A Warm Welcome

✧₊⁺

I never liked the diving process in any of the hundreds of test simulations I attempted before entering the Digiscape for the first time for real. Now on my second official dive, I was somewhat prepared for what would happen. Somewhat.

Still groggy from just a few real hours of sleep, I pulled the helmet with the visor over my face as Yamamoto-sensei walked to my bedside to plug me back into the atrium. I felt the sharp sensation in the back of my neck and my eyes rolled back into my head.

My consciousness was pulled away from my body, but more accurately, into the extensive network of supercomputers built into the wall behind me. In the blink of an eye, I was falling like a skydiver from a lavender firmament as I hurtled toward the plains below.

“Wooooahhhh!” I had experienced the terror once before, but I couldn’t help but yell as the ground quickly approached.

However, just before one might expect to splat, a strong gust of wind carried me horizontally until enough of the momentum was killed for a safe landing. However…

Is that a—!?

I landed face-first into an enclosure of some kind, and my body was covered in mud from head to toe. Or at least, I hoped it was mud…

Several beady pairs of eyes greeted me as I slowly picked myself up off the ground.

“…”

“…Oink?” A pig eyed me curiously.

“That’s… not mud.” I sighed, exasperated.

“I would not worry too much, Jiro.” Archie seemingly appeared out of nowhere, hovering beside me. “All the animals within the Digiscape are merely fabricants, added for the sake of decoration. Thus their fecal matter is similarly fake.”

“I have a hard time believing that with the foul smell.”

“Yet another technological miracle from our great founder!”

If it looks like shit and smells like shit…

“Putting that aside, where the hell are we, Archie?”

“We should be on the outskirts of Castella, the town you received your orientation in, and where you met yours truly. Based on our trajectory, we should not be too far from the city proper.”

I heaved a sigh of relief. I was curious about what happened in the aftermath of my first hunt in Placita, a smaller town not far from here, but I didn’t want to face that boy and his aunt after my failure. I wondered if I’d ever see Kururu the magical girl again, however. She did help me considerably in that battle.

“Hey there, mister. You having fun in the pig pen all by your lonesome?”

I was startled at the sound of a woman’s voice. Half-thinking it might be Kururu herself, I glanced up to instead see a pretty young brunette with her hands on her hips. As my eyes scanned the immediate area, I spotted a small cottage and a garden for growing vegetables, along with some other animal enclosures.

A farm?

“Hellooo, Earth to mister?”

“Shoot, sorry, I was spacing out a bit, ma’am.” I finally replied. “I didn’t mean to intrude on your farm, I just started my shift and crashed here. The name’s—“

“—Nagai Jiro, the Hunter?” She smiled. “We’ve met before, though I almost didn’t recognize you under all that mud and gunk. Aaand you don’t remember me, do ya?”

We’ve… met?

“I can’t say I… wait…“

The train! She woke me up before I missed my stop.

“Finally ringing some bells. Your eyes say it all, mister.” She chuckled to herself. “I got the sense in one meeting that you don’t have much of an interest in people, but that might just be the former psychologist in me talking. Sorry about that. And you can call me Yuna by the way, ma’am makes me sound old.”

“You ain’t got nothing to apologize for, Yuna-san.” I said matter of factly. “You had a daughter too, if I remember correctly.”

Yuna simply pointed her thumb behind her towards the cottage with a playful smirk. A pair of brown saucer-like eyes peered over the windowsill at us from inside the house. Once the girl realized she had been spotted, she hurriedly ducked out of sight.

“Why don’t you and your cute little robot friend come inside, and get cleaned up? Dinner is almost ready.”

“Cute? Oh, you are a flatterer, madam…” Archie’s glass interface blushed red.

Pushover.

“Well, I’m pretty much on-call for any emergencies around here, and I couldn’t very well impose you and your kid like that…”

“Actually, the threat level in this jurisdiction is currently zero,” Archie said. “I would highly recommend taking this kind young woman up on her offer. The sight and smell of you could jeopardize your credibility as a Hunter, and an unsightly appearance violates dress code articles 18a, 25, and—“

“Alright, alright, I get it.” I sighed. “If you’ll have me for a moment, I’d be plenty obliged.”

. . .

I sat in the washtub of a total stranger in a small bathroom. It was a surprisingly pleasant feeling, the warmth of the water. The Digiscape and its re-creation of the five senses both astonished and frightened me at times.

On the one hand, I could enjoy small pleasures like this from time to time, but also excruciating pain, as I had come to learn during my first hunt. I heard a light tap outside the door and a voice.

“I got most of the gunk off your clothes as best as I could.” It was Yuna who spoke. “You’re lucky the trousers were already brown...”

