1. I want to thank the one who already sent a review^^
2. I just noticed that there apparently is no red headlight-sign with HOMRA on it, neither in the manga, nor in the anime...what the hell have I been seeing there all this time...?
Well, anyway, enjoy the chapter :)
#1 Chapter of
- "Atatakai egao de hitotsu" –
3 years –and a little bit- later:
Today, it was just like those days, on which you just hang around, hopefully doing nothing, while watching as time flies by your window.
Although it was only 4.30 pm in the afternoon, the sun had already gone way past noon time; winter was coming, so it seemed. Not a single cloud could be seen in the sky no matter how far you looked; just a mere week ago, it had been raining quite heavily.
And although it was such a seemingly nice day, the sign on the doorknob of the bar with the red headlights said closed.
The members of HOMRA had come together, well at least most of them that would drop by every once in a while at the bar in Shizume-cho.
There was still that old projector that stood in the middle of the room, with which the few men inside had been taking a look at old pictures the other day.
Kushina Anna, who had just a few minutes ago still been going through the taken snapshots for a second time, as not sitting on a bar stool at the counter.
She was calm as always and let 3 of her glass spheres roll in circles on the wooden surface of the bar, which the barman had purposely let fly over from England to Japan.
Leaving that aside, Kusanagi was standing behind the counter while smoking one of the few cigarettes that were still left in his package.
A giant man with rather dark skin and very bright hair was sitting right next to the tiny girl with the white hair and kept on forcing down his meal.
A bit more I the back of the room, there were 3 guys sitting on the 2 big sofas.
One of them wore a hood combined with a cap pulled deep into his face and a large pair of sunglasses covering his eyes, so you could barely see anything apart from his nose and mouth.
The other sitting on the same couch next to him, made a more friendly impression with his big eyes and messy light brown hair, which he had put under a cap.
The third man, who seemed to be slightly younger as the other two by what –one or 2 years- had leant back on the other couch with his right foot resting on the table between the two sofas.
He had his arms crossed over his chest and looked with his rather serious eyes out of the window.
He too, wore a beanie over his reddish-brown hair.
There were a few of the regular visitors missing as they had already gone home after staying at the bar since early in the morning, some of them had even been sitting there for the whole night, so it seemed.
It was already the 12th of December but the weather had been quite mild for the last few days.
There was rather a calm but still refreshing mood in the bar and it just so happened to seem like a pretty normal day today too.
That was also why no one really lifted their head in surprise as the doorbell suddenly rang and the last rays of light came shining right into the room, followed by the noises from the street and some unknown, but still familiar scent.
Even as the door was shut a bit roughly, no one, except for the blonde man behind the bar of course, greeted or at least paid attention to the customer, who had just come in, although the sign outside clearly said the place wasn't open at the moment.
A pair of light brown combat-style boots, who belonged to the person that just had entered the scene, paused before taking any steps further into the bar.
"Good afternoon, Kusanagi-san." A clear, calm voice spoke and the man behind the bar finally looked at his customer.
"Ah- So it's you."
With that, the others in the room seemed to have finally noticed that something was odd about the situation.
After all, the sign on the door had clearly said that the shop was closed, so they slowly came to realize.
"I didn't think that I would see your face around here anytime soon." The blonde man stated as he watched the person in front of him from behind of his goggles with sharp eyes.
The three guys at the back lifted their heads and watched the newcomer with quite curious eyes.
The small, doll-like girl had stopped letting her glass orbs swirl around and watched their visitor with bigger eyes than they already had been before.
Just like the giant guy stopped chewing still with his food halfway to his throat, Kusanagis' eyes lit up for a short while.
"But like always, it's a pleasure seeing those features of yours."
The blonde man in his mid-twenties put away his cigarette and bowed down to the one standing in front of him.
It was quite an unusual appearance this person had:
With combat boots reaching almost up to the knees, black over knee-high socks, jeans-shorts and a yellowish-green hoodigan, the quite young customer made a rather foreign impression; Even here, in Shizume town, where almost no one exactly looked Japanese.
