When Tanoshii finally came out of the Lieutenant's office, he had the same laser Destiny had and a satisfied look on his face. "There" he said, "It took me a while, but I'm up to date now"
"That's great! Let's go!" Destiny said, grabbing his wrist and pulling him out the door behind her.
"Hang on a minute!" Tanoshii said, dragging his heels.
Destiny stopped, whirling around, "What now?!"
"You think we can just head out and do whatever we want?" he asked. Not waiting for an answer, he continued, "We have to know where we're going, and what to look for" he answered.
"So, what're we looking for?" Destiny asked.
"I dunno. We'd better check" he said, walking back inside.
Destiny stood there for a moment, watching the door swing closed, before she slapped her forehead. She ran up to the door, flinging it open. 'You are so dense, Yamato!" she yelled, shaking her fist at him.
"I can't help it! It's the way I am!" he called over his shoulder, smirking.
Destiny growled, "You'd better hurry up"
Destiny sat on the sidewalk, wondering exactly why it was that Tanoshii was taking so long. In reality it had only been about five minutes, but she was impatient. Tanoshii finally walked out the door and she jumped up, cornering him. "So...?!" she asked.
"So what?" he asked, a little confused.
"So what are we doing? Where are we going? What are we looking for?" she asked, shaking him by the collar.
"Oh, that. Eh, anything suspicious. Basic procedure; question anything suspicious that doesn't look human. After all, we're dealing with people or whatever from other planets" he explained, shrugging.
Destiny smirked, "So, sir...where are you from? Can I see some ID?" she asked, flipping her badge at him.
"Very funny. Let's go" he said, dragging her away.
"Got anything?" Tanoshii asked, as the pair walked down the crowded streets.
"Nope. Nothing suspicious here" Destiny said, "but why would there be? If anything, the aliens are in the back streets, alleys, any unused buildings, stuff like that" she added.
"Good point. Let's go there" Tanoshii said, turning off the sidewalk into the nearest dark alley.
Destiny stopped at the entrance, staring into the darkness. "B-but...what if it's dangerous?" she asked, shivering.
Tanoshii turned on his heel and frowned at her, "What did you expect when you enrolled in the police acadamy?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.
She rolled her eyes, and followed him. "This is so creepy" she whispered, following closely behind Tanoshii. She wasn't a dark alley kind of person. In fact, she was scared of almost anything that was dark. And alley. That's exactly why she enrolled in the police acadamy. To be protected at all times, revered, and most likely kept behind a desk. Just as Tanoshii was questioning some suspicious looking personel, Destiny's phone rang. She flipped it open, answering it.
"Migoto! What are you doing?! You were supposed to be here half an hour ago we've got a couple leads!" The shrill voice of Dr. Meika Yokorobi from forensics emminated from the tiny speaker.
"I'm sorry! We're just running a little behind...we got side-tracked. Anyhow, we'll be there as soon as we can! I promise!" Destiny said apolegetically.
"Don't make promises you can't keep, Migoto" Meika said, hanging up.
Destiny snapped her phone shut, biting her lower lip.
"What was that about?" Tanoshii asked, walking over to her.
"Meika says we have to go. They've got some info that we need to check out" Destiny explained.
"She's at that bombing site from last night, right? Well, let's go then!" Tanoshii said, starting off in the direction of the crash site, where the entire forensics team was working on recovering evidence.
Destiny frowned, digging her boots into the crumbling pavement for traction. "We need to be faster than that!" she said, springing into action.
Before he'd even realized what she was doing, Tanoshii was far behind Destiny, left in her dust and staring. "Wait for me!" he called, starting to feel like the inadequate one.
Destiny slammed into a wall to stop herself. "Ouch..." she moaned, falling backwards heavily.
"Ah, Migoto! You're here!" Meika said, appearing above her head and offering a hand.
Destiny took her hand, pulling herself up. "Yeah, I'm here. Tanoshii should be here any minute now...but I'm faster than he is. So...what's up?" she asked, catching her breath.
"There was a major explosion when the invaders crashed into the building. Of course they did it on purpose. The resulting fire virtually destroyed any evidence, but we are finding some..." Meika explained, looking around.
"Oh...' Destiny said shortly, any signs of emotion slipping off her face. "Please tell me this wasn't an appartment complex" she said.
"No. Just an office building. And nobody was there at the time" Meika said, walking back to her team.
Destiny stared up at the charred remains of the building, eventually hearing the sounds of footsteps from behind her. She turned to see her out-of-breath partner.
