It was dark when she got back to the station after a fruitless day searching for jobs and a slightly more productive hour or so cleaning the precincts at Tamao Shrine. She pulled her stuff out of the coin locker, and looked around, wondering where she could sleep. The hotels around the station were definitely too expensive, and she couldn’t even afford to go back to the love hotel, at least not until she got some sort of job.

Not even McDonalds! That still rankled. On the bright side, she hadn’t seen any of the creatures. Maybe they stayed in certain areas; another reason not to go back to the love hotel. And… She shied away from the memory, unwilling to even acknowledge it.

As she looked around, her eyes fell on a board advertising a manga cafe. “Sofa cubicles! Open 24 hours! Shower rooms!â€ A quick bit of mental arithmetic suggested that she could stay there for a couple of thousand yen, which was much better than the hotels. Picking her bags up, she headed in the indicated direction.

The cafe was quite dark, a maze of cubicles with walls that were just a little taller than her, with simple doors. There were, indeed, sofas in every cubicle, along with a computer and a desk, and the drinks machine was free. The food machine wasn’t too expensive either. The desk clerk had seemed completely unfazed by the amount of luggage she was carrying.

“Don’t forget to lock the shower room door. Someone gets embarrassed every week, and it’s mostly men here at night.â€ Akiko felt herself blushing at the very thought.

“I’ll be careful.â€

“Ladies toilets are on the third floor, so you probably want to go up there. Most of the manga are down here, so there are empty cubicles. Quieter, too. Sound good?â€

“Oh? Oh, yes, that’s fine.â€

“You’re in J35, then. Bring this to the reception desk when you leave. Oh, it’s a thousand yen in advance, the rest when you go.â€ Akiko handed over a thousand yen note, and took the plastic block the clerk handed to her.

“Thank you.â€

“Thank you. Good night.â€

“Good night.â€ Akiko was already climbing the stairs when she realised what the clerk had said. She cringed with embarrassment; he’d realised she was planning to stay the night.

In the cubicle, she just took her shoes and coat off before stretching out on the sofa. It was quite comfortable, and the third floor did seem to be largely deserted. There were no strange creatures to be seen, either.

Soon, she fell asleep.

The shouting woke her up.

“Find your own manga!â€

“I was already reading that. You took it from my cubicle.â€

“Did not! You want to make something of it?â€

“Think you’re hard, don’t you? Go home now, while you can.â€

“Bloody idiot!â€

Then there was a crash, followed by another, and rather less coherent shouting. Akiko sat up, and pushed open the door of the cubicle, looking around. She could see nothing but the corridor, and a couple of other open doors as other people looked to see what the trouble was. Then a couple of members of staff came charging up, and she ducked back in as they went past.

There was more shouting as the offenders were faced down and thrown out, and the staff issued apologies as they went past. Akiko settled back down, and was asleep again far faster than she had thought likely.