It was an unusually cold and rainy day in Rokkaku-Dai Heights, Latch was too tired to skate fast. Drifting between daydreams and reality Latch started to hear crying coming from not too far away. He stopped skating and tried to find where the crying was coming from, to the left of him there was a small alley between two houses, and the crying sounded like it was coming from there, although it was too dark to see what was in there without getting close. Latch slowly skated closer and squinted and saw there was someone curled up in there.
"Hello? Are you okay?" he asked. The crying stopped for a moment and then the figure poked its head out. It was a girl who had long orange hair, she looked up at him.
"Mew?" she asked. Latch crouched down so his head was level with her head. He looked at her body – there was a large cut along her right shoulder.
"Can you speak English?" he asked.
"Mew?" she replied. Latch thought about what he had to do – he lived in an abandoned house near the top of Rokkaku-Dai Heights, and that wasn't too far away. He couldn't take her to the hospital as those were constantly guarded by the Rokkaku Police who were always waiting, ready to pounce on injured Rudies. He decided to take her back to his house, where he had some supplies such as bandages. He offered her his hand, however, she was cautious and didn't take it. He cursed under his breath. Then he felt in his pocket for a chocolate bar, and pulled it out. He offered it to her once he had taken the wrapper off.
"Mew?" she asked with a confused look on her face. Latch broke a piece off the chocolate bar and then put it in his mouth and ate it. Then he broke another piece off and offered it to her. She took it out of his hand and ate it; a smile appeared on her face. Latch took a step back, and placed the chocolate on the ground. She slowly crawled out further and all she was wearing was a thin top. Latch pulled off his jacket, and cautious stood up and wrapped it around her. She looked up at him.
"I don't know if you can understand me, but I'm going to take care of your wounds." She looked up at him and held out her hand for more chocolate, Latch smiled and gave her the rest of the bar. While she was eating, he slowly picked her up, as it would be the easiest way to get her back to his house. Luckily she didn't struggle. It took five minutes to get back to his house, as he was weighed down. He placed her on his bed, and he released a sigh of exhaustion. He pulled off his skates and went to get bandages and the like.
He walked back to the bed, the girl was staring at the ceiling still wrapped in the jacket. Latch sat down on the bed and pulled the jacket off, and looked at the wounds: there was a large cut along the right shoulder – where the top had been ripped, there was some blood absorbed in the stomach area of the top, so there was obviously a cut underneath. But first, he grabbed a pair of boxers from his draw and put them on the girl, she just looked inquisitively at his face. Then he pulled her shirt over the cut on her stomach. He bandaged the cut up on her stomach. Next he rolled the sleeve of the shirt over her shoulder and wrapped a bandage around the cut. He decided tomorrow that he would take her down to the hospital, without wearing skates, to check for infections in the cuts. He checked his watch, it was ten past seven in the evening. Suddenly the bed went wet around her crotch. Latch swore, and quickly rushed to get an old towel. He picked up girl and wrapped the towel around her crotch, then he pulled the covers off the bed, sat the girl down in a chair and placed the bed covers in the shower.
He then walked back to where the girl was and said, "Are you hungry?" Placing both of his hands on his stomach.
"Mew!" She smiled.
"I'll take that as a 'yes' then."
He walked out the small kitchen and placed a pizza in the oven, and then he headed
To the bathroom to take the bed covers out of the shower, he squeezed them to get some water out of them, and then hung them out of the roof window. He then walked back to his bed to clean up the girl. He offered her his hand she took it and he led her to the shower.
Soon she was clean, hopefully he'd have more time to get her to the toilet next time. The pizza was cooked so Latch took it out of the oven, cut it into slices and placed them on two plates. And then brought them into the bedroom where the girl was.
"Mew!" She said excitedly.
"I'm gunna call you Mew from now on," he smiled. He placed the plate on her lap. He showed her how to eat the pizza, however, she just sat there looking at Latch's skates. "Looks like I'll have to feed you." He picked up a slice of pizza and placed it next to her mouth, she took a bite and then spat it out. "Wow! You don't like pizza? Well shall we go down to the shop and buy some other food?"
