Mitsuba hadn’t, um.

Mitsuba hadn’t realized that powers could be brought back here. And maybe he should’ve! Maybe he should’ve. But -- but -- to his credit, it wasn’t like anyone that he knew was given anything more than the bare minimum, so without anything to change his mind, why would he know that people could get stronger?

He’d probably have been a lot more concerned about things if he knew.

Needless to say. What this was getting to. The whole point of this was--

--well he hadn’t expected someone to have definitely, completely, what was absolutely unmistakably some kinda giant scythe.

Mitsuba really had to get his fight or flight response in line, because any time it went too quickly to flight -- which was, well, most of the time... -- he found himself very suddenly transformed to his Mystery form, his scarf swooping around to shield himself.

“I’m not looking to fight!”

He’d get cut in half -- he’d get cut in half!! That was a whole scythe!

Shops were not particularly demon-friendly.

Rui had learned this very quickly upon his arrival to the city -- or rather, as quickly as Attempting To Integrate Yourself Into Society To Some Extent would allow him to figure out. There wasn’t much a demon had to spend money on; he’d bought himself some string, weeks back, only for that to have been rendered useless now anyway.

But the sun setting earlier now (why did it do that.) meant that if he left early enough after sunset, he could at least get some time attempting to Integrate Into Society whether he liked it or not -- and some time was better than none... time.

He’d walked past the bookstore several times before. It had never been open. Tonight, however, close though it must have been to closing... the lights were on. Rui had caught himself idly reading the signs or the covers of books on display in the windows as he’d passed by before -- and...

...

... it wouldn’t hurt to take a look at what they had now that he had the chance, would it.

The store seemed to be mostly empty when he (more hesitantly than he would have liked) stepped inside. Some older boy behind the counter turned to the door to look at him as he entered and gave him a look -- so Rui ducked away and instead approached the only other person currently in the store, a girl that also looked to be an employee, instead.

“I’m -- not bothering you coming in this late, am I.”

Uh.