The cat took the opportunity to make her escape, disappearing over the other side of the railing and into the park. Toi scrambled for the park entrance with Sara-Kazuki hot on his heels. “Don’t follow me!” he yelled back at the other boy.
“I will follow you!”
The competition was fierce, and yet, both of them froze in their tracks at the entrance. There, they both gazed up silently at the oversized sign hanging over the entrance.
Couples Only Today! ♡ Hosting a Lovey-Dovey Bee Ninja Festival!
In smaller text below: Only Couples Allowed ♡
Apparently, the park was trying to increase its weekday visitors by holding unique events like this.
“…Let’s do this tomorrow instead,” Toi proposed.
“Yeah, good idea,” Kazuki agreed.
Just as they turned to leave, a hand reached out and grabbed both of them.
“Nin! Nin!” exclaimed the man locking each of them in place.
“Wha?!” They both gaped in surprise.
“Allow me to escort our next lovey-dovey couple!”
By the time they realized what was happening, it was already too late; an all-too-eager park assistant, decked out in a ninja outfit, was forcibly dragging them inside the park.
“Delicious, ribbit~! ♡ Delicious, ribbit~! ♡” Keppi poured the bottle of cucumber-flavored Shirohasu mineral water—which he forced Enta to purchase and bring to him—over the top of his head. Gradually, he returned to his former, rotund self.
“Yeah, yeah. Glad to be of service, ribbit,” Enta muttered. “Jeez. Kazuki’s just left me on read, as usual. What should I do?”
“Buuurp! Now’s not the time to dilly-dally, ribbit. Seeds of evil are taking root in the city right at this very moment, ribbit.”
“Hm? ‘Seeds of evil’…?”
Beep-beep!
Enta’s phone chirped. “Kazuki?! Ugh, it’s just my sister…”
It was a selfie of Otone and her boyfriend on a date at Hanayashiki. He had to wonder if it was even professionally appropriate for her to be sending such a picture to one of her students—even if that student was also her little brother. “Some people sure do have it good, out there having fun, oblivious to the suffering of others,” Enta sighed.
“You said it, ribbit. Those two have a duty to defeat the Kappa Zombies, but they don’t seem to appreciate our impending crisis, ribbit,” Keppi commented, peeking at Enta’s phone.
“Wait, what two?” Enta narrowed his eyes and searched the photo. There was Otone, beaming like the protagonist of a 90s shoujo manga, with her boyfriend hugging her from behind. In the background, he could see a couple perched on a kids’ ride. “Is that…Kuji and Kazuki?!”
Long ago, before Hanayashiki’s mascot was Panda Car, it was Bee Boy, originally known as Bee-chan. Few people nowadays remembered the origin of Hanayashiki’s symbolic Bee Tower, or the Bee Boy symbol stamped on it.
Kazuki’s appearance gathered a fair amount of confused looks as he walked about the park. On top of his Azuma Sara disguise, he wore a bee antenna headband, stylized black ninja garb, bee wings on his back, and a large, striped stinger on his butt.
“Today’s lovey-dovey couples will dress up as bee ninjas and must keep their hands interlocked at all times,” they were told. It was a bee-ninja couple cosplay event.
Kazuki stared vacantly at Toi’s back as the other boy walked ahead of him. The latter entered the park reluctantly in pursuit of the cat, and adamantly refused to participate in dressing up. After a verbal altercation with the park assistant, Toi compromised, wearing the bee part of the costume over his usual black hoodie. The result looked ridiculous, like a gag costume someone might wear after losing a bet. Kazuki found the half-baked disguise utterly embarrassing.
“There he is! That fat cat!” Toi flew after the feline, letting go of Kazuki’s hand.
Kazuki snapped back to his senses and charged after the other boy. How many times were they going to do this? Every time Toi let go of his hand, it only resulted in—
“You there, the lovey-dovey couple! Holding hands is proof of your love! You must hold hands at all times!” The ninja-garbed assistant blew his whistle in warning at them.
Kazuki caught up with Toi and yanked his hand, grinning at him. “I’m so sorry I let go of your hand, dish. ✩ My darling. ♡”
“Let go of me!”
“Couples that don’t hold each other’s hands get forcibly removed from the park!” the park assistant snapped at Toi.
“…Tch.”
With that, the (not so) lovey-dovey couple resumed their handholding as they hunted down the elusive cat through the park’s attractions. After a substantial amount of time spent searching in vain, they ended up riding the Sky Ship.
“And now our lovey-dovey couples will be guided on a trip through the sky!” the assistant announced airily.
