Author's Note:This version of the chapter is actually the second version, reedited for this rewritten version of the story. However, it wasn't completely rewritten because the author is a lazy bum, so it might be a bit confusing because of that. Sorry!
Chapter One - A Boy of Hazel Hair
The sun had decided to beat down on the city that day mercilessly. Despite the early morning hours the sky was already cloudless, and the slight breeze was prematurely warm. It was definately summer.
Despite the blazing heat that the fireball in the sky shone down upon the city, it was bustling with activity. Business suit - clad figures walked up and down the sidewalks, many with phones to their ears. Groups of chatting highschoolers pranced about, screaming kids chased each other around with worried parents in tow.
From his position on the third floor's balcony, he could see the bustling consumerism depot that was the shopping center. The building was massive, spanning a good ten floors filled to the brim with shops (and by default, shoppers.) Signs denoting sales and other special deals were scattered across the walls. Before him, shoppers carried handfuls of bags as they walked, sometimes in groups. Many were smiling and laughing. They all looked so damn happy.
He, on the oher hand, was not. Overheated and underwhelmed by the enviroment around him, the boy had resorted to staring blankly out into the crowds. He had been there for a reason, he remembered, to look for someone. He had been shoved out of the small little clothing shop that he worked in out into the hazy summer atmosphere to keep a lookout for some person that had just been hired. He resented the co worker that had instigated the idea.
"Hey, you!" One of his coworkers (he had already forgotton her name- or had he even learned it in the first place?) had yelled at him from behind the counter. He set down the boxes he was carrying and looked over at her.
"I have a name, you know," the boy muttered, irritated at the female clerk that had just summoned him. "It's not 'you', either.."
"Fine then, Kano," she retorted back, clearly reading the name off of the nametag perched on his shirt.
"Yes?" The boy, or, rather, Kano, returned the snip with an empty stare (despite snickering inwardly.)
"Manager's ordered one of us to go look for someone who got hired a couple days ago that's supposed to start working today."
"I'll cover your register duty, then."
"Hey, aren't you going on lunch break here in a few minutes? I don't get off for a while, can't you go look for 'em then?" Obviously, that was to be read as 'I don't want to do it, you do it.'
Figuring that spending his break looking for some person was far superior to sitting in the back of the shop, Kano went out to go search. With no idea as to the kid's appearance, he had just positioned himself where he thought he could see the floors below.
I guess it's not that bad. I got out of lifting boxes everywhere for a little bit, he thought, trying to convince himself that the scenario could have been worse. But I have no clue who I'm looking for... Another few minutes were spent in the company of noisy shoppers passing him by.
I guess he'd look lost? That would make sense. Because why else would I be here?
As if on cue, Kano noticed such an individual on the other wing of the floor. (On the other side of the impractically placed void that took up the middle of the level.) It was a male, whose light brown hair looked as if said individual had stuck his finger in an electrical outlet earlier that day. The most obvious clue, however, was the aimless walking about while staring at what appeared to be a floor plan.
Kano began to head towards the lost creature. They had now resorted to pestering some woman while gesturing madly to their map. Brushing past various masses of people, Kano began to notice how much said figure stood out. Aside from his poofball of a hairstyle (Kano certainly wasn't one to talk- his hair wasn't much better,) his clothes looked as if they had been bought from the second hand store- even his left pant leg was sloppily hemmed up much shorter than the right. He sported a light greenish hoodie even in the summer heat, and tennis shoes that were hanging ont their last threads. A dingy canvas messanger bag hung over his shoulder.
Something else seemed to stand out about them, but, not being able to place quite what it was, he just brushed it off.
Just a few steps from the person, Kano jumped backwards into another passerby when the male turned to face him. After muttering an apology to the space where the onlooker had been (as usual, they hadn't even bothered to stop,) Kano faced the male again. Bright hazel eyes seemed to stare into his very being was what he was meet with. It was only slightly unnerving. After a second of an awkward stare, the other spoke up.
"Excuse me, but do you happen to know of a clothing shop around here?" The male looked expectantly at Kano, then kept going befre he could utter any response. "I mean, there's lots of clothing shops around here, but I mean like a little one, that's not on any of the directories? I mean, it was probably on the dierctories, but there were so many stores on there and I forgot the name of the one I was looking for-" the male finally shut up when he noticed Kano's stare of confusion.
"Why a small shop? You could find just about anything at a larger one." If he had sad that to a customer, his manager surely would have slapped him.
The other male looked to become even more flustered. "W-well, I'm actually supposed to start working there today, but the woman who called me never told me where it was.." Probably the same one who kicked him out on his break. Kano was continually renewing his dislike of the woman, it seemed.
"Funny, I'm supposed to be looking for new hired hand that one of my co-workers convienently forgot to give directions to the shop to," Kano responded. "I work at a clothing shop as well," he added when he noticed the male's look of puzzlement. "Maybe you're the one that's supposed to work there?"
"... The woman who hired me might remember me if I was," the male finally added. "I-if you could show me, I'd be appriciative."
Waving for the figure to follow, Kano turned around and began trotting off again towards the store. Suprisingly to him, the male kept up. His boots clicked slightly against the concrete floor, their echos strangely loud, probably due to the awkward silence between him and the strange individual following him.
Halfway across the floor laid the shop. It's front was extremely unimpressive: a plain white awning extended over a black painted door. It had one window, in which was posed a single mannequin. A little red neon sign hung on the door that read "open". Kano shoved the door open, revealing the interior. Walls also painted black, upon which were perched many a shelf and clothing rack, around which were scattered a few standing displays, filled with yet more clothes, all dimly lit by a couple of feeble iridescent bulbs threating to go out. In one corner sat the checkout counter with a rather dinky register, sitting next to a coffee cup with some pencils sticking out of it. Below them hung a sign reading "no checks". As expected, nobody sat behind the counter.
Telling the other male to wait there, Kano plodded back towards the shop's lone office. Poking his head in revealed the shop's two other employees- the same woman who had shoved him out earlier, and the manager. He gestured back towards the shop's front, and popped back out. The manager followed him.
The woman had a quite meancing appearance that had the tendancy to unerve those who came to her shop. So it didn't surprise Kano to see the other figure jump a little at her. She nodded in his general direction, then gestured for Kano to take over the register when she noticed a customer that had entered the store. She then turned back towards the office, with the figure following tentativly behind. She never really liked to talk much, and always preferred to just point to things, much to his annoyance.
Plopping himself down behind the counter, Kano watched as the customer poked about a clothing rack on the other end of the store. It appeared to be a girl about his age, who for some reason wore a bright pink jacket with the hood pulled over her head. After a minute of sorting through various articles, she pulled out one and turned to walk to the front. She then plopped the thing onto the counter (Kano noted that it looked rather like a shirt,) and looked expectantly at him.
For the second time that day, Kano found himself being stared at blankly; and for the second time, he felt the same feeling of vague déjà Slightly creeped out, he rang it up.
"Twelve hundred yen." The girl fished out a couple coins and plopped them down onto the counter before him. He pulled open the register and fished out the change. Handing the coins back to her, Kano noticed the girl's expression had taken on a similar note of confusion to his, as if something about him was unclear to her. The day was becoming increasingly odd to him. But then she turned on a dime and walked out.
Sitting behind the register, Kano only realized he had zoned out when the worker with the unknown name pushed him out of the seat behind the counter. Standing up and brushing himself off, he shot a glare at said figure. She just gestured towards the back in return.
"What happened to that shipment from earlier, hmm?" she questioned.
Kano inwardly groaned as he plodded off to go unload some more boxes of whatever had arrived earlier that morning.
