At the end of a Long Shift

There reached a point in shift where people start counting down the minutes left before they can dash out the door and throw their tie away. It was the time when they began to tell themselves 'just a few more minutes, you can hold out that long. Just a little longer' in order to keep the fantasies of brutally murdering their coworkers and managers at bay. Its where clocks tick loudly to mark down the seconds, but the silence between ticks stretches out far longer than the actual time period appears.
Unfortunately, Himiko had reached that state of mind three hours ago. It had been a long shift with less than wonderful customers - including one group of regulars who were known for being difficult about food so they could get a free meal, giving such paltry amounts for tips they may of well not given it at all and treating the waitresses like dumb cattle while staring at their chests.
On the plus side, her mantra of 'just three more hours' had slowly dwindled to 'just thirty more minutes'. On the downside, she still had thirty more minutes before her shift finished.

Ah well, money was money and she'd certainly had worst shifts. If she wasn't accidentally squeezing glasses so hard they broke when she served drinks, then she could handle it. Not that she did that anymore, of course. Two years had turned her into a pro. And most of the trouble-makers (if not the regular group in the corner) had gone, leaving the restaurant quiet. Chances are that any rush would be just as she was getting off, and then it wasn't her problem, no matter how her coworkers mock-cursed her for it.
That in mind, she passed several orders to the kitchen staff, kicked the rookie waiter back over to his table, and took a brief second to tighten her hair bun and straighten her name badge - it read 'Himitsu'; one of her coworkers had done that a year ago when they'd gotten new badges to go with new uniforms, and she'd never bothered to fix it - and collected the drinks for Table Three. Twenty-eight minutes. She could keep smiling that long.

After a brief encounter with another assassin, Negai sat down near the wall of a building. Away from everyone. The man that attempted to capture him refused to speak to him. And it wasn't because he was badly injured. Waiting seemed to be a waste of time at this point. He was still getting no answers. Like the rest.

He stands up. It was better to leave him there. And safer to be around people. There was a place that served food up ahead. Just a few minutes of a walk. With a sigh, he looks at the man again, then leaves. As he starts walking, he tries to fix himself a bit. To fit in. Anything to look less like a person that would actually hurt someone, and leave that person's body somewhere near a building. That kind of look.

With the little money he had, he could manage to survive with a meal for the day. Though he hadn't eaten for awhile, he could skip a meal, if he didn't have enough money. He wasn't sure what type of people were around there. Whatever the case may be, he was already close to them. There was nothing unusual yet.

Himiko had just put the drinks down and was in the process of assuring the couple their meal would be out soon when she saw the door open out of the corner of her eye. Straightening her back, she glanced around quickly - the rookie was juggling between putting down plates and taking empty glasses, and her other coworker was carefully cleaning on of the tables that had recently been vacated.
Alright, her turn. It was a little unusual for a boy her age to be here on his own though - usually they were looking disgruntled as they were dragged along with their parents, or fiddling nervously with ties as they tried to impress their girlfriends. Ah well, maybe that meant he wouldn't be deliberately difficult or argue with her over wine.

Himiko approached the young man with her usual swift stride; a walk that minimized the imbalance and she didn't realize hinted at fighting experience. She beamed as she greeted him, empty serving platter held low and pointing towards the ground in her hands, "Good evening sir. Were you meeting with anyone, or dining alone tonight?" She asked politely. Already she was considering the best place to sit him; by the window was always a good bet, and with most of the dinner rush over there were plenty of tables to chose from.

Surprisingly to him, she was young. The workers he saw were older. It was nice to have a change. Unless she was the type of person that was nosy about personal matters. He took a brief moment to note every detail inside, including how the workers moved about, their clothes, and expressions. Without realizing there was a long moment of silence, he looks at her.

His cold dead brown eyes stared into her eyes. With no expression on his face, he replies.

