The Prelude
Friday nights caught her at various places, involved in all sorts of scenarios, requiring every bit of gray matter, muscle, and lunacy she could muster. Same time, last week, for example, she was crawling in a ventilation system, trying to sneak in one of Yakuza's hideouts. And that was just half a month after she had dyed her hair, pierced and tattooed herself to enter what was vaguely referred to as Tokyo's Cyberpunk Society (in reality - a congeries of geeks way too self-absorbed to notice each other). She knew better than anyone now: valuable information tended to stick mostly to the fishy types.
Tonight, however, was supposed to be the beginning of a rare, well-deserved rest over the weekend. Tonight she could finally sleep in her own bed, and, dare she hope, even recognize herself in the mirror on the next morning.
But one encrypted message on her phone later, she knew that this much anticipated night was simply not going to be tonight, with a good chance of not being any of the following either. She was beginning to wonder now if she would ever experience the existential boredom that seemed to encapsulate the life of a civilian. And she couldn't help but ask herself what would it feel like to casually chat about her ordinary boss over a drink with her ordinary colleagues on an ordinary evening after an exhausting (yet) ordinary week... For the time being, though, there was absolutely no perspective of getting any closer to that normality. The job was job, after all. It was to be reckoned with as soon and with as few complications as possible, and she wasn't exactly the type to simulate performance at the workplace. Her job wasn't exactly the type to tolerate such lapses.
This particular Friday night, like many, many others now, found her on the streets, and for the umpteenth time this week, month, year, Sakura had to run.
A/N: Okay... here I am, starting a story I should have posted looong ago. This chapter's short, but it's just a teaser ;P There will be more next time (pun intended) :)