Sort of a quick follow-up to:
The last note of Sweet Caroline echoed around the karaoke booth. The salary pressed back in with drinks. Damn, these businessmen could drink. Jason swapped the microphone for a glass.
How strong even is sake? he thought drunkenly , draining it. When they say rice wine, they don't really mean wine, right?
They were in Tokyo negotiating with Tamaribuchi Heavy Manufacturing Concern for the import of the latest renewal chambers. Tomorrow they'd sign on the dotted line, but tonight was the traditional drinking. His partner sat in the corner with Mr Tamaribuchi himself, hammering out the final details. Mr Tamaribuchi looked in Jason's direction, smiled, then the two men shook hands.
At 120 years young, Mr Tamaribuchu was a walking advertisement for his own technology, like all the men on his team. His lithe catgirl body prowled across the booth, tail swishing with excitement. He raised a drink. "Kanpai!" the old man declared, throwing a slender hand round his shoulders.
"No kanpai," Jason pleaded. The room was spinning. "Gotta be awake tomorrow. Signing contracts, yes?"
"You are contract," Mr Tamaribuchi leered.
Jason had no idea what he meant by that, but then he hadn't known what anyone meant by anything since he arrived. He wondered why his partner even bothered to bring him, since he didn't speak a word of Japanese. He resigned instead to smile and drink. It was difficult to refuse with the man's claws digging into his shoulder.
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Awakening in a pod hotel, feeling like death, he thought for a moment he'd been buried alive. He cracked open a dry eye and fumbled for his phone in the confitti that had been his pants. He'd overslept.
"Relax, we signed everything this morning," his partner replied over the phone. "Mr Tamaribuchi was very impressed by your performance."
"You mean my singing, right?" Jason groaned, clutching his head. "... My singing, right?" Silence. Jason examined his shredded clothing with slow realisation. "Please don't tell me I fucked a hundred and twenty year-old man last night."
"Okay," his partner replied. "See you at the airport."