Gumi Reloaded: An AU RK Writing Community

‘O…kay’, the ex-op said to himself, ‘so far so good.’ This was day two of his self-imposed sobriety, continuing the routine he started yesterday by beginning his day with a brisk jog. He was aiming for more distance than he covered the day before.

This was a great way to get to know the different neighborhoods. Sano varied his pace, sometimes taking his time to enjoy the scenery as it passed by, other times hammering away at the pavement with a brisk sprint.

At the moment he was just jogging lazily, not paying too much attention to his surroundings, doing a lot of thinking about his current circumstances.

‘Whoa there’, he cautioned himself before he ran head first into a young girl, who was standing on the sidewalk in front of him, staring at something. Slowing his pace, he stopped moving forward, and jogged in place, greeting her, “Sorry Missy, almost didn’t see you there.”

He followed her gaze to the shell of what was once probably a greasy spoon. Now the place was surrounded by yellow tape, and looked as though it could have been a victim of one of his special ops hits.

Brushing his hair way from his face, he blew out a breath of surprise before commenting, “Is this a war-zone or what…”

From:

For some reason, Tsubame just couldn't seem to tear her eyes away from what was left of the building. Was it strange to feel such a sense of loss? To worry about people she barely even knew? She was so lost in her thoughts, she didn't even hear the pounding footsteps, and nearly jumped out of her skin at the deep voice right next to her. "Eh!? Oh! Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't hear you." She made to step aside out of the jogger's way, but then realized he'd followed her gaze.

“Is this a war-zone or what…”

It certainly looked like one. "It used to be a diner," she said quietly, still staring at the wreckage. With a glace at the jogger she said, "I think it became one. A war-zone. I don't know what happened, though." Event-wise, or to the people who worked there. The red-haired waiter flashed through her mind, once again. "I hope they're all alright," she said, mostly to herself.

From:

Sano stopped jogging in place, giving a very brief, appreciative look at the young woman standing in front of him. He didn't want to upset her by staring at her; he was too much of a gentleman for that. But she was so cute and fresh-faced he couldn't help himself.

Even though some would consider him to be 'rough around the edges' he was taught, first by his parents, and then by Captain Sagara, that women were to be respected and protected in that order.

His keen hearing heard her voice her concern for the workers. She either knew someone who worked here, or she'd been a customer of the place. Looks could be deceiving and some of the dumpiest looking places served the best tasting food. That thought caused Sano's stomach to grumble noisily.

"Ah, a diner," he said absently before questioning, "You ever eat here?"

From:

The jogger wasn't going anywhere. He'd even stopped jogging in place. Now that he was standing still and Tsubame had finally pulled her gaze from what was left of the diner, she looked up at the man next to her. Her first thought was that he was tall. Really tall. That was quickly followed by the fact that his spikey hair made him look a little like a rooster. It was a good look; it seemed just right on this guy.

"Yes. Well, no. Not--not exactly. I always got coffee here, but hadn't tried any of their food yet."

She realized he probably didn't live in the area, or was at least as uninformed about the Sunshine Cafe as she had been, and felt the need to clarify. "It was just a greasy spoon. But their coffee was pretty good. And cheap," she finished with a half-smile.

From:

Sano returned the young woman’s smile, “From my experience, some of the greasiest spoons have the best food. The fact that they made good coffee was probably an indication of that.”

Sano thought for a minute before adding, “And if you ever saw any cops eating in here, you would know that the food was great; those guys really know how sniff out a good deal,” not only where food was concerned but some of them were also pretty adept at sniffing out criminal elements, at least the honest ones with whom Sano worked on a few special operations.

The ex-op noticed the purple messenger bag over the girl’s shoulder. -Women and their fashion statements-. He couldn’t help but think of his younger sister. When she was a school girl, she’d been the same way. In fact this girl kind of reminded Sano of his sister. However, she was all grown up now and even, perish the thought, married to an ‘almost’ idiot, who at least gave Sano’s dad a hand around the family farm.

The ex-op even noticed the corner of a book, which looked very similar to a textbook, popping out of the bag. Not only that, but something else that looked suspiciously like notebook paper was also making an appearance. She must have a lot of stuff in there if some of it was trying to escape.

