Tuning Dreams

  On another day of rest during the weekend, I found myself walking around Sumida with Mei Ling, with no specific destination in mind. Although it could be used as an excuse to try to deepen our bond, the main idea was simply to find a place to carry out this stupid and childish idea of mine. Yesterday, Mei told me that she managed to sell all the diamonds she got from my little mishap in Africa. Apparently, she went through some trouble, but she managed to get the money and launder it. After all, it wasn't easy to get rid of diamonds acquired in a not-so-honest way, but thanks to her connections in the black market from her years of work, she was able to pull it off. That's why I'm with her now, looking for a place to buy or rent to finally take the first step towards having my own repair and tuning workshop.

  "Is it really necessary that I come with you? Are you sure?"

  "I'm sure you would rather be with Tamamo than me."

  "You two are always together, almost inseparable," Mei said, doubting herself a bit.

  "It's not really like that."

  "Besides, in this case, I think you're the right one."

  "Of all the girls, you're the most normal one in the group."

  "You know you're talking to a man-eating spider and an international assassin, right?"

  "......"

  "......"

  "Like I said, you're the most normal of the group."

  "I trust you a little more when it comes to making serious, down-to-earth decisions like this."

  "I couldn't ask Lisa for help with something as formal and serious as buying a property, with all the paperwork and negotiations involved."

  "Of all the others, at least you were the only one who had a house and a car before."

  "Well, maybe, but it's not like I put my name on them. I used a middleman for those things."

  "That's even better."

  "I mean, I don't think anyone would sell a workshop space to a high school girl who spends her time cosplaying as a kitsune."

  "Which just makes this even weirder."

  "......"

  "Alright, we're here. This is the first place on the list," Mei said, coming to a stop and pointing to a metal shutter across the street.

  "The owner lent me the keys, so you can check the inside."

  It was an ordinary place, not very big and empty, but the many oil stains on the concrete floor clearly indicated that it had been a mechanic's shop at some point. The walls were a bit neglected, the lighting was poor even during the day, and two windows were missing. The place would need a good investment if I wanted to make it presentable and show quality to the customers.

  "I know the owner of the place."

  "A little far from home, but the price is pretty cheap."

  "It has a history of only two murders, the police have only found one so far"

  "I don't know, the place is pretty small, I don't like the way it looks."

  "......"

  "Wait a second, what? What do you mean the police only found one? What happened to the other one?"

  "I buried him two years ago in that corner over there, two and a half meters of concrete."

  "I came across him when your mother was on a business trip in Asia."

  "He was pimping out women kidnapped from Vietnam."

  "My anger got a bit to my head."

  "......."

  "You know, I don't think I'm going to buy this place."

  "Let's try to find a place that is a little newer, with fewer ghosts, especially if we created them ourselves."

  "Well, there's another place two streets away."

  We both set off for the new place. As we walked on, we came to a new warehouse, now the complete opposite of the previous one. A huge warehouse with lots of space, lots of lights everywhere, well maintained, and everything in its place. In fact, the place was so well-maintained that it was still being used by its owner, one of the largest international e-commerce companies, with about a hundred workers and a huge army of Drones.

  "Mei, when you told me this place was for sale, what exactly did you mean?" I asked her.

  "That the last time I asked, there was a 'For Sale' sign at the entrance."

  "And when was that last time? Because something tells me it wasn't last week."

  "It was earlier this year when I was looking for a place to rent and use as a base for my 'professional' work in Japan."

  "......."

  "Maybe if we ask for a discount, you should be able to buy this place."

  "After all, the diamonds gave us good money."

  "Yes, but that doesn't mean I can just bang my fist on the table and spend it all."

  "Besides buying the place, I have to remodel and prepare it."

  "Equipment won't be cheap, and can you imagine how much good parts for race cars can cost?"

  "The idea is to find a good place at a good price and save money for a bad season after I open and probably won't have any customers."

  "Oh, I can make a few phone calls and ask about other places, just give me 30, no, 20 minutes!"

  "No, that's fine, it's not like I'm on a deadline."

  "Look, I'm starving, I haven't lunched since yesterday."

  "How about we take some time, eat, and see what's for sale around here?"

  "I saw a burger place on the street we passed earlier."

  We both went to a fast food place for lunch, something far from the luxury and extravagance someone like Mei Ling was used to. Just to see her reaction to how much food she could buy for half of what she'd spend on a single meal at a famous five-star restaurant - who would have thought? Meanwhile, I just continued to eat in silence.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  "Is it really so important to have your own workshop?"

  "Well, maybe that's not the right question. I think it should be more like why now? Why after so long out there doing the crazy things you do every week, Elise?"

  "Well, it's not like the idea of spending my whole life fighting things was very appealing to me."

  "The last thing I want is to reach 100 years old and still be thinking about whether someone might be trying to kill me all the time, or wondering if I'll get the chance to sleep outdoors or in a bed every day of my life."

  "Maybe Inspector Yamamoto is good at living like that all his life, but I'm not."

  "I don't want to be in this game forever, I have to break the cycle, shed the nickname of war at some point."

  "You can't live in peace by being a soldier all the time."

  "There's nothing more depressing than an old soldier who thinks he should have died young in battle."

  "I don't want to be one of them."

  "'Despite what I do, I don't plan to die in combat like ten thousand other emperors of a certain trash empire I know.'"

