City Z was kind of a shithole, no really Mizuko was pretty sure people from other cities stopped by just to take a dump in the gutters and generally make a nuisance of themselves before hightailing it right back out of the city limits. Being on the hind end of semi-regular mass destruction kind of had a way of making the place a little less than desirable to live in. Sure, the city had been trucking along as best as it could for the last several years but the whole "giant spaceship" incident which was preceded by the "giant meteor mess" had kind of killed what little allure it had in the first place. Hard to enjoy sweeping vistas and massive chrome skyscrapers when they kept getting destroyed.
The last mass exodus had been kind of breathtaking to watch if she wanted to be honest, it had looked exactly like every post-apocalyptic manly whinge fest that had been hitting movie theaters for the last twenty some odd years. Complete with abandoned cars, random violence, and whiny manlets et all. Usually things were a bit more orderly. Some people even had "Monster Disaster" insurance that let them just up and move. When the aliens had fried the HQ of the biggest insurance building things had gone bonkers. It had built more like a fortress than an office building with Gatling guns, a team of Corp Espers, and private security that gave a very "probably killed people before so don't test us" kind of vibe. When it had gone down in smoke things had gotten, dicey.
So anyway- all the well-meaning (i.e:WEALTHY) citizens had basically written the whole place off and gotten the hell out of dodge; everyone else just got stuck.Metaphor for life huh?
Mizuko was one of those poor unfortunates who had neither the money to flee in style or the inclination to pick her way through the ever-increasing number of monsters that liked to hunt around the ringed walls of the city to try and get away on foot. She had been born in the city and she might as well die in it too. At least when she croaked it in some monster attack her aunt might get a nice insurance check, if they ever identified the body. With the way her luck usually ran she'd probably get vaporized and be declared missing (the insurance companies' favorite way of not having to pay out to grieving family) instead. And hey, at least if she got pancaked or something, she could say her last act on earth was being some kind of morbid art project. Art was fun like that; everything was art if you just let it be. Even the messy remnants of a nasty death.
Not that she spent much of her free time actively planning around her eventual death. It didn't do well to dwell on those sorts of things, it tended to drive people crazy and crazy people turned into monsters.Maybe? The whole "monster" thing seemed very subjective and didn't make a lot of sense to her. It happened, sometimes. Just like sometimes people got powers or sometimes people were born espers. There were whole areas of academics focused on that topic and not a single one of them agreed with each other on basically anything other than "sometimes it happens spontaneously and we have no idea why". Fun.
What it meant in the more micro sense was that anyone was at risk of popping off and getting evil monster powers basically at any moment. Once her yoga instructor in college had turned into some kind of bendy elastic man who strangled women who rejected him. Which was not very namaste of him- at all. So Mizuko did her best to let things go because getting hyper focused on shit that bothered you was seem to be surefire way of exploding in either the literal or metaphorical sense.
So, the city was ass and things were kind of awful but that didn't really stop anyone from living. People still existed, businesses still ran, kids went to school, and life just kept going. Mizuko, she just kept going too, and today was no different.
It was grocery day, which meant an hour long trek out of Slumtown and to the grocery store across town that inexplicably managed to remain both open and mostly undamaged despite being only a fifteen-minute walk away from the ghost town where it seemed like ninety percent of the monsters emerged these days. Maybe the owners an esper and just predicted when things are goging to happen? She thought unwrapping the paper from around the lollipop she had filched from the clinic candy bowl. Sure, it was labeled "For Kids Only!" but in her opinion if you were stupid enough to put the bowl in easy reach of the front door, an amateur mistake, you deserved to lose a few candies.
Popping the candy into her mouth she clambered unsteadily up the side of yet another crater.This side of town had been a mix of apartments and small businesses but at the moment it was just a lot of rubble and not a lot of people. There had been a big purple goo thing sluggishly trying to piece itself together in the bottom of this last crater but she'd just kind of skirted around it and did her best to ignore the stench. Hero's didn't care for cleanup and City Z wasn't exactly at the top of anyone's list for emergency relief funds. For all she knew the monster would be back up and running by the time she finished grocery shopping and be right back to murder.
Huhm, she mused sucking lightly (cherry flavor, mediocre), maybe I should pick a different route home. Probably best to just avoid the possibility, mama ain't tryin to die today.Pausing for a moment at the crest of the crater she cautiously peered over the side tilting her head this way and that, expsoing as little of her body as possible in the off chance something was going down. The street was still mostly intact and appeared deserted at the moment, which was a best-case scenario. Stopping for a second to glance behind her and wrinkle her nose at the blob which was very valiantly trying to sprout arms she pulled a face and turned to haul herself over the edge.
