That girl needs a haircut but I guess she's okay

How did he get in this mess? 

                                                                      He was never one to work with a group. He didn’t like being surrounded by people. It was better to rely on yourself and your own strength than having to expect things from someone else and then be let down. He had never disappointed himself, he was the only he could trust fully.

He sighed while walking down the streets. It helped him think. He had no idea how many times he had completed a full circle around the bar but at least this way he knew that he wasn’t going to get lost. Many times he had gotten so lost in thought that he ended up in unknown scenery. Sure, he was protected by the Insansi to an extent and he had grown up in one of the worst parts of the city but it was plain idiotic if you got lost in unfamiliar places. He wasn’t that arrogant to consider himself capable of defeating any desperate person who would see him as a chance to survive another day.

                                                                     He could imagine Borata’s face the moment he returned to the bar to let him know that he couldn’t take this job. That image alone was enough to make him itchy. He didn’t want to give up so easily. If it was a prerequisite that he needed to be on a team then it meant that this job was going to be really interesting and challenging, exactly what he was looking for. Being untouchable by the authorities had its own perks and satisfaction but it wasn’t fun. He wanted to take up on a challenge that would make him uncertain of the outcome.

Someone crashed onto his back dragging him violently out of his thoughts and making him lose his balance. If he wasn’t so used to running around and expecting the unexpected he would have face-planted on the concrete.

                                                            “Who…?” He turned around irritated to come across a slim figure a little shorter than him. His blue eyes met a pair of scared red ones for a brief moment but then his look descended on her chest. Normally, even the poorest people found some type of cloth to cover their chest so that their strings wouldn’t be visible to others. It was a very private topic. How many strings you had and in what condition was your business and yours alone. The girl’s shirt, however, had moved from her frantic movements and her collision with Shin so the highest string that was closer to her neckline was visible. As soon as he noticed their bad quality, he hurried to cover his own chest afraid that this was all a desperate attempt to steal someone else’s strings before her own got destroyed and she died but then he listened to the heavy footsteps of the Insansis that were running after her and understood that wasn’t the case.

She was trying to run away. That could only mean one thing. She was an Early-Bloomer. He couldn’t care less.

“Please, help me! They-”

“Why don’t you just give up? With strings like that you’re gonna die anyway. Let them take you and maybe they will be kind enough to give you new ones” He mocked her and her eyes opened wide at his harsh words. That was life. If she didn’t want to accept it, it was her problem not his. It wasn’t like he had said anything untrue. She was Stringed, just like any human who hadn’t lost a limb and become a Cyborg.

                                                                   The air in this destroyed world was too toxic to inhale so the CBT had found a way to keep people alive. They had invented the strings. They operated parts of their chest and put some mechanical strings that would help keep them alive. The thing is, they got rusty really quickly so if you didn’t have a big amount of money or complete a certain amount of the Missions that the CBT requested, you couldn’t change them with new ones and you would die in a day or so. Of course, Early-Bloomers that were running away from the Insansis so that they wouldn’t be put in the facility, couldn’t accept Missions and so that girl didn’t have much time to live.

“You don’t understand! My brother-”

                                                                        “I would be running my feet and not my mouth, if I were you” Shin didn’t even flinch. He moved away to let her pass through. She cast him another look before starting to run again. She didn’t have the right to look at him like that. It was everyone for themselves.

He wasn’t so surprised when he noticed that some of the Insansis had managed to outrun her and cut her off before she went far. He murmured a ‘Told you so’ and was about to walk away without a concern when his way was cut off as well.

                                                          “Harboring a fugitive is too much of a crime, even for you, Miyahara Shin-san” Said the robotic voice of the Insansi. Shin looked it up and down trying to understand if it was a new model that had a type of twisted humor. Apparently, it wasn’t.

“You have to be kidding me”He was used to living like an outcast but not really being chased everytime he did something wrong, hadn’t helped in teaching him ways to escape this type of situations. He had never found himself in such a predicament before that moment.

