Naota held onto Haruko’s stomach tightly as she drove at speeds that would make a cheetah jealous. The county side blurred past them as they went, slowly changing into the suburbs and then more rural areas. Naota’s arms felt like wet spaghetti when they finally entered the city. People rushed by, too busy with their work to take notice of the strange pink haired arrival in their fair city. Haruko parked her vespa on the side of the street and let Naota off.

“Wow,” Naota gasped, as he looked up and down the street at all the tall buildings and people. The skyscrapers seemed to touch the clouds and the deafening sounds of cars honking, people talking and many other sounds, filled Naota’s young ears. For him it was like he’d stepped onto a whole new world.

“Close your mouth, you look like a inbreed country bumpkin,” Haruko said, dodging people as the hurried past her. Several times, Haruko fought the urge to pull out her guitar and bash some heads in. People were so inconsiderate in the city; it just made her want to injure them all.

“Sorry,” Naota mumbled. “I’ve never been to the city before, so this is all new to me.”

“Hold on a sec, you’re telling me, you’ve never left that dismal backwater town before today?” Haruko said in skepticism. Naota nodded and Haruko shuddered at the thought of what Naota’s life must have been like. She was a free spirit, never staying long and always leaving her mark before ditching. The longest she had ever stayed was in Mabase and even then, she had taken small breaks to explore the rest of the planet. Haruko needed variation to live and hated seeing the same thing over and over again. If everything stayed the same for Haruko, she’d go stir crazy and kill every one, no joke.

“My, what a depressing and boring life you’ve lead,” Haruko said dryly. Naota turned to her and frowned, sure Mabase may have been a drag and sometimes he would of given his right leg to get out of the place, but he had his friends there and had grown up in the quiet little town. He could of thought of a lot worse places to live.

“Hey Haruko, how are we going to find this bastard?” Naota asked, maybe if they focused on their goal, Haruko wouldn’t tease him about being so new to travel.

“I guess we can check the paper to see if anything interesting has happened recently. Remember, this is a big boys town, so don’t be surprised if the front page doesn’t read, ‘Local Chili Cook Off Today!’” Naota sighed, so much for Haruko being sensitive to his new experience. While Naota pouted, Haruko grabbed a paper off a passerby.

“Hey!” he cried at having his paper taken away. Haruko gave the man a glare and he backed off, this made Haruko chuckle and mumble, ‘Wussy’. Haruko pulled open the paper and read out the first thing that caught her attention.