Hearts, Deltoids and Abdominals

„Have faith in The Maker.“, gentle ocean waves crashing on sunset colored beach sing. Salty coconut scent engulfs Yuki.

„Of course it's one of you that preaches this nonsense.“, Houta spits.

„Who?“, Yuki turns from Houta and the most beautiful shade of blue is all he can see for a moment before a figure materialises in front of him.

It's the ocean haired girl from before. Yuki can only muster a stare.

„Wretched. Anima. Magic. User.“, again, Houta spits out every word as if he just tasted fresh tomatoes. And Yuki despises the texture of fresh tomatoes, it makes him gag.

The wretched anima magic user girl with ocean blue hair smiles, amused. „Were you two not in the town centre just now? I believe I've seen you there. You just missed my message to the people so I followed you to inform you as well.“

„Followed us? But we teleported.“, Houta says.

The girl makes one step closer and in an elegant, cat-like flash, she's behind Yuki. Houta gestures instantly and has two deep red flames in his palms. „Move and I release them.“

„Relax, dear, we're not in the arena.“

„But what if we are?“

„Guys...“, Yuki mutters, not moving.

The girl steps away and turns towards Houta. „Then shoot. See what happens.“

Houta hesitates.

„One way to find out. Here, I'll make it easy.“, the girl closes her eyes and her hair turns white. Strands of it go up like tentacles and form energy balls, ready to throw at Houta. Houta swings like he's playing baseball. Two growing fireballs hit the girl, and then disappear as if nothing happened. She grins, then her hair-tacles mimic Houta's motion and throw their own balls. This time, Yuki is quicker. He jumps in front of Houta to take the hit instead of him. A swarm of bright blue energy balls attack like wasps. Yuki braces himself, but the wasp-balls disintegrate before hitting, caressing Yuki's skin like feathers.

„We good now?“, the girl asks not caring about the answer. She pulls off the elegant cat-move again, and gets closer to Yuki. Yuki and the girl are now face to face. There's nothing in existence besides the two of them. The girl places her hand gently on Yuki's cheek.

„This feels very intimate. I uhm, I have a girlfriend.“

„Oh do you now? And what's her name?“

„She, uhm, she has... Uh... I can't... Wha... She doesn't have a name...“

„Well my name is Shinori. You can call me Shino.“

„Shino...“

Shino moves her hand and plucks out a hair stuck on Yuki's ear. The two of them are back in the game.

„We're so not good, you sneaky witch.“, Houta accuses Shino, looking at her long, blue strand of hair in her hand. Yuki looks like he'd just woken up.

„Why couldn't I remember Nanami's name?“

Houta points at the blue lock between Shino's fingers. „Anima magic, remember? Barely used because of its difficulty, then got insanely buffed as we got in. Also, this one either got a lot of cash in or took part in that very old and very limited event to get this stupid shining hair. Either way, she's bad news, we shouldn't listen to her and trust her. We should leave.“

„You really love your info dumps, eh?“

„I only ask you check your inventories.“, Shino requests nicely.

Yuki and Houta exchange glances. Yuki shrugs. Nothing wrong with that. He enters his inventory and in his peripheral vision he sees Houta doing the same.

„Now swipe left, before your first tab.“

„What do you mean, before the first tab? This is so stupid.“, Houta mutters, but tries doing that anyway.

„All of our precious gold!“, Yuki notices. „So to speak. What do these even mean?“

„Hearts, deltoids and abdominals.", Shino declares.

„This game is turning out to be a big joke.“, Houta says.

Shino quietly agrees and continues. „Together they make the same amount as you previously owned. You can check the exchange rate when you tap on each one.“

Yuki's not especially good at math, but he starts doing it anyway, using his fingers. He glances at Houta, who is nodding and looking satisfied.

„Prices of items are still in gold, however, and money is yet to be merged with the other precious materials tab, most likely in the very next update.“

Yuki is still doing the math, and Houta exits his inventory and studies Shino carefully.