"How can you run that fast?!" Tanoshii asked exhaustedly, collapsing on the ground.
"I don't know...I've always been able to do that" Destiny said, shrugging.
"Another fire?" he asked, pulling himself up.
"Yeah..." she sighed.
"What's wrong? You seem depressed" Tanoshii said, referring to the tone of voice she had used.
"It's nothing...it's just that...m-my parents..." she stammered, her eyes welling up.
"What about your parents? You can tell me" he said, putting his arm around her shoulders.
"My...my parents died in..." she tried to say, but couldn't.
"Oh. It was a fire, wasn't it?" he asked softly.
"Not just any fire. THE fire. The first of the bombings in Tokyo. It was awful" Destiny finally explained.
"It must've been. I'm so sorry" Tanoshii said, hugging her.
"It was so long ago but places like this...bring up so many bad memories! I saw my father die! You have no idea what that's like!" Destiny wailed, sobbing into his shoulder.
After getting over her sadness and bad memories, Destiny wandered through the site. Already, the crews had cleaned up a lot of the mess, but most of the time they left a lot behind. She came to the section of the building where the ship crashed, and stared through the large hole in the wall. It was the most blackened part of the building, as it was the hardest hit. "Hmm..." she muttered, raising her eyebrows.
"What?" Tanoshii asked, walking over and standing next to her.
"I dunno. Find anything?" she asked.
"Nope. I think we're going to have to give up. There isn't a whole lot of anything here" he said, rolling his eyes.
"Damn! I wanted to find something interesting here!" she said, snapping her fingers.
Tanoshii smirked, "We can't all be heroes, Destiny. Time to face that fact"
Destiny ignored him, walking from the hole to the opposite wall, tracing the path that the ship made crashing into the building. "Nothing yet" she muttered under her breath.
"Come on! Let's get back to Meika and check out what she found!" Tanoshii said annoyedly, following Destiny.
She placed her palm against the wall, running her fingers lightly over it.
"What are you looking for?" Tanoshii asked, jumping over a falled support beam to reach her.
"Nothing in particular. It's just..." she said, trailing off as her eyes widened.
"What is it? Did you find something interesting?" he asked, coming up behind her. He tilted his head sideways, looking strangely at the symbols on the wall. "What's that?"
"I think I know. Where's the camera?" she asked, grinning.
Destiny and Tanoshii went back to Meika, who translated the symbols. "It's backwards, but I can still read it" Meika said, writing down every letter of the message.
"So...what does it say?" Tanoshii asked curiously.
"It says Abunai" both Destiny and Meika said unanimously.
"Abunai? Why does it say that? What's it supposed to represent?" Tanoshii asked.
"I'm not sure. But maybe Yasashimi knows" Meika said, handing Destiny both the picture and the translated paper.
"Okay, we'll go ask him. You stay and work on this, Meika" Destiny said, sticking the paper in her pocket and rushing down the street.
Tanoshii rolled his eyes, before following her at a slightly slower pace.
"Abunai? What's that supposed to mean?" Lieutenant Yasashimi asked, staring at the papers Destiny handed him.
"I'm not sure, Sir. But I do know one thing; whatever Abunai is, it has to do with the bombings. I know, because my father mentioned it right before he died" Destiny explained.
"That certainly is strange. But, is it going to lead us anywhere?" he asked, looking up at her.
"I'm not sure on that either. But I bet if we looked it up online, we'd find something interesting" she said.
"I bet if I looked it up online I'd find something interesting. I bet you have a lot of work to do!" Yasashimi said, pushing her out of his office and slamming the door in front of her.
She stuck out her tongue at the door, and turned to her desk, which was covered in more paperwork. "Stupid...war...with it's stupid...bombs..." she muttered, frowning at it, "I'm not doing this" she added, walking away.
Eventually, Destiny found herself in the forensics lab, talking to Meika again. "So, what do you think Abunai is?" she asked, looking over the scattered pieces of the invading ship.
"I have no idea. Have you got any ideas?" Meika asked, pulling off her rubber gloves.
"All I know is that it has something to do with the bombings and invasions" Destiny said, shrugging.
"Well, that's interesting. Going to look any of it up?" Meika asked, walking out of the room, closely followed by Destiny.
"Of course I am! I couldn't leave this alone if...if you threw it into a black hole! i'd go after it" Destiny said, nodding.
