* TwEnTy OnE * Found

A Chapter by Allison

This is in Koki's point of view.

Four years of searching and questioning, but there was still no sign of her. She had to be somewhere in Tron, because I noticed things around her house moved. I tried staying to wait for movement, but there was nothing. This time, I decided to sit in the car and watch the house from afar.
At around ten at night, I saw someone going into her house. With a spark of hope, I got out and ran quietly to the house. I followed the shadow going up the stairs. When it hit the light, it revealed a man. Once we entered Taryn's room, I quickly rammed into his back, shoving him into the wall.
"What do you think you're doing here?" I asked fiercely.
"I could ask the same," he gave a smirk, and in a second, I was the one against the wall. "Koki Ohayashi, still looking for Taryn?"
"How do you-"
"I've heard of you . . . from a friend," he whispered into my ear.
"Take me to this friend," I ordered.
"I don't know if my friend would like that. Been pretty angry lately. Likes to hit me most of the time."
"Oh, well, I'll deal with it."
"Fine, I warned you, punk." He let go of me and backed away to Taryn's bookshelf. He grabbed something from it and walked out the door, waving for me to follow.

I followed quietly, thinking of a billion questions but staying silent. I looked ahead to see Steve's bar all lit up and lively. I found out the bar is Dan's now, but I never saw him there when I went to it a few times. We walked in to see it very crowded and loud. In more light, I saw that the man had very bleached blond hair in a spiked hairstyle and a very rugged look to him. Then I looked around for someone who looked like they were waiting for him. I figured maybe Eeris was this friend. The man walked to the back of the bar to a table against the wall. Sitting at the table was what looked like a boy with layered medium-length hair, facing away from us.
The man walked up to the boy. "Hey, Boss, I brought you a surprise," he scoffed. Then he smiled slyly as if he knew he was going to get yelled at.
"I told you to stop calling me 'Boss,'" from the boy a high-pitched voice replied angrily. "So what is it?"
The man looked over at me with a smirk, and the boy turned to look at me. I was shocked as I noticed the boy was actually Taryn. Her extremely long brown hair was no more.
Looking at me, she went wide-eyed for a second. She quickly arranged herself and frowned. "This is the surprise?"
"Yeah, sorry it couldn't be better," the man replied, shrugging with a sheepish grin.
"I told you not to talk to him if he found you."
The man just shrugged and smiled. "I have to have fun sometimes."
Taryn sighed angrily and stood up. She walked over to me and looked up to my eyes, glaring at me. "Don't follow me," she ordered and stomped to the side door that led to the alleyways.
"He's not going to listen," the man stated, crossing his arms and smirking.
He was right.
I followed her out the door, but she started running. "Taryn!" I called.
"Go away!" she shouted, running out of my sight.
I caught up to her easily and grabbed her by the arm. "Why did you run away?"
She had her now short hair dangling in her eyes as she looked to the ground.
"Why?!"
"To get away and think clearly with no distractions," she answered quietly.
"No distractions? But-" I felt something cold push against my leg. I looked down to find Taryn pointing Tai's black pistol to it.
"Let me go," she ordered.
I let go and backed away with my hands raised in surrender.
She eyed me slowly with the gun pointing at me then ran off toward the park.
Again I followed her but found her standing and looking at the starry sky. I quietly walked up behind her; instantly, she turned around and tried to punch me in the face, but I dodged it.
"Tar-" I started to say with a sigh.
She punched me in the gut. "Come on. Fight me." She dropped all her weapons. "Let's go!"
"Okay." I pulled off my four weapons and dropped them next to hers. I noticed her eye them carefully.
She finally looked up and threw a punch at me, but I grabbed her fist. She threw the other, but I caught that, too. I pushed her backward, and she tripped over a rock. We tumbled to the ground with grunts on impact. Quickly, I held her down by her shoulders, but she kicked me where the sun don't shine.
Cheater.
She flipped me onto my back with the chance, and tried to punch me again. I was able to move my head just enough for it to miss. I flipped her this time, but we ended up rolling down the hill. Once we stopped, she was hovering over me with a ready fist. She punched me square in the jaw, and I tasted my own blood. I looked at the grass, waiting for more punches. Instead I felt rain on my cheek. When I looked up, it was not rain, but Taryn crying.
"Why?" she asked.
I was in complete shock. I have never seen her cry before. Sobbing, but never actual tears.
She started punching my chest weakly. "Why?!"
"Why what?" I asked back, grunting at each punch.
"Why so many people at once?" she whispered.
"I don't know, Taryn. If it'll help, beat me up. Let all your anger out on me," I answered softly.
"I think I did enough damage." She paused, looking regretful.
"You can't blame yourself for everyone's death, you know."
"I do know that."
"Then let's work together and find Rio."
"We were going to do that, but-but you weren't supposed to come now!" she shouted, pointing a finger in my face.
"Huh?! What do you mean by that?"
"Dan was supposed to tell you what was going on, before you could meet me. But as it turns out, you found Ryder. Of course, he likes to be a pain and disobey for the fun of it!" she sighed angrily, wiping her eyes.
"Uh-huh. Can you get off me now?" I asked sheepishly.
She looked down at me and remembered she was pretty much sitting on me. Blushing, she said, "Oops! Sorry!" She stepped off and gave me a hand.
I accepted her help and stood up, almost making her fall toward me from my weight and strength. I chuckled as she balanced herself quickly.
"Ugh! Now we have to find out where Dan and Eeris are!" she shouted, staring off toward the houses.
"Where are they?"
"I don't know! Let's go," she ordered, grabbing my wrist and pulling me back to the bar.

We grabbed our weapons and came back inside to find Ryder sitting at the table sipping a glass of something. He glanced at us and put the glass down. "So how'd it go, boss? Get caught again?" he asked with his usual smirk.
"Again?" I asked.
Taryn's face was red with anger and embarrassment.
"Yeah, when I first befriended her, she tried to run away. I ended up catching her," Ryder said with a triumphant grin.
"Why did you try to run from him?" I asked Taryn, who was still fuming.
"Because he was being annoying!" she retorted, pointing her hands toward Ryder.
"Hey, you're the one who is disguised as a boy," Ryder said calmly. "I was gonna beat her up, because she gave me attitude. At that time, I thought she actually was a boy. Then she started yelling with some girly voice when I kept following her. That was when she tried to run away, so I caught her."
"What a way to become friends," I muttered to Taryn.
"I know. I really didn't want to be friends with him, too," she muttered back to me.
"Aw, you guys are the best!" Ryder said with a smile and took a big gulp of his drink.
"All right, enough of this! Ryder, where's Eeris and Dan?" Taryn asked, huffing angrily.
"I heard them say something with a love shack and candy, but maybe they just meant Dan's house," Ryder answered calmly.
Taryn sighed. "Ryder, stay, boy. Sit and stay right here until we get back," she said in a voice like she was talking to a dog.
Ryder actually glared and seemed to shoot angry lasers with his eyes at her. It surprised me to see this man actually angry.
Taryn just rolled her eyes and looked to me, "Okay, Koki, let's go to Dan's house." Once again, she grabbed my wrist and pulled me out the front door of Dan's bar.
I had a feeling Ryder and I are her dogs.

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