Family R.O.O.Ts

Sanyo The Shapeshifter

 Narrator: Pein Yagasouri

Chapter 2: Sanyo The Shapeshifter

We'd decided that it would be better to travel early the next morning, rather than later at night. This way we 'd be well rested and avoid the chances of road pirates. Kyia would stay the night watching over the patients in the clinic, we'd meet there in the morning. Until then I had several things I had to take care of. One thing we didn't know was where my brother and Hinai-sama were heading. It didn't make any sense for us to just go running around with no sense of direction. We'd need to track them down, and I could think of one that could help.

By this time the sun was rested comfortably on the edge of the sky, and the streets were covered in beautiful lights. The many shoppers came out from their long day of work only to be reunited with more opportunities to waste their earnings. I being no better then them, crowded my way through trying to seem smaller and drag no attention to myself. There was only one person I knew that had an ability to track people just as well as Hinai-sama. His name was Sanyo Qualcoom, a shapeshifter.

I turned to a large building with the words "Celia's Bar," painted in bold red letters on the side. The whole building looked like something straight out of a horror story. There were cobwebs hanging off the piers, and the woodwork was pealing off in large mounds. At the time I was sixteen, not legal drinking age in Mendella, but there were no rules against letting me into a bar. If anything management would hope that one smart mouthed kid would turn to the wrong crowd and start a fight. Ironically fights were good for business.

Inside looked just as bad, if not worse then the outside. There were wooden counters that seated burly faces situated in all different assortments, everyone giving me an uncomfortable greeting as I entered. It didn't make it any better that the floor boards were scraping up on my shoe soles. 

"Hey kid," an anonymous voice called over to me.

It caught me off guard but I didn't want to seem in the least bit scared. I turned over to my left to see two men seated at one of the counters.

"Yeah you, come here."

Without much hesitation I forced myself to sit in the empty stool next to them. One of the men had a scar on his left cheek that looked like a knife wound. The other was missing several of his front teeth.

"Yes sir," I said being a bit distraught.

"We could'nt help but notice you seemed to be a little lost," the one missing teeth grimaced.

"No sir, i'm just looking for my friend."

"Your friend you say," the other mocked

"That's right sir."

Well what might your friends name be."

"Sanyo sir."

"Sanyo you say, well don't you know that this is no place for little boys?"

"It's very important that I talk to him as soon as possible."

"Well maybe we can deliver the message for you," the other sneered.

"No but thank you sir," I got up to walk away but before I could get a good footing, a hand was on my shoulder to steer me back towards the seat.

"Maybe you did'nt understand us boy, this is no place for kids"

"I understand, but like I said-I," before I could say anything else both were standing to their feet, I could tell this would'nt end well.

The one with the scar approached me as if to hit me. I closed my eyes and braced myself to absorb the blow, but what I heard next was very unexpected. It was a sort of crunching sound. Not really a crunching but more like the sound of ice chipping in hot water. I opened my eyes to see that the fist that was going to hit me was being held still by another hand. Infact so hard that the man's knuckle was cracking. The one who interfered was of a familiar face. It was a man not much older then myself. He had curly blonde hair and eyes that had a fierce resemblence to a tiger's. 

"I would say pick on someone your own size, but not everyone is so overweight," the man laughed.  

Scars must not have liked this very much because before anything else could be said he was sending his other arm over like a hammer. Whoosh, that one was quickly caught too, which was strange because I didn't even see the movement. 

"Arrrgh," Scars began to yell.

"I'm sorry am I hurting you," the man laughed sarcastically?

In a last futile attempt Scars threw one of his legs up to try to release himself. This would have worked in any other situation, but I could tell my rescuer got bored and before long Scars was laying on the floor across the room uncontious. Now there was no doubt about it, everyone was looking at us and I could'nt feel any smaller.

"Pein," the man said softly,"come over here and sit down."

We moved towards an empty space of the far side of the bar. It was less lite in the corner and people's attention began to drift away from us.

"Pein what the hell is wrong with you," his voice was now more stern then it was when he was fooling around with Scars.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about why you didn't defend yourself against that drunk. I could smell your fear from all the way over here."

"You know I don't use my powers unless the situation demands it."

"I'm pretty sure getting your ass kicked is pretty demanding, you could have had him running with his tail between his legs."

"Sanyo that's what i'm here to talk about, we need your help."

"My help, with what," his eyebrow began to raise with interest.

"We need you to help us track down my brother and Hinai-sama."

I had to plan out what I would say, because Sanyo never liked Hinai-sama.

"Planning a little trip I see, he frowned"

"Not so little, it's something rather serious."

"Serious, sounds fun, what's it about?"

"It's about Benvolio."

"The jewel theif that's been all over the papers lately, what's so important about him?"

"You mean you don't know?"

"No, i've been busy myself, he shrugged."

"Well Benvolio's last name is Usaki."

"So he's related to the other little twirp," his interest now turning to sheer admiration. "Who knew that their were theives in the Usaki's blood line." He began to look dazed as if stuck in a daze.

" Kyia and I need your sense of smell to find my brother."

"Oh well that's no fun I thought there would be a little more action."

"We might have to fight Hinai-sama's brother," I quickly added in desperation.

"You know me so well," his grin widened so I could see his fang like teeth.