The night was a bit chilly, so Aya wore a denim jacket over a red blouse and jeans. As she rounded the last corner before the zoo, she felt happy for the change of pace, the chance to spend some time with a friend. It had been entirely too long since she last did this.
The gates to the zoo appeared, and there Koji stood waiting, dressed in his usual leather jacket, white T-shirt and black jeans combo. He smiled warmly when he saw her. A single yellow light illuminated the space just in front of the zoo's old iron gates and ticket booth, the shade of its window down.
“Well,” Koji said with mild surprise. “You showed up after all. No red contacts tonight?”
“Ha, no. Decided to be natural. Just regular brown eyes.”
“Natural is always best. Glad you made it either way.”
“I said I would, didn't I? Why would I not show up?”
“You have to work in the morning. Maybe you're tired. Maybe you changed your mind. Maybe your cousin needed to be rescued from gangsters. You never know what can happen.”
“I suppose. But I don't tell people I'm going to do something if I don't intend to do it.”
“I figured.”
For a while the two stood there in silence. Had Koji actually planned anything? she wondered.
“So-” Aya began.
“Right,” Koji said, and clapped his hands together, rubbing them. “The surprise.” Koji knocked on the ticket booth window. When nothing happened, he knocked again, louder. “Hey! Wake up in there!”
A light came on behind the shade. Aya could hear a door opening. A tired security guard appeared behind the gate. He yawned, and gave Koji an annoyed look.
“Why are you waking me up, Koji? I was having such a nice nap.” The guard then noticed Aya, and then turned back to Koji. “Ah, I get it.” He sighed, fishing for his keys. “You're lucky we're brothers. You know that, right?”
“I know.” Koji nodded with a smile. “I can always count on you.”
“Yeah, yeah,” the guard said, unlocking the gate. “Are you at least going to introduce us?”
“Of course. Yoshikichi, this is Aya Syameimaru. She gave our band a glowing review, so I'm showing her my appreciation. Aya, this is my brother.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Aya said.
“Likewise,” said Yoshikichi, opening the gate. “So did you actually like that noise they make, or did you just pity them?”
“Oh, I really liked it. I'd never heard anything like it.”
“Yeah, me neither.” Aya and Koji walked through the gate. “OK, you two enjoy yourselves. Almost all the animals are asleep, so I don't know what you expect to see, but to each their own, I guess. And Koji, don't tease the gorilla this time. He doesn't like it.”
“I wasn't teasing him. I just wanted to see him beat his chest.”
“Whatever. Just leave him alone.”
“You got it.”
Yoshikichi closed the gate behind them. “You have an hour. After that, The next shift takes over and they won't be happy to see visitors. So unless you want to hide in the bathrooms until the zoo opens again, be sure you're not late.” With that, he went back into the ticket booth.
“He seemed friendly,” said Aya.
“Really? Well, that's a first.” Koji took a deep breath of the night air. Aya wished she had brought her camera. Photos of animals from elsewhere in the world, even sleeping, would make for great copy.
“Shall we?” Koji said. Aya nodded, and let him lead the way.
The walking path led first through a wooded area, before coming to a part flanking an iron fence upon which hung a sign that read “Brown Bear”. Beyond the fence was a wide, open pit, at the bottom of which was a rocky mound, an artificial tree, and a pair of caves against the wall opposite the fence. The bear was presumably inside the caves, asleep.
There were similar pits on either side of the path, each with a different species of bear. None of them were out.
“All the animals are sleeping,” said Aya, disappointed.
“Not all of them,” Koji said. “Many animals are nocturnal. You can't see them active when the zoo is open. That's why coming at night is a real treat. I'll show you.”
Koji led Aya to a pit in which two leopards were pacing. While one walked the perimeter of the pit, the other paced in tight circles, panting. The sound of the cat's breathing reminded Aya of nocturnal youkai, moving unseen in the bamboo forest. But these leopards lacked the pride of wild youkai. They looked broken and confused. Aya felt as though she'd done something terrible just by coming here.
“Aren't they gorgeous?” asked Koji. He then turned towards Aya. “You know, you're a rare person.”
