(PP-F1) Heyo! (Koumori)

[Ebony 0]

Ebony flew out of the NPCs shop and slammed into the wall. It appeared that her reputation for entering a shop and just saying 'Umm...' was spreading. She'd barely started and shed been literally kicked out. It wasn't her fault though. Every time she confronted a stranger, even an NPC, her mind went blank for a minute or so while she resisted the urge to run away. She sighed and rubbed the back of her head as she sat up. She didn't bother to stand, instead just sitting up against the wall and putting her head in her arms, bemoaning the shyness she had been born with.

[Koumori 0]

(She's shy? She wasn't shy the last time)

The fact that I was still in the first floor was a mystery. Maybe even an industrial secret. Nonetheless, I was there. For whatever reason I enjoyed walking around the streets. It was interesting to see the people walking around and the thriving stops. I often ran into players just starting out and got a chance to help them. I was in a side street full of NPC shops when I heard a crash to my left. Before I could turn my head I saw something fly past me into a wall. When the dust settled I saw a girl laying on the ground. I squinted to see who it was and recognized Ebony. She say there with her head in her hands as I walked over to her. I crouched down next to her and spoke. "Challenging shop owners to duels again?"

[Ebony 0]

(She isn't shy when around threads, or people she happens to 'click' with.)

Ebony looked up to see Koumori crouching in front of her. She sighed. "Nope. I learned my lesson from that fight with your friend." She paused, thinking of how to explain her condition. "I'm a really shy person when im not around friends. When I try to talk to a stranger It takes me a few minutes to get anything out other than an Um. Apparently NPC shop owners don't have time for that." What had happened with Koumori had been a fluke. She had just felt comfortable around him from the start, something that rarely happened. She didn't bother to stand up, instead continuing to lean up against the wall. "NPCs can kick pretty hard."

[Koumori 0]

Ebony looked up at me and signed. She paused for a second before trying to explain to me what had happened. When I heard what she said I widened my eyes and leaned backwards. "You're Ebony right? When you met me you were far from shy. I actually thought you were the most forward person I had ever met. No joke." It was hard for me to believe that she was shy. Like I said to her, she seemed very outgoing, bold even, when she talked to me. If what she said was true, what made me different? I hadn't considered that she only talked to me because I put off some sort of approachable vibe. I noticed she wasn't making a move to stand up so I stayed in my crouch as well. I smiled when she reflected on NPC kicking power. "They're great to have for kickball games."

[Ebony 0]

Ebony had never seen an NPC play kickball, in fact, she doubted that was even a thing. Still, she smiled at the weak joke and started to stand up. "Your an exception. I was just so busy trying to figure out your gender at first that I forgot to be shy. By the time I remembered I was already comfortable with you." She hoped she hadn't insulted him with the gender comment, but he really did have one of those faces. She was sure that he was used to it by now. "Anyways, I'm doing better now that your around. Once I have a friend to lean on my shyness evaporates." She looked over at the store. "I doubt they'd let me back in there. Oh, right. What are you doing here exactly?" She asked.

[Koumori 0]

She laughed at my pathetic attempt at a joke. She hopped up as she revealed that she too had been confused by my gender. So that was it huh? She was comfortable with me because she couldn't figure out what I was. Well maybe not comfortable, more like totally distracted. I bopped up from my crouch to stand with her. "Seriously? You too? Does no one in this game know what gender I am? Tell me, what was the secret that made you realize?" It surprised me a bit that she was confused actually. She didn't display it on her face like other people had. Well at least I didn't have to illogically fake it with her too. In any case, I smiled when she said she was doing better. "Really? I'm happy I could help you out then. I learned a lot about having friends in here so I get it." I followed her gaze as she turned her head to look at the store she was ejected out of. She seemed sad at the prospect of not being aloud in. "Ehh I don't think NPCs hold grudges for too long." When she asked me what I was doing there I had to ask myself the same question. I never knew what I was doing there. "I don't really know. I just come down here and walk around a lot. What about you? It looks like you're trying to shop for something, if you could manage to not get kicked out of stores."

[Ebony 0]

"You have a girly face. And I didn't realize. I guessed you were a guy. If you recall, I asked what a high level man was doing on the first floor." She said, putting emphasis on the word man. "If I was wrong I was prepared to apologize, but I was lucky enough to be correct." She explained. She smiled crookedly. It wasn't that she was doing it on purpose, she just spent most of her time smirking or frowning, her smiles had developed a certain crookedness that seemed to give them more character. She rarely smiled fully, so it wasn't a very well known fact.

"I'd still rather not try again. I'm just browsing actually. Im looking for a better weapon, some armor, and a shield." She listed off exactly what she was looking for. "I might just try a player ran shop and hope for the best though. In the meantime we can hang out if you want though, seeing as your just walking around."

