Airi

An assassin healer. Or basically just a healer that has stealth and deals high damage. Airi was looking to be a healer herself, aiming for a full support build actually. She had heard that the front-liners lacked healers and most of the players who were trying to catch up preferred building DPS, since it would speed up their progress. With a DPS build, they can solo quests and dungeons that supports normally can't since they lack damage and defense. But it would all be worth it in the end. "Oh, that sounds cool. Then I guess you'll have to grab the stealth and the first aid skills sometime soon," she commented. "Also, try to get another weapon if you want higher damage. I heard that more weapon skills means more base damage."

Then since Sakoda had told her what she wanted to be, Airi decided to do the same. "I'm planning to be a healer, as well. But I'm not going to deal as much damage as you with your assassin-healer hybrid. I'm going to focus more on support and crafting once I reach the front lines. And if I do need to do quests solo, I guess I'll just buy a weapon with a Paralyze enhancement, so the enemies wouldn't get any hits in." 

(OOC: @Floofy)

She kept her notebook in her inventory while Cyrus responded with a negative. This was the longest he had gone without anyone seeing him. Of course, it could always just be a coincidence. Airi didn't really go asking around about...him that much, she preferred pushing it to the very back of her mind. Thoughts about him were distracting, too distracting for her liking. And there really was no use thinking about it now. If he died, he died. Thinking more about it wouldn't bring him back to life. It would just make her feel a bit...lonely-- Airi shook the thoughts out of her head vehemently. She was in the middle of a conversation with someone who would be very useful to her if she could just make him trust her. She had to concentrate.

"Well, it was worth a try," Airi murmured, looking almost a bit distant. She hadn't got his initial reaction on her last few sentences since she was distracted, but she could make do without them. She forced herself to refocus on the conversation. "Anyway, you said that you would be leaving the city, right? I currently have nothing better to do right now. Would you like to have some company?" she offered. From the appearance of his armor, he wasn't at a very high level himself. Just to make sure, she added: "I'm at Level 1, one rank in the Curved Sword skill, and plan on going down the healer path once I start doing quests."

Airi was looking through the food stalls when the PM from Hei arrived, plus a friend request. She accepted the friend request without hesitation (she disliked his shallow personality, but as each tool has their use, so does each person) and quickly read through the message. Dear Airi, apparently, he treats PMs as some sort of mail. Formal. I found the NPC. She immediately tore herself away from the food stalls, taking one last bite of her caramel apple, and made her way through the busy streets. She didn't reply to his PM, she'll be there in a few seconds anyway. She couldn't believe that she had taken too long; she had even made sure to get only one sample from each food stall. Or maybe Solomon understood things a bit more quickly than she anticipated. Either way, she hated being late.

The red-haired girl turned the last corner, almost colliding with a player who had blindingly bright blond hair (had she seen him somewhere?). She stopped for a few moments to dip her head slightly and apologize, before trotting over to where Hei stood next to an NPC stall. "Hello," she greeted casually, like she hadn't been dashing madly through the streets just a few moments ago. She turned away from him long enough to get a free notebook from the merchant NPC. Notebooks were always nice to have. And she liked drawing. "Where's Solomon? And how did the talk go?"

When Airi had asked Sakoda what she wanted her profession to be, she didn't expect the girl to say 'beast tamer'. As far as she knew, it wasn't a profession and everyone can become a beast tamer if they wanted to. They're limited to only one familiar though. She wondered if the girl walking beside her knew of that fact. But her 'Mythical Beasts and Where to Find Them' idea sounded good and the players that were a bit behind the front-liners would probably buy the books at any price that wasn't too high since it would be useful. Heck, maybe even the front-liners would buy them, just so they could know more about the mobs in the game.

She decided that Sakoda, in fact, held a lot of potential to be useful if the player followed through with her mob encyclopedia idea. For one, girls like her always give friend discounts. And selling such a useful book would eventually lead up to Sakoda being a well-respected player with a lot of contacts. With her encyclopedia and her potential reputation, she was a future gold mine of information. Airi wondered why she even began doubting teaming up with her. "Well, that's interesting. The beginner guides the beta testers made could only be so useful after all. Even the stats of the mobs now are very different from the information in the guide." She walked a few paces and turned a corner, then continued talking. "So do you know what you want to build? Right now, there's four main categories: tank, scout, DPS, and healer. Which one do you think you would choose?"

