Author's Note: Continuing Kiri POV and flashback.

Disclaimer: Disclaimers are stupid because you already know I don't own, so no longer will I repeat it on this story.

Chapter 2

Last Chapter:

'Where are they going?!'

Now:

'What's happening?' I thought as the man in the Armani suit stepped up to me, cell phone in hand, seemingly appraising my worth.

I wanted to scream, to shout, to kick the guy in his crotch (A/N: Aha!), but I couldn't speak or move much.

The man holding me back had lifted his hand from my mouth, seeing as there was nobody else around, but still, I could form no words. I was scared; I had no doubt of that. I was frozen, feeling a fear unbeknownst to me as I had never felt it before, like some unknown apparition, ablating my courage and allocating it to the outer reaches of some place that I felt I could never apprehend (A/N: OKAY! Accentuating Alliteration too much!).

The Armani guy seemed to finish looking me over and continued speaking into his phone, "Yup. This is her, alright. Long auburn hair, light, peachy skin. Little on the short side, though."

Behind the men, a black BMW 5-series with a number one on the license plate followed a boy about my age as he ran for dear life.

"Sho-chan! Come on! Let's go to the salon with Papa!" a middle-aged old man called to the boy.

"No, Dad! Everybody's so touchy-feely there!"

The men seemed too preoccupied with their catch, namely me, to notice the ruckus. I, however, continued speculating the antics of the father and son. 'They sure don't seem like father and son, though.'

I watched as the kid, Sho-chan, apparently, jumped behind a garbage can as his father yelled, "Sho-chan! Where are you?" His father continued driving down the block, almost leaving my view. 'Weird.'

'Wait! Someone's here!' My newfound hope encouraged me to scream out as loud as I could.

"Help! HELP me!" I yelled over and over before the man behind me clamped his hand on my mouth once again.

However, it seemed that 'Sho-chan' had heard me as he was, at the moment, skulking up behind the big lummox of a man with the cell.

Small as he was, he slipped around cell phone guy and did a drop kick in an unmentionable spot on the guy holding me captive.

"Aah! Damn kid! What the heck?!" he yelled.

'Sho-chan' grabbed my hand, and regardless of the tiny red spots on his arm, we ran as fast as two little kids could. I stumbled, falling to my knees on the hard pavement, but he didn't abandon me, despite the danger of the men on our tails.

He led me in between two whitewashed suburban houses, and we squeezed behind a bush together. It seemed he couldn't trust me to trust him as he held his hand over my mouth and crouched over me.

Being up close to his face as he watched for the kidnappers, I realized he seemed familiar. Then, I noticed that a small emblem of a number one was embroidered to his shirt. 'How pious. Oh! The contest!' I remembered the small hairstyling competition I had won. It was fun to watch this kid drop down in defeat as if losing to anyone was the end of the world.

Just then, Sho-chan and I saw the kidnappers approaching, with their looming shadows enveloping us.

"Thought you could get away, huh, kid?" one of them said as he lifted Sho-chan by his shirt collar.

"Uh…" Sho-chan stuttered, clutching at his neck. They were hurting him!

'It's my chance to act! I have to help!' I thought as I jumped up and smacked the man who was holding Sho-chan.

"Why you…!" he yelled, reaching for me, but before he could get to me, a hand draped over his shoulder. It was another man in a suit.

'When will this end?!' I thought with both fear and anticipation as I clung to Sho-chan.

"Well, well, well! Look at what we have here," a slightly familiar voice called out. "Four men attacking mere children." It was Sho-chan's father! "I'm a powerful man, you people. Do you dare to bother the son of Narumi Yujiro?

The men cringed as they saw him. I saw them scream and flail their arms as they raced away. Though, it could have been because they saw a ginormous bodyguard, standing nearby the man.

"Sho-chan!" Narumi-san yelled as he squeezed his son in a big hug. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine! I'm fine!" Sho-chan assured his father while defending himself from Narumi-san's rather… poisonous kisses, from the look of it.

Just who were my saviors, exactly?

To my surprise, Sho-chan knelt down in front of me, pointing out my bloody, scraped knees and a couple of scratches on my face. I hadn't even noticed them as the adrenaline pumping through my body was far too strong, clouding my mind. I was still scared.

Sho-chan asked me, "Are you okay?" 'Not really.' "Well, you have scraped knees and scratches." Then, he turned to his father. "Hey, Dad, let's take her back to the salon to fix her up."

"Sure, okay, Sho-chan!" the man said as he approached me. I jumped back away from him, uncomfortable with men from my fateful encounter with the kidnappers. "Oh, it's alright! I won't hurt you," he coaxed.

"N-no, it's okay," I said anxiously as I stepped backwards.

"It's alright; we won't hurt you," Sho-chan said.

"N-no, it's fine. I can get home on my own."

"But aren't you afraid of this happening again?" Sho-chan asked with a worried look on his face. He was right; it was as if he had stared right into my heart and realized the truth. I was frightened of another incident.

But, the fear of jumping into a car with a creepy old man overwhelmed my apprehension of another kidnapping. That could turn into another kidnapping in a second! Even with Sho-chan coming along, I couldn't trust the man.

"My house is close. I'll be fine." I lied. I knew I wouldn't be fine. I would jump at every rustle of a bush or a flutter of a bird's wings in the sky.

"Well… okay," Sho-chan agreed warily, eyeing me suspiciously, with evident concern for my bloody knees, as he was ushered into the car by his father.

After his last worried glance at me form the car's backseat, I started my journey back home…alone. And id did cringe at the rustle of bushes, squirrels running up trees, and all other noises.

In fact, I saw a man with a plastic bag dangling from his arm as he walked along the sidewalk, going the opposite direction I was going, with mere meters separating us. The bag looked like an innocent shopping bag, but you never know; he could have just been at a knife store, buying knives or something (A/N: Hehehe…). As I nervously passed him, I caught a store brand name on it: WALMART.

Oh.

'This will be a long trip home… if I ever make it back.'

Author's Note: -heaves a heavy sigh- That took a while to write. But I didn't like this chapter. It was harder to write, and it wasn't interesting to me.

I'll enjoy writing the next chapter, depending on whether or not the wonderful readers wish me to continue, even though I am sometimes bad at updating. I should do one-shots.

Well then! We all like green buttons, so maybe you'll try and press the one under these rambling paragraphs.

So, feel free to (or be forced to) review.

~.