A Short Walk and Small Talk

So far, the weather was nice. It was sunny with a nice cool breeze passing by every now and then. The weather was meant to change later, however, to become cloudy and raining.
Mitsuo decided to take a stroll through the town and enjoy the day. He figured a small break from working at the shop wouldn't hurt so he shut the store with the "Temporarily Closed" sign.

Mitsuo stretched, squinting in the sunlight.
"I wonder what the market is like today," he spoke to no-one and with a relaxed sigh, he headed off in the direction of the merchant stalls.

Cora got off of her horse and nodded towards her three companions, she would not need them now.
"Get the horses away, feed them, give them something to drink...the usual.", she patted her horse one last time, adjusted various knives and then went on in search for Mitsuo's shop.

Oi. Cora.
Yes...?
Notice the rumbling? The danger...the...fear...of starvation?
We are hungry?
Yes.
Food. Asap.

She sighed and took a turn to the right, hoping she would find food. And there it was. What a coincidence! Just by turning right one time she would find what she searched for!

Aren't we some form of genius!
Nope. You looked at were people with carts were going to.
Shhhhh, we don't want anyone to know that!
Exactly! Stop ruining our fun!

Cora started grinning and stole a pretzel from a waggon while walking towards the market.
From the market she continued to walk into the general direction of Mitsuo's shop. He should have what she needed after all.

Mitsuo watched the carts as they passed by, looking at what goods they had in them and seeing if anything peaked his interest. Unfortunately he saw nothing that tickled his fancy... well, until he noticed a familiar face walking towards him.

Mitsuo waited until he was at a reasonable distance to call out, "Hey there, Cora!"
A smile crawled onto his face as he approached his friend.
"What brings you to these parts of town," he chuckled, "are you lost?"

Cora got a bit startled at someone calling her name. She already feared she was seen stealing that food. With all the people around she could not tell immediatly who had called out for her, but it only took her a split second to identify said person by their voice. Mitsuo. The guy she was searching for. Sometimes she really felt as if she was in some sort of story when she ended up randomly meeting people she was searching for. Whatever. Maybe she was just incredibly lucky!
It took her a few seconds to actually find Mitsuo's face between everyone, but as she finally did she immediatly went to him. Not really sure how she should react (should she hug him? Should she shake his hand?) she just stayed a bit further from him, making things even more awkward.

Good job, Cora.
What.
Socially awkward penguin, aren't you?
What's a penguin?
It's a bird...an evil bird who hates bats.
What.
Yes.

Cora closed her eyes, or more precicesly pressed them together to get them to stop talking.
"Mitsuo! It's so great to see you!", she grinned, "And no, I am quite frankly everything BUT lost. I was searching for you.", she started taking her pretzel apart, first eating the outer, browner layer and then the softer, good part.

Mitsuo raised an eyebrow, "searching for me?"
It wasn't very noticeable but if someone paid close enough attention to Mitsuo's voice they would be able to hear a slight tone of concern.

"Why were you searching for me," he continued, "D you need something?"
He scratched the back of his head, he didn't really know what else to say in the situation.

Cora grinned even wider and patted his head.
"I actually do, yes. It's not too...well..wait.", she stopped grinning and leaned a bit closer to Mitsuo, "Are you a man that would accept something not...too legal?"

Why was she even asking this? He went to the black market with her, didn't he? Buuut he almost started crying as well. It was justified that she asked.

She stared at him, eagerly awaiting his answer while shoving the pretzel into her mouth (it looked everything but lady like, but Cora was after all everything but a lady).

Mutual blinked, "well... uh... I guess if no one finds ou about it."
He knew his dad wouldn't approve but what his dad didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

Mitsuo coughed to adjust his voice, "it really depends on what the thing that is not too legal is."
He trusted Cora enough to know that it shouldn't be anything that he couldn't do... but then again Cora was full of suprises.

He straightened his stance and hopes that the task was not too risky to do.

Cora started grinning, "Aha! That's great! You see...", she looked up in the sky, "now, as I am not part of the military anymore...I do not really get access to 3DMG, so if you have spare ones...or just parts, even broken ones, do you mind...giving them to me? I will pay you of course.", she looked at him again.

"Just ask, it's really hard to get 3DMG, the black market does have some, but I do not want to go there right now, apart from that, alot of their 3DMG is just...well it does not work. And gas! Or actually." she looked at the ground, "I don't know, I guess I am mainly confused."

