Fates way of treating Ochiba Banbusa—age sixteen—was... well, it wasn't kind.
Sure, he survived Lee Yin the night before. But the next morning she found him, and started another hunt.
Now, he was actively hiding from Lee Yin, and her warriors of vengeance.
In a dumpster.
She was close, making more progress with digs at him than the trash. "Can you really keep shaming yourself?" Her spear tore through trashcans and bags.
"Hiding like a coward?" She scoffed.
Still nothing.
Her rant faded out of the alley with the sounds of her, digging. It was then that Ochiba peeked out of the dumpster.
His surroundings were piled with trash—then a girl's face came into view.
Then another, even angrier.
And forty-eight more...
Coast was not very clear as it turned out.
His entire view filled with the scowls forty nine total scornful women, all here for his head.
—there was trash too.
Ochiba quietly dipped his head back into his dumpster, decapitation wasn't much fun.
"S-Safe." He whispered, holding a soy sauce jar in front of him anyway —to be extra safe of course.
His roof flew off —literally ripped off— revealing an angry sky of war-paint, towering stage speakers, and mallets.
One of the girls raised a microphone to her lips, took a soft breath, and...
"DIE!" The thunderous war cry shook his fort, bouncing and shaking his brain too. Then the rain came down heavy.
"Wait!" he cried—
Crash!
"Mercy!!" he screeched—
Thunk!
His soy shield was crushed by a mallet in seconds.
He barely rolled—in the trash—well enough to avoid the most painful of swings.
The girls then changed their efforts, grabbing the corners of the "safe space". Ochiba's dump—fort was toppled. Trash dust pillowed up the alley, then a soy-soaked leaf fluttered out. Almost as if the wind answered, a draft caught the leaf.
The gust carried him higher than the reach of the girls—then even higher.
He drifted past Lee Yin, who was surprisingly distracted. A flyer smacked her in the face, and she crouched over the edge, skimming the sheet as Ochiba floated by, undetected.
emboldened at the top of the paper was written: "起業家"
"Ent-Entre... pre... neur?" She took a few books to speak angry Japanese and the basics, not much else...
She leaned over the roof holding the flyer out to her personal army. "What is an Entrepreneur?"
"Someone who starts their own job— 企业家" Chimed their language expert.
She once wanted to travel the world with Ochiba.
Now she was traveling it after him.
"Are you going to catch Ochiba by the way?" The girl pointed to the leaf floating a few feet away. drifting farther away.
Lee Yin waved it off, looking at the flyer again. "Not worth it at this point, he'll just catch a draft and escape if I chase him." She laid back on the roof with a sigh. "He is an... Entrepreneur, right?"
Another girl scoffed, pulling out the bamboo themed pamphlet. "A "love sage" or so he says..."
"So a tournament that he can join... and Ringo." She smirked, grinned, then laughed. "I know where we can wait!" Lee Yin cheered.