Hikaru and Asha arrive at Haru’s hideout at around noon the next day. “You don’t look all that good, Haru-san,” Asha comments. “Did you eat lunch?”
“No,” Haru replies.
“Where do you usually get stuff to eat?”
Haru shrugs.
“Don’t you ever go out in public, Haru?” Hikaru asks. “Sheesh! This is ridiculous!”
“The less people see of me the better,” Haru mutters.
“How many times’ve I told you, you’ve gotta get some street smarts!” Hikaru cries.
“You’ve been doing this for how long now? And you don’t even know where to get food?”
“Hikaru,...”
“What?”
“...I’m not you, okay?” Haru says.
“What does that mean?” Asha asks.
“Look, the both of you shouldn’t be around me all the time,” Haru says. “You should go back home.”
Hikaru smiles bitterly. “What home?” he retorts. “I was riff-raff – Street trash.”
“Hikaru-san!” Asha cries.
“You know it and I know it, Haru,” Hikaru says harshly, “and if you’re embarrassed to have me around you, then why don’t you just come out and say it?”
Haru cries, “That’s not what I–!”
“Aren’t you telling me you just want to kick me out to the curb? I don’t have anywhere to go, Haru, and you know that! I have no one!” Hikaru yells. “You and me are the same, so why are you always trying to push me away?!” Hikaru storms angrily out the door and Asha follows.
“Hikaru-san!” Asha cries, “Wait! What’s wrong?” Asha runs in front of him and blocks off his path. “We should go back!” she pleads. “Please, don’t stay mad at Haru-san!”
“Be quiet!” Hikaru hisses.
“But–!”
“No, seriously, SHH!” Hikaru covers Asha’s mouth and falls silent, listening carefully. After a moment, he hears nothing and relaxes. “Sorry,” Hikaru says as he turns his back on Asha. “I thought I heard something.”
Asha glances worriedly back at Haru’s hideout, then back at Hikaru. “Let’s go back,” she pleads again. “Please, I don’t like seeing you fight!”
“He doesn’t want us around,” Hikaru says bitterly, “so what’s the use?”
“Haru-san always says that,” Asha reasons, “but he needs us. He’s always happy to see us, even if he doesn’t act like it.”
“If you want to go back, then go,” Hikaru says, starting off again. “It’s not you he has a problem with.”
“What’s wrong?” Asha asks, continuing to follow Hikaru. “What did Haru-san say to make you so angry?”
Something shatters nearby and Hikaru and Asha tense up. “What was that?” Asha cries.
“I don’t know if I wanna hang around and find out,” Hikaru says, taking Asha’s hand. “Come on!”
“Yo, Hikaru!” calls a voice. “Is that you?”
Hikaru freezes. From out of the shadowy alleyway comes a gangly teen wearing ratty clothes. More like him follow, some kids and a few teenagers, each wearing a blue bandanna. Asha clings to Hikaru’s arm as she nervously glances around. “Wh-who are you?” she stammers.
“Well, I’ll be! I can’t believe it’s really you,” the teen who’d called out to Hikaru comments. “Got another new bud, I see. You haven’t told her about us?”
“Yuto,” Hikaru murmurs. “It’s been a while. What are you and the gang doing here?”
“Passin’ through,” Yuto replies, “like always.”
Hikaru takes a look at each of them and sees that they’re carrying clothes and cans of food; some articles still had tags. They must be the ones we heard breaking the glass, Hikaru surmises.
“You got a minute?” Yuto asks. “Come on with us and we can catch up and talk about old times. Your friend can come too.”
Asha grabs Hikaru’s shirt and shakes her head fervently. “It’s okay,” Hikaru whispers to her. “I know these guys. They won’t hurt us.” Hikaru leads Asha along as he follows Yuto and the other kids. “You guys have a safe house here?” Hikaru asks.
“Don’t we always?” Yuto asks back. “We got a safe house in every town we pass through. It’s not the first time we’ve been in these parts.”
