“How’s it going? How long have you been waiting again?” Tana asked with her usual friendly tone.

“Ten hours.” I casually answered.

“Huh. Must’ve been boring.” She said.

“Well I’ve been managing,” I replied.

“Anyway…” She then shifted the topic and turned to look at Maxi, who looked as grumpy as always.

“How about we all sit down first and get comfortable?” Elisa chimed in.

“Let’s do that first then!” Tana agreed in an instant. Ragy chose to sit to my left while Tana sat to Maxi’s right, then Elisa to her right.

“Before Tana tried to say anything funny. How about you and your new friend speak up first?” Elisa said, methodical in her tone.

“Okay then. Maxi, why don’t you introduce yourself?” I said, giving her an option to speak first.

Somewhat expected yet disappointing, she opted to remain silent and look away. Must be rather wary of them despite having no reason to… 

“Sorry. She’s new and… you know…” I said in her place. They already know how confused she must be with her bizarre situation.

“Yeah I get that. Maybe we should… Uhh…” Tana was about to propose something, but it seems like she didn’t actually have any idea in mind. “What does she like to do?”

“I don’t know.” I answered honestly. “She doesn’t really seem to know what she likes either.”

“That’s… odd?” Tana replied. Can’t really blame her surprise.

“From the looks of it. She needs to be forced to interact.” Elisa said in a somewhat chilling manner.

“Ominous!” Tana said cheekily with a smile. Can’t say the implication is exactly… the most friendly.

“Let’s leave that for later alright?” I said with a nervous chuckle, looking at Maxi to her somewhat concerned face that tried to avoid eye contact. I then look back at my friends. “Don’t you have stuff to order?”

“Ah. Right. Mint, give me the usual.” Tana was the first to reply to that.

“Same for me.” Elisa was the next to respond.

“Me too.” Ragy said. And then I noticed something.

“Orders received!” Mint said cheerfully in the meantime.

“Is Flosa not with you today?” I asked her.

“Oh, she’s training for tomorrow's tournament. Why?” She explained.

“Nothing, just that she is usually around…” Before I can explain further, I just remembered something. She is actually a person of interest in this situation actually… “Nevermind.”

“Huh?” Ragy seems a bit confused, which I can’t blame her. I’ll talk with her about it later. This will probably help her out a lot.

“What’s this about now?” Elisa said, curious as to my sudden realization.

“Let’s talk about this later alright?” I replied. Let’s leave this issue for a bit later with whatever she’s planning to do. “Anyway… Who do you think is going to win?”

“I mean…” Tana started talking awkwardly “I think it’s anyone’s game.”

“Is it really?” Elisa chimed in. “There are a few strong contenders.”

“We did talk about Flosa earlier…” Ragy noted, showing her clear bias.

“I think she’ll perform well, but…” I really don’t think she’ll get the number one spot here. “...Ophi.”

“Oh… Wait. That seems unfair isn’t it?” Tana responded, sounding rather taken aback. Seems like she didn’t quite read the list in full.

“Gotta be one or two obvious powerhouse. Besides, if everyone is on a similar level, it’ll get boring quickly.” Elisa said in their defense. “She’s the number one seed in this one, and those exist for a reason.”

“Huh… Well. I am a bit more excited for the exhibition matches anyway.” Tana confessed. Considering the level of those involved, it came as no surprise.

“Right…” That’s all I really have to say in response. Just Tana being Tana.

I think I should make sure Maxi isn’t trying to skirt away from joining in. I know she still isn’t trusting of them but nothing is gonna happen if she doesn’t at least say something. Unfortunately she couldn’t really have anything to say in regards to a tournament she never heard of.

Just have to be patient with that, and hopefully we can do a bit of ice breaking. Just need to find a way for each side to prod each other.

“Just have to wonder if there’s any contestants that will be discouraged by that.” Elisa said. It’s quite a rare issue, so I don’t really see the need to talk about it.

“Those people are weird.” Tana remarked. Again.

“You’re weird.” Elisa said back.

“By the way, Mani.” Ragy then is about to ask me something. “How are you progressing?”

“Like in training?” I asked for confirmation, and she responded with a nod. “Alright, I guess? She did put a hold on it for now because… Y’know…”

I tried to not say it’s because of her. It’s not really right to put a blame on her for something that is completely out of her control.

“...Oh. Right. Well, I’m sure it’ll resume once things smoothen out.” Ragy said, trying to remain optimistic. It’s just the matter of how long until things eventually smoothen out, and I don’t think it’ll happen soon, unfortunately. Because I doubt anyone can adapt so quickly, it has only been a day or so.

“I hope so.” I said in response. Gotta at least not appearing pessimistic, that certainly won’t get us anywhere.

“Anyway, does she really have nothing to say?” Tana said, trying to speed things along in that regard. Speaking of which…

“Well. I think you three should introduce yourself properly before anything else.” I suggested. That should make her a bit less apprehensive.

“That’s fair. So who wants to go first?” Elisa said, indirectly saying that she doesn’t.

“I will!” Tana said cheerfully, looking directly at Maxi, who in response looked back with a clear apprehensive expression, not that such a thing deter her. “I’m Tana! I like fighting and hanging out with friends. See these ears on my head? Wolf ears!”