Kazuki and Toi found themselves gliding through the air on a boat decorated with hearts. In front of them, Nyantaro trotted unconcernedly along the upper rail.
“Nyantaro! Hurry, run!” Kazuki called after him.
“Hey, you, enough of that already!”
“That cat helped Haruka and me connect with each other.”
“Who the heck is Haruka?” Toi asked. “Your lover?”
“Haruka’s my…beloved younger brother.” The beloved younger brother that he deceived by pretending to be an idol. As the words left his lips, Kazuki averted his eyes. Despite the rush of guilt that welled up in him, he just really wanted to see Haruka smile. There was no repaying the debt he owed Nyantaro for bringing them closer.
“I can give up on the cat then,” Toi mumbled.
“Really?!”
“But in exchange…give me any Wishing Plates we get.”
After a brief pause, Kazuki said, “That I can’t do!” He couldn’t give up on securing a Wishing Plate—not even to guarantee Nyantaro’s safety. Those plates were the only way for him to make his long-held desire a reality.
“Quit being so selfish about everything!” Toi snapped at him.
“You’re one to talk! What do you have against Nyantaro anyway?!”
As the two quarreled, keeping their hands firmly locked together, the cat in question disappeared.
Scene 4
AN IMPOSING HUSH settled over the large conference room at the Asakusa Police Station, where a meeting was presently underway. A sign on the outside of the door read Asakusa Suspicious Death Investigation HQ.
The chief’s voice echoed inside the dimly lit room. “We have identified the body we found early this morning. Thirty-eight-year-old unemployed Nekoyama Moukichi.” The profile revealed that the deceased’s name included the kanji for “cat” and “fur.” “Six months ago, he was arrested as a suspect in connection with the Asakusa Cat-Skinning Case, where someone captured strays and flayed their bodies. He was released after we failed to bring charges against him. We’ll be investigating his death as a homicide.”
There was an audible ka-chik as the projector flipped to the next image on the slideshow. One was an image of the cats in question, initially gathered as evidence. The scenes depicted were too gruesome for any feline enthusiast to behold. The prevailing mood in the room was clear; it wouldn’t be surprising for someone to hold a grudge against the perpetrator of such a brutal crime.
In the midst of all of this, two people abruptly stood up. It was the two police officers from before.
“We’re the ones who took care of him!” said the blond one.
“It was just yesterday!” said the one with glasses.
Yesterday evening, to be precise. The incident took place at the police box where the two worked.
“It wasn’t me-ow that did it! You’ve got the wrong purr-son!”
“For those souls without beginnings or ends, those unable to connect…” The man in the glasses, Akutsu Mabu, held up a photo that showed Nekoyama at the scene of the crime, hauling a cloth bag stuffed full of cats he kidnapped.
“Now, let us open a door…” The blond officer, Niiboshi Reo, suddenly aimed the barrel of his gun at the man. “Is it desire?”
“Or love?”
A large taiko drum appeared above Nekoyama’s head.
“Desire Extraction!”
Nekoyama was instantly absorbed into the drum and disappeared completely.
Bam!
Accompanied by the thundering of the drum, the floor of the police box began to descend downward. The captured man was stuffed inside a box, and then sent along a conveyor belt along with numerous other boxes, carried into the depths of an enormous underground structure. Each box was sealed along the way with the stamp of a red heart. As the boxes began to pile up in the hundreds, a red crane suddenly descended out of nowhere, seizing the towering pile and carrying them off.
“Don’t let go of your desires!”
“Wring out desire!”
Reo and Mabu danced together down to the innermost depths of the building. In a dimly lit room, a taiko drum hovered in the air, wrapped in rings reminiscent of the planet Saturn’s. Nekoyama Moukichi’s captured body began to transform as the rings pulsed with light.
Reo ripped Mabu’s shirt open across his chest. Deep beneath Mabu’s pale skin, a gray, glowing heart trembled violently in response. Reo didn’t hesitate; he sank his fingers into the other man’s pale chest. It spasmed, as it always did. Not a single drop of blood spilled as Reo wrapped his hand around Mabu’s heart. Mabu’s mechanical heart flashed with blinding light: a sign that the two of them were connected.
Reo was unmoved by Mabu’s ecstasy as he vigorously yanked the organ out of the other man’s chest. The room’s darkness filled with a vibrant red, like the crimson petals of a flower only the two of them could bring to blossom.
Scene 5
NYANTARO LAY ACROSS THE ROOF of one of the candy houses dangling from Bee Tower, fast asleep, a bubble of snot protruding from her nose.