Shinako’s left hand lay flat against the desk like a sheet of paper, while her right curled into a fist and lay beside it. Shifting her shoulder, she hiked the handle of the picnic basket a little higher into the crook of her elbow. As she leaned forward over the desk, her dark eyes followed the receptionist to where he had retreated down the hallway to perform a quick check of Kyohei’s office, just to be sure. Apparently, her friend was absent without having scheduled his leave, but the man at the desk had assured her that if he were on a covert mission the precinct might not have been notified. Still, something deep inside of Shinako told her to worry. They had taken to warning each other before disappearing for a few days.
The administrative Chuunin returned, shaking his head. The two nodded and exchanged smiles, but no more words. Shinako donned her sunglasses and moved toward the exit, where the guard opened the door for her again. Lost in thought, she nodded her thanks absentmindedly. The basket bumped rhythmically against her hip as she calculated her next move, even if only to the extent of breaking the sight-line to the police headquarters. There was a slight sting of embarrassment associated with walking into a place so confidently, only to be told that she had come in vain. Once she had rounded the corner, she perched on a bench to collect herself.
There was always the possibility that Kyohei was on assignment, and that the nature of the detail was secretive enough to bar him from disclosing it. However, that seemed unlikely. He had only just returned from administrative leave, and had not mentioned any in-depth fieldwork. The Kunoichi pursed her lips as she allowed various scenarios to play out in her head. Many of them ended with her never seeing Kyohei again, or reading another of his letters; they scared her, but in a strange way she understood. If she thought she might be going off on assignment to her death, she doubted she would trouble those who she cared for most by warning them. Shinako swallowed hard at the thought.
Shinako sat for about fifteen minutes, intermittently sighing to herself. The sunlight as noon approached was pleasant, and it was warm even in the mid-morning. Resigning herself to another day of quiet solitude at home, the young woman was glad that the returning journey would be a scenic one. Before departing, Shinako’s hunger got the best of her, and she opened the basket to retrieve another hunk of bread. It was then that her dark eyes fell upon the bottle of Awamori she had brought along.
Before she could rationalize, Shinako was up and moving toward the residential district. A few months ago, when she had first received the assignment that had brought her path to cross with Kyohei’s, she had been given a folder with his name, photo, and address. While passing his apartment building, she had often thought of dropping in before deciding against it. Now, unsure of her friend’s whereabouts, she felt a sense of regret at not having paid a visit after looking up to see the lights on some nights. It was the least she could do to leave a small gift.
Shinako’s sashay became even more pronounced as her pace quickened. The building was not far away, and she seemed to remember the way even better than she had previously reckoned she might. A few more nods and greetings passed, and after about ten minutes Shinako had reached her destination. The building was unassuming, and rather plain; in a way, it fit Kyohei’s style perfectly. She exhaled an incredible heat as she imagined the place burning down.
From the street, she could see Kyohei’s window, dark against the beige façade of the exterior, almost opaque against the morning sun’s shine. Pausing for a moment to take it in, Shinako inhaled confidently and pushed her sunglasses a little bit higher over the bridge of her nose. Without another moment of hesitation, she opened the exterior door and entered. Not willing to halt her momentum, the young woman opted for the stairs. Kyohei lived toward the top floor, but Shinako figured she could use the exercise anyway. The detour would give her a little bit more time to think through the note she might leave at the door.
It wasn’t until she opened the door to Kyohei’s floor that she realized she had been rushing. The stairway was wide but steep, and had left her slightly out of breath. The excitement of leaving a surprise brought a smile to Shinako’s face. Her preparation and planning would not go completely unrewarded. If….when….Kyohei returned from wherever he was, he would find a token of her affection waiting at his door. Something about the gesture seemed far more in keeping with their letter-writing than an unannounced visit.
Kyohei’s door was at the end of the hallway, and Shinako beamed as she crossed the distance. As she stopped at the threshold, her hand instinctively rose to knock, but she thought better of it. Even if the man were home, an impromptu visit might be a little bit aggressive. Shinako didn’t want to appear too rude. Instead, she removed the bottle of booze from her basket and stooped to place it just to the side of the welcome mat.