“You a student?” he asked politely. He wasn’t trying to be nosey, just make pleasant small talk, something that he hadn’t engaged in quite some time.

From:

Oh man, oh man. If this wasn't highly illegal, he didn't know what was. Though technically, the back door of the place hadn't been sealed off with police tape. Or someone had ripped it off before him but that was hardly his doing right? And technically the owner, after he'd tracked her down, had given him permission to help clean up-- though she probably hadn't meant for him to come this early, he really wasn't trespassing. And, well, the crime scene was probably mostly cold anyway. After all it had been three days. But not cold enough for there not to be something left over.

Saitoh-san would kill him.

But Saitoh-san didn't have to know.

Eiji steeled himself and pushed from the kitchen into the dining room where the incident took place. There were still bloodstains on the floor, black now and barely noticeable as blood. Could be old ketchup. He crouched by one of the smears and tried to make some sense of it. He'd ~~snuck into~~ been at enough crime-scenes to know generally what a bullet could do, but this didn't look like any kind of bullet. There had been rumors that whoever it was had been weilding a sword but-- that was probably exaggerated. Who the heck used a katana in this day and age?

Eiji chuckled to himself and straightened and found himself being watched through the window.

"Ahh!" he startled, and then tried to cover it up. Just had to look like he belonged here. That was all! "Ahahahahaha." He rubbed the back of his head and holy crap was that the Sano guy? What was he doing here? And who was the cute girl with him?

"Hi...hi guys," he said with a bright smile. "Just...doing a little cleaning to...you know help owner-san out." Without anything ostensibly to clean with but ahahaha nevermind. They wouldn't notice, right?

From:

Tsubame nodded. They did have good coffee. Maybe that diner was a treasure. It belonged to someone, had been their business. She had certainly liked it. Now it was nothing. Just a burned-out shell.

"I don't know about policemen, but maybe. Detectives don't wear uniforms, right?" She smiled, thinking of those old stories about policemen and doughnuts.

"Yeah, I am--" Tsubame shifted her bag, hefting it up on her shoulder to ease where it was digging in, and looked past the jogger, her attention drawn back to the diner, and what she thought might be movement. "Uh, is that a dog?"

She glanced up at the jogger, then peered back into the gloom. And nearly jumped out of her skin with a tiny, involuntary, "Eep!" as what had been vague movement suddenly materialized into a very startled young guy popping up from the rubble.

Cleaning? In that gloomy place? Tsubame looked at him curiously, but there were no cleaning supplies to be found. He wasn't…looting, was he? Certainly not a hole-in-the-wall diner like this one! Well, at least he was saying hello… With a shrug, she figured it wouldn't hurt to at least return the greeting.

"Uh…H-hello…"

From:

“Got that right, Missy,” the ex-op responded. “Most detectives, at least the ones I’ve come across, have no desire to be detected so they leave their blues at home, and try to blend into the scenery.” Then there were the jackasses of the bunch that swaggered and boasted so much that keeping any operation involving them, even remotely undercover, was next to impossible.

So she was a student. Thankfully, he was still able to read signs, even though the ones he’d read on her were literally screaming, ‘student.’

Somewhere in between the girl’s question about a dog and her ‘Eep’, Sano’s attention was attracted to inside the burned out shell.

Dang if it wasn’t the rollerblading, dog walking newspaper kid, Sano thought to himself. The ex-op wasn’t really surprised to see Mishima in the burned out shell of the diner, since newspaper people were usually snoops.“Oh..it’s you again, kid...where's the mutt?”

This might be an opportunity to find out what happened here, not that Sano cared even a little, but the young girl next to him had been a customer, and was obviously concerned about the people who worked here.

“You wouldn’t happen to know what happened to the employees, would ya? Missy, here, was a customer of the place, and I think she’s a little concerned about them.” Well, she was probably very concerned about them, but it wasn’t something that Sano was willing to say to someone with big ears and a fat notebook.

From:

The girl said hello to him. The really cute girl said hello to him. Of course he was standing where he really kinda sorta shouldn't be, but she had said hello. To him. Wow. Then Brick Wall, not-hiding-anything,-no-really, Just "Sano" spoke up to ask him about Chi, who was not his to begin with and before he could answer said that the girl was concerned about the employees that worked her.

