Cross Worlds (Hiatus)

Chapter 13-2 (Side- Reality)

A girl with dark chocolate skin holds my wrist, her bright yellow eyes staring into mine. If colors were made into people, yellow would be this girl. Her hair falls just below her chin, yellow on top and the lower half is white. As for everything else, her outfit is a mix of yellow and blacks, she wears yellow nail polish and lipstick, hell, I bet even her magic has some kind of yellow theme to it. The only thing I can think when I look at this girl is that she's another hero, just like me. "Crap, this is bad. This is real real bad..! Did she figure out who I was..?"

"Do you mind if we do that quest together?" The girl asks unexpectedly.

I'm stunned for a moment, but manage to respond. "Eh..? What, why..?"

"Well, don't you recognize me?! Bees are pretty important to me as a person and as a hero!" She puts her fists on her hips and struts out her chest, giving me a confident smile. "So, do ya recognize me now?! This is my pose for my photo!"

I stare at her, utterly baffled. Of course I have no idea who this is. "Well, um..."

"You're the hero 'Flash Bee' correct?" Artemis steps over to the two of us, drawing both our gazes.

"Ah, I knew it wouldn't take long for someone to point me out!" The young girl grins.

"I can see why you'd be interested in this quest, considering your reputation as a hero." Artemis says to Flash Bee and touches her index finger to her chin. "Hmmmm...how about it, Riku? It's not as if having an extra helping hand would hurt us any." Artemis looks tome for an answer.

"Well, it's not like I really mind but..." I narrow my eyes. "If we split the reward that cuts my credits in half. That ten days will become five! What should I say..?"

"If this is about that cash reward, I don't care about that crap. Money's not an issue for me. You can have the entire reward if you do your part in the quest." The hero says as I'm having an internal crisis.

I look up at her and narrow my eyes with suspicion. "Are you sure..? What's in it for you at that point then?"

"What's in it for me? Helping out the people who will lose a massive food supply of course. Not to mention I feel quite the connection with bees ya know? If two species of bees are going at it, isn't it my duty as Flash Bee to put a stop to it?" She tilts her head, looking at me as if that were obvious.

"So...she's a genuinely good hero. One of the very few, but one of them nonetheless..." I think to myself before giving her a cheery smile. "Alright then, I accept! Let's do it!"

"Hell yeah!" She jumps up and wraps her arm around my neck. "We are gonna make a killer team, I can already tell!" She snickers. "Honestly, I was willing to fight for this quest if you said no, but even if I won, I still would've had to look for other people to help me out with this quest..." She giggles nervously.

"What makes you say that? Is it because you're so young?" I cock an eyebrow.

"What? No! I'm 19 dammit!" She growls. "R-Really..?!" I assumed she had to be no older than 15 at most.

"Looks can be deceiving Riku. I've been told I look mature for an 18 year old many times." Artemis giggles.

"I-I guess you're right..." I remember how shocked I was to find out how old Artemis was when I first asked. To think she's only a few months older than I am is crazy.

"The reason I say that is because even though this quest is ranked D, it could potentially be a lot higher than that. Nobody knows the reason why the mutated bees have suddenly started taking beehives and killing all the normal bees. Stopping the mutated bees themselves may not be all that difficult, but as for finding the cause and stopping it indefinitely? That could lead up to an A or even an S rank mission. As low as the chances of that being possible are, it's still a possibility. That's why it says D+, the plus means it's at least a D ranked quest." Flash Bee explains as she accepts the quest and holds up her license. The license is scanned and has her registered in three seconds flat.