Hello everyone!!! *waves* I'm Draconsis.
Akito (muse): Duh. *rolls eyes*
*smacks him* Anyways, here's a nice, short fic from me! I should have been writing my long running one, but the plot bunny wouldn't disappear. *nods*
Plot bunny: *hops around*
So I had to shut my plot hare, The Great Wars of the World, up in a hutch for a while. It's a not a bunny anymore, it's a hare. *nod nod* It's grown. Gomen nasai to all my other readers!
Akito: You do know that hares are a different species from rabbits, and baby rabbits are called kittens.
*scowls* Would you quit interrupting me?
(Silence)
Good. Neways, for all you nice people who are reading this, please review if you like the story! Reviews feed the plot bunnies, and that's how they grow. ^_^.
Plus if you have some time to spare… would you pay my fic hare a visit? ^_^. Just click on the blue Draconsis at the top…
(Beta read by Sansele)
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"……" Speech
(……) Authors Notes/ Comments
[……] Thoughts
((……)) Sounds
*……* Actions/Emotions
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[Fushigi Yuugi Belongs to Watase Yuu]
[Original characters, plotline, etc are the intellectual property of Draconsis]
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[ Enigma Tokyo ]
= Chapter One – Prologue =
Prologue – The end of one beginning and the start of the nextHayakou Shun'u poured himself a cup of coffee from the pot in the pantry. He noticed it was still piping hot, which suited him fine.
Having already worked at homicide department of the Shinjuku police for a few years, Hayakou was one of the more famous personalities of the department, along with their queer forensic scientist and the mysterious head of the department. Solving cases that baffled others guaranteed him a secure position in the office, and allowed him to live out his life's dream of being a police officer. He shoved the door to his office open, wincing as it slammed back into place.
Hayakou walked over to his desk, taking care not to spill the coffee. People said he walked extremely fast; in his opinion, they walked veeeeeery slowly. Putting down the coffee, he rearranged some papers, his eyes falling onto the empty table opposite his.
Yamachou Ryuuen had been his partner till recently, the genki officer being transferred to the Ikebukuro division. Ryuuen had been his buddy since they had both met each other signing up for cadet school, and the guy was still his flat mate.
To tell the truth, he was feeling apprehensive about having a new partner. Especially a female one. That was all he knew about his new partner, nothing else at all. Zip. Zero. Nada. Not even where she was being transferred in from. He glanced at the clock, noting that he still had around an hour till he had to meet her.
[She'll probably want to do the room up in pink or something,] he thought. He shuddered inwardly. Growing up with four sisters had been harrowing, and Ryuuen still teased him that he hadn't entire gotten over it yet. But he had of course… it was just that he didn't get along with girls, and he definitely did not like having one forced upon him as a partner for god knows how long.
Flipping open a folder, he swore loudly. He hated paperwork. Once the case was over, that should be the end of it, finished, done, and certainly not followed up with paperwork. Sighing wearily, he reached for a pen.
-~=*[^]*=~-
A young woman spotted her target in the distance, and rapidly closed into it.
A brown stone building loomed up in front of her, 'Shinjuku Police Department' written across the top of the main entrance in gold lettering. The autumn foliage complimented the building nicely, the sunlight glinting off the prominent police logo.
[So, this is the Shinjuku police department.] She walked into the driveway, shifting the position of her sling bag and straightening her shirt. A screech of tires announced an oncoming car, but she nimbly stepped aside as it brushed past, going dangerously fast.
As she watched the flashing red and blue light disappear round the bend, she mentally rehearsed her mini-speech once again. Japanese was a confusing language, but she did have the bonus of being well versed in Chinese and several of its dialects. It had taken her two years to learn Japanese, and now she would finally get to use it.
Good afternoon, I'm Sho Fei, of the Shanghai police, I'm here as a temporary transfer. May I speak to the head of the homicide department please?
Shanghai had devised some sort of officer exchange program with Tokyo, and she had been selected, due to the fact that she was fluent in Japanese, with a vague Tokyo accent to boot. So far she had successfully navigated through several shopping malls, and despite the lousy map she had been given, she'd found her new post.
Hopefully, Shanghai wouldn't need her brains for at least a week or two.
She pushed open the door, at once feeling the cool of the air conditioning system. Walking over to the counter, she took a silent deep breath.
"Konnichiwa, watashiwa Sho Fei desu…"
-~=*[^]*=~-
Hayakou rapped sharply on the door to the chief's office. Without waiting for an answer, he pushed open the door.
The chief blinked. "Ah, Hayakou-san." The man pushed his glasses further up his nose bridge, the only sign that he had been startled.
Hayakou saluted. "Kokusai-kachou." His eyes fell onto the figure seated in front of the desk, her piercing gaze upon him as well.
She was slightly built, with eyes a shade deep shade of gray. Long black hair with a tinge of red was tidly held back in a simple ponytail, and she wore a clean white shirt and brown pants. Her skin was slightly tanned, pointing out that she worked often in the sun. A brown jacket rested in her lap, on top of a faded spotless blue sling bag. Sitting cross-legged, she was the very picture of neatness, with only a flyaway strand of hair marring the composition.
He could feel her staring at him, and her gaze seemed somewhat slightly hostile. He took the proffered seat next to her, suddenly feeling extremely messy. She didn't even greet him, just turned around to face the chief.
Well. At least she's not wearing pink.
-~=*[^]*=~-
Sho Fei had sized her partner up in an instant. One learnt how to do that quickly on the streets of Shanghai.
