"Hah…"
A decidedly resigned sigh escaped from a teenager's lips.
Once in a while the boy's brown eyes would scan his surrounding as he strolled through the twilight-colored street. When he spotted people beginning to fill the sidewalk, the golden brown-haired boy would duck into the nearest alley he could find. Then, he would continue walking towards his destination acting as if nothing happened, like he didn't just make a last-minute change of plan on his course of walking. And yet…
"Hah…"
…another sighed escaped from his lips again, losing count of how many times he had turned into an alleyway between two buildings in the past ten minutes or so.
'I want to go home…'
Even as Izumi thought that sullenly, he knew he couldn't just do that.
Well, it's not like he had any plan or anything. Actually, he didn't even want to go anywhere today—especially on a day like today. After what happen this morning and during lunch break, he had come across more minor incidents before finally he got home from school. Naturally, he would like to spend the evening at home—just to be on the safe side, really. He didn't need any more problems today, thank you very much.
That being said… Earlier, when he was lazing around on his bed with a book on his hands, suddenly the door to his room was flung open.
"Izumi-chan~" the shoulder-length, golden brown-haired woman called out the moment she was through the door, "You're not busy, are you?" Without waiting for an answer she continued, "Could you go grocery shopping for me?"
"Eh? Now?" asked Izumi, looking up from the book he was reading.
"Yup," Yoshinaga Kurumi answered, holding out a piece of paper to him.
"Kaasan (Mom), can't you do that yourself?"
"It's for our dinner tonight. Or more like…I forgot to buy some of the ingredients, so… It's either Izumi-chan gets going now or no dinner tonight."
"…"
"Come on, Izumi-chan. You just need to go there, take the things on the list, pay them with the money I give you, and then go home. Simple, right?"
Yes, it was indeed a simple errand. But…
"Today…is a bad day for me," he mumbled in reply.
"Oh, I see… So Izumi-chan really can't help his beloved mother for something as simple as grocery shopping…," she uttered quietly.
Guilt was beginning to make itself known once Izumi heard that. Her words and voice sounded somewhat dejected to his ears. Soon after, he noticed that his mother's pretty face was marred slightly with sadness and there was a flicker of disappointment in her warm brown eyes.
Unable to hold her gaze, he looked away, trying his best to ignore the feeling creeping through his stomach unpleasantly, and failing miserably. He should have known better than trying to argue with her, trying to refuse. The guilt he felt was unbearable. He couldn't say no to her.
'It can't be helped, I suppose.'
Finally Izumi let out a defeated sigh after remained silent for a long time.
"All right, all right, I understand. I'll go," he agreed halfheartedly.
"Yay!" Kurumi cheered, her hands clasped in delight, "I know Izumi-chan is a dependable son."
Looking at the satisfactory look on her face, he couldn't help but feel wary. It felt as if she had deceived him cleverly. Shaking his head, he pushed the thought into the back of his mind. He dragged himself out of bed with an absolute reluctant before, all of a sudden, he tripped over his blanket on the floor and landed flat on his stomach with a shriek.
"Izumi-chan! Are you all right?" his mother asked in a concerned voice.
"Y-yes," he replied with a groan.
She reached out her hand and helped her son getting up to his feet.
"Geez… You need to be more careful, Izumi-chan. That's why I told you to clean up your room," she admonished him, leaving the room after placing her money and the small memo on his desk.
Izumi changed his uniform to casual clothes—a white long-sleeved shirt and a pair of beige pants—and put on his lime green jacket before grabbing the items on his desk.
"I'm off," he said while he rushed out of the Yoshinaga residence.
"Be careful on the way!" his mother responded back.
"Okay!"
Walking leisurely down the quiet residential street, the teenager mentally pulled out a map to the convenience store close by. There were three of them that he could think of. The first one was in front of one of the bus stops, the second one was a few blocks away from his house, and the third one was around the intersection of the main street on the edge of the residential area.
Judging from the distances between each of them and his current location, the second one was the nearest. At the same time, it was also the store…uh, he wanted to stay farthest away from—for more than one reason. Let's just say it had discounts on almost everything everyday to the point of being the favorite store of approximately all the housewives in the neighborhood, especially after 4 o'clock in the evening.
"Ugh, I don't want to go to that place," he mumbled, his face scrunched up in pain.
