"Hey! Look what I found guys!"
A boy of about 17 or 18 years old, wearing a tan hoodie, and carrying a paper sack in his arms runs up to a group of people around the same age. Something falls out of the bag and he skids to a halt and bends down to pick it up causing several more items to fall out of the tilted bag.
"What's he up to now?" says the only girl in the group, short-haired, wearing a black coat and red scarf.
"Seems like he found some more worthless junk," says the person next to her. He is tall and wears h is silver hair back in a small ponytail. A jagged "X" shaped scar marks his bare chest. "Think the fuzz is after him this time? I'm definitely not in the mood to run."
"Knowing Hige, he is too much of a klutz not to go unnoticed."
"Ah c'mon you guys! You're being mean!" says the smallest of the group. The other two giggle and look back at Hige who finishes retrieving his fallen goods and begins to jog towards them again.
He reaches his friends, a mischievous smile stretching across his face.
"Look! I've found enough hotdogs and hamburgers to last us days!" he says, pulling out a wrapped hamburger with "Bill's Burgers" stamped in the middle.
"Did you actually find those?" says the girl skeptically.
"Of course, Blue! Who do you think I am? Some kind of thief?"
Blue and the tall one look at each other unimpressed. Hige frowns and puts the Bill Burger back in the bag. "What?"
"I bet you the cops will be coming from around a corner to catch you any minute," says the tall one.
"Go to hell, Tsume. At least I look for food. Toboe, you believe me don't you?" All three of them look at the smallest. He blushes at the sudden attention and fiddles with the gold bracelets around his wrist.
"Well…Hige, you seem to get into trouble a lot," Toboe says in a small voice.
"I can't believe you guys! I went through all this trouble to find us food and here you are criticizing my methods!" Hige says. He grabs a hotdog from the bag and chops down on it.
"Because your methods always get us in trouble," says Tsume.
Down the street, out of sight from the group, an old man points uniformed men towards the boy in the tan hoodie. They thank the man and split up, one group going down an alley to cut them off from the side, one group going around to the other side behind the four friends, and the last group staying where they are to trap them.
"All I'm saying is that none of you even help to get food so don't complain that I always find trouble," says Hige as he eats the hotdog.
"You're the only one that's hungry all of the time, chubby," says Blue.
"We can see him, Cheif," whispers one of the uniformed mean from the alley into a walkie-talkie. "Awaiting your orders, sir."
"Roger," says the Chief, a burly man in his forties. Three strands of hair are brushed over his otherwise bald head. The sleeves of his starched and gray uniform are rolled up to the elbow, revealing the lost hair that had migrated at one point from his head.
"Hey you guys, we really should get back to the hideout," says Toboe nervously, looking around. The others continue arguing, not even bothering to look at him. He takes a deep breath and sifts through all the scents he takes in: apple pie, roofing tar, perfume, cat shit. There's one smell in particular that catches his attention, gunpowder. He knew they were in trouble because the only people allowed to carry guns were the police.
"We are in position, Chief," says the leader of the group behind the kids.
"On my mark, arrest all four of them," says the Chief.
"Roger!"
"Guys! We really should leave! Don't you smell that?" says Toboe, getting into the middle of the other three who stopped their arguing and acknowledge him. They sniff the air.
"Damn it, Hige! You've done it again!" yells Tsume, trying to locate their enemies.
"I didn't think anyone saw me!" Hige cries, backing into an alley.
"That usually means someone did moron!" Blue yells, backing up next to him.
"NOW!" yells the Chief into his walkie-talkie.
Hige and Blue are grabbed from behind by strong arms and forced face first to the pavement.
"Hey!" hollers Tsume. He tries to run to their aid, but is tackled from the side and handcuffed in seconds.
"Guys, what do I do?" asks Toboe frantically, still free. Police close in on him from all directions, and back him into a wall. He looks left and right for an escape but there are none.
"Up, Toboe! Go up!" yells Blue.
Toboe looks straight up. The building he is backed up into has awnings over every window all the way towards the roof. He smirks at the cops who look at him with puzzled expressions and then up towards the roof, trying to figure out what Toboe saw.
