"Money may not buy permanent happiness, but it does buy freedom." -Haruko Smith

I opened the door to Shizuka’s room, it was dark, so I didn’t even know if she was there or not, and the light switch was all the way at the back of her room. I walked towards the light switch and turned it on. Shizuka was on her bed sleeping on her side. I walked up to her and lightly shook her.

“Shizuka? Your mom is calling us down to eat.” But she didn’t seem to wake up. I sat on the bed and removed her hair from her face. Her whole face was red, I laid my hand on her forehead to see if she had a fever, and she was burning; I also noticed she was breathing heavily.

“Oh crap, she is burning alive.” I checked through her drawers to check for a thermometer, but I instead found her diary. I was conflicted if to read it or not, but I decided to respect her privacy and ignore it. I kept looking until I found it. I went to her bathroom and got a towel, I wetted the towel in tepid water so I could lay it on her head.

“Shizuka.” I tried waking her up again. She slowly opened her eyes and groaned.

“My head… it hurts so much.”

“Hey, it will all be fine, I got you.”

“Rukito?... Leave me alone… What happened to Kasai?” I sighed.

“Shizuka this is not a good time for this.” I took the thermometer from the counter and gave it to her. “Put this on for a minute.”

“Huh?...” I brushed her hair away from her forehead and laid the wet towel on her.

“Just put it on please.”

“…Ok.” Living with her for a whole year, I’ve never seen her sick, so this is really worrying me. I took some medicine for headaches and gave them to her with water.

“Here, this should calm your fever down a bit.”

“… Thank you.” I smiled and said,

“Don’t mention it. This is the least I could do for the help you have always given me.” When I came from the orphanage I was but a child without manners; she is the one that has educated me informalities and manners.

“Why are you here?” She whispered.

“I was going to call you down for dinner, but you don’t seem to hold up too well.” She softly pushed me away while saying,

“Oh, then go eat. I’ll be fine.” I wasn’t going to leave her alone when she was in terrible shape.

“I’m afraid I can’t leave you alone, but I’ll bring some food for you ok?”

“W-what? No… just-”

“Shh, it’s fine.” I walked downstairs and noticed that Kasai and the parents were waiting for us at the table.

“What happened?” I heard Kasai asking in my head.

“Shizuka has a horrible fever. I came here so I could take some food for her.”

“Oh, I’ll go see her soon.”

“Uhm… mom?”

“Yes, sweetie.”

“Shizuka is sick, she has a pretty bad fever.”

“Oh my, since when?”

“Not too long ago, I was just wondering if you have anything easy for her to eat.”

“Luckily I made soup for tonight, so you can bring her some.”

“Oh, that’s perfect!” I walked back upstairs and put the soup on the counter so I could check her temperature.

“Alright let’s check your temperature.” I took the thermometer, and it marked, 104°F (40°C). This is a very high fever temperature.

“So? How is it?” Ok maybe not worrying her is the best option here.

“It’s not that bad.”

“Good.” I felt sorry for lying, but I didn’t want her to worry.

“I brought you some soup.”

“Thank you.” I helped her sit up and gave her the plate.

“I feel so light-headed…” I saw her starting to shiver a lot.

“Hey, want me to give you the food?”

“W-What? I’m not a baby.” She whispered.

“Ah, ok. Never mind-”

“I didn’t say no!” We decided that she could eat by herself until she could and then I would give her the rest of the soup. Afterward, Kasai walked to check on her.

“What do you want?” Asked Shizuka.

“She just came here to check on you Shizu.”

“I don’t want to see her…”

“Shizuka, just-”

“I should probably leave then.” Said Kasai as she was walking away.

“No Kasai, it’s fine, you-” She closed the door. I facepalmed and sighed.

“Ouch!” Shizuka started groaning while holding her head.

“Are you ok?” I rushed towards her.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine don’t worry-” she started groaning again.

“Just go to sleep, you will feel better tomorrow.”

