The Split

As Nero and Frides are forced out of Wicked Wanda's, they walked past a middle aged woman on the side of a fruit cart outside of a mostly empty market. "Ripe avocados, tangy oranges, and sweet sweet sweet mangos!"

Nero nudged Frides and raised an eyebrow, "Uhhhh I'm still hungry." He complained.

"Yeah, well who's fault is that." Frides looked straight ahead intentionally not acknowledging the stall woman.

Nero shrugged, "Hers? How was I supposed to know Wanda was deathly afraid of Domaku? What an oddly specific phoebia. What do they even call that, I wonder? Arkoudaphobia or Ornithophobia?"

"And who is it with?" Frides was getting annoyed of Nero once again. It was a cycle Frides started to notice. Nero would annoy him until he gave in with an outburst of anger, simply agreeing to his whims just to make it stop. Then things would be good until Nero found a way to mess up a good thing by taking something too far or doing something inappropriate. He would ramble about how it wasn't his fault when it clearly was and after arguing with him and getting nowhere he would give up and stop responding. After a while of silence Nero would pick back up and talk about wanting something else until Frides was annoyed again and it would start again.

"...Us?" Nero replied sheepishly.

"You! They kicked us out because of you!" He raised his voice louder than he intended to, making the stall woman turn and give him a violent glare.

"But I didn't pay, you payed. So I was with you. So using your logic, it would have to be your fault." Nero grinned looking up at Frides.

"No we got kicked out so nobody payed." He quipped back at Nero.

Nero stopped in the middle of the road. "Wait. when you get kicked out, you don't have to pay." He looked at Frides, eyes gleaming.

"Yeah, if they don't tell the Peace Corps, but you can't come back though. Wait your trying to tell me you've never been kicked out of anywhere." His insult flew right over Nero's head.

"Yeah, Wanda's, but she still made me pay. And I know the rules now! Free meals forever!!! But that food was pretty good. It's probably because it was about to be free. free food is the best food."

"Just stop." Frides was back at the part where he was getting tired of Nero's jabber jawed antics. He pulled ahead of Nero.

"Hey bodyguard. So if I have to take a dump, do you come in or wait outside?"

"Speaking of Diarrhea...Does your mouth ever get tired of running?"

"Only when there's nobody to talk to. That's not true, then I'll talk to myself. Hey!" The Domaku jumped out of his bag and ran off in between two buildings.

Nero looked at frides. "Should I? I mean, it basically ran away. I should take it as a sign. It wants to be free." He put his hands together and looked up to the sky. Then he looked in the direction of where the Domaku ran and there was a hot girl being accosted by Pirates.

"A sign to chase it. What are you saying Frides? Of course I'm going to go and get it. We have to bring it back to its mother. What an ass." He shamed Frides, and smacked him on the arm.

Frides rolled his eyes as Nero skipped away. Frides saw a boy walking away in between some buildings."Kirs?! What are you doing here?" He fell down on one knee clutching his head. When his vision cleared, he stumbled in the boys' direction and down the street. The kid disappeared into the alley way.

The kid kicked a wall. "Is there a doctor anywhere with any morals? You're just going to let someone die knowing you could have saved his life? Don't you take a stupid oath or something?!"

"Kirs?" Frides called to the kid again then fell to one knee, clutching his head again.

The kid walked over to him. "Are you okay? What are you doing here?"

"You need a doctor right?" Frides said between panting.

"Yeah for my brother. looks like you need one too." The boy made a wisecrack out of the side of his mouth.

Frides glared at him, "Do you need a doctor or not? Don't waste my time."

"No, I'm sorry. If you're a doctor please help my brother."

"Take me to him." Frides commanded.

Nero walked onto the side street to find the Domaku's head in a bag, choking down the girls dropped groceries. The girl is being harassed by four guys and is too busy to notice.

Nero bumped two guys hard out of his way to get to the Domaku and the girl.

"Hey!" The Pirates grumble as they stumbled to the side.

"Oh, hey guys sorry about the food she just gets so hungry." Overlooking the gripes of the Pirates he solely addressed the girl.

"Are you kidding me? Huh?" A lanky guy stepped forward about the same age as Nero with a little stubble and a thug like intimidating face.

Without turning to look at him Nero halfheartedly apologized, "What? No, I said I was sorry for the food. Wait who's food is it."

Nero looked around and the girl meekly spoke up, "It's mine." She said with indignation. Looking out the side of her eye towards Nero and not turning her face from the leader of the Pirate group.

Nero looked down, astonishingly all the food that dropped was gone. "Unbelievable!"

The girl looked down to see that all of the food that fell out of the bag was gone then looked up at Nero.

"Hah, its okay. I can fix this. Come on let's go. My friend will buy you some new food." He awkwardly offered. He nervously grabbed her and rushed her away. "Come on garbage hole." He called to the Domaku. The Domaku pricked its ears up and started to tag along.

The main thug grabbed Neros shoulder, "Where the fuck do you think you're going? Can't you see we're talking?"

"Wow, speaking of garbage holes." Nero said under his breath, and the girl laughed. Nero looked over to her while feverishly scratching his nose, "You know this guy?"

"No?" The girls answer was unsure but good enough for him.

"Oh, okay. Bye now." He swung his hand and blew the guy away with a palm strike. Sending him flying in a blur past his other crew mates. They stared at Nero in shock with a tinge of fear.

Nero looked down at his hand and brushed it against his thigh. "You stink. I think I need to wash my hands now. Damn I hate pirates."

"Oh no." The girl immediately turned and speed walked away. The Domaku followed her or at least the food.

