#1 Run

"Fucking hell..."

19 year old Yata Misaki cursed as he rubbed on the swelling just on the left corner of his lip. It was the result of the fight they just had with one of the rival gangs of HOMRA, "ACE". Well, it wasn't exactly that much of a fight after their king showed up and wiped every single one of them off effortlessly as always. But still, before that Yata and his partner, Kamamoto Rikio had been fairly outnumbered. Normally Yata wouldn't have had much of a problem in fights - no cuts or bruises, he would have been almost untouchable, but ACE wouldn't be known as a rival group if they hadn't put up a fight now, would it?

"That's what you get for causing all the trouble", chided a blonde man standing at a staggering height of 6 foot 2, turning his head slightly to send a glare from behind his shades at Yata, his cigarette hanging loose between his lips.

In defense, Yata exlaimed, "Those punks came at me first, Kusanagi-san! Ask Kamamoto if you don't believe me!", he pointed a finger at his partner beside him, a man with tanned skin and a darker blonde compared to Kusanagi Izumo's, not to mention a belly as well.

"W-Well, it's quite true", Kamamoto had a couple of bruises himself, but nothing he couldn't handle.

"Even so, why did you do to make them call on just about every single one of'em?"

"They wanted a fight, so I gave them a fight!"

"Jesus, Yata, when will it get into that thick skull of your-"

"Oh give him a break, Kusanagi-san" In came the ever-gentle voice of Totsuka Tatara, who landed a hand on Yata's shoulder, the warm smile plastered on his face as always. "He's probably learned his lesson. Right, Yata?"

"Have you, Yata?

Before Yata could argue further, they were interrupted by the cold voice of their king, so low it resembled the purring of a lion, "Leave it. It's over anyway."

Suoh Mikoto.

The king. The Red King.

The King of HOMRA.

He was a man who gave off a distinct aura of aloofness, what with his cold yet fiery amber eyes, and the lack of emotions shown on his face. It was hard to tell what he was truly thinking. But even though he appeared nonchalant, his clansmen always knew he had their backs.

Nobody could've have asked for a better king.

And walking close to him with her little hand holding on to the edge of his jacket was an albino girl, her eyes an unusual shade of red. Little Anna, forever staying so close to the king who was probably the only one who could give her the safest feeling in the world, the only one with the brightest and liveliest Aura amongst all others in her colour-blind eyes.

Silence engulfed them as they continued on walking down the street, with Yata hanging his head low, his skateboard in one hand and the other gripping loosely on his trusty metal baseball bat, feeling a tad bit guilty for causing the king unnecessary trouble. He silently cursed himself for being such an idiot.

But that was when they all heard an unmistakable roar of motorbike engines coming down the road from across them. It grew louder and louder till it was almost deafening as they came closer.

"Lemme guess. It's those show offs again", a fellow clansmen, Chitose, spoke from behind with an almost disgusted tone in his voice.

"The JOKERS", Kusanagi said under his breath, only it sounded more exasperated than anything. At this, the king made a 'tch' sound, and took a deep pull on his cigarette.

Yata, who was always ready for a fight, locked his eyes on the road, waiting for the first glimpse of those bikes with his eyebrows pulled tightly together, and his grip naturally tightened on his skateboard and bat. "What are they up to now?"

Nobody had an answer for that, as they were all just waiting for the same thing as he is.

And out they came, tearing down the road on their big bikes in almost like a formation of a V shape. The engines roared and growled like a predator on the prowl. They were coming straight for them, those JOKERS. And of course, HOMRA was ever ready for what was coming for them. They all had their faces set, and their fists or weapons at the ready. But what was their reason for this? Why did they approach them so boldly? Was it because of what happened earlier? Because of ACE?

No. As far as they knew, the JOKERS were a dangerous and wild bunch of bikers, otherwise known as Bosozokus, who raced and did things just for the sake of fun. Most of the punks Yata had came across before either looked like they had a loose screw in their heads, or they were just some thrill-seeking sadists who, like him, unfortunately, always jumped at the oppurtunity to start a fight. They would start a fight with just about anybody at all, so they probably had more enemies compared to HOMRA. Why would they want to revenge ACE then?

