Pt. 9

Penny, Eve and Leslie sat at a table by the large window overlooking the street below. It was a wide but quiet street, with a police station located directly across from them, a glossy patrol car parked out front. Penny wondered what types of crimes the Akihabara otaku would be committing, and whether it was a good thing the car looked like it had never been driven before.

The maid who seated the trio made the shape of a chicken drumstick with her hands instead of a heart, encouraging them to imitate her while saying “drum~stick” in English in a saccharine, singsong tone. Leslie asked the maid if she could do it again while he recorded her, but the maid pointed at the café’s No Photography sign. Leslie explained who he was, showing the maid his TikTok, and the maid smiled and said she would ask the manager.

Eve managed to convince Penny to only order tea, though that tea was expensive matcha tea with matcha whipped cream on top. Eve ordered the same, while Leslie ordered a chicken basket, which he fully intended to eat on his own.

The maid left with their orders after giving them a big, dimpled smile, a short bow, and a playful bounce as she turned around. Once she was gone, Leslie took a 360-degree video of the café without permission, and his cocky smile made it clear it was not the first time he had ignored a café’s rules to do whatever he wanted.

“Shouldn’t we wait for the maid to come back with permission?” Penny asked, putting just enough edge in her voice to make it clear she thought what Leslie was doing was wrong.

Eve was normally one for rules as well, but even more than that she was one for making Girls Mode a success, so she poked Penny’s leg under the table.

“If he gets caught, he gets caught!” Eve said to Penny with a smile.

“She’ll come back with the manager, who’ll thank me for coming and give us special treatment,” Leslie said confidently, double-checking the video he just took before putting his phone away.

“You know, I’ve been giving our collab a lot of thought,” Eve said as if days had gone by, even though they had only just met. “Earlier we were checking out a firehouse, and then the chief came out and dressed us up as firefighters. Soooo, what if we ask the manager if we can dress up as maids? Then we can serve you something, like a piece of chicken, and act maid-like.

“I think that would be super-cute. I already know Penny would look amazing. Then you could post the video on TikTok and tag us on it and tell people about Girls Mode in the description.”

Leslie thought about it for a moment, squinting his eyes slightly.

“Hmm, not bad,” he said. “‘A chance encounter with two foreign maids.’ Wow”

“I like the ‘wow’!” Eve said excitedly.

Leslie stroked his chin while continuing to squint, trying to think up ways he could improve it.

“Oh, the maids are here,” Eve noted with an expectant smile.

“‘Maids’?” Leslie asked, confused by the “s”.

The three of them watched as eight maids, including the one who had left, surrounded their table, with very little space between them. Each of the maids had a wide smile frozen on her face.

The maids stared at the middle of the table. Penny and Eve followed their gazes, though all that was set on the table were tiny dessert menus held up in plastic stands. The maids then suddenly shifted their gazes to Leslie, and right when Penny and Eve were about to follow their eyes again, the lights flickered out, putting the room in total darkness.

In the brief moment when the lights had flickered, it looked to Penny like some of the maids had disappeared.

“Spooky,” Eve said, unsure of whether this was part of the intended experience.

The lights turned back on, and a single maid was now standing directly behind Leslie, her hands resting on his shoulders. Leslie’s eyes were wide with fright, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end.

There was no one else in the café other than Penny, Eve, Leslie, and the maid touching his shoulders. Leslie couldn’t see it himself since he was facing away from her, but Penny and Eve were staring at the empty space where the maid’s face should’ve been. Their frozen, fearful expressions did little to put Leslie at ease.

The maid lowered her head to Leslie’s right ear, her hair hanging down and brushing against him.

“I asked the manager,” the maid told him.

“Y-yeah?” Leslie responded, wishing he was anywhere but a maid café for the first time in his life.

“He said ‘No Photography’,” the maid said calmly.

“That’s okay,” Leslie said, his voice trembling. “We can just enjoy the experience.”

“But you already took a video, Master,” the maid said.

“No, I didn’t,” Leslie lied quickly.

“Yes, you did,” the maid responded, putting her empty face closer to his ear.

“No way,” Leslie lied again.

“Yes, and now you must live there, inside the video,” the maid told him. “But don’t worry, Master – we’ll take very good care of you.”

