Empty Pockets (Open, 2 more people)

A man sat by the side of a busy pedestrian walkway in the city of San Malarius. His eyes, half open, moved through the people that continuously passed in front of him. They were heading to their jobs, or maybe to the stores, or mabe to eat something, or maybe they simply woke up with the desire of going for a stroll. No one, however, looked the man's way, maybe because there was nothing spectacular about him, or maybe because they wanted to avoid someone that wore such dirty-looking clothes. Normally, he wouldn't mind such treatment, but there was a good reason why it put him in a foul mood.

"No one's buying anything..." The man, named Leander Arni, a street vendor, muttered to himself. There was a piece of cloth in front of him, and a bunch of trinkets, toys and other small items were placed on top of it. If people were interested in something, they would approach him, point at the item, and then negotiate the best price. But no one was buying anything that day.

"C'mon people, buy something. If you don't I won't have anything to eat today." He complained, but not loud enough for anyone to hear. It was a hot day. Leander wanted to go somewhere cooler, somewhere like a library, where he'd be able to read a book in peace and relax... but no, he needed to stay there and sell something, anything, to buy dinner at least. His stomach was already demanding it. He thought that street was a good place because of how many people seemed to pass through it, but maybe his "bad eyesight" had fooled him into seeing things that way.

"Maaan, I'm going to die..." With a sigh, Leander lamented his bad luck.

Today was another weekend in San Malarius -- nothing too special having happened so far. To be fair, it was technically just starting however; a thing Azami had been reminded all too much of when her alarm clock had decided to assault her ears in the morning. She could have sworn that she had turned it off but none the less the girl had it set to its usual time and had been awoken to the screeching demon that was responsible for perpetrating such crimes.

Luckily no one else in the house had been woken up by it. Koala-chan could sleep through an earthquake and the door to her grandmother's room seemed to have been enough to block out the sound. None the less, Azami herself found that she couldn't return to sleep after its siege on her plans to sleep-in. It was rather unfortunate and disappointing but there was really no use in dwelling over the misfortunes of it. At the very least a good morning stroll could ease her mind.

After tossing on her casual clothes and locking the door on her way out Azami headed out into the streets; scarf over mouth and blank expression on face. The warm and radiant rays of the sun shined brightly today -- the birds chirping and a calm silence seeming to be present everywhere she went excluding the footsteps of others out and about today. Indeed, walking around the island was rather relaxing today.


A voice rung out from the silence as Azami snapped back to reality. With her hands in her pockets she'd look around the area for the source of the voice; noticing a man on the side of the street sitting next to a collection of various objects. It seemed rather strange. It seemed like he was selling an assortment of objects... Perhaps the man was homeless?

"Could I get a receipt with my purchase?" Azami spoke in an attempt at a witty statement; walking up to the man and pulling out her wallet. Reaching into it she'd pull out of a handful of cash and set it next to him -- throwing the dog a bone, if you will. According to her estimates it'd be enough to buy a clean pair of clothes and at the very least a meal that he could survive off of. She would have gladly have given more but money didn't grow on trees. And if it did it wasn't likely to grow for a teenage girl who got most of her money from saving up or the rather occasional allowance.

San Malarus was always so busy. It was like a moment of peace couldn’t exist, or the city would die. Well, maybe that was the case. This was where a lot of people lived after all. If they suddenly stop moving around and the city stopped running, her first guess would be wide-spread death. On second thought, maybe it wasn’t the best idea to think about the city being peaceful. Actually, she was uncomfortable being out right now, but her mother had told her that if she didn’t get out more she would lose her computer. Considering she lived on that thing for the most part, she couldn’t take that risk. The only thing saving her at the moment was the parasol over her head that was blocking the sun. If she didn’t have it, she would have passed out by now. She couldn’t stand being outside for very long otherwise. Still, she wished she had at least something to do. She didn’t really want to leave, so she was stuck wandering around the island until her mother went to work so that she could sneak back into the house. That would be at least another hour or so, however. She sighed at her misfortune.

