New to Death City (Dead Topic)

Droon waves away their concerns through the flapping of his burka, obscuring the area behind the desk from view "Oh, nothing! Nothing at all!" He exclaims, shifting his weight with an audible thunk, as though he had kicked whatever was emitting that noise in an effort to shut it up "that marionette thingy will be five bucks."

Aesop flinched when he saw Shizu stumble. He went to her side and placed a hand on her shoulder to help her get steady.

He blinked at the man's suspicious behavior. Something was off, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

He took a glance out the window, the rain was still coming down hard. A small tree branch flew past.

He gave his politest smile, "I think I'll hold onto this for a while. We still have more shopping to do. Right, Miss Shizu?"

He turned to Shizu and discreetly whispered to her, "I think something is wrong."

Shizu thanked him with a small nod af tree she gained balance. Her gaze shifted from the weapon to the clerk...

"Right?" She replied quietly and took his hand. "Yeah! Let's go look around! " she chimed and grinned.

What is with the clerk-guy anyway... he's a little... odd. She thought to herself and held onto her belt with her available hand. Her face looked a bit pale as she brainstormed...

Droon twitched a little "of course m'am! Take your time, but if you'll excuse me, I have things to do! In...places!" He scrambles over the counter and runs out the door, burka flailing in the wind behind him "kaythanksbye!"

Aesop's eyes widened as he watched the odd man run out into the storm. "Sir, wait!" He called out, "It's dangerous... And he's gone."

He looked to Shizu, "I believe that the store clerk just ditched us in favor of running into a thunderstorm, Miss Shizu." He wondered how exactly the man expected to be paid if he was just going to run off.

A muffled thump broke his thoughts. He stepped over to the desk where the noise was coming from and peered behind it.

A tied up and gagged man stared back.

Forgetting all of his own desires to be a respected gentleman, Aesop uttered, "What the #*@%?"

Shizu jumped over the counter to see what Aesop was cursing for. "Oh Lord Death..." she whispered and looked for the clerk.

Honestly speaking, she had known that something was up. But this? She couldn't help but wonder what this clerk actually was! Forgetting about helping the tied up man, the meister dashed for the escaping 'clerk' or could she even call him that?...

Her still damp skirt dripped some water and clung to her legs as she jumped back over the en counter and charged right at the 'store owner'.

Oh great, Aesop internally griped, now Shizu is running out into the storm. He looked down at the tied up clerk.

"Sorry, we'll be back to untie you in a little while, sir," Aesop apologized and rushed after his meister. The rain was coming down harder than he expected. It was difficult to see anything through the falling drops. The wind roared in his ears.

"Miss Shizu!" He called out, "Wait!" He let out a deep breath when he finally caught up with her.

"If you're going to go after someone," Aesop stated, "I suggest you do so with a weapon." He quickly transformed for his meister. A buckler shield eighteen inches in diameter made of buloke wood with a steel rim and boss and two leather straps in the back appeared in his place.

Shizu looked at the weapon and simply nodded, taking hold of the buckler and inspected it. "I guess this'll be an experiment, eh?" She replied and lifted it up.

With a curt nod, the meister's attitude completely changed... "Alright, bastard.... lets get to the point" she muttered towards the clerk and started running at him, full force.

Her method of fighting was much different comparing to her normal personality. When Shizu went into 'attack mode' she was nearly uncontrollable. And almost impossible to persuade. "Where are you!?" She yelled, ignoring the roll of thunder while water poures from the heavens.

A note was written in hasty handwriting and taped to the tied up individual "Sorry, this is actually the store clerk! He was gonna blow my cover, had to eliminate him! I WAS gonna chop him up to destroy the liability, but if you're reading this then I guess you saved him. Good for you I guess."

....meanwhile......

Droon ran across the street, through the front door of a bakery, out the back, and into a sewer grate. He shouted back in a phony French accent "Ha-ha! You will never catch meeee!"

Thanks to the mysterious being yelling out, Shizu was able to find out what direction he had ran towards. With a deep breath, she ran in his pursuit.

For this particular meister, this was both exciting and frightening. She had never fought another being or had any training in how to do so... but this all felt so natural. As if it was just instinct.

"You ready?" She asked her weapon.

Without giving him a chance to reply, she bolted through the bakery. In this, she successfully knocked over several stands and shelves."Sorry!" She yelled at the lady at the counter, who was equally surprised. Shizu fely a little guilty, but didn't stop. The door flung open and slammed against the wall as she kicked it open. "Where'd he go!?"

Aesop was glad no one could see him tense up in his shield form at the sudden change of tone his meister had. She was so adorable just a few seconds ago. Well to be honest, Shizu being tough was still pretty cute. At least he knew she wasn't a pushover in battle.

He heard himself apologizing along with Shizu as the stands were knocked over.

"We'll clean that up later, ma'am!" Aesop called back to the woman.

He looked around for the disguised man from his weapon form. The perpetrator being nowhere in sight.

"He can't have gone far."

Before diving into the sewer grate and making his escape down a labyrinth of sewer tunnels, he left yet another note outside the bakery.

"Apoligies for the chase, but it's kind of the natural follow up after I ran away. In my defense, running away typically means you don't want to be around someone anymore, so why you followed is really outside my comprehension. I'm a student at the DWMA, you should know, that way you can be assured my every action is perfectly LEGAL!!"

Shizu read the note over a few times before crumpling it up. "I honestly dont kmow what to make of this... If he is telling the truth then why was that man tied up? Why did he run? What was his deal...? "She asked repeatedly, as if a broken record.

She knew well enough that the suspect would turn up soon, so she decided to let him go. Fir now at least.

