Bao Liu stomped across the empty street, his leather sandles clomping pointedly with each step. Someone, another shopkeeper no less! ---had stolen from him, an unpardonable offense. And, he flared his nostriles, impolite as well. "You!" he shot at the gaudy storefront, addressing the figure likely standing behind the mesh-covered glass. "You!" Striding up to the door, the middle-aged man turned the handle. It wouldn't budge. "Stop your childishness," Bao commanded, "and open the door. You have stolen both product and consumer from me and I require restitution." There was no reply. Bao Liu closed his eyes. "Aria." /Yes, sir?/ replied his shop. "The shop's owner will not invite me in. I need to speak with the shop itself." /One moment, sir./ A few heartbeats later, a feverish chill washed over the man's mind. Relaxing his body, Bao Liu concentrated on the link opened to this shop, 'Just What You Need', by his own shop. "Greetings." /.../ "Inform your master I require a meeting with him. Now. Otherwise I will be forced to contact this dimension's supervising deity and make known your breach of conduct." /That will not be necessary. I am sure we will be able to reach an... agreement... on this matter." Bao Liu froze. He opened his eyes. That voice. It could only be.... "Him," he growled quietly. Bao Liu slammed his fist against the windowpane, rattling the cheerfully decorated glass with his violence. "RINKU HOOMAS," he boomed, "OPEN THIS DOOR *RIGHT* *NOW*!" **************************************************** ONE OF THOSE SHOPS An Improfanfic Production Started by Farsan de Arnibia Written by: Doublemint Branch C - Chapter 6: It's Just Business, As Usual **************************************************** Miro Masa warily eyed the stiff figure that entered his shop. There were many things about the Chinese man that put him at edge, be it the sharp, expensive clothing, the well-built form veiled below said clothing, or the piercing emerald gaze that came bearing down on him as the man approached. The strange man stood apart from Miro, seemingly unwilling to come closer than necessary. "Well, uh, hello," the teen began. "My name is-" The man cut him off. "Where is Hoomas? I asked to deal with the store's owner, not his assistant." Miro frowned. "'Who-mas'? I don't know him." "Do not insult me." "I'm not," he insisted. "Anyway, my name's Miro. I'm this shop's owner." The man frowned. "What?" /It is true, Bao Liu,/ Pochi stepped into the conversation. /This young man is my master./ "What?" asked the man, repeating himself. Miro blinked. 'So his name is Bao Liu.' /My former master is... deceased. He has been for some time./ "Rinku Hoomas... dead? Impossible," Bao Liu muttered to himself. "He's far too stubborn to simply die." Pochi spoke again, its voice decidedly downcast. /All too possible, I'm afraid. He was attacked outside my walls and I was unable to offer assistance./ Bao cast his gaze down. "I suspected he was weakened following his imprisonment, but I never dreamed he would be drained to the point of being vulnerable to murder." A short chuckle escaped the man's throat. "Though it is somewhat ironic in retro-" "Hey! Hey! Hey!" Miro broke in. He turned his attention over to the small vending machine standing against the wall. "Pochi, what did he mean by 'imprisonment'?" /.../ "Pochi?" /.../ Miro looked back at Bao Liu. The older man's expression was a grim smile. "What did you mean by 'imprisonment'?" "I meant exactly what I said," Bao replied. "Though it seems that your shop has been less than forthcoming with the details of its previous master." "But what did he do?" asked Miro. "What did Hoomas do? Why was he imprisoned?" Bao Liu spoke plainly. "He killed his customers." --------------------------------------- Back at the Masa household, a middle-aged woman sat down to a cup of black coffee. Itoe Masa never particularly liked tea, she never found a flavor suited to her tastes, but coffee was aromatic and helped to calm her nerves whenever she took that first sip of a freshly brewed cup. The caffeine helped a lot too. And these days she had a lot of nerves. Her son, Miro, was wasting, in her opinion, his life away. He had a perfectly good degree in Economics and didn't do anything with it. He didn't get a job and he didn't bother looking for a job. Worse, he didn't even have real friends to fall back on. He only had dimwits like that girl Rikura and that dumb fantasy stuff they played at. Sigh. Miro, Itoe mused, was getting to be too much like his father. She sipped her cup of black coffee. Was it any wonder she had to dye the gray out of her hair? Itoe eyed the clock on the far wall and waited. ---------------------------------------- "WHAT?!?" Miro screamed. /That is an over exaggeration, Master