The layover in Colombo went without a hitch. Sri Lankan Airlines were inaugurating their new hub in the “largest city in Sri Lanka,” a medium-sized town sprawling along the west coast, and they had reworked all of their flight promotions to include a night at a local resort in the hope of advertising the destination. For Ma?l, this was a brilliant deal. He had the time, and spending a night for free in a beach-side bungalow sounded a lot better than arriving late in Tokyo and crashing in the booth of a manga café. He'd have plenty of time to slum it out later.

  His luck didn’t hold, however, and the connecting flight through Macao turned out to be less straightforward than expected. It appeared there were details the airline had yet to iron out, such as making sure they had a plane available for the last leg of the journey.

  After a day spent arguing and pleading with the ground staff, Ma?l got himself a new flight and landed at Narita airport. There were… issues. For one thing, unlike Haneda, his original destination, Narita was a full 45 miles from the center of town. For another, it was well past 10pm by the time he cleared customs, and there were no more trains to be had.

  Only the famous “limousine bus” ran into town around that time. Practicing his broken Japanese, he managed to find one for Ikebukuro, a few stations away from the Kodokan, Judo’s original dojo. The dojo would be closed at night, of course, but the place also offered reasonably priced accommodations for visiting trainees and it was his go-to. A place that lived and breathed Judo from morning to night. Every international team made it a destination, and on Wednesdays, the who is who of Japanese Judo showed up on the mat, hundreds of competitors battling it out on a mat nearly the size of a football field. Ma?l cracked a smile at the thought of all the fights just waiting for him. A bunk bed and a dojo. This was home!

  The ride took a little over an hour, leaving him on a street corner. For all of its bright lights, Tokyo wasn’t kind to late-night revelers, and there was no more transportation to be had, at least where he was going.

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  With a weary smile, Ma?l threw his backpack over his shoulders and began walking toward his destination. Training would have to start now, after all.

  The air was fresh, but not unpleasantly so. Walking at night had a certain charm to it and the streets of Japan were safe, especially for one such as him, but he still wished he had a chance to take a shower and dive into bed. After two days of travel, he needed both very badly.

  Having long ran out of battery, his phone was about as useful as a paperweight. No GPS. What a dummy, he thought, thinking of all the power he'd burned up playing chess on his phone during the bus ride. The station had a map of the local area of course, but he'd have to memorize it, and he knew from experience that real life never quite looked like the map, let alone a half-remembered one. Fortunately, his destination wasn’t far from the Kanda River. Wouldn't be the most direct route, but easy navigation was worth far more than hassling over directions. Head southeast until the river, then follow it along all the way to Suidobashi. From there, he would know exactly where to go. Easy enough and walking along the riverside would be a lot nicer than walking by the side of some highway. That alone was well worth an extra mile. Fetching the compass from his backpack, he made his way along the moonlit backstreets of Tokyo.

  Away from the neon lights of Ikebukuro, the deserted streets gave an eerie feeling. Walking alone in the dark, in the middle Tokyo was such an unreal experience. Half an hour into his walk, he chanced upon a park. The place was a meticulously kept garden with ancient Japanese-style buildings that seemed to belong to a more graceful era, in sharp contrast with the ugly rectangular blocks of concrete that passed for architecture in modern Japan.

  The place was flooded with lights, powerful azure lights painting the grounds, and orange spotlights aimed upward, bringing the trees and the buildings in sharp relief. It seemed another land unto itself, a gateway to more elegant times. He checked his compass. It was in the right direction, he could cut straight through the park. What's the worst that could happen?

  Beguiled by the enchanting vision, Ma?l stepped onto the paved trail.