CHAPTER TWO,
Partner Assigned

"You must be Hoshino Saori," the man who leaned on the front of his desk on the other side of the room, smiled at her with two files in his hands. Saori hadn't heard much about her superior except the fact he was very easygoing about everything but very serious when it came to Devils. It was probably one of the first genuine smiles she saw this morning.

The sun rays fell down quite easily through the windows as there were no curtains to begin with. There was almost nothing in the room except his desk, and other office-ware, chipped wall paints on the walls and antique furniture. The building itself was already old to begin with. In the room, there was another person along with Saori's superior, but she didn't take her time to examine him yet.

"Yes, sir!" She lowered the upper part of her body and confirmed perhaps a little too excitedly and lowered the upper part of her body as he chuckled lightly in response.

His chuckle was warm, despite his harsh complexion and broad shoulders, his build was huge but not very tall in height. A stitched, long scar was on his face, from his lower left chin up to the bridge of his nose. He introduced himself in a confident tone, "My name is Yamamoto Daisuke. You can call me Captain Yamamoto." He then shifted his glance from her and pointed to the other person with the files in his hands. "This is Uchiyama Yuu. Your partner. You two will be working together on every duty you're assigned to."

Saori turned to her new introduced partner, and was suddenly thrown off with a loud and passionate introduction and a huge bow towards her, his voice booming throughout the room. "Nice to meet you! My name is Uchiyama Yuu! I'm 18 years old! My blood type is A positive! Please take care of me!"

She stuttered her next words out, and watched as he lifted his body back up. Yuu had short black hair matching his wide, passionate black eyes, and so far, Saori could tell his personality was quite eccentric. She didn't know if she really required the other information he gave about him at first but then later thought about maybe knowing his blood type was quite important in case of any emergencies. His hands were in fists up to his chest, he was clearly excited about having work in this field and Saori didn't want to ruin that at all. This was the second genuine smile Saori had witnessed today, so she wanted to keep that up. "Pleased to meet you. My name is Hoshino Saori. My blood type is also A positive."

Yamamoto broke the two's attention immediately once they introduced between each other again, his chin rested on his hands along with his elbows on the surface of his desk as he had taken a seat while the two were hitting off together━━sort of. "Glad you two hit off quickly," a kind yet demanding smile on his face had taken over, a smile that was mischievous, sending a chill down Saori's spine. "You will be patrolling the Chiyoda district. Good luck."

"Hoshino-senpai..."

"You don't need to refer to me as senpai. We only have a few months of difference between us, and we're both new here," Saori replied, giving a glance to Yuu who was looking down, a tint of redness expanded on his face after hearing her response.

"Oh, then, is Hoshino okay?"

"I suppose that's better."

The two were walking amidst the crowd, patrolling the district they were assigned to. Their patrol duties aren't much as they are in the lower level divisions, just keeping an eye out for certain dangers, circulating around neighborhoods, and reporting any sort of appearance of a Devil while helping and assisting citizens to evacuate while the higher divisions are on the way to eliminate the Devil. This is their first patrol, and everything seems calm so far. Saori is quite attentive with her surroundings as well as her new partner who makes sure to check every corner and alley, but she can't help but think of her partner as an energetic puppy who wants to explore and learn everything. Yuu seems a bit more distracted, or perhaps nervous so he's trying to divert his attention somewhere else by trying to create icebreaker conversations━━which Saori doesn't mind for now.

"Where are you from, Hoshino?"

"Hokkaido. You?"

"Osaka."

Saori smiled gently, feeling more comfortable that someone else was also experiencing the same things with her, being new in a huge city and crowd, not just only in their field of work. "Osaka, hm..." She enjoyed these icebreaker conversations. It helped her to get to know her partner more. "I had a guess. I noticed your Kansai dialect earlier."

"Really?!" Yuu exclaimed, covering his mouth his hand. "I'm trying my best here..."

"I think you sound fine," she chuckled lightly, continuing to look around for the patrol. It also helped her get to know the city━━becoming familiar with it, with the streets and the people, she believed she would do her job better, knowing every corner and building. The long, cloistered sidewalks are already new for a countryside girl like her who has never really seen sidewalks in general, and with many tall neutral-toned buildings clumped up together as well as a huge amount of civilians on the streets, loud noises, cars honking, shopkeepers begging for attention to pull people in━━it doesn't look like Saori is going to get used to it anytime soon.

Yuu was walking just a step ahead of her, he seemed to also be amazed at the sight of the city, but also aware of his surroundings, making sure everything is safe and sound. He turned to her again, intertwining his hands together. He seemed like a passionate, cheery, yet a shy boy━━so far, at least. He was nervous talking to her, his words often fumbling together, he couldn't keep his hands in one place as he talked, not that she minded at all━━she actually found it quite adorable. Saori hopes he will relax around her and that the two will get along very well, they do indeed seem like a good partner match up. "Have you heard about the new recruit drinking party tonight?"

"I've overheard about it before the orientation."

Yuu's eyes sparked up instantly, his voice slightly raised in excitement. "Are you coming?"

"Mmm... I haven't really thought about it. I'm not the drinking age yet."

"Oh... There's that... But I figured I could drink juice or cola."

Saori laughed at Yuu's innocence━━it was a nice idea after all. "I'll think about it." 

"Please come if you can! I want to get to know more about you!" Yuu stepped up to her, the glow in his eyes were evident again. "I mean━━! Since we're partners now... We need to know everything about each other, right?" He seemed pretty thrilled about tonight's drinking party, and Saori did feel that he genuinely wanted her to come. Before she could respond to Yuu's question, she was cut off by a voice she hadn't heard in a long time, along with her given name with no honorifics attached to it━━a voice she had been longing to hear once again.

"Saori?"

AUTHOR'S NOTE!⠀⠀⠀hey everyone!!!! so i had quite a struggle writing this chapter hoping it wasn't too boring━━it was just more introductory chapters so i apologize abt that!! 

i was also wondering if me implementing usage of honorifics and terms was appropriate. i feel like they give relationships more depth and respect because as someone who grew up in a middle eastern household respect and terms for your elders are very important 😭😭😭 let me know what u guys think though,,,,,,,,

it's been a very long time since i've been writing full chapters so i hope i'm also doing well in this area,,,,,, thanks for reading!!! muah x