Behavioral Dressings (2)

I get a sketchy feeling from Scott's attitude, but I hold my feelings in and turn to the kids.

"I'd prefer not to work with random people like this, but it may be a good learning opportunity."

"Okay." Josh nods as he responds, but I don't understand his position.

"Josh, I need your opinion on whether or not we should team up with this guy. 'Okay' doesn't really tell me anything."

"He's trying to say that we should work with him." Sakura folds her arms disapprovingly. I look over at Josh, who continues to nod, so I take her at her word.

"That's fine. I'm willing to do so, but I'm not getting a good vibe from this guy."

"What does that even mean?" Sakura throws her arms up in the air in exasperation.

"It means I think he's trying to take advantage of us."

"You don't know that."

"I know; I just wanted you to understand that, while I'm willing to give him a chance, I have some reservations about his motives."

"He just said that he's been watching us for a while and wants to team up. What's your problem?" Sakura slams her hands on the table.

"I've already had multiple people try to take advantage of me because I'm a kid, and I just want the two of you to keep in mind that we're in a relatively vulnerable position. I said that we would be taking votes on what we're going to do in the future, and I meant it. While I don't feel super comfortable working with someone I don't know, I'll do it if you both want to. I just wanted to state my position." Sakura glares at me. I think she wants to team up with Scott just to spite me, which isn't the calm, logical foundation from which we should be making decisions.

"Should I leave?" Scott asks as he stands there awkwardly.

"No." Both Sakura and I respond in unison. She looks at Josh and asks for his opinion. Josh nods, which we take for an affirmation, and tell Scott that we'll team up with him.

"I actually have my own team. I think we could travel through the forest much more safely with a larger group."

"Have you ever been in the forest before?" I ask skeptically.

"No, but we do a lot of quests around the edge of the forest. We mostly hunt Slimes and Horned Rabbits to get by, but we've been doing this for a few years, and I think we've got a lot to offer."

[The fact that he's talking about teaching us things instead of how much money we could make is a good sign. Most con artists focus on the fiscal aspect of the job to avoid discussing the specifics. The devil is in the details.]

"Happy?" Sakura takes one last jab at me before we finish our talk.

"I'm down if you are. I need to recover fully before going back into the woods, so why don't we all meet up at the north gates tomorrow morning?"

"Actually, tomorrow is bad for us; how about the day after that?" Scott counters with his idea. "We just finished up for the day, and we're pretty tired. I'd like a day off to recover before heading into the woods."

"What do you two think?" I ask. Josh just shrugs his shoulders.

"Sounds fine to me." Sakura agrees as well.

"Alright, we'll meet you then."

"Awesome! I'm looking forward to working with you!"

"Yeah, me too." I smile and nod.

I watch as our new temporary teammates leave the guild. Just as they leave, Shelly returns with our reward. She drops the heavy pouch on the table, and we chat for a bit before heading back to her spot at the counter.

"Do you want to head to your father's shop now?"

"Yes, I can't wait to tell him the good news." Sakura jumps out of her chair.

"Great, let's go." I quickly divide the reward money before following Sakura to the flower shop.

"Daddy!" She calls out to her father and runs between the aisles.

"Yes, sweety? What do you need today?" I can barely hear his voice because of his position on the other side of the shop, so I head over to the counter to listen.

"We just talked to the Guild Master, and she said we will be Iron Rank adventurers as soon as we finish the class."

"What?" I can almost see his eyes pop out of his head at her statement.

"Yeah, we beat a Metapardus, and she was really impressed." Jacques's eyes roll into the back of his head as he collapses onto the ground.

"Daddy!?" Sakura tries to shake her father awake to no avail.

[He's probably going to be out for a while, so we might as well browse.]

"Josh, Let's look for more potions. I think the ones we had were good but feel free to pick out anything that might be useful.

"Okay." We start wandering around the shop, picking out replacements for the potions used today.

[After taking a couple of hits from that monster, I think we'll need a resilience potion.]

The throbbing in my leg reminds me of the peril I survived only hours prior. Survival is more important than anything else, so we can't go skimping on expenses. I grab a resilience potion, a medium healing potion, and replacements for everything we used today. I drop my haul off on the counter so we can pay for them while I wait for Jacques to regain consciousness.