She would only stop when she saw a man on the side of the walk with a blanket in front of him and a girl putting down money. That was new. She didn’t think she’d seen anything like it before and she couldn’t help but go up to the scene and stare. It would be a few seconds before she bent down to look at him more closely and then the stuff in front of him. She would then look at the girl, finally realizing what was going on, “I get it. This is like a shop.” Her face would beam at her newfound understanding. She had never seen a shop like this before, and is fascinated her, [color=#ffcc00] “Wait. Nothing has a price. How do I know how much to pay for it?” She was used to this system working very differently. She would look back at the items, trying to find something that caught her fancy. She wasn’t a fan of toys, so those lost her attention immediately, “Do you have anything that’s unique?” She didn’t know how else to phrase that question. She was still bad at speaking, even though she was getting better. What she meant was she was looking for something that she probably wouldn’t have seen before. She enjoyed collecting stuff like that.

The traveler took one of his many notebooks out of his backpack and used it as a fan to cool himself off. He was already picturing himself closing shop and going back to his parents' place in Standasen island -- they would surely receive him with open arms, as he rarely visited nowadays. But Leander was too prideful, or rather, he didn't want to impose on his parents, not after leaving his studies to pursue a life of wandering. He wanted to return with at least enough money to buy them a meal, and not the other way around.

It was when those thoughts crossed his mind that he saw the girl approach his "shop". She looked young, a high schooler or middle schooler, and kinda cute too. Leander noticed on first sight the scarf around her neck. With the sun high up in the sky, how could she wear such a thing? Well, it wasn't his place to judge: a costumer was a costumer, and food was food. Getting money was the most important thing at the moment.

However, the girl did something strange: she simply took out her wallet, took out a bunch of cash, placed it in front of Leander and asked for a receipt. For a few seconds, the traveler didn't respond and simply looked at the money, before standing up and facing the girl.

"Missy, I can give you a receipt if you wish, but you first nee to tell me what you want to buy." Lea said with a smile. "I don't have anything that's worth that much, so pick something and then we can negotiate the price. Let's see..." The vendor would crouch and look at his stuff. After deliberating for a few second, he picked a certain metal item from the floor and showed it to the girl: "What about this?" In the man's palm was a small ring with the shape of a cute-looking cat. "I bet a student like you would like a ring like this."

As he waited for the girl's response, another person arrived. Yet again, a young woman. Sweet, more business. Leander smiled at the blond girl, but titled his head after hearing her question.

"Something unique... you say?" He was about to say that he wasn't selling anything "unique" until something came to mind. He walked back, to where he had left his backpack, and from one of the pockets he took out a silver pendant. It only looked to be made out of silver, however, as it was made out of a cheaper material. Still, that wasn't the "unique" part. The pendant was shrouded in a veil of darkness, though it was a veil only Leander's eyes could see. He was a man whose eyes couldn't absorb much light from his surroundings, forcing him to live in a darker world from normal, but from time to time he found items that were "darker" than they should.

"I found this pendant when passing through the town of Hayabusa a few months ago. It isn't "unique" per se, but the old lady that gave it to me told me quite the story about it. Wanna hear?" He didn't believe the story at the time, but if it was useful for selling something at a good price, then he'd make it sound as authentic as possible.

Azami would shake her head in disagreement with the man's selection of the ring -- analyzing just what he had. She was mainly doing it for the sake of donations and the sort but none the less there was no reason in not picking out something and just walking away. After all, it didn't seem like his products really were being swarmed by consumers.

"Do you have any sort of literature? If so, might you have any personal recommendations?"

Naomi’s eyes would light up once she saw the pendant in his hands. It was a very pretty thing. She would exactly call it uncommon, let along unique. The man seemed to acknowledge this fact, as he went on to talk about some kind of story behind it. She would stay crouched near the ground and nod her head, “Please do tell.” She loved hearing stories. She was concerned about the woman who was there with her though. She wondered if the girl was picking up on the feeling between the two of them. As someone who tried to help people, she recognized what the girl was trying to do, but she could also feel that the man may not have gotten the gesture. She wondered if he had so much pride that he couldn’t accept help, or if he just wasn’t aware of what she meant to do. Either way, if the woman wanted to help, she would need to buy something, not just throw down money.