And that's when Kamamoto pointed out to the street across them, saying, "There! I think they're chasing them!"

Everybody had their eyes averted to where Kamamoto pointed, and there they found their gaze on a young woman holding a little boy's hand, probably about the same age as Anna, running down the street as fast as they can. But not fast enough because how could they ever outrun a motorbike?

The JOKERS had their bikes so close to the streets it looked as if they were just going to ditch the road and hit the pavements, and possibly even the pedestrians as well if they really did so. The roar of the engine was absolutely deafening and irritating it felt as if you couldn't even hear what you're thinking. There were at least six or eight of them, all after the same thing. The girl and the kid.

Most of them had all sorts of their weapons out and ready to strike her when they had the chance. Crowbars, baseball bats, machete. And guns. One was already aiming at the girls head, but as he pulled the trigger, it missed her merely by inches and whizzed past her ear. This made her duck, but she was quick to recover and continue running for her life.

"We've gotta help them!", Yata exlaimed, his grip on his bat was so tight his knuckles have gone white. Before he could even get any response from his fellow clansmen, he was already on the move. Dropping his skateboard onto the ground and with one swift movement, he was stepping on it and with one great push off the ground with his right foot, he was heading straight for them, his bat slowly being engulfed in blazing red flame. It was one of perks of being part of HOMRA. It was a gift from the king. An extraordinary power like none other - the ability to bend fire at your will.

One of the bikes were so close to the pavements, so close to the girl that the outstretched hand of the man sitting behind the rider, holding a crowbar could almost hit her if he could stretch out just a little bit more. But before he could do that, the man found himself being thrown off the bike along with his fellow rider and they both fell hard on the road, the motorbike swerving out of control and finally dropped onto the road like a dead cat, it's roar lowered into a purr. Yata had striked the rider hard in the face with his flaming bat. They were so focused on the girl and the kid the rider didn't even see him coming.

"You punks think you fucking own the road?!"

Huffing and puffing, the young woman chanced a glance backwards at the young lad who had just saved her. But a glance at his back was all it was and her eyes were back on the streets, running and running as fast as she could, but it wasn't her fastest, she couldn't because of the boy beside her, running as fast as his little frail legs could take him, sweating and gasping for air in his lungs. She held on tight to his little hand, and so did he.

She didn't turn back again as she heard the young man behind her fighting off the bikers. She didn't turn back to see if he was doing fine or not. He was an idiot to get involved anyway. She didn't need anyone's help. She didn't want any. But that all didn't matter for now. All that mattered to her was to get out of here alive and get to somewhere safe.

But was that fire she saw? On the young man's baseball bat?

They had to cross the road to get to the street across. They didn't have time to look left and right for any cars, she just ran straight for it and fortunately made it across with no risks of getting hit by any vehicles at all. The roar of the engine was still loud and deafening, and so close. They were still tailing them.

Can't expect one man to fight off the whole gang now, can you?

"Keep running, Ikki! Don't stop. Don't look back", the girl repeated over and over to the little boy at the mere age of 10, his red hoodie pulled over his dark brown hair and almost covering his eyes, backpack bumping on his back as he ran. He didn't respond in any way, just did what he was told and kept running, gradually struggling to keep pace. But he never gave up.

Even though she had told him not to look back, she did what she knew was a bad idea and looked back herself. She saw that the young man had help from a few other guys, and there it was - flaming red fire. Some were on their fists, some on their weapons like the man's baseball bat ealier. They had taken down at least 4 or 5 bikers, but the rest were not stopping to join in the fight. They were still after her. And here they come-

"Ooof!"

She should've been setting her eyes ahead and not on what's behind her. If she had, she wouldn't have bumped into someone.

She didn't have time to apologize, she didn't even have the time to look up to who she'd bumped into. She just swerved sideways to continue running but before she could take another step she felt a hand grabbing onto her arm, stopping her.