Liu./ "Perhaps I am overstating the matter," admitted the well-built man, "but I speak the truth nonetheless. Rinku Hoomas did trade in life energy, this fact you cannot deny." Miro Masa nodded dimly. "What's so big about trading in life energy? Isn't that what all shopkeepers do?" Bao Liu shook his head. "No. We accept the energy generated by the change in the buyer's life created by our product. Hoomas, on various occasions, instead collected people's life energy, the very time dealt out to them from birth to death. He used it, for life energy is the most potent of magics, along with various enchantments to extend his life beyond even that span which shop provides to its master. I was among the first to know of his dealing in this for it was I, regretfully, who sold him the items that made his spells possible. A decision I regret to this day." Miro scratched his nose. "So this was unusual?" "No other shopkeeper had done anything like it for several thousand years. The vary practice itself is taboo in nearly every dimension." /*Taboo*,/ stressed Pochi, /not *outlawed*./ "True, it is not prohibited, but it is frowned upon. And for good reason. Draining someone's life essence shortens their lives by mere seconds with most transactions, perhaps up to a minute or more with larger buys. Nearly always, it amounts to little more than someone gasping 'I always hated that-' as opposed to 'I always hated that color of wallpaper' on their deathbed. Or another person being sideswiped by a passing train rather than being hit head-on by it. Unimportant details really." "But when those few seconds are dictated by destiny for another purpose, a grander purpose, then the consequences are FAR reaching. A destined villain who falls in battle moments before she would have slayed her nemesis with a dying blow. An elderly king who loses the time he needs to say which of his twin sons would inherit the throne. A mother-to-be dies minutes before she would have given birth to a genius gifted with abilities that would have revolutionized a world. These fates and many others were spurned all because important people dealt with Rinku Hoomas sometime in their lives." /All purchases have consequences!/ insisted Pochi. /Can you truthfully admit you've never sold an item that has affected the outcome of a war or a life?/ "There's a difference between changing the life of a person and shortening a person's life," Bao Liu reminded Pochi. "You should know that well enough." Miro turned away, his face crestfallen. Bao Liu went on. "After the number of complaints grew too numerous to ignore, the Powers That Cannot Be decided to put a stop to Hoomas. He was tried, convicted, and sentenced to spend the rest of his natural life stranded in a dimension where there was no fate. A world where humans had an undefined life energy that could not be subtracted or added to." "His shop, naturally, came with him and was bounded to this, your world." /I would have come with him either way,/ cut in the Shop. "I'm sure you would. Now," the finely dressed man declared, "that aside, let us move on to the matter of the Jade Buddha." -------------------------------- Several blocks away, three twentysomethings waited patently for a crosswalk light to change. "Man," huffed Kimihiko, "I can't believe Miro just threw us out like a bunch of bums." Theodore O'Donnell shrugged. "Well, it is his first day on the job...." He pivoted his head towards his other friend. "Say, Rikura, how did Miro get this job anyways?" The woman in question was less than forthcoming. "I showed him an ad. He followed it up." "Ah," declared Theodore. "You're pissed at him again, aren't you?" Rikura scratched behind her left ear. "Humph. He was being mean." "Well," mused Kimihiko, "we weren't really buying anything and it didn't look like he had finished setting up." "That's not an excuse for being a meanie." "At least I got to keep this nifty spell book." Theodore hugged the leather-bound text against his smiley face t-shirt and the tattered remains of his trenchcoat. "I can't wait to show it to pop and prove there's more in the world than science." Kimihiko shook her head sadly. "You just have to try and get his goat every chance you get, don't you?" "Yeah," he said, flashing a toothy grin, "but _this_ time I have something *real* to throw in his face!" He thrust out a free hand, pointing to some unseen horizon. "Observe, Professor O'Donnell, your failure of a son transform into a beast of legend!" "You're hardly a failure of a son," countered Kimihiko. "I mean, ye elder gods, you have a PhD under your belt and your only 22." "Yeah, but the old man thinks I should have gone for theoretical physics like him and not Southeast Asian studies." Rikura smacked herself on the head. "This light is