Chapter 4: The Girl

Chapter 4:
The Girl

 

“REMEMBER, you only got off so easy because you had me to guide you.” The poor little space elf smirked as she jabbed a straw into a bottle made of some mystery material I’d never seen before.

“For sure,” I replied dismissively.

The second we left the grocery store, a scream pierced the air. I followed the sound in horror.

“Ah! N-Nooo!”

“Stay still, dammit.”

“Heh heh, finally got you.”

“She’s a little dirty, but hey, I don’t mind.”

“Let’s get to it already! I can’t wait any longer.”

A group of thugs dragged a girl toward a back alley as she kicked and thrashed. It was all too easy to picture what they planned to do to her. My hand went right for my laser gun, but Elma tugged on my belt to stop me before I could reach it.

“Stay out of it,” she warned.

“Are you telling me to just ignore that?”

“Do you know her?”

“Well, no, but…”

While Elma and I were debating, the thugs yanked the girl closer to the alley. She looked right at me, her wide eyes pleading for help.

“Then it’s not your problem. Stay out of it,” Elma repeated.

“But…” I hesitated.

“Listen, buddy. This stuff happens every day all over the galaxy. Are you gonna stick your neck out every single time? You’ve only got one life, my man. People who can’t take care of themselves get taken advantage of. You can save her now, sure, but she won’t last long anyway.”

Ouch. That was one heck of a cruel viewpoint. What hurt even more was that I couldn’t quite refute it. I was no god or superhero. I was just some crappy mercenary struggling to keep himself alive in this universe. What could I do for someone else?

“You’re not some big, awesome hero,” Elma said. “You’re just a normal guy with a ship.” Elma kept pressing, even as the thugs hoisted the girl up and carried her off into the alley. The girl held my gaze, still begging. She even reached out for me as though scrabbling for a lifeline.

“Guess so…” I said. Elma was probably right. Maybe not getting involved was common sense in this universe. But I just couldn’t live with it. “As if! Did you think I’d give up that easily, you heartless, cold-blooded elf?!” I couldn’t leave the girl to her fate. How would I live with myself? How would I sleep at night knowing I’d abandoned her like this? I’d toss and turn imagining all the ways I could have—should have—intervened. I didn’t plan to spend my whole life wracked with guilt.

“Wha?!” Elma gasped as I shook off her hold on my belt. I dropped my things and charged toward the alley. Grabbing my laser gun, I reduced the output to minimum and adjusted my grip.

“Give it up, girl!” one of the thugs demanded.

“Quit struggling! Do I gotta hurt you to make you understand?”

“N-no, please…” the girl begged.

“I oughta clock you a good one.” Another thug raised his fist above the cowering girl. Time slowed. I raised my gun in a fluid motion, aiming at his arm. The world held its breath as I steadied my sights and squeezed the trigger.

Pshew! Red flashed bright in the dim alley.

“Graaaah?!” The thug cried out in pain.

My shot blasted the thug’s raised fist, exactly as I intended. I’d never fired a real gun in my life, yet the motion felt so natural, so easy. Maybe my in-game skills transferred to this, too. Was that even possible? Not that I was complaining. Whatever just happened, it was another weird thing I had to accept about this world.

“Wha?!” I fired at the rest of the stunned, gaping thugs. My shots weren’t killing them, thanks to my lowering the output, but every one hit home. With each burst of red light, a thug screamed in pain.

“Owwww!”

“Ah! Ah?! Aaaaaah?!”

“Eeeeek?!”

Okay, maybe they screamed in a lot of pain. I didn’t want to kill them, though, so I gave them one last warning. “Get the hell away! The next one will do more than just burn!”

They needed no further motivation. The thugs scrambled away down the alley, leaving just me, my laser, and the girl, who leaned against a wall with her clothes disheveled. Shock left her face pale and eyes wide as she stared at me.

I passed her and pointed my laser gun at the thugs’ retreating backs as I said, “Fix your clothes while I keep guard. We’re leaving.”