She smiled weakly, "Too many people talking. Sorry. The thing is: I or well my people need access to 3DMG, we can help you as well, you can build new things, and we try them out. Anything works, really."

She sighed, "Sorry for being this confusing, I am not really myself."

Mutual thought for a moment, "I can get you 3DMGs... but not all at once. If I did that I'm sure some people would get suspicious."

He smiled at Cora, "Not to mention I would like some people to test my tinkered inventions. I will say now though that they may not all work first try and some of your men may get injured in the process."

He stuck out his hand, "deal?"

Cora nodded and grabbed his hand, pressing a bit harder once, then letting go, "Yes, deal. And really, three are enough for now, or even just two. Or one. The one just for myself then.", she started laughing.

"And with the tinkered versions, of course I would need to train my people in using normal 3DMG first, unless you want someone really new in the field.", she thought for a short while, "With the injuries...well...I am not allowed to get a few of them injured, in general it should not be a problem to find some ... volunteers though."

Cora really had to remind herself to not go too brutal on him. He probably would not want to see kids she bought in his shop.

Mitsuo smiled, "great!"

After a brief moment of hesitation Mitsuo spoke again, "so I was going to go for a way around the market but I might just go back to the shop now... and I thought maybe I should ask you what you would like to do... unless you need to be elsewhere, of course."

Mitsui looked atmore stalls as the last few were passing by, still nothing caught his interest andhe started wondering if it would just be pointless to walk around the market at all today.

Cora shrug her shoulders, "To be honest, I do not have too much to do today, I will need to meet someone else...as in...I will have to leave somewhen today, to be back in Krolva the day after tomorrow. You know...mercenary buisiness.", Mitsuo would most likely be everything but pleased with what she was about to do. Buuuut...he did not need to know that, right?

"So yes, I have time, for today.", Vex got a marvelous idea, "You could come with us to Krolva!", still in Cora's voice, but not in her intention.

"Krolva... in mercenary business? I don't know about that..." Mitsuo trailed off.

"If I do... I'll have to close up shop," he continued. He didn't really like the sound of going... but if Cora wanted him to go then he might as well.

"So... shall we head off then?"

Cora nodded, "Totally understandable, really. I was pretty sure you would not like any of what's happening anyway...sooo...", she grinned sheepishly.

"Where are we heading?", she said while randomly starting to walk into a not set direction. The market was a useful place for eating, she was not particularely hungry...but it's not like she could not eat another pretzel.

Said and done. Another one disappeared from a cart and wandered into her coat. She would eat it later, it was too obvious now. She grinned at Mitsuo, not really sure if he saw that. Just in case he did she whispered a not really meant, "Sorry."

Mitsuo raised an eyebrow and started walkig with Cora.
"Well we can walk down this street for a while and then turn right; cutting through an alleyway."

The young Shimura started walking in silence, thinking of what to say, until he heard Cora whisper an apology.
"Hm?"
He turned his head to face his companion, "whatcha saying sorry for?"

The alleyway wasn't that far away and the two had walked up to it.
"Oh, it's this way," Mitsuo said and proceeded to head down the shaded path. He calmly put his hands into his pockets.

Mitsuo had most likely overseen her stealing more food. She did not have any intention of explaining what she was sorry for and thus decided to stay silent.

She stared at the buildings, it was so much nicer in Stohess than in Krolva. The buildings were cleaner, less broken down and the people living in them seemed happier as well. No. They did not only seem to be, they were. It really was painful for her to see the poverty on the streets of her basically home district. Correction: it would be painful for her if she would actually care for the people. She did not.

As she watched some kids running along the streets she noticed their healthyness. They would make way better mercenaries, body wise, than those in Krolva or around would. Given that they grew up here, they probably were less willing to live their life as a mercenary. For alot of kids it was actually an improvement (if you would not look at the pain).

Cora grinned as she missed the alley he was talking about, "I am sorry, I don't know Stohess at all. Basically. You will have to lead the way."

She followed him, happily humming something, while still watching the kids with great interest. "Where are we going, even?"

"We're heading to the shop. I need to close it if I am going with you to Krolva because I onky temporarily closed it to take this walk," Mitsuo said simply.

Out of the corner of his eye, Mitsuo watched Cora as she looked at the kids playing, "do you like children?"
The mechanic thought he would try and pass the time with small talk.

