Wrong Way

Kodfish


I had just slipped out of the Tendo residence, sweat was dripping down my back. That place is hell, nothing but negative energy and violence. Akane had just tried to hit me for whatever reason, and I got sick of it. After a quick dodge, chaos ensued over some small thing and iI escaped into the cool night air.

Lost in my thoughts, my legs decided to carry me away to new places, and my brain didn't pay enough attention to direct them. I found myself wandering the streets of a semi-crowded area in Tokyo. Nothing was too familiar, I was pretty sure I had left Nermia. Passing through a less crowed area, and still thinking about how much of a bitch Akane is, I bumped into someone.

"Damn, I need to pay more attention, need more training...going soft..." came some mumbles from my mouth, as my brain pulled itself into the current situation.

It was a girl I bumped into, perhaps 12 or 13, by the looks of it. At first glance, she seemed to be ok, I hadn't knocked her down, and she didn't look mad. After a second pass, I noticed she wasn't really feeling anything. All I could see was a blank face, and some slightly dirty clothes. She seemed to notice my glance, and perked up a bit. It was strange, really, her face looked sad, but she was forcing herself to smile.

"Up for a good time?", was the first thing out of her mouth. I was agast. Here this irl was, almost 4 years younger than me, just a kid, selling herself to the world. As a martial artist, it is my duty to protect the weak, even from themselves. I, of course, wasn't able to correctly articulate this in my first attempt.

"Huh? You talkin' to me? About that?"

My mind, clever as it is in grasping concepts, ideas, life saving techniques, doesn't do well at expressing my inner though process. All I got from her was a slightly annoyed and confused stare, as if I had just asked her if she was human.

Before she could respond, I decided, for whatever rash reason, that this wasn't cool in my book. I scooped her up, strolled over to a bench, and sat her down.

"How in the hell did this happen?"

Then came her story.


Authors Notes: Blah. I was driving through half moon bay, listening to sublime, and eating cookie dough ice cream when it came to me. Hope it works as well as I imagined it.