Act I - Awakening
Chapter 3 - Excitement
"Aaaargh, this is so-"
I quickly covered my mouth just in time to stop the profanities, which were about to escape my lips, just in case you're slow. First day at work here and everything goes wrong. I couldn't help but kick the wall in frustration. Hard.
"Ouch!"
I forgot, I was barefoot.
Maybe the gods hate me or something.
You look a bit lost. Okay, sure, I'll tell you about it.
It started in the morning. No, I did not wake up late. I woke up early. Early enough to find out that I still had my now-messy uniform on.
After the compulsory one and a half minutes of panic, I grabbed my bag from under the bed, looking for my portable iron. I just hope it can still heat itself up.
After tossing out a bar of soap, a green shirt and an apple...wait, I don't remember putting that in there. Must have been mama. She always said to eat your...woah, stop. I'm getting off topic. Anyway, I got my iron, which thankfully, still worked, and proceeded to turn my bed into an ironing board. It was hard enough for the task, that's for sure.
So here I am, clad only in my underwear, ironing. I'm used to this, so it only took me...huh? What are you staring at? Oh. I get it. Fine, I'll humor you perverts just this once. It's white lace. Got it? I won't repeat myself anymore.
Where was I? Oh, yeah. It took less than five minutes to do so, without a singe nor crease on my clean uniform. I left it on the bed for later.
Right after finding my eggs and some oil in the backpack, I quickly went to the kitchen. excited to start working as soon as I can. After some searching, I found a beat-up frying pan in the cabinet under the counter. I gave it a good scrub using a cloth nearby and set it on the stove, pouring some oil into the pan. I grabbed an egg and cracked it open over the stove, letting down the soon-to-be-breakfast-item gently. Perfect.
I started to hum as I cooked the eggs. I like to cook, but I don't get to do it much. All because of work.
Hey. You guys are staring again. Wait. Oh my god. I am not cooking eggs wearing only my unmentionables! I just forgot to say that I put on a blue bathrobe after getting the eggs. Perverts.
Maybe you were expecting I burned the eggs. No. They came out just fine. The trouble started after I ate breakfast, in the shower.
You see, there was no water.
The dingy little bathroom with only a shower and toilet had no water.
I sighed in resignation as I kept twisting the knob. I gave up after a few minutes. This was bad. What to do?
I tightened the white towel around my chest and sat down on the floor, strumming my fingers on the wall in thought.
Wait...Mei! She didn't live too far away from here. Maybe she can lend me her bathroom. I had to hurry. My shift will start in an hour.
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Luckily, my new friend hadn't left home yet. She welcomed me in with a smile, then an amused grin.
"Sorry, but I prefer my girls a little older."
My eyes widened as I realized that I just ran though the back streets of Alde Baran wearing ONLY a towel, which was, by some mysterious force of nature, still on. Barely on. Streaking down a road was not the way I liked to start my day.
Oh, the thing also decided to, finally, sumbit to gravity.
"Why, aren't you a sexy little thing."
Mei started to laugh as I turned cherry red., even more so when I heard a lot of cheering behind me. I hastily picked up the piece of cloth, wrapping itself around my body again.
"Well, dear, from the looks of it..." she eyed the backpack that I was holding. "...you're out of water and you need to bathe? It happens often at your area."
I nodded briskly, still embarassed. At that moment, I wish I still had my now-often mentioned unmentionables.
"It's in the hallway, second from the left."
Without another word, I ran past her and into the house.
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Mei was waiting for me when I opened the bathroom door, already wearing her uniform. "You can use my room. It's over there. Your pack is on the bed."
I went in the door she pointed out, and closed the brown door. This place was nice. It was obvious that Mei had a hefty pay. All the furniture I saw was undoubtedly expensive, ranging from the exquisitely carved coffee table to the large bed, which had dragons etched onto the gold-plated bedposts. The place smelled clean, almost fragrant, the hallways looked newly-swept, everything sparkled in an elegant sort of way. Especially this bedroom. The walls were wallpapered, a rarity, since it's a bit pricey. It was simply white with brown lines near the bottom. There was a Grizzly rug in the middle of the room, and I already mentioned the bed. Various stuffed plush toys lined the end of the aforementioned bed, and the gold-trimmed blankets added to the ambience. The glass-paneled cabinet to the right part of the room looked beautiful, Even the doorknob looked like it was worth a million zeny, being gold-plated and decorated.