As her ear came closer to the door, Shinako heard a rustling sound inside and went still to listen more closely. After a few moments, she was able to determine that Kyohei (or someone else) was, in fact, within. Shinako smiled, a mischievous idea coming to mind. She stood and opened the window at the end of the hallway before returning to the door. As children, she and her closest brother had sometimes played doorbell ditch. With a wide grin, she rapped three times on the door and prepared to bolt. Just before taking the leap from the window, she heard a fourth thumping sound from the interior of the apartment that piqued her sense of alarm.
Moments later, her ear was pressed against the wood of the door again, listening to the stillness. It had sounded like a body had hit the floor, and now the only thing the Kunoichi could hear was the thumping of her own heart against her ribs. She leaned into the door and knocked again, straining to perceive any sort of reply. When nothing came, she knocked again and tried the doorknob before stepping back and thinking through her options. She dropped the picnic basket on the doorstep and exited the hallway window. Shinako focused her chakra toward the bottom of her feet and rushed around the side of the building to Kyohei’s window.
Cupping her hands around her eyes to shield them from the light, Shinako pressed her nose to the glass and peered inside. It took her a few moments to scan the area, but the figure of Kyohei lying prone between the couch and table was unmistakable. With a gasp, the Kunoichi tried to window, only to find it locked. Without hesitating, she located the latch and poured her chakra into her shadow, lifting it from the side of the building in a slick, black tendril. The shadowy finger easily slid through the cracks in the weather-proofing and turned the lever, allowing the Kunoichi to throw the window open and step inside.
The Inton conversion gave her a sense of calm, but was not quite enough to dull her sense of panic completely. The moment of peace was enough to allow her to take in the situation before diving in. Kyohei did not appear to be injured from this vantage point, though the sound she had heard must have been him struggling. A second glance revealed a spilled bottle of water and the likely culprit for all of this. At the far end of the table was a bottle of military ration pills, the sight of which caused Shinako’s eyebrow to raise in an arch. The most any one Shinobi was ever given at a time was three pills, and the bottles were generally only distributed to unit commanders.
The young woman removed her sunglasses and scarf, bending down to check Kyohei’s temperature and pulse. His fever and low heart-rate were telltale signs that tended to confirm her suspicion. Shinako pushed the table aside and gently turned the fair-haired man over to his back, visually inspecting him for wounds and signs of alertness, though she found none. She would have to break his fever before it began to cook his brain.
Shinako doubted that she would be able to transport her friend very far, but there was a relatively good alternative available. Rising from her crouched position, she located the bathroom taking a few moments to turn on the cold water in the shower. As she moved, she thought about how to do what came next, and retrieved her silk scarf upon re-entering the living space. With a deep breath, she steeled herself and crossed the room back to Kyohei’s position on the floor.
Being careful not to jostle him, Shinako placed the back of his head on her lap as she laid her scarf across his chest and looped it under his arms, forming two cloth handles just behind his armpits. The makeshift sling would allow her to get better leverage against his larger frame. With another deep breath, Shinako heaved upward, wrapping her shadow around Kyohei’s waist for extra support. She was surprised at how easy it was to pull herself to her feet with her friend’s limp body in tow. It only took her a minute or two to make it to the open shower-stall. The water was freezing cold, but she barely felt it as she backed into the stream.
As Shinako took a seated position at the back of the stall, Kyohei’s upper body fell across her outstretched legs, stopping his head from hitting the tiles. The cascading water fell across his neck and chest, flooding the floor of the shower and drenching them both. Deep concern spread across the Kunoichi’s face as she scanned her friend for signs of life. Shinako began to shiver as the icy water pooled on their clothing and beaded on their hair, her left hand pressed flat against the base of his throat like a sheet of paper, and her right curled into a fist just beside it.
"Please don't leave....I've only just found you."
1,750/4,905