Distortion

The Issue: Money

Soren was just about to leave, and get help from the inner walls of the city, when Sakura said, "Hey. Where are you going?"

Soren turned around. "I'm getting help from the other cities. There could be still some surviving cities that haven't been touched yet. They need to know about Dark Blood being destroyed and all."

"Yeah, but shouldn't we leave the area? It's getting dark, and monsters always come out during the night. We can go and tell the people inside tomorrow." Sakura replied, glancing around. "And besides. Do you really want to camp outside the walls, where monsters can easily find us and we have no cover since this entire area is a giant smoking crater?"

Seeing her point, Soren agreed to go to the nearest motel and rest. He turned to Sotaru, who appeared to be playing around with a hand grenade. "Are you camping outside, Sotaru?"

"Nope! I'm following you two!" Sotaru replied gleefully. It's more fun to see what will happen instead of camping outside. Camping is too much work. Besides, I want to follow you guys tomorrow! Man, this is exciting!"

They walked past the rubble and dead-bodies, and managed to get out of the inner walls of Stalviem. Because everything was destroyed, they had to leave the city to find a place to stay for the night. The motel that they were headed for was located on the border of Dark Blood and Oaken Shield. After a while, they find themselves in front of the motel, which luckily seemed untouched by the chaos.

"I guess stay here for the night," Sakura said, sighing. "Also, I never gotten your names."

"Oh...my name is Soren and this idiot here is Sotaru."

"I'm no idiot, what are you talking about?" Sotaru tilted his head. Everyone ignored him.

Then there was an awkward silence.

"Huh. We all have names starting with S. Is this a coincidence, or just extremely well-timed name planning?"

"I think it's a coincidence." Soren replied flatly. "Anyways...how are we supposed to stay for the night? We don't have any money."

"Says who?" Sotaru took out a handful of money from his backpack.

"What the- where did you get all this money?" Soren asked in disbelief.

"Oh, I stole most of it from a rich dude at a market, hehe~. I've always gotten money by stealing...well most of the time, anyway. I've never gotten caught before!"

Seriously...how is this guy not even arrested or even suspected?

"The only problem is...I don't feel like paying for anyone, so you guys are on your own," Sotaru smiled mischievously, as he walked up to the cash register to pay for his room. "See ya!"

Soren sighed and looked to see Sakura walking toward a table of men gambling.

What is she doing?

"Mind if I join?" Sakura asked politely.

Huh? "Sakura! Are you crazy? Also, aren't you underage?"

"What? If I need money, I do this stuff all the time. And about me being underage, I used to part of an official gambling team. I have an official ID and all. I'm fine."

Soren stared in disbelief as Sakura joined in the game of poker, and started to lay bets.

Well...this looks like this is gonna take a while. I guess I'll just wait for her.

An hour or two later, after Soren came back to check on her, Sakura had out-gambled all of the other players, and had just won three-hundred and twenty-six dollars.

"Got some money. Let's go and pay for the rooms. By the way, what did you do while I was sitting here earning money?"

"I was stuck talking with this idiot," Soren looked down at Sotaru.

"Nee hee hee~"

"Oh...anyway, I have enough money to pay for two rooms, for one night. So you don't have to worry about where you're going to sleep tonight," Sakura smiled.

"Oh...uh....thanks. I guess."

"No problem!" Sakura walked up to the cash register to pay for the rooms and returned back to Soren and Sotaru.

"Anyway, what time do you guys want to meet up?" Sakura asked.

"Wait...I'm coming along with you guys?" Sotaru tilted his head.

"Didn't you say you wanted to tag along with us?" Soren recalled.

"Oh, right. I totaallyy forgot about that. Haha~."

That was obviously a lie.

"I think 8:00 AM in the morning would be a great time," Soren answered Sakura's question.

"Alright then! See you guys in the morning!"

They all walked off to their rooms. When Soren had arrived at his room he suddenly felt a heat of exhaustion and fell onto the bed. He reached into his pocket for his mom's locket. The one thing his mother treasured the most. He held it close to his heart and slowly drifted off to sleep.

~~~

She scrolled through the forums, slightly annoyed and amused about the fact that the people were practically begging for Kristallherz to help the other guilds or step in, as the 'Ultimate Guild.'

"I know, it's stupid." her youngest brother* said, leaning in close to her. She could smell the coffee in his breath. "But it's your fault that they are asking us to help, as the 'Ultimate Guild' or sh--"

A flying pan came out of nowhere and smacked him on the head, causing him to hiss in pain and whip around. Her other brother looked rather pleased with himself. "You see, Michael. I told you not to curse around the younger ones, you're setting a bad example. Look at them now."

While the others bickered, she closed her tablet and picked up the pan, tossing it to Michael. He caught it with ease without looking away from his own tablet. "Want to duel?" She asked. "We all need to train with these monsters running around." Her hand inched near her charm slowly, knowing that he wouldn't back down from a challenge.

Michael smirked at her, finally tearing his eyes from his tablet.

~~~

* = He is the youngest brother , not the youngest in the family.

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Anyway guys, thank you for reading Distortion. Also, Yuu-chan, if you're reading this, you never responded to my messages so we published it without telling you...so yeah :3 -Katsumi