Lonely Thieves

Act III, Part II

Megumi's Side (April 10, 1:30 am)

Megumi didn't know how long she was running, but before she realized it, she was in a part of the Horizon district she didn't recognize. She certainly wasn't in the Japanese sector anymore, that's for sure. Actually, it didn't look like any particular sector of the district; it was an abandoned suburban neighborhood that was full of condemned buildings.

Realizing that she had probably left Norah behind long ago, Megumi took a breath and decided to take stock of her surroundings. As far as she could tell, there was nobody living in this area of the district. Of course, there was a possibility of homeless people sheltering here, but that was only to be expected in a poor district like the Horizon district. As Megumi looked for any signs of telltale activity, she suddenly heard the sound of a car coming down one of the streets.

Megumi quickly ran to one of the empty houses and pulled on the door. Thankfully, it wasn't locked, and she quickly headed inside the building and peered warily outside the window. It was an Overman patrol car, but it drove past the neighborhood without stopping for a second. Megumi breathed a sigh of relief. She supposed the Overman agents didn't consider this place a high-priority zone.

Once the patrol car disappeared down another road, Megumi let out an exhausted sigh of relief and collapsed on the floor. She had been running for a while, and the fatigue was now finally getting to her. Now that she was relatively safe, her adrenaline started to fall quickly. She sat up against a wall and took some time to gather her breath.

After she had recovered a bit, she took a look through the house that she had run into. It was a standard one-story house, made as a form of cheap suburban residence, but it had not been used for quite a while. The place was devoid of furniture, and the wallpaper was peeling from the walls.

However, it looked like nobody was squatting in this place, so it was a good place to lie down and rest for a bit. Megumi looked for a place where she couldn't easily be found, and settled on a bedroom in the back. There was still a bed left here, though it rotted quite a bit. Still, it was better than nothing. She laid down on the mattress and tried to sleep. No dice.

As she closed her eyes and tried to think to sleep, her mind invariably began to think about her next step. She was all alone, and she had no idea who was safe to contact and who wasn't. Norah was obviously out of the question now. She had no idea what Norah was trying to do, but it wasn't anything good.

Hikaru was trustworthy, but right now he was with Daryl. Daryl had always gotten on her nerves, but Megumi had always considered him pretty harmless. However, the last couple of days he had been on the run with Norah. She had no idea how close they really were, but she couldn't risk the chance that he was working with Norah. She had to avoid them for the time being, at least until she could figure out what Daryl's goals were.

What about Kolya? He had promised Masao to protect her at any cost. But how sincerely was that promise made? She couldn't discount the possibility that he had an underlying motive. After all, as an ex-assassin, he was the most dangerous out of all of them. Not to mention that she had no idea where he even was right now.

Megumi sighed. It was probably for the best that she moved on her own for the time being. But how? Hiding was largely pointless, but she didn't know what she could do. Her options were few, and they were getting fewer by the day.

Realizing that she wasn't going to get any sleep like this, she sat up and got out of bed. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the emerald necklace again. At the end of the day, the biggest question was what she should do about the necklace. Ever since she had stolen it, the necklace had brought her no shortage of troubles. If she could just get the necklace to the client, she could get rid of this annoying trinket and be billions of redals richer.

But was that really the right move? Megumi thought of her family once again. She did not want revenge. She believed that. Yet a part of herself was insistent on not letting go of something that could destroy the people that massacred her family. She couldn't let it go so easily, not even for an unfathomable sum of money.

Before she knew it, she had fallen asleep, most likely from the fatigue. By the time she woke up, it was early morning, mere minutes after sunrise. She shook herself awake and tried to wipe the tiredness from her eyes.

Megumi was hungry, but in her haste she had not taken any food with her, and she was not brave enough to see if the house's last residents had left any food behind. Ignoring her hunger pangs, she took a glance outside to see if anyone was around. It didn't seem like it.

Megumi had no real plan, but she knew that it wouldn't be a good idea to keep hiding around here. She made sure to gather her things and gingerly stepped out of the house, taking care to keep an eye out for any stray Overman patrols coming down the street. Luckily, there was nobody around, so Megumi left the house and started walking down the sidewalk.

She walked down the street, still looking around for any sign of Overman patrols. After a while, she started to relax her guard a bit when two scruffy children suddenly leapt out from behind one of the houses. They wore ragged clothes, and their skin was covered in dirt. The older kid held a rusted knife in his hand. There was no way that knife would cut, but Megumi would rather he not try anyhow.

"Money," the older kid stammered out, clearly nervous. "Give us your money and we'll leave you alone!"

Megumi considered the possibility of just scaring them off. They were just kids, after all; if she showed that she wasn't someone who could be threatened, they would probably run off and try to find someone else to mug.

