Danian stepped out of the bright light of the loop. The small chamber he'd been teleported to was lit by candles and layered with incense. Then he watched Tammy, Naoto and Indira perform the same magic trick, materialising out of nothing but a beam of warm white light.
He still hadn't got his head around how loops were possible. Too stark was the contrast with what he'd been lectured at school. But being living proof that they worked, he'd stopped hackling with the concept of them.
The four friends found themselves in a small Buddhist temple just a block away from Omotesando Hills, in the heart of Tokyo. Naoto led them past the upmarket shopping centre to the pedestrian area around Cat Street, where the roads meandered through the low-rise buildings like snakes, giving it a small-town feel. Here people sat in cafes ranging from cool to gothic, and small shops provided the young and fancy with the latest in hip urban outfits.
Two hours later, they had swapped their hiking outfits for casual streetwear and dropped off their backpacks at a capsule hotel, its sleeping pods reminiscent of sci-fi movies. Now they were ready to look for the Mermaid Club—the only lead to that mysterious man who must've been involved in some way or another in Kenzo's disappearance. But where to start in a megacity with a population of fourteen million, known for an extravagant underground club scene that was intertwined with the largest vibrant red-light district in Asia?
Since they hadn't found any relatable information on the internet, Naoto started showing the card Tammy had pulled out of Morfitt's junk to heavily tattooed barkeepers. But to little avail. They slowly made their way to Kabukicho, Tokyo's infamous red-light district, teeming with establishments catering to the most extravagant tastes. Yet, they were mostly sent off with a firm no gaijin, no foreigners.
Danian easily got frustrated when things didn't move along. Patience probably wasn't his stronghold. Huddled over a small table, he was grappling with their fate.
"We're stuck, aren't we?"
Naoto nervously stirred around his bubble ice tea. "There's one more option. But I'd really hoped to get around this." He picked up his phone, typed, corrected, typed once more, and hit Send with a reluctant look on his face.
"Whom are you texting?" Danian asked.
"My ex-"
Tammy noisily blew bubbles into her tea, then looked cheekily at her friends, sorry for the interruption.
"Ex best friend," Naoto continued. "We haven't spoken since I left our startup."
"Do you think he can help us?" Indira raised an eyebrow.
"If someone knows his way around the dark side of Tokyo, it's Jake." Naoto sounded unusually depressed; his emotions usually didn't surface that profusely.
"What startup, anyway?" Danian was curious.
Naoto explained how Jake and he'd built one of the earliest cryptocurrency exchanges out of a small studio in Shimokita, Tokyo's hipster neighbourhood, with a handful of their fellow students. Then his phone indicated an incoming message.
"Let's go," he grunted.
They agreed to grab some sushi along the way; after all, it was already late for dinner, and the address Jake had sent Naoto meant over an hour commute.
The number 36 lit up, the elevator doors opened, and the four friends stepped out onto the open-plan, shiny-white floor that stretched out between all four sides of the glass-panelled building. Colourful desks stood between a few relaxation islands with cushy sofas under plants that dangled from the ceiling. About twenty people still sat in front of very sleek screens despite being well past 10 pm.
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Soul Heist - The Missing Mentor
Fantasy"I thought yetis were... hogwash." Happy-go-lucky Danian is surfing in Bali during term break when he finds himself smitten with Indira, a fervent climate activist. Eager to impress her and learn the true purpose of his life, he agrees to help find...
