As the bell rang, signaling the end of the school day, I made my way up the stairwell, to the third floor of the school. I was told I'd find the club up here. My mom told me that I should join a club, especially if I'm not engaged in anything after school hours anyway. Plus, it'd do me good to converse with other people, something that I'll admit I'm not too good with.
I step into the hallway, and make my way down the hall. This club was supposed to be this school's exploration club, something I've always been interested in, ever since I was little.
But first, maybe I should introduce myself. My name is Xander. I'm a high schooler, in my sophomore year, at 16 years old. Now, I'm not a human, as I'm sure most of you thought. And I suppose I am, to a degree. But I'm actually what's called a kemonomimi. Now, we coexist with humans, and there hasn't really been any problems between us at all. I guess humans got used to us, and here we are. I'm sure there's probably a deeper darker reason for it, but honestly, I don't really care. It's just my life, and that's all there is to it.
My high school started exploration teams around a few years ago. This class was for people who wanted to explore the island to their hearts' content, and honestly, I couldn't pass up an opportunity like that. I hear of people going off and making incredible findings, like a rare gem or a cave that held ancient secrets. Exploration is something that always interested me, so I'm finally signing on this year since I'm old enough to go on my own. Not sure why, but when you turn 16, you're considered old enough to explore on your own. Not sure why that is. It's a pretty hard limit, a rule which the school will not budge on.
Which, of course, brings me to now. I stood outside of the club room, having second thoughts about whether I was actually going to go through with this. I had already decided, though, that I would do this. It was something that I needed to do. I reached out for the door knob, then paused again.
Wait, needed?
I thought about that for a moment. Then, I just shook my head. Was it really a 'need'? I thought about it for a moment. This is the very moment I've been waiting for since forever. It was probably nerves; I was feeling particularly starstruck standing in front of the door. I have no idea what the process is like, or if I'll even be accepted as an explorer. But, I promised my mom that I would try a club. And I was already here. I might as well walk in. Taking a deep breath, I put my hand on the knob, and open the door.
I entered the classroom to find a good amount of people there. And by "good amount," I only mean a few. Honestly, I get it. This club was never really popular, and the age requirement was 16. 15 year olds could join so long as they had a partner with them, and many 16 year olds just couldn't be bothered to have an assistant hanging around them. I don't know how I'd feel about having a sidekick. Maybe it could be a good thing. Who knows?
There seemed to be what looked like a quest board in the back of the room. Team names were on the chalkboard, over to the right of the board. Taking a quick glance at it, it had the team name, the members, and their levels. Some of the senior looking teams were at level 50 and the like, while new ones were at level 3 or 4. I wasn't entirely sure of what that meant, but maybe I would soon learn. Taking my attention off of the board, I walked to the teacher's desk at the front of the room. A girl, definitely a senior (and also a dog), looked up at me like she hadn't expected any new members to walk in.
"Oh! Are you here to join us?" She asked.
"I mean, I was hoping to. Any space?" I said
"There's always room for a new team."
I paused. "Team?"
"Yes, it's required to have a team of at least two people." She clarified.
"When did this become a rule?" I was confused, as I literally never heard of this being a thing.
"It became a rule last week, and with no prior notice at all," she said with an apologetic smile. "I get your frustration, honestly."
Damn, I needed someone else to accompany me? How in the world was I going to find anyone like that? It's not like someone was going to waltz in and-
The door opened again, catching my attention. A fox walked in, as carefree as could be. By how short she was, I could tell she was a freshman. But it seems the dog I was just talking to knew her well, because she sighed upon seeing her.
"You never give up, do you?"
"Nope! Giving up is nowhere to be found in my vocabulary!"
I was almost starstruck at how the atmosphere changed instantly. This fox was the complete opposite of me. She was outgoing, loud, and friendly. I'm generally quiet and keep to myself most of the time.
"..you're here for that too, right? Right?"
I snapped back to reality. "What's up?"
"Aw, you weren't paying attention? I was asking if you also joined to be an explorer." She asked, supposedly repeating what she asked me while my head was in the clouds.
"Oh. Of course. I was about to-" then I paused. Leave and find some other exploration gig? Yeah, I don't know that I'm willing to pay money to do that. And any exploration organization outside of the school cost a pretty penny to do so. Somehow, I felt bad about almost saying it, and I wasn't sure why.
