How Cold [Open]

The plaza is quite full today, something that usually happened in the weekend. It may not be enough to gather all citizen of Ys, but this sizable place with fountain on the center are used by the citizen to sell what they wanted to sell without any tax attached to it, which honestly a steal. However, to not crash the economy, there are also limitation on how much one can sell during this time. It's also generally for people who does not have a shop, or just locals who want to sell their old, unused items. The ones that exempted from the item limit would be snack stalls. They're often capsize this moment to sell on tourists or anyone who wanted to eat it.

"Ossan, give me one grilled squid!" a Wanyamon approached a stall selling grilled squid. The stall is manned by a Mojyamon with a fabric tied to his head.

"Why isn't this the young master! Alone today?"

"Well I have to go alone sometimes you know?"

"Hohoho, well don't make your parents so worried, you hear?

"That's fair. How many was that?"

"Oh don't worry about it."

...Again huh. No matter where he shopped in this city, it's something like 'don't worry about it'. If he assert his willingness to pay, they either looked troubled or just reluctantly accepted it. Some people who wanted to curry favor with his father would even gave him without being asked... thankfully that sort of people are immediately reprimanded or warned so they should know that Hikaru dislikes any form of currying favor with that sort of way.

The Wanyamon hopped away, only to sometimes stop to munch at the juicy morsel. He looked up to find... huh what a big cat?

"Say Miss, never seen you before, are you new here? Want some bite?" Steyr offered his giant grilled squid at the lady with book.

"Oh that's alright," Steyr answered "I've been stuck in this form for a... uh... probably few months now? I'm not going to evolve anytime soon even if technically I have enough data at the moment to evolve to higher stage. Plus I think to be a great guide for a guest is better than just a food! I actually got some money on my pocket!"

...Why does this kid talk about having money so cheerfully like it's the most normal thing ever? Wouldn't he afraid to be pickpocketed? Either way, Steyr simply handed the squid to Mae. It's still hot but the chill is making it cooler faster.

How long as he been here? "I'm pretty much born here actually. Right in my grandpa's house heh. I think the teleporter kinda set at slightly wrong coordinate, and when the Swanmon wanted to drop me to the portal, I accidentally teleported Gramp's house. Well, it's been few months already since then~

Anyway, name's Steyr, who are you, big lady?"

Hmmm? That's interesting. "Miss, how do you deal day to day stuff while you're a Baby?" he asked. It sounded tedious to be honest. Really tedious. Even Steyr who's in home in Ys like this where people treat him like some young master is actually having quite hard time reaching places. It's also hard for being coddled by everyone because he's just so small... but even then, what is there to do? He understand that he's small and weak for the meantime... but he'd like to know how other people survive in such condition.

...Looks like Mae is mutated somehow, looking at the fangs. He never saw any Meicrackmon with that sort of mouth before.

"Hmmm? Kappy? Well... I think I do hear that name somewhere... I think when uncle Agito talked something with Dad? Eh well. Anyway, nice to meet you, Miss Mae! So what do you want to do today? It's Bazaar day, so surely you want to look around for what this city have to explore?"

"Hmmm, you have someone taking care of you? Does it feel annoying when you saw kids around your age already evolved and you stayed.. twerp?" Steyr asked. It seemed like it's a bit of a sore point for the Wannyamon. Does the other babies grew up faster than he does? "Arms sounds good. If I think about it I think I'll be either Gaomon or Bearmon, who knows." he shrugged... or at least, made a motion similar to shrug. "But either way? I guess hearing that I'm not the only one who stuck in this for long kind of cheered me up somewhat."

Hearing that Mae think he might know what's around made him excited. "Why of course! I know what's up around here! Lessee... what do you want to do first? The Bazaar are full of people selling merchandises they would like to get rid of, but of course it still works. From electronic appliances, to strange objects, maybe you'll find what you want! Among them there are also food stalls and drink stalls if you're tired from walking around and need refreshments! Oh, I suggest some MeraMera Chicken, which quite good to heat your body up in cold time like this! Careful, they're really hot though!"

"Heh, my parents are Dorumon and Gaomon. My Da is a teacher in Rosewood, you see, that's the Gaomon one. I'd be fine whether I'll turn into Gaomon or Dorumon, but I wish I could hurry it up some. It's hard to not being able to do anything much and got coddled around by the people heh... Well, it's not that I seriously mind but it still blows you know? Ah, about the chicken, it's both."

Steyr hopped toward one of the stall, where there are a sign of a chicken with fire on it. "Over here!" The Wanyamon pointed at the sign with his tail. To perhaps surprise of many, the one who sells the food is a Blue Meramon.  "The appliances that sold around here are mostly stuff like toasters, microwaves, or stoves, and at times you have high end appliance such as housemade artifact from old era that creates field of fire that somehow only work for certain area, and does not emit heat bars from its area of effect."

It's strange stuff really but Steyr had no idea how else to describe it to Mae. "Or if you're interested in antique books, I heard some people here founds ancient books lying in their house's basement."

Well, time to show the wonder how Ys works then! "Actually, I can help you there..." Steyr hopped over next toward what looked like a computer terminal. There, the display quickly adjusted to his size in height despite at first it looked like something that a human can have easier access to heightwise. He quickly called out to the terminal

"Please tell me locations of the seller for antique books!"

"Search complete, queries regarding 'Antique Books' that sold today are in the green dots in the map. You're currently on the position of the yellow dots. If you wish to print this map, please say 'print'"

"Print please."

And then just like that the map is printed out. Steyr bit the edge and handed it over to Mae. On the map is detailed look of the plaza, while the green dots are numbered. Some numbers have legends to them, like '100 Tales of Ages Passed' or 'Introduction to Healing Through Data Structure: Intermediate Healing Technique', but most just say "Ancient Books" without actually telling what it is .

"Well, at the moment there are seven spots where they sold the antique books. Unfortunately when it comes to antique books, most of them does not have linguistic or literature proficiency to even know what the title is. But I hope the premise is interesting enough!"

"Indeed I know more, but just in case if you come here again, I'll tell you how to make sure of your position. First, look at the terminal. The terminal is your starting spot. These boxes here shows the stalls and kiosks. So in this case, the one that sells the 100 tales is on the eastern side... so you go to the other side of the plaza... and then you count from in front of the terminal. In this case, five boxes to the top so...." looks like the explanation is done in rather childish way, but can you really blame the lil guy? He seem to be excited to be useful for someone.

"And so over here!"

The one that sells the book is apparently a Dreamon. "Welcome, is there something that I can help you with?"

"Yes, hello! Well, this lady here would like to see your ware."

"Well hello there! It's rare to see tourists interested in my shop. I happened to see you from afar. I'm called Hypno, and my store is specialized in selling goods to increase qualities of your sleep, you see."

The said Dreamon waved his hand toward his wares, which seems to include potpourris, candles, night lamps, pillows, comforter, bolsters, and various other sleeping apparels. Speaking of which, there are also books.