Escape

After Satoshi freed Peter from the maw of the chair and explained his situation, the two both kept their faces toward the ground.

"So what do I do now?" the younger boy asked, his gaze stern.

"Go to Tokyo. They'll surely be there..."

Peter's attention suddenly shifted to the velvet sky and Satoshi's face fell as he glanced up to see what the older boy was looking at. The sky was slowly gathering grey clouds, and the mounds of scrap metal would most certainly not be good shelter.

It was at least six hours to Tokyo from here, which was why Satoshi couldn't just use the shinkansen to see his parents.

Well, there was no alternative then. He'd have to leave without consulting that cyborg woman...

...and because he couldn't leave her behind, he'd take Nova with him.
----
Satoshi and Nova snuck off under the cover of the next clear yet pitch-black night, carrying backpacks that were not quite as tall as they were, but still fairly compact, considering what they were doing. The moon set its all-seeing gaze upon them as they did so, its light casting eerie shadows that sent their imaginations reeling.

"Why are we walking?" Nova complained. Her luminscent eyes lit up the dark, much like the moon was lighting up their path. "Couldn't I just carry you?"

"I know you'd get exhausted some time or other, and none of the shinkansen are running now." Satoshi's eyes darted across Nova's back, watching to see whether her load was ailing her-

-the stars and the occasional streetlight seemed to glimmer upon Nova's wings, but he tried to ignore the thought that suddenly crept into his mind - the thought that even reflected light upon mechanical marvels was beautiful.

His attention went back to the task at hand, but in his thin clothing, the cool nocturnal breeze tried to lure him towards sleep.

He kept on going.

One foot in front of the other. It wasn't too hard, now, was it?
----
Nova opened her eyes after what appeared to be sleep. She no longer recognised long periods of visual blackness as sleep, merely "temporary hibernation used to preserve energy". (Then again, wasn't that what sleep was to humans? Temporary hibernation?)

Some internal clock suggested to her that it was midnight, more or less, and they were currently at the shinkansen station in Usa, about two hours' walk from their starting point on the Japanese coast. Actually, according to their positions, they'd simply curled up against each other for warmth when they got to a taxi shelter found near the station. (Satoshi's face was abnormally red, but whether that was from physical exertion or embarrassment, she'd never know.) Inside one of the boy's pockets, his phone's tiny screen was aglow with white light. The reason for it was probably missed calls from Celesta, but the reception was spotty on the exhausting walk out of Bungotakada.

Nova took this chance to extricate herself from the soundly-sleeping Satoshi, setting him down as gently as she could without waking him up, and then tiptoed away to some nearby space that was just a slab of concrete. It wasn't ideal for her purpose, but she couldn't detect any surveillance cameras' presence, which was what she needed.

She unfurled her wings from the position the bag had squashed them into, and spread out her arms to greet the sky like an old friend, her blonde hair blowing behind her in the wind. The black hoodie, top and leggings she'd chosen to blend into the darkness disguised (most of) the rest of her.

Before this night was over, she'd learn how to fly, physics be damned.
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---- Author's Note (dated 18th September 2017) ----
There's finally (some semblance of) formatting that we Honeyfeed writers can add to our writing! Hurrah! (Can't believe I've been tolerating writing without italics for about eleven months on this platform...)

To celebrate, I finally hauled my butt back to this story after another lazy three months. Please make sure to leave a comment or a like if you've gotten this far - the story kinda needs it.

So, aside from that, the reason this comment exists is because I was hoping to get to the climax around the time I wrapped up Face Me Online. However, romance isn't something to be rushed, so we're slowly approaching the boiling point. Please look forward to the conclusion (no matter how long I procrastinate on the next chapter/s).