[SS] Unknown Magnitude Serial Catastrophe

While listening to Astal's explanation, Unimato took the yen out of his pocket that the former handed him and slowly placed it in the center of table, with it slightly pushed more towards Yukihime. This was his way of discretely saying 'you can have all of it' since regardless of Astal's intention to have them share, he still didn't feel like he deserved a single coin. As he turned his attention back towards the strange, yet kind person, he vaguely heard something about being a 'priest' to which the this thought came to mind:

'A priest? As in the class from an RPG that heals with divine light?'

This string of thoughts was cut short once he realized the sudden change of expression upon Astal's face, almost startling him .

"I'm here to save people."

"S-save people...?"

Unimato parrots in low, confused tone.

'Perhaps I wasn't too far off the mark on the "healing with divine light" thing'

He thinks to himself as the store owner came back with his green tea. Looking up at them from his train of thought, he offers basically what's left of his current on-person funds, not planning to buy anything else and thanks them as they walk away. After taking a sip of the hot liquid, Unimato attempts to push things a little further.

"D-do you mind elaborating on the 'saving people' part, a bit? Or is the rest... classified?"

He asks, trailing off, not sure if he's digging too much into their personal business, but since he was basically prevented from leaving, he figured he might as well get all the details. Especially since he finally got his green tea to calm his heightened nerves from the previous series of events.

"D-do you mind elaborating on the 'saving people' part, a bit? Or is the rest... classified?"

— Save people? Wait. Don’t tell you’re one of those self-healing charlatans that claims to heal people through the use of useless oils?

With a chime-like voice, Astal laughed at their incredulity, looking at him like some kind of government special forces or some manner of scam artist. Honestly, given Academy City's defenses, either would be far more impressive than what he actually was, but the two children had no way of knowing that.

"I like to think the services I provide are more effective than some back-alley fraudster. But it's not a business, if that's what you were trying to ask. I don't charge for my services."

Astal leaned back for a moment, stretching like a cat. And then he retrieved a photograph from his person. Pictured was a woman, still young but whose age you might place anywhere from early twenties to mid thirties. She had blonde hair and a rather severe expression, locked somewhere between apathy and dissatisfaction. The clothing she wore wasn't any kind of uniform, but just its fit and the way the pieces meshed together gave a soldier's impression, somehow.

"Right now I'm trying to help this person, but in order to do that I have to find her first, and right now I'm quite sure she's in this city." He smiled at Unimato. "She's sitting in limbo right now, so to speak. Aimless, purposeless, wandering the world without a goal. I intend to do what I can to help her find one."

How he knew of the girl. Why he found her business so important. Why he was so confident he could give the girl a goal. Also, details like how he made a living, and how the two of them had come to be in Academy City specifically, out of all the places in the world. He didn't mention any of those things.

The wry smile he gave Unimato made the reason for that clear. 'It was classified.'

The more Unimato listened to them, the more it sounded akin to some sort of RPG sidequest, which only added on to his previous thoughts of this person being some kind of weird, healing priest from aforementioned game. He takes another sip of his tea as he tries to make sense of what Astal was talking about, almost chocking on the liquid when the self-proclaimed 'savior' returned their gaze to himself. He careful sets down the cup as he listened to Astal continue, taking notice of the pic they were holding out.

"She's sitting in limbo right now, so to speak. Aimless, purposeless, wandering the world without a goal. I intend to do what I can to help her find one."

"S-so... i-is this person in an... existential crisis, you're saying?"

Unimato says without much thought, though admittedly it wasn't very tactful of him to say, he was just putting the colorful words together, between the mention of "limbo" and "aimless." After a few seconds of analyzing what they just said, a certain realization came to him:

"A-are you merely just saying you're a... psychiatrist?"

He says with a notably hesitant tone, adding on to his previous question and hoping he wasn't going to offend this 'priest' or whatever they want to call themselves, at this point. At this Unimato also began to question if his tea was caffeinated, as he noticeably felt more skeptical of this person as time went by. Though, it could just as well be his nerves, as usual.

Hearing that Index – for once – was on board made the act of fleeing far easier. With no obstacle blocking her path, Kamijou Touko was sure her hectic stepping would take her far away from that fellow.

However, in thinking so she had underestimated his persistence.

«Hey, hey. So what are you doing here? You seem a bit turned-around? I guess you don't hang out around here much? Are you on an errand? Searching for something? You know, I spend most of my time around these parts, so I could show you around, yeah?»

