The next day was brighter, though still overcast; the layer of clouds covering the sky glowed white, and the air was still chilly without a fully-revealed sun. Penny, Eve and Maaya dressed warmly, Penny with a purple long-sleeved shirt depicting the silhouette of Eva Unit 01, Eve wearing a little wool sweater over her comfortable blue dress, and Maaya wearing the same jacket she’d been wearing since Penny and Eve had met her.

The three were riding a commuter train, thankfully not as packed as it sometimes was, with only a dozen or so people spread out across the train car. Many of them were lone office workers, some of whom appeared to have fallen asleep at one point and went unroused for their destinations. There were also a few high schoolers, though classes must have already begun at least an hour ago.

Maaya was occupied with her phone, as was every other passenger on the train who was awake, though Penny and Eve were far more interested in their surroundings. At the left end of the car were video screens looping an ad for the anime adaptation of Blue Giant, a jazz-themed manga series Edith and Jill had mentioned during a conversation about music manga. Set above the nearest door was a looping ad for Splatoon 3, showing the highlights of a full match.

There were also train maps, including ones showing the line the girls were currently on, with the next station lit up with a bright yellow light.

The view through the window was by far the most exciting part, with a seemingly endless stream of office buildings, apartment complexes, department stores, arcades, on and on, the streets below almost never visible.

Penny and Eve had no idea a city could be so big. Downtown Toronto felt like a few blocks compared to the entire concrete planet they had landed in.

“We’ll be in Shibuya soon,” Maaya said, glancing up at the station map.

Shibuya was the ward they had decided to check out next, though Penny and Eve would’ve been happy with any of the options. What leapt out about Shibuya was, of course, Shibuya Scramble Crossing, as well as Harajuku, the street fashion district. Whenever Penny’s friend Cale talked about the latest fashion trends, she always started with whatever was happening in Harajuku. (And, when I had asked Joysuke to design Cale, I sent her Harajuku fashion images for inspiration.)

“I’ll get Cale some kind of accessory there,” Penny said. “That will really blow her mind.”

The prerecorded announcement playing over the train’s PA stated – first in Japanese and then in English – that they would soon be arriving at Shibuya Station.

Maaya stood while continuing to look at her phone with both hands. Penny and Eve followed her lead, the two gripping the handrails. The train came to an impeccably smooth halt, with none of the jerkiness of Toronto subway trains; they could see how Maaya was confident about standing without any support.

The girls exited the train right before a large crowd got on, the platform itself much busier than the one at Akihabara, though with less anime ads.

They descended the stairs, heading deep into the station interior, which had one of the most confusing layouts of all the stations Penny and Eve had experienced up to that point. Every direction seemed to lead to an equally viable entrance or exit, yet there was only one correct way to go, and Penny and Eve had no idea what that was.

It didn’t help that people were constantly heading in every direction – if Maaya hadn’t been with them, Penny and Eve would’ve been swept away to different places, never to see each other again.

“Here – stay close,” Maaya said, sensing how overwhelmed these two Canadians were.

Maaya led them to a large tunnel with large windows for walls, and Penny and Eve gradually realised that the windows were overlooking the famed Scramble Crossing itself, the pedestrians below crossing it diagonally in waves.

Eve grabbed Penny’s hand and the two excitedly raced up to the window; they stuck their hands and faces against the glass, gazing out at Shibuya with widened eyes.

“Anime is real,” Penny said under her breath.

“It sure is,” Eve said.

Maaya used Eve’s phone to take pictures of Penny and Eve with the Crossing visible past them. She then recorded a video of them walking down the tunnel and exiting out onto the street, the recording continuing as Maaya followed Penny and Eve into the middle of the crossing. Maaya panned around them in a circle as the hundred or so other pedestrians seemed to walk directly towards the girls and the camera. Maaya then stopped the video, and the girls hurried back onto a sidewalk.

“Let’s add it to the Girls Mode YouTube Shorts right away,” Eve said, already in the middle of uploading the video. “That way we’re not spamming a million videos when we get back to the hotel room.”

Eve had picked Banana Co by Radiohead to play over the video – specifically the full band version from the Street Spirit single. It was a song Maya liked – not Maaya the maid, but the Maya who was Eve’s friend back home. Maya was into alternative rock, the more ’90s and emotional the better.

Eve showed Penny the video after it uploaded. The title was ANIME IS REAL.

Penny smiled as she looked at the video, though the smile lessened when she noticed some strange figures amongst the pedestrians heading towards the camera near the end. She asked Eve to show her the original file so they could pause it and look more clearly.

“That’s odd,” Eve said.

In the video was a trio of girls in black and pink maid outfits, each with a different hairstyle, and each without a face. The spots where their faces should be also appeared slightly more pixelated than the rest of the image.

“The video didn’t render their faces,” Eve said, disappointed. “Maybe they got too close to the camera?”

“Yeah,” Penny said, though she believed otherwise. “That sucks.”

“Oh, do you know about the 3D billboards?” Maaya asked them, having apparently missed out on their conversation. “There’s one close by.”

The trio walked up the street to the left, which was lined with large department stores with large front entrances and large advertisements and logos. Maaya stopped a short distance into the street and pointed out the animated billboard high across from them, which had a second, shorter curved side to it that accentuated the sense of depth.

