Linked Together V / The Little Things

“Hurry up, Everett!” Shina called as she spun around toward me.

“You slow down. I’m not familiar with this area.” Despite my words, I broke into a jog to catch up.

“It’s this way.”

“Sure, whatever,” I grumbled, “but I’m still not sure what ‘it’ is.”

Shina’s request to join her on an excursion into town on our day off wasn’t an unwelcome one, but once I’d set foot in such an unfamiliar place, I started to feel uneasy. Not to mention the fact that she’d been vague about the details.

“I need to head into Fordin to get something tomorrow. It’s scary to go by myself, so you have to come with me.”

Now that I think about it, it wasn’t so much of a request as an order. Why did I agree so readily!?

Shina was softly humming under her breath, though I had no idea why she was in such good spirits. I’ve been kind of snappy with her today. I should shut up so I don’t ruin her mood.

“Have you really not figured it out?” she belatedly followed up on my last comment.

“Well I’ve never been in town before, so I don’t know what’s in the direction we’re going.”

“You’re looking at the wrong details,” she complained, twisting around to face me again. “Don’t you notice anything different about me? That’s your hint. It should be pretty obvious.”

… This feels like a trap. But I won’t go down without a fight.

I had to think carefully. It relates to something you can get or do in town, and it’s also something that should be easy to notice. If I consider the kind of person she is and what she’d care about most, then…

“It has to be that,” I muttered.

“Hm?”

“Well, you don’t have that big bag you always carry for books.” More than a little proud of my quick deduction, I declared, “So that must be it. You’re getting a bigger one, so you can carry even more books. That’s a very you thing to do.”

Shina stopped in her tracks, and a bad feeling sunk into the pit of my stomach. She just stared at me, not a word leaving her lips.

“Um… just kidding?” I said (asked?) in a last-ditch effort to recover from what had to have been a fumble.

“I care about stuff other than books, you know,” she said, her voice quiet and filled with what I could only describe as dejection. “Have you never even looked at me before?”

“I, uh…”

How you look? What am I missing!? Twin tails? Check. Hair ties? There. Uniform? Norma—

“Ah,” I said, finally noticing, “you don’t have your cape-thingy on.”

She nodded but didn’t reestablish eye contact.

Over her uniform, Shina tended to wear a short brown capelet that covered her shoulders and upper torso. It seemed to be a relatively popular fashion choice among female students, but it wasn’t universal, so Shina lacking hers didn’t stand out to me at first.

“Sorry for being an idiot. You were right, I should’ve noticed.” I felt guilty for assuming she only cared about getting practical things; no matter how bookish she was, it was shallow of me to think of her so narrowly.

“You’re not alone there. I feel pretty stupid right now for dragging you all the way here to buy something no one will notice anyway. Sorry for wasting your day.” All traces of her good mood had faded, and she was now sulking because of me.

“That’s not true!” I blurted out. “I might not have noticed right away, but I definitely would have eventually. I think it looked great on you.”

“You don’t have to—”

“Seriously. I always thought it was cool and real mage-y. Like a stylish, modern version of a stereotypical wizard cloak. And cute too! I thought you looked super cute in it!”

I didn’t know how to talk to people. I struggled to know what to say, and I never knew when to say it. I spent so much time filtering my thoughts that I often ended up saying nothing at all. So when I had no choice but to speak, all I could do was say everything that crossed my mind, no matter what it was, no matter how embarrassing it might have been. Shina seemed taken aback at my uncharacteristic barrage of honesty, and that made two of us.

“Um, do you really… mean any of that?” she asked with the same bashfulness she displayed when we first met.

“Y-yeah. Sorry if I said something weird there.”

Her cheeks were burning a rosy color, and mine probably were too. As a pair of fools who were new to all of this, neither of us had any idea how to navigate a conversation turning this sentimental.

Deciding that changing the subject would be best for both of us, I jumped to a tangential topic. “What happened to your old one, then? You were wearing it like normal a couple of days ago.”

“I spilled a bit of ink on it. I might’ve been able to wash it out, but it was getting pretty worn down anyway, so I thought it might be better to get a new one.” She still sounded a little embarrassed, but it was less severe than before.

A smile thankfully returned to her face as we continued our trek through Fordin.

* * *

“Mmmgh. This one’s cute, but that price is crazy. Oh, but the style of this one is… ouch, never mind.”

Shina had been at this one-person back-and-forth for at least an hour by now. She’d occasionally stop and ask for my opinion, but no matter what either of us said, she would set down whatever she was looking at after taking a peek at its price.

Legally, I was still considered to be Leon, so all of his wealth and possessions were transferred to me when I arrived in this world. Plus, the academy gave a small personal allowance to the Inheritors in addition to paying our tuition. Given all that, while I wasn’t rich by any means, I did have some money to my name. I’d be more than happy to help Shina pay for her new cape, but I worried that making an offer like that would be insulting to her.

“Fine,” she said to herself, a hint of disappointment painting her tone. She pulled a plain, reddish-brown capelet off the long rack of premade clothes and nodded to herself to affirm the choice. At a glance, it was the simplest and cheapest option here.

Folding it under her arm, she turned her gaze to me. “You can ask me about it, you know. I can tell you want to, and I don’t mind sharing.”

“A-about what?” My reply wouldn’t have fooled anyone, and it induced a sigh out of her.

“My family’s in debt. A lot of it.” She didn’t sound sad or embarrassed; rather, her tone was detached, like she was repeating the facts of a distant history that couldn’t be more disconnected from her own life. “We lost most of our property and land two generations ago, and pretty much all of our respect too. I have a lot of younger sisters back at home, so I try to send them as much money as I can to help out.”

“Sorry for prying.” I apologized on instinct.

“Don’t say you’re sorry,” she huffed. “The only thing that annoys me is that you didn’t ask. If you’re curious about something, don’t hold back. It’s not like I’d hate you for it; we’re friends.”

You wouldn’t hate me… because we’re friends?

She said it as if it were the most obvious fact in the world, but the words came as a shock to my system. The better I got to know Shina, the more I learned about what friendship really meant. Sometimes, I wasn’t sure if her assertions were correct or if she was just as clueless as I was, but…

“Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.”

I followed her to the counter at the front of the building, and we combined our introvert might to awkwardly handle the toughest challenge of the day: getting past the loquacious shopkeeper.

It felt like an eternity (read: 20 minutes) before we managed to work our way outside, purchase completed. It was only midday, but I felt exhausted, and Shina looked to be as well.

As I was about to ask her what she wanted to do next, she cut in with an odd statement. “Do you smell that?”

“Huh? No, what are you…” Suddenly, a sweet smell akin to fresh-baked pastries wafted out from an alleyway adjacent to the shop we exited.

Practically drooling as she finished securing her new capelet, Shina walked in that direction. “We should check it out, even if I can’t afford it. I wanna see…”

“Shina? Do you seriously believe someone put a bakery down a back alley!?” I chased after her as she disappeared past the corner.

The alley wasn’t secluded enough to be a good spot for someone like a mugger to set up a trap, but every one of my senses screamed this was a bad idea. And as I caught up to Shina…

“Hey there, you two. Sorry to interrupt.” An alluring voice called out to us, and an arm wrapped around my shoulder. Between Shina and I, a woman leaned her head forward and looked between the two of us.

“F-Fleur?” Shina gasped.

The woman smiled, her visage equal parts bewitching and suspicious.

“I need a teensy bit of help from my fellow Inheritors. You’d do that for me, wouldn’t you?”