Kaito and the others continue on their way, excited to have their new friend Nanami, a beastling.
The next town they plan on taking a stop at is. Studen, a smaller town run by a magistrate. The primary government figure of the town.
"So what are you twos favorite colors?" Nanami asks Rika and Dante.
The two of them think for a while. "Purple." They both say shocking each other. "Your favorite color is yellow too?!" Dante asks. Rika smiles. "It's only the best color ever?!" Rika says showing off her purple outfit.
Dante nods. "More cultured then I thought." He says and him and Rika nod in agreement.
Nanami awkwardly stands to the side waiting for them to finish. Walking forward they hear a voice calling out. "Can anyone help!?"
Kaito goes over first and they encounter a man with a destroyed cart. "Adventurers?" He questions, spotting them.
The merchant was pacing around his destroyed cart. Shaking his head he forgets his original question. "Could you four help me fix my cart, I got a sale I need to reach!" He offers.
Kaito smiles, before he answers Rika steps up. "How much you paying?" She asks. The merchant smiles. "Businesswoman, I like that. I offer up, eight-thousand Blastie." The merchant offers. Rika nods looks to Kaito.
"We'll help." Kaito says.
Nanami pushes up her glasses. "Ah I see, this is our quest." She mentions. "We just need to repair his cart right, let's just use spare wood from the wreck to make a new cart." Dante suggest.
Kaito nods. "Now, where do we find the wreck?" Kaito asks. Rika smirks. "Right in front of us." Rika mentions.
Kaito giggles. "I thought wreck was a name for something." He admits.
The wreckage was comprised of, some broken crates, many pieces of the cart, and old fence posts.
"Be on the look for, twine to reinforce the wheels, and it'd be nice if we found some metal to repair some of the more damaged parts." Nanami says.
As they rummage through the wreckage, Rika found the twine as Nanami requested. "Found a bunch of it, I can even make the cart a cute bow with the extra! You know for style points." Rika says.
Nanami takes the parts and she begins building.
Kaito helps Dante out with some of the heavier lifting. Dante struggles lifting a heavier crate, he failed to lift it losing his grip with a mighty heave, he had fallen into another crate of the merchants goods,
"Is this a crate of pickles!?" Dante yells feeling throughly grossed out. Rika laughs at him. "Great job Dante, now you smell like a walking pickle jar!" She teases, doubling over.
Kaito throws pickle juice at Rika too. "I'll pickle you too!" Kaito makes an attempt at a pun.
As the others goof around Nanami uses her tech magic to measure the wheel and other dimensions of the cart as she continues building .
Summoning wind magic with a flick of her arm Rika throws the crate of pickles at Kaito. The crate strikes true and Kaito is covered in the pickles. Dante and Rika both burst out laughing.
The merchant shakes his head watching them. "At least you're dedicated to your job." He says to Nanami.
Nanami watches the others playing, it seems like even though all they're doing is making each other dirty they're having fun. She wished to be apart of the fun but she didn't know how to initiate it.
The others came back to Nanami with the extra parts. She returning to work is handed a bottle by Rika. She gestures to throw it at Dante. Nanami smirks and throws the bottle at Dante.
"Nanami you too!?" He shouts causing them to laugh. Eventually, after much banter, laughter, and all the joking they actually managed to rebuild the cart.
The cart was hideous thanks too the trios joining in. Nanami was doing fine but made sure to include the others. It had looked like it was caught in a hurricane. Truthfully it looked like a failed art project.
The merchant looked at their handiwork, his jaw dropped. "You've done it.... uh... this isn't exactly what I expected..... but beggars can't be choosers I guess?" He says not impressed with the work.
Kaito poses proudly. "You can just call us tools of justice!" He says pitching the name. Rika rolls her eyes playfully. "More like tools of goofiness." She added, snickering.
Dante looking at the cart cringed. "Well, it's the thought that counts I guess." He says. Nanami nods. "I suppose that'll work."
With a little bit more effort, the merchant loaded his goods back into the cart. The merchant payed them what he owed. Quickly leaving wanting to get away from them.
Kaito beamed, feeling like they were the best team ever. Despite all the evidence saying otherwise.
With the sun quickly going down they decide to set up camp.
The smell of pickle accompanying them as they at their camp. "Dante you wanna be a hero right, now you're a dill of a hero." Rika says giggling.
Dante rolls his eyes. "That's the best you could come up with?" He asks. "You're more of a jester then a thief." He adds.
"A quite sour one." Nanami brung a pickle joke of her own along.
Rika laughs. "Come on guys you're putting me in a real pickle here!" Rika says and they all laugh.
"Our pickle smell will be a salty reminder!" Kaito says still trying to get the puns.
Dante smirks. "Thanks to our pickle incident, we might have to warn the next town before we get there." He jokes.
Rika laughs. "Here comes the pickle hero's here to save the day and make salads!"
Nanami laughing quietly, "if these jokes keep coming i'll have to drown you all in pickle juice." Nanami says with a hint of dark humor.
Dante with a smirk replies. "As long as you don't slip in it."
Nanami shakes her head. "We should wash this off, I'd like to have a pickle free, reputation." She says. After washing all of the pickle off of them they head in for the night.
Kaito again decides to stay and watch. As he waits he gets more practice in with his bow, still struggling to even move the string. He does some exercise thinking back on what his dad would've said to him.
He doubts sun would be happy seeing the failure, but he uses that to work harder. As Kaito lifts a giant boulder around the camp Nanami comes out.
"Why are you still awake?" She asks him. Kaito puts the boulder down, breath heavy. "I'm training." He answers. Nanami passes him some water, Kaito quickly drinking it. "I usually do this while watching out for everyone."
Nanami smiles. "It's nice to have someone watching out for us." Nanami says her ears dancing. Kaito pets her ears again and she lets out a small groan. She straight faces him and he smiles.
"I'll keep you company as you train is that ok?" Nanami asks. Kaito smiles. "We can do some basic fighting too!" Kaito says happily.
Nanami trains with Kaito getting quickly tired out.