"Now we're leaving. Anybody got a problem with that?" He announced.

They glanced back at the man that got thrown. He groaned and they shook their heads.

"Hey where'd they go." Nero came out of the alley and saw the girl making her way up the street. He chased after them calling out garbage hole a bunch of times.

The guys in the alley picked up the main thuggish pirate and his consciousness returned. "What the fuck happened?" He asked while coughing and clutching his chest.

"Let it go, Drake. That guy is too much." One of his crew-mates advised.

Drake reached up and grabbed his partner by the collar. "Call everyone. He dies today."

Frides and the boy made their way to a little cottage. They walked up a hill to the front door.

"Sorry for the mess." He said leading Frides into the house to the bedroom.

"It's fine." Frides looked around at the dark and musty house. There wasn't a lot of furniture and no mess to notice. It was mostly empty and a little dirty but there just wassn't enough in the house for it to ever get messy. There was a woman bundled up asleep on the couch, so he stepped quietly, avoiding the floorboards he knew would creek.

The boy opened the bedroom door making a loud wining sound and Frides followed him in. "It's just me, my sister, and my brother. My parents aren't around so my brother and sister take whatever work they can get. My brother went to work at the docks yesterday and came back late last night, after my sister came home from the restaurant. He was hurt all over, covered in scratches, and he had a broken nose. He passed out at the front door."

"He didn't open it, he fell through it." Frides tapped the bump on his head, above the broken nose, on his forehead.

"I think he got a job with those pirates and instead of paying him they beat him up."

Frides put his hand to the injured mans forehead, then tilted his face to take a better look at him. "Yeah he was beat up alright." He concluded.

Nero caught up to the girl who was being followed by the Domaku. "Where are you going?"

"I'm getting out of there. Once those guys go and tell their captain about what happened, these streets are going to be filled with people looking for you... and now me." She chastised him.

The Domaku was jumping up and down at her bags.

Nero noticed that the bag was ripped, and kindly reached down, covering the whole in the bag. He looks up at the girl, "Then it's not safe for either of us to be alone?"

She blushed then looked away. "I guess I kinda owe you. You can stay the night at my house."

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" The girl turned around at the call and saw the Pirates running running up on them and also some from ahead of them.

"Oh shit. We gotta run." She tells Nero.

"Alright sounds like fun." Nero stepped towards them not hearing her.

"Hey, he looks like the guy who's in Kota's office. Hey do you know Kota?" Drake called out to Nero.

"Stop stalling like scared little bitches. Whoa!" The girl pulled on the back of Nero's shirt collar.

"Stop I live here don't make this worse."

"It's okay after I'm done they wont be in any condition to tell anyone anything."

"No! Killing them is worse. We have to run!" She said while pulling on his shirt making him fall down in the dirt stumbling to get up and keep up after her.

"Look at them. Do you think they're going to let us through?" Nero mocked her half thought out plan.

"Well not even Kota can save you now. Go on boys." Drake sent some of the men with him after them.

"Argh! Let go I can't run like this." Nero grabbed her, reached down and picked up the Domaku, and jumped on to the roof of a nearby building. Some of the guys with Glow jumped up and the others chased them down the street from below. Nero leaped from building to building but the pirates were catching up. One of them Glowed a whip and tries to hit Nero but missed hitting one of the other Pirates knocking him off the building.

"Not so easy huh. Shit you're heavy."

"What?!?" The girl shouted.

Nero looked at the Domaku.

"Stop jumping so much." The girl fumbled through her bag.

"Sorry I was trying to run like you asked." Nero complained. The girl reached in her bag and threw out some powder behind them. The guys stopped and started coughing and rubbing their eyes.

"What was that?" Nero asked.

"Powdered peppers." She replied with a smirk, "Don't stop let's get outta here."

Nero and the Domaku followed the girl through the wooded trees passing by on both sides of them.

"Hey, what's your name? And what were you doing down there talking to them."

"My name is Lyra. I had to ask them some questions." Now under different circumstances he could see how stubborn she was. Stubborn enough to go head first into a situation without any way out.

"Yeah and how'd that turn out for you? That seemed a little dangerous to do alone." He could already sense an illogical excuse.

"I was fine until your..." She gestured at the Domaku and waited for Nero to fill in the blank.

"Domaku?"

"Right, your Domaku came and made them nervous. Wait domaku really?" She looked down at the fluffy white fur and flappy wings. "Why do you have a domaku cub aren't they impossible to get unless you risk the lives of at least a crew of 10 veteran men?"

"Uh I kind of found it and its been following me since. I'm here to take it to its mom." He explained.

"Where is she?" She continued up the path.

"I don't know. Somewhere around here shouldn't be that hard to find they're kinda huge."

"Where'd you kinda find the cub?"

"In the Shuri Forest."

"That's one of the most dangerous places in the world. What were you doing there?"

"I live there. Well I used to. I was taking a walk." He corrected.

She gave him a look of exasperation and disbelief. It only made sense that he grew up unsocialized. "Really, where did you find it?"

In the cottage. Frides went over to the boy lying in the bed. He checked for any signs of internal damage and seemed satisfied, but confused. He noticed a tear in the boys pants so he pulled up, revealing a cut on his leg. It was bloody with puss coming out of it.

"That looks infected." Said the little brother.

The wound was redish green. Frides then touched the boys forehead again.

"He's got a fever. Sorry, He didn't get a wound like this at the docks. They wouldn't go through the trouble of beating him up and then poisoning him or it happened first. Nah it doesn't make any sense."

"Yeah that's what my sister said. But then where?" The little boy asked.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Thanks for reading!