Shopping Puzzle

Entering the mall, I saw someone dressed strange, waiting for me.

"Um, Ko, why are you wearing a dress?"

Ko was wearing a red dress with flower decorations, which...

"It looks nice on you."

"What did I just hear?"

Masato was behind me, with a huge grin.

"N-Nothing!"

"Oh, I heard you-"

I closed Masato's mouth with my hand.

"He didn't hear anything! He's lying!"

"Alright..."

Ko looked at us, confused.

"Anyway, what is your reason for wearing a dress?"

"Well... We are at the mall, right? So I thought that I should dress up, as if I was coming here to hang out with friends."

"Yeah, but how will you run away if something happens?"

"I doubt it! Even if something happened, I have normal clothes underneath the dress."

Masato and I give ourselves a deadpan look.

"What? What's wrong with wanting to look good?"

"Nothing..."

After that, we looked around the mall. We decided to split up in groups of two and inform the other group if we find the canister, or run into an enemy. I was with Ko, while Masato was with Masami (she said that she won't help us with anything game related, but will help if our lives are in danger).

"I'm glad that Masami is acting like a normal teenage girl now, if only for a bit."

"Yeah, me too. At first, she was scary, but I learned to like her."

Ko suddenly stopped.

"I forgot you were injured!"

She then gave me support.

"Y-You don't have to! I-I realized if I leaned to the l-left-"

When she put her arms over mine, my face became beet red.

"And what if you bend your spine?"

"I didn't think of that..."

Jeez, Ko... Give me some space... I can't handle being this close to you!

While walking around, we spotted a little alleyway in between stores.

"That seems awfully suspicious."

I commented.

"Yeah, let's check it out."

Unfortunately, we didn't find anything useful.

When we got out of the alleyway, I saw a flower shop across from us, with a big sun above the entrance.

Wait, the clue for this location said "Fly high, fly low, it follows wherever you go", right? Maybe, just maybe...

"Ko, I think we should check out that flower shop."

She looked where I pointed my finger.

"Alright! You're smarter than me, so you probably figured something out."

Entering the store, everything seemed normal.

"Hello, how may I help you?"

There was a lady at the counter. By her expression, it looked like she expected us.

Wait, I think I know what to do! But it would sound stupid if I'm wrong...

"Sun. I want the sun."

She smiled, before going towards a door, unlocking it.

"Very well. Have fun."

Going through the door, there was a large hallway, that probably led to all the other stores. Just when we stepped in, the door closed.

"How did you know what to say?!"

Ko was impressed.

"Well, I thought for a second, "How will they know we cracked the clue?", and I thought that saying it to a staff member in the shop would probably do something, since they probably have people everywhere."

"Oh, so you just guessed?"

"Yeah, basically."

I grabbed my emergency communicator, that Masato gave me, since they connected faster than handphones, and the person can hear you talking even if they don't pick up.

"Hello, Masato?"

"Yeah, Masato here."

Masato's hologram popped up.

"We found the way. Just go to a flower shop, and when the person at the counter asks if you need help, just tell her that you want the sun."

"Woah, that seems complex. How did you figure it out?"

"I just guessed, actually..."

"Well, you're one lucky bastard. We're coming."

I ended the call.

"They're on their way."

"Okay! Shall we continue on?"

"No, it'll be better to wait for them. We don't know what we might encounter."

"Ok."

As soon as we stopped talking, we heard a strange sound.

"Huh, what's that creaking?"

"I don't know, Ko. It doesn't-"

Out of nowhere, a trapdoor opened, and we fell through it.

"AH!"

"WAH!"

The fall was a long, but we landed on a bunch of bed mattresses.

"Phew, thank god there was something to land on."

Ko was frozen, not responding at all.

"Hey, Ko?! Are you alright?!"

After a few minutes of me screaming at her, she finally seemed to get a grasp on herself.

"Uh, what? I'm alive?"

"Oh, thank god! You scared me to death!"

"Where are we?"

Looking around, there was a lot of garbage, with some mall store equipment scattered around the room.

"I don't know. It looks like we are deep down below the mall."

"Why aren't Masato and Masami already here?"

"That idiot probably walked around and didn't see the trapdoor."

I tried to call him through the emergency device, but it didn't seem to work.

"That's weird. This thing should work."

Giving up, I help Ko up, and we started exploring our surroundings.

"There is a little door over here!"

Turning around, I saw her crouching by the little black door.

Opening it, the door led to what seemed to be a garage, as it had a workbench with a lot of flower pots and a giant truck with the sun logo.

"Maybe it's the flower shop's garage?"

"There is no door here, Ko."

She frantically looked around, and started panicking.

"What should we do if the canister explodes?!"

"We should probably have enough time to retreat to the room we came from, but I don't know about getting out of here."

Inspecting the truck, the tires seemed to be thorn up and gasoline was nowhere. Getting inside of it, I saw that the key was still in the truck.

"Huh, why did they leave this here?"

Turning it on, the fuel tank was almost empty.

"Hey, Noboru! I found the can of argon."

"What?"

Getting out, Ko held the can in front of my face.

"Weird..."

Wait... I think I know what to do!

"Ko, check if there is a second cap for fuel on the truck."

"Alright!"

She looked around, before yelling at me.

"There is! There is a fuel cap on the sun logo."

"Great! Wait a moment!"

I get inside the truck.

"Put it in, now!"

...

"It's in!"

I pull the hand break down, and jump out of the truck.

"Get to the back of the room!"

The truck collided with the garage, and after a few seconds exploded.

"AH!"

It took a few minutes for the blast to calm down, before it stopped. The garage were blown open, and it seemed like they were at the back of the mall.

"Well, another lucky guess, hehe."