As soon as I heard that, my blood boiled in anger. “Is this guy crazy? Wejust saved his life, and instead of thanking us, he wants to cause trouble?”

“Mr. Zhang,howshould I answer him?” asked Xiao Gao.

“Tell him what I just said!” I fumed.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea…”

Saito rolled his eyesand waitedfor our answer. It seemed there wasn’t a singlememberof the underworldthat wasnice.

Xiao Gao spoke a few Japanese phrases. Saito calmed down, noddingrepeatedly. For every nod, hesaid“Yoshi.”

“What did you tell him?” I asked.

“I agreed with him on behalf of you guys.” Xiao Gao forced a smile.

“What the heck?”

“It’sjust tobuy time. We should get out of here first.” Xiao Gaosignaled to me by blinking.For the time being, it was all we could do. I had to give the other party a nod, too.

Chuyi suddenly askedin anindifferent voice,“How long has Li Mazi been gone?”

“Shoot!” I cursedand rantoward the toilet. The others followed me. I pushed the door of each booth, but found nothing. When I pushed the door of the last booth open, I saw Li Mazi sitting inside. He held his head low and wasscratching his face. magic

“What are you doing? Why are you scratching your face?” Iasked in puzzlement.

“Little brother, my face is so itchy!” Li Mazi’s voice was sharp and strange to my ears. Eventually,he lifted his head. When I saw his face, I could help but gasp.

Li Mazi’s mouth hadbecomelong and pointy. Hehadthick fluff on his entire faceand greenpupils. When he lifted his head, a pair oftriangular,orange-red pointy ears popped up.

“Shoot! Amonster!So manymonsters!” When Li Mazi saw me, he screamedand chargedforward.

I had to back off quickly.When he rushed out of his toilet booth, the people that filled the place were stunned. The henchmentook outtheir knivesand were readyto attack.

I screamed, “Put your knives away!He’s my friend!”

Li Mazi pushed me toward a urinal. Then, he shrieked, pushedthrough the crowd,and ranaway.

We hurriedly chased after him.The peoplein the club screamed and made way for him when they sawhisfox face. Some hostesses fainted at the scene. Everything was a mess.“Amonster! A monster!”

Li Maziran around like crazy. He turned to the windowand jumped off the floor we were on, which was thefourth floor. My heart throbbed. Then, Li Mazi floated up again. It turned out there was a jumping cushion outside.

“It's anillusion!” said Chuyi.“Hurry, bite your tongue!”

I did as he said. The pain made me shiver. Now, Li Mazi’s face was normal once again.

Chuyi, Xiao Gao, and I ran to the window. I didn’t know what we looked like in Li Mazi’s eyes, but he was shivering and looked veryscared. He didn’t look back at us and continued to run away.

The members of Saito’s group also rushed out behind us. I told Xiao Gao,“Tell them not tofollowus,I can’t protect them all! And, tell them to look for my bag on my sofa in the pub. My wallet and passport are inside.”

Xiao Gaotranslated forSaito. Then, he asked,“Mr. Zhang, you put your passport in your bag?”

“No, it’sjust to fool him. I didn’t bringabagwith me. My passport’s at the hotel, andIhavemy phone and money with me,”I answered.

I wanted to take this chance to run away.When I sawLi Maziruntoward the big street, Ibecamenervous. I hatedthat I couldn’t just jump off this balcony and follow after him.

Chuyi reached his handto stopus,pointingatawindow. “Look over there.”

I lifted my head and saw a fox with pure white fur lying on the window sill. It squintedas it watchedus. It looked asif it was teasing us.

“Evil creature!You're courting death!” Chuyi screamed. Then,abig, round head protruded from his chest. It was Little Lininhis red dudou.

Little Lin’s body was like a hot balloonthat floatedup into the sky. The whitefox jumped onto another window sill. The two swiftly shifted between the windows, chasing one after the other.

