Categories > Anime/Manga > Bubblegum Crisis 2040 > A Dark World
A Dark World
An SI/Mega X-over
By Tomas Megarson
E-Mail me at: NighthawkTM@Yahoo.com
See my page at: http://nighthawk.anifics.com
Disclaimer: The characters, settings, and places of "Sailor Moon" were created by and belong to Naoko Takeuchi. The characters, settings, and places of "YuYuHakusho" were created by and belong to Yoshihiro Togashi. The characters, settings, and places of "Black Cat" were created by and belong to Yabuki Kentaro. The characters, settings, and places of "Bubblegum Crisis 2040" belong to those who created the anime, and are too numerous to name here.
Chapter 5
The sun was barely touching the sky above the Hikawa shrine as a cool breeze blew through the air. There was a touch of morning dew on the grass giving it a sheen as though it had been newly polished. The dirt path that led from the shrine itself to the stone steps that led from the street below, allowing the public to come to pray when they felt the need, was beginning to be drenched by the slowly creeping sunlight. There was, however, a distinct lack of people visiting the shrine ever since it had been burned down in a fire the year before. Even after it had been rebuilt it was rare for anyone to visit to pray.
The reason for that lack of visitors stumbled up the last step, a grin spreading across his face as he viewed his home. He wasn't a priest, a monk, or even a religious person. The truth was he hadn't been to a service since he was nine and that didn't bother him one bit.
The slight breeze that carried the morning air did nothing to move Tomas' sweat drenched hair. The black t-shirt he was wearing was likewise soaked and his gray sweatpants clung to his legs. His arms were hanging limply at his side as he began to stumble his way across the large yard and to his home.
Tomas hadn't expected to be in the kind of shape he was in. Whatever had made him younger then he should be (and shorter as well) seemed to have also given him far better stamina then he'd had before. He actually managed to run somewhere around two miles from his guess, though he felt like hell now. His previous best before having to walk had only been three-quarters of a mile.
As he stumbled his way to the door and quietly opened it, his slightly insane grin turned to a frown. He might have run farther then two miles, now that he'd thought about it. He hadn't had a watch on so he had no real way to judge how long he'd been out running, and though he knew his previous best time for a mile was a bit over twelve minutes, he had no clue how well he'd done this time.
Still, it didn't really matter all that much to him. This morning he was really just testing his new life out before Botan arrived to begin his training as a spirit detective. Not that he was all that thrilled over that mess, mostly because he was sure it was going to lead to his death rather quickly. He knew how to fight, but it wasn't like he was a natural at it like most anime characters tended to be.
Sliding the door closed behind him, Tomas promptly dropped to the floor, glad for the slight moment to relax. He only took a moment for his breather before he began to untie the laces on his sneakers and pull them off. Rolling onto his knees, Tomas pushed himself back to his feet, glad that enough of the exhaustion had faded in that short break so that his legs were no longer shaking.
Moving through his home, Tomas let his gaze take in the bare walls and the small amount of furniture spread throughout the room. He'd have to do something about that. eventually. Walking as quietly as he could on his tired legs, he moved to Eve's door and opened it. Inside the still dark room he could see Eve curled up in her bed. Watching her in the slowly growing light, Tomas felt something grab at his heart with some kind of need, almost shaking it in its necessity. It was a strange feeling to him, and one he'd only felt a couple of times before.
It was a feeling of protection; a deep seeded need to keep the young blonde girl safe. Releasing a tired sigh and doing his best to shake the feeling off, Tomas moved toward the sleeping girl. It was strange to him that Eve could affect him so much even though he'd only known her for a day. It was definitely going to take him some time to get used to it. Or maybe not, given how well he was already dealing with it. Shaking his head and shoving the thoughts aside, he reached down and took Eve's small shoulder in his hand and began to gently shake her. "Time to get up, Princess. You've gotta get ready for school."
Slowly, as the shaking continued, Eve's eyes opened. Her gaze turned up to Tomas and a smile came to her face as she sleepily sat up. "Good morning, Daddy."
Smiling back at the girl, Tomas replied, "Same to you. Why don't you get dressed while I go fix up some breakfast?"
"Okay!"
Walking out of the room and closing the door behind him while Eve almost bounced out of bed, Tomas shook his head. "Man," he whispered under his breath as he headed into the kitchen, "she's nothing at all like canon. Loosing her memory really fucked up her personality. She was never hyper before."
Pulling his mind from the strangeness of it all, Tomas opened the fridge and looked into it. "Hmm...what to make?" Thinking for a few moments, he shrugged and pulled out a carton of eggs and the milk jug. "Pancakes will do. I can make those from memory, at least. I gotta buy a cookbook or two today or there's never gonna be a Japanese meal in this place again."
As he began to search through the cupboards for the other ingredients and the dishes he'd need to cook up the pancakes, he shifted his thoughts to what he had planned to do that day. The training with Botan, well, he wasn't sure how that was going to go, or what it would contain. After that was done his plan was to find a local high school and enroll. While he could have probably tried to find some low paying job, that would have sucked, and since he wasn't sure about the laws about people his age and school, it was safer to go. Besides, if he had to be in school for seven hours a day there was less chance of getting sent to track down some demon that would kill him. Dying really sucked.
Lost in the mix of cooking and his own thoughts, Tomas never noticed when Eve walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table. The room was silent except for the sounds of cooking for another ten minutes. Finally, with the last pancake cooked, Tomas grabbed the plate he'd been stacking them even as he turned off the burner and turned to face the table. At the sight of Eve sitting there, he had the decency to blush slightly. "Sorry Eve, I didn't hear you come in. I'd have given you the earlier ones to eat."
"It's okay, daddy." Eve looked at the plate stacked with the pancakes as Tomas grabbed a couple of plates and forks from their places. "Umm...daddy, what is this?"
