Oh Boy, Here We Go Again! (Open)

The clouds rolled on lazily in the sky. The big ol’ puffs of sky dust and moisture had not a worry in the world- very much like the young lady that found herself gazing up at them.

It felt like just yesterday that she had taken Death City in for the first time. The memories of being overwhelmed by her studies and living on her own for the first time seemed so distant now; getting stressed out over simple things like that seemed laughable nowadays. In the end, she managed to figure it out.

She had her own apartment, a part-time job, and a cute leather jacket. What else could a girl want, really?

Shizu Resu. A self-made woman and a failed meister.

Oh yeah, surprise. Turns out things don’t always turn out exactly as you planned.

But I won’t get into the gritty details, because that’s for her to share when she’s plenty ready.

There she is, too, walking down the street in her leather jacket and big ol’ boots. She must have airpods or something in, because she smacks right into you on the sidewalk. As her cheap coffee spills onto the concrete, Shizu looks up, brows pinched. She looks pissed!

Whatcha gonna do about it?

Such a good way to reintroduce a character back to our wonderful world doesn't it? Throwing another character into a specific situation and seeing the events unfold. Not that it makes it any different from anything we're being thrown into by our creators. In fact, in comparison to some of my adventures, this start feels pretty tame, doesn't it? After all, what beats getting thrown into a street devoid of any NPCs because them being there would be inconvenient in the face of reality madness users. No matter. Nowadays my madness may be weaker, but it's still here. I am still my own narrator, while my creator just tosses me into situations that usually get me into trouble. Dear reader, today seems no different, but today feels... refreshing. Being able to interact with characters outside the ones I've known for years feels truly wonderful and nostalgic. You know what? Just this once. Let me go with the flow of the narrative, my dear creators!

On that fateful day, I was simply minding my own business, walking down the street after another day of fooling around with the NPCs, and interacting off-screen with the other creations of my creator. I was not paying attention, really, feeling nostalgic for the old times. To be honest, I really miss my crazy clown totally-not-girlfriend. Good times. I mean, Luna, Ana, and Aurora aren't such a bad company. I've even gotten used to having my less madness afflicted twin around. I thrill for something fresh in my life! Surprisingly enough, immediately my wish got granted by the hands of fate! Though in a classic 'I've bumped into you now I'm going to spend the entire day with you' kind of way.

I felt a person just smacking into me! Jumping away, I saw a cup of coffee falling out of her hands, spilling onto the concrete of the sidewalk. What a waste of perfectly fine coffee indeed! Though for some mysterious reason the person who had just bumped into me, started giving me a pissed look! Time to get into a role! "Oh! I'm so sorry! I didn't see ya there! My bad!" I said apologetically, while nervously scratching the back of my head. What a good start of a new thread indeed!

Shizuka's upper lip trembled as she bore witness to the untimely demise of her caffeinated salvation. There it lay, the cardboard cup soaked in caramel and whipped cream- thoroughly disgraced and robbed of its sole purpose.

Shizu liked to think that she had been dealing with her shortcomings and personal failures in a healthy and reasonable way; by totally ignoring them and not making other friends to vent about it to.

However, based on the pool of unforeseen rage that bubbled in the pit of her stomach and how she was about to kick this guy's teeth in for throwing off her morning routine, she swiftly dismissed that notion.

"Six dollars and eighty-four cents. That's fifty minutes' worth of work wages... I waited in line for ten minutes to get that coffee." Shizu picked up the cup, crushing it with her gloved hand. She slowly looked upwards, her brows pinched and eyes narrow.

"You just wasted an hour of my life that I'm never going to get back- do you have a death wish or something, huh?"

Look at all this aggression and careful calculations! All in all, technically speaking attacking a sorcerer was never a good idea, but, surely she wouldn't really attack me, right? Thinking about it from another perspective, personality such as hers make for really interesting characters to observe but imagine being exposed to such rage for such reason outside a simple story. That changes your perspective a bit doesn't it? Technically speaking, from my point of view, I should feel really uncomfortable being exposed to such threats.
I'm not though. Why should I be anyway?  

