Mamoritai 4 - A Llorumi story

10. Shifty's store

Words: 1589

"You told me the truth. This world, my world is a glitch." He said, sadly. Oh boy. We're in for an identity crisis... "A game, yes." Lloyd corrected him gently. "And I am a part of it. A pawn." He said. "No. If you were just a pawn you wouldn't have helped us. You decided to save our lives. You made that decision. Not Unagami. Okino, we wouldn't have made it without you." Lloyd tried to cheer him up. "If I cannot trust what I see, in what I believe? What should I trust?" Okino questioned. "You're a good person, Okino. How about trusting yourself? And your friends?" Lloyd answered. "My friends?" Okino repeated, questioning. "Yeah, us." I said, as Okino turned around to look at us. I offered him my hand to get up from the ground. "Cause we're going to need all the help we can get." I said as I lifted Okino off the ground. We all touched our shoulders to reveal our health, it was not great... Me, Lloyd, Nya and Jay have two lives left. Cole had joined Kai, having only one life left. "We have to continue onwards." Nya said. "You're right." Jay said. "Let's keep moving guys." Lloyd said.

We started to walk along the path. Me and Lloyd were last, except Okino was walking behind us. I'm still annoyed that I only have two lives left... "I'm worried about Okino." Lloyd said, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Huh?" I said. "He took the news pretty hard..." Lloyd said. "Yeah, he just realized his whole life is a lie. I kind of understand him. I mean I'm still processing the fact that my dad is dead because of my mother. It takes a while to heal from something that is so world crumbling." I answered. "We gotta find a way to cheer him up." Nya suddenly said, joining our conversation. "Okay, nobody says anything about Unagami. Or Prime Empire. Or the keytana..." Lloyd said. Avoidant problem solving, not Lloyd-like at all. I wonder if he's okay? "Then what do we talk about?" Kai asked. "Anything, just keep it cheerful!" Lloyd said, smiling uncomfortably. Then Okino walked past us. He was dragging his katana on the ground, keeping his head hanging low. "Uh, so, um, Okino. What do you do around here for fun anyway?" Cole asked, companied with an awkward chuckle. Okino answered something, but he said it so quietly that I couldn't even hear it. "Hey, how about that sky? Look at these clouds!" Kai said. "The clouds..." Okino said as he lifted his head. "Lies!" He yelled. "Say, Okino. How do you get a Ninja to cross the road? Just say 'Ninja-go!'" Jay joked. "Get it?" He asked. He answered something again.

"This is ridiculous. Why can't we just let the poor guy process this!" I said to Lloyd. "Holy shit!" He said as his face dropped."What is i-" I was going to ask, until I turned my head. There was at least a two kilometer high mountain in front of us. "Tell me those aren't the 'Cliffs of Hysteria'..." Kai said. "That's not a cliff. That looks like a wall that never ends!" Cole said. He was right. It went straight up and seemed like we couldn't go around it. "Definitely not double-jumping up that thing." Nya said. "Yeah, Okino. I'm not sure I can climb that. And if I can't do it these guys don't even stand a chance!" Jay said. "Ouch." Kai said. "Truth hurts, doesn't it?" Cole added, smiling. "We don't even have rope!" Lloyd said. "You can buy some from Shifty." Okino said, gloomily. "From who?" Lloyd asked. Okino pointed to our left. I turned my gaze and suddenly video game music started playing. There was a store right there, here, in the middle of nowhere. There was a brown haired man with a mustache, who waved at us. "Greetings, travelers! Welcome to Shifty's table! Step right up and take a look! This here is the finest merchandise in all of Terra Karana!" He said VERY cheerfully. Wow, maybe this guy should cheer Okino up. "This is real leather armor here, and those arrows are genuine poison-tipped, and-" He said, showing us his collection. "Hello?!" Nya interrupted his speech. "Oh! Who might you be?!" He said, quickly getting closer to Nya, taking her hand into his. Um, ew. This guy seems, shifty... I chuckled a little at my own joke. Lloyd turned his head to look at me. I shook my head, to signal him it was nothing. "Uh, I'm Nya?" Nya said, questioning. "Nya! Oh! Sounds like an exotic flower! How may I help you Flower-Nya?" Shifty asked. "Just Nya is fine..." Nya said, glaring at the guy. "Actually! We were looking for a grappling hook and rope." Jay interrupted. "A-ha! Climbing the cliffs, eh? Well, 'tis a good thing you came to Shifty. I've got the best rope in town. Let's step over to the rope department!" He said and jumped back into his store.

