Sandcastles in Paradise
It was another sunny and scorchingly hot day in Paradise, Desert Beach. Yikmo, Draylor, Mires, Randas and Chora were standing in front of a sandcastle...
"Say, did you ever notice how the sandcastles here always look the same, day after day? They never change. Not so much as a single grain of sand ever shifts," Draylor asked out of the blue.
"Why should they?" Yikmo asked in return.
"For example because of rain or wind. Both could carry away sand."
"You can't tell me you've ever seen rain in this city," Chora commented dryly.
"There's no wind here either," stated Mires, who took out a pinwheel from his backpack. "Not even when I'm running around it." And indeed the pinwheel didn't move one bit as he was doing exactly that.
"And what about people messing with them?"
"Well, you got a point there..." admitted Chora. "I can't see how that would leave them unaffected."
"Heh, only one way to find out!"
As they watched Yikmo charge towards the sandcastle, Draylor warned him: "I think you really..."
BANG!
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Yikmo immediately fainted from the damage.
"...shouldn't do that."
"Whoa!"
Startled by the gunshot, Mires ducked for cover behind Chora, who pushed him aside angrily.
"Hey! Just because I'm a Charm, doesn't mean you can use me as a shield! I'd just dodge anyway."
The following attempt to hide behind Randas was foiled by his pointer, with which he kept Mires at a distance.
"Sorry, I didn't put my points into DP either."
Just then a Racoon in an elegant suit spotted the unconscious Yikmo and quickly deducted:
"He tried to touch the sandcastle, didn't he?"
Mires nodded quietly.
"What a high level..."
"And did you see his HV stat?"
Randas and Draylor, who had stuck their heads together, were interrupted by a visibly disgruntled Chora.
"Shouldn't someone of your level be hanging out in Megalopolis?"
"Nope."
The slightly arrogant smile the Racoon put on had Chora turn around and grumble something about him being a show-off.
"Now, let me show you how to do this."
The Racoon started inching slowly towards the sandcastle. Just when he was about to reach it...
BANG!
He managed to move his body just in time, so that the bullet merely grazed the right ear of his costume.
MISS
With a triumphant laugh he began pulling faces and throwing insulting gestures in the direction the shot came from, singing: "You didn't hit me, you didn't hit me..."
"Teachers around here sure are irresponsible," Chora commented, watching the Racoon taunt an invisible gunman.
"Actually, he's not a teacher anymore. He's already advanced to the Gambler class," Draylor corrected her.
Before Chora could return a witty response, another Racoon caught their attention. Namely Randas, staring at the bullet-dodger with beaming eyes.
"When I level up, I wanna be just like him!"
Chora shot Draylor a meaningful glance and repeated more loudly: "Teachers around here sure are irresponsible."
In front of the sandcastle, the Racoon was still ridiculing someone they couldn't see.
"You didn't hit me, you didn't hit..."
BANG!
Critical!
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The sudden shot made everyone jump.
This time Mires, instead of trying to hide, moved closer to examine the passed-out Racoon.
"Wow! Right between the eyes!"
The bullet that shattered both the Racoon's consciousness and Randas' dream, seemed to inflame Mires' spirit. He jumped up and ran off, shouting: "I'll find them and make them teach me marksmanship!"
Meanwhile Saraci, Yoshiya, Sannina and Laye were in Paradise Shop to do some... well, shopping (or in Yoshiya's case, to carry the bought stuff).
Since the latter two were already done, they decided to step outside for a bit. Just as the doors closed behind them, they heard a shot.
"Isn't fighting forbidden in town?" wondered Laye.
"I guess so..."
Laye saw a lightbulb appear above Sannina's head.
"I've got it! The other day Mires modified my bunny ears so I can eavesdrop on others. Let's see if we can hear something."
She aimed her ears in the direction the shot came from and Laye leaned closer. They heard two voices talking.
"Another nice shot Haos. But don't you think we should just go out there and tell them they're not supposed to touch the sandcastles?"
"Nah, pwning those noobs is way more fun."
Their concentration was briefly interrupted by an excited Mires zooming past them, stopping and turning around to ask them if they had seen a gunman. Sannina pointed at her ears and he understood immediately.
"Well, technically that last one wasn't even a 'noob'..."
"Feh, nonsense, Oebius. Anyone who dares challenge me, the great GM Haos, is a noob!"
"Anyway, looks like the little show you put on attracted quite a number of Cats and Racoons. You won't be able to handle that huge a crowd with that gun of yours."
As soon as Mires heard the word "gun", he darted off, leaving behind a cloud of dust.
"Yeah, time to get out the heavy weaponry!"
"The what?! Umm, that's not exactly what I wa..."
The rest of their conversation was drowned out by a painfully bunny-ear-amplified explosion that left Sannina and Laye dodging unconcious, high-level, Pure HV Charms flying towards them...