Her precious concept of the importance of time was silly. In our world time doesn't really matter. At least, not in a sense, it matters to our creators. They are the ones who control our time. Really, only years should really matter to us. A single thread in this world can last for days and we see them as days, but outside our world, it actually lasts for months and even years, yet we're unaware of that.

So, when she said that I wasted an hour of her, oh so precious time, I couldn't help but actually laugh at her pointless rage. Of course, that would put me in danger, but I couldn't help myself.

"I've almost died once, thank you." I finally said after calming myself. Giving her a smile I took a single step forwards. "Is a single hour of your day really worth getting angry at me? I'm just a random guy, who accidentally bumped into you." I said, glancing down at the poor crushed cup and then at coffee that got spilled and remained on the ground. "Also... seven dollars for coffee? Ah, nevermind! How about I get you not one, but two cups of coffee as an apology for the time and money you've wasted because of me? Hm?" A somewhat confident smirk followed my offer as I looked at the woman again.

Sorcerer or no- seven dollars is seven dollars.

Anyway, Shizu seemed to breeze over the comment about his near-death experience; after all, in Death City that's to be expected. She's had her run-ins and close calls, so who really gives a damn? Even her own cup of coffee just had a run-in with death.

She's still upset about that, too.

...Or is she?

As soon as the sorcerer offered to reimburse her for the incident, all of the ire seemed to ebb. She lobbed the cup over her shoulder, perfectly landing the crushed cardboard into the nearest street trashcan without so much as a backwards glance.

Shizu whistled and quickly checked her phone, spinning on her heel and motioning for him to follow. "You're a smart guy. The coffee shop is about a five-minute walk from here and I'm not in the mood to be wasting more time than I have to..."

She glanced back to him over her shoulder, a cheeky grin curling into her cheeks. "...so let's get steppin'."

Well, it's good to know that her aim is pretty good too. Or perhaps was it luck? It's hard to tell sometimes. Our creators want us to achieve a cool scene and we do. That's how it all works. When she started leading the way, I simply walked beside her. It hit me then - she wanted to get another cup of that scam-coffee. No, that was unacceptable! I may have my disagreements with my creator... by the way, thanks, Rackie, I sure love being in danger... but, we're both coffee lovers!

"Wait, you want to get another cup of that scam?" I asked her, with surprise clearly present in my voice. "Lady, seriously, those big coffee shops don't offer a good balance of quality versus price!" I protested, frowning. Starsbuckses and other Costas just weren't worth it, really! "How about this - I'll take you to my favorite cafe in Death City AND, that's the best part, you're not going to need to walk there. In fact, wherever you were going before, I can save you even more time."

Shizu looked up from her phone and gave him a scrupulous once over.

Based on the toothpicks he might've called arms and his round spectacles... she figured that if he was up to anything shifty, she'd only have to do the bare minimum in putting him down. Still, her old adversary, a literal skunk of a sorcerer, had a similar vibe to this coffee-killer; perhaps that had a hand in why he pissed her off so easily?

But! Sorcerers weren't really her kind of concern anymore. As it would seem, time and money were truly her only troubles nowadays.

Undercaffeinated and partially amused, the ex-meister gave a swift wave of affirmation.

"Fine, but I still want my money's worth; don't think you're gonna bamboozle me with cheap coffee, I know what's good."

Why is she so angry? What's up with that lady? Shaking my head at her constant stream of harshness I let out a sigh. "You know what's good, huh? Buying overpriced coffee certainly is a good indicator of that, yeah!" I teased keeping a straight face. Who said I can't be just a little bit rude? I waved my arm a little while pushing a free hand into one of the pockets of my trousers. "Soul protect, cancel." I said calmly, releasing the protection I placed to contain my sorcerous wavelength.

