Inuyama Heita thought it over carefully and asked, "But Matsui already has a little ghost attached to him, and he can even direct it to influence other people..."
Qian Xiaoyi said, "After someone has been raising little ghosts for a long time, the life energy around them drops to a certain point, and they can form a connection with the little ghost. He might know how to raise one, but he'd still need a genuine medium to help with the actual process. Otherwise, it'd be far too dangerous. And if Matsui were a medium too, he wouldn't need an unpredictable factor like Harada Taro. He could do it himself. When we were drinking, he complained to me that without him, the whole 'project' would fall apart. He's the one keeping the 'operation' running. In other words, Matsui can't do without him."
"What did he say after that?" Inuyama Heita asked.
Qian Xiaoyi waved a hand. "Nothing but complaints. He said the other guy kept making all sorts of demands of him, treating him like a slave, and calling himself his benefactor and all that. He's been fed up with him for ages."
"So that's why Matsui picked me..." Inuyama Heita nodded, finally understanding some things that had puzzled him.
"Well, it's about time. You're heading to your part-time job, right?" Qian Xiaoyi stretched. "I need to go socialize too, see if I can pry out any more information... Honestly, if it weren't work, who'd want to drink? I'm going to spend a fortune again today. If I have to treat them a few more times, I might go bankrupt." That was what he said, but although he hadn't earned much since coming to Japan, Qian Xiaoyi had saved up some money back home. He could afford a few drinking sessions.
"You've worked hard," Inuyama Heita said perfunctorily.
"Ha. Anyway, you be careful too," Qian Xiaoyi said. "Once you've gathered information on those senior members, we can move on to the next step."
"Got it." Inuyama Heita nodded.
The two left the office one after the other and headed to their respective destinations.
When Inuyama Heita was heading home after finishing his part-time job that evening, he actually ran into the two thugs who had extorted him. He was startled, but the two men wore miserable expressions as they apologized to him over and over, then returned his money. It made him wonder what had happened to them, but he didn't care anymore. It was all just part of Matsui's arrangements. After the thugs left, Matsui even called him, "by coincidence," and pretended to ask whether they had returned his money. Inuyama Heita forced down his disgust and answered. Matsui stressed that he had to be on time the next day, then hung up.
After school the next day, Inuyama Heita followed the address Matsui had given him to a bar called Blue Note on a commercial street in Roppongi. A sign reading "Closed" hung on the bar's door. It wasn't open yet, but the door wasn't locked, so Inuyama Heita took a deep breath and went inside.
The door chime rang, and everyone inside stopped talking and looked toward the entrance. Inuyama Heita felt a little nervous.
"Well, well~ It's little Inuyama! Welcome to my humble establishment." A seductive male voice rang out. Inuyama Heita looked over and saw the flamboyant man who had joined in beating up the thugs the other day, standing behind the bar and wiping a glass. These flamboyant men were a kind of uniquely Japanese subculture, generally men who identified as women. They had been part of the mainstream public eye since the last century, decades ahead of the West in their ideas. The one at Blue Note was muscular and had clearly worked out a lot, but he wore heavy makeup and a woman's kimono. The sight was, to say the least, a bit jarring.
"H-hello." With so many people staring at him, Inuyama Heita was so nervous he could barely get the words out. Remembering that he was actually there undercover, and seeing how many people were around, he could hardly breathe.
The flamboyant man came to his rescue. "Don't stare at him like that, everyone! Boys get shy too, you know~ Inuyama-kun, you're still a student, so you can't drink. What a shame—our craft beer is one of the house specialties. Here, have this while we wait for Mr. Matsui."
He made Inuyama Heita a nonalcoholic cocktail. Inuyama Heita quietly thanked him, took his drink, and sat in a corner. The others stopped paying attention to him and resumed chatting in small groups. Just as Inuyama Heita began to relax, he suddenly felt as if someone were staring daggers into his back. When he turned around, he spotted another familiar figure.
"Stare~" Suzuki sat in a booth not far behind him, eyes narrowed as she scrutinized him.
Inuyama Heita stiffened. He hadn't expected his classmate to be here too. Wasn't this supposed to be a gathering of senior members?
At that thought, Inuyama Heita glanced over the others and noticed something strange. On the skin behind their collars, most had one or two small, pitch-black handprints. They were utterly eerie. One person even had a baby clinging to his back, its body covered in black veins. The sight was chilling.
"I see... So the so-called senior members are people who've already held the luck ritual and obtained a little ghost?" Inuyama Heita thought, growing even more nervous. He'd walked straight into a den of evil.
"Hey, why are you here?" Suzuki sat down across from him, glanced around, then lowered her voice. "Didn't I tell you to stop getting involved with these people? They've all been scammed. You don't actually believe that nonsense about turning your luck around, do you?"
"And you're here too," Inuyama Heita shot back.
"My mom forced me to come." Suzuki spoke with exasperation. "She's watching me from the café across the street. If I don't show up, she starts crying and making a scene. It's so annoying... Wait, don't change the subject. You still haven't told me why you're here."
"It's none of your business." Inuyama Heita didn't know how to answer, so he lowered his head and drank his cocktail, hoping to bluff his way through. At the same time, he listened to the conversations around him. He hadn't forgotten why he was there: Qian Xiaoyi had tasked him with gathering information on the other senior members.
"You don't really believe it, do you?" The look behind Suzuki's glasses turned helpless. "There's absolutely no scientific basis for turning your luck around..."
"I don't believe it," Inuyama Heita retorted.
"Then why are you here?"
"It's none of your business."
"You..."
While the two of them were still arguing, the door chime rang and the bar door opened again. Matsui walked in with a cheerful smile. "Looks like everyone's here~ Please wait a moment. Before we begin, I have a few things to discuss with Inuyama-kun... Inuyama-kun, come with me, please. Maria, could we use the room in the back?"
"Oh, stop it. I've told you, just call me little Maria," the flamboyant man said bashfully. "Alone in a room with a boy... Don't do anything naughty, okay~ Hehehe, I'm joking! There aren't any customers yet anyway, so feel free to use it, Mr. Matsui."
Inuyama Heita stood and followed Matsui into the private room in the back. Suzuki adjusted her glasses and watched them enter, frowning in confusion.
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