[Koumori 0]

"So it was totally a guess then. Maybe I should wear a sign." That could be a solution. People definitely wouldn't be confused if I did that. Although, I don't think I'd want to be that dork who walked around with a sign. No thanks. I already have spontaneous memory loss of a very specific time period to worry about. Maybe there was a bug or something. She voiced her desire to not face anymore NPCs and instead do something with me. That sounded good, I'd be doing nothing anyway. I nodded at both her list and suggestion. "Player run shops have better stuff anyway. Plus they don't need an algorithm to deal with "Umm." Alright, why not? I have nothing better to do anyway. Wanna try and find a quest?" When I finished talking I realized I might have said something offensive. I quickly began waving my hands in front of me. "Ahh no I didn't mean that hanging with you is settling or anything."

[Ebony 0]

Ebony chuckled at Koumori's protestation. "Don't worry about it. I'm not going to be insulted by something so small." She thought about his mention of a quest for a couple of moments. There was one that she wanted to do specifically. "I'm not a very high level, so there aren't a whole lot of quests we could go on, unless you don't mind doing everything and taking all the damage while I sit back and watch." She explained in a sarcastic manner. "If you wait a little while I'll have the skill points I need to play support for you though." She didn't really know what else they could do though. She didn't think he would want to do any of the lower level quests.

[Koumori 0]

I smiled and scratched my head as Ebony said it was no big deal. "Haha okay". She thought for a few moments when I mentioned quests, no doubt trying to think of one she could actually do. I knew she wouldn't be able to come up with one. The kind of quests I was thinking of wasn't one of the big published for rewards ones. I was thinking about the random ones you could find around town. I found out I was right when she said she'd do them if I did all the work. "It's alright I'm not talking about those, we probably won't have to do any fighting. There are smaller quests with no rewards but they're pretty fun. They're usually more about finding things or doing a mission or something. So what do you say? That sound good?"

[Ebony 0]

Ebony didn't think quests without rewards would be very fun, but she wouldn't know unless she tried. Plus, hanging out with friends was almost always fun. She'd read that somewhere before. "Im up for trying one." She said. She had never heard of these types of quests, but then again that was probably because they supposedly didn't give rewards. She didn't know if they really counted as quests if you didn't get rewards from them. "It should be fun, even if it doesn't involve fighting." Truth be told Ebony was a fighter. She enjoyed the thrill and danger of the fight. She just wasn't an idiot which was why she wasn't trying to do a quest she wasn't prepared for.

[Koumori 0]

Ebony didn't seem super excited about the prospect of not getting rewards but she agreed nonetheless. "Great! Then let's get looking." I motioned for her to follow me as I started walking down the path. I knew it would take a little while to find one, they weren't that common and they didn exactly pop out at you. We walked down most of the main streets, to no avail, before heading into the smaller side streets. We lucked out right away. I noticed an NPC behind a food stall that had the tell take signs of a quest. I pointed to her to show Ebony. "There we go. Come on." I walked over to the NPC and greeted her. She looked us over and smiled before speaking. "Oh what luck! Two fine young ladies here to help me out in my time of need. I've been trying all day to cook my newest recipe but I just realized I don't have the most important ingredient. It's called the Poya and it's very rare, you can only find it in the woods beyond the fields. What do you say, would you be dearies and get it for me?" She clasped her hands together and smiled as she finished. On the other hand, I stood there with my hand to my face. Seriously? NPCs thought I was a girl too? How was that even possible? The system knew my gender. Wait.....no that's just cruel. I shook it off and turned to Ebony and attempted to smile. "Should we take it?"

[Ebony 0]

Ebony followed Koumori over to the NPC lady, still wondering what the point of taking a quest with no rewards was. The NPC woman said something about how lucky she was to have run into two fine young ladies. Ebony was having a similar thought to Koumori, although she came to a different conclusion. The game obviously knew Koumori's gender. If the game addressed him as a young lady, that must mean that he was actually a woman. He had said he was a guy though, so she would treat him as such, even if he turned out to be a girl. "I think so. I dont know much about these quests, so you should make the decision. Im fine with whatever you decide." She explained, not mentioning her thoughts from a few moments earlier.

