Central Blossom

  Cherry Blossom District

  Gloria City

  It was the day after Alcides, Ryota, and Camila had assaulted the scavenger hideout and while she was busy investigating the hideout which her boss was being held at. However, that left Alcides and Ryota with nothing to do and they couldn’t take any profitable jobs since they were sure that Camila could message them at any point to tell them she was ready to infiltrate the next scavenger hideout. Idly, he considered going out and doing something before realizing that he had nothing to do.

  So that was the situation Alcides found himself in as he sat on the very flimsy and uncomfortable couch in his living room. He wondered why he didn’t get better furniture and then, as if on cue, his bank account balance popped up and showed that he only had enough money to pay for his monthly expenses. He sighed and then comforted himself, remembering that his current job was going to give him a lot of money. Although he probably wasn’t buying new furniture, mostly because all the local shops were complete scams. Though you kind of had to do a bit of scamming to make any money in this city.

  Still, he had nothing to do. That was when a message box popped up and he saw a message from Deep Blue. Curiously, he opened it and saw what she had written. [If it won’t trouble you. I wanted to meet with you in order to discuss something. It could be very beneficial for you.]

  The first thing he thought was that her text was overly polite, which was suspicious to him, but then he dismissed it and figured that it probably wasn’t something to be worried about. So he answered. [Alright where do you want to meet me?]

  Her response was quick as she sent him the location for their meeting. So, with nothing else to do, he headed over there. And he brought his gear with him since he wasn’t going to get surprised by another random event like when he went to her performance. It was in the center of the city in the richest district, the Cherry Blossom District. Naturally, he rarely went there since he really stuck out from the average corpos that frequented the area. Plus, he couldn’t really afford anything at the shops in that area since they targeted themselves towards people with way more money than he had. So he really only went there when he had to do something related to Isabella’s schooling since the school was in that general area or when he had a job there, which was rare. Also, it was also far from his apartment so he had to take the metro system to get there.

  This was how Alcides found himself in Central Blossom, which was a mix of a park and a shopping center. It was a pleasant area, even if it cost a hundred dollars to enter. There were plenty of trees and plants that basically hid the surrounding city, although he was pretty sure that there was some hologram trickery in the park’s sky. Also, it was one of the few places in the city which had some actual animals that weren’t just pigeons or rodents.

  There were many people around, mostly families and couples, which made this place a good meeting spot, since two random people wouldn’t seem out of place. As he walked through the park, he wondered how much it would’ve cost to build this place in the center of the city and if it could’ve instead been used to help more people. Although he knew to not expect any major help to come from the government.

  Finally, he made it to the spot that he had received and saw Deep Blue was sitting on a bench. Despite wearing a cap, he could see her blonde hair tied into a loose ponytail and her blue eyes hidden behind a pair of sunglasses. As he approached, she moved to the side to let him sit on the bench, which he did. He noticed she seemed to be nervous as she fiddled with a bracelet and kept her head down.

  Finally he asked. “What did you want to talk about?”

  “Do you work for any companies?” She asked.

  “I’m independent, not corpo, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  “Well, I have a job for you then.”

  Already he was prepared to turn her down, but she continued. “It’ll only take an hour at most.”

  So he asked. “Alright, what’s the job?”

  She looked around as if trying to check if anybody was watching before whispering, “I think there’s somebody stalking me.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Often when I am walking around or going somewhere, I have this feeling that somebody is watching me.”

  “Is that all? I mean, I understand, but this is Gloria. There’s surveillance cameras around every corner.”

  “That’s not all… Because of certain things…” she tried to explain, only to stutter and get quiet again.

  So Alcides clarified. “Because of your career?”

  “Yeah…” It sounded to him like she was lying, but he just assumed it was nerves.

  “Alright then, what’s the job?”

  “I just need you to keep watch over me while I walk around so that you can find out who is watching me.”

  “Sounds easy enough, but how much are you going to pay me?”

  “I can pay five thousand dollars.”

  Immediately he accepted, saying. “Amazing, let's get started.”

