~Chapter 1: The City Life


A sudden jolt forward woke Raven Kashima sometime around noon when her flight back to New York had landed. The wheels of the plane’s landing gear skidded across the black top runway, coming to a slowed halt. They were allowed to leave, but Raven took her time. What was there to hurry to? She had the day off before going back to work, so why rush? Though her eyes were heavy and hazed with sleep deprivation, along with her intoxicating yawn that filled the whole baggage recovery area, she had little trouble getting her two bags (One for clothes, toothbrush, etc. the other was for work equipment she had carried with her) And her carry-on with some mint gum, her black and white skull wallet, some make-up and a hand gun.
Raven rolled the two away with her handbag looped around the handle of her work roller and set off back to her home, well, apartment, down in the ‘slums’ of New York. It was a dirty little street, with muck and grime in every crevice of the streets, garbage littering sidewalks and roads, but it was cheap and affordable. Her actual apartment wasn’t nearly as bad- there was some nice white or grey wallpaper on the walls, yellowish green tiles or brown carpeting on the floors and it came with a stove, so she didn’t mind it. It was more her than what her mother wanted her to buy, which was in a ritzy part of the city, more upstate and clean, but more expensive. Not saying she couldn’t afford it, Raven had one of the best paying jobs the world (Not operating in the US) could offer her, a 21 year old Gothic protegee.
Raven had shiny black hair that went down to about the ends of her shoulder blades, almond shaped eyes the color of a bright yellow amber, and was short and thin in stature. Unnaturally thin, pasty pale skin and shorter than your average Japanese adult, made up this spit fire CIA agent. Her temper is as fiery as her tiny red lips, that remained in a permanent pout. She usually had dark make-up on, dark purple eyeshadow, but it never matched what she wore, which was always black clothing. She didn’t intend on being goth, it’s just the label she’d been put under.
Once back in her apartment, she flopped onto her unmade bed (Didn’t have the time) and pushed her sheets and covers that were still fabric-softener scented, (Didn’t have the time to sleep) off to the side, falling onto the scuffed wooden floor. Raven laid there, her black hair sprawled out wildly over her pillow, for what seemed like hours. This was the first time she’d slept in her bed, for she was stationed in India for the past 9 months (CIA business, classified info. on why she was imported there) and bought the apartment the afternoon that she had to leave, spent an hour unloading the moving truck (Her dad’s old pick-up- she had no car yet) with the little belongings that she had. (Her mother had a fit about her not having a sink in the bathroom. “Disgusting,” She scoffed, turning her pointy-nose up.)
After just drifting back to sleep, she got the itch to go for a walk around central park. Maybe she’d see Joseph, and old colleague of hers who works in the Science Forensics field, who often investigated the corpses Raven would discover on the sides of roads. Though that wasn’t her job (Though, not totally clear on the main subject of what her job was) she usually ended up finding one around, her job mainly tracking down offenders of the law, mobsters, gangs and such to gather information and send it to the President, government, or National Protection agency.
The lot of Raven’s time was consumed tracking down terrorists, gangs, criminals, in a broad term, and that meant a lot of all-nighters. Sleep wasn’t a thing she thought was necessarily needed, mostly because when she was oblivious to the world and sleepy she noticed details she may or may not have overlooked, piecing them together and then tracking them down around 2 or 4 in the morning.
Raven got up, reluctantly, put on another layer of fresh eyeliner (Heavier than it should), mascara and more purple eyeshadow. That was her favorite part, even though she was dressed completely in black (“I can’t help it- black is warm and comfortable.” She once explained) because evidently, her favorite color was purple. Once her make-up was re-applied, fixed, and then messed up a little (The I-don’t-care/not-trying look was ‘in’) and put on some fresh clothes.
Raven put on a black white-bleached spotted ripped t-shirt, a white (One of the white things she wears) camisole under it, black skinny jeans and some velvety black Vans.
She drove until she hit a Starbucks in a nicer part of town, but it still wasn’t ‘big-apple’ worthy. She parked outside by an apartment (nicer than her own, but not nice enough to be ‘ritzy’.) and got out, deciding she’d jog around town, all the way around, and end up back here for a coffee. Raven carefully shut the door on her brand-new black and white Audi, careful not to slam it on the buckle, or even shake it. She spent her money on this car, now like a precious child of hers, that she’s had her eye on for a long time.
