "This note said that the Maneki-bar was founded by a person called Kaname Takahashi."

"Kaname Takahashi? Let me see..." Marina picked up the note as she started to read;

"In 1991, the Maneki-bar was founded by Kaname Takahashi. The bar sells drinks like Fanta and foods like Sushi, fried chicken and whose waitresses and employees are catgirls and cat boys. It was considered popular among customers and the most important figurines are the Maneki-neko figurines. In the year of 2002, the Maneki-bar went into financial setbacks. Kaname Takahashi died and the bar was closed and went into decay. All of those important things became old after the death of the beloved founder and owner of the Maneki-bar."

"You mean that this old bar was founded by Kaname Takahashi? Is that a clue?"

"No, Tamayo, it's a joke! Kaname's not dead all along!"

"Actually, it's a clue. Not a joke, Kira."

"We must find anyone who knows a lot about Jiki Fusako." Marina stated as she has put the note in her pocket. "A person who saw Jiki Fusako at night and thought to be the real Fusako following her."

"And what's the person who knows a lot?" Mayu asked.

"We'll see..."