Eva arrived at Khalash’s shop that morning to come face to face with a fuming old man. Even Eva was taken aback to see a scowl on the usually pleasant face of the strange magic items dealer. He stopped pacing around the shop when he spotted her but Eva was reluctant to take any further step inside until she understood what exactly she was getting in on. “That blasted idiot sold me a faulty item!” he fumed, throwing his hands back in exasperation. Eva finally took a few steps inside when she understood he wasn’t exactly mad at her. “What do you mean?” she asked after placing a small white bag down on the counter. The man clearly looked like he wanted to strangle someone. “Look at this,” he showed her a small item that looked much like a brooch to her with a floral shape on it. “I was told this was a highly valuable magical item but it’s faulty! I tested it and it’s not giving away any magic signals,” he huffed, throwing the item carelessly to the shop counter. “If you don’t mind, Eva san can you stay here and get that item refunded while I go run some errands?” he asked her with a look that said he didn’t want to hear a no for an answer. Eva shrugged and gave in. It wasn’t as if she had anything to do.

When Khalash left, Eva took off her black jacket and hang it up in the backroom before coming back and taking a place behind the counter. She started sorting out the items much like the last time, keeping the faulty brooch to a side over a stack of books. She attended to the numerous people that came in asking for one thing or the other, struggled to figure out what exactly they wanted and managed to run the shop without creating a tornado in there. It wasn’t until lunch time that Eva finally got a few minutes to rest. Since her stomach was growling so much, she had contacted the nearest restaurant to deliver a bowl of noodles for her. Tapping her finger on the wooden counter, Eva felt very impatient until she heard the ring of the doorbell. She paid the man that delivered her lunch, gave a little extra as tip and placed the still hot bowl down on the counter before taking a seat on the stool behind it.

Scrolling through the messages on her phone, Eva dug through the noodles with her chopsticks before slurping them up. She took a spoonful of the broth every now and then, turning back to the worried messages of her manager. For once, she sat down and replied to him, telling him that she would be back working for him again soon. He reassured him to not worry so much for her and slipped the phone back into her pocket. The bell rang again and Eva quickly got up, pulling the bowl off the counter to place it to a side away from where people could see it.

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“Welcome to the Mad Drugs!” she chimed and looked up to meet a nervous looking man. He must have been in his thirties with a beard and sunken brow eyes. He looked at her relieved, running a tense hand over his hair. “So…uh…Khalash is not, he is not here?” he asked with his eyes running around the store, landing on Eva only once or twice. Because Eva had seen the same behavioral pattern on many people before, she immediately noted that he was acting like someone who had something to hide.

“I’m here to…uh…take back that…that item I gave him. He said something about it being faulty?” the man spoke, still not fully looking up at her. Eva curled her lips up. “I’m sorry, sir, but if you are trying to say something to me –of course you would be speaking to me because there is no one here besides me, is there? - I hope that you would actually show the least bit of decency to look me in the eyes,” Eva spoke in a blank tone, not so subtly asking him to cut the crap and just look at her as he spoke.

It caught his attention since he threw a weak glare at her before clearing his throat. “So I’m here to take the item back. If he doesn’t want it, that’s his problem but I’m not refunding anything,” the man spoke in a stubborn tone that made Eva want to slap the man back and forth. “You can either give me the full money Khalash san paid you and take the item back or I can force it off of you,” she replied after dropping all masks. She really didn’t need them with people like these.

He paled but stood his ground. “What…what if I didn’t? What are you gonna do about it, huh?” he asked but took a step back when Eva’s eyes narrowed at him. With her contract symbol glowing a deep red, Eva let a sharp wind shoot up from underneath the man, throwing his balance off and causing him to fall back on his behind. “Please leave the money here and take that item before I decide to use any more of my powers,” she explained, pointing to the spot in front of her for where he should leave the money and then pointing at the brooch that sat on a stack of books to her left.

He was quick to his feet, hastily dropping some jewels on her counter and taking the item with him before running out the door. She gave Khalash a call through the magic lacrima and narrated the incident over to him, leaving out the part where she threatened the man, and as per instructed, took her share of the money from the refunded amount and left, closing and locking the shop behind her. She let the magic lacrima transport the keys to Khalash as she went back, knowing full well that she would have to pay Khalash another visit very soon to help him with the magic item that she was initially responsible for.

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