" Alone. "

The silence stretched out to uncomfortable lengths. Himiko viciously stomped the urge to fidget into the ground with her heel, and then spat on the corpse for good measure. It was a harder contest than it sounded like, because not only was the boy not answering her question, but he was staring. At her.
Okay, maybe not just at her, that was the self-centeredness of a teenager speaking. He also stared at her other coworkers, busy as they were. And at the customers. And the restaurant's setup in general. But these were lingering, intrusive stares and she was getting the up close and personal version. Her smile disappeared as she stood there, beginning to feel more and more foolish (which was a silly thing to feel, since this was her job and he was the invader).

She was starting to wonder if she'd actually asked a question, or if she just thought she had, when he finally spoke - and actually looked her in the eye for the first time. His expressionless face made his eyes look... older than he was. Much, much older. And Himiko had to blink away the sudden, flitting vision of someone else she'd seen with those eyes; an old friend of her father's, a scarred man who'd come to visit from who-knew-where and go out to drink with her father. It was a lifetime ago, but she could still remember those eyes. Scary, haunting eyes.
He answered long after she'd stopped expecting him too, but it pulled her out of the shocked sense of deja vu. She gave him a smile, though this one was clearly forced, "Certainly sir. If you'd just follow me." She turned smoothly to lead him into the restaurant with the same warrior's stalk she'd approached him with, "Would you like a window seat, sir?" That would be table thirteen, "Or would you prefer something towards the back?" Table four.

Joanne was collecting her shopping articles into a bag. "Thank you and have a nice day!" When she left the store she was holding the bag into her arms. She couldn´t believe that she needed to stay here for at least a week. First she had been very happy to travel to Japan but she thought that she would have something to work on - a job - but ... Again, she was just the pretty companion of her boss and not his guardian. It was depressing since she was a hitmen. If she couldn´t be his guardian then at least a job would have done it. She shook her head. Depressing.

The sound of a horn was jolding her out of her daydreams. She was standing in the middle of the road and some drivers were shouting at her. Not just that she didn´t noticed crossing the street she was confused about their driving on the left. "Gomen nasai!" She couldn´t fully understand them talking to her but an apology would do it. She finally crossed the street and took a deep breath. What a day ... She looked down on herself. Though she was dressed as always, with those bag in her hand, she looked like a housewife and that was pissing her off. When she put down the bag her long blond her fell over her shoulder and , again, she attracted all the attention and that was pissing her off even more. She don´t wanted to stand out just a little!

Joanna looked around and saw a little restaurant in front of her. It looked nice so she decided to have something to drink in it. She picked up the bag and went into the place. The sun has been bright so she squinted when she entered. Nice. Small but nice. She took a look around. A young waitress was serving a client close to her. She thought she did see that shape before. She squinted again. She did. "What are you doing here? I thought I just got off your hands ..."

" A window seat is fine. "

Perfect. Somewhere where he could look out to see if anyone was following him. Staying in the back made him feel trapped. No quick way to escape.

Some of the people that were served seemed to be enjoying their food. Others were either too busy arguing about something, or they were making trouble with the servers. As he kept walking along with the waitress, he stopped instantly when the door opened, only to turn back to notice a familiar figure. After hearing her voice, he immediately recognized her. Since it was a surprise to see her, his expression changed a bit.

"... I should be asking you the same question. Are you stalking me now? "

"Certainly sir, table thirteen is just -" The door opened, and Himiko turned around even as she continued speaking, "Over this way."
She was about to greet the new guest, and inform them someone would seat them shortly, but the woman - a little older, though still too young for her to picture married, with blonde hair and exotic looks that made Himiko automatically jealous - beat her to it, speaking in surprisingly burouse tones to the boy standing beside the waitress.
Himiko blinked, glancing between the two. The boy's back was to her now, so she couldn't see the expression, but his voice had changed. A little surprised, and perhaps not exactly happy to see the other.

Himiko bowed slightly in greeting to the new guest, "Good evening ma'am." She glanced between the two again, before speaking to the boy again, audibly fumbling in conversation for the first time, "Um. Sir, will your friend be joining you for dinner?"

"Looks like it. I´ve got nothing else to do, so I decided to chase after you."