Spoiler:

"Literature?" Leander showed a genuinely surprised expression. People sometimes asked for unusual things, but no one had ever requested a book. It was surprising, but the man couldn't help but feel happy about it. "I wasn't planning on selling it... but what the heck." He went back to his backpack, opened one of the upper pockets, and retrieved a book from the inside. The book had a green cover with the illustration of a creepy floating head in the middle, and a title that read "Tales From the South" in golden letters.

"Kids aren't usually interested in proper literature, so I never sell any. But still, take this: it's a compilation of various mythological tales from South America written in prose. It's fun to read, and kinda educative. As for the price... this will do." Leander takes a few bills from the money the girl had initially offered and returns the rest.

"And about this pendant..." Lea showed the pendant again to the second costumer, after finishing the first transaction. It took him a few seconds to remember the story behind it, a smile flashed across his face. "The story went like this."

He'd begin to narrate the short story of how he came across that pendant. Leander had arrived to the town of Hayabusa a few days before, in the Ueitawa Region, and was exploring one of the nearby forests when he came across a small pond. As he got closer, he noticed an old woman staring at the water: she had a pendant on her hand, and it looked as if she was preparing herself to throw it away. As it looked like a pretty pendant, Leander stopped her and asked her to give it to him instead.

"As long as I can get rid of it, anything will do." She said. The old woman explained that the pendant was cursed. One night, many years ago, she had been looking at the moon's reflection on the pond, enjoying the night, when suddenly she felt a chill run down her spine. She couldn't explain it well, but she said that it felt as if she had suddenly been transported somewhere else. She looked around, and she saw something moving on the surface of the pond.

"It was a black demon." The granny answered when Lea asked what it was. The black demon approached her, and she was too terrified to move. However, instead of attacking her, the black demon simply spit something to the surface and disappeared. The granny felt that she had suddenly been returned "to her world", and picked up what the creature had left behind: a silver pendant. The grandma picked up the pendant and reached the conclussion that she had simply hallucinated, and that black demons didn't exist.

She kept the pendant with her, as it was a pretty thing. However, at least once every month, she'd see the black demon approaching her as she slept, returned to that strange-yet-similar world. The granny reached her limit years later, and was prepared to return the pendant to the water when Leander appeared.

"...and so, after some negotiation, she gave me the pendant. Interesting story, huh?" Leander laughed out loud after finishing his narration. "She warned me that I'd be cursed by the pendant, but nothing has happened yet, so I think it's safe. So? Isn't this thing unique?"

"Really? That sounds rather interesting. I'll have to begin reading as soon as I get the chance." Azami spoke; her usual monotonous tone being replaced by a clear fascination with the book. In general she enjoyed most types of literature and was more than happy to accept the book; carefully placing it within her pocket and placing the remaining money into the wallet.

Afterwards he seemed to turn his attention to the other customer by her side whom was currently purchasing a pendant of exceptional beauty. It seemed her curiosity had been peaked by just how the man had received it and it seemed that the street vendor had no hesitations about telling the tale. Azami herself, a bit interested, decided to stick around at least for a bit to hear the end of the story.

The tale, though intriguing, raised at least a bit of skepticism in Azami. She wasn't really sure if demons existed or not herself but the girl seriously doubted that the original owner of the pendant had encountered one. None the less she found the tale interesting. If nothing else, the pendant was rather pretty. Though Azami herself did notice something in the tale -- something concerning the setting.

"Wait a second; you've been to Ueitawa Region?"

Naomi would look at the pendant and then back at the man when he told the story of the old woman. She wondered if they entire thing was a hallucination. Then again, given what she had been finding out about the world normal people couldn’t see, she wondered if it had something to do with that instead. If so, could the curse be real. Her face would change to one of fascination with the pendant before her. She was almost afraid to ask the question she knew was coming next, “How much is it?” She was sure she could afford it. She wondered if the story was even true. She could feel people’s emotions, but not tell when they were lying or just telling a story. He didn’t seem to be giving off any feelings that gave her a hint either. Even if it was just a story, it was one that was at least entertaining. Sitting around, listening to a story like this made her think of her childhood. The pendant was worth buying for that reason alone. Plus, it was rather pretty.

