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Chapter Five
Nerve
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“What day is it?”
“It’s monday, duh.” Race responded, muffled by the density of the door. “C’mon, Tone’s gonna need a ride today.”
Groaning, the disheveled Ren pulled himself horizontally off his cot until he ran into the wall. Fumbling upwards, he adjusted his attire to not look like he had been hit by a rhinoceros prior to waking. Yawning dramatically, he folded his cot up, the pillow and blanket falling down by the hinge and preventing it from collapsing completely.
“I’m up.” Ren opened the door, rubbing his eyes as he leaned his elbow on the frame. “If barely… Where is he?”
“Out for his run again, why?” Race asked, leaning out of the restroom door as she adjusted her tie in the mirror. “You know this is the only time he has to go running, since we’re so busy at nights.”
“Yeah, yeah…” Ren ran his fingers through his hair, his eyes trying to fight against the glaze atop them. “…You need help?”
“No.” Race bit back, but shortly after threw her hands down in protest. “Yes. I blame both you and Wild for making me wear a stupid tie. That’s a guy thing, I’m not supposed to be the one doing it.”
“It’s part of the getup.” Ren argued, trying to pretend to remember how to tie a tie not currently on his own neck. “And you forgot to blame your news station too, since they also make you do this.”
“I’m still convinced you hired them to do it.” Race responded, her sarcasm so perfectly delivered that it almost seemed serious. “Alright, kid, the bus will be here any minute. You there?”
“Hhhuuh?” Corey responded, having stared into the blinding blue glow of the screen he was seated in front of, almost collapsing his face into a bowl of cereal repeatedly. “Nuuh, I’m awake, I didn’t fall asleep again…”
“He fell asleep again.” Rook replied, still seated on his pillow.
“Snitch…” Corey grumbled, feeling wearily for his spoon.
“Whoever said that kids only need eight hours of sleep is a sadist. No wonder everyone my age has sleep issues.” Ren sighed, finishing Race’s tie and feeling about for his phone. “Okay, Corey, up and at 'em. We can’t stick around forever waiting for you to crawl out of hibernation.”
“Fine…” Corey practically fell out of his chair, slumping across the room and grabbing a pile of school uniform attire before attempting to slam the restroom door, which softly closed on its own.
“When did Tone leave for his run?” Ren asked as he threw a dress shirt overtop his own.
“About thirty minutes ago.” Race replied. “Why?”
“If Corey takes no more than five minutes to get dressed, I know exactly where to meet him.” Ren smirked. “I’ve timed his runs before. He’s a very consistent fellow, Race - never changes unless he has to.”
—
“So…”
Race abruptly stopped eating, turning after a moment’s pause to glare at her coworker. “Well?”
“…You know…”
Race set her chopsticks down with as visceral a motion as she could manage without it being loud. “For your information, Ayumi, the fact that I was registered at the hospital that night is public information, and you’re not the first person who’s tried to make something more out of it.”
“But you didn’t even answer my question.” Ayumi replied, turning her chair to face Race. “Why were you out there in the first place? I know you’re a film buff, but-”
“Firstly,” Race began, somehow looking even more tired than she normally did. “Don’t believe a single word of what Fumihito tells you, because you and I both know he’d be working janitorial here if he wasn’t the boss’s son in law.”
“I didn’t say that he-”
“It reeks of his low creativity.” She spat, picking up her chopsticks again and trying ineffectively to pick up a cherry tomato with them. “And secondly, I was there to report on the ceremony happening there. Everybody knew that.”
“But the hospital-”
“Happened to have lost some of the files on that night, I know.” Race growled out a sigh, growing increasingly frustrated with the questions asked of her. “All the doctors and first responders on staff that night will tell you the same thing: I showed up with minor bruising from the blast and was discharged after about four hours.”
“But how did you find out it was happening?”
Race managed to hold a dead stare directly through Ayumi’s soul for at least ten seconds before replying. “You don’t phone the office at eleven at night to ask if a hot scoop is hot, you investigate. It’s no wonder you’re still running coffee after five years with that kind of work ethic.” She stabbed the tomato with one chopstick and ripped it off with her teeth.
“Okay people, five minutes 'til we’re live.” Fumihito droned, walking through the building with a stack of paper in his hand. “Honey, you’re up first, wrap up lunch. Ayumi, I need that presser ready for three, okay?”
“Everybody has their secrets, Ayumi.” Race huffed, abandoning the rest of her salad in frustration. “But most of those are awfully boring on the inside.” She stormed off to the restroom, locking the door behind her.
“Eh, you’re too inquisitive Ayumi.” Fumihito mused. “It’s like I told you: she was involved in a secret espionage mission for the government to stop a giant irradiated lizard monster from making landfall. She used something called an oxygen destroyer to make it asphyxiate and die.”
