The Genius Runner

Chapter 2 | Detective in the Park

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"What should we do dad?" Gintoki heard someone say, he felt very well rested and warm.

He slowly closed his eyes and saw two people, a woman wearing long brown hair and blue eyes, she was wearing a blue blazer with a white collared shirt, a green tie, a blue skirt, and formal shoes. The man next to her was definitely older, sporting a mustache he looked like a classic detective, he was dressed similarly but had a dark brown tie instead. 

Gintoki opened his eyes completely and then got up from wherever he was, he looked left and right. He was definitely in some dark alley. 

"Hey, are you ok?" asked the lady making Gintoki nod. 

"Do you know where your parents are?" she asked making the boy shake his head, he had no idea if he even had parents in this world, after all, he said he didn't want new parents.

"Do you want to step in for a while?" asked the girl, with a warm smile. She gently grabbed his arm and then pulled him to his feet.

'She's strong,' realized the boy, now on his feet, 'Though I guess I am in child's body, there's no reason to be that surprised.' he thought. 

"Ran, I think it's better to leave this to the police." said the old man, yawning, he had a three-day stubble beard and his clothes weren't neatly put on, his shirt was half tucked in his pants and the other half just hanging out. 

"Dad, what if this is a case and he can't find his parents?" asked the girl, making the boy tilt his head and knit his eyebrows. Gintoki was curious about the two, mostly because this was technically a new world.

'If this a case and I couldn't find my parents, going inside your sketchy place would definitely not be the way to go.' said the boy, walking away from the alley while they discussed whatever problems they had with having him stay. He was curious, but not curious enough to get himself thrown in some weird people's van. 

"That's true..." said then man, "Alright, let's bring him in." Gintoki heard the man say while walking away. 

"H-Hey!" said the man, running towards Gintoki. 

"Guess he already knows where his parents are then dad." he heard the girl say. 

Gintoki turned around every few meters to check if they were following him, once he noticed they weren't he smiled and looked at his small hands. He really had turned into a child, his hands shook and his body trembled, his heart pounded like crazy when he looked at those small hands. It was not the type of shaking that will leave your body frozen cold in fear, but the kind that would make you want to jump and run around in joy. He got a second chance.

Gintoki looked to his right and started jogging, he felt he was going at a steady pace, after a few seconds of jogging he couldn't help but speed up, more and more and more, he continued speeding up until he was sprinting, the freedom he felt while running wasn't matched by anything else. The feeling of the wind hitting against your face as you run, the slight heat you feel from your legs as you run, demonstrating you are using all that muscle to run, the way your legs suddenly feel so light when you sprint, he loved everything about running. 

Gintoki dodged through several people in the street, using sharp cuts in his running to not touch any of them at all.  

Eventually, he stopped next to a small map of the city at a bus stop. He decided to take a good look at the map and then tried to head towards the nearest park, it was quite dark outside already, so there wasn't going to be a lot of people there, he decided he would use that as a training field. He took a look at what he was wearing and smiled, they were sports clothes that his father gave to him way back in elementary school, he could tell they were the same by how beat up they were.