“Ok…” I started walking away from her, but she held my shirt. “Rukito…”

“What is it? You’re still hungry?”

“No, it’s not that. I was just going to ask you something.”

“Ok… go on.”

“C-…. Can you sleep with me?”

“Shizuka! You were bashing me just the other day because Kasai was sleeping with me.”

“That’s exactly why I’m asking… it’s only fair if you also sleep with me for a night right?” Damn… she got me there. I started thinking about it because it might actually also help her feel better since she won’t be cold and shivery anymore. “Please… just this once, I beg of you.” She continued whispering. I sighed, hoping that Kasai wouldn’t get mad or jealous of this. She is a pretty smart and understanding girl so she probably would.

“Don’t worry I understand.” I heard in my head.

“Wait really?”

“Yeah, she deserves it.”

“Ok… just don’t feel bad ok?”

“Heh, I’ll try.”

“Thank you.”

“Yup.”

“Alright Shizuka, just this once though ok?” She smiled and said,

“Yes, thank you so much Rukito.” I laid down beside her under the covers. I was a bit nervous because I never really slept with her, but knowing her, I know that she won’t try anything bold like Kasai. “Do you mind if we…. If we…”

“You want to cuddle?”

“N-No! I just…”

“Alright, but I’m only doing this because you’re sick ok?”

“Ok.” We got even closer, I decided to spoon her. It may have been a bit too far, but I’m lucky to have such an understanding girlfriend. But then, I heard in my head.

“You better not be taking advantages. Go a bit further than that, and I’ll cut it off.”

“C-Cut what off?”

“You don’t want to know.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Then, Shizuka’s heart started racing like crazy, I could feel it from behind her shoulder.

“Sorry maybe it’s better if I don’t-” She grabbed my arm and pulled me back in.

“N-No, it’s fine. J-J-Just stay like that.”

“If you say so.” I was nervous, but I wasn’t feeling the same rush of adrenaline that I did with Kasai.

“Good night Rukito.”

“Good night.” After that, we had a pretty peaceful sleep… well, not counting the dead arm I woke up with.

Next day, I was hoping that Shizuka was not sick anymore so we could start our journey once in for all. I also had a… bizarre dream about a hooded person wearing a purple coat stomping on me; people say that dreams mean something, but I had no idea what this one meant. I woke up calmed and relaxed, besides the fact that my arm was numb since it must have been squashed by Shizuka all night. Talking about Shizuka… I looked to my left to see her facing me while still sleeping. She looked cute while sleeping and all, but it was ruined by my thoughts of Kasai doing horrible things to me if I took advantage of this situation. Although I was surprised because she is usually the person to wake up before anyone in the house, then again I can see that she was really sick, but her face wasn’t red anymore, I guess cuddles are the best medicine.

I got up slowly to make sure not to wake her up, but my arm was still under her, so I either stayed there for a bit more or I somehow make some crazy ninja moves to not alert her. I felt like I was playing a game of Iron Gear Solid all over again. The sweet smell of a girl’s room… living and hanging out with only guys almost all my life made me unaware of things like this. But I do prefer the bro friendship more since… all this drama wouldn’t happen.

As you can see waking up is the moment of my day I’m more thoughtful than ever, so I like to relax and think about what I’m going to do throughout the day. I’d like to relax with blood flowing to my right arm though. As I was saying that, Shizuka proceeded to hug my arm and squeeze it hard, thankfully I couldn’t feel a thing. Even though she is this high and mighty girl she likes sleeping with her cat stuffed animal, so I’m guessing that she somehow mistook my arm for it.

I decided that I wasn’t going to go through this numbness anymore, so I brushed her hair from her forehead to feel if she was still sick, but everything was okay. She slowly opened her eyes.