Being showered in a hailstorm of questions by someone relentlessly following her was easily reminiscent of an aggressive salesman or recruiter on a shopping boulevard. Yet, that could be covered by blatantly pretending she did not hear him. But only that.

«Accept now, get a little something something from my secret stash for free~!»

It was at the mention of his ‹secret stash› that the turning point arrived.

At first she had assumed he was talking about illegal wares, which was more than enough of a reason to break away. However, when he actually revealed his goods, the final red flag had been hoisted up. Anyone in the whole wide world would tell you that someone offering you candy – especially aggressively – in a shady neighbourhood like this, was out for no good. The innocence plastered all over his face didn’t help the case, either.

Still, that wasn’t what broke the last straw to her. What was, was a look at the nun to her side.

«LET’S GOOOOO!!!»

Shouting at the top of her lungs, Kamijou grabbed Index’s arm and broke off into a sprint, forcibly pulling her along before any of her tirades could begin.

And she would keep running until she was convinced she had broken away. However, not exactly knowing where to.

«Accept now, get a little something something from my secret stash for free~!»

After hearing the Candy-apple boy mention the words “free” and “secret stash”, it was only natural for Index to take a breather from bugging Touko and see what was on offer.

The sight which greeted Index was a dazzling assortment of chocolates and other sweets, predictability, Index’s eyes lit up and her opinion of the candy-apple lad turned on a dime.

“Hawaaa… H-hey, maybe this fellow isn’t as I first thought. Why don’t we stay awhile and listen to wha-”

«LET’S GOOOOO!!!»

But it had seemed that Touko, who was well-versed in the habits and temperaments of the teacup-nun, was one step ahead. Before Index was able to reach out and get her eager hands on one of the offerings, Touko grabbed Index by the waist and tore down the street, trying to get away from that dodgy boy and his candies.

“Choco…”

Index’s gaze lingered wistfully behind them as she began listing off various brands of candies and chocolates. All thoughts of their scheduled rendezvous with “Vitali” were forgotten as Index had her on arm outstretched and the other holding on to Touko’s shoulder in a death grip.

While it's true some fancy bakery wasn't exactly the type of hangout Hamazura preferred, it was a far sight cleaner than the typical abandoned buildings and back alleys Skill-Out favored.

But this wasn't exactly a normal day for the dyed-hair delinquent. It had started as one - right before Boss Komaba gave him a new mission, one which was dangerous but potentially profitable at the very least. Hamazura smirked as he considered that the Boss was never more talkative than when he was going over work. If Komaba ever got himself a real, respectable, socially acceptable job Hamazura had no doubt he would be a manager in no time. The quiet, hulking young man was a natural leader with a good heart - and Hamazura was willing to stain his hands a little so that Komaba wouldn't have to do more than was necessary. So, here he sat - in a district where he had been told his target (well, targets) were based. For now though, he didn't have much to go on and he wasn't in too much of a hurry. Hamazura wasn't even sure he'd be able to finish his mission in just a day, so getting to know the area came first. And what better way to get to know an area than to watch its people hustle and bustle about.

♟And hey, the sights ain't too bad so far.♟ Hamazura considered, as he discreetly watched a pretty girl with white hair and a school uniform that left just enough to the imagination for him to enjoy.

That had been his entry point into the very strange and hard-to-follow conversation behind him: a cute girl in a sexy uniform with legs that caught his eyes. Hamazura had moved back into his seat when she turned to walk from the register though. It wouldn't do to be seen appreciating her beauty - hell, most girls who went to those fancy, famous schools always seemed to find issue with a boy appreciating them. He didn't feel like taking part in some romantic comedy where he got a drink thrown on him for oogling her. And so, before she could observe her observer, he had moved casually back into his seat and knew it was just coincidence that her table was right next to his - separated by the tall back of their shared booth.

And for just a moment, that had been it - the totality of his interaction with the girl would have been to note the exposed portions of her legs and her beautiful hair and forget about her later.

"H-hey, um, thank you for finding it."

A shy voice piped up, causing Hamazura to think an involuntary, almost instinct-level thought.