(OOC: @Floofy)

While her two newfound "friends" were talking, Airi checked the clock nearest the group. She really had to be going if she wanted to arrive at an inn that still had empty rooms, or she would be sleeping outside for the first night. That was not how she wanted to end her first day, no matter how bad it got around the middle. But she didn't want to leave the conversation right after adding the two to her friends list, that would be a bit rude. So she stayed and waited for a lull in the conversation, where she could make her escape.

"Fight them, maybe." Airi said, in response to Lee's barrage of questions. Then she directed her attention to Yusaki, slowly inching away from the two. It wasn't like she was leaving them alone, they had each other to continue the conversation. "If you ever need help on anything, just send me a PM. You too, Lee. I'm almost always available." She inched away a bit more, letting the two players realize that she needed to leave. "Well, it's getting late. I've got to find an inn to sleep at somewhere. You guys should too, after a while. They'll be full in a few. Bye, now!" Then after waving goodbye to the two players she had met, she turned around and walked away with her hands clasped behind her back.

- Airi leaves the thread -

"Not really an alchemist," Airi replied as she began leading Sakoda in a direction that she knew led to the street where most of the blacksmiths were located. Truth be told, she wasn't really that interested in crafting professions. They took a lot of time to master and sitting around in a shop and waiting to make sales just didn't appeal to her. But it was an easy way to make money, so she might as well take one and tinker with it later, when she has the free time to do so. 

"I think that there are too many alchemists in the game as of now," she informed the girl walking slightly behind her, referring to the information she had received from some of her in-game "friends". "Maybe I'll be taking one of the professions that only a few people have taken, so there would be a bigger chance of getting buyers. So far, it's either a fisherman profession, or a performer profession. What about you?" 

(OOC: @Floofy)

She had grabbed his interest in the conversation and increased it with her previous words. Airi carefully took note of the words she had said and the non-verbals she remembered doing all while appearing to think of how she would respond. The man who had introduced himself as 'Cyrus', a name that sounded like it came straight out of an Ancient Rome History textbook, knew how to string his words together. There was even a slight chance that he was a manipulator at the same level as her. Maybe even better, considering the fact that he looked around three years older than her. 

"It is. I think I've almost made that mistake quite a few times by now," she responded, slowly bringing herself to relax. She didn't really look very tense on the outside, but she felt like her posture was a bit too stiff. Then she began telling of half-truths. Ordinarily, she would say the real reason: she was a bit afraid of dying and she didn't like taking many risks when it comes to her life. "Someone logged into the game with me. A very good friend of mine, and he was also the one who gave me the NerveGear. But we didn't get to tell each other our player names, and this town is just too big and too populated, so it's hard to find someone without knowing their name. So I'm focusing more on looking for him, or at least learning about his current status." Then she paused, as if considering her options. She brought out a notebook from her inventory, flipped a few pages, and showed Cyrus a sketch to prove her point. "You wouldn't have happened to have seen him, would you? The last person who saw him said he was with a blonde-haired girl just a few days ago."

Without hesitation, Airi tapped the 'Accept' button. Lee was a nice guy, went out of his way to help others a lot, and would probably start going out there and getting stronger once things have calmed down a bit and the fields start getting less populated. She didn't plan on doing the same, but having a potential front-liner as her ally would be nice. For what, she still didn't know. Maybe if the gamemaker began thinking that the frontliners weren't enough to entertain him and decided to completely remove safe zones from the game. Either way, she had a hunch that she'd be "befriending" useful people without an actual goal in mind for a long long time. 

"Me too!" Airi exclaimed as she witnessed Lee sending a friend request to the third player in their small group.The red-haired girl then turned to Yusaki, opening her menu to send a friend request to the rabbit-eared player. The girl in front of her was a coward and was definitely not taking the news well even though she looked a bit calmer now, like most of the people occupying her friends list. But extra "friends" would be nice, and cowards were manipulated with sweet words easily.

