Back home, but he runs into a familiar face first.

Once Shuichi had left Angel and Usagi’s apartment, he and one of Angel’s followers began the laborious task of placing all the things he had just bought at Angel’s Paradise into Shuichi’s maroon convertible. The sex toys, manga, and DVDs all fit nicely underneath Shuichi’s passenger seat, but the paintings took some work to get to fit into his back seat in a way that hid their obscenity from the public. As for the bronze orgy statue, while it was a lot lighter than it looked it was still so large that they could barely fit it into Shuichi’s trunk and close it successfully.

“Phew… I still can’t believe I bought all that stuff.” Shuichi sighed and wiped the sweat that had gathered onto his forehead as he leaned against his car. “Thanks again for helping me take this to my car.”

“It was no problem, sir.” The dark-haired woman in the white robe who had helped Shuichi gave him a deep bow. “It is always an honor to help others, especially those who support our cause. Please, drive safely, and may Atua watch over you always.”

“Yeah, right… you too.” Shuichi gave the woman an awkward wave as she left before getting into his driver’s seat. He was right about to turn the ignition and drive away when he noticed something familiar out the corner of his eye.

Turning his head in that direction, Shuichi spotted a man with short green hair and five silver piercings in his right ear looking at his phone as he walked down the sidewalk next to Angel’s sex store. After a moment, Shuichi realized that it was none other than Rantaro, the man who showed Shuichi around Okama Records the day before, though he was dressed so differently that Shuichi almost didn’t recognize him. Instead of a striped shirt, he had on a tight sleeveless t-shirt with a loose fishnet shirt on top of that, and he was wearing a pair of black leather pants that clung to his body so tightly that they were almost like a second skin.

“Rantaro? Is that you?” Shuichi asked right as the man walked by.

“Huh?” The green-haired man looked up from his phone towards Shuichi. “Oh, goddammit.” His free hand slapped his forehead lightly.

“Wow, it is you!” Shuichi’s voice rose a little in excitement. “It’s good to see you again, Ran-“

“Shhhh!” Rantaro rushed towards Shuichi and placed a firm finger on his lips. “I’m sorry, but I’m working the streets right now, and when I’m out here I’m ‘Watarimono’, okay?”

“Working the streets?” Shuichi looked at Rantaro in confusion for a few moments. “Oh… oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t think you were a… you know.” Shuichi blushed in embarrassment. “I mean, don’t you have that job at that music store?”

“Yeah, but unfortunately most people get their music online these days, so they can’t afford to pay me all that much,” Rantaro explained, leaning casually against Shuichi’s car. “So, I started doing this to earn some extra cash. I don’t particularly enjoy sex work that much, but it beats being poor or asking my family for help.”

“If you say so.” Shuichi laughed awkwardly, his mind not quite sure how to respond to this revelation.

“Anyways, is there a reason you called me over?” Rantaro continued. “Was there something you needed, or did you just want to say ‘hi’?”

“Oh! Uh, actually, I just wanted to tell you about something that happened to me yesterday,” Shuichi replied. “Do you remember that band you introduced me to? Black Cherry? Well, I know it sounds farfetched, but I ran into Pitch’s tour bus a few minutes after I left your store.”

“Wait, are you being serious?” Rantaro’s eyes widened in shock. “Wow, talk about a coincidence.”

“That’s not all, either. Pitch spotted the Black Cherry shirt I had just bought and signaled me to follow her off the road. She led me to a nearby parking lot and we, uh… hung out together for a little while.” Shuichi did his best not to blush as he said that last part. “She’s just like you said she was; an incredible woman in every way.”

“Really now…” Rantaro looked down at Shuichi suspiciously. “And by ‘hang out’, do you mean ‘had sweaty, musical sex in her tour bus’?”

“Y-yeah… I do,” Shuichi stammered. “How did you know that? Have you been with her too?”

“No, actually, but I have seen first-hand how much she enjoys ‘meeting her fans’,” he replied. “After all, I was her roadie back in the day.”

“Oh, so that’s how you knew her? You got to go on tour with her?” Shuichi said in amazement.

“Yep; I helped Pitch and her band travel the globe together, from Taipei to Timbuktu. I actually became so well known for my ability to get them from place to place that I was known as ‘The Ultimate Adventurer’ for a little while.” Rantaro had a look of nostalgia in his eyes as he spoke. “But then came the breakup. When corporate wanted to take the band in a new direction, I was the only one on the whole team who took Pitch’s side. In the end, she managed to keep the rights and we kept traveling together for a while, but she ran out of money to pay me pretty quickly. I offered to keep going with her anyway, but she said she didn’t want me to be a ‘****’ to her. So, she called in a favor to set me up with a job at Okama Records, and I’ve been here ever since.”

“Wow… it sounds like you’ve lived a pretty exciting life Ra-, er, Watarimono,” Shuichi replied. “It’s too bad that you can’t be Pitch’s roadie anymore, though.”

“Eh, it’s not too bad; I’ve got a good life here, all things considered, and Pitch and I are still good friends.” Rantaro shrugged casually. “I even go to her shows whenever I can to lend a hand and listen to any new tunes she’s come up with.”

“That’s good to hear; it’d be a shame for you two to stop talking after everything you’d been through together,” Shuichi replied. “Anyways, I should get going here. I’ve taken up enough of your time, and I have to get home to… redecorate.”

“Hey, hold on a second.” Rantaro placed a hand on to Shuichi’s shoulder. “I know this might be a little out of nowhere, but… do you think you’d ever want to hang out together sometime?”

“Huh? Really?” Shuichi asked, surprised. “You mean it?”

“Yeah, of course I do. Anyone who’s cool in Pitch’s book is cool in mine, after all,” Rantaro said with a smile. “How about we swap numbers and we can figure out something we can do later. Maybe go to a bar or listen to music together.”

“Sure… that sounds like it’d be fun.” Shuichi took out his phone and they quickly gave each other their phone numbers. “So long, Watarimono. Have a good evening, and good luck finding, uh… clients.”

“You too, Shuichi! See you around.” Rantaro shook Shuichi’s and, with that, Shuichi finally turned on his engine and began driving home.

Shuichi arrived back at his apartment building a few minutes later, where he began to stealthily take everything he had just bought up to his unit. The smaller things were easy since he could just take them up in discrete plastic bags, but the paintings and the statue he had to cover with blankets as he hauled them up the staircase to his place. It was exhausting for him to get it all up there without any attention, though the hardest part proved to be deciding where to put all the art. In the end, he just hung the paintings on whatever open wall space he could find, and he put the bronze statue in the middle of his dining room table, figuring that it was the only thing big enough to hold it and that he rarely had anyone over for food anyways.

Though, having it there did make eating this dinner a little bit awkward.

Then, when he finished his food, he took a quick shower and changed into his workout clothes before driving to Kokai Park to exercise with Maki. As he drove, he noticed that his heart hadn’t stopped pounding since he had left Angel’s apartment, but he assumed that was just a normal part of being so physically active that day. When he made it to the park, he found Maki waiting for him at his usual spot.