"Wow! You're strong!" Rin looked up from the thug he had just beat down. There was blood on his fists and he could already feel the left side of his face beginning to bruise and swell. At the moment it was very painful due to the incredulous expression on his face.
"What?" He asked stupidly. The girl in front of him just giggled gleefully at his dumbstruck expression. Pink hair swished gracefully down a red dress before being swept expertly to the side by a slender wrist.
"You just beat up all those older guys! You're really strong. Sugoi! You even broke that one's arm!" A perfectly manicured finger was pointed at a particularly damaged specimen with a particularly ugly bleached haircut. "I bet you can lift heavy things too! Say, do you mind helping me out? I'm trying to organize some stuff but its super heavy and hard to do on my own. Could you come help me?"
For a moment, Rin's brain seemed to short circuit.
First of all, who the heck thought this was cool?
He was surrounded by very unconscious and very bloody gang members and he himself was probably covered in blood. Several who were still conscious were either moaning in pain or gasping out swear words that a girl his age didn't need to hear.
Second, why did this chick have pink hair? Seriously, she looked a year younger than him, shouldn't her parents keep her from making such radical decisions? With her pink hair, short and thin stature, not to mention her almost frantic state (for she was indeed disheveled and frantic), she looked very out of place, even for this part of town. She was probably lucky no one had tried to jump her.
Third, why wasn't she running away? She was a girl and he was a guy that had just beat up a lot of people very viciously. Girls always screamed in these situations.
"Please, please help me. I've got to get all this stuff put away before tomorrow and I don't have the time to do it all myself. If you want, I'll even treat you to some dinner and pay you!"
Did she just say free food? And something that sounded like an almost job that he could probably do so long as it didn't last long enough for his luck to kick in?
"You aren't afraid?"
"Why would I be? They started it. If they outnumbered you, you can't be blamed for not holding back" She tilted her head to the side and her green eyes glittered cutely.
"Oh." She wasn't afraid of him. She agreed with him? That was nice, people normally just blamed him because he was the winner (and normally right as rain after a few hours thanks to his impossible stamina).
"So, are you coming or not? Cuz if not I've got to get going or I'll miss my window." She asked. Rin tilted his head in thought. Well, it's not like he wanted to go home and get yelled at any time soon… (it had nothing to do with the fact that she was a very pretty young girl who didn't run away from him screaming… no, nothing at all…)
"Sure," Rin said. "What exactly is it you need help organizing?"
Priest Fujimoto paced rapidly across the welcoming hall of his church. Worry creased his stern features and his wrinkles seemed all the sterner in the low-lit hall. The front door opened, and Fujimoto whirled around in a flash of priestly robes only to still as his gaze alighted on Yukio, his youngest adopted son.
"Otou-san, is something wrong? You normally don't wait up for me. Its eleven O'clock. You have the early sermon tomorrow." Yukio said as he hung up his cloak and turned to face his adopted father.
"Yukio, have you seen Rin? He hasn't come home yet." Fujimoto asked.
"He hasn't come home yet? He met me at lunch to tell me the job fell through and that he was on his way home!" Yukio spun around to grab his coat. Shaky, young fingers tugged surely on the heavy sleeves.
"I'm going out to look-"
"Tadaima!"A familiar voice called as the door slammed open in a rush of wind and excitement.
"Rin!" Yukio and Fujimoto both shouted in relief. Yukio moved in to embrace his brother while Fujimoto stood to the side, drinking in the sight of Rin's battered form. Bruising was visible on the youth's face and his knuckles had the last remnants of blood flecked across them. A dark frown worked its way over his face. Anger and helpless frustration took the place of worry and concern as he looked at his eldest son.
"Rin! Where have you been!? Do you see the time, do you like worrying your f-"
"Dad! I! I… I got a job!" Rin interrupted the priest before stuttering to a halt as a look of awe once more possessed his features. Fujimoto froze at the long forgone title and declaration. Even Yukio looked at his brother in puzzlement. For a moment silence reigned and then it was like a deluge struck as Rin let a myriad of words flood from his mouth.
