A/N: Well, I'm back after a whole year of not updating a single thing (except for those Pokemon and Silent Hill fics). I hope you can all find it in your hearts to forgive my absence. Being a senior has made me busy, forgetful, and overall lazy. I haven't felt like writing something in forever. But now I have a spark of creativity going, so I'd better use it quick! Here's chapter 7 (in case people have lost track) of My Chobitchan.
Chapter 7Job Hunting
Finally, half way through the night, Shuichi had stopped repeating Yuki's name and fell asleep in the living room. The novelist himself was still working, but once the ringing of the name "Yuki" in his ears had ceased, he got up to check on the little bugger. He smirked at the sight of his "pet" curled up on the rug sound asleep. Not wanting the boy to be uncomfortable, Yuki heaved him onto the couch and covered him with a blanket.
The blonde gazed at the persocon and his frivolous pink locks that kept falling into his face. Yuki swished them out of the way and gasped softly when he saw Shuichi move. Luckily, he didn't wake up.
'What a strange thing you are.' Yuki thought. 'I mean, I know you've been strange since the first time you came to my door, but really… how did this all happen anyway? And why?' Yuki remembered that swindling salesman on the street's sidewalk and made an irritated face at the flashback.
"Out of all the people in Tokyo, why'd he have to choose me?" The novelist sighed, running a hand through his hair, and went for his bedroom. Before entering his domain, he looked back at the sleeping figure, 'Though I guess… it wasn't such an unfortunate incident…' Yuki closed his door, plopped down on his mattress, and fell right asleep.
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Meanwhile, Fujisaki had quickly gotten Itsuka's lens and started right away on his assignment from Tohma.
Finding a missing Chobit.
In all of his wildest dreams he had never imagined such an opportunity to pop up out of nowhere. But since his cousin's research facility's electronics were all going haywire from that sonic energy wave, his services were the only ones they could count on.
It got Fujisaki quite cocky to say the least.
Finally, his equipment would be put to the test and then Tohma would have to respect him! What a lucky break!
He was also excited about being able to find a Chobit for personal interests. He'd never seen one before, though he knew they looked just like an ordinary persocon. Maybe he could do some of his own research on it, strictly for data gathering. It'd be awesome if Fujisaki could figure out the machinery in these creatures and perhaps build something similar to it's hardware. Then he wouldn't have to be the one fixing persocon parts anymore!
"Alright! If I want to find this thing before something happens to it, I'd better get to tracking it down. Hopefully the guys who stole the merchandise haven't done anything to hurt it."
Fujisaki began rapidly typing information into his super computer, doing everything he could to find a trace of this mysterious being.
It was going to be a long night.
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Yuki yawned and stretched thoroughly. He got a cramp in his leg from the strain but flexed his feet to make the pain disappear before even starting. After laying in bed for a few more minutes, Yuki got up, brushed his teeth, got some comfy clothes on and headed out to the den. He went to the kitchen, heated up a cup of coffee and retreated back to the living room again. He took a sip of the espresso, yawned again, and looked at the couch.
Which was empty.
"Shuichi?" Yuki called out, waiting for a response in one of the other rooms.
"Shu?" He said once more before checking the kitchen again, the bathroom, the closet, his bedroom, the laundry room, and under the couch.
"Where the hell could he b-"
Then he noticed the ajar door…
"Oh fuck."
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In a blissful manner, Shuichi bobbed up and down the sidewalk in the middle of town, surrounded by hordes of people rushing to get to somewhere. He kept his eyes straight though, not losing focus of what was important.
That morning, Shuichi had gotten up to watch some early television while his owner was still sleeping. He saw these advertisements that promoted jobs and showed people doing their jobs. Shuichi recognized these occupations as what Yuki had too. He knew the golden-haired man wrote things in books and that's the way he was able to live here and provide for himself. It seemed everyone had jobs to sustain their normal way of life. Everyone except for Shuichi.
So that's when he decided to go out, along with his orange beanie hat that covered his ears, and get a job too! He wanted to impress Yuki and show that he could earn a living just like the rest of the world. Maybe this would help out with his owners problem of "paying the bills" (he heard Yuki talking about it over the phone to that guy who looked like him but with dark hair).
Shuichi didn't want to tell Yuki because he was afraid the matter would burden him in his writing… and because he wanted it to be a surprise!
The persocon had no idea what he was going to do first though. There were so many buildings in the city, it was hard to decide which one looked interesting to work at. Was it just so easy as to walk in a start a job? He would soon find out.
Shuichi looked up at the name of one store, but couldn't understand what it said. He peered inside the window and saw a lot of people eating at tables. This must be a restaurant!
Shuichi headed in timidly and glanced at all the customers eating their orders. The persocon stood there for a while, not sure what to do, when a woman came by and asked, "How many sir?"