taking soooooo loooooooooonnnnnnng to change," she pouted. Theodore coughed. "*Ahem*. Well, plot exposition does take time." The two girls sighed. "Good ol' Theo," said Kimihiko, "always saying something completely random." "Quite," replied the man. On que, the light changed to 'Walk'. Rikura darted forward. "Last one to the dorm gets to pay for a group dinner!" "What?!" shouted the other woman, starting her pursuit. "You had Lembas already! One bite's supposed to fill a grown man's stomach for a day!" "But I'm huunnnnnn~grrrrrrrry now!" Theodore smiled. "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry." Kimihiko vaulted over an elderly lady's poodle, closing the gap between her and Rikura. "You never get angry so it's, *ouf*, not a problem!" "Don't argue with the electric oni!" "Hah!" she laughed. ---------------------------------- Miro sighed. "What do you want?" The man thought this over. "Hmm. Well. Seeing as this is your first day on the job, and your shop seems to be lacking in even the most basic supply of energy, I'll let you off easy. You needn't mind energy as repayment; I have enough to last me several years. Instead, I ask that any customers referred to your shop by the gentleman who purchased the Jade Buddha of Master Wu be sent directly to my store." "That seems reasonable." "Yes. Now never do anything like that again. Other shopkeepers will be far less forgiving than I, especially when they find out whose shop this used to be." Bao Liu nodded his head respectfully. "I leave now but I wish you luck in your new profession, Master Miro." The man in question mumbled thanks, "Sure." The store's bell tinkled as the other shopkeeper exited. Miro sighed. /Master,/ carefully began Pochi, /we were very lucky. Bao Liu is not normally known for his kindness but I believe you struck a long- forgotten chord in his heart. I don't know how--/ "It was pity," said Miro. "He pitied me." /I... don't understand./ "Why didn't you tell me about your last owner? That he was exiled? That he killed people?" /He didn't kill people! They knew what they were getting into when they signed the contract!/ The young man brushed that aside. "Still, why didn't you tell me?" /You... you... you didn't ask,/ Pochi stated sheepishly. "And why did you steal the Jade Buddha if you knew it was the property of another shopkeeper?" /We needed the energy!/ "Just like when you sold Theodore the book that turned him into an oni?" /...yes./ "Hmm. I see." Miro made his way to the store entrance. /Where are you going?!/ "Home." Miro ran a hand through his hair. "I don't feel like being here right now." /But when will you come back?/ Miro opened the door and stepped through. "Tomorrow." The door closed. The bell above it rang. ====================================================== Author's notes: Gosh, to think this almost didn't happen. Last Tuesday I got my wisdom teeth pulled. Five of them in fact. They left two in. I was bleeding, drugged up, and feeling pretty crappy up until last Saturday. Then, because my neck was stiff from the last few days of propping my head up while I slept, I wasn't used to laying down on my bed. The result? Insomnia and neck pain. Three nights of this was enough to wipe me out. I was ready to skip this chapter. I even still have the draft letter to Cham saved on my hotmail account. But then I looked at the calander and thought, "Three days left? I can do it." And I did. I hope Shops C will be of a more serious style than Branch B. I wanted Miro and Co. to be less zany than they were perviously and to write more of a "Branch A" style chapter. A note on time: so far, in all of Branch B leading into this new chapter and branch, everything has happened in one day. 1 DAY! I sent Miro home hoping some time will now pass for the poor fellow. Let the plot breathe a little. One thing I wanted to do, and, sadly, really didn't do to much of an extent, is give Miro's mom screentime. The starter presented her as someone who might play an important part in the story and in Branch B she was pretty much brushed off to the side (then bumped off!). Miro's last name and the name of the shop's pervious owner are from Branch A. This stemed not so much from concern over continuity as much as I was lazy and didn't want to make up something new. Thanks to my prereaders: Dot Warner, Terris, Smlee, and Segev for prereaders. Apologizes to Dot Warner for not tracking down her email when hotmail bounced the address I had back. Thanks to "It's Walky" for keeping me going during that long week of druged-up dental post-op pain. Great webcomic. Check it out. Thanks to Chamelaeon for being a good Admin. Glad I was able to live up to his trust by finishing before the deadline. NOW ---------------> SIGN-UP FOR SHOPS C! ~Doublemint 7/31/03