Lazy cigarette smoke dissipated into the night sky as Ryotaro Dojima stood outside his local precinct. A wave of nostalgia drifted over him in checking his watch that was a few clicks away from midnight. A few months prior he would be leaving the station with a cranky complaining partner behind him and with worries of if Nanako got a proper dinner ahead of him. But now, there was nothing. The work he did stay over had been more personal work than anything else. That Kurosawa fellow from the central office had poked a dying fire within the older detective. Why did he want to know Adachi’s statements? None of it made sense.
An unceremonious crash resounded from the dump yard across the street caused his eyes to drift up from his watch to squint through the darkness. The full moon above head made it a bit easier to see the eerie display of abandoned television sets. The people of Inaba were paranoid, and Adachi’s public word about the midnight channel caused a panic. Now he had to look at this place every time he came to and from work. But what the hell was that noise? With thoughts of vandalism or rampant wildlife, the older detective made short work to cross the street and peer inwards. He didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. No punk kids, no stray dogs.
Ryoji had this thing with landing in the most uncomfortable places, usually in places that involved a cold, hard, and extremely unforgiving, ground. He supposed it was better than landing in the trashcans some years ago when he was still trying to work out the details with uh, how did those creatures call this kind of travel again? By portals or something… Anyway, Ryoji wasn’t picky with names but sometimes with the strange magic that lurked behind the scenes, he couldn’t really help but forget. Maybe it was because he had better things to remember, or maybe he just couldn’t be bothered altogether. Well, anyway, he was busy rubbing his sore spine when he finally noticed his surroundings. It was dark for one but his cerulean irises adjusted quickly to the midnight air.
He wasn’t suspicious as a whole, looked about as average as the next person, but appearing out of thin air probably did no justice to his entirety. That being said, as long as no one saw him… all should be well, no? Out of what seemed as anxiety, the male shook his head left and right to see if anyone had noticed him and thankfully, none were around – or here’s hoping that no eyes were on him from a bleak corner or something… but anyway, task at hand, it seemed as if he had landed himself in another landmine, hopefully a better one this time. The person he was supposed to have found ages ago was still nowhere in sight which posed a bigger problem than he had expected. Oh well, Minato was bound to show up one day or another.
Supposedly, anyway.
“I wonder if I’ve been here…” The air certainly seemed stuffy, familiar even, so the chances of him being in the correct place seemed more likely than the last world he had travelled to. His train of thought was shattered the minute he heard something clash with the very ground he had fallen onto (nearly breaking his back, mind you). It was a soda can, drifting along with the wind current, the same breeze that was twirling his scarf about like nobody’s business but that wasn’t what he minded most – not when there was an unfamiliar face staring at him. Again, he hoped that the other hadn’t seen anything… It was already embarrassing enough that he had landed flat on his arse like an idiot, but the fact that he had literally ascended from the air around them – yeah, that seemed a little odd, or assuming that this kind of thing wasn’t common around here anyway.
Well, he had nothing else to do but ask for directions and hopefully some helpful suggestions that will possibly lead him in the right path, because the reason he spent almost a year in his previous world was because he couldn’t find his way around the corner he needed to get to. One would think Death had his routes planned out; clearly not. And besides, perhaps speaking would do better than not in case all suspicions had hailed from the man. “Hello, friend!” he piped up with a wave of his hand; the smile on his face contrasted his surroundings but hey, to each their own. “I was wondering if you could help me find my friend! You see, I’ve been separated from him for a reeeeaaaaalllyyy long time and I’d really like to get back to him sometime soon! Will you help me look?”