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The Yellow Flash Comic Book Store was Rin’s second home.
Initially owned by a married couple who cared more about their customer’s happiness than increasing profit margins, earning themselves a small but loyal following, who practically took in herself, her best friend Kakashi and their studying abroad childhood friend Obito, made everyday fun. Every day was filled with fun events, laughter and exciting discussions about different superheroes falling into conversations about the greater world around them.
She had initially worked for the shop to take the sting off her student loans while working through medical school but would stop in as often as her overbearing studies and placements would allow. It always had a warm, welcoming feeling that meant even if she was picking up misplaced comic books or vacuuming the carpet, it never felt like work.
When the couple had died tragically, a heavy blow that Rin still felt even to that day nearly a year later, the shop that had brought her and her closest friends so much happiness had, without her knowledge, been left to her and Kakashi in their will and ever since then, it had been theirs. So there was no question about what she would do when she saw her printed name on the ownership deeds; Rin quit her job in the hospital the next day.
The shop had peeling paint and a broken sign, and the back door only opened if she kicked it in just the right spot, but no matter how many flaws it had, she loved it.
What Rin didn’t love were all the bills that came with it.
Shaking her head and wiping down the side of a bookcase with more effort than needed she frowned. It was clean; the whole shop was clean. Some parts only looked untidy because she couldn’t afford to fix them. The spot on the carpet wasn’t dirt. It was many small tears. The marks on the front window weren’t dirt they were scratches. The dark patch in the top corner wasn’t cobwebs it was water damage.
Her mind came back into the room fully just in time to hear the broken ding of the cash register, a rare sound in recent months; it made her look up towards the sound.
A smile made its way onto her face when she saw Kakashi politely hand the older woman across from him a paperback comic book her best friend was always on his best behaviour when customers did enter the store.
As soon as the door behind one of their last remaining repeat customers closed, Kakashi was reaching for his abandoned-when-customers-did-enter book, he had already read more times than she could count, to hold in one hand, leaned his elbow on the worktop and lazily let his cheek fall into his open palm.
Rin made her way over simply to tease him; she was running out of dust to pretend was there anyway.
“I don’t know why you agreed to work with comic books when all you read is that.”
He still didn’t look up, just raised his book, his one reasonable eye moving with the motion to continue reading.
“Icha Icha Paradise is a gift Rin. The sooner you see that, the better.”
Her good-natured giggle faded quickly, rubbing her cloth over the well-worn wooden desk, picking at one of the splinters, her smile downturned. This month, she needed to check the damage to the shop’s bank balance. Although she had been putting it off all day, inventing other tasks instead, it was time to assess the latest injury.
“I’ll be in the back office. If you need any help, call me.”
He never needed to; there were never more than one or two customers in the shop at a time needed thing Kakashi couldn't handle on his own.
Making her way into the small designated staff area with even more broken and damaged parts than the rest of the shop, dread filled her as the ominous overflowing box of letters Rin had been avoiding seemed to spill onto the table as soon as she reached it. She hadn’t yet sat down in the wobbly old chair yet.
Only a few minutes of opening letters, seeing the massive numbers in angry red, made her want to curl in on herself and give up. Still, Kushina, Minato, and even Kakashi were counting on her. Forcing herself to sit up tall again, stabilising herself, when her chair gave another nerve-wracking sway she carried on.
Now that she had seen the outgoings, Rin had to look for ways to cut costs, which was becoming a more and more hopeless search as the months passed.
The glory days, when Minato and his wife Kushina ran the shop, played again in her mind where customers were piling in for themed days, parents brought their kids for a fun afternoon out and even arranged their children’s birthday parties to be hosted there in the side room they had. But, with their colourful, whimsical hosts gone, internet sales and competition opening a newer, more extensive shop on the main road, their customer numbers were going down far quicker than they had ever dreamed possible. So now they couldn’t even afford to fix the chair she sat on, never mind throw a street-wide comic book-themed party just to drum up potential business.
A quick calculation on the back of one of the opened envelopes confirmed her suspicion that they could about scrape the rent if they turned off the heating entirely, even if Autumn was just around the corner.
She felt her friend looming over her shoulder before Kakashi spoke. He always used his height difference to get a rise out of her.
“You looking over bills again?”
As teasing as his words were, they made a stone drop in her stomach. It did seem to be one of the only things she did and when she was looking at them she was worrying about them.
When Rin looked up, she forced a smile onto her face, but Kakashi had been her best friend for too long to be fooled.