He looked at her and blinked, not responding.
The seater asked one more time, in case he didn't hear her from the noise of the people. "Sir, how many?"
Shuichi still didn't know what to say, but instead looked past her into the kitchen area which was revealed through a window on the wall across from all the tables. He pointed to it and said one small word.
"Work?"
"Huh?" The girl, puzzled, looked behind her and replied. "Yes… they work here." She nodded.
"Me?" Shuichi pointed to himself, trying to tell the nice lady he wanted to work here.
"You? You work here? Oh, then why didn't you say so? You better get in the back then before the boss catches you slacking off." The woman totally misunderstood his message.
"Funny, I've never seen you around before… you new?" She asked.
Shuichi didn't say anything, but simply bowed and headed off towards the kitchen.
"Hm? What a strange guy…" She shook her head and went back to seating other entering customers.
Meanwhile, Shuichi was surprised how easy it was to get that job. Maybe all businesses were that way. You just walked into a store, asked for work, and they give it to you. How nice humans were!
Shuichi opened the flapping doors of the kitchen and saw dozens of cooks in white uniform bustling about here and there. Some were putting spices into pots, others were stirring something, and others were chopping up food. The persocon didn't know where to start, so he decided to follow this one chef around and copy what he did.
First, the guy grabbed a butcher's knife, as did Shuichi. Then, he got out a slab of meat and started chopping it roughly, as did Shuichi. And he plopped it into a boiling pot of water, as did Shuichi. Finally, the chef got a few spices and started shaking them into the mix. Shuichi couldn't read the labels, so he picked the bottles that had the prettiest color powder in them… the extra red ones.
He then opened the lid and saw how the chef was putting some into his hand and dashing the food with it. Shuichi did the same, except he dumped the whole bottle onto his palm and threw it in. They both began stirring for a short period of time. That was when the chef finally noticed Shuichi.
"……"
"……"
"……"
"……"
"Um, do you work here?"
Shuichi took a moment to think, and nodded exuberantly.
"Oh, okay. That scared me for a minute. Not just anybody can come in here and cook, you know. By the way, where's your uniform? I haven't seen you around the kitchen before." The man seemed to be in his twenties.
Shuichi remembered the girl saying the same thing, and responded in the same way. "Me work."
"Uh huh. I can see that." The guy smiled pleasantly. "What are you making there? Same thing as me? It seems you put the right spices in. Mind if I taste it?"
Shuichi's eyes brightened. He knew that word! Taste. Yuki would always do that when he wanted to see if he liked the food he (Yuki) made.
"Taste?" In an immediate response, Shuichi thrust the spoon full of piping hot water and sizzling spices towards the man's face as he'd seen Yuki do.
Unfortunately, he did it a little too harshly.
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!!" The chef held his eyes in pain and was thrashing all over the place because of the intense agony he was in from the liquid splashing into his eyes from Shuichi's violent swing of the wooden spoon (on accident of course).
The persocon just stood there, baffled by this man's sudden behavior. One thing he knew for sure though, that same scream had come out of his owner's mouth when his laptop fell on his foot once. The employee must be in pain!
Shuichi rushed over to the guy and grabbed his sleeve to aid him, but the chef lost balance because of the tug and ended up falling into a metal shelf of pots and pans. The whole story fell over and onto the tile floor. One of the pots hit another cook in the head, which caused his food to completely spill down another worker's shirt. The employee screeched because of the hot temperature and threw her tray into the air. The tray was launched at the hand of another chef, causing the knife in his hand to be thrown forward right into the hair of another guy, which attached him to the wall.
Everyone stopped to see what all the commotion was, all eyes directed at the one who caused it.
The chef's eyes were still burning, but through his watery vision, he could see how bad the situation was. Food was everywhere, utensils were scattered, people were either shaken or injured, and the kitchen was a complete mess.
Shuichi looked around at the destruction, wondering if he did something bad. Whenever he made messes at Yuki's house, he usually got scolded for it, but right now everyone was just staring. He then saw the guy that the knife had almost hit and saw how expensive his suit was… a VERY expensive suit indeed.
The swollen-eyed cook noticed this through his haze as well, and recognized him as none other than…
"Oh… shit…"
The manager stood stone still, obviously shaking with rage, and simply pulled away from the wall, his toupee still stuck to the wall. Calmly, he went over to the two delinquents that started all this and faced them grimly.
The chef knew what was coming next…
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The now fired cook and Shuichi sat on the sidewalk together hopelessly.
"AND DON'T YOU EVER STEP FOOT INTO MY RESTAURANT AGAIN!!" The manager yelled out one last time, and shut the doors.