With inhuman ability, he jumps several stories up at a time from awning to awning until he reaches the roof. The policemen shout below him as he disappears over the side of the building. Roofers look up in amazement from their work as Toboe sprints across the roof and leaps effortlessly over the twenty foot gap between that building and the next. They watch him bound across rooftop after rooftop until he jumps off one and is out of sight.
"What in the actual fuck just happened?" asks one of the roofers, not taking his eyes off the spot where the boy had disappeared.
"It's this tar. I think it's finally getting to us," says another. The others shrug, content with the answer they continue with their work.
"I've got to find the others," Toboe tells himself as he sprints through alleys and back roads. He knew exactly which station his friends would be taken to and the exact location inside the station where his friends would be kept.
This was far from the first time any of the four friends had gotten caught. Their faces were well known to any cop in the city, but they had little trouble being seen when they wanted.
For Toboe, it had started out being just him and Tsume. They had met Blue and Hige a few months earlier when they had escaped the station together. The four of them turned out to be a good team. Hige has the best nose, Tsume and Blue are the best fighters, and Toboe with his small size is able to fit most places the other three couldn't. They had been together ever since and now depend on each other to make it in this city.
It is night time before Toboe makes it to the police station. Through a barred window he can see Tsume badmouthing someone as he is led to a white wall to get his mug shot.
Toboe makes his way to the back of the station to a half covered manhole. He climbs in and begins his long walk in the sewers.
"I'm really sick of dealing with this every other day," Tsume says across the hall from his cell to Hige's.
"Alright! I'm sorry. I'll just let us starve next time," he says, sniffing a stain in his cot.
"That's enough you two. It's already bad enough being in here without you guys bickering all night," Blue says from a cell to the right of Tsume's. She licks the dirt from her body, the black coat shiny even in the dim light.
"Tch" Tsume scoffs. He lays his head down on his paws with his nose resting underneath the bars of his cell door, sticking out slightly on the other side. Soon the darkness of the place closes in on him and his breathing becomes heavier and slower. He drifts off into the time of his earlier years with Toboe.
He still remembers the day very clearly when he first came to find that little pathetic excuse for a wolf. Toboe had been starving then. His coat had been caked with filth, his paw pads cracked and bloodied. Tsume had been embarrassed to think that this runt was his own kind. So, for what he says was for his own pride as a magnificent animal, he nursed Toboe backed to health. Spending nights in the basement of a pastry shop and days stealing food and fighting rivals for territory, the two had eked out a somewhat comfortable living together before the others had come along.
"Tsume! Tsume!" Hige whispers to him. "Toboe is here. Time to skedaddle."
Tsume stretches his long and powerful legs, shaking off the dust and sleep from his body. He could hear the jingling of keys as Toboe fumbles with the lock on Blue's cell.
After a few more minutes of difficulty and verbal abuse from Tsume and Hige, all three cells were open and the friends started on their way out of the station.
"Hey!" says a voice from one of the other cells. They stop at it the cell door and look inside.
A sparkle lights up in Blue's eyes and she can feel her tail wag despite her best efforts to stop it. "Mind letting me out while you're at it?"
The white fur of the stranger glows eerily from a dark corner in the back of the cell.
"We're in a hurry, man. Sorry," Hige says, puzzled by Blue's sudden cheerfulness.
"It's OK, it'll only take a second," Toboe reassures them, searching for the key to the stranger's cell.
The door opens and the stranger walks out, his expression hard and unwavering. Blue watches the ripple of his muscles, the shape of his body, the way he holds his head higher than everyone else.
"Got a name, man?" asks Hige.
"Kiba" he says.
"You can't come with us. You'll only slow us down," Tsume says, as he begins to make his way out again.
"Tsume!" says Toboe in irritation.
"It's OK. I think you four might slow me down even more." Kiba says, turning the other way.
"Tch." Tsume starts toward Kiba, his body tense and ready for a brawl. Blue interferes quickly and turns Tsume back the other way.
"Alright, men. Now is not the time," she says. She tosses a smile at Kiba who nods at her in return. She watches him as he walks away by himself.
"He's different," Toboe says, watching too.
"He's trouble," Tsume says, "I don't want to run into him again."
They all watch that strange lone wolf walk with unnatural determination until even their wolf eyes can no longer discern him in the darkness. When he disappears, they turn and walk their usual escape route out.