She grabbed her purple I-Pod Nano out and blasted some Hard Metal and Rock loud enough for anyone within a five feet radius could hear it. People stared at her as if she were a foreign species of animal that had escaped from a zoo. She shrugged it off, used to that reaction.You usually don’t see a pasty Asian walking through Central park blasting “Cuz I Can” by P!nk.
But what caught her eye was a boy, similar to her but a slightly tanner, much taller masculine version of herself with sleek black hair. But unlike her, he looked as if he was ready for a business man to pop up at any moment, but not dressed too uptight. She shakes off the feeling to confront him and keeps walking, turning up the volume as high as it could go.
Once she got into the ‘city’ portion of it, a couple of feet from her car and the ‘better’ apartment, she spotted the Starbucks. Not to mention the kind man giving her a dollar in her empty mug. She looked at the girl, her piercing green eyes giving fer face a regal appearance, especially her fiery red hair. Raven partially felt the need to drop a quarter from her wallet into her cup, but ignored the feeling. She looked goth. She acted goth. Giving to the homeless would be so out of context, not to mention out of character, and out of the question. What she should probably do was mug the clothes off her back, which would be simple, since the girl was just as thin and feeble as Raven herself looked. But then again, don’t underestimate Raven. So she left the girl be.
But, even as strange as it seemed to her, and probably the homeless girl, she walked up to her and just stared, not knowing what to ask and say.
“Can I help you? or are you here just to pick on some poor homeless lady?” The girl replied to Raven’s blank stare snottily.
Raven shrugged back in return, accepting the invite to jab at her. “I don’t know, really...I just felt the need to walk down here, that’s all,”
“BUT, if you want to fight,” Raven smirked slightly, a cocky, self-satisfied smile she usually wouldn't use. “Be my guest.”
She stood up, much taller than Raven, using her full height a challenging tool. "I don't think so. I'll exercise my proper judgement and just leave you to find some other poor fool." But she said it while holding her ground.
"So, are you homeless, then? And what are you doing out her?" Raven said with unusually sarcastic kindness to her tone, “Shouldn't you be scouring for a cardboard box to live in?" She smirked, looking at the icon on the coffee cup- it was unmistakably Starbucks, a large on at that. "And if you ARE homeless," She pointed to the cup, "How'd you afford that?"
The girl looked at her. "I robbed it off of some poor preppy snob, what's it to you? Besides, aren't you on your way to go buy some more eyeliner or something, Bride-of-Dracula?" Raven was tempted to ask, ‘woke up on the wrong side of the street today?'
Raven kept her cool, not freaking out in public, which was Goth rule #1.
"What's it to you, boxy, and that's nice of you for telling me," She pulled out her wallet/CIA badge. “Raven Yashima, CIA.” She wiped the smile right off her face.
"And we were just informed yesterday of a mugging outside of a soup kitchen," She said smugly.
The smile disappeared for about a millisecond as she took in the situation. She beamed at Raven. "You have no idea what you're getting into, lady" she smirks, and then punches her in the stomach. Force it down- She commanded herself as blood filtered her mouth.
That same boy from the park walked over, not very close, but she could see his shoes, the unmistakably leather shoes he’d been wearing not 15 minutes ago. Raven ignored him, grabbed the girl’s arm as she tried to pull away and grabbed a link of handcuffs, cuffed the girl’s punching hand to her opposite ankle, and then with another one, her ankle/wrists to a light post next to the scene.
“Don’t I?” Raven asked, sarcasm dripping in her voice. “I’ve dealt with plenty more experienced fighters, girlie.” She teased, smirking ever so slightly. She still had the Starbucks mug in her other hand, but then bent her head down, grabbing a badge out of her pocket.
“You ain’t the only one playing cop here, toots,” She said as the boy moved in closer.
Toots? Raven’s face grew pink in a hurry, now the same color as everyone else, but then drained back to her pasty self.
He moves in, pulling the two girls apart. "Woah, woah, break it up girls. Whats going on here?" He speaks with a heavy Boston accent, pushing Raven and The criminal homeless girl apart as they tried to move in to attack again. She pulls tight away from him towards the other girl.
"D***-it, let me go!" she yells her angry finally filling her up. Raven had to give the girl points for being spunky, but also a couple to the boy who she just notice was very handsome.
