A Certain Girl’s Treasure Hunt

~A ‘Never-ending Battles’ Prelude!~
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“But wait— are my eyes playing tricks on me!? Not only does the #1 jump back in the nick of time, she’s already going on the offensive with that fancy new weapon of hers!! Oi! Luna!!” rowdily shouted Roberto, a little too eager to ask his burning question. “Got any info you can share with us tonight?!”

“Sorry, Roberto, not this time! If it’s any consolation, I was able to talk to the #1 before the match started—though it didn’t really go anywhere since she only said it was found in The Pit. In a way, that sort of explains itself, right? It doesn’t get any clearer than that!”

“You’re damn right it does!” boisterously began Roberto. “Heidi never fails to make things interesting! THAT’S WHY WE LOVE HER!!”

(﹙˗ˏˋ!!!ˎˊ˗﹚)

An ear-splitting roar of agreement.

Beddy, too, if only for a moment, found herself humored by the chaotic uproar.

Though she had her own reservations about the latter half of Roberto’s comment, she quietly acquiesced to the former—unaffected by his contagious enthusiasm.

(﹙˗ˏˋ!!!ˎˊ˗﹚)

“But…” Roberto began again, suddenly pausing. “…say, Luna.”

“…?” Luna shot Roberto a dubious glance, noting how his voice suddenly took an uncharacteristically serious tone.

“For those of us not in the know…,” he trailed off, heightening the suspense.

Noticing everyone in the overcrowded stands lean towards the direction of the commentary box, Roberto, as someone who likes to make a show out of everything, broke into a wicked smile. Without missing a beat, he unconcernedly asked Luna the simplest of casual questions with his most spirited performance yet—leaving everyone completely dumbstruck.

“…would you be a dear and give us a quick rundown of what exactly The Pit is? I bet everyone’s just DYING to know!”

A comical THUD! echoed throughout the Prism Ring. Everyone amongst the crowd fell on their faces. Beddy nearly tripped over herself mid-fight.

Roberto, helpless with laughter, was definitely pleased with himself. Riling people up was his favorite part of the job.

“Roberto!” Luna playfully responded, “Don’t scare me like that! But I like the way you think! That’s my partner in crime for ya!”

It was at this point that Roberto had keeled over in pain from laughing too hard, giving Luna two peace signs as a nonverbal cue to keep going.

“Ahem, alright then—Hey! Everyone!” she determinedly began. “It’s time for a history lesson, so listen up!” The Pit is essentially a huge dumping ground; famous in our lovely city for all the wrong reasons…”*

▓

Earlier that day…

“RumbleRumbleRumbleRumbleRumbleRumble…”

𖡎

Far within Arcadia’s outskirts lies a landfill that stretches out as far as the eye can see.

Only known informally as “The Pit,” this unofficial landmass of trash houses everything—from the city’s insatiable greed to its bitter regret; from the tiniest rags to tossed-out prototypes of high-designer clothing; from standard knives and firearms to otherworldly spears and magic swords; from hills and mountains of junk and garbage to underground dead-ends and haunted catacombs, with one “supposedly” leading to the hidden entrance of the ruined Divine Ossuary…*

It’s been rumored that even without a governing authority, this gargantuan garbage heap of a “technically viable” landmass is cursed with one absolute rule—one that’s strictly expected to be taken seriously when entering or exiting the “No Man’s Land” territory of The Pit: Take one, leave one—no exceptions.

No one knows how this maxim came to be, but any treasure hunter worth their salt knew better than to act out of greed or bring an inadequate amount of inferiæ*—cherished or neglected objects—when they risked their lives entering the “unknown” for the treasures that they desired.

Though it often goes unsaid, “bargaining” with The Pit was like making a deal with the devil…

𖡎

“RumbleRumbleRumbleRumbleRumbleRumbleRumbleRumbleRumble…”

Ominous exposition aside, a certain Prism Ring’s #1 fighter (a frequent visitor to this enigmatic trash heap) is currently preoccupied with the simple task of enjoying herself—seen in the form of Heidi delving and tunneling through numerous knolls of trash, primarily searching for any “toys” (weapons) she could play with or anything cute that she could take home with her later.

Losing all semblance of time, Heidi completely—and rather conveniently—forgot about her scheduled fight with Beddy, last remembering that it was in “about two hours.”

It was currently 6:30 PM; Heidi had half an hour left.

Not like that mattered to her in the slightest.

“RumbleRumbleRumble—”

THUMP!

————————————————————————CRAAAASSSHH!!!

“Owie… That hurt.”

