[PP-F1] A New Beginning (Katsumi)

[Husky 0]

"... and with the giant monster defeated, the front liners opened a new door to yet another floor. However, It come to the cost of the lives of an unknown girl who found herself amidst the battle, and a front line veteran..." Mumbling to himself, Husky read through the newest edition of AinCrad Front Line newspaper. Sipping onto his cup of wild daisy tea, that he had found the recipe to make it by himself. Sitting inside his own little tavern, The boy finished up his morning routine of sipping away his tea and reading newspaper. For some odd reason, he just couldn't stop himself from this morning ritual. If he had ever forgotten to do so, the poor soul would suffer an uneasy feeling for the rest of the day. "All right then, I suppose I should head down to the first floor and finish up the things I had left off yesterday." He told himself, fold the newspapers back up to a neat pile, and exit his shop. After that, he quickly made his way down to the first floor.

The Town of Beginning is still as busy and crowded as usual. Dozens players come and go in this city everyday. Husky needed to finish up with collecting all the crystal berries he can, so that he wouldn't have to deal with it later on in the upper floors. Walking through the center of the Town, he notice something rather odd. A player, wearing a hooded cloak walking passed the center, seemingly up to some fishy businesses. While having his focus locked onto that player, he accidentally bumped into a girl. "Oh... Sorry for that. I was a little careless. I'm really sorry for not paying attention!" Husky quickly apologized for his careless mistake.

[Katsumi 0]

Katsumi was strolling through the Town of Beginnings aimlessly, she wanted to get a full understanding of the lay out of time. She enjoyed the theme that the floors main town possessed inside the giant castle of Aincrad. The Orangish-Blonde haired girl hadn't even begun to think about venturing out into the world knowing her strength wasn't up to par to handle this world at all. She immediately got her hands on an Information Broker's Book that was left open for the newer players and anyone else who was honestly interested free for the grabbing.

She was reading through the book idly walking in some random direction, reading each page explicitly. As she was about to turn the page she accidentally bumped into a man. He immediately responded for his carelessness, "Oh no, no please it is I who needs to apologize. I wasn't paying attention to where I was walking in the slightest." She apologized in return, "I was reading the Information Broker's Free handbook they had out in the middle of the main plaza. I wanted to get all my barrings on this world before I ventured out of the safezone." She bowed slight and continued her apology and why she was being so absentminded to be bumping into another player.

[Husky 0]

"Woah.... That's a freckle-less Ginger... Wait, no! Bad Richard! That's rude. You can't judge people by stereotypes." Husky silently judging himself, having a mental battle of his own while the girl is apologizing for her mistake when he bumped into her. "I guess we're both even." Husky smiled, trying his best to keep a positive and friendly smile. When the red-haired girl explained her reason why she was being so careless, Husky was impressed. It's been a long while since he had seen a person actually care about the Info Broker notebook. "I'm impressed, I'm not the only one who took that thing and give it a read. Still do now. It's a really useful book to have, and yet so underrated. I've seen many disregard what the book has to say, all the tips to survive, and see where did that got them." Husky exclaimed, followed by a low whistle with his hand illustrating the falling motion, referencing the careless player who disregard the tips and went out venturing on their own. They didn't make it back. "Anyhow... Such rudeness of me for not introduce myself. I'm Husky. Pleasure to meet you, Miss." Finally, The boy introduced himself, extended his hand for a handshake. 

[Katsumi 0]

Katsumi wouldn't stop staring at the scar that resided across the eye of the man she had run into, "Come on Katsumi, get your mind off his facial feature... It's rude to stare. But I am so damn curious!" She shouted into her mind as she listened to him lightly trying to keep up with what he was saying, while simultaneously not trying to look at the man's eye. He brought the topic up about the Information Broker book which caused her to look at it with surprise.

"Yeah, I can't believe most people didn't grab one of these. I was just about to get to the pages that talked about the top five players in Aincrad... Have you read about them?" She asked the boy instinctively... She always wanted to be wary of the best players on the site so she always had an idea of whom she would have to stand up against. When the boy introduced himself she gasped a slight bit, "I apologize for my rudeness as well. Nice to meet you Husky, my name is Katsumi" She introduced herself bowing slightly, then extending her hand and accepted his handshake.

[Husky 0]

Unknowingly to him, Husky's scar had been a distraction to most people when they tried to have a conversation with him. His friends used to joked around with the scar making him looked like something coming straight out of a fictional work. When Katsumi brought up the topic of the top players in AinCrad, he let out a small chuckle. "I actually didn't read that much about ranking system. I mainly focus on the tips and tricks of surviving, since you know... You only have one life in this game. However, if you were to ask me of my favorite, I'd say it's Tristan. The man is practically unbeatable. No one can really leave a dent on his health bar, or them too will receive quite tons of damage to themselves with Tristan's Unique Skill: Achilles. I suppose one down side is that he's not going to be dealing any damage himself. Zelrius is a nice one for the Front Liners, with his insane damage thanks to the Dual Blade Unique skills, but most of the players associate with him crowned him as the biggest ... The rudest person they have seen..." Husky rambling on and on about his knowledge of what he learned from the Info Broker's guide book. 

