Chapter 3
Douglas was watching the entrance of the emergency department (ED) from the hospital car park. He really should be inside but found that with the amount of human traffic happening inside the building made it harder to keep track of who was coming and going, thus he settled for leaning against his police car with arms crossed and glared at the automatic glass double doors. At least it's quiet out here, he thought to himself. Hearing footsteps, he turned slightly to regard the approaching red haired man.
"Fancy meeting you here," the red haired man gave the uniformed police officer a hearty pat on the back like they were old pals. "How long has it been? Jeez, must have been a whole three days since we've worked together huh? How do you manage to get into this much trouble? Is it because you miss me?"
"Do you really find that much joy in annoying others? And you wonder why people other than me refuse to work with you." The officer mentally sighed, he then brushed off the area where the other man touched him as if dusting off his uniform before looking over to his new companion. The younger male's red hair looked messy and unkempt; he wore a dark red T-shirt and a long oversized dark grey coat with a lot of safety pins and various colourful badges of all shapes over it, black skinny jeans and shiny black oxford shoes completed the bizarre look. "You're a detective Mr. Longchamp, and I truly wish sometimes you would look and act like one."
"Awww, where would the fun be in that?"
Dr Shamal was halfway through an opened door when a voice from a nearby hospital bench stopped him. "Dr Shamal," A young man with brown hair who was hunched over looking at the ground lifted his head and fixed his brown eyes on the man in white coat. "Please tell me what's happening."
"…How the hell did you get out of your room Tsuna?" The annoyed look on the good doctor did not faze the man who only leaned back against the wall with an unreadable expression. With a loud sigh, the other man kicked open his own office door and mentioned for Tsuna to follow him inside.
"May I have the damage report?"
"Gokudera has mild concussion; Yamamoto has a dislocated shoulder and two fractures in his left leg, Lambo got off really light with just a shallow cut in the back. Last but not least, Hibari somehow managed to discharge himself from the hospital with severe bruises all over his body; I don't know how he managed that with the police right outside but those bruises-"
"-will most likely be looked at by his private family doctor." Tsuna finished off for him, his brown eyes looking intently out the window at the brightening sky outside. "That guy never trusts the public health system."
"How wise of him," Shamal yawned. "Unlike you lot of dumb shits."
"Yeah, I'm beginning to see your point," Tsuna replied dryly as he looked down at his badly bandaged forearms while trying his best to resist the urge to scratch at the wound sites which were starting to itch. The young nervous looking nurse who did the bandaging spent the majority of the time gawking at his handsome features rather than at what she was doing. There happens to be drawbacks to looking better than the average person, this was one of them. "So I hear there were deaths too?"
"Oh God, I thought we'd never make it!" Kyoko looked up at the rising sun outside the big laboratory windows. "Shift is nearly over!"
"It's actually better that we are busy since time actually passes a lot quicker that way," Ruth hung up the phone after finishing another conversation with ED.
"Steady work is good; a sudden three-ambulances-lot of work is NOT." Kyoko tapped her fingers on her chin. Staring at the clock on the wall, just waiting for eight' o clock to arrive. Kyoko started to go through the checklist for the nightshift staff to complete for the third time. Maybe I should go see if Tsuna is alright before I head back home, oh wait what if he doesn't remember me? Did I even speak to him at all in high school? I think he said 'Hi' to me once, was that in the second year? Good lord, I think the closest I got to interact with his group of friends was back in first year when I had group project with Hayato Gokudera! The guy was rude and scary but he sure knew his stuff because we got an 'A' for that project…
"Good morning," Miku the Head of Department for Specimen Registration walked in through the front door of the lab, reaching for a lab coat on the long row of hooks on the wall near the entrance. "I hope your night went well!" Behind Miku are the other day time laboratory workers coming in for work. Kyoko breathed a sigh of relief, according to the staff roster she will not have to do graveyard shift for a month.
"I guess that means it's home time for us," Ruth was already tossing her lab coat into the laundry bag. "Well, 'til next time Kyoko!"
"Yep, see you!"
