Two's Company, Three's a... Team?

Why did I every buy an alarm clock? Miaki pondered as the ceaseless beeping echoed through her room. And why is it going off in the afternoon? Rolling out of bed, she fumbled for the off button  and slapped her hand down on random parts of her desk until it finally made contact with her cheap alarm. It read 3:30, but Miaki had been too lazy to fix the fact that it was 15 minutes ahead of the actual time. Of course, she didn't have class at the moment, so she was rather confused as to why it interrupted her nap in the first place.

Sighing, she used her hands to press her chaotic strands of bed head in a somewhat decent looking head of hair and pulled open her door... only to be greeted by a sickly sweet smile coming from Keizer, one of her roommates and weapons. "You're up~!" he hummed, ignoring the sour look on Miaki's face, "just in time to head to the market... y'know, you've known that it's your turn to go since Sunday, and lo and behold, you're taking a nap. As a gentleman, of course, I let you sleep in for a few hours, but we simply can't go without food, how would we ever live without dinner!" He ended his statement with a theatrical bow and nodded his head toward the front door. At least Miaki knew who the alarm clock culprit was.

The girl lived in a small apartment with two other roommates, Keizer and Emil, both of which were also her weapons. It was a cramped space for three people, but they sacrificed space for privacy, as their allowances put together were enough to afford not to live in the DWMA's dorms. It had two bedrooms and one bathroom, Miaki got the master, at the insistence of the other two, and Keizer got the smaller bedroom, since Emil said he didn't need his own space. Emil usually slept on the couch. There was a small kitchen, full of lackluster stores of food and supplies, since neither of the residents had superb cooking skills, nor jobs, so they couldn't afford to be too fancy and still have enough for rent.

Throwing shoes on, Miaki exited the doorway just as Emil bumped into her, going in from it. "Do you have enough for everything on the shopping list?" he asked, holding up a small envelope, cocking his head, and looking inside. He counted the money inside, and Miaki tilted her head to read a scrawled writing of "Miaki's Allowance" on the side of the envelope. The girl felt her pocked, it had been in it just a moment ago...

"You know, if you used your skills for evil," she sighed, snatching the envelope from Emil's smug little hands, "the world would be in for it. I have enough."

"If you say so," Emil chuckled, throwing himself down on the couch with his arms comfortably stretched across its back. "Hurry home, I don't want to get stuck with Keizer too long, his gallivanting might rub off on me."

Smiling and shooting Keizer a teasing look, Miaki took her final steps out the door and shut it behind her. Taking in a deep breath, she made the decent trek toward the open marketplace near the center of town. Once there, she studied the shopping list and wandered from stall to stall, resisting temptation to buy other things... like she often ended up doing when they sent her for food.

In the market two girls where gossiping to each other. They were standing by the vegetable section and seemed to be friends, but probably not partners. It looked more like they were friends that had run in to each other in the store. They seemed to be discussing something interesting, perhaps something shocking, as there were a lot of gasps. They were talking relatively loudly so it was possible to hear what they were saying. They were discussing something called the "Terror of Death City", some kind of rumor about a shadowy figure that murders innocent citizens of Death City. Apparently the rumor had been started by witnesses that claimed to have seen the shadowy figure in person.

Miaki was happily humming a tune as she traveled from stall to stall. It had already been a decent twenty minutes, and all she had to show from it was a bag full of apples and a neatly wrapped piece of meat, far from a completed list of foods that could last the week. Instead, the young Meister was wandering from stall to stall, performer to performer, not caring much for getting the job done sooner. Of course, it did almost seem like her way of getting revenge on Keizer for forcing her to wake up, she'd take all the time she wanted, if he wanted things faster, he could get them himself. Knowing him, he probably will. I give it half an hour before he comes looking for me...

Just as she continued, there were whispers of conversations, small snippets that caught her interest. Rumors, more or less, but the frequency of the conversations were what really caught Miaki's interest. If the "Terror of Death City", as they had called them, did exist, surely something had to be done. I highly doubt they'd attack in a crowded market like this, but you never know... I'll have to keep my eyes out. The thought, though it was sad to think of innocent lives lost, thrilled the Meister. Since she had been at the DWMA, there had been no instances of anything needing the attention of someone like a Meister. There was a chance, though slight, to prove that she could be a Meister! It was a foolish notion, clearly the Terror was skilled enough to kill and not be bothered by it, but Miaki didn't seem to think of the danger.