The chef held his chin in his hands and sighed with grief. "Well, I screwed that up."
Shuichi glanced at the sullen boy and blinked. He then realized how much harder it was to lose a job than to gain one. It took so much for that man in there to get mad at what happened. Even saying sorry didn't work.
"Damn it. What am I going to do now? That was the best job I've gotten so far." He stared sternly into the street as if he were talking to it.
The persocon tilted his head at the man but didn't say anything. He knew that he had taken part in this whole mess somehow, and he knew that the man beside him was sad about losing his job. He felt guilty for some reason.
"Shu…" The persocon said meekly.
"Hm? Oh yeah. I almost forgot you were there." The chef gave a weak smile. "Sorry about all that in there. You shouldn't have been the one thrown out. It was all my fault."
Shuichi seemed to understand the boy's feelings and shook his head.
"Aw, thanks. But I was just clumsy. This was the only job I had been able to keep for a long time. But it looks like I'll never be working here again." He shrugged.
Shuichi kept staring and gasped when he heard a sound of pain come from the cook.
"Ow… my eyes still sting. Guess that was more pepper than the recipe called for…" He rubbed them, but it didn't do much.
Shuichi reacted to the man's pain and took his brunette head into his hands. He than kissed each eye softly.
The chef was too shocked to move, but regained his senses once the pain started dissipating and his vision was clearer.
"Huh?" He blinked a couple of times. "How did… they're all better. What did you….?" He looked at Shuichi with a confused look.
The pink-haired boy just smiled and said, "All better!"
The chef didn't know what happened, or what this stranger did, but for some reason he felt a soothing sensation inside of him, as if some weight had been lifted off his shoulders, giving him a chance to breath.
Shuichi blinked curiously, and tilted his head again as if to ask what was wrong. "Shu?" His beanie was already half way off his head from all the ruckus in the restaurant, so that one turn of the head was all it took for the boy to reveal his persocon ears.
The chef's eyes widened at the sight.
"You're a…"
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Yuki had grabbed his coat, his keys and his grip after discovering that Shuichi had left the complex on his own. What the hell was that boy thinking?! He knew he wasn't supposed to go out alone! Something could happen to him being as fragile and clueless as he was.
"Argh! Once I find him, he's getting a straight talking to." Yuki's eyes narrowed in annoyance while he shut the door to his car and zoomed off to find his little pink pet.
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"Wow… I never knew you were a persocon. That hat hid all traces of it." The chef marvelled while walking down the sidewalk with his new companion.
Shuichi enjoyed this stroll after all that had happened back at the restaurant.
"No wonder you didn't know how much spice to put into the pot." he laughed. "You didn't seem like you worked there. Everything you did was a little amateur-ish, you know? Were you applying for a job there?"
No response.
"I guess you don't talk much, huh?"
Shuichi shook his head.
"Well, there's only one thing left to do for out of the job guys like us." He said in a matter of fact way.
The persocon glanced up at him curiously.
"Shu?"
"My names Yuji. Nakano Yuji. What's yours?"
Shuichi knew this answer.
"Shu-i-chi." He retorted slowly.
"Ah, Shuichi eh? Well, nice to meet ya." He held out his hand for a shake, but all Shuichi did was clap it between his own two hands.
"Okay… uh, well let's get going." He started walking again. The persocon followed.
"I didn't mention this, but I've got a smaller job that I got to, and guess what? I'm the owner!" He stated proudly. "Of course, it's not all that great, and the pay isn't so good since business isn't doing well, but hey, it pays the bills."
Shuichi heard this phrase and jumped up at once.
"Shu!" He threw his arms into the air.
"Hm? You like that? Well, I'll give you a deal then. Since I got you thrown out of a job as well, why don't you come work for me? It's just a little bakery down on the corner of this street, and all you'd have to do is-"
"SHU!!" The boy shouted joyously and tackled the man in a fierce glomp of gratitude.
"Uh, your welcome?" Yuji's legs wobbled from the weight of the persocon. "Let's head over there, shall we?" He pried the boy off of him and lead the way. Shuichi bounced beside him with excitement. He was finally going to get a job! Oh, Yuki would love him after this!
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"I'm gonna kill him after this…" The author muttered to himself while zooming down the street trying to find Shuichi.
What a day this had turned out to be.
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A/N: Okay! There yall go! I plan to update more soon, since my creativity is back. And I won't wait a year for it either. Though this may be the last chapter I write for a while since college is just around the corner. So once I get a laptop and stuff I'll be typing again so don't fret over a long period of absence at some point in the summer. I'll be adjusting to dorm life.
Thanks for all your patience and thanks to all the people who commented me and told me to continue writing this awesome fic. I shant give up!!
I'll do a DEAR REVIEWERS response in the next chapter. Promise!