Chapter 1
The weather was stormy again, something that had been happening too often lately for Naoki Konishi's liking. A quick check of the weather calmed him a little. It would stop raining long before midnight. This time, it was just enough to ruin a perfectly good day off from school. Just enough to put Naoki in a foul mood for the next several hours. Storms meant that none of his friends would be around. For some reason, everyone always seemed to vanish when it rained. He guessed it could have been some kind of weird coincidence, but he was in on all of the secrets now. Surely they'd have mentioned it if this was a related thing. He had an image in his head of the rest of the Investigation Team, hiding inside because they might melt in a little thunderstorm. Naoki laughed out loud when he pictured the other guys from the team cowering inside. Kanji was probably baking freaking cookies or something. As funny as the image was, cookies sounded really good right now. Naoki's stomach rumbled.
He went down to the kitchen in search of something to eat. He hated how odd his home was. Naoki's family lived above the liquor store that they ran in the shopping district. The bedrooms and living room were all upstairs, but the stupid little kitchen was downstairs, attached to the store. It was pretty ridiculous dealing with random drunk people when you just wanted to go grab a snack. It sounded like his mother was helping one said drunken customer at the moment. It was only about 11 am and the moron was drunk already. What was wrong with people? Naoki slunk past the store and into the kitchen, going straight to the fridge. Yeah, there wasn't much in there. He sighed dramatically. There was never anything good to eat in this house anymore. His parents had really stopped caring about much since Sis had died. Grocery shopping was really low on their list of priorities. He wondered if life was ever going to feel normal in this house again.
Naoki decided that food was more important than the suspicion that he might melt in the rain now that he was a part of the team. He laughed again as he grabbed an umbrella and headed through the store towards the door. Couldn't even leave without walking through the smell of booze and drunks. His mom gave him a weird look as he slipped into his shoes. "I'm going to grab something to eat. Be back," he said, and slipped out the door.
It was raining a lot harder than he thought. He was glad he'd invested in a more sturdy umbrella, because this was the kind of wind that turned them inside out. Naoki ran down the street, stopping in front of Aiya, the local chinese restaurant. He shut his umbrella and stepped inside with a relieved sigh. He took a seat at the bar and ordered the rainy day beef bowl. Just then, the door dinged as someone else entered.
"Naoki! Sup!" said Kanji. "I saw you running by and figured this was where you were headed. Ok if I join you?"
"Hey! Sure!" he replied. "I figured you'd be hiding out baking cookies or something." Kanji raised an eyebrow at him.
"Why cookies?" he asked. Naoki shrugged.
"I was hungry, so they sounded good." Both boys laughed. Kanji ordered himself a beef bowl and they sat together quietly for a moment. There were only a few other customers due to the weather.
"Glad the rain isn't supposed to last," Kanji said softly. Naoki turned and looked at him.
"Yeah. I know. I haven't even… I haven't had to deal with what the rest of you have. Kind of makes me nervous."
Kanji shrugged. "If it ever happens again, we're ready for it."
"You are. But I'm not. I've never had to… go in before." It was hard talking around it, but he probably shouldn't start babbling about a world inside the TV and fighting shadows in the middle of a restaurant.
"Maybe we should take you in, do some training," Kanji thought out loud. "I'll talk to the others and we'll make a plan."
"Sounds good," Naoki said apprehensively. Kanji laughed. They finished what they could of their lunch. Those rainy day beef bowls were ridiculous. Almost no one ever finished them. They heard a rumor from the owner that their team leader, Souji Seta had been able to. But he never owned up to it when they asked him about it. Chie and Kanji had been competing to see who could get the closest for months now. As big a guy as Kanji was, Chie was winning so far. Naoki figured he'd never see the bottom of one himself.
"Looks like the rain's letting up," said Kanji. "You heading back home?"
"Yeah," Naoki answered. "Not much to do anywhere else at the moment."
"Naoto's coming by later to watch a movie. You could come hang out with us," Kanji suggested. Naoki smiled. The last place he wanted to be was on a couch with Kanji and his girlfriend for two hours. They had only started dating a couple of months ago. No way would they get through a whole movie without kissing and other yucky PDA's at this point. Not that that stuff was bad, it just was bad to be the friend that had to sit right next to it.
"Uh… no thanks. Maybe another time," he replied.
"Cool, I'll see you later, then. Gotta go bake some cookies," he laughed. Naoki rolled his eyes as they went their separate ways.
