Chapter 2: The Mailing Job
The secretary led her into a dark room and Naomi bit her lip. "Now don't worry," said the secretary softly as she sensed Naomi's unease.
Turning on the lights, which blinded Naomi for a second, the secretary said, "From this day forward, if you manage to past the test, you will be taught discipline, responsibility, and most importantly survival of the fittest."
Opening her eyes slowly Naomi gasped as she saw that they were inside a big circular dome. "Wow, what is this place?" asked Naomi as she gazed over the weapons hung up on the wall to her left. There was obstacle courses in front of her and off to the side were seats that rose up to the top of the roof. "This is the training dome where the beginners come to train and also where we compete."
"Compete?" murmured Naomi looking confused.
"Yes, this is where the whole mailing department comes and compete to see who is the best. I may not look it, but I once won the first place trophy." Naomi smiled and looked over at the secretary. She still looked young with her baby blue hair tied up into a bun and metal-framed glasses hung from her neck. "If you don't mind me asking…how old are you?" asked Naomi.
"I'm seventy two."
"What! But you sure don't look it," exclaimed Naomi. The secretary smiled, "Thanks, but I'm still old no matter what I look like. My wings are gone forever now…."
"I'm sorry I didn't—"
"Don't worry about it," the secretary said cutting Naomi off. "Let's just get the testing done. Now first things first how old are you?"
"I'm sixteen," said Naomi.
"Right. You just made the age limit. Now first test I'm going to time you and see how fast you can get to that end and back." Naomi gulped and looked at the other end. It was about as long as a football field. Unfolding her wings she crouched down and placed her hands on the ground. Preparing to push off with both her feet and hands. "Ready, get set," the secretary paused, "go!"
Naomi pushed off of the ground and flew towards the other side of the dome. Suddenly she remembered the last race she and Holden had just before he left. Biting on her lip she strained to go faster. "Promise me…" The words echoed in her mind. She looked to her side and gasped. Flying right beside her was Holden with his crimson wings straining against the wind. "Hey," he muttered and disappeared.
"Holden…" she whispered silently.
The secretary stared at the stopwatch and smiled. "10 minutes," she muttered to herself. "Not bad for a rookie. Now let's see how much she takes to make it back." Plus she has interesting wings…
Naomi saw the wall ahead and pushed off of it with her feet, which gave her a boost. Flying back she saw the secretary and a reckless grin came over her face. She altered her direction and headed straight for the obstacle course. Slipping through narrow rings and avoiding various poles and stakes that rose out of the ground, she laughed.
This is what she lived for, for Holden and flying. She felt the wind whip back her hair and suddenly she wanted to be faster than the wind. Revelation and excitement flowed through her, to be faster than the wind, she thought. Faster than the wind, she thought again, is that even possible?
The secretary looked up and was startled to see the girl flying through the obstacle course. Shaking her head she watched Naomi burst through the dense enclosed space of the various plants and vines that hung from the ceiling.
Landing next to the secretary she laughed again. The breathless sort of laugh that brought tears to her eyes and soon enough they turned into sobs. "Why?" she screamed in between her sobbing. Falling to her knees she shakily brought her hands to her face and cried.
The secretary just watched not offering any comfort. She has to learn to live with this on her own, thought the secretary as she watched tears slip through her fingers.
Holden…I miss you so much, thought Naomi. Soon the tears subsided and Naomi looked up at the secretary with puffy, red eyes.
"Hn, congratulations, kid," said the secretary. "You finished in 15.9 minutes and I have to say I'm quite impressed. You're now part of the mailing department and training begins tomorrow at 5:00am."
"5:00am!" said Naomi her voice cracking slightly from crying so much.
"Yup," the secretary said with a smug grin on her face. They both walked back to the entrance and the secretary waved good-bye, "See you later!"
"Bye…" Naomi called back and flew off. Man, Naomi thought as she headed back home, I can't believe that I have to wake up at 5…wait…if I have to get there by 5 I'll have to wake up by maybe four thirty. Sighing Naomi landed in front of her house and tiredly opened the door. "I'm home!" shouted Naomi.
"Welcome back, Naomi!" shouted her mother. "I have dinner ready!"
"That sounds nice…" Naomi muttered sleepily as she sat at the dinner table.
"So did you get the job?" asked Kyoko as she brought out three plates.
"How'd you know I applied?" asked Naomi suspiciously, "I mean yes I got the job."
