Chapter 119: Let's Go to Cat Ramen!

Cat Ramen.

It was not, as its name might suggest, a ramen shop run by cats, ramen made from cat meat, or a ramen shop filled with cats.

It did not even contain the slightest feline element in its appearance.

From the outside, it looked like nothing more than an ordinary street-stall ramen shop.

A street-stall ramen shop was, in essence, a roadside establishment where the owner pushed out a cart, hung up a sign, and set out little stools for customers. Such stalls were common between six and nine in the evening.

In Fukuoka, they had even become a part of the local culture, attracting tourists from far and wide.

Kyoto had fewer street stalls than Fukuoka, but still considerably more than Tokyo.

The Kamo River stretched through the city. Apart from Shimogamo Shrine, Kyoto Imperial Palace, Yasaka Shrine, and Heian Shrine were all located near its banks.

The famous Kyoto University stood there as well.

Qiao Qiao brought Suzuka and Nanase Hayami to the vicinity of Kyoto University. Instead of entering the busy streets nearby, they followed the Kamo River, and before long they spotted a small street stall with no sign hanging outside.

“This is Cat Ramen.”

Qiao Qiao lifted the curtain and stepped inside.

The owner was not a cat, but on closer inspection, there was indeed something sly and feline about him.

A string of colorful paper cranes hung above the cooking counter, swaying gently in the breeze.

“Every day, around six o’clock, he posts on Twitter whether he’ll be open and where he’ll be set up.”

There were still very few customers inside, so Qiao Qiao found a seat.

“Boss, I’ll have the house ramen with roast pork.”

He ordered with the familiarity of a regular.

“All right.”

The owner of Cat Ramen acknowledged him, though his hands never stopped moving.

With practiced ease, he placed the noodles in a wire basket and swirled them through the boiling broth. At the same time, he sliced roast pork, fish cakes, and other toppings.

“I’ll have the house ramen too,” Suzuka called out, imitating him.

Meanwhile, Nanase Hayami searched on her phone for a long while, but could not find anything else about Cat Ramen.

It was almost as if a vast amount of information had been erased.

“What will the young lady have?” the owner asked when he saw Nanase hesitating.

“Then… I’ll have the house ramen as well.”

“All right.”

He prepared another serving of noodles.

“By the way, Qiao-san, how did you hear about this ramen shop?”

Suzuka studied the handwritten menu hanging inside. Besides the house ramen, there were bamboo-shoot ramen, wakame ramen, garlic ramen, and several other varieties.

The prices ranged from nine hundred to twelve hundred yen.

It was not exactly cheap.

The house ramen cost eleven hundred yen and came with one slice of roast pork and a sheet of nori.

They also sold beer and sake, as well as eggs for fifty yen each.

The little stall had everything one could ask for.

There were many shops like this around the Kamo River, so Suzuka was curious why Qiao Qiao had chosen this one.

“The owner of the Midnight Diner recommended it. Ah—not this owner. The owner of the Midnight Diner.”

At the mention of the Midnight Diner, the owner of Cat Ramen suddenly pricked up his ears.

“The Midnight Diner?”

He sighed.

“So it was that fellow. That explains it.”

The owner instinctively reached for a cigarette, but quickly stopped himself.

“An acquaintance?” Suzuka asked.

“Something like that. A long time ago, he and I worked together as exorcists. Heh… That must have been twenty years ago now.”

The owner of Cat Ramen smiled.

“We even got together in Kyushu during Golden Week. Come to think of it, you must be Qiao Qiao, right?”

“That’s right. Nice to meet you. I’m Qiao Qiao.”

The owner looked Qiao Qiao up and down.

“You don’t quite match the way he described you. I thought you’d be the sort of man covered in muscle, with an intimidating, iron-blooded air.”

He had not expected such a mild-mannered young man.

Nanase Hayami watched the exchange, utterly bewildered.

The owner of Cat Ramen was an exorcist?

And why would an exorcist be running a ramen shop here?

She had no time to think about it for long, however, because the ramen arrived.