Leslie’s phone then turned on by itself, its glowing screen visible through the fabric of his pocket. The maid reached into his pocket and pulled it out. Leslie felt powerless to stop her – for some reason, he couldn’t even bring himself to try – and simply watched as the maid set it on the table in front of him, the video he took playing in a loop.

“Ready, Master?” the maid asked him.

“No,” Leslie responded. He barely comprehended what it was he was supposed to be ready for.

Three openings formed on the maid’s face, two for “eyes” and one long one for a “mouth”. Inside each opening was a black void. They opened in such a way that it looked like she was smiling.

The lights flickered out, and just as quickly flickered back on.

Maaya was standing where the faceless maid had been, and looking down at that maid’s body, lying unconscious on the floor. The maid’s face had returned – not the fake face comprised of openings, but the pretty face that had seated them at their table.

“Maaya!” Eve exclaimed in surprise.

She then stood from her seat while smiling happily, her knuckles pressing against the table.

“You totally saved us!”

Penny remained seated as she stared at Maaya with her own surprise, her eyes then falling to the empty chair where Leslie had been sitting. The video was still playing on his phone, and from it was the tinny sound of several maids singing Happy Birthday in harmony.

Penny and Eve stared at the phone in confusion, while Maaya looked at it with a serious expression.

In the recording, which seemed to be playing from an alternate dimension, Leslie was sitting in the seat he had disappeared from. 7 of the 8 maids were singing and clapping as he looked at the cake they had set on the table in front of him. Leslie appeared to be crying, and was repeatedly trying to blow out the candles, to no avail.

Maaya put the phone into rest mode, leaving it on the table.

“Someone had to be this month’s sacrifice,” Maaya said to Eve, tears forming in her eyes. “I’m glad it wasn’t you.”

“Can’t you . . . do anything for him?” Eve asked.

“We did,” Maaya said. “As long as this video exists, he’ll always be happy. After his tears dry, anyway.”

“What if you delete it?” Penny asked.

Maaya gave Penny a slight smile.

“We shouldn’t do that,” she said.

Eve felt bad for Leslie, especially since he was famous. It also started to dawn on her that this might be the last time they saw Maaya – unless, of course, Eve decided that she still wanted to be a maid.

* * *

Penny, Eve and Maaya found themselves back on the street outside the café, with no activity around the police station across from them. Penny wondered how long it would take Leslie’s family to file a missing person report. She considered looking up his family members through his TikTok followers, and letting them know what happened – but then what would happen to her?

It was very lightly raining, and Maaya was very lightly smiling. Penny couldn’t tell if she was a good or bad maid, and Maaya looked at her as if she knew what Penny was thinking, and didn’t have an answer for her.

Maaya was holding a small white box containing two cupcakes she had taken from the café before they left. The cupcakes had pastel blue frosting topped with pastel pink strawberry-shaped soft candies.

Maaya handed the box to Eve with an apologetic smile. Eve had tears forming in her eyes that she managed to blink away. This wasn’t how she had wanted to say goodbye.

“Thank you for everything,” Eve said.

“Thank you for showing me Akiba from an outsider’s perspective,” Maaya said. “It reminded me how special this place is.”

“I think you’re very special, too,” Eve said, smiling.

Eve then gave Maaya a quick hug, the container still held in her hand. She was looking forward to eating her cupcake while crying in the hotel room.

“Let’s keep in touch,” Eve said. “You can see us in Canada on our YouTube channel, and we’ll see you here on your Instagram.”

If she still exists, Penny thought.

“I’m glad we got to see Akihabara beyond the surface,” Penny said. “Thank you very much.”

Penny kept her farewell simple and polite, as part of her kind of just wanted to get out of there.

Maaya waved, smiled, and then walked off, heading in the direction of a subway entrance. She descended the steps, and two strangers came up. It felt somewhat anticlimactic, but everything has to end at some point.

Penny and Eve looked at each other, Penny wiping the tears from Eve’s eyes.

“You okay?” Penny asked.

“It’s . . . the greatest time I’ve ever had in my life,” Eve said, truthfully. “Want to check out a couple more stores on the way to the hotel room?

“We can get some snacks.”

