Chapter 18- An unusual night for Riyoko

Night time, inside Riyoko's house.

As Riyoko sat still on his sofa in awkward silence, Arisa kept scrolling through her phone as she sat in a chair nearby.

"This feels kind of awkward…" Riyoko thought as he glances back to back at Arisa who was preoccupied with her phone.

"I don't usually have guests in my house, even if iris were to come, we'd normally have a small talk while standing then she'll eventually leave… how do I even deal with this kind of situation?" he thought, being troubled by his inexperience with socializing, "how did it even get to this…"

Earlier noon.

After showing him the ropes, Arisa and Riyoko left the building without any issues.

As they walked outside the gate, Riyoko held his head with a tired look on his face as he feels a bit overwhelmed by the various information he learned.

"Are you doing ok?" Arisa asked in concern, "you seemed to have understood things quickly, but it must be quite a lot to take in, isn't it?"

"Y… yeah, I'll be fine after some reflecting and rest,"

"I see… Just so you know, your mind is the one thing that you shouldn't push too much when traveling worlds, your mental stamina, and stability are essential parts of being a traveler. If you're too stressed or mentally pent up by something, you should do something about it, things like that get carried through traveling after all,"

Riyoko nodded, "I see, thanks for the heads up,"

"Don't mention it, we're peers now after all," she said with a gentle smile and tone as she slightly glanced back at him.

"So… what do we do after this?" Riyoko said after a short pause.

Arisa held her chin in thought, "after learning all those things… It'll be put to the test once we get to World 1. I recommend you get some good mental rest in the meantime."

Riyoko nodded.

After passing through the road paved with massive fields, Arisa walked further forward as she kept looking at her phone.

"I need to do something so we'll be separating here," Arisa said, putting her phone in her pocket, "have some lunch then get a good rest ok? We'll meet again later and continue the rest by then,"

Arisa waved her hand and then began walking forward at a faster pace as if she was in a hurry as Riyoko stood still on the side of the road.

"um… ok…" he replied, not bothering if she'll hear him or not.

Back at the present.

"She did say we'll meet again later on… but she didn't say what time so I ended up sleeping for four hours straight, only to be woken up by her doorbell ringing," he thought as he glanced at Arisa from time to time, "and now she's here and it's been quiet for most of the time! She did say that we just have to wait for something and I was still half asleep when she came, but then I became cautious of it at some point… I wonder if she's bored or feeling awkward right now as well…"

Noticing Arisa's chill mood as if she didn't have a care in the world, Riyoko sighed.

"Maybe I'm just overthinking things. I'll just act like her and don't think much," he thought.

Riyoko then stood up from his seat and walked toward the stairs in a distance.

Noticing this, Arisa slightly puts down her phone and glanced at him. "where are you going?" she asked.

"Just going to grab something," he said, stopping for a very short moment and then walking straight up the stairs.

"Well, it's not like we're in a hurry or anything…" Arisa said softly as she looked at the bright moon emerging from the horizon outside the window.

Shortly, Riyoko walked down the stairs with a portable play station in hand. Making it back to the living room, he looked at the clock before he sat down.

"It's just 6 pm and it's already this dark…" he said as he sat down.

"They say the night is longer this season, that's good for us though," Arisa said.

"It is?" he asked in curiosity.

"For us travelers yes,"

Riyoko nodded, understanding what she meant upon thinking shortly, "I see… meaning we'll get more time in the other world,"

Arisa nodded.

Riyoko then began playing a game on his device.

After a short moment, Arisa puts down her phone and looked at Riyoko, "Is that a PSP?" Arisa asked, standing up as she approached him.

"Yeah," he nodded in reply as he continued to play with focus, not looking away from the screen.

Arisa moved her head closer, peeking at the screen, "I didn't even know those things still exist,"

"This is quite an old device, my mom gave it to me when I was younger,"

"I see…"

"He seems to be really engrossed in it…" Arisa thought, crouching by the side.

"What are you playing?"

"Just some old RPG game,"

Arisa tilted her head as she looked closely into Riyoko's deeply focused eyes, "RPG, huh… do you like those kinds of games…?"

