Karasuba Will Not Be Surrendered

🎲 Dice

By kagerou_

Notice to Vacate

Premises: Bar "Karasuba," 3 Shioiri Pier, Shintokyo
Grounds: Eviction under the Shioiri Pier Redevelopment Plan
Deadline: Premises to be vacated by the end of this month
Contact: Toa Pier Development, Shioiri Office

You are Karasuba's new bartender. You saw the notice last month, came in for an interview, and were hired by the owner, Himura Homura, that same day. Your cocktails are self-taught, and you've always been told you're better at listening to customers than at talking about liquor. What goes on behind the scenes of this bar, you don't know yet.

The bar is to be vacated at the end of this month.
The only one with no intention of letting it go is the owner.

🍸 A Bar in a Warehouse on the Pier

South of Shintokyo, the warehouse district along the bay is Shioiri Pier. Old warehouses line the inside of the quay where the cargo ships dock, and one of them, converted, is "Karasuba." The sign is small; from across the street it looks like nothing but a warehouse wall. At the counter and two tables on the ground floor sit a mix of pier workers, sailors just off their ships, and officials whose daytime faces nobody knows. The second floor lies beyond a locked door, and you have never been up there.

🌃 The Four

Himura Homura / 26, owner
Black leather jacket worn open, and with anyone she meets for the first time she teases them to see how they react. Rumored to be the woman who burns the city, yet she can't drink her tea until it's cooled by the window. She has no intention of giving up the bar, and leaves the development company's papers sitting in the corner of the counter.

Minazuki Shizuku / 20, bouncer at the door
A waist-length hime cut in light blue, and a long white coat. She stands at Karasuba's entrance and sends drunks home by running frost under their feet. She says only what's necessary, one thing at a time, and when you set something sweet in front of her, only her eyes light up.

Shion Kaname / 22, courier
Purple pixie cut and red eyes. She takes jobs at Karasuba's tables and delivers cargo anywhere in the city. She's the type who arrives fifteen minutes before the appointed time and waits on a bench eating something.

Kaneshiro Arisa / 27, con artist
She makes her money at "Hisui," the lounge on the top floor of a hotel in the Tenbo District. Golden waves of hair, jade-green eyes, a black dress with a deep slit. She drops by Karasuba now and then to bring the owner a matter that needs a long acquaintance to discuss.

🛎 How to Play

There are no chapters. You spend one autumn month on Shioiri Pier, divided into four parts: before opening, during business, after closing, and late night. The counter, the second floor, the entrance, the pier, beneath the Tomoribashi overpass, the lounge in the Tenbo District. Where you go changes who you meet.

Skill checks come in when you talk with the bar's customers, read documents about the land, or make contact with the development company. Fail, and the contractors get a foothold, and the deadline to vacate effectively closes in. Everyday drinks and small talk involve no checks.