The girl standing in front of me is... Well, looks frail, to say the least. She looks young, 13... 14? I've never been good at guessing ages. She has some pretty dark brown hair and unnaturally dark... purple eyes? Hmmm- Is that like... An eye colour that exists here? I don't know, man-
Carrying on, she's like, literally half my height. Okay, okay, that's an exaggeration, but stilll! She's pretty short, 4'11? Maybe a bit taller? I haven't really... Well, measured myself, so I have nothing to compare her to.
Oh, yeah! I guess I should talk about the fact that she's some kind of beast...man? Woman? Person? I don't know the name for their race, okay! Don't blame me for not being educated about this world.
(Here's a picture of the one in question for y'all. It's kinda old though so it's not the best.
https://i.imgur.com/xIEEAlg.pn)
Ah, I guess I should say something.
"Hello?" I spoke to them but... She just kinda tilted their heads at me. What? Look, man, if you're not gonna respond, I'm gonna leav-- Oh? She's pointing to the weird collar thingy she has on. Why? I don't know, maybe it's her kin-- wait, wait, wait, she's a kid, no. Then againnn, maybe she's not a kid and is actually a 5000-year-old demi-god- pff- Pardon my hilarious jokes! Why aren't you laughing? Oh, oh, I should get back on track.
"What, do you want me to get that off of you or somethin'?"
She nodded, her eyes widening a small bit.
.... d u d e - Come on, why are you making me do this?! Tsk, tsk, kids these days! Didn't your parents teach you about stranger danger? Ah, she's just staring at me dude, expressionless. She's kinda ominous, jeez.
Ah, fine, fine. I walk up to her and grab onto the t-
{Host has been afflicted with a Status Condition: >Curse: Pain (Medium)<
"HOLY FUCKING SH--" OW, OW, O W ! I LET GO- WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?! THAT HURTTTT! C-CURSE?! AM I CURSED NOW?!
{No, status condition will wear off after 30 seconds.}
WHA-- THIRTY?! OW, OW! WHY DOES THIS EVEN EXIST!? Hah... Dude, that hurt more than when my arm got cut off... Well, I didn't actually feel that too much... Okay, okay, how do I get that thing off of her? Hmm... Oh! Appraisallll! It's timeee!
I activated Appraisal on the collar.
{Item Name: Slave Collar
Item Grade: B-
Item Description: Once this collar is put on a living being, said being will be unable to speak unless told to and has to follow all orders given to it by the one who put it on them. There is a curse on the object that causes immense amounts of pain if somebody other than the master tries to take the collar off, or if the one wearing the collar tries to disobey orders. }
Holy-- With something like that in this world, this could turn into a whole different genre. I-I'm joking, of course. Hmmm, how to get the thing off... Gasp! I've got it! I got a skill from a monster that's pretty much perfect for this! Separation!
Alright, explanations are in order! I got this skill from a Kobalt, a monster that pretty much just looks like a more intimidating furry! H-haha, just kidding... Mostly. Well I mean, they have the head of a wolf or cat, it varies. Anyways, Separation is a skill that separates two things, simple, I know. But it has its limits, a lot of limits. You can't use it on living things, You can't separate the same thing from itself, and it can't be used on items above B Rank! Luckily, the item in question doesn't fall in any of the categories! It needs physical contact to activate it so... Aaa... I have to touch it again...! Okay, maybe if I do it quick enough... I activate the skill and quickly poke the thing... Owwww? It didn't hurt... It didn't hurttt! I did it! I did i- OH NO, WHAT'S THAT THING IN FRONT OF ME- I KICK IT AWAYYYYY- EW, EW, EW! IT'S LIKE INKY A-aND SLIMY AH-
O-okay, it flew away. I unlock the collar using body manipulation. She looked kinda surprised when I did, kinda like, touching her neck.
Okay... I should get out of here. I begin to leave when she... She grabs onto my arm.
"W-wait, sir."
... N o - Don't try this 'w-wAIT sIR' crap on me! I know you're gonna try and tag along with me, and I'm not letting that happen! I'm a guy that sticks alone, I'm not gonna feed another mouth...!
.... And yet, I respond with, "What?" God damn me.
"May... I know your name?"
Oh... Wait my name? She... Wants to know my name. Do I even know that... God damn it, did I forget my name? How did I... Ugh, I need to come up with something. Okay, Hm... Okay, let's go with something simple. Colours? Black... No, I'm not an edgelord... Green... Blue... Yellow... White? Shiro? Oooh, that one is okay, I'll go with that.
"It's Shiro! Make sure to remember it! Or don't, it doesn't matter to me."
{Name set as Shiro.}
Oh, I didn't expect that- W-wait is that permanent?
"And if you'll excuse me, I'll be goin' now." Phew, I might be able to get out of here without her--
"W-wait...!" DUDE, LEAVE ME ALONE!
I wanna just ignore her... But... "What is it?"
"P-please... I don't have anywhere to go..." NO, NO NO NO! DON'T START WITH THIS SOB STORY! DON'T MAKE ME FEEL BAD FOR YOU! I'M NOT GONNA TAKE YOU WITH ME, JEEZ!
"I-I was captured by them, t-they put that thing on me and treated me like an object... t-they killed my m-mom and dad... Please, bring me with you." She looked directly at my eyes. Dang, that's pretty cliche, I feel like I've heard that ten times before.
Hah... I should just say no... But I feel really bad for her and all... Damn my empathy! FINE! If I get to a town I can drop her off at an orphanage or something...
"Sure!"
[Chapter 13, end.]