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Chapter One
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Quinn
The club we are in isn't the most touristy one a couple of American's can go to. In fact, to come here we had to go through the red light district but Hoshi, my friend who’s been showing us the sights and wonders of the Kabukicho entertainment district, said it was a good place to go. We just came from the wildest restaurant I have ever been in. There were more flashing neon lights in it than there are in this club. In fact, this club is pretty tame compared to what we just got for the dinner show.
The music is good and the lights aren't bright enough to cause a headache so I think we can stay for a little while. Hoshi has been great about showing us all the sights, not just the wild neon nighttime ones. This is the first time me and Hoshi have ever met face to face. We've been friends for years and even called each other a few times to chat but nothing like this. And now here I am, in Japan with my mom and Hoshi parting in a club.
I'm a social influencer which is short for saying I make goofy videos of myself doing silly random stuff and upload it to the internet so other people can see how goofy I am. It started out with me doing a lot of scary video games with a lot of jump scares because apparently I have the best 'oh shit' face out there, and then branched off to me just letting people into little parts of my life like when I had my wisdom teeth taken out or when my brother broke his wrist tripping over one of my sister's toys.
For some weird reason people like watching me. They like it enough that this is my full-time job and while I am not rolling in the money on my mattress I did make enough to fly me and my mom out here for this social influencers' convention. I try to do at least one of these a year but when I saw that this one was going to be in Japan I had to come to this one. I have always loved the culture of Japan. For some reason the area just calls to me and I have always wanted to come. So here we are.
I try to take in everything around me. To be honest there has been more than a little bit of culture shock over the past two days we have been here. There's so much to assimilate and digest that even after we get back home I know it will be days before I have calmed back down and experienced everything fully. For someone who’s in front of the camera a lot, I tend to live inside of my head. It's easy when you don't have a live audience to think about. I just treat my audience like they are one big, giant friend coming for a sleepover or a small visit with my family and that helps. If I thought about the numbers while I was recording I wouldn't do it.
"This is a really popular place on the weekends but it gets kind of...laggy on the weekdays."
"Laggy?" What does that mean? This is a Friday night and it seems pretty busy and lively tonight.
"Um, slow. It doesn't have as good music or shows on those days as it does on weekends."
"Oh you mean it's quieter and not as much fun."
Hoshi smiles and shakes her head. She speaks very good English but some of the words I use are colloquial to my area of the U.S. and confuse her which ends up confusing me. It has been so much fun trying to learn from one another though.
"I'm going to hit the dance floor. You want to come, mom?"
"No," she gives us a chuckle as me and Hoshi stand, "you two go ahead. I think after that last restaurant I need to rest a minute before I'm back up for mingling." Her laugh ends her sentence and I can almost bet it won't take her long to be right back out here with us.
Mom is great. She could have lost her shit when she realized what I was doing but she was cool with it and is not only supportive but has gone out of her way to help me with my career. It probably helps that she is a writer. She herself is a different breed, set apart from the usual moms who work in offices and school rooms so the fact I wanted to be a social influencer didn't cause her to bat an eyelash.
We dance for two songs and then make our way back to our table but my mom isn't there. I really hope she just had to go to the bathroom. I cast a worried look over to Hoshi who looks white as death. I start to freak out when two big men come up to our table beside us.
"Your mother is with Mr. Haruyoshi. You will follow us and we will take you to her." Hoshi grabs me by the wrist. Her hold is tight and almost painful and her palms are sweaty.
"Do what they ask." She whispers through visibly dry lips. Both of us walk in between the two men up a narrow flight of stairs and into a private area that is dimly lit and less noisy than the rest of the club. Hoshi is shaking and her anxiety over what is going on is freaking me out.
As soon as I see my mother I run to her. She is all smiles and pulls me over to a table. "Quinn, you'll never guess who I started talking to. This is Mister Haruyoshi." She pauses before going on excitedly but in a whispered voice, "He's a member of the Yakuza."
All the blood drains from my face, "Oh my God, mom! Do you know what that is? Of course you do, you're a writer. How do you get into these kinds of messes?" And more importantly, how am I going to get us out?
“We prefer the title ninkyo dantai, actually."
My mom interrupts the man doing the talking, "I was just hanging out at the table and saw all the men walk through and knew in a second it must be someone very important like that. Once I got a look at that wrist though I knew." She seems so proud of herself for picking out a member of the biggest criminal empire in Japan in a packed nightclub. My eyes drop to his exposed wrist where his sleeves are rolled just a little way up and tattoos cover his skin and run up under his shirt.
"Please sit. Call me Emon, please." He gestures for us to sit next to my mom and I don't think we have any other option. Leaving doesn't seem to be on the table just yet. "You're mother is telling me about your channel and about her books."
Mom leans her head over with a giant smile showing me how proud she is of me.
"My daughter-in-law was from America and my grandson went to school there. His English is better than mine but mine is not bad, yes."
"Oh I think your English is very good." Mom compliments him on his ability. "He's been telling me about how he met and fell in love with his late wife." She reaches out her hand to place it over Emon's hand and the whole room seems to tense up but mom is either oblivious or just doesn't care. Emon laughs and pats her with his other hand.
We spend the next two hours being entertained and taken care of by Mr. Haruyoshi. His hair is salt and pepper and his face is covered in wrinkles but his eyes are kind and jump with amusement when he listens to my mother talk about her children. He tells her all about his late wife and says mom reminds him of her because she loved romance stories and American culture.
"You two are here by yourselves with no one to watch out for you?" His deep voice is filled with question when he asks.
Oh God, why is he asking if we are here all alone. "My husband had to stay back in the States with my younger children and of course there was the monetary aspect of it all. We have an excellent guide in Hoshi though. She is showing us this beautiful country of yours."