The statue, no rather her figure was looking extraordinarily thin, the skin was still pale although you could see that she had been outside in the sun for quite a few times.
You could see that the one in the entrance had to be a woman without a doubt, at last when you saw her dark chocolate brown hair falling over her thin shoulders with light waves here and there.
While the customer was still looking at the blonde bartender wither head laid back in the neck since their height difference was simply too much, the young guy at the back of the bar had jumped out of his seat.
…Took him quite a while to realize that the one standing there across the room was a young woman or rather- a GIRL.
The young man was staring at her in a daze and pointed with shaking arms at her face.
"You-you're…!" The girl averted her attention from the bartender to the guy who pointed his finger at her while stuttering nonsensical words.
"I-I know you!"
Now, she looked at him with a calm look with a –not so calm expression- on her face.
"You're the one on that picture Totsuka-san took!"
The agitated guy hurried over to the projector in the corner of the room and put it back to where it had been standing for quite a while last night.
Kusanagi and the giant guy on the bar stool were looking at their younger clansman in surprise as he switched the projector back on and zapped through a ton of pictures.
The two other guys from the sofas had come closer since they were curious about what that kind of short guy was so eager to find in all those snapshots.
They exchanged curious looks with the girl and she shrugged her shoulders because she didn't know what kind of problem he had either.
"Um-Yata-san…? What exactly are you looking at?" Kusanagi asked the guy in the middle of the room.
"Ah-"The girl uttered and took a few steps closer to that Yata guy while looking at the projection on the wall.
"Look! That woman looks just like her!" Yata almost yelled still pointing a finger at her when it took him a few moments to realize what exactly he was doing until he flinched and pulled back from the projector.
"What…is that…?" The girl now asked with a slightly confused expression on her face as she started to feel left out since she didn't get what was going on.
"Araa…look what we got here ~" The guy with the light brown hair and nice looking face stated as he skipped through to a better resolution snapshot.
"Isn't that you on there?" The other guy with the "cloaked" by hood, shades and cap, face said.
"That's what I said just now, Bandou!" The short guy, Yata-something, yelled as he slapped the others' "patched-up" forehead.
"Hmm~" The bartender hummed and came around the bar to take a closer look of the picture projection on the wall.
They were all looking at the image of the city at night-time on which a middle length haired girl was standing on a rooftop while watching at the bright shining city lights.
The next one was a close up to her face as a sudden breeze let her hair sway in waves and she tried to brush it out of her face with her fingers.
The following one wasn't a picture but a short video in which you first heard the voice of a young man saying:
"August 13th, 9.45 pm; taking a glimpse at the lights and stars at night…"
Then, you could clearly hear footsteps getting closer to the girl standing on the balustrade and the wind that was blowing gently in the background.
The members of HOMRA literally stared at the video and didn't seem to listen to what the young mans' voice now said a lot more soft into the camera, so the one he was obviously filming in secret wouldn't notice she was being watched.
Even Anna had now slid off her seat and followed the giant-like guy as he walked forward to get a better view.
As the video continued the tiny girl tucked at the older woman's sleeve right as the person on tape noticed she wasn't really alone on the rooftop.
"Oi, what the hell-"The voice in the video piped up with a slightly but clear tone.
The girl flinched after jerking her head around to see what was going on and walked up to the cameraman quite fast.
"What do you think you're doing…?"
She tried to reach for the camera and you could clearly hear the young man giggle with an amused voice.
"Agh-Chotto…!" Her voice continued and she was staring right into the camera lens up-close.
For a really short moment you could see her light green eyes looking even more furious as her voice sounded, followed by the startled words of the young man behind the camera.
"Iya- No, wait!" he almost wailed as a last picture flashed up.
The young face of the woman, who seemed to have effectively "silenced" the cameraman, looked a last time into the lens with a more concerned look on her face as the light of the camera went out.
The words following sounded a bit muffled as she most probably had out her hands on the lens.
"…Geez- Tatara…"
Then the recording stopped with a "click" and left puzzled looks on the face of those who had just been watching the short, but strange clip.
