Clear to cloudy

Target 3: Murphy's 'lucky' day

A/N: I wanted to add a little more character building on Murphy but didn't know where to put it. So here it is. :P You can skip it if you don't want to read it as it's not vitally important to know. XD only if you care about Murphy. :P

After the incident where Reborn hired him to make Ren and Kotsu unlucky during the scavenger hunt he has been around in Namimori. Murphy. Age: 56. Why is that important? Because he's been alive for 56 years while being close to death the entire time. His contagious unluckiness comes from somewhere. And that somewhere is himself.

He's quietly walking down the street of Namimori minding his own business making sure that his gloves are firmly in place. If he happens to accidentally touch someone without them they will get 'infected'. Something he doesn't want to befall on normal people. It is his problem and something he has to deal with.

As he walks he kindly greets a girl who smiles at him, however naturally as if the entire universe is against him he walks into a bench he didn't see since his eyes were directed somewhere else. "damn…" He says rubbing his back as he gets back up, kindly rejecting people's offer to help him up after the fall. He takes a wrong turn down an alley where a couple of thugs are just standing around for some reason. However Murphy knows that reason as soon as he trips over something landing over the foot of one of them. It's the goddess of luck playing tricks on him again.

"Oi! The hell are you doing old man," Murphy slowly stands up fixing his coat.

"Sorry about that. Today's not really my day," He says laughing nervously.

"You bet it isn't!" The thug yells taking a swing at Murphy who doesn't even bother dodging. With his luck something even worse will happen if he does. However the thug stops as he suddenly gets hit over the head by a bag.

"Stop that!" A stern and annoyed voice says. The thug is about to assault the woman also, but Murphy takes the opportunity to take off his glove quickly placing it on the thugs shoulder, pushing him back a little. Thanks to his unlucky curse the thug trips over a cardboard box of all things and in an attempt to stabilize makes a trashcan tip emptying the content all over him. The other thugs are about to go after them but the woman takes out a pepper spray pointing it at them. "Go away! Or you'll get sprayed!" She threatens, and Murphy is honestly stunned. What just happened? He was… lucky for once!? He looks to the woman who just smiles at him. She's an older woman with long black hair and Murphy blushes slightly.

"H-hey… t-thanks for the assist there…" he says a little embarrassed that he's a grown man who just got help from a woman. But there was not much he could do being as unlucky as he is. But he wasn't! Not this time!

"Why didn't you at least try and fight back sir? You certainly looks like you could," She says looking at him rather strong appearance even though it's mostly covered by his coat. It was true. If it wasn't for his misfortune Murphy could've most likely handled every one of those guys alone.

"Well it's… a condition I have…" He says and the woman giggles a little.

"If you say so… do you want to come out of this alley or…?" Murphy looks back laughing a little.

"Why yes that'd be nice…" The two exit the alley and Murphy is honestly a little scared. He notes two large bags of things she's bought. She tries picking them up before looking at Murphy.

"H-hey… would you mind helping me out with these? They're very heavy. Especially for an aging woman like me," She says and Murphy is once more a little hesitant, but helps anyway since doing anything else is impolite.

"You're not THAT old yet. Well at least you don't LOOK very old," He says trying to be as charming as possible. That is the one thing he's never had misfortune in. Talking. He can't affect people by talking. The woman seems charmed at least making Murphy smile a little. "And sure I'll help you with that…" He says reaching for one of the bags and she does the same by accident thinking he'd grab the other and Murphy quickly withdraws his hand out of fear of transferring his misfortune on her. "Sorry…" He says taking the other instead. The woman's blushing slightly.

"N-no problem…" Murphy picks up the bag and starts slowly walking with it, hoping that nothing bad will happen to it. "W-what's your name, if I may ask?"

"Murphy. I… don't remember my last name…" He adds before glancing at the pretty woman. Why was she being so nice to him? Quite odd. "Yours?"

"Luna," She says smiling at him.

"Not a Japanese name… you don't look Japanese either… you're from…?"

"Italy," She says and right as she does the handle on Murphy's bag breaks off due to a rusty hinge and she contents spill everywhere. "Oh dear!" She says going behind him as he starts to pick everything up hoping he doesn't break any of it as he puts it back even though it's just groceries.

Murphy turns his head back with an apologetic smile and she quickly hides the knife in her coat again. "I'm really sorry about that. Just… happens sometimes," Luna giggles a little getting down to help him out.

"It happens… it's not your fault. You were just a little unlucky," She says and once more they both reach for the same item to put back and their hands touch, just like in the movies. Luckily Murphy's wearing his glove so she's not going to be 'infected'. They both quickly glance at each blushing heavily both of them. "Um I… sorry again," he says withdrawing his hand and Luna looks to the side.

"I-it's alright…" She stutters and the two like a pair of fumbling teenagers as they finally get everything sorted out and are back on track.

The two start hitting it off really well it seems, as she appears to find his genetic clumsiness to be quite adorable. Of course Murphy is really not liking how he keeps embarrassing himself in front of her, but every time he does and sees her laugh he can't help but feel like it's sort of okay and laugh as well.

-NII-

The two of them finally make it to the woman's apartment and after trying to help her take her stuff up the stairs and having to pick it all up again they finally get inside and Luna starts putting everything away. "Would you like some coffee, Murphy?"

"S-sure…" He says sitting at her dinner table really nervous as to what'll happen. Why was he so lucky today…? That NEVER happens. She puts a coffee cup in front of him.

"Here you go…" She says before Murphy hears the sound of a knife being drawn from the holster at the kitchen counter. He then her walk towards him again.

"I guess it figures…" He says sounding slightly sad. "I'm sorry. I don't know who it was but I'm sorry…" He says and Luna suddenly takes a large step forward.

"This is for my husband! You killed him and everyone said it was an accident!" She yells but somehow trips and the knife slides over and brushes against Murphy's shoe.

"That's how I do things… and I'm really sorry. I wish you could kill me… but you can't…" He says and Luna stands back up her previously pretty hair falling in her face now making her looks a lot more insane.

"W-what!?"

Murphy stands up and walks to the door. "I'm the unluckiest man in the world… but I've been alive for 56 years… how…?" He asks and Luna just looks confused.

"I… thought you could control such things!"

Murphy just shakes his head. "I've been an orphan all my life. Constant misfortune, breaking things means I couldn't get a job, my contagiousness meant I couldn't make any friends. Never have kids. The only thing I could do was hurt people. So that's the only way I can live. That's not what I want… I want to die. I want out. But anything I want. I can't have. When I try hanging myself the rope breaks. Shooting myself, the gun jams. Every time. Jump off a building, something breaks my fall and I survive. That doesn't mean I don't get hurt, but I always survive. And I really don't like it. So I'm sorry that I killed your husband. But there's nothing I can do except just keep on living against my own will and bring misfortune with me wherever I go," He says and as he opens the door he looks back and smiles. "But… thanks for one of the best days of my life. I knew you wanted to kill me. But it was still nice,"

"W-what!? But I almost killed you! How is THAT the best day of your life!?"

"When I constantly live near the edge of death one attempt at my life to or from makes no difference," He says exiting. This is what he deals with. Murphy. The accident hitman.