"Mew!"
"I have a crazy idea." Latch walked over to get a pair of his old skates, he then put them on Mew. Mew stood up and was able to skate across the room with ease. Latch put on his skates and they both went outside. Latch skated at a medium pace and Mew easily kept up with him, she he skated at full speed and she still kept up with him. He jumped on a rail and grinded it, she did the same. Within a few minutes they arrived at the shop.
"Mew!" she smiled.
"That was suprising!"
Latch turned to the shop and was about to enter when he heard a loudspeaker.
"This is the Rokkaku Police. Do not attempt to run. We only want the girl."
Latch swore. Mew glared at the police, there was a group of five. Mew put her hand on Latch's chest and gently pushed him to the ground. Then he boosted into the nearest cop and took him out. There were four left. She pushed over one of the cops and then threw him into the electric fence. One of the policemen had disappeared, she could only see two. She performed a grind on the nearest rail and jumped towards one of the cops kicking him in the head. The one cop left put his hands in the air hoping Mew would be kinder on him, she skated up to him and kicked him where it hurts. Mew turned around facing Latch, however, there was a cop pointing his gun at Latch's head.
Mew looked at the cop then at Latch. Then she started skating towards the cop.
"I'll shoot him!"
"If you come any closer I'll pull the trigger!"
Mew suddenly stopped, this puzzled the cop. And while the cop dropped his guard, Latch punched the pistol out of the cop's hand. The cop retaliated by kicking Latch in the head knocking him out cold.
Latch awoke in his bed with a sore head. He sat up and rubbed his head and attempted to remember what had happened.
"Mew!!!" Mew shouted and jumped on the bed next to Latch. Latch smiled, and pushed himself up. He stumbled to the kitchen accompanied by Mew and poured two glasses of water. He picked up one glass and put it to Mew's lip and tilted it slightly, Mew drank the water. Then he drank some water from the other glass, and they both walked back to the bedroom.
"We need to get you some more protection, how about the GG's?"
"Mew?"
"And some new clothes."
"Mew."
"Anyway shall we go?"
"Mew!"
Latch put Mew's skates on, then his own, and left for the Garage. Ten minutes later they arrived at the Garage. He could only see one person in the distance, sitting on a sofa on a platform. Latch could tell from the long hat the person was wearing that it was Corn the leader of the GG's. Corn noticed them and skated towards them.
"Hey, who are you?" asked Corn.
"I'm Latch," Latch then pointed behind him, "and that's Mew, she's a bit shy."
"You here to join?" asked Corn.
"Kind of, this is hard to explain, but Mew here can only say her name no other words. She also doesn't know how to do the simplest things like go to the toilet and eat pizza. However, she can skate very well. And she is wanted by the Rokkaku Police for a reason I don't know."
Corn had a puzzled look on his face, "Erm… Tag that billboard up there and you can join," said Corn pointing at a billboard high up.
Latch turned to Mew and pulled out a chocolate bar, she reached out for it but Latch skated and grinded towards the billboard, Mew followed. When they both arrived at the billboard, Latch gave Mew the chocolate bar, which she ate. He then passed her a spray can, hoping she'd know what to do, she took the spray can, pointed it towards the wall and tagged her name. Latch did the same. Once Mew had finished her tag, she pointed at it and exclaimed, "Mew!!" She then pointed at Latch's tag, "La-" After realising she couldn't pronounce 'Latch' she pointed at her tag, "Mew!!" Latch chuckled and they both skated down. When they got back to Corn, Mew hid behind Latch again.
"Okay, you're in!" said Corn smiling.
"Mew!" expressed Mew.
"That seems too easy, what if we are spies for the Rokkaku Police?" asked Latch.
"Um, then I guess you would have gotten in!" smirked Corn.
