Tokyo nightlife
Kōki looks around the rabbit warren of streets on the edge of Tokyo’s Shimokitazawa district, trying to spot the bar that Miki had chosen for their night out. As always when in public he is conscious of his size, uncomfortable with the attention that his height and bulk attract. He is careful to avoid jostling the other pedestrians, his movements as controlled and precise as a dancer’s as he searches for some sign of his destination. A shout away to his left catches his attention and he sees a drunk man stumbling out of a bar, colliding with passersby who voice their displeasure. A dimly lit sign announces that the bar is called The Shanghai.
“Really Miki?” he says under his breath as he heads towards the entrance. The low doorway forces him to duck and when he straightens he spots her at a corner table giving him a cheeky grin. Waving, he walks over and carefully sits down, ready for the stool to give way under his weight. When it shows no sign of doing so he sighs and says, “well Miki, you certainly found a… colourful place to meet!” He looks around at the dimly lit room, the nicotine yellow ceiling and shabby posters on the walls, the gaudy splash of light coming from the beer pumps.
“Its got character and the beer’s cheap, dive in.” She gestures to the pitcher and empty mug sitting on table next to her half-filled mug. “There’s a tea house with the same name close to my old school so I wanted to check it out, but the service here is bad enough to make me want Yuuko back!” She waves away his puzzled look. “It’s good to see you big man, missed you last month.”
“I suspect you were far too busy for that to be true, but I appreciate the sentiment. Congratulations on being selected for the world championships!”
She grimaces, “thanks, it was only supposed to be for the relay but I ended up being subbed into the hurdles too. I fucking hate the hurdles!”
“ ‘Only’ she says! Weren’t you the youngest member of the team? A massive achievement if you ask me.”
“Well, a step in the right direction. Congratulations to you too, rocking the second division these days!”
He chuckles, “thank-you! I feel like I’ve got the measure of most of the other rikishi in the division, though it’s still a big step to the next. I got a pretty brutal lesson in sumo from one of the yokozuna at the last tournament.”
“Still, it shows that the Professional Sports Association can’t spot talent. That baseball player who beat us to the best newcomer award last year is nowhere to be seen.”
“Still brooding about that Miki? As far as I’m concerned it was just a free dinner and a very welcome opportunity to make a new friend.” He bows his head to her.
“The food wasn’t even that good but I guess the friend I found doesn’t totally suck,” she laughs. “But seriously, I really appreciate being close to someone who’s also an athlete, Hisao and Suzu are pretty low energy.” Seeing concern starting to appear on his face she says, “don’t get me wrong, I love them to bits. I absolutely need that calmness in my life but it’s great to blow off a bit of steam sometimes. They really wouldn’t approve of the sort of pranks we get caught up in…”
“Maybe not. I don’t know how much longer we’ll keep getting away with it though, both of us are starting to get coverage in the sports pages and it’s a short step from there to being on the radar of the tabloid journalists.”
“I can do without that, I resent anything that distracts me. All I want is to get on with training so I can keep winning. Prime example, my agent is pressuring me to go to a photo-shoot for one of the teen mags, fuckers want to dress me up all girly. I hate that shit, I never look right. Give me training kit any day.”
“You look great in anything! You’re just wearing jeans and a tank top and you’re the best looking woman here.”
“Kōki, I’m the only woman in this bar!”
“A mere technicality. It doesn’t matter where we go, the women hate you for looking so good and the men hate me for being with you.”
She sighs, “I appreciate what you’re trying to do but I just don’t get it. When I see pictures of myself all I see is what’s wrong, starting with this.” She holds up her stump.
“Miki, listen! You’re beautiful by any standard, you must be the only person in the world who can’t see it.”
“Is this a play to get into my pants Kōki? You know I’m taken,” she says in amusement.
“I said you’re beautiful, not that I’m attracted to you. Like a tree or a poem…”
“Yeah but I doubt you’d want to fuck a tree or a poem.”
“I don’t want to fuck you either!”
“Make your mind up big man, you say I’m sexy but you don’t want to get it on?”
“Beautiful, what’s so hard to understand about that?”
“So what does float your boat?” Miki asks, her interest piqued. He trides to hide behind his beer mug, hoping his blush goes unnoticed. “I’ve seen some of the female rikishi, is that more your speed?”
“Miki! No, I…look it’s all hypothetical anyway, I’m never going to attract anyone looking like this.”
“You’re not so bad, you’ve got the whole rugged thing going on. Wait til you get promoted a few more times, you’ll be beating the girls off.”
“That’s not what I want! I want something genuine, loving. I’m quite envious of what you have, I was a bit surprised when I worked it out but it’s so stable, so supportive, so much love.”
