Big city life made Ash uncomfortable, but this place didn’t feel like a true city. People wandered scattered across distant sidewalks but not the ones closest to her. In the distance, skyscrapers lit the sky, but the ones closest appeared abandoned.
She felt wary, compounded by a sudden hand on her shoulder. She whirled around, facing a purple-haired girl with a cat ears headband and headphones draped about her neck.
“Tag, you’re it!” the girl exclaimed, giving Ash about half a second to process what had occurred before she took off.
Initially shocked, then wary, Ash threw a hand towards her pocket. Where just minutes earlier, it had sheltered a lighter and button, now she found it empty. Cursing, Ash abandoned her observations of the city and took off after the girl.
~ ~ ~
“A minor…. A major… G major… G minor…” a chord progression with accompanying melody and bass sub rolled contemplatively through Shino’s mind, Little cliche, don’t you think? The little Maestro commented, pulling apart a thread of notes and tying them back together again on a different scale, How about D major after the G moving into E minor- Shino shook his head, “E-minor is too dark for that progression. You’d have to bridge a different minor, or maybe half-major to achieve the right transition-”
“Mr. Naku! Mr. Naku!” a flash of purple, pink, and long curly hair careened around the corner. Shino raised his arms just in time to catch the little figure flying past before she ran straight into the empty space above a subway stair.
“Mr. Naku, I got it! And it didn’t even cost a cent!!” the little girl looked up at him, eyes twinkling with mischief; bright from the energy of her run.
Whatever she was running from-
“Quick! Take them-” she shoved something into his pocket, then with a silverbell kind of laugh, darted away again, leaving Shino…
Suspicious, a little concerned, and unsurprised. The Maestro finished, trilling out a series of decisive notes on a final chord.
“F major.”
~ ~ ~
Existing as an undead theoretical construct tends to do a number on one’s physical fitness, a result that left Ash in the girl’s dust. Chest heaving, she staggered around the last corner she’d seen the girl disappear down, before admitting the cause lost. Where she’d hoped to find the girl, stood only a man with a green hoodie, leaning against the entrance to the subway. Oh God, she mused to herself. Why do I always see the pretty ones when I look like this? The rest of the street appeared deserted, and she wondered just what kind of neighborhood she’d wandered into.
Shaking her head at herself and placing her hands over her head, she quieted her breathing and tried to figure out what to do. Xiyue had told her the button was a key of some kind, something to protect and look after. As for how it fit in with everything else in this city, Ash had no idea.
Recovering her breath, Ash stretched as if she had just been out for a run and jogged over to the man near the subway. His gaze appeared vacant, fixed on some distant point. She turned to see where he was looking at and saw nothing but another deserted building.
“Hey there,” she said, waving a hand in front of his face.
His gaze clicked back into focus, startling her. “Hey?”
She pushed back all the other racing thoughts and fixed her gaze firmly on his eyeballs. “I’m Ash. Did you see a girl race off this way? Purple hair? Cat ears? She took something of mine, and I’m hoping to catch her.”
~ ~ ~
Shino looked at the woman stifling her panting, more half side-eyeing than full on.
“Looks new.”
Maybe we can strike a chord with her-
Sanity almost prevailed, then… decided not to. Slipping a hand into his pocket, Shino pulled out a lighter, twirling it absently between his fingers.
“Do you make a habit of chasing children, ma’am?”
~ ~ ~
“As someone who’s vowed to never grow up myself, I claim the right-” Ash began, before spying her lighter. “Hey! What’s this all about after all - you make a habit of sending children to steal for you?”
In one practiced move, she lightly hit the back of his wrist, opening his grip and releasing the lighter into her own. A quick lookover verified the initials at the top as her own. “I bet you’ve got the button too? Seriously, what on earth, man?” Her momentary infatuation now lay forgotten under her annoyance.
~ ~ ~
A soft blue flame burned at the back of Shino’s mind
She didn’t answer our question- Maestro hissed, drawing clawed fingers across too-tight violin strings.
“Calm down, she has every right to be angry. Although her excuse-”
“You know,” Shino said, reaching into his pocket again and pulling out the… button? This must be what she was talking about. Small, mostly round, copper with sort of half-spiral curling sideways imprinted roughly on the face- “There are a lot of grown men in this city - and a few women - who would make pretty good use of that excuse to do… unsavory things.” he held the button out between thumb and forefinger, looking at the angry woman under hooded eyes.
