Data Dragon Danika

"Um, not exactly according to plan, no," Danika agreed. ZipZing clutched the gizzard and hovered uncertainly as Danika's finger wavered.

Shinichi maneuvered ShinZing over and said, "Just drop it here, the stone will wash."

Danika dropped the gizzard on the stone and said, "They were waiting for me to return, and they killed the crane. Somehow I feel like I've already failed this quest."

"Check in your menus," Shinichi advised calmly from beside her.

His pixie sliced open the gizzard carefully, and calmly sorted the stones within it from the flesh. Danika cringed. Even the cute artwork in the mobile version made the scene look messy.

"You cook," he reminded her calmly.

"I don't think I want to eat that even if I had the skill to cook it," MatchlessMinion replied doubtfully.

Shinichi laughed and explained, "Danika cooks, so she shouldn't be so bothered by a bird's gizzard."

"Danika?" MatchlessMinion repeated.

"Oh, oops. ZipZing, sorry," Shinichi corrected himself.

"It's fine," Danika said quickly. "I don't mind MatchlessMinion knowing my name."

"It's weird," the chinchillamin commented after a moment.

Danika felt a little offended, but she couldn't really argue. "My family likes to pull names from ancient mythology," she explained.

"No, I mean, my family name is Dan," MatchlessMinion informed them quickly. "And Ika would be an odd given name, but not impossible with people going around naming their kids after anime characters and things these days."

He sounded like a little old man complaining about the younger generation and Danika laughed.

Shinichi just flashed a grin and replied, "Her family name is even weirder."

"It's not weird," Danika objected as she used her water stone to rinse the rocks clean. Shinichi was right, if she stopped thinking about the gizzard as part of a being who'd spoken to her, and considered it as a dinner ingredient, it wasn't nearly as gross.

"It sounds like someone saying beloved in English," he teased cheerfully.

She paused, and then agreed, "I guess so."

Shinichi picked up the stone with the diamond viewports and said, "You know, I never really thought about it, but Logical Heart is not just really good at enchanting spaces. The game never gives us an error message about trying to stack spacially enchanted items like it does with most inventory items. I wonder how many rooms within rooms his stones could hold?"

"No idea," Danika replied a bit glumly. He glanced at her and she added, "There's nothing in my list about the crane or the philosopher's stone. I really think I failed it somehow."

MatchlessMinion pulled up his own menus and announced, "I have the stone itself and there's nothing in mine either. You know what this means?"

"It's not like failing a quest has any penalty," Shinichi said reassuringly.

MatchlessMinion laughed. "It means it's probably a hidden quest with a really big prize!"

"I don't think this game has hidden quests," Danika objected.

"It does," Shinichi replied to her surprise. "But you call them storylines."

Danika turned and looked up at him. He leaned over enough to give her a quick kiss. On their screens, MatchlessMinion bounced and agreed happily, "Yeah, it means this is part of a bigger storyline! There's no other way we'd get our hands on something so valuable out of the blue."

"I guess that's possible," Danika agreed hopefully.

"But," MatchlessMinion added with a groan, "that also means it's probably not something we can just finish tonight."

Shinichi sat up and told him, "Maybe not, but we already got what we were looking for. It just took a bit more collateral damage to get it than ZipZing hoped for."

"It doesn't bother you?" Danika asked.

"Honestly, I don't think it would bother me as much as it does you, even if it had been a real crane," Shinichi replied a little warily.

"At least he's honest," MatchlessMinion pointed out dryly. "And that's what you get for having an assassin as your familiar? Speaking of which, do you have to do the binding all over again?"

"He's always honest," Danika agreed, but she hesitated before continuing.

Shinichi glanced at her and then lifted an eyebrow.

"I was kind of wondering if we shouldn't just get married this time?" she blurted suddenly.

He froze for a moment, and then glanced at the game screen. His expression wasn't entirely pleased, but he said lightly, "Then should we?"

MatchlessMinion glanced back and forth between their characters and asked practically, "Would the shared inventory be as useful as the shared skills?"

Danika muted her phone and reached past Shinichi to mute his game too. "I don't want to if you don't want to, I thought you'd rather?" she questioned seriously.

"Silly," he stated and reached out to touch the tip of her nose. "You're not supposed to propose like that," he scolded gently.

"Oh," she replied, and it felt like her face was probably completely red from the warmth of her cheeks. "Sorry."

He smiled and shook his head as he reached out and unmuted the game. "The most useful thing to me, would be if she could teach me the familiar spell or waits until I learn it from my path, and becomes my familiar," he told MatchlessMinion. "The health and energy boost would make her a lot harder to kill, and direct access to her skills would be great for me right now. Shared inventory wouldn't be bad though. I wouldn't have to worry about whether or not she has enough potions."

Danika tapped the button on her screen and protested to both of them, "Impartation takes so many repetitions at the level I have it, that I don't see any way I could really teach it to you. I got incredibly lucky in learning it from Justin with assimilation from just one example. It was probably only because of the strong luck that Lin Hao gave me."

"You could wait for me to advance my path?" Shinichi suggested with a grin.

"I'll wait," she agreed quickly.

His grin widened and he told MatchlessMinion, "Let's quit for the night, ZipZing and I haven't had supper yet, and I want to ask her something."

MatchlessMinion rolled his eyes and said sharply, "Go on then. But can I borrow one of the stone spaces?"

"Sure, let's just call this one guild property," Shinichi agreed and tossed the stone ShinZing held to the chinchillamin.

Danika muted the game again and asked nervously, "What do you want to ask me?"

Shinichi laughed and logged out before replying. He glanced at her phone and raised his eyebrows.

She unmuted it and said quickly, "Thanks for all your help tonight. And if you really want the guild to have another NPC for an inventory system first, I can wait for that too."

MatchlessMinion laughed and told her, "Of course! Now go away!"

"Okay," Danika agreed, and logged out.

She looked at Shinichi expectantly, but he just laughed and admitted, "Now I don't want to ask you until after we eat."

She reached up and ran a hand through her hair, before squinting at him a little and asking, "You mean you want to tease me, so you can watch me being nervous all evening?"

"Maybe I'm just nervous about how you'll answer?" he suggested.

She blinked at him. "Don't you already know how I'll probably answer?" she asked with surprise.

He blinked at her in return. He opened his mouth and then closed it again. Danika scooted closer and hugged him. After a moment he kissed her forehead, and then leaned his cheek against her hair.

"Then I'm going to sleep here tonight," he whispered.

Danika laughed and leaned into him. "That's what the futon is for," she agreed.

"Yeah," he conceded wryly after a moment.