"That's wonderful! How I know is a secret," smiled Kyoko.
"By the way where's dad? He hasn't come home for two days now."
"He's on a business trip. Can you get your brother for me?" replied Kyoko as she set down some forks.
"Yeah, sure." Naomi stood up and walked up the stairs. Opening the door to her brother's room she walked inside and picked up Tanai off the floor. "C'mon, dinner is ready." She saw Tanai smile in return. Naomi gently went down the stairs making sure she would not drop her brother. "Mom, do you need help?" asked Naomi once she placed her brother in a chair by the dining table.
"Nope. I'm good." Kyoko brought out a pot of chopped up meat and a bowl filled with steaming vegetables. Setting them at the table she also sat down, right next Tanai. "So, when are you starting your mailing job?"
"Tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" Kyoko laughed.
"Yes." Naomi muttered glaring at the bowl of vegetables.
"You better go to bed early then. I heard they get up at the crack of dawn," replied Kyoko as she grabbed a few pieces of meat.
"Don't remind me."
You can't kill time, but time can kill you
Naomi groaned as her alarm went off. "It's too early," she whispered as she tugged her blanket over her head.
"Naomi! Rise and shine!" shouted Kyoko as she pounded on the door. She got an answering groan and smiled. "You don't want to be late do you?"
"Ugh," moaned Naomi as she threw the blankets off her body and pushed the snooze button on her alarm. She grabbed a long-sleeved shirt and some pants. Opening the door to her bedroom she headed towards the bathroom down the hall. "It's too early."
"That's what you get for applying for a mailing job," answered Kyoko.
"Please leave me alone," muttered Naomi as she turned glaring eyes towards her mother. "It's too early in the morning for your lectures."
"I'm hurt. I thought you loved my lectures," Kyoko answered with mirth twinkling in her eyes.
"…" Naomi didn't reply and instead closed the bathroom door. Turning towards the mirror she unfolded her wings and brought her hand up to touch her red wing. "Holden…"
To hold to hope is to hold to a lie
Naomi arrived at the mailing building and was surprised by all the people that were busting to and from the building. "Why is it so busy?" Naomi wondered out loud as she walked inside the building.
"There you are. I was wondering if you would show," shouted the secretary. She hurriedly rushed up to Naomi and led her into the training room.
"Wow," was Naomi's reply as she walked through the door. Everywhere she looked she could see all kinds of different winged angels flying around. "They're amazing."
"Yes, they are trained to be the best of the best. Now I will introduce you to everybody." The secretary pulled out a long, thin whistle and blew on it sharply.
"Wait! Introduce…" Naomi trailed off as the angels all landed one by one next to her.
"Everyone this is Naomi," shouted the secretary as she wrapped her arms around Naomi's shaking shoulders, "I will hope that you will make her feel welcome."
"H-hello," stammered Naomi as she gazed over the group of assembled angels. A chorus of hellos and welcomes were heard which made Naomi turn pink.
"Don't be afraid," whispered the secretary in her ear. "All the angels here are friendly." The secretary straightened up and pointed at the group of angels. "Let's get busy! Blue Team you're assigned the western part of the island. Red Team you're assigned to the northern part of the island. Yellow Team you're assigned the eastern part. Black Team is assigned the southern part. The rest of you stay here."
"Um…" Naomi uttered, confused as she watched everyone fly off with mail bags slung over their shoulders. "Am I in a team?" wondered Naomi out loud.
"No, not yet."
Naomi turned around swiftly and saw the green haired angel that she bumped into at the hospital. "You're…"
"My name is Rai."
"Ah, my name is Naomi…" Naomi jumped a bit when she heard Rai laugh.
"I know your name. Our teacher did just introduce you," Rai chuckled as he noticed the blush spreading across Naomi's cheeks. "It's okay. For today I'm your teacher. I'll be teaching you survival tactics and perhaps some basic weapon attacks."
"Wow! Really?" shouted Naomi as she jumped up and down. "Thanks, Rai, you're my favorite teacher!"
"I haven't even started teaching yet," laughed Rai. He smiled and turned to the rest of the angels. "Okay, listen up I want everyone here to start their wing exercises while I teach Naomi the basics." Everyone agreed and Rai turned to Naomi. "First things first, I'm going to tell you our daily schedule. Though I'm not always going to be your teacher the exercise will be somewhat the same. First everyone warms up by stretching and doing basic wing exercises."