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” I said softly. It took her about 10 seconds to realize what was going on, but then it seemed as if all the memories from yesterday crashed into her brain. This scene reminded me of the movie cliché of a person getting drunk in a party and the next day waking up next to a guy that they eyed across the room. She started to blush redder and redder by the second, she opened her eyes wide while realizing she was holding my arm.

“R-R-Rukito?!”

“S-S-Shizuka?!” I said back with a jokingly tone.

“Shut up!” She let go of my arm, then she held her face while blushing intensely.

“You wanted me to sleep with you, don’t act like you didn’t.”

“I know!... I just didn’t think about it twice!” I got up and looked out the window while stretching.

“Shizuka I want you to know something.”

“H-huh?” I sighed and said,

“If by any chance, one day I decide I want to spend time with somebody, or even if I decide to be with another girl for a while, I want you to know something.”

“What is it?...”

“No matter what girl I’m with, no matter how bad things might be between you and me, I just want you to know that I am forever grateful for what you’ve done for me. I want you to know that no matter who comes up in my life out of nowhere, you will always be there as the person I owe to the most, and as the person, I most enjoy talking with when I don’t feel alright.” I really had to take that off my chest because I feel like that’s part of the reason why she gets really jealous even though she is not my girlfriend… and the fact that she likes me too of course, but I can’t do much about that particular detail.

I wasn’t looking at her, so I didn’t know her reaction to what I said, but I heard her slowly getting up and walk up behind.

“I hope you can understand…” I said. She lightly hugged me from the back while saying,

“Thanks… I feel a bit better hearing that but… I… want to be the one to marr-”

“S-Shizuka! You have no bra on, please!” I was blushing like crazy, but I interrupted her because I knew what she was going to say. I don’t want to break her heart… at least not now, I want her to accept Kasai and recognize that she is not as bad as she thinks, so then she would be more understanding of our relationship.

“W-What?! You perv!” She jumped back into the bed. I turned back and said,

“Hey, it’s not my fault, you wanted to sleep with me.”

“I get it! But don’t act like you couldn’t say no!” I looked at her in her eyes and said,

“How can you say no to those pleasing, beautiful emerald eyes?”

“W-Wha…” She stood silently while blushing even more. Oh crap! I have a girlfriend now! I need to break the habit of flirting with other girls!

“Anyways, I have to go and get ready for the travel, if you want to come you should also start getting ready… I’m also going to try and talk to our parents and see if they can let us, and maybe also give us some money for it.”

“O-Ok!” I walked out, and as soon as I closed the door, Kasai was next to the door resting on the wall waiting for me to get out.

“Uhm… so, were you here all night?” She looked at me with a concerned look.

“No, I just want to ask you… you didn’t happen to take advantage of her while she was sleeping right?”

“Hahahaha, why would I ever do something like that?” She got very close to me, she looked like a tiger about to jump on her pray while slowly approaching it.

“If you do anything to her you won’t like the outcome. I also care about her, and I understand her point of view, that’s why I’m letting you be close with her for the time being, but you have to know your boundaries.” I exactly knew what Kasai was meaning, and I couldn’t agree more.

“Don’t worry.” I tilted my head forward, to make it seem like I was going to kiss her and tease her a bit. “I know what I’m doing little girl.”

“L-Little girl?!” I flicked her nose and back off. “H-hey! No good morning kiss?” She lightly blushed.

“I don’t want you to get addicted to it.”

“But-!”

“My birthday is next week by the way; I’ll be 18.”

“Ah, but when is it exactly?”

“January 17th.”

“Oh really? Mine is July 17th.”

“Oh wow, exactly 6 months apart. See! I’m half a year older.”

“Hmph, Whatever. I guess you will have to take good care of me huh?”

“I know that already.” Shizuka came out of her room while pocking her head out the door.

“R-Rukito?...”

“Hm?”

“Are you going crazy? I hear you talking to yourself out here, and It’s worrying me quite a bit.”

“Oh! Ahaha, don’t worry about it, I was just uh… talking to Kasai!” I pointed behind her, but when she turned back, Kasai was gone.