With that out of the way, I pointed my hand at an empty space in front of, focusing myself before casting a spell. "Mantras are stupid... blah, blah, blah..." I muttered out my mantra, which caused orange magic circles to appear around my arm. "Teleportation!" I said out loud shooting ma beam out of my hand. The magical energy started forming an oval, blue shape in front of us, which soon became bigger than a human being, finally forming a proper portal gate. "Here. Ladies first." I said, bowing a little and waving my hand towards the portal.

"Huh? Are you a coffee expert or something? Weirdo." Shizu replied, vocalizing her offense loudly and likely drawing the attention of several passing residents. Of course, her outburst didn't draw even half as much attention as the portal did; and the wavelength hit her like a sucker-punch. "Soul protect--?"

The expression on her face was rather hilarious once the initial fear subsided.

'...This guy?'

She had to lift her hand to shut her dropped jaw. Of course, he was a sorcerer- No, no, no, she couldn't just run into some random normal guy on the street. That would make things too easy.

With a long-suffering sigh, Shizu pulled up the cuffs of her gloves and gave him a pointed glare.

"Alright, but I'm only gonna say this once- no funny business." she made an 'I'm watching you' gesture with her fingers and proceeded to walk back into the portal.

Was there even a way to please her? Here I go, opening up portals, offering to reimburse for her lost coffee and everything. I only get glares in return. I wasn't even the one responsible for the coffee though! It was actually her fault and I just took the blame for the sake of it. Don't believe me? Read the very first post!

I pulled out my DWMA Student ID card as if that would help and waved it around a bit. "Don't worry. I'm with the good guys." I said before her attention was once again on the portal. See dear reader, I'm not the one looking for trouble. It's the trouble that keeps finding me. Anyway! See you on the other side!

Eventually, I jumped through the portal myself. It took us both into a lovely alley in between the residential and shopping districts. We landed in front of a lovely cafe known as "Nine-Tails". It had a small designated space in front of it, in case some customers wanted to enjoy their drinks and snacks outside and it seemed like they did because every table outside was occupied.

Without a word, I went ahead and opened the door for my companion and gestured my arm inside. "Again, ladies first."

My creator even prepared a short description of the entire place. I'll... just go ahead and use it here, if you don't mind!

Rackie wrote:

(...) The interior of Nine Tails was perhaps a bit unusual but it was radiating with a warm and friendly atmosphere. The floor was made of light wooden panels while red bricks were visible on the low ceiling. There were a few arches on the ceiling that divided the cafe into a few sections. The furniture was mostly made out of dark wood. There were also a few black couches and glass tables at the white walls. At one of the walls, there was also a bookshelf filled with different books, magazines, newspapers and even comic books and mangas. On the walls, there were beautiful pictures and paintings of different foxes (especially the mythical nine-tailed ones, obviously). At the huge counter, there were two mini glass fridges with cakes, ice cream and ice cream desserts displayed on them. The coffee and tea making equipment seemed fairly new and fully professional.
(...)

Shizu didn’t seem wholly convinced, but she hadn’t already committed this far... she assumed that she may as well see it through.

“This place looks... popular.” She commented- whether it was supposed to be a compliment or not was hard to gauge because of how flat her tone was.

She didn’t exactly look pleased about being invited to step in first. Caution was the key to describing every step she took. Trap doors, trip wires, false floorboards- all of it, she was checking for it.

The way she tiptoed and slowly crept forward was silly. In fact she looked downright ridiculous.

Of course the longer she took the scenery in, her more curious nature was lured out. She strained her eyes to read the spines of the manga on the far wall, silently mouthing the titles. A few she recognized, which funnily enough, calmed her.

“So what‘s good here? You’re the coffee guy.” She asked, spinning on her heel to face him once again. “Those desserts look pretty good.”

The inside of the cafe seemed less busy than the outside - it was a really nice day, so it was justified. The way she walked inside was ridiculous indeed, but I didn't laugh, that wouldn't be appropriate all things considered. Letting her in first was just a habit - She's a lady, so opening a door for her is a sign of respect. No matter how grumpy and rude she seemed before.

