Chiz

32

Chiz stands, professionally dressed, in the gleaming lobby at Pink Paws bank. Chiz walks the corners where the streetlights don't reach, sewage pooling under the cracks in the pavement. "Chiz, Chiz, where are you going?" Once Chiz learned to run without stumbling, she had to leave home and help her older siblings find food outside. Shiny bread wrapped in plastic... Chiz only saw that once. Most of the time, all she could find were wild vegetables and mushrooms. When even those were gone, they had no choice but to hunt "Apocha." That's what they called the edible Anomalies. But Apocha were dangerous; it was common to get hurt, and medicine was even harder to find than food. And then there was that saying: "Eat too many Apocha, and you'll become an Esper." Espers, like Anomalies, were outsiders to be driven away; because, just like Anomalies, Espers attack. After dinner.