Surprise Encounter

It was a weekend and Kazuma was playing Dark Blood in his room when there was a knock on his door. “Kazuma?” called his mom from the other side. “Yea,” Kazuma replied, his eyes still on the screen. His mom opened the door slightly. “Could you go down to the market and pick up some things?” she asked. “Ok,” Kazuma said as he reached a stopping point in the game. “Here is a list of what to get,” she said as she reached an arm into the room and dropped the note.

After a bit, Kazuma made it to the market street. It was alive with activity. People walking up and down the stores and stalls, checking out the prices and making purchases.

Looking down at the list, Kazuma verified want was on it and scanned over to the side to see if any of the stores where selling them, walking forward as he did. Suddenly, something collided into him, knocking him backwards slight.

“Ouch”, a woman’s voice cried in front of him. He quickly turned to see a young woman, about in her twenties, right in front of him, rubbing her forehead from the impact with one hand. In her other hand was a smartphone. Her hair was short, just reaching her earlobes and was light brown.

“I’m sorry,” Kazuma quickly apologized. “No, it’s my fault,” the woman replied. “I was too focused in my phone.”

“Are you sure you are alright,” Kazuma asked. “It seems you took more of the hit.”

The woman waved her free hand dismissively. “I’m fine. Thank you for your concern.” And with that she went around him and continued on her way. Kazuma glanced back to see if she was alright before he resumed shopping.

Moments later, Kazuma caught sight of two large cardboard boxes being carried out of a store. Whoever was carrying them was slowly heading in his direction. Whoever was carrying them seemed to be having some trouble and were drawing a bit of attention from other shoppers. Most of them would just watch for a bit, but not stop what they were doing. To the left of the boxes, Kazuma could make out the top of someone’s head. They had an unusual silver hair color that Kazuma recognized.

“Excuse me,” he called as he approached the person. As he got closer, he could tell that it was indeed Rieka.

“Is that you, Rieka?” he asked once he was close enough. Rieka stopped moving. “Do I know you,” she asked, a bit of strain in her voice. “I’m Kazuma Morisawa. I’m on the boys’ volleyball team. I saw you at the tryouts.”

“Oh,” she replied as she tried to remember if she saw him.

“Do you need any help with those boxes?” Kazuma asked. “No, I’m good,” Rieka quickly replied before she started forward. “Are you sure,” Kazuma asked again. “It looks like they’re too bulky for one person to carry.”

Rieka stopped and let out a sigh. “Fine,” she said. “You can take the top one.” With that Kazuma reached over and grabbed the sides of the box and told hold of it. “Follow me,” Rieka said as he took hold.