The weekend crowd had transformed the shopping mall into a miniature city. Conversations overlapped with cheerful music echoing from the ceiling speakers while the scent of coffee, buttered popcorn and fresh pastries drifted through the corridors. Bright advertisements flickered from giant LED displays, children tugged on their parents' sleeves toward toy stores and every few seconds another group squeezed past in search of the next discount.
Among the crowd walked four teenagers who looked anything but ordinary.
"...Wait..."
A tired voice emerged from behind.
"Wait for me..."
Shuhi stopped walking altogether, placing both hands on her knees as she bent forward. Her breathing had become uneven, every inhale sounding heavier than the last. A few loose strands of hair clung to her forehead from sweat.
"I can't..." she muttered between breaths. "Could you three... please stop running like toddlers?"
Haruto looked back before letting out a helpless sigh.
"You were physically weak back then..." he said. "And you're still physically weak now."
Shuhi slowly raised her head. No words came from her mouth. Haruto continued without mercy.
"You should seriously eat more."
Shuhi placed a hand over her chest as though struck by an invisible arrow.
"Haruto..."
Her voice trembled dramatically.
"You shouldn't say things like that to a girl."
"I know."
"You know?"
"I know."
"...And you still said it?"
Haruto scratched his cheek awkwardly.
"Only because it's you."
The words left his mouth so naturally that even he failed to realize how strange they sounded.
Shuhi stared at him in disbelief before crossing her arms.
"So I get special treatment?"
"Exactly."
"...That's the worst kind of special treatment and you know that!"
Before Haruto could answer, another exhausted sigh came from behind.
"Would one of you PARASITES kindly remember I exist?"
The three turned around. Akari was standing several meters behind them.
Both of his hands were occupied by shopping bags. More bags hung from his wrists while another rested against his shoulder. Every step looked like an exercise in patience.
The group was using him like a bag carrier.
"You did so much bossing around back then! Now the tables have turned," Rina said.
"Oh shut up!"
As if agreeing with his misery, something poked out from his hoodie pocket.
A fuzzy black leg. Then another. Three tiny tarantulas slowly climbed onto his shoulders. Each wore a miniature ribbon around its body. The 3 had different colors. White, pink and blue The ribbons resembled tiny maid uniforms carefully stitched just for them. The three spiders calmly wandered across Akari's shoulders as though supervising his suffering.
"I had to give them a tour of outside world. No vr, no realistic 3d video. This is their first time exploring Tokyo. I think I shouldn't be so surprised.
Her gaze drifted toward the massive glass ceiling above the mall. Sometimes she wondered how different things could have been. Shuhi had escaped from the organization after spending there for 10 years. The other three got out from there for the first time in 14 years, 4 years after Shuhi escaped.
A place where there were no shopping malls. No game centers, no restaurants, no festivals, no ordinary childhood memories. They were always told to learn, compete and adapt.
Yet even after stepping outside...
None of the 3 had truly embraced the outside world. They were so focused on bringing Shuhi back that they barely experienced freedom themselves.
While ordinary teenagers worried about school exams, they were chasing Shuhi as a mission of the organization.
They had escaped the cage.
But a part of the cage still lived inside them.
Shuhi stared.
"Oh and if you carry everything today, I will buy you that!" Rina pointed towards a pet animal shop on the other side of the road. There was another spider inside a glass jar.
"Oh sure sure! Let me carry your bag too!" Akari got excited, his mood got all cheerful.
"Eww, gross," Shuhi thought.
"Eww, gross. She said," Haruto blurted out.
Akari got furious and came straight at Shuhi, "How dare you call my fellow spider gross? Do you have the faintest idea how cool they are?"
Shuhi couldn't help but run from the blabbering of Akari. Now she went against Haruto,
"Haruto, how dare you? You genuinely wanna take a taste of my mind?"
"No, forgive me," Haruto cried and started running towards the opposite direction. Now the entire mall saw a cat and mouse chase of those three.
Rina couldn't help but nod with a smile.
Later at the restaurant, they were having their lunch. A sudden thought came into Shuhi's mind,
"Hey guys, what is your dream for the future? What do you want to do?"
"A school teacher! I wanna teach kids all sorts of maths!" Akari was the first one to raise his hand and speak aloud.
"Ya sure, if anyone is gonna learn math from you, their head will spin!" Haruto commented.
"Oh shut up!"
"What bout you, Rina san?" Shuhi asked.
"Maybe a musician? Even a painter is okay. But to say for certain, I…I want to be a teacher too. But isn't it a better idea for us to give lecture in university instead of teaching kids? You know…for better use of our knowledge." Rina replied.
"What about you, Shuhi san?" Haruto asked, "Better don't lie, I will catch it," Haruto said with a faint laugh.
"I...I don't like to be scolded by some boss so I don't know. I still haven't put much thought in it," Shuhi said, her voice fainted a little.
"Then start a business of your own? Be the boss yourself," Akari unfolded a possibility.
"Probably...probably not. As I said, I don't know."
Everybody then turned towards Haruto. He was the only one who didn't share his dream job. Haruto understood it,
"I want to do something that helps mankind. I never told you properly, I actually don't like the evil plotting the organizations has taught us since childhood," Haruto said.
"Well, that couldn't be helped if you go gambling around and blow off all your money," Shuhi immediately added.
"Hey! I don't blow money, I make money. Do a race about who becomes the richest among us the fastest and I will come on top, no doubt."
"Whatever," Rina said.
After they had their lunch, they went back to the first floor of the mall, preparing to leave as they did all the shopping they wanted. But Akari suddenly got vanished among them.
"Hey guys, where did Akari go?" Rina asked.
"Right, he suddenly disappeared." Shuhi said.
"Finding me?" Akari came from behind.
"What the...when did you come behind us?" Shuhi was the first one to get surprised.
"He completely suppressed his presence. What a skill. No doubt why we are inferior to him in ranks," Rina thought.
"How...I couldn't even read your thoughts!" Haruto said.
Akari didn't say anything. He opened his mouth and a long legged black spider came out from inside. It stuck to Akari's chin and it's half was still inside Akari's mouth. He looked like a gothic monster from a horror movie.
"Eww...spider in mouth?" Everyone said at the same time.
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