"So what did she look like?"
Kinyuki sighed at another one of Figaro's interruptions. He spent the last few minutes relaying everything that had happened up to the point of meeting up with Figaro after Figaro had done the same. The story that Kinyuki heard was shocking to say the least, but did have some interesting bits that, to Figaro's displeasure, will have to investigate later. Kinyuki should have expected that Figaro would have found any ladies that he would have met to be far more interesting. He decided to relent, otherwise Figaro would have badgered him to explain more about the tanuki beastman he met in the Shop/Bookstore.
"She was a wolf girl, with long black hair and a plain dress, and she wore an apron." Kinyuki explained blunlty.
Figaro frowned, "C'mon, Kinny, be a little more elaborate. Did she have small breasts or did her butt not suit your exquisite tastes?"
"I wasn't paying that much attention, you're just going to have to use your imagination."
Figaro Huffed at the excuse," Well, maybe we can swing by that tavern and see if she's still there."
"Alright," Kinyuki relented, "I've got some extra clothes from spawn camping those slime monsters, you can put them on."
"Heh, I didn't think they eat money." Figaro chuckled as Kinyuki searched his bag for something that would cover his friend's head.
"They don't."
The stern, feminine voice had nearly caused the two friends to stop breathing. Kinyuki was holding the pipe in one hand, thinking that he'll have to defend his friend from anyone who would want to use him as free EXP, something even Figaro wasn't sure would happen upon his death. What they had found was three individuals; A white haired female wolfgirl, a young man with dark, neatly combed hair, and another wolfgirl with black hair. The employee was holding the white haired girl's hand, not like a lover, but more like someone who was trying to keep track of a younger sibling.
'The owner and the employee from the cafe!' Thought Kinyuki, 'The other one must be her sister'. He was somewhat relieved about the cafe workers being there, as he believed that they might be a little more understanding about the situation than other people would. The black haired beastman spoke again, this time in the tone she used to accost her employee for giving him the alchemy book for free.
"What is the meaning of this monster?" She asked again "Are you a magic user?"
"Grace..." The employee said, trying to mediate, "I'm sure that this is just a misunderstanding. This man just ate at your cafe, he nice. You might get Luna confused again-"
"What is that supposed to mean, servant?" Grace asked, "You think she's-"
Grace was just about to slap the backside of her employee's head, when Luna had moved in between them. Her expression was blank, but she had dramatically shot one finger into the air. Then her arm swiftly came down and pointed directly at Kinyuki. Everyone's eyes were on her, and the silence went on for a couple of seconds before she spoke.
"You." Luna began, "Is that a monster?"
The blank, confused stares continued all around, but Kinyuki thought fast and replied, "Nope."
If there were any point in his life where Kinyuki had ever seen the gears start clanking around in someone's brain, it would be now. 'Okay, if this world really is the perfect storm of cliches that I think this is, then their reaction will be the final sign.' Kinyuki thought. The young girl had cocked her head in a fashion that resembled a confused canine.
"Oh. Okay."
It couldn't have been more of a classic, anime-esque, overreaction from the two. The man and Grace had nearly fell over in shock, as if they had stumbled over a step they missed. Shocked turned into shouting, Grace at her sister for being completely unaware and then at Kinyuki for being a filthy, crumble-eating liar, and the employee trying hard not to raise his voice at his boss while he played damage control, all the while Luna stood in the middle still staring at Kinyuki and Figaro.
"Kinny, this isn't normal, and I've lived in a ghoul-house for most of my life." Figaro whispers
"Heheh. I think we found the main characters." Kinyuki chuckles under his breath
"Kinny." Figaro turned to Kinyuki, "That's just mean. We don't know this guy, he can't be that much of a pushover."
"YEAH HE IS!!" Three unknown voices cry out in unison.
"Oh joy." Kinyuki sighs, "More kids."
The three people in question were three young boys, looking of about their mid-teens, had appeared from behind the employee. It was a blonde, a brunette, and a fat guy, and from the look of the employee's embarrassed face, it was plain to see that he knew these guys. Behind the trio of "kids", there was several more boys, all in buttoned up, white collar shirts, behind the trio of boys, jeering at the employee like some sort of Greek chorus of canned laughter. Figaro is taken aback by this statement, not because of there now being more people, but how much this reminded him of some of the "human literature" that he found on the "internet", as Kinyuki called it.
