When he came too it was abrupt, sitting upright faster than he wanted too. The puppet heard a gasp. The girl from last time. He wasn't sure how much time had passed. Nor did he trust his internal time perception once his memory of the previous time came back to him fully.
"Oh! You're awake! I was starting to worry…"the girl took my hand. I rolled my eyes."You were out for three days… Master was going to leave if you didn't wake up tomorrow." She said. The doll cursed.
How careless, his recovery took too long, noted. "Let me go get him so we can plan for the day!" She got up and scampered off. It was early morning from the look of things. He must have been a lot more damaged than he first realized if it took three days to regain consciousness. His back still felt sore but he at least didn't have gaping holes in them anymore.
"Finally, I had to put off grinding waiting for you." He grumbled at the puppet.
"Uh..? Grinding…? Again with these terms I don't have context to."The puppet half sneered before remembering his place."Apologies, my mood is rather sour after all that."He quickly added.
"That's fine, Yuya."The man said.
"Yuya?" The doll crooked his head as confusion settled onto his pretty features
"Oh right. That's the name I decided to give you. "The human explained.
"Yuya…" The puppet tested the name slowly before nodding. "It's serviceable."
He wasn't glad about having a proper name! He wasn't! He felt his face heat up when his new lord chuckled at his reaction. What Yuya wasn't expecting was a head pat of all things. The contact made him freeze up, not knowing what to do.
"You're a strange kid, Don't worry too much about it, all you need to do is attack for me, I'll handle the defense." Lord Naofumi said, for a moment his colder attitude melted away, Yuya just sat there taking it, not knowing how to react.
"You feel very real for a puppet… Then again you also bleed." Lord Naofumi muttered to himself after he pulled his hand away. Yuya was missing his hat, he had tried grabbing for the non existent brim of it when he remembered he didn't have it with him anymore.
Yuya settled for annoyance." I'm well over 400 years old! Thank you very much!" He huffed in a childish manner, turning his head away in embarrassment.
The face his young lord pulled made it clear he was skeptical of Yuya's claim but he didn't push the matter. It was hard to judge Yuya's age with how his perfectly sculpted face captured the eternity of a youthful appearance. That or his lord thinks he's too short… That irked him a bit more than it should. He was a perfectly acceptable height!
The girl stared at Yuya in awe. "Really?! Wow you don't look that old!" She said, looking the puppet up and down. Her tail wagged with her excitement. Yuya felt an annoying squeeze in his chest.
"Yes, but that doesn't matter, I suppose we should get on with the day, I've clearly held you both up." Yuya switched the subject as he got up, testing his motor functions. His systems came up clear and moving didn't pain him anymore aside from the dull throbbing all over his back.
The human passed Yuya a bag with a dagger in it. Yuya raised an eyebrow at the tiny weapon. "Something wrong with it?" Lord Naofumi asked, noting the ever growing scowl on his new companion's face.
"No, I just wasn't expecting this kind of trash, I know how to use a proper sword." Yuya said, gripping the hilt, giving it a few slashes. Too short for his liking.
"It's all I have on hand for now, so you'll have to use it until we return to city."Lord Naofumi said his cold tone was a good indicator that his personal walls were back up and Yuya probably shouldn't question him anymore. Part of their deal after all was complete obedience.
So the party of three set out to slay monsters. They were laughably easy to kill. Yuya was getting bored, these monsters were weaker than Hilichurls! Simple physical slashes downed one balloon after another, Yuya's steps silent and well trained.
Yuya however did feel himself get stronger on occasion, what a strange sensation, his next slash he electro charged his blade sending a blast out through the blade. It tore through several monsters that tried to gang up on him.
This caught his temporary allies' attention. He paused spinning to face them. "These small fry aren't a match for someone of my kind." He cheerfully said. "Disappointingly I'm nowhere near as strong as I used to be. Pity." He sighed, flicking the dagger to the side. It vanished in golden sparkles before reappearing behind the puppet's back.
"How'd you do that?" Naofumi asked, his face was hard to read at the moment, he looked at the dagger and the elemental damage Yuya left behind in his wake.
"Hmm? I have my own Inventory you know, though mine is… rather empty at the moment." The doll explained.
"So you know magic?" Naofumi was poking Yuya for straight answers. The purple haired doll nodded.
"Yes, I'm rather good at it too, as you saw I freely wield the power of Electro." Yuya said. To Naofumi it made sense, Yuya's default name had 'Raiden' in it.
"That will make things go faster then." The human said, taking this new knowledge into account. A beep alerted him to a new feature.
Inventory system unlocked.
Storage of items now available
Why wasn't that a default option?! Naofumi was convinced this Shield was purposely making things harder for him!
They gathered the monster drops and with the newly unlocked inventory they could easily pack away all their things into a singular bag regardless of size.
The day had been spent catching up on the time they lost waiting for Yuya to recover.
The next day the Trio were heading to the city. Yuya didn't seem all too pleased with that notion. He kept his mouth shut for once, he didn't want to anger the man who he owed his life to after all. He felt eyes on him as they walked to the herbalist store.
