Chapter 1
"Beeeep! Beeeeeeep! Beee-" Kyoko scrambled up from her bed in the dark and quickly silenced her alarm clock app on her smartphone.
"Ugh…" She rubbed her face before turning on her bedside lamp. The clock on the wall says 10.45PM. The joys of graveyard shift in the medical laboratory of the local hospital, Kyoko rolled her eyes and grimaced. Kicking off her sheets, she began her pre-graveyard shift ritual which includes: brushing teeth, wash face, butter on toast, big coat, and scarf. Taking a deep breath, she muttered: "Think of the extra money for this shift…those new boots are not going to buy itself you know." After that moral boost, she finally opened her front door, went down the elevator of her apartment and ducked into her car.
Across the city, several gunshots ran out in the 'bad' parts of the neighborhood. Police car sirens were heard soon after.
"How were your days off?" Ruth the laboratory technician beamed at Kyoko over the pile of blood samples dropped off by a hospital attendant. "Got your laundry done yet? You were complaining about the rain last week."
"Yes, finally. I thought my apartment was going to stink up a storm and my land lady will think something died in that miserable pile of underwear."
"Over dramatic much? I'm pretty sure sweat smells nothing like rotting meat."
"Oh you don't know how awful it was. I just can't stand dirty laundry."
"Kyoko, you can't stand anything dirty. It's part of your OCD remember?"
"Right, thanks for the reminder."
"Always welcome." Ruth grinned and loaded the sample racks with tubes for spinning. She walked over to the centrifuges and began to unload the samples into the machine, careful to balance the weight distribution. Kyoko seated herself in front of the computer and began to register the blood tests on the request forms.
"Ruth, when is your next holiday?" Kyoko asked, typing away frantically on the keyboard. "Your chemotherapy just ended. You ought to take some time off."
"Oh I don't know, I don't feel that bad right now. Everyone says it will be ok and then the bad part hits you, so maybe I'm waiting for the bad part to hit before I take the time off."
"You should be on holiday anyway, anyone who just went on chemotherapy should not be working."
"Thanks honey, but I'm fine. Really." Ruth raised her eye brows as the centrifuge in front of her started making clanking noises. "Oh shi-, what is it now!?"
"S-six dead, nine injured sir," a junior police officer reported in a shaky voice to the police station via his car radio. "Seems like a gang brawl got interrupted and it just…turned into a gun fight suddenly… I'll be needing back up, the forensics team a-and a few ambulances!"
"Roger that."
Red lights flashing at the window caught Kyoko's attention. She looked over and then scowled.
"There goes the ambulance, three of them in fact! I just KNEW it. Never a quiet night when it's my turn, never!" She yelled with her fist raised in the air. Ruth shook her head behind her. "How many units of blood we got left? If it's MVA* it could get ugly in here."
Kyoko turned in time to see Ruth's frail looking back disappear into the blood bank section of the laboratory. That girl doesn't know how pale and tired she looks, Kyoko frowned.
"Hey officer," a weak voice called out to the lone police from the shadows. "What's going on? Wha-, where's my friends?"
The police squinted into the darkness, making out the shadows of a twenty-something boy struggling to sit up.
"My name is Douglas, I just got here after reports of gunshots being fired." Douglas shone his torch towards the voice. Noting a disheveled looking young man with brown spiky hair, that seems to be the popular hair cut these days. Other than that, he doesn't seem to be injured too badly. A couple of scrapes on the forearm is all he could see. "Listen kid, the ambulance is going to be here any moment. In the mean time don't move, take it easy."
As Douglas directed his torch away from the young man, something shiny caught his eye. The boy was wearing a strangely decorated chunky looking ring on his right hand. Oh great, I guess this one is for some serious questioning. If that ring doesn't spell gang association, nothing does.
"Tea time!" Ruth hollered from across the laboratory, effectively waking up Kyoko and just in time to stop her from drooling onto her work bench.
"But-"
"Quickly! Before all that jazz from the dispatched ambulance shows up!" Ruth was already walking down the hallway leading to the hospital cafeteria.
"…so…how's your family doing?" Kyoko enquired carefully between bites of her chocolate muffin, diets be damned on night shifts.
"They're all good, in fact they're taking this chemotherapy stuff really well and I've never known they can be so supportive of me." Ruth replied while downing her coffee. "Speaking of family, what is that brother of yours doing now? You used to complain about all these mysterious injuries he'd get at school. Is he still that accident prone?"
"Uh, actually I'm not sure; it's becoming a mission to keep in touch." Kyoko flashed an irritated glare towards the ceiling. "He was really into sports in high school so he managed to find a job teaching sports at a private school in Italy. Or at least that's what he says. He emails me sometimes to tell me he's still alive; there has been occasions when he doesn't even turn up to family gatherings. I dunno, seems like he's hiding something don't you think?"
"A girl perhaps?"
"Oh God you have no idea how much I hope that is true."
"Eh? Really?"
"Ok, that's all of the nine injured guys in stable condition and ready to be transported." A medical officer waved at Douglas who nodded and waved back. "You're going to have to follow us in your police car, no room AT ALL in here."
"Got it, NamimoriHospital right?"
"Yep."
As the ambulance and the police car took off from the now quarantined crime scene, another sleek black car silently glided onto the road behind them, following in the distance.