Chapter 8 – Going Alone

“Here you go.”

Shohei said as he placed a bowl of piping hot ramen in Kazama’s hands. Kazama accepted it with a slight glare towards him.

“Ummm….” She said as she stared at him. He simply laughed and said, “I know you wanted something fancy, but you see, I don’t take girls out to have a nice dinner when they feel like ditching soon after.”

Kazama began to redden up quickly when she heard his words, realizing what he meant.

“What?!” She exclaimed, “You knew I was gonna bail on you?!”

“C’mon, after hearing that creepy bugger tell you about Midnight and all the players vanishing, I just knew that you might try to go find out for yourself.”

Kazama grimly ate her food as Shohei continued on.

“But you know Kazama, I don’t really blame you for wanting to do such a task. But also at the same time, I’m glad I’m not you, heh.”

“What the hell is the “heh” for you bastard?!” Shouted Kazama through mouthfuls of ramen. Shohei was giving her a snickering face as he responded to her anger.

“Oh come now, you mean to tell me you don’t think there will be nuclear fallout when Nabiki finds out about this? You’re such a naïve girl…”

Kazama finished the rest of the broth and threw the ramen bowl away in a nearby trash can. Wiping her lips, she snarled a bit at Shohei.

“What did you call me now?!”

“A Naïve girl.” Come on, haven’t you noticed by now?”

“Notice what?”

Kazama really had no clue and simply blinked her eyes rapidly at him. SHohei put a finger under his chin and smiled slightly more at her.

“The entire time that you were out of it, Nabiki never left your side once. It was a hell of a job just too pull her off of your delicate sleeping body. She practically slept with you the entire time…”

“What…..what are you trying to say….?”

“I’m saying that the short enthusiastic girl wonder likes you Kazama.”

Kazama dropped her mouth wide open and just stared at him in utter shock. Millions of thoughts raced through her mind, but mainly only of her and Nabiki kissing passionately as they fell into a bed of roses. Breaking off from her thoughts with a shake of the head, she smiled with a slight twitch.

“Whatever you say…I’m going to the academy…..”

She began to walk slowly away from Shohei in embarrassment, hoping to get away from him before anything else happened. She had only made it three steps away when Shohei spoke up to her again a bit louder.

“Do whatever you wish, but I won’t hold Nabiki back once the sun rises. I don’t wanna be in the middle of a lesbians quarrel….”

Kazama stopped in her tracks as a vein in her head began to twitch uncontrollably. She turned ever so slightly towards Shohei, who just stood there like nothing had happened.

“I….AM…..NOT….A….LESBIAN!!!!”

Oh…..” Stared Shohei as he rubbed his chin, “Bisexual then?”

“NO! And I don’t sleep with girls I just met you bastard!!!”

Everybody walking around turned and looked as Kazama stood frozen over what she just said. Even the NPC vendors turned to look at her and it caused her entire face to flush a bright red. She raged as she shook her head back and forth at everybody.

“WHAT THE HELL IS EVERYBODIES PROBLEM????!!!!!!”

She then promptly stomped off into the cool night. Shohei just smiled and waved as she began to vanish into the distance.

“See you in the morning Kazama. Whatever doesn’t kill you out there sure as hell won’t stop Nabiki from doing it herself!”

“Shaddup!”

Shohei laughed loudly at how easy it was to piss her off.

“My, oh my, I think I what Nabiki likes in her…….” He turned to his left and changed the flow of his words to something nearby lurking in the shadows. “I know your over there Sheshiro, so just come on out.”

“Ahhhhh!”

The figure of Sheshiro popped out from behind a wall and frowned at Shohei.

“You ruined my dramatic entrance Shohei!”

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Shohei squinted his eyes at the thief and a wide smirk formed on his face.

 “The only dramatic thing your good at is getting caught master thief Sheshiro.”

Shohei made sure to emphasize on the “master” in the title Sheshiro gave himself, making the thief cringe slightly.

“Hey now, I am the actual great thief I claim to be!”

“Great thief’s don’t get caught you loser.”

“Hey, at least I don’t have to wear a crappy priest outfit and watch over an equally crappy church. I bet I get out more than you ever do!”

“And at least I don’t waste my time sneaking around and spying on girls Shesiro, at least they come to me in my crappy church. Also, I know what your actual grand plan is….”

Sheshiro frowned more and crossed his arms while shaking his head.

“Hey hey! It’s only a minor detail of my plan Shohei! Anyways, it’s only the first level of the game, it’s not like there’s much to steal here anyways…”

“Says the thief about a large gothic city that spans hundreds of miles wide and deep. You’re pathetic for sure…but also useful…”

Shaking off his words, Sheshiro perked upwards.

“Ooo! You want me to do something badass?! Finally!!”

Shohei sighed loudly as he put his hand to his face.

“As much as it pains me, I need you to follow Kazama. And seeing as you’re the only one with the skills to stalk wo-“

“Follow.”

“Right, whatever you say. I need you to follow her and make sure she stays safe…I have a feeling this is way too deep for one girl to manage all by herself.”

Sheshiro brought his hand to his forehead and saluted Shohei, which in turn made the pried shudder.