Kyoko shuffled out the laboratory as well after giving a general account of what happened during the night to the morning laboratory workers. Ok, I'm going to just go check with Dr Shamal to see if Tsuna's fine, then I shall go STRAIGHT HOME to sleep. Kyoko nodded to herself as she took a left at the front entrance of the hospital instead of the usual right which leads to the underground parking area for hospital staff. That is ALL I'm going to do…yes.
"So…six dead and nine injured?" The corners of the red haired detective's lips quirked up and he rubbed his hands together in a gleeful manner. He paused then, as if thinking deeply about something. "What are we doing here Douglas? Shouldn't we be at the crime scene?"
"We're waiting for the witnesses to be available for questioning!" Douglas threw up his hands in exasperation and shot the other man a scathing look. THIS man is the entire reason for my high blood pressure! "Have you become dumb in the last three days when I wasn't looking? Witness statements are our top priority! Besides, our forensics team has started working on the crime scene four hours ago!"
"What?" The detective almost hissed, Douglas looked up in concern at this sudden change of attitude. "No, no, no, no, nooooooooo! When did this whole thing happen? Why didn't I get called in sooner?! Have you gone DAFT Douglas? We're going to the crime scene right now."
"But the witness-"
"Fuck the witnesses! Isn't that what those junior police officers are for? Even primary school students can TAKE NOTES Douglas!" Longchamp whipped out a navy coloured scarf and wrapped it around his neck carefully. "Let's go Douglas, the witness statements are a bloody joke anyways. Best focus on evidences that don't lie."
He then opened the police car door and slipped into the passenger seat, gesturing towards the driver's seat with a pointed look at the stubborn police man. Douglas pinched the bridge of his notes in frustration and sighed, he then got into the car as well.
As they pulled out of the hospital car park, Longchamp spotted a nervous looking girl with long light brown hair heading into ED in the reverse mirror. He scoffed, the ID card hanging from her neck meant she works at the hospital, some hospital staff with the hopes of snagging herself a high earning doctor or consultant no doubt… How can they stand that sort of boring life?
"Where is the crime scene?"
"One-hour drive, it's in the most infamous area of town."
"Good, wake me when we get there. I haven't slept for three days."
"…"
Currently Kyoko Sasagawa, twenty-four years old, officially registered medical laboratory scientist is tip-toeing through the noisiest part of the hospital where she works. Wait, wait wait wait! Kyoko paused in mid-step, with the amount of commotion in ED right now I can barge in like a lunatic and still be lost in the crowd! Why am I trying to sneak around anyway? My concerns and fully justified and-
"Kyoko?" A hand landed on Kyoko's shoulder from behind. "What are you doing here?"
"Uh-ah?!" Kyoko turned and saw Ruth looking curiously at her.
"Isn't your car on the other side of the hospital, Kyoko?"
"Oh erm, well…" The younger woman swore her own face was starting to look like someone with an acute onset of asthma attack. "I thought with what happened last night in ED, I should…"
With a sudden look of comprehension, Ruth gave a sly smirk.
"Say no more, youngster. I know exactly what you're thinking. Is this still about that boy you crushed on during high school?"
"Not just me! Everyone loved him!" Kyoko wanted to add that she suspected some of the guys in her class probably liked him in a funny way too but thought better of it. "So he's a nice person and I'm just genuinely concerned!"
"…Uh huh."
Kyoko huffed at Ruth's unconvinced tone.
"Really! I'm not even going to see him! I'm just going to ask Dr Shamal if he's fine and afterwards I'm gone."
"If you ask nicely I can tell you the location of the wards where they're likely to keep the ED patients before they move them to the medical units." Ruth crossed her arms, her smirk growing wider by the minute.
"You…you….you are impossible lady!" Kyoko smacked the other's arm lightly. "What are you doing here anyway? Can't get enough of Dr Shamal?"
"Ugh, you said it, but not in that way," Ruth rolled her eyes. "He's the consultant for breast cancer, more importantly my consultant and he said there's been a change to my chemotherapy timetable again. I swear, the next time the man thinks it's Ok to make me drive two hours to the next town for treatment on a weekend, I will skin him alive."
"I'll just tag along with you then since we're both going to see him." Kyoko pulled her hand bag higher up her shoulders and Ruth nodded.
