DISCLAIMER : The characters of this fiction (Ryo, Hide, Kaori, Saeko and the prefect) are the exclusive property of Tsukasa Hojo, as well as City Hunter in it's globality... That said, the old Motoharu, him, he is mine since created by my own mind as well as this story.

MOMENTS IN LIFE :

PREFACE : BEFORE THEY MET

CHAPTER 01: NOBODY IS ESSENTIAL

Sitting against the wall on the station's floor, facing the message board, he watched people pass by. Either eager to return home after a hard day or dragging their feet for those who instead were preparing themselves for a hard night of work. Over time, he became able to differentiate them, just as he had learned to recognize people who were happy souls from the ones that didn't really know what they were doing here, the ones like him. It's been barely six months since he came to live like this but already he was able to know those things just by looking at the approach of a person who passed in front of him. He was able to know whether the person was happy or sad, if she walked aimlessly or if she had a destination... Once accustomed, there were so many things for the eyes to see in a single approach, once you knew where to look at that is. He had spent so many years this way that now he was able to decrypt those people, without even really paying attention to them, without even really seeing them, just like they did not see him, did not pay attention to him.

So many wasted years... So many years spent watching his own life slip through his fingers while he was in prison. Perhaps, this was the reason why today he had this ability to read people so easily, only by watching them. Perhaps, he had learned to look at life without participating, only being able to see through it. After all, this was the only thing he could do, he had nothing, no place to hurry to return to in the evening, no loved one to expect him and worry if he was late, no employer to yell at him for the same reason... Not a single thing left... All lost over the years spent behind bars… Because life itself had not stopped turning without him, it had not wait for him. After all, nobody was indispensable in this world. Nobody ?... No, not a one... There was a time when younger and more naive, he had believed the contrary, that some people were essential in order for you to life. But he was mistaken on this point. Not only had he been wrong, but this was also the reason that pushed him to have such a life. He had believed though… Believed that family, friends, love, all the people who matter to you and for who you matter, that all these people were essential… But they were not…

He believed it to the point of stealing... To the point of killing... To the point of sacrificing his own life in order to protect those who were dear to him, those who were dear to his family... And he lost everything. He didn't count anymore the years spent in jail for his naivety and for the crimes he had committed because of it, for those people he thought he needed in his life. He had sacrificed himself thinking only about their happiness, but life, life had continued to follow its own path without giving him a predefined map to follow, she continued when he thought he had chosen the right path... But he was on the wrong track. He had lost his way over time, and at the same time, he had lost the people who could have shown it to him... But at least he had learned that nobody was indispensable. If you stop, even for only five minutes on the path of life, life does not stop to wait for you, it continues without you, not caring whether or not you had the intension to continue. And if you're not there to watch it, it hits the people who matter in your eyes, he had learned it at his own expense, but at least he had learned it : nobody is essential in life. If while your back is turned you lose a loved one, you will suffer, if it is someone you love with all of your heart, you will have the impression that you will never overcome the pain and some people may even think of the worst...

But the next day, the sun will rise as if nothing had happened. People will continue to live normally, laughing, crying, and knowing nothing of your pain or for some of them ignoring it on purpose. Ignoring that to you the days seem less sunny without that person, ignoring that even if you continue to live, you aren't really living. In time you will realize that whether that person counted for you or not, life itself continues. And as more time pass, you will begin to notice that your pain is a little lighter every day, until one day you will be able to think about this loved one and smile while remembering her. And finally, one day you will understand that over time, every little detail, every single moment that this person spent with you is engraved in you, either in your mind or in your actions. Yes, he had also learned that in prison. When he had learned of the traffic accident that had killed his wife and his father, a little after the death of his mother, taken away by her disease, he had believed that life ended there for him too… But life had continued… Without him… Until he became aware of it, but being in jail, he hadn't been able to catch up the train of life… And once out, why should he have try ? He no longer had anything that counted and he was already too old to try to rebuild a life for himself. Of course, he could have tried to find a job, but who wants to employ a former inmate ? He didn't have an address and no family to help him. Friends ? Long gone… In the world in which he had been raised, friends were like family, but they don't like it to be known that they have an acquaintance that is locked up for murder. So they don't visit you in prison, no, they forget about you.

This man of about fifty years that life had aged before his time smiled mechanically seeing the train's wagon stop to evacuate its swarm of students. So young, clucking and quarreling among themselves about trifles, their lives were ahead of them. They didn't know that for most of them, life would never be what they dreamed of. And what could they be dreaming about at their age ? Grumbling among themselves about what their parents made them suffer… The boys talking about mechanic, flipping magazines while hiding in corners, for they didn't want people to notice that at their age they shouldn't have such magazines in hands... The girls in groups, pressing themselves against a wall and talking of the latest gossip. A gossip that was surely related to the one of the group who wasn't present to see her friends talking behind her back. But after all, the missing one had surely done the same thing another day, when it was another that was not there. The one who appeared to be the leader of the group apparently had a crush on one of the boys who was reading his magazine, waiting his turn at the station's distributor. And her friends where apparently giving her the latest news concerning him. How he would have liked going back in time and being their age again, believing in life as they did without even a question ask.