  With that, they got to work, though it was mostly Alcides who had to do the work since he had to spot the stalker. It was also at this moment that he realized the issue that he was going to have in this job. As he noticed before, there were a lot of random people just around the area, so it would be difficult to actually find the stalker unless he found them doing something incriminating. But he was also getting paid five grand for this, so he wasn’t about to let that stop him.

  He tried to put himself in the mindset of a potential stalker and thought about how he would try to go about it. His thinking was that he would get somewhere high and out of sight, but also somewhere easy to move to and from. So he looked around the area and saw that there were a series of elevated walkways that fit his parameters. Seeing this, he went up onto the walkway. Then, with a sigh, he saw he had to pay ten dollars to go up, which he paid but wasn’t happy about.

  As he made it up to the walkway, he saw it provided a good view of the people walking on the path below. With that knowledge, he then worked off the belief that the stalker was up on the walkway, so he got to work watching the other people up there with him. While doing that, he also kept checking on Blue and didn’t let her get out of his sight. After about ten minutes, he had narrowed his suspicion to a few people. The first was a woman dressed in green who was constantly looking down at somebody. Next was a man with a camera taking photos at random intervals.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  First, he followed the woman in green and watched her behavior to see she was actually the person he was looking for. As he looked closer, he saw she wore a school uniform, so he assumed she was a student. And she looked, how to say this politely, completely unhinged. As he walked up to her, he asked her. “Excuse me, I need directions?”

  But she didn’t seem to hear him and was instead watching somebody below them on the sidewalk, so he asked again and then she finally looked back at him. “Oh, I’m sorry. I was just distracted by my love.”

  “What?”

  Then she pointed down at a boy in a school uniform. “Look at him. He’s perfect. I’d do anything to have him.” Her voice took on a more intense quality as she looked at him.

  “Uhh, o-ok.” Alcides really didn’t expect this. Whatever you’d describe this.

  So he kind of just backed off and quickly left her alone. However, he was sure that she wasn’t the person he was looking for, since she was more obsessed with some other person. Which was horrifying, and he hoped the guy could get away from her. But that wasn’t what he was getting paid to deal with, therefore it wasn’t his concern. So he then moved onto the next person he marked out.

  The photographer was pretty easy to find. After all, few people use an actual camera to take photos in this day and age. So he used that to get close to the photographer by pretending to be interested in his photos. As he walked up behind him, Alcides glimpsed the photo that he had taken. It was Deep Blue, sitting on a bench with a bird perched next to her. With that, Alcides wondered if he had the right person, but he had to be sure.

  “Ah, excuse me. I saw you were taking pictures, and I was wondering if I could see them?”

  The man’s eyes lit up with excitement at somebody being interested in his photos. “Of course. I’m so glad to see somebody else interested in this lost art.”

  As he handed his photos over to Alcides, he kept talking and Alcides just tuned him out as he looked through the photos. They were honestly very dull and were really just of birds and even looking through them again he saw they were really just pictures of birds. Not very good ones either. So he handed them back to the photographer, who asked. “So, what did you think?”

  Not wanting to waste more time, Alcides responded. “Oh, they were great, really inspiring to see somebody keep the ‘art of photography’ alive.” Then before the photographer could get another word out, Alcides walked off.

  Now with no leads, Alcides sat down and looked at the time and saw that almost an hour had passed. As noticed this, he got a call from Deep Blue so he answered. [It seems neither of us have found the stalker.]

  [I haven’t found anybody either. Do you want to call it quits for now?]

  [Well, we don’t have any other choice. Meet me where we met earlier.]

  So, not having any more leads, Alcides headed back to where he had originally met with Deep Blue. He didn’t waste any time and hurried back, only to find that she had, in fact, found the stalker she had asked for his help in finding. The bad news was that it seemed like he had basically ambushed her. When Alcides arrived, he saw the stalker had cornered her in an area just off the main path with no cameras around. The stalker was a middle-aged man in a business suit, although Alcides noticed he had a few weapons on him, which made him pause.

