Over the years, many retail outlets change.

The extent of this change can vary from a simple rearrangement of where
goods are kept, a remodeling of the entire interior, or a simple change
of the colour scheme when the shop in question changes hands or becomes
part of a different franchise.

What rarely happens is the shop in question commenting on what has been
done to it or giving those doing the changes the benefit of its advice.

From the view point of the sole cash register on the counter top, the
Shop (not a merely shop at all) which had been newly renamed "Pochi"
surveyed once more what it's Master had made of the interior of the shop.

/Very impressive. You can't fail to drag in some customers now. At
least, as soon as you hang out a sign./

Inwardly, Pochi truly was impressed with the change that had been
wrought by its newest Master. Getting rid of random dust and debris was
almost always a good thing, excepting those rare cases where the debris
was what a customer actually wanted, but its previous masters has tended
towards an ambiences ranging from "cramped shop full of books" to "how
in the worlds did they fit all these weird things in this junk shop".

Neat shelves, strong primary colours, and a floor polished to black
gleam made a stark contrast to what it was used to say the least.
Perhaps not what it might have gone for, given the choice, but working
out such details was part of the reason that the Master would be the one
to deal with any customers.

Talking of which, Pochi still felt awfully hungry but luckily enough
someone was just opening the door...

****************************************************

               ONE OF THOSE SHOPS

            An Improfanfic Production

          Started by Farsan de Arnibia

               Written by: Merior

         With the Aid and Assistance of

          Natsuko Motivation Unlimited

              Branch B - Chapter 4

         Interruptions and Interjections

****************************************************

"Miro! We're back."

Calling out as she stepped inside, Rikura half dragged Theodore into the
shop then stopped and stared at she looked at the altered interior.
Certainly it little resembled what the near wreck of a place it had been
when they left, but one key change caught her eyes.

Letting go of Theodore's arm, she looked around the store slowly before
her eyes turned back to where Miro stood behind the counter and she
strode up to it.

Miro started to feel more than a little worried at look on Rikura's face.

"Where has they gone?" Rikura asked, a touch frantically as she gestured
to the new shelving, "You haven't lost them or thrown them away or
something?"

Blinking slightly, Miro was about to ask what in the world she meant
when Rikura continued with growing concern.

"You -have- just put them away somewhere else, haven't you?"

A wild look was starting to come into Rikura's eyes as she continued to
question him without pause, one which Miro really didn't like the look
of. It reminded him of far too many occasions when one word said the
wrong would end up with him apologising for a week...

"Cool! They really -do- have Lemba's here!"

Rikura stopped in mid sentence at Kimihiko's exclamation, both she and
Miro jumping slightly as it came from very close by.

Kimihiko was next to them, peering through the counter top and grinning
broadly as she jabbed a finger at glass between the delicacy in question
and her. "Can I have one? Just to try, please? A free "grand opening"
sample?" She asked, smiling at him sweetly Miro opened his mouth and was
about to reply when he was interrupted by faintly apologetic sounding Pochi.

/Master, can't you get her to buy from us? A small sale would help
restore more of my energy, but if you don't want to charge your friend
money then you don't have to. It just needs to be what she things is a
fair price for it./

Letting out a quiet sigh, Miro decided that perhaps this new 'job' would
not be quite as easy as he had thought it would be if he was going to
keep getting interrupted every time he tried to say anything. He should
be able to get their attention if he tried hard enough though, after all
he could simply try again.

"Look everybody..."

Theodore spoke up suddenly, jabbing at the page of his book with a
finger and burying Miro's attempt at gaining attention from is three
friends.

"Hey, this looks like a good spell. Just watch this..."

"NO!"

From the sounds of things, perhaps it would be better for him to simply
wait for the short while until the current argument had final come to an
end.

***

"...and those would be so cool. Oohh! You even have some tins of..."

"Give that book, Theodore, you don't know what the spells are going to
do to you!"

"Well, I know that this is the neat one. It's the one that gave me that
oni form earlier on when I cast ..."

/I am sure that the girl will decide what she wants and become a
customer soon, Master. She can't just keep flitting from one thing to
the next, getting more excited by each one, forever./

Miro absently glanced around the shop, checking that nothing had changed
its interior dimensions when he hadn't been looking at some point during
the last five minutes.

Sadly, they did not seem to have altered and thus he was still at a loss
as to how just three people had and were making enough noise to fill it
without any noticeable trouble.

"And you want to use another one? You might not turn back!"

"There isn't any need to panic about this, I am sure that there would be
a spell in here to hide it if I couldn't change back."

Watching the argument continuing between Theodore and Rikura, he revised
that thought idly. It might be without noticeable effort, but they were
definitely on the verge of causing even more trouble.

A motion to one side caught his attention and Miro turned his attention
to Kimihiko who was still looking through the various things on display
at the counter. A quick glance revealed that Kimihiko had started to
pull one of the boxes down from the newly filled shelves and begun to
open it, a delighted smile on her face.

Nothing to worry about there, was there?

"You don't want to look in..." Miro began hastily, recalling that most
of the boxes he had put on the shelves were empty.

"But why?" Kimihiko asked, seeming a little confused herself over this
sudden and almost panicked reaction, "I just wanted to get one of the
Lemba's like Rikura had."

"You can buy them later, I jut haven't finished pricing everything. If
you just come back a little later I can...", his words being cut off
again by a rising storm of protests even as he tried to urge them out.

"Miro, can't you so something before Theodore blows everyone up? He got
the book from your shop."

"But the Lemba..."

"There is nothing wrong with me having this book!"

Ushering the trio towards the door, he hurried them out despite the way
that they protesting.

A few moments later and the door was shut behind his friends, Miro
leaning his back against it tiredly before commenting to Pochi and the
otherwise empty shop.

"You know, I could have sworn that to have something like that happen
you really did need to have managed to actually get some sort of word in
edgeways..."

-----------------------------------------------------

Author's Note:

My first ever Impro part is finally done.

And it ended up being late.

And short.

And not really that good...

*whimper*

ARRRGHGHHH!!

Anyway, this part came about because I just had this random thought
about seeing what could be done to have things happen without Miro
managing to actually say anything. People always seem to assume so many
things all the time...

Anyway it's your turn now Lirazel.

Good luck!

- Merior, 20/12/02