Going Out on the Town

“Yamada, are you coming tonight?”

Daisuke looked up from his comic at his neighbor. “Morisato,” he said with a sigh, “I just don’t know. The new issue of Doctor Hertz is out. I was thinking of reading that and then checking out that new MMO.”

His friend’s face scrunched up in thought. “Kiraverse, right?”

“Yeah. It’s cyberpunk, but I hear there’s also some kind of plotline involving fairies. One of the bad guys is supposed to be a vampire CEO or something.”

“As riveting as all of that sounds, Kaori was asking if you were going to be there. I kinda already told her you would be.”

Now that got Daisuke’s attention. “Kaori was asking about me?” 

“Yeah. Hikari says she’s sweet on you. Come on, you should go. It’s about time you got a girlfriend who wasn’t a pillow.”

She was technically a year younger than them, but she was so cute...well, if she wanted him to be there, maybe that was worth putting on pants. No, he could even take a shower. “Okay, give me twenty minutes to get ready.”

“Cool.  I’m gonna go tell your mom that you’re going out tonight. Not that she’ll believe me.”

Daisuke ignored him and hurriedly got in the shower. “It’s just karaoke and some dinner,” he said as he let the water wash over him. “You can do this, Dai. Who cares if there are gonna be almost a dozen people there?” He sighed. “Maybe I can ignore them and just focus on chatting with Kaori? Or will that be too creepy?”

He dried off on the shower seat carefully before putting on his knee braces. He stood carefully, grabbing his crutches from next to the shower once he was on his feet. He then made his way to his room and began the arduous process of getting dressed.

Once he was finished, he looked up at the poster on his wall. “Well, Doc, how do I look?” Doctor Hertz didn’t answer. He never did. He just stood there looking like a badass, his movement-enabling exoskeleton looking more like a powered suit than a sign of his handicap. “Yeah. I know. If you can steal an entire museum to make a music video and punk on The Silver Superhero, I can certainly talk to a girl. Thanks. You’re always there for me.”

He carefully made his way down the stairs and found his mom in the kitchen, making dinner. Her expression was bemused when she spotted him. “When Ryota told me that you were going out tonight, I didn’t believe him. Yet here you are,” she gently teased him.

His father was sitting at the table, reading something on his phone. “Need some money?” he asked. “I hear there’s going to be a girl there. Need more so you can buy her dinner or something?”

“I’m fine,” Daisuke said. “Thanks.”

“Well, there’s no school tomorrow, so you can stay out as late as you want. But do try to send us a note on LINE if you’re gonna be later than midnight.”

“I will,” Daisuke promised.

Ryota was waiting for him outside. “I told Hikari we’d meet them at the ramen shop. She told me to tell you to ask Kaori if she has any suggestions as an icebreaker. Apparently it’s her favorite place.”

“Thanks,” Daisuke said, feeling relief knowing at least the opener would be pretty easy. Of course, what on Earth was he going to talk with her about? Well, he had the whole train ride to worry about it.

If it hadn’t been for Ryota distracting him on the ride, he might have well been a gibbering mess by the time they reached the shop. But it was only as they walked in the door that he remembered his fears.

The girl of his dreams was sitting there on the end of one side of the table, next to his best friend’s girlfriend. Actually, now that he looked…

He elbowed Ryota. “Is it just me, or are there an even number of boys and girls?” he asked. Counting the two of them, there were definitely six of each.

His friend shrugged. “Coincidence, I’m sure,” he said, carefully holding back a smirk.

“Right. Okay.” Panic threatened to consume Daisuke, and only the fact that there was no possible way he could outrun anyone in the group kept him from bolting right then and there.

“You’ll be fine. Remember, just look at the menu for a minute or two, then ask if she has any suggestions.”

Daisuke swallowed, willing his fear down deeper into the pit of his stomach. “Okay, lead the way.”

Dinner was mildly awkward, to say the least, but Kaori’s nervous suggestion to try seafood ramen was an excellent choice. The broth was savory and the raw egg on top really brought the dish together. Apparently the shop’s owner had moved from Enoshima, and his mastery of seafood really showed.

The two of them eating in near silence meant they had both finished their ramen well before the others had gotten halfway, wrapped up as they were in the conversations. Then, just when the awkwardness of the situation threatened to make Daisuke burst into flames, the door to the shop swung open.

The first thing he notice was the clanging sound. He’d never heard it before in real life but, there was only one thing it could be… and from the look on Kaori’s face, she recognized it as well. “Are those spurs?” he asked her, carefully turning to look without being noticed.

She nodded. From where she was sitting, she could see without being obvious. “It’s an American,” she whispered. “He’s wearing a ‘Boss of the Plains’ hat, and a brown leather duster. Wait, are those…?” She gasped. “He has a pair of Colt Peacemakers on his belt!”

“That can’t be legal.”

To his surprise, no one but the two of them at his table even seemed to notice the cowboy’s arrival. Nor did they react when the man spoke to the shop’s owner. “I’m looking for a pair of no-good corporate varmints who frequent your establishment.”

The owner didn’t seem to understand English, so Kaori timidly got up and translated, Daisuke following behind her. “Ah, yes, the men from Bemis-Hasegawa. I’m sorry sir, but they left early. They said they had an important meeting this evening.”

The cowboy pulled out a wad of thousand-yen bills and slapped several on the counter. “Much obliged.” He held out another one to Kaori. “And for your assistance, little missy.” He smiled at Daisuke. “Your girlfriend’s a sweetheart. Make sure you treat her right.”

