Masahiro rushed down the stairs with his arms full of a bunch of multi-colored fuzzy fabrics.

When he shook out four onesies of different characters, Ruslan huffed. "Is this really necessary?"

"Oh, no, you're not serious!" Leora grimaced and lifted the Pikachu hoodie cover.

Eshe burst out laughing. "It's brilliant!" She carefully laid the hoverboard on the step and crooked her fingers excitedly for the yellow fabric.

When Masahiro handed it over, she held it against herself before giggling and sticking a leg in. "I love Pokemon! I always wanted to buy one of these, but it just seemed so frivolous."

She pulled it over her shoulders and did up the zip. Once the hood was up in place she struck a pose, fluttering her eyelashes at Ruslan. "How do I look?"

His cheeks grew bright pink. He cleared his throat and said, "You always look good. I will buy you the whole set if you like."

Eshe leaned over and kissed Ruslan's lips with a loud smooch sound.

Masahiro looked between them and asked, "How long did I go? Did you fall in love while I was away?"

"No, just realised we were already there," Eshe replied and stroked Ruslan's cheek, who gazed back with tenderness.

"We must celebrate tonight with sake! Many bottles! Yes?" The smile that had bloomed across Masahiro's face died and a hush descended over their grim reality.

"If you care for Eshe-san, we must do whatever is necessary to get her out of Japan. The Japanese man Joey called, Eiji, will do anything, anything, to gain face with his employer. There is no limit to his actions." Masahiro looked between them. "You must hire a bodyguard. I cannot guarantee he will quit."

Ruslan wrapped his arms tightly around Eshe and buried his face in her hair. His muffled voice said, "I will keep her safe."

She sagged into him. It was already bad enough keeping away companies and governments that wanted to abuse her ability. Now she'd have some crazed man hunting her too? If he came at her, the meager self-defense skills she'd learned wouldn't be enough.

She stepped back and pulled up the costume's hood again. With a grateful smile for Ruslan, she pulled the lion onesie out and handed it to him. "For my protector."

"Are you sure these will work?" Leora asked skeptically. She tied her hair back with an elastic then, with slow movements, donned the unicorn onesie.

"Cosplayers usually go out on the weekend, but we will not be unusual. The next time, we will go on a tour of their hangouts. You can even take pictures with them. But people will look at you less in these and see only a cosplayer." Masahiro pulled the hood on his dinosaur onesie down obscuring the top half of his face. "Of course, it hides your face. Try to look at the floor as much as possible."

Leora tucked her long ponytail down the back of the outfit and pulled the unicorn hood down as far as it would go.

"How many people are after us?"

"I think two. My guess is Eiji would not call anyone else. He needs this for him alone, and he is just greedy. When I listened to Joey talk on the phone, he said this 'covers his debt' to Eiji. It must be something from when he lived here. He is a dangerous person to owe. So I don't think Joey called anyone else either." Masahiro shrugged. "Maybe I am wrong. It is a theory only."

Ruslan's shoulders straightened and he lifted his fists in a classic boxing stance. "Ha! I can take them both. In university, I won the highest medal in my weight class and almost went to the Olympics!"

"Ruslan-san, Eiji is well known in this area. It is his knife you must worry about."

Ruslan's smile fell. They all looked at each other uneasily.

"Where do we go?" Ruslan asked sombrely.

Masahiro sighed heavily. "Adam was near Nipponbashi station, but Namba station is very close. Ten minutes to walk. That is where the train to the airport goes every twenty minutes. There are many entrances, so it is now just luck."

Heading onto the street, Masahiro paused to look around before waving the others out after him.

The distant sound of cars down Sennichimae avenue filtered down the alley. They navigated between foul-smelling overflowing bins that turned their stomachs and warred with snatches of delicious aromas coming from the restaurants they passed behind that filled the same bins.

Leora picked her way carefully along, eyes glued to the ground. She jumped at the slightest movement in the shadows that might be a cockroach.

Eshe sighed happily and squeezed Ruslan's big hand wrapped securely around hers. She adjusted the hoverboard more securely under her other arm. This would have been such a perfect vacation... Stop that thought! She commanded herself. Time to focus on getting out of here so they could have that perfect vacation.

Masahiro looked back over his shoulder. "I should have given all of you paper with directions in Japanese." He stopped as they neaered the end of the alley and dug into his pocket. "I'll do it now. It will make me feel better. If we need to divide, show it to anyone and they will get you where you need to go."

Ruslan's stomach rumbled loudly. Eshe giggled and quirked up an eyebrow at him.

"What can I say, stress makes me hungry!" He grinned back at her and kissed her hand.

"Please, don't mention food right now," Leora implored and leaned on the brick wall and wiped her sweating brow. "This heat is killing me."

"I only have one paper. Do you have another one?" Mashahiro held up a receipt.

Ruslan quickly unzipped his lion costume and dug in his jeans. "Yes, Joey insists I keep them all, or insisted I should say, since I've fired him. I'll have to write a memo to myself to send him an email if he doesn't get the hint when I tear him apart as soon as I get my hands on him. Here is a paper."

[[ROUND 2 - 8,000 MARK]]

Masahiro quickly scribbled on both papers and gave one each to Ruslan and Leora. "Now we are ready. Let's go."

Eshe put a hand on the Japanese man's sleeve to hold him back. "Masahiro, thank you. For everything. I'm sorry about all of this. That you are involved."

"Eshe-san, you said before there is nothing to say sorry. To meet you and help you has been a great honour." He dipped down in another deep bow. "I look forward to the next time we meet."

With a big smile, he turned on his heel and strode out to the street, followed closely by the others.

He froze in place and yelled "Eiji!"

"Oh, no," Leora muttered and pushed back her hood. She leaned forward and vomited all over the pristine track suit of the stunned Japanese man paused mid-step just to the side of the alley mouth.

"Get her!" cried Joey from the other direction.

"Oh, no," Eshe repeated.

CHAPTER WORD COUNT: 1311

ROUND TWO WORD COUNT: 8173