With messy red hair, a deep kansai accent, and obviously not much respect for authority, her new partner slumped into the chair beside her, not even waiting for the chief's instructions. A battered ID tag was hooked to his jacket pocket, 'Hayakou Shun'u' scrawled across in barely legible handwriting.
She glance once more at him before re-crossing her legs, turning back to the chief. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him shoot her a glare, which she ignored.
-~=*[^]*=~-
Kokusai Hitei glanced from one officer to another, before sighing mentally as he watched Hayakou glare at the Shanghai officer. One could practically see the bolts of electricity between them.
Removing and wiping his spectacles, he made a mental note to get someone to check in on them every two hours or so. They were a natural disaster looking for a place to happen. Which would probably be the office.
He sighed again.
-~=*[^]*=~-
"Knock knock! Who's there? Why, it's Maihama Kouji, the ramen boy! And what would ya be doing 'ere? Delivering Genrou's lunch, that's what! What's Genrou's lunch by the way? Oh, it's the same ole thing like everyday…"
Shun'u could see Sho's eyebrows gradually rising as she stared at the door to her left, an amused expression appearing on her face. He got up and yanked the door open, only to get knocked on the head by an over-enthusiastic delivery boy.
"Whoops, sorry Gen! Ya shouldn't 'ave opened the door just as I was about to knock, yer flippin' head's at me knockin' level." Kouji jokingly chided him as he placed the bowl of ramen on Shun'u's desk.
Shun'u was about to reply when Kouji spun around, the ramen boy's eyes landing on his new partner.
"And whadda we have here?" Kouji strode over to Sho, who remained as composed as ever. "Why, ya must be Gen's new pardner!" He bowed. "Maihama Kouji, at yer service!"
Shun'u made a mental note to yell at Kouji when he got back to the apartment they shared with Ryuuen. In two short minutes, Kouji had just revealed the fact that he'd eaten the same thing for lunch for the past two weeks, along with his childhood nickname.
"Sho Fei, from the Shanghai police." She looked at him, before turning back to Kouji. "I thought his first name was Shun'u, not Genrou."
"Aw, Genrou's just his nickname." Kouji walked back over to the disgruntled detective. "He's called the phantom wolf cause no one could ever catch up with him during the sprints. Practically flies over the ground, he does." Kouji grinned.
Shun'u was mentally running through the list of 101 ways to extract revenge on Kouji. By the look on her face, Sho Fei now probably believed that he was another one of those all brawn and no brain officers, and he certainly wouldn't allow her to think that way.
"Now," Kouji whipped out an order form from one corner of his uniform, and produced a pen from yet another pocket. "Would'ya like anything from the Maihama house of Ramen? Everything under 1200 yen." He smiled at Sho Fei once more. "I'll bet Gen here didn't tell ya that lunch could be delivered."
Hayakou decided this was a nice time to butt in. "There's always the canteen."
"Yep, the famous canteen with the mealwormy meatloaf, the unbelievably horrible udon, the suspicious sushi-" Kouji rattled on.
Sho Fei continued to look extremely bemused, before pushing back her chair and standing up. "I think I'll go look around the area first." She retrieved her bag and jacket, before letting herself out. The door closed soundlessly behind her.
Kouji blinked. "Well."
-~=*[^]*=~-
The bullet slammed into the target, a fraction of a millimeter away from the red center of the target.
Hayakou Shun'u let loose a long string of expletives. The top scorer in the annual sharpshooter contest, not hitting the exact center was way below his standard.
It was all because of that Sho Fei. He'd tolerated an hour and a half of incessant questions from the Shanghai officer, but that wasn't what had pissed him off. They had all been phrased in a way that one might find used in primary schools, and all of them had been fiendishly easy to answer.
"Where's the nearest subway station? Well, duh, the Shinjuku station…" he muttered to himself. The questions had ranged from restaurants to moneychangers, and he was dammed if she could remember every single answer.
She ticked him off, what with her superior attitude, condescending tone and blatant disgust at his habits. When he'd let the door slam shut she had glared at him, and her neat handwriting seemed to fill in those pesky piles of paperwork at a speed faster than his. She'd even brought over some paperwork from China! She'd even opted to room with Yuriko, another female officer, just because Wanatabe-san's apartment was within walking distance of the police station.
He emptied another round into the target, the retort stifled by his earmuffs. They missed the center too, spraying over the second band of the target.
He started using all the dialect swearwords he knew.
-~=*[^]*=~-
The red phone rang in his office, and Chief Kokusai nearly, very nearly dropped his papers as he scrambled over to the phone. With a practiced flip of his head, he tossed his long sepia hair away from one ear, and picked up the red phone.
White phone for normal calls, red phone for emergencies. Normal calls were when his colleagues called for advice on the budget; emergencies were when they were calling about a new case.
"Moshi moshi, Chief Kokusai of Shinjuku Homicide here."
"We have a murder at…"
-~=*[Tsuzuku, To Be Continued]*=~-
So how was it? Interesting enough for you? ^_^
Akito: It has to be, if they've read this far.
Don't listen to him. My other muse is having a meeting with Inspiration-sama, so he's got to hang around here right now.
Akito: *huffs*
So this is part one of seven planned parts, and remember to review if you like the fic!
Just so you know, since this is a prologue, it's much shorter than what a chapter will normally be. But, my teachers are probably Tenkou's reincarnation, so, yeah. *Sniffs* Meanies…
~ Draconsis
29th January 2003, 9.41pm