[PP-F2] Dank Memes and Broken Dreams

[Mishiro 0]

A pause.

"We'll see about that."

Whatever unintentional implication their words held, it all flew right over her head.

They slowed to a stop by the town exit at her prompting. She discarded her empty latte cup and pulled on a set of black leather gloves from her inventory. Meanwhile, her unlikely companion was trying to ease her evident hesitation with a confident claim of his own. She tilted her head at his words. "That's just inefficient."

She was all prepared to use whatever knowledge she had acquired from reading player-made guides to explain herself - until the boy sheepishly admitted he wasn't telling the truth. "O-oh." Mishiro turned her head away. She tugged the long sleeves of her coat over her hands and took a moment to recover from her own embarrassment. "So it was a joke... Sorry."

Taking two Teleport Crystals out of her shared inventory, she tossed one to Pinball and hid the other in her coat's inside pocket.

"I'll trust in that."

They made their way up the main road leading out of the large crater Floor 2's main settlement lay in. With the ongoing "leveling rush," there was a considerably greater number of players passing by, heading in and out of the safe zone. Each individual looked more prepared to take on the outside than both of them combined, with weapons and pouches at their belts and eyes forward, clear with purpose. 

She inched closer to Pinball. Somehow, their impromptu excursion felt a little... trivial. Selfish. 

"I've never been out here. Not even once," she admitted as they walked further. Once they left the main road, Mishiro had taken to walking a step ahead of him. "I only know this place's layout from the scouting guild's maps, and sometimes, I see it in pictures." 

And everything was different when she was finally seeing it for herself. Dead leaves crunched under their feet as they moved past a grove of trees. Mishiro found herself taking a few steps further ahead of him when they reached the plains and she crouched down to carefully picked a wildflower. She twirled it in her hand as she skipped over a river's stepping stones and waited for him to follow.

"The settlements are amazing. But... they almost feel boring in comparison to this." They stopped at the edge of a mountain overlooking a valley surrounded by hills. "Perhaps I've spent too much time inside the boundary, but out here, even a short walk feels like an adventure."

She paused.

"It's further than I expected."

At this point, they had already been at it for half an hour.

"...just kidding," Mishiro tilted her head and smiled teasingly. She inched closer to Pinball and traced an imaginary line from their current position, running down the incline, along a river, past a stretch of open fields, then coming to a stop at a small hill with a lone pine tree near the valley's other end. It didn't have leaves. As a matter of fact, everything seemed a bit dull and lifeless. What was she even expecting? It was supposed to be winter. She let her hand fall back to her side in dismay. "That's the place."

Edited October 1, 2019 by Mishiro