“You can count on me Mr. Priest man! I will watch and make sure the damsel doesn’t get into distress!”

“Yeah yeah, cut the crap. I know that you want a price or som-“

“Ah, that! Nah, my price will be cheap this time. All I require is to become an official member of the Hunters Dream guild! Oh, and it has to be up front too…”

Shohei sighed loudly and opened his menu, quickly sending the guild invite to the pesky thief.

“There, sent. Now will you just go!”

Sheshiro brought his in game inbox and accepted his invite. Then he went on and messed with a bunch of menus faster than the eye could see until the guild place holder for his name said “Sheshiro, Master Thief and Lord of the Badass.” Smiling over it, he looked over at him blankly.

“Whats wrong Mr. Priest Man?”

“Um….that title you just gave yourself…..”

“Yeah, what about it?

“Um….no…nothing. You’d best just get going now….”

“Alright then! I will see you in the morning!”

Sheshiro spun around on his heel and ran off into the night, following after Kazama. Shohei simply muttered to himself.

“What have I just done? I swear Kazama’s going to kill him when he finds her…”

xXx

Kazama huffed and puffed her way through the rest of the safe zone until she made it into the midst of the unsafe zone. Kazama drew her blade once she crossed the threshold and had it at the ready as she continued forward through the darkened city.

“Really that damn SHohei, grinning and laughing at my expense. And he doesn’t even know what I really am, the creep!” Kazama thought to herself as she crept along. She eventually relaxed a bit, seeing there were no NPC creatures nearby. Bringing up the town mapm she could see that she was getting closer to her destination.

“The magical academy huh?” She said aloud as she smiled to herself. “That’s pretty cool. Say game systems!”

>> Yes, what can I do for you?

“Can you tell about the magical academy?”

>> The Magical Academy was the former center of magic’s training in Shara. People from far and wide came to study it here and grow wiser. But one day something happened to the students of the academy.

Kazama was intrigued as to what could happen to a bunch of magic students.

“What happened to them?”

>> One day another magic user promised to give everlasting life to the other student’s as well as make them stronger. Only some of the students listened and sided with their fellow student. When they were faced with heresy. The students simply said: “We now know the true power of life. You will not stand in the way of our desire.” After these words, the students who had followed the magic user killed the higher staff of the academy and put a spell on the school. To this day, the cursed of the academy live on.

Kazama gulped as the game system went silent after telling the short tale. She had finally come to a complete stop in front of a giant wrought iron gate and she spoke up

“Is this the place?”

>> Yes, this is the Magic Academy of Shara.

Kazama pushed the old and rusted iron gate open and stepped within the confines of the old walls. She was greeted with a gust of air and a strange odor in the air.

“Oh guuuuuh, that stench is horrible….”

Kazma staggered on through the wide expanse of the outer part of the campus. After a few steps, the strange odor dissipated and Kazama sighed in relief.

“Phew, at least it’s gone as quickly as it came. That was go-“

“Ka-clack…..ka-clack…KA-CLACK…”

The sounds of hollow footsteps could be heard coming from all around her and she looked at her surroundings. From the shadows of the old buildings, a group of hooded figures could be seen brandishing lanterns. All of them where slowly approaching Kazama and she stumbled backwards a bit with her sword outstretched in front of her.

“Wha…What are they?!”

>> Type Class: Cursed Fire Druids. HP: 500

Weapons: Fire, Incantations

The games systems explanation made Kazama sweat a little as the cloaked druids kept approaching her.

“A bunch of cursed druids eh?” She said with a hint of a smile, “I guess I will have to just end their lives for them!”

Kazama leapt towards one, slashing is square in the chest with her blade, causing it to instantly shatter into millions of pixels.

“Hell yeah, one hit kill already!”

The other fire druids ignored what happened and simply rose their lanterns in unison. In a blinding flash, a stream of fire roared towards Kazama, pushing her backwards as it singed her clothes.

“Ahhh! Now that’s hot!” She shouted as she struck back with even more force then before. She struck another of the druids but only managed to chip a bit off of its HP, as its comrades decided to help it out and send another wave of flames towards Kazama. Kazama ran from the fire and ducked behind an old crumbling wall. As she crouched behind the wall, the footfalls of the shambling druids could be heard echoing as they slowly approached her.

“Ka-clack……ka-clack……”

“This is annoying. I already killed one of them, but now it seems they have a way to anticipate my attacks. I don’t think brute force alone will cut them down. If only there was a way to get ‘em all at once!” Kazama shouted out into the nighttime air. As if answering her, the game system responded.

>> Sword Repel Attack, aka Return is learnable for you.

“Wha…? Sword repel at-“

>> Sword Repel Attack

The attack is able to repel any non-sword attack, such as the magical fire of the Fire Druids. Equip?

“Y-yeah, equip it!

>> Equipping Sword Ability…….Equipped!

You can now repel non sword attacks.

Kazama breathed a sigh of relief and held her blade before her.

“Well here goes!” She shouted aloud as she hopped over the wall with one hand. She landed in front of the walls and looked in front of herself with a smile. The druids noticed her and quickly sent another large burst of flame towards her. Kazama simply help her sword in a defensive stance before herself.

“Let’s test this sword ability out!

End chapter 8