Groceries were all but forgotten, and she gripped her plastic bag idly in one hand and moved away from the crowd at a brisk pace. I'll play bait. They probably wouldn't attack in a crowd, but if I were alone somewhere... just maybe. Besides, I look pretty innocent. My DWMA uniform is back home, I look just like a civilian! In her excitement, she seemed to miss one crucial detail... her weapons weren't with her.

As Miaki moved away from the crowd, she found herself in a dark, gloomy alleyway. It was shrouded in shadows, the perfect place for the shadowy terror to lurk. The shadows lay still, hiding from the light, letting no light escape. The passage was eerily quiet, the ominous path held no sign of noise, and no sign of any other being accompanying Miaki. Well, at least no other human beings.

Nothing had made a sound, shown a visual or emitted a smell in the roughly twenty seconds that she had been standing there (If she is still there by the point).

Suddenly something moved in the shadows! It was a creeping motion, and it was heading in Miaki's direction!

As Miaki found her way farther from the crowd and noises of the city, she didn't realize just how far she had wandered. Glancing over her shoulder, all she saw were darkened, gloomy shadows of the ally she had found herself in. It didn't take long for her heart to skip a beat from the sudden anxiety she felt. It was only then did she realize that she was, in fact, alone in an unfamiliar, dark place. Now nervous, she glanced to both sides of the ally, not spotting any immediate ray of sunlight that would signify the fastest way out of there. At this point, she found it best if she just continued down the ally and hope that it wasn't a dead end. I'm a Meister, anyway, what is there to worry about? Chuckling nervously, she picked up a jagged rock from the ground below, just in case something did happen. Her grip was loose enough to avoid the jagged edges from digging into her flesh, but any tighter and it would draw blood.

As she walked, she couldn't help but get the feeling that something was nearby, but her periodical glances behind her yielded no results. It was quiet, in fact, too quiet. At the corner of her eye, she caught another flash of motion, but it could almost be the wind, it was too slow to be attacking... sneaking maybe? Now I'm just being paranoid, who's to say the Terror would happen to go after me like I had thought? She couldn't fight the feeling, though, so she turned to her side and pressed her back against the cool brick of the building beside her, making sure nothing could sneak behind her but also getting rid of half of her range of motion. She wasn't yet able to use Soul Perception to check if there was someone really there, and all she could do is hold up her rock and scan the area, "I know you're out there," she said, trying to solidify if there truly was something or not, "g-get away or I'll have to make you." She couldn't stop the quivering in her voice. Despite her prior confidence, she really was in a potentially deadly situation... not like class scenarios. She couldn't help but feel fear as she clutched the rock slightly harder, feeling it cut into her palm.

On the cold, dark wall, a slither of moisture trickled down through the damp moss and found its way to Miaki's back. The stone sliced into her hand from Miaki's strong grip, and a thin trickle of blood crept down through the lines of Miaki's palms and dripped gently onto the floor. It made a quiet sound that echoed throughout the ally, however, in the quietness it sounded much louder than it would in any other normal situation. The shadows lay still, perhaps the slow, creeping motion that Miaki had sensed was just her imagination. Perhaps it was just a small animal, trying to sneak away from the strange human that was now accompanying it in the lonely, dark, dreary allyway that had been empty for so long. Or maybe it was something else...

Around Miaki a presence could be felt, a very faint image of a figure seemed to be seen in the ally, but once again, it could have just been her imagination, as it was very dark and hard to tell what was what, even if something was there it might not have even been what it looked like it was. However...

Suddenly a piece of clothing, showing resemblances to a cloak, touched Miaki...

Miaki's nerves were all over the place at this point. Her back was beginning to get soaked as moisture was absorbed into her clothing from the trickling moss on the wall she had put her back to. Her hand was throbbing as small, scarlet droplets of blood found themselves falling to the stone floor beneath her feet. She loosened her grip slightly, but damage had already been done, and it did nothing to alleviate the pain. Still, though, she was used to pain from her sparring and fighting classes, she was more worried about the wound getting infected by anything that may have found itself on the rock. She'd have to clean the wound later. As she carefully lowered the grocery bag that had been in her other hand down onto the ground away from the blood.

As she turned, still scanning the area with a careful sort of paranoia, she started edging her way toward the back of the alley once more, keeping her back lightly pressed against the wall. Great, I'm going to have to wash my clothes and my hand at this point... As she did this, however, she just couldn't get rid of the feeling that she was not alone... that something was creeping toward her. Suddenly, something lightly touched Miaki. Instinctively, she didn't hesitate in jumping away from whatever it was and pointing the rock toward where it had come from with the end of the crude weapon in a slight, jagged point on the side away from Miaki and making the point. "Now I know you're there," she said, trying to sound more confident, "come out and fight me!"