"How much is that grappling hook?" Cole asked. "Twenty credits, each! Normally. But for a friend of Flower-Nya's... 15!" He answered. "We'll take seven." Lloyd said. I tapped my shoulder and opened my money. I had 200 credits. I tapped and 15 credits left my account. Then, a grappling hook appeared in front of me. I took it and placed it in my inventory. "A wise choice! Now for the rope. We have two kinds. Rope of Supreme Durability! And Rope of Questionable Integrity." He said. Well this is a tough choice... "That's what you call a 'no-brainer'. We'll take the Rope of Supreme Durability." Kai answered. "Another wise choice! Now, that'll be 600 credits, please." Shifty said. I choked on my own spit and started coughing. "WHAT!" Kai yelled out. "600 credits!" Cole joined Kai's yelling. "That's way more than the grappling hook!" Nya argued. "Quality rope isn't cheap, my amigos!" Shifty answered. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. What about the friend-of-Flower-Nya-discount!" Jay argued. "I'll throw in a free arrow." Shifty shrugged. "We don't have that much!" Kai said. "What do we do?" Cole asked. We all turned around to look at the shitty rope. "No, I refuse! I am not buying that scammy rope from a guy named Shifty! Is no one else seeing the bright red flags! Are you colorblind!" Jay said. "What other choice do we have?" Nya asked. "Well, uh, lots of choices! Um... We, we can turn around and go back, uh, do some grinding, earn more credits or we can all tackle him at once and then-" Jay started spiraling. "We can't do that! And we don't have time to go back. We'll take the Rope of Questionable Integrity." Lloyd said to Shifty. "Welp, I'm not hosting you a funeral once you die!" Jay said.

"Huh, that's strange?" Shifty suddenly said. "Those don't usually turn up unless there's energy cubes to collect?" Shifty continued. What is he talking about? "Energy cubes?" Nya said, as we all turned around. There was a flying droid-bot-thingy in the sky. "When someone gets cubed. The drone takes them away." Shifty answered. "Where?" Jay asked. "To Unagami." Shifty replied once again. "What for?" Lloyd wondered. "Yeah I was curious about that meself. As luck would have it, I have friends in high-places. I sold the Mad Sushi-Chef his knives." He whispered. "Um, who?" I asked. "He sounds delightful." Kai commented. "Oh, you haven't met him yet? Oh, he's great bloke. Anyway, he told me, Unagami's building something. Something big. A machine." Shifty whispered. This guy finally got interesting! "What kind of machine?" Lloyd queried. "Yeah, he didn't tell me that part." Shifty answered. Aaand there it goes. Lloyd turned around to look at the droid; I did the same. It was like, it was staring at us. "Huh. I've never seen one do that before." Shifty replied. "Maaybe we should get going now!" Jay said. "Yeah, good idea!" Lloyd said as he tapped his shoulder and paid for the rope. I did the same. I tapped my 185 credits and 100 of them disappeared. Uh, that kind of hurts. "Lloyd!" Nya suddenly yelled. I glanced behind my back and saw at least 5 Red Visors. Again!? "Run! Grab the rope!" Lloyd yelled. I quickly snatched the spawned rope in front of me. After that, I ran. I could hear Shifty screaming something. I ran right behind Lloyd and pulled my hood on. I inserted the newly bought rope into the grappling hook. I swiftly shot the grappling hook up the cliff and quickly started climbing.

I quickly crawled up the cliff, out of their reach. "See ya, suckers!" I heard Kai yell at some point. I stopped to look down. Okay, this isn't so bad yet. Suddenly, the Red Visors started to fly with some jetpack legs! "I didn't know they could do that!" Cole yelled. "Faster!" Lloyd yelled and I continued climbing. Then the Visors started shooting lasers at us! I tried to dodge them the best I could. C'mon Rumi, don't give up now. It felt like the cliff went on forever. Why does it have to be heights! "We can't outrun them! We have to fight!" Lloyd yelled. For fucks sake! I have to fight them, from up here!? I took out my knife, and then I did the thing everyone always tells you not to do. I looked down. We must've been at least 800 meters above the ground. Fuck, fuck, fuck!