(Some) Pedestrians are not very talkative, are they?

Yes, a girl with a silver armor certainly is something that stands out. But even with that, finding her was going to be very difficult. And running without any direction wasn’t going to help, so he stopped to think.

13 volumes of the light novel, three seasons of the anime adaptation and a manga spinoff. All his knowledge about Sekaunmei and Mirena came from there. Using that information, he tried to answer a very important question: what would Mirena do if she finds herself in a new world?

Mirena is introduced as a silly and happy girl with a natural-born adventurer hearth. She lived in an isolated village, and she was tired of seeing always the same landscape. So, when Mask appears in the village to defeat the first member of the evil council, rescuing her father who was kidnaped by the villain, she decided to follow him, even if he didn’t want to. She was just a thirteen years old at the beginning of the adventure, but grows up to be a strong young adult woman, especially after the time skip of the sixth volume.

As a kid, she used to be reckless. Because of that, she usually messed the things up and got into troubles, forcing Mask to help her. Eventually, she learned to be more cautious. So, if she suddenly finds herself in a new world unarmed, the first thing she would do is looking for a weapon.

Exactly as he predicted, it happened. After the modern car episode, she remembered the fact that her sword was lost. She was fortunate that the car and the man were good guys, otherwise could have been in troubles.

She realized that the people were also unarmed. Nobody used a sword or a bow, and nobody was wearing an armor. It seemed a peaceful place, but still the feeling of insecurity was too strong. She stopped the first person she found, a man around fifty years old, and asked him:

—Excuse me, could you tell me where the blacksmith is?

—What? Blacksmith? —replied the man with an irritated voice—. I don’t have time to play kid. —And he left without saying anything else.

—Rude… —She shrugged her shoulders and kept looking for help. In order to do that, she went back to the very crowded street.

There, she tried to stop the people passing by, but everyone ignored her saying that they didn’t have neither time or money.

—But I don’t want money… —She continued with her efforts, trying to be nice even if the rest of the people were a bit rude, but ended up losing her patience—. In the other kingdoms I’ve been, everyone talks with strangers gently!

After that failure, she began to walk without any direction in mind. She found a commercial district, full of shops in both sides of the street. There were restaurants, groceries, clothes and shoes stores, but no blacksmith. Every second she was unarmed, the tension was growing. Suddenly, she was stopped by a group of girls.

—Ehh, your costume is so good! —screamed one of them. There were three girls, a blonde, a black-haired and a dyed blue.

—Do you like my armor? —responded Mirena. The girls seemed nice, so maybe she could get better info from them.

—Yes, your cosplay is very well done —said the blue-haired—. It’s Mirena, isn’t it? —Her face paled. She was in shock.

—Do you know me?

—She’s roleplaying, so cute! —said the blonde, completely fangirling over Mirena.

—Yeah, of course we know you. You are great and badass!

—But how? —Mirena had a hard time trying to understand their enthusiasm.

—Well, you are a very famous person around here.

—Oh, really? That’s cool, I guess… —She was happy to be recognized by the people thanks to her achievements, but she didn’t expect to be famous in a place like that. Of course, she wasn’t that famous, because those three girls were the first to notice her—. I lost my sword, so it would be very helpful if you could tell me were the blacksmith is.

—Kyaaa! —screamed the blonde, losing it.

—Oh, I know what you mean —responded the one with blue hair—. Walk straight and turn left at the third corner. You will easily find a place called “The Magician”. There you can buy a sword.

—Thank you so much, you saved me! I don’t know how to pay you…

—A picture is enough —said quickly the blonde girl, pulling out her cellphone and passing it to her friend.

—A picture…? —Mirena didn’t have time to react. The blonde girl hugged her from the side.

—Smile for the camera! —Mirena obeyed and forced a smile. An unexpected flash went out from the strange artifact. Then, the three girls said goodbye and left, leaving Mirena with a lot of questions in her mind. But she couldn’t waste more time thinking in secondary things. She headed right to the direction the girls told her.

Even for a newcomer, finding the shopping district wasn’t hard at all. It was a pretty centric and big place, where the ninety percent of all the stores were condensed. Just by following the flow of the people you’ll end up there. With this in mind, Ken went to that place. If Mirena was looking for a weapon, that was her inevitable destiny.

He managed to delimitate the search terrain, but still there were a lot of streets with a lot of people. The sky was already orange because of the sunset, but the human density was still huge. Finding her was going to be really hard.

There was a special tool he could use, though. It was very powerful. By using it, the chances of success would drastically increase: Asking people.