"You're no fun at all Kyoko. The TV drama laws say that you must surprise an injured lover by being at his bedside before he wakes up and hold his hand while-"
"Ruth, he doesn't even know me. He'll very likely call the hospital security to remove a stranger from his room."
"Sheesh, I'm just offering ideas all right?"
"Two civilians died and four injured," Dr Shamal sat down in front of his office computer. Browsing for any media coverage on what transpired during the night on the internet. Tsuna sat cross-legged on the patient bed, back to the wall. "Well, if you count the drugs and alcohol addicts as civilians that is."
"They are not part of it though, and the extra body count means this event will not be brushed under the carpet so easily. People are going to talk."
"Bad timing too, my sources say some big-name detective is in town. He went missing for a few years prior, there were rumors about him being in an undercover mission or something but I call BS on that. The guy probably just wanted a vacation."
"I got Mukuro looking into that already."
"One thing I want to clear up with you though," Shamal twirled around in his chair to face Tsuna with a serious look. "I'm hearing disturbing news regarding you and the Vongola. I thought it was a done deal when you got initiated as the new boss."
"I didn't like the ways the old Vongola was being ran, so I've decided on some drastic changes." Tsuna shrugged, the dread in his eyes betraying his nonchalant gesture. "Some individuals in Vongola disapproved."
"What changes did you make?"
"I want to dissolve Vongola completely."
"…" Shamal sucked in a deep breath, leaned back in his chair as far as he could. This information took a few seconds to fully sink into his mind, and he's what people called a professional. "Really? That's it? I mean it's not like you're trying to destroy their very livelihood-Oh wait that's exactly what you're doing boy! I'm not surprised they are fighting back Tsuna, and you're doing an exceptional job in putting me between a rock and a hard place. If Reborn is here-" Shamal had to pause in mid-rant as the door to his office was thrown open for the second time in one hour.
"Doctor Shamal! I demand extra travel compensation and I want you to get those compensation application forms!" A tall woman with pale red hair yelled from the door way, she then noticed Tsuna on the bed who was froze in a fight-or-flight sort of pose. "Oh honey did I scare you? I'm so sorry. I'm just a bit stressed and tired from work."
"Uh, it's fine." Tsuna managed a weak smile and settled on the bed again. He realized that there's another girl standing behind the woman, staring at him in shock. Come to think of it, she kind of looks familiar…maybe I've seen her in a photo somewhere?
"Tsunayoshi Sawada? That's you isn't it?" The girl stammered. Tsuna's initial reaction was to deny his identity and tell the girl she got the wrong person but something at the back of his mind was nagging at him about the girl's identity and as a result his answer wasn't exactly one of the brightest things he's said in life.
"Uurrhh—no, I mean, yeah—umm do I know you?"
Author's thoughts for the chapter:
Thanks for the love and support guys. As a way of hurrying the actual plot up (and slowing down rate of chapter output, yes shoot me) I'll try to go for more words in each chapter because my original quota of ~1000 words per chapter was just getting us nowhere… Oh yeah, someone mentioned they thought Tsuna worked in ED, hahahah you're not the first to assume that but this isn't the Grey's Anatomy variation on KHR so no (and I never watched that show).
Also I'd like to know if I had at least blown someone's mind when I made Longchamp a detective in here. At first I was thinking of using OCs (which 2 main ones have popped up but they're not useless OCs, they're OCs WITH a purpose!) but then I thought what-the-hell KHR has a wide enough character base as it is so I just then had that moment of pure genius/madness.
Btw, I didn't do it on purpose but with the age, it seems like this is actually TYL/AU. But that's cool, makes the guys hotter doesn't it? *whistles innocently*
Lastly, in a highly unprofessional manner, I have picked a main music theme for this particular story (yes I'm slowly going insane, way past the 'talking to myself' phase already thank you). If this story was an actual TV drama and the chapters are episodes, well at the end of each episode I'd like this music to be the 'credits' theme:
Title: The Flower like the Fantasy
Remixer/artist: Dark PHOENiX
Original artist: ZUN
Original Source: Touhou 9 Phantasmagoria of Flower View
This music is all over youtube, nothing more to say.