Had worked here.

Eiji grimaced. He didn't know much but what he did know wasn't pretty. He carefully made his way out of the diner, careful not to touch anything with his hands. The girl was closer now. Wow she was cute. And look at those eyes. So big and serious. And a nice figure, too...and...and he really shouldn't be goggling at her... What was he supposed to-- Oh right, the notes.

Eiji took out his phone, dropped it, picked it up and opened up two programs he hadn't meant to as his fingers trembled, one which started to play the loud opening fanfare of "Morning Clubhouse" which was a kids' show but he'd just put it on there to be ironic even if he did like the show when he was 10 which was neither here nor there because it was loud and he couldn't shut it off.

Finally, though, he managed, feeling his face a bright red and looked at his notes.

"Uh...um. Well the Sunshine Cafe has several employees, some of which are paid under the table so it's hard to keep an accurate count but um...those involved in the mass--" he looked at her.

"...er...inncident were Jiro, 17, Doro Takeshi, 43 and some 'unofficial'," he airquoted. "worker just known as Ken, who Jiro claims is like some super powered Samurai or something but, personally, I think the kid has had waay too much po--er-- bee-- um...he's overtired."

From:

Tsubame looked from the jogger to the guy in the diner. They knew each other? Well…sort of, at least. Huh. She eyed the jogger, wondering about the likelihood of such a coincidence and…a dog? Huh.

That guy was staring at her. Granted, she was watching him pretty closely, too, given the ginger way he was moving through the rubble, as if trying not to touch anything. Oh…right. This was a crime scene. Touching things would be a really bad idea. So why was he there, again? Regardless, even if she was watching him, she almost wanted to step behind the jogger to keep him from watching her. But, if this guy knew something, that would be good. At least she'd know what happened.

Then he dropped his phone. The fumbling and the silly kid's show theme that resulted made her giggle. She'd watched that show, too. She put her hand over her mouth, but couldn't stop the sound from escaping. All wariness disappeared, and even if they did find him skulking about in a burned-out diner, Tsubame found it very difficult to see anything threatening about this guy. He was actually kind of adorable, with his red face and technical difficulties.

Her good humor faded as he began to read his notes, though. A massacre? He might have been trying to soften it for her benefit, the look he'd given her made that obvious, but the fact remained that murder was murder. She'd thought there had been a fire, like, arson or something.

The name, Ken, jiggled something loose in her brain. Tsubame stared unseeingly past the young guy's shoulder into the diner, thinking. Where had she heard that name? No… Not heard it. Saw it. His name tag. She didn't know about any crazy samurai, that just sounded nuts, but Ken… He was the red-haired guy who'd returned her book to her.

"Um, did--did they survive?" She felt kind of bad for not recognizing the other two, but she hoped they were alright. Glancing back into the dimness of the diner, she doubted that was the case.

From:

It was pretty obvious to Sano that Mishima was getting tongue tied, and jelly kneed over the cute school girl. The dropped cell phone and trembling hands were a dead giveaway. If Sano had been about six years younger he was sure that he would be in the same boat as the newspaper kid.

To watch a young dude go all goo-goo eyed over a sweet young thing was amusing in Sano’s book. In fact he had to stifle a laugh over how obvious Mishima was about the whole thing. Poor girl. The ex-op hoped that she had no clue that she had a secret admirer. If she was anything like his younger sister, she’d be embarrassed down to the tip of her toes, if she knew she was in Mishima’s radar.

Sano caught that the kid stopped himself before he blurted out to the girl that there had been a massacre at the diner. He had to give Mishima credit. That would have been the last thing to say to someone who knew some of the people working at the place. It did kind of smell like there’d been a lot of blood spilled inside. And that nonsense about a super-powered samurai had to be someone’s pot induced fantasy, or it could have been that Samurai-san was on AMP. That was a more likely explanation.

The ex-op had a pretty good idea that the kid wasn’t supposed to be trespassing this crime scene. The tape wasn’t even down yet, indicating the site was still active.

“Hey, kid, did you listen to anything I told you yesterday?” ‘cause it sure doesn’t look like it to me, Sano thought to himself. Messing with an active crime scene could get a person in a whole heap of trouble with the MPD.