“So let me ask again. Do you, ma’am, make a habit of chasing children?”
~ ~ ~
“I’m too tired for this,” Ash groaned, the “excuse” she’d made already forgotten. “I make a habit of chasing thieves. And as long as I have what was taken from me back in my possession, I’m content to leave well enough alone.”
She tried to take the button from him, but he wrapped it into a closed fist and stuffed it back into his hoodie’s pocket. “Dude, what on earth? I literally couldn’t care less about who stole my things, I just want to get them back. And now that you’re refusing to return my items, you’re just as complicit as she is. I promise you, I’ve got nothing against her, minus the thievery.”
~ ~ ~
Looking away, Shino leaned back against the bus stop sign once more, listening absently to the Maestro thundering a hundred chords near the top of his spine. After a long pause-
“I am complicit to nothing,” he shifted, somewhat uncomfortable with the lie. No, Vivi had not returned the money he gave her to buy him a lighter, but he had not expected her to outright steal one. Not after all those months- “The little girl who stole your things is a victim of my brainwashing. She doesn’t know the difference between thievery, fair purchase, and asking nicely. I am the mastermind and thief. If you ever meet her again, you will hold nothing against her,” he passed a lazy glance in the woman’s direction, “Do we have a deal?”
~ ~ ~
“Woah, now, hold up,” Ash said, mission and button secondary to what she’d just heard. “Of course, I hold nothing against her, I just said I wouldn’t.” She hesitated, eyeing him in a harder light.
“But I’ve been in tight places before, and teaching a kid to steal ain’t the answer. Makes one wonder if I should be trying to protect her from you, instead of the other way around. What was that you said about unsavory types?” She leaned back, resisting the urge to cross her arms. She doubted she’d be able to take him in a fight, but she wanted her arms free in case she needed to do some quick defense.
~ ~ ~
This one’s a funny case. The Maestro commented, fingers nimbly trilling up the strings of a well-tuned guitar.
Shino chuckled, closing his eyes for a brief moment to relish… relish what?
Irony, poeticism, and the peak of the absurd. Maestro finished, striking a slightly-too-triumphant chord.
“Yes, all those words. Thank you, Maestro.”
“I couldn’t agree more… don’t believe I caught your name?” Shino turned to face the redhead fully, and pulling the button out once more, flipped it in the air like a coin, “I am certainly one of the most unsavory types you’ll ever meet. Absolutely-” and he offered the button on open palm, “Eight-day egg sandwich unsavory.” and he slid a slow wink.
“Who am I and what has this… thing done to Shino?!” ‘Mr. Naku’ gasped to himself internally.
Such things often happen to young men in the presence of young women, Maestro commented superciliously, Specifically attractive ones-
“Alright, that’s enough from you,” Shino said, shoving the Maestro and his pile of heart-shaped instruments into a closet, locking the door.
“You are an idiot. Get yourself together,” he muttered inwardly. Outwardly-
~ ~ ~
Ash’s stomach roiled, and she felt an inexplicable awareness of danger and fascination settle over her. She couldn’t place him. Did he take the blame for the girl out of truth or out of honor and nobility? Was he flirting with her or taunting her? Should she take the button and run or would he chase after her? What did he want?
That familiar ache of weariness settled into her, the hopelessness that’d been haunting her thoughts. She kept ending up here, questioning everything and arriving at no answers. Everything used to be much simpler; at the very least, she had always had an answer. Now…
She couldn’t let herself drown right now. Mind choking for air, she pulled herself back to the surface, alert and attentive.
Cautious, she took the button from his palm, expecting some kind of retribution. Receiving none, she tucked it into her pocket with the lighter, leaving her left hand to cover both and prevent future pickpocketing.
“My name’s the first thing I told you,” she said. “You ever seen a button like that one before?” Maybe she could get some information that’d point her in the right direction.
~ ~ ~
Her fingertips brushed against the center of his palm as she picked up the button. At their touch, Shino’s mind shut down and a giant red triangle at the back began blinking on and off. On and off. On and off. Outwardly, Shino straightened, turning away with a blank expression.
