Chapter 23: Oni Tomodachi

To my surprise, it was still busy at this time. There were many people selling and buying things, little kids playing around, stray animals running near food stalls. All in all, it felt welcoming. I didn't have any money at the time, so I simply looked and stared at the beautiful flowers and designed skulls.

As I passed through the stands, I noticed a boy with black hair, and two mint green streaks, selling different types of bracelets, each a different color. He looked around my age, so I decided to talk to him and maybe befriend him. It's not that hard, I thought. "Hi!" I greeted him.

He looked up from his work and smiled. "¡Hola! Are you here to buy a bracelet?" He answered with a rough accent. I kindly refused.

"No, I'm only looking." His smile seemed to grow.

"Really?" He looked at my clothes, and frowned. I glanced at what I was wearing, and panicked. Oh no, I tried not to show my fear. This is my uniform jacket. Why the hell was this out? I thought I hid it at the bottom of my suitcase before I fell asleep?! "How did that happen?" He pointed at my wrist.

I stared at my injured wrist. I calmed down. "Oh, that. I fell off my friend's motorcycle." Lying wasn't really one of my strengths, so I felt it to be an accomplishment when he believed me. Something barked behind me and shoved me towards the stall. I turned to see a dirty dog hitting my legs and sniffing my pockets for something.

"¡Calvin, para ya! Déjalo en paz, no tiene comida con él. ¡Ahora vete!" The boy yelled at the dog. Calvin whined, and ran up to him and leaped at him. The boy laughed as the dog began to lick his face. Calvin barked happily. His behaviour reminded me of Havoc, Mune's dog, whenever he felt hungry.

"¡Bien, bien!" He laughed a bit more. He pulled out a wrapped tortilla from his satchel and gave it to Calvin. "Aquí, ahora vete y molesta a los otros puestos, ¿de acuerdo?" He barked again, and ran off.

"Ah, right. I forgot to introduce myself," I stuck my hand out. "I'm Oni."

"Oni, huh? I'm Felix." He shook my hand. "It's almost ten thirty, so I gotta close this stall for tomorrow," He put all the bracelets in a separate bag. He called someone from inside a house behind him and smiled at me. "Mind if I join you? I don't feel like going back home yet."

I shrugged. He seemed trustworthy enough to me. "Sure. I don't mind."

He grabbed his satchel and jogged beside me. As we walked through stalls, I learned a lot about Felix. He was actually Canadian, but decided to stay here for "certain reasons." He also despised large groups sometimes, mostly because he was claustrophobic.

Just as things were going great, before I made eye contact with Vanitas. He glanced at Felix, before disappearing into the crowd of people. "Hey, you okay?" Felix lightly tapped my shoulder. I looked at him, and told him I was fine. "You sure? 'Cause you look really pale right now."

"I-I think I should get going now." I hurried past the others, barely hearing Felix saying goodbye, or the strangers yelling at me for pushing them.

I didn't care. Vanitas saw me. I needed to get out of here before he got back to the hotel. The trip there wasn't that far, so I managed to reach my room and lock it before anyone came in.

"Took you long enough." Someone said behind me. I jumped and turned around quickly. To my surprise, everyone but Eli and Zane was awake. Vanitas wasn't here. At least, not yet he was.

"How long have you guys been awake?" I asked, taking off my jacket and stuffing it below the pile of clothes I had.

"Long enough to see you leave the room." Mune said, cleaning his glasses. "Vanitas told us he would be going to meet someone when he saw you weren't in bed. He said to inform him if you came back before he did."

"Luckily I arrived just in time, huh." Vanitas growled behind me. He glanced at the rest of my friends. "You should be glad that kid didn't know which organization you belonged to, else we all would have been in big trouble." He put his jacket to the side, and crashed onto his bed. "I'm in no mood to deal with you at the moment, so remember this. You do that again, and I'll make sure you don't get to see your family again."

After his little speech, he ordered the four of us to go back to bed. Nico did so with pleasure, and quickly before Jay started to ask us strange questions.

"Hey Oni," Jay asked me.

I looked at him with tired eyes. "Yes?"

"I can't sleep." He said with wide eyes.

"What's up?" I groaned and looked at him.

"There's just so many important questions going on in my head." I glared at him. His eyes couldn't get any wider than now.

"Like?" I wanted to end this conversation as soon as possible.

"Is the S or C silent in the word scent? If you drop soap on the floor, is it dirty or is the floor clean? How come our noses run but our feet smell? Why's it called chilli if it's hot? If two mind readers read each other's mind, whose mind are they reading? If I told you I was lying in bed right now, aren't I actually telling you the truth?"

"Dude . . ." I mentally screamed at him. Now neither of us could sleep with those questions in our heads.

"Go to sleep you two, please." Mune groaned. "Before you wake up anyone else."

I glared at Jay, knowing I wouldn't be able to thanks to him.

~~~

After many tosses and turns, I finally managed to slip into a dreamless sleep. But the morning that came afterward was so much worse.

I had only opened my eyes when someone smacked me with a pillow. "Wake up, ice pack!" Eli screamed in my ears. "Got a big day ahead of us! Gonna start our new jobs, remember?"

I only grabbed my blanket and groaned. "Five more minutes."

"Oni, we have to get you up, or else Vanitas will." Zane warned, dragging my body off the bed.

"Noooo," I complained, clinging onto the mattress. "I don't wanna go. I wanna sleep."

"Oni, please. You're fourteen. Quit acting like a child and come with us." I continued to cling onto the mattress, still. "Oh, hey Vanitas."

"Vanitas?!" I accidentally let go of the bed, and flew across the room. Eli burst into a laughing fit as I slowly regained balance and Zane had gotten up from the fall. I looked around to see where our leader was, but he wasn't here. I gave them a daggered look. "Vanitas was never here, was he?" Eli was starting to get hiccups from all the laughter. He shook his head.

Defeated, I trudged my way through the hallways and down to the dining room for breakfast. I lazily picked a muffin, some cheese and bread, and a granola bar. After slowly taking my breakfast to my group's table, Vanitas immediately began to talk about today's schedule.

"Okay, so. Crimson, you take the girls to these places," He gave her a piece of paper with a list of shops and stores written on it. "See if you can get them working in one nearby the hotel. Zane, Eli, you take the new boys and do the same." I looked around the table to see how everyone was dealing with this.

Lina and Mune both looked exhausted, while Jay was barely functioning. Nico seemed to be taking the information in one ear and out the other. Sholto yawned, and for a second I swear I saw fangs. Everyone else seemed fully awake and fresh.

"Oni," Vanitas looked at me. I rubbed my eyes to get rid of any sleep. "Just a reminder, do not leave the hotel room after 7:00. If that boy found out you worked for Yuuto, we would have been screwed."

"And that's bad because . . . ?" He never really had explained it last night. Probably because it was really late.

He sighed. "His materials come from the Zhadnost organization. He is similar to Yuuto, taking children and expanding his power across continents. The only difference between them is that Zhadhost is crueler than him, showing no mercy to those who are weak, and hardening those who are strong."

I gave his speech about this scary guy little thought. "Sounds like an american to me."

"He's russian."

"Do they both kill?" I pointed my fork at him.

"Maybe? I'm not sure."

"Definitely an american." I stuffed the last of my muffin in my mouth.

"I've stood by Zhadhost for two months, he is russian."

I was about to argue back when Nico hit my head. "Just shut up and eat your food." I huffed in defeat, and finished my granola bar. Everyone went back to having breakfast and staying awake. I really don't want to do anything today, and I really hope Vanitas can see that.