[Y/N] - your name
[H/C] - hair color
______________________
'Shit! Why did this have to happen to me?' [Y/N] thought as she ran through the streets of Shizume City trying to shake off her pursuers. Her day went from nothing, to bad, to worse. She had only left home for a moment to go shopping and now she was running for her life a second time. Why did she have to be so clumsy to crash into him?
- - - - - - 1 hr earlier - - - - - -
"Ryu-chan, I'm going to buy something for dinner. Do you need anything?" [Y/N] said to her brother as she put on her coat.
"No thanks," replied the young man without taking his eyes off the television.
Sighing with resignation the girl finished wrapping up warm. Ryu had been acting weird the last few weeks. Lately he barely left the house. Normally she would always have go look for him wherever he was, in order to eat dinner together. Besides, he was less communicative, as if he was concerned about something. 'What can I do to help you Ryu? If you don't tell me I can't guess' [Y/N] thought taking her purse. She took the keys and left the apartment after taking one last glance at her brother. How she would wish that he trusted her more!
She had just crossed a couple of streets when she began to feel stares. She turned around and saw no one, she thought it was just her imagination and kept walking until a shop's window caught her attention. 'Those skates will definitely fit Ryu. Maybe he'll start to hang out with his friends again. Oh, that blue is also so pretty. What he would prefer...?' she stopped and swallowed hard seeing two men dressed in black looking at her in the reflection. 'Relax [Y/N], they may have just stopped there by chance. There's nothing to worry about. Come on, turn around and keep walking'. When she finally turned around to look, the two men were gone. However, her heart kept beating fast. Feeling restless, she began to walk briskly to the supermarket.
After a while without seeing anyone, she was beginning to relax when someone came from behind and covered her mouth, pushing her into an alley where one of the men in black was waiting. She assumed that the one holding her was the other man. 'Who the hell are they? What do they want from me?' [Y/N] did not understand anything.
"Well, well, well, look what we have here. Ryunosuke's sweet little sister. I guess now he'll come to his senses", said stranger A as he took a lock of the [H/C] hair of the girl. She tried to pull away but the other stranger, B, was still holding her.
'How do they know Ryu? I doubt they're his friends'. [Y/N] was thinking what would be the best course of action to use in this situation. If she showed resistance to them, they might hurt her but.... what if she didn't? But who said they wouldn't do anything to her if she was quiet? Should she try scream for help?. Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard stranger B answering his partner.
"If not, we can always have some fun with her"
She definitely needed to flee. Taking advantage of the fact that the men were too engaged in a discussion about what to do with her, she bit the hand of the stranger that held her and kneed the other one in the crotch. In the few seconds it took the two men to register what happened, she was already running.
Since [Y/N] was never an athletic person, she wasn't sure if she could run long enough to lose them, but she had to try. Several times she almost crashed into pedestrians in her flight, but managed to dodge them by a few centimeters.
After several minutes of changing directions, she looked back and saw that she had gotten the upper hand in this situation. She turned around again to go into another alley, but crashed into someone.
"I-I'm sorry. I ..." the apology from the girl died within her throat when she saw against who she had crashed into. 185cm, a black jacket with a white shirt underneath, fire-red hair and golden eyes that were staring right at her. Suoh Mikoto, the Red King.
The girl began to back away from him. 'Why did I have to crash into him out of all the people in Shizume City?. He seems pissed', [Y/N] backed away until she felt the wall behind her. Now she was terrified. As if not having to flee from thugs without knowing why they were chasing her was already bad enough, but arousing the Red King's wrath was worse. She knew that Mikoto and his clan, HOMRA are able to control fire. She had also heard that he was easily angered and burned his victims until there was nothing left. 'No blood, No Bone, No Ash'. That was HOMRA's motto. Suoh Mikoto is definitely not the person you would want to piss off.
[Y/N] looked at how the Red King was approaching her with a scowl. She looked around for someone to help her but there were only the HOMRA clansmen and a doll-like girl with white hair. She doubted the girl would be able to help her. Terrified, [Y/N] pressed herself against the wall as if she could escape from the fiery gaze of the Red King.
"Mikoto, you're scari ...", a blond man holding a camera in his hand began to say.
[Y/N] didn't hear what they were saying because her pursuers just arrived at the alley where they were. Mikoto stopped his advance and watched the two men, completely ignoring the girl. He was beginning to get the idea of what was happening. [Y/N] took that moment to resume her escape, soon she heard someone calling for her to stop and she saw that the blond man with the camera had begun to follow her. Soon after, another blond man with glasses joined him.
- - - - - -
After several minutes, [Y/N] who tired from running so much, looked back to see how much she distanced herself from her new pursuers and was surprised to see that there was no one following her. She stopped and leaned against the wall trying to catch her breath. Once she managed to calm her heart down a little, she called her brother to make sure he was okay.
'Come on Ryu, pick up the fucking phone'. As the beeps continued to ring, [Y/N] was getting more and more worried. When she was just about to hang up, he finally picked up the phone.