"Then why don't we make a team ourselves?"
That question felt like a gut punch. Somehow, I think if I had finished my initial statement, I would have shattered her spirit. "You want to form an exploration team... with me?"
"Sure, why not? It could be fun!"
Does she want to be bored out of her mind? I'm literally the most lifeless person in the school. I hear it from everyone every day. This girl, on the other hand, seems to be the complete opposite of me. Carefree and bright. She'd be a lot better off with literally anyone else. I was about to voice all of that, when I took the time to actually think about the position I was in.
As I mentioned before, there were other exploration opportunities out there that I was going to look into, but they cost money. However, if I teamed up with this fox, I wouldn't have to do that. What's more, it gave me an edge. Maybe with her around, I could do things I wouldn't be able to do alone. I'm not sure how well we'd get along, given our differences, but it was at least worth a shot.
"Alright," I finally said. "I'm in."
At that, her eyes brightened up. "Really? Thanks!"
That was that, I suppose. We turned back to the other girl, who'd been watching our entire exchange.
"So, you two are forming a team?"
"Yes!" The fox nodded, like it was the best thing to happen to her that day.
"Well first, I'll need both of your names." That's the moment that I realized that I was going to form a team with a girl who I didn't even know her name. Luckily, neither one of them mentioned this, or seemed to care.
"My name is Xander."
"And I'm Jackie!" My ear twitched. What an unexpectedly cute name. I won't be caught saying that out loud, though.
"And what of your team name?" the other girl asked.
Team name? I did not think that-
"Superstars!" Jackie abruptly answered.
I turned to Jackie. "Superstars?"
"Yeah! Superstars!"
Well, I certainly didn't have any better suggestions, so I went with it. "Sure, that works."
"So, the two of you will be Team Superstars." She wrote something down, and then handed the both of us a card each. I was about to ask what they were, when the answer was already taking shape in my hand.
My name and school picture appeared there, along with other stats. HP, SP, ATK, DEF, SPD... wait, was this what I think it was? It even had me listed as LVL 1. Jackie's card seemed to show her the same thing: her own stats.
"So you're probably wondering what those are, aren't you?" The girl spoke up. "Those are your stat cards. It's pretty self explanatory, really. It's also a way to show your experience as an adventurer to others should they come into contact with you."
Huh. I looked back down at the card. The easiest explanation was that it was made with magic. Wouldn't surprise me, honestly. Magic is something that, while normal, isn't used a lot in our day and age.
She then pointed over to the board at the back of the room that I had seen earlier. A few people were gathered around it now. "That's the quest board," she explained. "Normally, it's filled with requests from the student body, but there are also longer term quests and other quests that come from outside of the school. If you want to participate in the activities, make sure you write your team initials on the quest you decide to take."
"Can we choose more than one?" I asked. Maybe if we could, then we wouldn't just be stuck to one thing all the time.
"If you'd like," the girl said, "but it's not particularly recommended."
"I see." Jackie and I walked over to the board, and gave it a quick scan. Some quests were recommended for any level, some for level 7 and above, and some of the blatantly senior quests were high above any we could do. They were all neatly labeled, too. It had the name of the person who made the request, the recommended team level, and the description of what the quest was.
What caught my eye, though, was a quest at the top of the board. I took it down and scanned through it. In big bold letters, the task was clear, "Find the seven Plasma Stars."
Jackie peered over my shoulder. "Ooh, what's this one?" She read it and her eyes widened. "The Plasma Stars? Aren't they those gems that people keep talking about? What's so significant about them?"
I gave her a confused look, then decided to answer her question anyway. Maybe she wasn't as educated, which I can't blame her for. I don't know her life. "The Plasma Stars are seven mystical gems said to contain the ultimate power, created by the Stars themselves. There's a lot of stories surrounding them, so I won't go too in depth, but everyone agrees that if you find them, you'll find the treasure hidden in Star Valley, at the very center of the island."
"Wow," Jackie said, her amazement showing full on. "You seem like you know a lot about them. That's so cool!"
"Well, uh, I guess so." My ears were heating up at the embarrassment of her blatant nature and her words. "In other words, it's the reason why I came here. I wanted to find the Plasma Stars."