Airi heard Sakoda's explanation while she was examining yet another potion that gave an accuracy buff. Would the alchemist profession be worth it, after all? After one last look at the potions lining the shelves, she straightened and began inching towards the exit, waiting for her quest companion to follow her. "Great!" she exclaimed with a small smile. Inwardly, she was thinking differently. She knew that she needed the contacts, but she already at least had some people who would be useful to her and to be honest, something which would take her only half a day to finish took up the whole morning and afternoon. Was doing her quests with another player all the time worth it?

"We'll just have to give the stuff to the blacksmith now," Airi continued, stepping out of the door and holding it open for Sakoda. It was things like these that majorly slowed her down. Should she attempt to do another quest line by herself? The risks were higher, but she could finish it a lot faster. Either way, it was something she would have to think about another time. "Oh, and keep the box in your inventory. It's way better than lugging it around."

(OOC: @Floofy)

Did the girl in front of her really have enhanced hearing? If so, where did Yusaki buy such unique equipment in the span of less than two hours? Either way, her interest was piqued. "Now that you both mentioned it," Airi began thoughtfully. "I wonder how the enhanced hearing thing works in-game, if it does exist. Is there like a hidden stat? And if there's enhanced hearing, would there be enhanced vision and enhanced smell too?" She felt the attention of the two players on her as she thought out loud and she smiled sheepishly. To the two people who just heard her, it would sound like she made a mistake by saying her thoughts out loud. But it wasn't a mistake. 

 "Was just thinking, ignore that." Airi said, clasping her hands behind her back. Then she turned her head to nod in agreement to Lee's words, she really was taking a somewhat passive role in the conversation. Needless to say, she was a bit disappointed in herself. But Lee was leading the conversation in the right way and she had already showed herself as someone who's not too assertive.

Meanwhile, Airi had resorted to staring at the potions that decorated the shelves of Zackariah's home. She attempted to pick one of them up, but then realized that the small glass bottles were completely stuck to the shelves. Well, of course. It was either superglue the potions to the environment or program the NPC to kick people who tried to get free stuff out of their house. She stood back and noticed the big letters: 'FAIL' in front of Sakoda. "You'll get it soon," Airi said offhandedly with a reassuring smile. She then turned back to the potions and started examining them closely.

She was delighted to discover that they all displayed what each of them did. One potion increased damage. Another was a potion that brought the drinker back up to their full health. And yet another increased accuracy. Accuracy. The red-haired player stared at the dialogue pop-up intensely, remembering her extremely terrible luck in battles, and reconsidered getting an alchemist profession. 

(OOC: @Floofy)

Airi smiled sweetly as she shook Yusaki's hand. Now that she got a proper look at the player, she could now determine that the player wearing a hood with bunny ears was a female. The red-haired girl let go and stepped back. She wasn't really in the other girl's personal space, but she wanted to be sure that she didn't make Yusaki uncomfortable.

Lee, always the joking guy, lightly teased the player about her hood and asked if she could hear better than those. Pffft. It was sort of funny and cute how the rabbit ears moved in accordance to the wearer's mood. Before, Yusaki's ears were drooping while she attempted to calm herself and now, they were somewhat perked up, like the player was starting to pay attention to the conversation. The red-haired girl didn't show any visible reaction, in case the female player took the joke in a bad way. Now was not a nice time for Airi to be seen as an insensitive person.

"Let's keep going. It's still pretty early after all," Airi responded, looking up at the sky. "That way, we can do the next quest tomorrow. And faster progress." She looked back at her companion. "I mean, if you're alright with staying here a bit late. What time do you usually go to your inn?" The NPC invited them inside and she stepped into the rather spacious house, breathing in the scent of herbs. There were small glass bottles filled with colorful liquids everywhere. On shelves attached to the walls of the house, below a table that looked like a brewing station, and even piled on top of a chair. She saw a wooden door behind the brewing station that maybe led to a bedroom. She paused and took a moment to appreciate the game's extremely detailed graphics. How long did all of this take to make? Then her thoughts took a dark turn as she realized that the gamemaker had been working all those long years just to trap and kill people inside his game.