Mitsuo took his hands out of his pockets to stretch then soon after, one hand covered his mouth as he yawned.
'Seems like I didn't get enough sleep last night,' he thought to himself, 'I should really schedule the amount of time I spend on projects to avoid that.'

He listened to their footsteps. Step, step. Step, step. It was very peaceful or, better yet, mesmerising. Mitsuo got lost in his thoughts as he continues walkig with Cora through the alleyway.

Cora turned around quickly as he said he would come to Krolva with her, "What. You would? Are you for real? I doubt you would enjoy that though!", she looked a bit worried, he could not take too much mentally...could he?

She stared at him for a short while before answering his next question, "Children?", she looked at where they were playing again, "How do you mean 'like'? As in...do I like them because they are...young? Or play? Or...", she was not really sure, she smiled faintly, "If you ask about me liking them because they are young...that's not really an achievement anyone can be liked for...they can accomplish alot, that's what I would like them for.", she stopped herself before ending up in a full discussion about what you should respect people for.

Cora got the pretzel out of her coat and parted it, "Do you want something?", she said while already putting a bit too much in her mouth, making it sound more like a 'Go you wand somefing?"

Mitsuo turned his torso to face her as his legs kept walkig in the same direction, "Yeah, might as well, you asked me to."

He then smiled at her next answer while moving his torso back to its original position, "I meant like them because they're fun, innocent and the like."

Mitsuo turned his head at the good offering but did not say anything. Instead he bursted out laughing, tilting his head back into the air as he did so. He then started gasping for air because he was laughing too hard. He had to wipe his eyes as they were watering, "Oh," he gasped for air, "my God."
He looked at Cora again and laughed once more, I can't believe," another gasp, "you sometimes."

Cora turned red. Really red. Why was Mitsuo laughing now? Was it wrong to offer people food? She swallowed it down and started coughing. Great! Everything got even worse!

If her face could turn any redder, it did now. She looked at him with wide eyes, "Did I do something wrong? Do you not like food. Do...what...why are you laughing! Stop laughing!"

She looked down on her feet while continueing to walk before replying to what he said previously. She was surprised, "You are just going to come with me because I asked you to? Really? Wow.", she raised her eyebrows, "Am I not...somehow stopping you if you come with me...I even doubt it will be interesting for you! And...you are more...lighthearted, you might not even like what I am doing!", she murmured.

She looked at the kids again, "You see if you come with me you might realize that kids are everything but innocent. Grown ups are far less brutal and cruel than kids are.", she observed them, "You see...right now they are just playing with each other, they will soon exclude one or the other, trample on them, bully them.", she sighed, "Adults rarely do that, they do it more decent and, yes, the end result might be worse, but still, it is by far not as bad as it can get with kids."

She looked at Mitsuo, "Really, do only join me if you think you can take it."

Mitsuo laughter died down, "Ah, sorry. It just seems funny to me how you're meant to be the leader of this 'pack' yet you act so kind and a little childish... in a good way!"

His expression change from happy to sympathetic, "I know what it's like over there... sometimes it's not so different here. I can deal with it. In fact, I deal with worse... being a scout and all."

He forcefully changed his expression back to happy, "but those are minor details, right? We should keep moving!"

A few moments later, Mitsuo changed conversation, "so what sort of things do you like anyway?"
He put his hands behind his head and tested on them.
"I'm actually curious now... I've never really asked you this before, huh?"

Cora wondered if being 'childish' is good. It is good in the mercenary buisiness, you needed to be cruel. But...in the other ways? Children were everything but rational, so it was not too good, right? She was sure that Mitsuo did not mean it that way though, so she stopped thinking about it.

Being a scout did get him into tough situations, but none of them really involved humans hurting humans. Just titans hurting humans. She just decided on not getting him into too much trouble.Cora would hold back and postpone the more serious buisinesses to later on. Apart from that, if she really wanted to be allowed to fight titans she would need to cut down on those things anyway. Not all of them of course.

She turned her head towards him and tilted it, "What things...I like...oof.", she laughed, not really knowing what to say, "Uhm...fighting...I guess...", she blushed, "Drawing as well, but I am bad at it...", her voice got a bit higher but more quiet, "and animals...I love animals, they are friendly, cute, never hurt you...", she looked away. Suddenly realized something and her mood got instantly better, "AHA!", she laughed, "You know what? I am my own boss now! That means!", she laughed again, "I can decide for myself when to go to bed...for example. Buuuut! More important: I COULD get myself a pet!"