Little Lin suddenly grabbed the white fox’s tail, which made theanimalsqueakin pain.It hissed andturnedaround,biting Little Lin’sneck. The boygrabbedthe fox with both hands. They both fell off the window sill, landingon a carand leavinga dent inthe roof.

The pedestrians screamed.

The fox then farted. A mass of gas that looked like mist expanded.The mist hurt people’s nostrils and eyes.All the peoplewho had accidentally inhaled the gasstarted to cough.

I used my hand to furiously waft the stinky air away. However, the fox wasgone while we were distracted.Little Lin disappeared, too.

“Did thatchilddie?” Xiao Gao was surprised.

“No,he’s here with me.” Chuyi unfolded his handand revealed apaper crane.

Li Mazi stood on the pavementinbewilderment. Iwent over to himand pulled him. When he saw me, he acted as if hewas looking athis long-lostfather. He almost cried.“Ohshoot, you’re here! I thought Iwas ina dream orsomething. Monsters were everywhere, andI had to run for my life!BeforeI knewit, Iwason thestreet. I thought you guys ditched me here,” said Li Mazi.

“Youwereaffected by the fox’s illusion magic,” I explained to him.

“What?Anyway, did youcatchthat fox?” asked Li Mazi.

I was worried that those guys would follow us, soI shook my headand urgedthe others. “No, but we should return to the hotel first. We’ll talk later!”

Xiao Gaosaid anxiously,“We can’t hide in the hotel. We’re Chinese,and thus tooconspicuous. With Saito’s network, he canfind useasily.”

“Dammit. Let’s call Ru Xue and Yin Xinyue. We should just run!” Isaid.

Li Mazi asked, “Hey, who did you provoke?”

“The Yamaguchi gang.”

Li Mazi paled in fright. “LittleBrother Zhang, you’re too bold! In justtheblink of an eye, you’ve messed with the criminals here. I’ve watched some movies, and the Yamaguchigroupis ruthless. They cutpeople’sfingersandmakesushi withthem. Then, they’ll makethe poor guys eattheir ownfingers! Why did you provoke them? Did you lose your mind?”

Isaid, “Shut up, orI’m going to tell Ru Xue you were rubbing that hostess’s ass.”

Li Mazi shut his mouth immediately.

I called thegirls and askedthem to pack up and wait for us at the hotel lobby. On the way, wecame up with a story.We wouldn’t mentionwhat happenedin the pub.Instead, we would tell themthat we went to drink some sake. It wasn’t really convincing, but it was the best that wehad fornow.

Li Mazi would never spit a word. Chuyihadalways beenreserved. Xiao Gao was here to earn money from us, sono one would discloseour secret.

Our bond was truly strong!

Shortly after, we returned to the hotel. We gathered with Yin Xinyue and Ru Xue at the lobby,called two taxis, and left. On the way, I told Yin Xinyue the situation. Of course, I’d changed the pub into an izakaya.

Yin Xinyue was a smart woman. She caught the flaw in the story immediately.

She smiled.“Howcanan izakaya have hostesses? Be honest. Where did you go?”

Left with no choice,I had to tell her the truth. Fortunately, Li Mazi and Ru Xue took another cab.

“I didn’t do anything. You can ask Chuyi if you don’t believe me,”I said.

“I believe you. Anyway, if youwant to gothere next time, you should bring me with you. Iwant to know more aboutJapanesecustoms.” Yin Xinyue smiledand pinchedmy cheek.

“Actually… It’s not interesting at all.” I shook my head.

Xiao Gao, who was inthe co-driver seat, saidwith acheerfulface, “Actually, therearekagemas as well.It’s the Japanese term for male prostitutes. They serve women.”

I shot him a glance. He still had the guts to talk. If it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t have gone to asocialclub in the first place. And, we wouldn’tbe runningfrom the Yamaguchigroup. It was our first day in Japan,and wewere in the middle of achase scene.I felt like I was inanaction movie!

We found a small hotel near the bus terminalandspentthe night there.Early the nextmorning,we took the busand departedto Kyoto.