InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Hey girl, wanna dance?"

Shirai Reizo | 白井雷三 (some_other_dog) wrote in disappear_plot,
@ 2010-08-05 18:16:00

Noodle Alley is a familiar place to all but the most shut-in of Nanakamado students, and so is the cold lump of dread that settles into their stomach at the thought of Reizo Shirai.

Today, the normally bustling Noodle Alley toils under a washed out stretch of sky, the clients' usual vigor and mirth curtailed by the news of the most recent death and the gang and youth violence that has exploded in the area. Most of the diners wear strained smiles when they joke and laugh, but here and there the crowds are peppered with faces set in grim determination, shoulders hunched and posture tense as they soldier through their meals.

Worst amongst them are the ex-Nanakamado students who know just who’s responsible for the recent savagery and that once he is caught there will be no just penalty for him. The students, most of them paired off into two or threes, sometimes glance up at the passing group, curiosity and confusion breaking through into their miserable and gloomy stares before they turn back to their food.

The looks they get when they arrive at the mouth of the alley from the customers are severe enough to make up for sudden dearth of people. One or two even manage a weak, dispassionate warning to “get away from there” as the group disappears into the alley.

The alley itself is of no real importance. Bags of trash lean despondently against buildings, and the hard scrubbed ground itself is littered with cigarette butts and other miscellaneous bits of rubbish. Scraps of plastic skitter across the ground when the wind catches them, and a discarded snack bag crinkles and snaps against the tangle of sickly weeds it’s caught against.

Behind them the somber sounds of a fearful Noodle Alley peter away as they walk deeper into the alley, and before long die away completely, leaving them in a quiet only broken up by their own conversation and the gentle buzz of the city. The silence is heavy with disquiet when it settles in, full of the fear and tension felt by anyone who knows they are entering the bad part of the town, and it’s punctuated by the signs of struggle. A trashcan lays on its side, its meager contents half spilled out beside it, bent and dented. A switchblade, the blade glittering sharp and deadly even in the gloomy light of the alley lays not far from it, it’s tip red with fresh blood.

From up ahead a pained yell echoes and rebounds down the alley, and there’s a snap of wood breaking followed by several fresh shouts, ranging from angry to scared to hurt.

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daioujou
2010-08-07 08:22 pm UTC (link)

Kouchisei understood this was not a place he came to, but it was nevertheless surprising for him to witness its state of despondance and bone-numbing fear. The thought of finding Shirai and beating him to within an inch of his life was a sustaining one, though he was not physically strong. Yet that overwheling urge carried him along the narrow corridor.

He had also never been into this part of town before. It was dirty, dark, and permeated with the fear he had come to associate with that boy.

Suddenly he halted and looked around. The noises - yells, snapping and banging - all seemed to come at once.

"What was that?"

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2dbeauty
2010-08-08 06:21 pm UTC (link)

For his own reasons, Toru had brought himself to the area beyond Noodle Alley. Loyalty to Kiriko? A belief that if the strongest fell, the others would soon follow? Lingering emotions from an earlier time in the year? It hardly mattered- he knew the epicenter of violence was here, and this was a region where Reizo frequented.

There was little chance the others would coordinate with him, the way things were.

He was an odd fit for the place, too. The sheltered, weak, fragile being looked as though he had blown into the alleys by mistake, carried on the autumn wind with the rest of the rubbish. No delinquent or regular of the streets. Just a kid whose serious attitude about a world that should not exist had begun to bleed into the world he tried to ignore.

Then the noise came, and he ran. A prey animal in the predator's world, it was the only thing he could do in the face of real danger. He had no idea where to go, where to avoid, only that he had to keep himself alive and he had to help save Reizo. Dark browns and greys, bags of trash, wide-eyed and huddled denizens of the district- they all rushed past Toru in his suddenly terrified dash.

It carried him right into Kouchisei. Though he saw the familiar back and dimly registered it as potentially an ally, he could not stop. Momentum and terror sent him crashing into the older boy's back.

"Oubai! S-sorry!"