Naoki stared up at the starry night sky.
The kid's head was resting on top of his lap.
Somehow, still fast asleep.
He wasn't entirely sure how things had ended up like this.
One moment the kid was crying about rocks, carboard, and his mom for some reason.
Going on and on and on until fatigue go to him.
And before he knew it, the kid had already fallen asleep. And on his lap of all places.
'Some people should seriously learn about personal boundaries. School taught me that.'
"..."
'Well, I did fail the subject. But that's beside the point.'
Naoki sighed.
"Damn... I can't feel my legs."
The kid didn't answer.
Well, obviously. He was fast asleep.
For a while, Naoki just stayed put. Careful not to wake him up.
'Speaking of which, I never asked for his name... I'll do it later, after he wakes up.'
Then, without really thinking about it, he started humming a tune.
He didn't know where it came from, but it was oddly familiar.
Did his mother use to sing it? Or was he making the whole thing up?
Either way, it sounded pretty good.
"La la la..."
The kid shifted slightly but didn't wake up.
Naoki kept going.
"La la lah laah..."
After some time, the humming turned into singing.
"Sleep little dude, don't cry no more..."
Actually.
Those lyrics kind of suck.
He was better off humming.
On second thought, the melody wasn't much better.
Still.
The kid seemed comfortable.
"So when you wake up, you'll be... better?"
Wait.
Why was he singing a lullaby again?
More importantly.
Why was he still here?
'...'
The church.
"Sleep little dude..."
The mission.
"Don't you dare cry..."
The kidnappers.
"You're not a devil..."
The master plan.
"So go to sleep tonight..."
The master plan!
"..."
His eyes widened.
"Oh no."
The lullaby continued automatically. His brain momentarily turning off from the shock.
"La la la..."
His eye twitched.
"La la lah-"
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
Naoki shot to his feet.
The sleeping child immediately rolled off his lap.
Thud
"MY MISSION!"
He spun around.
"The church!"
"The kidnappers!"
"THE MASTER PLAN!"
The kid jolted awake.
"Wha-?!"
"My mission!"
Furiously, Naoki grabbed the kid by his shoulders, swinging him up and down as if they were in an interrogation.
The kid grabbed his arms, signaling for him to stop.
"S-stop! You pushed me off!"
"YES!"
"You screamed!"
"YES!"
"Stop screaming!"
"Ok."
The kid stared at him.
"..."
He stared back.
"..."
Then the child raised his finger pointing straight at him.
"What is wrong with you?!"
He paused. Well, he already was paused for some time.
But this is a pause of affirmation.
'You know what? Fair question.'
***
Naoki looked up the sky.
But this time, he was in a really bad mood.
Judging by how high up the moon is, he estimated it to be...
Well, he doesn't actually know how to read the time just based of that. So all he could really assume was that it was very late.
"Hey... you're in a hurry, right?" the kid asked.
"Of course I am. This mission is my last hope of understanding my best friend better."
"Really?"
"Fine... I might've exaggerated a tiny little bit. But you get the point."
"Then if it's so important, why did you spend all that time explaining every tiny detail of this master plan of yours to me?!"
"I thought you'd be interested?"
"No..."
The kid paused.
"Well..."
Another pause.
"Yeah, I guess."
"But that was only at the start. The more details I heard, the more... stupid it sounded."
Naoki gasped in disbelief.
A kid whose name he didn't even know had just called his carefully crafted, masterfully masterful master plan stupid?
'M-my plan? Mine? Stupid?'
'The audacity.'
Naoki slowly raised both his palms towards the sky as if gathering power from the heavens themselves.
Or at least from a moderately sized group of angels up there.
'Angels and heaven? That's such an old fairytale.'
Now focus.
And prepare to unleash all of it upon this ungrateful child.
'No, Naoki. That's child endangerment.'
'Calm down.'
'Take a deep breath.'
"Whooooo..."
"W-what are you doing?"
'Alright, let's do this properly.'
'Like a compliment sandwich.'
'One compliment at the start, one at the end, and the insult goes in the middle.'
'Surely that'd teach him to be respectful.'
"Ahem. First of all, I am glad you feel comfortable enough to insult me. Just earlier, you were crying out of fear, but now..."