"Nuhten," Raven said rolling her eyes at the suspect, "Little Red hoodlum here robbed another homeless person yesterday.”
“I am not homeless, and I most certainly am NOT little!" She huffed, "El Vira over here was trying be all flashy and take out her lack of decency on a poor-NOT-EVEN-A-REAL-HOMELESS-PERSON!" She glanced up at the man, flushed in color and looked sullenly away.
"Alright, alight, you," he pointed at the suspect. "Over there. I'll talk to Ms. Dark-n-Gloomy first." He waited for Liz to move out of earshot before he flashed his own FBI badge at Raven. "I saw your little "badge" trick over yonder. I don't know if you're actually CIA or not, but whatever the case, you have no jurisdiction in the states. Don't brawl in the streets or I'll have someone come and pay you a visit." He said in a mater-of-fact tone.
Another girl came over, crashing their little ‘investigation’. She walked over. "What's going on here?" She took out her own badge. Wow, there were no-suited New York cops out because all of them were UNDERCOVER... I see...
The boy nodded at the girl who came came over. "I'll let you take care of her," he said referring to Raven. She grabbed Raven’s bony wrists, as Raven didn’t refuse. Why not, she thought to herself. It’ll save energy.He gestured over to the hog-tied girl. "That one over there hit first, but they both got into it. You need any help here?"

"You think you scare me," Raven laughed smugly. "I'm back on official business, And I got transferred here, back in my 'home' land.” She said to him.
"Well then," She exhaled, "You'll be happy to know that there's no law for impersonating a homeless person," She rolled her eyes, "Though I with there were," She muttered silently, her attention turning to the boy again.
"And are you a cop too then, or you just watch too much CSI?" She poked before coughing out a fair amount of blood and suddenly feeling dizzy, tense and hurt. Blood... it made her shutter just at the scent of it.. which was faint, but still there..irony and salt mixed together...
"I'm cool here." The on-the-side girl turned toward Raven. "You just had to get into it, didn't you?" she hissed.
"What do you mean?" Raven said, starting to feel better, wiping the blood on her black skinny jeans. "First of all, I am the victim here, And I didn't harm a hair on her lying little head." She teased, smirking at the girl.
“It takes two,” The standing-by girl said, raising her arms in defense.
Just then, the criminal girl started to get up. The boy turned back to little-miss-criminal, smoothing out his tie.
"As for you, miss, I don't know what country you grew up in, but here in America we don't punch people in the streets. Why don't you come with me, you clearly need to be talked to,"He scoffed, mumbling to himself, “Harassed by passer-by and abused by truants, and my friends wondered why I preferred analyzing corpses to taking walks in Central.”
The criminal girl didn't wait to take him up on his offer. She ran for it, knowing darn well that they'd chase her and prayed darn hard that she was faster.

"Run ahead of me!" The by-stander who held the her ordered the Raven. Raven jumped to her feet and ran as hard as she could, knowing with her short legs, she’d never catch up.
She shuffled through her bag grabbed her handgun out, aimed and shot the back of the girl's ankle, knowing very well that they were being watched by civilians and that shooting a girl who ran down the street was not abiding the law. Big deal.
The boy turned on her after the girl fell and clutched her ankle in pain. His eyes were wide and angry in a "What the hell was that for?” way.
"Sorry," She said, shrugging. "First instincts,"
The By-standing/partial cop girl caught up to them, gasping heavily. "All I said was to run so I wouldn't lose you as well." She said between gasps for air. "I never said anything about guns." The girl collapsed, her arms wrapped around her chest.
The now bloody ankled girl turned around, trying to get up, but fell back down. Raven caught a glimpse of some shinny porcelain stuck in her hand and shards of it littering the street. people were now staring. A LOT of people.
" She has that porcelain all inside her hands! Now isn't the time, we should get that cleaned up first!" he said, a bit panicked as he tried to clean the blood up without making even more of a scene.
She sighed, "Fine. Whatever." Raven said, bending down, now feeling sorry.
I mean, not for shooting her, she had that coming, but to have her shoot and then have porcelain stuck in her hand? She sighed and grabbed out her mini-medical kit. It had a tweezers handy and she gave the tweezers to the boy. "Here... Aah.. you'd better be the one to do this. I'm... not the best when it comes to blood." Raven shuttered, looking at the gushing blood in her ankle making her week-kneed, she felt like she was going to pass out. She pushed herself a foot away, very squeamish about the whole situation.
