Chapter 63 - Rewards, a Rewarding Day, and…

<p>The robber was feeling himself today… Until he robbed the wrong store.<br/><br/> He had used almost all of his Gold to be able to afford just one Magic Gun, and the rest of it on three bullets — two Wind types, and one Light.<br/><br/> He even had a plan for the jewelry store he planned to rob, and what time to do so.<br/><br/> The only problem was, he was a stranger to Galeise, and as he had his sock, the only thing he could use as a mask since he was officially broke, at the ready, he realized he was utterly lost in the clothing district. Seeing that his time to rob the store was way past, he yanked the sock on his face and stormed into the closest store.<br/><br/> "On the floor, now!" He shouts, pointing his weapon at the cashier, then around to the customers. <br/><br/> 'A dude checking out skirts, two girls, and a grandma,' he thinks as he surveys the customers. 'Good, should be an easy rob.'<br/><br/> As he points the barrel at the girls, one of them yelps and throws a hand over her over-sized lips. "He's got a Magic Gun!"<br/><br/> Hearing the fear in her voice fills him with pride at his successful intimidation, and he puffs out his chest a bit. "That's right. Now, on the floor!"<br/><br/> He waves the gun around to hurry them up, and the women and the receptionist get onto their knees carefully, raising their hands in the air.<br/><br/> However, the potential crossdresser sighs. "One day. I can't get one day?!"<br/><br/> Furrowing his brow, the robber points the gun at the boy. "Yo, skirt-shopper. I said, on. The. Floor."<br/><br/> A vein bulges slightly on the kid's forehead, and he clenches his jaw shut for a second. A faint glow emits from the right sleeve of the thin gray hoodie he's wearing, and he mutters, "he's not agreeing with you, so shut up! Not now!"<br/><br/> 'Oh, he must not be right in the head,' the robber realizes. Stepping towards the boy, he shoves it towards his face, making sure to keep an eye on the receptionist. "I'll make this easy to understand. Get down, and buy your skirt for yourself or whatever when I'm done, or never have the chance to explore your fetish again."<br/><br/> "I swear to the Gods—" the boy begins, before taking a deep breath. "Look, man. Today's not a great day for this. I'm not in the BEST of moods, so I'll let your words slide just this once if you can get the hell outta here."<br/><br/> The robber snarls. "Funny. Who's got the weapon here? You have two seconds. One."<br/><br/> With no warning, the robber suddenly lowers his gun to the white-haired weirdo's leg and pulls the trigger. A Wind bullet flies out, spiraling forward in a whirling vortex. <br/><br/> The man's eyes bulge as the man easily sidesteps it, but the both of them panic as they realize the bullet is now headed for the skull of the other girl. The whole reason he had aimed for the leg was to avoid becoming a murderer, but he was destined to be one, it seems.<br/><br/> But a sword appears from thin air in the strange boy's hand, swinging fast enough to slash into the bullet. Unfortunately, the main attribute of the Wind bullet is its ricochet ability, so instead of cutting the bullet in half, it bounces off the bottom part of the sword's edge, bouncing off the ground and whizzing past the other, plain-faced girl's head, and she winces in shock, although it didn't touch her. The bullet then bounced off the ceiling, the back wall, skimmed the boy's left shoulder, and bounced off the tip of the blade in his hand to fly into the robber's shoulder.<br/><br/> He shouts in pain and drops to his knee, favoring his collarbone with the hand that has a gun in it.<br/><br/> "You… fucking… sneaky bitch!" He calls, pointing and firing the second bullet at the kid again. This time, he doesn't care if it kills him. <br/><br/> But the boy swings his sword again, and the bullet is sent flying upwards past the robber, cutting a jagged line into his cheek as it flies out the window and lodges into the second story of one of the concrete walls making up the building across from them. The sock-headed man grits his teeth angrily. "Who the fuck are you??"<br/><br/> "I gave you a chance, you know. You just didn't take it," the boy says as he walks towards the man casually. "Oh, and I'm fucking Liwuukay, 'bitch.'"<br/><br/> The man's eyes widened. Liwuukay had quickly become a well-known participant for fighting and winning in the tournament against enemies with several Levels more than him.<br/><br/> And now, that same man was staring at him, one of his eyes glowing an almost evil dark purple<br/><br/> "Oh, I'm fucked."<br/><br/> 'Liwuukay' begins nodding. "Oh yeah, you're fucked."<br/><br/> In desperation, the fucked man fires his last bullet, which is cleanly cut through by the blade of his weapon. <br/><br/> However, Light bullets are well-known for their flash, which blinds everyone except the robber, who dashes for the door. Once he's out, he rips the sock off and tosses it away, trying to blend into the crowd. Luckily, there's plenty of people that gathered to see the commotion, and being blinded they didn't see him slip into their mix.<br/><br/> He lets out a sigh of relief, turning to leave, when a hand calmly grips his shoulder. <br/><br/> "Where do you think you're going… Zin? Shin?"<br/><br/> "It's Jw-un!" Zhion snaps, before freezing. He turns fearfully to face… Liwuukay.<br/><br/> "Ahh!" He shouts, swiping at the other man with his gun. 'How does he know my name?!'<br/><br/> With a quick swipe of his strange sword, the olive toned boy cuts through the barrel like butter. The pale man grows paler, and he swears that the force multiplied the second the blade touched the metal of the gun, but it was too fast to really tell.<br/><br/> The amplified sound of shearing metal turns several heads, and they look to see one of the Top 4 of the tournament swatting the flat part of his blade into the side of an armed man's head, knocking him out cold.<br/><br/> The cashier rushes out, clapping her hands together. "Thank you, Liwuukay! Here, I saw you eyeing these, so I packed them up for you. It's on the house; please accept it!"