"I like adventure games where I learn and do a bunch of things, so I guess RPGs are what I mostly play,"

"I see…" she said softly, being quite taken by Riyoko's eyes, "then I guess being a traveler is suited for you, isn't it?"

Riyoko stopped moving his fingers as he paused for a thought, "I… guess so,"

"Why did you stop?"

Noticing her soft voice right next to his ear, Riyoko slowly looked beside him.

Seeing Arisa's head up close, he was suddenly flustered upon looking at her big beautiful eyes so close as she crouched beside him, making him pull back his head.

"H… How long have you been there!?"

"You seriously didn't notice?" Arisa stood straight, "your focus is amazing and all, but I think you should at least pay attention to your surroundings a little,"

"I usually play alone in my room most of the time, so it should be understandable,"

"Eh… um… I see…" Arisa said as she looked at him with pity.

"Please don't look at me like that, it makes it worse," He held his chest lightly, feeling attacked simply by the way she looked.

"S… sorry," she said with a genuine tone.

"And don't sincerely apologize too…" Riyoko said, holding his chest tighter as he lowered his head, looking like he was in absolute pain.

"Jeez! What am I supposed to do then!?" she said with a slightly panicked tone and an irritated look.

Riyoko then began giggling and let out a small laugh as he raised his head, "I didn't expect you to take me so seriously, haha,"

Arisa giggled then let out a small laugh as well, "jeez…"

BAM*

Suddenly a loud sound emerged from the short hallway directed at the door as if someone had slammed the door open.

Riyoko was stunned at his seat as he tilted his head to look at the entrance of the living room, while Arisa stood up in caution, waiting for whoever entered the house.

"YO! I've heard you two giggling from outside! Seems like you're having a fun time!" Reine said, sliding her feet on the floorboards with her socks on as she appeared in front of them with a cutesy pose.

"Oh…? What's with this distance? Was I interrupting something?" Reine said, mentioning their personal and physical distance from each other.

"Reine…?" Arisa said in shock as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

Arisa then slowly approached her as Reine smiled at them with a look of extreme confidence as she brushes her hair.

"Hey! Or should I say, nice to meet you? In this world, that is,"

Arisa observed her from all over, "amazing… how could this be? You look so different, yet it's like you look the same as well, I don't know how to describe this…"

"Well, aren't you just referring to my unchanging cuteness even from any other world?" Reine winked as she said that with utter confidence.

"Is that so…?" Arisa replied, continuously observing her, "I think I get what you mean though…"

"Wow… If your confidence was some sort of light I'd actually be blinded right now, in fact, I want to turn away right now…" Riyoko said blatantly.

"Thanks for the compliment!" Reine replied with a wink.

"That wasn't my intention though…" he mumbled.

"Anyway, all jokes aside…" she walked forward, toward the middle of the living room, facing Riyoko as Arisa walked over beside him.

"Are you two ready?"

Knowing what she was implying about, Riyoko nodded with excitement and a determined look.

"I'm ready as I'll ever be," he said.

"I guess the same goes for me," Arisa followed.

"Good then! Both of you will be traveling to world 1 and will start your assessment at the Parallel headquarters there!"

"By the way, is world one…"

"It's the same world you've been to before," Reine said, interrupting Riyoko, "I can't let you in other worlds as long as you haven't done this assessment. if you learned anything today, you'd understand the purpose of this, do you?"

Riyoko nodded, "It's because some parallel worlds can get really crazy and unstable, and can be very dangerous for simple travelers, right? That's why they do this assessment so they can know which level of World they can handle,"

"Good, good! Now with that out of the way, why don't we go straight to the lab, right now?" Reine said, raising her hand.

Suddenly all the lights closed and some sort of shadowy mist covered them, circling them like a dome as a circular light emerges from the floor at the center of where all of them are standing.

Riyoko looked around in haste, feeling overwhelmed as Arisa stood still with a calm look as if she knew what was happening.

"Wait! what's going on?"

"Don't worry," Reine said as she smiled at him, "I locked the door when I entered. Now let's continue this in the lab!"

Flash*