------------------------------------------------------
'How did this happen?' Yuri thought as he was now eating his meal in front of Jen and her friend Moon.
"Hey, are you going to eat that?" Jen asked as she grabbed his plate and placed it near her.
"Jen, be respectful please," Moon reminded her.
'Uh...' Yuri sat there, confused.
----------------
A couple of minutes earlier...
Yuri sat in a table in a restaurant called "Steak Firehouse," and he's waiting for his order. He grabbed a glass of water while reading a newspaper and took a sip.
"Aah~" he exhaled. He looked outside the window and saw hovering cars driving past by the establishment. After, he looked back at his newspaper, finishing the minigame of crosswords on the backpage.
"This world's good," he muttered. "I guess it's better than sitting in my room all day feeling bored."
"I wonder what Eliss is up to?" He continued. "I feel like she's super strong now."
"Order number 89?!" A female voice echoed through the building. "Order number 89?!"
"Here!" Yuri exclaimed at the counter. A waiter grabbed his order placed at the counter and walked towards his table, placing the order down on the platform gently and walking away after giving him his receipt and being given a tip.
His meal consisted of a perfectly cooked steak with vegetables placed at the left side of the dish, a mysterious green sauce at the right, and mashed potato on a bowl separate from the others. He was also given orange juice on a soda can and pieces of tissue placed neatly on the side of the tray. He grabbed the dining knife and a fork on his table and began to cut the steak. He pierced the small piece with the fork and ate it.
"Mhm- good shit," he commented. He then proceeded to slice the steak in two, then into four. He grabbed the spoon on his side that was literally on the edge of the table, ready to fall off. "Oh, that was close," he exclaimed as he hastily grabbed it.
He scooped up a spoonful of mashed potato from the bowl and placed it on one of the chopped up bits of the steak. He then grabbed the side of the beef with his fingers and ate it in one bite. "Delicious," he remarked.
As he was about to touch the vegetables, he suddenly felt something was wrong. A shadow appeared over to his left, obstructing his meal. He slowly looked over and saw Jen drooling over the glass window, with her friend Moon watching from the side.
----------------
"What are you guys even doing here?" He exclaimed at them both. "I was just eating my meal here in peace you know."
"We were about to go to the guild to do a quest, but we saw you eating here, so we decided to greet you," Moon replied.
"You guys or is it just Jen?" he questioned.
"It's just Jen, sorry," Moon answered.
"Hah, I knew it," Yuri exhaled. "So, you guys gonna order something--"
"Jen, could you please give me back my mashed potatoes?" Yuri asked her, because she was about to empty the bowl in just a few seconds.
"Nroo-," Jen replied while still having food in her mouth.
"I said, give it to me," Yuri grabbed the bowl trying to snatch it back from her. "You goddamn food thief."
No matter how hard he pulled, Jen kept pulling it back.
"If you want some food, go buy some!"
"I- drnon't want to paye!"
'This fucking child...'
"Give it back."
Jen swallowed the food on her mouth and spoke,
"Heh, you think you can budge me with those words of yours again?!"
"Haaaah...." Yuri sighed. Just as he was about to give up, an idea popped up in his mind.
...
'O-Oh, this's going to be effective~' he thought. 'Hehe... try not to get flustered!'
"Hey Jen, you look kinda cute," Yuri commented on her looks.
Moon's eyes widened for a moment before realizing what Yuri's plan would be.
'Hm, after that, he's going to snatch the bowl away.'
There was a brief pause of silence in the group.
...
"What?" Jen replied with a disgusted face.
"Damn it," Yuri sighed. "I thought you were gonna go like, ~///What?///~"
"How the hell would I get flustered by that?" Jen replied, letting go of the bowl.
'Oh, she gave it back,' Yuri thought. 'Well, it worked one way or another.'
"Hey, we're gonna go since I have somethin- I mean, we have something to do at the guild," Jen said.
"Wait, already?" Moon exclaimed. "I was thinking about to order something from the menu~"
----------------
"Hm, they left quite in a hurry," Yuri remarked. "What's so urgent about if you were just sitting here before, not thinking about anything--"
"*GUH*" Suddenly, Yuri had a realization about something.
'Wait a second, Jen acted like that after I said that she was cute,' he thought. 'So going by the rules of anime, she's looking fine in the outside, but flustered and embarrassed on the inside.'
'Uh oh, I might've made her my love interest by accident,' he continued. 'That might be a problem down the line if I'm gonna run a secret group filled with incredibly strong people.'
'I'm gonna have to clear some things up,' he thought. 'I need to fix this misunderstanding as fast as possible.'
'But first, let's finish my meal first, since it's almost cold now,' he said as he picked up his utensils again. 'Mhm~ delicious.'
----------------
"Hey Jen, why are you walking so fast?" Moon exclaimed at her on the sidewalk. "Wait up for me!"
