"Oi, Ryuu, How long we have until we arrive somewhere, I'm bored of this ass road"
"Chill out Shima, with that attitude you are not going anywhere"
"Ugh, fine..."
"Hey Shima"
"FINALLY, we arrived somewhere, wow! This place looks amazing, I didn't know a place like this exists" said Shima very excited.
"You still haven't learned that in this world, anything is possible, haha!"
"Tsk... Asshole"
Shima and Ryuu arrived somewhere after three days of walking, from the cliff where they are standing, you can see the beauty of the whole town built in a round-shaped meteorite crater. The yellowish two-story houses are located in the center of the town, while the one-story ones are built around them. The roads are made out of stone and a waterfall is flowing from the top of the crater through the middle of the town.
Shima rushed straight inside the town, leaving his friend behind, he was starving after walking for three days straight. Not far away from where Shima entered the town, there is a small wooden stall filled with vegetables and fruits for sale from a young adult.
"Oh wait NO! I'm literally broke, how am I going to get food... Oh, I know, he-he..." said Shima in his mind.
Shima slipped in the back of the stall and when the seller was not looking, he stole food and ran away like the idiot he is. While he was running through the town roads, he took the corner and bumped into someone, dropping all the food he stole on the ground.
"Hey Idiot! Look where you are going" said the stranger with a mad voice.
"Sorry, I'm in a hurry" said Shima while he was picking up his food.
After picking everything off the ground, Shima looked up and saw a girl a little smaller than him, her eyes are bright red and her hair is black and long, covering her ears. The beauty Shima's seeing in front of his eyes couldn't stop him from blushing.
"Huh? What's wrong?" she said, looking away from him.
"Umm... nothing" said Shima starting to run away.
The girl grabbed Shima not letting him leave.
"I know you stole those"
"And what's your problem with that?" said Shima mad.
"Ugh... come with me, I'm going to pay for them, you just apologize, ok?"
"Fine"
The girl took Shima back to the seller and paid for his food. Shima apologized for stealing the food, feeling bad about what he did, afterwards the girl asked Shima to come with her at a table in the middle of town to talk about something important, Shima accepted to go.
"So, what you wanted to talk about?" said Shima while putting his hand on the chin.
"There is a team fighting competition going on where every team have to pay an amount of money and the winners take everything. I can sense your powers, you look strong, so what do you say, do you want to fight with me and make some money?"
"Sounds interesting enough, I can finally test what I practiced in the last years" said Shima smiling.
"Glad to hear that, I have not introduced myself yet, My name is Ayako Irene, pleased to meet you"
"I'm Shima! Pleased to meet you too"
"So, Shima, we need another one, the teams are made of three people, we can't participate only the two of us"
"Wait... now that you say that, Oh no, I totally forgot about him"
"Who did you forget about? Is he your friend?"
"Yes I didn't come alone here, I left my friend behind when I entered the town, now I lost him for good" he said worried.
Right when Shima was crying to Ayako that he lost his friend, Ryuu came mad and punched Shima in the face.
"Do this one more time, and I'm going to kill you idiot" said Ryuu, feeling the urge to kill him.
"Speaking about the devil, looks like you are not dead yet"
"Of course I'm not, and who is this girl?"
Shima introduces Ayako to him and explains what they want to do, Ryuu accepts to form a team and fight in the contest in three days. Ayako gave them the location where the contest is held, letting them know that it's not going to be easy, people from other places come here to take part in the contest.
"Ryuu, I think this girl is pretty strong, we should take her with us after" said Shim watching Ayako leaving.
"Pff, moron"
"..."
The days flew and the time for contest have arrived, Ryuu, Shima and Ayako met at the planned location. In front of them are a lot of people who want to take part in the contest, adults and kids, even people over the age of sixty. Shima counted everyone and about twenty teams are in the area.
"I just realized I did not ask you where are you going to stay those three days" said Ayako slapping his forehead.
"We snuck into someone's attic and slept there"
"Haha, you guys are funny, hope at least you practiced something in these three days"
"Yes of course we did not shut up and let's go sign in this contest already" said Ryuu angrily.
"Yes, let's go"
The registration takes place at three wooden stalls in the center of the town, the teams divided to each stall so that they could register faster. Ayako walked in front to pay the entry fee for her team, while Shima and Ryuu waited for her in the back, staring at the people around them.
Right when Ayako came back, in front of Shima walked a masked man, leaving him shocked for seconds.
"Hey Shima, what's wrong?"
"There is no way, that mask..." he said with a scared face.
"What are you talking about?"
Shima did not hesitate a second and chased the masked man. When Shima caught up, he grabbed him from the back.
"Hey, it's you, right? You are the masked guy from five years ago at the experiments test"
Chapter II: Arrival at Yagohara - End