Going into the fridge to pull out the butter, Tomas frowned. "They're pancakes. Hmm...I need to go shopping." Not finding any maple syrup, Tomas dug around the fridge some more, finally smiling as he came across a container of strawberries. "They're an American breakfast, or from somewhere. I never really found out." Sitting down at the table, Tomas opened the strawberries and gave Eve a plate and fork. "They're good, put some of the strawberries on them and eat up."
A silence grew between the pair as they began to eat. The strawberries, Tomas was pleased to discover, were fairly sweet and went rather well with the pancakes. With no complaints coming from Eve over the meal, Tomas was fairly sure it was a decent success. Still, however, as the silence grew longer Tomas knew something was wrong, and it wasn't hard to guess what the problem was. Knowing what he had to do, he spoke up. "Eve, you wanted to know about your mother, right?"
Looking up from her breakfast, Eve's eyes widened in surprise. "I thought..."
Tomas gave a small shrug. "Well, if you're old enough to ask and worry over it, you're old enough to know." Now, he wondered, how bad was she going to take this, and how bad was he going to screw up telling her? "You're mother's name was Chisato. She was a rather beautiful girl, from what I can remember. She died in a fire just after you were born with your father, Keiji."
"With...my father? But...you're daddy...?" Eve's face was a mix of being stricken and confusion as she spoke.
"I am now," was Tomas' reply. Boy, this was not turning out good from his perspective. "Your parents and I were very close friends, practically family. When they died, I couldn't let you go to an orphanage, so I adopted you." Tomas paused for a few seconds before the word crap ran through his mind. If Eve did the math, she'd know that he was far too young to adopt her at the time of her parents' deaths.
Luck, however, was with him for at least a moment. Eve seemed to be lost in her own thoughts, tears slowly building in her eyes. Getting up from his seat, Tomas walked around the table to Eve and enfolded her in a hug, hoping he was playing this right. "Hey, I am your dad. I love you, and I'm going see that you grow up safe and happy, just like Keiji and Chisato would want. Don't you ever forget that, Eve."
After what could have been an eternity, Eve wrapped her arms back around Tomas. "I love you too, daddy." Eve spoke the words with both a sound of determination and of finality. It was easily clear that she had made up her mind as to who she considered to be her father.
"Right, Princess." Backing out of the hug and ending the tender moment, Tomas smiled at Eve. "Now, why don't you go brush your teeth? You've got to leave for school soon."
Giving Tomas a big smile, Eve nodded her head and got out of her chair to head for the bathroom. Glad that that whole problem had apparently been successfully dealt with, Tomas through the dishes he had into the sink and the remaining strawberries away. With that done, he went for his bedroom when a knock at the front door caught his ear. Wondering who it was, he changed his destination and went to the front door and opened it.
"Oh, umm...good morning, Tomas"
Blinking, Tomas looked at Rei standing before him and spoke. "Yeah, morning. What's goin' on, Rei?" He thought she had said she didn't need to take Eve to school anymore since he wasn't working.
"These are some friends of mine, that's all." Rei blushed slightly as she continued. "I forgot that you weren't working anymore."
"Oh, well, it happens." Tomas shrugged slightly. "I'm glad you did, though. I went out for a jog this morning and I haven't had time to get a shower in yet." Thinking for a second, Tomas gave a smile. "Actually, I got a knew job, but its far, far less demanding on my time, and I need to get in shape for it. If you could keep taking her school, it'd help me out a lot, otherwise I'll probably have to get up at five."
"Well, it doesn't bother me any, so I'd be happy to, I guess."
Tomas gave Rei a smile. "Great, thanks, I appreciate it."
"Well, you're welcome." Looking behind Tomas into the shrine, Rei asked, "so, where is Eve?"
"Brushing her teeth and getting her books, I hope. That what I told her to do after breakfast." Glancing over his shoulder and still not seeing Eve, Tomas turned back to Rei. "Say, if you come somewhat earlier, you can join me and Eve for breakfast. I'm sure she'd enjoy the company, and it's no harder for me to cook for three people then for two."
"Oh, um, I'll think about." The offer had clearly caught her off guard, not that that had been Tomas' intent.
Tomas, thinking a bit more, just started talking. "You know, I really do owe you for the help you've been with Eve. It would have been a lot harder if you hadn't been here."
"Don't worry about it, its not a problem."
"Still," Tomas said, "I feel rather bad about relying on you so much and never really doing anything in return."
Rei gave Tomas a slight smile. "You rebuilt the shrine. I don't think anyone else would have. Grandfather would be happy, I'm sure." Rei's smile took a slightly side look as she finished speaking.
"Hey, I got an idea," Tomas said, wanting to change the subject. "Why don't you come over for dinner Saturday? Hell, bring some friends and we'll make it a small party. Eve loves meeting new people, and I wouldn't mind it either. I'll invite my...one friend, and you can invite yours."
Rei blinked at Tomas. "One friend?"
"Yeah," Tomas shrugged, "I never really had time to make any friends before...well, today, actually."
"Oh, I'm...sorry."
"Hey, its okay. I get by."
A silence grew between the pair for a moment when Rei spoke again, "Good morning, Eve-chan."
"Good morning, Rei-san!" Eve chirped happily while coming up from behind Tomas. As he stepped aside the girl slipped past him. "Bye daddy."
"Have a good day in school, Eve. You too, Rei." Tomas gave the pair a small wave as they walked away. He remained in the doorway until the pair had walked away before stepping fully outside and closing the door behind him. Sitting down outside, Tomas rested his back against the wall and closed his eyes. So far the day hadn't gone too badly, but he wasn't sure how long that would keep up. As his mind turned over the facts, ever so slowly he drifted into a light doze.
*
It was a short time later when a hand shaking his shoulder woke Tomas up. His eyes opened to take in the female face before him. A couple of years ago had this happened he'd have made some quiet comment about being awoken and asked what was going on. He'd changed a lot since he'd been in high school, however, and his reacted by saying the first thing that came to mind. "You know, that's a rather pretty face to wake up to. I could get used to it."
Blinking and standing back up, Botan gazed down at Tomas, the very faint touches of a blush creeping onto her cheeks caused by the comment. "Umm, thank you, I suppose."
