Her eyes swept past the camera, repeatedly averting from the looking directly into the lens. It's not that she had a fear of cameras, it was just embarrassing considering what she was wearing.
"I swear you are just the cutest thing ever!" Shouted the photographer—her friend Aniya—as she teleported from angle to angle.
Samantha, the girl who recently moved into the city, was no better than a man from how intently she was staring. In particular, her gaze lingered at Alice's chest and curves which were punctuated by the frilly swimsuit she had on.
"W-What's with the swimsuits anyways? It's still the middle of January. Nowhere near summer break."
"Ah? Who gives a crap about summer break? I just wanna see you embarrassed." Replied Aniya, already holding up another swimsuit.
This would make the 4th one she'd recommended.
"Enough swimsuits already! We came all the way to the mall, so the least we could do is pick out a nice outfit. You know, one that… would be nice on a date…"
The two girls gasped in unison.
"D–D–D–Date?!! Did our Alice really fall in love?" They simultaneously questioned.
Alice twiddled her thumbs, her face beet red.
"N–No… It's not like that… I just like to be prepared."
"She's in love, isn't she?"
"Yeah, she's definitely in love."
"No, I am not!!"
"Alright, alright. We'll take your word for it, promise…" Aniya reassured while crossing her fingers behind her back. "Anyways, give me back that swimsuit, I want Samantha to try it on next. You can wear this one."
"Huh?! We're dressing me up too? But wouldn't take look awful on me?" Samantha protested.
"Girl, have you ever seen a mirror? You're as cute as my pet hamster."
"Enough with the swimsuits!!" Alice protested while slamming the curtains shut and changing back into her uniform.
While doing so, she accidentally stubbed her toe.
"Ow, ow, ow. Why do these things happen to me? Does the universe really hate me?"
She shook the thought off. Again. That question had been clawing at her brain way too often lately. She was a perpetual overthinker, a habit that stemmed from her disconnected childhood.
"Are you okay in there, Alice?"
"Y-Yeah! I just hit my foot into the seat."
Her mind wondered back to Akuma and Wujing. She couldn't help but be a little suspicious from how they were acting. Specifically, how they had just left her instead of explaining themselves. And the question still nagged at her, who was this Wujing?
"Hey, can I you guys a question?" Alice probed the two with her head sticking out of the curtains.
"Eh? What's up, Alice?"
"Yeah, what's the matter."
"That girl from class, the one who was late, do you any of you know her?"
Samantha and Aniya exchanged puzzled glanced.
"You mean Wujing? Of course we know her. She's our classmate."
"Even I know her name, and I haven't been here for long."
She had expected that answer. All the same, she wasn't any less confused.
"Right. My bad."
Alice returned to the confines of the curtain.
The only reason she hadn't gone insane was because of how casually Akuma acted around her. She had horns, and horse-like appendages, but as long as Akuma wasn't worried, she knew she had no reason to be either.
"Okay, I'm all done. What store are headed to now?"
The first thing that caught her attention was how unusually quiet it sounded. The second was that Aniya and Samantha had vanished.
Alice glanced around but couldn't see them anywhere in the store. Actually, she couldn't find anyone in the store, as if she'd suddenly teleported into an abandoned mansion.
"Was it always this empty? I could've sworn there were more people around. Did the alarm go off and I just missed it? No, Aniya and Samantha wouldn't leave me like that… Right?"
A cold sweat raced down her cheek.
(Wait… Could they have just been pretending to be my friend? Playing along while talking about me behind my back?! Are they the only ones? Oh no, what if the entire class has a group chat without me, and they just talk about me…)
"No, what am I even thinking. Of course they wouldn't do that. They must've gone to check out another store. Or use the bathroom."
Alice peeked out of the store entrance, locating all their favorite spots inside the mall. However, she realized that something was fundamentally wrong.
The mall lacked that intimidating aura. The one that causes any low elo introverts to throw up just thinking about it. In fact, there wasn't a single person inside the store. No shoppers, no resellers, no workers, nothing.
…Just her.
Alice slowly stepped out of the door, as if she were convinced the ground had turned into some rare quicksand and swallowed the store whole. But that possibility was instantly ruled out once her feet planted on the marble with no issue.
Unease gripped her lungs. She checked any nearby store regardless of the products and even checked behind decorative plants and inside the bathroom. Still nothing. Not so much as a strand of hair.
By now, her feeling of unease morphed into something much more dire.
She decided to try and call the two. However, she was brought to voice mail every time. Feeling desperate, she called the only person she thought could help her. A boy who'd once told her he could see ghosts or something like that. But that was brought to voicemail too.
Alice continued her voyage through the silent mall, hoping to find anything.
The machines worked just fine. The escalator was up and running and the lights were still on. The background music was also still playing. It was like the store was running on autopilot.
Alice hitched a ride on the escalator down to the first floor. One her decent, she spotted a water leak down on the first floor. Somewhere behind the escalator, a pipe had busted, causing the water to spread across the marble floor. At least, that's what she wanted to tell herself. But the color just restlessness ate away at her. She had to check it out.
And it was then, at the bottom of her journey, that her phone slipped through her weakened grip and released a "crack" sounding scream as it hit the floor.
Her eyes trembled as she crept back from beside the escalator. Hundreds of bodies, all piled into one stack. Blood poured down like a red tinted chocolate fountain. It covered the entire back of the escalator and was still spreading the rest of the first floor. But none of that was what truly sucked her strength, inflicting so much fear she couldn't even run away.
It was the obsidian creature that stood well over three meters, its columns of sharp teeth digging into their bones, muscles and fat one by one. It feasted with the intensity that made it seem as if this were its last meal.
Molted light pulsed from the base of its thigh to its knees, as if lava were being transported through his body.
"What… is that…?"
This was an ordinary world. There were no goblins running amok, no dragon soaring through the sky and definitely no demons with strange powers.
…Right?