"What's a wing exercise? Is it when you stretch out your wings?" asked Naomi as she stretched one of her wings experimentally.
"No, not really. It's when you fly in place almost like jogging in place."
"Eh? How do you do that?" asked Naomi as she flapped her wings and ended up going backwards, away from Rai.
"It takes a lot of concentration that's why it's a good wing exercise. I'll show you how after I explain a bit. Okay the second thing we do after we warm up is we start racing each other. You pair off and race around the room trying to see who gets finished first. If you lose you will be with all the people who lost and you will help clean up this place after we're done with training. Lastly if there is time we will do weapon training," Rai stopped and turned to look at Naomi, "understand?"
"Somewhat," laughed Naomi as she once more tried to fly in place. Smiling at Rai she flew over to him and landed next to him. "So, are you going to show me how to fly in place?"
"Sure," Rai smiled as he placed his hands on her shoulder. "Now, flap your wings."
"Uh…sure," replied Naomi a tinge of pink on her cheeks. She unfolded her wings and flapped once really hard. However she flapped just a little too hard and Naomi accidentally fell backwards from the force, dragging Rai along with her.
"Umph," Rai landed on Naomi hard the wind knocked from his lungs.
"Ugh," groaned Naomi as she opened her eyes, her head swimming from the pain for landing on the hard ground and Rai dropping on top of her.
"Are…you okay?" questioned Rai once he got his breath back.
"Uhn…." Was all Naomi said as she blinked rapidly for a few moments to make the dizziness go away. When the dizziness faded she realized how close Rai was and blushed hard. "Can you…get off?"
"Ack! I'm so sorry!" shouted Rai as he leapt off of Naomi slightly blushing.
"It's okay…" Naomi stood up and swayed a bit before steadying herself. "I guessed I was suppose to flap lightly…"
"Yeah, but it's okay. I didn't say you should flap lightly," laughed Rai as he scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
"Yeah…" Naomi trailed off. After a few minutes Naomi turned to Rai, "Do I still need to do wing exercises? Or do I race with someone?"
"Oh, it's about time to go already so…" Rai smiled. "Plus I think that you will need to have more training before you race any of these guys here. They've been training here for a few months already and so I think you might need to build up strength before going against these guys."
"Ah…okay." Naomi turned to peer at the other flyers that were staring at her. She turned her back on them and blushed, embarrassed.
"Well c'mon Naomi I'll show you to the shower room," said Rai softly as he led her away from the whispering crowd.
"Are…are they making fun of me?" questioned Naomi feeling ashamed of herself.
"Of course not! They're just amazed that you managed to knock me off my feet," laughed Rai as he patted her shoulder reassuringly.
"Ah," answered Naomi, still not sure if Rai was right or not.
"Hey don't worry about it, okay? Pretty soon you'll become quite comfortable here. Everybody's first day was hard."
"Thanks for everything, Rai." Naomi followed Rai down a hallway and turned left to see a door on either side of the corridor.
"The women's locker room is on the left and the men's are on the right. Be careful not to get confused. I did and trust me it's very embarrassing," Rai advised.
"That really must've been embarrassing," Naomi chuckled. Saying good-bye to Rai she entered through the door on the left and walked inside. "I guess today wasn't so bad…" admitted Naomi as she turned to the showers, "though I sorta don't want to shower." Peering suspiciously into the shower stall she nervously shifted from foot to foot. "I'll just leave," decided Naomi as she rushed out blushing. Running down the hall she accidentally bumped into someone. "I'm sorry," she automatically said on reflex.
"It's okay. Though it looked like the devil was at your heels," laughed a women's voice.
"Sorry," repeated Naomi as she looked up to peer into amber eyes.
"What's your name?" asked the women.
"Uh…Naomi," replied Naomi.
"Cool. My name is Kirana. I didn't get a chance to say hello early because you were training with Rai." Kirana smiled at Naomi and held out her hand. "Let's be friends!"
"…" Naomi was a bit surprised at her outburst, but shook her hand anyways. "Friends," she agreed.
A/N: Okay I'm stopping it here. I was going to put more but I'm afraid this story would've turned out to be only five long chapters. I wanted to make it a lot more chapters! That is my goal! Anyways what'd you guys think? I'm going to have the Reikai Tantei in chapter four more specifically Hiei. See ya next time! I expect a lot of reviews! v