Welcome to Gaia! ::

Chong again translated Eponine's question, speaking in rapid Chinese to the old man. As he finished, the old man didn't say anything, opting instead to look around suspiciously.

Lotus... he had heard of the organization, of course. But if they were looking for Fuhua, they might have some sort of bad intentions, the man thought. Then again, they could be attempting to capture him, or some such thing. What that had to do with Lotus' goals, he had no idea, having no idea what those goals were in the first place.

Well, it wasn't like these two girls could do anything on their own. Not even with the seedy Chinese man with them, most likely. He supposed he could tell them a bit of what he knew.

Turning to Chong, he told him that he had only met Fuhua twice. The first time was when he attempted to steal some shoes (a women's pair, strangely enough), and the second time was in an attempt to hide from something. That second occasion had been mere days ago, and the old man had kicked the thief out of his store, hitting him with a pump until he was out the door. But before Fuhua had left, he had mumbled something about incense and food. Here, the man paused to think. The man supposed, he told Chong, that Fuhua wanted to buy incense for some reason. Perhaps they could try some place that sold that, he offered.

"He wouldn't buy incense because buying incense is stupid and a waste of Yuan," Chong said, "his words, not mine."

"I think I saw a incense vendor outside before..."

Shee thought hard. "I smelled him, at least. Shall we go?"

"Um, yes? That's the point, isn't it?" Shee replied. "Don't worry. It gets easier as you go along."

There it was. The pungent, aged smell of incense burning reached Shee's nose. It was a smell she'd grown up with, and one that would never leave her.

"I see him! He's right there, with that old wooden half of a cart. Alright. Maybe we should change tactics just a smidge to prevent the yelling and stuff that happened with the shoe man?"

As Shee let out a little giggle at the question, Chong rolled his eyes and translated. This was getting boring. He hoped something exciting would happen soon.

The incense vendor fumbled, dropping some of the burning sticks he was holding. His hat, which had been covering his entire face up to this point, dropped off and landed in the dirt with a soft thud. As he bent down, hair messily covering his eyes, he squatted behind his cart, disappearing from view and didn't resurface.

"Well, not really Eponine." Shee frowned. Why had the man reacted like that?

As Eponine leaned over the cart to see where the vendor had gone, the vendor, still crouching behind his cart, looked up at Eponine, grey eyes flashing. Beside him was the body of another man, lying unconcious and hidden from their view. Until now.

There was suddenly a loud pop and smoke surrounded them.

Shee could just see through the smoke enough to see the supposed vendor running in the direction opposite them.

Turning in circles confusedly, Chong tried to figure out what had happened. Hopefully not something life-threatening. Ah well. It was better than translating.

Chong hurriedly clapped his hands to his ear to avoid being permanently struck deaf by Eponine's scream. He didn't know she had it in her.

The smoke cleared, and all Chong and Shee could see was Eponine's back, her coat rippling behind her as she ran to catch up with the pretend vendor. As they turned a corner, Shee caught sight of the impostor and an alarm bell went off in her head. She recognized that face.

"AHHHH! EPONINE, CATCH HIM! THAT'S HIM! THAT'S FUHUA!"

Shee mouth dropped as Eponine went about five times as fast as she had been going before. That was... amazing. Beside her, Chong looked equally dumbstruck.

Fuhua looked back at Eponine, and his slight smirk dropped off his face as he saw Eponine right behind him. He was jerked back as she caught a hold of his arm from behind. Wrestling madly, he tried to escape from her grip.