I'm baki walking behind someone.
That's not a joke. Right now. While my heart beats in anxiety, while my fingers tremble, shaking, invisible yes, but still nervous, I'm doing a baki walk behind someone.
I don't know if that's because I'm tired. Terribly terribly tired, but this is so funny, this is the funniest thing I did in my entire life.
Genuinely the funniest thing ever.
I'm behind someone. Trailing them. Following them, right behind their back, I'm almost brushing them!
And they don't fucking see me.
My chest shakes, and I need to close my eyes-! I quickly open them as I hear a jingle, following the man back, I walk up the small step up, and in one smooth motion slide inside the shop.
My laughter is gone.
The manic laughter I was about to let out is gone, thankfully, the seriousness of the situation managed to calm me down.
I look up, just to push myself against the wall, hugging it, doing my absolute best to avoid touching the man that entered.
The shop is pretty small after all.
And I wouldn't put my bet on my magic surviving a touch with another human if a laugh is enough to break people out of it.
The man. Still in it's cloak, -worse than mine of course, I have the bestest of cloaks- pass me. Going straight to the biiiiiiig and almost room-wide counter where a man is. He's pretty short but burly, his back is turned to us, he's behind the huge counter, it's similar to what Hatomo has in his shop, made of glass and all.
But that's where the similarities end.
The shop is pretty small. But every place is cranked up to the max, apart from the small path leading to the room-length glass display/counter, every place is used to stock as much merchandize as possible.
Behind the cloaked man, and on my left. There's the door, wood, with a polished sheen made of some kind of oil I know is made to repel the rain. Over it, there's a bell, attached to the door that's now closing.
It's still ringing right now. It's pretty loud. And it's something I'm pretty sure couldn't have been hidden by my magic.
Maybe it could.
Maybe it couldn't.
But I wouldn't want to risk it when I NEED the win I NEED to sleep.
That's why I waited to trail a man.
And finally, my opportunity is here.
Talking about the man in the cloak, he raises a hand "Oiiii, old man, got more of the usual?"
The shop owner. Who kinda looks like a dwarf the more I look at him, just without a beard, doesn't even turn around. Just grunts, clearly knowing the customer "You're as old as me you old bastard, and yes, you know damn well I have them"
The cloaked man lets out a small laugh before slouching over the glass counter.
As I said before, the glass counter is similar to the one in Hatomo shop, only difference is the products it's showing.
There's no leather here.
Well. Maybe there is some on the handles.
It's a weapon shop after all.
The weapons in the huge glass display are what you would expect to see in a weapon shop in ancient Japan, there's katanas, two of them, a weird small sword that looks like a katana, it isn't, but there's also some more western looking weapons, like a spear, or small daggers that can be carried around.
All of those weapons are presented in their own little sheath, and own little stand under the glass. Polished until they gleam, looks pretty good for a poor village shop.
Wonder how he got them...
My answer comes from the slouched man as he answers the owner after his laugh "Weapons shops and wars, a love story"
Ah.
Yeah, that makes sense now.
The shop owner grunts something before walking off, he turns around, opens a door in the back, and leave the shop unattended.
Well, there's still the hooded man, but he's whistling now, clearly they have a good relationship.
Or maybe...he knows he can't steal anything.
Frowning, I get closer to the counter. And then, giving a glance to the hooded man, I take a deeeeep breath, focus, and push the flow outside, even more that it already was from my previous hours where I slowly dripped flow out all over the shop and street, had to make my hours of waiting in the street productive.
I keep going until I feel my flow dripping on the counter.
I can feel it, there's so much, it's like water covering everything, the counter, the hooded man, there's so much that the flow that can't stick to them drip around in the surroundings.
And when it's done. Unaware of what I did, but KNOWING that it feels right, I push myself up.
And with as much silence I can muster, I climb the counter, until I'm standing on the glass.
A look back. The man is still whistling.
Perfect.
A look down reveals something I expected to see.
The whole glass counter is locked. There's a keyhole. You need a key to open it, and I don't have the key, nor do I see the key anywhere.
That's annoying. But really? It's not THAT annoying. Not like I could carry a sword or a spear with my spindly little arms, maybe I'll come back in the future to take them, but for now?
My eyes are on something else.
On the reason making me believe they have a great relationship, because the hooded man could have stolen something else.
But he didn't.
Japan is well known for katanas yes, but also for what?
Their cool looking samurai armors of course!
There are some behind the counter, they are standing in little armories made of wood. Just holding everything up and keeping the armor up to show them off.
They don't look as pristine as the other weapons though. Some parts are mismatched, as if someone used the parts of different armors to make a single armor.
Where did they find that many samples?
I have a guess.
And it's not related to the box of scrap behind the counter, there's a lot of small pieces of armor there. Greaves, helmets, all a bit dented or without a full set, some are in different sizes.
None are small enough for me.
Annoying, but...why am I talking about armors?THAT'S NOT WHAT JAPAN IS KNOWN FOR!
Hell no, they're known for their thingy...kunai, shurikens, senbons, all this shit.
At least I think they are?
To be honest I REALLY don't know much about history, but I think they're legit weapons? And from what I'm seeing right now, I'm right.
Above the counter, hanging slightly behind it. Just in front of me, penduling gently, are ropes. Ropes attached to the ceiling, and on said ropes? There's weapons.
Kunais, shurikens, and all that crap.
Exactly what a two years old like me need.
To be honest, I would have enjoyed a better weapon, but I don't think I can open the counter, and it's not like any of the weapons there interest me.
Well...
I look behind me. And see a small place, small because of the other glass displays around, the ones that take most of the place in the shop.
There's a crossbow that interest me near the shop window but...how can I get the keys? And how am I supposed to get bolts?
Looking back on the ropes hanging in front of me, I stay on the ball of my feet and slowly inch forward, seeing a rope with bolts and arrows attached to it.
That's taken care of at least but I still need the keys...
Whatever, I'll see later.
For now, let's grab some kuna-! As I tilt forward, pushing my little baby hands up to try and grab some, the backdoor open.
The shop owner comes back. Carrying two giant shurikens beneath his arm, he stops just in front of me to look at the hooded man, not seeing me, unable to see the little child standing on his glass counter trying to grab a kunai.
But he's here now, he pushes the ropes away and lifts the shurikens up.
"Here for ya"
He lifts them, just above my feet.
And let them drop.