“O-okay!” Her voice trembled on the brink of tears. Clothing rustled behind me. I glanced over my shoulder, just to be safe. If she was somehow in cahoots with the thugs, I could end up with a knife to the back for my good deed. Thankfully, she didn’t do anything suspicious. The girl straightened out her clothes and then stood there waiting, watching me like I might have some answer for her. I didn’t know what to do other than gesture back to the entrance of the alley. She nodded, red eyes wet with tears, and ran back to the main road with me following behind.

“Welcome back,” Elma said.

Elma approached with my discarded items in her arms and a look of pure exasperation on her face.

“So,” she said, “what are you gonna do about her?”

“Well, I mean…” I glanced at the girl, who was still staring at me. Our eyes met for a moment.

Despite the dirt smudged on her from her ordeal, she was pretty adorable. She stood about a head and a half shorter than me, but her chest was enormous, relatively speaking. She definitely put Elma to shame in that regard. She was like a girl out of an anime, a perfect little shorty I never dreamed I’d meet in real life. Her eyes and hair matched—both light brown. I’d have to call her “cute” more than “pretty” with her youthful features and soft face. The thugs’ rough treatment left her already dingy clothing in a pretty sorry state.

“Don’t just stare,” Elma interrupted. “Answer me.”

“I don’t know what to do with her,” I said. “O great senior, what do you deem best?”

“God, why did I even bother asking? Of course there’s nothing in that empty head of yours. Whatever, bye.” Elma huffed, shoved my stuff into my arms, and spun on her heel.

So that’s how you wanna play this, huh?

“I should’ve known,” I said. “You’re the type to use your junior and then toss him away, huh?” Elma stopped dead in her tracks. Her long ears twitched.

“Darn shame,” I said. “I should’ve known those were your true colors, but you had me fooled. I really thought you were my great and all-powerful senior.”

Her ears went on twitching as I continued. Just one more little push…

“I overestimated you, but it seems you’d abandon your junior without a thought. Might as well just go to that guy from the merc guild for everything I need to know, instead of this poor, little, rude, cold-blooded, small-chested elf.”

“I’ll kill you,” Elma growled. She charged back at me and seized me by the collar. My groceries fell to the ground in the process.

Ooh, scary.

“That’s my Elma!” I rejoiced. “I knew my senior wasn’t the kind of woman to abandon a poor, helpless little girl! Wow, go you! What a shining example you are.”

“You can cut out the forced compliments,” she said. “Ugh, how’d I get stuck fixing this?”

“It’s a nice waste of time, right? I believe in you, senior.”

“Close that mouth of yours or I’ll cut out your damn tongue.”

“Sorry, sorry,” I said.

Elma just sighed and looked away.

Ha! That’s what you get for trying to use me for your entertainment. Just give it up, elf.

“The best idea would’ve been to ignore her like I told you to,” Elma said. “Maybe you’d like to heed my advice next time?”

“Depends on the advice. Try making it more fun in the future,” I taunted.

Elma fumed, face twisting up in fury. What a waste of her beauty.

“Just what kind of future are you imagining here?”

“I was thinking of letting this girl onto my ship,” I said. “Maybe she could help out with chores or gather info.”

“Chores? Are you saying she’s your type or something?”

“My type? I mean, sure, she’s cute.” I glanced at the girl. She stood there pale and shaking, still shocked from the attack. Now definitely wasn’t the time to comment on her crazy big chest, but I couldn’t help daydreaming about the future, if you catch my drift. “We shouldn’t just stand around here and chat while she’s in this state. Let’s find a place to sit and calm down.”

“Fine, but you’re paying.”

“Aye-aye, ma’am.” I turned to the girl. “Hey, let’s go. We won’t hurt you. If it hurts to walk, you can grab on to me.”

“Okay.” The girl nodded and timidly pinched my jacket.

You know you can actually grab on, right? It’s a sturdy jacket; you won’t stretch it that easy. Oh well. If it made her feel more at ease, I didn’t mind.

 

***

 

Elma led us to a café in a building adjacent to the mercenary guild. It reminded me of St. Marc Café.

Back home, what I ordered would have been called a café au lait and a sandwich; here, who knew? Elma just ordered a drink again. It took some coaxing to get the girl to say what she wanted. Eventually, she settled on the same drink and sandwich as me.

“So, what’s your name?” I asked the girl.

“Um…Mimi,” she replied.

“Oh, dang,” I said. “I never introduced myself, did I? Hi, my name is Hiro.”