"What happened?" An attractive older woman steps out of the door to the back of the shop. The surprise on her face does little to disguise her exceptional features.

"I was just talking to daddy, and he fell."

"What did you say to him?" The woman, who appears to be Sakura's mother, puts her hands on her cheeks in shock.

"I just said we made it to Iron Rank by fighting a Metapardus." Sakura's words cause the older woman to pass out as well. Fortunately, Jacques's body makes for a convenient mass to cushion her fall.

"Mommy!" I walk to the front of the store while these things resolve themselves.

"Hey, Josh. Did you find anything?" I find him at the front of the store with a very small bottle in his hand. He doesn't respond, so I check out the label on the bottle.

"Anchoring Attunement"

[If I remember correctly, attunement refers to types of potions that give one a temporary skill. He must be interested in getting the anchoring skill.]

"That's a good idea. Let's get some of those." I lay a hand on his shoulder to get his attention. He moves away slightly until he notices it's me.

"I think these will help."

"I agree; let's get some." Josh nods his head and grabs an additional five bottles. We walk back to the counter now that we have everything we need. By now, the poorly acted comedy sketch has ended, and both of Sakura's parents are back on their feet.

"What in the world were you thinking?!" Jacques raises his voice as he castigates his daughter.

"I didn't mean to. Nick was the one who attacked it." Sakura panics and tries to shift the blame to me.

"YOU! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Jacques jumps over the counter to strike me. He pulls back his arm to punch me. I sigh and kick out his lead foot from underneath him. He falls forward onto the ground in a heap.

"I was protecting someone. If you take a moment to look at your daughter, you will realize that she is mostly unharmed. We were able to triumph thanks to the potions you made. This isn't the time to pass blame but to spread praise. We're getting stronger every day. It won't be very long until we hunt those monsters for fun, and I'm the one who's helped bring us here. I understand that you're scared, but this was a test that our team passed with flying colors." Jacques grits his teeth at my words. I don't know how strong he was in the past, but he's just a shadow of his former self at this point. "So what's it gonna be?"

"Get the fuck out of my shop." Jacques curses me out under his breath.

"Very well. Here, Josh. Pay for my potions with this." I toss my purse to Josh and walk out of the store. I don't blame Sakura for what she did, but it's still annoying. I lean against the shop's wall and wait for the kids to return.

[I need to calm down. I should do some meditation to relax.]

I sit on the ground and close my eyes. The foot noise of the people passing by is the most prominent sound, so I decide to focus on that. Jacques' shop is on a fairly busy street, so it's hard to pay attention to everything.

"You there!" I open my eyes to see a couple of guards standing over me. "Have you seen this girl?"

The taller guard shoves a picture of Shinobu in my face. I'm not very good at lying, so I decide to be vague.

"I'm sure I've seen her before, but I don't know where."

"She's the daughter of the former Count of this territory, and she's gone missing. You need to tell us if you have any information regarding her current whereabouts."

"I'm sorry, I can't help you." The guard to the left kicks me in the stomach.

"Maybe you would know if you had your eyes open." His shoe hits me right in the solar plexus and knocks the wind out of me. The two guards laugh at each other and walk away. Anger builds up in my chest, but I close my eyes again and focus on the life flowing from the town. My emotions fade, and I lose myself in the activity burgeoning around me. I lose track of time in my dissociated state. It may have been minutes or hours; I can't tell.

"Nick." Sakura's voice carries a hint of sympathy as she calls out to me. "I'm sorry about that."

"It happens. You panicked and knew I was an easy target." I open my eyes and stand up as I answer.

"But it was your fault." Sakura pouts and crosses her arms.

"It was the Metapardus's fault for attacking us, and it was my fault for trying to keep everyone alive. I would do the same thing again if it came to that." I stare the small girl down and wait for her to respond.

"Here's your potions." She extends her arm without looking at me. I don't want to argue with her, so I accept the potions and head for the gate.

"Thanks. I'll see you guys tomorrow." I wave to them as I walk away.

"Bye!" Josh's cheery voice fills my heart with hope that our relationships will improve. I do the best I can, but it never seems to be enough.

'Tck.'

I click my tongue as I think about my incompetence.