Twisted Rabid Bunny Ears

Throughout the long night, Karina struggled to sleep. Her room was adjacent to her father's, but that night, he stayed awake in her room to guard their home and shop. The noises outside were loud and rowdy, reminiscent of when the players had arrived. Lomeir tightly gripped his sword within the scabbard.

"Don't these hooligans need sleep? They should at least respect us mere mortals and our hours," Lomeir muttered, feeling extremely sleepy but unwilling to risk the safety of the most important thing in his life.

Come morning, the streets were quieter and empty. Karina opened her eyes slowly, sat up, and stretched. She greeted her father, wondering if he was still asleep. Lomeir, finally realizing she had woken up and the streets were quiet, passed out on the chair he'd occupied throughout the night.

"You must not have slept through the night," Karina muttered. Struggling greatly, she carried her father to his room, dropped him on his bed, removed his boots, and tucked him in.

"Alright, father! I have to get ready to open the shop," she declared while flexing her bicep. Karina prepared the shop, reflecting on the events of the previous day. Opening the door, she took out a clipboard and noted every restock she needed.

"Yesterday, I didn't get a chance to pick up some limes from Lamina." As she wrote down the quantity needed, the door swung open, ringing a small bell.

"Welcome in!"

"Karina, did you hear what happened yesterday?"

"Oh, it's you, Figard. What happened?"

"One of our people was killed by a hero!"

"What?!"

"They struck down old man Kobe. Luckily, other heroes ganged up on the perpetrator, but this unsettles me, Karina. How can a hero harm the people they're supposed to save? Old man Kobe was just homeless man in need of help."

Karina looked down, picturing her younger self with bloody hands close to her chest. Karina angry and saddened by the news, Fígard asked, "Are you okay, Karina?" Attempting to ease the pain.

"No, Figard, these are supposed to be our heroes, our saviors."

"Karina, this is the first time I've seen you cry. If it helps, several heroes helped around the town, calling our issues quests or something of the sort."

"No! I'm done believing in them! They've done nothing but destroy my dreams! I won't let any of them buy anything from my shop!" Karina shouted in anger.

Figard, her childhood friend, stood there uncertain of what to do. With brown hair always in disarray and slightly worn clothes, dispite his appearance he never actually was dirty or unkempt. The shop door opened once more, and the bell rang, accompanied by heavy footsteps. The man entering had no shoes, and his clothes were tattered. Karina wiped her tears, composed herself, and prepared to attend her customer.

"Hello, may I help you?"

"I heard you guys buy Twisted Rabid Bunny ears."

The man standing before her and Figard was the strangest they had ever seen. Figard, standing in front of Karina, asked, "I've never seen you before. You wouldn't happen to be one of those heroes?"

"Hero? Nah, just passing by. You guys wouldn't happen to know if they also sell gear around here?"

Karina pushed Figard aside, indicating her independence and strength. "Leave at once! We won't be another one of your targets! All you so-called 'heroes' have done since you got here yesterday is disappoint everyone here!" she shouted in rage.

"Um... it's my first time ever coming to town."

"You all! You all destroyed my hope. You've destroyed the one thing I've been holding onto since I was a little girl... how could you?" she said, sobbing. She threw herself at the man, banging against his chest. Figard did nothing to hold her back because he agreed with everything Karina said.

"You even killed old man Kobe," she added in a calmer yet sad tone. Karina got off the man, composed herself, and then patted her brown apron. She lifted her arm and pointed out the door.

"Leave, any of your kind isn't..." Karina was interrupted by the next action the man took. Akio noticed her pain in her voice and knew that their arrival was something many people anticipated. He recognized she wasn't lying by her expressions and because he understood that many players probably didn't take the game's NPCs seriously. Akio did the only thing he found appropriate in that instance. He lowered his head and the upper part of his torso, bowing with immense sincerity.

"I am deeply sorry for their actions. Please accept this apology."

Both Karina and Figmond were dumbfounded at the bow Akio took and looked at each other, trying to understand the unexpected gesture.

"Um... look, I'm really sorry I yelled at you for what someone else did, but I won't forgive you all."

Akio remained in his bow.

"Hello?"

"..."

"Okay! Fine, I forgive you, but only you! Now please, get up! You're going to make me more angry if you stay in that weird bow you just did!"

Akio smiled and postured himself up.

"Really? Trust me, if I ever find who did that, I'll personally kill him. Every life is precious," Akio added.

Figmond crossed his arms in anger, still not trusting Akio, who was almost naked, after all.

"Figmond, you're late! Shouldn't you be opening up your shop?"

"Ah! You're right, but I can't leave you here alone with this... this stranger."

Karina grew angrier, and Figmond visually saw the veins on her forehead pulse. She looked at Figmond in anger. Karina absolutely hated being reminded she was a woman because it was usually equivalent to her not being as capable. She gripped her hand in a fist and smacked it upon Figmond's thick-headed skull.

