Chapter 3! Yeah! I'm updating on time for once! Enjoy


Reiko's POV

I only spoke to Tsuki after we got home. It was the only place I felt safe at the moment.

"A vending machine? A freaking vending machine?! Do things like this happen often!?" I shouted. I was freaking out. "Well... only when Orihara-san comes around." Tsuki said, gingerly. "Who the hell is Orihara-san!?"

Tsuki turned away from me. It was her silent way of refusing to answer a question, which she did from time to time.

"... I'm going to bed."

"No. Reiko, wait!" Tsuki called softly, but by then I was already locked in my room. I wondered how I would cope with the fact that I now lived in a city where flying vending machines was a normal sight. I couldn't get over how the people's' faces just went back to normal. It's like they were used to this!

"Is this what that fortune cookie meant by 'expect the unexpected' ?" I wondered as my eye lids fluttered closed.


I'd showered and dressed by the time Tsuki woke up. Breakfast was on the table and I'd already eaten. After Tsuki ate I insisted that she tell me more about the many hazards of the place I was supposed to call home.

"So..." I pause, taking a sip of the tea that I also made. "Let me get this straight. You drag me, halfway around the world, to this 'wonderful' city you've told me everything about, except that there's pretty much danger around every corner?"

"Well... yes."

I was so angry I slammed the now empty tea-cup on the glass table we had. I put my heels from yesterday on, got my purse, and grabbed a jacket. I was just inches away from the door, but was stopped by a hand which was gently yet firmly placed on my shoulder.

"Look Reiko, I'm sorry." I hear my friend say. "But I just thought that if I told you about all that stuff that you-" "That I wouldn't come?" I cut her off, shook her hand off my shoulder, and turned to face her. "Tsuki... maybe we aren't as close as we thought. I would visit you even if this city was surrounded by an ocean of lava during a zombie apocalypse. And you should know that!"

She giggled at what I said but I knew she understood what I meant.

"I think we need some time to cool down." I said after a brief silence. "Besides, we ran out of milk today." "Yeah, I guess we do." She said, though she looked worried. "What do you mean we're out of milk? I bought a gallon when we were out yesterday." "Yeah I kinda drank it all to piss you off this morning..."

I slipped out the door before anything else could be said. Although Tsuki didn't have to worry nearly as much as she thought she did... about the milk or my safety. I had several maps stuffed in my jacket and my purse. I also had a compass and a GPS app on my phone. So I was fine.

...Right?


Reiko aimlessly wandered around Ikebukuro. She rode the subway... three times. And at the moment she was across town. It was around noon and she was getting hungry. She sighed.

"Damn it."

She took one of the many maps from her bag and desperately scanned it. She looked at the street signs to see if they matched the ones on the map. However she wasn't sure that they did. Speaking Japanese was just fine for Reiko. But reading and writing were different things entirely. The only things she could really read and write were her first and Tsuki's first and last names. And she often messed those up as well.

She walked a little further down the block and noticed a tall blonde exiting a bar. Of course there were others out and about. But the blonde looked the most approachable. Reiko crossed the street and trotted over to him calling, "Excuse me!"

Shizuo turned around and looked up from the cigarette he was smoking to be faced with a slightly teary eyed brunette holding a map in her dainty hands. Taking the cigarette from his slightly chapped lips and stomping it out, he sighed and decided to humor the girl. She was obviously new to the city anyway. Anyone else would have run for miles in the opposite direction at the mention of his name. And yet, here Reiko was, practically begging for only a minute of his time.

"Let me guess. You're lost, right?" He asked, grabbing the map from her, his voice slightly raspy from the smoke.
"Yeah." Reiko answered, looking away from the blonde, embarrassed. Then her eyes snapped back the man who held her map when she heard the sound of crumpling paper. She saw Shizuo toss the paper ball into a nearby trash can.

"What did you do that for?"
"That map was at least two years old. Half of the buildings on that thing aren't even in this city anymore." Shizuo explained, though Reiko still wasn't pleased.
"Okay. So, how am I supposed to get around now?" Shizuo paused. He could simply walk away from the situation like he really, really wanted to. Or he could take time out of his not-so-busy day to help the poor girl out.

"Uhhh..." He started. "where were you trying to go?"
"... Russia Sushi..." came the quiet reply.
With a sigh, another cigarette, and the slight adjusting of his sunglasses, Shizuo reluctantly said, "Follow me."
"Really?" The brunette's eyes lit up.
"Yeah." Shizuo started walking ahead of her. "Try to keep up."
"Yaaaaay!"
"Don't do that."
"... Okay..."


A/N: Review or Reiko will drink all your milk!