The old man, mentally speaking since physically he was no more than a middle aged man, let his gaze wander over this youth who did not have any fear. And sitting down as he was he almost jumped out of his skin when his eyes met hazel's ones fixed on him. For a moment he was tempted to bend his head down, to avert his eyes, out of a habit he had taken in the past six months since his release out of jail. But something held him back… Something in those eyes was different from all the other looks given to him, a beggar, until now, even if he was unable to tell what. Or more accurately, he knew what, he recognized the difference, but he couldn't understand the reason behind it… People looked at him with pity, with contempt. They did not really pay attention to him, just enough to be aware of his presence when they were using the distributors next to which he was sitting, and enough to throw in his saucer the few little coins that the distributors gave back to them with their commands. Little coins that weren't enough for them to have any importance. So they threw them at him, enjoying themselves when their coins had more value than the ones he already had. They threw them in his bowl, making the little pieces of metal resonate against each others… Only for others to hear it and look at the kind soul who had given alms to a beggar.

They didn't give him because he didn't have enough food to eat, but for the sole purpose that it gave them some kind of value among others : they were the ones who were kind enough to give money to a less than nothing. To a man who was unable to work, a man who was just able to beg others for what he should have earned by himself, like them. The old man knew it, he could read it in their eyes full of contempt : 'At least, I am better than him', a population imbued of itself with moral values that were worthless, drowned under their vanity and their arrogance. He may have no possession except for his name, but at least, he was aware of his own value. He couldn't say the same about them, all these eager men who didn't even know after what they were spending their life running, aside from power and money. So why was she looking at him like that ? Without contempt, without prejudices, without even taking notice that she was ostentatiously staring at him ? She just stood there, leaning against the board of message and she looked at him… Just watching him… The old man jumped when a teenager shoved him aside while passing, and spilled his saucer making his coins roll on the ground. Almost walking on him in the process while squabbling with his friends. He didn't stop to help him pick them up, he merely turn his head in his direction to look at what had almost made him fall over but when his eyes met the worn out look, the teenager only shrugged his shoulders disdainfully before continuing on his way.

The girl frowned looking at the boy getting away but the old man didn't see it, he was too busy trying to pick up what the "good" ones had given him during the day. He had just enough in his saucer to buy a sandwich at the bakery in front of the station, or maybe a hot coffee in one of the distributors with a piece of white bread at the bakery. He didn't know yet… He had not made his mind up yet between only a full sandwich for his empty stomach or a piece of white bread but accompanied this time by a hot drink for his cold body… He only knew that he had the right amount of money for one or the other, but not enough for both… Just the right amount, he had to find the coins that rolled on the ground or he wouldn't have enough for anything.

- Kaori !

He was missing two coins... Two coins without which he wouldn't even be able to buy a piece of white bread. The old man bent on all fours on the floor, hearing the giggles of the band schoolgirls who were making fun of him, hiding behind their hands. But he did not pay attention to it, and he saw them… Huddled on the floor against the wall, his two missing coins had rolled under the distributor of the middle. Reaching his arm out, he desperately tried to catch them but he was too short. Putting all his coins in his other hand, he tried using his saucer to catch the two coins, but even with that he was still too short.

- Kaori !

The old man stifled a scream when someone walked on his other hand, continuing his way without even noticing, or maybe not caring, he didn't know, and he gave up. He already knew that his arm was not long enough, even with his saucer, to reach his coins. For a moment, crouched on the floor like he was, he was tempted to cry in rage and frustration… He had picked up enough in the day to buy some food to stall his empty stomach overnight… He couldn't even remember when was the last time that he was able to swallow a mouthful of bread… The old man straightened his posture to sit on the ground, leaning back against the distributor stuck between two others, he raised his knees to put his forehead against his wrists. His reddening hand, now bearing the imprint of a shoe heel, tightening on the coins that remained in it.

- Kaori !

The beggar jumped again at the feeling of movements beside him. Turning his head, he found kneeling beside him the hazel-eyed girl who was staring at him so strangely a few minutes earlier. He wondered what she was doing here, kneeling as she was on the ground, regardless of the fact that her long high school skirt was gathering the dust left on the station's floor by the people who had circulated here throughout the day.

- Kaori ! Your skirt !

The old man let his gaze run back along the pant legs stationed behind the girl. The worn out look finished his race along the body of the man who stood behind the girl, an arm trying to make her stand up. But too busy seeking something in her school bag, she didn't pay attention to the man reaching for her, in the same way that she apparently didn't care that one of her arms was touching him, the beggar… And he frowned, remembering having seen this man, this young man more accurately, somewhere before. But he was too tired and too hungry to remember where and when their first meeting took place, or who this young man was… Surely it was someone he happened to see in the station in the mornings or evenings.

- Ah !

Once more, his gaze returned to the girl. A girl who apparently was called Kaori and went to the high school at the exit of Shinjuku according to the uniform she was wearing. A girl who was proudly brandishing a 50 cm long ruler while smiling at him. Not caring about the young man trying to make her stand up, the girl pulled away from his grip on her arm and stretched on the ground, to look under the distributor against which the beggar was supporting himself. Apparently she didn't care that her butt was now in the air or that people were watching her. Bystanders watching the scene were pointing fingers at her while the young man accompanying her was blushing in embarrassment at being the center of their attention.

- Kaori ! What are you doing for god sake ?

The old man was asking himself the same question, but the girl just ignored her companion, squirming and wriggling under the dispenser without being aware of the attention on her, or perhaps not caring, he could not say.

- That's it !

Under his gawking eyes, the girl stood up before massaging her neck while the young man was almost kneeling on ground, trying to dust her uniform and the old man could almost have laugh at the irony of the situation if he had not been so tired. But once more, the teenaged girl surprised him by leaning on him and forcing him to open his sore hand to drop, with the greatest possible care and without making any noise, the two coins he had so desperately tried to recover.