(Izumi had decided he wouldn't take a step on that place ever again after the first time he ran an errand for his mother and had to battle with the housewives over the discount items. Who knew they could be so vicious when it came down to it.)
Since the first one was in the most busiest street, it would be impossible for him to avoid the hustle and bustle of the rush hour—without any drastic measure like taking a long detour, that's it. So, the only option left was the third one. There was one little problem though.
"It's located in the area not that far from the shopping district…"
That was a problem, because he didn't want to bump into someone and inadvertently caused some trouble—something that happened awfully a lot today. As he considered his options, his mind was drawing up several routes. Depending on the situation, he might have to take a lot of shortcuts and back alleys in here and there, after all.
"Somehow I feel tired just by thinking about it," he complained silently.
Now… Fifteen minutes later after he had began his trip to the convenience store; Yoshinaga Izumi dragged his thoughts back to the present as he turned in the next corner.
"Hah…"
And, he sighed yet again. In a way, it was tiresome. He even had lost count of how many times he had sighed today. Nevertheless, it was a bit too late to give up.
He walked out of the fairly wide alley only to enter another alley at a short distance, a particularly narrow back alley. It looked more like a gap between two buildings—a flower shop and a bakery, to be more precise. Still, he continued his steady pace towards the entrance of the alley he was in. Because he knew it would lead him to the main street where his destination was.
Before long, the 24-hours convenience store came into view. It was only a few meters away.
'Let's get this over with,' he said to himself.
The glass doors parted automatically and chimed with a tinkle sound as he stepped into the store.
The young man standing behind the counter smiled upon seeing him before greeting him with an "Irasshaimase!" (Welcome) and a small bow.
Izumi gave a curt nod in respond before his gaze wandered around the place. He almost expected there would be a lot of people there, given that it was the rush hour in the evening. Therefore, when he noted that there wasn't any other costumer; he started to relax a little bit—although, from business' point-of-view, this kind of situation couldn't be said as a good thing.
Pulling out a piece of paper from his pocket, he read the shopping list written on it, "Tomatoes, garlic, green onions, salt, meat, Darjeeling tea, carrots, cabbage, sausages, detergent…," before trailing off near the end of the list.
He blinked. 'Huh? That one has nothing to do with dinner at all,' he mused.
Brown eyes gazed at the last item on the list a bit longer before he shook his head, deciding not to think too much about it. He picked up a basket and moved through the aisle.
***
"Arigatou gozaimashita." (Thank you for coming)
Izumi heard the young man's voice called from behind him as he exited the convenience store with a plastic bag in his left hand.
'Finally I could go home,' he cried inwardly, glad nothing bad happened there.
But, as soon as he was outside, his steps faltered and he came to a stop when he noticed the throng of people walking in the sidewalk. There seemed to be more of them now than before. How could he almost forget that the usual busy time hadn't passed yet? Everywhere looked equally crowded with passerby, causing him to feel dizzy and have a sudden urge to leave immediately, away from the lively streets.
"Hah…," Izumi sighed resignedly.
This just wasn't his day, all things considered.
'It can't be helped, can it?' he thought.
Making up his mind, he made his way towards a certain alley between two certain buildings, all the while side-stepping the other pedestrians, being careful not to accidentally jostle nor bump into anyone. Not an easy task, if he said so himself. Even so, he reached the entrance of the alleyway without encountering any trouble then he started retracing the path he had before.
With the dim glow of the light-bulb showing the way, he maneuvered his way through the pathway carefully. Occasionally he would change his direction in here and there and choose to the more secluded shortcuts instead of staying on the same route. Some of shortcuts was the ones he knew other people rarely used for the reason like it was simply too narrow or dimly lit or too dirty. The chance of him met another pedestrians with this method was close to zero.
…Or so he thought.
He rounded the corner once more before continuing further on. Unbeknown to him, there was someone walking from behind. And, predictably, that person bumped into his shoulder.
"Sorry about that," the young man said as he passed by.
"It's okay," replied Izumi, thinking that there was no need for that person to apologize to him when he hadn't done anything wrong to him. Apart from the slight jostle, he was fine.
…fine?
The golden brown-haired boy came to an abrupt halt at the same time as that thought came into his mind. Something didn't feel right to him, although he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
'What could it be…?'
First, he looked at himself. The person ran into him didn't cause him to fall on the ground. Well, it was just a light bump on their shoulders after all, he reasoned. He patted his chest with his free hand. There was nothing wrong with him. It didn't seem like the young man spilled something on him either. In other words, he was all right.
