Ninja Star
Angel of Poverty
Haruhi Fujioka was slammed into the dirty alley wall. The force of the blow didn't match the physique of her attacker; he was skinny and petite.
Haruhi's head raged. She tried regaining her balance but a knife was quickly pressed to her cheek, the cold metal glinting viciously. "Give me your wallet," the figure commanded. He had a voice that didn't suit him either and his feet were smaller than average.
"Haruhi, come see this!" Voices shouted from beyond the alley. The attacker tensed and pushed harder against Haruhi, knowing he didn't have much time. Haruhi struggled, taking the thug off guard. She twitched her head, causing the knife to slice into the first, thin layer of skin on her cheek. She cried out, more out of shock than pain. The mugger cursed under his breath.
"Wallet, now!" The mugger released his pressure on the knife to Haruhi's face as she reached an arm down to her pocket. This was her chance to scream for help.
"Senpai! Senpai, help!" She screamed over and over. Her attacker threw her against the wall again, muting her screams to whispers. The force of the action caused his hood to slip back. Not enough to completely dispel the shadows around his face or reveal his hair color, but enough to tell that he was a she.
Seeing her attacker in a literal new light, Haruhi noticed that the girl had a thick, star-shaped scar on her cheek. She also had two different colored eyes; one green and one blue.
"Haruhi!" Both girls' attention was grabbed by a blonde high school boy's frantic scream.
"Senpai, help!" Haruhi screamed, struggling in the shocked girls grasp. Two more boys, one very tall and the other extremely short, swung around the corner. Haruhi's attacker gave up. She quickly released Haruhi and bounded down the alleyway, where the tall boy gave chase.
She ran to the end of the alley where the boy had almost caught up with her. Looking around at the dead-end she noticed, and hopped onto, an old dumpster. From there, she ran and wall-jumped to a window ledge. The gritty window was yellowed and gave no hints as to what was inside. When she tried to pry it open, she came to the conclusion it had been welded shut. She muttered swears under her breath and gave a backwards glance at the victim and friends. Seven boys. How could she have known?
She turned back to the wall again and dug her fingers into the space between bricks. She scaled the wall, the soles of her shoes scraping against it with a metal clinking. The hood of her jacket still shading her head. Shading her future.
What was he doing here? He felt so out of place, like he was missing his other half; Missing Kaoru.
Hikaru leaned against the street light, illuminated by its harsh yellow glow. This was the third night he had snuck out. Crawled out of bed in the late hours of the night, after Kaoru fell asleep. Walked from his house to the beat-up old neighborhoods on the far side of town.
He was getting tired of the privileged lifestyle he had become so used to over the past fifteen and a half years. He wanted to live on the other side of life, to experience struggle. The unforgiving grasp of poverty. It was truly a wish only a naive rich kid would make, but it was his wish nonetheless. He just didn't know how to find it.
Luckily for Hikaru Hitachiin, the experience of a new side of life was about to be delivered to him by the angel of poverty herself. The experience of another lifestyle was standing right behind him.
And she was stealing his wallet.
The girl without a home. The face without a name.