Having hit her head on what felt like a safe or even a treasure chest, the sheer force of the impact caused the nearly thirty-foot tower of trash to buckle inward and noisily collapse.

What’s more, given Heidi’s impossibly inhuman burrowing speed with either a shovel or her hands—she used her hands today, which did little to dispel the following theory—the fact that she got off with only minor aches and pains gave too much probable cause to suspect that she was secretly a mole-person.

In a way, it checked out; the way Heidi effortlessly dug through countless piles of junk every time she stopped by gave the impression that she “swam” through them—like a mole.

Conspiracy theorycrafting aside, what if the opposite were true?

What if Heidi were such a devoted treasure hunter that she actually used a map, charting and updating every mountain or pile of junk that she came across and dug through? Wouldn’t that make more sense for—hm? What’s that? Heidi’s too chaotic and carefree for targeted, organized exploration? Yeah, in retrospect, that sounds about right…

The mystery deepens… and asking Heidi herself was a lost cause.

First, she’d think her ears were being made fun of.

Once that happened, she’d start getting all self-conscious—her face turning beet-red in the process.

Furthermore, if enough time passed (or if the inquirer continued to press the matter), Heidi, after entering “Bashful Mode,” would send them flying with an absurdly powerful uppercut for annoying her—an emotion she rarely ever showed.

𖡎

“————————————————————————!!!”

“AAHHH!” excitedly shrieked Heidi. “Did I hit the mother of all jackpots!?”

Popping out of the ground with her potential new haul in tow, Heidi found a nearby dilapidated wooden table and spread out her hard-earned spoils, studying them carefully.

Beginning with a pair of abrasively rough, gashed, and jagged daggers, Heidi immediately noted that they were a kind she had never seen before.

Setting aside the glowing, rune-like engravings, Heidi was most drawn to their deliberately asymmetric design, mentally highlighting the multiple, uneven, and angular indentations along the daggers’ left side—allowing whoever used them to rip and tear flesh rather than cause a clean slice. In examining the right side (and if Heidi didn’t take into account the exaggerated half-circle notch-choil a quarter of the way up the blade), Heidi noticed that the blade seemed to be a more continuous, albeit angled, line compared to the former.

A straighter blade makes for better practical use in a one-on-one. It’s amateurishly double-edged, but I see the intent…

Smiling an excited smile, only one word stuck out to Heidi as she held the surprisingly light pair of twin daggers: “Frantic.”* Deciding to keep them, she set her newly named Frantic Daggers down atop a relatively clean, three-legged children’s chair—designating that, along with whatever else she wanted to save, as her “Keep Pile.”

࿈

Next up was a pair of vibrantly deep-sea blue, marble-patterned, and double-edged, one-handed swords. Having a more “refined,” high-performance forge than the “Frantic Daggers,” Heidi thought about the dangerously fun attacking combinations that came with the scarce making of one-handed swords; especially double-edged ones.

Naming them “Ducusram,”* Heidi, placed her cherished prizes down on the chair and took to the next one.

𓌜

As a girl who rivaled Red’s fervor for intense, close-quarters combat, a Bō staff was far from Heidi’s preferred weapon—regardless of her niche’s “Instant Mastery” ability.

In spite of her pickiness, Jack-of-All-Trades did have a loophole—so long as her niche didn’t activate upon contact, Heidi was free to come up with her own style of “play” (fighting) as she learned alongside it.

Speaking of, the staff looked beautifully adorned with ornate gold and jet-black accents, while its main body appeared to be carved out of dark, reddish-brown wood—giving it a solid, natural feel. Intricately embossed patterns of golden swirls and lines wrap around a majority of the Bō staff’s length, as well as its two golden-ringed, metal-knobbed ends.*

Were it not for the significantly worn-down and embellished golden grips, Heidi would have been hard-pressed to believe that a staff of such novelty was just casually lying around in The Pit.

Giving credit where it’s due, Heidi did recognize that the Bō staff had an air of having been used for either ceremonial or combat purposes—with the latter explaining most of its wear and tear.

Though she felt like she’d regret it in the end, Heidi set the staff aside, instinctually understanding that it deserved to rest. She couldn’t explain it, Heidi wanted to respect the tired staff’s spirit—not force it to fight alongside her.

⊰━━━━⊱

Next up, a more unique combo of dual-use weaponry: a glowing, “Hard Light” shortsword and pistol.* Again, if Heidi could be picky, she'd rather not use a gun—but her niche said otherwise. The rules, anyhow, stop applying in The Pit… and although Heidi wouldn’t have dared to pair a gun with a sword, the name of a particular move called out to her—a move so alluring, it held a certain elegance when said aloud.

