[Dungeon] Just a Snip or Two ♢ Solo

Althea silently hopped onto the boardwalk from the water, proceeding to walk into the Port City.  A few people who had been busying themselves with packing large crates onto a docked ship stared for a moment before disregarding the young girl who had been walking barefoot on top of water.  Either way, it wasn’t really her fault that the spell only worked to hold her flesh above water.  Not to mention her shoes had been ruined when she had jumped straight into a whirlpool as an attempt to train herself.  Why did she even bring shoes to somewhere when she knew she wouldn’t wear them and planning to jump into the sea?  Mentally, she cursed her poor foresight.  But, she was more bothered by what she had said to herself during her time in Whirlpool Sea.  But, she put that aside for a moment to find a place to rest a minute before heading back to Magnolia.  And she found that in a small sweet shop that seemed out of place for a port town.

To the slayer it seemed to be Midi-themed, although she had never been to the cherry blossom tree nation.  But either way, she stepped into the little cafe, finding it to be decorated with an array of pastel pinks and yellows.  Looking over the menu located above the counter, she quickly found something that she deemed nice to eat.  “A bowl of ramen and the daifuku please.”  She said to the single employee working at the establishment, watching them scurry away just as she took a seat at a booth.  Althea didn’t have to wait too long to receive her order, quickly paying up once she did.  And once the wizard had a taste of her food, she couldn’t imagine why they didn’t have more customers.  All the people she could see were a pair of teenagers looking at each other’s iLacs, obviously only there for a cool hangout place.  “Hey,”  She said to the employee, pausing to swallow the ramen in her mouth.  “Where is everyone?”  The employee, who was a male brunette with plenty of freckles, shrugged, taking a seat casually on Althea’s table.  Some would find this annoying or disrespectful, but the water mage barely even noticed that they had moved.  “Maybe it’s just because people don’t eat Midian food in a port city.”  “Oh, that’s it?”  “Probably, you never know with people.”  He said, placing his hands into his apron’s pockets.

“Anyways, do you eat this stuff regularly?  You seem pretty comfortable with those chopsticks.”  The employee was right, Althea was practically shovelling her ramen straight into her face.  But, she managed to take a break from eating to at least answer the man’s question.  “Oh yeah, I used chopsticks all the time when I was younger.  I just don’t get the opportunity to too often anymore.”  The employee nodded, satisfied with her answer.  But in no time at all, Althea had shoved her daifuku into her face along with her ramen, finishing her meal.

“Thank you for the meal~!” “Don’t sweat it!  Hey, since you’ve been good company would you like some more daifuku on the house?” The young girl’s eyes lit up, although she took that time to wipe away any leftover food around her mouth.  “Yes please!  That would be great, tha-”  Suddenly, a shrill scream echoed from the outside of the shop.  The pair turned to see a stream of civilians running down towards the sea, jumping right into the harbor without hesitation.  Curious, Althea proceeded towards the opposite direction to observe what was happening.  “W-Wait!”  The freckled employee called, “That’s probably the aesthe-”  “Don’t worry about it.”  The slayer interrupted, moving along her path with a dash.

Now, Althea wasn’t exactly sure what she was expecting to find that was terrorizing the town, but she really didn’t expect to see a middle aged man with scissors and a striking blue pompadour.  “Hey girlie, want a haircut?”  He said, showing off his work with a nearby civilian who had passed out from the shock of the whole situation.  But once Althea saw it, an expression of disappointment encroached on her features.  “That hair looks kinda confusing…”  Suddenly, the blue haired man dropped everything, rage burning in his eyes.  “DID YOU JUST INSULT MY ART?!”  At this point the slayer was slightly confused, “I didn’t really insu-”  “THAT DOES IT, THE AESTHETICIAN IS GOING TO HAVE A GUINEA PIG TONIGHT!”  He exclaimed wielding hairspray, a comb, and 4 sets of differently shaped scissors spread across his two hands.  Stepping back into her fighting stance, she experienced a rush of heart pounding yet comforting excitement, and just from that she also felt a refreshing rush of power.  She hadn’t truly realized it until then, but the slayer really didn’t enjoy the battle with herself.  And it was odd for her not to enjoy throwing punches, although her doppelganger didn’t really seem that they were putting up a fight.  Shaking the thoughts from her mind with a deep breath, the blonde redirected her attention to the opponent before her.

Without hesitation, the aesthetician preformed a wide swing with his right hand to start things off, Althea ducking as a response.  But after realizing that she left her ribbon unguarded, she extended her leg, sweeping the frivolous styler off their feet.  Then, while they were still falling from the loss of balance, Althea thrust her knee into them, sending the blue haired man flying through into a store that exclusively sold crabs.  And of course, she followed him right through the the window used to peek into the little shop, one which was now shattered.  But, once the aesthetician landed he reached into his pockets, finding three scissors that he then threw at the approaching wizard like kunai.  Only able to avoid two while in midair, a projectile dealt a long, sprawling cut on her cheek.  But while Althea had been busy with dodging, the blue haired villain had already climbed up on the counter, the young girl soon to follow.

From there it was similar to a fencing match, one person moving forwards to attack while the other moved back.  That is until Althea reached into an open display case, pulling out a live crab and chucking it at the aesthetician.  It proceeded to fasten its claws on to the man’s nose, distracting him with pain long enough for Althea to punch him off the counter.  Raising her arm, she performed a slashing motion, a shockwave of water hurtling towards the man.  Wiping the sweat from her brow, Althea bent down to examine the aesthetician who was now out cold.  But realizing that he wouldn’t just be unconscious for too much long, she quickly rushed him over to the sweet shop from before, wrapping a tablecloth around his wounds and dumping him inside.  But before she left the city, Althea took the crab from before, deshelled it, and ate it on the spot.