Unleash the Chuunibyou!

Chapter 39: Completion

With the city of Algus going about its normal business, no one paid attention to the little girl slowly stumbling her way through the streets as she headed towards the adventurers guild. Though while the citizens seemed to just be going about their daily routines, the guards seemed on edge for some reason as they continued yelling about something involving a tower, though the girl couldn't care less at the moment as she'd spent the entire day getting shocked and fighting for her life. So now she just wanted to rest, but she could only do that after she turned in her completed quest at the guild and as she made her way towards it, she only hoped that she didn't have to find the person who had issued the quest so that she could get their completion card.

"Oh, Fumiko! You're back!" Jennifer called out to Fumiko as soon as she'd walked through the building's doors. "Wait, what happened?! Are you okay?!"

"Yeah, I'm fine... I think." Fumiko gave the woman a tired smile. "It's nothing that a good night's sleep won't fix anyway."

"Oh really... Well you might want to postpone that, actually." Jennifer stated as she seemed to lose her concern immediately while becoming happy. "You see, a bunch of wisps suddenly appeared outside of the city and it's the perfect opportunity for you to-"

"No!" The entire guildhall became silent as they all looked towards Fumiko as she yelled before she tried to recover herself. "No, I mean... I've already finished the quest."

"Really? Are you sure that you don't want to go get a few more for the extra reward?" Jennifer asked.

"Absolutely." She replied immediately.

"Okay then... If you'll just return the box that I handed you this morning then I'll record how much powder it collected and I'll mark your quest as a success." The woman stated before Fumiko zombie-walked the remaining distance between them and lifted a shaking arm so that she could hand the box over. "Are you sure that you're okay."

"I just need a bath and some sleep." Fumiko nodded as she spoke.

"Alright, then it looks like-" Jennifer suddenly froze as he pulled out what looked like a magnifying glass and inspected the box. "F- Fumiko... How many wisps did you encounter today?"

"K- Kowai..." Fumiko replied softly with her entire body beginning to shake again as she thought of how she'd been chased for hours with the wisps shocking her along the way while none of her spells seemed to make any dent in their numbers at all. "Wisps are kowai..."

"I'm... guessing a lot." Jennifer said slowly before adopting a troubled look on her face. "But I'm going to have to talk to Rail before I can approve this."

"Approve it." Rail suddenly spoke as he and a group of other adventurers entered through the same doors that Fumiko had just passed through.

"Are you sure? If I do, then the client's bank account will-"

"Fumiko's quest and today's tower incident are related. And if half of what the researchers we escorted there told us was true, than she's earned that as well as a lot more." Rail replied as Fumiko turned towards the man while wondering what he was talking about. "I know that you probably didn't know what was happening, but just know that you did good work today."

"Thanks?" Fumiko questioned before the man walked past them and Jennifer tapped on the counter a few times.

"I'll need your card." The woman reminded her before Fumiko handed her card over and the woman worked on it as well before finishing. "Alright then, so I've confirmed that the quest was completed and I've updated your record, but I can only give you the thirty silver which is the normal quest completion reward for right now. The rest of your payment will be given to you tomorrow once we've had a chance to prepare it."

"Thank youuu..." Fumiko replied before accepting both the bag and her card back before she started zombie-walking her way back outside. However, once she left the building, she saw that the townspeople had strangely stopped what they were doing as everyone looked towards the sky. Though when she followed their gaze, she wished that she hadn't as she saw that there were hundreds of more wisps that were flying over the city while appearing to be heading back towards the graveyard. But when she saw them, they apparently saw her as well as a good number of them turned into the dreaded red color.

"Iyaaaaaaa~!" Fumiko cried before running down the street towards the inn with all of the wisps that had seen her diving down to get her. And while she'd been attempting to run at first, when she fell forward due to her legs being drained of energy, she found herself being carried forward as Arashi had appeared and was now flying her down the street. But with its appearance, Fumiko felt like she'd turned to stone as she finally had the realization that she could have been flying away from the wisps all along. Though those thoughts would have to wait for later as she reached the door of the inn, climbed off of Arashi and went inside before slamming the door shut behind her.

"Fumiko?! Is everything alright?!" One of the women who normally acted as a waitress asked in shock before the door behind Fumiko rattled as the wisps hit it. But seeing as they weren't strong enough to actually open the door, she soon left it without answering the waitress before she ran up the stairs and waited for Arashi to follow her before she closed her room's door and locked it. And after closing the blinds over the window, she pulled the blanket off of her bed before wrapping it around herself and falling to the floor where she placed her back against the wall and attempted to recover from the nightmare of a day that she'd had.

"Kowai. Kowai. Kowai. Kowai. Kowai. Kowai."  Fumiko repeated to herself over and over as she attempted to make the space around her as dark as possible. Yes, lights were bad because lights meant wisps. Darkness was her friend, though darkness also held the abyss... Nowhere was safe.