... And it was. She never even thought about that detail. Of course, she could just blow a hole in the ceiling using her vectors, then jump out, but that would give away her secret. No girl could magically blow away a ceiling and jump 10 feet high out of a moving train. It seems the smartest thing to do was to go with the flow. In the midst of her thoughts, she noticed Kanae staring at her from a few rows down. It was evident that she was waiting for something durastic to happen, but was a little more relaxed than she was earlier. Kaede really didn't want to be on her bad side. Kanae could definitely do worse to her relationship with Kouta than Yuka ever could. She knew. She had to somehow get Kanae to like her if she was ever to stay as Kouta's friend, not to mention being... More.
"Hey, uh, Kaede?" Kouta asked, seemingly coming out of nowhere.
"What's up?"
"Don't you think your parents will be worried after they notice you are gone?" He asked, almost confused, but more worried. Kaede noticed this. She didn't want to tell him that she was an orphan right off the bat, it seemed embarassing to her, but she wasn't really presented with another choice was she?
"I uh..." Kaede started, Kouta just stared at her intently, waiting for her response. "I don't really... Have... Well, parents at all really..." She said slowly.
"Wait, like... An orphan?" Kouta inquired.
"Basically, yeah. And I assure you, no one there will miss me. Nor will I miss them... And I think it's about time I had a vacation from that place anyway." Kaede smiled. Kouta was in a grey area of emotion.
"I see... But I'm sure this would still be a problem..." Kouta started, but was interupted yet again by Kaede.
"Well, I really don't have much of a choice do I? It's not like I'm just walking away for the heck of it. It's more like I'm stuck on a train with my only friend, and a little girl that thinks I blew people up at a festival. Still better than that place though. I think this will be a nice vacation."
"If this is what you call vacation..." Kouta said, dropping the subject.
The train ride was long, but finally, the family arrived at Hokkaidou. Kaede was suddenly nervous. She had nowhere to stay, no money to use for food. She could kill another family, but she didn't want to give in to the voice. She knew that if she did something that she considered small as that, she would eventually be deep enough in the voice's control that she will attempt to harm Kouta again. She had to stay true to the promise she made herself. She would never listen to that voice. Never again.
"Okay, have a nice day!" The driver said as Kouta's family continued to walk off the train.
"Hey, you, where is your ticket?" The man inquired. Kaede suddenly remembered she just snuck on. She had no ticket.
"Eh! Where is it? A stowaway! Not on my train!" The driver yelled. Kouta, and his family looked back at the ruckus. Kouta's father dismissed it, as it was just another stowaway trying to cheat the system. But she somehow looked familiar. Had he seen her before?
Kaede looked at the furious man, and let out a single vector, and let it flow into his head, and then she slightly moved a muscle in the man's brain, leaving him dazed. She let a quick glance at Kanae escape her, she was wide eyed, certain she now had proof of Kaede's guilt.
"Here's my ticket. She said, holding out a blank sheet of paper, around the size of a ticket. The man was dazed to the point that not only was his vision blurred, but he wasn't thinking straight.
"Ah, kay, you can... Eh... Go now." The driver managed to get out. (AN: Don't worry, the daze faded soon after, he was fine afterward. There was no huge crash, or anything.)
"Hey!" Kanae shouted, pointing at Kaede. Kaede was not startled. Not a bit.
"What now Kanae?" Kouta inquired.
"Didn't you see that? One of those strange arms went into that guy's brain!" She shouted, mouth agape.
"Crazy talk, Kanae. Really, what do you have against Kaede-san?" Kouta responded carelessly, with an almost frusturated sigh.
"You... Can't see them?" Kanae asked quietly, eyes bigger than half dollars. Kaede's eyes also widened at this, this was proof. She could see her 'hands'.
"What are you even talking about!" Was Kouta's only response. Kanae decided to let it go for now, as she was fighting a losing battle, She wasn't stupid, ya know!
"Home, sweet home!" Kouta said/breathed. His family followed, smiling and continued to walk to... Wherever they were going. Kaede just stood there, and soon walked in the other direction. This was no buisness of hers. She decided to leave Kouta and his family to it for now. More importantly, she needed a way to survive. How was she to live without killing? She had no money, no family, and she didn't even know where she was going. She had nothing. Not even a pointer to what she should do. She walked down an area, very similar to the festival, just not as... Festive. There were many stands, with produce items. Then it came to her. It wasn't really her style, but if she wasn't going to kill, she would have to steal. Atleast until a better option presents itself. Anyway, she had a pretty interesting idea on how she would pull all of this off.
She walked up to an apple stand. It wasn't much, but a worthy test subject. She kept hidden, and used one of her vectors to send a couple of the apples rolling out of the box they were in. The shopkeeper ran for them, just as expected, and she snuck up and quickly took a few and ran off. He didn't suspect a thing. Humans are so dumb. She decided to grab a bag, and did this all along the row of stands. No one caught her, but she suspected if this kept going on, someone would. In the bag she had enough food to last her weeks, if she was able to preserve them. Having only half a loaf of bread a day, she ussually didn't need much to eat. This would be a nice week. If only her dog could have been here. Kaede was sure he would be satisfied as well. If this food was going to last though, she needed a refrigerator of some sort. A cooler. Easy. She saw many medium sized coolers holding drinks, and ice. She quickly grabbed one while no one was looking. Now she had a variety of things to drink as well! How had she never thought of doing this before! She was lost in thought when she heard a stern man's voice.
"HEY! That's my cooler!" He shouted running at her. Luckily he didn't see her face, and most of her signature pink hair was covered by her hat. She used her vectors to push herself up from the ground, and onto the roof of the nearest building, sucessfully escaping the young, drunk man. She decided to go into the nearest forest, and use the trees as minor shelter from rain, and heat. It wasn't the best, but she would live for now. She had lived in FAR worse conditions than this.
A week had passed, and not once had she seen Kouta. She was begining to feel lonely, and she was almost out of food, and drinks. She really never tried most of these. Sprite, Coke, Pepsi... She recognized one as Bud-Light. She knew that was an alchololic beverage, so she threw that one out. She needed to re-stock. She headed out to the market district , but before she arrived she ran into someone strangly familiar. Oh yeah. That's Kouta's father... She thought, as the man began to realize she was staring at him. He looked back and recognized her as the girl on the train... But also... Then it clicked. She was the missing child from the newspaper! By the time he figured it out, he looked back in her direction and she was already gone. He had a bad feeling about this little girl.