It was late in the afternoon when Yuuki made his way out of a bookstore. The streets were packed with people who were going shopping, getting off of work, and making their way home after their afterschool activities.
"Man, I really didn't think the streets would be this crowded this late into the day. I need to get home soon."
Yuuki continued to make his way past the crowds of people, when he saw a girl crying to herself.
"Ugh, I"m never going to such a low-level meet-up again…" the girl mumbled to herself. "What's wrong with them? They lied…" she said, whipping her nose with her sleeve.
"Why am I the only one going through this…ugh…"
"I really want to head home right now…" Yuuki thought to himself. He really wanted to go home as the day he was having wasn't the greatest, but also didn't want to do nothing about the upset girl. He headed over to the girl and asked her what was the matter, which caught her off guard.
"Oh…oh, it's nothing. It's nothing so don't worry…" she said.
"Are you sure?" Yuuki asked.
"Ugh, seriously? What's going on? Go away…"
Yuuki wasn't sure what to do in this situation. The girl claimed that she didn't want any help, but she still seemed quite bothered by something. To make matters worse, her parents and or friends were nowhere to be found.
"Alright, I'll leave you then…"
Yuuki went away from her, but still hung around her, looking around to see if anyone was coming to get her. This didn't go unnoticed with the young girl, who starred holes into Yuuki.
"Stare…"
Yuuki looked back over at the girl who was staring at him, and then looked away quickly.
"What gives? Why are you still hanging around me?" the girl asked, going up to Yuuki. "Are you planning on taking advantage of a weak girl?"
"No, I just want to make sure you're OK." Yuuki said.
"I told you already I'm fine, I just want to be left alone." she said, in a loud voice.
"Alright, alright, I'll go." Yuuki said, walking away from the girl.
"Better to just walk away then get the cops called on me. Saren wouldn't like that." he thought to himself.
The girl sighed as Yuuki walked away from her.
"Hey, are you OK?"
"Ugh…"
The girl was taken by surprise as she was met by the voice of a much older man.
"Was that guy bothering you just now?" he asked. "If you want, I can call the police and report him. What did he look like?"
The girl was becoming more and more flustered as the guy kept pressing her for questions. She wanted to give an answer, but she couldn't get anything out.
"Come on now, I need you to speak up! I can't help you if you don't."
Flustered and frustrated, the girl quickly ran in the direction that Yuuki was going, leaving the man behind.
Meanwhile, Yuuki had made his way to the park where the crepe truck was. He went up to the truck to see if anyone was inside, but it was empty.
"Damn, I could really use a crepe right now…"
Yuuki sighed and headed to a bench where he sat down to rest a bit. He still had 2 more days of school to go through to get to the weekend, and even then it wasn't looking like he'd have much free time to do anything.
"Well, at least I got this." Yuuki said, bringing the walkthrough for Legend of Astrum out of the bookstore bag. "This should help me level up as much as possible so I can help twinkle wish…assuming I can ever get onto the game.
As Yuuki was about to open the book, he felt the presence of someone nearby. He turned over to look to the left of him, and found the girl from earlier standing nearby.
"Um…hello?" Yuuki said, confused by what the girl was doing there.
"Hello…" the girl said in a quiet voice.
Unsure of what to do, Yuuki introduced himself to her.
"It's a bit late for that, but if you insist… My name is Inori. Inori Ichinose. I mean, my name…it's obvious…" she said, still in a shy voice.
"Why…why did you want to help me out earlier? I'm just a stranger to you."
"I know, but I was worried. You are a little kid after all, and you looked very upset."
"Well…ugh…you're a strange one, onii-san."
It was at that moment that something caught Inori's eyes.
"That book. That book is the walkthrough for Legend of Astrum right?" she said, walking over to the book to inspect it more closely. "You're playing that too?"
Yuuki nodded.
"Right. So listen, if I told you in Legend of Astrum there were…hidden races not listed in the walkthroughs or on websites…would you believe me?"
"Well…that does sound interesting."
"Right, right, but do you believe me?"
Yuuki nodded his head "yes."
"Really? That's great!" the girl with excitement.
"Or rather, it's a fact, so believing it is natural, right? But those guys, they…"
"Those guys?"
"I went through a lot of trouble to deceive my parents so I could go to the meet-up, but they didn't believe me!"
"Wait, you deceived your parents to go to a meet up? That's not-"
"I know, I know, but that's not important right now." Inori said, cutting Yuuki off.
"You're a player in Astrum too right? I'm supposed to be the strongest…compared to the character who's supposed to be the strongest, you're like the most loser of the loser."
"Gee…thanks." Yuuki thought to himself.
"But what makes you the strongest if you don't mind me asking?"
"Well, you see, I have a super rare top-tier race. I have a Dragon clan account!"
"Dragon?"
While Yuuki didn't want to go back on his word about believing Inori, he did feel a bit skeptical to the idea of them being dragon-folk in the game. Normal dragons yes, but dragon folk? Yuuki kept this skepticism to himself, as he wanted to know more about this alleged dragon folk account.
"I tried explaining that to the guys, but they wouldn't believe me! "Dragon account? What's that?" "Oh, you silly little girl, that's just an internet rumor." It made me so mad." she said, stomping her foot down.
"So, Oni-chan, what are you doing in Astrum?"
Yuuki looked around to see if anyone nearby was listening. While he didn't want to tell the whole world he was a princess knight, he didn't want to lie to this girl either.
"Well, it's a bit complicated, but I'm a princess knight."
"A princess knight huh? I've never heard of that before. But, you did believe in me, so I guess I can believe in you too…" she said with a soft smile.
"If we ever meet up in Astrum, I'll help you with my dragon power!" Inori said, before letting out what Yuuki assumed to be an evil laugh. Once Inori stopped laughing, she started to look around.
"Say…do you know how to get to the station from here?"
Though exhausted, Yuuki went ahead and walked the girl to the station so she could get home, all the while wondering if the two would ever meet up in Astrum, and if she would indeed appear as a dragon person.
