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1. A Prismatic Life to Save

It seemed that the flyer I had seen last night about a music artist signing autographs to promote their new CD was happening today. It seemed the music group was named Nanairo; it was a group with a very beautiful Japanese woman of around 24 as the lead singer and two other guys. I'd never heard of them before but Jessan said that they were pretty good and popular. I liked some Japanese music so I thought I'd check out their CD and see how they were.

"So they're pretty good sounding, but really not my thing, Jess. Did you find the CD that you wanted to get?" I looked at him after I had used one of those demo players to listen to Nanairo's CD that they were endorsing.

"Yeah, they're a pretty upbeat and pop rock band, but I like them ok and the CD is pretty good to me."

"So you gonna get it signed by someone on the band then?"

"Nah... I'd be too nervous to go and do that, plus look at that line. There's like 25 people waiting already."

"Dude, you have got to get a bit braver about people and things." I rummaged through some magazines as I heard people around me talking in Japanese about the band. I spoke Japanese rather well thanks to lessons from my pal Jessan and all but when it was just the two of us talking we normally spoke in English. Most of it was pretty standard talk about how cool the band was, how much they loved their music, how nice they looked, but one thing from the crowd stuck out in my eye.

There was a weird looking man standing in line with a coat on and didn't seem very anxious or excited about meeting a pop star like so many other people were. It was also rather warm today so seeing him wear a coat like that was weird, not to mention the fact he kept his shoulders bunched up and had his hands in his pockets. I didn't know much about body language just yet, but from what I saw and read about his body something seemed to scream to me that something was wrong.

"Hey, Jess... give me your CD and I'll get it signed for ya." Before he could argue or anything I took the CD and started to walk towards the man that was quickly getting close to the female vocalist. I sniffed the air as I got closer and instantly got on alert as I got hold of the scent of a gun that was coming from him. I looked at his face and he looked at the vocalist with scorn and contempt as he got closer. I knew then that this guy was more than likely an ex-boyfriend.

I started to try to think of a way to get him out of here as I stood nearby, but my time had run out when he stepped up and the woman looked up at him with sheer shock on his face. She started to talk to him in a calm voice, she was trying to keep her calm but it was obvious she wasn't happy from the stress I heard in her voice.

"Shiro! What are you doing here? I thought I asked you to leave me alone; I don't want to see you anymore."

"Aww.... But, Asumi-chan, I love you... and I haven't exactly been too happy that you haven't answered any of my mail or returned any of my calls to you. You and I used to get along so well, and I want us to get back together."

Her two co-stars had by now looked over to the man standing before this Asumi woman and looked a bit worried, I guess they didn't know what was going on. Thankfully for them I was standing nearby pretending to look at a manga they had nearby as the Shiro guy got closer to her and started to show a lot more hostility.

"I broke up with you because you're a controlling freak and all those messages you've been sending me I ignored because I don't want to get back together with you and I don't like being threatened for another! Now please leave, Shiro before I call security over to take you out."

"Heh, you think those stupid old fat men can stop me? If you won't come back to me Asumi-chan, then I'll make sure no one else ever has you..."

He reached deeper into his pocket and the moment I saw that it was a gun I screamed out as loud as I could in Japanese "HE'S GOT A GUN!" and before he could raise it up higher than his waist I was on him and holding him down while trying to get the gun out of his hands.

By this point people were screaming that a Fur had gone crazy but the moment some more people saw the gun they started to scream that he did have a gun and that only caused more alarm. I was trying very hard to get the gun away from him but Shiro seemed to be deceptively strong. He pushed me onto my back and I wrestled him around. Thankfully all my training had real world applications for things like this and I was able to quickly get him onto his stomach and twisted his arm back painfully.

"LET GO OF THE GUN, NOW!" I screamed at him as I kept pulling his arm back. I heard cracking noises and I could tell this was causing him a great deal of pain, but I guess he was just that stubborn and pissed because he wouldn't let go.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP, BITCH, I'M GONNA KILL HER AND THEN I'M GONNA KILL YOU!"

Well in that case I guess I had no choice, I kept pulling and he screamed out in pain as I dislocated his shoulder and he finally dropped the gun. I pushed him away and then kicked the gun away before I covered it with a plastic bag that dropped from someone and put it on the table as some of the security guards came over and assessed the situation.

Fat lot of good those guys were, they were D-list guards, the kind that are on a downward slope into retirement or being forced out of work because of age, weight, or lack of ability. No matter how you looked at it, I could tell someone had tried to save money by hiring the bare minimum of what would be needed to cover this type of situation.