  As he stopped for a second, he heard the stalker speaking. “Please, Lady Okura, return to your family at once and return to your duties.”

  “I-i.” She backed up against the wall, clearly scared and not knowing what to do.

  So Alcides placed a hand on the man’s shoulder while moving his other hand to his holster and knife as he said. “Hey man, how about you leave her alone?”

  “Excuse me?” As he turned around and looked at Alcides and sneered. “Listen, you street rat-”

  Alcides’ fist cut him off as he punched the man in the face, which he then followed up by kneeing him in the groin, causing him to fall to the ground. Then he told Deep Blue to get out of there, which she did immediately, leaving him alone with the stalker. Instantly Alcides pinned him as he started interrogating him, since he was curious about what he had called Deep Blue.

  He asked. “Who are you working for?”

  Only for the stalker to not answer and instead said. “You won’t get away with this. My people will hunt you down like a dog!”

  “Great threat. I’m so terrified about some random group hunting me down.” Alcides mocked.

  “It’s not some random group. It’s the Okura Corporation! And once I get back and tell them how you attacked me, you’ll be lucky to survive a day in this city.”

  “The Okura Corporation?” Alcides asked to clarify if he heard it correctly.

  “You’d have to be an idiot to not know what I’m talking about. Although it wouldn’t surprise me, you street rats have never been very smart.”

  “Fuck.”

  Alcides knew if he let the man go he would screw him over, but if he killed him, then Shock Teams would swarm the area and would almost definitely try to kill him and he had no hope of actually beating them in a fight. Still, he could get away in time if he timed things right. So he knocked out the stalker and then stabbed him so that he would bleed out in a few minutes. Although he wasn’t waiting around for that to happen and instead he burst out of the area only to see Deep Blue was still there and shaken from her encounter.

  He knew he couldn’t leave her behind both because he was sure that judging by what the stalker said, there were powerful forces after her and because if she got caught, he was also probably going to get caught. So he told her to follow him, which she did. Almost as soon as they left the area, they looked up and saw the Shock Team hovercraft descending over the area they were just in. Shock Team is the colloquial term for any corporate rapid response unit. Whether they’re actual soldiers or medical doesn’t matter.

  Once they were in the clear, Alcides turned to her and said. “I get the feeling you didn’t tell me everything about your situation.”

  A guilty look was clear on her face as she answered. “The situation got more intense than I thought it would. But since you heard what he said, I might as well come clean.”

  The pair got to a secluded area where there was nobody nearby or any cameras that could listen to them. She rubbed her wrists as if working up the courage to explain the situation to Alcides. Then she finally explained. “My actual name is Aoi Okura. My father is the head of the Okura Corporation.”

  “I assume you ran away, then.” Alcides said.

  She continued. “Yes, I did. I… had some disagreements with my family over my future. So I left.”

  “Must’ve been something big for you to give up, basically royalty.”

  “It was, and I fell into my current work as a singer soon after I left.”

  “Aren’t you worried about being found?”

  “Of course, but I can make it through whatever I need to. I was able to hire you, for example, when I felt like I was going to be in trouble. Which worked out well for me.”

  “Wait, so if you’re missing, why hasn’t your family made any announcements about it.”

  She looked down slightly, as if reluctant. “They have certain ‘arrangements’ that would be in trouble if they revealed I was missing.”

  Alcides had a feeling she wouldn’t reveal more, so he asked. “So what now?”

  Aoi got up off the wall and started walking. “We will go back to our regular business. Though I’m sure we will talk more now that you're the only one to know my secret.”

  “Aren’t you worried I’ll betray you?”

  She flashed him a smile and gave a soft laugh as she answered. “Not at all! If you backstab me, I get you back way worse.”

  As they parted ways, Alcides smiled and felt something stir within him about her. He quickly tried to brush it aside, but as he went about his business, he couldn’t get that feeling for her out of his mind. He had a feeling that the two of them would be in contact and that this wouldn’t be the last time their paths would cross.