"You're welcome." Tomas eyed Botan for a moment, taking in the jeans, light green shirt, and denim jacket the girl was wearing. All in all it looked pretty good on her, and made it rather easy to forget she was the Grim Reaper. Climbing to his feet, Tomas gave Botan a grin. "So, how ya doin' this morning, Botan-chan?"
"I'm alright. Its been an easy day, actually." Botan surprised Tomas with a smile. "Since Koenma made me your partner, he's given most of my duties of taking people to the afterlife to other spirits. It's a rather nice change, actually."
"Sound's good, Botan-chan. So, what's the agenda for today?"
Botan looked a bit ashamed as she answered. "Not much, actually. There's not too much that I can teach you. A lot of stuff you'll have to learn on your own. I do have some neat tools for you though, like this!" Reaching into her pocket Botan pulled out what appeared to be a small bronze ring. "This is the..."
"I recognize that!" Tomas cut Botan off quickly as he took the ring from her. "This thing will let me look through stuff, like an x-ray machine, but it uses my Reiki."
"Yes, that's right." Botan nodded as she watched Tomas hold the ring up to his eye and look around with it. She blinked as he came to look at her for a moment and pulled the ring down. "What is it?"
"Nothing," Tomas replied, a grin coming to his face. "Just something I'd be better off not doing. So, what else is there?" Tomas asked as he slid the ring onto one of his fingers. It wasn't comfortable, but his sweatpants didn't have any pockets in them for him to use.
"Well, there's this as well," Botan said, pulling a small compass out of the same pocket that had been holding the ring. "This will lead you to demons. I'm sure it will be very helpful to you."
Taking the compass Tomas nodded, "Yup, very useful," keeping away from the demons, he added to himself. Shrugging at the compass since the needle was pointing north, he turned his attention back to Botan. "So, anything else?"
"You seem to know a lot about this."
"As I told you when you came for me, I read manga." Giving Botan's confused look a shrug, he continued, "Don't worry about it. It's not a big deal. Is there anything else?"
Looking at Tomas, Botan shrugged. "Well, do you know how to use Reiki?"
"I've never done it, but I think I got the theory behind it. Just concentrate it on a finger, aim, and shove it away. Oh, and right now I should only be able to use it once a day."
Botan nodded. "Bingo, bingo! The more you practice with it the more often you'll be able to use it. I guess there's nothing else to try to teach." Botan gave a sigh. "I wonder what I'll have to do for the rest of the day?"
A smirk came to Tomas' face. "Well, I need to go take a shower. You wanna join me?"
Botan looked at Tomas and blinked. "What do you...you pervert!" she exclaimed as she got the implications.
Tomas' defense was a shrug. "Hey you're a cute girl, you can't fault me for asking."
"As a matter of fact, I can!"
Sighing in defeat, Tomas finally gave up. "Fine, fine, I won't ask again, sheesh." Still, it had been funny to watch her realize the question. "Anyway, I was serious about needing a shower. I've got things to do this afternoon, and I need to look fairly decent and not stick of sweat and B.O."
"Oh?" The perverted remark set aside, Botan asked, "What do you need to do?"
"Well," Tomas gave Botan a smile, "I promised someone I'd look into going back to school. I'm gonna head over to one of the local high schools and see if I can't register. I'm not sure what's needed to do so."
"Oh, well, that's good. School will make you smarter, and a detective needs to be bright."
"Yup, I agree." Turning around, Tomas opened the door. "Feel free to come in and hang out if you want, Botan-chan. I don't mind."
Botan gave it some thought for a moment before shaking her head. "No, I'll go back and see if Koenma needs something. You never know when a case will come up."
"Right, got it." Tomas headed inside, but quickly turned back. "Oh yeah, Botan, I'm throwing a small party Saturday. Will you come to it? Its just gonna be a few people and dinner, but if we're going to be working together you should get a chance to meet Rei and Eve at least."
"A party? Well, I don't mind, so sure, I'll come." Botan gave a smile. "Thank's for inviting me."
"Always happy to. Anyway, I'm off to shower." Giving Botan a wave he continued, "See you later, Botan-chan. Have a good day." Tomas caught Botan's goodbye just before the girl faded away and he closed the door.
*
Walking out of Juuban High School, Tomas shook his head. That had not gone well. Not gone well at all. First he'd needed to pay application fees, then fill out a books worth of paper work, and then he'd been given an entrance exam to take, since he hadn't been to school since he was seven according to records.
The exam had begun well enough, and he'd breezed through the math and science sections of the exam, though they had been time consuming. The English section of the exam was a complete joke to him given he was American, at least originally. Although the strange look the verbal exam tester had given him a strange look when he'd shifted into his Jersey accent. After those three he'd been feeling pretty good about himself. Then he'd hit the Japanese history section.
He was so screwed, he was sure of it. That section he'd known almost nothing on. He took his best guesses and swore at the fact he'd never got around to taking any classes on the subject when he'd had the chance. That section was the true killer on him, and he wasn't sure how the damn thing had been weighted. He just knew that he'd done bad.
Sighing away the frustration, Tomas turned his attention to the world around him, not that that was all that interesting. The only good thing about it was that it was not that damn exam. There were a number of small stores around, but none that interested him. Of course, for a store to interest him, it'd have to either sell video games or books. His tastes were so limited at times, not that it really bothered him.
Checking his watch, Tomas noticed he still had a couple of hours before Eve would get out of school. He wasn't really sure what to do with those hours as he turned another corner. He considered finding somewhere to buy more furniture for the Shrine, when his eyes caught something far more interesting; a cute girl with a depressed expression standing by the curb. The grin that came to Tomas' face quickly vanished as he fought to decide whether to actually speak to her or not. In the end, he made his choice. "Hey, you don't look too good," he said to the girl, "something the matter?"
