… My consciousness is breaking apart. Just a rough meter in front of me stood my worst nightmare, heck, any store clerk's worst nightmare, a large shadow, ready to engulf the store at any moment. The shadow makes a movement, stretching for one of the packages of chewing gum that were conveniently placed right next to the register, however just before grabbing it, the hand reclines, and the shadow goes back to its original position. He was here again... that man, bathed in the light of fluorescent lamps... Kotomine... Kirei...

He had been standing here, right in front of the register, staring at the various chewing gum packages for at least twenty minutes now, and there was quite the line building up behind him, his wares had already been scanned and were ready to be payed for... but somehow he always got stuck by the chewing gum. A lot of angry complaints could be heard from people in the back of the line, however this priest didn't seem to notice, but, in an attempt to make him move, I decided to try and catch his attention. "Excuse me, sir, it's all right to pay now, if you'd just-" I didn't get any further, as he cut me off with a sharp look. He chuckled lowly, and I could feel a chill go up my spine, as his face turned into a quizzical smirk.

He begun speaking, in a dark, dramatic voice "Do not say something so obvious. There is but one goal for me: to buy the best type of confection traditionally made of chicle, a natural latex product, or synthetic rubber known as polyisobutylene, which is a non-vulcanisable form of the butyl rubber used for inner tubes or to line tubeless tires." A voice filled with strong will, but that didn't make his sentence any less confusing. The statement had taken me entirely by surprise, also the useless chewing gum trivia might have overheated my brain, and so he just turned away from me, and resumed staring at the confection which is traditionally made of chi... chewing gum. The people in line had also grown quiet, however a lot of them were looking at me, expecting me to make a new attempt at making this troublesome customer hurry up.

I did my best to recollect my thoughts, and I tried to answer him as politely as possible, but it's hard to remain cool when someone makes an outrageous statement like that. "What are you talking about, there is no way you could find... that thing you were looking for here, so you might as well just pay up and leave." I tried to sound tough, but my voice wavered slightly towards the end, and it was clear the priest caught onto it. He once again smiled at me, in a way that made me sure he was evil all the way through, and answered in the same type of way as he had before. "Of course not. I cannot do anything about this, nor do I intend to. But I have told you, I will find the best chewing gum in here." he turned away from me, glaring intently at a package of strawberry chewing gum, and started talking in a much lower tone. "I'm about to find it, so it's only natural for me to protect it from other customers who mighty try to buy it..."

Now he was just directly contradicting himself, however before I was able to point that out a the woman behind him in line yelled at the top of her lungs. "Are you insane!? I have an important meeting in fifteen minutes, and if my boss don't have these cookies by then he'll rip my head off!"

She pointed at the package of cookies in her hand for emphasis, and it seemed to have had some effect, as Kotomine quickly turned to her direction. "The same goes for you. There is no sanity here. Our end will be the same, even if we accomplish our goals. You will buy it, while I will protect it. You came here knowing that." I was pretty certain the woman had no idea about that when she came here, none of us did, except for him, but he didn't seem like he cared about that detail, and he thoroughly ignored the woman's attempt to explain that she wasn't interested in buying whatever chewing gum he was trying to protect.

It was clear reasoning with him wasn't going to get us anywhere, so I tried a new approach, if he wanted to speak nonsense I'd just play along with him, if I cooperated maybe he'd leave my store alone. "Why? Why are you going so far to protect this gum? You said it yourself, even if you get it, the end result will be the same... so why?" Apparently I had pushed the right button, because even though his grim facial expression hadn't changed, there was suddenly a certain light in his eyes. "There is no room for questions. This is my only pleasure, Emiy-" he cut off in the middle of the sentence, and stared at my chest, probably looking at the name tag, and soon he continued where he had left off. "This is my only pleasure, John Smith. As you feel ultimate bliss in selling people things. I feel supreme bliss in chewing a perfect chewing gum." That was his answer to why he was stalling this entire line, for something as simple as that, he had annoyed over half of my regular customers. I should note, by the way, that I do not find supreme bliss in selling things, I just lack the skills to do anything else.

I was about to respond, however suddenly he swiftly grabbed a package of lemon flavored chewing gum and threw it at me. "I'll take those." he said without emotion. I wasn't sure what to do, first of all people usually didn't throw whatever they wanted to buy at me, second of all my mind had a hard time wrapping itself around the possibility that he had actually made a choice, especially considering how mundane his choice was, after all that thinking. I think a minute passed without me doing anything except staring at the priest, however I eventually came to my senses and quickly scanned his choice with my scanner. Which I purchased just two weeks ago, she's my pride and joy, I didn't get to eat dinner for like a month, but it was worth it, no more tapping that complex register whenever someone bought something.

I saw the end of this trial come near, and there was just one step left before he would leave... the paying. "Well, that comes down to 583.46 dollars, sir." I had forgotten that he had bought so much, I wonder if he was going to have a feast or something... Not that it mattered, Kotomine was finally reaching into one of his pockets, presumably to bring out his wallet, however it seems he had been reaching into the wrong one, as when he pulled out his hand it was still empty, and he instead started searching his other pocket. After about half a minute he had searched every pocket on his robe, including the ones on the inside, and he calmly stated the solution he had reached with this search. "I forgot my wallet."