“Well, Hikaru, who’s the girl? You ain’t introduced ‘er,” one of the other older kids inquires.
“She’s my friend,” Hikaru tells them. “Her name’s Asha.”
“She’s awful fancy for the likes of you, ain’t she?” he asks. When Hikaru doesn’t reply, he says, “Oh, I get it. You ain’t told ‘er ‘bout yer gang life.”
“Can it, Ayano,” Yuto orders the other boy. “It’s not your business what he chooses to tell his buds.” He looks back at Hikaru and Asha and says, “We’re almost there.” He smiles a bit at Asha. “You can relax, little missy. I don’t know what you’ve been told about gangs, but we’re not the kind to hurt a little lady like yourself.”
The gang stops in a wide ally in front of another abandoned factory. “This is it,” Yuto announces. “Make yourselves comfortable.”
The younger of the gang’s kids hurry into the building; one comes back with an old car lighter and a battery. “Thanks, Maki,” says one of the older kids.
“Pass the food and the heater around. Make sure everybody gets somethin’ to eat,” Yuto tells his gang. “That includes our guests here.” He whistles for the kids in the building to come back out and join them, and they quickly obey.
Hikaru and Asha silently wait their turn to eat. Asha still looks around jumpily, fidgeting nervously as she sits on the concrete. “Little lady,” Yuto calls to her. She nearly jumps to her feet as her head snaps in his direction. “Take one of the sacks from inside,” Yuto tells her. “A lady shouldn’t have to sit on the hard ground.” Asha notices that even the few gang girls were sitting on the boxes outside instead of on the ground.
“I-I’ll just take a box, thanks,” Asha stutters. She climbs up onto a box only about a foot away from Hikaru and sits there staring ahead worriedly.
“What you been up to, Hikaru?” Yuto asks as his gang members continue to pass the food around. “Where’s the blonde kid you ran off with?”
“Oh, well...” Hikaru hesitantly says, “he’s around, we’re just...not really getting along right now.”
“He dropped ya, didn’t he?” Ayano breaks in. “High-‘n’-mighty ones like him ain’t got nothin’ ta do with riff-raff.”
“Haru-san isn’t like that!” Asha blurts out. She quickly cups her hands over her mouth.
A smile slinks across Yuto’s face. “You’re both real close friends with the kid, aren’t you?” he asks. “That’s strange. He didn’t seem like much of a people person, if I remember correctly.”
“‘Cause he isn’t,” Hikaru mutters under his breath.
“If you ain’t gettin’ along, why don’t you come back to us?” offers one of the other boys.
Yuto nods in agreement. “Our door’s always open to you, y’know,” he says. “If your blonde bud doesn’t want you around anymore, you’re welcome here.”
Asha frowns when she sees Hikaru become pensive. “Hikaru-san, you’re not really thinking–?” She forces herself to hold her tongue.
“What’s th’ matter? You prefer the uppity, fancy kind instead?” Ayano says cuttingly with a glance at Asha.
“Hey, don’t bad-mouth Asha!” Hikaru yells.
“Tell her to quit lookin’ at us like that,” one of the girls says.
“What’d you say?” Hikaru asks challengingly.
“I can tell what she thinks of us just by how she looks at us,” the girl says. “But she don’t know what we have to go through every day. She don’t know the battles we fight.” Ayano and some of the others nod in agreement. “Them pretty little fingers o’ hers, them fancy clothes, even the way she talks makes me sick!” the girl spits. “She ain’t struggled a day in her life. She ain’t got no right to look down on us.”
“Sayoko’s right,” another of the boys agrees. “All she sees is riff-raff. Sittin’ over there like that ‘cause she don’t wanna be near us.” Asha looks away from them, ashamed.
“C’mon, guys,” Yuto says, “leave the little missy alone.” He passes the car lighter and a can of food to Asha and tells her, “Rather than letting the ‘gang’ label get to you, think of us as a family. If you knew us better, you’d understand.”
