Preparing For The Future (Zabun, Invite)

    Zabun walked the aisles of the market, looking for supplies to bring back with him to his spacepod. Got plenty of money now, thanks to that poor sucker in the suit, The purple majin thought to himself as he snatched up a small bag of chips. He glanced around, scanning for cameras or watchful eyes. Seeing he was in the clear, he quickly pocketed that chips and then another bag of chips. Just cause I have it, don't mean I gotta spend it though. His face grew into a malicious grin at this thought.

    Unlike last time he went to East City, Zabun had done little to hide his appearance other than wearing a black hoodie that he 'bought'. He still wore the battle armor underneath the hoodie along with the baggy white majin pants, black boots and bracers. He keep his long antenna out in plain sight this time, decorated in the his normal golden rings. His fingers were adorned with ten rings, all of varying make. Long coin like earings hung from the bottom of his ear-holes, and several elaborate necklaces hung on the outside of the hoodie. Only his sword was left in the pod.

    Changing aisles, Zabun grabbed so few bottles of soda and stuffed them away into his pockets. The purple majin's pockets were now bulging as he continued to stuff them well various drinks and junk food. Maybe I should get something healthy too. An apple maybe, he thought. Zabun could hear a commotion as he neared the produce section. As he walked out the aisle and turned toward the sounds, several of the shoppers, and even some of the markets employee's, came running past. An older man, with his head turned looking over his shoulder, ran straight into Zabun.

    Zabun managed to catch the man before he hit the ground. "Watch out! What's the big ru..." Zabun couldn't finish before the man interrupted with a yell, "Not another one!" The majin cocked his head to the side and, with a curious expression, asked, "Another what?" The man shoved Zabun's arm away and began to plead, "Please, I don't want to be eaten by a majin!" With that, the man turned and ran wide around Zabun. What's this about? Is there another majin in here? Zabun thought as he checked the wallet he grabbed off the man the moment they collided. Empty? Why even bother coming to the store? The majin disposed of the wallet, throwing it over his shoulder, and began to look for this other majin.

    Where is this guy at? He must be pretty big and scary to have those people running like that. Wonder if he's pink, or maybe purple like me. Maybe he's got some connections, can get me some 'honest' work. Zabun scanned the area searching for this sizable, and most terror inducing, majin. He looked past the humans, and right over the head of Saeko, not even noticing her as he walked on a collision course right for her.

    What just happened? Zabun thought after he was stopped in his tracks after colliding into Saeko. His eyes shot down at the slight thud of something hitting the ground. What is this? Is that a... majin? I know we come in all shapes and sizes, but it's... she's? She's so small. She can't be the one all those people were running from, she? He watched as the young majin gathered her things off the floor. Saeko? Is that her name?  The way she talked reminded him of himself, before he had spent the time in free space. Zabun had ignored the rest of her apology. When She looked up at him, he saw a sad expression fade into a smile, but he could see the tears that formed before she wiped them away.

   When she saluted him, Zabun began to raise his hand in a similar fashion He stop with his hand in front of his face, looked at it, then at the young majin, and put his hand back down. "Small majin, where is the other one? Was it you they were running from?" He asked her, ignoring her question. He couldn't get past her size. It couldn't have been her. There was something else that peeked his curiosity. "And why were you crying?"

    The sound of someone tapping their foot caught Zabun's attention, and it was then that he noticed people were staring. He turned to see the noise; a store employee, an older redheaded woman, was standing there, looking over her glasses and right at Zabun. "What?" he grunted at her.
The employee let out a "ahm' as she directed her eyes downward. Zabun displayed a look of confusion as he looked down to see that his pockets were spilling out with the drinks and snacks he had stuffed in them.

    The purple majin panicked as he thought what to do. I could run, but then I'd lose my chance to meet this other majin. He looked down at Saeko and then back at the woman, then at Saeko's basket. There we go! Zabun pulled the items from his pockets and quickly shoved them into Saeko's basket. "I was just shopping with my friend here, and just went back to get something I forgot. I was in such a hurry to get this stuff in the basket, I forgot to watch where I was going." Zabun said as he rubbed the back of his head and flashed his mosst charming smile, which happened to look a lot like his usual mischievous grin. The woman gave him a suspicious glare as she slowly turned and walked away.