"Anyway, Mew needs some clothes. Do you know if the police are hanging around Shibuya?"
"Mew?"
"I don't think they are. Have fun shopping."
"Will do."
Latch suddenly remembered that he had to take Mew to the hospital, however, if the police were looking for Mew then that would be impossible.
"Corn, are any of the gang good at identifying infected cuts?"
"I'm okay at that," said Corn, "why do you ask?"
"Well, when I found Mew, she had two large cuts, one on her shoulder and the other on her stomach. I was going to take her to hospital today, but that will prove problematic since the police are looking for her."
"Cool," Corn walked over to a sofa, Latch and Mew followed. Mew sat down, then Latch rolled up the sleeve of the t-shirt she was wearing. Then he carefully unravelled the bandage and then Corn looked at the cut, "I don't want to take any risks with that, so I'll go and get some anti-septic." Corn walked off.
"Mew, this is going to hurt a lot," Latch said.
"Mew?"
"Just squeeze my hand," Latch said holding out his hand, and placing it in Mew's. Soon Corn came back with a bottle of antiseptic, some cotton wool, a pair scissors and a roll of bandage.
"Corn, I'll put the antiseptic on her, my guess is that she'll hate you if you do it."
"Yeah sure," said Corn passing Latch the bottle. With his free hand, Latch unscrewed the lid of the antiseptic and poured some on the cotton wool.
"Sorry Mew." Then he wiped the antiseptic across the cut. Mew let out a cry of pain and squeezed Latch's hand. "Only one more cut to go, and they'll heal up fine." He grabbed some more cotton wool and poured some antiseptic on it. He then wiped it across the cut on Mew's stomach, again she let out a cry of pain and squeezed Latch's hand. While Latch was putting the antiseptic on Mew, Corn had cut some bandages. "Thanks." Latch said as he picked up the bandages, Corn nodded in reply. Once Latch had put the bandages on Mew he stood up, "All done!"
"Mew!" Mew stood up and smiled. She then stood up and looked around, her eyes were drawn to the punching bag – specifically the picture of Gouji taped on to it. She then ran towards the punching bag and started hitting it ferociously. Latch ran towards her and wrapped his arms around her so she couldn't punch it, however, she managed to break free and Latch fell to the ground. Mew returned to hitting the punchbag – she was in a rage. Corn was about to charge into Mew when Latch shouted.
"Corn, stop!"
Corn's stance changed and Latch pushed himself up and ran so he was adjacent to Mew with the punchbag between them. Mew was still in a mad rage, hitting the punchbag with all her strength. Quickly, Latch slipped in front of the punchbag so his was on the receiving end of Mew's punches. He felt about three blows before he fell to the ground. When Mew realised what she had done she snapped out of her rage, she then ran to Latch and checked if he was okay. Corn also ran over.
"Mew! Mew! Mew!" Mew apologized while tears started to drop from her eyes.
"You alright?" Corn asked.
"Yeah," Latch wheezed from being winded. Latch looked at Mew and smiled, then he wiped her tears away with his hand. Mew stopped crying and sat up staring at his face with a surprised look on her face. She then stood up, wiped her eyes and helped to pull Latch up, although he did most of the work. Latch stumbled over to the sofa with the help of Corn and Mew, then Latch spoke, "I guess we know who's responsible for those cuts."
"Yeah, what did he do to her?" Corn wondered, horrified as he looked at Mew who was sat next to Latch staring intently at her lap. Suddenly Gum, Yoyo and Rhyth burst into the Garage from the direction of Dogenzaka Hill, and they skated as fast as possible up to Corn.
Gum spoke, "Corn, the police have surrounded the Garage and are looking for," Gum nodded at Mew, "her."
"Fuck!" Latch shouted, "I'm so sorry about this!" He turned to Mew, "Mew we have to leave now, follow me." Latch was about to skate off when Yoyo put his hand on Latch's shoulder, holding him back.
"Yo, you're one of us now!"