Zackariah guided her to the brewing station thing and showed her how to make a healing potion by making one by himself first. Airi didn't listen to the dialogue, and instead watched him work. She didn't need his explanations to know what he was doing. He finished brewing the potion, a weird green liquid that looked completely slimey and gross, and told her that this was a healing potion. Airi blinked at it and decided that there was no way in hell she'd be drinking that stuff. Okay, she'd drink those stuff if she lost HP in combat, but it didn't look edible. It probably tasted bitter and metallic. The red-haired player then took her place beside Zackariah as he began preparing another potion and began doing the steps herself.

She placed a juniper berry in a mortar and tapped the bowl with a pestle. The material shimmered then turned into a fine, crushed dust. No actual crushing involved on her part, and it took only a few seconds to complete. She then poured the dust into an old-fashioned cauldron, along with other ingredients and liquids which she didn't recognize, and turned on the heat and waited. A pop-up message showed the word 'Crafting' and what looked like to be a loading bar underneath. A few seconds passed, and then pop-up message displayed 'Success!' 

Airi poured the concoction into a small glass bottle and presented it to Zackariah with a triumphant smile directed to her quest companion. "Marvelous," the NPC began. He then placed her Healing Potion inside a cardboard box along with a few others, filled the empty spaces with what looked like the in-game equivalent of bubble wrap, and then pushed the box towards her. "Now please deliver this to Lyle Tealeaf. He's located at the forge in the other side of the town. He'll have a reward for you." Eagerly, Airi nodded and kept the delivery in her inventory and looked at Sakoda. "Your turn. I'll wait for you so we can walk to the forge together."

(OOC: @Floofy)

The older man had turned to face her and was now speaking. His posture showed that he was calm and relaxed but actively paying attention to either her, what he was saying, or maybe something else. It was hard to tell. The tone of his voice and his expressions didn't give much away either. Her expression didn't change, but Airi internally applauded her amazing luck. She had found someone who would probably be a clearer once they actually start fighting the floor bosses (would be very useful to her, as well), but that someone was exceptionally hard to read. And someone she had to be a bit careful around for reasons already mentioned. But anyways, the man stopped talking and waited for her response. 

He hadn't given much away about the outside (probably wasn't willing to), only that he played games like SAO before and therefore possessed a generous amount of knowledge with MMO games; which is why he was pretty comfortable with leaving the safe zone. She had gotten that pro-gamer vibe from him earlier, so his response wasn't really a surprise to her. But then what could she say? "That's an interesting take," she replied, her voice taking on a somewhat distracted tone. "Most of the players I've talked to all thought that the atmosphere outside was quite heavy. Like even though they went out in teams, you could hardly hear any talking since everyone's so focused on staying alive and every lost point of HP felt like a step closer to death." Then she appeared to refocus on the conversation and smiled innocently. "But anyways, that's just what I've heard."

A short pause. "It really is unusual, to meet someone with your level of calm," she continued, making eye contact. "I find it reassuring, in a way." Then another short pause.  I haven't introduced myself yet, have I? My name's Gr--" she pointedly coughed before continuing, a sign that she had made a mistake. "I go by the name Airi."

"Yeah, we will," Airi checked her health and saw that it was full once again. "The beginner's guide said 3 HP per 15 seconds, I think. Or maybe the time's a bit longer. But anyways, we won't be fighting any more mobs. Hopefully. Just try to keep out of the boars' way."  They were beginning to approach the town entrance already and the red-haired girl began skipping playfully, reaching the safe zone in a few seconds.

Stepping into the safe zone gave the feeling of finally getting home after a tiring work day. Except the safe zone wasn't home and they didn't come home from a tiring work day. Airi stretched and relaxed her senses. It was safe now, she would take no damage here, and she could finally focus on her companion (whom she hadn't taken her eyes off of, even as she was fighting the boar). From most of her responses, Sakoda seemed to be a nice person who lacked a bit of love. She wasn't the type to suddenly turn and stab an ally in the back, as Airi had observed, and was already pretty protective of her. Her companion was the type that could be easily swayed with affectionate words, Airi noted as she turned a corner and stopped at the quest giver's house. It would be easy to get this one's trust. 

The young girl knocked on Zackariah's door and it was opened for her after a few seconds. "I have your materials." Airi took a juniper berry out of her inventory and showed it to the NPC as proof. "And there's four more, where it came from." As she expected, it triggered the NPC to say the next lines of the quest dialogue, which she promptly ignored as she gestured for Sakoda to present her materials as well. As she was doing so, a trade window opened and Airi sent the 5 materials to Zackariah.

