She was attentive to the cold, the mutt that took an immediate liking to her, no, her taste, and the ripe bruise that was a token from strangulation. Nothing she would call out of the ordinary... save it came from a inanimate object, a choker. Power like clenching arms of titans, sharp like broken, rusted knives.

It couldn't be mistaken. It reacted to something so strongly, it was vilely against whatever was supposed to have happened.

Blissful running water met her ears, calmed her nerves, eased her soul. She craned her neck, digits tracing the protrusion of skin. It ached, raw flesh throbbing not unlike her heartbeat, fast and rigid. She winced, fingers curling into her palm. She couldn't feel that warm trickle of blood, those gusting winds cutting to her bone rather than licking at bronze and iron.

She heaved a breath, filling her lungs with much needed air, her ribs straining to keep pace with the expansion. The pain was unbearable, drawing tears to the corners of her eyes, staining her cheeks, whimpering the entire duration.

And then she froze, although not because of the wind, which was threatening her body heat and well-being.

But because...

A looming shadow drenched her vision, the sun blotted out not by clouds, but of a boy. She had not seen him lingering there when she arrived; his arrival having only been recently, she assumed. How had she not seen him? It was true, she was passed out, choking, bruising exceptionally well, nearly bleeding? mundane facts that quieted her startled brain.

She did not address him, for she did not feel she had to. Instead, she sneered. She disliked, with a passion hotter than fire, those who stared at her that way. And she was even less appreciative when it were of those she did not know.

Her eyes narrowed. His movements, the way he carried himself, even the way he spoke. It? marveled her.

Seldom was there a moment when the girl found herself so quickly on the defense when somebody approached her however; that kind of stare almost an honor as she barely could muster its power deep in her joyous expressions.

Her time spent in the school hardly had a silent moment; but here? Here was when she knew she could escape those realities. They even went through that trouble for her?

He knew her name, and not just that; he knew what she liked to be called by only her most trusted friends? her closest to the heart. That meant he was from the school; but she never remembered encountering him, nor seen his face in the classes she took. He didn't wear a class uniform, but neither did she. Out of bounds of the jurisdiction of the committee, did it still matter? She was grasping at straws here, to find a cause for concern. Was there reason to even have one?

"W-who are you?" she stammered, rising to her feet, hand drawing from her choker and resting on a wrist. She steeled herself, and those chimes that were threatening to hum regardless if she kept them on a tight leash between clenching digits. She didn't want to disturb attention like she commonly did with Toby.

His face, his clothing? she didn't recognize them. She felt her sneakers churning in the dirt beneath her feet, but her legs were frozen. Those vibes she felt, from people she hung close to, those things that she knew were her instincts told her to turn, to move. She couldn't budge; couldn't maintain herself long enough to just RUN.

No. Instead, she stood there, ever the innocent school girl from the Academy, feigning interest in who or what he was. "And w-w-what's wrong with my friends? Nobody asked you!"

Teeth bore down on the inner of her lower lip, brows furrowed so that seeds could be planted just in time for harvest season. The Academy's emblem, which only confirmed her initial belief that he was from the school. It explained how he knew her name. However, it brought more questions than it answered, most of which was as formidable as tattered clothing in the dead of winter.

She looked up, regarding him with scorn, fingers clenching around the wrist of hers that she held so intently. "I-It's only common courtesy to introduce yourself," she explained, although not so strongly as she would have liked; that stammer when she's nervous, embarrassed or completely out of mind destroying any hopes at keeping things in her favor.

Her head lowered after saying so, deflated. Why did everybody have to run off on her?

She looked back up to him after he toted about her brains being left in the street, not sure she followed his context. She moved after him as he began to seemingly retreat, unwilling to let something so prim and basic become a vague memory for her to recall after getting ample sleep. "T-that doesn't explain very much," May stated, her tone suggesting it was more obvious than merely by her repeating it as such. "Th-they take care of me," if the huge, bruising ring of surfacing crimson that looked like she was strangled by chicken wire was any example of such.

Granted, Katt's use of magic on her was not intending to draw harm. But who was to truly know outside of Katt herself?

Mayu sighed quietly to herself, pulling her thoughts of the events back home into focus. Fuka only allowed her passage to another realm because of her situation at the school; they went through all the explanations so she was well-informed. She had ties to the administration through her phone and her constant requirement to attend classes. And she did that! At no point did they inform her that she would either require an escort, or that anybody else was to make the same travelling plans. In fact, by doing so, it put her entire scheme in jeopardy. If you could even call it a scheme.

"At least tell me a name?" a request, beseeching information. She was angry, both at him and the school. But it couldn't show itself. She was? frightened.

"P-P-Power?" she stammered, eyes crossing as the finger collided with her chin, rising to look at him directly. Were it not so cold, her fear would have perspired across her temple. Instead, her teeth chattered, her fingers coiled; her legs threatening to buckle from immense pressure that only she was putting on them.

It was that strain of fear.

She didn't stop. She couldn't so easily let it go where others might have. To seek out his name? To run back home and request they tell her everything? To even suggest to the school, were they not at fault? she wouldn't ever be allowed to return to this realm. A hand lifted to swat his away, eyes of pure oceanic swirls glaring at him, not filled with the inner turmoil of hate, but of rash accusation. He was toying with his advantage of information. Information she craved. And a sealed can could still be peeled with enough abuse. She only hoped she was not the can.

With purpose, she took several steps ahead, moving past him to the world beyond. The market was just beginning to become populated; so soon would the world surround her and she could ease out into the populace without even trying. It was part of May's specialty. Her question was, as many that were coiling inside of her brain like a clot, would he allow it?

"W-What do you w-want from me?" she decided on asking, not turning to look at him, but all the same interested in what he had to say for himself. The bangles were released so that her hands could finger the tender ring of crimson across her throat. It stung, a feeling that she could only imagine was the last thing criminals felt before they met their end at the guillotine.

This exchange not unlike those final moments?

She turned on a dime, a brand new car that was out for its first test drive. It was smooth, it was quick. She knew that, once she faced him again, that steady feeling she had in her chest was to melt away like ice on a summer day. No sooner that it was there; that courage to ask a question and to devise a strategy of execution, would it be gone and leave her right where she began.

Alone.

Her fingers lowered, ringing through the choker that was tight to her neck. She could feel her own embrace, its shaky feeling riling the anxiety that burned to her soul. A finger flick, a step forward? she didn't see him. She had heard him ask, and she was willing to answer.

"Silly, silly May. What makes you think that I want anything from you?" She could feel his voice, his mocking tone, radiate through her brain. It was nerve-wracking at the same time it was easing. The former, however, ate away at her ability to remain sane. To remain calm; she knew that it would no longer do.

Fumbling hands unzipped her jacket, pulling out her phone that was usually at her side no matter the circumstances, working the surface to dial. Were it not for the pinpoint line that they devised back home together with her, there wouldn't be a chance in hell that she could make a connection. It didn't matter at this rate.

"I-It's me," she quietly spoke into the phone, a hand cuffing the receiver so that she could both be heard over the disturbing noise of morning shopping, and to keep herself unheard from any listeners. Namely, him. "I need you to run a c-check on the school list for m-me. ? No, I don't have a n-name? but I have a description. ? O-okay, get back to m-me."

She pocketed the phone, allowing her gaze to penetrate the crowd and survey the surroundings. She didn't see him, but she knew? it would not be the last.