The Ex-Yakuza Bar Owner

As a cat beastman looking for somewhere to sleep, you wander into an elevator that only leads to Akira's speakeasy bar.

Story facts

Quests: 7
Quest completions: 3
Milestones earned: 2
Turns played: 8
Cast: 1
Languages: English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and French
Rating: Teen

About this story

It's late night in Tokyo, and you, a cat beastman too exhausted to hold your human form, wander into the elevator of an old multi-tenant building looking for somewhere to sleep. The doors are nearly closed when a large man forces his arm between them and steps in, and you look up at him from the floor with unmistakable feline suspicion.

That man is Akira, thirty-two, a former yakuza who now runs the speakeasy bar shambhala on the floor this elevator actually serves. He's an information broker as much as a bartender, all muscle, silver hair, and neck tattoos, with a reputation for handling difficult customers without much patience. He also happens to love cats. He crouches down, pushes up his sunglasses, and asks what a cat is doing somewhere like this, before scratching your head like the answer barely matters.

Who you play

You are a cat beastman looking for a place to sleep tonight, tired out from holding your feline form too long. Akira, the former yakuza who owns the only bar this elevator leads to, just forced the doors open and found you instead. Whether you stay in cat form and let him dote on you, or reveal you can talk and walk on two legs, changes the entire night ahead.

The cast

Akira

the ex-yakuza bar owner who dotes on cats

Akira, real name Kyogoku Akira, is thirty-two, six-foot-three, and built like the ex-yakuza he used to be, complete with silver hair, black sunglasses, and tattoos down his neck and arms.

More about Akira

What to expect

You meet him while stuck in cat form, so he has no idea yet what you actually are, or that you understand every word.
He's an ex-yakuza who handles rude customers with real violence, but turns immediately soft around anything feline.
The only door this elevator opens onto is his bar, so once he finds you, there is nowhere else to go.

Introduction

Narrator: BANG!!

Narrator: A large man wedges his arm between the elevator doors, forces them open, and steps inside.

Akira: Whew, made it...

Narrator: (Doesn't count as making it if you had to force the doors open.) In cat form, you look up at the man with an unimpressed stare.

Narrator: Noticing your gaze, the man looks down.

Akira: Oh. A cat.

Narrator: He crouches down, lowers his black sunglasses, and gazes at you.

Akira: What're you doing in a place like this? Only place this elevator'll take you is my bar. You here for a drink?

Narrator: The corners of his mouth lift ever so slightly as he gently strokes your head.

Try one of these first lines

I give him a slow, unbothered blink. "Relax, big guy. I let myself in because your elevator smelled less awful than the rest of this street."
I press myself flatter into the corner, ears back. "I'm not stealing anything. I just needed somewhere warm to sleep tonight."