(OOC: @Floofy Let's try to reach 60 posts, so we get more rewards)

Airi noticed the hooded player stiffen and wondered if she and Lee made things worse by talking to them. However, the player spoke to the both of them with a voice that was identifiable as a female's. But then again, maybe they were a male with a feminine voice. She met some (unfortunate) people like that. Then Lee told them to do what they need to do to calm down and Airi added: "Hm, I agree." Then she squatted down so she was at eye-level with the player but kept her distance. "But in my honest opinion, you're taking it better than many others."

Lie. To Airi, everyone who was currently breaking down right now (in various ways, some did it worse than the others) and not heading out in the fields to start clearing the game immediately were not taking it well. That included her. Airi closed her eyes for a moment and let out a troubled sigh that was only heard by the player in front of her. Irrelevant. She banished the thought from her head and focused on her goals. "My name's Airi," the red-haired girl extended her hand to the white-clothed player. "What's yours?"

Airi looked up at the sky again, listening to Hei describing his favorite sweet. Then she licked her lips. It sounded like it would taste good. She wondered if there was an NPC merchant that sells those stuff. They obviously didn't have it at <<The Spicy Bunny>> since the man walking beside her hadn't ordered any. Or maybe she could just ask someone with a cook profession. Preferably someone who knows how the stuff tastes like. She decided to voice most of her thoughts. "It sounds good. I wonder if there's a shop in-game that sells those stuff?" she mused. 

She would have continued the conversation but then she instinctively stopped in front of a three-story building. Hei began telling her his goodbye and she smiled brightly. "That's a good idea. And hey, I'll pay you back the 20 sometime soon." The red-haired girl skipped up to the door leading into the building and opened it. After a short thought, she turned back and said: "Goodnight, Hei. It was nice talking to you again." Then she stepped in and closed the door with a small smirk that was unseen by her companion. Two new people on her friends list, a paper with quest details, and a chance to wrap more threads of trust around someone who thought they were friends. 

"Thank you for the harvest." Airi whispered to no one in particular before proceeding up to her room.

--Thread Close--

Summary

Airi: 100 Col + 2 SP
Mist: 100 Col + 2 SP
Lawrence: 100 Col + 1 SP
Dominion: 100 Col + 2 SP
Solomon: 100 Col + 1 SP
Vale: 100 Col + 2 SP
Hei: 100 Col + 2 SP
Beatbox: 100 Col + 1 SP

She watched the man out of the corner of her eye curiously. When Airi had approached and talked to him, she had expected to see someone with that despair-filled expression everyone seemed to have nowadays. He wasn't moping like the others. It showed in the way he stood, the tone of his voice, and how he seemed to regard her coolly. She didn't know him well and he wasn't like the others, who were too focused on their sorrows and the lack of the log-out button (or maybe something else) to realize that she was subtly slipping threads of trust around them as she talked. She was even growing a bit too lax with the others since they didn't stand a chance of noticing anything. She had to be careful with this one though.

"It's my first time in this part of the town as well," Airi agreed. It was the truth, however her expression or the tone of her voice didn't change. She knew of a person who could tell if someone was lying by knowing how a person looked or talked whenever they're telling an obvious truth (or a lie, in some cases) and then observing their voices and facial expressions whenever said person talked. He wasn't one hundred percent accurate, but Airi thought he was pretty damn hard to lie to. She only hoped that no one in this game had the same abilities as him or she would have to watch her actions all the time.

The red-haired girl then turned away from the clothing (she wasn't really interested in those plain garb anyway) and faced the taller man. It was a sign that she was interested in having a conversation. She went through his response again, looking for something to begin with. I usually take the main road out of the city limits. "You mentioned that you leave the city limits?" Airi asked, her voice taking on a curious tone. He really didn't seem too interested in the clothes, so it was the best question she could think of without taking too much time. "I haven't really been out in the fields much, but how's the atmosphere out there?"