“Huh… Kasai you say.”

“I swear! I…” That girl… she is trying to make me look crazy now.

“Are you sure you slept well? Did I bother you or something?”

“No no no! It’s not that, I just….” Damn, this is my only choice. “I was really nervous since it was my first time sleeping with you so I could barely sleep. But I did manage to catch some Zs later on.”

“O-oh… ok.” I went down to eat breakfast, Kasai was already there eating while looking at me with a grin.

“Ahahaha, good morning crazy man.”

“Shut up…” I started eating breakfast with her, and not too long after Shizuka walked in, giving an evil eye to Kasai.

“Shizukaaa…” I said with a rising tone. She sighed and said,

“Good morning Kasai.” I smiled.

“I wish I could say good morning back.” I heard her in my head.

“Don’t worry, you will soon.” We were all eating breakfast together, for the first time Shizuka hasn’t make a scene about Kasai. I finished first, so I decided to get up and talk to our parents. “Excuse me.” I headed towards them, they were in the living room watching tv.

“Uhm… mom.”

“Yes, sweetie?”

“Uh…” I had no idea how to say this. “Kasai, Shizuka and I are going to the cloud elf continent, I just came to ask to see if you can lend us some money.”

“What?!”

“Yeah, you see, we-” Haruko (the father) got up and said,

“Sure thing Rukito, how much do you want?”

“But honey!”

“Rukito can you give us a second?”

“Uuh… yes, of course.” I walked off from the living room. They stayed for a minute talking, but then Ayumi opened the door and said,

“Alright, we’ll let you go on your little trip.” It wasn’t a trip, but I couldn’t tell them the real motive or they would certainly not let us go.

“Really?!”

“How long are you going to stay?”

“Well… the travel to over there is already a week, 2 days on the carriage with a stop, and 7 days on the ship. We’re planning to be there at least for two weeks, we want to visit many things. So counting everything in then that should be a month.” I was expecting a ‘WHAT?!’ from Ayumi but… she actually accepted.

“Oh, ok.”

“Wait, really?” Now I was curious about what Haruko told her… with a house this big they shouldn’t have a problem with privacy anyways.

“Yes. I’ll give the school some money to forgive your absences.”

“What?! Thank you so much!” I rushed towards her and hugged her. This was probably the second time I ever hugged her. She smiled and said,

“No problem sweetie, how much do you need?” I really don’t like asking for money… so I just said something low like an idiot.

“Uhm… 100 Crystalis should be fine.” Since coins and paper bills were using too much of earth’s resources, both our king and the cloud elf king decided to stop producing them and only have currency on unique rings, so everything nowadays is paid with ‘Crystalis’ which is the new name for our currency. They decided to store it on rings because it’s the safest place to not get robbed, plus it’s easy to just put the ring in front of the scanner and pay that way.

“Ahahaha, come on sweetie don’t be shy.”

“Well…”

“Here, I’ll give you one of the best rings we have?”

“N-No, you don’t have to, mother.”

“Aww, now you make me want to give it to you even more.” She walked away to take a ring. Different crystals in the ring can hold up to a certain amount of money.

Every ring gemstones weight 2 carats. How much crystalis the gem can hold up to depends on how much the gemstone is worth. Since quartz is one of the most common minerals in the earth’s crust, the king used this specific gemstone to make the standard rings. Standard rings are the one mostly produced to give people in the low class; quartz rings can hold up as high as 10,000 Crystalis.

You would think that this specific currency system is terrible since it basically makes you a walking bank. But the rings have an eye scanner to confirm a purchase. So even if your ring were stolen, it wouldn’t be to any good for the people who steal it. And even if they wanted to just sell the gemstone they couldn’t, because every gemstone has the name of the owner engraved in them. And even if the thieves managed to get around that, the gemstones have trackers on them which is all monitored by the police.

Ayumi came back holding a ring.