Second, he glanced down at the grocery bag in his left hand. The bag itself wasn't damaged. The contents were still inside of it, didn't fall down or anything. Also, there wasn't anything broken. In short, his mother's grocery was still in a good condition.
(He was supposed to be glad, strangely he was not. His stomach twisted itself in knots rather unpleasantly. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was very, very wrong. Somehow, it felt stronger than before.)
Third, tentatively he looked up and down the road without any idea what he was searching for. Except the dirt and leaves on the ground, there wasn't anything out of the ordinary.
Forth, slowly his hand reached the back-pocket of his pants—
"…gone," he said dazedly, eyes widened in shock.
—only to find that his wallet that was supposed to be there was gone.
The confused look on his face was replaced with one of understanding. In his mind's eye, the teenager replayed what had happened earlier and finally realized what exactly had happened. It took only a split second when they bumped into each other—no, he corrected himself. In a split second that young man bumped himself into him on purpose; he had picked Izumi's pocket without being noticed.
(This was no time to be impressed, he knew. Nevertheless, Izumi was awed with the pickpocket's ability to do it in an instant. It was too bad he used it for something like this.)
Commonly and plausibly, pickpockets could be found lurking in the crowds as it was their natural habitat and hunting ground. Thus, Izumi never expected he would find one here, away from their elements. Determined to be more careful next time, he quickly turned around to look for the young man—no, the culprit who had just stolen his wallet.
In a few meters away in front of him, the same young man could be seen walking at a leisure pace with both hands in his jacket pockets.
"Hey wait!" the brown-haired boy called out in a rarely loud voice.
The young man stopped in his tracks and glanced over his shoulder. "What?" he asked in casual tone as if he didn't know what he had just done.
"Give my wallet back, you thief!"
After hearing what his victim just demanded of him, he froze like a deer caught in headlights. "Shit! How come he notices it so quickly?" Without thinking, he started to run right away.
"W-wait! Stop running, you thief!" Izumi shouted, rushing after the fleeing thief.
"No one in their right mind would stop!" the pickpocket yelled back with a laugh.
'Ah! …That's true.'
Rationally speaking, it was indeed kind of pointless to tell thieves, pickpockets, or any other criminals to stop when they were on a chase. There wouldn't be anyone—thieves or not—who would willingly stop running just because their pursuer told them to. The only thing it would do was attracting attention of the people uninvolved, who might or might not help them.
(Well, it would be different story if they were the type who gave up easily, he supposed.)
Just like the incident during lunch break this afternoon, even Izumi himself didn't stop when Yamada Taichi ordered him to stop running. Speaking of that incident, suddenly he felt a strange sense of irony. He who had been chased after this afternoon, now he became the one who pursued other people—though, it was a pickpocket and he was still the victim on both cases.
"Hold it right there! Stop run—"
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he caught himself at the last second.
Talking about shouting, instead of "Stop running, you thief" perhaps he had to change the words a bit so that it wouldn't sound so stupid. Like "Someone, help me stop the thief!" for example. Ah, that was too long and would be meaningless if there wasn't anyone around the area. The same could be said when it was shortened to be "Stop that thief!"
'Hmm… It's difficult,' Izumi thought idly. 'Wait! It's not the time to think about that!'
Snapping out of his thoughts, he focused his attention back at the matter at hand.
Then, he blinked in confusion.
Wait, where was he?
Izumi, who just ran after the fleeing thief, didn't even notice he had deviated from neither the original route nor the alternate route. It shouldn't have been that far-off, though. Once again he pulled out a map in his head as he eyed the alleyway with absolute attentiveness. Looking around at the surrounding walls and the floor, he took in everything in view and came with a conclusion.
'Oh, right. After the next corner… there's a Y-intersection in about five meters away.'
Keeping his eyes on the figure of the pickpocket, he moved along the long and winding alleyway. As he expected, the thief took a turn in the next corner.
Several minutes had passed since the game of cat and mouse between them began in the relatively quiet and dimly lit back alleys. So far, neither of them had any intention to give up. In that case, what should they do to end the game? What kind of action should they take to win? As they thought of these questions, soon enough they arrived at the path split into a Y-intersection.
A grin appeared on the young man's face as he went to the left path, seemingly without much thought, before sprinting away to put some distance between him and his pursuer.