“Don’t worry, Rin,” his comforting hand on her head, ruffling her brown hair, lifted her spirits mildly. “I have a plan.”
Rin thought she might have been more comforted if his words weren’t immediately followed by being plunged into darkness and a loud beeping indicating the lights had turned off because they had run out of electricity.
Weeks passed, the unpaid bills grew higher, and as expected, their income didn’t change. The hope that Rin thought was endless was waning. The pressures of a massively dwindling bank account were starting to outweigh how light her heart felt among the comics that brought so much joy to children and adults alike.
A bookshelf nearly fell on a customer earlier that day, but Kakashi, as quick as lightning, had appeared and pushed it back into place under the rouse of adjusting the merchandise. When that happened, it finally clicked in her mind it was time to cut their losses and close them down. Maybe she could look into going back into the medical field. Possibly as something less strenuous than an A&E doctor, something with fixed hours like a general practitioner.
Even the thought made her never want to get up again. She loved that shop more than anything.
She would discuss it with Kakashi the next day.
With an upset groan, Rin pulled the covers over her head, hoping to block out the real world for just a little longer.
Her heart was heavy, making her feet feel like lead as she headed towards her shop, taking far more energy than ever before as if her body was physically manifesting her want not to tell Kakashi her decision. Lazily checking the time on her mobile only made Rin feel worse. She was nearly a full hour later than usual. She could open late; what did it matter? They didn’t have enough customers, which was the problem in the first plac-
Rounding the corner into the usually empty, nearly abandoned street, a rush of noise made her groggily lift her chin. Her brown eyes scrunched up, confused as her lips formed a question. Taking a few hasty steps further up the street Rin was amazed to find out what all the commotion was; it was their shop.
Being robbed was her first worry, but the line the length of the entire street, of excited men and women, young adults and older teenagers, was organised and waiting to enter, impatiently, if the bouncing on the spot and glancing up to the front of the queue told her correctly.
Two men stood at the front door looking official and people she didn’t want to mess with. As soon as a group of three excited teenage boys left her shop, a bag each in their hands, looking more excited than any of her customers had been in months the two men seemed to let three more into her shop.
They must have been for-hire security. Why would their little off-the-beaten-track on-its-last-legs comic book shop need hired security for? What in Kami’s name was going on?
One of the building’s security guards stopped her entering her beloved shop. With a shaky finger pointed to the open door, she told them she needed to get inside. The man looked unamused.
“No cutting in line, miss.”
“No cut-” Rin had to take a second and force herself to calm down before she started freaking out. “I own this shop!”
Kakashi picked that second to pop his head out the door and look almost amused before tapping one of the men on the shoulder. When he turned, her friend gave them a little wave.
“Guys, it’s true. I can vouch for her.”
Her head snapped around her brown eyes, nearly falling out of their sockets. Why did he have to vouch for her? “You can-?”
Kakashi pulled her inside before she could say anything else.
As soon as Rin was inside, she had to back up to allow two thrilled women to rush past her without getting mowed down, and the noises of too many people to count talking over each other instantly deafened her.
Their shop was crammed full. Not a single bit of floor was not being stood on; people of all ages looked through their bookshelves and display cabinets cheerily showing what they had found, some exclaiming about how they had been looking for what they were holding. Every face was joyful, and every voice laughter filled.
Following Kakashi to the register, where he had easily slotted himself down into the empty seat, she was used to his usual silent mannerisms but her nerves were running a mile a minute, she was not in a position to hold together much longer.
“Kakashi, what is going on?!” Rin asked, her voice taking on a slightly frantic tone.
Following his pointed arm and finger in the direction of their events side room, she saw a white-haired older man behind a table, making grand gestures, pen in hand and laughing in a booming voice at the teenager across the table from him, a banner with ‘Icha Icha Tactics!’ above his head. The room was decorated in greens and yellows with a small amount of pink. She also noticed that everyone was holding the same hard-backed book in the same shade of dark green as the decorations.
Rin snapped her head back to her friend, a spark of hysterical anger hitting her when she saw he had already taken out his ever-present orange book.
“Who is that exactly, and why has he taken over the entire backroom?”
Already looking bored again, Kakashi answered with a flick of his wrist to open the book’s pages.
“It’s Jiraiya Ogata.”
The name made something in her brain pop.
“What?! How did-?!”
“He’s a friend of the family. So he agreed to do a signing.”
Rin had to grab her head, fearing it would fall off from shock. So Kakashi, her best friend for most of her life, knew Jiraiya Ogata, and he never told her?! And he was there? In their shop? Doing a signing of his latest novel?!