The girl turned her head to look at him, and Tomas fought the urge to cry out in surprise. He should have known something like this would happen, but it hadn't occurred to him that he'd run into Nene Romanova. Thinking back for a second to what killed him, he realized he shouldn't have been all that surprised by it. He brought his attention back to Nene.
"Nothing I want to talk about with a stranger."
Blinking, Tomas shrugged. "Okay, I'm Tomas. What's your name?"
Blinking back, it seemed that Nene had been caught off guard by the response. Before she could really think about stopping herself, she replied, "I'm Nene."
"There," Tomas grinned down at the girl, "we're not strangers anymore. You really do look like you got a lot on your mind, so, do you want to talk about it?"
Finding herself unable to resist the impulse, Nene smiled for a moment at the outrageousness of it all. Still, she hesitated a bit before replying, "I don't really think I should talk about my problems with someone I just met."
Shrugging at the response and not too surprised by it, Tomas replied, "Well, how about we go grab something to eat, and if you feel like talking about it in a bit I'll be here." Looking around for a moment, Tomas spied something that made him grin. "There's an ice cream shop down the street. What do you say we go get some?"
Nene's eyes lit up at the mention of ice cream. She thought about it for a few moments taking in Tomas's face. He seemed around her age, and he certainly didn't look like some criminal dressed in the slacks, dress shirt, and tie that he was. And most of all, he'd mentioned ice cream. Deciding that it was alright, she nodded and smiled. "Okay, lets go."
Walking down the street, the pair moved quietly for a few moments before Tomas asked, "I take it by the uniform you're with the police."
"The A.D. Police, actually."
"It must be rather exciting at times. I've come across a berserk boomer before. It was really nasty." Nasty for him, Tomas thought, recalling his death again. Damn, but he was remembering that a lot. Maybe it'd fade with time, but he doubted it.
"Not for me," Nene was saying, "I tend to just handle calls, actually." Slightly embarrassed by her answer, she asked, "What do you do?"
Tomas gave a short laugh, glad he actually had a job now. "I'm a detective for...a private organization, actually." Giving Nene a smile, he continued, "I just started today, however. I'm not really sure what I'm in for." Turning away from Nene, Tomas grabbed the door handle and opened the door to the ice cream shop, holding it open for Nene. "After you."
Giving Tomas a smile, Nene walk through the door, and looked over her shoulder as he followed her in. "So, what's the organization you work for? Maybe I've heard of it."
"Umm..." that was a tricky question for Tomas to answer. Still, he gave it a shot without too much lying. "Afterlife Inc. The owner is really into the occult type stuff." Glancing at an empty booth, Tomas spied a newspaper on it. His luck, it appeared, was really with him today as the page the paper was opened to had a photo of a youma on it. Picking up the paper, he pointed the picture out to Nene. "Stuff like this thing, I suppose."
Glancing at the paper, Nene shivered slightly at the sheer ugliness of the thing. "Well, I'm glad someone wants to do something about those things. I've heard the chief wants to get the authorization to let the ADP deal with them, but someone high up is resisting his efforts."
The conversation paused for a few moments as the pair got their turn and ordered their ice cream. Tomas paid for both of them and the pair got a booth before continuing to talk. The conversation turned into a bit of small talk about the weather and the city before Nene asked, "So, how old are you?"
Shrugging, Tomas replied, "I'm sixteen. You?" he asked, though he already knew the answer.
Nene, however, didn't hear his question. "You're only sixteen? But you act so mature."
With a shrug, Tomas replied, "I've had a hard life and I've got a daughter to care for. I don't really have much time to act like a kid."
Nene blinked at that and edged slightly away from Tomas. "A...daughter...at your age?"
Tomas nodded, not noticing the slight edginess in Nene. "Yeah, she's ten and a real cute girl." His mind came back to Nene as he took in her shocked expression. "Oh...OH! Sorry about that," Tomas gave a slightly nervous laugh. He had just realized how bad all that had sounded. "I adopted her. Eve, that's her name, is the daughter of a couple of old friends of mine. They died, and I couldn't let Eve get put into an orphanage, so I took her in. She lost her memory, though, so she doesn't remember her real parents. I've told her about them, though."
"Oh," Nene took that in for a few moments before giving Tomas a smile. "That's really nice of you, and it must be hard."
"Yeah," Tomas agreed, "but I grew up as an orphan, so I know what it's like."
Glancing down at her watch, Nene shot out of her chair. "Augh! I'm late for getting back to work! I'm sorry, Tomas, I really gotta go! Maybe I'll see you again! Bye!"
"Um, yeah...hey, wait a second!" Shooting out of his own chair, Tomas quickly ran after Nene, catching up to her as she reached the door. "I'm throwing a small party Saturday night. If you want, feel free to come, and bring along some friends."
Nene stopped moving and turned to face Tomas. "A party?"
"Yeah." Scratching the back of his head, Tomas gave a nervous laugh, "Actually, right now it seems I might be the only guy there. I haven't really had any time yet to make friends, so I'm trying to meet new people. Please, if you want to come, invite anyone you want. Co-workers, friends, neighbors, whatever."
"Hmm..." Nene thought for a moment and shrugged. "Where is it? I'll give it some thought."
"At the Hikawa Shrine. Its not too hard to find. I live there, actually."
"I know where it is, I used to go there occasionally to pray before it got burned down." Nene gave Tomas another smile. "So you're the one who had it rebuilt? Maybe I will come, if only to see whether you got it right or not." Tomas almost got a chance to reply when Nene's eye's went wide again. "Gah! Work! Gotta go, bye bye!"
Following Nene out the door, but not running after her as she took off down the street, Tomas shook his head. "I don't know what's more insane, that I invited her, or that she agreed to come." Tomas thought for a few moments before raising his right hand and staring at Soul Eater. "This is your fault," he muttered at the True Rune, "I just know it is. Damn it, what are you getting me into?" Sighing in frustration, Tomas turned and walked away.
Author's Notes: Well, chapter 5 is now done. If this was a manga, you could consider this the end of Volume One. Chapter 6 will pick up...somewhere. Probably the party, but I haven't decided yet. It may start before the party. We'll see.
