The Children of Thieves

Cho Amamiya's alarm woke her at the usual time. She groaned, wishing today would come a bit later. Today, she was going to become a second year at Shujin academy. Her parents had actually met each other in Shujin, along with a lot of their other friends. As much as she liked the idea of old classmates still being friends after 30 years, that still didn't make it any less annoying. She lay in her bed for a few more minutes, before her alarm annoyed her so much that she finally relented and clambered out of bed.

As she got up, she heard a thump and an angry hiss coming from the family cat Morgana. He had recently started sleeping on her bed. Whenever she complained about it to her parents, her dad would just chuckle, and comment about how Morgana used to do that all the time on his bed. She always thought that her parents treated that cat more as a human. She'd sometimes hear them talking to it, and then respond to his meows like they understood. She once even caught her aunts doing it. She shook her head as she got dressed into her uniform. Her family was weird.

When she arrived at the breakfast table, her father, Ren, was already there, with a cup of her grandfather's famous coffee in one hand and a stack of papers in the other. Morgana was standing next to his seat, meowing angrily at what Cho could guess was the injustice of being hurled off the bed. Ren laughed and said to him, "Maybe next time don't lie on top of her." Morgana huffed and pridefully trotted off. Maybe there was a bit of human in him, Cho thought to herself. "Good morning dad" she said, sitting down on the opposite side of the kitchen table and helping herself to the curry that was waiting for her. Cho's mother often said that Ren would've been better as a culinary professional instead of a politician. Cho often agreed with that.

"Morning butterfly," Ren replied, looking up from his papers. "Are you ready for your first day of second year?" "I guess," Cho shrugged, helping herself to some more curry. "It's kind of embarrassing having everyone know who you are because your parents are famous." Ren chuckled at this. "Yeah," he said, "I kind of know how that feels. At least you're known for something positive, everyone just knew me as the delinquent that could jump out at you with a knife at any moment." Cho thought she heard a small bit of bitterness in his voice when he said that. She just nodded, she knew all about her father's wrongful conviction.

When she finished, she grabbed her bag, hugged her father goodbye, then headed out the door. Her mother had been called in early this morning due to a subway accident. When that had appeared on the news, Cho thought she saw a bit of fear and apprehension on her parents faces. She never liked it when her mother Makoto, or Commissioner Niijima, was called in before she woke up. She heard that her other grandfather, Makoto's dad, had died in the line of duty. It often terrified her that the same might happen to her mother, and she would never have been able to say goodbye.

There was a bit of tension in the air as Cho sat on the train to Shujin. Everyone was nervous since the accident last night, but the passengers who were around her parents age were particularly nervous. Perhaps this sort of thing was a lot more common when her parents were her age. As she sat there, pondering what the tension could mean, her phone buzzed. She pulled it out quickly, thinking it was her mother wishing her a good first day back. But it wasn't. Instead, a weird app appeared on her phone. It had a red and black colouring, with a weirdly shaped eye in the middle. "Must be some sort of malware" she thought to herself, as she quickly deleted it. She could get her aunt to look at it if it appeared again.

As she stepped out of the station and headed towards the school, she was quickly tackled from behind. Using the Aikido that her mother had taught her, she grabbed her assailant and threw him to the ground. It was a boy with pale-blonde hair and a stupid grin on his face. "One of these days," he said as Cho helped him up, "One of these days I'll manage that." "Sure you will Mubo" she chuckled as the two of them headed to school. Mugio Sakamoto was the eldest son of famous athlete and model Ryuji and Ann Sakamoto. Mubo (reckless) was Cho's nickname for him since he was always very reckless. Ryuji was also her Godfather, since he was Ren's best friend. Cho and Mubo were able to bond really easily, since, like their fathers before them, everyone knew who they were. She was just thankful it wasn't for the same reasons that everyone knew who Ren and Ryuji were when they were in school.

The school year started with principle Kawakami giving a speech welcoming them all back, and telling the students where their new classrooms will be. After that, Cho and Mubo headed to their class and prepared for a long and boring day of school ahead of them. As their homeroom teacher, Ms. Manabi began her lecture of the dos and don'ts of her classroom, Cho's phone buzzed again. She pulled it out and saw the weird app with the eye was downloaded onto her phone again. She looked up to make sure her teacher wasn't looking, then quickly deleted it and put her phone on silent.

She spent the rest of the day in a bored stupor. She was called on to answer a question on the periodic table, but other than that, nothing really noteworthy happened. As she and Mubo were leaving the school, they overheard the Mishima twins arguing. Sabato and Hana Mishima were on somewhat friendly terms with Cho and Mubo, because the twins' father Yuuki was a close friend of Ren's and their mother Shiho was Ann's best friend. The two of them had been arguing a lot recently since Hana had joined a tutoring club led by a well-liked teacher called Mr. Yokubo. Most of the girls in the school, Hana included, fawned over him because he was friendly and they thought he looked very handsome. But Cho didn't see the appeal. And anyway, she felt like there was something off about him. She thought he could be a bit creepy at times.

But other than Sabato and Mubo, everyone thought he was amazing. His tutoring program had become a huge topic of debate between the two twins, something that concerned their mothers in particular. "I just don't see why you still go to those sessions," Cho could here Sabato yelling as they passed, "You're like one of the brightest in our year!" "Because I still feel like I can improve!" Hana yelled back, "and Mr. Yokubo is kind to us. He's really helpful and friendly." "Then explain those bruises you've been getting!" Sabato retorted. This caused Hana to freeze. "Don't think I don't see them," Sabato went on, "and I don't buy the story you told mum and dad about you falling over in gym one bit!" "But that's what happens!" Hana shouted back. "Then how come Higaisha has them as well!" Cho stopped to listen in some more. She had noticed that Nabana Higaisha had been getting rather bruised as of late, but she always went temporarily deaf whenever Cho tried to ask her about them.

Hana looked like she was going to retort, but she spotted Nabana heading back into the school for those tutoring sessions with Yokubo and followed her in. Sabato angrily yelled Hana's name but she ignored him, so he swore in frustration, kicked a stone across the pavement, then stormed off for home. "Man," Mubo said once Sabato had left, "I've never understood all the love for Sumon Yokubo." "Neither do I," Cho replied, "Everyone sees him as humble and kind-hearted, but I swear he sees himself as the high priest of a temple or something." "High priest of a cult, more like" Mubo replied. the two of them laughed and headed to the Arcade in Shibuya.

On the way there however, Cho's phone buzzed again. She pulled it out and saw that the eye app had installed itself again. That settled it, after school tomorrow, she was going to bring her phone to her aunt Futaba Sakura and get her to fix it and remove the malware. She knew Futaba would be able to fix it for her. after all, she managed to fix her wife's phone when it kept resetting. But for now, she once again deleted the app. But, she was so preoccupied with the annoyance of the app's ability to redownload itself, that she didn't notice the writing that appeared on the screen when she pressed on the app.

Name: Sumon Yokubo

Distortion: Temple of worship

Location: Unknown

Author's Notes: All of these names mean something.

Cho: Butterfly

Mugio: Reckless (play on Mubo)

Hana: Flower

Sabato: Supporter (play on Sapoto)

Nabana Higaisha: Friend (play on Nakama) victim

Sumon Yokubo: Slime (play on Suraimu) Lust