"Um...excuse me... Mr. Wolf-san?" I turned my head and saw the woman named Asumi was looking at me a bit afraid as her ex boyfriend laid on the ground crying softly in pain from having his shoulder torn from his socket.

"Yes, ma'am? Are you alright, you didn't get hurt or anything did you?" I looked at her and tried to lower my hackles that had rose from the fight and then perked up my ear as I heard sirens coming this way. I guess someone had called the police, but I still kept that Shiro guy in my sight in case he had another weapon on him.

"Yes, thank you so much for stopping him, that was very brave of you." She gave me a warm smile and bowed her head to me which I returned in kind.

"It's what I do, miss, I smelled that he had a gun on him so I kept close by to see what he'd do, especially after I saw his strange body language and it seemed like he was going to do something out of anger."

"You could tell all that just by looking at him?" She seemed very surprised that I could read a person's behavior. It really wasn't that hard a thing to do if you knew what to look for and kept a sharp eye.

"Yeah, ma'am, it's not that hard to do, and if I may be so bold you might want to get some better security for your public appearances in the future, and if this is any indication you might want to get some better security for your concert later this week too." I nodded to her and started to walk back to Jessan who was standing behind a shelf and looking over at me to see if everything was ok still.

"Wait... excuse me one moment please." I turned and looked at Asumi and watched as she went to talk to her two co-stars for a moment before she came back.

"We would like to thank you for saving my life, and would also, if you'd want to that is-"

"Well what do we have here? I see you're back in town Thomson-san, and already making trouble for the police force too. How long have you been here, young furry?"

I groaned as I turned to face an older police man of around 40 years old. He had neatly trimmed hair and a short moustache under his short nose and was a rather average man of around 170 pounds or so. His name was Shizuma Tanaka and was the police commander of one of the Tokyo police divisions and he didn't particularly like me after what had happened last year and also didn't seem to think to highly of my kind either but I couldn't tell for sure. Either way with him here I could tell trouble for me was eminent.

"Officer Tanaka... How nice of you to come here... I didn't do anything wrong and nothing I have done can be considered illegal this time. So if you excuse me, the man with the gun if over there, he may need medical attention and after that you can take him to jail." I tried to turn away but he just pulled me back and turned me around.

"Now see here, young man, I don't have all the facts together just yet but even if you were supposedly assaulted again I want you to stick around for questioning, because I seriously doubt that someone like you would-"

"Officer?" Tanaka and I both looked over and saw Asumi was standing to the side while some other officers were getting Shiro up and to their squad car after they had cuffed him and collected his gun.

"Officer, this young man saved my life from my ex-boyfriend. He had a gun and knowing him the way I do I am most certain that he had intended to kill me today. If it hadn't been for this young man you most likely would be coming here to arrest a murderer and to collect my body and even possibly those of innocent bystanders. Please do not arrest him, he is a hero today and I would very much like to talk to him more."

Tanaka looked at her and then back at me and then back at her before he slowly let me go and I took a step back.

"Hmm... Very well, miss, but do stay around the both of you," He looked right at me with a slightly annoyed look, "We'll have to take your statements for the report after all."

She agreed to that and walked over to me motioning the two other males to follow her.

"Hello, Thomson-san was it? Again I'd like to thank you for your help, but please let me introduce myself. I am Asumi Matsuo, I am the lead vocalist of the group. To my right," she motioned to a rather tall man with broad shoulders who had his hair spiked up and tipped blue, "Is Suguru Oshiro, he plays the guitar and sings alongside me. And last but certainly not least is our drummer," she looked to her left towards a rather husky man with longer hair that was pulled back with a green headband, "Osamu Kuroki. We are very honored to meet you, and again wish to thank you for saving me from Shiro." They bowed their head politely and I bowed back as Jessan came over and looked at them.

"It is nothing, ma'am, like I said I'm trained to take down people and to detect people with weapons or with malicious intent. And by the way my name is Zeke Thomson, miss Asumi, and this is my friend Jessan Koga. And if you don't mind could you sign his CD and we'll got give our statements and be on our way."

She gave me a soft smile and nodded, "Of course, Zeke-san, and please in light of these events, we would like to ask you to be one of our body guards for our concert this week."

I shook my head and stared at her, she had just offered me a huge job to protect them, and I for the life of me couldn't believe she was actually offering a kid like me, let alone a Fur, a job to protect them.

"I'm sorry... I'm just 17 years old, what makes you want a kid like me to watch you guys? I'm not a 'human' after all and I'm sure you have security that's just as good."

"I'm afraid that while we may have good security, we all feel that you would be better at keeping away any fanatical fans that may try to get backstage. We would very much like to repay your help and I think a good paying job and perhaps a meal or something would suffice? We won't force you of course, but we'd very much like it for you to join us at the concert at the very least."