Still, what if they didn't? She could probably still fight them off, but she had to think about the necklace she had in her pocket. If she got into a tussle with these kids, the necklace might end up being found. She doubted these kids knew the significance of that necklace in particular, but it looked valuable enough that they might try to take it from her.

"You want money, right?" Megumi said as she took her wallet out of her pocket. "I'll give you something, so put away the knife, okay?"

The older child nodded and put away his knife. Megumi walked up to the kids and put some vouchers in their hands. "Nowadays, most people don't really carry around physical money, but if you use those at a grocery store, the people there'll give you some food, okay?"

The older kid seemed doubtful about the vouchers, but the younger kid seemed pretty happy to receive anything. "Thanks, miss!"

"No problem," Megumi said with a smile. "Where are your parents?"

The smile fell from the younger child's face. "They're... not here anymore," the older kid answered.

Megumi expected that to be the case, but she needed to know anyhow. She gave the younger child a pat on the head with a sympathetic smile. "I'm sorry to hear that. Where are you staying if you're all alone?"

"We're not alone!" the younger kid shouted. "We're staying with a lot of nice people!"

"Hey!" the older child said with a glare. "Don't say anything about that!"

"It's okay," Megumi said reassuringly. "I'm all alone too, and I need somewhere to stay for a bit."

"You can come with us!" the younger child said with glee. The older sibling scoffed, but he didn't argue against it.

The two kids ran off, with Megumi following closely behind. They ran all over the district, cutting through dark alleys and hidden passageways. Megumi was surprised. Like this, they were able to avoid the Overman patrols with ease. They may have been children, but they were clearly intimate with district's underbelly.

Megumi followed the kids until they arrived at an underpass below a highway. There, she saw a gathering of homeless men and women sitting amongst a collection of debris and garbage. The children waved wildly as they rushed down to meet with the rest.

"We're back!"

An old man who seemed like the authoritative type emerged from the group and lightly struck the two kids on their heads. "You damn kids! How many times have I told you not to leave the encampment without saying anything?!"

"But Chief! You said we needed to get money!" cried the younger child.

"I never said you two needed to do anything about it, did I?" The old man spat on the ground. "Anyway, who's this girl?"

"She said she needed a place to stay," the older child ansered. "Can she stay here?"

"Of course," the old man turned to Megumi. "It's not the best of places, but you can stay as long as you need."

"Thank you," Megami nodded gratefully and walked deeper into the underpass. The homeless here had built a rather rudimentary shelter built with cardboard and discarded metal which provided some basic shelter against the wind. As she sat down on a box, the homeless gathered around her with some curiosity.

"So? What's your story?" asked a middle-aged man with a scruffy beard.

"Hey, don't just ask out right!" an elderly woman chided. "Some people don't want to talk about their past, you know."

"I'm okay," Megumi replied. "Let's just say that I ran from home."

"That happens a lot," another homeless man remarked, nodding sagely.

"I thought she'd be here for the same reason we were here," remarked a young teenager.

"What do you mean?" Megumi asked.

"Didn't you hear about the revitalization project in the Horizon district that started up a few months back?"

"Yeah. Something about the Hayasakas wanting to build affordable housing and raise up standard of living."

"Tch!" the old man clicked his tongue as he sat down. "So much for that. The houses were built, but the prices were still too high for most of the people in need. So do they cut down on pricing and make the homes more affordable to live in? Of course not! They foreclosed all of the houses and kicked everyone out. They still won't sell the land, even though no one's living on it!"

Megumi nodded somberly. That explained all of those abandoned houses from earlier. Once the old man was done ranting, he took a sip of water and glanced at Megumi.

"Hope we aren't bothering you. Heaven knows I wouldn't enjoy sitting around a bunch of homeless people like us."

"Don't say that." Megumi smiled compassionately. "I'm glad for the help."

"You can stay as long as you like, but unfortunately we don't have the resources to feed you or anything like that."

"That's fine. I'll figure something out on my own."

Megumi spent the next few hours building a place for herself among the homeless. She spread a blanket over a small open patch on the ground near the river and sat down on it. She wasn't sure exactly what she was going to do for the time being, but having a safe place to stay gave her a feeling of relief that she hadn't felt in a while. As she searched through her bag to take stock of what she had on her, the two children from before walked up to her.

"Here!"

The two kids handed her a chocolate bar. Megumi gave them a warm smile. "That's very nice of you. But I'm okay. I don't need it right now."

"Are you sure?"

"It's okay. Share it amongst yourselves, okay?"

The children seemed uncertain, but ultimately they decided to keep the candy bar. Megumi smiled to reassure them that it would be fine. "What are your names?"

"I'm Kyle," the older child replied. "This is my little brother Cole."

"I'm Megumi. Let's take care of each other while we're here, okay?"

The two children nodded before running off again. Megumi smiled as she watched them go. She didn't know how long she'd be able to stay here, but it didn't seem like a bad place.