Hotaru stood up and pointed with a dramatic DUUN sound behind her. “YOU LIAR!”
I redirected that blame to the source, “IF YOU DIDN’T SKIP THIS IT WOULDN’T BE A PROBLEM!”
“Okay, okay. Maybe this was a big cover-up but I’m not the one who wanted to relive ‘that’ so badly.
I graciously gave you all the chance. You made your bed. Lie in it.” The big guy munched on his muffin while staring deadpan.
‘This fucking…’
‘’You did it so that I’d be the one who had to say it.” (Makoto)
Hibiki smirked, “I could but, you wouldn’t like what I had to say. Am I wrong?”
“No b-” (Makoto)
“In doing that I give you less of a chance to show off. After all you must-” (Hibiki)
My blood was boiling like a volcano. He just wouldn’t shut up!
He was doing that to everybody indiscriminately and nobody reacts!
“WOULD YOU STOP INTERRUPTING!” (Makoto)
“- consider-your-audience.” The smile on his face widened as two faces fell.
“C’MON!” Hotaru dropped back into her seat with her head in her hands.
“WHY ARE YOU BETTER THAN ME?!”, Kohaku exclaimed.
Suddenly, there was a whiteboard in front of the table with a Hibiki wearing coke-bottle glasses.
“I’m not, you’re just bad at people. So that makes Hibiki- 2, Hotaru-1, Kohaku-0”, He tallied the marks on the board
“I’M STILL GONNA WIN!” Kohaku spoke with an enthusiasm I could never wake up with.
“Do your best.” (Hibiki)
“I won’t make it easy.” She lifted her head and ate a muffin whole.
“Eh?” (Makoto)
“We betted when you’d finally snap at his interruptions. I called Second.” (Hotaru)
“Third.” (Hibiki)
“Fifth.” (Kohaku)
“Thanks a lot, now we’re in service again!
Really thanks though, I was losing my mind.” (Hotaru)
‘I should’ve known...’
“Speaking of which, why didn’t you?” (Makoto)
“Oh, they did. First cycle.” (Hibiki)
I slowly turned my head to the menace in question cause if this is going the way it does.
“How much did you make?”
‘Here we go…’
“Me?! Profit off my friends’ suffering?!” He was a gasp, shocked some would even say gagged at my accusation.
‘It’s going the way it does. 5, 4, 3, 2…’
“... Ten times the cost it took to make this place.” He finished his muffin.
I spat out my tea. “TEN TIMES!”
To put some context, you could buy a dozen planets a billion times over and that still wouldn’t cover a smidge of the complex innerworkings of this place. My place is secure but information about this place is few and in-between for how old it actually is.
“I love my ballsy allies. Some just don’t learn.” Chills ran down my spine thinking about the extent he’d bet on.
“Jax is in debt.” Kohaku's mumbles of the multidimensional Casino owner’s struggle frightened me.
“Eris ‘lost’ the crown.” (Hotaru)
“By the gods…” (Makoto)
“Vanessa gave me a wonderful toy. Just to name a little.” Hanashi bounced in his seat.
“A LITTLE?!” (Makoto)
He plays with ‘higher’ powers like there’s no tomorrow as he pleases. A universe could be collapsing and these three would be on vacation!
“And you two?” I asked for a distraction but the look of absolute dread on Hotaru’s face was enough for me.
“... The-” (Hotaru)
“We can talk about that later.” (Makoto)
“ARGHH! YOU TOO?!” (Hotaru)
*Click*
“We’ll take it from here.” (Miroku)
That’s what she said as we proceeded to throw a giant blue BALL OF FIRE at my new friend.
We all watched as the final wisps entered the scroll and it shut while an open book floated in front of her, draining the excess threads and shutting as well.
[WORLD REACTION: QUEST Completed!]
< (D+) Quest: Muttering Mutt!!! >
A murmuring unidentified foe has come to strike those the shrine maiden holds dear in her residence. Work together to apprehend the attacker before it’s too late.
-Protect Shion and Taruho. (Complete)
-Identify and defeat the foe. (Complete)
-Cleanse the foe’s corruption. (Complete)
-Find the source of the problem. (Complete)
[WORLD REACTION: You may invite your fellow Balancers to assist you.]
Players: 5/8
Rewarded
5 Common Healing Potions
1 Class Skill book→ [Wing Shot]
50 silver coins
[Requirement: Lv. 10-15 players]
Out of nowhere, a chest dropped into the center of the pond.
“WE DID IT! HAHAHA” (Kohaku)
“Are you okay?” I ran up to him.
“I think he’s insane, but I’ll do this anyways.” Hanashi pulled out a small vial and shoved it down Kohaku’s throat.
“Ack!” (Kohaku)
“Drink.” (Hanashi)
[+50]
[+10]
Kohaku
[ 47→ 107/ 200]
“WHAT?!” (Hotaru)
Those were my thoughts exactly.
“That should do it.” (Hanashi)
“Would any of you like to explain this?” Miroku asked.
“Explain what?” (Hanashi)
I looked back at the damage to a perfectly calm and clean area. Like nothing ever happened.
“Why are my daughter and her friend in a dome?”
I spoke up. “To… not be in danger?”
“What I mean-” (Miroku)
“Are you mad at us or mad at yourself?” (Hanashi)
*SLAP*
It was like the air froze as Miroku's hand shook and the silence became so palpable.
