Pocket Change

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Aria

"Aria, wake up!" Adagio yelled as she nudged her awake.

This was something her sisters had a bad habit of doing, waking her up prematurely. Aria jolted upright, eyeing Adagio angrily. "What? This had better be important."

Adagio held out an envelope happily. "Our money's back!"

Aria was understandably confused by this. Why would their money be back?

"Wasn't it stolen? How'd you get it back?" Aria said, taking the envelope in her hand and opening it. Sure enough, it was filled with their previously stolen money, most of it anyways.

"We found it on the hood," Sonata chimed in.

Sonata and Adagio were quite happy about this turn of events, yet Aria couldn't shake the indescribable feeling building up inside of her. Their money was returned in an envelope, manually. This meant that not only did the returner know where they were, they also returned the money discretely. This was planned, and Aria wasn't okay with it in the slightest. It was at that moment that Aria vowed to personally catch the thief. Not to bring them to justice, but to kick their butt herself.

With a newfound purpose, Aria began changing her clothes in the back, confusing her sisters in the process. As opposed to her performance gear, she was now sporting a purple hoodie, black sweats, and white tennis shoots.

"I'll be back later," Aria said as she stepped out of the van, shutting the back doors behind herself and walking off, leaving Adagio and Sonata dumbfounded.

"Does she seem...different, to you?" Sonata asked worriedly.

Adagio hummed to herself. "Now that you mention it, she's much more angsty than usual."

Change

The only things I ended up buying from Flim and Flam were powdered organic dye and ping pong balls. I stopped by CHS's science lab earlier as well. Why? I was making smoke bombs, courtesy of Trixie Lulamoon. Anyone's allowed to use the science lab so long as they follow proper procedures. Making the smoke bombs was fairly simple: combine potassium nitrate and sugar in a beaker at a ratio of three to two, stir until smooth and caramelized, remove from heat, then assemble the smoke bomb. There are more steps than that, but I'd rather not go into excessive detail.

Long story short, I have a few pockets full of smoke bombs now. Since then, I've just been going on a stroll around the city. By now, night had fallen meaning that most everyone had turned in for the night. As I walked, I heard somewhat of a loud commotion through my earphones. Taking my hands out of my pockets, I removed my earbuds and pocketed them, listening for any more noise.

It was coming from a nearby back alley to my left. Unashamed to admit it, my curiosity got the best of me. Leaning up against the opening, I peered down the alley. There was a person wearing a purple hood and sweats with their back turned to me. Based on their figure, they were probably a young adult girl. In front of her was a burly man brandishing a pocket knife, looking not all there in the head.

"Listen here, girly, hand over everything you have, and nobody gets hurt," a rugged voice said through stammered speech.

"At this rate, someone's going to hurt, I'd better step in...or maybe not," I whispered to myself, pulling out a smoke bomb.

Looking away for the briefest of moments, there was a sudden loud thud and grunt. Returning my attention to the scene before me, I was a bit taken aback to see that the roles had been completely reversed. The man was now laying flat on the ground, his arm being strained behind his back as he was being stepped on.

"Woah," I let slip out in disbelief.

The girl tilted her head slightly in my direction. "You gonna keep staring, or-" the girl paused as she looked at me from the corner of her eye.

It was...Aria, but what was she doing out here? Her eyes widened in surprise a bit, releasing her grip on the man. All of a sudden, she made a b-line for me. I almost ran right then and there, but my better judgment told me not to. She leaned in extremely close to me, inspecting me thoroughly. It wasn't until she began sniffing me that things changed for the worst. Out of nowhere, Aria grabbed me by the collar of my shirt, pinning me against the wall using her right forearm.

"It's you," she exclaimed, venom lacing her voice.

During times like these, it was best not to panic. Panicking only served to run you into a corner, I had to play it cool.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I know you," I said, feigning ignorance through an exaggerated voice.

The guy that had been on the ground earlier was now making a run for it. I honestly don't blame him.

"Oh, yeah? Let me jog your memory then," Aria said before throwing me to the ground with a surprising amount of force.

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On instinct, I performed a back handspring, landing on my feet a few meters away from Aria.

"I knew it!"

Crap, I should have taken the fall. "What is wrong with you?!"

"Cut the shit already, would you?"

Aria suddenly delivered a swift jab toward my face which I narrowly managed to avoid.

"I couldn't stop thinking about what happened; I could hardly sleep," she lamented as she threw out a calf kick, followed by a butterfly kick which I blocked using my left forearm. It was now noticeably numb.

The jig was up. There was no talking any sense into this girl anymore, all I could do was run. Just as I was about to bolt, I was suddenly grabbed by my hood and thrown further down the alleyway, hitting the back wall. Just as I gathered my bearings, she delivered a straight punch to the spot just near the right side of my head, the sound of bricks crumbling under its force. I didn't even want to see what she was capable of.

Aria took a few steps back, removing her hoodie, revealing a black compression shirt underneath. To say she was toned would be an understatement. She downright had the perfect physique.

"You're not running away this time. I'll make you fight me seriously if it's the last thing I do."

Fight her seriously? What is she talking about? I can't fight worth a damn; I've been running away my entire life.

I raised my hands up defensively. "Woah, calm down, I don't even know how to fight!"