* * *

“A couple more stores” turned into a single visit to the Akiba branch of Don Quijote, a massive, multilevel discount store that had a prominent location in each district of Tokyo. The exterior was big and bright with flashing signs and multiple billboards, its mascot a blue penguin wearing a red Santa hat that greeted customers from above the explosive Don Quijote logo.

The store’s theme song played on a short loop, a catchy, stuttering jingle that was amusing for a few minutes but scraped at the inside of one’s skull over a prolonged period.

Inside was even flashier and louder, with tons of products on display from the legendary Matcha Green Tea Kit Kats to anime-themed pyjamas, including cozy-looking Eva units.

Eve took a basket, though they didn’t expect to buy much. They did toss in a pack of the Matcha Green Tea Kit Kats, believing Penny’s mother might like to try them as well.

They climbed to the second floor, the steps of the staircase sparkling with glitter, mirrors running up the wall beside them. Combined with the bright lights of the building’s interior, it made the climb nearly blinding.

The second floor was entirely made up of sweets and snacks. They decided they wouldn’t add more snacks to their basket, but still wanted to look, to appreciate the colourful designs of the packages and inventive flavours, especially the seafood-flavoured snacks. The shrimp chips reminded them of Ennio, and Penny briefly and quietly prayed for his soul.

The looping theme song finally proved to be too much for Penny, so she put in her earbuds and played Lovely Sewer by Yves Tumor on her phone. Yves Tumor was a musician who Cale had recommended, both for the stylishness of the music and the fashion sense of the artist.

Eve noticed Penny put her earbuds in, so, for the rest of their exploration of the mazelike building, she simply smiled at her as a form of communication. With no sound entering her ears except for the music, Penny could tell more than ever that Eve’s smile, though still sincere, had a wistfulness to it.

Penny wanted to reach out to touch her, so that she would feel better, but wasn’t sure how weird the gesture would come across without any words to contextualise it.

Eve took Penny’s hand and placed it on a ramen snack with a mascot character wearing a silly hat. Penny wasn’t sure why she did that, so she took her hand away. Still, she couldn’t help but laugh a little.

Penny laughing was rare, but not as rare as when they had first met a year ago. Back then, she might’ve had something that could be called depression.

Eve’s eyes were filled with light. Penny realised she had put the Yves Tumor song on loop by accident.

Other customers carefully reached past them to grab the ramen snacks.

And the girl said, I like you with all of my heart.

And the girl said, I’m glad you’re my friend.

And the girl said, I’m glad we made it here.

And the girl said, I am, too.

On the top floor they found a selection of novelty items on sale. Little of it was of particular interest, though part of that could’ve been the two of them feeling worn out after experiencing so much in a single day.

Penny and Eve briefly separated, to cover more ground and finish off the building, Penny only rejoining Eve after hearing her gasp through her earbuds.

* * *

Back at the hotel room, Penny’s mother nibbled on a Matcha Green Tea Kit Kat half while doing what looked like accounting, the TV set to a news channel. Penny’s mother was sitting in the coziest chair, which she rarely got up from, Penny sitting on the couch and leaving room for Eve.

Eve was in the other room changing into the pyjamas she had purchased at the Don Quijote.

Although Penny couldn’t understand what the newscasters were saying, nor read any of the text onscreen, she could tell what was happening in the footage: a black, tar-like substance had been found in Akihabara, located under the buildings that had maid cafés.

It was the same as the documentary she had watched on Netflix back in Canada, about a black tar forming underneath her city. At the time she wasn’t sure if it was a mockumentary or factual, and simply watched it as entertainment.

Before she could give it too much thought, Eve entered the living room, dressed in café maid-themed pyjamas.

Eve smiled at Penny and sat down. She then handed Penny her phone.

“Take a picture,” she said.

Penny obliged, snapping multiple pics, including a couple of Eve making peace signs. Eve then took her pastel blue cupcake out of the white box. Penny recorded a video of Eve peeling the wrapper off the bottom of the cupcake and biting into the frosting while watching the TV.

Penny smiled while recording the video, still not quite believing she had gotten her friend so fully immersed into the world of otaku culture.

“What do you think of the cupcake?” Penny asked, keeping the video rolling.

“I love it,” Eve said as tears formed in her eyes.

She looked down at the stump that was all that remained of the cupcake, and the tears began flowing freely down her cheeks.