“You-You know Jiraiya Ogata?!”
“Thought you said Icha Icha Paradise was nonsense?”
“It’s one of the biggest-selling series of the past ten years,” Kakashi only gave her that infuriating, one-eyed, entertained smile when Rin tried to shake him. “And you know the author!”
“It wasn’t all that hard to hide the signing preparation from you,” he replied, sounding as entertained as he looked, removing her hands and straightening his uniform shirt, which he never wore. “I’ve been advertising it on all the right websites. Ones set up to discuss the book.”
The popping noise she had previously in her head got even louder. “I-you-we-what?”
Kakashi would pay for his smug look when she could fully form sentences again. “He’s also going to be here all week.”
“What?!”
“Excuse me.”
Hands still raised in the air Rin turned to the new voice, eyes wide, and her shocked face must have made her look deranged at that moment.
“Do you have issue three as well?” The nameless man lifted several hardback comic books in his hands with a happy smile. “I can’t find it anywhere. I want to buy the whole set for my nephew while I’m here!”
Rin was still in such a state of shock that Kakashi had to step in, telling the customer he would look in the back, giving her time to pick her jaw off the floor.
Long after they usually closed, Rin sat on the cement steps in front of their shop, feet pulsing in pain because of all the running around she had done, her throat parched, and her ears rang from having to yell to be heard and strain to listen over the noise of the crowd. Her head pounded from not being able to take a break and working non-stop for nearly eight hours. Still, her soul was cheerful and happy for the first time in months.
Kakashi’s surprise-to-her book signing event had been even more successful than her friend had thought, cashing up that evening had been nothing short of joyous.
Rin had no idea before then how popular Icha Icha truly was, how sought after an author Jiraiya Ogata was. So maybe she would give reading the Icha Icha Paradise series a try, anything that made them that much revenue in one day, she could at least try.
The only time she had been able to pause the entire day was when she had had to take a moment in the back office to collect herself the last time she had been so euphoric to be in the shop, had seen it so filled with life, was when it had been occupied with the five most influential people to her, laughing and teasing each other making plans as they were cashing up and closing the store for the day before the accident-
At the door closing behind her and the tell-tale sound of the two locks being clicked into place, Rin forced herself to blink away the threatening happy tears stinging her brown eyes.
“Crazy day,” her friend’s voice was tired but contented. It made her already elated smile grow even wider.
“One of a few if what you said is true.”
“It is. He’s here all week,” Kakashi confirmed, ruffling his spiky silver hair and taking a seat beside her on the front step. “And keep it under your apron, but he’s got another book coming in the next few months, so he wants to start his book tour here.”
She could hear the cash register ding already.
Not being able to stop her jaw from dropping, she exclaimed. “Kakashi, that’s huge!”
If this was how many people showed up for a signing of a three-year-old book, how many people would appear to buy a newly released signed copy of the desperately cried-out-for sequel?
“I talked him into it. I cashed in a few favours Jiraiya owed my dad.”
There was a pause where Rin bathed in the lingering atmosphere even if her feet pulsed angrily again, the cool night air pleasant on her heated skin.
“I’m sorry we couldn’t do this earlier,” she turned in her seat to him fully, her hand finding his arm as a silent way of saying she didn’t understand, “but he wasn’t in the country until now.”
Instead of questioning further, Rin rubbed his covered arm before leaning against him in a lazy hug. To begin with, Rin knew how he would take the blame for things that weren’t his fault; this being a perfect example. Kakashi missed Minato and Kushina just as much, if not more, than she did. Kakashi would take their store going bankrupt as a failure on himself and himself alone. She knew from experience there was no talking him out of it, so instead, she changed the subject.
“Think we made enough to fix the front sign, at least?”
“I think so,” her stomach took then to rumble loudly they had been so busy she had completely forgotten to eat, “and I even think we made enough for some strawberry ice cream.”
He knew her too well. Anything strawberry-flavoured was her favourite.
Jumping up, ignoring her aching feet’s protest, she spun in a circle with a giggle the wind blowing through her brown hair and her ever-present working apron spinning with her.
“We’re going to need the energy! We’ve got another crazy day tomorrow!” She pointed at her friend, making his one revealed dark eye narrow in question; Rin grinned, “which means you better be in on time tomorrow!”
“I was on time today to get set up. Isn’t that enough?”
Kakashi’s groaning only made her laugh louder.
Finally, things were looking up.