An SI/Mega X-over
By Tomas Megarson
E-Mail me at: NighthawkTM@Yahoo.com
See my page at: http://nighthawk.anifics.com
Disclaimer: The characters, settings, and places of "Sailor Moon" were created by and belong to Naoko Takeuchi. The characters, settings, and places of "YuYuHakusho" were created by and belong to Yoshihiro Togashi. The characters, settings, and places of "Black Cat" were created by and belong to Yabuki Kentaro. The characters, settings, and places of "Bubblegum Crisis 2040" belong to those who created the anime, and are too numerous to name here.
Chapter 5
The sun was barely touching the sky above the Hikawa shrine as a cool breeze blew through the air. There was a touch of morning dew on the grass giving it a sheen as though it had been newly polished. The dirt path that led from the shrine itself to the stone steps that led from the street below, allowing the public to come to pray when they felt the need, was beginning to be drenched by the slowly creeping sunlight. There was, however, a distinct lack of people visiting the shrine ever since it had been burned down in a fire the year before. Even after it had been rebuilt it was rare for anyone to visit to pray.
The reason for that lack of visitors stumbled up the last step, a grin spreading across his face as he viewed his home. He wasn't a priest, a monk, or even a religious person. The truth was he hadn't been to a service since he was nine and that didn't bother him one bit.
The slight breeze that carried the morning air did nothing to move Tomas' sweat drenched hair. The black t-shirt he was wearing was likewise soaked and his gray sweatpants clung to his legs. His arms were hanging limply at his side as he began to stumble his way across the large yard and to his home.
Tomas hadn't expected to be in the kind of shape he was in. Whatever had made him younger then he should be (and shorter as well) seemed to have also given him far better stamina then he'd had before. He actually managed to run somewhere around two miles from his guess, though he felt like hell now. His previous best before having to walk had only been three-quarters of a mile.
As he stumbled his way to the door and quietly opened it, his slightly insane grin turned to a frown. He might have run farther then two miles, now that he'd thought about it. He hadn't had a watch on so he had no real way to judge how long he'd been out running, and though he knew his previous best time for a mile was a bit over twelve minutes, he had no clue how well he'd done this time.
Still, it didn't really matter all that much to him. This morning he was really just testing his new life out before Botan arrived to begin his training as a spirit detective. Not that he was all that thrilled over that mess, mostly because he was sure it was going to lead to his death rather quickly. He knew how to fight, but it wasn't like he was a natural at it like most anime characters tended to be.
Sliding the door closed behind him, Tomas promptly dropped to the floor, glad for the slight moment to relax. He only took a moment for his breather before he began to untie the laces on his sneakers and pull them off. Rolling onto his knees, Tomas pushed himself back to his feet, glad that enough of the exhaustion had faded in that short break so that his legs were no longer shaking.
Moving through his home, Tomas let his gaze take in the bare walls and the small amount of furniture spread throughout the room. He'd have to do something about that. eventually. Walking as quietly as he could on his tired legs, he moved to Eve's door and opened it. Inside the still dark room he could see Eve curled up in her bed. Watching her in the slowly growing light, Tomas felt something grab at his heart with some kind of need, almost shaking it in its necessity. It was a strange feeling to him, and one he'd only felt a couple of times before.
It was a feeling of protection; a deep seeded need to keep the young blonde girl safe. Releasing a tired sigh and doing his best to shake the feeling off, Tomas moved toward the sleeping girl. It was strange to him that Eve could affect him so much even though he'd only known her for a day. It was definitely going to take him some time to get used to it. Or maybe not, given how well he was already dealing with it. Shaking his head and shoving the thoughts aside, he reached down and took Eve's small shoulder in his hand and began to gently shake her. "Time to get up, Princess. You've gotta get ready for school."
Slowly, as the shaking continued, Eve's eyes opened. Her gaze turned up to Tomas and a smile came to her face as she sleepily sat up. "Good morning, Daddy."
Smiling back at the girl, Tomas replied, "Same to you. Why don't you get dressed while I go fix up some breakfast?"
"Okay!"
Walking out of the room and closing the door behind him while Eve almost bounced out of bed, Tomas shook his head. "Man," he whispered under his breath as he headed into the kitchen, "she's nothing at all like canon. Loosing her memory really fucked up her personality. She was never hyper before."
Pulling his mind from the strangeness of it all, Tomas opened the fridge and looked into it. "Hmm...what to make?" Thinking for a few moments, he shrugged and pulled out a carton of eggs and the milk jug. "Pancakes will do. I can make those from memory, at least. I gotta buy a cookbook or two today or there's never gonna be a Japanese meal in this place again."
As he began to search through the cupboards for the other ingredients and the dishes he'd need to cook up the pancakes, he shifted his thoughts to what he had planned to do that day. The training with Botan, well, he wasn't sure how that was going to go, or what it would contain. After that was done his plan was to find a local high school and enroll. While he could have probably tried to find some low paying job, that would have sucked, and since he wasn't sure about the laws about people his age and school, it was safer to go. Besides, if he had to be in school for seven hours a day there was less chance of getting sent to track down some demon that would kill him. Dying really sucked.
Lost in the mix of cooking and his own thoughts, Tomas never noticed when Eve walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table. The room was silent except for the sounds of cooking for another ten minutes. Finally, with the last pancake cooked, Tomas grabbed the plate he'd been stacking them even as he turned off the burner and turned to face the table. At the sight of Eve sitting there, he had the decency to blush slightly. "Sorry Eve, I didn't hear you come in. I'd have given you the earlier ones to eat."
"It's okay, daddy." Eve looked at the plate stacked with the pancakes as Tomas grabbed a couple of plates and forks from their places. "Umm...daddy, what is this?"
Going into the fridge to pull out the butter, Tomas frowned. "They're pancakes. Hmm...I need to go shopping." Not finding any maple syrup, Tomas dug around the fridge some more, finally smiling as he came across a container of strawberries. "They're an American breakfast, or from somewhere. I never really found out." Sitting down at the table, Tomas opened the strawberries and gave Eve a plate and fork. "They're good, put some of the strawberries on them and eat up."