She smiled. That would cheer her up a bit though she was wondering why he was in this city. Joanna turned to the waitress.

"Good evening. There is even an english-speaking waitress ... Very nice."

Not very usual in Japan. When she looked at her she couldn´t tell if she was Japanese or from another country. Black hair, not too long probably, blue or grey eyes. She seemed to be pretty but with a bit effort she could look much better. But she was still very young. Way too young to work as a waitress. In her native country it wouldn´t be possible to work with that age. She looked back at him.

"If you want to we can talk a bit but I need to put down those bag, immediately." She smiled again.

That smile. Something he didn't think he would see again.

He replies to the waitress, " Yeah. "

His tone didn't give off any excitement. She was the only person he had ever gotten close to during his travel. At least she didn't interfere with his current plans. Just a few minutes of talking. And since no man has offered to help, or tried to flirt their way to her by helping...

" Let me help you with those... "

He walks towards her, returning to the expression he had earlier. It was only now that he thought about the waitress. He loved Japanese people. Being half Japanese himself, he had lost touch of the culture that side of his family had.

As he came closer to her, he reached out to carry her bags.

Himiko blushed a little at the compliment, “Thank you very much, ma’am.” Aside from her school teachers, it wasn’t very often people mentioned her linguistic abilities, much less praised her on them. But English hadn’t been that hard to learn – with languages, the major difficulty came with recall; remembering symbols and meanings and what sounds translated to what on paper. A photographic memory took away that difficulty, leaving her to only worry about grammar and pronunciation – being native to Japan, ‘L’s and soft vowels had taken a long time to get right.
Her skills weren’t quite so good at speaking, though, and so the compliment made her more pleased than she let on. These accents, different to her classmates and teachers, meant she took an extra moment to work out what was being said, and some of the words being used weren’t ones she’d heard before. But she understood enough of the conversation to follow, so there wasn’t really a reason to be concerned. She wondered how the two knew each other; their banter was half-way towards that of friends, but not quite. Or perhaps it was a cultural difference.

It didn’t matter, really. Her customers were permitted to their privacy after all. Since the boy seemed to be the one getting the bag – a setup better left as it was – she focused on doing her job. It was her ability to be personable while professional – or maybe her ability to never get an order wrong – that had let her keep waitressing here despite her youth. She offered the same cheerful smile again, reaching out to take another menu from an inconspicuous pile, “Certainly sir, ma’am. This way, please.” She turned to lead them to the other side of the restaurant. Table thirteen sat against the window, a seat either side facing each other. Before, she would have taken the spare place setting away, but since the boy had now found a friend there was no need. Instead she placed a menu neatly beside each plate, and pulled the seat out for the woman. “I am assuming you’d like a little time to go over the menu, but in the meantime would you like to order drinks?”

"Danke ... äh thanks, gracias, arigatou, whatever."

She laughed out. She only couldn´t think of the Italian word though she was living in Italy. But most of the time, no, all the time, she could speak English or German. But since they arrived in Japan she tried to speak Japanes. She was trying. Nothing more.

"Sorry, I wanted to speak German but I assume it´s impossible here."

They followed the waitress to a nice little table where they could watch the people outside. She expected him to choose a table at the window. His personality was meant to have everything in hand. Well, it was probably the times he went through that were setting this off. When the waitress pulled out the seat for her she felt a bit weird. Different country. Different custom.

"Thank you. I would like to have an apple juice with a splash of water, please."

Negai sets the bags down beside her, but not close enough to block her. He couldn't help but notice they were just typical items you'd find in a store. So her visit here wasn't business related. Judging by it, she wasn't given any job during her stay in Japan. Must've been her boss again. He remembered her mentioning him with a blush on her face. About how he's so protective of her.

As he sat down, he looked at the waitress again. This time, he appeared to be less gloomy, yet still had the same feeling before. He looked into her eyes again. Then went on to examine her facial expression. Something about her was different now. Better.

" Water... And thanks for the sincere smile, this time. "

After he answered, he turned his attention to the window. Nothing suspicious yet. The workers were moving accordingly as well.