<br/><br/> She hands me three large bags. I awkwardly accept them, peeking inside one to see its contents.<br/><br/> My curious eyebrows drop as I look at her with a dark face. <br/><br/> "Is it all skirts?"<br/><br/> She smiles sweetly with a wink. "Of course not! There's the other outfits you were looking at, and I threw a small dress in there for you too!"<br/> <br/> A look of pure exasperation falls over my face, but I plaster a weak smile over it. "Thanks."<br/><br/> Over the tops of everyone's heads, I see a head of curly green hair looking about, trying to gently move through the group of people.<br/><br/> "Well, there's my ride!" I say before the speedy clerk can give me more dresses or skirts, and slip into the crowd over to Lynsel. "Let's go, man."<br/><br/> He holds a single bag, but he grabs the large bags that take up most of my torso and carries them in his other hand like they're small pieces of paper. "Couldn't decide, huh?" He asks, and I wave him off, dragging his arm so we could leave.<br/><br/> We manage to escape before the authorities could arrive, or before we could get trapped by numerous people who figured out who I was.<br/><br/>- - -<br/><br/> I pull on one of the shirts I had received for free, checking how it matches my pants. It was a shirt that looked like a short-sleeve, but it had long sleeves of a different color stitched at the seam that ran out from underneath. It was pleasant enough, partially casual and nicer than what I've ever worn — as Klum, at least. The outer shirt was a few shades lighter than a royal purple, and the sleeves were black. The collar of the shirt also matched the sleeves, which I quite enjoyed. <br/><br/> The pants were a dark gray, and made of a material that felt like a mix between linen and spandex. They clung tightly to my ankles with elastic cuffs, and my waist with a similar waistband, but it was loose around my upper legs and form-fitting to my calves. It allowed me to move well, which was all that mattered to me.<br/><br/> "Good enough," I shrug, slipping on a pair of plain black shoes and leaving the bathroom.<br/><br/> On cue, there's a knock at my door. Making my way over to it, I open it to see Lynsel and Eniyala, the latter of which causes my brain to lag.<br/><br/> "Hey!" Lynsel gives me a little wave.<br/><br/> "Doh…"<br/><br/> Lynsel is wearing a dark green tank-top to match his hair, with baggy pants that would sit like a medieval ballroom dress were I to wear it. Eniyala had been given the dress and skirts I had received last night, although she was suspicious that it was some trick. Now, she was wearing the dress, which fit her perfectly. It was black with colorful dots in a straight line going in a circle around her waist. Below them, the dress becomes a bit frilly, reaching about halfway down her thighs. Above the line, a light v-neck cuts the collar of the outfit to slightly reveal her collarbone, while the sleeves are just long enough to cover her shoulders.<br/><br/> For a girl who wore baggy clothes all the time, that dress sure did suit her.<br/><br/> Her normally wavy hair was more curled, and bounces when she waves a hand in front of my face to snap me out of my stupor. "The hell is wrong with you? I bet you just fell in love with me, huh?"<br/><br/> I snorted, recomposing myself. "Please. I know you too well to know better than that. Although, I didn't take you to be one to joke much."<br/><br/> She gives me a tiny smirk. "Guess you don't know me then."<br/><br/> I roll my eyes. "Come on, stupid."<br/><br/> She raises an eyebrow at me. "If I'm stupid, I'm genuinely concerned for what they would call you."<br/><br/> We continue back and forth as the three of us leave the inn, heading over to the meeting place to group up with emo kid.<br/><br/> When we see him, I note how differently he's dressed. "What a damn emo."<br/><br/> He has black sweatpants and a black hoodie on, with his hood up as he leans in the shadow of a building. "Took you guys long enough," he mutters.<br/><br/> I mock him quietly, exaggerating his head movements, before Eniyala smacks my shoulder.<br/><br/> "Hey, Yorun," she says, twisting her fingers together behind her back. He nods, otherwise showing no recognition towards us. I hide my scowl with a mocking smile, and we head on to the marketplace.<br/><br/> Despite the sour mood that Mr. Depresso often put me in, the three of us were genuinely having a good time, and even he didn't seem to totally hate it. We ate several snacks at Lynsel's begging, shopped around for keepsakes — both Eniyala and I bought a gift for Raeki — and we even took another stroll through the clothing district. <br/><br/> While we were there, I saw the clerk from yesterday, who took one look at Eniyala and gave me a knowing smile, before disappearing behind a group of people passing by. 'What is it with people here vanishing in thin air?'<br/><br/><br/> The rest of the day went by normally, and we had as much fun as possible: a walk-through fountain, which of course Eniyala had to splash me, and that turned into an all-out splash war between us until we got kicked out by a guard standing nearby. <br/><br/> Watching me and Eniyala being thrown like wet dogs by a strong woman did cause Yorun to snicker, which eventually devolved into everyone laughing for a few minutes before moving on.<br/><br/> We went and ate actual food at a nice diner, which stuffed us with the addition of the snacks before. We finished off by going to a small cinema and watching a horror movie. The only person who was actually jumping at the screen of Mana's images was Lynsel, who nearly crushed my arm with his deathgrip.<br/><br/> Afterwards, we say goodbye to Yorun and split from the emo. The three of us split once more to go to our respective inn rooms, saying goodnight to one another. The second I got to my room, I throw off my shirt, shoes and socks and jump eagle-spread onto the bed without bothering to strip or change more.<br/><br/> "What a nice ending to our first ever journey," I wonder sleepily as I doze off into a night of no dreams.</p>