“ ‘Surprised’ doesn’t describe the look on your face when you cottoned on! We’re glad you figured it out, it didn’t feel right hiding it but I couldn’t work out how to tell you. You know Suzu adores you? She’s always asking when her teddy bear is going to visit again. I think Hisao was intimidated by you to start with but you did that manly bonding over sport teams thing,” she says with a roll of her eyes. “And stop trying to change the subject, you still haven’t said what you’re into. You know my sordid secrets so it’s only fair you share some of yours.”
He sighs, “look Miki, this isn’t something I have any experience with. Sumo is my whole life, the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do, the only thing I’m good at. When the head of the Association said there’s no homosexuality in sumo it wasn’t an assessment of the situation, it was a threat…”
“Oh shit Kōki, that sucks. I’m sorry for teasing you.”
He nods, “there’s no realistic possibility of me having a relationship so I try not to think about it.”
“I hope you don’t think I’ve been rubbing your nose in it? It seems unfair that I’ve got Suzu and Hisao and you’ve got no-one,” Miki asks hesitantly.
“Of course not. I didn’t say anything about my personal life, how could you have known? I’ve wanted to but I was worried about damaging our friendship.”
“Idiot.” She punches him on the shoulder. “What the hell made you think I would have a problem with that?”
“I didn’t say you would, I said that I was worried that you would. I get a lot of irrational thoughts bouncing around in my head whenever I try to think about relationships or the future.” He bows his head. “To tell the truth I’m almost ready to call it quits and do something else.”
“What the hell?!”
“It’s not only my personal situation, it’s the scandals and the cheating too. I hate feeling like the public is looking at me and wondering if I’m throwing matches for the Yakuza or having drug-fueled orgies every ten minutes. Last tournament one of the ozeki tried to bribe me to throw a match so he could stay on the gravy train a bit longer.”
Miki raises an eyebrow. “Your response?”
“Dumped the bastard on his arse in two seconds flat, perfect nichonage if I say so myself. There’s a lot of less overt pressure too. If I get my eight wins early in a tournament I start getting suggestions to take it easy, give myself time to recover, don’t let poor so-and-so be demoted ‘cos his mother is ill in hospital… It’s endless and I hate it. It’s not what sumo is supposed to be.”
Miki takes one of his huge arms and hugs it tight. “I understand. Marion fucking Jones was my idol when I was a kid, turns out she was rotten to the core. Devastated me. But you know what I did? What I do? I try harder. Every time I set foot on a track I try to prove that you can win clean.” She puts her palm on his cheek and gently turns his face so she can look him in the eyes. “You’ve got it in you to be the first home grown yokozuna this century, the greatest since Chiyonofuji. Are you seriously gonna let that go?”
“Well ain’t this cute, a fat man and a cripple getting it on in the back of my bar.”
They turn to see a drunk man laughing in their direction. He’s wearing black leather jeans and matching leather jacket with patches declaring allegiance to an out of town street gang sewn on to it.
Miki snorts derisively, “no way this is your bar pretty boy, go back to your farm before you make even more of a fool of yourself.”
“Looks like you’re the one making a fool of herself. Ditch the ogre and we’ll show you a good time.” He gestures to three similarly dressed men standing behind him.
“I’ll give you country boys one last chance. Fuck off and leave us alone and you’ll stay out of trouble.”
“The mouthy bitch needs a lesso-”
Miki explodes into action. The speed she moves does not surprise Kōki, they have trained together and she has helped him improve his tachi-ai, the opening charge of a sumo bout. It is her total commitment to action that shocks him, the intense focus on her goal, the way she ignores anything that is not her goal. He recognises it as an important lesson that he will need time to reflect on – time that he does not have as he moves to protect Miki’s back.
She grabs the would-be hard man by the throat and starts punching him in the face with her stump. Kōki sees that she can handle him so concentrates on controlling the other three using leg sweeps and throws to put them down and open-handed strikes to encourage them to stay down. He is careful not to hurt them badly but the weight of his blows is far greater than they had experienced in street brawls against weaker opponents and the fight soon leaves them. When he steps back warily they take the opportunity to scramble to their feet and run to the door, yelling to their leader. Realising that he is now outnumbered as well as outclassed, he pushes Miki into Kōki and follows them.
“Come back you bastards! I’ll beat you with one hand tied behind my back!” Miki yells as they disappear out of the bar. They stop and stare at each other, realising it was a ridiculous thing for a one-handed woman to say, and burst out laughing as they lean against a wall to catch their breath.
“So Kōki, where are you taking me next month? You’re gonna have to go some to top this!”