„I've done my part. I shall take my leave now. I bid The Maker makes all your wishes come true, as well as she did mine.“

„She? Yuki, this is ridiculous, let's –“, Houta tells Yuki, but Yuki's not here.

„YUKI!“

„So are you travelling by yourself? How come you know so much?“, Yuki questions Shino, trying to keep up with her swift steps.

„I didn't come here looking for a pet! I prefer to be alone.“

„Oh I totally agree with the latter.“, Houta joins in on Shino's other side.

„Why in the afterlife's name then do you keep me around?“, Yuki gets offended.

„Get over yourself. You really want to have that conversation again? This stupid game relies on team work, okay? The end.“, Houta concludes. He glances at Shino. „Well, unless you're a certain type of a... player.“

„I'd say it's only a matter of a skill issue.“

Houta has a comeback ready, but Shino continues. „But yeah, if you're anything other than an anima magic user, you're cooked.“

„That's what I keep saying! Yuki's ex was chloro, so we had –“

„Why past tense? And she's not my ex, we're still together, it's just –“, Yuki stops himself, not believing his own words. „I'll find her, I'll find Nanami, I'll figure it out, I'll make it right again...“, Yuki mutters and keeps walking, leaving Houta and Shino two steps behind.

„So Nanami's here somewhere?“, asks Shino.

„We're... I'm not sure. Yuki believes there's a way to find her... The two of them –“

„NO!“, Yuki raises his palm towards Houta. „No more expositions! Who made you the designated exposition giver... person?“. Yuki looks at Shino. „My turn. Nanami was, is, I mean, she's very, well, we met, uh, we've been through, uhm, so, she's got, like, emmm, she's just the best – you know what I think? She'll probably find me before I do her!“

Behind Yuki, a gust of wind twirls up and two ominously red dots light up.

Both Houta and Shino look horrified and slowly point behind Yuki. Yuki's eyes widen and he grins. „No freakin' way!“, Yuki turns around dramatically, ready to run to Nanami and give her a big hug. Instead, a ghost like monster looks like it's about to give Yuki a hug, its two limbs spread apart, ready. It claps its limbs together and strikes Yuki. Yuki loses a lot of HP and flies high up in the air.

„Axe it!“, Houta instructs. What happens next takes 10 seconds. Houta prepares to freeze the monster, but it can't work since it's not tangible. Shino conjures up an energy fence that serves as a prison for the monster. Houta does his signature water plus ice combo and freezes the monster so Yuki can crush it with Firestorm.

„We were never able to finish within 10 seconds, man!“, Yuki tells Houta, admiring the amount of not gold in his inventory. „Did you get 500k again?“

Shino blinks as if she glitched, unsure if she heard right.

„Let's see... So I got two million hearts, 870k deltoids and 134k abdominals.“

„So now you're getting even more! Well, a tiny bit more.“

„100k more, in gold.“

„And you're suddenly better at math than me?“

„There's a calculator button.“

„Wait what's happening? How are you getting so much money?"

„We've no idea. But it's been like that even before the gold update.

„Hm. How many fighting moves do you have unlocked?“, Shino asks Yuki.

„15.“

„What... Well, I have all of them."

„WHAT. 547?"

„No. I mean yes, but also the hidden ones. So, 642."

„I am barely using five different ones."

„You can also combine and save them as special moves."

„Yeah I heard about that –"

„Okay you two, enough, I don't understand you and I wanna eat something. Yuki... Huh! Maybe Shino, was that your name?“

„Shinori.“

„Maybe Shino knows some nice recipes.“

„Hold on, hold on!

Here's my offer. I'll cook, sometimes. I'll give you all the recipes I have. And Yuki, I'll be your sparring partner. One million gold up front, and 500k per day. However much that is in current, uh, currencies.“

„One million up front and another at the end of the week if we spar daily. 100k for each move and recipe.“

Houta and Shino stare at Yuki, not trying to hide how impressed they both are.

„Deal.“

Houta frowns at Shino. „And you feed us at least once a day.“