Naoki placed a hand over his chest.
"I am proud of what you've become."
"... Sorry?"
"You are a child!"
"..."
The child looked more concerned than frightened right now.
Which was honestly valid.
From his perspective, someone he just met today had spent the last twenty minutes explaining, in painstakingly small details, a plan that involved intentionally getting kidnapped.
Worse, Naoki had never actually explained to him what'll happen after he gets kidnapped.
And the only reason he'd given him as to why he's doing all of this was that he wanted to understand his best friend better.
So from the kid's point of view, Naoki didn't look like a genius strategist at all.
He looked more like someone who had just escaped from a mental asylum about thirty minutes ago, and they've met hours ago.
Well... most of those hours was spent with him sound asleep.
"And finally, what's your name?"
"..."
"Hello?"
"O-oh, right."
The kid straightened up slightly.
"Ren. Ren's my name."
"Well, nice to meet you, Ren. My name's Naoki, by the way."
Naoki immediately grabbed Ren's hand and shook it.
After all that, they could finally have a proper introduction.
"Ah, you too, Naoki. Nice to meet you."
Ren shook his hand back.
Strangely enough, he was careful about it too.
The handshake was very considerate about Naoki's injuries. It was slow and steady.
'Woah.'
'He's being way nicer now.'
'Did my expert disciplinary techniques actually work?'
"Hehe. So, Ren." He said with a snicker.
Naoki plopped down in the narrow alley, laying his back against the wall.
Ren did the same, only he sat on top of the mountain of rocks Naoki still hadn't removed, balancing himself awkwardly.
"What are you doing?"
"Uhh... sitting down?"
"Well why are you sitting there? Can't you see the mountain of rocks below you?"
Ren looked down, then up again, before glancing around from side to side.
"Where else am I supposed to sit?"
"Besides me. Isn't that obvious?"
"What? I'm allowed to?"
That was the exact moment Naoki realized this kid had some serious issues.
'I mean, I should've realized it with the whole crying about mom thing, but damn, this kid has it rough huh.'
"You know, for a kid that just slept using my lap as a pillow, you're acting weirdly shy about sitting next to me."
"...Ok."
Ren hurriedly scooted over to Naoki's side and sat a little further away from him.
"..."
Naoki sighed in disbelief.
"Anyway. Ren, I wanted to ask you if you've noticed any other kids disappearing lately?"
"I don't really know much, especially with... the other kids."
"What, seriously? You haven't accidentally eavesdropped or something?"
"N-no? of course not!"
'Woah, he's kind of a loser.'
"I know you're probably thinking I'm a loser, huh."
"Hah! Mind reader!"
"Come on, you don't have to admit it!"
Ren turned his head to face him.
Speaking of his face, it looked a little dramatic as if acting pitiful.
'Well I'm sure he didn't mean too.'
"Seriously, if you're just here to insult me then you can just leave. You're in a hurry, right?"
He is right. Naoki is sort of in a hurry right now. He still has a lot of things to do.
"Weren't you the one who suddenly became so considerate? But fine, I'll get going now. It was nice meeting you."
"W-wait, you're actually leaving?"
"Well... yeah duh. I have work to do."
"But I mean you can just wait here until you get kidnapped."
"..."
"... Right?"
Naoki thought about it for a few seconds, before ultimately deciding.
No.
"Don't be stupid. There's no way those guys would kidnap someone so close to the entrance of the outskirts."
'...Ok, now I'm starting to think I shouldn't have said that.'
Outside the alley, the street remained mostly quiet.
'Wait, no way right?'
A semi truck painted in white sat right beside the building that the alley opened from. Its shadow hidden by the larger ones coming from the building.
From inside the alley, it couldn't be seen at all. But from the outside, it stood out like a sore thumb. Impossible to miss for anyone paying attention.
Neither of them noticed it.
But it noticed them. Especially with how loud they were.
The only reason nobody else complained about the noise was because the others were too intimidated by the truck parked just outside.
It looked too clean.
Too modern.
Especially for a place like this.
No one wanted to get close enough to question it.
Its stood still, waiting for one of its prey to step out.
And one finally did.