Patlabor: Personal Files
An Episodic Patlabor Fanfic by David A. Tatum
Disclaimer: Insert legal junk here...
Episode 03: First Day on the Job
December 30, 1999
Kanuka looked at her watch. It was 5:50 in the morning, and she had yet to
catch a wink of sleep. She looked through the hospital report one more
time. Apparently, her grandmother had gone in simply to get a prescription
drug to treat some flu symptoms... The routine medical exam led to more
tests, the results of which were serious. Congenital heart failure AND
bronchitis- the heart and the lung were both in trouble. They'd given her
some medicine to treat the bronchitis, but the more serious problem...
She might live another year or two without serious problems, if she took
things easy, but the prognosis was fatal. Kanuka's grandmother was dying,
and there was nothing anyone could do about it.
"Grandma..." Kanuka whispered. It was too early to wake up her grandmother
yet, and it was probably a bad idea to wake her up anyway, but when she
did... well, they would have to chat about why this had been kept a secret.
Sighing, Kanuka got up and went to get herself another cup of coffee. She
had quite a while to wait.
* * * * *
Shinobu stepped in front of the assembled Unit One. Looking at her watch,
she saw she had five minutes until they were supposed to have assembled.
She smiled- everyone was early. She liked that in her subordinates. She
decided to take the extra time to inspect them all.
Yuhki Watanabe was the first one she looked at- he looked happy with his
promotion into the first labor. Shinobu remembered he used to be a bundle
of nerves when he arrived- and still sometimes got a little scared in
situations where he was seemingly overmatched- but her opinion of him had
been greatly improved by the Griffon incident. Hopefully, he wouldn't take
his responsibilities as senior labor pilot too seriously, and make himself
nervous again.
Tazaki Hiroaki was next in line. He WAS looking nervous- it wasn't often a
transport officer was promoted to the command car. In fact, she hadn't
heard of it happening before- but then again, there were only five Special
Vehicles Police Sections (a.k.a., Section 2's) on Japan's main island of
Honshu- Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Sendai, and (officially as the geographic
center-point of the Western side of the island, but more because of
political influence than anything- that there were practically no labors in
the city didn't seem to matter) Kanazawa, and up until now each had only
two units at most. There wasn't much opportunity for such a promotion to
occur.
The next person she came to was the old labor driver for labor two, Hideki
Nomo. He was an older man, and an ex-labor pilot from the original
Patlabor unit. He'd lost a hand in the line of duty, and was given the job
of driving around the labors he loved when he refused both desk duty and
retirement with a full pension. He looked as indefatigable as ever,
totally unaffected by the shift to labor one.
Finally, she reached her first rookie. Koichi Miyagi, the winner of the
previous day's tournament by the toss of a coin. He looked level-headed
enough, and had that enthusiastic shine in his eyes that only came with the
belief that nothing could harm them. She shook her head imperceptibly,
knowing that his belief in his own immortality would be shaken soon after
he began his job. The only person she had seen who had never lost
confidence after working for a time with the police was that girl in Unit
Two- Noa Izumi, wasn't it? Somehow, Shinobu suspected Izumi's enthusiasm
had nothing to do with her job, and instead her love of labors and her
relationship with that boy Gotoh was grooming to be his successor- Asuma
Shinohara. She'd heard rumors of the two of them being involved in a
pretty intense relationship, and considering how he'd risked his life to
save her during that mishap at the tournament, she suspected it was true.
Of course, there was an unspoken agreement among everyone in the SV2 not to
mention it to their superiors- if they ever reached one of the bureaucrats
above her or Gotoh, the affair would be ended and the officers likely
suspended.
Shinobu moved on to the next person in line- another veteran, Yuhki's old
command car officer. Toru Sasaki, another grizzled veteran from the
original Patlabor unit, had kept his position only by refusing several
promotions. He claimed that the newer labors gave him motion sickness,
but also did not want to be transferred out of the SV2. He looked as
immaculate as always, the brass on his uniform shining and not a single
hair out of place. He was the consummate police officer in every way.
She moved on to the final officer in her unit- Ueki Mashimo. His hair
needed to be cut, and looked as if it hadn't been washed or combed in
years. His expression looked grim and sour, and he had beard whiskers
protruding from spots of his chin. Facially, he looked like a younger
Inspector Matsui, but he was somewhat thinner, more muscular... and more
brutish looking. Well, at least he was more competent than the other two
she had a chance to take.
She looked at her watch. Six o'clock, on the dot.
"Welcome to our new officers, and welcome back to our old. You may be
wondering how all of our units have been able to take the past three days
off while we set up the new unit. Well, we've been covered by Unit Two
from Kanazawa, but as of 0800 hrs today, they'll be gone. When they are,
well, we'll take over. The veterans will be pleased to know that, after
myself and Captains Gotoh and Gomioka discussed the various options last
night, we now have only sixteen hours of on-base shifts. Between 0800 and
1600 hrs, this unit is on duty, and Unit Two will be on standby backing us
up while Unit Three will be off. Between 1600 hrs and midnight, we have OFF,
while Unit Two will be on duty and Unit Three will be on standby. However,
if any of you aren't back on base for standby duty for Unit Three's duty
shift by 0001 hrs, rest assured I will not be happy." She glanced at her
officers, and nodded. "Until our duty shift, however, I want the veterans
to show our rookies around. Dismissed."