* * * * * * * * * * * *
After everyone has finished eating, Yuto takes Asha and Hikaru and some of the younger gang members to a small town is sectioned off from the factories; a park lies at its edge. The younger kids immediately spring for the jungle gym while Hikaru, Asha and Yuto take the swings. “So,” Yuto begins, “are you gonna come back to the gang, Hikaru?”
“I don’t know,” Hikaru says. “I know you only do it ‘cause you have to, but...I’m sick of the gang life–of stealing and competing to get by.”
“What about those magic tricks Yoshiaki taught you?” Yuto asks. “Weren’t you makin’ money off that?”
“Not really,” Hikaru replies.
By now, they had Asha’s attention. “I’m sorry, but Haru-san needs us right now. Hikaru-san, are you just gonna leave?” she asks.
Hikaru frowns. “Haru sure is a hopeless case, isn’t he?” he murmurs. “He can’t even grab scraps of food without getting into trouble.”
“Is that how it is?” Yuto asks. “So he’s...”
“Yeah, he’s just like us, no matter what Ayano says about him being uppity and junk,” Hikaru says. “He’s a stray who’s got nowhere to go and nobody to turn to. As much as he may not act like it...he needs us around.”
“Is that why you left the gang in the first place? He hit a little too close to home?” Yuto asks. “Well, if that’s the case, he can join us, too, can’t he?”
“As if Ayano and the others would accept him,” Hikaru mutters. “You’re a little more tolerant than they are.”
Yuto shrugs. “That’s what we do,” he says. “We take in the strays that nobody else wants and become their family.”
Asha stops swinging and stares long and hard at Yuto. “Then, are you all...?”
“Orphans, drop-outs, runaways...The list goes on,” Yuto replies. “Some people in our group may seem harsh, but that’s ‘cause they’ve had it rough. They envy sheltered people; so don’t take what they say too personally.”
“I’m sorry...if I hurt people’s feelings earlier,” Asha apologizes.
“It’s all right, little lady,” Yuto replies.
“Look, I really do miss you guys,” Hikaru tells Yuto, “but I’m going to stick with the hopeless case. He wouldn’t get very far without Asha and me.” Besides, he adds to himself, these guys...they have no future. Because they steal and fight, no one will ever accept them. I don’t want to end up like that; that’s why I left and joined Haru in the first place.
Yuto nods. “If that’s what you want, we won’t stop you,” he says. “Take good care of your friend and the little lady here. We’ll miss you.”
“Thanks, Yuto,” Hikaru says. “Asha, let’s go.” Hikaru jumps from the swing and waits for Asha to follow before they both take their leave.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Hikaru and Asha knock on the door of Haru’s hideout. After a few minutes, Haru finally opens the door and lets them in. “What brings you back?” he asks. “I thought I’d finally dissuaded you from hanging around me.”
“Whether you want to admit it or not, Haru, you need us,” Hikaru says.
Haru looks hurt. “It’s not that...It’s not that I don’t want you guys around,” he says.
“I know,” Hikaru says, his expression softening. “I’m sorry for blowing up at you earlier.”
Haru nods. “And I’m sorry for digging up the past.”
“Haru-san,” Asha says, “I know it hurts to have to be alone all the time. That’s really why we came back. That’s why we followed you all the way out here after what happened at the rink–”
“Asha, you have family!” Haru blurts out. “Don’t take that for granted!”
“Haru-san...”
“Don’t ever...take the people in your life for granted,” he murmurs.
“I’m sorry,” Asha says.
Haru nods and pats her on the shoulder, then walks past her to the door. “I’ve gotta find something to eat,” he says. “I don’t want you two staying here alone.”
Hikaru smiles a bit. “We’re off, then,” he says. “See you later.”
“Bye.”
With that, Asha and Hikaru leave for Ari’s house.
