100 Straightforward

Minutes passed, and Riku was starting to get rather impatient as both him and Shizu simply stood there waiting for Nyx to say something. The goddess had been thinking for a while now, and what was once a smug look on her face was slowly turning into a deep frown as she clearly struggled to be clever with the hint she was allowed to give him.

"She's really taking her time, isn't she," Shizu absently remarked while she casually shuffled her deck of cards. "How long has it been?"

"About four minutes, I think," Riku sighed. "You'd think that she'd quickly come up with something based on how your patron deity gave your hint just a few seconds after you asked for it."

"I'm sure Nyx is just making sure that it would be as clear and straightforward as she could possibly make it," the fortune teller reassured him. "Nyx at least cares about your well being unlike mine."

Riku raised a brow at that. "Are you sure? You're his Champion, right?"

"Well, yeah, but unlike with you and Nyx, and with all the other Champions we've seen so far, he doesn't even bother to be here with me," Shizu lamented. "It really feels like he's just using me for something, and I don't know what."

"To be fair, all the gods are using us," Riku chuckled. "Even Nyx here can be accused of just using me to further her own ambitions. It's just that she's too sincere to even be good and being manipulative."

"Yeah... For a goddess, Nyx is really genuine, even if she's a bit of a scatterbrain at times," Shizu softly chuckled in agreement. "You'd think that they'd be like the Greek gods and be petty, arrogant, and even downright malicious, but no. They're still arrogant, but it feels like they really care about us."

The former assassin couldn't help but let out an amused scoff. "That's probably just Nyx, to be honest. We haven't seen how the other gods act, so they might just be far more competent than our resident goddess here could ever be."

"I can still hear you two, you know."

Riku teasingly smirked as Nyx's whines of protest rang in his ears once more. It had been a while since he heard Nyx being humbled, and it was always a treat to bring her back down to earth whenever she got too smug for her own good.

"Well, maybe if you sped things up, you won't hear more from us," he told her with a teasing smirk. "After all, even you can admit that you're mostly just average unless you're actively channeling your godly persona."

"And doing that is a pain in the ass", the goddess grumbled. "But don't think I can't do it at will. It just so happens that it randomly pops up sometimes."

The two Champions gave the goddess both an endeared and pitying look as the goddess herself wilted into her hoodie. Pulling it up, she gave them a half-hearted glare before pulling her tongue out at them.

Riku couldn't help but smile at the gesture. It was childish, but it was cute.

"I haven't seen someone do that to me since I was a kid," Shizu absently remarked with a faint blush on her face. "That was... That was cute, actually..."

"Agreed," he conceded with a nod. "We should do this more often."

"No, you should not," Nyx quickly rebutted. "I won't hesitate to leave you out here to dry if you do so, my Champion."

"As if you'd even do that," he challenged her. "You know you like the attention."

Nyx quickly opened her mouth to defend herself, only for her to close it just as quickly as she was reduced to merely pouting and glaring at them with a deep red coloring her cheeks. She was as far as anyone get from a goddess now, which only made her more human and endearing to the two Champions.

"Look, do you want this hint or not?" she grumbled with her cheeks puffed out. "I won't mind watching you two get lost in what's possibly the most confusing place in the entirety of the Deep Blue. If even gods get trouble finding his office, what more for mere mortals like you?"

Riku quickly mentally took note of that piece of information. It was comforting to know that even gods found it hard to navigate this place, but that also meant that they needed all the clue they could get to complete this challenge.

"We'll do our best at the very least," Shizu defended. "Mortals have potential, you know?"

"You're just repeating stuff you heard from movies, aren't you," Nyx smugly accused Shizu with a smirk. "And yes, I've watched each and every single one of them."

"And what does that have to do with the hint you're still trying to come up with?" Riku asked, careening the topic back to what was important. "Honestly, we're wasting time here."

"Then don't interrupt me while I'm thinking," Nyx rebutted with a pout. "I'll come up with something, alright? Jeez..."

Shrugging, Riku let the goddess return to her thinking as he turned to give Shizu a knowing look. His fellow Champion returned it with a shrug of her own, and they were once again left doing nothing but twiddling their thumbs while waiting for their companion to give them something to work with.

"I got it!"

Nyx's triumphant cheer echoed across the immediate area as Riku and Shizu both looked at her with anticipation. Well, it was in a mild form, mostly so that they would avoid being disappointed if Nyx told them something utterly incomprehensible.

"Well?" Riku asked. "What is it then?"

Smiling brightly, Nyx reeked of pride and smugness as she placed her hands on her hips as she spoke. "Your nine letter hint is... 'Find the target on the floor, and hit it.' Fairly straightforward, right?"

...

...

........

Riku blinked at what he just heard. Likewise, Shizu stood dumbfounded at the nonsensical string of words that just came out of the goddess's mouth.

After all, what did she even mean by that?