Crimson Hail and the Secrets of Valour — Chapter 2.b: The Japanese Desert

Although he didn’t have to be at work until eight in the evening, Crimson didn’t want to spend a lot of time in the station. He needed to shower, have lunch, and possibly squeeze some nap time in before then. Domestic trains in Sahara Oshu weren’t as nice as the Sonic Speed ones, but they were definitely more tourist friendly. All the trains were on suspension railway tracks, and most carriages had glass floors which gave travellers a great view of the city below, its array of colourful neon lights, its web of overhead electrical cables, and drones, lots of drones. There were delivery drones, surveillance drones, rubbish collection drones. It was miracle none of them ever crashed into themselves.

Sahara Oshu was always full of tourists, and Tenshin was no exception with people walking slowly, stopping suddenly to look around and taking pictures of almost everything. Crimson had become quite the expert at weaving in and out of them. His local fast-food place was surprisingly quiet for this time of the day. He walked inside, turned towards the large rectangular touch screen, and ordered a chicken curry rice bowl with soda. He pulled out a ticket with his order number then waited at the counter. Crimson had never been to Japan before, but he imagined a local restaurant over there would look exactly like this place; wooden tables with soy sauce and ginger shavings in the centre of them, a dimly lit room with a painting of Mount Fuji on one wall and the sound of upbeat J-pop on low volume.