Lonely Thieves

Act III, Part V

Megumi's Side (April 10, 6:00 pm)

She hadn't been there for very long, but Megumi was starting to feel at home at the underpass. It was a little dirty, as everything in the city was, but it wasn't all that bad, and the breeze flowing in under the bridge was quite soothing. The people were fairly friendly, and they were sympathetic to the misfortunes of others. She didn't want to stay here for very long, but it was a good place to hide until the heat died down.

Unfortunately, this place did lack one thing; food. The homeless were willing to share, but they didn't have a lot as it was, so Megumi didn't want to trouble them, especially since she wasn't planning on imposing for too long. However, it was pretty hard to find food; there were no stores nearby, and if she ventured to far into the Horizon district's urban areas, she might get seen by Overman patrols.

Megumi shook herself and tried to forget the hunger. She had gone without food for a day or more before; she could certainly do it now. She got up and walked down to a part of the encampment that was closer to the river running below the highway, where some of the homeless were using a discarded stove to boil the river water to make it safe to drink.

"You need some drinking water?" The woman in charge of bottling the water asked as Megumi approached.

"If that's all right."

"You gotta provide your own bottles. You got any?"

Megumi did; two empty ones that were in the bag she'd taken with her when she ran from Norah at the orphanage. She handed them to the woman, who inspected them quickly before pouring some of the water in.

"It'll be hot for a while, so I don't suggest drinking it right away."

Megumi nodded and put the bottles back in her bag. She went back to her blanket and sat back down. As she did, the two children from before popped up from behind one of the makeshift walls, clearly hiding something behind them.

"What are you two doing there?" Megumi asked them with a coy smile.

The children ran forward and sat down on her blanket, then pulled out a plastic bag full of bread crusts behind them.

"We got these from the bakery on South Street. You can have some."

"Thank you very much, but I'll be all right."

The younger child, Cole, remained unconvinced. "But you didn't eat anything today."

"Well... that's true, but I don't want to take your food from you. You need it, right?"

The older child, Kyle, held out the bread crusts yet again. "It's okay, we have a lot. Please, take some."

Megumi let out a reluctant sigh. She didn't want to take their food, but it looked like they didn't want her to starve. If she kept refusing, it would start to look bad. "Okay. But I'm just going to take a little bit, okay?"

"Okay!"

Kyle untied the bag and opened it for her, and Megumi gingerly picked out a few bread crusts from the bag. She gave the kids a smile, but the two of them simply stayed and stared at her, making her feel a bit awkward.

Megumi took one of her bread crusts and ate one in front of the kids, making sure to chew in an exaggerated fashion. The kids seemed relieved when they saw that, and when she had finished the mouthful, they stood up to leave.

"We're gonna go to the park later," Kyle announced. "Do you wanna come?"

"What are you going to the park for?" Megumi asked.

"To play!" Cole answered.

"You're going alone?"

"Gramps says it's okay every now and then. No one uses the park near here anyhow."

Gramps must refer to the old man who was in charge of the encampment, Megumi assumed.

"I'll go with you. I don't want to leave kids like you alone, you know?"

"Yay!" Cole shouted with excitement. The two kids shot off like a rocket, and Megumi had to run herself just to keep up with them.

The three of them eventually arrived at the park the kids spoke of. It was an old park that was around since Megumi was a kid, but it hadn't been used in a while, and much of the playground equipment was rusted. The kids didn't seem to care, however, and bounced around the playground joyfully as they played.

Megumi looked around anxiously, but there was nobody around the neighborhood aside from a couple of wandering vagrants. Once she was certain that no patrols were coming around, she sat down on a nearby bench, wrapping a scarf around her head to avoid being recognized too easily.
She watched as the two boys played a game of tag, ducking and weaving around the playground equipment as if it were an obstacle course. It looked dangerous, but the boys seemed at home as they leapt from place to place, laughing all the while.

Megumi couldn't help but smile. She thought of her own childhood back at the orphanage, when she played similar games with her friends. At the time, she hardly ever cared about money or even thought about her absent family. Her only worries were the educational worksheets she would occasionally have to do.

