Can you steal a man?

"And that's the last of it. The fridge's officially empty!" I struck a thumb up to Nea behind me. We were back at our little abode in Ussera. With Nea around, there were never any worries of food going bad!

"Man, you are a crazy person. Haven't you been running around the entire day?" Nea said. She walked over to the couch, threw her hands up, and slumped on it with a sigh. Two traveling bags occupied the table while a bunch of furniture from different rooms crowded the room.

"I had to settle a lot of things! The manager took half my time, though." I walked over to the sofa across from her and sat down by myself. Placing one leg over the other, I looked at the clock. The hour hand had hit six the second time today.

"Ivan, we are leaving tonight..."

"No shit? I thought we were about to move in?"

"Don't get snarky with me now. About Eric... Do you really think he is ET?" Nea asked.

"To be honest with you, I have no choice but to believe he is." I sighed. "I had a few people looking around for ET, but to no avail. Even that Meekeh bastard didn't know what ET looked like, let alone tell me where he is."

"Hm? That doesn't explain why you believe Eric is ET?" Nea tilted her head.

"It's because of his house..." I said, shifting my gaze away.

"You went to his house? When?"

"Before I bought that sad fuck here... We were drunk and went to his place first. His house was filled with tools signed ET..."

"So you missed such an obvious sign! Haha!" Nea looked down at me. "Well, if he is ET, wouldn't he be very useful to get the artifact during the tournament?"

"I want to take him. I just don't know how..." I would love to take Eric along with me, but it wasn't easy to think of how. Nea's case was much simpler because of the events going on. Asking someone to go on a journey with you like I would have to with Eric feels nothing less than awkward.

"He is starved for attention, but I don't think he will leave his whole settled life behind. Convincing him will be very difficult," Nea said. She rested her chin on her palm and tapped her cheek with a finger. The cat naturally walked into the room from wherever it came from and jumped on the sofa next to me. Naturally... Huh...

"Hey, Nea..."

"What?"

"Do we have to convince him?"

**

[Eric Tanabe. Night.

Waters. Elisbonear.]

The violent swaying dusted my dreams away as the air of my consciousness occupied the spot they left. I could feel my senses alert at a slow pace. A wet feeling dabbed my mouth and my teeth could not meet. My open mouth bought in the salty taste of the air.

Then, my movements made more sense to me as I felt the rocking of the floor, along with the restriction on my arms. Restrictions? The heck? Unclosed mouth?

"MM!!"

"MMMMM!!!"

WHAT THE HECK?! Why can't I move?! Why can't I speak!? Salty fucking air on a rocking floor?! By any fucking chance... am I KIDNAPPED!?!