Chapter2: Blast in Tokyo

Finally, the snow stopped. The Blast members got off the train and found their self in a new world. Lights are everywhere; every space is filled with stores and buildings; the roads are wide. The night sky in the Tokyo is not much difference to their hometown's, cloudy. Although the cloudy sky in their hometown is due to snowy weather, the Tokyo sky is covered in clouds due to pollution.

Nana never mind the weather, they're in Tokyo! Their long awaited Tokyo! It's the place where they could reach their dream.

The man who's the tallest spoke "We should find a hotel for tonight. Then tomorrow, let's find ourselves a place to live."

"As expected, the lawyer is so smart!" Ren teased Yasu. Yasu's bald head shined under the Tokyo lights.

The next day…

"Ren, look at this!" Nana pointed at a sheet of paper. It said: Room 707 for 70,000 yen.

"Whoa, it looks nice. Let's take a look at it."

Ren and Nana, with Yokoi the Real Estate accompanying, went to Room 707. The environment is so un-Tokyo. It's like the country side but it never come near to theirs. There is a river flowing parallel to the park road we are walking.

Ren, Nana and Yokoi arrived at the building. The building is covered with red bricks which are finished with molds, making it old fashioned. If you count the number of windows from ground to top, it has 7 floors. This building really suites the country look of the environment, Hachi will love it!

It's no use describing it, maybe, because Nana doesn't mind what kind of apartment they will be living; Ren might but they still think it's no match to their warehouse room. If you ask me, I would like this apartment better than that warehouse! For Ren, the warehouse is his starting point. Remember he was thrown in that warehouse after he was born? He even came back there to play his guitar, right?

Ren pulled out another stick of cigar, "Whoa, a great building. I never saw this kind of building. Are we in Tokyo?" Then he lit his cigar and started to smoke again.

Nana's cigar was almost half way; she tapped her cigar with her fingers. "Let's go in. If it's nice let's take it." Nana went in first, leading ahead of the men.

Fist floor, ok... second floor, ok… third floor, ok… fourth floor, fine… fifth floor, "aren't we not their?"… sixth floor, "this is the last!"... SEVENTH FLOOR at last! Room 701… 702… 703… 704… 705… 706… Room 707!

The door is open; Nana entered first then followed by Ren and Yokoi. The moment they entered the room, it has a pure aura. What make this room feel pure are the white walls which made both Ren and Nana feel really different since they lived from a room with gray walls.

"Whoa, Whoa, WHOA! It's really nice. I didn't know that white rooms are also good." Ren, checked out the smaller rooms and found out the rooms are wide. Yokoi followed Ren.

Nana kept on staring the window. Suddenly, a girl came in. She's wearing a scarf. To the scarfed girl's surprise, there is somebody came in earlier. To Nana's surprise, she's the ko-gal from the train.

"Ah! You're the person from the train two days ago! Isn't a coincidence?!" said the Ko-gal.

"Do I know you? Hmm… ah, you're the one from the train. Sorry for that guitar. My boyfriend didn't bother to watch his own stuff." Nana paused for a while, thinking why she is here. "Hey, you're looking for an apartment?"

"Yes" and the ko-gal simply replied Nana with a smile.

"Your moving to Tokyo? So you plan to move to one of Tokyo's high schools?" Nana entered into a conversation.

"High school? I've already graduated high school and I'm already 20 years old. Do I really look like a ko-gal???" said the young lady.

Nana laughed a little. "I'm sorry. I thought you are younger than me; we're the same age."

"Eh! I thought you are older than me!" exclaimed the young lady.

The old man behind the scarfed girl entered the room. "This is unfortunate. We have been too late." He looked around then Yokoi came out. "Ah, could you mind let this girl look around?"

"No, we came first and…" Yokoi didn't finish his sentence; Nana opened her sentence before Yokoi finished his.

"I haven't decided if I'm renting it."

"But I already signed it." Ren peeped out of the room the papers for the rental dangling in his hand.

"What! Don't sign without me!" Nana dashed to Ren's side to see if he really signed it. Well, he really did sign it. "Anyway, this place if fine."

"As you see, they already signed it. Go find another place." Yokoi shooed away the scarfed girl and the old man. He then face to the punk couple, "the room will be officially rented tomorrow. Do you have any questions?"

"None" both answered at the same time.

Back in the hotel lobby…

The hotel isn't really impressive since it's just a cheap capsule hotel. The carpets are plain dark red. To make the hotel brighter, the lobby has several hanging leafy plants. Instead of red and gold themed hotel it is red and silver themed. The light bulbs are all white day light saver.

"So, how's the search for the new apartment?" asked the bald man with triangular shades.

"We found a nice one. We can movie in by tomorrow afternoon. Lucky we are!" Ren responded really quickly. He seems to be much exited since they stayed in a capsule hotel. It's really hard to stay there!

Nana gave a grumpy face. Yasu approached Nana, "What's wrong?"

"Ren signed the papers before I agreed!"

"You didn't like the apartment Ren signed in?"

"Well, I liked it but still he signed it without me knowing it!" Nana gave Ren a nice shot of her fist directly to his head.

Tonk!

"Ouch!" Ren's head grew a sore. Well, not much to fuss on; Ren's pretty got used to it.

Yasu then faced Nobu. "How about you, Nobu?"

"Fine, I found one too. It's a bit small but enough for a person to live." Nobu looked very simple for today. "How about you, Ya-san?"

"Actually no, I got to find a good law school when I was looking for an apartment. Then in accident, I also found a good studio too. It's cheap to rent so we could share the fee and practice there often."

