Domino Effect (Yukio)

6. Always Alone

"Okay! We're finally here!" Yuri told me.

After losing my balance as I finally felt my feet land on some solid ground, I regained my footing and steadied myself.

Looking around where 'here' must be, it was near an empty family park and not a place I immediately recognized.

Without anybody near to scare them off, black crows took over the swing set and didn't seem to realize that Yuri and I were here.

Stray cats wandered around the sidewalks, raccoons were digging through a tipped over garbage bin, and a single person covered in newspaper was asleep on a bench. Not too far off, I could hear the sounds of several cars passing through the streets, including the occasional honking every now and then.

"Ms. Egin, this place... Are we in the True Cross City?" I asked, realizing where we were.

It was still the late afternoon I noticed, the sun was lower in the partly cloudy sky. Though the time seemed to be around the same from earlier when I was on campus, I reasoned it was a different day seeing how wet the ground was and how soft the soil under my shoes were. It must've been recently stormy here and it looks like it might rain again.

"You're on the right track, Yukio. We're in the middle of the city within walking distance to where we need to get to. This is the type of place where you need to be careful to not get lost at either, it's a really big place you know." Yuri told me. "It seems like we're about on time if we started heading over now, think so?" She asked me.

"You can't even ask me that since I don't even know where exactly this is. I really don't go out into the city as much unless it has to do with work. Am I really so connected to this kind of place?" I asked in return, running a hand through my hair.

Turning her head to face me, Yuri gave me a short nod in answer before she turned back to start walking down the sidewalk.

"What does that mean? Do you know something about the city that I don't? Something relating to demons?" I questioned, following behind her. "I can't think of anyone I know who'd be related to this kind of place."

Shaking her head at my last comment, she thought to herself for a moment before giving me a reply.

"Hmmm, put it this way: If you think about it, you're connected everywhere. You're linked to a place from the people you know. Even if you're not interested in a certain place, your friend might be... You know how there are "friends of a friend"? Think of it as a "place of a friend", if that helped explain it?"

"Yeah, a little." I said, shrugging my shoulders. "So someone I'm currently close to has a more deeper attachment to the city then I ever have, I wonder who."

"You'll have to wait and see!" Yuri said.

~

The gray clouds above were gathering overhead, thunder making itself heard to warn of the imminent storm.

I followed close behind in her pace as she walked ahead of me. I saw there weren't that many people outside, but even when we did pass by them, they would pay no attention to us.

A woman passed by us after she crossed the street walking her dog, it looked up at me to make eye contact and walked on when the woman pulled the leash lightly to move the dog out of the way of another person.

Because of what happened last time, I decided to keep my guard up so we weren't caught by surprise again. I looked around and tried to take in as much detail I could so nothing would get past me. I didn't want to miss anything important, I needed to understand more of what was happening with me.