Meet The Crush

The north side guild hall was a large multistory building that, alongside the south side guild hall, served as the municipal office for the town's guilds. In addition to its other functions, the first floor also served as a restaurant for guild members. Nanako had explained that it could generally be counted on for good food while being less crowded than other restaurants. Since Nanako was a guild member, Takao and Sumire were allowed in as her guests.

“I didn’t realize you were with someone, Takao. I’m sorry if I’m interrupting something.” Nanako apologized with a smile after returning to the table with three pints of foaming drink.

Nanako stood almost as tall as Takao. Her fiery red hair contrasted her dark green eyes beautifully, and made a perfect match to her bright personality. She smiled brilliantly at them, reminding Takao that in all the years he’d known her, he’d only seen her frowning once.

“You're not interrupting.” Sumire said quickly, to Takao’s great relief. “I just arrived in town, and I twisted Takao’s arm into showing me around.”

Takao nodded in affirmation. He felt a bit of satisfaction in hearing Sumire admit she’d forced him to accompany her.

“Alright then!” She said, smiling brightly, and to Takao’s relief, didn’t push the subject. “So Takao, I just got back from a rank C job and I thought you might be interested in hearing about it.”

Takao loved to hear any adventuring story, but especially loved Nanako’s, and not just because he liked spending time with her. She had a strange knack for getting herself into unique and difficult circumstances, and also had a knack for getting out of them. This proved to make for wild and entertaining stories that always made Takao yearn for more.

“You thought right. Let's hear it.” Takao said, trying to keep the excitement out of his voice.

“Alright, so the job was to hunt a razor tusk. These things are big, mean, and hairy with long tusks that are jagged and sharp. We were hunting a specific razor tusk that had been attacking caravans in and around the Blue Grass Forest. The tricky thing about razor tusks is they live in herds, and this one was the herd chief. First, we had to lure it away from its herd or risk having all of them attack us at once.” Nanako began.

Takao listened intently as Nanako recounted how she and her party hunted the razor tusk. They lured it away from its herd easily enough with fresh meat, then fought till it was backed against a cliff wall. It was a tough fight since the razor tusk used sonic magic that was extremely hard to dodge and burst their ear drums, making it impossible to communicate, but they were closing in on victory. Unfortunately, they’d underestimated how smart it was. With a loud trumpet, it called the rest of its herd. It turned out, it had been leading them. They were trapped between it, a cliff wall, and a fast approaching stampede of razor tusks.

Using self-proclaimed, brilliant and quick thinking, Nanako combined her plant magic with Daichi’s earth magic to make a golem that looked just like the chief razor tusk. They sent it toward the stampede and tricked the other razor tusks into stopping and going back. Then, to stop it from calling them again, Kagome trapped it and them inside a barrier. The razor tusk went on a furious rampage that nearly took down three of them, but after a tough battle, they came out victorious.

After Nanako finished her story, She and Takao continued discussing the quest enthusiastically, leaving Sumire to chew on her lunch with a bored and sour expression.

“Big deal.” Sumire interrupted. “Why get so excited about a razor tusk? They aren’t that tough.”

“Ah! Well, Takao wants to be an adventurer, so I always tell him about my jobs.” Nanako answered.

“Is that right?” Sumire said with a smile. Her purple eyes twinkled mischievously.

The look gave Takao a bad feeling.

After finishing their meal, Nanako left to go meet up with her party. It was late afternoon and Takao felt unusually tired, so suggested they start back toward his apartment and maybe visit a few more sights along the way. To his surprise, Sumire agreed. As they walked, an uncomfortable silence pressed on Takao. Compared to her earlier behavior, Sumire seemed unusually reserved.

“You like that Nanako girl?” Sumire asked, breaking the silence suddenly.

Takao blushed. He wanted to deny it, but Sumire was eyeing him, and he knew she wouldn’t be fooled.

“So what if I do?” He retorted defensively.

“Nothing.”

They walked in silence for several minutes. More oppressive than before, it lasted until they reached the Saku River bridge.

“Why not ask her on a date? You seem to get along well.” Sumire said.

Takao didn’t want to discuss this. He knew that Nanako would never date him. She’d all but told him herself.

“We’ve known each other a long time, is all.” He said, hoping to end it at that.

“All the more reason, then. She won’t wait forever.” Sumire urged.

Takao almost laughed at this.

“She's not waiting for me. I happen to know she wants to date someone strong. Stronger than herself. I can’t use magic, so I don’t fit the bill.” He said miserably.

He hated having to acknowledge this fact. He’d tried before to accept it and move on, but he never could. His feelings for Nanako always came back. He couldn’t get rid of them.

As they crested the bridge, Sumire stepped in front of Takao, blocking his path. He stopped. They stared into each other's eyes and Takao got the sense, she could see straight through him.

“You're a liar.” Sumire spat. “You talk like you’ve given up, but I can see in your eyes that you haven’t. Not on Nanako, not on magic, and not on being an adventurer. You keep saying that you can’t use magic, but I know you can.”

“I—” Takao began, but was cut off immediately.

“Don’t! I am a powerful dragon god. I know for a fact that I was invisible and undetectable last night, but you saw me and spoke to me. Somehow, you broke through my magic, the magic of a powerful dragon god. The truth is—” She paused. Her demeanor becoming more bashful. “The truth is, I’m not going to destroy the town. I never really was. I just used it as an excuse to stay with you, because I’m interested in you.”

Takao was stunned. He gazed into Sumire’s purple eyes. Her violet hair shone brilliantly in the setting sun. Her cheeks tinted pink. She was beautiful.

“W—well, w—what I mean is, I’m interested in— your magic. That’s it, your magic and how you broke through my invisibility.” Sumire said, recovering her usual demeanor. “There’s something special about you, and I’m going to find out what it is. That’s why, tomorrow, I’m going to train you.”

Takao felt like he’d missed a step.

“Huh?”

Sumire’s Exposé!
Sukiya has a guild hall on the north and south side of the river. They are supposed to be the same, but the north hall tends to see more merchants and craftsman, while the south hall sees more adventurers.