A black car composed entirely of flat surfaces and right angles rumbled to a halt on the street in front of the Chrome Catgirl, and in the span of a breath between the spoken words of a nearby love hotelβs holographic advertisement, the trunk popped open and a figure quietly slipped out. The black car, seemingly unaware of its loose cargo, waited patiently to continue its journey through downtown Kyoto as the red car ahead of it pulled into the last on-street parking spot for a hundred kilometers in every direction.
The figure was a slender woman who crouched low so she wouldnβt be seen out the black carβs back window. As carefully as she could, she held the trunk closed while peeling a piece of thick gray tape from her lips, a maneuver that was made all the more difficult due to a zip tie binding her wrists together. She knew that if she let the trunk go, it would swing open and alert her would-be kidnappers, and if she closed it, the noise might do the same. Instead, she reused the tape to hold the trunk closed instead of her mouth.
Looking around, she saw wide sidewalks full of mostly-naked young people flitting from cafe to bar to club to izakaya in the shadows of the outstretched branches of the sakura trees that gave the revelers some modicum of shade from the glaring city lights. Another car rolled up to her and stopped, a taxi whose uniform-wearing driver gave her a perplexed look as she gestured to keep quiet.
With a growl, the black car revved up and pulled past the now parked red car, and she darted from the street into the mess of people who shifted and flowed around her without any one person giving her a second glance. She took a few steps with the crowd, peeking between virile and nubile bodies to see if her captors had stopped again.
When she was sure the black car had continued on, she sighed with relief and ducked into the Chrome Catgirlβs alcove just in time to see an attractive dark-skinned Norian with red hair and tattoos leaving.
βI should get a tattoo,β she muttered to herself as she inspected the zip tie around her wrists. Relieved to see that it wasnβt the kind with metal reinforcement, he brought it to her mouth and chewed through the plastic in seconds. With a chuckle, she entered the well-known bar and grill. βAmateurs.β
Standing for a moment in the entranceway, she surveyed the inhabitants. The place was stuffed full of people from wall to wall, but a young man with golden eyes wearing a beige jacket, a white Daur in a brown leather trenchcoat, and a neko with dark purple hair wearing a kimono caught her cybernetic eye.
Noticing that a couple of people near the door were looking at her, she raked the fingers of her right hand through her messy brown hair, trying to make it look like she hadnβt just rolled out of the trunk of a car. Her clothing helped, she thought as she looked down at the dress she was wearing. She couldnβt see it, of course, because the fabric bent light around the curves of her body like the gravitational lens of a black hole. It certainly made a statement, and she was sure it wasnβt βI just escaped a kidnapping.β
With only a slight limp, she threaded her way through the crowd to the bar where she shouldered herself between two young cadets who were sitting on stools with their backs turned to each other. There she caught a glimpse of the bartender and tried to wave her over as a delighted smile lit up her features.
βWell arenβt you pretty?β Thia asked Kasandra. βBe an Angel and pour me a vodka on the rocks.β