I walked through Mechcity, eyes darting around intently as my focus was constantly shifted to each crevice and alleyway in search of the drain edge that contained the Forbidden Power. Normally, this would be Kizuna's job, and she would do it quite adamantly with little to no breaks, despite my concerns, but she couldn't be on currently since one of her relatives had fallen ill and her family had decided to move over to their house temporarily to take care of them, and I had to fill in for her on our virus hunt.
A sigh escaped my lips as I rubbed my temples, this search was giving me a migraine and I needed something to get my mind off of it for a little break, how Kizuna could do this for hours, I couldn't even begin to understand.
As if on cue, a familiar player, with a female character model which was wearing a white cloak and white crown thing, was cowering away from four other players. I recognized white mage player as Whyti, one of Flamegirl's friend and more of a mutual towards my Kirbopher account, since we barely spoke, but I did know she found me funny.
Casually moving in closer to the group, I listened in on what they were saying.
"Pfft, and you know what? I doubt you're even Japanese, just some stupid weeaboo who wants to feel 'authentic'," one of the female players in the group accused. She had blue skin and her hair was literally just a cloud, while she wore a white robe, reminding me of a certain creature from a Japanese game. Reading her screen name, I found out it was "Clouddaze."
Whyti just whimpered at the comment, fidgeting with her hands as she nervously replied.
"N-no. I… I really am Japanese! I can speak the language, tada, kono yō na!"
Instead of just admitting she was wrong, the girl just made a look of disgust.
"You probably learned that from some anime," she rudely insisted. One of the guy players behind her, whose player model was made of silver with coal hair and gold fists, "TheWoreior", tugged up his eyes at the corner and said,
"If you really are from Japan, does everyone look like this?"
Whyti seemed taken aback and genuinely offended, causing the entire group to laugh. Without even realizing I had been charging it, I shot out an explosive blast of energy from Ki Generator, blowing them to smithereens with the hacks I had enabled to destroy landscape to look for the virus.
I ended up startling her, and she glanced in my direction, a look of shock on her face. We just stared at each other in an awkward silence, neither of us knowing what to say, before I finally decided to break it by saying,
"You shouldn't listen to those assholes, you know? They're just pretentious and need to be put in their place." With a smug grin, I added, "And I Just did that."
She looked, up at me, her face a mixture of confusion and nervousness.
"Aren't you one of the winners of the Gemini Tournament? The one who yelled at Nylocke?" she asked, not particularly accusing, but slightly wary. I winced at what she said, no longer able to look her in the eye as I stared down at my feet in shame, a feeling of regret resurfacing in my chest after all these months of not thinking about what a jerk I had been.
"Yes." Was all I could muster as a response at the moment, wanting to choose my words carefully to show that I really was sorry for what I did, but not wanting to give away how close I really was to him, then I spoke again with, "And I was an idiot and jerk. It was just… I was so stressed that day, my enjoyment for the game completely evaporated, and he was just… just grating on my nerves with his roleplaying and I snapped at him! I snapped at him like a complete fucking douchebag, and made a complete fool out of myself."
By the end of my rant, my hands were on my face, covering my eyes. Fucking hell, I was being such a baby, but I couldn't help it.
I'm not exactly sure how long I stood there, being a self-deprecating moron, before I heard the sound of metal being tapped. Looking over my shoulder, I noticed Whyti, awkwardly just standing behind me.
"Well, if you do truly feel bad about what you did, I guess I could sorta forgive you, but you should really apologize to Nylocke, so he does too, I mean, he's not really mad at you or anything, he's gotten over it, but still, it's the nice thing to do." She recommended, while a small smile made its way on her face.
I felt slightly better knowing she didn't hate me, but the second part of what she did caused of a sigh of exasperation to leave my mouth.
"I know I should, and I will, once I work up enough courage to speak to his face again, and after I'm done with something important."
Her smile grew slightly bigger at my answer, and she nodded in agreement.
"Good! And, um, thank you for getting rid of those guys… How did you do that anyways?"
I shuffled uncomfortably at the question, thinking about how I should word it before just giving up and answering with,
"You know what, I'll put it bluntly, I hacked my weapon to be able to damage stuff, terrain, and players without a battle grid." And then hastily added when I saw her look of disappointment. "Hey! I'm not using it to bully players or anything! I just need it to find a weapon I lost somewhere around here after someone threw it!"
She seemed to accept that answer, and replied with,
"Oh no, that's terrible! I'll help you find it, if you want."
I instantly shook my head and said
"No, I can't ask you to do that, it's my responsibility to find it."
"Oh, okay…" She mumbled, and floated away slightly, inadvertently causing me feel like a terrible person.
I sighed and shook my head in disbelief of what I was about to say,
"Wait! You know, I've been looking for it all day and I could really use a break, do you wanna go to a café, and just, I dunno, talk?"
She seemed to perk up at my offer.
Well, if you want me too, okay!"
Although being one for actions rather than words, I ended up just talking to her two hours. It was mostly just me talking about how many chumps I was able to stomp, and some really exciting battles, and she interjected her thoughts a couple of times, but mostly listened. When she finally had to log off, I felt a bit sad, but rejuvenated enough to continue searching and making up for lost time.
This is why I had to find the Forbidden Power, to keep players like her safe.
A/N: More TOME for the soul! I was re-watching "The Highest Form of Flattery" and when I saw Whyti, I'm not exactly sure why, but I thought about what her interactions with Kirb would be like, but ended up writing what his interactions as Zetto would be like. This was a fun to write, but to be honest, this entire story was about friendship building, but you can believe it's romantic if you want (also, the ship names would be hilarious in my opinion, "Whytto" and "Zetti"). I'm also 100% sure the Japanese is wrong and I am sorry (it was supposed to say "just like this").