Removed – Chapter 1

I’m going to be late. I hate being late.

Ugh, I can’t be late for my own birthday. That just won’t do.

But It’s New Year’s Eve 3103 in Nishikyō, and I’m not the only one out celebrating tonight.

The streets of Ku 9 are filled with people. This may be the Science and Engineering Ward but the local council always sponsors gatherings here for those who don’t want to travel on New Year’s Eve. The sidewalks are a colorful, moving wall of people in kimonos and other citizens in normal Nishikyō wear, the double-breasted gray tunic shirts over loose pants of the same material break up the assault of bright colors swirling around me. I edge past a young couple carrying a small boy who is dressed up in his own little kimono and hakama, wide-legged pants (he is adorable) and head directly down into the transitway before I get sucked into people watching.

Ku 7, the Entertainment Ward where Miko’s family izakaya is located, is two wards away. It’s not a long ride on the train, but so many people are heading to Ku 6, the Japanese Ward, that the cars are filled to the brim. I have to wait for two trains to go by and hope I can get on the next one.

I check the tunnel over and over until a train finally comes. Nishikyō Transitway Authority runs more trains this time of year but it’s never enough. With the possibility of having to shuttle around over six million people on the biggest holiday of the year, you’d think they’d run the trains non-stop. Have they learned nothing in the past three hundred years? Apparently not because these big holiday delays happen again and again.

When I finally get on a train, it makes every stop between Ku 9, Ku 8 (the Extinction Ward where people in normal clothes get off the train to work), and then Ku 7 where I exit at the second stop and head straight for the izakaya.

Most days Izakaya Tanaka does normal business from 10:00am to 3:00am. It’s a long day but izakaya staff and Nishikyō workers on multiple shifts enter and leave at all hours. Night and day have no meaning when the city needs regular maintenance. Even though the lights brighten and dim to maintain normal circadian rhythms, your night is someone else’s day and vice versa. It’s not like anyone sees regular sunlight anyway. The domes that protect us from the elements block out all light and most radiation.

Stepping up to the large picture window at the front of Izakaya Tanaka, I tap on the glass and wave my fingers at Helena who is standing right inside. She jumps up and down with a girlish scream, saké sloshing out of the cup in her hand.

“Welcome!” All the staff shout at me as I walk through the door.

“Good evening,” I say back as Helena jumps at me with a forceful hug.

“Happy birthday, Sanaa!” Helena’s face is bright and gleeful. She’s probably been laughing and chatting up these people standing right by the door for some time. She’s so outgoing and, gods, so tall! My neck hurts looking up at her sometimes. Tonight she’s twisted her long, blond, curly hair up and is wearing a bright pink kimono which suits her pale complexion nicely. Her cheeks are a little flushed, but that could be the saké too.

“Thanks, sweetie. You look gorgeous, as usual. Where’s Miko?”

“Behind the bar with Sono. Where else? Anyway, you’re late. I thought you’d be here by seven-thirty? I was ready to call in a search team.” Helena knows how much I hate being late.

“Trains were packed, and Aunt Kimie was giving me the sad eyes as I was on my way out.”

“She helped you get dressed? Your new kimono is lovely.”

“Thanks,” I say while smoothing out the front. The hurried walk from the train loosened up the obi a little. I hope the bow holds up all night. I bought this one a month ago with some extra money I had set aside. For having been passed down through so many consignment shops, the kimono is in excellent shape. I only had to repair a few ripped seams under the arms, and I consider that a blessing. The silk fabric is a lovely, bright amber with a darker burnt orange hashmark design that makes the freckles on my nose stand out. “Let’s go talk to Miko. Maybe if we’re loud enough the men sitting at the bar will leave.”

The place is packed, and it’s only eight, a long way to midnight. I think the staff is going to have to start queuing people up outside soon because they will overflow capacity at any moment. Looking over at the string of private rooms along the side wall, I can tell by the shadows on the rice paper screens they are all occupied. Usually Miko’s parents open them up on New Year’s Eve to accommodate more people, so the rooms won’t be occupied for much longer.

We push our way through the crowd saying ‘excuse me’ and smiling over and over again. Miko is barely visible over the top of the bar. She must be back there unloading multiple boxes of saké. They will need it tonight. Standing between two men, I lean as far over the bar as possible without letting my feet leave the ground.

“Miko!” I yell while I reach out and tap her on the head.

She pops up with a big smile, her chin-length, straight black hair getting caught across her face in the movement.

“Sanaa, happy birthday!”

“Thanks. Hey, where are your parents?”

Miko crouches back down and unloads the last of the saké from the boxes. She always works New Year’s Eve until her mother relieves her at around eleven, but Miko never tends bar. The legal drinking age, and age of adulthood, is twenty in Nishikyō, and she is more than able to tend since she turned twenty-one two months ago, but she has a heavy hand and has declared herself ‘terrible at it.’ They leave the bar to Sono.