“Shut up, you,” Elma cut in. “So, Mimi? What can you do? Do you have any skills that would be helpful on a ship?”

Wow, that was one heck of a rude introduction.

“Umm… What do I need to be able to do?” the girl said.

“I think that answers my question,” Elma said. “But I’ll tell you, anyway. This lug here doesn’t need help in battle, but he’s pretty clueless when it comes to everything else. Supply runs, information management, negotiating with clients, contacting the guild, calling port authorities when you need to land: the list of things you might be able to help with goes on.”

“I don’t have any experience with any of that…”

“Thought as much. In that case, you can’t do much other than being a maid. Cooking, cleaning…and since you’re a girl, ‘helping’ him out once in a while.”

“Pfft!” I spit out my drink at Elma’s dirty suggestion. Helping me out?! Elma was way too direct!

“Wow, how dirty are you?!” Elma grimaced.

Okay, my bad, but come on! Can I really be blamed for that one?

“You’re the one who said she’d have to help me out!” I said.

“And? That’s why you’re bringing her aboard, isn’t it?” Elma said.

I dared a look over at Mimi. Her fear had shifted to wide-eyed surprise. Shoot, she probably took it the same way as me.

“I think she’s cute and I’d like to be friends, yeah, but I didn’t go directly to sex like you, stupid!” I said.

“You’re really naive, huh? Maybe you are one of those sheltered rich boys.”

“Doubtful. So, what, is that common sense now? If a guy lets a girl onto his ship, they have to hook up?”

“In an equal relationship? Not necessarily. But you and her clearly aren’t in an equal relationship, so it’s obvious what people will think.”

None of this sounded right. It was like something from a hentai game. There was definitely nothing like this in Stella Online.

“No, no, no,” I said. “I’m not gonna make dumb demands like that. C’mon, I’m not that much of a pig.”

“Hmm,” Elma said. “Well, it doesn’t matter to me, as long as you know that’s what it’s gonna look like to everyone else.” Elma shrugged.

“Nngh…” When I shot a peek at Mimi, she blushed and cast her eyes down.

Girls, please, don’t do this to me! I’m not gonna do it! That’s not why I helped you in the first place, I mean it! I wanted to scream my denials, but that would’ve made me sound even more phony. I decided actions mattered more than words in this case.

“Mimi, what do you want to do?” Elma asked. “I mean, you were loitering near that alley. When innocent girls like you hang around places like that, bad stuff happens.”

“Well…” Mimi started.

“Did you commit a crime and run to the Third Division? Do you have any guardians?” Tears sprang to Mimi’s eyes at the mention of “guardians” and spilled down her cheeks. I felt awful. Aww, come on, Elma, don’t make her cry…

Mimi spoke through her tears. Her story wasn’t too unusual. She grew up in the Second Division in a normal family. One day while doing maintenance on some sort of infrastructure responsible for the oxygen, her parents died in a tragic accident. Somehow her parents took the blame for the accident, which meant all their assets got forfeited, leaving Mimi with little to live on. Mimi was still a student at the time and couldn’t work—which meant she also couldn’t afford the taxes required to live in the Second Division. In the end, having no way to pay for the damages from the accident, Mimi got booted out and sent down to the Third Division.

“Wow, is that allowed?” I asked incredulously. “There’s no safety net to keep stuff like that from happening?”

“Who cares?” Elma said. “What matters now is that this girl has no place to go.”

“Yeah, I guess so. She really doesn’t have many options left, does she?” If Mimi didn’t want to live on my ship, she’d have to return to the Third Division alone. Next time someone dragged her away into an alley, she’d have little chance of being rescued like today.

Mimi bowed her head, her face wet with tears. “Please…I’ll do anything. Just let me live with you on your ship.”

“Of course,” I said. “Don’t worry. We’ll make sure you’re okay. Go on, eat your sandwich. You must be hungry, right?”

“Yes…” Mimi sighed the word out in relief and finally started nibbling on her sandwich.

Elma was looking none too pleased with me after all that. “So, my gentle and kind senior,” I said, “I’ll need you to tell me what preparations I have to make to bring Mimi on board.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

“It’ll be expensive.”

“Wait, what?”