Chaos in Kadoma Ward – Chapter 27

“Ryoko!”

I dive forward, tripping over my own feet as I cross the street and try to catch her before she bolts away.

Questions fly through my head at the same pace as my feet dashing down the street. How long has she been there? Has she been watching me? Does she come every day, and this was the first time I’ve ever seen her? Why is she running away?

She’s fast, taking off at a sprint and rounding a corner before I’m even halfway across the space between us. People dodge out of my way as I curse and plow forward, my bag bouncing against my hip. The ever-present Hikari wind whips around buildings and hampers my progress. Damn it’s cold. I pick up my pace. I don’t want to lose her.

“Ryoko!” I scream at her back as I round the corner. “Stop!”

An old man, unhappy with my uncouth behavior, waves his cane at me and calls me a hooligan, but I don’t stop to argue with him. Piss off. I can’t let her get away, and I’m certainly not going to stop to apologize to him.

This is the first time I’ve seen Ryoko since I was imprisoned by Aoi Uma. I’ve searched for her on my tablet a hundred times, hoping she’d show up in a directory somewhere, but never had any luck. I didn’t want her stuck with Gen. I thought that if I could find her, I could convince Rin to get her a new job, a new home. But she remained far out of reach.

Dodging through people in the street, in the middle of lunch rush, my lungs are ready to give out. Let’s just say that laying about having sex is really not enough of a workout for running through the streets of Shin-Osaka.

Shit. The butsu is ahead, and Ryoko is increasing her pace. She pushes through a line of people waiting to get on in the purple lane and jumps, leaping through the air and landing at a run.

“Shit, shit, shit,” I mumble, wheezing and trying to catch up.

“Watch your language, young lady,” some woman yells at me, covering her child’s ears.

I push past her and jump for the purple lane. My legs bicycle through the air, my arms swing. Whoa. I’ve never entered the butsu already in motion, and the propelling force knocks me to my ass, which bounces. Yes, my ass bounces on the butsu.

“Are you okay?” A man in a suit asks me, helping me up.

“I’m fine, thanks!” I yell to my rear as I take off. Ryoko is far down the butsu, hitting the curve into the central part of the ward. If I hesitate now, I’m going to lose her. My only choice is to run the green lane, not something I’ve done yet.

Rin is the butsu runner, not me. Why didn’t I get him to teach me?

I move swiftly to the yellow lane and cross over to the green lane as fast as I can. It’s a windy day, and even though it’s sunny, the air is crisp, so only a few people are taking the green lane. The accelerated wind chills me to my bone, cooling every bit of sweat I’ve garnered the last few minutes of running.

At this point, I can’t yell at Ryoko anymore. She’s so far out ahead, I should just give up. Why did she run? I was never anything but nice to her. I wanted to help her.

I round the bend, and my spirits brighten. She’s not running the green lane! She’s in the yellow, and I’m almost caught up to her. But maybe she’s getting off the butsu? She’s angling inward at Exit 2B. We’re almost at Kita Ward now. I try to glimpse the buildings flying by. Who owns this territory? Where am I? But I don’t know enough about the city yet to understand where each corporation resides.

Out of the corner of my eye, a flash of black approaches me from the yellow lane. I glance over my shoulder, and Gen Miyazawa leaps towards me, his arms outstretched, ready to tackle.

I remember that one kid I saw run the butsu, and he used both forward and backward momentum to his advantage. So I dig my heels in, stopping with a bone-wrenching jerk, and throw myself down on the butsu.

Gen sails over me, skidding along the green lane and knocking over a businessman who was standing and reading his tablet. The man’s tablet soars into the air, and he tumbles with Gen.

The butsu is soft, just like Rin said, and I bounce back over onto my butt. Now I can sit up and try to stand.

“Oh my, are you okay?” a woman in hospital scrubs runs up behind me. “I saw that man try to attack you.”

“I’m okay,” I say, shaking out my arms and testing my legs. I don’t think anything is broken. “Yeah, he came out of nowhere.”

We both turn to the front to see the man standing up and dusting himself off, but Gen is nowhere to be seen. I look right, across the yellow lane to the purple lane, and Ryoko exits the butsu at exit 1A. The butsu is about to loop in on itself and return down the opposite side of the ward. If I’m going to follow her, I need to get off now.

“Ryoko! Wait!” I call out once more, hoping she’ll think twice and talk to me.

“Be careful, young lady,” the nurse says. I wave to her as I transition from the green lane to the yellow lane.

I’m stupid, and I don’t look behind me.

Gen hits me like a runaway bus, crashing into me so hard that a rib cracks and my head hits the butsu at blinding speed. The impact stuns me, my eyesight turning dark on the edges. All the air rushes out of my lungs, and the world blurs by as Gen and I roll a few meters, arms and legs flying akimbo.

I hear a whistle, and I think, ‘Wow, is that what you hear when you die? I thought you saw red.’ I finally come to rest on my back with Gen pinning me down. A pedestrian overpass briefly blocks my view of the sky, and a Kiiroi Yama police officer blows his whistle and jumps down to the yellow lane behind us. My face and information pops into the air above me on a projection, taking a one hundred credit fee from my account for horsing around on the butsu. Nothing appears for Gen.

“Not only are you privileged but you’re dumber than rocks,” Gen growls at me.

He grabs my shirt and slams me down into the butsu again, knocking me into darkened silence.