A silence grew between the pair as they began to eat. The strawberries, Tomas was pleased to discover, were fairly sweet and went rather well with the pancakes. With no complaints coming from Eve over the meal, Tomas was fairly sure it was a decent success. Still, however, as the silence grew longer Tomas knew something was wrong, and it wasn't hard to guess what the problem was. Knowing what he had to do, he spoke up. "Eve, you wanted to know about your mother, right?"
Looking up from her breakfast, Eve's eyes widened in surprise. "I thought..."
Tomas gave a small shrug. "Well, if you're old enough to ask and worry over it, you're old enough to know." Now, he wondered, how bad was she going to take this, and how bad was he going to screw up telling her? "You're mother's name was Chisato. She was a rather beautiful girl, from what I can remember. She died in a fire just after you were born with your father, Keiji."
"With...my father? But...you're daddy...?" Eve's face was a mix of being stricken and confusion as she spoke.
"I am now," was Tomas' reply. Boy, this was not turning out good from his perspective. "Your parents and I were very close friends, practically family. When they died, I couldn't let you go to an orphanage, so I adopted you." Tomas paused for a few seconds before the word crap ran through his mind. If Eve did the math, she'd know that he was far too young to adopt her at the time of her parents' deaths.
Luck, however, was with him for at least a moment. Eve seemed to be lost in her own thoughts, tears slowly building in her eyes. Getting up from his seat, Tomas walked around the table to Eve and enfolded her in a hug, hoping he was playing this right. "Hey, I am your dad. I love you, and I'm going see that you grow up safe and happy, just like Keiji and Chisato would want. Don't you ever forget that, Eve."
After what could have been an eternity, Eve wrapped her arms back around Tomas. "I love you too, daddy." Eve spoke the words with both a sound of determination and of finality. It was easily clear that she had made up her mind as to who she considered to be her father.
"Right, Princess." Backing out of the hug and ending the tender moment, Tomas smiled at Eve. "Now, why don't you go brush your teeth? You've got to leave for school soon."
Giving Tomas a big smile, Eve nodded her head and got out of her chair to head for the bathroom. Glad that that whole problem had apparently been successfully dealt with, Tomas through the dishes he had into the sink and the remaining strawberries away. With that done, he went for his bedroom when a knock at the front door caught his ear. Wondering who it was, he changed his destination and went to the front door and opened it.
"Oh, umm...good morning, Tomas"
Blinking, Tomas looked at Rei standing before him and spoke. "Yeah, morning. What's goin' on, Rei?" He thought she had said she didn't need to take Eve to school anymore since he wasn't working.
"These are some friends of mine, that's all." Rei blushed slightly as she continued. "I forgot that you weren't working anymore."
"Oh, well, it happens." Tomas shrugged slightly. "I'm glad you did, though. I went out for a jog this morning and I haven't had time to get a shower in yet." Thinking for a second, Tomas gave a smile. "Actually, I got a knew job, but its far, far less demanding on my time, and I need to get in shape for it. If you could keep taking her school, it'd help me out a lot, otherwise I'll probably have to get up at five."
"Well, it doesn't bother me any, so I'd be happy to, I guess."
Tomas gave Rei a smile. "Great, thanks, I appreciate it."
"Well, you're welcome." Looking behind Tomas into the shrine, Rei asked, "so, where is Eve?"
"Brushing her teeth and getting her books, I hope. That what I told her to do after breakfast." Glancing over his shoulder and still not seeing Eve, Tomas turned back to Rei. "Say, if you come somewhat earlier, you can join me and Eve for breakfast. I'm sure she'd enjoy the company, and it's no harder for me to cook for three people then for two."
"Oh, um, I'll think about." The offer had clearly caught her off guard, not that that had been Tomas' intent.
Tomas, thinking a bit more, just started talking. "You know, I really do owe you for the help you've been with Eve. It would have been a lot harder if you hadn't been here."
"Don't worry about it, its not a problem."
"Still," Tomas said, "I feel rather bad about relying on you so much and never really doing anything in return."
Rei gave Tomas a slight smile. "You rebuilt the shrine. I don't think anyone else would have. Grandfather would be happy, I'm sure." Rei's smile took a slightly side look as she finished speaking.
"Hey, I got an idea," Tomas said, wanting to change the subject. "Why don't you come over for dinner Saturday? Hell, bring some friends and we'll make it a small party. Eve loves meeting new people, and I wouldn't mind it either. I'll invite my...one friend, and you can invite yours."
Rei blinked at Tomas. "One friend?"
"Yeah," Tomas shrugged, "I never really had time to make any friends before...well, today, actually."
"Oh, I'm...sorry."
"Hey, its okay. I get by."
A silence grew between the pair for a moment when Rei spoke again, "Good morning, Eve-chan."
"Good morning, Rei-san!" Eve chirped happily while coming up from behind Tomas. As he stepped aside the girl slipped past him. "Bye daddy."
"Have a good day in school, Eve. You too, Rei." Tomas gave the pair a small wave as they walked away. He remained in the doorway until the pair had walked away before stepping fully outside and closing the door behind him. Sitting down outside, Tomas rested his back against the wall and closed his eyes. So far the day hadn't gone too badly, but he wasn't sure how long that would keep up. As his mind turned over the facts, ever so slowly he drifted into a light doze.
*
It was a short time later when a hand shaking his shoulder woke Tomas up. His eyes opened to take in the female face before him. A couple of years ago had this happened he'd have made some quiet comment about being awoken and asked what was going on. He'd changed a lot since he'd been in high school, however, and his reacted by saying the first thing that came to mind. "You know, that's a rather pretty face to wake up to. I could get used to it."
Blinking and standing back up, Botan gazed down at Tomas, the very faint touches of a blush creeping onto her cheeks caused by the comment. "Umm, thank you, I suppose."
