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8. The Shield and Song

It was finally the day of the concert. Jessan had called and told me that he and Tomaka were doing well and so far nothing serious had come about but I had a feeling it was only a matter of time before that changed. Officer Tonaka had also gotten his conviction for the guy who killed that man and had sent me a thank you card. I guess he didn't know what else to do, but at least it was a step in the right direction.

Right now, though, I was just getting ready. It was still pretty early in the afternoon but I had called Asumi and asked what time I should be ready and she told me that their bodyguards would be there to pick me up close to 5 o'clock.

I didn't have anything to fancy to wear so I had just put on my simple slacks and a button up shirt. I had ironed and gotten them as nice as I could but while looking in the mirror I still felt like I looked stupid. I honestly wished I could get some better pants or something but from what I'd seen there wasn't a decent place to shop for pants made for people with tails. So that, combined with not knowing what to wear anyway, lead me to wearing this and hoping I didn't embarrass myself or the band members with how I looked. I guess I was just being nervous with all this.

It was still only 3 o'clock but I was really anxious and trying hard to keep my heart from beating out of my chest. I had written a new email to Matt about what I was doing today and been trying to meditate to keep myself calm. Sadly little things like that didn't help much so I just tried to sleep for most of the day. I guess since this was the first real job I'd ever had that I was partially worried about screwing up, while another part of me worried that something bad would happen.

I just couldn't help but run through all sorts of scenarios in my head, it had become a habit of mine to try and see all the possible outcomes from a certain action and the likely actions that one could take in a given response to something. I had just finished my scenario on what to do if someone ran onto the stage to grab one of the band members and had started to think up what to do in case someone tried to stab one of them when my dad came in carrying a bag that smelled like burgers.

"Hey, pup, hungry? I got us some lunch from a fast food place down the road. I know you don't like to eat it but it's light and cheap enough for us to eat today, right?" He unwrapped a burger with cheese and pickles and pushed it towards me and gave me a soda as he started to eat his. I knew my dad wasn't too thrilled with the idea of me doing this, but the money was just too good to pass up. Not to mention that this could become something I'd be good at, something I had been looking for, for years now.

"So... ya nervous?" I looked over at my dad who had a large mouthful of meat in his mouth and was watching some random game show with a bunch of half naked guys tied to some kind of sheet of plastic and running at a high powered fan.

"A little. I'm just afraid something's going to happen tonight that I won't be able to handle and that someone might get hurt because of it." I put down my burger and sighed thinking about all that could go wrong again.

"Well..." My dad looked at me and I looked up at him at what he was about to say.

"You're right. A lot could go wrong tonight, but just try thinking more positively. You'll be less stressed and happier."

I smiled at what my dad said. Sometimes he could really get on my nerves and be annoying and make me want to bite his head off, but times like this when he was serious and trying to be helpful made me realize just how lucky I really did have it. I leaned over and we hugged for a second before I pulled back and smiled.

"Thanks, dad, I love you too." I continued to eat my burger and watch the weird TV shows they had on. After talking with my dad I was a lot more calm and before I knew it our phone rang with the front desk saying there was someone there to pick me up. I straightened myself up a bit and took one last deep breath before I said good bye to my dad and headed down to the lobby.

As I got to the lobby I went to the front desk and was quickly pointed towards the men who had come to collect me. They were wearing fairly professional looking clothes, dressed up and wearing black. I was wearing some more casual clothes that still looked pretty decent. I hadn't brought any fancy clothes with me anyway and I couldn't get any decent pants within 15 miles of here so it had to do.

I walked over to the men and a tall one with short cropped hair and a somewhat athletic build looked up at me before standing.

"Thomson Zeke-san?" He looked at me seriously, he didn't look like he was judging me or even minded I was a fur, more like he was just seeing what I was like. Regardless of his ability to keep to business and not let personal affairs interfere with his job I just nodded my head and bowed to him.

"Yes, my name is, Zeke, it is an honor to be working with you tonight, Mr. ...?" I looked up at him waiting for him to give me his name and he bowed back respectfully.

"My name is Hamada Ryuu, the honor is ours. We look forward to working with you tonight and hope that little will be needed of us. Are you ready to go?"