Moon rushed towards Jen, grabbing her shoulder and making her turn towards her.
"Did something happen back at the guild-- Huh?" Moon looked at Jen's face. "Why is it so red?!"
"Do you have a fever--" she was suddenly cut off by Jen.
"None of your business!" She exclaimed at her while turning her back once again and hastily walking away.
"Hey Jen, wait up!" Moon yelled out.
'Why is she acting like this,' Moon thought. 'She didn't do this before--'
Suddenly, she remembered something back at the restaurant.
"Oh."
...
A smug face appeared on Moon's face as she ran towards Jen, who's head was currently steaming from embarrassment. She grabbed her shoulder and turned her towards her again.
"What?!" Jen exclaimed out of anger. But instead of seeing a worried face from Moon, instead she got an intense smug face, causing her to shed a tear.
"What's your problem?!" She began to punch Moon in the abdomen out of frustration.
"Oh, it's just funny~" Moon replied with a giggle.
------------------------------------------------------
Guild of the Red Fangs
"Hey!" An adventurer cried out to the receptionist. "You have any more of those specialized mana gems?!"
"I apologize sir, but we're currently out of stock for the moment," the woman replied. "You may come back tomorrow for it'll be refilled."
"Ah shucks," he exclaimed. "Well, I guess we have to wait."
"Hey, have you heard about the murders at Minson?" His adventurer friend asked. "Apparently the baron's mansion there got ransacked by a lone assassin, I think."
"Yeah, seems like they were caught off guard when it happened," he replied. "Fortunately, the owner wasn't there when it happened."
"Here, look at this," the adventurer pulled out a bounty poster with a picture of a female beastkin fox's sketch face, with the words, [WANTED, DEAD OR ALIVE]
[BOUNTY: 100 Gold]
"Holy," the man remarked at the amount. "That's a lot of money."
"I guess this girl's pretty dangerous," the other man exclaimed.
"How dangerous though?" He questioned. "Seems a bit overkill to put a bounty so high on her head."
"You haven't read the description yet," the man reminded him.
[Target is from the beastkin race, fox category. Under 5 feet of height, White skin, long yellow-orange hair, orange tail with a white end, physique of a teenager, last seen wearing ragged clothing similar to those worn by slaves and is extremely dangerous. Exceptionally skilled in combat, gone toe-to-toe with an A+ ranked mercenary. If seen, immediately alert the authorities to your area and do not make any attempts of subjugating the target yourself.]
"She's pretty strong eh?" The man remarked. "Fought an [A] ranked person and escaped."
"Yeah, don't mess with her," the other said. "We probably don't stand a chance in a fight, unless if we got lucky."
"Luck?" The man exclaimed. "Pfft, that's not gonna help us."
"We're [C] ranked," he reminded him. "We literally look like pests against [A] ranked people."
"Yeah," the other sighed. "Best to dream only than to fight."
"Hey, you got any more of those drinks?" He asked him.
"Sorry, I drank it all before we got here--"
A sudden scream from a man echoed throughout the guild from upstairs in one of the office rooms of the building.
"What was that?!" One adventurer exclaimed.
The two adventurers rushed upstairs and into the front door of the office room. They tried to open the door, but it was locked from the inside. They kicked down the door, and entered the room.
What they saw was a bloodied up room. Guts and flesh were scattered all across the floor as a beastkin was currently standing in the middle of the room next to the front desk where the officer of the guild was supposed to be. His sword layed on the ground, covered in blood.
The two men stood there in shock as they took in their surroundings. They were suddenly brought back to their senses as the female beastkin spoke to them.
"Life, is quite fragile," she said. "I've realized this since he revealed me the truth."
"You guys should leave," she said to the two adventurers. "You mustn't face the consequences."
The other man held the handle of his sword, ready to strike at this mysterious individual. When he thought that the moment was perfect, he pulled out his sword and threw the blade at her neck.
The girl looked at his eyes, revealing to him her face. Which sent a dangerous feeling down his spine. The girl was the one who appeared in the poster. A female beastkin fox.
The man knew that there was no turning back now, and he braced himself for what was to come. In an instant, the girl's arms transformed into blades and parried the attack of the man using the right one.
"I told you-" the girl paused for a second. "-to leave."
The man was pierced in the stomach by the girl using her left arm blade.
"GAH--" the man puked out blood afterwards.
"You should've left," the girl exclaimed as she pulled the blade out of his chest and kicked him down onto the bloodstained wooden plank floor.
"GERALD!" His friend rushed over to him to help.
"May you take this as a lesson," the girl said before walking away and jumping out of the previously shattered window.
The room fell silent, apart from the gurgles of pain from Adventurer Gerald.
"GET ME A HEALER, QUICK!" His friend cried out to the ground floor.
"Hold on Gerald," he exclaimed to him. "You'll be fine, stay strong!"
Gerald's consciousness slowly fades away...