Daisuke flushed. “She’s not my… yes, sir.” He glanced over and Kaori was looking away, blushing.

When they got back to the table, it really seemed like no one had even registered that they had been gone. But, their shared experience finally gave them something to talk about. To his surprise, Daisuke discovered that Kaori was extremely knowledgeable about the American old west, and now that they were talking, she seemed excited to discuss all sorts of things with him.

It turned out that her sister lived in America, working for NASA in Houston, and had been sending her a whole bunch of tourist memorabilia from places like The Alamo, and Kaori had become enamored with the culture. Apparently it was now her dream to go there, even if only as a tourist.

At karaoke, Daisuke and Kaori settled on a song that they both knew only via lucky coincidence. It was an old country western song from an album her sister had sent her, and it was also on an American video game he’d played.

Only, they never got their turn to sing. As they were setting up, two battered-looking businessmen burst into the room. One of them grabbed the nearest of the teenagers, holding a knife to Hikari’s throat before turning her towards the door as a human shield.

The sound of spurs alerted Daisuke and Kaori to the identity of the man in the hallway before the door opened, revealing the cowboy from earlier. He held one of the Peacemakers in his hand. “Now, boys, there’s no need to involve these kids,” he said in his southern drawl. “All I want is for you to lead me to where you people are using that poor storm kami as an electrical generator. Once he goes free, you’ll never see me again. Nobody has to get hurt.”

“Mister Bemis would never allow us to walk away from helping you, even if you threatened us,” the man with the knife said.

“Well then, gentlemen, it seems we’re at an impasse. I’m not leaving this country without freeing the kami.”

“I’ll make a counter offer. Drop your weapons, or I’ll cut this girl’s pretty little neck.”

“You’d both be dead before you finished the motion.”

“But I’d do enough that she’d die with us.”

As they talked, Daisuke swallowed hard, once more trying to push down his fear. He saw the same look in Kaori’s eyes, begging him to do something. “Maximillian Hertz would never let this stand,” he whispered to himself. “Bullies are not allowed to tread upon the weak.”

He didn’t even fully realize that he’d decided to do something before he’d made it halfway across the room. The cowboy saw him, and made a show of lowering his weapons, slowly putting them on the ground to distract the corporate goons.

When we was close enough, Daisuke tapped the unarmed goon on the shoulder. The man spun around, and was struck across the face by a full force blow with the teenager’s crutch. The hit struck hard enough to send the man reeling, stumbling into his comrade, who let go of Hikari in his shock.

The girl ran away, and the man with the knife spun on Daisuke. The kid swung again, but the man was fast enough to parry the blow. He then drove his knife into Daisuke’s stomach. Two shots rang out, and both thugs fell to the floor, followed almost immediately by Daisuke.

“Yamada!” Ryota shouted, rushing to his side, along with Kaori. There were tears in her eyes as she used a towel to put pressure on the wound and slow the bleeding.

From where he lay, Daisuke could see the cowboy pull out a cellular phone. “They’re both dead. I’ve got their keycards and phones. I should be able to use those to find where they’re holding it. But I’m gonna need you here at this karaoke joint. One of them stabbed a kid. Hurry.”

The cowboy smiled at Daisuke. “Help’s on the way. This woman I know, Megan, can heal your wounds. You’re going to be just fine. Just hang in there a few minutes.” He undid his vest and button up shirt, revealing a t-shirt emblazoned with a familiar face. “I think Doctor Hertz would be proud of you, kid.”

“What…is your name?” Daisuke asked.

The cowboy finished buttoning his shirt and vest back up, then shook his head. “People like me don’t generally go around giving out our names.” He tipped his hat at Kaori. “Your boyfriend’s very brave. Make sure you take care of him.”

Kaori blushed. “Yes, he is,” she said. She leaned in and kissed Daisuke on the cheek. “Next time, maybe instead of going out, I could come over and we could play video games or read?”

Daisuke nodded, the movement causing him pain. “I’d like that.”

It didn’t take long for an American woman in a white hoodie to arrive. She used magic of some kind to mend the boy’s wounds, as if they’d never happened. As he was helped to his feet, he looked around, but the mysterious stranger was gone. 

The woman in white caught his bewildered look. “Yeah. He just does that sometimes. Don’t worry about it.”

A voice from in the hallway startled him. “Honey, it’s time to go. The cops are outside.”

“Be right there, Tristran” she called back. “You kids feel free to tell the cops whatever you want about what happened here. I’d be surprised if they believe you, though, so I’d say there was a scuffle between some Yakuza or something. Your call.”

The man in the hallway called out again. “Portal’s open. You'd better hurry.”

The woman in white rolled her eyes. “Jerry can hold a portal for more than five seconds,” she said under her breath before winking at Daisuke, the only one who heard her.

Once the healer was gone, Kaori buried her face in Daisuke’s chest. “Hey,” she said. “My sister was telling me about this new Kiraverse MMO, have you heard of it?”

“I was thinking of checking it out,” Daisuke answered.

“Let’s play together?”

“I’d say it’s a date.” He grinned.

She looked up at him, then kissed him again, this time full on the lips, ignoring the gasps and cheering from the other teens. “Sounds like a perfect date,” she said. “After today, I’m thinking indoors is far preferable to going out.”

He looked down at her, then wrapped his arm around her slender waist. “I don’t know. It definitely wasn’t all bad. Though I may change my mind if I get stabbed again next time.”

They kissed again, not evening noticing it as the police burst into the room.