Rui's Parents?

"Is there any place you would like to eat specifically?" Belle asked Rui as Shike carried him through the walls to humanity.

The gates closed as the guards nodded us off and the wooden drawbridge recreated the wall from the cursed territory. I was ready to go home and lie down for the rest of the day, as I was pretty tired.

Truthfully, in Rubeki territory, Illya and I had it a lot easier than I initially thought. It was insane how it contrasted from the beginning of the Rubeki days. Illya really did make it easier for me, and I'm not sure where I would be without her.

"Um, there was this one place that made great chicken, I'd like to go there! If it's not too much trouble." Rui mumbled under his breath.

"Don't worry kid. We have quite the breadwinner on our team. She's loaded with money! Isn't that right, Boo-Boo?" Shike teased Boo and she cursed him underneath her breath. We all laughed, and after Rui saw us, he mimicked our behavior. His laugh was weird, but it was a kid's laugh, it probably wasn't developed yet.

"My money isn't spent at your leisure, and you're lucky it's Rui and not your desire, or else you would be eating the bones of my chicken instead of your own," Boo told Shike off and he scoffed playfully.

We walked into town and it was bustling with people, just as I remember. When seeing all of these people, I remembered my sister and how long it had been since I last saw her. It would be nice to see her again soon.

We walked past several restaurants that I remember eating at and arrived at one with a chicken on the front and a sort of animated sign. It was weirdly designed with cool-looking lights and definitely pulled me in. Their form of advertising was pretty efficient, I'd say.

"Hey there! How many... holy shit. That's a lot of you. Um, follow me!" The server said. Nobody else found it as funny as I did, but the man who was leading us to our new table made me giggle a little.

"Right here! If you need extra chairs, you can take those!" The server said, running off into the back with a door blocking the kitchen from our view. The restaurant was decorated in red and black tiled designs and booths for people who didn't bring a whole class into it, as we did. Rui seemed to not mind crowds, so he wasn't that young I see. I couldn't put a finger on his exact age range, but I knew he was younger than we were.

There were about two servers who were nervous kids our age who were taking our orders, but we all ordered the same thing with the exception of Rui. I hope that made it easier on them.

"I miss this style of life. We don't have to hunt for food and we can even enjoy large amounts of it thanks to how generous Boo is. Thanks again, Boo." I told her. She waved it off.

"Don't mention it. Consider it my treat for finding Rui and welcoming you back." She said.

We played small simple games at the table, a quick game of Telephone that ended in laughs, and we talked more about our stories of being in Rubeki territory, all of which ended in slight puns that Illya managed to pull out of the depths of her unique mind.

"That was really good! Well, Boo will handle payment, so let's go wait outside!" Shike exclaimed. Boo grabbed his ear and dragged him back to the table and pointed at the check. Meanwhile, all of us left the restaurant, including Rui.

"So, how was that? Pretty good, right?" Belle asked him. Rui rubbed his stomach to signify he was full and nodded with a big smile.

"Good! It's always nice to hear that people like Pete's Chicken. Sky, that place was new about a year ago. What did you think of it?" Alexia asked me.

"Hm, I liked it. I'd love to eat there again." I said to them. Belle and Alexia agreed to join me if we could convince Boo to spend more of her money, but I think I could earn some money now that I've returned to MTG myself.

"So, what's next? Oh, we should probably go look for your parents, shouldn't we?" Belle asked Rui. He nodded and we waited a little bit longer for Shike and Boo to leave the building.

"So, what's our next move?" Boo asked, so we caught her up on everything we had planned and began our search down the street. We stopped at the first house with a grey front door and a mean-looking man who opened it enough to just peek out of the crack it created.

"How can I help you?" He asked us. I admit, we probably looked pretty threatening as about ten kids stood outside of his door. I couldn't even blame him for being skeptical.

"We're looking for this kid's parents. Have you seen them? Have you seen him around here?" I asked the older man. He shook his head and shut the door abruptly.

"Well, at least nobody can be as mean like that, right Rui?" I asked him. I tried to do the slight-smile thing, but it didn't really work on my character, so I gave up on it.

"Yeah, what was up with that guy?" Rui asked. I shrugged, as I had no idea either, and we moved to the next house.

"Hi there! Have you seen this little guy's mother?" I asked at the next door. In a perfect contrast, a nice old lady opened the door up all the way and grabbed onto Rui's cheeks as a grandma would do. She turned his head all around to analyze his character but shook her head with scrunched eyebrows and lips.

"I'm sorry honey! I've never seen this little guy around. Are you hungry at all? Would you like some candy?" The old lady asked Rui. Just like that, she proved to be the epitome of a grandma...

-

Our search continued for about thirty more minutes before the night started to arrive. I asked Rui if he was okay with staying in our dorm for the night since we couldn't find his parents, and he agreed to our terms. I told him I would sleep on the couch and he could have my bed, but Shike was nice enough to offer up his own, considering I haven't slept in my bed in over two years. That man was too nice for his own good, but he wouldn't hear me complain.

I agreed to his terms and before I knew it, I was sitting in my bed and getting ready for bed.

As soon as my head hit the pillow, it was like my entire body shut off for a good amount of time.