Chapter 2 - Why are information brokers such donkeys?

 Dude set firecrackers to my cat!

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 Eva may be beautiful, but that in no way made her dumb. No, she was far from it. She just didn`t like showing it. Keep a low profile and people expect less of you and all that, you know? She liked the television. A lot. Showing she was smart would surely have gotten her into college, but that would have meant that her time with her loved one would be shortened, right? No good risking it. She had Kyo to leech from, after all.

When Kyo had entered his room only to come out screaming moments later, pointing at something inside the room accusingly, she had deduced it was Kia before giving it much thought. How? Well, why else would he be screaming "You bloody bastard, Kia! I`m gonna call the polic on your smug face! How the hay did you get in?!"

She sighed. Not gonna get any proper television watching with him screaming like a maniac. She got up, turned off the television and walked into Kyo`s room.

"Kia." she said, her voice cold.

"Ah, Eva. As charming as always." Kia greeted. He was leaning on the wall beside Kyo`s opened room window. 

 

"Could you please ask Kyo to stop his insipid screaming?"

"Oi, Kyo, shut up!" Eva turned around and shouted. He was always so noisy. The pink head turned around to face the criminal again. "What brings you here?"

"I`ve an offer to make."

"You have the bracelet, don`t you?!" Kyo yelled, pointing accusingly at Kia.

Eva`s eye twitched. She turned around and gave Kyo a punch that sent him soaring towards the other end of the living room, hitting the wall. He went ow!, then got up and walked towards her. He stood bhind her silently for protection. Nothing can beat the protection of an angry raging female, right?

"State your offer."

"You both sound so business like." Kyo whispered to her.

"No, I don`t have the bracelet. But I want it. Would you like to aid me in acquiring it?"

"Over Eva`s dead body! You set firecrackers to my cat!" he screamed, directly into Eva`s ears.

"My dead body?" she asked, confused.

"You don`t know if it`s dancing with the dead, now do you?" Kia asked.

"Well, I don`t know if it`s alive either, now do I?"

Kia rolled his eyes. "It`s just a cat."

"Yeah? And you`re just a jerk!"

"Oi! Ok, ok, shut up!" Eva yelled, covering Kyo`s mouth with her hand. "And no, we`re not helping you with anything!" she directed at Kia. "Now get lost! Shoo!"

Kia smirked. "Suit yourselves. Don`t blame me if I get to it first, though." He said, climbing through the opened window. "Who knows what I could do with all the luck in the world..." he mumbled loud enough for them to hear before dropping out of sight. Kyo ran towards the window and looked outside. Not skin nor hair was seen of Kia.

"That took care of that." Eva said, dusting her hands. "Now, back to my program."

"I want that bracelet." Kyo simply stated, as if saying he wanted ice cream form an ice cream vendor and was already walking in its direction. Eva stopped dead in her tracks.

"What?"

"I`m not letting him have it! Come on, we`ve got to go see Ika!" The blond said, grabbing his coat, then his sister`s hand. 

"Whoa there!  No!" She pulled away. "No way am I gonna visit that freak again! Not after that scumbag cheated on me!"

"Anyone else in mind?" he asked. "You know we can`t let Kia get his hands on that bracelet, right?" she sighed.

"I hate you." she said, heading for her neon blue coat.

"Excellent!"

~~

Crowded areas. One of the many places that did justice to that title was shopping malls. All around the world, shopping malls had humans in them when it was working hours. Every town, no matter how small, had a building similar to a mall. People needed malls. They provided the necessities and fulfilled material desires. And no other shopping mall in Xitek was as crowded as Dead Man`s Center, located smack in the middle of the island Kyo lived in. 

It was an island build on buildings and alleys with a population of roughly two thousand people, with no skyscrapers nor houses. Xitek pretty much had only short apartments, malls, a small park, and work places such as post offices and police headquarters. There was a dock and airport which was constantly at use. After all, Xitek was a city made for tourists. Not made to be lived in, though. Kyo thought.  And with barely any flora or fauna! This was why fauna here was necessary to be cherished. Kyo sighed. "I wish Kia knew that." Kyo whispered.