I nodded and he introduced me to the other three men in the group. They had a few different body types but they all had short hair and dressed in a fairly professional manner. I felt out of place there and in the limo to get the band I guess I showed it more than I meant to.

"Do not to be worrying, Thomson-san, your job is to help guard, Masuo-san, Oshiro-san, and Kuroki-san. How you look and dress is not as important as protecting them from any who try to rush them or harm them. We dress this way because the clothes are not easy to grab and hold onto and can also be used to hide weapons if we have them at the time. This should be an easy assignment though, do not worry to much." He gave me a slight smile and I returned it in kind. That somehow made me feel a lot better and I felt that I could learn something from this guy.

We got to the hotel the band was staying at and got out to escort them into the car. I looked at them surprised as they were wearing pretty simple clothes and didn't look like they were going to be performing at all.

"We will get ready at the concert hall, Zeke-kun. When we are relaxing in our hotel and such we don't wear much make-up or many fancy clothes and thank you once again for honoring us with your presence tonight. I hope you enjoy the concert if nothing else."

I nodded and thanked Ms. Matsuo again as we drove along the busy streets. It took us about half an hour to get to the concert hall but while we were driving Mr. Hamada told us the plan for the night and how we'd go about escorting them to their dressing room and what we'd be doing during and after the concert. I listened to the voice of experience and tried to take in as much as I could. These guys were professionals and I didn't want to slow them down by being caught off guard or anything. I was going to do this and do it right.

We finally got to the concert hall and escorted the band in while working the crowd and trying to keep them back. While we were walking I kept sniffing the air for anything funny, just in case. Luckily for us I didn't smell anything unusual and we were able to get them inside without a problem. It was actually pretty easy. I guess that thing with Ms. Asumi's ex-boyfriend wasn't as common an occurrence as I had thought. In my honest opinion I had thought that popular bands like this one would have a lot of crazy fans out there trying to get a piece of them, possibly literally.

Once in the dressing room Mr. Hamada told us that we had done our job so far and that we could go wait in a small room and play cards for a few hours until we had to take them back to their hotel. He said that I was welcome to come but I said I wanted to watch some of the concert. With the backstage pass I'd gotten to do this I was allowed to watch it and so I went out and stood off to the side of the stage.

I looked out at the sea of people who were waiting to hear Nanairo sing. There had to be thousands of them all yelling and looking excited for the concert to begin. Most were humans but I saw a lot of furs there too. I couldn't believe how many there were. I could never stand to be in front of that many people like they were about to, and I honestly had no idea how they could. I had trouble being in a crowded mall with no one looking at me, but the thought of thousands of people all looking at me waiting for me to perform or something scared the hell out of me.

"It's something else, isn't it, Zeke-kun?" I looked behind me and saw Mr. Oshiro standing behind me holding his guitar and looking out over the crowd.

I nodded, "Yes, sir. I can't imagine getting out there and doing what you do. Just standing here and looking out over the scene is scaring me."

"It takes a special kind of person to do this sort of thing, but really we had practice with small groups of people and as we got more famous the groups and audiences steadily got bigger. Seems like just yesterday we were strumming and playing in a park just strumming a tune for fun and now look at us now, thousands of fans gathered to listen to us. It's awesome, man." He got a big smile on his face as the others gathered around. The concert was about to start and Ms. Matsuo told me to enjoy the concert.

They walked out onto the stage and an uproar went out over the concert finally starting. Ms. Matsuo took the center stage as Mr. Oshiro took a mike next to her and Mr. Keroki sat behind his drums. She cleared her throat and looked out into the crowd waving to them all and welcoming them to the show.

"HELLO! WELCOME EVERYONE TO OUR CONCERT! WE ARE NANAIRO AND I AM ASUMI MATSUO!" A large cheer went out over the crowd which she held up her hands to quiet them down.

"Now as some of you might have heard, earlier this week someone attack me at our CD signing." A lot of people murmered and talked in surprise at this, I hadn't been paying attention to the news but I thought it might have made it to the public eye.

"Ok, ok, settle down everyone..." She smiled and looked around the crowd as she walked around the stage.

