There’s Always a Tragic Past

You have collected 1/5 Blue Orbs!

A blue holo-screen appeared right in front of my chest with those words.

"Uhhh, I'm not the only one who's seeing this… right?"

Judging by the shocked expressions of the other three, I'm not.

(Well this is something. Hm? What's this at the bottom? Quest info?)

The current screen in front of me disappeared and reopened with different details.

Tutorial Quest 1:

Objective: Collect 5 Blue Orbs.

Failure Penalty: Unknown

Reward: 5 SP

(What the? It's like some kind of game or something.)

"Collect 5 Blue Orbs. 1 out of 5 collected. What do you guys think of this?"

"I've seen this before!"

The kid, who hasn't spoken a word until just now, spoke out excitedly.

"What? Seriously?"

"Yes! I've read a lot of stories where the characters get powers from these!"

"What kind of powers exactly have you seen in some of those stories?"

"All kinds! Magic, body enhancements, you name it! Wow, this is so cool!"

(The kid lit up like a Christmas tree. Considering he was completely silent until now, I guess he's the kind of kid that gets going when something excites him.)

"So we need to find 4 more of these blue orb thingies and then what? Will it take us back?"

"Only one way to find out. We'll probably need to split up again to cover more ground. Let's do the same pairs. You guys go that way and we'll head back here."

The man and the kid walked the other direction and me and the blonde girl took off in the opposite.

"So I'm guessing these orbs will be in random locations assuming it's like the first one we found. This is definitely gonna take a while though."

…

"Ok listen. I get it. You have something against me. You hate my guts or whatever. Is that why you're so silent? Come on, can you at least say something?"

"Sorry…"

I sighed and continued walking.

(We've been walking for a while now. Still no sign of any blue orb.)

I looked to sides of the buildings as well but there was nothing.

The blonde girl suddenly stopped walking.

"Why'd you stop?"

Her face looked pale as she pointed down the direction we were walking.

(What is-)

There I saw it. It was huge. It was green. It was clearly not human and it looked incredibly dangerous.

"What in the HELL is THAT?!"

The creature was definitely over 8 feet tall.

"Wait a minute… I know what that is! That's an ogre! Looks like it hopped off some page of a manga! What the hell?! We have to go. Now!"

Just as I was about to take off, I felt a strong chill run straight down my back, making me halt.

"It's spotted us, hasn't it…?"

I slowly turned around to see the ogre facing our direction, glaring right at us.

"Yup it has. Let's run!"

I took off sprinting the direction we came but heard loud hard footsteps charging right behind me.

"The thing can run too?! Good God!"

I continued running and checked behind me to make sure the blonde girl was still keeping up.

"Come on! We have to keep going! It's still trailing us!"

She tried her best to keep up but her fatigue got to her and she tripped and fell to the ground.

(God damn it!)

I ran back quickly and picked her up.

"AHHHHH!!!! G-GET OFF!!"

She screamed loudly, kicking her feet everywhere, nearly making me drop her.

"Stop doing that! You're going to make me drop you!"

Although she reluctantly stopped, I can still feel her shaking badly in my arms. She's also crying.

(What the hell is wrong with this girl?! Doesn't matter, I need to find a place to put her down and fast!)

The ogre which was tailing behind us, slowed down and turned back.

"It… stopped?"

I ran a while longer to be sure we were safe and set down the girl behind one of the sides of the many buildings.

She continued shaking and crying.

(I guess I'll just wait until she's done.)

After a few minutes, she finally calms down.

"Now, I think you owe me an explanation as to what's your problem."

She remained silent for a few seconds before finally speaking up in a clear voice.

"Ok… You of all people deserve to know since I've caused you trouble. It was around 4 years ago."

She explained how when she was a little girl, she had lost her parents and they had no other living relatives so her sister went into working to pay rent for their cheap apartment and for her to go to school. She worked a day job and a night job. One she worked as a part timer for a convenience store. The other, she prostituted herself.

"She… ran into the wrong men during her night job one day. The men were part of an infamous Yakuza group that took over the area we lived in and has been running it for over 5 years. They offered my sister to attend to them personally but she refused. Instead of letting her go… they… decided to try and force her. They found out she had a little sister and kidnapped me in attempt to force her to submit to them. They threatened to touch me if she refused. Since she had no other option, she accepted and I… watched… as they did unspeakable things to her... After this, they continued to use her and use her. They payed her and she barely made enough to enroll me in high school but her body finally gave up on her. One day, she collapsed and I took her to the hospital. Instead of letting her rest, they decided to hound me about paying them 150 million yen to make up for all the time she hasn't shown up when she was supposed to."

(Explains that debt thing those guys were on about earlier this morning.)

"Since then, I've been terribly afraid of men. Especially when they touch me because… because it reminds me of that time. I'm sorry… I knew you didn't do anything nor had any intent of harming me. I knew that but I couldn't bring myself to say that. I've wanted to apologize to you for the longest time but I just couldn't do it. I was just so scared of being touched. Even when you picked me up… I've been trying to overcome it but it's too difficult. I'm also sorry for being so quiet as well… I've been so worried about my sister, it's all I could think about."

I stood there silently for a bit.

(Great! Now I feel bad for her. Even though I feel bad, a part of me is still petty about getting accused of being a pervert.)

"Well, an apology won't fix the 2 years of hell I had to go through with the entire school disliking me but I got an explanation. I don't think I can forgive you yet but at least we can start somewhere. Anyways, it's long overdue but I'm Raiga Matsuhara."

"My name is Yuna Nakajima."

"Great! Glad to finally meet you, Yuna."

"E-Eh?!"

"What is it?"

"N-Nothing…"

"Anyways, let's head back. We have to tell the others what we saw."

"Yes. Um… R-Raiga?"

"Hm?"

"I may not be athletic or anything… but I'll try my best to not be a liability to you! And to make up for the trouble I caused you…"

"Yeah. Good luck with that."

Making sure the ogre wasn't lurking around the area, we came out to the middle of the road and made our way back to where we came from.