I knew it had been too good to be true, there was no way this would just end as easy as that. "How do you forget your wallet anyway?" I said exasperated, I just couldn't take this anymore, I needed a break, not necessarily from work, just from this guy. "It would appear I am wearing my work robes rather than casual robes. They look very similar. Exactly the same, actually." he didn't seem very distressed about having forgotten his wallet, in fact he acted as if it was natural. I could only stare at him, it passed through my mind that I should ask him why he has different robes if they look exactly the same, but it'd probably just be a dead end anyway. Apparently he had taken my silence as a sign for him to keep on talking as he suddenly burst out, going back to the dark and dramatic voice he had used earlier.

"First of all, why not forget it? It is naïve to assume that it is evil before I have even forgotten it. Is it not love to allow something to be born into this world, even if it's just an event?" he stared at me, he looked completely serious. I was beginning to lose my temper with this guy. "Yeah right, forgetting your wallet is not something good, no matter how you look at it!" he could stare at me with those creepy emotionless eyes all he wanted, I didn't care how dramatic he could make his voice, I had had it. "Oh, then let me ask. What is good? What is evil? Are you saying forgetting something is an absolute evil?"

There was no logical response to that, of course not, forgetting something probably wasn't even evil to begin with, I'm just saying it's not good. "Well that's..." I was looking for away to formulate my thoughts in a sophisticated manner, however he never gave me the chance to respond. "Fair enough. There is no answer from the start. That's what shopping sprees are like. There is no clear answer, and the objective is always changing. There was no absolute truth to begin with. Shopping sprees are both good an evil, and it's up to you to decide which is which. The start is zero, and there is no crime in being born, even if you're just an event."

He took his eyes off me and looked towards the store exit, where two men were standing, one in a fashionable white coat with fur lining, one that I am fairly sure was made for women, but he didn't seem bothered by it. The other one was a man with strange blue hair, but then again, I know there's a kid with red hair in this town, he usually hangs with that girl who has purple hair, so maybe strange hair colors weren't that... strange in this town. Anyway, Kotomine motioned for them to come closer, however the only one who responded was the blue haired man, who made his way over to the register, looking fairly agitated.

Once he reached the register he glared at me, then at the priest, and then back at the man with the white coat, for whatever reason. He didn't say anything, so Kotomine decided to speak first. "Lancer, I forgot my wallet. Give me yours." Usually such a demand would seem... strange, but after today, I'd be fairly calm if I suddenly saw ancient heroes jumping around fighting each other, right here in this average town. Yeah, like that would happen. The blue haired man didn't seem to like it at all, though. "Why do you always need my money!? The bastard over there is waltzing around wearing gold, and for no adequate reason, might I add!!" he jabbed his thumb towards the man at the entrance. Sure, that coat was probably expensive, but I wouldn't go as far as saying he was wearing gold...

The priest was not amused by the man known as Lancer's refusal, and he said, in a commanding tone. "Lancer, give me all of your money." A weird light suddenly came from Kotomine's wrist, and as if he no choice, Lancer reached into the pocket on his Hawaii shirt and pulled out his wallet. "This is all I have on me right now." he growled as he handed over a rather large bundle of cash. Kotomine handed it over to me, and using my average counting ability, I was able to declare that in my hand I had 583 dollars, 46 cent short of the target. "Don't worry, just go, those last few cents are on the house." I just wanted him out of there, it actually wouldn't have mattered if he had payed or not.

But Kotomine shook his head. "No, I do not wish to incur a debt, remember that we are not allies, we are only pursuing the same goal for now, and are thus working together to achieve it." he looked at the stack of wares. I'm pretty sure this wasn't the case at all, my number one goal right now was moving this line along, and that seemed to be the last thing on his mind. Suddenly, Kotomine sighed, it sounded weary, and very out of character. "Looks like I have no choice. You may keep the chewing gum. That should bring us to an even 583, am I correct?" My brain exploded. I could no longer feel my own body, it was as if I was soaring from above, watching the scene unfold before my eyes. "Yes sir, have a good day!" my now soulless body answered, and flashed the priest a bright smile.

He proceeded to where the baggers had packed all of his groceries into plastic bags and the man in the white coat was eying it, as if trying to judge how many he could carry just from the look of them. One of the baggers, an acne ridden teen boy, cautiously approached the party which had gathered and offered helping them carry the bags to their car. However the man in the white coat just burst out laughing, and picked up four of the six bags without effort. "You are all nothing but women and children!! HAHAHAHA!!!" And so the most likely escaped mental patient walked out of my store, laughing all the way.

The blue haired man picked up the remaining two bags, and started following Kotomine as he walked towards the exit. However, just in front of the automatic doors he stopped, causing the man behind to bump into him. "You know Lancer, have you ever wondered what these automatic doors think of what they are doing?" Lancer didn't answer, he just sighed, seemingly knowing what was about to come. "If these automatic doors have feelings like a human, and agonize over what they do, then they are evil, however if-" Kotomine never got to finish his line of thought, as Lancer had given him a swift kick in the back, sending him flying out of my store, hopefully never to come back.