A New Life

Chapter 7

27 August, 2013

Inaba Police Department

Three weeks have passed since the explosion with no incident. Yu, somehow, convinced Yasogami High to admit Jacob. Not only that, but he was able to get Jacob a house of his own near the shopping district. Where Yu got that money, no one knows. Jacob's Japanese lessons are going smoothly, sometimes one of the team members would stop by and give him a hand or explain concepts to him. By now, Jacob can understand and speak Japanese to most practical extents, proving incredibly useful to the team - as he can now participate fully in training exercises the team does once a week. As it turns out, Napoleon is skilled in fire- type skills as well as physical attacks.

Right now, one of those training sessions just ended, and Naoto walked into the police station to see if there were any new assignments, but no one was at the front desk. Curious, she decided to go check the meeting room, to see if there was some big briefing going on.

After about thirty feet of walking, she came up to the door, and slowly pushed it open.

"Ah, Naoto-san! Just in time!" One of the younger officers greeted her as soon as she poked her head in.

She stepped all of the way inside, "Just in time? What's going on?"

"Quiet down! It's starting!" at this, she turned her head towards the podium, where there stood three people: Detective Dojima, and two other people she didn't know. One was a man, who looked to be about in his thirties, and a girl, who looked to be about her age- maybe even younger.

"Okay, everyone listen up!" Dojima got up to the microphone and began talking, "we have some new people who are coming to join us at the Inaba PD, they both went through quite some lengths to get here, either physically or metaphorically, so I hope you all would be welcoming to these new members of our department." He turned to the two, "Why don't you introduce yourselves?"

The man stepped up first, he was a white man with brown hair, and was dressed somewhat like the way Adachi liked to dress, except he was wearing a white suit with a yellow tie that could make him stand out almost anywhere, "Hello, My name is Michael Griggs," He spoke in a, very thick, American accent. "I, as you can probably guess, come from America. Los Angeles, to be exact. I decided to transfer over here when I decided I needed a little cultural experience. Plus I needed to test out my high school Japanese." Half the crowd burst into laughter, "Anyways, I will be joining the force as a rookie detective- a job description I'm pretty sure involves carrying around coffee for half the day."

The whole crowd began laughing this time, "Don't get your hopes up, you'll be carrying coffee for the whole day." Dojima countered the joke with an entirely true statement.

"I wouldn't have it any other way." Griggs smiled.

"Don't worry then, you won't."

After the roar of laughter died down a little, the girl made her way up to the podium. This interested Naoto, this girl was joining the police force, and had no problem letting ger hair go long. She had moderately long brown hair, and was wearing what seemed to be a Yasogami girl's uniform, "Uh, hello! My name is Kyme Santone," She introduced herself timidly, you can only be so bold. "Uh, I'm a second-year at Yasogami High, and I joined the force because I had heard there was another girl in my school who had also joined," Naoto slightly blushed, "and I thought I could be of some help to the town."

The crowd began to buzz with the members of the force each having their own opinion. "How did SHE get on the force?" One of the officers whispered.

"I don't know, but Dojima seems to think she's worth it, so she must be, right?" Another one whispered back.

The first one was still skeptical, "I don't know..," he then turned to face Naoto, "Shirogane, what do you think? I mean, you WERE younger than she is when you first joined."

"I don't really know what to think at this point," Naoto said uneasily, "I was younger than her, but from what she's saying, she seems to have no qualifications."

"You should ask her, maybe take her out to the range or something, see what she can do. I bet you're the only one she'll be willing to talk to." Officer number one explained.

"Right, I should do just that." Naoto made a mental note to see her after the meeting.

Naoto was waiting outside of the room where the new recruits were filling out their paperwork. It's been about ten minutes, but one can expect to be spending much longer if the job at hand is paperwork. Naoto doesn't exactly remember what happened when she filled out her paperwork, it's been two years now. No need to recall such trivial events.

Then, Kyme walks out of the room, with an accomplished smile on her face. "Oh, Naoto-senpai! Why are you here? Shouldn't you be doing something else?"

"Oh, no. I don't really get very many cases when I'm out here. I just figured I would like to see what kind of skills you have to get yourself into the department so easily."

"Oh, sure. Why don't we go to a shooting range? Griggs-san says he knows a great range around here."

"Then let's waste no time."

Author's Notes:

I really like the way this chapter turned out, and I hope you all will too!

As always, any Questions, Comments, or Suggestions should be sent my way via review or PM.

And I'll see you guys tomorrow!