Entwined Fates

Part 7

Yosuke gritted his teeth, his whole body trembling with irritation.

"You... you said this was a rank A mission?!" he yelled, veins nearly popping out of his forehead. His fog swirled angrily around him, amplifying his rage.

Shinn, completely calm and unbothered, stood a few feet away, casually kicking a pebble. He glanced at Yosuke with a blank expression, scratching his head.

"Aren't eliminating slimes considered rank A?" Shinn asked flatly, his tone almost bored, as if he genuinely didn't understand the problem.

Just then, one of the slimes bounced up, letting out a cute, squishy noise before it plopped harmlessly onto Yosuke's shoe. His eye twitched.

There was a long, painful silence.

Yosuke inhaled deeply, his hands clenched into fists.

"I'm gonna lose it," he whispered to himself, the fog around him thickening as his patience hit its breaking point.

Shinn, still unbothered by Yosuke's rage, casually gestured around at the serene forest.

"This is an elves' realm, remember? They said the slimes have been disturbing the plants and crops, so..." He paused, turning back to Yosuke with a straight face. "Most of the elves here complained of hunger. It's considered a special mission."

Yosuke's glasses caught the light of the setting sun, flashing dramatically as he crossed his arms.

"What's so 'special' about that?" he snapped, clearly unimpressed.

Without warning, Shinn reached out and poked Yosuke's forehead with a smirk.

"Stay close to me," he said in a mock-serious tone, his voice low. "The slimes sometimes burst into fireballs."

Yosuke blinked, completely dumbfounded. "What even—"

Before he could finish, a tiny slime nearby suddenly popped with a small fwoosh, sending a harmless puff of fire into the air. Yosuke's jaw dropped, his mind trying to process this ridiculous situation.

"This... this...!" Yosuke fumed, his whole body shaking with frustration.

Before he could finish his thought, a small slime bounced happily toward him. In an instant, it exploded with a tiny poof, sending harmless sparks of fire flying around. Yosuke stood there, completely frozen, covered in soot and ash as his glasses slid slightly down his nose.

He clenched his fists, his face twitching with barely contained rage.

"What kind of mission is this?!" Yosuke roared, the ground around him trembling as his fog swirled in wild patterns, reacting to his boiling anger.

"A... fiery one?" Shinn offered with a smirk, not helping at all.

Yosuke dashed forward, his fog blades slicing through the slimes with swift precision. Each slash dissolved the creatures into tiny, harmless puffs of mist and fire sparks.

"Shinn-sama!" he shouted, gritting his teeth as yet another slime leapt towards him, only to meet the sharp edge of his blade.

Meanwhile, Shinn stood leaning against a nearby tree, arms crossed and a completely uninterested expression on his face. He gave a half-hearted thumbs up.

"Go, go! You're doing a great job," Shinn said in the most monotone voice imaginable, as if he were just commenting on the weather.

Yosuke's eye twitched in annoyance.

"You're becoming more and more like Ryusei-sama, Shinn-sama!" he yelled, a vein pulsing on his forehead as another slime exploded near him. The frustration in his voice was clear, expecting some sense of seriousness from his partner.