  "To be the master of my own destiny, that's what it means to be a True Dragon."

  "At least one of them has to make it."

  "It may sound too normal, but as Tamamo says, when everything is incredible and great, the fleeting moment of calm in a dangerous storm is an undeniable treasure."

  "......"

  "Tell me, didn't you think about doing something else when you grew up?"

  "What do you think you'll be doing in 20 years? Still working as a bodyguard? Have a new identity as a teacher? Maybe buried for 15 years by then instead?"

  "......."

  "......."

  "Well... It's true that I never really stopped to think about what my future would be like."

  "Even now that I have the opportunity, I haven't really thought about what I'm going to do after all this ends."

  "I had the idea of helping your mother end the Continental War because of what happened before, but I never really thought about what I would do after that."

  "That she asked me to become a teacher, for no good reason other than to give me something to do before she retired, was probably the greatest stroke of luck in my life."

  "And it's really frightening that if you hadn't intervened, I would have continued to be just another puppet of my mother."

  "With no right to a new destiny for my life, just her strings pulling me according to her will."

  "......."

  "I would end up like my sisters."

  "......."

  "........"

  "But still, a workshop? I doubt it will turn out as well as you expect."

  "It's just a personal project."

  "Something to keep me entertained, it's just an idiot adult trying to fulfill the dream of the poor child who was left behind, forgotten and crushed."

  "I don't care about profits or grandeur; I just want to do it because I want to do it."

  "My mother has her café, with which she plans to retire despite the power of her current work, so why can't I do the same with my workshop? It's basically the same idea."

  "Well, what about the problem that you want to buy a whole workshop while I still have to sleep in a hammock in your garage?"

  "You have the money, why not improve the house instead? I mean, you have several wives in your mother's house, maybe it would be better to make it bigger."

  "Poor Levia is still sleeping in the bathroom."

  "Mei, please speak more quietly, we are in a public place, I don't want any misunderstandings."

  "Do you think this sentence doesn't bother me as well? I already know that all I'm doing is adding to my poor mother's burden of taking care of all of us."

  "I had already thought about using some of the money to expand the house as well. Theoretically, the finances would cover such a thing."

  "The problem is having workers in the house, building another floor and adding more rooms, when just walking through the door feels like entering a twisted version of Wonderland."

  "A renovation of that magnitude would take several days, days when there would be strangers in a house where... the rest of the gang lives."

  "You're right."

  "....."

  "It's just that I don't want to end up sleeping in the garage, and it's going to be a lot colder in the winter."

  "Besides, with my car there, there's not much room for my stuff."

  "......."

  "Hey, speaking of cars, what car are you planning to buy?"

  "Having a whole mechanical workshop but no car is quite odd."

  "Don't worry, I've got it all planned out, it's a big part of my plan after I get my shop."

  "I'm thinking of getting an R35, putting some nice and dangerous stuff in the engine, and getting a good white paint job."

  "I've always wanted one of these since I was a kid - well, actually I wanted the older model more, but times have changed. Now it's impossible to find and a bit outdated."

  "The Godzilla on wheels?"

  "That's pretty Otaku, even for you, Elise."

  "You're a foreigner, you should drive something that reflects that."

  "You always drive a Ford Mustang GT500, the most American thing possible."

  "It's the equivalent of a cowboy riding a horse in the desert with an eagle on his shoulder."

  "For Japan's roads, that car is the size of a boat."

  "Only nerds who think they're Wild West cowboys drive them here."

  "You're Chinese; you should drive something else, like an electric SUV from a brand that was founded two years ago."

  "Hey, don't bring my car into this!"

  "Don't you think the bulletproof armor is heavy?"

  "I need the 700 horsepower of the Mustang if I want the car to reach 250 kilometers per hour with the 2 tons of extra weight."

  "And I need that speed thanks to your constant disasters, like that Mad Max-style street fight we had this summer."

  "I saved your ass that day, and you know it."

  "Don't even mention it, although I haven't forgotten the time you almost ran me over when you slammed on the brakes in that same car."

  "......"

  "Hey, I think I found something good this time."

  "An old acquaintance, an arms dealer they call 'The Collector.'"

  "I've always bought from him, he's trustworthy."

  "He says he knows someone who desperately needs money, and he has no problem selling the property to a foreigner if he can get the cash in hand."

  "He'll take a commission on the sale, but you won't believe where it is."

  "It's near Shirahige Park, near the house."

  "Remember the car dealership? Well, they made a little big mistake with the new manager, they went bankrupt this week, and they're selling everything, including the building."

  "The dealership on the corner?"

  "...."

  "That's not such a bad idea, actually."

  "The workshop is already on the second floor, and it has parking for visitors outside, and it even has a showroom in the front."

  "It doesn't sound like a bad idea."

  "Let's check it out this afternoon."

  "Leave it to me, I can handle the paperwork."

  "Yes, sure, please and thank you."

  We spent the rest of the afternoon looking at the place Mei had mentioned. The place was as good as it sounded, though maybe a little expensive. The fact that it was in a busy area, rather than in a forgotten alley near a harbor, made it much more noticeable to passersby and potential customers. But even if that didn't work out, I was already thinking about the next step in my plan to make sure that the popularity of my future workshop wasn't left to fate. And for that, I'd need the help of an angel, one who would help me create this monster called Godzilla, overcharge it, and then all I'd have to do is unleash it on the streets.