From:

"Doro-san didn't," Eiji said, sliding the phone closed and slipping it back into his pocket. He didn't know if this girl...really cute girl... knew anyone who had been there or how well she knew them. Probably not much considering she didn't seem to be in shock or anything. Maybe she just knew them from coming into the diner.

"Everyone else is fine as far as I know... Well except 'Ken' is MIA." And was not to be trusted. Anyone with that short a name and no surname was obviously hiding something. Something big. He glanced blandly at Just Sano.

"I listened," Eiji said. "I'm not going to stop investigating. There is something Saitoh-san doesn't want me to know and even if I don't write about it." Which he would. "I'm still going to find out."

Then he glanced at cute-girl-chan again who was so much more engaging and cute and wonderful to talk to than One Name Annoying Advice that No One Asked For Dispensary over there.

"I'm Mishima Eiji by the way," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "I um...I work for the Bunko Shimbun, but you've probably never heard of it."

From:

"Oh." Tsubame looked down, knowing it was too much to hope people had survived, sorry that their families would have to deal with the loss. And the red-haired waiter was missing. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing, it meant he might be alright.

She looked back up, following the conversation between the other two, but really had no idea what they were talking about. Except that apparently this guy who likes to hang out in burned-out diners has a penchant for being in places he shouldn't.

Everything started to make a lot more sense when he introduced himself and mentioned the paper. He was a reporter. So that made the jogger… She glanced back up at the jogger, puzzled. She stil didn't know how he fit into this. At least he was concerned for Mishima-san's safety.

"Nice to meet you, Mishima-san. I'm Sanjou Tsubame." She paused a moment, trying to remember if she'd ever run across that paper. Maybe? Uncertain, she said, "I think I might have seen it around." Granted, the fact that she hadn't been keeping up with the news was the reason she'd been so suprised to find the remains of the diner, so she decided not to go overboard. "Do you ever distribute any copies at the university?"

It occurred to her that they'd all exchanged names except for the jogger, and not wanting to leave him out, she turned to him and smiled. "I'm sorry, I didn't ask your name."

From:

Sano took in the conversation between the two youngsters with mild interest. The girl was quite the polite one, he realized, when she attempted to include him in the conversation by asking his name. His name, well, that was easy. “Just call me Sano,” the taller man smiled at her.

The ex-op looked between the girl and the newspaper kid, catching on real quick that he should give these two some time alone. Giving Eiji a wink he said in parting, ”Well time to get goin'..nice to meet you Sanjou-san, and nice to bump into you again, kid. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.."

With a wave of his hand Sano jogged off, intending to go a couple of more blocks before heading home for lunch. He was starving. Good thing he'd learned to cook a few things while he was a member of the Sekihoutai. There weren't any restaurants out in the wilds of China, where he'd spent more winter days than he cared to remember, freezing his tail off.

From:

Sanjou Tsubame, huh? Man that was a nice name. Really nice. It just sort of rolled off the tongue. Sssannjou Tssuuubamee. He liked that. He liked that a lot. His cheeks kind of hurt and he realized he was grinning like an idiot. Eiji coughed and tried to bring his mouth into a more serious expression for Sssanjou-san.

"Oh yeah, I distribute all over. Universities are great because it's students that really get things moving, you know. But my biggest following is online." He had almost 700 people, which wasn't huge but nothing to sneeze at either. Eiji was going to explain further when she turned to Just Sano and asked his name. And Just Sano just said Sano. Which it couldn't be Sano. Who the hell had a name like Sano? Not anyone so suspiciously athletic and could move that fast.

"Yeah, sure," Eiji said when "Sano" told him to not do anything he wouldn't do. "See you around." And he wouldn't do anything Sano wouldn't do but what he would do was to leave the news for another day and see if cute Sanjou Tsubame here with the cute eyes and a mouth that probably made dimples when she smiled would go have tea with him. He could just see it now.

"Oh Eiji! Of course I will!" she would say, wrapping both her arms around his manly one. "Take me away from this dreadful place!"

"Of course I will, Tsubame-chan!"