    Zabun felt a mixture of confusion an sympathy at the young majin's response to the question of why she was crying. Is this... is she for real? I gotta tell her. The woman had interrupted before he could correct her. "Pfffft," Zabun blew a raspberry at the woman left following his successful bluff. Take that! Yeah, you better walk away, he thought. He turned his attention back to Saeko in time to see her expression of surprise. Her reaction to his obvious lie caught the purple majin off guard.

    Did she really just say that? Did she really just ask me that? Zabun leaned down to meet Saeko eye too eye. He squinted as he stared into her eyes for a moment. After spending almost 22 years in free space among the likes of pirates, smugglers, and degenerates of all kinds, Zabun had all but forgotten how his own kind often behaved. Not only that, but he had almost forgotten what it meant to be a majin on Earth; for him, this meant loneliness. Still, Zabun was stuck on how naive the young majin was, however he saw an opportunity to use it to his advantage.

    "Of course, tiny majin, I'm friends with your father. He must have forgotten to tell you that we would be shopping together. Haha, classic... him," Zabun exclaimed loudly, putting on his friendliest voice, "My name is... is... Nubaz!"  He straightened up and once again attempted a charming smile; it still came off mischievous. What was that she said before? Plantain? No... Platoon. Military. I can use that, Zabun thought. "I just transfered to your father's platoon. He thought you could help me get a few things, and show me around the city."

    "HA HA HA," Zabun let out a loud forced laugh when he heard Saeko giggle. His mouth opened abnormally wide, making it all the more awkward. AT this point, even more people were staring, and a few even chose to leave in a hurry. What doesn't scare these humans? Zabun wondered. Hearing the young majin's question, Zabun thought for a second then answered, "Yeah. Yeah, I got some stories. Let's get outta here and I'll tell you about the time I was in free space and I helped capture some pirates."

    Zabun felt a small hand grab his own and pull him in the direction of the checkout. Is she really this trusting? I've done a lot worse than lying to some girl, but this just feels low. How long am I gonna keep this up? Saeko had stopped and asked him if he had everything. "Ummm..." He looked around for a second and then grabbed the closest drink he could, which happened to be almost the same shade of purple as him and said, "There we go. I got everything now." Zabun held the 2 liter drink up in the air as he once again walked toward the registers, pulling his hand a way from hers in the process.

    As he barged his way through the lines and to a cash register, making sure the path stayed open for Saeko. "This way, tiny majin," he called out to her.

    "I was merely 'borrowing' the ship, for the mission," Zabun told her, though he was cautious not to tell her too much. He wanted to keep moving for now, and to keep her attention for a bit longer, at least. He knew he would have to tell her the story sometime, but luckly he lived it first hand, though from the side of the pirates. A small part of him was looking forward to telling the story, especially after hearing the awe in her voice. Is this what being looked up to feels like?

    Zabun's jaw nearly hit the floor when he saw the young majin pull out several rolls of zeni. What is she doing with so much cash? How much more does she have? Maybe this was a good idea after all. Just gotta figure out a why to get that bag away from her. Zabun looked on in disbelief as Saeko offered to pay for everything and handed the rolls over to the cashier. "Thank you, little majin. I'm lucky to be a guest of yours," Zabun replied. Upon hearing her request for the 'bad' food to kept separate, he considered explaining to her that the food was indeed still good, but he couldn't quite get the words out.

    When the cashier was done, Zabun grabbed his bags and turned to leave, but this time it was Saeko that led the way. He followed out of the store, though she moved a bit quicker than he did. He saw her lift into the air and followed suite. "Lead the way, diminutive majin," he  said upon hearing her offer. Guess this means it's story time.

    "It happened a few year's ago," Zabun began, "Near a system that had yet to be claimed. Free Space. We had borrowed a cargo ship which we used to fly routes that we knew pirates often attacked. We had two other ships, with stealth drives on and following at some distance. The pirates used several tricks for luring ships in for an ambush, and the most common one was to wait until a target got close and send out a distress signal. That's exactly what we... I mean they... did this time."