The next day's afternoon…

"Ren, we should go out to buy some things for this room. I will make the list so put our things inside the room." Nana took out a piece of paper and a pen and start jotting a list.

Ren took their bags in and went out before Nana could finish her list. After a minute or so, Nana finished her list with all those editing. They left the room and head down to the shopping center.

First stop is a 100yen shop. Nana checked out some ash trays while Ren… well checked out the dinning set section!? He seems to be interested in the glasses with red and black rose's patterns. He picked it up then showed it to Nana.

"These roses are like my Nana. Let's buy these!"

"Go ahead. I don't care if they're patterned or not; at least useable." Nana didn't take interest in the glasses Ren picked up.

After they bought some thins from different shops, Nana read her list while walking through the shopping street, "We still need to buy futon, stove, lamps and…" Nana didn't mind the slashes and messy pen marks on the "futon" in the list. Ren slashed it and turn it into "bed" but Nana slashed it. She paused, then faced Ren with a big smile "Onegai ne, Ren" (Nana said: Please, Ren)

"What onegai? I'm carrying all of them! That's impossible!" Ren gave a "What a bummer" expression which is written all over his face and body.

While walking, Ren jolted Nana for a second then before Nana could realize the reason why Ren did it, Ren grabbed Nana's arm then dragged her into a shop called SUBRINA. SUBRINA is a 50's to 70's furniture shop.

"Ren, we could buy the furniture some other time."

Ren pointed something up in the shop's ceiling, "I found some cool lamps! Look Nana, there's some more over their."

"Whoa, it's true. Hey look at this stove. It's cheap!" Nana checked out the stoves which are lined neatly.

"They're cheap because they're second hand. Don't worry! I make sure all of my items are working." An average height young man entered; he's the manager and owner of the shop.

"Really, Nana let's get this, this, those and that." Ren pointed at a few lamps, a fridge, a washing machine and a stove.

"Ren, we can't hold that much things! Think man!" Nana, again, scold Ren.

"I can help you guys, if you want. After my work, I could bring these to your place. You're lucky that I got a new employee." He faced far back of the shop, "Nana-chan, please label these things so that no one will take it."

"Delivery? Thanks bud. I'm taking this too." Ren pointed at a bed placed far inside the shop.

"Ren, I told you futon will do the job for now." She started to scold again.

"But it's dirty in our new room. Besides, we are still wearing shoes inside. It's really waste if won't use bed in a room that wide…" As usual, Ren continued to reason. He will not stop until Nana agrees!

"Arg! Mizukoshi, we're getting the bed!" Nana shouted at Mizukoshi. Poor guy… he's scolded by Nana for no reason. Whom to blame? REN!

The employee that the shop manager said is a very familiar person, the scarfed girl from yesterday. "Hai. These, right Mizukoshi-san?" (Hai means yes) The young lady whose name is also Nana recognizes our Nana, "Ah! Konnichiwa, it's another coincidence to see you here again."

"Hee… you're also named Nana. We have some things in common." Nana approached in a very cool way.

"Oh yeah! We have the same name, same age and Jokyo. What a coincidence!" (Note: Jokyo means moving to Tokyo) Nana-chan then took her pad paper and pen and jot down the items Ren and Nana pointed.

Ren and Nana left the shop. Mizukoshi and Nana-chan greeted them with "Dou mo arigatou gozaimas!" (Translated as: Thank you very much!)

Later…

"That Mizukoshi guy gave us lots of discounts." Ren smoked his Seven Star cigar while walking the shopping busy street. He evades his cigar from hitting other people expertly. That's good; I don't want to be burned when I'm shopping! "It's lucky that the shopping center is very near in our flat. It's a bummer if we have to go too far…"

Nana seems in a bad mood but deep inside… "Shut up! Ren stop that nonsense!"

"Nana, you don't need to get pissed off."

"Yes I should! It's your entire fault!" Nana yelled at direct hit in Ren's left ear.

Ren rubbed his left ear but he's used to it so he continued with his talkin', "Okay, okay… eh, last stop at the super market. I want miso soup!"

"Arg! Don't demand food!" Nana is wild now! Wha!! She's so scary! Nana's make up added to her scary angry face. She usually applies deep red lipstick and violet eyeliner.

Later than later…

"Nana, are you still mad?"

"Ren stop asking questions… I'm getting tired." Nana walked up to the seventh floor without rest.

"It's bad for Nana to be mad the whole day… What about a nice bath together? The flat's bathtub is quite nice." Ren switched to his sweet side of his personality.

"After supper" said Nana.

As they reached the seventh floor, they found a pile of stuff in front of their flat. It must be Mizukoshi.

She dug her hand into her left pocket for the key to room 707 and unlocked the room.

Just before Ren entered the room, Mizukoshi brought another pile of stuff from the ground floor. "Oh, you're already home. I didn't notice you entering the building. Well, I've finished bringing up your stuff. I'm leaving the rest to this young man." Mizukoshi patted Ren's right shoulder.

Ren smiled then went in the room. He started fixing the lights then he arranged the beds and other things. As the room filled up, the pure white walls were soon filled up with blue and gray colored items. Well, there's something missing… they forgot to buy table and chairs for the dinning room!

"It's not big deal. I planned to buy the furniture in the other days… except for the bed." said Nana.

Well, she said it's not a big deal. I wonder how they will eat their supper.

Midori-chan: It happens that what Ren did is a little bit similar to Hachi's. The only thing that Ren didn't do is to buy a CD... well, there's no Trapnest here! At last, Hachi's name revealed! Please make a review. ONEGAISHIMAS!