"Good morning!"

I woke up to the sound of Shizu's bright voice and saw her sitting upright on her mattress, watching me closely.

"Did you have a good sleep?" she asked, tilting her head with a cute smile. "I hope the blanket I gave you last night helped a bit!"

"Yeah, uh..." I pushed myself up groggily, feeling my body ache from having to sleep an entire night on that sorry excuse of a mattress. "Thanks for last night, Shizu..."

Distorted memories of my nightmare flashed in and out of my head like a migraine and I had to grab onto my head to steady myself. Thank god it was just a dream. This is what happens when you sleep with a cold, hungry stomach and a lumpy mattress all at the same time. Never again.

Or at the very least I hoped that this would be the last time.

“Are you okay, Ryuji?” Shizu peered into me with a concerned look. “Do you have a headache? Um, I’ll get you som—”

“No, it’s fine.” I told her, trying to shake off the feeling of unease. “I just had a bad dream, that's all."

"What did you dream about?"

"Uh, don't worry about it." I shook my head, grateful for her concern but not wanting to revisit the unsettling memories from my dream. "I'm good, let's focus on the adventure ahead of us." I smiled, trying to infuse some positivity into my voice. "Today marks the start of our journey as true adventurers."

Shizu's face lit up with excitement. "I'm so excited, let's do this!" she exclaimed, ready to embark on the journey.

~x~

Standing in front of the jobs board at the Adventurers’ Guild, I sifted through the clutter of posted jobs, trying to figure out which one we should take. Adventurers were only allowed to take on jobs at their rank or lower, except in cases where the adventurer sought a rank promotion. In such cases, an adventurer could request the guild to grant permission to undertake a job of a higher rank.

Still, at the Iron-rank where we were, there were a wide variety of different jobs like delivering a package to a town on the other side of the forest, tracking down someone’s missing belongings, searching for a known thief hiding in the city, collecting payments from debtors, the list almost seemed endless.

Finally, I opted for a straightforward quest with a decent reward — eliminating slime monsters from the fields near the city. It was a quest that rewarded based on the number of slimes defeated, making it the ideal choice for us since we needed money quick.

Grabbing the job posting, I turned to hurry over to Shizu to inform her of the job when I ran into a steel wall that knocked me off of my feet.

A deep voice rumbled the floorboards in front of me. “Watch where you’re going!” snarled a giant of a man clad in an almost entirely bronze suit of armour. He glared down at me and then noticed the job posting in my hand and the guild badge on my belt. With a sneer, he remarked, "So, an Iron-ranked newbie like yourself thinks he's ready to take on a slaying quest? Ha! That's the funniest thing I've seen all morning."

As he spoke, I heard quiet sighs from those around us, with some muttering things like "here we go again," "look, it's the Bronze Titan," and "goddam asshole”. Clearly this guy was not well liked even amongst his peers. I could see the dull shine of his Bronze-ranked badge hanging conspicuously from his belt, like a trophy he was doing his utmost best to show off.

Evidently, the man was an arrogant idiot. The harmless kind. But someone to avoid at all costs to save yourself some trouble.

“Look, sorry dude,” I said, getting up from the ground, “I clearly walked into you. Now if you’ll excuse m—"

“You should be the one to watch where you’re going, you buffoon.” Shizu suddenly spoke to the Bronze Titan from behind.

The Bronze Titan turned around, taken aback by Shizu's sudden intervention. He looked down at her, surprised by her boldness and that it was a girl that stood up to him. "And who are you, little missy?" he sneered.

"The one who will teach you some manners for the afterlife," Shizu replied coolly, her face darkening.

The Bronze Titan's expression changed, becoming even more hostile. "You think you can talk to me like that?" he said, his voice rising. "I'm a Bronze-ranked adventurer, and you're an Iron-ranked cockroach. There's at least 3 rankings in-between you and me, so you better learn your place at the very bottom of the food chain around here."

“Let’s all just calm down,” I intervened, standing in between the two of them to act as a wall. I glanced at Shizu and hissed at her underneath my breath, “Shizu, cut it out. He's not worth it.”

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“But he was the one that walked into you," Shizu protested. "I'm not going to stand here and watch you get bullied!"

The Bronze Titan sneered at Shizu and took a step forward, his hand hovering over the hilt of his sword. "You think you're tough?" he spat. "I've taken down monsters that would make you wet your pants."

Everyone around the guild was beginning to turn their heads over to watch the commotion. This wasn't good. We were attracting way too much attention for something so pointless and stupid so early in the morning.

"Look, we don't want any trouble," I told the Bronze Titan, trying to play to his ego, "We're new adventurers in this city, so my partner and I are just a little nervous. Obviously we're no match for you seeing as you are in the Bronze-rank and we're only Iron-rank. Perhaps a great adventurer like yourself could understand that."

The Bronze Titan paused for a moment, then smirked. "I suppose a 'great' adventurer like myself could overlook this," he said.