"Certainly." Himiko didn't bother to write the drinks down. It wasn't like they were hard to remember, after all. Then the second part of the boy's statement registered. The part about her smile. Himiko went red. The blush started somewhere at her neck and rose until it felt like the tips of her ears were steaming, no matter how she tried to suppress it. So he had noticed how he'd made her smile strain to stay in place before; how embarrassing.
She fought to regain her composure, "Its no trouble, sir. I'll be right back with both your drinks." She excused herself with a bow, turning and walking away calmly - even if a part of her wanted to scurry away and hide herself until the embarrassment went away. How strange, usually a customer's comments wouldn't have phased her, no matter how insulting or complimenting they were. Perhaps it was just because she hadn't expected it; her first impression of the boy had been that he was a strange and quiet person, with no extra words for those who weren't his friends already.

There was a bar on the far side of the room, near the entrance to the kitchens, where the waiters made up the drinks. Mineral water was the left-most bar fridge under the counter, juice and milk were in the fridge directly next to it. Making the drinks didn't take very much time at all, but it was long enough for her blush to fade away. She carried both drinks back over to table thirteen on her tray, composure regained, "Here you are sir, ma'am."
No sooner had she put the drinks down than she heard a snarl from the other side of the room. Glancing over proved that the difficult group of regulars - all office workers from nearby who ate dinner together here once a week - arguing with another waitress. She'd bet ten dollars that someone thought their steak was undercooked. Again.
She didn't quite restrain a frustrated sigh, but at least caught that she'd done it, and turned back to her own customers, "I'm sorry about that."

She smiled about him making her blush and she remembered that he managed to make her blush too. She saw him looking out of the window and decided to put him at ease since he looked a bit worried.

"So, what are you doing in Namimori? A special job or just the usual?"

The sudden rumour made her look around again. A group of customers were arguing with another waitress and it seemed that she had some difficulties with it. When the black-haired waitress came back with their drinks she noticed the look on her face. So, it was an everyday-matter. She sighed and stood up.

"Don´t worry. I´ll try to calm them down a bit since it´s just not good manners."

Determined but with a friendly smile on her face she stepped next to the other waitress. A group of 5 men against a girl. How unfair.

"Sorry guys, but could you calm down a little? I´m sure the problem can be handled without ..."

One of the men suddenly stood up so that the waitress got a fright and screamed. Those men. No manners at all. She remembered too late that they couldn´t probably understand her.

When the waitress left, he now turned to the blond. Now he felt a bit at ease.

" The usual. I'm also here to visit my old home... "

About to say 'thank you' to the waitress, he pauses at the interruption. The office workers seemed to be causing trouble. How rude. The matter could've been handled quietly. It was a good thing he wasn't easily annoyed. But that wasn't the case for her.

As she walked over to them, he carefully examined his water. There probably wasn't anything in there to harm him. You could never be too careful. Knowing that she can handle the situation by herself, he pays more attention to the menu.

Speaking to the waitress beside him, he says, " You may have to translate for her... "

The brief moment it took Himiko to translate the woman’s sentence was all it took for her to stand up and start walking away from the table. Himiko’s expression grew alarmed as she turned around, “Ma’am, that’s really not necessary!” Her words apparently went unheard.
The boy's nonchalance was enviable, but there wasn't really a reply to his suggestion that she give; it wasn't a situation that the woman should have even gotten involved in. Any show of irritation was schooled away as quickly as it came, but still she was left with the wish she had been quicker at coming up with retorts - then she might have said to the boy 'I'm not sure how to translate "All conversations are public in her country".'. Instead she settled for, "I'd rather not be seen as encouraging either side."
A moment ago, it hadn't been a concern - a little bit of a nuisance, but not a concern. They were just a few men who thought they were cleverer than they were and believed that their regular patronage allowed them the right to try and trick their way into a free meal. Her coworker could handle that and shut down their attempts - it a little noisier than it had to be, but it was something they could handle.
But now the situation had changed. Now they had a group of slightly drunk office, and one of them had been embarrassment by someone uninvolved confronting him over his poor manners in front of the same people he had to face tomorrow. And slightly-drunkenness and embarrassment lead to possibly violent responses.
Her coworker shrieked, and that was all the warning she needed.