She would look at the other girl when she mentioned Ueitawa. She had heard that mentioned before. She could swear it was one of the guys who said it. She hadn’t heard of it before, so she didn’t think much of it, but here it was again, “What is Ueitawa?” She asked the girl, suddenly captivated by this place that kept appearing.

"For you, lady..." Leander raised a number of fingers with his right hand. "This will do." It was a reasonable amount of money for the pendant. It wasn't a valuable item, but the story certainly gave it some extra value. Still, the girl didn't seem to be poor, and she probably had enough money to afford it. Leander nodded to himself: he had made some good transactions, and if a few others stopped to buy some of the smaller stuff, then he'd be able to call the day a success.

"Wait a second; you've been to Ueitawa Region?"

The girl's sudden question, however, made him raise an eyebrow. Leander thought that she'd leave right away: she didn't seem like the type to make small-talk, but mentioning Ueitawa had clicked something inside of her. The other girl also jumped into the wagon, wondering what Ueitawa was.

"Yeah, I've been there." Leander answered while scratching his head. "Though I'm from Azores, I just finished a 2 years world-tour, so I've been to a lot of places. One of them was the Ueitawa Region in Japan. It's a pretty nice place, and the town of Hayabusa is especially beautiful. I had to learn some japanese to get around, but it's not so hard once you get used to it."

"It's a nice place, but..." Leander stopped for a second, thinking back on some of the things he saw and heard while he was there. "It was a bit weird. Apparently some strange things happened there a few years ago, though no one I asked could tell me anything other than some stuff involving murders." He was going to add that the place was "darker" as well, but the girls probably wouldn't understand the analogy. No, it'd be really weird if they did. The man shrugged and flashed the girls another smile after a pause: "But there's no need to tell grim stories, eh?"

Azami herself was more than a bit surprised. How could a street vendor whom couldn't even afford a clean pair of clothes afford a trip to Japan? It wasn't like he was a con-artist; otherwise he wouldn't have had let it slip that he had traveled there since that could raise suspicions. Besides that he was also hanging out in plain sight. Could it have been that the costs for the trip had been the cause of his homelessness? Regardless, the girl didn't pry further into the matters of his debt. There were some things that people, espescially strangers, shouldn't ask about another or their past.

However something else also caught her attention -- the mention of some murders of a strange nature going on there. She herself hadn't heard anything about such but then again she hadn't really kept track with the news of her own home at all; let alone what was occurring across the world. She'd have to look into the matter at some point in time -- though she wasn't sure what luck she'd have considering, according to the man's testimony, that not even a native of the region was willing or able to tell of what had went on there. Eventually Azami returned to her usual state however; becoming calm, collected, and stoic once more.

"I believe it was in Japan; which is why I was surpsied at first.. But I didn't really know anything about any murders occurring there." She began -- turning her head back to the man. Perhaps he knew something about it that was, at the very least, salvageable.

"Can you remember anything the residents told you about it?"

When he held up his fingers to indicate how much Naomi would have to pay for the pendant, she sucked in a sharp breath. That was a lot to pay for a piece of jewelry, especially since it didn’t seem to be anything special. The only thing it had going for it was a story. Still, the man looked like he could use the money more than Naomi. Sometimes, she thought her wanting to help people was a serious weakness. She’d pull her wallet out of her purse and remove the money to give it to him, “That should cover it right?” Once he gave her the pendant, she would put it in her purse. She couldn’t put it on by herself, after all.

Her eyes widened as the man spoke about murders in some region of Japan she had only recently been hearing about. What the heck had happened over there? Even stranger, she could swear that she was told something different before. Right now, she was wishing she had actually paid attention to that crazy talk. This was really weird. She couldn’t even come up with an explanation about how she hadn’t heard of this before. If weird stuff like this had been happening, she was sure she would have seen a story circulating somewhere. Now she felt like an idiot for not knowing about this stuff, “Ghost stories are always good to hear.” She said with a smile, hiding the fact that this was starting to get weird, even by her standards. She would look at the woman next to her, “Wouldn’t you agree?” Seeing as how interested she appeared to be in this, she thought it was likely.

