A gray scooter painted with stars in a decidedly Impressionist style zoomed past Nobuyuki and Sachi as they walked to school, familiar pink hair trailing behind. It swung a loop, and then decidedly familiar white hair was zooming towards them. It braked inches before impact with Sachi.

"Yo," Takumi said. He tapped the girl behind him on the shoulder. "Ren, it's Nobuyuki-kun and Sachi-chan."
"Hey, guys," she said.

"You know," Takumi said, glancing over their tiny house, "in the center of the city it's all little houses like this. Rim's not really supposed to have anything but skyscrapers, though."

"Maybe Granny didn't want to sell her house to developers or something," Sachi said.

"Maybe, but–" Takumi said. He was interrupted by the tremendous sound of a dozen or so shouting juvenile delinquents beating a path through a nearby alley, chasing after a pair of figures that dashed across the street and into another alley before Nobuyuki could make out much about them. Sachi tensed and took off, running towards the commotion.

"Sachi! You'll be late!" Nobuyuki shouted after her rapidly diminishing form.

"Don't care!" she called back.

"People will think you're a delinquent!"
"Cool!"
"She's hopeless," Nobuyuki said. "I'm following her. Wanna come with?"

"I don't have a death wish, Nobuyuki-kun," Takumi said. "But if you do, that's cool! See you at school!"
And then Nobuyuki was after her, chasing after his sister on reluctant legs. Sachi and the delinquents rounded the corner of the alley a little while before Nobuyuki did. As he was turning the corner, he was viciously jostled and bumped by the rapidly-retreating crowd of delinquents, who were intermittently swearing vengeance and screaming in terror. At the far end of the dark and grimy alley stood a tall boy in a denim jacket and an even taller girl with reddish-brown hair tied in a long braid. Also present were one motorcycle and Sachi Shinohara, who was talking to them animatedly.

"What," Nobuyuki choked out as loud as he could. It came out a dull, small sound.

"Oh, hey, this is my brother Nobuyuki. He's a bit of a futz," Sachi said.

"Hey ya!" the girl said. "I'm Yuzuki Itagaki. He's Kuzuo Sakane. It's nice to meet you!"

"Motorcycle," Nobuyuki said in that same tiny voice. He stumbled towards the group slowly.

"We were just talking to your sister," Kuzuo said. "She's, apparently, pretty impressed. Ever considered becoming a delinquent?"

"Yes," Sachi said without any extra thought. Nobuyuki's knees weakened and he fell.

"Goddamn 'adventure' bullshit, Sachi," he muttered from his place on the floor.

"Well, if you ever decide to drop out of school, or whatever, hit us up!" Kuzuo said, ignoring him.

"Oh, hey," Yuzuki said, "You guys are students at Mono-no-Aware, right? I couldn't tell with just Sachi, but you're, you know, actually wearing the uniform."

"Yup," Sachi replied. "Just transferred.
' "Oh, badass," Kuzuo said. "We went there up until graduation last year. 'Parently, we've got a reputation over there. Try asking around about us!"

The boy took his motorcycle from where it leaned against the far wall and stood it up, getting on with practiced ease. Yuzuki got on behind him, hands on his shoulders. "Don't be late for your second day of school, squirts!" she said as the motorcycle roared to life with a terrific and horrifying sound like an entire arsenal being fired off at once, and then it careened out the alley, took a sharp turn, and disappeared.

"Pretty cool guys, huh?" Sachi said conversationally. A long, pregnant silence filled the air

"What the hell, Sachi?" Nobuyuki shouted all of a sudden. Sachi started and looked up.

"Hey, there was a motorcycle!"

"We're going to be late!" Nobuyuki said.

"Pfft, maybe you will." Sachi very casually scampered up a drainage pipe and pulled along windowsills until she towered over Nobuyuki.

"But look at it this way– you had an adventure! How many of those do you think you had back home, huh?" she shouted down before shimmying around the corner of the building and losing Nobuyuki. Nobuyuki shouted in impotent rage and began to jog to class.