♟Prey.♟

Hamazura was, after all, a predator. He lived in a way that others would call violent or rough. But he saw the world for what it was; he was a predator, and people with no backbone like the boy (who he had not yet even laid eyes on) were there to be preyed upon. Although Hamazura had no interest in making a victim out of the boy just for his soft-spoken words. The fact that a person could barely spit out a greeting simply and objectively meant they went into the "prey" category - and Hamazura had spend most of his life either hunting prey, or protecting prey from other predators. He had been on both sides of that equation - and Boss Komaba had geared Hamazura's instincts towards seeing some prey as "fair game" and other prey as "Off-limits and those who should be protected". Hamazura listened intently from then on out to the conversation behind him...

He wasn't yet sure which type of prey the boy, one "Narakiki Unimato", was.

The girl was different. She was pretty enough, but her more type-A personality suggested she was not someone who could be easily classified as prey. Besides, Boss Komaba didn't allow his thugs to target women unless they were Espers who deserved it by abusing their power. And even then, sexual crimes were off-limits and grounds for immediate punishment. Even beasts have to maintain order and standards, and have their limits - only humans truly make a sport of harming others for their own enjoyment. But all of that aside, the girl had clearly taken the lead in their seemingly private conversation. Although she used that lead to talk about weather and a strange phenomena concerning Academy City's wind turbines. And their conversation got so awkward and forced Hamazura nearly felt bad for the girl who was trying to be friendly.

♟This is boring as shit. Maybe I should just get up and---♟

"I could pay for a snack or two, if you don't mind."

♟What the hell? Where did he come from?♟ Hamazura wondered, though he dared not turn around to look at the newcomer he could feel standing above the table behind his own booth.

He had to work not to jump slightly or give any unnatural movement - to blend in and seem as boring and unassuming as possible... Then again, Hamazura never had to work very hard at being easy to miss.

From there, the girl known as Yuki elegantly handled herself and even attempted to graciously thank the newcomer for his generosity. But Unimato had a different reaction. The boy almost predictably tried to turn down the generosity of the newcomer - but then, like a scared rabbit, he actually attempted to flee. Hamazura cringed at how pathetic the exchange was - how "unmanly" the kid was being, but he managed to not turn around - even when there was the telltale crash of a body against the ground. It was the genial man who had introduced himself with a very foreign name who helped the kid up - even making a joke about puberty that seemed out of place to a guy who was just listening to the whole thing.

"P-pardon my assumption... but you're not from Academy City, are you?"

♟Careful. The beta male's learning.♟ Hamazura thought to himself with a mean smirk, though even in his own head it was a joke meant to ease the just... painfully awkward interactions he was now privy to.

— Well, since it is a gift. I think it would be highly rude of use to refuse such a well-intended gift. You wouldn’t want to be rude, would you Uni-kun..?

♟Well-spoken and pretty. Nice combination. Some kind of ojousama, I guess? She's pretty enough - and she can at least talk without tripping over her tongue. The mousy boy is probably a stone's throw from a panic attack, getting to talk to a looker like that. Wonder if he'll try to run again.♟

Narakiki didn't try to run again, as it happened - forget what the stage comedians said, repetition was dull and certainly not the key to good humor.

And so Hamazura listened as the conversation grew slightly less awkward and a lot weirder, but he only grew sincerely interested when he heard Lott's raison d'être for being in Academy City.

"I'm here to save people."

...

...

...

Ok, Hamazura was invested now - and decided that his own investigations could wait. His mission was dangerous and possibly very illegal depending on what he had to do, but one thing it was not was time sensitive. Besides, the bag at his side had enough toys in it to last him through a few questionable encounters - just in case things hit the fan. So he took a sip of his own juice, and listened to the gathering continue.

"Right now I'm trying to help this person, but in order to do that I have to find her first, and right now I'm quite sure she's in this city."

Hamazura silently cursed the fact he couldn't see the image - but the man was a strange one and the most interesting character at the little threesome taking place behind him. The boy shyly referred to such a man as a "psychiatrist" of all things - and made Hamazura want to facepalm. It was obvious to Hamazura the man's purpose went far deeper than that, although it wouldn't surprise the Skill-Out Lieutenant if this man simply allowed such a comparison and made himself seem even more enigmatic. Lott seemed to be the type who either knew a lot - or pretended he did. The icy remark from the white-haired girl had been about what Hamazura had been thinking - what was the term again? He had heard it once before...

♟Snake oil salesman. That was it. The guy carries himself like a man working a con - but that's what makes me think he is legit. Or, at least, he believes in what he just told them. He'll try to find that girl, whoever the hell she is.♟

Yup. This wasn't exactly a normal day for the dyed-hair delinquent. But at least it was turning into an interesting one.