After getting inside myself, I took a nice look around, trying to spot if my creator used his other characters in the roles of cafe workers, or if he just used NPCs. NPCs would be weird though, all things considered. Luckily, I spotted a red-haired waitress delivering and taking orders, going from table to table. Behind the counter, I spotted a black-haired shy-looking girl. She had two open bags of coffee beans and bowl with mixed beans in front of her, she was tapping her finger on the counter, staring at the bowl, lost deep in her thoughts.

"What's good here? Well, when it comes to coffee then depends on what you like. If you like both chocolate and coffee - I can recommend a mocha. But, yeah, it depends on your tastes. If you have a 'death wish' they got you covered too - they got a few really strong blends. Speaking of blends, they can mix different brands of beans for you if you're a fan of that." I said, trying to get her to go crazy with her coffee curiosity.

I looked at a menu written on a blackboard high on the wall behind the counter - they could probably make you any type of coffee you were in a mood for, besides, their prices were around average compared to most small places, but still definitely lower than the biggest names.
"Deserts, huh? The owner bakes all cakes and pies. Don't know about ice cream though." I said looking at what they had on that day - An apple pie, a chocolate cake, a cheesecake, even a Czech Medovnik. Aside from that ice cream looked as delicious as always.

Finally, the black-haired barista spotted us and gave us a polite although shy smile. "H-Hello, welcome to Nine-Tails!" She greeted my companion and then gave me a curious look. "H-Hi, Raccoon... Did... did you get into trouble again?" She asked.

Of course, she had to ask, right? "Sorta. I'm fine, Luna." I replied to the barista. "So... what was your lost coffee? A cappuccino? A double espresso?" I asked my companion.

Shizu took careful note of everything he mentioned; and in a strange way, she felt challenged. Her jaw jutted forward, eyes squinting as she glossed over the overhead menu. She didn’t want a mocha. She wanted to see what this extraplanar cafe could handle.

She’d show this Raccoon guy what going ‘crazy with coffee curiosity’ could look like.

Zuzu stood straight and adjusted her jacket- finishing her prepping after she cuffed her sleeves- the buttons snapped loudly and clearly.

“Mkay.” She leaned forward on the counter, eyeing the barista girl with fire in her eyes. “I want a large three pump black iced coffee, but fill it with as many pumps of espresso as you can. Like- I’m talking disrespectful. Pump until you’re fully disgusted, then add another.”

The poor female barista seemed just a little bit intimidated by the Shizu, but perhaps she was just that type of a person to get easily scared of everything and everyone. Though after listening to the order, she gave her a slightly worried glance before finally nodding. "R-Right away!" The barista said, before looking at Raccoon himself as if to ask him about his order.

"The usual, Luna. Thank you." I told the barista, before taking at look at my companion. There was a smirk growing on my face as I watched her attitude. It seems like I've stirred her up a little bit. At least I know that I can count on Luna to make some good coffee. After all, she was almost designed with a coffee-making talent. "Shall we sit down?" I suggested, pointing at the nearby empty table.

“Yeah sure, my feet are killing me.” Shizu clicked her tongue, strolling over and spinning sharply on her heel. She slumped into the seat and propped her elbow on the table, resting her cheek in her palm.

Some of the ire had faded from her eyes, giving way to something more relaxed. Her gaze gravitated slowly back to the wall of comics, an innocent curiosity suddenly peaked.

“So this is your regular joint, yeah? It’s kind of cool.”

With a shrug, I just followed after the woman and sat down on the opposite side of that table. Putting a leg on a leg I also allowed myself to relax and even rested my hands on the table.
The comic books on the bookshelves were quite varied, but still, it seemed like the biggest choice would have the fans of superhero series and mangas.
"Ah, yeah. My friend's mother runs the place so it's a nice encouragement too." I replied, smiling a little. "So, what's your name?" I asked her. Of course, it wasn't really necessary for me, due to my madness, but I figured asking would be polite regardless.