"You're welcome." Tomas eyed Botan for a moment, taking in the jeans, light green shirt, and denim jacket the girl was wearing. All in all it looked pretty good on her, and made it rather easy to forget she was the Grim Reaper. Climbing to his feet, Tomas gave Botan a grin. "So, how ya doin' this morning, Botan-chan?"
"I'm alright. Its been an easy day, actually." Botan surprised Tomas with a smile. "Since Koenma made me your partner, he's given most of my duties of taking people to the afterlife to other spirits. It's a rather nice change, actually."
"Sound's good, Botan-chan. So, what's the agenda for today?"
Botan looked a bit ashamed as she answered. "Not much, actually. There's not too much that I can teach you. A lot of stuff you'll have to learn on your own. I do have some neat tools for you though, like this!" Reaching into her pocket Botan pulled out what appeared to be a small bronze ring. "This is the..."
"I recognize that!" Tomas cut Botan off quickly as he took the ring from her. "This thing will let me look through stuff, like an x-ray machine, but it uses my Reiki."
"Yes, that's right." Botan nodded as she watched Tomas hold the ring up to his eye and look around with it. She blinked as he came to look at her for a moment and pulled the ring down. "What is it?"
"Nothing," Tomas replied, a grin coming to his face. "Just something I'd be better off not doing. So, what else is there?" Tomas asked as he slid the ring onto one of his fingers. It wasn't comfortable, but his sweatpants didn't have any pockets in them for him to use.
"Well, there's this as well," Botan said, pulling a small compass out of the same pocket that had been holding the ring. "This will lead you to demons. I'm sure it will be very helpful to you."
Taking the compass Tomas nodded, "Yup, very useful," keeping away from the demons, he added to himself. Shrugging at the compass since the needle was pointing north, he turned his attention back to Botan. "So, anything else?"
"You seem to know a lot about this."
"As I told you when you came for me, I read manga." Giving Botan's confused look a shrug, he continued, "Don't worry about it. It's not a big deal. Is there anything else?"
Looking at Tomas, Botan shrugged. "Well, do you know how to use Reiki?"
"I've never done it, but I think I got the theory behind it. Just concentrate it on a finger, aim, and shove it away. Oh, and right now I should only be able to use it once a day."
Botan nodded. "Bingo, bingo! The more you practice with it the more often you'll be able to use it. I guess there's nothing else to try to teach." Botan gave a sigh. "I wonder what I'll have to do for the rest of the day?"
A smirk came to Tomas' face. "Well, I need to go take a shower. You wanna join me?"
Botan looked at Tomas and blinked. "What do you...you pervert!" she exclaimed as she got the implications.
Tomas' defense was a shrug. "Hey you're a cute girl, you can't fault me for asking."
"As a matter of fact, I can!"
Sighing in defeat, Tomas finally gave up. "Fine, fine, I won't ask again, sheesh." Still, it had been funny to watch her realize the question. "Anyway, I was serious about needing a shower. I've got things to do this afternoon, and I need to look fairly decent and not stick of sweat and B.O."
"Oh?" The perverted remark set aside, Botan asked, "What do you need to do?"
"Well," Tomas gave Botan a smile, "I promised someone I'd look into going back to school. I'm gonna head over to one of the local high schools and see if I can't register. I'm not sure what's needed to do so."
"Oh, well, that's good. School will make you smarter, and a detective needs to be bright."
"Yup, I agree." Turning around, Tomas opened the door. "Feel free to come in and hang out if you want, Botan-chan. I don't mind."
Botan gave it some thought for a moment before shaking her head. "No, I'll go back and see if Koenma needs something. You never know when a case will come up."
"Right, got it." Tomas headed inside, but quickly turned back. "Oh yeah, Botan, I'm throwing a small party Saturday. Will you come to it? Its just gonna be a few people and dinner, but if we're going to be working together you should get a chance to meet Rei and Eve at least."
"A party? Well, I don't mind, so sure, I'll come." Botan gave a smile. "Thank's for inviting me."
"Always happy to. Anyway, I'm off to shower." Giving Botan a wave he continued, "See you later, Botan-chan. Have a good day." Tomas caught Botan's goodbye just before the girl faded away and he closed the door.
*
Walking out of Juuban High School, Tomas shook his head. That had not gone well. Not gone well at all. First he'd needed to pay application fees, then fill out a books worth of paper work, and then he'd been given an entrance exam to take, since he hadn't been to school since he was seven according to records.
The exam had begun well enough, and he'd breezed through the math and science sections of the exam, though they had been time consuming. The English section of the exam was a complete joke to him given he was American, at least originally. Although the strange look the verbal exam tester had given him a strange look when he'd shifted into his Jersey accent. After those three he'd been feeling pretty good about himself. Then he'd hit the Japanese history section.
He was so screwed, he was sure of it. That section he'd known almost nothing on. He took his best guesses and swore at the fact he'd never got around to taking any classes on the subject when he'd had the chance. That section was the true killer on him, and he wasn't sure how the damn thing had been weighted. He just knew that he'd done bad.
Sighing away the frustration, Tomas turned his attention to the world around him, not that that was all that interesting. The only good thing about it was that it was not that damn exam. There were a number of small stores around, but none that interested him. Of course, for a store to interest him, it'd have to either sell video games or books. His tastes were so limited at times, not that it really bothered him.
Checking his watch, Tomas noticed he still had a couple of hours before Eve would get out of school. He wasn't really sure what to do with those hours as he turned another corner. He considered finding somewhere to buy more furniture for the Shrine, when his eyes caught something far more interesting; a cute girl with a depressed expression standing by the curb. The grin that came to Tomas' face quickly vanished as he fought to decide whether to actually speak to her or not. In the end, he made his choice. "Hey, you don't look too good," he said to the girl, "something the matter?"
The girl turned her head to look at him, and Tomas fought the urge to cry out in surprise. He should have known something like this would happen, but it hadn't occurred to him that he'd run into Nene Romanova. Thinking back for a second to what killed him, he realized he shouldn't have been all that surprised by it. He brought his attention back to Nene.
