Asterisk

Chapter 1

"Man these dates never go right." Saito says putting his coat in his closet and rubbing the back of his head. 

An old man sitting in the living room of their house slightly chuckles and takes a sip of tea. 

"What's so funny Nishijima?" Saito calls into the living room.

"You are in such a hurry to find a woman that likes you that you forget to enjoy what you have." The old man says back, taking another sip of tea.

Saito sighs and starts gathering clothes to take into the bathroom for a shower.

"It's not that I don't enjoy what I have, I would just enjoy more with a pretty girl." Saito says after a minute.

"Not to mention my occupation doesn't really guarantee my safety, so I want to find someone to at least be happy with for a while." Saito continues.

He goes into the bathroom and puts his clothes there. 

"Have faith in your own abilities. Not trusting yourself will be your biggest mistake. Not failing to find a girl to come home to." Nishijima replies, taking his empty tea cup into the kitchen to get more.

"Getting a mana infusion isn't so easy these days Nishi. I'm not doing as well as some of the other guys, I'm starting to worry that I wont be able to support us here soon."  Saito says with an edge of concern in his tone. 

"You worry about yourself, if need be I could find work again. I'll be alright Saito, just save up for your mana infusion." Nishijima calls out just before the bathroom door closes.

"We'll talk more once I'm out." Saito says.

After the water starts flowing and Saito in fully engaged in his shower, the doorbell rings.

Nishijima walks over to the door and opens it, smiling as he sees who it is.

"Emma." He says with some surprise.

"Hey Nishijima. Long time no see." Emma says hugging Nishijima. "Can I come in?"

Nishijima opens the door and gestures for Emma to enter.

"Would you like some tea? It's still warm." He asks.

Emma nods her head and walks around the house for a moment.

She heads back into the living room and takes a seat in front of the TV.

Nishijima brings out two cups of tea. He takes a seat opposite of Emma.

"So, what brings you around here?" He asks her kindly.

"My family has gone out of town for a while and they didn't have enough money to bring me along so I'm looking for a place to stay." She explains.

"Oh? Is that so? Well I'm sure we have room for you around here." Nishijima says looking down the hallway at an empty room.

"I really only need a place to stay until I can find a hotel or something like that." Emma says.

"No it's quite alright. We have so much room around here, I'm sure we could accommodate you." Nishijima insists.

"Are you sure? I don't want to be any trouble, to you or to Saito." Emma asks, nervously grateful.

"I'm sure it will be alright." Nishijima assures her.

The bathroom door opens and a billow of steam drifts out. Saito steps out in his fresh clothes and walks into the living room, hair still dripping wet.

He freezes as he sees Emma sitting in the living room sipping tea with Nishijima.

Nishijima looks behind him to see Saito. "Come and join us." He pats the spot next to him.

"I think I'll go dry my hair first." Saito says slightly red in the face from his shower.

Saito hastily goes back to the bathroom and drys his hair then returns to the living room.

"So what's going on? What brings you to us?" Saito asks making himself a small cup of tea.

He begins to take a sip as Nishijima says "She will be staying with us for a while, her family is out of town." Saito nearly chokes on his drink.

"She's what?!" He is a little embarrassed because he yelled a bit.

"If it's a problem then I can find somewhere else..." Emma says trailing off a bit.

Saito clears his throat and says "No, it's alright just a bit of a surprise." 

"It's getting a bit late how about we set up your room?" Nishijima says getting up, headed towards the empty room at the end of the hall.

Nishijima goes into the back of the house and prepares a room for Emma while Saito and her catch up a bit.

"So what have you been up to since the last time we talked?" Emma asks Saito whilst he is fiddling with his thumbs.

"Since graduation I had a lot of trouble finding professional work, so I decided that I would become an Adventurer. As you can see it gets the bills payed but going out and hunting out in the caves and dungeons can be real hard, especially since I'm still saving up for a mana infusion." Saito explains seeming to perk up at the mention of his job.

"Oh! You're an Adventurer! That suits you honestly." She says laughing to herself.

"Sorry if I'm a little clueless, but what's a mana infusion? I've haven't seen much about the Adventurers since they are relatively new." She asks.

"It's alright, I don't mind explaining. A mana infusion is a procedure that is performed mainly on Adventurers but is also applied elsewhere. A professional would infuse mana into your bloodstream. Mana is something we know almost nothing about other than the fact that it helps to improve a person in nearly every physical aspect and allows the use of magic." Saito moving his hands to aid his explanation. 

"So in other words it's what makes all the other guys super amazing and magical." Emma says.

"Yeah basically. But enough about that. What have you been up to? It has been quite some time." Saito says.

"Well that's part of the reason why I'm here. I've been hopping from part-time job to part-time job since graduation, and well.. this is one of those in between times. My mom and dad got pretty heated about it and went on a trip to try and get away from all the stress, including me." Emma explains with a sad look creeping onto her features.

Nishijima then enters the living room as the two finish their conversation.

"Ms. Emma your room is ready, we can all talk tomorrow but for now we all need our rest." He says guiding Emma down the hall.

"That's true. I've gotta get to work early if I want an easy bounty for the day." Saito says getting up from his seat and heading to his bedroom. 

All the lights in the house vanish and it's quite for the night.