Shinobu smiled as Takeo and Tazaki paired off to take Koichi Miyagi around,
while the two veterans from the original Patlabor unit took the
rough-looking Ueki Mashimo around- possibly to discuss something about
grooming. They would keep her command well-respected and efficient, just
like it had been when Gomioka was there.
* * * * *
Joudo Ishikawa looked at the clock on the wall. The meeting was supposed
to have started five minutes ago- where was everyone? Was he in the right
room? Did he get the time wrong? What?
A short, curly-haired, button-nosed, wide-eyed bundle of energy burst into
the room. "I sorry I'm late- my alarm didn't work and then I couldn't find
my uniform and then I wasn't sure where I was supposed to go and had to
look at the announcement again and then I..." Natsume Kawai blinked and
looked around. "Where is everyone? Is the meeting over already?"
Joudo smiled, unable to keep a straight face seeing her confused
expression. "I don't know... I was here early, and haven't seen anyone
yet. Are we in the right place?"
"I think so- I checked the room number right before I got here..." she
said, getting distressed. "I hope so... I don't want to get in trouble..."
"Don't worry about it," Ishikawa said brashly, trying to make the cute girl
sitting next to him calm down a bit. "If we DID make a mistake, then it
was their fault for writing confusing directions- after all, we both
arrived in the same place, right?"
"I... I guess so," Natsume agreed, nodding her head in a way that made her
curls bounce softly. "But it's our first day on the job, and things are
already going wrong, and-"
Before she could continue, the door swung open behind her and two
bleary-eyed people came in.
"Sorry we're late," a disheveled, sleepy-looking Asuma Shinohara said,
sitting at the desk in front of the room and propping his feet up. Noa
Izumi, her clothes slightly askew and her hair a mess, took a standing
position to his right, a little behind him, and yawned hugely. "We thought
your command car operator, Takeo Kumagami, would handle things here, but
she had to run and get the dispatch reports from the Kanazawa unit that has
been covering for us while we took care of business here."
Joudo wondered why the two officers had slept in to begin with, when their
duty was to be ready for anything, before glancing at how rumpled Noa's
clothes were. Remembering how Asuma had risked his life for the girl the
previous day, he smiled knowingly. Such a relationship as he suspected
they were having would get them in serious trouble if the higher ups found
out about it, and so he decided to no question them further. Looking at
Natsume, he knew that she'd bought their story- and that she was very
nervous being around them. It would be interesting working with this unit-
so far, he'd met two veteran officers having an affair, and a
cute-but-clueless girl apparently prone to hysterics, his captain (who he
only knew so far from the tournament the previous day) who appeared to be
bored with everything and took even the near death of the people under him
in stride, and he'd seen at that same competition that another of his team
members was a giant of a man with muscles reminiscent of... that American
actor, Arnold Swartzenager. He almost laughed when he realized he very
well could be the only 'normal' person in this unit.
"No problem, sir," Ishikawa answered.
Asuma waved him off. "No need to call me sir- my name is Asuma Shinohara,
and this is Noa Izumi," he presented. "We're the backup and forward for
labor one, an Ingram affectionately dubbed 'Alphonse' by Noa." He smiled
slightly. "No-one here outranks anyone else- I can order Noa around
because of her position, not because of her rank. Hiromi Yamazaki, who you
will meet later, is also my subordinate but, again, has the same rank as I
do. Noa, Hiromi, and I all have more experience than you, but we can't
really give you orders unless we're assigned to give you orders because we
don't outrank you. Well, right now I can, but that's just because I was
asked to brief you and take you on a tour of the facilities."
"Asuma..." Noa began, slightly whining, "Why did you wake me up for this?"
"I figured you'd want to be the one who wanted to show them the differences
between the controls of a training labor and the controls of an Ingram,
since labors 2 and 3 are down for maintenance."
"Oh... of course I'd want to do that." Noa looked at him oddly. 'That
was... well, an attempt to be thoughtful, I suppose. He could have just
woken me when they were about to go through Alphonse, though,' she thought
as she stretched in an attempt to work the sleep out of her muscles.
"Anyway," Shinohara continued, slightly distracted, and pulled out a
rumpled set of papers. He started to read out, "We go on standby duty in
about two hours. Standby consists of wearing your uniform and staying on
base, keeping yourself ready to fill in if the Active duty unit is away.
You can even sleep here, if you like, provided you can be ready for duty in
less than five minutes. Then you go on Active duty, which consists of
answering calls and, when there are no calls, tending the grounds of the
SV2 Headquarters. Until the formation of the third unit, we were always on
active or on standby duty unless we had a vacation day, during which time
we were covered by Unit One. Now, we will have such full-day
Active\Standby duty only when a unit goes on vacation." He looked up.
