December 20th, 2016, Ota City General Gymnasium.
Less than an hour after dusk, the building is already alive.
Crowds press in from every direction, spilling out of side streets and parking lots, funneling toward the entrances in steady waves.
Breath clouds the winter air. Shoes scrape against concrete. Lines wrap around the structure, bending and reforming as staff guide people through metal barriers.
Near the outer gates, another group stands apart from the flow. They don't carry tickets. Instead, they hold up hand-written signs, thick marker bleeding into cardboard.
BUYING TICKETS.
DOUBLE PRICE.
"Anyone selling?" a man calls out, pacing along the barrier.
"Two times the price… cash!"
"Any seat, doesn't matter! I will buy for three."
Some people slow. A few glance down at the tickets in their hands, tempted. Most shake their heads and keep moving, gripping the paper a little tighter as they pass.