"Huh?" Eva asked.

"Nah, it`s nothing!" said Kyo, putting his hands up. "So, can we meet with Ika already?"

"The worker said she`s gonna get the freak." 

"Hello!" the aforementioned worker greeted in a childish voice, causing Kyo to spin around. "Speak of the devil!"

 

She smiled. "Ika told me she`s not gonna leave the surveillance room. It would be unprofessional of her." The worker chirped. "She want`s you both to meet her there, instead!" she turned around and entered the crowd of people walking in the mall halls. Eva gave a look at Kyo, who shrugged in reply.

 "Come on, then!" the salesgirl called, waving at them to follow. 

They weaved pass the many human bodies surrounding them, taking escalators because lifts anywhere in Xitek always had a way of making themselves unavailable. They refused to be fixed, the lifts. Even experts from overseas tried repairing them to get them to work, and even had failed epicly. No one understood why, it was simply a fact that existed. 

At the top most floor, the mall was considerably empty. The jolly worker leaded them to a metal door that had the words "Staff only." 

"Sticks only? What? Like those magical ones magicians use?" Kyo asked, containing giggles. The salesgirl stared at him as if he was crazy. Eva responded by smacking his head with a large green hammer that appeared out of thin air. Hard. "What? Don`t tell me that wasn`t funny?" he asked, protecting his cranium from another blow.

"Just. Don`t be an ass around Ika. She know`s you`re dumb, but not up to level 69 dumb."

The worker opened the door to let them in before saying farewell and leaving. The room was significantly dim, with only the lights of the monitors providing light for the room. In front of the many square screens sat an albino with cropped milk coloured hair and eyes that reminded Kyo of blood. Kyo shivered. He never liked Ika. She was quite short and had a small build, but her fox like countenance sent chills down his spine. 

Ika was clothed in a dark blue uniform security guards wore. In her mouth was a lollipop. In her mouth there`s always a lollipop. Rainbow flavoured, as I recall. Bleach. Easily, this lady could have been mistaken for a male. Her voice was the obvious indication that proved people otherwise.

Ika had ignored their presence until the worker had left. Then she turned to face them, smiling.

 "Eva! I`ve missed the taste of your cherry lips!" the albino said in a flirtatious tone, winking. Then she spreaded out her arms to gesture all around her. "So what brings you to my heaven?"

Kyo knew that his sibling was not going to give this albino a reply. It was written all over her face, with the stern look and scary stare she was giving Ika. It`s up to me, now! Up to me to convince this lollipop-licking freak to aid in my mission to obtain the bracelet! He took in a deep breath and straightened his back. 

"Uh, remember Kia?" Kyo asked. She brought her piercing red eyes to stare directly into his yellow ones. Gosh! It feels like she`s staring right at my soul! He could feel his knees turn to jelly as he looked away. She smirked. Then, as if on queue, his phone began ringing. He removed it from his pocket and stared disdainfully at the caller ID before switching it off. 

"Your boy lover?"

Kyo`s face reddened. "Hey! Just cause you`re queer doesn`t mean everyone else is!"

"I don`t know. You both did spend lots of time together back when Eva was mine." she retorted, taking the lollipop out of her mouth and molesting it with her tongue as she eyed Eva. Eva refused to pay any attention to Ika`s movements or actions.

 

"He killed my cat! That cat was my hero!" Kyo yelled, now clenching his fists.

"Proven fact?" Ika asked, smirking. She knew the answer to the question, and he knew she knew. Eva put her hand on Kyo`s shoulder, signaling him that she was not worth it. They could have leaved at that moment, but Kyo wanted this bracelet. And no one he knew possessed rubbish information like this lady did. Ika turned around on her swivel chair to face the many coloured surveillance monitors again.

