"Beautiful Disaster"
Chapter 1
And if I could hold on…
Through the tears and the laughter…
Would it be beautiful…
Or just a beautiful disaster…?
6:29 a.m. The sun was rising at a slow pace, making the sky a pale gray-blue rather than black. In another place, perhaps one could hear the birds awakening, chirping at their mates, or see the sun's rays peek through the trees at the sleeping forms of strangers. But in the bustling city of Tokyo, one couldn't hear those things, or anything, for that matter, besides their own race sauntering out of bed, or their alarm clock trying to take the place of the traditional birds others were so fortunate to have.
This was Keiko Yukimura's predicament.
At six-thirty, Keiko's alarm clock began to play a "beep" version of Beethoven's ninth. She opened her eyes ever-so-slowly and banged an outstretched arm on the clock to turn it off. Pushing her pink blankets off her chest, Keiko staggered out of bed and to her closet to get her school uniform.
It was then when Keiko remembered: today was the last day of school, and, to be exact, Keiko's last day of school at Sarayashiki Junior High. She didn't know what high school she was going to attend, but only that she was going to attend one, as Keiko had passed her middle school exit exam with flying colors.
Like all students at the end of the school year, Keiko was more than tired of school. The freedom of summer beckoned- the seemingly endless days of boredom but happiness were only a few hours away, and she was well aware. Even Keiko Yukimura, class president, tired of her duties.
Once Keiko was in her school uniform, a simple blue and yellow sailor dress with a knee-length skirt and baggy white socks, she moved over to her white, wooden dresser. After years of the practice, Keiko could place her bosom-length hair into two "farmer girl" pigtails in about thirty seconds. After that was done, she put on an average amount of makeup that would seem completely natural- the excessive amounts of black eyeliner-wearing that was on the rise reminded Keiko of the eyes of characters in her favorite mangas.
Keiko's plain briefcase for school sat next to her door, and when Keiko moved to get it, she could smell her breakfast, cooking downstairs in the Yukimura Diner. She opened the door and made her way downstairs, seeing her father humming as he cooked bacon and eggs for breakfast.
Parting the curtain strips, Keiko came into the diner, and her father noticed her immediately. "Morning, Keiko-chan," He greeted, beaming at Keiko, "Eggs? Bacon? Both?"
She shook her head. "Just bacon. I'm not that hungry."
She took a seat at the counter like a normal customer and had a plate of mouth-watering bacon and a glass of milk in front of her in just a few minutes. Keiko ate at a slow pace, knowing there was no need for rush.
"Keiko-chan, Shizuru-chan can't take you to school today. Her appointments start very early in the morning today due to Mrs. Takahashi's wacky schedule." Keiko's mother suddenly appeared in the kitchen, standing by her father. "I'd take you to school, Keiko-chan, but-"
"I know," Keiko said, her tone bored. "Business could boom. It's okay, really." After finishing her sentence, Keiko was wolfing down her bacon and getting up from her counter chair. She opened up the front door of their house, looking back at her parents. "Goodbye Mom, Dad. See you after school."
As Keiko slowly closed the door, her smiling parents yelled, "Bye, Keiko-chan!" in perfect unison. Now that she had eaten, it was time to run to school.
Keiko hadn't had to run to school for a long time, now that she was thinking about it. Keiko's parents and Shizuru's parents had been friends for a long time, and it carried on with Keiko and Shizuru. Shizuru was just a few years older, and out of college. She ran a hair and nail salon in downtown Tokyo that was popular with teenagers and wealthy women. Her brother, Kazuma, went to Keiko's school, but he didn't talk very much to anyone other than his "posse", and in the past few weeks he'd been distancing from even them. Keiko wondered if it was because of too much thought about his mother dying giving birth to him, or separation anxiety from their father, whom Shizuru had bought a nice coastal cottage for recently. She should probably ask Kazuma what was wrong when she got to school.
It took a panting Keiko about forty-five minutes to get to Sarayashiki Junior High School, which was approximately half an hour before school started at eight o'clock. The school officials didn't open the doors until 7:50, however, so Keiko was left outside.
She leaned against the school and sighed, shutting her eyes. This was getting old…
"Yukimura-san?"
Keiko opened a lone eye and looked upon the newcomer, a tall boy with generic black hair and strange ice blue eyes that made him the darling of Sarayashiki. His wiry build was envied, his silky voice well-liked by females.
Not that Keiko cared about any of those spectacular traits. Something seemed missing in her many suitors, almost as though they were coats of armor with no bodies. All style and no substance. Keiko couldn't pinpoint what it was, but there was something they were definitely missing.
"Hm?"