What a total moron. One hollow praise was all it took to sway this guy's will.

He then turned to Shizu and said in a mocking voice, "Be grateful that your boyfriend at least has some sense in him and knows how to recognise greatness."

"..."

"Oh, and one more piece of advice, pal," the Bronze Titan said to me. "Buy a leash for that crazy girlfriend of yours."

"Right." I replied. I couldn't care less about his dumb insults. I just wanted him to hurry up and go so that I could spend my time on more important matters.

Thankfully, Innis had destroyed Shizu's knife during their fight at the marshlands, so she didn't have any weapons on her at the moment. It was pretty safe to assume Shizu wouldn't be able to start a fight with the Bronze Titan, even if she wanted to, unless she intended to fight barehanded.

Just as he made his way to leave, he suddenly stopped in front of Shizu, noticing her face. His gaze then lingered down to her figure underneath the cloak that she was wearing.

"You know what? You're actually very pretty and have a great body," the Bronze Titan licked his lips, "How about we ditch your boyfriend here and you and I can go somewh--"

Shizu stepped forward and grabbed the Bronze Titan's arm with both hands. With a sudden twist, she torqued his arm behind his back, causing him to scream in pain. The sickening sound of bones snapping echoed through the air, and the Bronze Titan's expression turned to one of disbelief and horror, his skin drained of all color. Despite the Bronze Titan's towering stature, Shizu held onto his arm with an iron grip, applying pressure to his wrist that seemed to defy her small stature.

The Bronze Titan struggled to break free from Shizu's unyielding hold, but all efforts proved futile. She leaned in close to his ear and spoke in a low, chilling voice.

"Before I end you, I will shatter every single bone in your body."

It had all happened so fast that I didn't even register what I was witnessing for a moment. Even the other adventurers around us were still watching the scene with their previous reactions stuck on their faces.

Realising that I wasn't daydreaming, I immediately shouted "Shizu, no!" and ran over to drag her away from the Bronze Titan, leaving him crying and writhing around on the floor in a puddle of his own excrement.

~x~

Exiting the Adventurers' Guild, I slammed the door shut behind us and turned to Shizu with a shocked look on my face.

"What the hell was that, Shizu?!" I demanded, trying to keep my voice low so as not to attract too much attention.

Shizu's eyes were cold and distant as she stared back at me. "He said horrible things to you," she said flatly. "He deserved to die."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "You can't just decide to kill people like that," I hissed at her.

"Why?"

"Because it's not right!"

"You keep saying that it's not right, but I don't understand!" Shizu burst out in frustration, clamping her fists to her sides. "I don't get it at all!"

"What don't you get?"

"Why do I need to care about other people?" Shizu asked bitterly. "You're the only one I care about, Ryuji."

"Because..." I said, trying to think of something but ended up trailing off to nowhere.

It was a question that seemed to have an obvious answer. And yet, when I tried to think of how to explain it, nothing came to mind.

How the hell was I supposed to explain this? How do you explain colour to someone that has never seen colour in their lives?

I could see the confusion and frustration in Shizu's eyes, and I knew that trying to reason with her would be difficult. But I had to try.

"Shizu, other people matter too," I said, my voice softening. "We all have a responsibility to each other, to be kind, to help when we can, to make the world a better place. It's not just about you and me."

Shizu looked at me with a blank expression. "But why?" she asked. "What's the point?"

"Because it's the right thing to do," I said firmly. "We're all in this world together, and we have to look out for each other. That's what makes us human."

Shizu's eyes flickered off to the side to avoid mine. "I don't care about being human," she said quietly. "I only care about you."

I took a deep breath, trying to remain patient. "The point is that we all have a part to play in this world, isekai or not," I said. "We all have something to contribute, something that can make a difference. And if we don't care about each other, then... what's the point of anything?"

Shizu remained silent, and for a moment, I thought that my words had fallen on deaf ears. But then, she spoke. "I don't understand," she said softly. "I don't understand why I'm like this, why I can't feel what other people feel. I want to care, Ryuji. I really do. But I don't know how."

I hesitated.

Was Shizu really struggling with something that was beyond her control? Or was she just putting on a really good act?

Yes, there was a possibility that this was all completely sincere. But I would be a fool if I didn't try to remain skeptical and keep my guard up around her.

For now, it didn't matter which one it was. What's important was to keep her stable so that I could figure out our next step.

"Shizu, we'll figure this out together," I said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "But for now, let's not resort to violence unless it's absolutely necessary."

"'Necessary'...? But I thought it was necessary to kill that man at the guild..."

"That's not for us to decide," I replied, shaking my head.

That's right, Shizu wouldn't even be able to tell what 'necessary' even meant. I needed to be the one to tell her.

"We're adventurers, not judges or executioners." I said. "So, for now, let's just avoid violence unless I say so, okay?"

"Okay, Ryuji..."

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AI generated image : Shizu

[https://i.imgur.com/ICCy8IM.png]