A pause to brush the concrete dust of her jacket and pants and then she was on her way again thumbs digging into the straps of her backpack. The grocery store was right around the corner from here and damn if today wasn't the semi-annual meat sale. She was going to buy so, so, so much off brand nearly expired meat today and oh how glorious would it be. Envy of Slumtown she would be.The Queen of the Sale! Tsarina of Deals!By the time she got to the turn she was skipping merrily, happy steaks and sausages dancing in her head like a Christmas special.
Mmmm meat she opined with a little dramatic twirl and hop as the front of the store came into sight gift of the gods.
The small grocery store was the lone survivor on the block, once it had been between two apartment buildings but those had long since fallen prey to the kind of property destruction that was now common. Its cheery yellow front plastered in brightly colored advertisements stood in stark contrast against the gunmetal grey sky and piles of debris which had been shoved off the sidewalk to allow access to the automatic doors. Not so long ago the roof had been taken off by something but it had been repaired relatively quickly and efficiently with thick sheets of corrugated metal. Frankly it looked pretty good for being within sight of the cordoned off ghost town, although you could still see bits of patching and soldering if you looked closely enough. Someone had taken the time to arrange a series of potted plants around the front as if a cheery bit of greenery could distract from the eeriness of the entire area.Mizuko didn't care, a deal was deal.Striding across the street and through the automatic doors she threw a quick salute to the lone cashier who was camped in the right most lane. It took guts to work out here and game recognizes game as it were. When she had first started shopping here there had been ten or maybe eleven employees, now she only regularly spotted three. He just raised an eyebrow back at her and continued checking his customer out; a polite older woman in a leopard print Mumu and what appeared to be platform sandals. Man, old people really had it good it was so unfair, if she lived to fifty, she was dying her hair yellow, renaming herself Daisy Chain, and only wearing eye searing floral prints just to offend The Youth(tm). The old woman was buying an entire box of peaches which was weird but who was she to judge.
Skirting around a few displays Mizuko headed back in the direction of nirvana, the deli counter. According to her watch the sale was supposed to start in t-minus three minutes, and there was already a crowd of people queuing to get to it. The deals at this store really were wicked good, partially because it was one of the only ways the ownership could get anyone to shop out here. People wouldn't be willing to almost die for a full priced ham but cut that sucker to 75% off and suddenly blood could be running in the streets and people would still show up. In fact last month when blood had actually be running through the streets they had cut the produce to 50% off plus BOGO and someone had stabbed a lady near the mangos. Mango lady had lived but the produce section had been wiped clean like the biblical locust swarms had made a blockbuster return. She was still kicking herself for missing that one but her arm had been broken and climbing through the rubble to get across town hadn't exactly been on her list of "things I really want to be doing right now". The store wasn't all that big but it was crowded, tall metal shelves leaned into almost too small isles; shelves groaning under the discounted off brand foodstuffs piled in haphazard order across them. Every time she came in the store seemed to have a slightly different layout and either they didn't have the same employee stock things twice or the person they did have just didn't care because the organization was laughable at best and non-existent at worst. Once she had found a shelf of shampoo inside the dry goods isle. Granted the shampoo had been "whole grain natural wheat shampoo" or something but; seriously? The staff might have been brave as hell but they were not playing with a full deck of cards. She took off down one of the isles at a slow jog.As could probably be predicted the isle leading towards the deli was currently covered over with people pushing and shoving in an attempted to get to the front of the line. She narrowed her eyes as she slowed taking in the competition warily. The people looked normal but this it was sale time, and war was here. Looks can and were deceiving, underestimating someone was the last thing she needed to do. Time to go and secure some meat even if it meant punting small children and expectant mothers out of the way.Reaching up she snagged the scrunchie off of her wrist with her teeth and began to pull her long dark hair into a bun, shouldering a gawker to the side with a swing of her backpack as she moved forward into the fray. Hair pulling was fair but it was also painful and really, she'd already lost a hunk of scalp to Aiko Tamura two years ago in a Black Friday brawl over an HD TV. It had taken months to stop looking like she'd been mauled by a particularly aggressive tiger last time, not a mistake to fall into twice. Not that, in the end, it wasn't worth it because the TV was amazing (right up until her the apartment had been destroyed in yet another flashy Hero vs Monster fight last year). Judging by the length of the line this time there would probably be something left by the time she got to the front, especially if she was willing to play fast and loose with her morals.
