Runaways

It took them three days to get to Tokyo city, the four of them hitchhiking. They had made brief stops in order to check on the news in small towns, and to their luck, it seemed that there was no missing persons report on them yet.

Why were they going to Tokyo? In the biggest city, they could blend in with the crowd and get themselves fake identities, new clothes, supplies and anything else they needed. Of course, they weren't going to stay there, Karma, their unofficial leader said. The city was too big, and because none of them really knew their way around the place, they would have problems making a quick escape, especially if they weren't all in the same place.

That being said, they only spent five hours in the city.

The first hour, the four of them got cheap cell-phones to keep in touch with each other.

The second hour, they went to a hair salon. If they didn't want to be caught, they would have to change the most distinct characteristics of their outer-appearance.

The red-haired, unofficial leader Karma had his hair dyed black - his hair was really such a difficult bright color, that it would be nearly impossible to change the color to something lighter without having to bleach it, and that would just take too much of their time. So no longer was he a red-haired devil, but instead, a black-haired devil.

Second-in-command, but not officially, was Rio, the blonde-haired wild child. Truthfully, she probably could have just kept her hair color and cut it short, but in the end, the two shorties in the group, Nagisa and Manami, had influenced her decision to instead dye it a medium brown. Although she really didn't quite understand their fascination with her hair.

Then there was the blue-haired boy Nagisa. Without any hesitation, he had his long hair cut short, into an emo hairstyle. The hairdresser was upset when he said he wanted his hair cut short. She made a bargain with him to meet him half-way in letting her style his hair so that it was mostly short except for his bangs, and she would dye it a dark purple free of charge. So thus he ended up with dark purple emo hair. And then he would be teased mercilessly by both unofficial leader, and second-in-command, both saying how cute he was and that he should wear dark clothes from then on too.

Finally, there was Manami, the introverted girl with braided hair and glasses. Although she was hesitant at first, she let the hairdressers play with her hair, and thin it out a bit, they curled her hair and made a crown braid. She looked quite cute, Rio thought. After her hair was done, she bought Manami a hair curler and some hair products - because after today, she wanted to play with the girl's hair and style it; it was only fair, because the introvert liked playing with her hair too.

Their leader didn't utter a word of complaint to the purchases - although afterwards he and Nagisa stayed noticeably closer to the girls, occasionally glaring at any passers-by who looked at them more than once.

In the third hour, they shopped for clothes. They chose to get clothes at a thrift shop, as a lot of the name-brand stores were highly over-priced, and they didn't really care for dealing with store clerks following them around and asking if they needed help.

The boys opted to buy a few pairs of jeans, some t-shirts, and hoodies and vests, and sneakers. Within half-an hour they were done, and then had to patiently wait for the girls.

"You won't even try on a mini skirt?" Rio said exasperatedly. "Come on, you should step out of your comfort zone! We're trying to create new identities, remember?"

"I know," Manami mumbled, looking through the rack of clothes in front of her. "But, I'm not that confident. I'd feel better wearing capris and shorts."

"You're impossible," The brown-haired girl said, holding out a white, flowy summer dress to the shorter girl. "At least get this, ok? It's cute and simple, and you'd look like an angel in it."

"Mm, ok." the shorter girl complied. "But, only if you will get this." She held out a pastel blue dress which tied around the neck.

"Ok ok. Now that we've come to a compromise on that... there's shoes." Rio smiled, taking the dress and dragging the girl over to the shoes section. "I think we should get you a pair of black strapped heals. And boots! Oh you'd look adorable wearing that white dress and a pair of white boots, and - I could put flowers in your hair! Oh! The possibilities!"

"Um, ok.." Manami felt sweat pouring down her face as she went along with the girl, who was getting really excited about dressing her up. Was she a doll now?

Meanwhile the boys watched the two, the black-haired boy with an amused smile on his face, the other expressing concern for the smallest of the group.

"So Rio likes to play dress-up with Manami now, huh.. I'm a little worried about what she will do."

"It's fine, as long as they get along right?" Karma said, shrugging.

The girls had gone on to a different section of the store, getting a few accessories, and contact lenses for the two of them - Rio wanted to have green eyes, and she insisted that Manami start wearing contacts - to help keep her from getting discovered, and also because she wanted to see the boys' jaws drop when they saw how cute she was.

"OK! We're done!" Rio grinned, running to the two boys, Manami trailing after her, carrying a few shopping bags.

In the fourth hour in the city, they went to a fast-food restaurant and got lunch. Afterwards, in the fifth hour, they agreed on taking a train out of the city and finding a rental place in Kamakura, specifically in the Dai district.

"Why there?" Manami asked the second shortest of the group.

"It has two train lines running through it, and a monoline. If we ever had to get out quickly, we could get on a train with a moment's notice." Nagisa explained, pointing to the digital map on his phone.

"Hm.. good choice, Nagisa." Karma said, looking at the map. "I'll find us a cheap place that we can rent."

Because both of his parents had a lot of money and time, they traveled around the world, leaving their son at home. They frequently deposited money into his bank account so he could pay rent, buy food, and other necessities. The dark haired boy quickly found a place, and made arrangements for them to live in a small two bedroom apartment.

"Isn't that a bit sketchy?" Rio asked, raising an eyebrow. "It's only been twenty minutes and they've already given us the place."

"The more sketchy, the better it is for us." Karma said bluntly. "You see, if we're going to be making quick getaways, we need only pay a couple thousand yen and then we're out of there without a word of complaint from the landlord. As long as he gets money, he doesn't care if we don't give much notice."

"So there really are places like that." Manami mumbled to herself, shivering slightly.

"We should be on our way then." Nagisa said, putting away his phone. "If we get on the next train in five minutes, we'll be their by five."

"Alright," the group agreed, and made their way to the train station.

They made a mistake, talking freely in a public area. They made a mistake, going to that restaurant. They didn't notice the dark-haired man in the business suit listening in on their conversation, didn't see him take down notes, or hear him say, "We've got more runaways."

A/N: I've spent most of my afternoon and evening writing this! And this chapter is done! *collapses in exhaustion* I never thought it would be difficult to make changes to appearances in characters! xP But I'm happy! Now I have a ton of ideas for this story! :D

Really early in the game to say this, but, shipping anyone? xD what do you think of their changed appearances? love, hate, meh?

I'm not decided on any particular pairing in this story... so ya, I'm thinking I'm going to experiment with the cast and create moments between all of 'em, ok, not like all of them at once, but you know, like Karma and Rio, and Manami and Nagisa, and Manami and Karma, and ya :P