"Ya see, there was this girl and she thought my fighting was cool and then she called me strong which was weird but not weirder than her because of her pink hair and then she asked for help and said she'd buy food and pay me because she needed to organize some stuff but then when we got there it was a dojo which was weird but not as weird as her pink hair and then we set out tatami mats for martial arts and she was talking about how she wanted to get it all set up before tomorrow because that was the first class and that she couldn't teach people how to fall if she didn't have mats down and then we set up weights and weird tree logs which was weird but not as weird as her pink hair and then put out wooden daggers and kendo stuff and other wooden weapons and then I set up the dummies because they were super heavy even for me and she didn't want to break a nail and that was weird but not as weird as her hair and then-"
"Rin! Breathe!" Yukio ordered as he settled his coat back on the coat rack. Rin immediately took a deep breath and the blue tinge began to dissipate from his face. Fujimoto went to the church door and locked it so as to keep interruption to a minimum. It looked like it was going to be one of 'those times' with Rin and he needed his full attention of the boy in order to understand his odd. Meanwhile, Yukio guided his brother to a pew and sat beside him, focusing on keeping Rin calm (calmer) so that the explanation could be understood by normal human beings.
"So, you got a job?" Yukio prodded after a moment of Rin's hasty gasping.
"Hai!" Rin said cheerfully. When the Rin looked into Yukio's eyes the younger sibling could almost feel his brother's happiness coming out as radiation. Rin was ecstatic. "I got a job helping this girl at a dojo a few blocks away from here. I thought it was just going to be for the day but then she said she needed someone part time to help with stuff and asked if I could work a few hours every day!" Yukio looked over at his father before looking back at his brother. Despite slowing down, Rin's story was still not quite decipherable.
"That's great, Rin. Though, I don't suppose you could start from the beginning?" Yukio asked. Teasing sense out of his brother had always been more his forte than the priest's.
"Oh!" Rin blushed and jumped slightly. "S-sorry. I guess I wasn't very clear."
"That's fine, Oni-san. Though I will say you've certainly grabbed my attention." Yukio smiled softly down at his big brother.
"Okay, so w-well. Ya know the KusoDame gang down on Shikinaka street, right?" Yukio frowned. That bunch of punks had been dealing drugs for two years now and were just on the verge of ticking off a lot of the other, bigger gangs. An American term would be 'getting too big for their britches'.
"The gang I specifically told you to stay away from? Yes, I know of it." Fujimoto replied coolly. One gray eyebrow lifted and the man's stance shifted subtly.
"Uh… y-yeah! Anyway, they were tryin' to wrangle protection outa old man Kenchi. So I just... uh... intervened, yeah, and when I was done making sure they wouldn't bother Kenchi-san anymore, Sakura-san was just standing there, watching. Then she said that if I was so strong, I could help her set up her Dojo, if I wanted to earn a little cash. So, I did. All day long. She had a looooottt of giant logs to stand up or tote around. Lots of tatami mats too, she wasn't kidding when she said she needed the help. Her print people messed up her flyers and put the wrong date on the opening so she has to be ready for students a week early. And her landlady only just gave her the keys today so most of her stuff was just sitting out in a storage compartment from where it'd came early. We basically had to drag it all inside, unpack it from the shipping boxes, check for damage, and start deciding where to start setting up different training areas. Did you know she ordered about five hundred wooden knife things that all had to be cleaned and tested? And she had a lot of fishing line. I don't know why she had all that. But anyway, I helped her set up her jojo today and she gave me ten thousand yen! Can you believe it? She gave me ten thousand yen for half a day's work! And then, she said I was a hard worker and asked if I'd like to be a part timer. I'm supposed to be over there at noon to help her set up for the first class and put up flyers." Rin finally finished with a deep breath of air. He hadn't said it all in one go but it had still been quite a mouthful.
"So... the reason you've been gone for hours, missed curfew, and worried us both sick... was because you got a job at a new martial arts studio after impressing a girl by beating up some thugs?"
"Uhhh... yes?"
Fujimoto pinched the bridge of his nose between his forefingers. Of course... it would be Rin who got a job by beating someone up.
This has been sitting on my computer for a few years. All I did was write the second half, polish it a little and it was good to go. As of now it is complete and really just a little humor to spark creative minds. But after I, oh, I don't know, finish something! I might end up coming back to this and writing a little short story about a Rin Okumura with ninja training from a certain pink medic nin.
Also, if you're in the pensacola area, look up 'the coffee guy'. Its a great new coffee shop and just happens to be where I got some creative vibes for this. I don't live there (was passing through on a biz trip and neeeedeeeddd some caffiene) but I'm sure they'd appreciate some more customers.