The moment it was set before her, there was room in Nanase Hayami’s mind for nothing but eating.

Unlike the ramen she usually had at large chain restaurants, Cat Ramen was not scalding hot. Its flavor was gentle and mellow. The roast pork blended with the broth, the two tastes intertwining, while the hand-pulled noodles absorbed the flavors of the soup and toppings perfectly, bringing the entire bowl together in a delicate harmony.

Halfway through her meal, Nanase Hayami raised her head and suddenly realized that the other customers seemed somewhat unusual.

When she turned around, she saw a salaryman in a suit sitting at the neighboring table who had only one eye.

At another table, two customers were eating ramen, though their heads had already become those of tanuki.

At the table opposite Nanase Hayami sat a beautiful woman in a white kimono. She slurped her noodles without the slightest trace of elegance, while flecks of ice drifted down around her from time to time.

Wait.

Could it be that these were not costumes or cosplay?

Were they all real yokai?

Nanase Hayami’s face instantly turned pale.

“What’s wrong?”

Qiao Qiao had already finished his noodles and was looking thoroughly satisfied. Seeing the strange expression on Nanase’s face, he asked her what was wrong.

“Qiao-san… The ones over there… Are they yokai?”

She pointed at the two tanuki happily slurping their ramen.

“That’s right. Come to think of it, Kyoto seems to be a place where tanuki gather.”

“And the one over there with only one eye—is he a yokai too?”

“That’s a One-Eyed Priest. It’s a yokai found only around Kyoto.”

“So… that one is a yokai too? A Snow Woman?”

“Nanase-san, you’re very clever. You’re answering your own questions now.”

Qiao Qiao smiled, and Nanase Hayami’s expression grew even more stricken. The noodles in her bowl no longer tasted nearly as good.

“So they won’t suddenly decide the portions are too small and eat one or two people as a snack, will they?”

“?”

Qiao Qiao looked slightly astonished.

“Nanase-san, that’s a very rude thing to say.”

“Exactly. Human flesh probably doesn’t taste very good anyway.”

It seemed one of the tanuki had overheard her.

“We’re all law-abiding yokai with residency permits. Don’t lump us together with those country bumpkins.”

The Snow Woman continued eating her noodles and took a sip of beer.

“Thanks to the owner, we can enjoy good food properly, just like this.”

The One-Eyed Priest joined the conversation.

“?”

Nanase Hayami was now too astonished to feel afraid.

So this was a ramen shop specially catering to yokai?

“A street stall is a place where strangers sit together, chat about ordinary things, and share the joys and troubles of daily life,” said the other tanuki. “Humans need a place to rest, and yokai need one too.”

“When we disguise ourselves as humans all the time, sometimes we forget who we really are,” the One-Eyed Priest said with a sigh. Then he waved to the owner.

“Boss, I’ll have a cup of sake too.”

“All right.”

The owner poured him a glass of chilled sake and, as an afterthought, brought Nanase Hayami a bottle of ramune.

“When I was working as an exorcist, I met many yokai. Back then, I thought, ‘So these creatures really aren’t all that different from us.’”

The owner spoke as he deftly chopped scallions.

“Later, when I stopped being an exorcist, I opened Cat Ramen and kept a place where yokai could relax.”

“So that Twitter account has been specially modified too?”

Nanase Hayami looked at her phone.

Although Cat Ramen’s Twitter account was public, it could not be found through an ordinary search. Unless someone entered the exact username, even Nanase would never have located it.

Considering what had happened that afternoon, there must have been similar measures in place there as well.

“Yes. It’s a Twitter account that only yokai and exorcists can find,” the owner said frankly.

Nanase looked over the account’s list of followers and was startled to see her own Twitter account among them.

“This one? It’s an interesting account. You introduce a lot of things related to Kyoto, and many of my customers follow you too.”

The owner smiled when he saw the screen of Nanase’s phone.

“Many customers?”

At those words, Nanase imagined that many of her own followers might be yokai.

A sudden shiver ran through her.

And yet, at the same time, she found herself thinking that perhaps these yokai were not quite as frightening as she had once believed.