The last bus is about to leave. Now Felicia and Benimaru are running. Having to dash out of the flat and into the streets, they're racing against time itself. For the only bus that will take them to their planned destination is still a good mile away.
Though they are new to the area, Benimaru has ensured that both he and Felicia thoroughly study the map of the city for precautionary measures. And no matter how much Felicia tries to assure him she'll remember, he has made her sit with him for the better part of a few hours of the night observing and taking in every aspect of the map's markings that indicated different things in the city.
Perfect for sightseeing. Even more crucial when you're in danger of losing everything at one wrong turn. But even the most precise map of all cannot prep them for this.
Everything is so big. Buildings tower over them higher than forest trees. It all seems so disorienting and discombobulating. And yet they don't care. Even when they look up and the dizziness of this crowded, active metropolis seemed to be enclosing them in a game where they cannot win. Benimaru instinctively grabs Felicia's hand and drags her along as they keep running on the sidewalks.
"Come one, come on! Get your butt in gear! How can you be an assassin when you're this slow?!" Felicia exclaims to Benimaru as she gets alongside him, still running.
She tries to joke with him to try and get her mind off of how uncomfortable she is feeling. She's wearing dress shoes and over-the-knee socks, and they're already taking a toll. Her feet are getting sore, and every time they hit the ground, she feels the pain surge up through her body. She tries not to let it show. This is supposed to be an exciting day for her, after all.
But Benimaru notices she is in pain and struggling. Knowing she can't and won't keep up at his full accelerated pace on her own and since they're running out of time, Benimaru decides to take a daring alternative. He yanks her by the hand that he's still holding in his, sending Felicia's body flying off her feet and close to him so he could catch her in both arms. Then he catches her and begins to carry her, holding her by her upper back and shoulders in one arm and the back of her knees in the other. Once he has her, Benimaru starts to go full speed. His feet move so quickly. He's going faster than most of the cars on the road.
Bypassing many other pedestrians who glance longer at the duo after they have gotten in their way or cursed and shook their fists at them for nearly knocking them over. Felicia practically kicks a lady with a baby carrier into the street as she's still being carried by Benimaru. She is just trying to relax and stretch out her feet and ankles, but she ends up kicking some poor mother and her baby off course and into danger. They definitely receive some cussing for that one from bystanders.
"Watch where you're going!" Felicia yells angrily at Benimaru.
"You're the one who keeps kicking people!" Benimaru snaps back.
"Well I wouldn't have to kick anyone if you could just find a clear path to the bus stop!" Felicia tries to place the blame on him.
"I had no idea this city was so sprawling!"
"Every city is sprawling, you big dummy! But I guess I should expect something like this from a countryside boy!"
"You know, we wouldn't be having this argument if you had just woken up on time and not asked for seconds at breakfast when you knew we're running late!"
"Hey, I'm going to need my energy for today! There's no way I can do my utmost on one of the most important days of my life on an empty stomach!"
"Are you sure you don't have an empty head, too?"
Benimaru knows that last remark is a mistake, for he's instantly attacked by Felicia's poking fingers and her body squirming around in his arms as she begins grabbing onto his hair and using her open palms to slap him repeatedly across both cheeks. She's throwing another childish tantrum for having been so inexorably insulted. Her hands soon get into his eyes, so he can't see where he's going.
"For the love of the Gods, knock it off!" he shouts.
Once he gets rid of the obstruction by literally shaking her hands off his head, the next thing the duo was met with was a truck's blaring horn. He almost stops running for when he sees the oncoming big hauler vehicle about to strike them both. Felicia even screams in fright.
Fortunately, she then flicks her fingers on her right hand and wave them around in the air for a moment while reciting an incantation. The magic swells, and it makes the truck move much slower as though all of time is beginning to freeze.
Benimaru's feet kept moving, and once they make it to the other sidewalk at the end of the street, Felicia releases her spell and the truck and its driver resume normal speed. And as they reach the other side of the crosswalk, they have to make a sharp left turn down the next sidewalk, the one where the bus stop is located.
However, once they see the bus itself at the end of the road, the wheels begin to turn and the large passenger vehicle pulls away from the bus stop, slowly at first but gradually picks up speed.
Hot sweat is rolling down Benimaru's cheek. Though he's reaching his limit, he pushes himself further and runs faster than he ever has before. It takes some time to get there, and all the while, Felicia is chanting him on to keep going.
"Go, go, go! We're almost there! Speed it up! Let's go, let's go!" she keeps saying.
"I know, I got it!" he shoots back.
Eventually, the duo is right alongside the bus, and a few of the bus's passengers see them. One in particular is a teenage girl with dark skin and thick pink glasses. Her dark brown braided hair is pulled into two short pigtails on either side at the base of her head. She stares at the duo of Brett and Felicia in confusion and wondering how anyone can run so fast and carrying a person at the same time.
Then, Felicia reaches out her hand and begins slamming repeatedly with her palm flat on the side paneling of the large vehicle.
"Hey, wait! Wait!" she calls out.
The bus driver hears this, and despite being on a busy road and a tightly scheduled route, he wants to know who in the world could possibly be ignorant and arrogant enough to chase after his bus. So he pulls over to the curb and floors it on the brakes. After that, the doors open, and the duo runs inside. Actually, Benimaru runs inside while still carrying Felicia, and he let her down once they were standing face-to-face with the bus driver.
"Think you've got some nerve making me stop my bus just so you can get on?!" the bus driver questions them in a sharp, cranky tone.
"We're really sorry, but we've…we've got get to where we need to go!" Felicia insists, almost pleading, while also trying to catch her breath.
After due consideration, the man realizes he has no time to argue with these mere kids, "Ugh, fine! Just pay the fair and take a seat already!"
So they do. Both of them are still panting and wheezing from all that running.
Benimaru, slumping into his seat, notices this and asks her, "Why are you all breathless if I was the one running?"
"Because that was…was pretty stressful. Don't you…agree?"
"Of course, but I—it's just…Oh, never mind it! Just let me rest here for a bit, and don't talk to me either till we get there!" he demanded.
As soon as he said that, Benimaru closed his eyes, leaned his head back, and slumped even further in his seat, still trying to catch his breath and feeling so exhausted that he wanted to sleep it off. But he knows that isn't doable.
Felicia lifts her bookbag up to her lap and starts to open it. That's when Reynardo pops his fox head out from the flap. "So, I see we made it onto the bus with minimal issues," says Reynardo.
"No thanks to you, rat." Benimaru complains.
"Shush, you two," Felicia says to them both. She comfortingly pets Reynardo's head fur for a moment but then pushes him back into her bag, "Now's not the time to come out yet, Reynardo. Stay in there, okay?" She whispers to her familiar.
"But I'm getting cramped. And I think you packed too many snacks. There's not enough school supplies in here." Reynardo mentions, with his voice getting muffled from being in a leather bookbag.
Sure, Benimaru hears the fox fae say that Felicia hasn't come fully prepared for her first day of school in the city. But he's way too tired to scold her right now.
Somebody has to watch over Felicia, and that somebody is Benimaru. Regardless, what he'd give for even just a half a day off from all this strain. Even after two years, his profession calls for round the clock service.
Luckily for him, for the remainder of the bus ride, Felicia keeps to herself, looking out the window and watching the world go by, and she doesn't nag Benimaru once. And still staring at them from two rows of seats directly behind theirs is the girl with dark skin and glasses. It isn't in her nature to eavesdrop, but this strange duo has piqued her curiosity.