“I’ve kept this for you for a while now you know.” I never like asking much money from them, so I have a quartz ring with 100 crystalis on it, that’s enough for what I need. She walked up to me and gave me a fantastic ring with an orange-ish kind of gemstone. I’ve never seen this before.

“W-What is this? It looks amazing!”

“That’s a painite, Rukito.”

“P-P-PAINITE?!” That’s the second rarest gemstone in the world.

“Yes, it can hold up to 100,000 Crystalis.”

“W-what…” I remained cold… “I’m sorry mom, I can’t handle that much money.”

“Aah, don’t worry about it!”

“How do you manage to get all of this money anyway?” She giggled and said,

“Because we are the scientists that made them the rings and licensed them. The King liked our product and replaced the old currency with our new modern rings.”

“Wh…What?”

“Yeah, we own Crystalis Terra Corporation.”

“H…huh?...” I remained shocked.

“I thought Shizuka has talked to you about it?”

“No… she hasn’t…”

“Oh… well, there’s only a handful of them in the whole world to take good care of it.” The sudden weight on my shoulder increased drastically.

“Y-Yes ma’am!” I took it and wore it. The second most expensive gemstone in the world on my finger… 100,000 crystalis on my finger. I don’t really enjoy having this much money out of nowhere… I rather build up my own things, plus, I find it more fun being low class… I got flashbacks of me being in the orphanage and playing with my friends with anything we could see, we were having a ton of fun even though we were poor... being rich… it’s almost underwhelming. You got everything, you can get everything… now what? What are you going to work hard for? What is going to be your goal? What are your dreams?

But I’m not going to say no to her, she has helped me a lot, she has helped Kasai even more… and that means the world to me already.

“Does Kasai have a ring?”

“Coincidentally I gave her one today morning, I was going to also give her a Painite ring, but she kept declining it, she just wanted to get the quartz one for some reason.”

“Oh… I probably know why.” Kasai could care less about money, she has been through it all, I’m sure she can find happiness without the need for money just like I can. “Well thank you so much!”

“Be safe on your trip please.”

“We sure will!” Haruko walked from behind her and held my shoulder while saying,

“You need to be the one to protect them Rukito, your spirit daisho is strong, I’m sure you can.”

“Yes, sir! Oh, and the group, black tombstone just attacked yesterday!”

“Yes, we saw the cameras.” Wait… did they see Kasai?

“W-What did you see?”

“Well, the cameras blurred out when the strange person was about to swing his dagger onto you, and then when it resumed the place was on fire, and the person was gone, we assumed you managed to defend them off.

“Oh, of course!” Thank god.

“We heightened the security levels so there is no way they can break in again.”

“Oh, ok.”

“Good luck Rukito.”

“Yes, thank you so much again!”

“No problem son.” I walked back to where Shizuka and Kasai were. Shizuka seemed pissed.

“Kasai, what happened?” I looked at Kasai, and she was calmly drinking her juice while Shizuka looked very pissed.

“Oh, she just started getting super envious again, this time she started saying on how cute and hot I am.”

“Really?”

“Well, she didn’t say like that but… yeah pretty close.”

“Oh, Rukito! I see mother gave you a ring.”

“Yeah.. when did you think you were going to tell me about this?”

“Wait you didn’t know?”

“…” Oh my god.

“Well, now you know.” Remember when I said that mine was the 2nd most rare gemstone in the world? Yeah well, that’s because Shizuka has the 1st.

With only one existing in the whole world, the ‘Pink Star Diamond’ a gemstone that only Shizuka has and it’s worth 83,000,000 Crystalis… talk about rich girls.

“So Ayumi said that we can go.”

“No way…” Said Shizuka while looking at me with a shocked face.

“Yeah, I didn’t believe it either, but yes, we can go.”

“That’s great! I already packed my things up, what about you?”

“Yeah, I’ll get right on it.” I walked upstairs to my bedroom, opened the door and noticed there was a traveling bag with everything I needed already in it. Kasai walked in behind me,

“I took care of that for you.”

