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I woke to the sound of pouring rain. It leaked through the roof of my makeshift shelter as I shivered from head to toe. Not that it was particularly cold that day, but I hated getting wet. I had as long as I could remember, so naturally, just feeling my clothes soaked-through repulsed me.
“Dammit.” I pushed myself into a crouch and scrambled out of the shelter. I had been using an old cardboard box for the past several days, but with all the rain, there was definitely no way to salvage it now. I’d have to find a new spot later on.
And now with no shelter, I was being drenched with rain water. “Cold, cold,” I rubbed my hands against my arms trying to warm them up. Then I immediately started walking. “I’ve got to find somewhere warm.”
Soon enough, I exited the alley I’d been in and was now making my way through the bustling city streets. Everyone I passed by paid no attention to me whatsoever, and that was perfectly fine with me. The less attention I drew, the better it fared for me in the long-run.
Hurrying to get out of the rain, I kept going until I spotted the first restaurant I could find and ran inside. I stood inside the doorway, dried the soles of my shoes against the welcome mat and shook the excess water out of my hair before moving to the bar and sitting down. I made it a point to sit as far away from everyone else as possible. When a waiter came by and placed a glass of water in front of me, I went ahead and ordered some food; I needed to kill some time while waiting for the rain to pass over.
I kept my fingers perched right above my pouch of throwing knives as I waited. I didn’t keep track of how long it took since I didn’t have a watch on me, nor did I feel like looking up to check the clock on the adjacent wall. But in that window of time, I heard someone sit down on my immediate left; just my luck. I didn’t even know why anyone would want to sit next to a homeless teenager anyway. But who was I to judge?
Eventually, the waiter came back and brought out my order: a plate with three onigiri. “Thanks,” I told him before he left.
I picked up the one on the far left, and after taking the first bite, I nearly gagged. It was filled with umeboshi. I forced myself to swallow, then set it back down on the plate and chugged my entire glass of water. ‘Ugh, god…”
“I take it that one isn’t to your liking?”
“Eh?” I realized the person speaking was the guy sitting next to me. Upon closer inspection, I saw that he was wearing a black cloak emblazoned with hearts, and set down on the bar in front of him was a top hat.
“The onigiri,” the man continued, gesturing at my plate. “It was a flavor you didn’t like, right? What’s in it?”
I grimaced. “Umeboshi.”
“You don’t like umeboshi?”
“Nope.” I pushed the plate closer to him. “Do you want it?”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I am, I’m not going to eat it.”
He shrugged. “Well, alright then.” He took the bitten-into onigiri and slowly ate it. “Thanks!”
I nodded. “Sure.” Then I grabbed the one in the middle. I took a bite, and once I was sure it was safe to eat, I scarfed it down along with the last one too.
We didn’t talk anymore after that; at least, I didn’t see any reason to say anything else to him. What was there to talk about? Absolutely nothing. In any case, I had to make myself scarce before the waiter came back around with the check. I stood up, and without making any eye contact whatsoever, I headed straight for the door.
“Hey, you! Stop right there, you didn’t pay for your meal!”
“Shit.” I didn’t even have to turn around to know they were talking to me. Luck clearly wasn’t on my side that day at all. But by that point, I was already at the door, so I pushed my way out and made a break for it. I ran as fast as I could down the wet pavement, eventually ducking into a neighboring alleyway. Once I was sure I was far enough away from the restaurant, I stopped and leaned back against the wall.
“That was a close one.” I sighed with relief as I slid down to the ground with my knees bent. I didn’t even care anymore about keeping dry. I just let the rain fall back down on me as I pulled out one of my knives and fiddled with it.
“There you are!” My heart almost jumped out of my chest. Turning my head to the side like a whip, I saw the man with the heart cloak and top hat standing at the entrance to the alleyway. He was panting, which told me that he must’ve chased me all the way from the restaurant. “I thought I’d lost you!”
I bolted to my feet, the knife still in my hand. “Why are you following me?! You going to turn me in?!”
“You don’t have to worry about that, I paid for everything.” He calmly stepped forward, but I stayed where I was. “No, I’m here because I want to talk to you.”
I looked at him suspiciously for a moment before carefully stowing the knife away. “Alright fine, what do you want?”
“Let’s find some shelter first. We don’t want to get colds after all.” He led me further down the alleyway, eventually stopping once we reached an awning. “There we go! Now, you don’t need to pay me back for the food. That one is on me. What I want to know is why you didn’t pay in the first place?”
I rolled my eyes. “Easy. I don’t have any money.”
“So you go into a restaurant, eat, and then sneak away before they can bring you the check. You don’t do this often, do you?”
I was pretty sure he already knew the answer to that one. I sighed. “It’s not like I enjoy doing it, but I don’t have a choice.”
“What do you mean? Wait… You’re not homeless, are you?”
I didn’t say a word. The man’s eyes widened. “You’re kidding! What about your family?”
“I don’t have one. My parents died when I was little.”
“And you’ve been living alone since? That’s terrible!”
I looked out through the rain, but I wasn’t really focusing on anything in particular. “Yeah, well I do what I have to.”
There was a moment of silence before either of us spoke again. He was the one to break it. “So do I.” I felt a hand on my shoulder. “I’d like you to live with me.”
I whipped my head in his direction. “Wait, what?”
“You heard me. I want you to live with me! That and join my circus troupe!”
“A circus troupe? What the hell brought that on?”
He pointed to my pouch. “That was a throwing knife you had earlier, right? And you practice with them regularly?”
“... Yeah…” Not that I was any good at it, but…
“Then you’ll fit right in! Trust me on it!”
“Fit right in? Just how many people are in this troupe anyway?”
The man laughed. “Well, you’d be the first.”
“You seriously want me? All because I can throw knives?”
“That’s not the only reason. Now that I know your situation, I can’t just leave you out here by yourself.” He held out his hand. “So what do you say?”
I didn’t know jack shit about this guy, and so I should’ve been really suspicious of him. But in all my years of living on the streets, he was the first person who’d actually been nice to me. He had paid for my food, and now he was offering me a place to stay along with a job. He went out of his way to do all that for me when he didn’t have to. I sure didn’t deserve any of it.
But I wasn’t going to turn him down though. So I nodded and shook his hand. “Alright, I’ll do it.”
“You will?! That’s fantastic! I promise, you won’t regret it!” We then let go. “Oh that’s right, I didn’t introduce myself yet! I’m Donquixote Rocinante, but my stage name is ‘Corazon’! It’s nice to meet you, ummm…?”
“Law. Trafalgar Law.”
“Well Law, it’ll be nice to have you on board!” Corazon stepped out from beneath the awning. “Oh hey, it stopped raining! Fancy that, huh?”
I looked up at the sky, and he was right; it had stopped. The timing must have been a coincidence.
“Well, shall we get going then?”
I nodded. “Sure.”
I caught up to Corazon, and the two of us walked side-by-side out of the alleyway. I wasn’t sure how things were going to end up, nor if he’d be able to put up with me for long. But Corazon had given me an opportunity to change my life for the better, and it was a chance I was willing to take.