    Zabun paused to see if Saeko had noticed his slip before continuing, "Once we locked unto the signal, we found the ship and docked with them. Then we all moved to the cargo hold and waited. The pirates blow open the airlocks, as well as blowing a few holes in the hull of the ship. Most of them flooded the ship, but by the time they got to us in the cargo hold, the other two ships had caught up and began attacking their ship. Our own men blew holes into the pirate ship like they had done to us, and infiltrated, attacking them from the inside. We fought them off of the cargo ship, but they retreated into a trap."

    It was a strange sensation for the ex-pirate, having to recall the details from the other side. He of course left out how many people he had killed, and his fight with his fleeing captain and how that ended with him being jettisoned into space. Instead, he chose to end the story on a high note. "The fight lasted for hours, but we out numbered them, and eventually we captured them all, including the captain." Oddly enough, Zabun didn't hope the story was believable, but also impressive to the young majin.

    Zabun was relieved to when he heard the young majin's response to his slip up. Good, good. She fixed it for me, he thought as he continued with his story. He took in the sights as he flew behind her. The older majin had never really spent this much time in this part of the city, as he never had much luck picking pockets here as a child. Still, it looked like nice enough of a neighborhood, and he thought it might be worth returning to, if only to see if his luck had changed.

    "Ah, we're here," he had heard his host say. His story finished with almost perfect timing. Zabun examined the outside of the apartment as Saeko unlocked the door. Not to bad a place. Exactly how much money does she have? he thought. She had asked him about a feast as she walked through the door. "Why, yes, we had a great feast. After we got back to earth, of course. We had wild boar, and ostrich chicken. We even had a contest to see who can eat the most. I won," he boasted, all the while thinking to himself, I sure am selling this. He watched as the young took off her shoes and wondered what he was suppose to do considering his shoes were a part of his body.

    "I hope you don't mind, I can't really take these off," he said as he vigorously wiped his feet on the welcome mat. Zabun followed the young majin into her home, and then into the kitchen. He was caught off guard when she said she would cook for him. Why is she being so kind? She only just met me. Am I starting to feel... Guilty? Zabun thought to himself before visibly shuddering at the mere thought. He wasn't really looking for a tour of the city, and he started to doubt that Saeko had the kind of information he was looking for.

    Looking back over at the young majin, Zabun saw her putting on an apron that, it seemed to him at least, she pulled out of nowhere. He didn't quite know how to feel about this. No one has really just done anything nice for Zabun without wanting anything back, but he didn't feel that was the case with Saeko. Zabun thought hard on what he was going to say next. "Do you need any... Help?" he said, forcing the words out of his mouth. What have I done?

    Zabun watched as Saeko changed her normal hands into black fingerless gloves, though he did not notice the difficulty she was having with the color. It was strange to him how this majin chose to wear actual clothes rather than simply morphing her flesh. Sure, Zabun himself wore battle armor, and plenty of jewelry, but it was all decoration that he often went without. What's a drama club? Zabun thought. Having never attended school, and spending the last twenty something years in space, he had never heard of such a thing.

    Zabun took the apron from the young majin and held it up to inspect it. She wants me to wear this? I guess I asked for this, he thought as he put the apron on. It may had been too large for the small frame of Saeko, but it was obvious when he tied the strings behind his back that the apron was a little small for his large frame. "How's this?" he asked, unsure if he even put it on right. He felt kind of embarrassed that he was even doing this and was even unsure of his own reasoning as to why.

    He observed as Seako wrote down her plans for the feast, peeking over her shoulder at the list. Zabun didn't recognize what most of the things on the list were, but the words 'beer' and 'sake' did catch his attention. When the young majin handed him the list, he simply stared at it, raising an eyebrow in confusion. Saeko then gave him some instructions about washing off the beans for the Edamame as she returned to pouring the broth. Zabun had taken what he had assumed to be the beans, and knowing no other way to do it, turned on the sink and held the beans in his hands, trying to rinse them.

    "I've told you about one of my battles, so it's your turn. How about it, tiny majin, have you seen any combat?" he asked as he did his best to wash off the beans without dropping them into the sink. He asked this as more of a joke than anything, as he assumed that young Saeko had yet to see battle.