SHORT STORY: SEX WITH A COSPLAYER

The cool iron walls surrounding the island was stiffening my muscles. I had been here for two hours and I was already feeling homesick. Every time the tides hit one of the walls, the entire building would vibrate, which didn’t receive my vote of confidence.

“Why is this facility still open? I thought it was closed and wasn’t allowed to be used for anything other than tourism,” I asked the head of the operation Alcatrax.

“Now, now Ms. Coral. One question at a time please. Also, your agency didn’t specify the level of clearance you have on our project here. You said you were an intern?”

“Ye-yes Mr. Broadway. I’m just starting as a journalist, currently working as an intern at The Unriddle.”

“Ah! One of the upcoming properties in journalism. You should be proud your parent company handed you this massive project.”

 It seems more like they pushed this job onto me, MR. BROADWAYYY!

“So, now that I’m here, do you mind if I ask some questions, Mr. Broadway?”

“Sure, go ahead,” He said, as he stroked his moustache.

I had my pen and pad ready. I turned on the recorder and started my questioning,” Could you please explain briefly what this Operation Alcatrax is.”

“Operation Alcatrax is a simple process of keeping a track on loose cannons who are free in this world. You can even say we are the FBI for the delinquents.”

I guess my confused face said everything, because he followed his statement by saying,” Let me explain. There are a lot of people in this world. And to monitor their mental state and stop them before they could harm the society in any way is the major goal of Operation Alcatrax.”

“How-how do you calculate the mental state?”

“Aristotle Principle, my dear.”

“Can you go in a bit more detail?”

“I’m afraid not. I don’t think you qualify for that section of our knowledge.”

“Well, okay. Can you tell me what’s the highest number that qualifies a person in this dungeon of yours?”

Mr. Broadway thought about it for a second and said, “Seven.”

“Next question, Sir, do you have a Seven in this facility.”

Mr. Broadway didn’t reply to that as soon as he heard my question.

“I think I need to call my superiors and ask them about our collaborations here.”

He was about to leave his chair when I said, “Mr. Broadway, you’re the incharge here, right? You were put here as a trustworthy source of power. All I’m asking for is small slice of details.”

There wasn’t much response from Mr. Broadway, so I shut off the recorder, bent over the table and touched the old man’s wrinkled hand.

Maybe he could use some stimulation.

“C’mon Mr. Broadway, just a part of details.”

Mr. Broadway smiled before leaving his chair and turning around to face his cupboard. He fished into his piles of paper and files and picked one out.

He threw the file on the table and said, “Keep your recorder turned off, and don’t let your pen touch the paper. Then, you can look at this document.”

I pocketed the recorder, silently switching it on, and threw away the pen and paper on either sides. I looked at him to see his reaction, but he was blank as a slate.

I opened the file to find only one document. It was his registration into Operation Alcatrax.

NAME	ANTHONY BARDILLO aka JUN FUEGUCHI
AGE	42 [at time of confinement
SEX	MALE
SCALE	7/7
OPERATION	S###E
PRINCIPLE	B####M
RELEASE	NONE

“Uh, Mr. Broadway, it doesn’t say anything special. Except why does a guy named Anthony has a Japanese name too. And what is ‘Operation’ and ‘Principle’ sections?”

“Anthony Bardillo was an exceptional young chap. One of the most famous voice actors in Japanese media, he adopted his stage name ‘Jun Fueguchi’ after his first T.V. series. Resident of Akihabara, he was a well built and well loved individual until his love for visual treats went just that one step further.”

“Visual treats?”

“If you don’t know, what Akihabara is, you need to search it. And when you do, search the culture around ‘Anime’ and ‘Manga’. Throw in the world ‘Doujin’ too.”

“You’re losing me, Mr. Broadway. What made him end up here?”

“His love for 2D girls. No, his lust for them, and anyone who wanted to show their appreciation by dressing up as them.”

“Cosplayers? What about them?”

“You see, the concept of perfect girls in animation is something the fans of culture hold near to themselves. They like to talk about it, show their love, and disagree on opposing opinions.”

“Sounds like a cult.”

“Isn't that interesting that religion and cult overlap with their guidelines?”

I fell silent to his observations.

“Anyways, Anthony was respected enough that his mis happenings were somewhat forgiven. He became such a fan favorite, even the media gave him benefit of the doubt.”

“Could you expand on some of his ‘erratic behavior’?”

“Sex with fellow voice actresses, sex with different staff members, sex with multiple convention attendees, sex with cosplayers.”

“It’s all about him having sex with different kinds of people. What’s the harm in it? Was he not using protection?” I let out a chuckle on my own joke, but Mr. Broadway didn’t find it funny.

“Ms. Coles, how about sex AND murder?”

My laughter stopped and my jaw hit the floor.

How did media and the crowd give that guy a benefit of the doubt in the first place!

“Yes, Ms. Coles, he started murdering people he hooked up with. He stated his love for anime girls had turned into obsession, and he’d like to sleep with girls who have no problem with role playing. And while they were on the bed, he’d put an axe right between their chest or backs, sometimes even opening their skulls out.”

I gulped my fear inside of me. I didn’t want to lose my calm while I was in the middle of getting information.

\“Anthony started to cosplay himself, claiming it opened his minds to different perspectives, and his reasons for murders? He claimed the cosplayers weren’t pure enough to portray his favourite character. Tell me Ms. Coles, what would you rank his insanity at on the scale of one-to-seven?”

I gulped once again, forcing the words out of my mouth,” Se-Seven.” Tears were starting to form in my eyes.

“No, Ms. Coles, I’d rate that a five.”

I was shocked to hear his rating of Anthony’s heinous crimes.

“Apparently, Anthony thought nobody was good enough to portray his favourite character. So, He’d do it himself. He bought a bowie knife, and cut his penis off. Now, according to him, he was ready to portray his love for his 2D darling in full glory.

Adjusting in his chair, Mr. Broadway continued,” but, his sex sprees never stopped. One woman would enter the room, then another, and another, and another. Until he racked up the murder number of 36 women, from teenagers to early-30s. all for the sake of love.”

At that moment, I broke down crying. I had no strength in my heart to keep on sitting in one spot. But I decided to hold on and get every last bit of detail.

“What kind of murder weapons did he use? And what took you so long to rank him at a seven and getting him into this hole?!”

“When we caught the wind of it, he was already gone far beyond. We caught him red handed on our first attempt, and got him here, permanent confinement. As for his weapons, he used a variety of them. Kitchen knives, ice picks, Tomahawks and his bowie knife.”

“How did he commit murder after he cut his penis off?”

Mr. Broadway paused, before saying,” You don’t want to know.”

After a little bit of forcing, he did tell me his murdering method. And that left me with a scar on my soul.

Two hours later, my boat arrived and I went back on the land. I approached my seniors to drop this story, but they were adamant about it and wanted me to hand over the recording. I had to oblige, and two days later, the article was the second page story of ‘The Unriddle.’

“SEX WITH A COSPLAYER: WHEN LUST ENVELOPS YOU”

Written by Kazama, J; Facts by Coles, W.

I still remembered the last thing Mr. Broadway told me, “ Maybe a crazy person, Maybe a fanatic, but Jun was always loyal to his faith. I hope you do justice to your own character, Ms. Coles.”

Throwing the newspaper into the trash, I walked towards my Manga store.