The Supermarket Disaster!
Zidane was baffled at Hiyo's true intentions. She had declared Zidane a deal , and it didn't sound too good at that.
"A...deal?" Asked Zidane dry-throated.
"Yes, a deal." Hiyo repeated. "Thieves never back down from a challenge!"
"I don't need you to tell me that!" Zidane replied back. "So spill it, what do you have in mind?"
"Oh, it's nothing too hard. Even for an amateur thief like you, it should be easy." Hiyo chuckled. Zidane fumed at "amateur", if only she knew what he was doing that night. "Meet me at eight o' clock tonight at the school gates, and I'll give you a challenge. If you complete the challenge, I'm all yours; you can ask me anything and I will answer in truth."
"Even what you were doing in the school that night?" Zidane asked.
"Even what I was doing in the school that night." Hiyo said. "But, if you don't turn up, or fail to complete the task, then you will not only confess what YOU were doing that night, but also confess in front of the headmistress!" Zidane gaped at this offer.
"Wh-What?! I can't! I'll get expelled!" Zidane yelled angrily. "And Cosmos won't exactly best pleased either." Saying this part under his breath.
"I understand. We can always call off the deal and pretend this whole meeting never happened. But, who's to say I won't tell the headmistress of your doings?" Hiyo said evilly. Zidane was thinking so hard on the situation, his head spun. This was his only chance to secure Terra's thief and find out what she was doing. But if he can't complete the challenge, he'll be expelled and shunned by the others. In the end, he sighed.
"Alright! I'll do your challenge! But if you so much as breathe another word about this to anyone..." Zidane said.
"Yeah, yeah, you'll do heaven knows what to me." Hiyo chuckled and walked back to class. "Just make sure you don't, or the same will happen to you." She set off, leaving Zidane ever more questionable about her true intentions...
"This is truly a disaster..." Spoke the Warrior of Light to Shantotto as they searched endlessly to the endless infinity of the supermarket in search of the others. "We haven't come across anyone. If you had just stuck with my original plans, we wouldn't be in this mess."
"Oh, will you silence?" Shantotto mocked. "You're giving me a headache." The Warrior of Light growled at Shantotto's calm demeanor.
"If only I could use my powers. I could find them instantly." He spoke.
"What's stopping you?" Shantotto said carelessly.
"You know why not!" The Warrior replied. "The Chaos Warrior Exdeath can find us at any moment. If he does, he'll use his powers to transport Chaos' minions, and perhaps the manikins to this world. That I do not want to be the fault over."
"Let them come! This place is too boring for my tastes anyway." Shantotto laughed.
"How dare y-!" But before the Warrior of Light could continue his sentence to the carefree Shantotto, he spotted someone in the distance: Bartz. "It's Bartz!" He ran, but paused when he realised he left Shantotto behind. "Stay here, and don't move!" Quickly, he ran in the direction he saw Bartz. Shantotto, however, grew a devilish smile.
"I won't move, but this trolly begs to differ. Hohoho!" She gave three large budges, which was enough to set the trolly in motion on it's own.
The Warrior of Light quickly caught up to Bartz.
"Hey!" Bartz said in surprise. "Where were you?"
"I can say the same." The Warrior of Light said.
"I just went to get some of the supplies when you and the trolly up and left." Bartz said. "Now I'd appreciate it if we could find the trolly fast, these supplies are really heavy." The Warrior of Light just noticed he was carrying half the shopping list in his arms.
"Alright." He replied. "But we need to find Cecil and Firion, quickly. Who knows where..." He paused, at the sight of his previous direction, to see that Shantotto had gone missing.
"What's up?" Bartz asked.
"That Shantotto is going to be the death of me one day..." The Warrior of Light said in mental exhaustion.
Firion ran across the aisles in search of his comrades, but to no avail.
"Where is everyone?" He asked to himself. "It was a simple task turned hard when the trolly disappear-" His speech was short-lived, after he saw a run-away trolly, bashing a nearby trolly in it's path. "What in the..." He dashed towards it's direction to see Shantotto speeding away in it. "Shantotto?!" Firion dashed with all his might to catch her, but the speeding trolly was too fast, even as it banged into nearby trollys, spilling it's contents or toplling them down completely.
"Pick up your feet if you want to catch me!" Shantotto laughed. Firion growled and only when arriving at the DIY section, he came up with a plan. He quickly grabbed a long strand of thin rope and a small gardening trowel, tied the rope to the handle of the trowel and throwed it for Shantotto and the trolley. It coiled itself around the handle bar of the trolley and slowly easing the pull, Firion grinded the trolley to a halt, just before it was about to hit a trolley owned by a mother and her child. "Hmph, killjoy!" Firion approached with many questions to ask.
"Mind telling me what you were thinking?!" Firion scolded. "You could have seriously hurt someone that way!"
"The trolley went off on it's own accord." Shantotto smirked smartly. Before Firion could probe further, the woman who was saved from Shantotto's trolley.
"Ummm...thank you, sir..." She said timidly. Firion looked to the young woman: she had brown short hair, green eyes and sported summer-wear, as it was hot that day. The child she had, was no more than a few months old and was sleeping in the small baby chair supported on the woman's own trolley. Firion smiled to her.
"You're welcome, miss." He replied. "I'll make sure this one doesn't go off causing more trouble." Shantotto gave a loud 'humph' in disgust. As the kind woman waved goodbye to Firion with her child, however, the Warrior of Light and Bartz came at full speed and immediately dumped a large amount of shopping material into the basket. Bartz was huffing and puffing, whilst massaging his arms.
"I thought my arms were gonna fall off!" Screamed Bartz, attracting quite a lot of attention.
"Why did you take the cart away, Firion?!" The Warrior of Light also exclaimed, holding his arms in agony.
"I didn't move it!" Firion said, trying to clear his name. "I grabbed the cart from Shantotto to stop her from causing mischief!"
"You have caused nothing but trouble since we have arrived, not only in this supermarket, but in this world too!" The Warrior of Light lectured. Shantotto remained silent, not saying a word to the words of the loyal knight. Until at last, she spoke.
"If you are content in making your new life as simple as possible, do not place the fault on yours truly!" And she hopped off the trolley and trodded toward the exit. "If you need me, I shall be outside."
"She is truly an enigma..." Said Firion. Soon, Cecil had reunited with them, and were off paying for their goods. The four reunited with Shantotto outside, but while the Warrior of Light called Cloud, Bartz approached the tiny mage.
"Don't worry about him." Said Bartz. "He's just a little too eager to not disappoint Cosmos." Shantotto 'hmph'd'
"Is it a crime to enjoy the simplicities of this new life?" She asked.
"Of course not. But you can always enjoy other things that don't involve discord, like doing research on this world?"
"Too boring." Almost instantly when Warrior of Light hung the phone up (Amazed at the power of cellphones), Cloud arrived with a screeching swerve.
However, there came a large problem, Cecil grunted in pain and fell to the ground, clutching his chest.
"Cecil?!" Cried Firion. "What is it?!"
"I-It's manifesting...My Dark Knight form!"