Takemura Itsuki

It was quite early in the morning, as if the sun had just come out. The sky was still half-black, with white blur everywhere. The white dusted bricked street in between the footpaths and the cafés was empty and silent. There were dark white clouds dominating the sky. The door on the left corner of the entrance of The Bar opened. Yumiko walked out with her half-opened eyes, yawning as she covered her mouth with her left hand and pushed open the door with her right. She then opened her eyes, moved her left hand down, and looked a little down towards the small opening at her knee’s height at the door used as a letterbox with a bundle of newspapers stuck in it. She corrected her yellow night suit by her chest and started walking towards it. She wore a thin cotton yellow pair of pajamas beneath her buttoned t-shirt. She bent a little, pulled the newspapers, turned left, threw them on the table beside her across the chair between, and then she turned to her left at the shelf, and started walking towards it.

As Yumiko stood in front of the shelf in her casuals, her hair tied up in a bun, she firstly extended her right hand to her right at a jar, moved it in front of her, covered its golden lid with her left hand, and tried to twist it for a second. It suddenly twisted with a jerk, and then she was softly able to twist it open. She moved the lid up in her left hand, took out the coffee beans, and then moved the lid up again, twisting it the other way as she tried to close it again.

The newspaper was kept on top of the dark wooden table filled with cracks and unmaintained dark spots in the middle of a chilly morning. The street on the right of the newspaper and the table top was empty, but after a minute, a horse with a hack was moving through it, driven by a man in white rags. The sky was added with a little more sunshine as the time passed. With the cup’s handle grasped in the first two fingers of her closed fist of slender fingers and her left hand on the other side of the cup, she seated herself at the chair in front of the table, kept the cup on her right with her eyes fixed at the newspaper, and then took up the newspaper, opening it from both her hands.

The first heading on the page, written in bold and capital letters, was ‘Today comes The Ranking’s Registration Exam’.

“Oh yeah, today’s Itsuki’s exam.”

Her eyes then fell on a small article enclosed in a thin bordered box which had the title, ‘The Famous Royal Detective Miura Asahi Found Dead’.

***

Isekai’d                                          

Written by Dhruv Pabreja

***

The clock which was showing the time six in the morning with the faint sunlight all around it, now showed nine-thirty as it was covered with sunshine to its fullest. The wood on all of its sides was shining too. The entrance of the restaurant was opened, and in front of it stood Kurayami and me. His back was facing the entrance, and my back facing the road, and both of our eyes fixed on each other. He looked at me with a motivated smile and a shiny gaze as I looked at him with my uninterested eyes and neutral smile.

“Takemura-kun.”

“Yeah?” I replied uninterestedly.

He then started his motivational speech, “Today is a big day for you, Takemura-kun. Today, you’re gonna start a new chapter of your life, one which is gonna show you where you stand and how much you still need to walk. Today—”

“Okay, Yamazaki-san. Imma remember that shit, man. I’m already getting late, so I guess I should just le—”

“No, my dear friend. I don’t see that excitement, that zeal in your eyes which I should have seen, which I’ve expected from you. I have to make sure tha—”

“Okay bye.” I turned to the right, and started to walk away.

Kurayami turned his head right as he continued to speak in the middle of the walking crowd, “And make sure you kick some asses, yeah, kiddo? You see, it’s tough, but you’re gonna get what you want in the end. Just don’t give up on it, okay?”

“Yeah yeah,” I replied, not looking back.

Kurayami kept looking at my back which was covered with a black leather bag hanging on my back. I wore complete black clothes with a black pair of boots, pants, on top of a black colored shirt. Both of my hands were inside the pockets. As Kurayami looked at me worriedly with a smile on his face, Yumiko walked out in her black clothes and white apron, turning her head to her left at me walking in the middle of the pavement. “Don’t worry, he’s gonna make it.”

“Still, I too have some duties as his master,” Kurayami replied as he crossed both his arms in front of his chest casually, his gaze fixed on me walking away.

Yumiko turned her head to her back. “Pfft!” She turned back and walked in.

Kurayami continued to watch her as she walked in. With a smile on his face, he turned back and shouted at her, “What was that supposed to mean?!”