"How…are you celebrating the new summer, Yukimura-san?" He asked her, his eyes gleaming with hope.
"I'm not sure," Keiko answered flatly, killing the conversation and closing her eye again.
"….Oh." He simply stammered. There was a pause as both students stood, and, finally, he retreated to leave Keiko in her wonderland.
Keiko heard many of her classmates rushing over to the fences and a siren blaring. Opening her eyes, she saw a police car, no, several police cars flashing their lights, obviously after a criminal. A simple thrill. Living in Tokyo, you saw many police cars. It wasn't anything exciting.
"Did you do something, Kuwabara?" Keiko heard a student yell. Sure enough, Kazuma was advancing onto the school grounds just a few seconds after the police cars had gone by. He looked worn and unhappy, normal behavior as of late, and was alone.
Keiko decided she would talk to him. "Kazuma-kun! Over here!"
He followed her directions, staggering over to her. "Keiko-san, nee-san wants to apologize for not-"
"It's okay." Keiko reassured him. "I'm worried about you, Kazuma. What's wrong? You've clearly been unhappy for a while now."
Kazuma gave Keiko an emotion-drained smile, as though he was holding up a cardboard mouth. "I'm all right."
Keiko frowned. "You're not being sincere."
"It's nothing that concerns you." He stated, looking away from her.
"That doesn't mean I don't have the right to know," Keiko prodded, hands on her hips. She hated not knowing what was going on.
The bell rang, and Kazuma prepared to walk off. "Don't worry about me," he said, and then disappeared into the sea of uniform-clad students, though he stuck out greatly in his light blue jumpsuit and his amazing height. Keiko followed, squeezing her way into the sea, and eventually inside the school.
……………………………………………………………………………………………..
It was fifth hour, just after lunch for Keiko, and the day had already been hectic. Child after child after child was called into the office to discuss their final grades, and where they were headed for high school. Keiko hadn't been called yet. She supposed that the teachers already knew where she was going.
"Yukimura?" Mr. Iwamoto called, taking attendance for the day. And, when someone was gone, he would lecture about them for the next fifteen minutes of class. Keiko hated when Kazuma was gone.
"Here." She stated, pulling out her history book and setting it on her tired desk.
Roll call was finished quickly, and it was discovered by Mr. Iwamoto that Mina Miyake wasn't here for the last day, and he indeed spent a few minutes speaking about her hard-to-read handwriting on tests and homework.
After he was finished with that, the teacher stood just in front of his desk and began to call out names to place their history book back in his care. Knowing Mr. Iwamoto's harsh punishments, most of the class was silent as this happened, making it seem like a tribal offering.
"Sakamoto?" He called, and Hiroshi Sakamoto brought his book up to the front. Placing it on the floor in front of Mr. Iwamoto, he walked quickly back to his desk.
"Taira?" Leiko Taira brought her book up to the pile and retreated back to her seat.
"Yukimur-"
"Yukimura Keiko, please come to the guidance office. Yukimura Keiko, to the guidance office."
Keiko picked up her briefcase and her book and started for the front of the classroom. She swiftly placed her textbook on the third pile, and Mr. Iwamoto gave her the nod to go to the guidance office. Taking this in, Keiko opened the door and walked out.
The guidance office was just down the stairs from Mr. Iwamoto's room, so Keiko took the nearest stairwell to the left and then walked in the opposite direction. She reached for the door, but the knob went out of reach as another student opened it.
"Yukimura-san?" It was the boy with the blue eyes who had disturbed her. Keiko didn't say anything.
"…Yoshida-sensei wants you." Confused, Keiko nodded and went inside the cream-colored guidance office, where Ms. Yoshida was waiting for her. She was a rather young woman, only about twenty-six, but Keiko knew rather well that this woman knew what she was talking about when it came to high schools and grades. She had long black hair that was always tidy and stoic brown eyes that had probably gazed upon hundreds of students in the school behind those thick black glasses before Keiko. Keiko closed the door, taking a chair in front of Ms. Yoshida's desk, and awaited her conversation.
After about a minute of her guidance dean typing away on her big computer and reaching for files in the cabinets above her head, Keiko wondered if Ms. Yoshida was aware of her presence. Finally, the dean looked over, seeing Keiko.
"I'm sorry," Ms. Yoshida said, blushing. "Didn't see you there." She reached below her, this time, to a drawer under the desktop, and pulled out a manila folder that Keiko supposed was her student file. Opening it, Keiko saw her own picture and plenty of small words and numbers that Keiko didn't feel the need to look at.