Meanwhile, Izumi had to strain his eyes to be able to follow the run-away thief. It was a relatively dark alley if being compared to the previous alleys. Realizing that perhaps the thief was aiming for losing pursuit with the concealed of darkness, Izumi picked up his speed to close some distance between them. It would be bad if he lost track of him after all.
Just as Izumi thought that… He really nearly lost track of the one he pursued when the pickpocket slipped into an unseen alley between another two buildings.
A pair of brown eyes widened in realization of what the pickpocket was actually planning to do.
'This isn't a good situation,' Izumi thought.
If the petty thief chose the right path, it might be less difficult for Izumi to track him.
The right path was a rather short and straight pathway. Plus, it would lead to the different part of a park nearby. In contrast to it, the left path was a long alleyway and littered with secondary small (sometimes narrow) alleys in various places. In addition, some of them could lead back to the main street—specifically, busiest part of the shopping district.
Knowing that at this hour that place was brimming with people, the pick-pocketed victim had a bad feeling crawling up his spine. It would seriously be bad if the pickpocket blending in with the crowd there. At this rate, he would lose sight of him for sure.
"STOP THERE, THIEF!" Izumi screamed desperately.
In that moment, as if the pickpocket knew what his victim trying to do, he ran faster than before.
"Wait! Stop!" Izumi shouted again. He really needed to stop him!
'How, though?' he wondered.
No one else was in the vicinity, he couldn't ask for help even if he wanted to. Outrunning the thief was definitely out of the question, because he knew he would only try and fail miserably if he did that. There was some distance between them that he couldn't cross no matter how fast he ran. So, the most crucial action was to somehow eliminate the distance first.
Teleportation? No, he couldn't do that. That was plainly impossible.
Using grappling hook? No, he didn't have that device. Besides, he didn't know how to use it.
A lasso? No, he didn't bring any rope or something similar with him that could be used as makeshift-lasso. Even if he had, he didn't learn how to throw a lasso, just so he could catch a thief with it. Thankfully, he was not crazy enough to do just that.
Boomerang or something? It should easily be thrown and, at the minimum, able to trip or make the petty thief slip. Still, he didn't have any boomerang or rod or stick with him, didn't have any need to bring those kinds of things around.
"Hah…," Izumi sighed. He didn't have anything useful on his person, did he?
Izumi paused for a beat, 'Wait a minute!'
Perhaps he didn't have anything on hand that could be used, but what about his surrounding?
Cautious brown eyes swept across the ground, trying to find some replacement that could be used—like a stone, a pipe, or any other fallen object littering the alleys. Doing that while running in a dark alleyway like this only proved to be harder than what he had imagined. What's more, he found nothing but leaves.
For a moment his gaze fell down to his feet, or more accurately his green sneakers. He could just use one of them as the substitute of the boomerang. Right after he thought that, he shook his head. No, it would need some time to take the shoe off; he couldn't afford to waste time nor take his eyes off the culprit. Moreover, running with only one shoe would be difficult. And taking both of the shoes off was simply unthinkable.
After that he brought the grocery to his eye level and found the one he needed for: the tomatoes.
The one he brought wasn't the cherry tomatoes, but the regular red tomatoes. They were not stone yet hard enough to work just fine. More importantly, they would leave some marks if he threw it hard enough to the point of smashing it and staining the pickpocket's clothes with red—which would make him easier to be recognized in the crowd.
Yes, he nodded to himself sagely. He didn't need any boomerang, rod, stick, or even stone… He could simply use the tomatoes in his possession.
'It's a good idea,' Izumi remarked inwardly.
With some difficulty, Izumi managed to get one of the tomatoes out. In that moment, he finally realized that there was a problem with the plan. How was he supposed to hit his target accurately if the target moving around the small alleys randomly? Also, the distance between them was quite far. Which meant…
'Firstly, I need to do something about the distance. Secondly, I need the right timing.'
Grasping the tomato in his fist, he tried to close the distance while waiting the perfect timing to throw it. And…
"GYAA!!"
THUD!
Before Izumi had a chance to send the tomato flying through the air, there was a sudden thud like a body falling to the ground accompanied with a loud scream.
"Eh? I haven't even done anything to him…," uttered Izumi in slightly disbelief voice.
'What happened to him?' he couldn't help but think as he looked at the unmoving thief.