Heidi, agog with excitement, hastily tossed the H.L. 1 and 2 with the others, no longer caring about her weapon preferences—all she wanted to do was execute a “Stun-Shot Slash” combo.

𖦏

The penultimate item of Heidi’s extravagant haul was a rather small accessory, endearing in both size and design. Since it looked to be a capsule-ball prize of sorts, Heidi found it so cute that she just had to take it home with her—despite having absolutely no idea what anime, video game, board game, or children’s show it was from.

In any case, the toy’s simple design looked highly marketable.

With a cold, polished, silver-grey metallic sheen, the round body of this “Oopa” (as the faded tag barely read) bore thin, horizontal parallel lines that subtly communicated a slightly robotic design. Two large, circular ears protrude from the top of its head, each with a black ‘outer ear’ ring and a white ‘inner ear’ ring.

The Oopa’s face, in keeping with the robotic theme, is characterized by two large, almost comical eyes that appear to be camera lenses or mechanical sensors, with circular pupils and smaller, metallic eyelids.

With two half-ovals serving as eyelids, a small black dot serving as its nose, four jagged lines to make up its mouth, and four adorably stubby legs and a tail, the Metal Oopa—the smallest object out of Heidi’s entire haul—was almost complete.*

Bringing her own keyring, Heidi attached her now-completed Metal Oopa to her Prism Ring lanyard, happily continuing toward her final treasure of the night.

🔘𓈖🔘

Last, but certainly not least, came the final piece of Heidi’s loot—which, by appearances alone, struck her as a rather distinct work of art.

Judging by its make, Heidi could immediately tell that this wasn’t just any typical pair of weaponized garden shears—far from it.

Three distinct differences stood out to her that set them apart:

Size—they were deliberately scaled up to be as tall as a human being.

Length—due to this massive increase in size, the blades were also considerably longer, each measuring at about two feet.

Structure—the metal of the blades and handles felt impossibly light, but they were strong. As she spun the oversized gardening tool with one hand, Heidi determined that the shears held a uniquely flexible versatility, one that allowed it to undergo a “shift” into a spear with a shark-head-like tip.* Additionally, said spear-like tip possessed a razor-like sharpness—holding just the right amount of destructive “oomph” to compete against Beddy’s nearly unbreakable tungsten bat.

That’s an item from The Pit for ya~ thought Heidi. Ahh, how I pity Beddy, I think she might hate me if I used this to fight her today—

“……………………………………………………………………………………Wait.”

Heidi cocked her head in visible confusion. The realization hit her a moment later.

“OH! SHIT!”

▓

So came the abrupt conclusion of this month’s episode of “What Will Heidi Find in The Pit Today?”

With its host now visibly—and appropriately—distressed, Heidi shot a panicked glare at the XCVR wristwatch beneath her sleeve, swiftly ripping it back to check the time.

It read 6:58 PM.

“Oh, you’ve GOT to be fuuuuu— RUSH! If you can hear me, I need you to ‘port me! Like, NOW!!”

“Just so you know, Mylo’s the teleporter—though I see where you’re coming from when you phrase it like that.”

Responding to some background clamor on his end of the line, Rush exasperatedly cleared his throat before continuing.

“Ahem, anyway,” he began, “once I locate you, you do know you’d be using your one for the month, right?”

“Yes! I know! I don’t care!! Hurry up and do it!”

“Yelling at me gets you nowhere when you’re this late. Again. Now, let me just— Ah, got you. Alright, on the count of ‘three,’ jump. One…”

“Two…”

““Three!!””

Heidi, making sure to grab her spoils and the three-legged children’s chair that acted as her “Keep Pile,” vaulted off the dilapidated table exactly as she yelled “three.” Coming face-to-face with her shadow, Heidi was consumed by it—disappearing without a trace.

A split-second later, Heidi found herself standing in the middle of the girls’ locker room—outside, an annoyed Luna could be heard frantically banging on the door.

“Thirty seconds, Heidi! What’s taking you so long!?”

The sudden scare forced Heidi to disregard any suspicions she had about Rush and his prior tagging of said locker room. Needing to come up with some excuse for not being ready, Heidi quickly changed into a black and red, midriff-exposing tank top, coupled with black fingerless gloves and matching red shorts.

With record-shattering speed, Heidi opened the locker room door, new weapon in hand, with only one second left on the clock.

“Tee-hee~ Heya, Luna! Sorry about the scare. I fell asleep mid-change! Are we late?” cheerfully asked Heidi, skeptically glowing as she stepped out to meet the fuming Prism Ring commentator.