Wait, I don't have time to dawdle! I hurriedly dried myself with the same towel I was wearing. Opening my backpack, I pulled out my uniform and underwear, and dressed up in a way that could be described as 'really freaking fast'. I swung open the door, still combing my hair. I walked to the living room which I passed by earlier.
Mei was sitting on a lush red sofa, reading a book. As soon as I came within five meters of her, she looked up from her reading just as I was tying the ribbons in my hair.
"You're done? That was quick. I'm not even halfway through Chapter Eleven..."
My friend stood up and grabbed the red bag lying on the sofa. With a wave, she beckoned me to get going.
She was out the door already without me noticing. I ran after her, arms flailing.
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I didn't like to be late. I wasn't. I got to my north post exactly on time. Smiling, I grabbed my brown clipboard and stood in that spot, the sun shining brightly. Nothing could go wrong.
At least, that's what I thought.
Six screw-ups. What a nice number. I'm pretty sure those guys they hire to watch Kafra performance are having a field day.
Situation number one came a hour after I started. A burly assassin came by and asked me to retreive his Double Critical Katar.
I gave him a Double Critical Cutter.
Fortunately, he was in a good mood, and overlooked it after I gave him the right weapon. That didn't make me any less embarassed, though. And who in the world would actually MAKE a Double Critical Cutter? Whoever it was, I think he was drunk, or taking illegal substances, when he did.
Number two came along a little later. I accidentally teleported a hunter to Lutie. How I had a gemstone set for Lutie in the first place, I'll never know. Maybe the world hated me. The guy managed to beat Stormy Knight with a little help from the people there, so it was still okay. I think. He came back thirty minutes later and told me all about it. No hard feelings, he said, and asked me to store his spoils of war.
Where was I? Three. I really had to go to the bathroom. Desperately. I left my post, running to the nearest Kafra toilet. (Which are everywhere. Just keep looking.) I left the storage cabinet open.
I remembered it while I was in the middle of doing my thing. I don't like to talk about what happened next. Let's just say that it would be very likely that I'd come back sooner if I didn't think about that cabinet.
It turned out that I didn't have to worry so much, because a guard had seen me run off and quickly came over to watch my post. I apologized to the older girl, who merely said that she was just doing her job.
I didn't know if she was honestly saying that, or if she was trying to tell me off.
We're at four, right? Okay. This is pretty weird. And awkward. Some guy was checking me out from a distance. He was staring at me from behind a post. I just stood there, shivering in fright, for a straight hour. I didn't try to look at the guy very well. Then, like a flash, he was gone. I just scratched my head wondering what it was all about. Not really a screw-up, but it did make me feel nervous enough to almost screw up more.
Five. The most annoying of all. It was already about three in the afternoon, and people were scrambling at the time. You see, that was the designated time for the castle sieges.
The cabinet simply stopped working.
Not only were a lot of people angry (at me), I had to run to headquarters to get it working again. I handed it to Mei, who just gave me a smile, and told me to wait a while. So I sat on one of the chairs, fiddling my thumbs. It turned out that the while became nearly two hours, and that there was one less kafra on her post during the castle sieges.
As Mei handed me my cabinet back, she encouraged me, placing a hand on my shoulder. "It gets hard sometimes, I should know."
I stared at her with eyes open wide, feeling a sense of familiarity washing over me.
"It's written all over your face. You look like a mob of Grand Pecos hit you."
I just looked down.
Here comes number six.
I started to cry. It first came as silent tears running down my cheeks. Before I knew it, I was sobbing and whimpering quietly into Mei's bosom, trying to vent out my feelings. We just stood there, behind the desk, me holding onto her like a lone rock in the middle of the sea.
I stopped crying eventually. Everything's a blur after that. I vaguely remember Mei telling me to go over to her place later that night. I remember hugging her and thanking her.
My last clear vision was that of my little white pillow, my face buried in it.
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I rubbed my toes, regretting kicking that wall. I still felt like dirt. I needed someone to talk to.
Maybe I'll take Mei up on her offer. She's been really nice to me. I wished I could repay her for her kindness...
I got hit by the thunderbolt knows as enlightenment. Of course! I knew what to do now. I got my backpack from the corner, where I had thrown the thing, and opened it.