Humans whispering to themselves, so nosy. Yuya rolled his eyes when he heard a particularly nasty comment directed at his young lord, the puppet glared at the gossipers, taking a bit of joy in the horrified looks that crossed their faces when they realized Yuya heard them.
To rub it in Yuya pulled his eye and stuck his tongue out. Chuckling to himself when they scrambled to the opposite direction. Lord Naofumi had tuned out the world around them. Raphtalia stared at Yuya in shock.
"They were talking very rudely about our lord." Yuya said with a shrug.
"You could hear what they were saying?" The girl asked. Her little racoon ears twitched up and down.
"I have superior hearing, so do you, that means we have to make sure our squishy human lord isn't caught unawares out in public." The purple haired boy said, keeping his voice low. Their lord had slipped into the store moments before.
"But Master Naofumi is the Shield Hero, he's the opposite of squishy…" Raphtalia argued. Yuya barked a laugh at that. Not expecting that kind of response.
"Is that so? Then that just means he can take more hits, he's still a human, they break easily." Yuya didn't have a very positive outlook on humans, he saw them as lesser creatures. For now however he was at that human's mercy, until he could balance the books of his life dept.
Naofumi took them to an inn, claiming they now had enough silver to afford it. The currency were coins but they looked and felt nothing like the Mora Yuya was used to. These coins held no magical properties like Mora did either.
Yuya sat down with a small grunt, bored out of his mind already. His lord ordered food.
"I don't need food to function, so don't waste your money on me." Yuya tried to refuse.
"It says you're still dangerously low on energy." Naofumi informed the puppet. "So eat, I don't want you running out of power in the middle of a fight. " The human pushed the plate towards Yuya. The puppet sighed very loudly but conceded.
"Very well."Yuya with a dramatic flare grabbed the fork and slowly started picking at his food. Eating it purely to obey orders. At least the food wasn't sweet. Raphtalia was enjoying her meal fully, digging in like a starved animal.
They retired for the night. Yuya took a spot on the floor, letting the organic beings take the beds. He preferred it like that either way.
They went to go see a weapon seller the next morning. The human manning the counter was bald. He laid eyes on Yuya.
"Where'd you get this one from?" The shop keep asked, eyeing Yuya suspiciously.
"We found him in the woods. He isn't a slave if that's what you are really asking about." Naofumi said, his tone had a lot less venom in them than when he talked to the other humans of the town Yuya noted.
"I'm Yuya, Lord Naofumi saved my life so we struck a deal, I will fight for him now in return." Yuya put on his best act of niceness, can't go around tarnishing his new employer's image anymore than it already was.
The shop keep sighed, rubbing the back of his neck." As long as it's fine with both of you, I can't complain. Though we'd have a big issue if it wasn't the case, owning human slaves is illegal."The shop keep reminded the hero.
Yuya saw the bigger man look at the raccoon girl. So was she a slave? That did explain the cuffs and collar. It didn't bother the doll too much. Humans were a cruel kind after all.
"That aside, I need armor and a weapon for Yuya." Naofumi said.
"A new weapon I can understand but Is there something wrong with my current clothes?" Yuya asked, motioning to his clothes. The only 'armor' he had on was on his pant armor and the shoulder guard.
"It doesn't look very protective." Naofumi said, looking Yuya over again, poking at the symbol that hung from the doll's chest. Naofumi's hands brushed against the fabrics, he felt a slight bump underneath.
Yuya's expression soured as his face darkened. Naofumi backed off face going red, how had he not noticed before?
"I can check his current Armor's Defense stats." The shop keep offered, taking out a monocle. Yuya allowed it.
"Huh this is some high quality stuff… He should be fine."The man said after his inspection.
Yuya took his time to look around the shop, none of the weapons stood out to him." Hey old man, don't you have any catalyst or magic tomes laying around?"He asked.
" Magic huh..? "the man grabbed his chin in thought." Well I do have a few staves laying around."The bearded man brought over a box and set it down for the indigo eyed doll to browse. None of them seemed particularly interesting but Yuya couldn't be too picky. So he took the staff that caught his attention the most. It was a simple wooden one with a generic top that had a white gem engraved on it.
Yuya grabbed it. It felt decent on his skin, and gave it two swings. Much like how he would do with a polearm. It was about his length too. Next he channeled some elemental energy into it. The gem on top started glowing purple as he released a small bit of it into the air.
"Hmm this will do for now." Yuya said, shifting into a more casual stance once more. Letting go of the staff it floated next to him. "Well then my young lord, pay the kind sir. I can't fight if I don't have a weapon after all."The false sweetness in Yuya's voice felt like whiplash with how utterly rude he was to the shop keeper mere moments ago.
"Right… How much?" Naofumi snapped back to reality. The bearded man gave a price that seemed reasonable enough. Soon they left the store. Yuya played around with his new staff. Choosing to clip it to his back. Where his little bag was. Right next to the doll he carried around in it.
"Let's go kill some monsters!" Yuya wanted to see just how well the weapon actually felt in battle. They returned to the forest for another grinding session.