The annoying electronic tone of his alarm clock roused Onodera Ritsu out of his peaceful slumber. He begrudgingly dragged himself out of bed and slammed the 'off' button. Today was Ritsu's first day at his new job, and for all intents and purposes, he should've been excited, and he would've been, except for the dream he'd just awoke dream was haunting, and unfortunately recurring.
Ritsu was a kid again, fifteen years old. His father, the chief of police at the station, had insisted that Ritsu show up to the most recent reported crime scene. After all, if he was to become a cop like his father before him and his father before him and so forth, then there was no time like the present for the young lad to increase his familiarity with the policing process and see his first real crime scene. Ritsu had seen crime scene photos of robberies, vandalism, and the like for as long as he'd been alive. Imagine the shock, a fifteen year old boy, believing he'd be seeing the aftermath of a simple breaking and entering, and instead seeing the victim of a homicide. A man lay face down on the floor of a living room, limbs askew and several bullet holes decorated his back. The picture window at the front of the room was shattered and glass littered the scene. "Ritsu, would you like to watch Officer Kanayama interview the witness?" Chief Onodera asked, smiling at his son. Ritsu turned his gaze from the victim to the witness. The witness was a boy not much older than himself, with dark hair and rumpled clothing. Ritsu had seen him around school. His eyes were intense and appeared to see right through Ritsu. Ritsu looked from the prostrate victim to the piercing eyes of the witness, spun on his heels, ran out the door, and promptly threw up his dinner in the bushes outside. This event is likely what shaped Ritsu into the jaded and pessimistic adult he is in the present day. Ten years had passed, and yet Ritsu could still feel the other boy's eyes piercing the back of his head as he ran away. But whenever Ritsu woke up from this dream, he found himself unable to even remember the other boy's face. And that left him bothered and perplexed.
But presently, Ritsu was busy rubbing his temples, trying to force those memories out of his conscious and into the recesses of his mind. He'd learned all too well he couldn't get rid of them entirely. He'd spent the last ten years of his life trying to forget that trauma. Ritsu dressed in his suit and tie, made his coffee and poured it into a travel mug, then hopped on the train to go to work.
"Hello, my name is Onoderra Ritsu, I'm the new junior detective." Ritsu smiled politely at the secretary. The secretary smiled and bowed. "The new junior detective? Your desk is down the hall, on the right hand side. Please tell Head Detective Takano-san that you've arrived." The secretary resumed her work and Ritsu headed down the hallway. He approached the desk of an official looking man with mountains of paperwork on his man was tall, Ritsu noticed, even when he was sitting down. He had messy, dark hair, black rimmed glasses, and even a black shirt. His whole presence was dark and intimidating. The man pushed his glasses further up his nose and sighed in frustration. Ritsu was about to speak when he noticed he man was on the phone. "Look", the man boomed into the telephone."I don't give a damn that it wasn't on purpose! You almost contaminated key evidence! Do you understand that? If you're ever so careless again, I will not hesitate to. Kick. Your. Ass." The man slammed the phone down then turned to a bewildered and intimidated Ritsu. "Can I help you?" The man asked with an unreadable stoicness. "Um… Head Detective Takano-san?" Ritsu asked. "Shitsure am. I take my coffee black, thank you." The detective turned away from Ritsu. "Sir", Ritsu said, his annoyance almost palpable. "My name is Onodera Ritsu, I'm the new junior detective… and your new partner." The detective turned back to face Ritsu. He got up from his swivel chair and extended his hand to his junior. "Takano Masamune. I was told someone like you would be coming today. It'll be a pleasure working with you, if you know how to do your job, that is." Ritsu shook his partner's hand and began settling into the empty desk right next to the head detective's. "I can assure you that I know how to do my job, and do it well." Takano raised an eyebrow and laughed. "I do hope so, Onodera, because I have no time for weak links." Ritsu chose to ignore this comment. I can already tell I'm going to hate this guy, Ritsu thought to himself. He began filling out paperwork on his desk and making sure all his equipment was in order. I'll stay for maybe...two weeks. And when I can't take any more of this job, I'll see if I can crawl back to my old station- "Hey, rookie." Ritsu flinched. "Today's your lucky day. There's been an incident at a restaurant downtown. Let's go." Takano adjusted his glasses and grabbed his keys off his desk. The two detectives raced to the parking lot. They jumped into Takano's car, and Takano slammed the siren onto the roof of his car and began driving to the crime in progress.
The high speed at which Takano was driving made Ritsu grab the handle attached to the interior of the roof in the car. Takano glanced over at Ritsu and chuckled. "You should be watching the road", Ritsu mumbled. The feeling of his superior's eyes on him made his cheeks flush inexplicably. Takano changed the subject by further briefing Ritsu on the attempted murder/assault in the restaurant kitchen. Ritsu nodded and appeared to take mental notes. This made Takano smile, just a little. "I can't help this feeling that I know you from somewhere. Can't say where, though." Ritsu looked over, wide-eyed, his hand still white-knuckling the interior handle. "We work in the same field, it's entirely possible we met at a function of some sort." Takano returned his gaze to the road. "I don't feel like that's it." A long, uncomfortable silence followed. After several agonizing moments, Ritsu asked, "It's that Italian restaurant coming up, right?". Takano nodded, "Good eye." And with that, Takano pulled into the restaurant parking lot. "...I don't see any squad cars here. We don't have any back up. Is that standard procedure at this station?" Ritsu reflected. Takano replied, "We beat the uniforms here. Most of them are tied up at that convention on the edge of the city. Looks like we're gonna handle this one ourselves, rookie." Takano loaded up his gun, turned off the safety, and put it in his holster. Ritsu nervously followed suit. "I'll cover you, let's go." Ritsu nodded and they headed in.
