Chapter 1: Homeless have Ears
I love Ajin: Demi-Human, it's my favourite anime/manga. Out of all the characters I feel Sato is the best, his design is magnificent and so unexpected. I find it hard to write him because he is so over the place and because the Manga/Anime is not completed yet so I don't know his deepest workings as of yet, so I apologize beforehand. Enjoy.
Her name was Mai Ren. Was this always her name? No, but it was her name now… Nobody on the streets cared about another homeless person's name any way so what why did it matter what she called herself?
Didn't matter if they were Japanese or a foreigner, they were all in the same position at the bottom of the food chain here in the gutters. Each was fighting to survive just that bit longer than the next person that was probably sleeping mere feet from them under a cold bridge.
Sometimes a caring, or dumb depending on how you look at it, person would be willing to share a meal or two especially to the ones being abused by store owners while seeking meals. That's where Mai came in. This was her specialty.
In the sunny, and beautiful morning, she was taking her daily dose of abuse from a café manager. While being screamed at people would look on with pity. Stop, she thought, pity doesn't feed me. If Mai had a single yen for each time someone pitied her she would no longer be homeless by a massive milestone.
"Damn it, homeless crackhead!" Snapped the manager, "How many times must I say you are bad for business!?"
"Whatever…" Mai spat out in a rather cynical tone while leaning obnoxiously over the counter making her ragged hoodie smudge the glass, "Can't I just have ONE free coffee today? Be a pal, pal."
"Why always my shop!?" They seethed while trying to knock off her arms with a cleaning rag, such a perfectionist, couldn't stand a single speck of dust or the risk of dirt falling off Mai's clothes.
"I have good taste?" She tried, the manager looked pleased for just a mere second before donning their angry mask again.
"Two coffee's please," said an aged voice behind Mai, "and two breakfast specials. One with poached eggs and the other scrambled."
"Yes sir, sorry for the inconvenience." Mai knew the manager meant her and simply stared at the man with her deadpanned expression, as if daring him to make a complaint. He returned the smile with a closed-eye smile.
Mai felt the hairs on her neck stand on ends, her instincts told her this man was no old fool despite how nice his smile and lame sense of fashion was. Was that a hunting hat… did he steal that style from his grandfather…? He had a calculating gleam in his eyes as he raised three fingers, "Actually make it three coffees."
"Three?" The managers smile faltered for a second as the seemed to expect and dread what it meant.
"Yes, one for the miss too." He jabbed his thumb in Mai's direction, who raised her brow and shrugged. This was what she wanted, someone to buckle and get her something… but this was the first time that someone didn't have pity in their eyes.
The old man paid then sat with his younger companion at a window table, he was a man that jumped at every shadow and seemed to afraid to look people in the eyes. While avoiding looking at someone through the window his darkened eyes met Mai's for a moment and his flinched. Pretty sure he looked familiar.
Mai slouched over the counter some more while watching them from the shadows of her hood. Wow, they were in a really deep conversation.
"Here's your coffee." Spat the manager while slamming the take-out mug down without a care that it spluttered out over the rim, they then took two colourful mugs over to the old man and his 'friend' with a sweeter expression, "Your coffees, sirs."
"Thank you." Said the man while Mai pulled down her bandana that covered her mouth to sip the hot drink. Ugh… it was a terrible as always.
The man must have seen the passing disgust on her face as his eyes glint with slight amusement and he seemed hesitant to sip at his for a moment. However, the other man didn't notice her expressions and took a massive, eager mouthful.
His expression afterwards was priceless.
Several days… or has it been weeks?... passed by almost without anything interesting. There was that kid hit by a truck and turned out to be Ajin, someone had leaked the videos on Tanaka's torture, and then that kid (Nagai) was caught after only a few days.
Mai sat on the street's 'begging' for scraps or coin. She hated doing this but her usual night haunts seemed really unreliable recently, were they cracking down on the homeless?
The streets were busy even this late, Japan seemed to never sleep unlike her childhood home back in America… small and occupied only by people she used to consider as family. Those were bad memories and Mai locked them back down.
"What's on the news? Oh my, isn't that the Ajin kid?" A woman gasped drawing Mai's eyes up to the large screens above, yes that was Nagai, holding what looked like an injured scientist over the edge of a building… screams went around as he let go.
"He killed him! How horrible!"
Not true. Mai could tell that Nagai had another motive, the scientist looked like he was already on deaths door… Nagai dropped him because he was protecting the other man, but from what?
Mai kept watching the screen, soon they had a view of what looked like the Ajin commission centre, two familiar faces appeared in the darkness. Ah that explained a few things… Tanaka sat in a wheelchair while being pushed by the smiling old man.
Everything the man said from then on was well acted, but Mai had a sharp eye for lies and snake-people, he had another motive besides helping Ajin get recognised, maybe helping them was just a side-bonus? She was interested to find out what it was and memorised the location of this so-called protest.
It will take her about a whole day to walk to the location if she started now, and she could sleep in the park until the right time.
Gathering her meagre amount of cash, thick blanket and half a burger that she had gotten through her begging, Mai began her slow trek. An eagerness pressed her onwards each time she felt exhausted, her hunger burned at her stomach (Japanese fast-food was puny compared to American) but it was something easy to fix. The second it became unbearable she went into a dark alley and used her hidden hunting knife…
And killed herself…