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War…war never changes. An expression of the deepest, vilest urges of the human race…a plague upon the face of the planet. Humans lust, covet, hate, scorn…and in doing so, lead to senseless, pointless bloodshed. Conflict without resolution or purpose. So on and so forth, only the method evolving, never humanity themselves.
War never changes.
Hence, the absolute mayhem today at the Yorknew Galleria’s Build-a-Bear’s launch of their new Bonjour Chaton collaboration. Screaming parents, grandparents, and children pushed and shoved, desperate for a chance to snatch the season’s hottest new toy, anticipated for months on every social media platform. The screams and howls were spilling out onto the concourse, and the other shoppers were giving the store a wide berth, looks of terror all around.
“Oh, dear,” said Shizuku. “I hope I can get a plushie.”
For the last several months, she’d been eagerly looking forward to release day, even setting multiple reminders on her phone so she’d get there on time. But she’d forgotten how to get to the mall itself, which had added an extra half hour to her travel time as she struggled to figure out how her GPS app worked. And now, here she was right after opening, a stunned witness to a sea of depravity and chaos. Shizuku considered, for the briefest of moments, whether this would be too much fuss to deal with and if she should come back later, but dismissed the thought as quickly as it had come. With the reaction of the other shoppers, there might not be a single plushie left in the store if she came back another time.
It was now or never.
Squaring her shoulders, Shizuku scanned the crowd near the entrance, looking for the easiest way to slip in. The Boss had explicitly forbidden her from killing anyone in the store—he wanted them to keep a low profile until the heist was over—so using Blinky to smash some skulls in and make a path wasn’t an option. She’d have to use her best sneaking skills, which were not terrible, but nowhere near as good as, say, Feitan or Kortopi. But she had to try!
Spotting an opening between a stroller and a tall woman with a large shopping bag, Shizuku took a running dive and slid into the store. She made it in, but was immediately stepped on. Frowning, she jabbed the person’s ankles, her face a perfect blank as they howled and fell over. Shizuku picked herself off the floor and dusted off her clothes, looking around.
The store was in utter chaos: frenzied customers, sobbing children, harried employees, and a dwindling supply of plushies. Signs had been knocked over, displays pushed askew, and security guards were trying to cordon off the employee section to prevent anyone from getting to the stockroom. Shizuku desperately scanned the plushies for the one she wanted; while she would have loved to take home the whole line, she probably had just enough room in her bed for one. She shared a little apartment with Franklin, and he was very strict about her keeping her plushie collection in her room and not having it spill out into the living area. So unfortunately, one it would have to be. Shizuku had considered carefully for months which plushie she wanted to take home, and had finally settled on Cocoaneko. Out of all of Bonjour Chaton’s friends, Shizuku liked him the most, since he was so small and polite.
Luckily, there was still a pile of Cocoaneko plushies left, just a few tables away. With determination and purpose fueling her steps, Shizuku weaved through the crowd, ducking under elbows and around strollers until the table was just in front of her. There, there was the glorious prize: the Cocoaneko plushie skins that would then be filled with stuffing and Shizuku’s pure and honest love. Stepping forward, scarcely daring to breath from the excitement, Shizuku reached out her hand to graze against a plushie skin, fingers just about to wrap around it—
Only to have it cruelly snatched out of her hand. Blinking, Shizuku faced the culprit: a young woman who sneered as she looked Shizuku up and down. “Hey, I found them!” She screamed to someone across the tumult of the store. “C’mere, there’s like ten left, let’s get them before someone else does.”
“I just want one,” Shizuku whispered, her voice swallowed up by the din as the young woman began to scoop up the pile. If circumstances were different, she might have no trouble at all using force to get her way. As a child, she’d been utterly helpless against the cruel and self-centered adults around her, scavenging in their wake for survival. She’d had to fight and struggle for any sort of power to advocate for herself, and once she’d learned Nen and created Blinky, she wasn’t helpless anymore. Bullies like this woman, like the people who’d trampled her underfoot as a child, were taught a lesson.
But Chrollo had said not to kill anyone. Franklin had told her not to get in trouble. And she didn’t want to disappoint them. She’d have to just take her lumps this time, like any other normal girl would in this situation. Maybe Shalnark could help her get one online; people often scalped these on sites like MercBay, so if he used a stolen credit card, then maybe she could—
“HEY! What do you think you’re doing?”
The shrill voice practically right in her ear made Shizuku jump and frantically look around. In front of her was a young girl in a pink dress, standing with her hands on her hips and glaring at the woman who had snatched Cocoaneko away from Shizuku. “Greedy much? The limit is one per design, per customer, as the signs just plastered all over the store say. Unless you’re going to tell us you can’t read, you poor thing~” She tossed her head, snorting in disdain.
The other woman’s lip curled. “Who do you think you are, you little b—”
“You can’t afford to know,” the young girl cut her off, “but the only reason I haven’t bought out this entire store is because we have to play by the rules. It’s what Bonjour Chaton would have wanted,” she added, gazing warmly at the Bonjour Chaton plushie on display next to the register. “And because of that…” She darted out, with lightning-fast reflexes that Shizuku found to be incredibly impressive for a civilian, and plucked a Cocoaneko plushie skin from the woman’s hand. “I’ll be taking that, thank you .”
When the woman looked like she was ready to scream, the girl snapped her fingers and a tall dark-haired man appeared at her side instantaneously, as though he’d materialized from the shadows. “Yes, Miss Neon? How may I be of assistance?”
“Dalzollene,” the girl replied crisply. “Please assist this…person…in putting back her excess plushies, as well as anyone else in the store who has had the misfortune of forgetting how to read this morning.”
“Of course.” The man placed his hand to his heart and bowed, like a butler from those old movies Pakunoda loved watching. “It will be done at once.”
Her task completed, the girl turned to face Shizuku, all bright smiles and twinkling green eyes. “Well, that’s that! We can’t have people behaving like this on release day! Bonjour Chaton would never want that; although I’m here for Rosy Yuri,” she gushed, showing Shizuku a pink teddy bear cradled in the crook of her arm. “Seriously, I can’t stand people like that! And when I saw you looking so lost and sad, I had to step in. Here you go.” She plopped the Cocoakitty plushie into Shizuku’s waiting hands.
Shizuku looked at Cocoakitty with awe. “Thank you,” she whispered shyly. “I really appreciate it. That was so nice of you.” People rarely did nice things for Shizuku, not without expecting something in return (except for the Troupe, of course, but they were always the exception). But this girl was different, she could tell. This was a girl who had everything already, Shizuku could tell; there was nothing she could gain out of the situation.
The girl beamed. “Well, you’re welcome! Come on, let’s get our plushies filled! My other bodyguard’s holding a place for us in line. My name is Neon, what’s yours?”
“Shizuku.’ She reached out her hand to shake the other girl’s. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet ya, too!” Neon gently took Shizuku’s elbow and steered her towards the line. “While we wait, why don’t you tell me why you picked Cocoakitty? I’ve got this hunch that you’re going to be a really fun person to talk to. Ooh, and if you’re not doing anything after, want to get some cheese fries or churros or something? My treat! There’s, like, no girls my age around at home and all my school friends never get to meet up so I’ve been dying to hang out with someone!”
Well, Shizuku decided, this was certainly going to be an interesting day.