"Yes, this should be enough." Leander took the money the girl was offering and then placed the silver pendant in her hands. Now the exchange was done. Again, the man thought that the pair of high schoolers would leave, as they probably had no more business with him, but the girl with the scarf asked about what he had heard in Ueitawa. As the second girl seemed to be interested as well, Leander wasn't sure whether to respond or not, but it wasn't as if he had anything better to do, and surely people wouldn't stop to look at his items while he talked. So he released a big sigh and told them what he knew:

"I stayed in the area for only a couple of weeks, so I didn't get the chance to ask too much about it. Still, apparently, there were several murder cases linked to a school named Kizuna Academy. The first victim was the Principal, found dead in his office. A few others, including students, were found afterwards, always by the school, and there was some other big incident involving a Kizuna Academy's class, but people didn't want to talk about it, and I didn't pry."

"Before the murders, several students had gone missing, and some believe the two cases were linked, though there wasn't conclussive evidence to prove it. Anyways, the school was closed for a while, probably for the safety of the students. However, things got strange again on April, when several areas were made into quarantine zones... but again, I don't know much about it. No one knew."

"Stuff returned to normal by the end of the month, apparently, but there are some that still wonder what truly happened." Leander took a deep breath after talking for so long. "And that's all. You can probably find out more about it on the web." He had truly shared everything he knew. The girls would probably get to know a little bit more about it if they did some research on their own. Leander didn't want to know, mostly because he had a bad feeling about asking the question when he visited Ueitawa: he couldn't help but think that digging deeper into it would be troublesome on the long run. Still, as he didn't want to end the story on a serious note, he showed a sly smile and added the following: "You are free to ask me more personal questions over a meal."

Azami would remain silent; listening to what the man had to say. When he got to the part about the quarantine however she became a bit confused. A quarantine? Could it have had to do with the mysterious circumstances shrouding the killings that he had mentioned earlier -- the ones the residents wouldn't tell him about? She'd definitely have to look into this.

It seemed however that after the information was provided that the street vendor decided to mooch off of Azami -- to put it bluntly. None the less she didn't mind.

"You know what? Sure. Consider it my good deed for the day." She spoke -- pausing for a moment and turning away as to build dramatic effect before looking back at him. "But if you're going to expect me to pay for such a thing you're going to help me crack the case about what exactly was going on over in Ueitawa, ya see?" Azami would demand, half-jokingly. She'd probably buy him the meal anyways but since he had been the only one there of the three it'd be useful for him to be present to provide some insight on the scenario.

Turning to the girl with pendant she'd nod in agreement with her question concerning ghost stories before speaking once more, "I'll treat you as well... under the same conditions, of course."

She would fall silent as the man explained what had happened in Ueitawa. She could feel a lump form in her throat, which she choked down, “That’s a really creepy story. Did they ever find out who was causing the murders?” She was so excited that she didn’t want to wait for the end to all of it. She couldn’t even believe this place was real based on that kind of story. She had to though, considering both of these people knew about the place and could verify its existence. She had thought this kind of stuff only happened in movies, but her basis for reality was being shaken up every day. Soon she would be one of those people that wore tinfoil on their heads to keep other dimensional aliens from reading her thoughts. Actually, she wasn’t that far gone.

When the man said he would answer more personal questions in exchange for a meal. The woman agreed to treat him, if he helped her solve the mysteries of Ueitawa. She then offered Naomi the same deal. She would shake her head, “Sorry, but I don’t need to be treated. Martha let’s me eat most of my meals for free, so I don’t really have to ever pay for my food.” It was one of the benefits of knowing the owner of a restaurant and having a long standing deal with them, “Plus, I couldn’t let someone pay for me when we haven’t even exchanged names. I’m Naomi, by the way.” She would look at the girl and then the man, “I still want to know how this story ends, so I may help out anyway. We can solve the mysteries of Ueitawa together.” She really wanted to know just what had happened.