Jackie's ears perked up. "So, something like a treasure hunt?"
"I guess you could call it that. It doesn't seem to be too involved, although traveling all around the island in order to achieve that can be involving."
"So if we take this request, where do we start?"
I paused. Where are we supposed to start looking? That was a very good question.
"Well, only one person to ask." We walked back to the front of the room, where the club leader was. God, I need to ask her name. I can't keep calling her "club leader" forever. But before I could speak, Jackie spoke up first.
"Hey Lena, we want to do this quest. Any places where we should start looking?"
"Hm?" She looked up at us, and I handed her the request. She took one look at it, and then looked back up at us. "You.. you can't be serious. Really?"
And again, before I could speak up, Jackie spoke first. "Absolutely!" All I could manage at that point was a nod. I was about to attempt to defuse the situation, but then again, this is what I came here for, and I voiced that.
"Well, this is what I came here for, and that's what we intend to do."
The club leader, supposedly called Lena, stared at us for a long moment, then nodded. "Alright. Fine. We've been waiting for someone to pick up that quest for a while now, and I suppose I can't complain when someone's willing to do it."
She then set the quest down on the desk, wrote "TS" on it, then posted it back on the quest board. She returned to the desk, and pulled out a map. "You should take this. I don't suppose you two have toured the island before?"
The both of us shook our heads. I've been to a couple different parts of the island, but never all of it. She gave us the map, and I opened it. There it was, Sunset Island in all of its glory. I traced back to where we were. There's Rosewood, the place where we were at the moment.
Then, I saw it. An "X" over to the south part of Rosewood. How curious. Jackie and I shared a glance at each other, then back at the map. After a bit, I looked up at Lena. "This X.. is this where the first Plasma Star is suspected to be?"
"Yes," Lena answered. "We've suspected a Plasma Star to be there for quite some time, but couldn't do anything to confirm it since no one's wanted to explore in that place. Exploring that place will be your first task."
"Right. We can do it. Right, Jackie?"
"Right!" Jackie answered without any reservation. Maybe we could make this work out, after all. So far, I haven't really had any complaints about having her around at all, and her carefree nature was actually kinda easy to get into. I would normally be annoyed by it, but somehow, I just couldn't be annoyed with her. And I don't know why that is. I just don't.
"What other info can you give us about this place?" I asked. If we were really going to do this, then I felt like a bit more of an explanation would be helpful.
"Well," Lena began, "this place in particular was said to be used as a gathering spot for the longest time. However, as far as that goes, I have no other information."
"How little information. Seems whatever used to be there was long forgotten with time," I suggested.
"That would seem to be the case. However," Lena continued, "it was said that a 'star shaped gem' was kept down there for centuries, even after those times were gone. I have reason to believe it is a Plasma Star."
"So then, that's where we come in?" Jackie guessed.
"Exactly," Lena confirmed. "You two will be going into the depths of this cave and retrieving the Plasma Star. Then, you'll bring it back here."
"Sounds simple enough," I said.
"However, the both of you should be careful. An open ended quest like that is normally a lot more dangerous than it seems at first," she added.
"How bad could it be?" Jackie asked.
"People have gone missing on quests before," Lena warned. "One wrong move, and you could end up on the news for the wrong reasons. Don't be reckless."
My blood ran cold at that. I knew there were risks of being an explorer, so something like that wasn't new to me. Though, the way she said it, like it was a normal occurrence, sent chills down my spine.
"I'm sure we'll be fine! Right, Xander?" Jackie looked up at me, confident that I shared her enthusiasm. Does nothing faze this girl at all?
"Oh, we'll be alright. I'm sure of it," I answered. I wasn't the reckless type anyway, so maybe we were worrying for nothing. Still, I had the distinct feeling that this wasn't going to be as cut and dry as it seemed. Still, though, I had the advantage of having Jackie around. I'm sure we could return safely.
"Remember the objective, then," Lena reminded us. "Find the Plasma Star, and then report back here. That's all I have for you two."
I gave her a slight nod, then turned to Jackie. "That's that, then. Ready to go?"
Jackie smiled and nodded. "Yes!"
And that's how we got started. Jackie and I were about to embark on a quest without knowing each other too much, but all of that was about to change soon.
Our adventure was only just beginning.