"Basically, since it takes about two hours get anywhere interesting round
trip, you'll probably want to live on base most of the time. That you have
any time off without a special day being allocated for it is an
improvement, however, so you have nothing to complain about."
"What about meal breaks?" Natsume asked.
"Well," Asuma considered, "Being in the second unit, our time off is
between midnight and eight in the morning. Few restaurants are open that
late at night, so I'd strongly suggest you help the mechanics out with the
daily meals. If you help them cook and catch fish, and sometimes help
Hiromi out when he asks you to look after the tomato vines and hens, you
can share in the common daily meals. There is one restaurant that delivers
lunch, a chinese restaurant called Shanghai Noodles, for the occasional
change of pace. That's about it."
"Anything else we should know before the tour?" Joudo asked.
Shinohara shrugged. "Not that I can think of. Anything in particular on
you mind?"
"Why were we transfered while our pay still comes from the training budget?
Wouldn't it make more sense to transfer us January 1, so that we start out
on the SV2's budget?"
Shinohara nodded. "I think I can answer that. Essentially, if you aren't
able to cope with life in the SV2 after one day, we can send you back to
training without it showing up on your record that you were unfit for labor
duty."
"Has that ever happened?" Joudo wondered.
"Once, and it hasn't prevented the person from returning to the SV2 after
reconsidering. Yuhki Watanabe, from Unit One, went back to training after
he first got here, and was replaced by Ohta, who recently went on to help
form Unit Three. When we formed Unit Two, Ohta was moved here and Yuhki
returned to the SV2." He paused. "Any other questions? No? Then let's
get on with the tour. Noa!"
Noa, who'd almost been asleep, snapped awake at his voice. "Huh, yeah?"
"Come on, we're touring the Ingrams first." His expression and tone became
a LITTLE more compassionate. "Then you can catch another hour's nap, if
you want."
* * * * *
Captain Gomioka stared at his watch. Several people hadn't arrived yet,
and it was already ten minutes after the meeting was supposed to start.
Thankfully, his Unit was SUPPOSED to be off duty for the shift following
the two hour orientation period. Well, all the late arrivals had just lost
those eight hours.
He sighed, and looked at the people who WERE around. There was Ohta, the
man he remembered as so obsessed with guns during his stint with Unit One
that he blew more assignments that could have been successfully completed
than the rest of all five of the Patlabor units combined. There was Akito
Kenichi, his old command car operator. Akito kept shooting nervous looks
at Ohta, and sitting as far away from the pilot as possible. Akito was
reliable, but most of his work was usually handled by Shinobu, and he
seemed scared of the pilot he was supposed to backup. Perhaps he might
want to be exchanged back into Unit One for Toru Sasaki, Yuhki's old
command car operator. Or maybe, if that failed, he could get Takeo
Kumagami from Unit Two, who probably knew how to manage Ohta better than
most. And besides, she'd be a good person to leave in charge of the unit
when he needed to be elsewhere.
The only rookie who had made it was Yamane Seiroku, who seemed to be trying
to keep outwardly calm, but was betrayed by occasionally shifting nervously
in his seat. Any nervousness his face might have shown, however, was lost
to all watchers because his battered nose seemed to catch the most
attention. Gomioka sighed- he couldn't read people like Shinobu could.
How did he handle this situation?
"Sorry I'm late," someone said, breaking into his thoughts. Gomioka
turned, and noticed that it was the other transfer from Unit Two- Shinshi
Mikiyasu. "Captain Gotoh stopped me on the way, and asked me to give you
this note."
Gomioka restrained himself from asking why it took ten... no, FIFTEEN
minutes to be asked to take a note somewhere, but sighed and accepted the
piece of paper.
"Sakaki just let me know that had to steal a couple of your rookies away
from you for a short while. The maintenance squad's transport broke down
while returning home from delivering the remaining training labors to the
Academy in Fuji, and so Sakaki sent them out in one of the 97's (which he
said were best equipped for the task) to retrieve it. On the plus side,
this means at least one of the 97's will have a shakedown run after being
removed from mothballs.
-Gotoh, Captain"
Gomioka restrained himself AGAIN from crumpling up the sheet of paper and
storming over to Gotoh's office and giving him a piece of his mind. It
wouldn't do for his unit to see him as quarreling with the others.
"Do you know what all of this is about, Mr. Shinshi?"
"Um... not really, sir. Just a few details- two of the rookies were
borrowed by the maintenance squad for about an hour. I had to wait while
Gotoh, Shinobu, and Chief Sakaki discussed things."
Gomioka blinked- Gotoh, he wasn't surprised about- he was a competent if
lackadaisical unit leader, but he also brownosed his way to better service
with the maintenance squad. He would have thought Shinobu would have
defended him, however. "Did you overhear anything they were saying?"
Shinshi thought for a second. "I remember hearing something from Sakaki
about getting the rookies used to there machines as early as possible, and
some sound of agreement from both captains. Outside of that... sorry."