“Mother is at home. She was cleaning today, of course, and she knocked into something under the sink and water went everywhere. You can only imagine how that made her feel on New Year’s Eve.”

Yes, indeed. Miko’s mother is a real worrywart. Miko rolls her eyes at me, and I smile. We’re all pretty immune to Mrs. Tanaka’s constant nagging at Miko — first, when she was in school, to get good grades, and now, to find a nice boy before she dies an old maid. Miko recently had her hair cut to a short chin bob with a fierce line of bangs across her face, and the change from long hair to short nearly sent her mother into a fit. That’s probably why Miko did it, though.

“Anyway,” Miko continues after she hands off bottles to Sono, “so she’s back at the apartment with maintenance and will be here later to relieve me of my hostess duties. My father is in there…” She points to the nearest private room. “With two men I’ve never seen before and two cute brothers around our age.” Her face lightens up, a twinkle in her eye. Miko is a serial dater. I think she’s had at least twelve boyfriends already. Twelve boyfriends she never introduced to her parents hence her mother’s ‘old maid’ worries. Amazingly enough, she is unattached right now. (Those boyfriends don’t last long.) “It’s New Year’s Eve. Let’s get ourselves some boys.”

I can almost imagine Miko rubbing her hands together and plotting ways to interfere on this meeting, and I’m inclined to let her. I haven’t had a steady boyfriend in two years and little opportunity to date since I started working full-time. My work friend, Chad, and I meet up at a love hotel once a month or so for drinking and just sex, but it’s not the same as really dating. Watching Miko go out and have a good time makes me realize what I’m missing out on. A New Year’s Eve boy would be fun and exciting. Fun and exciting is what I want this year.

“Miko, you’re ruthless! What about me?” Helena pouts and drops her head.

“We’ll find someone for you, too. It’s a magical night. Anything can happen.” She wipes her hands off on a bar towel and smooths out her kimono. She’s wearing her favorite jade green kimono tonight, but her purple and gray obi is new, a birthday gift from her father. Mr. Tanaka spoils her, and she takes full advantage of it. They’re a tight family. Miko’s taking over Izakaya Tanaka before her family leaves for Yūsei, our colonization planet, and will hopefully open a similar place on our new home world if they can get the permit. They’ve been working on the negotiations for years.

“Let me come around the bar and get a good look at you. You’re wearing your new kimono.” She scans me from top to toes before giving me a hug. “I love it. Orange is the perfect color for you. Helena’s already been here an hour, and, as soon as these two men clear out from the end of the bar, those seats are yours.”

Miko turns and eyes the men sitting right behind us, and they laugh at her.

“Okay, okay. We have a party to go to anyway.” They get up to leave, smiling sweetly at her. Bet they were thinking they would try to make Miko their New Year’s Eve date.

As Helena and I take our seats with Miko at our back, the private room behind us opens up, and we turn to look. Mr. Tanaka emerges in his traditional gray kimono and black hakama, wide-legged pants with two men in their mid-forties right behind him. Both are wearing black kimono with family crests on them and black hakama pants but one has longer, graying hair tied back in a ponytail, and the other’s hair is short, cropped and gray, and he has a distinct scar on his chin.

Mr. Tanaka bows to them, and they bow back. Behind these two men are the brothers our age Miko referred to earlier. The older one is around twenty-four or twenty-five and his brother a few years younger. Yes, Miko, they are definitely cute but the younger one is more my type. He is seriously handsome with longer, floppier hair than his older brother, a strong chin, and what looks like a white streak in his hair just over his ear. He reaches up and tucks his hair back before turning and spying the three girls staring from the bar.

“What did I tell you?” Miko whispers. “The older one’s mine.” A slow, seductive smile comes over her face, and I do my very best not to roll my eyes. Miko has her sights set on him. He’s done for.

But I’m watching the younger brother. Yes, just my type, I can tell already. Strong and confident in the way he holds himself. I love longer hair on men, and that black kimono. Sigh. I love men in kimono. His eyes are on me and now that we’re staring at each other, my breath is slowing, slowing, slowing down until I’m holding it and not breathing at all. I don’t blink. I don’t move. I am completely entranced.

“It’s a good thing neither of these two are my type,” Helena whispers at me, but I barely hear her. The younger one has turned from me at the behest of one of the other men, the two brothers bow to Miko’s father, and turn to exit the izakaya through the back door. No! Wait!

No, wait. He’s looking at me again before he goes. Did I say that out loud? I don’t know. Smile, Sanaa.

I smile, trying not to be too eager nor too subtle. I’m usually at one end of the spectrum or the other and know nothing of moderation. Moderation? What’s that? No clue.

A smile brightens his face for a moment, but he’s gone. They’re all gone.

“Who are they?” I ask Miko. I must know. Those few moments made me unable to speak properly.

Miko shakes her head. “I have no idea but I’m going to find out.”