A Certain Pink-Haired Person

In the novels she read, gates were described as cracks in space, like portals or rifts. And while the manga's she read were able to show how they looked, the gates themselves just looked like portals from cartoons. She didn't think too much about the appearance of said gates, as she was more interested in the plot and characters in the story.

But it seems like those authors and artists were way off the mark.

"Beautiful…" Alex stared at the gate, she couldn't describe what the gate looked like.

It was swirly, like how the books described. But the way it looked was something that maybe even the best writers wouldn't be able fully describe.

But if a description was needed I guess you could say it looked like space, like the sky, sun, moon, and stars. It warped its surroundings as if it was sucking them in, kind of like a black hole. Except the center wasn't black.

The gate was also kind of see-through, allowing her to see the concrete wall behind it.

The location of the gate was in an alleyway that was closed off from both ends, and if not for the monsters wreaking havoc as they left the gate, they might have had to break a couple walls to reach it.

"Hmm, so this is why nobody noticed it." Ana looked around the alleyway. Actually, you could barely even tell this used to be an alleyway, as the surrounding buildings looked like they would collapse if you breathed too hard.

Josh held his chin, and his face was serious "The normal populace wouldn't have noticed it, but the radars back at base should have been able to pick up its mana waves, even before it broke open."

"It seems like a normal gate though…" Ana looked at the gate, trying to understand why it wasn't even noticed in the first place.

'It's letting off mana like any normal gate, this can't just be a coincidence…' Ana couldn't think of any reason why this would have happened.

"We've wasted too much time just getting here, the only way we'll find out is by looking inside for ourselves." Josh said as he signaled them to follow him.

And so with no time to spare, the four of them entered the gate.

***

[Alert! Alert!]

The sound of beeping and warnings resounded in the cave.

The same cave that a certain tiny person was in.

Their closed eyes shot open, and they sat up quickly, holding their head.

"Ung… Vati, what the hell is happening?" Their voice was high-pitch and slightly squeaky.

Vati immediately responded, "Master, lifeforms have been detected. They have just entered the dungeon."

"Tako?"

"No, they seem to be humans. But they may be shapeshifters in human form." Vati shook its head.

"Ugh." They groaned in annoyance.

"I though I had another Joi of vacation." They grumbled.

Vati grabbed a pair of clothes from the box near it, and placed it on its master's bed. It was a light-brown t-shirt, and some overalls. Along with a pair of gloves and socks.

"Master, whether they're human or not, I believe this is a great chance to practice social interaction." Vati removed his master's clothes and help put on the new ones.

"You're talking like my mom, I'm not a kid anymore, I am a grown woman." She pouted.

This tiny person's name was Jiji, she had slightly pale skin and long elf-like ears. Along with bright pink hair that cut off to golden near the end, of which looked like deformed lightning bolts.

Adding to her unusual appearance were her eyes of two different colors. Her left eye was a bright yellow, and the other was a sky blue.

The cherry on top was her short height, which along with her unnatural appearance, made her look like a 7 year old.

Vati adorned grey hair and bright blue eyes, along with pale skin. Unlike Jiji, he seemed to look human. But his stoic face and robotic voice would make you think otherwise.

Jiji hopped off the bed and put on her boots before lifting her arms and stretching.

"Alright! Let's go meet them!" She said, yawning.

"Everything's packed up right?" Jiji looked to Vati.

Vati nodded, causing Jiji to smile in excitement.

She had been in this cave for some time, and while she disliked having to interact with people, she did have to leave eventually.

There was only so much mana to power such a big gate, maybe she should have picked a smaller one?

***

'It's too quiet…' Josh scanned the surroundings for anything unusual, but found there was nothing out of the ordinary.

'Mana fluctuations are normal too…'

When they first entered the gate, their guard was up and tight. But nothing's happened at all, and so now Josh doesn't know what to do. It's not like he came in here with no plans, he had been sure to account for every situation possible.

But the one situation he hadn't even thought of has occurred, an empty gate.

He would have preferred it if they were attacked by something, but there is literally…

No monsters??

Josh stood up straight, "The mana in here is normal."

It's usually never said specifically how it's possible to detect monsters, or other living things. And like a lot of other abilities, it's more difficult than it seems.

There are multiple ways to do this, most of them involve the use of mana. It also requires you to skillfully control mana.

Detection can be split into 3 categories:

Search

Sense

Feel

For now, all you need to know is feel.

As long as you can feel mana, you can tell the difference from living being to a rock. To make it easier to understand, wavy waves are from living things (or anything that uses mana), and flat waves are normal and are not from monsters. Usually flat waves are from plants and nature, or just from the world itself.

That's all you need to know for now!

And so the reason why Josh is so nervous, is because everything seems perfectly normal! The only things he senses are Ana, Alex and Caron.

"Welcome to my humble abode! Or uh… temporary living space!" Out of nowhere, a voice spoke to them.

Josh and Ana turned their heads immedietly towards the direction of the voice, and got ready to fight.

Alex and Caron also looked to the direction of the voice.

A person walked out from a corner, with their hands behind their back. They seemed to be reenacting a scene in where the villain is about to fight the hero, but just before that happens, the villain makes sure to tell them their super evil plan.

But what walked out from the corner was not a middle aged man in a costume, nor was it a monster.

It was a very small girl with pink hair, and long ears.

Josh and Ana tensed up at seeing the small girl, they had fought many monsters before without batting an eye. But they'd probably be up all night if they had to kill such a small girl, even if it wasn't human.

The girl also looked shocked, and she slightly pulled up her hands and took a step back.

"Uh, I-I'm not gonna hurt you. So uh… Relax. Please?" She said nervously.

They were looking at her as if they were going to kill her, they wouldn't kill such a cute person, would they?!

Both sides were at a standstill, patiently waiting for the other side to make a move.

But, as a normal civilian, and clueless person, Alex spoke

"Uhm, hi. My name's Alex!" She said while smiling awkwardly.

It's not like Alex was stupid, she just felt like this person wasn't going to hurt them. Well, that's at least what she saw on the outside.

The girl looked silently at Alex before smiling with relief.

Another reason why she called out to the girl was, because she was super cute!

No normal human being would be able to kill such a cute little girl in cold blood! If not they were monsters, monsters I say!