Thankfully, her companion managed to land the hit. The boar, however, decided that it didn't want to die in vain, so it kicked at Sakoda, also dealing five damage to the player, before exploding into pixels. The pop-up window appeared in front of Airi, detailing the drops. "I think it's too low-leveled to drop actually anything aside from EXP." Airi told her quest partner. "But don't worry, we'll grind loot from the stronger mobs sometime soon. Maybe after we complete the beginner quests or something."

She went to stand beside Sakoda and started leading the other girl back the way they came, into the safe zone. Thankfully, there weren't any mobs in the way this time. Airi hoped they wouldn't respawn soon. She didn't want to end up fighting them again. If they did, they won't be able to get back before sunset. She sighed. She may have to start focusing on stuff that increased accuracy, if they would be of any help. "Right, let's get back. I think we can squeeze the second quest in before the day ends if we hurry." 

(OOC: @Floofy I don't think the mob I just spawned would meet the loot minimum requirements, so you won't be getting the consumable. Other than that, everything's good)

It was late in the day, maybe around 3 PM. Airi had just finished running an errand for a player and was now walking around town aimlessly, looking for an inn she could sleep in once the night approaches. Most of them were free and getting a room was quite easy...as long as the inn still had available rooms. No inn equals finding a bench to sleep on once night comes and the fatigue sets in. She may not have any money in this game yet, but that didn't mean that she was alright with sleeping without a bed like an unrefined beggar.

However, priorities set in. Airi passed by a man she had met earlier in the plaza. The man who made a joke about finally meeting people that weren't turning into scrambled eggs. She would never forget that. He had approached a player clothed in white who had curled up against the wall and had covered her eyes with her hands, an obvious coping mechanism (she couldn't tell if they were a girl or a boy though, the hood made it hard). Out of overflowing concern and love for others--not really--she approached the man whose name was Lee. Time to build up more good reputation among others. "Hey, what seems to be the matter?" Airi asked, a falsified concern skillfully flowing out of her voice. "Nice seeing you again, by the way."

The girl whose player name was 'Floofy' finished collecting her materials and was now watching Airi fight the boar, as if waiting for a signal to join or something. Airi hated her luck. She was doing fine, one-shotting the mobs, just minutes ago; and now she couldn't land a damn hit. She was glad her bad luck was apparently contagious though, the boar had no luck in hitting her as well. "Join in!" Airi told Sakoda. "I've been fighting this thing for too long."

She stopped right in front of the boar this time and swung her starter sword downwards. The boar let out a disgruntled snort as she cut through its snout. Finally! Airi leaped to the side, but the boar recovered too quickly and headbutted her, sending her flying a few feet away. Automatically, she let out a weird, high-pitched sound of pain, even though pain didn't really exist here in SAO, and checked her HP as she stood up. The boar had done five damage to her and she could only take two more blows. She noticed Sakoda's worried glance. "It has 1 HP left. Go finish it off." Airi ordered. "It still has its attention on me, so it won't damage you even if you walk right in front of it."

(OOC: @Floofy)

It had been about a week and a half since that announcement and the other players had already begun going out into the fields to level up. The suicide rates grew as players who didn't want to live through this ordeal discovered the edge of the first floor, where jumping would cause an instant and maybe painless death. There was also talk of deaths out in the fields, from players wandering out too far alone or a low-leveled team stumbling upon a strong field boss. Multiple names were crossed out in the Monument of Life every day, to the horror of most. Wherever she went, she could find players with eyes full of despair and sorrow.

Personally, she didn't really care. The ones who killed themselves, they were too weak to face reality. Seriously, they could have just stayed in the Town of Beginnings where it was safe and waited for the stronger ones to clear the game for them. They couldn't take any damage here anyway. The ones who died out in the fields, they were strong-willed but lacked cautiousness. They wanted to leave the game, wanted to get back to their real lives fast, so they rushed. And they paid with their lives for it. If anything, the deaths of the weak gave her an advantage. When one person dies, they leave at least two grieving people behind. And it was easy to worm her way into their mourning hearts.

Airi gently rubbed a crying girl's back and whispered comforting words into her ear. The girl she was consoling had just lost a lover, whom she had met in-game. Really, it was her fault for falling in love too easily. They had just been here for a week and a half. And with the girl's story, that man was clearly using her love to feel a bit better about the whole situation. But he fell into depression anyway, and jumped off to his death. However, Airi didn't tell her that. After a few more minutes, the girl looked up still with tears in her eyes and thanked her for being there. "You're such a nice person. Be careful out there, okay?"

