"SOUL? I'M SO LOST!"

Where. The heck. AM I??????? AND WHERE THE HECK IS SOUL???

I had been walking around for nearly an hour trying to find either Soul or the DWMA or attempting to bring faint memory of the direction our apartment was in, but all to absolutely no avail. The sun was getting ready to turn itself off for the moon to take over, and darkness was slowly spreading across the sky. And I'm stuck without a map and without Soul in this still overly-crowded, shoving, pushing, inconsiderate, greedy mob of sweaty people bargaining and yelling and I'm tired and just really want to be anywhere this crowd isn't!

I sighed and turned the corner at the next street. It was a little less crowded on this one. "At least I got the clothes," I mumbled to myself as I walked slowly down the cobbled street, not even minding where I was going anymore. So at least something had been accomplished.

One of the shops that had a whole swarm of people packed tight around it had a little sign above the counter. "Help needed, preferably female". I sighed again and shuffled over to it. Might as well look for a job while I'm lost. When I saw what kind of stand it was... I immediately continued walking down the street, a blush crawling across my face. How embarrassing. How could those females face the world after doing that...

After looking around a couple more streets, with still no sign of Soul, I finally found another "Help" sign. This time it was on a ramen stand. Thank heavens. There were still plenty of people there, as I'm sure the quick-make ramen was easier to make and therefore cheaper than other stands. Smoothing out my hair, which must've been a bit straggled by now, I stepped between this stand and the next in the thin little space and knocked on the door. I could see the street behind this one, on the other side of the stand. Someone whistled, and I blushed down at my feet. Please please please open the door!

And voila! My prayers are answered. A tall, lean male wearing a surprisingly clean-ish white apron over black skinny jeans and a plain white top. His green eyes behind his black bangs, spikey in the back, showed no surprise as he looked me over, tongs still in hand. "Yes?" he asked, holding the small door open.

"I saw the sign above the stand, and I am very interested in applying for a job here," I stated clearly, giving a low bow. My mind was having no more screwups, and it was certainly not willing to put up with any crap this guy had. Just get this over with, get the job, either find Soul or ask for directions, go home, and take a nice, long, hot, long, bubbly, loooooong bath...

He smiled widely, appearing much friendlier than he first had. "Well, it's good to see someone responding. My name is Hibiki, I work the stoves back here." He nodded back into the bright steamy interior of stand. "Well we can-"

"Are you hitting on another customer?" A brown haired woman with soft blonde highlights shoved past him and pushed him back into the small room to the stoves. "Just keep working, I'll handle this one," she said, throwing him a death glance. He shrugged, smile still on his face, but went back to work. Now the female smiled at me warmly, taking my hand and shaking it. "My name is Tchinatsu, and you met Hibiki already. Sorry for the fast-paced intro, but tonight is really busy! Short background of the place, we worked for the man who owned this place, but he left it to us when he ran off with some woman he spoke of often..." Her hazel eyes became clouded as she remembered. But a second later she zapped back to the present. "It's very nice to see someone taking an interest in this place! Have you had any previous experience?"

I nodded, smiling back. "Yes, I used to work at an inn back at my town, switching on a lot of the jobs there from kitchen duty to catering to hostess..."

"That's great! Well we give you 2500 yen per hour as anything but the cook. If you're the cook you get an extra five per hour, just for the extra labour-"

She continued explaining for a few minutes until she gave me a form, I filled it out with my name and working hours, and she gave me her phone number.

I didn't bother mentioning I didn't have a phone. Oops. Mental note to buy one when I get some money from work.

So I walked away, feeling a whole lot more refreshed, still not looking where I walked. The sun was by now long gone and the moon smiled silently in the sky. When I finally took note of my surroundings, I realized I was in a secluded, dark alleyway by myself. Great. So. Dang. Great.

But then I heard footsteps on the stone. Turning around, my bags rustling, I saw a male stumbling over his own feet in my direction, drink in hand. One of the men I'd seen at that awful bar... I turned around and kept my head down, walking slightly faster to keep away from him.

"Hey little boy," he called out to me. I froze in my tracks. EXCUSE ME? "LITTLE BOY"? I most certainly do NOT look like a little boy! "Can you come help me up? I seem to had a lilbit too much."

Should I? I turned around, but he was right behind me. Yuck. The stench that he emitted was so strong and disgusting that it took all my willpower not to puke right there in front of him. Only after I gained control of my stomach did I realize he was up against me. And I was up against the wall of the houses. "Well, I wanted a girl," he mumbled, that foul breath exploding my nostrils. I will never be able to smell again.

I ain't no duo-weapon-and-meister for nothin'!

I calmly stated, "You need a shower." And then kicked him in his gut, punched him in the forehead with the palm of my hand, and finished with a nice roundhouse kick to the side of his face. There was no reason to even bring out my weapons. He was just a regular drunk. Well that was a lot easier than I thought, I thought as he lay knocked out on the ground.

"I was just about to come help you," a voice said. I whipped around to see Soul walking over, grinning that cool grin. "But looked like you had it covered." I blushed and looked away, gathering my bags that had fallen to the ground. "Sorry I couldn't find you sooner, but I didn't have your number and I looked all over for you. You'll have to tell me all about what you were doing when we get back to the apartment." He wrapped an arm around my neck and laughed as he guided us in the right direction.

I blushed some more. "I need to buy a phone," I said.

"Don't have a phone?" he asked, surprise lacing his words. I'm so stupid. After a few moments of silence while we walked and me thinking about how dated my methods are, he continued, "Don't worry about that, I have about three or four old ones. You can choose one." He steered us right, then a left, until about halfway down a very nice, clean, crowd-free street to our apartment building. "Thank you," I mumbled. He's so cool.

When we reached the warmth of the apartment, he went into his room and retrieved four phones. Two were flip phones, one was an iphone with a cracked screen, and the other was a regular text-and-call kind of phone. "Just pick one, and you can keep it," he said, those red eyes still holding happiness. Even though I look awful and smell and got lost, he was just as happy as before. I chose a green flip phone, bowing low and thanking him. He laughed some more. "No need for that honourific stuff, remember?" he said.

Right. "I'm sorry, I forgot," I said as I blushed and stood back up.

"No problem. How about you put stuff away and get cleaned up, and I'll make you something to eat and we can watch something on TV?"

That sounds so nice. "Ok," I said, smiling almost involuntarily. FOOD! "Thanks so much!"

He laughed some more and headed into the kitchen. "No worries!"

Ah, bathtime. I'll have to remember to thank God for the man that invented the bathtub.