Chase Through Station City

 "Oh shite."

For an instant he found himself struck dumb, wallet in one hand, the pack with all his things in it—including his gun—disappearing through the crowd in the hands of a thief.

"Hey! Sorry I—" He had to cut and run, shouting after them, not that it did any good. Hurtling around the corner, he—

Nearly slammed into a lady with a suitcase. Puffing a quick "excuse me", he danced around her and broke into a sprint again, dashing after—

No one?

He screeched to an abrupt stop, breathing quickly and twisting to take in the whole street, hunting for a glimpse of his rucksack. Nothing. Shite.

He threw a quick look around the shops. Most of them could hide a blasted cow.

He can't have just disappeared. But the damn kid could be anywhere and he wouldn't have a clue. Place was as much of a maze as the blasted fighting theatres of Ossary.

If I lose him now, I'll never get it back. It'd be pawned off; he'd never see it again. Dammitall. Heart beating a steady pulse in his ears, he scuffed his sandal against the ground. Rough, but not too rough. Good, because this'd be the least obtrusive way he could manage this.

Slipping briefly to the edge close by the bin alleyway, he switched forms.

Unlike before, he didn't pull his yuurei on like a coat, just slipped into the body of a plain old grey wolf, clothes and whatnot sent off to the shadow realm. Still startling, but better than an obake running around with fangs and claws out, trailing ghostly mist like a cape and eyes glowing like a demon.

He shot out like a bullet into the crowd. Ears pinned back to ease the flood of noise, he ignored gasps and exclamations, catching the familiar scent of old weather-beaten cloth through the storm of smells, as familiar as the scars on his hands.

And there, walking at a quick and easy stroll with his rucksack casually hanging from skinny shoulders, strode the little thief. Not a boy, a girl, from her scent.

He leapt, and his teeth missed the cloth by inches as she jerked away, a glow like an afterimage trailing off her skin, pupils slitting. 

An obake? He growled, landing like a cat and snapping after her as she sprinted off. Could smell it now, a tinge like something feline mixed in. Should've realised.

He launched after her. Shouts and cries chased them, his tail brushing a leg as he slipped right through a group she tried to put between them.

"Just drop the bag," he barked. Not literally—another weird effect of obake abilities. "I don't care where you came from, and I don't care where you run off to. That's mine, and nothing in it's worth anything to you."

She yelped as his voice came from nowhere, projected out of The Elsewhere, and leapt sideways. Not fast enough to avoid him.

Latching onto the cloth just behind the strap, he hauled anchor with a hard jerk backwards.

She cried out, hitting the floor hard enough to make him wince. In an instant, he switched back to two legs and a pair of hands, kneeling and grabbing the pack before she could roll away. "It wouldn't kill you to—"

Claws flashed right at his face and he flinched back, arm shooting up to catch the hit, heat slashing across his skin. "Gh— hell—"

He lunged forward just too late to grab it again, the girl scrambling away past the shocked pedestrians that'd frozen around them. The shocked murmur jumped in pitch when he switched mid-leap and flashed after. At this point he'd give a rat's tail. Blimmin' cat—

Trailing crimson droplets, he raced at full speed after the obake cat-girl as she leapt just ahead of his teeth into an open-air restaurant, hopping from outdoor seating fence to awning and scampering up on the roof over the heads of shocked customers.

Well, two could play that game. He leapt, flashing between forms briefly, kicking off his sandals for better purchase, pulling himself up and drumming on four paws over the tiles. Hot on her heels, he vaulted over the balcony railing and jumped after her to the upper roof.

Too slowly, dammit. She leapt lightly ahead of his wolf paws, off the edge, catching one of the wires to hustle over like a monkey. And he launched after.

His teeth clamped down on the pack swinging off her shoulders.

The weight dragged her down with a jolt. She cried out, kicking wildly at him, her heel catching his ribs, and he grunted at the flash of pain, flattening his ears and hanging on for dear life a couple metres above the startled babble.

"Look!"

"Up there—!"

"Let— go," he growled at the thief, wincing at another kick. "Just give me the—"

In one quick movement, she shrugged a shoulder out of the straps. Abruptly, he dropped lower, his own heart shooting into his throat.

Oh he—

With a jerk, she slipped out of the other strap, and he fell.

He thudded into the ground with the pack still clenched in his teeth, staggering back to his paws just as she disappeared, leaving him huffing through the cloth in his mouth, aching from cuts and bruises.

Well, he had asked her to let go.

"Stop!" A shout made his ear flick around, and he glanced over to see the police running up. Those glimmer nets didn't look friendly. "If you run, you will be charged with evading arrest!"

"I'm not running." He slipped back into his own body without thinking, lifting his hands in surrender. With the pack still in his mouth.

Spitting it out, he stayed kneeling, trying a smile as he huffed for breath. "You're going to let me go, aren't you?"

The lead man pulled him to his feet, the glimmer users watching him like a hawk as he winced. "You must be taken in for questioning. I will also need to check your details."

Well. That was unfortunate.

He smiled weakly. Hopefully the kitsune-kami wouldn't mind digging him out of jail.