Sunshine
Atsushi awakens, curled up in fetus form in the corner of the motel bed.
As the morning sun creeps into the room, pooling over Atsushi’s body. Just a sliver of the orange rays reaches his eyelids, and that gets to them almost immediately. His eyelids slowly raise, and when he rest of his consciousness powers on, he feels that his bones are aching. Much akin to a cat, Atsushi uncurls his limbs. Effectively, he stiffens his arms and legs, feeling every joint break open like an abandoned machine wiring up once again in a long time. He sighs and relaxes his body. At last, he brings himself to sit up and scoot off the bed.
He decides to pop open his suitcase for a change of clothes, given that they’re still damp from last night’s obnoxious rain. As he cracks his case open, he’s met with a pleasant little surprise— —Lyney, Lynette and Freminet have all seemed to snuck in little gifts. The deck of cards are obviously from Lyney, Lynette’s given him a whole set of two small tea cups and a mini teapot, while the mini mechanical puzzle must be from Freminet. It would’ve been remiss of Atsushi to think that his siblings wouldn’t give him at least one last surprise; he smiled warmly, almost forgetting how dampened last night left him. He carefully takes his clothes out, trying not to disturb his siblings’ sentiments. After changing, he clasps his suitcase closed very carefully, and rolls it behind him as he heads out.
As Atsushi breezes past the motel’s front doors, he suddenly realized that he’s likely gonna have to get to his apartment through another form of transportation, given that it was almost consumed by what was left of the road before it turned into dirt soup. … That is, of course, until the saint from last night came up to him again. The blond, freckled boy was pushing Atsushi’s car all by himself. Once he had stopped, he smiled almost brighter than last night — not in the way that he’s proud of himself, but rather, that he’s proud to help him out. Atsushi trots up to him, “Thank you so much! I… I wasn’t sure how else I was going to get to the city…” The boy pats his car. “It’s nothing,” the boy gleamed, “I do a whole lot more at work! Oh, speaking of which, I have to clock in, in a few…” He turns to bolt, but turns back to Atsushi real quick, “See ya later!” Atsushi watches him as the kind boy scuttles down the street. He’s left with a warm feeling in his chest, getting a little more motivated for his journ— mission.
Atsushi revs up his car once more, and slowly drives out of the mini lot. The grass is definitely wet, but the road looks like someone molded the mud back into the form of a road again. The weretiger frets no more, the more he drove into Yokohama’s city. He gets an eyeful of everything around him once he’s in town; due to the recent outbreak, there’s a little less people willingly roaming around in broad daylight, but nobody seems to be in any particular danger. As part of the Fatui, danger should only concern the agent as long as it affects them and their goal… though for as gentle of a soul as he is, Atsushi wasn’t above clearing the safest path. That aside, Atsushi makes it to the apartment his Father also purchased. He parks his car, and steps out. It’s a two-story building, and nobody except for a school girl looking out on the railing on the second floor seems to be out today. He takes his suitcase out from the passenger seat, and takes it up with him. Father bought him an apartment that was on the second floor. He carries his suitcase up the stairs, and rolls it behind him again once he gets to the front door of it. He’s closer to the school girl, who was now subtly eyeing him, as he takes the key he tucked into his pocket for this occasion. Whether it’s relevant or not, he focuses on entering his apartment. He closes the door behind him, and takes a look around. It’s a basic, one-bedroom apartment where you walk into the kitchen when you first enter. Stove on the left, and sink with a window on the right. Further exploring his indefinite home, he reaches a sliding door that leads to a wider room; it has bigger windows, and one futon bed in the middle. Atsushi parks his suitcase near the futon, and sits criss-crossed on it. He sighs, relaxing for probably the second time for today. He wasn’t taught to lower his guard, but even with just the bare minimum for an apartment, he feels pretty content. — The school girl travels down the flight of stairs, and towards her own apartment.
“... Big brother~!” she yodeled, after she calculatively closed the front door. A redheaded, presumably older boy innocently perked his head around the corner. “How are the flowers Kenji sent us?” He asked as he approached her. She scuttled behind him and threw her arms around his neck, nuzzling the nape of his neck. “They’re just beginning to bloom!” she squealed. The boy nervously giggled, turning back around. The girl’s hanging off him almost lazily, looking up at him coyly. “We just texted earlier,” he boops her nose, “he’s bringing vegetables in for us to take home today…” The girl grins, her cat eyes sparkling. She giggles, straightening herself, hugging and nuzzling him tighter in excitement. The boy awkwardly hugs back, not necessarily disliking her affection, but rather, just unsure of how to react to it.
Though what saves his embarrassment is a sudden knock on the door. The girl flies off of him just like that, and opens the front door to meet another friend. “Haruno!” she beams, and tosses her arms around someone’s shoulders yet again. Haruno almost stumbles back, but doesn’t falter in her positive mood. “Noami!” she reciprocated, “are you and Jun’Ichiro ready to go?”
Jun’Ichiro ties his red zip-up hoodie around his waist, keys in hand. After Naomi nodded to confirm, Haruno led the two downstairs to her car in the small lot. In the backseat, Naomi sighs aloud. “I don’t get why we still have to go when we haven’t been doing anything at all for the past few months,” she pouted. Jun’Ichiro looked at her from the car mirror, as he’s in the passenger seat, “do remember that we’ve had our reputation tainted.”
Haruno remains silent for the entire ride to the Agency; as do the Tanizakis, but the solemn tension isn’t subtle. —
Atsushi, laptop in his lap, and documents about his assignment on the futon to his right near his thigh, skims through articles published about the Armed Detective Agency. The majority of them are opinion pieces, especially the ones published after a member sparked controversy within the public’s opinion suggesting that they should really think if a group of detectives, that’s saved the entire city more than once, would end up switching sides, but what he infers is that generally, the reputation of the Agency has been critically tainted. Atsushi thinks back to his Father’s claims on Fyodor Dostoevsky, and how it was estimated that he was the one who orchestrated the circumstances this way. Pondering about whether applying would be difficult at first glance shifts to pondering how he should reach out — it’s probably harder for the agency to earn the help, if anything.
Atsushi stands up, stretching his limbs, and walks over to the stove to turn it off. He takes Lynette’s gifted teapot off of it, placing it next to the counter, and takes a single tea cup out of its box; the cup is decorated with cat features, like stripes, and little ears at the top. Its handle is a cat tail, also. He places a basic green tea bag in the tea cup, and pours the hot water in. Leaving his tea to steep on the counter for a few more minutes, he returned to his futon. He closes the article tab, and decides to at least try and reach out to the agency. That would require him to keep researching to find any emails, but he reminds himself that it’s all worth the effort. For his Father’s boss, basically.