"Oo we! Ouch, okay, okay, I'm leaving, but... please be careful with these types," he said while leaving through the door, not before stopping and judging Akio's character from head to toe.

"What do you want?" Karina said, still bothered by Akio's presence.

In reality, Karina was still very much hurt inside, but she didn't want to show any emotion to a stranger. She needed to be strong to manage her father's store. Trust wasn't something she handed out, and she definitely didn't actually forgive Akio or the other players. The only difference was that Akio was the only nice one to offer an apology for something he didn't do.

"I need to sell a few items. I heard from some locals this is one of the places I could come to, and naturally, you were the closest option," Akio replied.

"Yeah, well, what is it?"

Akio opened his menu and navigated to his inventory. He dropped some items upon one of the tables in the shop.

"I need to sell these, 78 Twisted Rabid Bunny ears. I also have the pelts. You buy those too?"

"What!... Um, where did you get all of these?" she said with widened eyes.

"Um, the forest... I think its name was the Dark Dreams or something like that," Akio added while scratching his head.

Karina sweated a bit and stared at Akio, amazed.

"The Northern Forest of Dark Dreams."

"Yeah, that's the name."

"That's the most dangerous forest in this region. How... how did you make it out alive?"

"Um, that's the most dangerous?! Yeah, it wasn't that bad. I mean, I got a bit scratched up and have 0021 HP left, and I don't know any healing spells."

"You what?" Karina asked, confused as to what HP was.

"Whatever, but what are you... how are you alive? Every person here is warned to never even think of going in there. Twice a year, the most sought-out ingredient for healing potions is collected and then never again. That ingredient is Twisted Rabid Bunny Ear, but they only ever get 6 to 10 ears at most! It is incredibly dangerous to fight a Twisted Rabid Bunny!"

"Yeah, there's no way I could ever win against even one of those suckers, but I built some clever traps and killed the little rascals. They are even scarier during the night, though."

"The night! What are you, crazy! Why are you out there during the night?"

"Well, I would've liked to be summoned in this town like everyone else, but... perhaps that little red-haired brat had something to do with this... anyway, I didn't have access to a map, so I had no idea where I was going."

"I, uhhh..." Karina said in disbelief.

"Yeah, I just stumbled into this town and figured I got lucky."

Akio stood there dumbfounded and ignorant as to how crazy his story sounded. His starting clothes were torn up, and he had no shoes. He figured out how to conceal his wings as they kept getting stuck on bushes. Naturally, he still had no idea how to fly, or else he would've flown out to find the nearest town the moment he was summoned.

"I... I am sorry, but I don't think I can buy the ears or the pelts. Maybe just 6 ears at most, but that's it."

"Ah, what a shame, then I..." Akio muttered, then got interrupted.

"Actually, no one can buy them. Those ears are so valuable that no one in this town can. You'd have to go to one of the big cities."

Akio let out a deep sigh and collected all the ears and pelts in his inventory except for 6 ears.

"Okay, how much can you give me per ear?"

"Why? Why did they act the way they did?" Karina asked after buying the ears from Akio.

"In my world, we are very respectful people, and most are nice, but being summoned to a world that isn't your own twisted their views. They didn't take it seriously enough. They are ignorant and rowdy because they have no consequences. Something that needs to change..."

"You seem different than the rest of them. Not that I've personally met them, but from what I could gather, they are exactly the opposite of the nice things you said about them," Karina remarked.

Akio scratched his head. "Yeah, well, that's why I'm not one of those to socialize with society. Anyways, I need to find a map to reach one of those cities. Could you also point me to where I can buy clothing?"

"Society? Um, here, hold on a second. I think you'd fit in some of my father's old clothes."

Karina ran up some stairs, creating a ruckus before running back down. She carried a fresh change of clothes for Akio and one of her simple maps of the area. In the shop, she and her father only sold consumable goods and some ingredients, like a fresh market, but Karina always carried maps for the day the heroes would arrive in need of one.

"Here, try them on... and here is your map."

"Oh, I, um... here, thank you for your gratitude!" Akio said after receiving the gifts. He handed Karina the rest of the ears as a thank you for her gratitude.

"What are you doing? I can't accept these!" Karina replied in surprise.

"Why not?"

"These bunny ears are worth more than my father's shop and the two shops next door!"

"Oh, I uh didn't mean any offense! But here, too late, I already summoned them back, and I don't feel like taking them back," Akio added with a smile.

Karina carried the face of someone who had been gifted a million dollars. Akio took the clothing and walked over to a corner that blocked his presence so that he could change into the fresh clothing.

"Karina, you didn't have to open up the shop. I was 'yawn' , I was going to open it."

"Father, what are you doing awake? You've barely gotten any sleep! I saw that you stayed up all last night. There's no need, please rest."

"Don't worry, I'm strong; this is nothing," her father said while walking toward the door.

"What the... KARINA WHY IS THERE A NAKED MAN IN THE CORNER OF THE SHOP!!!" Her father roared in shock.