The tengu turned to him in surprise. “Pardon?”
“I've never met anyone like you, but I've always wanted to.” There was that look again.
As innocent as his words were, Aya felt she had to clarify her feelings. She looked at Koji, searching for the words. “Koji, I-”
Koji took Aya by the shoulders, suddenly and clumsily, and pulled her towards him, kissing her on the mouth. Aya's reflexes took over, and she slid two hands up to his chest, pushing him. Koji stumbled backwards, landing on his elbows and back.
He said nothing as he looked up at her. Aya restrained her instincts, but didn't know how else to respond. She stood very still, her eyes unblinking, and felt as though she might explode with rage. She remembered what Hideaki had said about the city's ways.
“Aya ...” Koji began, starting to rise.
His voice tripped a switch inside of her, and all she wanted to do was get away from him. Without another word, Aya turned and ran into the shadows. Seeing the ticket booth ahead, she ducked into the darkness of the trees and rose on silent wings into the night sky.
Aya sat at her desk, going over the cultural events listings on the city's home page. The office main line rang, making all the phones ring at once. While normally she'd be one of the first ones to pick up, she stopped answering it after what happened at the zoo about two weeks ago. Koji had tried calling her a few times since then, and Aya had refused to accept his calls. Hideaki had been polite enough not to ask Aya why, but she sometimes considered bringing it up to him herself. She was fairly certain by now that what Koji had done had been inappropriate, but she didn't quite know how to react from this point. For the time being, she believed it best just to keep her distance from him.
Hideaki took the phone on the third ring. He spoke in hushed, cautious tones – unusual for a man known to speak on the phone loud enough for Ryu to complain about it, anyway.
Aya watched Hideaki as he quickly scribbled onto a notepad. Then he looked up at her, and gestured urgently for her to come to his desk. She was already out of her chair.
“Yeah,” Hideaki said into the phone as he jotted down notes. “Yeah … OK … And you know this because? Hello?” Hideaki replaced the receiver, and shook his head. “ Well. This is interesting.” He looked from his notepad to her. “How'd you like to follow a scoop? A big one.”
Aya felt her pulse quicken. “Of course.”
“Alright. Here it is.” Hideaki leaned forward a bit. “That phone call was from an anonymous source claiming that a major shipping company is using our harbor to aid smugglers.”
“Wow. That really is something.”
“Yes, but we have to be careful. This could be some rival company making it up in order to smear the competition. We can't run this story without solid proof.”
The story possibility was huge, Aya saw at once. “Does this happen often?” she asked, incredulous.
“Not really,” said Hideaki. “I think we may never have followed a crime tip from an anonymous source, let alone one involving a huge company in this town.”
The tengu was relieved to be able to finally set her journalistic sights onto breaking a major story. She felt like a part of her brain had re-awakened.
“But wait.” Aya thought out loud. “If this was from a competitor, why wouldn't they just call the police?”
Hideaki shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe they want to see these guys humiliated in the press, and then arrested, as opposed to just arrested and getting written up after the fact. It's happened before. Just never at our paper.” He cleared his throat, and read from his pad: “Apparently security guard shifts were changed by the shipping company offices a few months back. The changes made a four-hour window without security guards at Pier 4. The smugglers dock and offload there during these times. It's mostly electronics and household items.”
“Alright . . . so, if we get photos of this happening, then-”
Hideaki laughed. “Photos? Are you kidding? No, we need to find a more substantial connection through a paper trail. Do some digging at city offices, see what we can find. Put that together with the security guard shift changes, run it, and then the police swoop in. We get the scoop on the raid and take photographs then, of the arrestees being led away.”
The tengu couldn't imagine the idea of tagging along with others leading the way, or worse, having to wait out of sight while the best part was happening. She wanted to be the one to bring the story to light. “Well, anyway, we're not calling the police right away, right?” Aya said, shaking her head. “It might be nothing. On the other hand, it might be a great story.”
He smiled and nodded. “And it would also be a scoop.”
“Yes, that too. There might be more ... effective ways of breaking this story, is all.”
“Hm.” Hideaki looked at his notepad, and then back at Aya. “What are you thinking of doing?”
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