Chapter 10_The Beach

“Hey Tomiko” Chimon responded after about thirty minutes of silence.

“What!” Tomiko shouted, snapping her neck to the side to give Chimon’s bubble a death glare.

“N-n-nothing”

“No! You had something to say, so say it!” She said.

“W-well, It… it’s just that we are heading west. I h-highly recommend turning 90 degrees to the right so that we go north.” Chimon stuttered.

“How long have we been going the wrong direction?” Tomiko said coldly.

“I wouldn’t say the wrong direction, just a slightly less efficient path,”

“How long!” Tomiko snapped.

“Dah! Like… since our last battle” Chimon said.

He could have lied, in fact it would have been better for the both of them if he did. But for some reason Chimon just seemed incapable of doing so. Either from not seeing its importance or foolish chivalry.

“And you're deciding to tell me this now?” Tomiko continued to say with no emotion.

“Ummmmmm. I figured you had some important things to think about, so I didn’t want to interrupt.”

Tomiko took a deep breath. She was mad at him, but she reminded herself he was paying her, and if she lashed out more than she already had, she would feel weird about taking his money again.

“I’m fine. Just keep doing your job so we can get out of here.” Tomiko said.

“Y-yes. Of course ma'am!” Chimon said with newfound enthusiasm.

They continued through the forest, each trying pretty hard to forget what happened with the bug. Both really hoped they wouldn't encounter another one.

It took them only two more hours to get to the edge of the forest. Chimon was specifically avoiding enemies to make sure they got out sooner. Even though there were more than just bug enemies in the forest, he didn't want to run the risk of one joining in the fight while they were engaged with something else.

This method meant they wouldn't get any loot or get stronger for the next area, but Chimon hoped Tomiko would enjoy fighting in the next area more.

At the edge of the jungle, they could both see clearly out over the next area.

It was a beach!

“Wow!” Tomiko said with great surprise.

There was a large sandbar in front of them that curved and bent out into the open ocean, leading to a series of small islands. On the other end of the watery path was what looked like the beginning of another continent.

“Wait, so are we on an island?” Tomiko asked.

“Yes, but a very large one. Probably the size of real world New Guinea. Roughly the same shape too. But the geographical makeup is very different.” Said Chimon.

“Huh,” Tomiko let out. “How do you know this is the right way to what you're looking for?

…

Chimon stayed silent.

“Fine, don't tell me.” Tomiko said annoyed.

Tomiko walked down to the beach. Greeting her there were several very large crabs. They were various shades of orange and were comparable to a car in size. The two closest ones noticed her and approached to attack.

“Ok, this should be fun.” Tomiko said as she swung her sword at the closest one.

But the sword bounced off and seemed to do nothing.

“It looks like we need to switch to a different damage type! Keep dodging until I’m able to find something effective.” Chimon said.

Tomiko has been pretty adamant about changing out her gear. She was very comfortable with the equipment she had been using, and wasn't thrilled about change. However, this situation demonstrated to her she couldn't continue without playing to the enemies’ weaknesses.

She dodged several swings of the crabs claws.

“Could you hurry! These guys aren’t letting up!” Tomiko shouted back at Chimon.

“Sorry, you have a lot of different items. Ah, this one should work!” Chimon said.

Chimon brought his bubble in front of Tomiko so she could switch weapons. She enjoyed shoving her sword in his face. When she reached in to grab what he had found, she was surprised to see a book gripped in her hand.

“What is this?” Tomiko said, confused.

“It's a tome,” Chimon answered. “Open it and cast a thunder spell. It should be super effective to creatures in this area, being a water level and such.”

“What? No! Give me something to hit them with!” Tomiko barked back.

“Just give it a try.” Chimon insisted.

“Fine. Like this?”

Tomiko awkwardly opened the book to a random page, and then faced the open book at the closest crab.

Nothing happened.

The crab, unphased by the gesture, took another swing at Tomiko and sent her ten feet back.

“Gah” She let out as she hit the sand.

The sand on the beach was harder than in the desert. She could feel the weight of the impact, but not the pain it should have come with. She was more so reacting to the surprise than actual damage.

“Ten percent taken!” Chimon commentated. “You need to wave your hand in the direction you want to attack.

“Screw your tome!”

Tomiko gripped the book and chucked it as hard as she could at the crab. The impact of the spine hitting the shell cracked it a little, but then it fell uselessly to the ground.

“Give me something to hit them with!” Tomiko demanded.

“Ok! Ok!” Chimon replied. “I think I remember seeing a low level hammer. It should at least do some damage.”

Chimon took a few seconds to find it.

“Got it. Here you go!” Chimon once again brought his bubble forward so Tomiko could reach inside.

“Finally!” She said as she reached in.

Out came a large wooden hammer. Despite being made of wood, the size made it pretty heavy and difficult to swing around, but at least it was something Tomiko could swing.

“Fine, this will have to work,” Tomiko said.

She swung it a couple of times to get used to the weight as the crabs approached again. She wanted to make sure she knew the timing of her attacks and the force needed to strike.

One of the crabs reached out with a claw open to pinch. Tomiko swung downward at the claw. It connected perfectly, crushing the plated limb into the hard sand. Bits of claw flung outward. Tomiko pulled back her weapon to reveal the exposed muscles.

“I think I’ll have crab for dinner.” Tomiko said in a cocky tone.

She made quick work taking down the two initial crabs. Each required close to 20 hits to defeat, but Tomiko was able to strike while only receiving one further blow in exchange. Of course, the crabs still poofed into a cloud of smoke once defeated, but one of them did leave behind crab meat as loot.

Finally having some success, Tomiko proceeded to rid the main beach area of crabs.

“Um…” Chimon said after the fifteenth crab “I think it's about time we called it a day.”

Tomiko reluctantly agreed. She was finally having some fun, but understood she had probably spent too much time for the day.

She thought she left on a good note. Better than most times she left the alley after questing. Taking the money from Chimon didn't cause her to question life decisions, so that was good.

Overall, Tomiko left feeling a lot better than when she entered. She was having a pretty bad day to start with, so it would have been difficult for it to get much worse.

When Tomiko got home, she took out her leftovers from the day before and heated them up. While it was in the microwave, she checked her phone for any messages.

She saw there was one unopened one from her dad.

Tomiko stared at the screen.

Her head spun with ideas on what it could be about. She was creating different scenarios, but was trying to push back positive ideas to keep her expectations low.

She opened the message.

“I got a call from the school during a meeting. What was it about?”

He didn't even take the call.

Tomiko stood as the microwave beeped. She wasn't sure how to respond. It was important to her for her dad to be informed about her life, but she really didn't want him to worry about her during work. She hadn't thought of his position when she yelled at the nurse. It was likely what the school was calling him about. He hadn’t taken any calls from the school so far. It was something mom would always do.

It took her a while to come up with a reply. He had already waited a few hours, so taking more time to think of the right response was most likely not a big deal.

“A teacher caught me saying a swear in school.”

That seemed to be the best response to Tomiko. She really didn't want to bother him with her problems. It was already so difficult to get him to go to work. She wouldn't know what to do with herself if he got in trouble at his job because of her.

She had a difficult time concentrating on anything else that night because she was waiting to get a response.

It never came.