Game 4: Spotted
491 Words
The crowd around them thinned and each one returned to his or her seat in the internet cafe.
"Miss... Naika, wasn't it?", Scout asked.
She nodded.
"That was a splendid performance, miss Naika" he said.
"Thank you" she replied.
"I have not come here for you, but you made it so", he says and hands a small envelope to her.
The small gold and black envelope looked like a message from a royal family by the feeling it gives off by looking at it.
"Whatever does that mean", She opens it and unfurls a paper that was inside, then views its contents.
"It is an invitation to Querencia", he said.
"Umm.... Thanks?" Naika said with a little confusion in her tone.
The scout's expression had turned curious, surprised with her reaction. "Interesting... You do know what Querencia is, right?"
"I've only heard about it from him", she says, pointing at Rico.
Scout was used to see excitement written all over a face after an invite. To him, this was a first.
"So uhmm... compadre, I'm not getting a penalty, am I?" Rico asked from the side.
Scout's expression turned authoritative. "That will depend on her", he said.
"Penalty for what?" Naika asked.
"For combat on uneven terms. He has used an ability from his secondary element when you don't even have one yet, hasn't he?"
Naika gets a flashback from the part of the match where she couldn't jump. "Oh. I see".
"I am waiting for your response. Would you sign it and enroll as one of our students, gamer?" Scout asked.
"Hey now. Can you give me one day to decide? It's not that easy to decide this in a flash. I'd want to ask you about some things like what about my current school? How does this work, exactly? What are the rules? You know?" she said.
Scout tilts his head as if she was the one not acting properly to the situation.
He then laughed after realizing it. "Yes. Of course! I was just used to having my invitations signed immediately without any talk at all".
After a deep breath to regain his formality, he continues. "Very well. All your queries will be answered by reading the details which are enlisted in the invitation. I will be taking my leave now, miss Naika. I shall return tomorrow at this hour and hear of your decision", he says then he goes out with Rico.
Naika was left and Neiko appears beside her.
"What?" she asks.
"It's my turn to play, right?" Neiko asks rhetorically.
"Right, sorry", she says, then sets aside the letter on the table to pull out the golden card from the computer while Neiko replaces the gold card with his own.
She sits at the counter, looking at the cafe's system computer, hovering her sight over the status of the other computers at use.
Her focus immediately transfers to being the stand-in of Mr. Jose.
"You forgot this", Neiko says, handing her back the letter she left on the table.
Her thoughts then drive towards the small gold and black envelope.
She thinks to herself. [Querencia, huh?]
- Writer