"But thankfully, there just happened to be a very special person in that store who was able to figure out that the man who attacked me had a gun and was able to stop him!"

With that a large roar of excitement came from the crowd and I blushed at how she'd praised me for that.

"So for our first song is dedicated to him!" She looked over at me and winked, "Our #1 hit song: Reach Towards the Sky! 1-2-3-4!" With that the music started and they started to play their song. It really wasn't that bad and the beat was pretty catchy. I leaned against a beam as I listened to them play and wagged my tail to the beat.

As we lay upon the ground

We look up towards the starry night

Wondering what lies beyond

That speckled lit up space

We welcome the clouds and the morning light

With the promise of a new day's beginning

To open up new hopes and dreams

To bring us prosperity

Reach towards the sky

Let the waves crash beneath your toes

Reach for the sun

Dance to the music's rhythm

Reach to the stars

Have heaven smile down on you

When the last time we heard you laugh

It brought joy to us all

We took that long trip home

And saw such wonderful sights

The people that played and the birds that sang

We could have stayed all day

Wondering what it might be like

To obtain such awesome lives

Reach towards the sky

Let the waves crash beneath your toes

Reach for the sun

Dance to the music's rhythm

Reach to the stars

Have heaven smile down on you

Let's sing our dreams out loud

And let our voices ring to the future days

When our work shows what we bring

Our days will be so bright

Never stop reaching out

To those dreams you want to hold

Keep those hopes alive in your heart

As you work to make them real

Reach towards the sky

Let the waves crash beneath your toes

Reach for the sun

Dance to the music's rhythm

Reach to the stars

Have heaven smile down on you

Let heaven smile upon you

As you reach towards the sky

As Ms. Matsuo and Mr. Oshiro finished singing the chorus the crowd erupted with cheer and the trio bowed. The song was great and after a few moments they started in on another song. I listened to the concert for awhile, but I eventually got tired of being so near the music and speakers so I went to the room where the others were. They welcomed me into the room but I just sat off to the side and dozed off for awhile.

It was some time later that I woke up and stretched out. I checked my watch and asked how much longer the concert was. Mr. Hamada looked at his own watch and said that it was getting close to getting ready to escort the band back home. The concert would be over soon and then we'd take them back to their hotel and collect our fees for the night. It looked like it was going to be pretty easy job tonight.

We all walked out of the room and got to the stage just as they were bowing and starting to walk offstage. We got to them and escorted them to the dressing room where they got back into some less flashy clothes and relaxed for a moment while some fans came and got autographs but we made sure they didn't get too crazy.

After that we started to walk out of the concert hall. There was a crowd outside waiting for one last chance to get autographs and pictures of the band. They were getting really wild though and I stood next to them as we walked.

Suddenly the barrier that kept the crowd back feel down from behind us and the crowd started to rush at us. This wouldn't have been that big a problem except some other guy from a dark off shoot of the hall we were walking came out of it with a knife branded and rushed at us. I was closest to him though and as he tried to stab Ms. Matsuo I grabbed his arm and twisted it back before kicking the back of his knees and sending him to the ground where I then broke his arm and kicked him away as the rest of the guys started to rush the band towards their shuttle ride back to the hotel.

The band had been shaken up again by the new attempt on their lives and Ms. Matsuo was shaking a bit but her two friends managed to calm her down as we drove along.

"You know that's the second time someone has tried to harm you, Matsuo-san, might I suggest you hire a full time bodyguard for awhile and have a tighter security detail in future events?" Mr. Hamada looked at her from across the seat she was sitting at and I looked at her from a seat to the left of her and said I agreed.

"I will consider it, Mr. Hamada, thank you for all your hard work tonight, as well as you, Zeke-kun. You are a wonderful protector."

I blushed a bit and looked down at my feet before I got out a bit of a reply, "Well my first name is William and it means a valiant protector in some dictionaries, so I guess it makes sense that I grew into my name."

She smiled and nodded to that, "Well I think the title of protector suites you rather well. Thank you once again, Zeke-kun, we are forever indebted to you for all your help."

I blushed a bit again and said it was nothing as we finally got to the hotel and we escorted the three inside. Once there Ms. Matsuo took to her own room and returned later with a check for me made out to the price we had agreed on. I still couldn't believe I had earned 35,000 Yen in one night over doing what was essentially so little.