She grinned over both ears upon realizing this, "Pet. Pet. Pet. Pet. Pet.", she started saying happily.

"Ohhh! I am so sorry...what do you like? Building things I guess...otherwise you would not be this passionate about it."

Mitsuo had to hold back laughing again but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't completely kide it, "You really like animals, huh?"

He then took a deep breath as his question was rallied back at him, "what do I like? I like lots of things, really. Building, obviously, erm.. drawing, fighting, singing and playing instruments," he looked back at Cora as he finished off his list, smiling.

"I also know dancing but I don't like it as much," g smirked, "so anyway... what kind of pet would you have? Or would you have more than one? No let me guess," he studied Cora, "you would be a dog person... I reckon... husky?"

Cora observed him closer, "I never danced, neither do I plan to. I guess....would end up awful."
She actually liked watching people dance, on the few occassions she got. She never tried it and was everything but looking forward to maybe having to dance some day. Hopefully being a mercenary leader and thus being in the upper class of Mitras would not get her to have to dance at various occassions.

Apropos Mercs. She really needed to sort things out on how she would want the pack to be in the future. She might even want to start splitting it into various smaller groups, all under her lead, all called the pack, but for different purposes. Kinda like the military, just better. And more expensive. What did she even need to do to get them better than the military? For one thing: they would not do the garrison job, no need to. That was not even a real job for the usual mercenary. That was a break. So either military police like or survey corps like. Military police she would mainly focus on security. Rich people were always fearing for someone to kill them, with a reason as well. Apart from that, it was fun, securing that is.
Survey corpse wise she really needed to get mercenaries willing to put their life at risk, with just the right amount of fear to not run away from titans and face them head on, but not no fear either, as they might just die, because they simply don't care for their wellbeing. This would be a hard job. She would still manage, somehow, it would take her a while for sure.

Her thoughts got interupted by Mitsuo asking what kind of pet she would want to have. Cora sighed, "What kind, eh?", she shrugged her shoulders, "I am not too sure about that to be honest. I would most certainly just have one pet. Dog, meh, sounds nice, Husky no, definitly not, way too tiny.", she laughed, "Look at how tall I am...I do not want a dog like most of those fine ladies, that carry them around! A husky would kinda be the same for me.", it was obvious she exaggerated a bit, but it was just a bit after all. She sighed again.
"I do not know, snakes are incredibly awesome, very nice animals, I always loved them. But really. You can not keep them unless you live somewhere in the south, or atleast where it is warmer. So yes, dog might be right for me, but a huge one."

A very dumb idea passed through her head, "What about...mhhh...", she grinned, "Nah, I will tell you some other time."

To quickly change the topic and make him forget she just asked him again, "Are you sure you want to come with me? I have some things to do you might not want to know off.", she took a deep breath and lifted her hand to count the things she needed to do, "First of all!", she tipped with her left indexfinger on her right thumb, "I need to go to a short meeting with the most capable of my men, organisation wise, to brief them on what I want to change, or not change. Secondly", she tipped on her index finger, "According to what I want to change or not change I will have to decide which people belong in which group...", she stopped, "This might actually interest you, you could decide which....volunteers you want for your new...3DMG.", she grinned, "Hi...volunteers", she pointed at her middle finger, "Third and last point: I will get to get new recruits. Aka buying them. The most unpretty part for you, still has to be done. Actually...I might do it more civil this time and just walk through the streets of Nedley, asking for parents to give me their kids for some coin. It's probably less traumatic. I just wonder if I can actually train them the same way...", another thing she had to decide on. Maybe she should not have told Mitsuo. Whatever. Too late now, right?

Mitsuo shrugged, "Eh... I thought huskies would be your thing, considering how they're meant to act in the wild."

Mitsuo raised an eyebrow to Cora's cut off question and then signed at her next one, "I'll be fine. I know what you do, I've been with you before... and picking out volunteers would be... fun?"
He thought fun much not have been the correct word to describe it... interesting did not fit it either, however, and so he stuck with fun.

"I also kind of want to get away from Stohess for a while... ah, right here." He lead Cora down a smaller off path to the alleyway which lead to the shop.

"I don't know... I just won't think about it and I'll be fine," Mitsuo subconsciously rubbed his right shoulder at this remark, not realising that is where his new scar is positioned.