"Um... I'll think about it...do you have a number I can call you if I decide to take the job? And um... maybe a dinner sometime this week would be nice. I'm from the U.S. so being able to eat at a nice place that I don't normally eat at would be nice I suppose as well. I guess it all depends on how my dad would feel about this."

She nodded and after they signed the CD they gave me their contact information before they went to give their statements to the police, and after I gave mine we were free to go. Though, Officer Tonaka didn't seem to keen on letting me go so easily. I seriously wondered if his dislike of me was personal or professional, but it didn't matter to me any so I left it at that.

After that it was getting close to 2 and we were getting hungry so we made our way back to Jessan's house. As soon as I walked in I took off my shoes, went into his family room, and collapsed on their sofa exhausted from all that had just happened.

"Maaaan whadda day this turned out to be..." I flopped onto my stomach and sighed trying to get comfortable in such a warm home. For some reason Jessan and his family liked to keep it a bit on the warm side in their home. And that brought up another issue in my mind.

"Hey Jes, where's your family at anyway, they go out for the day and leave you behind?"

Jessan came back into the family room with a plate of sandwiches and a couple of sodas and sat them down on the coffee table in front of the sofa.

"They went to visit my brother in Kyoto, he's still studying there and is seeing someone serious lately so they wanted to meet her and see how he's doing. They'll be back in a few days. But eat up and relax I know that all that was a big deal for you. Are you going to take them up on that job? Oh and thanks for getting them to sign my CD for me."

"I have no idea, Jessan, it'd be a great experience for me, and I guess it would help me figure out if it's something I really wanna do with my life, but I'm not sure it'd be a wise idea, not to mention I'm not sure if my dad would let me, and man is he gonna blow his top when I tell him about this." I chuckled and shook my head a bit. That conversation was going to be crazy and likely result in some heated talking.

"I think you should do it in my own opinion. I mean you're a great fighter, really strong, good senses, and it'll be a good experience for you. Don't you want to at least try it to see what it's like and to see if it's something you want to do with your life?"

I thought it over for a second and nodded. To be honest I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, so this job might be the chance to try something new and gain some experience in my life with something. And working security for a band and being personally asked to guard them to boot? That was a major thing that would really stick out on a resume.

"Yeah man, I think I will do this. It'd be a cool thing to write home about and something to do with my life. I have nothing better to do anyway and at least this is a nice way to earn a little bit of cash. What do you think they'd pay, a couple thousand yen an hour?"

"Hey man ya never know, maybe they'll pay more than ten thousand an hour man, I mean this is a high profile thing after all."

I chuckled, "Yeah right man... like they'd pay a guy they just met that much. But hey if I get enough I'll take ya out to get a couple new books."

"Yeah, yeah, well I have more faith I guess in people than you I guess." He chuckled and bit into his sandwich before we looked over to see his phone starting to vibrate.

"New message, man?" I looked over at him as I started to eat my sandwich.

"Nah, a new email, hold on." He looked at the screen on his phone and slowly started to grin. "HE GOT IT RIGHT!"

I jerked a bit and looked at him shocked, "Who got what right? What are you going on about?"

"Tomaka! He figured out my first poem!" He smiled and started to type out some things on his phone again for a few seconds before he chuckled again, "Aaand... Send!"

He put his phone down and smiled. "And the second one is sent, hopefully he'll figure this one out too."

I rolled my eyes at that. Jessan was indeed love sick this time around and I could only hope that it worked out well for him. While that thought was being processed I thought onto my own life and tried to figure out what to do. This job was going to be crazy and it might be a bit too much for me, but I figured that so long as I tried it I wouldn't look back on this moment and have regrets about it. I guess it was in that one moment that I decided I'd take the job and looking at the card Asumi gave me; I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. I dialed the number on it and nodded at Jessan when he gave me a cursory stare saying I was going to do it. After only a few rings someone finally picked up.

"Hello? Miss Asumi? Yeah it's Zeke, the Fur you met today? Well I gave it some thought and... Well I'd like to take you up on the security job, and to the dinner if possible so we can talk about some things, please? Hmm? Tonight? Well I think I can work that, my dad will be back at our hotel around 5, can we meet up down in the lobby around 6? You can? Great, thanks, ma'am, I'll see you tonight then." I gave her the name of the hotel we were staying at and then said goodbye.

With that I closed my phone and sighed. It was done now and tonight I'd learn what I needed to do for this and maybe get a good meal out of it. This was going to be a big new adventure for me and inside I was actually starting to feel excited about it even if I looked calm and stoic on the outside.