Data Dragon Danika

Danika had expected to take a few photos at a scenic place, like the local park, but instead Shinichi rode the bus with her and they went downtown to a photo booth he knew of that would print stickers and even produce small items like keychains or lockets on demand.

She wondered if riding public transportation would be a problem for him, but even though he didn't cover his face, no one seemed to notice him the way they had at the fancy restaurant. After they exited, she asked him, "No one seemed to notice you? And you're not covering your face, but people recognized you before?"

Shinichi laughed and told her, "Naoki has proven for us that covering your face and going around with your hood up only increases the number of people who recognize you. I guess it makes them look to see what you're hiding? But staying in one place for long, like eating out, gives people more time to wonder why you look sort of familiar or something."

She thought about it for a moment, since you had to stay on the bus for awhile, and decided that probably everyone there was too busy avoiding looking at each other. Her chair often drew glances, but few people who used public transportation ever showed the extreme interest or reactions that she sometimes got in shops and other places.

The photo booth was not built for chairs, although it did have a seated mode, and just enough space that she could back into it. She couldn't turn to face the camera though, even though this model could almost literally spin in place, and there wasn't room for Shinichi unless he sat on her lap. She sat on his lap after he lifted her out of her chair again instead.

Shinichi teased her into allowing him to select some of the sillier shots as well as the more normal ones. She liked the one where it had caught her turning to ask something while he leaned a little away at the same time to look at her too.

"Sorry," he whispered as they chose a dozen backgrounds and frames. When she glanced back at him he clarified, "I didn't realize how small the booth was."

"We managed," she pointed out. Then she laughed and admitted finally, "Although I expected to just take photos with our phones at the park or something."

"Let's do that next!" he enthused. "Or even take one at every cool place we visit in the future?" he suggested hopefully. She eyed him thoughtfully without replying right away, and he sighed and said, "It's ok if you don't want to."

"Sorry, I was just wondering if you have a photo log of everyone you've dated," she admitted. "I don't mind taking photos together at cool places." He flinched. It startled her and she asked worriedly, "Shinichi?"

"I…" he hesitated, "have taken a lot of photos with a lot of women."

"Duh?" Danika replied questioningly.

He blinked at her, and then he gave her a self deprecating half smile and said, "Apart from a few of the earlier ones I haven't tried to get copies of them, and I've never tried to sort the ones I have by, uh, who I was with."

"Oh," she replied thoughtfully.

"I do have photo logs of places I've been with the band," he volunteered.

She laughed, and they each got a sheet of stickers and a pudgy looking butterfly locket that had two more delicate looking butterflies engraved on it, one on each of the rounded wings with their feet on the same flower in the center.

While choosing it Danika asked uncertainly, "Is it too girly for you to wear?"

Shinichi laughed and pointed to a pink heart covered in kiss marks, "That would be too girly, but I'd still wear it, this is fine." After the machine produced it, he held it up and questioned, "Unless you're close enough to see the engraving, doesn't the shape almost look more like that bone dog tag?" He pointed.

Danika looked at it and giggled. The over simplified and rounded butterfly shape did resemble a shortened version of the simplified and rounded bone. "A bit," she agreed laughingly.

By the time they'd visited one of the city's viewpoints and taken a few more photos, they had to get something quick for lunch if they were going to make it back in time. Speed was the downside to public transportation, although the city had a pretty reliable system.

They risked getting steamed buns from a street vendor, which turned out to be a lucky gamble, because they were delicious. There wasn't time to pick up a seat for Shinichi, but when they got back Danika surprised him by sitting beside him with her own phone instead of using the VR-medi pod.

"Are you sure?" he questioned.

"Even if they're giant, snails don't really sound very dangerous, and there will be plenty of people so it won't matter if I'm not as efficient?" Danika pointed out.

"Okay," Shinichi replied happily.

When he scooted a little closer so that their thighs touched, Danika thought with amusement that Shinichi in real life was like ZipZing in VR, cuddling into the warmth of the other person who couldn't feel the touch.

Their new guildmates complained about the eerie effect of hearing both of them speak in the background of both of their characters, so they switched to text for the game and talked comfortably as they played. Giant snails did have teeth. Tens of thousands of very tiny teeth, on their tongues. They also had very tough shells.

MatchlessMinion turned out to be their top snail hunter. His darts could usually get them before they sucked themselves up into their shells. As Danika had predicted, they weren't dangerous. The poor things didn't even seem to have any kind of attacks, they were purely defensive.

They used ZipZing's featherweight to roll some of the more difficult snails away from the farmer's field, where Saaki roasted them. The little genie had leveled his racial fire skill to an amazing degree. Once they were dead, Danika discovered that she could store the snails in her embroidered pouch that could hold an unlimited amount of any one thing.

Since she was playing on her phone and got to see ZipZing from a third person perspective, watching the second smallest member of their guild be the one to store the biggest items made her giggle. Shinichi had Aishin grab screenshots of her standing triumphantly atop a snail. And then MatchlessMinion, Saaki, and even Eyes on the Sky demanded shots of themselves in similar triumphant kill poses.

Even though the quest paid only one Karma each, it was doubled because they received an extra from it being a guild quest, and it was surprisingly profitable. Not only did they get snails teeth for ZipZing's quest, they were able to sell the snail components.

The traveling merchant directed them to a master butcher who fished out the snail meats, and although the pre roasted ones brought less, the rare delicacy fetched a good price. Then they were able to sell those of the enormous shells that were undamaged to the merchant for another decent lump of coin. And the extra teeth were also highly prized by craftsmen for embedding in everything from armor to tools, and on grind stones.

They cheerfully informed their NPC guild representative that giant snail hunting quests were awesome and should definitely be accepted in the future.