One Small Step [Closed/Shinpei]

Damn damn damn damn! she raged in her mind, although on the surface she appeared as calm and collected as always. The reason for her rage...well, it was simple. Often she had at least something to go off of when it came to a target. People they knew, places they'd been. But this guy, the only thing she knew was how he looked. Nobody she talked to could give her a lot of information on him, and that bugged her. No one was a mystery...not unless they were like herself. A wanderer who went from place to place...was that what he was? Well it didn't matter. She would get rid of him just like any other.

It was a stroke of luck, fortune, that she had actually managed to spot him; for the past little while, she had been following him, sure he was aware of her. People tended to have a knack for these sorts of things, knowing when they were being followed, even if the stalker wasn't being obvious about it at all. Ruu did her best to not stick out, a task easily done when one had been doing this sort of thing for decades. All she had to do was wait for him to get to a secluded area, and...ah, yes. Perfect. He'd just headed into one of the lesser visited areas of the park. As Ruu walked by various people, she didn't even bother to check if this guy she was going after was normal or not; no, she was far too preoccupied.

Both at the mysterious lack of information, and at the fact that he had opted to head here in the first place. Had he noticed her, then? Ruu somewhat hoped he had, that would mean there would be no pretenses. The girl stepped through the thicket of trees, emerging in a semi-hidden grove in the park. The man was there. Waiting for her? Just listening to the sounds going on nearby? She wasn't sure. Either way, he was a target. But as much as he had to die...Ruu told herself. At the least, she would hear his name. And perhaps discover why it was he was such a mystery to learn about.

Did he purposely keep it like that, or was it just a byproduct of...something? The girl shook her head; she was getting distracted, too distracted, by her own thoughts. The sooner this was over with, the better. "...Hello," she called out, her tone somewhat warm, even if she was feeling anything but that. If he heard or not didn't matter, because already she was continuing to speak. "My name's Sophia," her real name, the one she had abandoned quite a long time ago. People usually didn't react so strangely to it compared to the name she used now. That...and she wanted to use it just in case somehow, her name was making circles somewhere. It was something she liked to do now and then, switch up the name she used to introduce herself.

"Who're you?" simple, to the point; hopefully he'd give up his name. The girl opened her mouth to speak when it happened...the pain flared up, and she clutched her stomach, her eyes suddenly closed. Why did this always have to happen?

"How dare you curse our town so, witch! We should kill you!" "Yes, kill the witch! Get rid of the one who is destroying our town!" ah, that was...she shook her head. Stupid memories. Ones I shouldn't remember she commented to herself, opening her eyes as the pain died down. Had the man even turned to face her? Did he notice how she was behaving? Ruu sorely hoped not.

"Sophia, dear, sometime you'll have to learn you can't do everything." her mother chided, a soft smile on her face as she tended to the wound her daughter had gotten from a tiny fall. "Nuh-uh. I bet I can do anything if I want to." the young girl huffed.

...Some memories, perhaps, she ought to remember. "I hope my sudden question isn't too odd." she added, hastily moving her hand away from her stomach, chiding herself in her mind for not moving it away faster.