The next day after school.

“Hey! Shimada!” She runs over to me.

“Hey! You seem excited.” I tease her as she catches up to me. From the looks of it she ran all the way here from her last class to not miss me.

“Well why wouldn’t I be? We are starting your training today and I want to see how it works!” She looks at me with a bit of a strange look. Like shes not looking at a person but a thing.

“Alright… if you say so.” She seems a lot closer since I told her about the skills and stuff. It makes me feel a little awkward like is it me she likes or what I can do?

“Sooooo what do we do first?” She pokes me a bit. Making me flinch slightly, shes become a lot touchier now out of nowhere. Still nothing beyond hands and pokes but it still seems a bit out of character for her.

“Well first I spent awhile last night looking at available skills. I’m torn between two skills. But considering the reward for saving Himiko I think I’ll take one then get the other one later.”

“Oh? What skills? Also, what sort of reward are you going to get? You didn’t mention anything about seeing the reward before?” Shes a bit interested in how this all works. I also don’t know for sure there will be a story quest that gives me a fusion when I’m there. So maybe I spoke too soon.

“Well, there aren't many supernatural skills in the list, some are things like ghost whisperer or spirit medium but I’m not sure if they are actually magical. They might just make me better at conning people or improve my ability to make balms and remedies.”

“True, unless we have a data set of comparable skills you might waste one. You’re not able to change a skill, are you?”

“No once I choose them, they seem to be locked in for the rest of my life. Unless that changes somehow once I get the last one.” I already knew it didn’t I messed around with the menu for years in my last life.

“Well in that case whats the reward you’re going to get and what skill? It must be a good one for you to consider taking it.” Shit I might as well just assume I’ll get a fusion from something on the island or something like it.

“Well, the reward is a skill fusion. It will let me fuse two compatible skills to make them only take one slot. The skills I’m considering are emotion detecting or treatment.”

“Wa..ahem um why would you want that one? Also, you better not use emotion detection stuff on me!” Her face is a bit red after thinking about the skills I might take and smacks my arm.

“Well, it’s the only skill in here that’s inherently supernatural. The others are all easily nonmagical and could lead to me wasting a skill option. And let’s be honest it would be awesome to have some sort of superpower even if its just reading emotions.”

“haaaa I guess? I don’t know what the use of that could be though?”

“Well in business it can be used to know when someone is lying to you or to understand their intentions. It could be useful to understand what the capturers are feeling around us to better understand how to get us out of there.”

“That could work… What was the other skill?”

“Treatment, it would let me heal others and if me or someone else gets injured it should speed up recovery time.”

“I think you should take that one first then the emotion sense after you get back… I don’t want you to die or something while you’re out there because you werent able to treat your wounds…” She seems to be looking away.

“Haa you just don’t want me to know your emotions huh?” Giving her a slight smile and giving her side a small poke. Making her Yeep.

“URG YOU IDIOT! OF COURSE NOT! THOSE ARE PRIVATE! Haaa regardless, what should we do now?” she seems glad that I’m not taking emotion sense right now.

“We are going to the park, here are a bunch of painted stones. You’re going to hide them around the area then search for me as I try to find them. If you catch me, you get a prize~”

She looks at me confused about what the prize would be.

“Well alright let’s get to it then.”

Out in the park.

“ALRIGHT SHIMADA ITS ALL SET!” I open my eyes. And start quietly moving around the park. My improved senses are helping me see spots to step to be quitter and my stealth skill is helping dampen even those sounds. I find a pink rock lodged in a tree branch.

“SHIMADA WHERE ARRRRRE YOOOOOU~” Shes running around searching for me. Hmm maybe she really wants that prize. I hope shes not disappointed if she gets it.

I kind of cheat… just slightly. I can climb the trees quickly and I can throw rocks around to distract her from my location.

“Shimadaaaaaaa!” she runs right by underneath me. She continues to move around she does make a small mistake. She keeps checking all of the areas she left the painted rocks to see if I’d been there yet. After she runs past, I drop down and pick up a few of the ones she passed. Both skills are leveling up really quickly. Likely from already having a good idea of how to search for things and move somewhat silently thanks to reviewing memories from my previous life.

After getting the search skill to level 25 its milestone effect is, “highlight searched for items within your field of view.”

It sounds impressive but I can’t do specific items only general descriptions. For example, I can search for rocks but not painted rocks. I can search for paint though which is how I’m able to more easily find the rocks at the moment. Funnily I guess makeup counted for paint as well since Miho’s face lights up too, I see smears covering her forehead and cheeks for what I suspect is acne.

40 minutes later.

Stealth managed to level up to the first milestone. It gives an active effect much like search but rather than mental strain it feels like its sapping the energy out of me like I ran a mile from using it for just a little bit. In exchange it improves the dampening effect of standard stealth. I’ve used it to mess with Miho a little bit while still looking around for the last few stones.

