She was up early, Akira had hoped that slumber would be kind enough to wipe the anguishes of yesterday, but no such luck. She sat up in the bunk bed and rubbed her temples, briefly reliving all the moments that she was disappointed yesterday... The darkness within her forced her to do this, gather the mojo of frustration to fuel her for the next day. Yet, every night Akira hoped one day it would be different...

The plan was to check the bulletin board again, in case there were any new ways for them to aid the good people of Baska. After checking the board, if they didn't have much to do, the idea was to take the train to another town which rumour had it was riddled with requests for pages.So she put on her usual attire, wearing her thicker black jacket today, because the day looked grey. While it usually brought people down, Akira was thankful she didn't have to deal with piercing sunlight, after the orientation, sunlight traumatised her a little.

She was hoping she'd get to ditch her partner today, maybe if she made an early run she had the chance. He'd probably go complain to Alice, but Akira would be long gone by then. It was early enough for the square to still be relatively underpopulated. The merchants were setting up shop and one particular merchant, that she'd grown to dislike was pinning something up on the board.

'Oh, he's got to be kidding.' she muttered to herself, before striding up to him purposefully. 'Isn't there a limit on the number of times you can ask for he-. All the while that she talked, he seemed to be scanning her like he was measuring her for something, she was sure her fashion sense, or lack of it, bothered him, but he wasn't wearing a face of disgust. 'You'll do perfectly well actually.' he said, clapping his hands together in delight. 'Come, come with me, I'll explain exactly how you can help...'

She would have denied the request, but apparently he had already hand-picked her for the task. 'You see, I need to get this tool, it'd make my job so much easier. It is this precious golden scissor and I heard a rumour that one of the travelling merchants has it with her. She stops by every once in a while, very dedicated, she'd probably already be there even though she'll open shop only in the afternoon. You look just pit- perfect to get her to lighten up and give me my money's worth...' somehow she made it through his prattling and nodded curtly in response and picked up the sack of money on the side table, with that she made her way back out... and spotted... him.

As she waited for him to make his way to her, she opened the pouch and took out a good handful of coins and shoved it into her pocket, she tied up the pouch and threw it at him. The poor was getting the stolen money today. 'It is him... again, Fernando. He wants us to scam another merchant to get some scissor this time...' she spoke warily. 'At least his rewards are handsome, right?' she added with a snarky tone. 'I have an idea, you take us there and we'll act like we both want it and each offer a better price so long as we are under whatever is in that sack... Eventually she's likely to give it to one of us.' Akira laid out the plan in an even tone.

597/1000

Sleep did wonders for Haru. No matter how the previous day went, he always woke up with his natural cheerfulness and optimism. A lot of things didn’t go as he expected last afternoon. But he wasn’t one to let the past mess up the present or the future. Ready to make the best out of the things he faced, he woke up, got ready and knocked on Akira’s door. He waited a bit, but got no response. He knocked again, wondering if his partner had forgotten their travel plans. Just then one of the janitors of the hotel walked past him, informing him that Akira had already left. “What? This early?” he asked, more to himself than to the janitor. Haru thought he was an early bird, but she had woken up earlier than him. Expecting her to stick to the plan, he made his way towards the bulletin board.

The busy street he had witnessed the previous afternoon was almost deserted. Under the rising sun’s golden rays, the wide empty street with closed stalls was picturesque. He waited near the board, wondering where Akira might be. He was worried she ran away, giving up on becoming a Rune Knight. He wouldn’t blame her if she did after what happened with the Lieutenant. And then he wondered why he was worried instead of relieved. After all, he wasn’t really fond of her; he hated her pessimism, rudeness, insubordination, and not to mention the wretched darkness magic. Despite all that and the fact that he barely knows her, something had him worried.

Before he could ponder more on that, he was brought back to his senses by movement near the boutique. He saw Akira exit the store, with another bag of Jewels like before. He couldn’t believe they were stuck with helping fashion-boy again. He walked up to her, shaking his head, clearly expressing his disbelief and discomfort. He wanted to ask ‘why him again’, but he already knew the answer to that.

In a desire to get this over with as soon as possible, Haru let Akira take the lead. And as usual, she came up with a clever plan; not an honest one, unfortunately for Haru, but clever nonetheless. He noticed her taking some money off the pouch and pocket it. He assumed she was taking a portion of the money to act like we were strangers during the auction and didn’t question it.

The two walked to the travelling merchant’s tent. It wasn’t hard to spot. In fact, it was the only happening place in the otherwise empty street. “Looks like we aren’t the only ones here for the scissors,” Haru said, looking at the crowd in front of the unopened stall. There were at least a dozen people there, trying to get an early meeting with the merchant before the auction began. Haru wasn’t sure how the two were going to swim past the crowd and convince the merchant to talk to them, let alone sell the Golden Scissors.

502/1000

He had a knack for pointing out the obvious, she could see that others had already piled on around the woman, as she set up her little cart. Perhaps this was why she stopped by early, she could auction of some priced items in a pre-sale game. A soft groan escaped her lips. Feeling like laying blame somewhere, for having to deal with crowds again today, she stared at him, through her long lashes, her face hard as she grit her teeth and mumbled. 'Maybe if someone had made it out of bed a little sooner...' she said, unfairly, because he got there pretty much just after she accepted Fernando's request.