Himiko didn't bother excusing herself from the table. She crossed the room in almost an instant - walk immediately switching from ‘relaxed fighter’ to ‘alert warrior’ – and placed herself between both customers. The slightly drunk man had made a motion to push the blonde woman away, and Himiko swatted his arm away with her serving tray. Her smile had turned frostily polite – as had her voice – and her eyes were harder. She switched back to Japanese to speak, “Sir, we do not tolerate violence in this establishment.”
“Himitsu!” The relief in her coworker’s voice was palatable, even as she turned to address the blonde, also speaking in Japanese, “Ma’am, please return to your table.”

The way the waitress looked at the workers was cold. Way too cold. So, she turned to her.

"Sorry, but you seem to become violent as well. Calm down a bit. I can handle this ... Miss Himitsu."

The slightly drunk man was now grabbing for one of the three girls staying in front of him. With a gentle push she managed to to get them out of the dangerzone. Now, she was the only one left.

"Sorry Mister ..."

No problem at all. Just one movement and he was lying at the floor. She turned around giving them to understand that she was able to repeat that. The one lying on the floor was way too surprised to stand up or say something. One advantage of her look: nearly every men would underestimate her. Smiling she turned back to the waitress.

"Could you please tell them that the show has ended. I don´t want to hear any more complaints and ... sorry for being so rude. If they are still unsatisfied, the bill is on me."

She smiled and went back to her table.

All through, he remained sipping his water and looking over the menu. Although, at one point, he had to look up to see how the waitress handled herself. Quite impressive. She must've had some training to develop that quick response. Interesting.

While his friend came back, his eyes returned to the menu. Under his breath, he muttered, " Show off. "

He smiles a bit.

" I see you haven't changed. Poor guy. "

He liked the fact that she was still the same.

Continuing to drink some water, he glances at the waitress again. Hopefully she wasn't going to be punished for what happened. Deep inside, maybe she was also content with what she did. Dealing with that type of attitude from customers and not doing anything about it can be irritating.

Himiko had resisted the attempts to push her away, but the woman was surprisingly strong and she found herself stumbling to the side. Then, movement, and the standing man had crumbled to the floor in a heap.
Himiko’s coworker had gasped in both awe and fright, and stared up at the woman in frank amazement. Himiko didn’t even do that, finding the fight – what little of it there was – so dull her mind had already wandered off onto a parallel tangent.
“Excessive retaliation counts as aggravated assault – three precedents, two criminal, one civil; Kuwabara vs Miyoshi vs Avra Vita, Modori and Tatsuki, Katsuya group vs Wabakane. Threat of assault. Emotional damage. Possibly damage of reputation. Possibly confrontation with intent of assault. The last two have a precedent in your favor; Katsuya group vs Wabakane again.” In the very worst, but very unlikely case, the result would be a jail sentence. Risks for restaurant… Himiko turned to her coworker, “Get the manager.” She scurried off without complaint. No way in heck was he going to just stay on smoke break this whole incident.
‘Legal-thinking’ had cleared her head like meditation never had.

Himiko merely nodded at the blonde woman as she turned to walk back to her table – as though she didn’t have everyone else in the restaurant staring at her in utter terror. Himiko couldn’t quite understand why – but she was in that particular detached state of mind she really hated right now, anyway.
Still, she made a large enough show of bowing deeply to the office workers, apologizing repeatedly until she saw the manager on duty rushing over from through the kitchen doors. She left the rest to him, instead walking back over to the table where, it seemed, she had started the whole mess in the first place. Look at the blonde, then her younger friend, and paused, “Well, I don’t think I have any pre-planned polite hostess-scripts for this situation, so I’m going to go with familiar defaults; would you like to order now?”
Twenty minutes had never seemed like a longer time.