Her first thought was, 'oh no, they've got me'.

Her second thought was to run. Fucking run.

And that was what she did. Or at least attempted to. She jerked her arm to get away from the man but it was a firm grip. She wanted to hit him with her other hand, but at the same time she didn't want to release the boy's hand. She struggled a couple more times, "Let me go!", she yelled. This time she looked up, and saw that it wasn't any of the faces of her enemy. Vivid lime green eyes met striking ambers, strands of dark red hair falling down on the man's emotionless and unreadable face, half-burnt cigarette hanging loosely between his lips.

Kusanagi held out his hand as if to steady her, "Whoa, calm down! We've got things under control here now"

"Don't worry, we're here to help", Totsuka spoke, his smile so gentle and warm it really almost convinced her to let her guard down. Almost.

"I don't need anybody's help", the girl said through gritted teeth, her eyes glaring at the three men, tall in stature and steady like pillars, standing in her way. It was then when she realized there was a little girl with pearl white hair standing just behind the red-haired man, looking up at her, and then turned her gaze to the little boy.

She looked up at the man who had his grip on her, and found him peering down on her with a hint of quizzical in his mesmerizing eyes, as if he was searching for something, yet his face was still impossible to read. And in that flash of a moment, she noticed something rather familiar about those amber orbs, but she couldn't quite point her finger at it.

She kept her face set, eyes glaring right at him and refusing to step back. After what felt like a moment too long to waste, the girl felt the grip on her arm loosen and, without a second thought, she ran, still holding as tightly as she did on the boy's hand, who was looking back at the little albino girl as he ran.

Mikoto pulled a long drag on his cigarette with his eyes closed before throwing it onto the pavement, ending it's last bit of life by squashing it under his shoe.

"Is it just me, or did that girl seem a little familiar?", asked Izumo as he watched the two of them run.

There was no reply to this from the King, just an apathetic 'hng' that gave no real indication whether he was agreeing with his friend or not, his cigarette hand returning to it's usual place in his pockets as he moved forward. And with every step he made, you could see red flames dancing around his shoe, and it grows and grows with each step. Izumo, his trustworthy friend for so long and HOMRA's second in command, was walking behind him, while Tatara, who could not fight at all, stayed back with Anna, mumbling to himself with a small curl on his lips, "I knew I should've brought my camera along."

A biker approached them, his bike making the deafening roar and the punk sitting behind had stood up from his seat and stretched out his hand that was holding a metal pole. He yelled and yelled as he came closer, ready to swing the pole right into the King's face. No matter how idiotic the JOKERS were, sometimes you can't help but be impressed by their courage and fearlessness. But if they really were fearless, why were they riding around in their bikes instead of getting down to fight properly?

Mikoto simply held out his flaming hand, and when the metal pole came, he grabbed it and with one good swing with both hands, he sent the idiot flying off the bike and rolling on his back in the middle of the road. The biker cursed aloud as turned to see his partner, and that was his mistake for he was caught off guard by Kusanagi when he simply flicked his cigarette at the motorbike, and in no time at all, it caught fire and exploded.

Yata, Kamamoto and the others had done a pretty good job and had taken down all of them, and the JOKERS, admitting defeat, finally retreated in the remaining bikes that hadn't crashed and burned.

Clansmen of HOMRA cheered for their second victory of the day.

"NO BLOOD! NO BONE! NO ASH!"

And all this while, the girl had turned around and watched in awe as they fought to help her fight off the enemy. Watched in amazement at the fire they seemed to had control over. But after deciding she had wasted too much time already, they continued on the run for safety, ignoring the fact that they might have just ran into safety not too long ago.

AUTHOR'S NOTE / please excuse the cheesy and crappy title, for I have failed to come up with a much better one :c and I can honestly say I'm still trying to figure out where all this is going, because it didn't start out exactly like how I planned to. I'm not making and sense now, am I? haha. Just bear with me people.

Comments, critics, reviews are much welcomed!