The titular protagonist from Sick Lizard Master – a manga series that had recently received an anime adaptation – was peering down at the pedestrians below, moving from one side of the billboard to the next, the series logo remaining onscreen in the upper-left corner. At one point in the loop one of Sick Lizard Master’s enemies, a hairy boar-faced man from outer space, dropped down into the screen and began fighting with Sick Lizard Master.

Sick Lizard Master managed to defeat the boar alien with his special staff, but immediately after an entire group of boar people filled the screen, forcing Sick Lizard Master to crawl out the bottom of the billboard and scale down the building below.

Penny, Eve and Maaya watched as Sick Lizard Master reached the sidewalk, opened a rusted metal door, and disappeared into the building with the billboard.

Penny looked at Eve to make sure she had recorded it, and was relieved to see that Eve was holding up her phone with a huge grin.

“There’s the second video for today’s Shorts,” Eve said.

“How is that possible?” Penny asked Maaya, in total disbelief. “Does it also use like a 3D projection or something?”

“Hmm,” Maaya wondered. “Maybe it’s a mix of the billboard screen, a projection, and then a live actor in a costume when the character gets to the bottom?

“I mean, we do have live tokusatsu stage shows in Japan, performed outside for the public. It could be something like that.”

“Oh,” Penny said. In a weird way, she found it comforting that not even Maaya was certain how the effect was accomplished.

The door that Sick Lizard Master had entered suddenly slammed open, the door loudly banging against the wall. Penny, Eve, and Maaya, along with other nearby pedestrians, stopped to look at the doorway.

A man wearing the same outfit as one of the boar aliens casually exited through it; maskless, he was in the middle of lighting a cigarette that was held between his lips, one hand cupping the lighter to prevent the wind from putting out the flame.

“So, they did use live actors?” Penny asked aloud, still uncertain.

The woman who had been dressed as Sick Lizard Master came out from behind the man, just as the man was finishing taking a long drag off his cigarette.

The woman struck the man against the back of his head with the bottom of Sick Lizard Master’s special staff, causing the cigarette to fly out of the man’s mouth. The woman then hit the man again, as hard as she could, causing him to crumple down to the sidewalk, like a puppet that had just had its strings cut.

Some of the pedestrians gasped. A police officer, who had been standing by Scramble Crossing, took notice of the scene and trotted on over.

“How about a ramen lunch?” Maaya said to Penny and Eve, who were still watching the scene play out with stunned expressions.

* * *

The girls sat at a ramen restaurant a couple streets over, at a table by the clear plastic curtains separating the restaurant from the sidewalk. Eve sat beside Maaya, more closely than she would have sat beside Penny – or perhaps it was Maaya sitting more closely beside Eve.

The waitress brought out their bowls of ramen. They all picked the same thing, which was pork ramen in a white-ish broth that was pleasantly thick, much different from the watery ramen Penny and Eve had tried at restaurants back home.

The song “kisses” by Slowdive was playing over the PA.

Penny added all the additional toppings that were presented on tiny plates on the table as Maaya described each of them. After filling her bowl, she looked up from it to Maaya and Eve, and saw how happy they were. She pulled out her phone and snapped a photo of them, which she could tell Eve greatly appreciated, her cheeks reddening slightly.

“Let’s eat,” Eve said with a hungry smile.

Maaya and Eve ate noisily, slurping their noodles to cool them, while Penny ate hers carefully and quietly, not wanting to splash herself with the broth. It was one of the most delicious things Penny had ever eaten in her life.

“My compliments to the pig,” she said as tears of joy formed in the corners of her eyes.

“I could fill a bathtub with this and sleep in it,” Eve said.

“Maybe you are strange girls,” Maaya said with a smile.

The trio headed for Harajuku after lunch, cutting through a small district of love hotels and associated toy shops. The love hotel exteriors were eye-catchingly tacky, some with faux Roman pillars and statues, and others with hearts incorporated into every aspect of their design. There was also a jungle-themed hotel that piqued Eve’s interest until Maaya explained what a love hotel was, and then Eve blushed.

“I thought it was something like a Rainforest Cafe,” Eve said.

Eve stopped Penny when it seemed like they were exiting the district.

“Wait!”

Penny looked at Eve in surprise.

“What’s up?” Penny asked. “Did you forget something?”

“YouTube Short,” Eve said. Strangely, she appeared slightly out-of-breath even though she hadn’t been running.

“Okay?”

Eve stood closer to Penny, turning her head to speak into Penny’s ear with a slightly hushed tone.

“R-record a video of me and Maaya walking into the jungle,” she said.

“Are you sure?”

“It’ll be a joke video.”

Penny looked at Maaya, who was standing a short distance away, letting them have their secret conversation.

“Eve wants to walk into a love hotel with me?” Maaya asked.

Penny stared at Maaya for 10 seconds, then slowly nodded her head.

“Okay, let’s do it!” Maaya said enthusiastically, grabbing Eve’s hand and leading her towards the jungle-themed love hotel.

Penny fumbled with her phone and recorded the video, which looked more like evidence a private detective would collect of an extramarital affair. She wasn’t sure if posting it online would be the right thing for Girls Mode, but knew Eve would be happy to have the video to look at every once in a while.