“No…” she nervously said. “You’re actually not. How do you keep doing that anyway?”

“Do what?” innocently asked Heidi, teasing the poor girl.

“N-Nevermind… oh. Is that a new weapon?” Luna quizzically asked. “Did you have that when you first walked in? Actually, forget it. We’ve got to move! Now!”

“Ehe~ Take the lead, Boss! I won’t spoil how long it’s been there, but I did find this bad-boy in The Pit! I can’t wait to try it out, so let’s get this show on the road!”

“Attagirl! Have a good match!”

▓

Stepping out into the Ring’s obnoxiously blinding spotlight, Heidi, everyone’s favorite poster girl, was greeted by the frenzied, thunderous roar of the already impatient crowd.

Her opponent, a short, angry, white-haired girl with bedhead, vehemently scolded the older girl for being late as she confidently brandished her metal bat—pretentiously declaring victory once and for all.

Heidi, unfazed by Beddy’s declaration of war, simply laughed.

Brandishing her new toy right back at her, Heidi swore she’d turn the tables and defend her title.

On Roberto’s call, tonight’s highly anticipated fight was finally about to begin…

End

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* A more “revised” story beat excerpt from Never-ending Battles, the short story in the [What a Small World!] universe that chronologically takes place after this one.

* “The Pit” — An unironic direct reference in name, functionality, and conception to:

How the Sphereites refer to “The Ground” in Kei Urana’s GACHIAKUTA.

How both settings are wastelands (with the former having a mostly toxic environment) due to the constant downpour of trash from both The Sphere and Arcadia.

How both settings are referred to as “No Man’s Land”(s).

For the former, ‘No Man’s Land’ is a term describing one of three types of areas in the ground, with it being an even more dangerous variant of Polluted Zones.

For the latter, The Pit is one entire mass; so, ‘No Man’s Land’ in this case means “an endless expanse of trash, bound with vast amounts of untold treasures.”

EXT Pt. I: The origin of the [What a Small World!] Pit paradoxically almost found itself not existing were it not for the “What if” question of: What if there existed a place for characters—primarily Heidi—to find video-game weapon cameos?

EXT Pt. II: Thusly, for ease of simpler narrative description and flow, “the landfill that stretches out as far as the eye can see, within the outskirts of Arcadia,” also known as “The Pit,” was saved and born.

* “Inferiæ” — Latin for offerings [particularly made to the dead].

In The Pit’s case within the [What a Small World!] universe, inferiæ means “to trade any discarded/neglected,” or, alternatively, “cherished/dearly-treasured treasures with the accepting and collective spirit of The Pit itself.

* Heidi’s “Frantic” Daggers — A reference to Evil Empire and Motion Twin’s Frantic Sword, a sword-type brutality-build melee weapon seen in the 2017 metroid-vania video-game Dead Cells.

Though the weapon-type changed for the narrative, conceptually (albeit never explicitly stated, and because the original spritework made it incredibly difficult to discern the weapon’s actual appearance), the weapon is the same as its video-game counterpart, just shrunken-down to the size of daggers; hence their name.

Their in-game effect, “inflicting a critical hit when the player character has less than 50% health” (or, in this case, if the wielder takes enough damage themselves) is still retained; though, again, the opportunity to utilize/reveal said effect within the existing timeline of the [What a Small World!] series has not yet presented itself.

* “Ducusram” — A direct reference to Sunraku’s Ducusram weapon, ascended from his Marsh Daggers, in Katarina’s Shangri-La Frontier.

* The [Taiji] Bō Staff — Another direct reference to Estelle Bright’s ultimate weapon in The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, properly visualized in the 2025 remake of the trilogy’s first chapter.

* Hard-Light Sword [& Gun] — As a game that relies on environmental storytelling without a need for spoken in-game text, the human player, when playing Hyper Light Drifter, is meant to immediately recognize that the Drifter’s sword is his primary means of attack.

The Drifter’s sword is composed of phase shifted Hard Light, an advanced form of technology that can be used to create solid forms of holograms.

* The “Metal Oopa” — Another, another direct reference to Mayuri Shiina’s iconic Metal Upa, a rare and highly valuable capsule-ball prize among the RaiNet Kakeru franchise’s merchandise line’s plastic variants, and an integral part in causing World War III in the Steins;Gate visual novel franchise.

* Deep Sea Swift Scissors [Custom Name] — Another, another, another direct reference in appearance and functionality only—since there is no official name for her oversized “scissors,” as the ZZZ Wiki describes them—to Ellen Joe’s signature weapon in Hoyoverse’s mobile gacha-game, Zenless Zone Zero.