Gomioka sighed. "Alright. I'll postpone this meeting until 0800 hrs, but
everyone will lose two hours of off-duty time because of this. That is
all."
A bit surprised, Shinshi, Ohta, and Akito all left the room, but Seiroku
approached his captain cautiously.
"Can I talk to you, sir?" he asked, nervously.
Gomioka looked at the rookie curiously. This day hadn't started out very
well, and he feared doing something which would cause him even more
problems, but looking at Yamane he knew that he should listen to him.
After all, this was the first time one of his subordinates approached him
for help.
"All right, what is it?"
"Sir, why was I put into the command car, and Koichi Miyagi put into the
cockpit of the labor? I thought I had a real good chance of making it,
after my first round match..."
Gomioka thumbed through some papers on his desk to kill time while he tried
to remember how it had been decided. Something about a defective labor
part... Ah, that was it. "The first round match wasn't considered in the
final decision because of some technical problems in the other labor. It
wasn't considered serious enough to disqualify you, or to change the
results or anything, but it was considered enough for us to make the policy
of only looking at the second round fights."
Seiroku trembled. "Is there any way to challenge that decision?"
Gomioka shook his head. "Sorry, it was final."
"B-but..." Yamane hesitated. "I vowed to my parents I would become a labor
pilot for the SV2 or I'd never return home... I was so hoping..."
The captain looked at Yamane's worried face, and frowned. That was
certainly a foolhardy oath to take, but it almost certainly had given him a
drive to succeed. And he HAD been impressed with the rookies first
match... he very well might have been a better pilot than... Koichi, was
it? He'd never remember that boy's name- he just seemed to fade into the
background as soon as he won his match...
"I cannot reverse the decisions that have already been made. However...
every Patlabor unit is assigned three labors, but is only assigned pilots
for two of them. Occasionally, we will need all three in action, however-
Unit two has had to utilize their third labor a number of times, I
understand. I can make you Labor 3's pilot, unofficially, and if you prove
yourself and we have an opening..."
Seiroku's face lit up. "You'll give me a chance? Oh, thank you, sir!
Thank you!" He rushed out of the room and in the direction of the phone.
Gomioka smiled slightly. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad today, after all.
* * * * *
*Beep beep beep beep*
Kanuka was startled into full wakefulness as the alarm clock blared. 'Huh?
I didn't set any alarms... what time is it? SIX THIRTY? Who set-'
"Ah, Kanuka," her grandmother said as she silenced the clock. "Why are you
here?"
"Grandmother, what are you doing setting an alarm for this early in the
morning?!"
"Why," her grandmother smiled. "Getting myself up in time to fix
breakfast."
"You should be resting-"
"I've been getting up this early for the past fifty years! I think I can
handle it... especially since I got to bed so early this morning." Her
grandmother slowly stood up and stretched.
"Grandma," Kanuka said, a note of warning in her voice. "I found the
medical report."
"Oh, you did?" her grandmother answered, flinching slightly but covering it
up by turning towards her dresser. "Well, I was hoping I'd be able to talk
to you about it before you saw that report- in fact, I was hoping you'd
have gone back to New York, first."
"What?!" Kanuka exclaimed. "Why?"
"Oh, I know you- now you're not going to return to your home and your job."
Silence reigned for almost a full minute. Kanuka couldn't deny it- that
was just what she was planning on doing. Her grandmother, seeing how
speechless she was, embraced her and continued, "You ARE a professional,
remember? I don't want you losing your job taking care of a dying woman.
And there's nothing you can do, either- except maybe speed my death by
trying to pamper me too much. Let me live my last months without feeling
the guilt that I would if you were to lose you job caring for me. I'll be
fine."
"Grandma, I..." Kanuka couldn't continue. She loved her grandmother so
much, and here she was saying to forget about her in her time of need. She
couldn't do that. "I can get an assignment in Japan again... a temporary
one, which won't even affect my possible promotion. One which will leave
me some free time... if for no other reason than to visit."
"Kanuka..." Her grandmother looked into her granddaughters eyes, and
sighed. It was impossible to tell her no when she was that determined.
"ONLY if you are CERTAIN it won't effect your career, I... would allow you
to visit me while on your new job."
Withdrawing from her grandmother's embrace, Kanuka nodded. "Thank you,
grandma. I'm afraid I'll need to skip breakfast- I need to try and find a
job."
With that, she rushed out of the door, unintentionally slamming it behind
her.
Her grandmother sighed. "I knew hiding that file wouldn't work... I just
wish I had been able to convince you to go back home. Now, I can only hope
you find your job, because I'm pretty sure if you don't you'll just quit
the police to be with me, and that would hurt me more than you could
possibly imagine..."
--------------------------
Next Episode: The maintenance crew discovers Natsume Kawai, Yuhki gets
nervous, Kanuka asks for a job, and the SV2 waits for Y2K.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
desaix@sysnet.net
Sir Desaix, member # 116 of the Knights of the True Fiancee
anime fanfics available at
http://www.geocities.com/zednik.geo/fanfics.htm
An Episodic Patlabor Fanfic by David A. Tatum
Disclaimer: Insert legal junk here...
Episode 03: First Day on the Job
December 30, 1999
Kanuka looked at her watch. It was 5:50 in the morning, and she had yet to
catch a wink of sleep. She looked through the hospital report one more
time. Apparently, her grandmother had gone in simply to get a prescription
drug to treat some flu symptoms... The routine medical exam led to more
tests, the results of which were serious. Congenital heart failure AND
bronchitis- the heart and the lung were both in trouble. They'd given her
some medicine to treat the bronchitis, but the more serious problem...
She might live another year or two without serious problems, if she took
things easy, but the prognosis was fatal. Kanuka's grandmother was dying,
and there was nothing anyone could do about it.
"Grandma..." Kanuka whispered. It was too early to wake up her grandmother
yet, and it was probably a bad idea to wake her up anyway, but when she
did... well, they would have to chat about why this had been kept a secret.
Sighing, Kanuka got up and went to get herself another cup of coffee. She
had quite a while to wait.
* * * * *
Shinobu stepped in front of the assembled Unit One. Looking at her watch,
she saw she had five minutes until they were supposed to have assembled.
She smiled- everyone was early. She liked that in her subordinates. She
decided to take the extra time to inspect them all.
Yuhki Watanabe was the first one she looked at- he looked happy with his
promotion into the first labor. Shinobu remembered he used to be a bundle
of nerves when he arrived- and still sometimes got a little scared in
situations where he was seemingly overmatched- but her opinion of him had
been greatly improved by the Griffon incident. Hopefully, he wouldn't take
his responsibilities as senior labor pilot too seriously, and make himself
nervous again.
Tazaki Hiroaki was next in line. He WAS looking nervous- it wasn't often a
transport officer was promoted to the command car. In fact, she hadn't
heard of it happening before- but then again, there were only five Special
Vehicles Police Sections (a.k.a., Section 2's) on Japan's main island of
Honshu- Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Sendai, and (officially as the geographic
center-point of the Western side of the island, but more because of
political influence than anything- that there were practically no labors in
the city didn't seem to matter) Kanazawa, and up until now each had only
two units at most. There wasn't much opportunity for such a promotion to
occur.
The next person she came to was the old labor driver for labor two, Hideki
Nomo. He was an older man, and an ex-labor pilot from the original
Patlabor unit. He'd lost a hand in the line of duty, and was given the job
of driving around the labors he loved when he refused both desk duty and
retirement with a full pension. He looked as indefatigable as ever,
totally unaffected by the shift to labor one.
Finally, she reached her first rookie. Koichi Miyagi, the winner of the
previous day's tournament by the toss of a coin. He looked level-headed
enough, and had that enthusiastic shine in his eyes that only came with the
belief that nothing could harm them. She shook her head imperceptibly,
knowing that his belief in his own immortality would be shaken soon after
he began his job. The only person she had seen who had never lost
confidence after working for a time with the police was that girl in Unit
Two- Noa Izumi, wasn't it? Somehow, Shinobu suspected Izumi's enthusiasm
had nothing to do with her job, and instead her love of labors and her
relationship with that boy Gotoh was grooming to be his successor- Asuma
Shinohara. She'd heard rumors of the two of them being involved in a
pretty intense relationship, and considering how he'd risked his life to
save her during that mishap at the tournament, she suspected it was true.
Of course, there was an unspoken agreement among everyone in the SV2 not to
mention it to their superiors- if they ever reached one of the bureaucrats
above her or Gotoh, the affair would be ended and the officers likely
suspended.
Shinobu moved on to the next person in line- another veteran, Yuhki's old
command car officer. Toru Sasaki, another grizzled veteran from the
original Patlabor unit, had kept his position only by refusing several
promotions. He claimed that the newer labors gave him motion sickness,
but also did not want to be transferred out of the SV2. He looked as
immaculate as always, the brass on his uniform shining and not a single
hair out of place. He was the consummate police officer in every way.
She moved on to the final officer in her unit- Ueki Mashimo. His hair
needed to be cut, and looked as if it hadn't been washed or combed in
years. His expression looked grim and sour, and he had beard whiskers
protruding from spots of his chin. Facially, he looked like a younger
Inspector Matsui, but he was somewhat thinner, more muscular... and more
brutish looking. Well, at least he was more competent than the other two
she had a chance to take.
She looked at her watch. Six o'clock, on the dot.
"Welcome to our new officers, and welcome back to our old. You may be
wondering how all of our units have been able to take the past three days
off while we set up the new unit. Well, we've been covered by Unit Two
from Kanazawa, but as of 0800 hrs today, they'll be gone. When they are,
well, we'll take over. The veterans will be pleased to know that, after
myself and Captains Gotoh and Gomioka discussed the various options last
night, we now have only sixteen hours of on-base shifts. Between 0800 and
1600 hrs, this unit is on duty, and Unit Two will be on standby backing us
up while Unit Three will be off. Between 1600 hrs and midnight, we have OFF,
while Unit Two will be on duty and Unit Three will be on standby. However,
if any of you aren't back on base for standby duty for Unit Three's duty
shift by 0001 hrs, rest assured I will not be happy." She glanced at her
officers, and nodded. "Until our duty shift, however, I want the veterans
to show our rookies around. Dismissed."
Shinobu smiled as Takeo and Tazaki paired off to take Koichi Miyagi around,
while the two veterans from the original Patlabor unit took the
rough-looking Ueki Mashimo around- possibly to discuss something about
grooming. They would keep her command well-respected and efficient, just
like it had been when Gomioka was there.
* * * * *
Joudo Ishikawa looked at the clock on the wall. The meeting was supposed
to have started five minutes ago- where was everyone? Was he in the right
room? Did he get the time wrong? What?
A short, curly-haired, button-nosed, wide-eyed bundle of energy burst into
the room. "I sorry I'm late- my alarm didn't work and then I couldn't find
my uniform and then I wasn't sure where I was supposed to go and had to
look at the announcement again and then I..." Natsume Kawai blinked and
looked around. "Where is everyone? Is the meeting over already?"
Joudo smiled, unable to keep a straight face seeing her confused
expression. "I don't know... I was here early, and haven't seen anyone
yet. Are we in the right place?"
"I think so- I checked the room number right before I got here..." she
said, getting distressed. "I hope so... I don't want to get in trouble..."
"Don't worry about it," Ishikawa said brashly, trying to make the cute girl
sitting next to him calm down a bit. "If we DID make a mistake, then it
was their fault for writing confusing directions- after all, we both
arrived in the same place, right?"
"I... I guess so," Natsume agreed, nodding her head in a way that made her
curls bounce softly. "But it's our first day on the job, and things are
already going wrong, and-"
Before she could continue, the door swung open behind her and two
bleary-eyed people came in.
"Sorry we're late," a disheveled, sleepy-looking Asuma Shinohara said,
sitting at the desk in front of the room and propping his feet up. Noa
Izumi, her clothes slightly askew and her hair a mess, took a standing
position to his right, a little behind him, and yawned hugely. "We thought
your command car operator, Takeo Kumagami, would handle things here, but
she had to run and get the dispatch reports from the Kanazawa unit that has
been covering for us while we took care of business here."
Joudo wondered why the two officers had slept in to begin with, when their
duty was to be ready for anything, before glancing at how rumpled Noa's
clothes were. Remembering how Asuma had risked his life for the girl the
previous day, he smiled knowingly. Such a relationship as he suspected
they were having would get them in serious trouble if the higher ups found
out about it, and so he decided to no question them further. Looking at
Natsume, he knew that she'd bought their story- and that she was very
nervous being around them. It would be interesting working with this unit-
so far, he'd met two veteran officers having an affair, and a
cute-but-clueless girl apparently prone to hysterics, his captain (who he
only knew so far from the tournament the previous day) who appeared to be
bored with everything and took even the near death of the people under him
in stride, and he'd seen at that same competition that another of his team
members was a giant of a man with muscles reminiscent of... that American
actor, Arnold Swartzenager. He almost laughed when he realized he very
well could be the only 'normal' person in this unit.
"No problem, sir," Ishikawa answered.
Asuma waved him off. "No need to call me sir- my name is Asuma Shinohara,
and this is Noa Izumi," he presented. "We're the backup and forward for
labor one, an Ingram affectionately dubbed 'Alphonse' by Noa." He smiled
slightly. "No-one here outranks anyone else- I can order Noa around
because of her position, not because of her rank. Hiromi Yamazaki, who you
will meet later, is also my subordinate but, again, has the same rank as I
do. Noa, Hiromi, and I all have more experience than you, but we can't
really give you orders unless we're assigned to give you orders because we
don't outrank you. Well, right now I can, but that's just because I was
asked to brief you and take you on a tour of the facilities."
"Asuma..." Noa began, slightly whining, "Why did you wake me up for this?"
"I figured you'd want to be the one who wanted to show them the differences
between the controls of a training labor and the controls of an Ingram,
since labors 2 and 3 are down for maintenance."
"Oh... of course I'd want to do that." Noa looked at him oddly. 'That
was... well, an attempt to be thoughtful, I suppose. He could have just
woken me when they were about to go through Alphonse, though,' she thought
as she stretched in an attempt to work the sleep out of her muscles.
"Anyway," Shinohara continued, slightly distracted, and pulled out a
rumpled set of papers. He started to read out, "We go on standby duty in
about two hours. Standby consists of wearing your uniform and staying on
base, keeping yourself ready to fill in if the Active duty unit is away.
You can even sleep here, if you like, provided you can be ready for duty in
less than five minutes. Then you go on Active duty, which consists of
answering calls and, when there are no calls, tending the grounds of the
SV2 Headquarters. Until the formation of the third unit, we were always on
active or on standby duty unless we had a vacation day, during which time
we were covered by Unit One. Now, we will have such full-day
Active\Standby duty only when a unit goes on vacation." He looked up.
"Basically, since it takes about two hours get anywhere interesting round
trip, you'll probably want to live on base most of the time. That you have
any time off without a special day being allocated for it is an
improvement, however, so you have nothing to complain about."
"What about meal breaks?" Natsume asked.
"Well," Asuma considered, "Being in the second unit, our time off is
between midnight and eight in the morning. Few restaurants are open that
late at night, so I'd strongly suggest you help the mechanics out with the
daily meals. If you help them cook and catch fish, and sometimes help
Hiromi out when he asks you to look after the tomato vines and hens, you
can share in the common daily meals. There is one restaurant that delivers
lunch, a chinese restaurant called Shanghai Noodles, for the occasional
change of pace. That's about it."
"Anything else we should know before the tour?" Joudo asked.
Shinohara shrugged. "Not that I can think of. Anything in particular on
you mind?"
"Why were we transfered while our pay still comes from the training budget?
Wouldn't it make more sense to transfer us January 1, so that we start out
on the SV2's budget?"
Shinohara nodded. "I think I can answer that. Essentially, if you aren't
able to cope with life in the SV2 after one day, we can send you back to
training without it showing up on your record that you were unfit for labor
duty."
"Has that ever happened?" Joudo wondered.
"Once, and it hasn't prevented the person from returning to the SV2 after
reconsidering. Yuhki Watanabe, from Unit One, went back to training after
he first got here, and was replaced by Ohta, who recently went on to help
form Unit Three. When we formed Unit Two, Ohta was moved here and Yuhki
returned to the SV2." He paused. "Any other questions? No? Then let's
get on with the tour. Noa!"
Noa, who'd almost been asleep, snapped awake at his voice. "Huh, yeah?"
"Come on, we're touring the Ingrams first." His expression and tone became
a LITTLE more compassionate. "Then you can catch another hour's nap, if
you want."
* * * * *
Captain Gomioka stared at his watch. Several people hadn't arrived yet,
and it was already ten minutes after the meeting was supposed to start.
Thankfully, his Unit was SUPPOSED to be off duty for the shift following
the two hour orientation period. Well, all the late arrivals had just lost
those eight hours.
He sighed, and looked at the people who WERE around. There was Ohta, the
man he remembered as so obsessed with guns during his stint with Unit One
that he blew more assignments that could have been successfully completed
than the rest of all five of the Patlabor units combined. There was Akito
Kenichi, his old command car operator. Akito kept shooting nervous looks
at Ohta, and sitting as far away from the pilot as possible. Akito was
reliable, but most of his work was usually handled by Shinobu, and he
seemed scared of the pilot he was supposed to backup. Perhaps he might
want to be exchanged back into Unit One for Toru Sasaki, Yuhki's old
command car operator. Or maybe, if that failed, he could get Takeo
Kumagami from Unit Two, who probably knew how to manage Ohta better than
most. And besides, she'd be a good person to leave in charge of the unit
when he needed to be elsewhere.
The only rookie who had made it was Yamane Seiroku, who seemed to be trying
to keep outwardly calm, but was betrayed by occasionally shifting nervously
in his seat. Any nervousness his face might have shown, however, was lost
to all watchers because his battered nose seemed to catch the most
attention. Gomioka sighed- he couldn't read people like Shinobu could.
How did he handle this situation?
"Sorry I'm late," someone said, breaking into his thoughts. Gomioka
turned, and noticed that it was the other transfer from Unit Two- Shinshi
Mikiyasu. "Captain Gotoh stopped me on the way, and asked me to give you
this note."
Gomioka restrained himself from asking why it took ten... no, FIFTEEN
minutes to be asked to take a note somewhere, but sighed and accepted the
piece of paper.
"Sakaki just let me know that had to steal a couple of your rookies away
from you for a short while. The maintenance squad's transport broke down
while returning home from delivering the remaining training labors to the
Academy in Fuji, and so Sakaki sent them out in one of the 97's (which he
said were best equipped for the task) to retrieve it. On the plus side,
this means at least one of the 97's will have a shakedown run after being
removed from mothballs.
-Gotoh, Captain"
Gomioka restrained himself AGAIN from crumpling up the sheet of paper and
storming over to Gotoh's office and giving him a piece of his mind. It
wouldn't do for his unit to see him as quarreling with the others.
"Do you know what all of this is about, Mr. Shinshi?"
"Um... not really, sir. Just a few details- two of the rookies were
borrowed by the maintenance squad for about an hour. I had to wait while
Gotoh, Shinobu, and Chief Sakaki discussed things."
Gomioka blinked- Gotoh, he wasn't surprised about- he was a competent if
lackadaisical unit leader, but he also brownosed his way to better service
with the maintenance squad. He would have thought Shinobu would have
defended him, however. "Did you overhear anything they were saying?"
Shinshi thought for a second. "I remember hearing something from Sakaki
about getting the rookies used to there machines as early as possible, and
some sound of agreement from both captains. Outside of that... sorry."
Gomioka sighed. "Alright. I'll postpone this meeting until 0800 hrs, but
everyone will lose two hours of off-duty time because of this. That is
all."
A bit surprised, Shinshi, Ohta, and Akito all left the room, but Seiroku
approached his captain cautiously.
"Can I talk to you, sir?" he asked, nervously.
Gomioka looked at the rookie curiously. This day hadn't started out very
well, and he feared doing something which would cause him even more
problems, but looking at Yamane he knew that he should listen to him.
After all, this was the first time one of his subordinates approached him
for help.
"All right, what is it?"
"Sir, why was I put into the command car, and Koichi Miyagi put into the
cockpit of the labor? I thought I had a real good chance of making it,
after my first round match..."
Gomioka thumbed through some papers on his desk to kill time while he tried
to remember how it had been decided. Something about a defective labor
part... Ah, that was it. "The first round match wasn't considered in the
final decision because of some technical problems in the other labor. It
wasn't considered serious enough to disqualify you, or to change the
results or anything, but it was considered enough for us to make the policy
of only looking at the second round fights."
Seiroku trembled. "Is there any way to challenge that decision?"
Gomioka shook his head. "Sorry, it was final."
"B-but..." Yamane hesitated. "I vowed to my parents I would become a labor
pilot for the SV2 or I'd never return home... I was so hoping..."
The captain looked at Yamane's worried face, and frowned. That was
certainly a foolhardy oath to take, but it almost certainly had given him a
drive to succeed. And he HAD been impressed with the rookies first
match... he very well might have been a better pilot than... Koichi, was
it? He'd never remember that boy's name- he just seemed to fade into the
background as soon as he won his match...
"I cannot reverse the decisions that have already been made. However...
every Patlabor unit is assigned three labors, but is only assigned pilots
for two of them. Occasionally, we will need all three in action, however-
Unit two has had to utilize their third labor a number of times, I
understand. I can make you Labor 3's pilot, unofficially, and if you prove
yourself and we have an opening..."
Seiroku's face lit up. "You'll give me a chance? Oh, thank you, sir!
Thank you!" He rushed out of the room and in the direction of the phone.
Gomioka smiled slightly. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad today, after all.
* * * * *
*Beep beep beep beep*
Kanuka was startled into full wakefulness as the alarm clock blared. 'Huh?
I didn't set any alarms... what time is it? SIX THIRTY? Who set-'
"Ah, Kanuka," her grandmother said as she silenced the clock. "Why are you
here?"
"Grandmother, what are you doing setting an alarm for this early in the
morning?!"
"Why," her grandmother smiled. "Getting myself up in time to fix
breakfast."
"You should be resting-"
"I've been getting up this early for the past fifty years! I think I can
handle it... especially since I got to bed so early this morning." Her
grandmother slowly stood up and stretched.
"Grandma," Kanuka said, a note of warning in her voice. "I found the
medical report."
"Oh, you did?" her grandmother answered, flinching slightly but covering it
up by turning towards her dresser. "Well, I was hoping I'd be able to talk
to you about it before you saw that report- in fact, I was hoping you'd
have gone back to New York, first."
"What?!" Kanuka exclaimed. "Why?"
"Oh, I know you- now you're not going to return to your home and your job."
Silence reigned for almost a full minute. Kanuka couldn't deny it- that
was just what she was planning on doing. Her grandmother, seeing how
speechless she was, embraced her and continued, "You ARE a professional,
remember? I don't want you losing your job taking care of a dying woman.
And there's nothing you can do, either- except maybe speed my death by
trying to pamper me too much. Let me live my last months without feeling
the guilt that I would if you were to lose you job caring for me. I'll be
fine."
"Grandma, I..." Kanuka couldn't continue. She loved her grandmother so
much, and here she was saying to forget about her in her time of need. She
couldn't do that. "I can get an assignment in Japan again... a temporary
one, which won't even affect my possible promotion. One which will leave
me some free time... if for no other reason than to visit."
"Kanuka..." Her grandmother looked into her granddaughters eyes, and
sighed. It was impossible to tell her no when she was that determined.
"ONLY if you are CERTAIN it won't effect your career, I... would allow you
to visit me while on your new job."
Withdrawing from her grandmother's embrace, Kanuka nodded. "Thank you,
grandma. I'm afraid I'll need to skip breakfast- I need to try and find a
job."
With that, she rushed out of the door, unintentionally slamming it behind
her.
Her grandmother sighed. "I knew hiding that file wouldn't work... I just
wish I had been able to convince you to go back home. Now, I can only hope
you find your job, because I'm pretty sure if you don't you'll just quit
the police to be with me, and that would hurt me more than you could
possibly imagine..."
--------------------------
Next Episode: The maintenance crew discovers Natsume Kawai, Yuhki gets
nervous, Kanuka asks for a job, and the SV2 waits for Y2K.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Sir Desaix, member # 116 of the Knights of the True Fiancee
anime fanfics available at
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