Ishimaru Katsumi walked into the newly refurbished restaurant. It had a nice, old oak smell, with plenty of tables and booths, as well as a full bar section and backdoor kitchen. This'll do, he thought to himself.
Three weeks later, he had a small staff hired and a small but regular following, mostly off duty police officers and dockworkers. This was mainly due to the building's placement near the Ryodo no Keisatsu Sabisu headquarters and the Samura spaceport just a few blocks away.
It was late in Minatochō, about 8 P.M., when his brother, Junsa-bucho Nakajima Katsumi, walked in.
"Konbanwa, brother. How goes the business?"
Ishimaru puts down a glass that he is polishing with a towel and picks up another beginning to wipe the insides of it.
"It is going well, Naki..and I trust everything goes well in the Keisatsu?
Nakajima pulls a stool under him and sits down in front of the bar.
"Yes, of course...I told some of my colleagues about this place. I think they could use the rest.
"Ah, good to hear. Did you want anything to drink?"
"A glass of Sake, if you would."
"Coming right up, brother.
Ishimaru takes a glass and fills it up from a bottle of Sake, and then hands it to Nakajima.
Akiko slipped through the door, glancing around the wide open main room and it's pseudo-traditional appearance as she scanned around looking for Nakajima. After a few long, awkward moments, she finally spotted him and made a bee-line for his seat at the bar, slinking down next to him and putting her hands out on the table, looking around with a bit of a grin before finally turning to Nakajima with a friendly nod.
"Ahh...saikin dō? So this is the place Mnh? It's kind of quaint...somehow I expected a nightclub from you or something." She mused playfully before taking note of the bottle of Sake sitting just on the other side of the bar. "Hm...hey, you should probably leave that out...some others from the squad are gonna drop by you know?" She gave her best "persuasive smile" toward Ishimaru standing behind the bar before turning around on her stool to face the door.
Ishimaru nodded, responding "Any friend of Nakajima's is a friend of mine.", before taking the bottle of Sake and placing it on the bar countertop, along with a stack of glasses.
Nakajima turned his stool around and looked at Akiko. "Hah, do I really look like a nightclub person to you?" Nakajima grabbed his glass and took a large gulp before placing it back down.
Akiko shrugged in reply to Nakajima, her focus still on the door. "Oh...I'm not complaining, clubs are too...busy, for me anyway. I was only teasing."
She stretched a bit on her stool, cracking her back with a soft sigh of relief.
"Besides, it's good to have my feet on the ground again, I've been on Akita for -weeks-"
She nodded, offering a slight smile to Nakajima.
"and anyway, the place is nice.."
Following shortly after is Tomo, already taking a swig from some small gourd he hides in his vest, scoffing at the doorman as he walks straight past him into the bar. Unphased by the decoration of the ambiance, his tired eyes set for the table where his subordinates already were seating by.
"Ohayou., don't mind me.", says Matsuda as he takes a seat, giving in a weary sigh, taking another swig directly from his own gourd before glancing at Nakajima's brother. "Don't worry, this'll be empty soon enough, and I'll need refills after what happened."
"Watashi wa dōi, Matsuda-san. That was...different..."
Nakajima finished off his glass of Sake and moved to refill it, as well as grabbing a small arare. Once he had refilled his glass, he began to stare at the doorway while chewing on the arare.
"Now, let's forget about all of that..."
For the fourth time in as many minutes, the front door of the Izakaya was flung open, and a dishevelled figure stumbled in, clutching her coat tightly around her.
Letting the door swing shut behind her, Junsa-bucho Izumi Ishikawa squinted into the brightly-lit interior of the restaurant, the lighting a stark contrast to the overcast evening outside. Getting off duty so late was a pain, but when one was patrolling several star systems at a time, any semblance of 'timezone management' went out the window.
The late hour of returning off-duty wasn't even the worst thing about today. A few choice encounters with pirate cruisers, ignorant Bretonian convoy captains and arrogant Kempeitai officers had left her nerves frazzled, to say the least. Izumi had been very close to going straight home for a couple of paracetamol and a glass of water, but she had eventually decided to give the after-shift gathering at the newly-opened Izayaka a go.
Scanning across the tables littering the restaurant floor, she struggled to catch sight of anyone she knew.
Ah, konbanwa Izumi! Over here.", said Nakajima whilst motioning with his hand. "You look like you could use a drink. Sake?", he asked while jutting his thumb in the direction of the half-full bottle.
She looks a bit rough..., he thought, even more rough than Tomo. Nakajima had gotten lucky in the fact that he had a very light shift beyond the Kempeitai incident.
"Thanks," muttered Ishikawa, collapsing into one of the free seats with a heavy sigh. The stress of the long day's trials were etched into her face, and she grabbed for the sake bottle like a drowning man grabbing at a life ring.
Pouring a glass for herself, she continued: "I don't know how the rest of you have been finding it 'up there', but it's getting more hectic by the day. Pirates, smugglers and- and work of every sort all over the place."
Izumi interrupted her tirade with a timely swig, before slamming her cup down again with a thud.
"At least you got the good stuff," she mumbled.
"Either that, or we're actually doing some good to this gods-forsaken House for once. To showing them who's boss!", replies Matsuda before taking another swig of his drink, before nervously tapping his finger on the table as he slams his gourd down and reaches for a small vibrating datapad in his pocket. He gives it an annoyed glance before sighing wearily.
"Right, after this I'll have to get yet another prescription for my wife. Hopefully, I'll be in a state to do such.", his own tone seems rather unconvinced about the probability of this event occuring.