                                                                      He glanced back towards the girl only to find her looking at him pointedly and trying to catch his attention. He didn’t trust her ability to run away but she seemed to have a plan and he didn't so he would have to cooperate.

He backed away from the Insansi trying to reach her in the in-between. His back almost touched hers when he decided to whisper his question.

“What do we do?” 

She didn’t seem to like the situation they were in either since he had outright refused to help her before but they were in this together whether they liked it or not. There wasn't much they could do about it until they were safely out of sight at least.

                                                                  “You have to trust me” She uttered in a low breath. He almost laughed out loud. Trust was something you earned, it wasn’t simply given to you. Apart from that, he never really believed in the notion of trust anyway.

“Unlikely” Was the only thing he said without taking his eyes from the Insansis which were closing in on them. They weren’t the brightest machines out there and their movements were a bit slowed down by their heavy and dysfunctional bodies. If they acted quickly, they could manage to get away from there without an issue.

                                                  “*sigh*...Okay, then I guess, follow my lead. Can you do this much?” She asked irritatedly. 

“Not like I have a choice” with the mess that you’ve brought me into. He implied but he wasn’t stupid enough to say out loud. He could be terribly honest at times but he knew to pick his moments and this wasn’t one of them.

                                                                   She nodded and before he could react, she grabbed his hand and started running to a side street. He didn’t expect her to be this idiotic. It was common knowledge that this alley was a dead end, that was why the Insansis hadn’t gotten into the trouble of blocking their way or hurrying after them. They could move at their leisure and circle the opening of the side street before the girl could realize her mistake and try to go back and pick another direction.

He opened his mouth to complain about it but then he noticed that she was still running- dragging him along with her- even when the wall in front of them was clearly visible. Did he say she was idiotic? Scratch that. She was crazy!

                                                               “What are you-?!”

An instant before they collided with the bricks on the wall, the girl joined the fingers of her free hand and whistled. In a city as square and rough as Shifumia where the most you could meet as art was the blood painting the walls of every alley after a fierce fight between the citizens, listening to something as close as one can be to what was once called music was really weird. He wasn’t sure how it made him feel. Like it didn’t belong there, it wasn’t part of this brick world where all the shapes in the scenery were the same and nothing tried to break the mold.

                                                                     He blinked to leave his thoughts behind just in time to see a rope fall from above and the girl grabbing on it and letting go of his hand. Trust, huh? Had he been deceived into harboring even the slightest implication of that tricky feeling? He should have expected it. The girl was trying to run away and he could be a really good way of distracting the Insansis long enough so that she could get out of there. He didn’t know what he had believed-

“You coming or not?” Only then did he realize that there was another rope lingering in front of him and waiting for him to grab it so that he could be pulled up. Still, that didn’t mean he was wrong…He wrapped the steady rope around his hand and used his feet so that he could climb up the uneven surface of the wall. “You thought I was gonna leave you there, didn’t you?”

                                                                   She teased him the moment he reached the rooftop. He didn’t like the sly smile on her face and he didn’t pay much attention to the smaller person on her side who must have been the one she had called for help.

“We better hurry before they catch up” He avoided the subject and continued running from rooftop to rooftop. This could have been a lot easier with his device but there was no way he would make its existence known when he was among another two thieves. They were two and even if he was confident that he could take them down, he couldn’t be so sure. What if they could call back-up with that whistling? He couldn’t afford risking it, the device shouldn’t be stolen. So, he preferred to risk his life as he jumped from the one flat surface to the other.

                                                                “Okay, I think that’s far enough.” He stopped after a while. He had cooperated because they both needed to get away. Now that the Insansis were off their back, he could go back to looking for some teammates in order to take the job Borata had mentioned. He had already lost enough of his day on something as trivial as this.