“Buttons are buttons. I’d use that one to keep your pants on if I were you,” he muttered, eyes fixed on a certain distance.
Two rooms in his mind solidified, the sounds of each shouting at each other.
What was her name?!
I don’t remember!!
She’s so tired-
WHO CARES!?
She’s NEW.
Everyone was new once.
I don’t trust her.
Then, from behind the rooms, Maestro’s voice floated-
Technically, boy, you don’t trust anyone.
“And I’m an idiot.”
Occasionally, but not habitually.
“Thanks, that clarifies things.”
Don’t just talk to me so you can ignore your own thoughts.
“She needs help….. But I don’t… I don’t want….”
His fingers curled into a fist, their tips trembling against his palm. Everything else about him remained still and relaxed. Statue-like. The setting sun limped sadly down the alley-way, illuminating every grease-stain, graffiti blotch, and piece of trash luridly.
“How many times have I told you to not touch strangers?”
In one fluid motion, Shino swung the satchel strap off his left shoulder – the one furthest from the girl…. whose name he didn’t recall – unzipped it, and pulled out a city map.
“I don’t know where you’re going, and don’t bother telling me,” he began, unfolding and refolding the map to an inner page, “In fact, don’t tell anyone you meet where you’re going. If anyone asks, say you’re headed here,” he pointed at a green circle with the figure of an upside-down mountain range, “Not saying you need to go there, but if that’s what you tell people, they’ll leave you alone.”
He offered her the map.
~ ~ ~
Thoroughly confused, she took the offered document, glancing over the layout he’d pointed out. “Thank you.”
The words felt almost empty on her lips. Not quite hollow, but she couldn’t shake the thought she had missed something. She wanted to ask about the green circle, but something unspoken stopped her mid-sentence. Still, the map would be helpful - at least for navigating her way around the places she’d been. Xiyue had said she’d need to take the button to a Collector, wherever he or she could be found.
Softening, she decided the man must have just been speaking in awkward jest earlier, trying to protect maybe a niece or a sister from whatever counted as justice around here.
“Hey, I didn’t catch your name either?” A flash of movement caught her eye, and she noticed the edge of a cat ear disappearing around a nearby building. “Maybe I’ll be back around here later this week and will have a chance to see you again.”
~ ~ ~
Shino also caught the movement. Immediately all the mental obstructions and foreign conceptual places dissolved. Maestro floated to the forefront, bringing a keyboard.
Now, that’s enough drama for a day, eh? And he played a rolling chord. Outwardly, Shino relaxed, an easy half-smile falling onto his lips.
“The name’s Shino, and I can’t guarantee I’ll be around here ‘later this week,’” he turned in the woman’s direction, catching her gaze briefly before she-
Looked away.
Hmmm.
Slowly, non-aggressively and with the most uninterested half-swagger he knew how to use, Shino walked past her towards the corner with the offending purple ears.
“A word of advice, newbie,” he spoke over his shoulder, “If you’re an author, your books, pens, and papers have no power here,” he stopped and stifled a sigh, “You will have to rely on your strength of mind – nothing more, nothing less. Best of luck.”
Stepping around the corner, he scooped up a startled Vivi, and with a well-timed whistled melody, vanished into a Stream.
~ ~ ~
Had he waited, she’d have informed him that her books, pens, and papers had no power wherever she went, and she was no stranger to relying entirely on her own strength of mind. How else would she have ended up as broken as she was?
All her brave words died instead, swallowed up by the distant echo of traffic and the steep shadows the sun now cast over her. For a second… for a second there, she’d had some help.
Alone once more, the thoughts reared their way to the surface again.
What if I can’t figure it out? What if I let them all down? What if I lose the button again? What if I have to leave unexpectedly, and I can’t see out this promise? Is that girl okay? Is Shino… It was a good name.
Perhaps she could even count him a friend. A … rough and rudimentary one to be sure… but a friend nonetheless.
Lifting her map, she plotted her way to the nearest landmark, before tucking it away into a pocket of her grandfather’s bomber jacket. Maybe she had a lot to be thankful for after all.
So thinking, she stepped forward into an unspoken unknown.
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