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After Kenji retrieved his motorcycle from the PSB headquarters, he rode back to Sixth Street. As he passed the local video store, he figured that since he was officially on "medical leave" and had nothing but time, he might as well pick up a movie. He pulled his bike up to the display window, killed the engine, and stepped inside.
The shop, Random Play, was quiet. The only occupants were two Bangboo behind the counter. This was the standard for most small businesses in New Eridu; a few Bangboo were far cheaper than human staff and significantly more efficient.
The shelves were lined with cardboard cases containing various films. To a guy from modern Earth, the technology was a trip—they were still using physical videotapes. It was a bizarre contradiction of this world: you could have sentient androids and reality-warping energy, but the film industry felt like it was stuck in the late 90s, likely a result of whatever tech was salvaged after the Old Eridu disaster.
"Kenji! Back for more 'restricted' titles, are we?"
A head popped out from the side office behind the counter. It was Belle, a young woman with short blue hair. She looked like she could be a high schooler, maybe seventeen or eighteen, but Kenji had confirmed she was an adult in her early twenties.
Belle and her older brother, Wise, ran the store together. From what Kenji could tell, they were perpetually one bad week away from starvation. Their business was, frankly, abysmal. Kenji didn't know if the residents of Sixth Street just hated movies or if the siblings were terrible at marketing, but the place was always deserted. Those two Bangboo probably stayed on a single charge for six months. He'd done the math once: their monthly revenue wouldn't cover four bowls of ramen a day. How they kept the lights on was one of the great mysteries of the neighborhood.
"Lay off, Belle. It was a lapse in judgment. A mistake any man could make," Kenji said, sounding exhausted.
Belle had made it her life's mission to tease him every time he walked in. Fortunately, she was an adult, so it didn't feel like he was corrupting the youth, but it was still a hit to his dignity.
The "incident" had happened about a month after he'd arrived. Kenji had the powers of a Kamen Rider, but he was still a human being with human... urges. He was a young man in his prime, and after a high-octane battle, a guy's heart tends to pump a little faster. It was a sign of a healthy constitution.
His curiosity was purely scientific—at first. New Eridu had Thierren, the beast-featured people. As a person from a world where such things only existed in anime, he deeply, genuinely wanted to know if their physiological structure was consistent with humans. He felt this was a universal question. Any young man dropped into this world would eventually wonder the same thing. He refused to hear any arguments to the contrary.
Being a "decent person," he hadn't gone looking for anything shady in the back alleys. He assumed that, like Earth, the adult film industry was a massive, semi-legal machine. And since there was a video store right downstairs from his apartment, he'd walked in confidently one day and stated his "specific" interests.
He still remembered their expressions. It wasn't disgust; it was something far more unnerving. They looked at him like he was an alien that had just asked for directions to the nearest volcano. Belle had nearly suffered a respiratory failure from laughing so hard, while Wise just gave him a pitying, helpless smile. Once they'd composed themselves, they informed him that no such business existed there.
Kenji was floored. In New Eridu, "restricted" videotapes of that nature were contraband—on par with smuggling illegal firearms. He couldn't wrap his head around a world that put tapes and guns on the same level of criminality.
He eventually learned the reason: Protection of the Thierren. There were "minor" Thierren like Ellen Joe, who just had a few animal traits, and then there were full "Beast-form" Thierren—three-meter-tall grizzly bears in suits walking down the street. If that industry wasn't strictly regulated, rare species would be kidnapped and forced into "labor" to satisfy the curiosity of people like Kenji.
In a world where gangs already kidnapped people to dig in Hollows, the potential for abuse was horrific. New Eridu's stance was zero tolerance. Producers faced twenty years to life; abusers faced the death penalty. It was a harsh, necessary measure that had successfully kept the industry small-scale and underground.
"Is your brother home?" Kenji asked, picking out a few mainstream action flicks and handing the cases to the cashier Bangboo. To be fair, the movies here were excellent. Since he was an outsider, every "classic" in the shop was a brand-new experience for him.
"He's upstairs resting," Belle said, gesturing to the ceiling. She then leaned over the counter, her eyes narrowing as they swept over his tactical gear. "Wait, Kenji... is that a PSB uniform? Did you actually get in?"
The shop, like Kenji's coffee shop, was a two-story building. He didn't know if the siblings owned it or if it was an inheritance, but he doubted they had bought it with their non-existent movie rental profits.
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