PA100 Arc: The Girl and the Watermelon

Back at the inn Junko and his friends were at, Ashley walked downstairs rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "Hey Ashley," Junko waved over to her with a fork in his hand. "Over here!"

Ashley reluctantly made her way over to the table and sat down in front of Junko. "Where are the other two?" The blonde girl asked noticing her other teammates were absent.

"They went shopping to get something called Realm Fruits, I think," Junko answered as he stuck half a waffle into his mouth. "Did you need them for something?"

Ashley shook her head, "No, I was just wondering."

A huge belch with the scent of orange juice escaped from Junko's mouth, "Oops, excuse me."

"Idiot! Cover your mouth when you do that!" Ashley scolded him.

"Sorry," Junko apologized as syrup trickled down his lips. A loud rumbling sound suddenly filled the inn. It's owner was immediately revealed thanks to Ashley's flustered face. "Oh yeah, I got you some watermelon," Junko remembered as he handed Ashley the fruit.

Ashley marveled at it nearly drooling, "W-Watermelon?" She then proceeded to bite into it and her face lit up with joy. "It's so good!"

"So is watermelon your favorite food?" Junko asked with curiosity.

Ashley swung her legs in delight before responding, "Yeah, it's delicious. And brings back a lot of great memories."

"What do you mean by great memories?"

Ashley's chewing suddenly slowed, "It's...nothing. Don't worry about it okay?"

Junko nodded with a bright smile, "Sure, if you don't wanna tell me you don't have to."

The watermelon fan sighed, "You make it really hard to like this."

"Act like...what...?"

Ashley rapidly turned her head away, "It's none of your business, loser." And then she muttered, "But thank you for the watermelon." She then handed Junko a napkin while still keeping her head turned, "Here, wipe your mouth. It has syrup on it."

"Thanks Ashley," The brown haired boy said happily as he took the napkin and wiped his face.

***

In a nearby shopping district Riley and Cody had just gathered all the items they needed in a cart and were waiting in line. Riley tapped his foot impatiently, "Ugh, I'm so bored!"

"Patience is a virtue, Riley," Cody said his trying to contain his anger as the woman in front of him continued to endlessly pull out more and more items from her shopping cart.

"You're the Ovala King! Can't you just cut in front of everyone?" Riley asked his impatience growing even stronger.

"That's against the rules!" Cody reminded the restless Fire User.

"Rules are meant to be broken!"

Then a man with a green Mohawk cut in front of the two while they were bickering. Cody's eyebrow twitched, "Why me?"

Eventually after countless shortcuts and customers with carts that could feed an army, Cody and Riley finally made it to the front of the line. "Oh sorry, we're closed," The clerk informed the two.

"No, you're not," Cody stated with a glare.

"Excuse me?"

"I said, no you're not," The big man said finally reaching the peak of his patience.

"I'm sorry sir, but the rules say we have to close at eight o clock sharp," The cashier said in an apologetic tone.

"Screw the damn rules! Here, I'll check myself out!" Cody placed all of his and items on at once and somehow managed to bag them all within a couple of seconds. "There we're out of your hair, and you can still close at eight now. Take that bitch!"

As they were walking out of the store, Riley turned to Cody, "Hey, are you sure it was a good idea for the Ovala King to act like that in public?"

"Since when have you cared about acting properly?" Cody countered.

"Good point," Riley easily disregarded the subject.

As they continued walking back towards the inn they overheard a conversation between a man and a woman. "Hey have you listened to the news lately?" The man asked the woman.

"Yeah, apparently there's some bald man with a pink beard going around and robbing all the inns in this section of the Water Realm," The woman replied in a low voice. "He's supposed to be a lot more dangerous than he looks."

"Well, I hope they do something about it soon," The man said.

"Yeah, me too," The woman agreed. "People like that need to be locked up for good."

Riley and Cody faced each other with worry in their eyes. "Mentor Cody," Riley started. "You don't think...?"

"Let's hope not," Cody responded already knowing Riley was referring to whether Junko and Ashley were in danger or not. "Come on, let's go find out!"