---

"Miaki's been gone a while," Emil sighed as he flipped through pages of a syfy book and tapping his foot lightly against their wooden floor, "I'm getting hungry. We don't have any snack food at this point. Did you really have to wake her up instead of going yourself? You know she takes her time just to spite you."

Keizer had been pacing back and forth between the meager living room and kitchen, glancing at the clock every few minutes. "I'm still worried," he said, his nerves were quite real- he hadn't even followed with a dramatic sigh. "I'm going after her."

Emil rolled his eyes, this same thing seemed to happen whenever Miaki took longer than half an hour to get all the groceries. Still, he had long learned not to make an effort to stop him. "Whatever," he said, "just make sure she buys my peaches. She forgot them last time."

Nodding, Keizer burst out of the door and disappeared down the stairs, toward the market place. He wasn't the type to take risks, no matter how many times his Meister had been late just for the sake of being late... perhaps it was a different story this time.

Suddenly a figure rose up from the darkness. It was hunched over, and was quite small. It wore a black cloak. The figure approached Miaki slowly, with each step a clicking sound was made on the ground which echoed throughout the alley. The figure stopped right by Miaki. A cold, bony hand grabbed Miaki's hand...

"I'm terribly sorry, but could you please help me find my way to the market..?" came the voice of the old women that stood before Miaki. Yes, it was true, the big kishin egg scare had turned out to be merely an old woman. The clicking sound was made by her wooden walking stick hitting the cold, stone floor.

Miaki had almost jumped out of her shoes when she felt a cold grip on her weaponless hand. She had dropped her meager groceries when she threatened attack in her panic, and when her eyes finally took in the hunched figure of the old woman, she finally allowed herself to calm. Wow, I really did overreact, didn't I? For some reason, though, she still felt... uneasy. It took willpower to force her hand to finally let go of her "weapon" and she heard it clatter against the stone walkway and fade, skirting a few decent feet away. The cut was larger than she realized, and the pain only grew as the Meister actually caught sight of the damage she had done to herself. It throbbed with every heartbeat and the stinging fluctuated with her pulse. "Crap," she sighed, clenching the damaged hand into a fist to try and keep any more of her blood from spilling onto the ground.

"Of course I can help you find your way to the market!" Miaki said, switching to enthusiasm as not to scare the frail woman. "Well... I was a little lost myself, actually," she confessed with a small smile and lighthearted chuckle, "but I think I came from that direction," she pointed behind the woman, toward the path she had been making her way away from. She carefully shifted her right, undamaged hand to better grip the woman's. "We'll make it there together~" Taking the lead, Miaki made her way back the direction she had came, toward the entrance of the alleyway. She was sure that she could at least make it out of the cramped alley. Finding her way back to the market was another matter, though...

---

Keizer ground his teeth in irritation as he scanned the crowds. He sent Miaki at the time he did specifically so she'd beat the major crowds, but her meandering had taken so long that it was hard to even walk without running into another person. He himself had retreated to a higher, grassy hill a little ways away from the market to try and spot his Meister from a vantage point. "You'd think it'd be easy to find someone with her kind of hair, but it seems life is choosing to be cruel. Oh, sweet mysterious fate, please bring enlighten me on your mysterious ways," he spoke out loud, holding one arm out as if her were shouting to some unforeseen force and crossing the other against his chest with his hand clenched in a fist. Of course, there wasn't anything to pay much attention to the act, flamboyancy was just what Keizer did. He continued scanning the crowd, but it soon became clear that Miaki wasn't going to show up without him going through the crowd and searching for her. Sighing, he made his way back to the central part of the market and navigated his way through the sea of people, still on the lookout. When I find you Miaki... you better have a good excuse. Who knows what all of these people are getting on my clothes!

((Yay Kana!! "The Fool" -3-))

The old woman smiled and held on to Miaki's arm with the hand not being used to move her walking stick. The dark alleyway was difficult to get through, probably because of the poor lighting. They eventually reached a light, seemingly the end. They were nearly there... And yet they couldn't have been further.

Out of no where a shadowy figure flew past from behind, its feet gliding so lightly along the floor it almost looked ghostly. It sped right through the middle of the two, sending a wave of air that made the old woman fall back. The figure stopped, spinning 180 degrees almost exactly to face Miaki before it completely ran out of speed. The old woman staggered backwards, exclaiming in fear. Meanwhile, the figure's cloak rose up behind it, and 'arms' emerged from the cloak aimed to pierce right through Miaki. It seemed the figure was able to control its cloak in a ghostly manor.

((For reference, I was aiming at something like Anubis in Soul Eater when it shoots bandages at Death the Kid))