I still can’t find the last stone. We agreed to keep them visible so that I can see them without needing to move stuff out of the way.

“Shimada theres only one stone left~ and only 20 minutes left~” That sounds like she knows I only have the one left hmm.

Hiding up in a tree I watch her pass by. And sure enough, she has a rock on her head. ‘Clearly visible’ my ass. I can see it sure, but HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO GET IT! She keeps looking behind her every couple of steps… actually now that I see it she looks back every 20 steps exactly… shes gotten into a pattern she fell into a routine.

Sneaking up behind her and hiding behind a tree every 19 steps I slowly close the distance. Until finally I’m close enough to get in quickly. I take out a small rock I picked up and throw a curveball it takes a little bit to aim the throw to not hit her fingers.

SMACK

The rock on her head flies to the right from a hit on the left.

“SHIMADA I FOUND-wait where are you?” after the ball hit the rock to the right she turned to the left thinking I would be there. While shes distracted I throw another rock to hit the rock again knocking it behind a tree. She quickly looks around not finding the rock from her head. She starts spinning around looking for me and the rock. When she starts looking around one of the trees to the left, I move in to the right using active stealth to quite my steps as I hurry over to the last rock.

She circles around the tree just in time to see me going for the last rock.

“NO YOU DON’T!” In order for her to win she just needs to touch me before I get the rock.

I jump for it and so does she. Sure, enough neither of us really thought this through leading us to become a tangle of limbs both falling on a painted rock with a bag of rocks on my back jumbling around making the fall even worse.

“owww” We both slowly stand up lightly rubing our respective small bruises. “Miho you werent supposed to attack me! It was supposed to be stealth… not kill the assassin!” Letting out a slight chuckle to let her know I’m not actually upset with her.

“I know idiot… I just really wanted to win… sorry are you okay?” She seems a bit worried and looks at my arm. I look down and there is a bit of blood from landing on the rock.

“So… umm whats the prize?” Looking back at her face a bit surprised that she would bring that up now.

“I mean I’m still bleeding here? Can I at least get patched up a bit first?” She gets a bit embarrassed and nods heading over to our bags she rummages through them for a bit before bringing out some bandages and a bit of rubbing alcohol.

When the rubbing alcohol touches the cut I wince a bit.

“S-sorry! I didn’t mean to hurt you…” She looks a bit nervous as she starts bandaging my cut lightly.

“It’s fine, I probably shouldn’t have jumped for the rock too. So for the prize… I got us tickets to a gaming convention on Saturday I was hoping we could go together.” Rubbing my neck awkwardly and looking away.

“Wait so what would have happened if you won?” She looks a bit surprised.

“Then I would have asked you out on a date at this gaming convention this weekend.” I stick out my tongue at her. Then I realized I called it a date and freeze up.

“Um I I don’t know I’m I uh” She starts stammering off.

“Or uh just as friends! Not a date or anything sorry about that I misspoke.” I try to save it throwing in that lifeline.

“YEAH, friends yes! That’s it.” Now we both just awkwardly stare at each other for a bit.

“So….”

“So…”

“How much progress did you get?” Oh thank god she changed the subject.

“I got about 30 levels each from that. But levels are more difficult the higher the level of the skill. The initial levels are also boosted by my previous knowledge of how to step correctly when being stealthy or my own experience searching for stuff.” Its mostly applying knowledge watched from my previous life. So, its probably going to slow in its progression from now on since I don’t know how to really improve from here.

“Still 30 levels sound like a lot havnt your other skills not maxed out? How can that be if it only took that long to get to 30?”

“Well, it’s not exactly linear progression, I got throwing and martial arts up to a bottle neck quickly then it took years to level up. It seems like a lot of the progress has to do with more dangerous or the higher the stakes of the situation. Throwing pretty much only levels during tournaments now no matter how much practice I put in.” She nods thinking about it.

“Hmm alright, so we just have to make the stakes higher for it to gain more huh?” her face goes a bit redder.

“Yeah, it only gained so much because of the stakes this time…” Putting my hands in my pockets. I don’t know what else to really wager.

“Well… want to do another round?” She pokes my side.

“Sure… um what will we bet this time?” I could try to wager it out to be a date on Saturday instead of just friend…

“I don’t really know. How about loser has to tell an embarrassing story?” That works too, I guess. Though I am slightly disappointed.

“Really? Whyyyyy? I guess that is high stakes though I have a couple of good ones.” Growing up a bit awkward and selling medication to people as a kid made a few odd stories.

We play another couple of rounds but much quicker once we start picking up the pace. We trade stories back and forth. The time I once threw up and my skill activated making it shoot out nearly twice as fast and curve. The time she got into trouble for groping Himiko in the girls bathroom. Eventually we finish our training for the day.

“Haaa wanna do this again soon?” I probe. It ended up turning into a little bit of a date…

“Of course! We have to get you trained up before you're spirited away.”