The screaming from the kitchen was almost deafening as they approached, and naturally, the seating area was deserted. The scene in the kitchen was bizarre. The waitstaff and kitchen staff were huddled in the corner, wide-eyed. In the center of the kitchen, the head chef held a knife to the throat of his assistant chef. "I'm going to cut you if you don't take that back! My baked five-cheese ravioli is not dry and tasteless!". The assistant chef whimpered."I refuse to take it back! I'm a much better chef than you could ever be." Both chefs froze when they noticed the detectives standing in the doorway. "Police! Drop your weapon and release your hostage!", Takano barked. "Not until he admits my food is superior!". Ritsu slowly approached the chefs, his hands up in the classic ' don't attack me please ' position. "Uh, hi, I like your cooking", Ritsu began. It was at this moment the uniformed officers arrived, and Takano motioned for them to be silent. "Really? You do?" This made the chef move the knife away from the other man's throat, but just a few centimeters. "Oh, sure I do, I was here just last week with my fiancee. We loved it. The lighting, the ambiance, the ravioli, everything." Ritsu came closer, less than five feet away from the knife-wielding maniac. The chef was smiling now, and the whole room was in stunned silence. "Really? You loved my ravioli?".The chef now lowered the knife to his side and was full on beaming. Ritsu slowly stepped forward, he was now about two and a half feet away. "Loved it, really, maybe you could cater our wedding?" Ritsu was sweating and flushed. The assistant chef seized the opportunity to make a hasty getaway. This made the head chef spin around in surprise. Ritsu leaped onto the the chef's back and wrestled the knife from his grasp. When the back-up police behind Takano attempted to storm the kitchen, Takano yelled "Stay back!" Ritsu snatched the knife out of the chef's hand and slid it across the floor, the knife coming to a stop under the stove. Ritsu slapped the handcuffs on the chef, got off his back, then helped the assailant to his feet. Ritsu breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat off his brow. The whole situation couldn't have been more than an hour, but it felt like it went on for motioned for the uniforms to proceed. "Book him, and bring the witnesses to the station for questioning." Takano gestured to an officer with a walkie talkie. "And bring Kisa and the evidence guys here to get the knife. And get the damn crime scene photographer!" Takano added, with bite to his voice. The officer scurried away to attend to Takano's demands. Ritsu noticed that Takano was sweating almost as badly as he was. "You could've gotten yourself killed, you dumbass! Or worse, a civilian!" Takano gave an exasperated sigh and smacked Ritsu on the back of the head with a rolled up newspaper from his back pocket. Ritsu rubbed the site of impact and grumbled under his breath.
Ritsu and Takano headed back to Takano's car. Once seated inside, Ritsu turned to Takano, his face still flushed from the whole ordeal. "You know, if we're going to be partners, we have to have mutual trust or we're not going to accomplish anything." Takano turned his attention to the road and began driving like a normal person instead of a speed demon, which gave Ritsu a chance to relax. "You got a point there, rookie, okay, let's say I trust you. Do you trust me?" Takano asked. After a bit of a pause, Ritsu said, "Well, you haven't given me any reason not to. So far." Takano suppressed a smile.
The rest of the day progressed uneventfully, made up of nothing more than the monotonous work of mountains of paperwork and the interviewing of witnesses. And of course, rivers of coffee to fight the ever-present urge to take a nap. Towards the end of his work day, Ritsu was resting his head on his desk when he felt an arm grab him by the shoulder and drag him off to a private corner. "What the fuck are you doing?!" Ritsu asked, forcing his captor to turn around face him. His "captor" was a young man, with black hair parted down the middle, and he was dressed in a lab coat and jeans."Listen, newbie, I gotta tell you what you're getting into here", the acoster whispered. Ritsu sighed.
"My name is not newbie, I'm Onodera Ritsu, junior detective, and I don't-"
"Nice to meet you, Rittie. I'm Kisa Shouta, forensics, and I gotta warn you about your new partner."
Ritsu laughed nervously. "What's there to worry about?"
"Takano-san, he's got a reputation."
"...reputation?"
"Yeah, reputation. If I had 100 yen for everyone from beat cop to junior detective who Takano-san broke down, I'd have enough money to leave this shit job and retire."
"Wait, retire, aren't you like, younger than me?"
"First of all, I'm thirty, second of all, that's not the part you should take issue with! Takano-san will break you if you don't keep up."
Ritsu shifted uneasily."Is this guy for real?"
Kisa nodded. "Oh yeah, but he's not all bad, you know. He's only twenty-seven, but he's managed to become the youngest head detective in this station's history, and he's really cleaned up this city while he's been here. It's impressive, really."
"Yeah, that is impressive, I think-"
"If you have time to gossip, you have time to work, now get to it!", a voice boomed behind Ritsu and Kisa. Ritsu was automatically reminded of the consequences of pissing off Takano when he felt the familiar sting of a newspaper whacked against his head. Kisa ran right back to forensics to save his own hide.
Ritsu tapped the watch on his wrist. "My shift is over, I'm on my time now." Takano raised an eyebrow. "Okay then. Mine's over too, wanna go drinking?" Ritsu tried not to audibly scoff. "Thank you, but I really don't think I can." Takano put his hand on Ritsu's shoulder, which made him blush, much to his own chagrin and confusion. "Mutual trust, remember?" Takano said, with a faint smile. And in that moment, Ritsu could not remember a time in his life where he'd regretted saying something so badly.
