Chapter 4: Black Friday

Tomiya woke up, noticing that Mokohara's arms were wrapped around him. "...?" He had a major headache, then he looked over at empty beer cans and beer bottles. "...Damn...we must've gone all out last night." He mumbled to himself. He looked over at Till, who was passed out in a chair.

Till snored heavily, his long black hair in a mess around his head. Tomiya gently pulled Mokohara's arms from him, getting up and heading to the bathroom to vomit. "Ugh...I didn't know I could hold my liquor like that." He said to himself, throwing up another mouthful of vomit into the toilet. "Till passed out before I even had 12 bottles of wine and 5 cans of beer..."

Tomiya left the bathroom and went to the couch, and lied down, where he promptly decided to pass out again.

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Till leaned over the sleeping Tomiya and tapped his face. "Yo, get up, we're hittin' the mall." he said, walking off to get ready. Tomiya got up, rubbing his eyes. "What the hell for? Aren't you tired?" He asked, sitting up sloppily.

"Hey, I may not be able to hold my liquor as good as you, but I can recover from a hangover quicker than you." Till replied, brushing out his hair. "The initial hellstorm of early bird shoppers is over, so Mokohara decided to take advantage of the lack of people now."

"But I don't want to, dammit." Tomiya muttered, his eyes narrowing.

Mokohara suddenly jumped onto Tomiya's lap, hugging him. "Well you're coming with us wether you like it not!" She said, smiling at him and dragging him off the couch.

Tomiya grumbled as he was dragged off the couch. "God dammit, I should be in bed SLEEPING and WASTING THE DAY AWAY, not shopping."

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Mokohara flung the passenger side door open of the car, jumping out, full of joy. Till followed, dusting off his trench coat. Tomiya almost tumbled out of the car, tired and low spirited. Mokohara grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the large mall. Till trailed behind the two, hands stuffed in his pockets.

Till was the first, however, to look inside. "They're still pretty thick in here." He said, looking back at the two. "Be careful and don't get yourself trampled by remaining mad crowds." he added, walking off to find a sword shop.

Mokohara tightened her grip on Tomiya's wrist. "I wanna go buy some new underwear and show you some sexy outfits and-" she was suddenly cut off.

"No." Tomiya said. "If I'm going to be here, I might as well shop around for stuff I can use." He said, giving her one of his best "what the hell?" looks. "...Though...you can show me when we get home." He said with a grin as he walked off. Where was he heading?

Videogames. Of course.

Tomiya wandered into the store, looking around, hands stuffed in his pockets. He looked over and saw someone reaching up for a game high on the shelf. The person was a crazy haired man with a long ponytail at the base of his neck. He wore a pair of ivory pants, combat boots, and a leather vest. Tomiya walked over to the shelf and gave it a kick, knocking the game down into the man's hands.

"Hey, thanks." He said.

"Don't mention it." Tomiya said, browsing the shelf.

"Hey, my name's Darien. How about you?" Darien asked, brushing some hair away from his face.

Tomiya reached up and plucked a game from the shelf, looking it over a bit. "Tomiya." he replied.

Darien blinked. "You mean...like....A-1 Rank Tomiya?" He asked, raising a brow.

"Yeah, what's it to ya?" He asked, he hated it when he suddenly had newfound rabid fans because he was the A-1 Raven. He wondered when people would learn to shut up.

Darien blinked again. "Oh, that's cool." He said, walking over to a woman he looked like he had came in the mall with. "Hey, Chiyo? Could you spare a few extra credits? I seem to be running short on money." He said with a sheepish grin.

All that came from the woman's lips was an exasperated sigh as she fished out a few credits from her wallet. She turned around and looked at Tomiya over the rim of her glasses which casually rested on the tip of her nose. "I suppose you're Darien's new friend." She said, blinking.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that..." He replied, looking down at the much shorter woman. "And I suppose you're his girlfriend?" He asked.

"WHAT!? No! I on! Me, with that PERV?" She replied sharply, pointing at Darien.

Darien looked up, giving her one of his "What did I do?" looks.

Chiyo looked down, blushing a bit from her outburst.

Tomiya just looked at her, then turned away, he was going to find Mokohara and pay for his stuff. "Hey, wait a minute." Darien said.

"...?" Tomiya looked back at him over his shoulder "Yeah?"

Darien twiddled his thumbs a little. "Well...Our place is kinda...uh...being we stay with you?"

"...!?" He gave him one of his best "what the hell?" looks. "..." He sighed a bit, closing his eyes. "Yeah, alright. Break anything and you're going to owe me money." He said, walking away.

Darien smiled. "Sweet." he said, following, Chiyo in tow.

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"Hey, I had that first, miss." Mokohara said in protest to a woman who was much bigger than her, and had short hair. "I'm getting that for my boyfriend!"

"You can have it if you can pry it out of my goddamn grip!" The woman shouted.

"Hey, I don't like the language, there's children present!" Mokohara shouted back, tugging on the object.

"I'll say whatever the hell I want!" She screamed.

BLUDGEON!!! Mokohara's fist went sailing into the woman's jaw, sending her crashing to the ground onto a pile of...toys?

"...W-what happened...?" The burly woman said, blinking.

Mokohara smiled, taking the new "Legends of Japan: Snake Hanyou Masaki" figure from her hand. "I don't know, but you hit the ground like a sack of potatoes...Now you better keep your mouth clean, or you'll get another." She said, walking away, giggling to herself all girly-like.

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Till was leaving the sword shop, having several weapons in tow. 2 katanas, a broadsword, several knives, and a helmet. He hummed to himself as he met up with the others. "...Who're they?" he asked, pointing at Darien and Chiyo.

"They don't have a place at the current moment, so I decided to let them stay with us." Tomiya said.

Darien grinned a little. "Yeah...my name's Darien, and this is Chiyo."

Chiyo gave a simple wave, she wasn't what one would call "social".

Till gave them both a bored glance, since all that shopping had made him tired. "Well, whatever, let's get out of here." He said, walking over to the...van...thing and putting his belongings in it.

The rest of the group ran over and put their belongings in the back, and hopped into the van. Tomiya tried to open the driver side door, but the guy next to him parked too close.

"..." Tomiya gave a disgusted look before keying the side of the guy's car to hell and back, and then knocking out his windshield with his elbow, before getting into the van and driving out of the parking lot, heading back to the house.

Chapter 4 End...

Author's Note: I know there wasn't much of anything related to Armored Core in this chapter, but this was a chapter used to. 1: Introduce some characters. and 2: Try and give the readers a little more depth and insight into the personalities of the characters.