Chapter Three
Throughout the week, both Guy and Rena searched for one another each time they would go on the streets of Metro City. Sometimes, they would think they had found them, but it turned out to be only someone else. One week after Guy saved Rena from the muggers, they still haven't found each other.
About four weeks before Christmas, Rena was walking down the streets heading towards her first day at her job at a restaurant called Ming's. She was going to be a waitress. She was a bit nervous about her first day even though she was already given some sort of training through papers.
She found the restaurant and looked at the exterior of the building. The restaurant was decorated with Christmas lights with the window covered with window stickers. In the inside of the restaurant, Rena could see a six foot tall Christmas tree decorated with colorful ornaments and an angel on the top.
Rena soon entered the restaurant. A tall, chubby man was waiting for her. "Hello, Rena."
Rena smiled. "Hi Mr. Hsu." Mr. Hsu was the one who had interviewed her a few days ago.
Mr. Hsu returned the smiled. "You'll be working alongside one of your co-workers today."
A young girl dressed in the restaurant's black pants and white button-downed blouse uniform came up to them. "Is this her?" she asks with a friendly smile.
Mr. Hsu looked at her. "Yes this is Rena. Rena, this is your trainer Nanase."
Nanase nodded to the young woman. "Hi, how are you doing?"
"I'm fine, thank you," Rena replied.
The three of them went into the back. Mr. Hsu gave Rena her uniform and a name tag. "What you're going to be doing today is watch over exactly what Nanase does. Tomorrow, she'll observe you, and then the next time you work here, you're on your own."
Rena nodded and headed towards the changing room. After getting dressed, she walked out of the changing room and towards the door that separated the restaurant from the back room. Nanase was waiting for her.
"Ready for training?" she asked her.
Rena nodded. " I'm ready."
"All right, I'm about to go over to table number 15 and I'm going to ask them what kind of drinks they want. I'm also serving table number 3, 8, and 24. Altogether, there are thirty tables in the restaurant and you serve a certain amount of tables depending on how many waitresses and waiters are on shift."
Throughout Rena's shift, she followed Nanase around and listened to every word she and the customers said. Rena also had to learn how to abbreviate orders so she could write things down faster. Sometimes, Nanase would laugh with the customers, and sometimes it looked as though she wanted to curse out at the customers because of their petty complaints.
Rena and Nanase's shifts ended at the same time. As the outside world began to get dark, Rena and Nanase got ready to leave.
"So," said Nanase. "How do you like it here so far?"
"It seems nice," Rena replied. "I haven't done anything by myself yet."
"That's cool." Nanase looked out the window. "I'm waiting for my brother Kairi to pick me up. My oldest brother Guy was supposed to pick me up, but he said he was going to stay at his job later. He's a trainer at this dojo a few blocks down from here."
When Nanase mentioned Guy, Rena started to see something in Nanase, like some sort of resemblance to the man who saved her life a few weeks ago.
Nanase noticed the blank expression on her face. "What's wrong, Rena?" she asked.
Rena shook her head, feeling silly for even thinking about it. "Oh, it's nothing."
Then, a tall man with long black hair tied back appeare. Rena immediately noticed that he was blind in his right eye, which also contained a long scar going across the lid.
Nanase looked at him. "Hello, Kairi."
Kairi nodded. "Are you ready to go?"
"Yup." Nanase looks at Rena. "Nice meeting you, I'll see you tomorrow."
"Bye," Rena replied. Nanase and Kairi walked out of the restaurant. Rena zips up her heavy black jacket and soon left as well.
After all the students left for the day, Guy, Cody, and Kyle found themselves relaxing at the dojo.
Kyle drank a bottle of water. "Today was decent," he said. "But it could've been better."
"Why?" asked Cody with an evil grin as he stared at his brother. "Is it because Michelle wasn't here today."
Kyle gave Cody an annoyed look. "What are you talking about?"
"Admit it, Kyle," Cody said. "You have a thing for Michelle."
"No I don't!"
"Look at you, you're blushing!"
"That's it!" Kyle jumped on top of Cody and started punching him.
"Hey!" Cody cried out. He started punching him back.
"Guys, come on!" called out Guy. He went up to them and separated the two but pulling Cody back by the shirt. "That's enough."
"Guy, you know how annoying my older brother is," said Kyle.
"Hey!" Cody yelled out as he got out of Guy's grip. "I'm not that annoying."
"Yes you are!" Kyle cried. They then proceeded to start punching each other again.
Guy jumped in between them this time. "I said enough!"
"Come one Guy," said Cody. "You know that I was only teasing Kyle."
After gathering their breaths, the three of them sat back down on the side benches. There was only a few minutes of silence before Cody suddenly jumped up as a thought came to him. "Guess what?"
Kyle lookd at him. "What? You're annoying?"
"No!" Cody growled. He then smiled. "There's only four weeks left until Christmas!"
"Oh yeah, it is," said Kyle as though the thought suddenly came to him as well.
Suddenly out of nowhere, Cody starts singing, 'Let It Snow,' and tried to sing just the way Dean Martin did.
"Oh lord no!" cried Kyle covering his ears. "Make him stop!"
This time, it was Guy who clocked Cody in the face, sending him flying off the bench. He then folded his arms. "Please don't try to imitate Dean Martin," Guy said.
Kyle grinned. "I told you he's annoying."
That's when they heard the doors open. The three of them turned around and saw Nanase and Kairi coming in.
"Hey, look who's here!" called out Cody as he got up from the floor. "It's two more of the Hinato siblings."
"Hey Cody," said Kairi. He then turned to Guy. "Did Hokuto get here yet?"
"Not yet," replied Guy. "She should be here in fifteen minutes though. It's kind of a long walk from her job." He looked at Nanase. "How was work?"
"Pretty good," Nanase replied. "I trained someone today, she's really nice. She just moved here a couple of weeks ago from Japan."
"Japan?" asked Kyle. "Sweet!"
"No Kyle, you're not going to hit on another Japanese girl like you do with Michelle," Cody said.
"Shut up!" Greg shouted. Everyone laughed.
Guy started to think then. 'Could it be that Nanase trained the girl I saved last week?' He almost laughed out loud, but managed to keep it to himself. 'Nah, it could've been anyone she trained. What the hell was I thinking?'
Kairi walked up to him. "How about we spar for a little bit, big brother?"
Guy stood up. "All right. Loser buys dinner?"
"Fine by me," Kairi replied. They walked into the middle of the mats that were laid out in the dojo.
Just before he began sparring, Guy thought about the girl he saved once more. 'This city is too big. I doubt that I'll ever see her again.'