"Ryu? Is that you? Why didn't answer the phone faster? Are you okay? Ryu?" she asked quickly without giving time to hear the person's reply.
"Hey, slow down. Of course It's me, what happened? Shouldn't you be back by now?".
[Y/N] allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief after hearing the voice of her brother.
"A-Are you really okay? I-I ... These two men w-where following m-me and t-they said something about you. I ran away, t-then I crashed into the Red King and I h-had to run again. I-I... I was s-so scared...", she said, trembling.
"Stop. I can't understand what you just said. You said you were followed? Are you okay?" Ryu sounded scared.
"Y-yes, I'm fine" [Y/N] began to relax a little. "There were two men in black suits, one of t-them wore glasses and said something a-about ... making you come to your senses. Ryu, what's happening?"
"Shhh, relax. Don't worry. I got this. Are you still wearing the necklace?"
[Y/N] touched the necklace before answering. 'What does the necklace have to do with any of this?', the necklace is a earth globe and binoculars. Ryu had given it to her for her 18th birthday. When he gave it to her, Ryu asked to her to promise him that she'll always be carrying it. She didn't bother to care, always liked travel, she thought that the necklace represented herself, and she also thought it was cute. But, why would Ryu care for a simple necklace?
"Yes, of course I have it, why? What does it have to do with this?"
"Nothing, just take care of it. It's important to me that you have it." the tone with which he spoke scared [Y/N], it sounded as if he was saying goodbye.
"Ryu-chan? You're scaring me. Who were those men? What is it that they want?"
"[Y/N] promise me you won't come home today"
"What ...?"
"Promise me" Ryu repeated.
"B-but ..."
"Just promise me, please!"
"B-bu..."
"[Y/N]... nothing will happen. I promise I'll be fine. Just stay at a friend's house or somewhere tonight. I'll explain everything to you tomorrow, okay? But you have to promise you won't come home today "
"...........fine you win", [Y/N] replied in defeat. Ryu was more stubborn than she was, and would win all their arguments. "But I'll be home tomorrow morning, and I want you to explain to me what's happening. "
"Done. I love you Sis"
"I love you too Ryu-chan"
* Click *
When the call was over, [Y/N] dropped to the ground and buried her head between her knees. What should she do? Go home or go to one of her friends? But she doesn't want any of them involved in whatever this is. So her only option was to rent a room somewhere. Would Ryu will be okay? She has a bad feeling about this.
"Are you okay?"
[Y/N] was startled to hear someone talk to her. She was so deep in thought that she didn't hear him approach her. She looked up and found worried brown eyes staring at her. 'Damn. It's the camera guy, my day can't get any worse than this', now that she looked at him properly, she noticed that his hair wasn't blonde, it was a light brown. 'Oh great [Y/N], such a useful thought. They're going to kill you and you're thinking about his hair color'.
"I'm Totsuka, Tatara. We saw each other earlier. Are you okay?" the boy said, smiling kindly.
[Y/N] just nodded. 'What kind of trick is this? He seems like a good person, but he's with HOMRA. He's one of them, right?' she thought in dismay.
"No need to be afraid. We've already taken care of the two men who were chasing you, so you don't have to be afraid anymore. Do you want me to walk you home?"
[Y/N]'s face of astonishment was priceless. Was he trying to help her?
"N-no. I can't go home....", was all she said.
"Oh, then why don't you come with us? We'll make sure nothing happens to you."
"...?" [Y/N] looked at him with skepticism.
"Do you want to?"
"B-but you all... I-I ... I didn't do it on purpose. I-I didn't see him."
"Is that what's bothering you?" Tatara laughed.
"I don't see what's so funny", [Y/N] replied sharply. "Forgive the mere mortals in fear for our lives when the Red Devil is mad at us" she muttered.
"Red Devil? You mean Mikoto?"
[Y/N] nodded.
"He's not mad at you."
"If you say so ..."
"I'm serious. He always seems to be angry with everyone, so don't hold it against him."
[Y/N] began to believe him. Tatara seemed to be serious.
"So why you and the other man chase after me?"
"You left running, like a bat out of hell and I just wanted to make sure you were fine. Actually, Izumo, the other man, was following after me. HOMRA is always worried about me since I'm the only one who doesn't fight. Those guys didn't do anything to you, right? "
"Oh, no. I'm fine, thanks", [Y/N] didn't know what else to say. She lost half an hour from running from someone who just wanted to know if she was okay. She felt ashamed.
"Come", Tatara said, offering his hand.
"..........?"
"You said you can't go home", he said smiling.
[Y/N] reluctantly took his hand and stood up. He was really friendly, kind of like a person that everybody can trust without needing to get to know him more. Besides, it's not like she had anywhere to go and if the two black suit men came back, she preferred not to be alone.
"Where are we going?", she asked the kind male.
"Isn't obvious? We're going to HOMRA", Tatara replied smiling.