They bade their goodbyes, and Airi checked her friends list. The girl had added her, in case she ever wanted Airi's help, and a few more names in her list were greyed out, meaning they had died. She tapped their names and proceeded to unfriend them. They were useless now, and she didn't want their names taking up the extra space. She closed her menu and wandered into a part of the town that players hardly visited. The part that sold clothing and accessories that were complete vanity and didn't have any enhancements. It was a street she hadn't explored yet, and to be fair, the clothes were pretty. She didn't have any money, but that didn't mean that she couldn't window shop. 

But window shopping was quickly pushed back in her priority list as she had spotted a man with silver hair (what an unusual hair color, was it dyed or something?) looking at some male clothing through a shop window. He didn't notice her yet, and replacing the contacts she had lost would be good, so she decided to approach him. Airi clasped her hands before her back, her face carefully arranged into a pleasant expression, and strode up to him while making sure her footsteps would be heard so as not to surprise him. The young girl stopped next to him and looked through some plain-looking female clothing that were somewhat unimpressive for a girl of her status. She turned to the man after a few moments of looking through them. "They sell nice clothes, don't you think?" she said, speaking about the store in general. The clothes may have looked a bit too plain for her, but she knew that people of (at most) middle class liked the design. Airi turned back to the store window. "Cheap, casual, but with a nice style."

Airi noticed her newfound friend gathering another good berry. Yup, it was official. Sakoda would finish doing her stuff before she brings the boar down to 0 HP. She sighed. Why was this game's combat just so hard? If she knew better, she would've given the NerveGear and the copy of SAO away. Then by now, she wouldn't be out here fighting for her life. She would be in school, surrounded by people who all knew and loved her, living the dream. What a stupid life decision.

The young girl went in to attack the boar once again, letting the system assist (for players who didn't know how to use swords) take over as she swung her blade downwards. She missed once again and cursed her terrible combat skills. For one, she didn't know how mobs moved in a battle. The boar let out a triumphant grunt as she sliced at thin air and attempted to headbutt her. Airi stepped to the side and let the mob charge past her. "And we're back to missing each other's attacks again." Airi groaned as she turned to face her enemy.

(OOC: @Floofy)

The man sitting across her seemed to take it well. He even offered to walk her home, which she would accept without hesitation. It wasn't really necessary since in a safe zone, no one gets hurt, but maybe he was just doing it to be polite. Well, anything that gave her the opportunity to make people like her more was always good. "Sure. I'll lead the way though," Airi stood up and made her way outside, nodding to the NPC bartender as she passed by them. She didn't like treating NPCs as if they were people, but she didn't know how her companion would think of her if she treated them as lines of code dressed with a human form.

Airi matched Hei's somewhat fast pace as they walked and decided to continue where they had left off in the tavern after taking another small bite from the caramel apple, which she still hadn't finished. "Do you have a particular favorite?" the red-haired girl asked as she led them towards the inn she was staying at. "With sweets, I mean. Mine's caramel apple, as you've noticed." Airi said. It was a completely casual and boring topic, but he liked talking about it so she would too.

(OOC: Closing thread at my next post)

Airi noticed her companion pluck a mature juniper berry out of the corner of her eye. If she was counting right, Sakoda only needed two more. The other player looked up to watch her again for a few moments, maybe to see if she needed help, and Airi made the same offhand gesture that she did awhile ago. "Yeah, she'd definitely finish before I do." Airi muttered to herself as she focused on the still-undamaged boar. She was a bit closer this time, so she didn't need to rush in like she did before. Instead, she just went in nearer and swiftly swung her blade down, watching with a slight satisfaction as the boar's HP decreased by 2.

The boar grunted and quickly spun around, attempting to hit her with one of its tusks. Airi sprung backward and felt the boar's right tusk brush against her. She quickly checked her HP. Still undamaged. The boar wasn't close enough to cut her. She had two more hits to land. Better land it before the boar starts doing actual damage. 

(OOC: @Floofy)