[Koumori 0]

Ebony seemed to be thinking about what the woman said too. The fact that the game addressed me as a girl must've confused her. Screw you Kayaba you have a sick sense of humor. She said that she that she was okay with doing it so I turned to the NPC and pressed the accept button that appeared in front of me. "Oh thank you! Because you're so kind, if you manage to get it I'll treat you to the meal. Now you better hurry before it gets dark. Good luck!" A meal sounded great. If the ingredient was rare then it must taste pretty great. I turned to Ebony once again; "Let's get going." I followed the road back out the the exit of the town and went into the fields. After taking awhile to traverse them, we made it back to the forest. I didn't go back there that often so I wasn't as familiar with that area as I was with the rest of the floor. I walked a few feet in and stopped to look around. It was a lot denser than it looked on the outside. While I was looking around a thought crossed my mind and I cursed myself. "Great, she never told us what it looks like. Guess we better start looking now if we want to find it. Any ideas?" The stupid thing could be anywhere and I didn't even know what to look for. Plus I didn't know what kinds of creatures lurked in the woods. 

[Ebony 0]

Ebony's mouth opened and she looked over at Koumori. What was he talking about with his 'No Reward' spiel. A meal was definately a reward, and a great one at that. While it wasnt col, equipment, or materials, it was just as good, and in some cases even better. She closed her mouth, deciding not to say anything. She followed Koumori out of the city, secretly glad that they had exited the safe zone. Maybe she would be able to show off her healing skills, and prove to him that she could still be useful, even at such a low level. "I think we should hunt mobs and see if they have it. If not then we can search around the bushes and trees for it." She suggested, hoping that Koumori would get injured in a fight. Obviously she didnt want him to get injured too badly, she didnt want him to die after all. She just wanted to prove herself.

[Koumori 0]

Ebony followed me into the forest and we contemplated what to do. She suggested that maybe we should fight some mobs to find the item but I wasn't really in the mood for that. I'd rather just look around and hope to come across something. "You can look for an enemy if you'd like but I'm just gonna start searching." With that I leaped forward and into the brush. I figured that the ground near bushes would be a good place to start. But I knew better than to get my hopes up. My history with finding mats should tell me that my chances of finding anything were abysmal. If only I knew what I was looking for. 

(It's been so long I forgot where I was going with this. I'll remember)

[Ebony 0]

Ebony smiled, watching as Koumori quite literally charged forwards and jumped into a bush. She couldn't understand how he could do things like that without worrying about landing in some sort of excrement, or cutting his arm on a branch or something. She shrugged her shoulders, moving into the brush herself, slowly and carefully. She wasn't as impulsive as Koumori. She glanced around, looking for Koumori who seemed to have disapeared into the bushes somehow.

[Koumori 0]

Ebony followed me into the bushes and began searching for the illusive plant as well. I drifted further and further in as my efforts continued to yield no results. After what seemed like a few hours (and probably was), I had drifted away from Ebony and she was no longer in my sight. I considered going to look for her but figured looking in two places at once was probably better. I absentmindedly continued searching through the foliage until my hand touched something strange. It felt almost..furry? I reached out and grabbed it with my hand, pulling whatever it was out of the bush. After some effort, I held up by the tail what looked to be a ball of fur. Curiously, I brought the thing closer to my face to get a better look but froze when I saw eyes looking back at me. Wait, eyes! I quickly dropped whatever it was onto the ground and shuffled backwards. I watched as the creature unrolled itself and looked up at me. It was a small thing, probably about 2 feet tall or less, and was covered head to toe in brown fur. I'm sad to admit that I was a little too startled by its appearance and pointed at it and yelled. "Ahh! Ewok!"

[Ebony 0]

Ebony continued to glance around for Koumori for another hour or so, but was unsuccessful. This was getting on her nerves. Koumori was a nice guy, and she enjoyed hanging out with him, but this wasnt hanging out with him. This was a glorified game of hide and seek, and for what? A quest with no rewards besides food. She sighed as she turned around and made her way out of the bushes, sitting with her back against a tree to wait for her friend to emerge, a grumpy look on her face. She wasnt about to abandon him, but she wasnt going to waste any more time searching for him. She'd rejoin him once he emerged, and would hopefully be in a better mood then.

[Koumori 0]

I sat on my butt as I watched the creature cock it's head at me. I wasn't afraid of it, but I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. I'd never seen anything like that in SAO. It slowly started walking towards me before it stopped in front of my foot and started lightly hitting it. I laughed at the little thing as it messed around. "You're harmless aren't you?" I leaned forward and picked it up off the ground as I stood myself. It didn't put up a fight, just hung there, so I figured I was good. I took of running in the direct I came, I had to find Ebony and show her what I found. Wait, Ebony! I had totally lost her! Did she get tired of looking for me and went back to the town? I picked up the pace and started calling for her. "Ebony! Hey, Eb! Eb!" It took me a little bit before I faintly saw her sitting against a tree. She had a sour look on her face, she was probably annoyed at me leaving.i ran up to the tree and stopped in front of the girl to catch my breath. "Hey, look what I found!" I said to her as I held the "Ewok" up for her to see. "Oh, uh, sorry for using a nickname. It kinda just came out."