"As you already know, Miss Yukimura, your grades are extremely high. Top-notch." Ms. Yoshida flipped over a few pages and then spoke again. "You could definitely get into any high school in Tokyo, probably even Meiou Private Academy, if that was what you really wanted." Keiko nodded. "However, the best education for you, Miss Yukimura, would be going to one of Japan's boarding schools, and you would be accepted in without a doubt. The question is, do you have enough money to go?" Keiko didn't know the answer to this question, so she remained silent. "If you don't, I understand you've expressed interest in one of the all-girl schools, but I can assure you that Meiou is a much better option-"
The door slammed open, Principal Takenaka coming in at light speed, followed by two policemen. The plump, khaki-wearing principal of Sarayashiki looked extremely distressed, his eyes watery as though he were about to cry. "Is Yukimura Keiko in here at the moment?" He said, gasping for breath.
Keiko nodded. "I'm here, sir,"
"Well, Miss Yukimura, you need to come with us," the principal ordered. Keiko meekly got out of her chair and followed, worried. Why were the police here? Had she done something wrong? Maybe a product from a store fell into her bag when she was running to school, or maybe…
"Miss Yukimura, we're going to ask you to be as calm as you possibly can as we tell you the details," The first policeman stated. "Can you try your hardest?"
"Yes, sir," Keiko answered.
"At about 7:05 this morning, Tanaka Midori went to have her breakfast at the diner. At 7:08, she went inside the bathroom and stayed in there for about three minutes. When she came out, she found most of the tables and chairs toppled over, broken glass and plates on the floor with everyone's breakfast traveling along the tiles. Ten people lay on the ground of the Diner, dead- unfortunately including both of your parents."
The policeman took a pause while Keiko's eyes watered and then closed, releasing quiet tears down her face as she tried to control her sobbing. She knelt on the floor and put her hands over her eyes, so the policemen wouldn't have to see her. Principal Takenaka found himself taken over by sad emotions, and he left the scene to mourn privately.
Keiko wondered, like most people in this sort of a situation, what she would have said, or done, if she had known. She had never lost anyone really important in her life, and she was too young to realize it when her grandparents died. She had treated it like any normal day, and now…she wouldn't see them again.
Noticing the policemen were standing calmly, watching her, she blushed. "Go…on."
"The good news is that Miss Tanaka was among six survivors, and the other five had seen the killer. They called us down, and some of our fellow policemen were able to find the killer about four minutes ago. We're one of the pairs that were sent to find surviving members of the dead.
"If you wish, you may go to the trials that will be happening over the summer- we will escort you in and out of the courtroom. The biggest issue with you, Miss Yukimura, is who will take custody of you. Unfortunately, your parents were only children, and your grandparents are all deceased. Which means-"
"Sir?" Keiko asked, taking her hands off her eyes.
"Yes?"
"If I believe that I know someone that has the ability to be a good guardian, might I allow them to be my guardian?"
The man raised an eyebrow. "As long as we approve them,"
"Then could I take you to her now?"
"Would you like to see your house?"
Keiko wondered about the question given to her. Did she really want to see the diner, in that condition? If it was how the woman had described it, Keiko didn't think she could bear to look at it.
But if she wasn't going to live there again for a long time…
"Could I visit the upstairs? Take some valuables out? You could just blindfold me on the first floor." Keiko requested, getting off of the floor and holding back tears.
The two officials nodded. "Right this way, Miss Yukimura,"
End Chapter 1
Note #1: I do not own the Kelly Clarkson song, "Beautiful Disaster". If you're curious, yes, this story is named after the song, which is definitely a Yusuke/Keiko anthem. In addition, four lines of the song will begin each chapter. If you haven't heard the song, you must. That's all I can say! It's on her first CD.
Note #2: Hey everybody! How's it going? Let me tell you, I am so glad to finally have some inspiration in my brain for a Yusuke/Keiko story. I hope you all enjoyed this first chapter, and I promise this story will be at least five times as good as "Community Service"- or your money back!...Ha ha, I can't actually give you anything back, but I promise I'll make this fic as good as I possibly can.
Another little thing, this isn't a "Community Service" style AU, just so you guys know- in fact, I've only changed certain minor details of the show and switched around about three of the roles. Seriously, this will almost as tied in with the show and manga as a normal fic, but it's not because I did change some things.
More good news for you readers- this is my first fanfic that I have planned out, start to finish. Well, not completely, but I know the major happenings, some of the minor happenings, and even how it all ends! Isn't that crazy that I started fics without knowing the end? That probably explains how my "Community Service" went down the drain…
To end my ranting, I hope you guys enjoyed this, and will review. Pepsi for all, Federer is better than Roddick, and Yusuke/Keiko forever!