"Nothing I want to talk about with a stranger."
Blinking, Tomas shrugged. "Okay, I'm Tomas. What's your name?"
Blinking back, it seemed that Nene had been caught off guard by the response. Before she could really think about stopping herself, she replied, "I'm Nene."
"There," Tomas grinned down at the girl, "we're not strangers anymore. You really do look like you got a lot on your mind, so, do you want to talk about it?"
Finding herself unable to resist the impulse, Nene smiled for a moment at the outrageousness of it all. Still, she hesitated a bit before replying, "I don't really think I should talk about my problems with someone I just met."
Shrugging at the response and not too surprised by it, Tomas replied, "Well, how about we go grab something to eat, and if you feel like talking about it in a bit I'll be here." Looking around for a moment, Tomas spied something that made him grin. "There's an ice cream shop down the street. What do you say we go get some?"
Nene's eyes lit up at the mention of ice cream. She thought about it for a few moments taking in Tomas's face. He seemed around her age, and he certainly didn't look like some criminal dressed in the slacks, dress shirt, and tie that he was. And most of all, he'd mentioned ice cream. Deciding that it was alright, she nodded and smiled. "Okay, lets go."
Walking down the street, the pair moved quietly for a few moments before Tomas asked, "I take it by the uniform you're with the police."
"The A.D. Police, actually."
"It must be rather exciting at times. I've come across a berserk boomer before. It was really nasty." Nasty for him, Tomas thought, recalling his death again. Damn, but he was remembering that a lot. Maybe it'd fade with time, but he doubted it.
"Not for me," Nene was saying, "I tend to just handle calls, actually." Slightly embarrassed by her answer, she asked, "What do you do?"
Tomas gave a short laugh, glad he actually had a job now. "I'm a detective for...a private organization, actually." Giving Nene a smile, he continued, "I just started today, however. I'm not really sure what I'm in for." Turning away from Nene, Tomas grabbed the door handle and opened the door to the ice cream shop, holding it open for Nene. "After you."
Giving Tomas a smile, Nene walk through the door, and looked over her shoulder as he followed her in. "So, what's the organization you work for? Maybe I've heard of it."
"Umm..." that was a tricky question for Tomas to answer. Still, he gave it a shot without too much lying. "Afterlife Inc. The owner is really into the occult type stuff." Glancing at an empty booth, Tomas spied a newspaper on it. His luck, it appeared, was really with him today as the page the paper was opened to had a photo of a youma on it. Picking up the paper, he pointed the picture out to Nene. "Stuff like this thing, I suppose."
Glancing at the paper, Nene shivered slightly at the sheer ugliness of the thing. "Well, I'm glad someone wants to do something about those things. I've heard the chief wants to get the authorization to let the ADP deal with them, but someone high up is resisting his efforts."
The conversation paused for a few moments as the pair got their turn and ordered their ice cream. Tomas paid for both of them and the pair got a booth before continuing to talk. The conversation turned into a bit of small talk about the weather and the city before Nene asked, "So, how old are you?"
Shrugging, Tomas replied, "I'm sixteen. You?" he asked, though he already knew the answer.
Nene, however, didn't hear his question. "You're only sixteen? But you act so mature."
With a shrug, Tomas replied, "I've had a hard life and I've got a daughter to care for. I don't really have much time to act like a kid."
Nene blinked at that and edged slightly away from Tomas. "A...daughter...at your age?"
Tomas nodded, not noticing the slight edginess in Nene. "Yeah, she's ten and a real cute girl." His mind came back to Nene as he took in her shocked expression. "Oh...OH! Sorry about that," Tomas gave a slightly nervous laugh. He had just realized how bad all that had sounded. "I adopted her. Eve, that's her name, is the daughter of a couple of old friends of mine. They died, and I couldn't let Eve get put into an orphanage, so I took her in. She lost her memory, though, so she doesn't remember her real parents. I've told her about them, though."
"Oh," Nene took that in for a few moments before giving Tomas a smile. "That's really nice of you, and it must be hard."
"Yeah," Tomas agreed, "but I grew up as an orphan, so I know what it's like."
Glancing down at her watch, Nene shot out of her chair. "Augh! I'm late for getting back to work! I'm sorry, Tomas, I really gotta go! Maybe I'll see you again! Bye!"
"Um, yeah...hey, wait a second!" Shooting out of his own chair, Tomas quickly ran after Nene, catching up to her as she reached the door. "I'm throwing a small party Saturday night. If you want, feel free to come, and bring along some friends."
Nene stopped moving and turned to face Tomas. "A party?"
"Yeah." Scratching the back of his head, Tomas gave a nervous laugh, "Actually, right now it seems I might be the only guy there. I haven't really had any time yet to make friends, so I'm trying to meet new people. Please, if you want to come, invite anyone you want. Co-workers, friends, neighbors, whatever."
"Hmm..." Nene thought for a moment and shrugged. "Where is it? I'll give it some thought."
"At the Hikawa Shrine. Its not too hard to find. I live there, actually."
"I know where it is, I used to go there occasionally to pray before it got burned down." Nene gave Tomas another smile. "So you're the one who had it rebuilt? Maybe I will come, if only to see whether you got it right or not." Tomas almost got a chance to reply when Nene's eye's went wide again. "Gah! Work! Gotta go, bye bye!"
Following Nene out the door, but not running after her as she took off down the street, Tomas shook his head. "I don't know what's more insane, that I invited her, or that she agreed to come." Tomas thought for a few moments before raising his right hand and staring at Soul Eater. "This is your fault," he muttered at the True Rune, "I just know it is. Damn it, what are you getting me into?" Sighing in frustration, Tomas turned and walked away.
Author's Notes: Well, chapter 5 is now done. If this was a manga, you could consider this the end of Volume One. Chapter 6 will pick up...somewhere. Probably the party, but I haven't decided yet. It may start before the party. We'll see.
Sign up to rate and review this story