“But that’s just-”
“It’s what they based it off of.” Fumihito grinned, walking away as he looked back at her and immediately running into a partition.
—
“I don’t think you remember I can’t drive, Ren.”
“Huh?” Ren turned with raised eyebrows to Tone. “Oh, you won’t need to drive back, I can handle that.”
Tone glared at him for almost five seconds before Ren broke into a chuckle. “All right, mister receding hairline, what’s so hilarious that you’ve got concocted now? You wouldn’t have forgotten about my inability to drive so conveniently.”
“I’m sorry, I’m the one with the receding hairline?” Ren smiled, combing his fingers through his substantially present silvery hair while looking at the top of Tone’s beanie-covered scalp. The reply of another five second glare convinced Ren to relent. “Okay, okay… I got you a job.”
“Huh. How’d you manage that one?” Tone implied a devious grin, rubbing the chin of his metallic mask. “Decapitated swordfish head on your boss’s bed, maybe? Or did you pay that firebrand Kohaku I’ve heard so much about to key his car? You know, I’ve heard a lot about Kohaku recently, Ren, and-”
“Do you want the job or not.” Ren’s face was flat, but Tone raised his palms and looked away in amusement at the sight of a vein popping out of Ren’s temple.
“Okay, alright, fine. Anything’s better than being cooped up in that awful apartment all day. And, I’m sure that you’ve had to pull a few strings to net me the job, fishing reference by the way.” He made a mock jab with his elbow, earning him another glare. “So it’d be rude of me to not at least give it the time of day.”
“So I’ll try it out. But what is it I’m supposed to do?” Tone leaned towards Ren, a dangerous look in his eyes. “I can’t be seen, y’know, not even by my new employers… What’s that face for? C’mon, would it kill you to tell me?”
—
“I’m gonna kill him.” Tone growled over and over. “I’m gonna kill him. I’m gonna kill him. I am so going to kill him.”
Granted, being a sign spinner meant that physical contact with the sign in his hands was very limited, and the sigh was comparatively light as well. No, it was the massive cartoony fish mascot costume that really made his blood boil, with the added little dance necessary to market the brand serving as the infuriating icing on top of the hate cake.
“Sono kōdineeto, kakkoi!” A driver yelled, barely rolling down the vehicle window enough to yell it out before speeding suddenly into the parking lot.
“Bakugan Gundam to you too… Ugh.” Tone swung the sign around, scratching another tally into the ground. “That’s sixteen people in the last two hours who feel the need to talk about my prison uniform. Thankfully, I can’t understand any of them, or this would be much worse.”
“You look so stupid!!” Another voice jeered, her rather expensive-looking car screeching to a halt in the driveway. “No wonder you took the job, if you were that desperate!”
“Lemme guess,” Tone trudged over as Kohaku rolled down the passenger window and then crawled into the adjacent seat so she could lean both elbows against the door with a mischievous grin. “You’re the one Ren won’t shut up about.”
“Wait, I’m using that.” She reached behind her and grabbed a pad of paper, quickly scribbling down Tone’s last remark. “…shut … up about… okay! So what’s your deal then, anyhow? You look big enough to land just about any job. Definitely one much better than this for a guy as built as you are.”
“Heh.” Tone couldn’t help but look at his wide, muscular shoulders in reply, even though the costume restricted him from actually seeing them. “I like to stay active. Unfortunately good physique and even better looks hardly constitutes for job recommendations these days.”
“You’ve gotta be smothered in there; I can barely hear you.” Kohaku sighed, shaking her head. “I’ve complained about the working conditions here for a long time, but it seriously sounds like you’ve got metal strapped to your face.”
“Uhh,” Tone shifted his weight. “I think it’s just reinforced, is all. Look, you’ve got a line forming behind you, you should probably move along so they can get through.”
“Listen.” She leaned even further out, her stomach almost entirely resting on the window. “I want you to know that Ren is a good kid, okay? He really is. Even though he’s older than me. He’s well-meaning, and doesn’t have an evil bone anywhere in his body. I just want you to know that.”
Before Tone could reply, she promptly crawled back in, hitting her head on the top of the doorframe as she went and growling at it in return. “The line.” Tone chuckled, jabbing a costumed fin at the five or six cars lined up behind her.
“Let’m wait.” She waved at him, sidling back into the driver seat. “What do you think they’ll be doing in there?” With a smirk, she unparked the car, and took off at high speed into the parking lot.
Tone looked back at the line, all of which had quickly filed in behind her, with only one vehicle remaining. It was a minivan, idling quietly, in the otherwise fairly quiet driveway. “You need something, sir? ma’am? Please don’t know how to speak english,” He sighed as he trudged over to the passenger window again. “Look, I’m just the sign guy, I don’t have a map of the parking-”
A silencer was pointed through the open window.
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