That was the tool. But he couldn’t use it. All his life philosophy was based on a simple concept: do not stand out. When walking down the street, walk fast and looking down. If you think someone calls you, keep looking down until is undoubtable that they are talking to you and you can’t avoid the conversation. Two simple rules, and he was about to break both of them.

However, there was no other choice. It wasn’t for his sake, but hers. So he started to walk slowly, analyzing the people around him and looking for someone whose aura were kind and reliable.

The adults seemed all pretty busy and annoyed with life, so he avoided them.

The kids were happy, but it was hard to talk to children. They are unpredictable, the natural enemy for someone like Ken. So he also discarded the kids.

Young women were better suited for what he was looking for, but his nerves increased considerable just by thinking about talking with an unknown woman on the street. Also, he didn’t want to look like a perv, or be accused of harassment, so young women were discarded too.

That only left the young males. There were a lot of different kinds of men. The ones going in large groups and talking out loud, as if they wanted everyone to hear their conversation, were immediately discarded. Unfortunately, that was the most common type. But after some minutes of walking and watching, he finally found someone.

It was a man looking through the glass of a clothes shop. He had long hair, a wool hat, short beard, loose clothing of brown tones. He had that aura. The aura of someone kind, a good guy. Probably an artist, specifically a musician. Yeah, he surely played the guitar while sitting below the shadow of a tree with his girlfriend, a cute and shy girl that he rescued from the loneliness. Suddenly, Ken felt a little bit of envy. But then he shook his head, throwing those thoughts out.

“This is not the time to think like this!” he reproached to himself.

Then, an emergency occurred. The guy had enough of clothes-seeing, and was about to leave. There was no more time left. If Ken was going to act, it needed to be right away. Ken took a deep breath and forced his voice to come out.

—Excuse me… —said, but the guy didn’t turn around. “I failed” thought in despair. “My voice was too low.” It happened a lot of times. He has all his ideas clear, but at the moment of talk, the throat doubts and the voice comes out too soft and shattered.

But then, miraculously, the guy turned slightly. He’d a second chance.

—Eh? You called me?

—Ah, eh… Yes, I did. I want to ask you something.

—Yeah, sure bro —said the guy, with a soft and friendly voice. “Ah! I knew it! He was that kind of guy. It’s now or never! I’m going to overpass my fears, rescue Mirena, and become a better person!”. The lungs were full of air. His back was straight, the facial muscles ready, and the throat clear.

—Have you seen a weird girl over here? She is wearing a costume, a silver armor.

—A silver armor? No, I don’t think I saw anyone like that over here.

—Oh, it’s ok then.

—Ok, sorry for not being able to help.

—No, no, no problem. Yeah, goodbye.

And he left. Just like that, the conversation ended.

“Ahhhh! I’m so stupid! I didn’t event said thanks to him! I acted so weird! And I have to do it again because all this was useless! I’m never going to be able to help Mirena!”

He was grabbing his head while panicking, when casually noticed something on the walls in front of him. It was a miracle, a blessing from the gods. Since he saw that, there was no need to keep talking to strangers. But now he had to hurry up before it was too late.

Certainly, there was a store called “The Magician” at the exact location the girl told her, although it wasn’t a blacksmith but a toy store. Well, the girl wasn’t lying, you could buy a sword there. A plastic one.

Through the shop window she saw an aluminum bat.

—I guess it’s better than nothing. —So she entered.

After comparing some of them, she chose the one that seemed the strongest. She put it in front of the clerk, and pulled out a bag full with jewels.

—So, how many is it? —asked her, innocently. The clerk saw her with a tired and irritated face.

She was forced to leave the store without having the opportunity of explain herself. She was never treated like that in any store before. The people of that place were certainly weird and rude.

The night was coming, and she was alone and unarmed.

—What kind of dangers are there in this kingdom when the night falls? —asked to herself—. Maybe I should have stayed with that guy. He was uncanny, but looked weak and harmless. Maybe I should have stayed there and wait you, Mask. —She raised her chin, looking to the beautiful clouds of the sunset. At least the sky was the same—. You are going to come and rescue me, right? Like you always do…

At that exactly moment, she saw him. First she thought it was a hallucination. It was impossible for such a huge coincidence to exist. But then she focused her sight into the opposite wall and there he was: peeking out the head above the curtain of people, with his green hair slicked back and the carnival mask covering his eyes, smiling slightly at her.

She was almost crying of happiness, and a big and imperishable smile was all over her face. Of course she knew Mask was coming to rescue her, but didn’t expected him to be so fast. She crossed the street running and breaking every traffic rule possible. She kept running, ignoring all the people, and then crashed into the wall.