“Simple as always.” Elisa snarked at her short introduction, tapping her rabbit ears in response. Can’t really disagree there, but her simplicity is why it’s so easy for her to make friends, though she does have trouble with some loners…

“Ah. I guess I’m up next.” Ragy said, noticing that Elisa didn’t follow up with an introduction of her own, before touching her bull horns. “I’m Ragy. Just a girl who likes to go along with my friends, doing whatever they want to, I’m not a picky type. I hope we can get along.”

Certainly not someone who feels strongly about much. I really don’t think she’ll try that hard to connect with Maxi to be honest.

Anyhow, that just left Elisa to introduce herself. It sounds like she is planning something, to be honest.

“And me? I’m Elisa. Nice to meet you.” She said, ultimately saying the least out of the three. She isn’t one to talk a lot, so it’s not that surprising. “Anyway. Tana, weren’t you gonna go check out the colosseum?”

“Yeah I did… Oh! You two wanna come too?” Tana said in response, roping Maxi and I into it.

“Sure.” I said casually, before looking directly at Maxi. “Nice to go to a new place, right?”

She didn’t answer, but at least her expression hasn’t soured. Guess we haven’t hit a roadblock just yet.

“I’ll take that as a yes then.” I said in an uplifting tone. Though considering she is completely lost on where this place even is let alone where she wants to go, it’s pretty clear she doesn’t actually have an answer.

Gonna need baby steps to fix that, so some push is needed right now.

“Alright then. Let’s go after we finish our food.” Elisa said, hearing the ‘confirmation’. “Speaking of which, shouldn’t you order something?”

Ah… It has been a few hours I guess. Might as well order something extra. “Guess I’ll order a bit. Mint! I’ll have another rabbit stew.”

“Coming up!” She shouted back, a bit occupied with other customers.

“Actually. What were you three doing today? I was only loitering.” I said to get the conversation rolling while we wait for the food.

“Elisa and I were just walking around and chatting about tomorrow. Nothing eventful really happened.” Tana explained her side. So pretty much the usual.

“I was helping Flosa with training before this.” Ragy answered.

“I see.” I said to both responses. Doesn’t look like either have anything interesting to tell to pass the time. As for me there’s nothing to really say either. I think we should talk more about Maxi’s situation in more detail elsewhere. “Anyway, I don't really have anything interesting to say on my end either.”

“Isn’t that right.” Elisa said as if to acknowledge my current thought. “How about we discuss something else then? Things we didn’t quite finish discussing, just to pass the time.”

I don’t even remember anything like that…

“Which one then?” Tana asked, clearly as unsure as I am.

“How about that one time you beat the crap out of someone outside of this nation?” Elisa said teasingly. It does sound a bit ominous putting it like that.

“He was trying to hit me first to be fair.” Tana said in her defense. “I didn’t think he would try to attack me for laughing at him.”

“Was this the one about a demon claiming to be a prince or something?” Ragy said, trying to think back on the little scuffle. Neither of us were there at the time.

“Yeah.” Tana answered nonchalantly. It definitely sounds important, but nothing came of it. “I thought that was a joke.”

“Considering how badly he ended up, it definitely was.” Elisa said with absolutely no remorse whatsoever.

“I didn’t get to interact much outside of this particular domain now that you mentioned that.” Ragy noted, sounding a bit sour. It's the same on my end, not for the lack of trying…

“Come on now. How many times do we have to talk about this?” Elisa said, clearly not liking Ragy’s tone. “It’s insanely dangerous. Neither of us can be relied on to bail you out everytime.”

“I know…” Ragy replied, pouting at the unfortunate circumstances. I’m sure both of us will get strong enough eventually…

“Keep your chin up. We all can go out there and see more of this strange world!” Tana said, brimming with optimism.

“It is a matter of time.” Elisa said, adding on to that. Sometimes it really didn’t feel that way, hopefully I don’t end up like some of those manga characters who can never catch up…

“You four! Here are your stuff!” Mint shouted out before bringing in the order. Well then, time to shoved those depressing thoughts to the side for now.

 

“Haa… The food here is as good as always…” Tana said. A sentiment she has given quite often. “Alright then! What say we go to the colosseum and see if there’s anyone there doing stuff!”

“We already agreed on doing that.” Elisa pointed out with a flat tone.

“Right. I mean should we go now?” Tana said, clarifying her point.

“I don’t see why not.” I replied.

“Same here.” Ragy followed.

I then look at Maxi who doesn't humor us with a reply.

“Okay then! Let’s go right now!” Tana said before she got off the chair, with us following suit in response. “See you later, Mint!”

“Hope you all have fun!” She said back to us as we walked out of the tavern.

There have been customers cycling in-and-out throughout the day, but right now it’s getting pretty crowded, so we probably won’t end up staying too long anyway.

Tana and Elisa stick close to each other as always, while Maxi actually sticks close to me, probably out of familiarity. Meanwhile Ragy doesn’t have anyone to stick close to since Flosa is elsewhere.

I can tell that Maxi still feels a bit uneasy as we walk along the streets and pass a lot of people she has no idea about. It’s a foreign world, so naturally she’s apprehensive. It’s only been like… a day or so.

Do have to wonder what she’ll think of the place we’ll go next. She’s a bit of a fighter, maybe she’ll find some value in it? Can’t really be too sure. It should be a bit more eventful at least, perhaps that’ll get her to speak up a bit more.