“Oh, thank you very much!” I noticed that Kasai didn’t have a bag. “Where’s yours?”

“I don’t really have many things to bring with me, just a couple of pair of clothes to change to, and I could easily fit that in your bag.”

“Oh, alright.”

“Talking about clothes, let me change this dress into something more fitting. If for some reason we have to fight, this dress will not help.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” She opened my wardrobe and took her clothes out of it.

“Wait, since when you have your clothes in my wardrobe?”

“Oh… Uh…”

“Did you move into my room?...”

“Well I wanted to sleep here yesterday, the bed was so nice, and the pillow smelled like you.”

“Ah… well, you should have asked for my permission.”

“I don’t need your permission.” She said while giggling.

“Just because you’re my girlfriend now doesn’t allow you to reign over my things.”

“Does it not?” She looked at me with a grin.

“Well… I don’t mind, I’m just saying for future references.”

“Alright.” She started taking off her clothes to change right in front of me. I quickly started getting nervous since… this is my first time seeing a girl with only her underwear on.

“U-Uhm.” I couldn’t say anything since, in the end, she is now my girlfriend, so it doesn’t matter.

“Hm?” She looked back to see my face red. She grinned and walked closer to me. “Getting nervous huh?” I was not going to let this girl take over me. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath… all my training of self-control was of use for this one moment. I sat down Indian style and took another big breath and started mumbling,

“I will not let thirsty women get the better of me… I will not let thirsty women get the better of me… I will not let thirsty women get the better of me… I will not let thirsty women get the better of me…”

“Uhm… Rukito, what are you doing?” She thought with a concerned look. I instantly got up, my spirit daisho appeared, and I unsheathed my wakizashi.

“Step back you succubus!”

“Alright, alright, calm down.” She said while giggling. “I’ll finish getting dressed.” She walked back and started putting on her clothes.

“Master…” I thought to my master Hachimura. “I did it… I resisted the temptations…”

“T-This leggings are too tight!”

“Huh?” I looked back and saw her struggling to put the leggings on since her butt and hips were quite a bit bigger than the size of the leggings. I think I almost fainted from the appealing scene, but I expected this.

“Rukito did you not get the size I told you to get?”

“Ahahaha… I uh… just might have done it on purpose.”

“Y-You pervert!”

“Not my fault you like to show off.”

“Aha! There!” She somehow managed to put them on.

After Kasai got dressed and I double checked my bag to make sure everything was there we decided to walk out of the room. Kasai was wearing black leggings, brown knee-high boots, with a medium long robe with many pouches on it that I bought for her for a moment like this. She also had some cool finger loop gloves.

“See? I told you it was going to look good on you.”

“You just wanted to see me putting on those tight leggings!”

“Naaah… well, maybe.” At that moment I thought of my master telling me, ‘Good Job’ with a thumbs up. We walked to see Shizuka, and she also changed clothes, she was wearing a robe too, but hers was light-blue and longer with a skirt, kind of like a wizard. She was also wearing boots.

“Wow, both you girls dressed like adventurers and then there’s me with a normal shirt and pants.”

“Why didn’t you buy something for yourself?” Asked me Shizuka.

“I was so busy and picky on what to buy for Kasai that I forgot about me.”

“Ah… of course you would. Why didn’t you get me something too anyway?”

“Huh? Well, I thought that you already had everything you need.”

“Tsk, whatever.”

“Shizukaaa,” I said with a rising tone. “I spent more than enough time with you yesterday, and we also cuddled so please be a nice girl now.”

“W-What?! Don’t talk to me like I’m a little girl!” She said while blushing.

“Then just be nice!”

“Ok, ok.” We all said our goodbyes to Ayumi and Haruko, then we walked away. The road ahead was going to be rough, little did we know we were going to encounter many spectacular and terrifying things out there in the wilderness.