"Yes, I know you would. You're just that kind of person. As for now, though, don't you have some work to be doing?" Meika asked, looking over her shoulder at Destiny and smirking.
"Why does everyone know about this?!" Destiny asked, rolling her eyes and walking away from the forensics lab.
Meika giggled, and sighed. "Ah, this one's a keeper" she said.
Destiny got back to her desk moments later, sat down, and realized there was nothing on her desk, save the pictures she had plastered all over it. "What the...?" she said confusedly, raising her eyebrows.
Tanoshii walked past her desk, and smiled, "Yeah, we all thought you could use a break. Since you were so depressed when we got back, I didn't think you could get it done anyhow. So while you were gone I started working on it, for something to do, and before I knew it everyone helped" he explained.
"You didn't tell them why I was depressed, did you?" she asked, looking up at him.
"No, I didn't. You didn't give me permission and I didn't want to disrespect you" he said, still smiling.
"Aww, thank you! I guess I don't have to do any more work today!" she said airily, standing up and hugging him.
He blushed, and sighed. "Better get back to work now. See you later Des" he said, pulling her off of him and walking away.
She watched him go and sat down, smiling stupidly. "I have a pet name" she muttered, absent-mindedly doodling on a blank piece of paper.
Later that night, Destiny decided to get some work done. She sat in front of her computer, having hacked into the TPD search engine. "Okay, search 'Abunai' " she said, typing it in.
Instantly, she recieved thousands of pages of information on Abunai. "All of this is useless!" she said annoyedly, the only information truely useless. She flicked around a couple of sites, finally finding something interesting.
"Abunai, leader of the invaders to Earth and other planets, has sworn avengance on our planet" she read aloud, frowning slightly. "Why, though? It doesn't say why" she thought, flicking off the computer.
Just about to leave the room, Destiny turned back around when the phone rang. "Hello!" she answered it cheerfully.
"Hi Destiny" Tanoshii said, not quite as cheerfully.
"So what's up?" she asked, sitting back down.
"I heard your birthday is coming up. Doing anything?" he asked casually.
"Probably not. Why do you ask?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.
"Oh, just thinking I might take you somewhere" he said airily.
"Really? That is so sweet!" she giggled, blushing. The truth was, she had really liked Tanoshii since she joined the force. He had always been so nice to her, and never once was impatient because she was new. They had gotten to know each other quite well, but had never gone out.
"So, are you going to let me?" he asked.
"Oh, right! Of course!" she said, having spaced out for a minute.
*
The next morning at work, Lieutenant Yasashimi told Destiny to print off all the information she could find on Abunai. A tiring process, taking up half the day.
Destiny sat at the computer, staring blankly at the glowing screen. A tap on her shoulder startled her, and she whipped around to see Tanoshii standing there. "Oh, you scared me!" she said, her eyes still wide in shock.
"I'm sorry!" he said, looking slightly embarrassed.
"It's okay. so, what are you doing here?" she asked, pulling several pages out of the printer.
"Just here to tell you that I got you a present" he said, grinning cutely.
"Ooh, what is it?!" she asked, clicking onto the next page of information.
"If I told you, then it wouldn't be a surprise" he said smugly.
She smiled suspiciously at him, "You really think I'm going to give up that easily?" she asked, "I thought you knew me better than that"
"No, I'd never expect that from you" he said.
"Gimme a hint then!" she said, flicking him.
"It's gold" he said.
"Argh! I mean; a useful hint!" she said annoyedly, rolling her eyes.
"Alright then. It's round" he said, smirking. He knew fully that all of his hints wouldn't connect in her mind.
"Oh, so useful! I can figure out what it is with THAT information!" she said, clicking the print button.
"Yup, I know!" he smiled.
She raised her eyebrows, and straightened the papers she had pulled out of the printer. "Well, this is pointless"
"At least we're getting paid to do it" he said.
"Paid to do what? you're not doing anything?" she said, smirking and stapling her papers together.
"Oh, good point. Here, I'll help you with this" he said, sitting down next to her.
"No need, Tanoshii!" she said, smiling.
"Why not? I want to help!" he said.
"Because what I just printed was the last of it, I guess" she said, sticking all of her papers into a folder. "HEY! YASASHIMI!" she yelled across the office.
"WHAT?!" The Lieutenant yelled back, looking out of his office.
"I'm done" she said sweetly, smiling innocently.
Yasashimi just sighed, walking over and taking the folder from her, "you're weird" he muttered.
"I know!" she said happily, still smiling.
