Snippet #2736665

Chiyo could swear she could hear a soft whistling, like a tea pot set to boil, as she followed after Bunta's broad back. If it were Izaya--she couldn't say. She couldn't bear to make eye contact with the fire bender after he saw all that. Maybe the whole affair was just as embarrassing for him to witness as it was for her to have him see it. But she felt a little better after having let it out...even though she was more horrified for it. She felt tired though. Bone tired. As if suddenly the whole day had caught up to her at once, and she was older for it.

Bunta seemed almost rested after having been attacked and drugged. Maybe he was. He was a tough-as-nails earth bender, even by earth bender standards. Still, Chiyo watched her father keenly, being sure to note any sign of weakness, pain or otherwise unpleasantness. His strength was only rivaled by his stubbornness. The light in the garage clicked on, blinking momentarily and swinging as Bunta passed it. The bandits had done a fine job trashing the place. The floor was littered with various tools, parts, broken tea cups and the remains of what had been their best tea pot. The tea pot, that Chiyo suspected, ruined her life and revealed her as the Avatar due to her carelessness. Good riddance, Chiyo thought bitterly as she step around the pieces. Bunta grunted as he surveyed the mess, but he too stepped around it, focused on the door that led to their "back room" He stepped past the now very shredded green curtain, dropping into a familiar horse stance before bending the hidden door aside with a sharp exhale. What had appeared to be the back wall of the back room, shifted aside, revealing a hole just wide enough for one person at a time to climb down, and a ladder. Bunta beamed at them proudly--always loving this part of his reveal to "special" customers--before squeezing his large frame down the shaft below. Chiyo sighed softly and followed after him, nodding her head at Izaya to follow as she dropped into the darkness below.

Once they reached the bottom (a very short drop) the hall opened up wide into a more cavernous, brightly lit, version of the garage above. It was easy to understand why the bandits hadn't just taken the car and left. They couldn't find it. It was here, in the center of the cavernous room. The lift under it was only usable through bending, and when Bunta wanted to take something into his "workshop" he simply bended it down here through the floor above. The car looked like a new model compared to the dented wreck it had been when it arrived. Bunta had even given it a gloss over with paint, hiding the blemishes on the hood and doors as if they'd never happened. As was her father's forte, the car looked very average still at a glance. It had to. To avoid detection. Bunta waved them over, indicating that Izaya should get in the driver's seat, and plopping his large frame in the passenger side to show the fire bender the new "upgrades". Chiyo leaned against one of the workbenches against the wall, attention elsewhere. She could hear Bunta describing details to Izaya about different switches on the dashboard, how to use them, how they worked and how many uses they each could have before needing to be replaced or recharged. She listened in and out,

"Here's the Police Scanner--can track and warn you about coppers before you run into them! Like this--! And this one here releases more engine power from this booster here..." Bunta boomed proudly. Chiyo felt the cool metal beneath her fingers, memorizing it. Trying to burn this place into her mind. She was leaving. Maybe forever. And Bunta just..gave her up like that...she knew it was just his sense of duty. But she still felt bitter about it.
"And this button here--the blue one--releases oil from the back to slow any pursuit down--maybe more with that bending of yours!" Bunta's booming laugh echoed in the otherwise quiet space, and Chiyo saw him slap Izaya on the back as if urging him to laugh too. Chiyo swallowed dryly, watching her father--memorizing his laughing face. Staring until it was the image behind her eyelids when she blinked. Bunta chatted on amiably, as if nothing had changed or would change. But everything was changing now. Everything. And Chiyo hated it. Chiyo closed her eyes for a moment, savoring the smell of oil, and the earth, and metal...the smell of home...

"Chi! Oy!" Chiyo opened her eyes reluctantly, looking toward Bunta and the car. "Rise'er up, will ya?" Bunta demanded. Chiyo nodded dutifully,moving a little closer to the car before she took her familiar stance. Inhale. Exhale. There was a punching gesture and the Earth beneath the car rose up, and the ceiling seemed to open at the same time. The car went up as requested, and with another exhale, Chiyo closed the ceiling behind them. She stood alone for a moment in that empty cavern, feeling as though the room was echoing her in its silent vacancy. She clicked off the light and went back up into the main part of Scrappers to rejoin Bunta and Izaya. Bunta was talking about prices now..though Chiyo could feel him chopping the work down to far too low. She would be with them now...afterall...she was sure in his eyes this was a gift to her. To help her on this journey she now must face. Chiyo was too tired to argue with him now. She sighed deeply and planted herself on a pile of old tires, rubbing her temples. She sighed again and hugged herself, still staring not at Izaya but anywhere else.

"Just--call it even, Papa. That's what we know you really want to do...and let's go already..." Chiyo said, her voice sounding forlorn even in her own ears. Bunta put on his bulldog face (She assumed, because she was also pointedly avoiding her father's gaze, not just Izaya's) and huffed at her.

"Now, look Miss-missy--don't start!" Bunta scolded her, turning back to Izaya with a smile. "So--the total is 200 yun--if that suits ya."

Chiyo sighed. The job was worth at least 1000, she knew. But once Bunta made up his mind that was all there was to it.