The Hidden World

After the brief meeting, Yuki went back to the city with Akira. The other members of their little illegal guild dispersed as well, going off to places Yuki didn’t know. When he looked at his watch, he saw that he still had hours to go until he had to go back to the hotel.

“What do you want to do?” Yuki asked Akira.

“I don’t know,” she replied. “This day seems much longer than yesterday. Probably because of the lack of action.”

They walked in silence for a few more minutes.

‘What can we do?’ Yuki wondered.

He went back over the previous day and remembered all that they had done. They came to the city in the train. Then they went to the hunting grounds around the city and spent most of the day in there. When they finished, they sold their game at the GMD and also ate dinner there. They ran into Erica while eating and their conversation somehow evolved into talking about creating an illegal guild. Then Yuki went back to the hotel and took a bath while Akira and Erica went out to set up the guild.

‘We didn’t really do much in terms of entertainment or enjoyment,’ Yuki realised. ‘I personally don’t have a problem with that, but I can see this being a problem for Akira.’

Yuki searched his brain for any ideas as to how to make the day more interesting. He didn’t have his normal items with him so he couldn’t do any work. And even if he did, that would help Akira.

“I guess we can just wander around the city and explore it,” Yuki suggested. “That was the plan before we left.”

“That’s fine,” she replied. “I didn’t have anything planned. I don’t even know what the attractions are around here.”

Yuki nodded and proceeded to walk go toward the center of Fenrir.

“We might as well start at the busiest part of the city,” he said.

When Yuki and Akira arrived at the central square of the city, Yuki discovered that it looked almost exactly the same as every other part of the city except for the incredible amount of people that were mulling about.

‘Maybe this wasn’t the best idea. There are too many people.’

Yuki paused and then shrugged before walking into the crowd. It was too late for him to go somewhere else and it was already time to eat lunch. He wasn’t quite hungry but he knew that Akira probably was. He went to a bench that was next to a tree, the shadow of the tree blocking the seat from the sun. Akira sat next to him as he tapped on his watch and opened a map of Fenrir.

‘Where to eat.’

There was a surprising variety of restaurants around the central square of Fenrir. Food ranging from sandwiches, noodle soups, and barbeque could be found. Yuki scanned the entire map for anything that caught his eye. He landed onto a five star rated restaurant named The Bowl and thought that he hadn’t eaten noodles in quite some time.

‘I guess we’ll go there,’ he decided.

“Akira, are you fine with noodles for lunch?” he asked, turning his head toward her.

“That’s fine,” she replied.

Yuki nodded and stood up, stretching a bit. Then he reached out his hand toward Akira who was still sitting. She stared at it with confusion written on her face.

“It’s crowded,” Yuki explained. “I don’t want to get separated from you. I’m sure you don’t want that either.”

Akira looked at him for a brief second before glancing away. She lifted her hand in the air and Yuki took it gently, pulling her up.

“Shall we go then?” he asked.

She glanced back at him, looked away again, and gave him a small nod. Yuki noticed that her face was a slight pink and that a beautiful smile had bloomed across it.

‘Let’s go then.’

He tugged lightly on her hand and led her to the restaurant. It was in the middle of the city and everywhere Yuki looked he saw people glancing away. He used to this by now and ignored them for the most part. When he was in front of The Bowl, he marched straight in.

It took Yuki and Akira one hour to finish their lunch. They had to spend the first ten minutes waiting for a seat and another ten for their food to arrive. Akira grumbled a little but Yuki didn’t particularly care about the twenty minute delay for their meal.

When they finished, they began their exploration of the city. That layout for the town was very uniform and square. There were a multitude of brick paved roads that crisscrossed the city, giving people easy access to most of Fenrir. Unlike Junction, the roads didn’t seem to be for use by vehicles but instead more inclined for pedestrians. Yuki also spied numerous shops. When he glanced over at Akira, it seemed that she had found them as well.

“We can go and shop around,” he said. “I don’t have a problem with it. I’ll see if there is anything of interest to me.”

“I don’t want to waste money,” Akira replied, hesitantly.

“Akira. I don’t know if you’ve realised this or not, but we are doing quite well in terms of money,” Yuki told her. “You can go shopping. I trust you.”

Akira didn’t reply immediately but soon gave Yuki a nod. Then they started to walk again, but this time both of them stood side by side. No one was leading the other and they wandered about peeking into shops that piqued their interest. One of these stores was a clothing store.

During their time inside that shop, Akira went about grabbing clothes that caught her attention. She would go into the changing room and put it on then come out for Yuki’s opinion.

“How about this?” she asked, twirling in a pink short skirt.

“The color looks off,” Yuki replied.

“How about this one?” she said a few minutes later in a pair of pants.

“Bell bottoms are weird. Where did you even find that?”

“And this?”

“Why are there sailor costumes in this store?”

The next store that they found was one that Yuki took more interest in. It was a music shop with a multitude of instruments on display. And the instruments seemed much more advanced and newer than the ones he had seen in Junction. What caught his eye in particular was a little metallic grey cube.

He tapped on it and a light projected out of it before forming a menu before him. It gave him a few options, one of which was labeled piano and another synthesizer. He selected piano and the light morphed into a keyboard. Yuki reached down and could feel the keys of the piano as if they were real.

‘Hard light holograms.’

He pressed the key lightly and the sound of a piano rang out. He hit another, harder this time, and the holographic piano sang out louder. Next he pressed a chord and then another one and another one before the sound of music began to fill the shop. Yuki felt himself get swept away by it and he didn’t know how long he played. When he stopped, he found that he had gathered a small audience.

“Clerk,” Yuki said to a man wearing an apron. “How much is this?”

“F-four silvers,” he replied.

“I like it. I’ll take it,” Yuki decided.

He walked over to the man and handed him four silver coins. Then he walked out of the store with Akira right beside him.

After that, nothing very eventful happened. They continued their wandering about and stumbled across a movie theater. They spent a few hours of their time watching whatever was featured and after that ate dinner.

With the few hours of time they had left, Yuki found a little park that empty. There was a small pond where the sound of splashing could be heard from time to time. The crickets were chirping, or at least insects that sounded like crickets. The cool, gentle breeze brushed past Yuki’s face, his hair fluttering in the air. Akira stood next to him, her hand still in his, as she watch the pond ripple and the reflection of the white moon waver.

“Did you have a fun trip?” Yuki asked, his voice a bit quiet.

“You were right,” she replied, just as quiet. “The best trips are the ones that are unplanned.”

She turned to look right at Yuki, the moonlight shining off of her face and illuminating her brown eyes.

“Thank you,” Akira said with a pure smile.

Gazing at the smile, Yuki felt the slightest of tugs in his chest before it disappeared just as quickly as the flickering of a lightbulb.