"They`re very fascinating, the lot of them. Just keep watching them and you`ll notice! It`s amazing how much you can learn about people you have never even had the chance to exchange pleasantries with. See this lady here?" She pointed to the screen to her right, at a woman that seemed to be in her mid thirties. "She come`s to this mall every Wednesday without fail. Her son has martial arts practice for two hours, so she drops him off at class and visits this mall to buy her sundries. How I know this is because once her son followed her to the mall in his uniform once. He had no class that day, but forgot to inform his mother. She was mad the whole time she was here, alright. They live pretty far away from the self defense training center. She also has many friends around here, a husband who she loves, and a daughter that wants to join a rock band."

"What`s this have to do with the bracelet?" Kyo asked, confused.

Ika ignored the blond`s question and continued. "The problem with people is that they think that nothing ever happens to them. Especially those who follow schedules. It`s not true. How can it be, when everyday they`re a new person? No one`s ever the same, you know? If I meet my two year ago self, I bet I`d make her out to be an obnoxious bastard. That`s just the way it is, life. Even if we think nothing ever happens, something is always happening. We constantly change. 

For someone who`s life is an continuous adventure, life`s simply not an adventure anymore. Cause adventure has become their norm. It`s kind of like a schedule they`re following too, just not a written one like a more organized person. All our destinies have been written, we can`t escape it. No matter how great we are now or what path we take, we`re all simply using various routes filled with different journeys only to reach the same destination. Death."

  

Eva sighed in frustration. "Enough of your sombre bullshit, Ika! Can you just tell us if you know where the damn bracelet is so we can leave?" she said through gritted teeth. Ika winked at her and patted the swivel chair beside her.

"Come, join me. I`ve missed you~" she whispered. "Joe`s sick today, we have the whole night to ourselves!~" she said excitedly. 

"Alright! That does it!" Eva growled, picking up the annoying albino by her uniform collar and slamming her on the wall beside the monitor screens like she was a toothpick. 

"Ooo, someone`s angryyy.~"

"So help me, i`ll pull out all your hair and shove it into your mouth!" Eva said, banging Ika on the wall again.

"Fine! Fine! I`ll tell you what I know!" It was Eva`s turn to smirk, so she did. Then she released the albino, and the albino fell to her feet, an entire head shorter than Eva.

"So?" Kyo asked.

Ika dusted her uniform and sat back on the chair. "I saw it on the Internet. I know what it looks like."

"But do you know where it is?" 

"Nothing in life come`s free, you know? I`ll trade you information of the bracelet for, lets see..." she tapped her lollipop on her thin lips, thinking. Then she stared at Kyo and smiled. "If you both rob a shop for me in an hour. Should be no problem, having an expert kleptomaniac helping and all."

Kyo`s eyes widened. "You know Eva`s stopped doing that ages ago!"

"Did she now? Did she really?"

"Stop that! Stop putting doubts in my mind, freak!" Kyo yelled, facing Eva. 

"It`s fine, Kyo." Eva sighed. "We`ll do it. Which shop and what item?" Ika`s laugh was the epitome of laughter people in the psycho wads were assumed to have.

"Wonderful!" she exclaimed, winking at the pink head. Then she showed them the ten fingers on her hand. "Candy Coloured Kingdom. Bring me back a ten lollipops!"

~~~~~~

I`m using those laws as guidelines, but I`m skipping the hentai ones... I`m no perv, ok?(But does denying said statement only make me suspicious? Cause i`m pretty sure perv`s don`t admit they`re pervs... Argh! This is not making sense! It`s making my head hurt!) Didn`t read all the laws till recently! And there`s too much swearing for my liking... Tut mir leid, world! *bows*

Also, Ika was originally Iku. But Iku reminded me of Riku, so no. Iku was also male in the afternoon when he was thought of, but at night when he was written he magically became female. Resulting in Eva becoming... bi? Anyway, it seems to me the majority of information brokers on shows are males, so why not an albino female, right? Whatever. I`ve gotten bigger plans for the cat, too!