The one girl who was gasping for air tried to get up, but then ended up in a fit of gasps and coughs, which were deep and wheezy.
The culprit/bloody ankled-handed girl shutters. "Don't' worry about that. I'm fine. I just need the hospital. Can I get a ride?" she asks, she's totally out of it.
"Yeah- my car is right over there, if you want a ride from the person who shot you," She put on a brave smirk, "Unless you wanted to walk..."
The girl had enough of a brain to form a quick come-back. "Coming from the goth who's not so good with blood," she jabbed.
"What, is this city filled with anaemics? Gothy, go help Officer Tori, would you kindly.” He pointed at the by-stander girl. “She doesn't sound to good. You," he said, pointing to a passerby on the phone who watched with interest. "Stop gawking and call 911. NOW." He turned his attention to the girl's ankle, putting pressure on the wound as he tried to stop the bleeding.
The man on the cellphone who was staring didn’t move as Raven moved closer to Officer Tori.
"Crap," Tori wheezes. "Inhaler." She managed to gasp, Raven got the idea. Her half-brother had asthma too, so she always had a spare inhaler in her car.
“Wait here,” She instructed, running to her car.
"All due respect miss, but shut it." The officer yelled as he tried to restrain her.
The door flew open on the car as she rummaged through the passenger side compartment uin search for the inhaler. Once it was in her grasp, she grabbed it, shu shut the compartment and accidentally slammed the car door and ran back to the girl who was still wheezing.
She rushed back over to the asthmatic girl and tried instructing her. "Now when I count to three, you breathe in, okay? I'll push the button down. we'll do this twice. One two..THREE" She pressed the button and the girl obediently sucked in.
"Again, last time. One two THREE." And again it worked, as the girl started to gasp for air again, just calming herself down. She then dialed 911 as instructed.
The culprit looked up at him and sat still. "Okay...I'm sorry" she whispered to him, still in pain as she plucked out tiny shards of porcelain. For some reason, the girl went went from rouge to goody-goody in seconds. why, Raven had no answer.
Officer Tori’s breathing returned to normal once more. "I left mine at home." She gets up and walks slowly over to where everyone is. "Need help?" she says to the male officer.

"Yeah, hold her ankle, I have to pick those shards out." He stood up to allow Tori room to hold down Liz's ankle. Luke looked up to see a small crowd of people gathered around them. He growled a bit in annoyance, pulling his badge out again. "Nothing to see here, folks, move along! Keep it moving, the EMT is going to need to be able to find us! Go!" He shouted, Raven shooing them away while waiting for the paramedics to pick up.
"Hello?.... Uh, yeah, this is Raven Yashima... I'm a 42 and sunset...my problem? Let's see, There's a girl with a shot ankle with some porcelain stuck in her hand...Mhhmmm... How? uh... questions later, need help now.... There's a guy- No, I don't know who he is- but he's already putting pressure on the wound..." Raven said, answering all the questions. This is exhausting, she thought. I really need a nap after this.
Tori, without flinching did as she was told, her fingers getting stained with blood. "Ready."

"Leong?" the culprit asks, asking the man. Leong... that’s an unusual name. Must be a last name. Raven thought to herself as she hung up.
Officer Leong knelt again, pulling the shards out of the girl's hands. He shook his head and wiped the blood from the girl's hands. "Tssk, yes, that's my name. Stay with my girly, you'll be fine. NYC Hospital sees this kind of thing all the time, you'll be alright, just don't move so much." He glanced up at Tori. "Thanks, you're doing great."
"All the time?" Raven scoffed, "yeah, New York City, The land of The Statue of Liberty, the big apple, oh, and not to mention, the world's best place for a tourist to get shot," She said sarcastically, leaning against a building.
The man looks down at the culprit/victim, as she lolled her head back, her eyes shut. "No, no, no, girly, stay awake! Augh,....." He looked up, trying to hear a siren or find the goth who he sent to call 911. "Where did the other one go?!"
"Um, I have a name, you know. Gothy works fine by me, but I'm still hear," She said, plenty far away from them where the stench of blood wasn't bleaching her nostrils.