She might not get the best meat but you don't exactly have the choice of being overly picky. Food didn't keep for very long in Slumtown, either it got eaten or it got stolen by someone else to eat. Waste not want not. It wouldn't be the first or last time she had scrapped off some questionable looking mold from something before cooking. Needs be must and all that after all. Licking her lips she moved forward with a purpose, eyes locked right on the prize when someone practically teleported right in front of her. She rocked back on her heels startled by the rapid change in scenery. Mizuko was pretty sure the guy actually had teleported or something. Between one blink and the next a relatively tall very bald man in a ratty t-shirt and shorts had replaced the trio of teenagers who had been in front of her. Somewhere in the near distance the line seemed to have disintegrated into a shoving fight to get to the front. The sale must have just started. She blinked a few times in astonishment as the guy just started plowing forward into the crowd like a battering ram. Now Mizuko was not the kind of girl who turned away a mysterious gift from god and this bald man (very shiny, head very very shiny) was parting the sea of shoppers like a man on a mission. Whatever his facial expression was it must have been thunderous because people were turning to yell and then practically leaping out of the way. Someone was climbing the cereal shelf to her left as she hurried in the man's wake, far be it from her to get in his way when he was being so very useful at the moment. Let him terrify small children and send people running. Fewer people to compete with was always better. They made it to the counter in record time and Mizuko immediately abandoned the guy to elbow right up to display window and plaster herself up against it. Behind her people were bitching and moaning about line cutting, but they knew better than try and dislodge her. This was her spot and she was not going to lose it to any man, beast, or monster. Not to mention she'd earned it; the counter space was sacred. Starting a fight after you got up here was like spitting in the Pope's eye. You only did it if you wanted to be excommunicated, only in this case instead of not going to heaven you got kicked out of the store and your picture on the Wall of Shame near the checkout. She licked her lips as she waited impatiently for the apathetic employee behind the counter to get moving, it was meat time!"Oh." someone drawled to her left crowding into her personal space, "I went to the wrong side didn't I. The sale meat is over here." An elbow landed on her head squishing her down and out of the way blocking her line of sight to the prime steaks at the back of the deli counter. Grunting in indignation she twisted her face up with a snarl on her lips to lay into whoever had dared to try and skip the line (that she had totally also just skipped but again sales are WAR and no one apologize in wartime) only to squawk as her nose landed directly in what, judging by the color of the shirt, had to be very bald man's very smelly armpit."Ngh!" She said oh so intelligently."Oh sorry. Didn't notice you." Said bald man with absolutely no sympathy shoving her again with his elbow, "I'll be just a moment. Uh, can I get-" he turned back to the store employee who was blinking across the stuffed wiener section like a particularly surly owl.Mizuko lifted her fingers palms clasped together index and pointer fingers stiffened like spears and jabbed viciously into baldy's unprotected armpit. The juvenile move did have its intended effect as he reared back in surprise at the unexpected poke but what she hadn't planned on was the zing of pain that shot down her fingers. Hitting the guy was like jamming her finger directly into solid concrete and holy shit did it hurt. She let out a wordless shout of pain pulling her hands in to cradle them against her chest, eyes wide as she stared at him with shock."Uh." Badly said rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, "sorry. Wasn't paying attention." He offered her a vapid grin."Oh bullshit!" She crowed back wagging her damaged finger at him. "You hit me in the head! Twice! And stuck your armpit all over my face! And you already apologized once, don' play stupid!""I thought you were a counter." he mused, looking down at her. She felt her face flush red at the implication, sure she was short but it wasn't like he was gigantically tall. Six feet, tops and that was being overly generous on account of the fact his stupid bald shiny head made him look kind of stupid."I got here first!" She snapped back bulldozing right into his personal bubble head tipped back to better yell right in his face indignant despite the flush on her face. "Well, you followed me." He pointed out and turned back to the deli employee who didn't even look amused at all this witty repartee, just very bored and possibly staring into a third or fourth dimension."You scared everybody out of the way what was I supposed to do not capitalize?! Theirs discount meat on the line!" She demanded poking him in his stupid rock-hard concrete chest and gesturing dramatically at the counter. "Dis-count-MEAT!" she continued voice rising in octave as she poked on every syllable break. "And do not think I didn't catch the fact you knew I was behind you!"He sighed noisily and turned lowering his head and staring down at her, obviously prepared to argue discount meat vendor rights with her when the roof suddenly decided to no longer remain moored to the rest of the building.They both paused and turned to look up into the grey drizzly sky argument over before it had really ever begun. The store around them had gone suddenly silent and the deli guy even looked kind of interested which going by his past behavior was kind of like saying Michelangelo's David had a tendency to make people weep."Uh." Mizuko stuttered staring into the face of a very big, very scaly, and incredibly menacing looking thing with a couple of pincers and a face that only a mother could love. "Is that a monster."It totally was."Aw fuck." She said and predictably all hell broke loose.