Without thinking, she let out a sad sigh. Why was life as an adult so difficult? No, it only seemed that way. On the playground were two kids who lost their parents and were forced to live on the streets, and though her memories were happy, she was living in an orphanage that could barely manage to sustain itself.

Why was life so damn hard in this city? Megumi had taken it as granted before, but now she was seriously considering it. The rich continued to get rich, while the poor stayed poor. The wealth disparity was so bad that it was almost laughable, yet no one seemed to bat an eye. It had been that way for so long, after all.

Yes, that's right. It had always been that way, because the Three Great Families did their darndest to keep everyone else down. Three massive corporations and families ruling over Twilight like the nobles of old. All the while poor people like these kids were just doing their best to survive.

The sadness Megumi felt in her heart started to give way to rage. If she recalled correctly, the Hayasakas were the reason why this entire neighborhood was abandoned in the first place. They bought out all of the properties here, forced these people to pay massive premiums to live there, then bailed when their moneymaking scheme failed. If it wasn't because of decisions like that, these people wouldn't have to be homeless. These kids could be living with their parents, or at least at a facility that could take care of them. But because of some greedy businessmen with no attachment to the land or loyalty to the people, they had nothing anymore.

It was a new feeling. Megumi had never been so angry before. She had always accepted her fate as a low-class member of society who had to resort to crime to survive, but now she felt herself fueled by a righteous justice.

Megumi quickly shook off those feelings and came back to the real world. She was thinking as if she were some kind of revolutionary when she was just a thief who made her living by taking from others. There was nothing she could do to stop the Three Great Families, and no amount of anger would change that.

She sighed and stood up to call over the boys to go back. When she did, she heard the jangling of the emerald necklace in her pocket. She had gotten so worked up that she had actually forgotten about it. She remembered what Masao said; that the necklace could reveal something that could bring down the Hayasaka family and the other Great Families. However, she had no idea how she was supposed to do that.

Megumi recalled that before she had run off, she was trying to get in contact with the client. She had yet to really understand their intentions, but at this point, there was no way they didn't know the necklace's true worth. If she spoke to them, would they tell her how the necklace could destroy the Hayasakas? That was if she could get in contact with them in the first place, of course. One of the appeals of Night Hunting was anonymity. If she wanted to honor that, there wouldn't be a chance to make contact with them.

Megumi put the thought out of her mind as she called for the boys to head back. There was no point thinking about it now when she had no clue what to do. Having righteous anger was fine, but without real power, they were as good as the dirt she stood on.

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When they got back, Megumi noticed that the encampment's inhabitants were grouped around a barrel that they had started a fire in. The old man noticed the three returning and waved them over.

"Come on! It gets pretty cold down here, so you'll want to warm up."

The three of them were already somewhat chilly, so they were glad to warm up against the fire. It was a bit of a tight fit, as everyone was trying to get as close to the fire as possible. Megumi felt herself being pushed back and forth as she tried to warm up.

Suddenly, one of the men pushing up against her sensed something strange when he was pressed against her side. Without warning, he suddenly thrust his hand into her pocket and pulled out the emerald necklace, to everyone's shock. Megumi's eyes widened when she realized what had just happened and quickly grabbed the necklace out of the man's hand and pulled out of the circle.

"Hey!" the homeless man roared as she leapt away. "Is that what I think that is?!"

"What?" the old man called out as he came over. "What's going on?"

The homeless man pointed at Megumi, who had quickly stuffed the necklace into her bag. "That girl has the necklace Hayasaka's been looking for!"

"Huh? You mean she's the reason this place has been overrun with Overman flunkies?" The expressions of the other homeless had become suspicious and wary. Gone was the friendliness they had shown her when she first arrived.

Megumi swallowed down that sadness, gripped her bag, and ran out of the encampment. Some of the homeless ran after her, but the old man yelled at them to stay. He shouted out after Megumi, but she was too far to hear what he had said.