The girl that undoubtedly was the same as on the tape, just stood there with her arms crossed in front of her chest and looked like she really didn't want to be there at this exact moment.
You could see that she was feeling more and more uncomfortable in her skin as the guys' looks were going from the projector over to her face.
"Well yeah-um-" She started as the bartender suddenly stepped closer and stood in front of her.
"Let's see…" He said as he bent down, put a finger at her chin to lift it up and stared at her face with his head tilted to the side and a sneaky grin on his face.
The other guys in the bar caught their breath and stared at the blonde barman.
"Okay."
The tension increased even more until-
"Yeah, it's her- not that I really wondered about it in the first place."
You could almost hear the HOMRA guys screaming out their thoughts about him being an idiot…or rather something worse.
"Damn you; what the hell?!" That short guy called Yata yelled at the taller man and was close to jumping at him.
"Kusanagi-san!" A sharp voice interrupted their "argument".
"I didn't come here just for being made fun of!"
The woman continued with a sour look on her face and an annoyed tone in her usually so clear voice.
"My bad." The bartender said as he walked past the shorter clansman with the pissed expression and bowed down for a second as an apology.
"I'm proud to introduce to you; the charming lady: Hoshi."
There was something like a vein on the so called charming lady' forehead which had started twitching almost uncontrollably because of that mocking tone in his voice.
"That's not what I meant either!" She snarled even more pissed off than before.
"But yeah. Just call me Hoshi for now."
She added as she quickly waved at everyone in the room.
"Sou-ka! You're the one who Totsuka-san was talking about with Kusanagi-san." The young man with the nice face said as he gave the girl an overly enthusiastic smile.
"I'm Shouhei and this-"He pulled the "masked" guy next to him "Is Bandou-kun." He continued and offered the woman his hand.
She just looked down at his fingers which were waiting for her to join, but the girl bowed and avoided the quite friendly gesture in a pretty skilled way.
"I remember that coward showing a picture of you two when you were about 4 years younger."
Although she still had an indifferent expression on her face, her eyes looked at the two men in a soft and thus quite familiar way.
Without really knowing how to react to what the two guys just saw, both of them seemed flattered by that overwhelmingly calm composure of hers as they scratched the back of their heads in unison.
The woman, err- Hoshi, had already went past those two sheep-faces and started walking up to the chubby guy who stood in front of the counter.
They looked at each other for a short while as the obviously smaller one of them sticked out a finger and started poking the other.
"I see…You haven't changed, Kamamoto-kun." She said to him in a non-offensive way.
"Y-Yooo…" The so-called Kamamoto responded with a dumbfounded grin on his face.
He put both his hands on the smaller girls' shoulders and continued with a friendly and bright expression on his face.
"Nice to have you here again!"
After nodding to him, Hoshi suddenly felt a movement on her sleeve. As she looked down to check who had pulled at her shirt, she looked right into big, innocent, red eyes.
"Ah-" The taller woman uttered and put her hand on the child's snow white head.
"I see, you're growing up." She said while looking at the younger one with a slightly warm expression.
Anna looked at her with the typical blank face and almost whispered.
"She's familiar."
The green-eyed girl suddenly had a puzzled look on her face before she understood and leant down, slightly bending her knees to have direct face-to-face eye contact.
With a curious look in her calm eyes, the older girl looked at the doll-like girl in front of her.
Then, since no one expected the usually so silent and shy girl to act so out of character, it didn't only leave the guys, but even Hoshi dumbfounded.
With her tiny white hands, the white haired girl had pulled the older girl closer to her while hugging her quite tightly.
"U-Uh?" Hoshis voice wouldn't come out right as she felt those confused and even "shocked" gazes of the men behind her on her back.
"…Don't be sad." Anna whispered in her ear what made it hard to hear even for the girl she was now letting go of.
Hoshi straightened her back as she hesitantly got up slowly.
"I didn't know she had grown up to such an intelligent and pretty girl." She said as she got hold of herself.
Now it was Kusanagi that started speaking.
