Maid Automata [MeyRinxMahoromatic}

1.2

          The afternoon bus was between lunch rush and evening rush hours, so it was never hard to find a seat. Sketchbook in hand, Lau sat in his usual seat, the unofficial official his seat, and realised there was a new face sitting beside him. Staring out the window sat a freckled lady of average build. The smoothness of her face set her age to a young adult, but her thick round glasses brought a certain youth to her. Red twintails set high on her head sat pertly to frame her jawline. Her clothing didn't give away much of her personality, merely a red and white striped shirt and gray denim coat with worn jeans. Owl-like eyes watched Lau sit, and it felt as if he were being studied by a martial arts opponent. Trying not to be unnerved, Lau smiled like always, greeting her with carefree ease.

         "Hello, there. This seat taken?" This is where he would either be brushed off like a pest or greeted in response. Something in her iris turned, more like a camera lens focusing than a pupil dilating, and there was a moment before she smiled in return, mimicking his own perfectly.

           "Ah, not at all taken, nope. Please, sit." Her tone was friendly, and she sounded like she practised a lot. "I'm Mey Rin, it's nice to meet you, it is!" Certainly eager to make friends, she was.

          "I take this bus most days, but I've never seen you before. If you don't mind my asking, where are you going?" Friendly small talk usually went this way, according to the internal list of experience Lau kept. And he was genuinely curious. This was a college town, with the biggest things of interest being the campus and the library. There wasn't much to bring in others, unless she was a new student, but that was unlikely. People didn't usually start in the middle of the semester. She didn't have the air of a shut-in who never attended the classes, either. She really didn't have much of an aura to her at all, as it seemed she barely even breathed.

          "I'm heading to an interview to be a domestic servant, I am! Now, if you'll excuse me one moment, I'll be right back, yessir." She stated with the confidence of a thousand suns and a grin even brighter than that. Then she stood up, not uncommon on a moving bus but a tad odd, and stepped over Lau to walk toward the front. Her stride was structured, perfectly postured and unwavering, even with the swaying of the bus. It reminded Lau of Diedrich, the same strong militant purpose; perhaps she had been in the service for a while? Lau watched her stop beside a slender bespectacled man with very short black hair and lean over.

          "Sir, I don't mean to intrude, I really don't, but I was quite convinced that firearms are illegal here." Her tone had not changed. Her pleasant demeanor remained the same. All surrounding conversation stopped, as those who heard her stared, and those who did not hear picked up on the sudden weight in the air.

          "Firearms? What the fuck are you talking about?" The man spoke quickly, just a bit too loudly, and scooted away. "I don't have a gun! You're crazy!" He tried to laugh, but the end expulsion did little to ease anyone, much less the men around him, who were growing more restless by the second.

          "It's not even well concealed-" she was cut off by a sharp punch.

          "Ow, what the fuck! Her head's hard as hell!" The attacker reeled back in surprise, while Mey Rin merely blinked.

          "Why yes, it is. Thank you for noticing." What Mey Rin failed to notice was the surrounding people. Focused on the ringleader with the gun, she didn't notice someone else pull a pocket knife out and inch away. "Now, I would like to solve this without any violence. I don't want to hurt anyone." But it seemed no one else was privy to listening. A short blonde beside him jumped over the seat to shove the driver out of the way and sat down, gunning the engine forward.
          "You're speeding quite unsafe-" Mey Rin began toward him but as soon as she turned her attention, three identical men grabbed her and pulled her away from the front. Or more, they tried too. "This really is not a very efficient way to do this, no, sir." Mey Rin merely pushed the leftmost one to the right and shoved all three down before tying a seatbelt around them. It wouldn't hold long, but it would suffice until she could stop the blonde in the front seat from crashing as he wove dangerously through lanes of traffic. Ripping her shirt along the bottom to make ties, she pulled the short blonde from the driver's seat and tied him with the strips of her shirt. She then plopped down in his former seat and put her glasses on her head to see better. The entire time, Lau had been filming the ordeal on his phone. He gets footage of each of the triplets' faces and the tied up blonde, then the cowering glasses guy with the gun. He then got behind the red-head. 

           "Do... you know how to drive a bus?" Lau had to wonder what hands he was in. 

           "I have the training to drive a tank, so yes." Her entire aura had changed along with her speech pattern. Her confidence had stayed, but it had changed. Instead of a bright assurance, it was stone cold conviction. The tank statement though, Lau already knew, and this just confirmed that she had been part of the service. So long as one didn't think about the differences between a tank and a bus full of very scared people. "Can the driver move?" She moreso commanded, and the fat old man who had been thrown from his seat sniffled and nodded. "I'll get this bus to the closest stop." There was no questioning how she knew what stops were nearby. "Call the police in that area. Let them know we're on our way." Wow, did Lau miss her smile...

          Once the bus had stopped, as she had commanded, the police were waiting. Lau, having filmed the entire thing, volunteered to go with Mey Rin, who'd put her glasses back on and seemed in a much better mood, to all the questioning and incrimination. Maybe the stress reaction of hers was to shut everything down, or maybe the glasses were the anime token of game-changer. Nevertheless, this Mey Rin was interesting. After giving the video over, Lau waited an entra two hours or so to see if he couldn't accompany her to wherever that interview of hers was. As she walked out of whatever back hall there was, she waved to the officers, as if she managed to know them by name. By the sound of it, perhaps she had. Lau trusted police about as much as he could throw them, but Mey Rin seemed okay.  

           "Oh, Mr, Lau, you're still here?" Her grin was back as powerful as it had been earlier in the afternoon.

          "I was waiting for you, actually. I was going to walk you home, if that's alright?" No question she could handle herself, but he was intrigued. Curiosity would be his death, and no doubt he'd have it no other way. "Where might this interview of yours be?"
          "Oh, dear! I should have called to reschedule, oh dear, I should do that now, I'm sorry, excuse me a moment?" She fiddled with her bag to get out a phone and practically speed-dialed a number.
The next phone to ring was Lau's. Lau took a few steps back and answered. "Tiao Long speaking." Over the phone and a few feet away, he heard an echo of Mey Rin begin to stutter out an apology, then an introduction, mixed with sorry after sorry, but Lau couldn't stop laughing. He had to put his phone down to keep howling, cackling with all the force of the irony. "Mey Rin, Rin, it's," Between the stream of gibberish apology and his own force of laughter, he couldn't get another word in edgewise. Finally, Mey Rin stopped long enough to register the situation. 

          "You are Lau? Lau Tiao Long? Who put up the advertisement?" Mey Rin asked, almost struggling to compute. 

          "That is I, yes. You were heading to an interview for me?" Lau chuckled, struggling to breathe. 

          "I- Yes, I was, yes." Mey Rin caught a bit of his snicker and hung up the phone. "Well then, Mr. Lau," She held out her hand. "I'm Mey Rin, domestic servant for hire, I am."

         "No, no. After today? You're hired." Lau shook her hand and held it on the way out. "It's time to go home. You did know this was a live-in position, correct?"
         "I did, yes." Mey Rin followed, beaming at the thought of a home.