After a short moment, he had realized that he was rambling around and about again. Quickly stopped, he scratched the back of his neck, realizing that he might have created an awkward situation between the two. "I probably have rambled about things again, haven't I... Sorry about that." He apologized, trying to proceed with the conversation without any awkward feelings. "Anyway, it's a pleasure to meet you, Katsumi." He cheered, gave her a firm friendly handshake. "Well, if you don't mind me asking, what are you planning to do, after finished reading the guidelines?" He asked with curiosity.

[Katsumi 0]

She listened to his ramblings happily as she stood there, yet still staring at the damned eye scar that the man possessed. He would abruptly stop himself as he would realize the amount of rambling the man was doing, "Oh please no, continue rambling I am enjoying your thoughts on those who are on the Front Line." She would attempt to encourage him to continue talking. She loved listening to other people talk, she enjoyed being the one to talk a lot as well. But listening to someone's opinions and thoughts were highly interesting to her for whatever reason.

Husky would temporarily change the subject to finalizing the greeting and asking her what she had planned to do, "It is also a pleasure to meet you as well, Husky." She chuckled at the name a slight amount, "My plans for what I am going to do after I finish reading the guidelines? I am probably going to start working on getting a shield probably." She said as she put her delicate hand upon her chin and looked up into the bright blue sky that resided above the Town of Beginnings, "After you tell me more on your opinions of those who are in the Front Lines. You let me know what your plans are going forward." She retorted with a catlike grin, putting her fingers together and straight up just infront of her mouth as she gave a whimsical giggle.

[Husky 0]

Husky had notice that Katsumi was somewhat looking at him in a weird curious way. He felt like she's staring at him for some odd reason. Decided to ignore that thought, Husky continued telling Katsumi his thoughts, encouraged by the girl herself. "I didn't really read all of the informations about the front liners. Ssendom was a nice guy, really terrifying looking however. The guy always have this... menacing looks with him. He's the person that doesn't afraid to downright kill someone for doing him wrong. Then there's also Calrex, the highest leveled player in AinCrad at the moment, just behind Heathcliff. Calrex was a very nice person, and he usually hangs around in the lower floors healping new comers along the way. I personally had received some help from the guy once. Then there's Heathcliff, the Commander of the the Knights of Blood. I don't really know how to talk about him, but to me, the people inside Knights of Blood is a little bit of a nutter...." and so, Husky continued to tell Katsumi of all he know about the top tier players in the game currently,

"A shield you say? A pretty good option I would say. It gives you some moderate protection from damage, could be come in handy later on." Husky shared his little opinion on Katsumi telling him she wanted to acquire a shield. "My plans on moving forward...? To be honest, I haven't thought about this before." Husky stuttered, realizing that he hasn't had  proper plan for the future. 

[Katsumi 0]

Katsumi would stand in the middle of the busy town listening to the man talk about all the best Front Line players in Aincrad. Occasionally getting bumped into by other players who were trying to get around the large town. She would get somewhat uncomfortable with the amount of people who were crowding the town that she would put up a hand just after he finished talking about the Front-Liners, "If you don't mind, can we head toward a not so busy part of the town. I feel somewhat uncomfortable with the amount of people bumping into me." She told him directly and began to make her way toward a bench that was near the plaza but out of the busy amount of people.

After she would make it and sit upon the bench she sighed, "Whew, that was just way too crazy out there." She then awaited for the man to make it up to her and continue sharing his opinions, "Well, I have never been one to openly want to harm another person. In games I could get out of that mindset because people's lives weren't at risk. But now that this game is officially a death game, I can't bring up the idea to harm another person. So I want to protect everyone I can." She stated with a very determined expression upon her face. Then the man admitted that he hadn't any proper plans for the future, "You should really began plotting out your stat allocations, it's good to be prepared."

[Husky 0]

Kept on talking about what his opinion was about the players on the front line, Husky stopped himself when he saw Katsumi raised her hand up. "Oh, yeah sure... Let's find some place elsewhere to talk." The boy agreed to the decision that his newly found friend has just suggested. Following her closely behind, both of them went to a much more empty area than the town square, where not much people is around. Sat down on a bench next to her, with a respectful personal distance, Husky continued listening to the girl talking of her plans and reason why choosing a shield. "Seems like we have another protector, fighting to make sure everyone will safely getting themselves out of the game. But shouldn't you be worrying of yourself first. I respect the decision of protecting other players, hell, I adore thoughts as such, but still, like you said before, dying in here is a death sentence in real life. Are you positive that you wanted to do it?" He asked.

Hearing Katsumi advice, Husky slightly nodded his head. "Yeah, I think I should start planning out where I wanted to go and what's my destined path. But that would probably took a long time until I came to a clear decision." He chuckled slightly.