((Player disclaimer: I am making up all these legal-ese XD ))

"I´ve got very good ears and I did hear what you just said and it´s not true at all. I think you would have done the same if it was only the pretty waitress who needed some help."

She smiled but looked for the waitress actions. There was somehting different in her behaviour than a normal waitress and it also seemed for a moment that her thoughts where somewhere else. But the fact that was really worrying her was the look on her face when she intervened. She was definitely no normal waitress and that was making her feel a bit uneasy. Though she wasn´t on a job she was still a hitmen and she was in charge of protecting her family and that always meant being careful. She had a look over the menu though she wasn´t hungry at all. She wanted to answer staying with her drink only but then she remembered the last week and the talk with her boss. I need to force myself ...

"Ah, I would like to have some dango if possible and another juice, please."

She watched her carefully taking the order. Nothing special. She went back to her normal waitress behaviour. But ... don´t let your guard down. She turned back to him.

"Sorry, you said you wanted to visit your old home ..."

When she mentioned the waitress, he quickly stopped sipping his water, only to make himself cough a bit. Trying not to show any sign of affection to her, he pretends to wipe off water from his lips, which helped to cover his cheeks a bit. In his mind, he convinced himself that he would've done the same for any other person, if he was provoked to. The waitress would've been fine anyway.

" I- "

Just before he could speak any more, the waitress came back. Luckily he returned to his normal composure. But just to be safe, he tried not to look at the waitress again. Something he saw earlier may have changed the way he saw her.

" ... I'll have the noodles, with the side dishes. "

Perfect. He had enough to pay. Now, back to her.

" ... Yeah. I used to live around here when I was younger... so I thought visiting could bring back some memories... "

The boy was looking anywhere but at her. He was, to his credit, being discrete; looking at his menu or in a direction as though distracted by something else. She’d had worse displays of ‘you are the hired help and are not worthy of my sight’, but a moment ago he’d been complimenting her smile. Himiko found herself actually a little curious at the change.
Conversely, The blonde was staring at her as she stated her order. While it was an intense stare like that her companion had used when he’d first walked through the doors – what was with these people are those stares, anyway? – this one was… keener for lack of better term. If the boy’s previous stare had been to confirm something he already knew, then this stare was trying to find something out when she didn’t know what it was. But speaking gave Himiko something to do and focus on, so she shoved her discomfort away.
“Certainly.” Himiko wrote the order down for the kitchen staff, and then bowed to excuse herself, “I’ll return with your meals shortly.”

She delivered a meal to another table before the noodles were ready. But she also spent a little longer in the kitchens than anticipated – the manager cornered her to demand to know what happened, and then the rookie waiter had promised all his tips for the evening if only Himiko didn’t go off shift until the scary lady was gone.
Briefly, as she stacked her serving tray with food and carried it out to the table, she wondered what the woman would say if she knew that everyone else in the restaurant was terrified of her.

"Bring back memories, huh? But, do you really want to remember? I´ve got the feeling that it´s more troublesome than helpful. Correct me if I´m wrong but ... ah, it´s just a feeling."

To avoid looking in his eyes, she looked around again and noticed some guests staring at her, frightened, and when they saw her looking into their direction fastly looking somewhere else. So, it had been too much. Though she just wanted to help. Japan was different than Italy or Germany, she guessed. It would probably be better when she would leave soon. She sighed and turned back to him.

"Seems that I was too rude ... but I can´t help myself. I hate those kinds of unnecessary fights. Arguing about such matters ..."

She sighed again. When the waitress came back she didn´t paid much attention to her. She was just doing her job which was hard sometimes, she could imagine.

" No. They'll be good memories. The Japanese side of my family weren't involved with the mafia... "

He smiled a bit. She still didn't seem comfortable speaking about things that concerned him. It was understandable though.

Aside from that, something else caught her attention. The customers were glancing at her. By the looks of it, they were frightened. They didn't even try to make it less obvious. None of them were bold enough take action. So why were they so afraid of someone that was bold enough to do so?

" Ignore them. You were only doing what you thought was right. And I have no problem with that. "