She shook her head, spewing bile wasn't going to change what they had to do, besides the more time they wasted, the higher was the chance of the crowd getting thicker. Remedying her tone just a little, she decided to just go through with what she had already planned. 'Well we'll just have to stick to the plan and outbid then, its just about yelling the loudest anyways, drowning the others and making this our fight. So we'll bid from the opposite sides of the crowd.' She explained ruefully.

It appeared as though he was ok with her plan, though she noticed a pained strain in the lines of his face, quite akin to hers. Either it was the rich thing, or they agreed on more than just that. All this agreement would have to stay under wraps, she really wasn't looking to forge any long term bonds, especially not with this doe-eyed Tsuru. It would be easy for them to pull off the friction, if they just scratched the surface, she was sure he too had a wealth of reasons to find her annoying...

So she nodded at him as they parted to take stand at the opposite ends of the crowd. With another subtle gesture that they had picked on, their onslaught of bidding began. She started off. 'I'll give you a hundred and fifty jewels!' it was a low start, several people scoffed but this was the only way the two would know where the price was. 'What a generous offer! But the starting bid is now ten times that... so you're looking at a thousand five-hundred... Can  you really afford that?' It was Tsuru's cue to intervene. He did, she wasn't sure how well she pulled it off, but at least he got the vendor's attention.

This went on, and after much haggling, they had yelled the others shoppers into a silent submission. The vendor sold the scissor for three-thousand, to her partner, as she had hoped. She trudged away from, back to the meeting point near the shop. 'He doesn't really know we work together, so I guess I'll go in and deal with his richer-than-you face today...' she shrugged. Akira knew it was a favor, but she also had her own ulterior motives. Swiftly she reached for the scissor and held onto it firmly, till he let go. She also reached for the sack of money he had left over...

She slunk into the shop and with a soft clatter, muffled partly by the fabric over the cloth, she dropped it on the counter, along with the sack of coins. To her surprise he plucked out a larger back of coins and gave it to her. 'This is a reward for your loyalty and service to me, I hope you come back to aid me again, when I need it! This scissor is very precious... The status symbol will get me much more than what I gave you and the little I spent to get it. She just nodded, picked up the sack and slunk back out. 'What a...' she excused herself. 'Well, at least he does reward, right and not too stingy either... just like yesterday.' she said, a little bitterly again, wondering if he'd figured out that she had realised and confirmed his lying from yesterday... She threw the sack of reward at him. 'I trust you to split it evenly, I've got what I need for the poor already...' she added before trotting into the alleys. 'See you at the station, I suppose.'

1300/1000
~~Exit~~

While the scarlet-haired boy stood there wondering, his teammate was already in action. Despite not liking her plan much, he decided to follow it anyway since he had nothing better to offer. The fight was hard. Every last person was screaming at the top of their voice until the merchant decided to shut them all up and start the auction early. Akira offered a ridiculously low price of hundred and fifty Jewels. Half the crowd laughed and the other half booed. They all assumed she was some poor soul who came here wishing to get lucky. However, as the auction furthered, they were surprised to see her match the higher offers without hesitating. And as planned, every time someone offered higher than Akira, Haru offered more and the cycle went on for almost an hour before the crowd thinned. Towards the end, at Akira’s two thousand jewels, it seemed there were no more offers. Haru thought there was no need for him to bump the offer any further. He smiled and was about to let the auctioneer give it to Akira, and that’s when he noticed a wealthy looking man rushing down the lane towards the stall. It would seem the merchant took notice of it too, and seemed to be stalling. Seeing no other option, Haru raised the price by a thousand jewels, shouting the price in an urgent loud voice, startling the merchant lady into taking the offer. Haru handed the Jewels as soon as possible and took the Golden Scissors from the merchant. The wealthy looking man finally made it to the stall and paused, panting. “I will offer ten thousand jewels for that scissor,” the man said, still breathing heavily. The merchant lady looked positively dejected. She pointed towards Haru and spoke in the saddest voice he had ever heard. “Just sold it to that scar head for dirt,” she said, almost crying. The wealthy man walked up to Haru and almost begged him. “Let me have it please. I’ll give twenty thousand,” he said, beaming at him. By then, the merchant was wailing. “I’m sorry. I must refuse. It is really important that I deliver this to my client,” Haru said, bowing slightly and walking away from the stall.

Once they were out of the merchant’s vicinity, he waited for Akira to catch up. She took the scissor from him along with the rest of the money and told him she would take care of the delivery. So, he waited outside while his partner dealt with Fernando. Haru presumed she would return the money she had pocketed before too, and did not suspect that she might have taken it to give to the poor like she suggested last time. When she came back, he saw her carry a heavier sack of Jewels than what she carried inside. “Wow~ He sure is loaded,” he muttered. He caught the bag as she threw it at him and was startled by her next sentence. “What do you mean? Don’t tell me you stole his money,” he almost yelled, but controlled the volume near the end. He looked around to ensure nobody heard him and when he turned towards where Akira was, she was no longer there. With a heavy sigh, Haru dragged himself to the train station. At least, she will keep things interesting…

1058/1000
-Exit-