"Well…it's been almost 5 years since you last saw her." He said while giving the long haired woman in front of him a half hearted smile.
Hoshi turned around, not really going further into detail and now faced the one, who hadn't been saying a single word after everyone had greeted their customer.
"So, you are…Yata -uh- kun, I guess?" She asked the only remaining man in the room who now looked somewhere else with a flustered face and slightly pink flushed cheeks.
"J-Just Yata is fine." He slightly stammered still avoiding her eyes.
The girl raised an eyebrow, let out a sigh and looked at Kusanagi who had raised his voice.
"Ooh, well Yata-chan, seems like Totsuka-san told a charming girl about you."
He said it in a mocking sing-sang tone which caused the short guy to flinch.
"Is that so?!" He asked more rhetorical than being serious.
"Yeah."
His head jerked around and his eyes accidentally me the girls.
"That stupid Tatara told me quite a few things about you guys…" She muttered in her thoughts before she noticed the sudden change on the young mans face as she had mentioned Totsuka. She decided to change the topic as she lowered her eyes in slight apology.
"Uh- he described you as that short guy with the cute name…or something like tat."
Now, the slim guy with the beanie over his head got all fidgety and almost jumped at her as he suddenly came closer to her face with a grim expression.
"You're not that tall either!" he groaned at her still –not so impressed- face.
"And I'm a girl." She countered with an indifferent voice which caused the chestnut haired guy to flinch and step back from standing quite close to her so she could look down on her.
"Tch." He snapped and turned his, bright red of anger colored, face away from the cheeky girl.
"…Nice to meet you…I guess." She murmured.
"Maa…Well." Kusanagi interrupted the tense atmosphere and caused Shouhei and Bandou to stop giggling because of their short, smoking of anger, clans mate.
"Let's put this aside." He nodded off any sign of restraint of the short guy and locked his eyes on Hoshi who responded with a calm look on her face.
"You-" The blonde man put one of his hands on the smaller guys shoulders, who still had a pissed off look on his young face.
"Will show her to Mikotos room, that way you can get to know each other even better."
Yatas face went blank as he glared up to the blonde man who watched him through his shades with a cocky grin.
"Kuh-!" He snorted as he had to admit defeat and made a sign in Hoshis direction to tell her she should come along.
The young woman bowed down the blonde man and said a few words before going after the guy who happened to be only a little bit taller than her.
"Good that you got what I came here for, that saved me the breath to give futile explanations, Kusanagi-san."
With this, she walked out of the other men's views, who were letting out relieved sighs as the atmosphere started to loosen up.
"So…" Shouhei started.
"This must be his sister, uh?"
Kusanagi watched his younger friend for a short while and nodded with a weak smile as he noticed the slightly bitter look in both, Kamamotos' and Shouheis' eyes.
It seemed like they exactly knew what the others were thinking about as they looked at the door, which lead to the staircase to their "boss'" room.
While Hoshi followed the other teen up the stairs, he suddenly started muttering a few words.
"To think that another under aged kid would join us…"
The thin girl could not help but feel the disagreement in his low voice.
"Actually-" She raised her own voice.
"I'm apparently only a few years younger that you are yourself."
The younger teen didn't get an answer to that as Yata had honestly been thinking about her being the same age as him.
As both of them reached the last few steps and ended up in front of a door, he suddenly stopped and straightened his back to hold a more serious posture.
"Better prepare yourself-" he told her in a short warning sentence as he took a deep breath before knocking on the door and pushing it open without waiting for an answer from the other side of the room.
#1 Chapter of
- Atatakai egao de hitotsu-
-END-
authors nooote:
And with this, the file in which I saved all the new data has increased by 29 mb and more than 15k carachters (Space, digits, letters usw.).
I know I shouldn't really update so fast, but I just wanted this to be up soon.
The next chapters will take a while more to update since I had this chapter already written on my noteblock and just had to type it in.
Btw, that's how I always do it, write per hand, then type it on my PC.
Thanks for reading this chapter and we'll hopefully see each other again next time.
...my back hurts.