"We're not kids, we all have seen and understand what beauty, gorgeousness, and desirableness looks like!" One boy said haughtily.
"And whom are you referring to?" Kinyuki asked, irritation beginning to show on his face.
"Clearly, you odd-nosed neanderthal, we speak of milady Luna de Lune!" Another boy declared. "The most gorgeous woman in all of Humble Village, nay in all the world! Only held back by the turd Tomi Tatami!"
Figaro could barely hold his laughter from this spectacle and Kinyuki, clearly disgruntled by the odd-nosed comment, was about to give them a harsh lesson in reality before Tomi intervened, once again trying to mediate. However, it was to no avail, as both Kinyuki and Figaro had assumed, and had only exacerbated the situation. Grace was at wits end, and had started glowing, and, the icing on the cake, Luna was completely clueless to what was going on. It was a mob of high-schoolers yelling at each other, and not a single kernel of popcorn in sight.
Figaro belted out laughing, "HAHAA! Heckkin' gods, Kinny, Luna's got a cheer-squad of ding-a-lings."
"Let's head out." Kinyuki said bluntly, Grabbing his friend and beginning to leave.
All of a sudden, the group of men were blown back by a great force. Grace had her hand outstretched, a force-field of energy had pushed everyone but her sister back. Her eyes shot daggers at Figaro, which made him feel like he'd be dead at the onset.
"Do NOT take the gods names in vain." Grace said coldly
"Grace!" Tomi pleaded, "Please don't hurt anyone else, people just started coming back to the cafe! We can't have what happened last time!"
"Of course you'd defend the inferior sister!" One of the Fanboys said, recovering from the fall, "It's only because of her that we come to the cafe!"
"Are you sure that he isn't a monster, Mister Kinny?" Luna asked, completely disinterested in any other conversation.
Grace's fists clenched tightly enough for it to be heard from miles away, and both Kinyuki and Figaro knew it was time to leave. As they turned the other way, they saw the Bookkeeper, hiding behind one of the trees at the edge of the forest. The bookkeeper then made an odd screeching sound and threw an object. Except it wasn't an object, it was something resembling a furry human.
It was a brown haired monkey that was two feet tall, with a humanlike face. The monkey had latched on to one of the fanboy's faces, and then screeched with a smile on its face. A Troop of the monkey monsters had come from the forest and had attacked everyone present. The ensuing chaos had separated Figaro and Kinyuki, being dragged away by what felt like hundreds of tails.
:::
As much as he didn't want to use game lingo, Kinyuki had decided that the monkeys were the monsters that were just difficult enough for you to level up enough to fight before the first boss. Good news, the forest was the right direction for figuring out what was going on here, and the monkeys were rather playful in their fighting, not really attacking for food or anger, but out of habit. Bad news, there were many of them and they play hard.
Kinyuki was getting stronger but he wasn't capable to end this chaos. He shouted for his friend to enter the forest, as it looked like most of them were outside of it. He hoped that Figaro could hear him, and ducked and dodged as fast as he could into the thick of the forests. He was right, there wasn't that many monkeys there, but there were still monkeys. He was able to avoid most of them, and smacked more of the punch drunk ones in the face with the pipe.
Kinyuki almost missed what had happened to the group of arguing teenagers. As everyone fought, as Grace seemed to blow people away with air magic, as Luna punched monkeys them into the stratosphere with ease, as the fanboys were helplessly overwhelmed, Tomi had stood in the middle of the mayhem. He held his head in what seemed like pain, almost in tears over what had happened. Kinyuki brandished his pipe, ready to help him, but then he was blinded by the now glistening Tomi Tatami.
"Everyone stop fighting! Please!" Tomi had shouted.
Then a blast that dwarfed Grace de Lune's force-field had erupted from Tomi, knocking out everyone who wasn't in the forest. Kinyuki had ran away to find Figaro, this trying to keep the exit of the forest in view. A few monkeys and a slime battle later, the tired Kinyuki had saw something in view. He believed them to be beastmen, deer beastmen to be specific, but they were a little more animal, and a little more tribal than the three beastmen he had seen before.
Kinyuki wasn't sure about the deer tribe, the bookkeeper, the magic using Tomi Tatami, or where his friend was, but things were getting a lot more complicated then he had previously thought.