After a moment, a somewhat ticked meister went inside and started cleaning up the bakery, staying awfully quiet.

Aesop had transformed back and read the note over his meister's shoulder. That was a student? Why was he not surprised? He supposed he should expect anything in a place like this.

He took note of Shizu's sour mood. Choosing to remain quiet as well as he helped put the bakery back to it's original state. Though he couldn't help but glance at her every so often.

Finally, he went over to speak to the woman at the counter. After a few moments, he went to tap his meister on the shoulder.

"I know things didn't go as planned," he shrugged, "But it doesn't have to end badly." Aesop held two cakes in his hands, with one held out to Shizu.

As soon as they finished, Shizu noticed Aesop going over to the counter and exchange a few words with the cashier. She'd typically go over and seewhat he was up to. Unfortunately, she was not the mood she was in.

The meister had turned her back to them and was organizing a few loaves of bread when she heard the voice of her weapon trying to cheer her up. She zipped around and was about to say something back, but she saw the cakes and shut her mouth.

She quietly took a hold of the baked good that he was offering and finally smiled a little. "I guess you have a point." the meister said at last.

He tried to hide his surprise when she agreed with him. He usually wasn't good at this whole 'comforting thing'. But it seemed to work nonetheless and he returned her smile.

"Just keep this in mind," Aesop decided to go on, "If that man really does go to the DWMA, I would be honored to be used to bash his skull in if you saw fit, Miss Shizu." He gave her a deep bow.

Shizu looked down at the cake that she thought of as sort of a 'peace offering and accepted the offer he made her.

"Then maybe we'll give that a go once classes start, eh?" She replied, soon realizing that she hadn't needed to reply. This was because her expression was all the confirmation the weapon would need to know that she really wanted to take that man down.

As she watched Aesop bow, the girl couldn't help but let a small blush of pure flattery light up her cheeks. In all honesty... this had never happened before. "Y-yeah. So would you like to take a seat and eat these things?" She asked, and looked away until her face was no longer flushed.

Aesop grinned at his meister's determined stare. No, she was definately not a pushover. Hopefully they could accomplish her goal with out taking the skull-bashing thing to literally. He didn't didn't want to have to explain to Lord Death why one of his student's skull was caved in.

"Of course, Miss Shizu," he pulled out a chair for her, "After you."

(OOC: I think this thread is close to being wrapped up. How about you? Also, I'm pretty sure the real store clerk is still tied up. Nice going guys, you're doing great. XD)

Shizu slipped onto the chair and looked outside. Everything was clear and the sun was back to its soft chuckling. In fact, the meister could even hear it. Heh... heh.... heh. She had never been so glad to see that creepy old thing.

"Thank you, Aesop." She replied with a smooth dip of her head as a sign of gratitude. "Lets make the best of this peaceful moment, okay?" the girl, quickly added and handed him some eating utensils.

(OOC: I can agree. And wow, they really did forget, huh? I bet at the end they will remember... hopefully.)

Aesop was pleased to see the weather had lost it's violent and ominous aura from before. Well, the sun was still pretty ominous but that was neither here nor there.

He sat down in the chair across from her. Picking up the fork to enjoy his cake on this now pleasant day.

(OOC: I'm sure he'll be fine. Maybe.)

Shizu took a few bites of the delicious baked good and looked it over. "This is pretty good!" She stated after finishing her own little criticism of the flavor. She hadn't eaten cake when it wasn't on special occasions... Which was nice after all.

The meister crossed her legs and looked up at the weapon who had taken his seat across from her. "So... where are you staying in Death City? " she asked casually. As for her, Shizu had moved into her own apartment... her mother spared no expense and the young girl ended up with a rather large living space, which was completely unnecessary considering she was in fact living on her own.

"It is, isn't it?" Aesop agreed, taking another bite. It was always nice to find a place that made their cakes from scratch.

"I live off campus," Aesop stated, "In one of the apartments not far from here. You?" He pointed with his fork in the general direction his apartment was at.

While he still had issue convincing his family that he was a boy, they seemed to get that he took issue with being placed in the girl's dorm. Letting him stay in the boy's dorm was out of the question though. So now he lived in a small apartment near the school.

"You too?" She said a bit dumbfounded. Apparently the two lived closer to each other than she had expected... "I live in an apartment nearby as well." She added to make her previous comment make a bit more sense. She took a bite of the cake and sat up straight, curious to hear Aesop's response. The fact that her weapon lived so close made here curious as things naturally did. Without noticing, Shizu's foot had been tapping to the beat of some music that played in the kitchen of the bakery.

Aesop looked surprised, "Really? What a coincidence, so do I!" It took him longer than he was proud of to realize what he had said. He had a strong urge to slam his head on the table for that ditzy comment. He alternatively decided to say something else in hopes that she wouldn't notice.

"I decided to live on my own because I wasn't comfortable sharing a bathroom with several people," Aesop explained, which wasn't really a lie. He internally grimaced. Yeah, that was classy. Talking about the bathroom in front of a lady.

"You should visit sometime," he went on against his better judgement. What the hell am I saying? She could notice something!

Slamming his head against the table was becoming more and more tempting, but he managed to keep a calm demeanor.

Despite his efforts, Shizu noticed the weapon going back and forth with his cover ups. Though she just grinned as if nothing had happened.

"I'd be delighted to visit one time," the meister inquired, "and maybe sometime you could visit my apartment."

Within a few more minutes, the girl's cake was finished and she stood up to take care of the utensils and plates she made use of. "I'll be right back, okay?" She chimed and lightly skipped to the kitchen.

The cook inside of the kitchen simply greeted Shizu, not caring that a customer found her way there. This made the meister shake her head, but keep moving toward the sink.