Really the only real thing I'd done was to help them into the car and to break that one guy's arm. Then again it might be something I could get used to. Being violent and intimidating would be useful and since there weren't many stupid enough to attack a wolf or any type of predator fur most times it wouldn't be so bad working in mainly human cities and trying to make a living out of it.

I thought things over as Mr. Hamada drove me back to my hotel, it was close to 1 am as we drove along.

"You did very well tonight, Thomson-san. You should be proud that you were able to protect Ms. Matsuo and the rest from that attacker."

"But I really didn't do all that much, I just twisted his arm and broke it to make sure he wasn't a threat." I looked over at him and saw him shake his head as he drove along.

"Modesty is fine, but sometimes, young wolf, it is the small acts that matter most." I tilted my head and looked at him curiously wondering what he meant by that.

"Think about it this way: every large action started with a small one. The building of a great city started with the moving of a few logs to make a single house. From one house more people settled and over time and with the progress that came with time that single house lead to the creation of a large city. Just like Tokyo." He smiled at me for a moment at a red light and I gave that thought a moment to sink in before I nodded.

"Sounds a lot like chaos theory the way you said that, sir. You know, how they say a butterfly flapping it's wings in a far away land can set off a storm half way around the world from it?"

"Yes, I have heard about that theory before, and you may call me Ryuu-san if you like, Thomson-san, you have earned that right."

I blinked and looked at him, he wanted me to call him by his first name already and since he seemed like a fairly formal person this caught me off guard a bit.

"Uh, thank you, Ryuu-san, for all of your advice and for the drive back to my hotel, and if you want you can call me Zeke as well."

By this point we had gotten back to my hotel and I was about to get out when he stopped me for a second and reached into his pocket and pulled out a small business card written in romanji instead of the common characters the Japanese language used. I looked at it for a moment and then looked up at him a bit confused as to why he was giving me this.

"If you ever need some work for this sort of thing or are ever in trouble, give me a call on that number. I've had that number for over 10 years and it won't be changing so even if it's years from now just call that number to reach me."

He gave me a smile and I nodded. Knowing a guy like this could be cool. He could help me out if I ever got into any trouble that I could get into here and maybe even score some more work in the future. Before I tried for more work though I thought about it and said I'd call him if I ever needed help but that I would need to train more before I was ready.

"I understand, Zeke-san. Have a nice night now, and be sure to go to the Tokyo First National bank and ask for Ms. Narita Midori, she will help you with that check and getting it transferred to your American bank. Good luck, young wolf, and have a nice night."

I got out of the car and waved as he left before I went inside. It was really late and I was exhausted. I should have taken another nap before I had left but oh well I had all of tomorrow to rest and relax.

When I got into our room my dad was still up watching a movie of some kind and looked up when he heard me enter.

"How'd it go, buddy?" He got up and turned off the tv. I guess he was just waiting for me to go to bed.

"It went ok up until the end, someone tried to attack Ms. Matsuo, though, but I managed to get the knife from him and I may or may not have broken his arm. I got my check and one of the body guards gave me his card and said to call him if I ever needed his help or wanted another job or anything. All in all a good night I guess, they even dedicated their opening song to me."

My dad stretched out and smiled at me, he looked proud with me that I had had such a good night and had earned a bit of money.

"I'm happy for you, buddy, and happy to hear that you are showing more restraint. A year ago you would have made sure you broke his arm but now you were sure, means you're maturing I guess." He gave me a hug and started to head to our bedroom taking off his clothes so he could get some sleep.

"Don't stay up too much longer now, kiddo, you need your rest."

I said I'd be heading to bed soon and not to worry. I went to brush my teeth and I hung up the clothes I was wearing before I put up the check in my wallet and got out my PDA. Tonight had been something I would always remember and as I opened up my email system I wondered what the rest of my stay here would be like. It was the weekend now and my dad didn't have to work so maybe we could go to the bank first and then get some things done. I shook my head though and smiled as I started to email Matt with what had happened tonight.

Dear Matt, You'll never believe what a night I've had...