Warnings: Spoilers for all of the manga.
Notes: Kanji is very loud. I apologize for him in advance. I hope you'll notice how his word count fits snugly between Goh and Taki's... eternalsailorsolarwind (your pen name is effortless to write out at this point!): I think it has to do with the very police report nature of Hatozaki's chapter. It practically bullet point's out each statement matter-of-factly and leaves little room for argument. I bet he's really good at interrogations. As for Hatozaki/Yukiya, I do like both characters and I agree that their feelings for one another give strength to the story. I particularly like the tension, and I've been mulling it over a bit lately, so maybe we'll be seeing more of this from me in the future. This is technically the last character and chapter from this series, but look for one more special little something from me for you loyal readers in the next couple of days. I just need to work a few more things out on it.
Disclaimer: Yellow is owned by Makoto Tateno; I'm just borrowing it so I can make myself feel better about the plotholes...

Family

Hi! This is really exciting! I know, I know. I'm being too loud, but it's not every day that a guy can talk all about himself and people are actually interested! Want to see a magic trick? Hm. I don't know how that'd work here. Anyway, I guess I should stick with talking about myself.

I never really had a father growing up; or any siblings. I guess that's why I latched onto Goh and Taki. They're like the brothers I never got to have growing up. Maybe that's why I turned out a little "off?" It's not like I don't like girls or anything, it's just when I look at Goh and Taki together it makes me feel all warm inside, like that's special and it's right and I want to feel that kind of joy, too.

I don't remember my birth father. I'm not really sure what happened to him. Maybe mom just sort of had me accidentally and never told him. She always seemed kind of bitter about men, though, so maybe he ran off on her. I guess it wasn't so bad, though. I had lots of people to pay attention to me at mom's job.

Yeah, mom used to bring me to work with her, even when I was really little. She said that "if I could walk I could help" and she always had me running errands and entertaining the customers. That's why I started learning magic tricks. Goh says I still have a long way to go to be a great magician like his teacher. He says he can talk to him and maybe get an apprenticeship for me. I don't know, though. I'd have to go away and then I wouldn't see anybody anymore. And plus, I want to be a snatcher like Goh and Taki some day, so I have to stay and train with them!

Goh and Taki are so cool! I'm so glad I met them! I mean, I miss my mom and everything and I wish she didn't have to go to jail, but she did bad things and Goh and Taki weren't trying to hurt anyone; they were just doing their job. And boy is it a cool job! Doing jobs under the table for the police to rope in criminals and stuff! And they're so cool about it! I know I can't measure up to the way they're so smooth about the smallest details; like when they take the pass code note all calm-like while they're sipping coffee. Totally awesome! Taki is so smart and is such a good fighter and Goh has all those neat tricks; they make it look so easy! I don't know if I'll ever be that good.

If I had to name my biggest fault I guess it'd be the loud thing. It's just that I always had to scream and yell and carry on to get my mom to pay attention to me all those years, even if it was just so she could yell at me to be quiet. It's a hard habit to break, even now that everyone lets me be around and talks to me and includes me in things even without all that noise.

Right now I'm just trying to focus on my job at Roost and finish high school. Mr. Tsunuga's really nice to keep me on the staff all this time as a favor to Mr. Hatozaki. When Mr. Hatozaki used to bring me down to the station all the time because of mom's business he was always nice. He'd tell me about his brother that was around my age and I always felt like he really sympathized with my problems. He even got me into the same school as Yukiya on a scholarship!

I guess they wanted to keep me close because I know about the snatcher business and I could be useful sometimes. I'm kinda sorry that I had to lie and keep stuff from them a while back, but it was for Goh and Taki and I think they understand. Mr. Tsunuga hasn't said anything about it since then and he still lets me work for him, so I guess everything is okay.

Since I'm much better at talking than I am at serving food or cleaning I mostly just entertain Mari while everyone is working and help a little with the snatching stuff on the side, since Mimi isn't supposed to know anything. Mari really likes my magic tricks, even though she always giggles and repeats Goh about the "not so good" thing. She says I'm really funny and I "liven the room whenever I'm there." So cute.

Anyway, life is really good for me right now. I wouldn't change my lot in it for anything. I'm just happy to finally be a part of a family!

Kanji
8/29/06
807 words