“Let’s… go inside.” (Miroku)
Next thing I knew, Hanashi and I were sitting in a room together quietly.
“A-are you alright?” (Makoto)
He met my gaze, “Hm?”
“The…” I tapped my cheek.
“Oh, yeah. That was funny.” (Hanashi)
“Funny…”
‘He’s not upset?’
“I can’t imagine her explaining that is going well.” He chuckled and looked out the door.
It opened and he turned his head back to me as it slammed open a second later and a sullen face slowly makes her way inside.
“Curse you…” Miroku pointed at Hanashi with a bright smile on his face.
“You asked a good question. The answer was simple.
To do what you were doing.” (Hanashi)
“Are you crazy?” (Makoto)
“A little bit. You did really well by the way. That was crazy!” (Hanashi)
He turned back to Miroku, “You should ask the kids when you get the chance.”
She grimaced and rolled her eyes, “All that experience will make the change when you’re out.”
“I was wondering why it didn’t grow…” (Makoto)
‘I thought it was stuck or something.’
*Thunk*
“BOSS BOSS, I GOT IT!” The jovial tone outside the room eased the atmosphere.
“You did great, Kumo. Come take it easy now.”
“C- can you open the door?” (Kumo)
“Alright, alright…” Hanashi got up and opened the sliding door from the other side and dragged in the chest from before with the white snake giggling on top of it.
“I lost my calm and that was untoward to you.”, She bowed.
“Nah, it’s okay. I needed that more than you know. Let’s just call it even.” (Hanashi)
“Did you?” I tilted my head.
He crossed his arms and copied my tilt, “I’d rather ask you what you think.”
“I-I don’t know. I mean it wasn’t great. I’d like to know what’s going on beforehand.” (Makoto)
“In honesty, you learned as I learned things too but, you’re right. I had suspicions and didn’t want to act on them because it was bizarre.” (Hanashi)
“It was some test?” (Makoto)
“What makes you say that?”, Miroku asked.
“Well, the first thing was that you were calm about introducing some kids to a set of strangers. I don’t live with my parents but, I did have my guardians. Wherever we went we stuck together, I didn’t play with a lot of kids but, I knew they were trying to protect me from something…”
‘That was a lot of fun…’
While I reminisced the other two shared a look of concern in a moment of silence.
“...” (Hanashi)
“...” (Miroku)
“You good?” (Hanashi)
“Oh! Yeah. Um, then they both took us in easily, but even Aoi told me he felt like we were being watched. I just couldn’t piece together why so I ignored it… I wouldn’t have pieced it together really if it wasn’t for you.
“Me?” He pointed to himself.
“It’s the third time I’ve seen you work with the spirit guides, Momo and Aoi. Getting Aoi, confusing the other two and this. I wasn’t sure at first but how you acted with Kumo did it for me.” (Makoto)
“Go on.” (Miroku)
“They’re all pretty young, right?” (Makoto)
The two of them stared at me for a moment before Miroku sighed and spoke up, “Makoto?”
“Mhm.” (Makoto)
“You’re insane.” (Miroku)
Hanashi nodded, “That’s what I’m saying.”
“Me?!” (Makoto)
“I’d get it if Kumo was the reason solely but those other times, he put you all to work.” (Miroku)
“The worst part is you’re right but-” (Hanashi)
““------””
“EHHHHHH?!” (Makoto)
*Click*
“There, happy?” (Makoto)
“Much better!” Hotaru bounced back quickly.
“Mn…, but what?” Kohaku spoke after he stuffed another muffin into his mouth.
*Click*
I’m going to skip over it since Hotaru already covered what happened after. With the small boxes and after that we ended up leaving by the time the space became night. Shion and Taruho were more active once they learned we’re the same age as them. None of us really had a good answer for why we looked older here, I just chalked it up to this not being our first life.
- ???’s POV-
The three of us carefully made our way to the area to witness what this whole thing was for.
?: “So this is the infamous ‘problem’, huh? Do you really believe what they said?”
?: Is it even deniable?
?: I don’t think so, we're living proof…, right?
?: I didn’t know how much I missed those pauses! I’m glad to see you again, Haruka!
The youngster ran in for another hug. After all that, I wasn’t going to reject it. I was sufficed to see their faces again.
S: “You too, Misaki.”, I laughed. Their hair was just as black and lustrous as I remembered.
M: “C’mon, Shinji! Group hug!” They dragged the ever-so-silent swordsmen over with a rush that tripped him up.
B: “…” It looked like he already resigned himself to Misaki’s antics.
S: I sighed, “We’ll have a lot of work to do…” (Haruka)
B: “Let’s enjoy this.” (Shinji)
The two of us paused and blankly stared at the only possible source.
B: “What?” (Shinji)
M: “W-w-w- WORDS! HE’S SAYING WORDS!”, Misaki let him go and ran behind me.
S: “Sorry, you just… haven’t said anything before…” (Haruka)
B: “It wasn’t easy. Thinking I’d never see you guys again. I wanted you to hear me… at least once.” (Shinji)
M: “AWWWW Shinji…, I missed you too!” (Misaki)
We wrapped our arms around each other like it was yesterday and looked at the giant hilt towering so much that the roof needed to be open.
S: “So…, Who’s going to introduce us first?” (Haruka)
‘Who am I kidding?’
*Click*