“You do realize that even if it wasn’t true, they have already registered you as someone who harbored a criminal right? They will keep on coming after you”

                                                                “That’s my problem and not yours.” He began and was about to leave but then remembered that he didn’t need her help anymore so he could express his thoughts loud and clear if he wanted to. “Now that I think about it, it’s your problem entirely! You’re the reason I have to run in the first place!”                                                                                          He was usually a calm person so his anger- more like irritation- wasn’t loud and hot, it was more like an icy snowstorm. The blue of his eyes seemed to become even paler. The unruly pale white hair encasing his skull would have looked like snow, not that any of them would know what that looked like.

The girl’s face soured but she didn’t say a word because she knew that he was right, even if he could have expressed it differently.

                                                                 “Fine, you’re right. What do you want me to do about it?” She took a step closer to him. He seemed satisfied with her resignation but then his eyebrows knitted.

“There isn’t something you can do for me” It would have ended fine right there if his words weren’t meant to insult her and she didn’t hate his attitude.

                                                                     “I’ll have you know that me and my little brother have taken many big jobs!” She clenched her fists and moved them to her sides. He, on the other hand, looked calmer than before and of course, even more smug.

“That doesn’t mean you’ve actually seen them through”

                                                                  “How dare-?! Try us!”

And that was when the idea sparked in his eyes. Just when he was turning towards her and was about to utter another insult, his expression changed completely. Certainly, this wasn’t exactly what he hoped for. He had no idea of the girl’s abilities and he honestly thought that she would be more of a deadweight than a worthy ally but she was an Early-Bloomer and Insansis were going after her so that they could bring her to the facility. She was what he needed to get this job done, from what he’d heard from Borata, and he knew that nobody else would agree to go with him no matter the money.

                                                                  “Very well, that I shall do” She was about to counter him so she was taken aback when he replied affirmatively. Not to mention that the growing grin on his face seemed to freak her out. “But-” He was about to say that her little brother should stay behind when he met the boy’s eyes. He was short and looked around thirteen or fourteen years old. He didn’t appear to be the talkative type but his eyes- the same red as his sister’s- were two sharp flames that were observing the world without leaving anything go unnoticed. He seemed to have some fight in him. “Nevermind. Are you in or not?”

The girl was hesitant. She didn’t know Shin and he didn’t look like a really likable person. They weren’t so far apart age-wise, though, and she did owe him after bringing him into her mess. It wasn’t like she knew more things about the people she usually worked with nor could she trust them. These were the dangers of her job and she was perfectly aware of it. All that and…the fact that she couldn’t stand looking at that mocking expression any longer, made her accept.

                                                              “Game on!” She said with sheer determination and he seemed satisfied by that. “I’m Ryu, by the way” She introduced herself and outreached her hand for a handshake. Shin didn’t respond to it. He put his hands on his pockets in an almost dramatic way.

“Your hairdresser must really hate you” Was his only remark before turning away and starting to walk towards the end of that rooftop. He was a bit worried that someone else would accept the job before them. He couldn’t hide his smile when he heard the silent boy muffling his laughter at what he said, though. It wasn’t like what he had said was untrue. Her brown hair was unevenly cut with pointy edges at weird places like it had been chopped by a hasty and inexperienced hand. “Seriously, you should take lessons from your brother!” He continued teasing her since the little boy’s black hair was neatly shaved from both sides leaving silky strands of it only in the middle.

                                                              “Mitsuo, stop laughing! And you-” She grabbed him by the ear knowing fully well that was the one wearing an earring which went from the higher part of the lobe to the lower. Her move made the golden piece and the little chain that was hanging from it almost stab into his skin. “When someone else gives us their name, we reply with ours” She lectured. He tried to keep his calm and then remembered one of her characteristics.

“You’re right, I’m sorry. My name’s Shin” He replied after turning around and grabbing her nose which was wearing a nose ring in the exact same way. This was his way of doing things. You did something to me? I will do the same but worse.

                                                                      He realized how childish he was being when he looked over Ryu’s shoulder and met Mitsuo’s disapproving look. He was the younger one of them but he looked like a tired middle-aged man that couldn’t stand being surrounded by kids. Shin moved away from Ryu’s face.

“Are you gonna follow me or not?!”