Multi-Color: Book 1 -- Freaks

Chapter 2: Out Of The Frying Pan, Into The Fire

When I awoke, my stomach growled. I put another leaf I had found, albeit dirty, over my eye and left the cave I had been in. I raised my hood up in order to lessen the risk of being spotted. My final measure was to change my hairstyle a bit. I ruffled it up a little, and what I accomplished was good enough!
When I got down to the city, it looked even better in the daytime. There was an enormous group of people swarming the city, making it difficult to figure out where the nearest food area was. I was surprised at the fact I knew what it was, despite never seeing it before, but I decided to hold the question until later. I could hear what seemed like a million high pitched voices screaming out to the singer to marry them. I raised my eyebrow in confusion. Marry? Why would you want to marry someone you had barely interacted with? I sighed and brushed it off. It wasn't worth getting worried about, let bygones be bygones I guessed. I continued walking until I eventually made my way down to one of the shops, with not as big of a crowd as last time. When I walked in, it looked different from all the bright and bustling shops in the rest of the city. It had an almost poorer atmosphere, with dry, wood walls as oppose to the sleek metal of the city. It didn't help that the store was scrunched up, and difficult to walk around in. The man at the front of the desk was elderly, and seemed like he was struggling to make a living. My eyebrows lowered as I frowned. Is this what life for some is like? Where instead of getting to live in the glorious city, you spend most of your life cooped up in a house, barely having one at that. I reached into my pockets. I came out with 14,000 yen(US $100), surprisingly. I remembered my parents giving it to me right before they abandoned me. Maybe this money would be enough to give this man more than usual. I walked over to the wooden shelf of beans. Why were there beans? I had utterly no clue. They looked tasty though, so I grabbed a can and walked over to the stores selection of soups. Most of the packages were half eaten though, furthering the lingering feeling of devastation. I decided to grab a few soups, as I would need it for the next few days. When I walked over to the drinks, nothing was cooled or put in a fridge, and water bottles only had ¼ left in them. I grabbed about 20 of them, but didn't bother doing the math in my head. After I had grabbed what I needed, I walked up to the counter and the man widened his eyes.

"What? You, you're really going to buy all of this?"

I smirked and gave him a thumbs up.

"Well, of course! I need this food if I'm gonna survive!"

The man closed his eyes and pushed the food back.

"Please, leave this store and find a better one with a more competent man. I'm old and in just a few short days I'll have left this earth. Besides, someone as pretty as you deserves a better supply of food."

I was a bit suprised at the praise, but frowned with a determined expression and pushed the food back.

"Look, when I say something I mean it, and I want this food! Besides, this shop needs more money, you need more money!"

The man looked dumbfounded as he scanned the items and put them in a bag.

"Well, if you really want them, it'll be 421 yen($3.00) for everything, I hope that's not a problem."

"Not at all!" I said as I handed him the 14,000 yen.

He gasped as he looked like he was going to faint.

"There's no way I can accept this ludicrous amount of money! Please, just take them free!"

I shook my head no, and grabbed my items, leaving him with the yen. Right as I was about to leave, a man wearing a dark hoodie and black, spiky hair grabbed my bag and burst off outside the store with it in tow. I closed my eyes as I threw the leaf off to activate my powers, making sure to not let the man know I was a Multi-Color. My left eye lit up blue, and I felt a burst of speed rush over me. I got down in a kneeling position, and burst outside the door. Right as I left I put the leaf back over my right eye. The pavement rushed against my feet as I charged towards the thief. I looked up and noticed he hadn't gotten far. I scaled building to building, doing my best to catch up to him. I tore through the crowd of people in the city and kept my one focus of catching him the entire way. Stained glass came against my feet from the criminal breaking windows, however I was able to swiftly avoid them and surf through the crowd. From there, I rummaged through the busy highway, narrowly avoiding cars as they honked their horns at me and a few of them tried to run me over, not to kill, but just enough to stop my rampage. I apologized to a few cars as I made a high jump in order to swing across several street lights, nearly grabbing the thief. Right as I lay my hand on him, he kicked me, zooming me face first into the busy highway. He managed to paralyze one of my legs, preventing me from getting up. I watched helplessly as a horde of cars swarmed at me. The thief swore under his breath and grimaced. Suddenly, he shot out a grapple hook and just before impact of the cars, rescued me in a bridal position and went into the sky, landing on a nearby apartment rooftop. Once I caught my breath, I noticed he was still holding me. I began to feel a... blush? It came across my face in an instant. I had vaguely heard at the daycare what love was. I was embarrassed to say it, but being held felt good in a way, and I was disappointed that it would have to stop. Unfortunately, I had to put him in his place.