CRUMBS. ◈ TOG Snippets and Scraps

1

Dragging her bloodied katana along the empty sidewalk, the girl's eyes skimmed what seemed to be a dead zone. Wooden boards ridden with vulgar graffiti were nailed haphazardly to windows while trash overflowed from dumpster bins, creating such a stench that even her mask could not help her ignore. These buildings that were once home to souls in recent past held no sign of life and nothing, not even the moon or the stars, made itself known in the boundless, black sky. The only sound that could be heard in this ghost town was the scraping of metal against concrete and the echoing of footsteps as Y/N walked alone.

"Michael, how far away am I from the shop?"

"Eight meters away. Can you see it?", a voice spoke through the Observer hovering above her.

"Not really...", she replied, a bit stumped with this particular inconvenience. Even the Observer's light couldn't penetrate through the murky darkness and she relied on it as her only available light source. She told herself it wouldn't be too much of a problem since eight meters wasn't that far anyway. "I'll be--"

Wait.

Y/N stopped mid-sentence, not speaking a word or moving an inch forward as she whipped her head around, her lips tugging into a frown as she glowered at the empty space behind her. There was a slight disturbance in the shinsu surrounding the area; it felt thicker and wilder...She checked before, didn't she? Nothing was there. Nothing was supposed to be there. She was at least sure of that.

"Y/N, are you okay? You suddenly stopped talking." With worry in his eyes, Michael looked to a pale, blonde woman next to him as he spoke into the mini microphone. The woman just gave him a shake of her head, unsure of what was going on herself as she manned the Lighthouse. Everything in the Observer's line of sight was displayed on a screen before them and they could only see Y/N standing there silently.

The disturbance became greater and it became harder for her to pinpoint exactly where it was coming from. Y/N thought to defend herself but before she could attempt to brandish her katana, two hands grabbed at her and tackled her to the ground.

"Y/N, you...! You asshole! You left me!", a feminine voice cried out.

Midnight-blue tresses splayed against the concrete, the sword-user felt the shinsu around her relax as her attacker revealed themselves. With one hand pulling at the collar of Y/N's shirt and the other waving around a broken high heel menacingly, an upset woman sat on top of Y/N with no immediate plans to let her go. Her white hair was in a disheveled mess as she bared her teeth in anger, heaving every so often from being out of breath.

"You could at least have the decency to wait for me! You're the one with the Observer!"

Grabbing her wrist, Y/N's long nails dug into her skin, forcing the woman to release her from her grip and stare down at her in ill temper, "This is a mission, Valen, and you were becoming more of a liability than an asset."

"Liability, my ass! You just thought I was annoying!", Valen fumed.

Well, and that too.

"You're saying it as if it isn't true at all."

"You...!"

"H-hey guys, calm down." Michael interrupted from the call, sweat dropping as he tried to de-escalate the argument. "We're still on a mission, y'know."

He blamed his past self for pairing them together when he knew that they spent more time arguing with each other than working together.

"Let's just complete this and go home, alright?"

"Whatever.", Valen threw the broken shoe carelessly aside, hazel eyes still trained on the masked girl as she smoothed her nest of white hair. Y/N stood up to her feet and readjusted her top before settling into a walking pace by Valen's side. The tension remained the same between the two of them but they had to put it aside for now; it was no biggie, they could just remedy things afterwards.