"This again?! Fine then, be that way."

Aria threw out a jab﹣which I narrowly dodged﹣before spinning around and throwing out a backhand, catching me off guard. She grazed my mask a little, tearing the straps on one side which caused me to have to hold it in place.

"Hiding your face still, you shy or something?" Aria mocked.

"I really don't want any trouble," I insisted as I raised my free hand defensively.

"Then you should have thought twice about robbing us!"

The unrelenting assault continued all while I was trap in the corner. This severely limited my movement options forcing me to take a few hits here and there. Each blow was extremely powerful, shaking me to the core after each impact, but I had learned to roll with the punches a long time ago, so I kept moving.

"Fight back already! I know you can."

To be honest, I knew self-defense, but only when using weapons. For one reason or another, my hand-to-hand combat skills were abysmal. Of course, using weapons was out of the question, it conflicts with my code of conduct, not after what happened with my old man...

A brief lapse in focus was my undoing. After regaining it only a few seconds after losing it, I was only able to make out the faint after-image of a shoe before my world faded to black.

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Aria

After he had gone limp, Aria continued pressing him for about a minute until she realized something was wrong.

"Is he...dead?" She wondered to herself.

Reluctantly, she got down to his level, placing an ear to his chest. Thankfully, there was still a pulse, but Aria was still unsure what to do with him.

Aria began thinking to herself, questioning the legitimacy of her actions. "Could he really not fight? Did I get the wrong person? No, his scent and mannerisms are a perfect match. Who is this guy anyway?"

Reaching out toward his face, she removed his mask, a slight throb in her chest making itself apparent upon doing so. He was...cute, her type actually. It was a shame really. Given that he was unconscious, she was sure he wouldn't mind if she snooped around a little. Aria pulled out a bundle of hair ties, placing the teen's hands behind his back and tieing him up.

Reaching inside his front pockets, she found nothing but a pair of wireless earphones and their charging capsule. It wasn't until she opened his hoodie, however, that she found anything interesting. Pockets, so many pockets lined the inside of the hoodie, and close to the breast pocket was a large smiling mask.

"What in the world?" Aria muttered to herself.

She began checking the pockets one by one but never found any form of credentials, just strange objects: lock picks, weird bomb things, a drone, a phone, and many other obscure objects. Taking the phone, Aria powered it on only to be met by a lock screen. She frowned, putting the phone back and sitting down against the wall next to the unconscious boy, wondering what to do. This person was clearly a thief, an experienced one at that. It was at this moment that Aria had a realization.

She was tired of living paycheck to paycheck, of living in a van. Most of the money is usually spent on booking concerts. Without her amulet, she couldn't use her magic, meaning, no easy earnings. Performing and being adored by fans was more of Adagio's thing, and Sonata's fine with their situation because she can't stand being alone.

"Maybe...I could do it too," Aria thought to herself.

Change

I'm not sure what happened, but I feel like hell. Upon opening my eyes, everything was heavily out of focus. When I tried getting up, I found that I was unable to move my arms. Rubbing my wrist a little, I found that my hands were bound by some kind of semi-elastic fabric.

"Welcome back to the land of the living."

I focused my eyes in the direction of the voice, a blurred figure coming into view. She was sitting against the wall just beside me.

"Aria?"

"You a fan or somethin'?" She said as she absentmindedly looked down at her phone, texting away.

I remained silent.

"I guess it was true, you really can't fight. You sure are good at dodging though, you're like some kind of weasel," she continued

I subtly struggled against my bindings, finding a bit of leverage.

"I wouldn't do that, if I were you," Aria warned as she pointed the screen of her phone at me, revealing a picture of my unconscious self without a mask.

I immediately ceased my efforts. "So what, you're going to turn me in, report me?"

Aria placed her phone in her pocket before inspecting her fingernails. "That...depends on you."

Depends on me? Oh, I get it.

"You want me to steal for you," I declared.

This has happened before, but my clients always came to me first; mainly belongings from an ex or financial documents among other things.

"Not quite."

"Then what do you want?"

Aria looked me in the eyes before responding. "I want you to teach me how to steal."

Needless to say, this confused me. "Aren't you like a pop star or something? Why do you need to steal?"

She sighed. "It's not very lucrative from where I stand. We don't make much more than what it costs to book each venue. On top of that, my sisters just keep putting it toward more concerts, saving a little each time. And the savings aren't exactly open for me to just reach into. I'm tired of living paycheck to paycheck, of living in a van," Aria lamented.

I wasn't exactly sure how to take this, I did feel somewhat bad though. "That's rough."

Aria smiled softly to herself. "Anyway, I'm gonna need your phone number."

"Wait a minute, think about what you're asking."

Aria's smiled faded. "Digits, now," she demanded.

I guess there's no changing her mind. Reluctantly, I gave her my number, unsure what to think of this turn of events. On the bright side, it looks like I wasn't going to be turned in, but I was now at her mercy. With that, she stood up.

"We'll talk details over the phone, save my number, and don't you dare try to weasel your way out of this," she warned before turning to walk off.

"Wait, aren't you going to untie me?"

She smirked to herself back at me, putting her hoodie back on. "I'm sure you can handle yourself."

After that, she walked away out of sight. Just my luck...