“Thanks for that, Yuna-san. Truly.”

“Don’t mention it, it’s the least I could do for a Hunter.” She chuckled suddenly. “If this were the outside world, I’d tell you not to stay in too long or you’ll turn into a prune. Weird how little things like that aren’t a worry anymore, don’t ya think?”

“It can be weird, yeah.”

“And it's a little hard to get used to at times. I’m sure others might agree, despite the convenience.”

“You might be right about that, miss.”

I expected her to wander off and leave me to my bathing after I let the conversation die, but I still heard her breathing on the other side of the door like she had more to say.

“Is there… something else you wanted, Yuna-san?”

“Oh, sorry! It’s just, well… never mind. I’ll leave these clothes here for you, dinner is ready.”

I heard her shuffle away.

A bit of an odd duck, but a kind one for certain.

I stepped into the main living area to find Archie grounded for once while Yuna’s daughter played with him. The cottage was unremarkable aside from the fireplace burning, and the couch and rocking chair in the corners of the room.

The little girl’s eyes widened when she saw me pop in through the doorway, and she ran to the entrance of the dining room and hid behind her mother who was just entering herself.

“Oh, don’t mind Shizuka, she’s just shy and doesn’t speak much around strangers,” Yuna said. “It’s alright, honey, this man keeps us safe from the bugs. Didn’t you say you wanted to be just like the Hunters?”

The young girl didn’t budge from her safe hiding spot behind her mother. I forced a smile to try to ease her doubts, but I could guarantee it had the opposite effect. I was never any good with kids, and I think they could sense that. I also couldn’t help but remember the young boy from Placita who lost his mother, and it made me uneasy again.

“Come, Jiro-bo, we’re having meatloaf.” Yuna patted her daughter’s head as they made their way to the table. “I know I said I was making it, but all meals are delivered fresh from the capital. I just set and forget these days.”

“Bo?” I repeated the honorifics to myself as I followed them into the dining room with Archie close behind me. “I can’t be that much younger than you, miss.”

“If you think so, why don’t we make a wager.” Yuna, already having been seated, smirked at me as I also sat down. “Loser feeds the cows.”

“Are you sure this ain’t just your way of getting me to do your chores?” I scoffed. “And why do you have livestock if your food is delivered?”

“The same reason we eat every day, even though there’s no concept of hunger here. It’s a hobby of ours, ain’t that right, Shizuka?”

Yuna’s daughter nodded her head vigorously as she shoveled a bite of meatloaf into her mouth, making a bit of a mess in the process.

“Oh, dear.” Yuna giggled, grabbing a napkin and going to town to wipe off her daughter’s face. “What am I going to do with you, messy girl?”

I quietly ate my own meatloaf, which was actually quite delicious. Certainly when compared to the gray excuse for food that they serve us in the cafeteria back in the outside world. But as delicious as this mirage was, it was still a mirage and couldn’t sustain my body in actuality.

“I believe a wager was mentioned. Jiro is twenty-seven years old, madam.” Archie gave away a bit of my information which earned him a glare from me.

“Oh, twenty-seven huh… is that right…” Yuna suddenly looked embarrassed even though she was the one who brought up our ages in the first place. “Thirty-four…”

I was somewhat surprised as she mumbled her own age under her breath, considering her youthful good looks. Not to say that thirty-four was old by any stretch of the word, but early twenties appeared more likely to me just a few moments ago.

“That settles it, Jiro-bo, I hope you’re ready to feed them cows!” Yuna proudly proclaimed, still red in the face from before.

“Um, I didn’t actually agree to the—”

“—I will make sure he completes his task with record efficiency.” Archie cut me off.

Whose side are you on, Supporter!?

We heard a commotion outside as the sound of a trumpet abruptly cut through our dinner conversation and the ambient overworld theme that I had gotten used to. Shizuka hopped down from her chair and ran to the window to see what was going on with her little legs.

Her eyes suddenly lit up and a smile painted her face.

“Momma, it’s her!” Shizuka shouted. “Lookie, lookie!”

Guess she CAN talk, after all.

“Calm down darling, I’m getting up.” Yuna stretched and walked over to the window. A similar smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as well. “Well, I’ll be. The Songbird of Memoria herself coming all the way out to the sticks for a visit and with a fancy parade with her.”

“Can we go into town and see her, momma? Can we, pretty please?”

“Songbird of Memoria?” I wondered out loud.

“Jiro-bo, why don’t you join us on a little walk into town?” Yuna suggested to the delight of her daughter.

“Why, what’s going on out there?”

“There’s someone that you really ought to see.”