Eiji realized he'd been spacing out a little and cleared his throat, unscrewing his smile yet again. He just had to ask her for some tea. Just say, Sanjou-san, want some tea? That was all. She was just a girl. A really freaking cute girl.

"So um...Sanjou-san," oh man what a cute name! "Want some cute-- I mean tea? Cuz I know this really great tea shop that's cute which is why I said cute instead of tea because you know that would just be weird otherwise." He laughed rubbing the back of his head and wished distantly he could shoot himself. It might be kinder.

From:

Tsubame tried to remember if she'd come across that paper at school or not. Admittedly, she didn't pay a great deal of attention to the independent papers, but they did come in handy for job listings and local events and such. Maybe she'd picked it up? Maybe. His enthusiasm made her smile in return, and she made a mental note to check out a copy next time she ran across one.

Just...Sano. Tsubame smiled at him, and nodded. "It's nice to meet you." Like his hair, the name suited him. Once again, she watched the exchange between the other two, then waved with a quiet, "Bye," as he jogged away. She felt like he'd been chased off, but hopefully he just had other things to do. After all, he'd been jogging along before running into her.

Silence followed the jogger--no--Sano's departure, but Tsabame was preoccupied between watching him go and then turning her attention back to the diner. Such terrible things. Even if it were to reopen, she didn't think she'd want to go back. It made her feel a little guilty even thinking it, but she'd have to find another hang-out. The diner had proven to be an excellent study spot, and she did enjoy being able to stop for coffee on the way to class.

Mishima-san's voice broke into her thoughts, and she startled slightly, having forgotten he was there. "Eh?" She tried to cover her inattention with a small smile. Which grew as the young reporter fumbled through his invitation. She was surprised to receive such an invitation, and let out a quiet, "Oh!" It sounded nice, and...cute, she thought, nearly giggling.

"Um, sure." She hesitated, disappointed that she also had class. "I have class, kind of soon. That's why I stopped here. For coffee, but..." She trailed off, glancing over at the diner, then back to Mishima-san. Deciding that it would be alright if she was a bit late, she smiled up at him. The rambling and the awkwardness was endearing. "Tea would be really nice. Thank you!"

From:

As Sano jogged away, he laughed as he heard the kid stammer to ask Sanjou if she wanted some tea. Talk about backward with girls.

The ex-op...stopped in his tracks...

What the?

He was almost two blocks away, and he'd actually heard what the kid said! First, the cuts and burns that healed like magic; now abnormally acute hearing?

Something was definitely going on. All Sano had to do was figure out what it was. But his stomach had first priority at the moment.

Shaking his head, he sprinted on toward that lunch he was looking forward to eating, once it was made. Perhaps, he should try that burger joint instead. What was it called? Fuku Burger...Back Burger..ah..no..Bakufu Burger.

From:

"Ah...well that's, that's okay..." Oh wait. She'd said yes? Really?

"I mean, okay! Right? Awesome! Um, this way!" He grinned and shoved his hands in his pockets as they started down the sidewalk. Gosh she was cute. And intelligent, too! He was so lucky! Man he hadn't even walked with a woman since Mrs. Lee broke her hip and he'd helped her with her wheelchair.

"So uh, what is it you study?"

From:

The giggle slipped out before Tsubame could stop herself. Mishima-san's enthusiasm was catching, and she nodded, falling into step next to him. "Lead on," she said, still grinning.

Tsubame walked along, curiosity piqued about where they were headed, but also wondering about her new companion. It occurred to her that he had to be a bit older, what with the newspaper and all. At least, he didn't strike her as a student.

"So uh, what is it you study?"

Everything, Tsubame thought. She was still working through her requirements, slogging through classes she knew, no matter how interesting they were or weren't or how well-rounded they would make her, had no bearing whatsoever on her life. That probably wasn't what he meant, though.

"Ah, well, I haven't declared a major yet, but I'm thinking about history."

Tsubame waited for the usual questions of how that was relevant, or what she planned to do with such a vague area of study. She was quickly learning that if she didn't have a ready, concrete answer of 'doctor' or 'lawyer' or some other easily labeled profession, people tended to question the worth of her studies. Or at least were highly curious about what she planned to do with it. It was hard to explain that she simply felt compelled to study the past and that she was looking for connections she couldn't even name.

From: