Fragments of Heaven

Chapter 1-Care

Golden eyes stared out of the window of a café in Shinjuku. Outside, the storm raged on, merciless and cruel. A worried teenager of age nineteen stopped wiping the tables and sighed. They still weren't back.

"HEVN-san, why don't you have a cup of coffee while waiting for them to come back? Even inside here, it's still freezing.."

HEVN turned to face Natsumi, who was standing behind the bar.

"No, thank you. It's quite all right. I'm fine."

She smiled at the younger girl.

"I'm just worried that something might happen to them.."

Natsumi smiled back and thought to herself, as HEVN turned around yet again to watch the falling sheets of rain for any signs of the two retrievers, that HEVN worried too much. After all, she was their agent so she had to know that they were fully capable of themselves.

Pore's head suddenly appeared behind the door of the store room, and asked Natsumi to help him put buckets under the leaking ceilings.

HEVN was again lost in her thoughts. So many different possibilities of problems that the two men might face were flung around in her head. What if their car broke down? Or what if they couldn't find their way home? So many 'what ifs'. Maybe she should try drinking coffee; it might calm her down.

As she was about to call on Natsumi, the café door flew open and revealed the two men who had kicked it open: Ban and Ginji. They were both dripping wet, had several cuts on their bodies, and happy smiles on their faces.

"We're back! Can you get two cups of coffee for us, Natsumi?"

HEVN watched silently as she watched the duo and their usual routine of bursting in, ordering something, then telling Pore to add it to the tab after retrieving something.

'Those pigs. Not even bothering to dry up before walking around, or to greet those that were there before them.'

She stood up and headed toward the booth that the two retrievers were occupying. She held out her hand, as a signal to the 'smarter' dakannya that she wanted the goods.

"Oh, you're here too HEVN-san! I'm sorry, I didn't notice you sitting over there."

HEVN held back her tears. Normally, a person would have cried his or her eyes out if someone said something like that. But she didn't. She knew it would've meant nothing to these two anyway.

After Ban handed her the box where the century old manuscript was stored, she hurried out the door, not even bothering to open up her umbrella, or to look back.

Back inside the café, Ban looked up to ask Pore,

"What's eating her?"