Nobina and Her Strange Journey Through Another World

Nobina left the room and came back to the table. Fitz was enjoying his meal, waving at Nobina when she came back.

"What was that?" he asked, taking a bite of his fish.

"Well…"

Before Nobina could say anything, a flash occurred from the Gaza bag. Nobina felt embarrassed as she realized she couldn't really hide the bag this time.

"Uh…" said Fitz, looking at Nobina.

"Right… this is a special bag that produces items," said Nobina. "For example…"

Nobina opened the bag and pulled out a bottle of water. It came with a note that said, "Fills with the preferred liquid you desire. One use per week."

"Oh that's…"

Before Nobina could say anything, a dart shot out of the bag, poking a hole in the water bottle, causing it to leak. Not only that, but then a water balloon fell out of the bag, exploding in a massive burst of water, causing Nobina, Fitz, and most of the area around them to be soaked in tons of water.

"Nobina…" said Fitz, staring at her dumbfoundedly.

"Excuse me Mr. Fitz and guest…" approached a waiter that was oozing in anger yet maintaining a proper demeanor. "May I speak with both of you on the side?"

Nobina and Fitz both sighed as they got their things and followed the waiter. In the meantime, a few other waiters were doing their best to clean the watery mess, but the sheer amount of it made it unlikely to be handled anytime soon.

Once the two were in the back, the waiter politely told both of them they were banned from the restaurant and that other restaurants would be put on notice.

Fitz and Nobina began both apologizing to the best of their ability, with Nobina extremely embarrassed. However, the words fell on deaf ears as the waiter told them to promptly leave the establishment. They would be refunded partially, but they would not be served the remaining part of the course.

As both of them left after receiving the refund, Nobina gave the biggest bow she could.

"I'm so sorry, Fitz," said Nobina, feeling extremely guilty for causing so much hassle not only for Fitz but also for everyone at the restaurant. "I… I don't know what overcame the entities. They normally aren't this… well, they are sometimes chaotic, but never to this degree… I…”

Fitz grabbed hold of Nobina, causing her to freeze and stare at him.

"Calm down Nobina," he smiled. "Sure, what happened was unfortunate and I'd love to hear what exactly happened, but… I'm ok. Really. I hope your evening wasn't ruined by what just happened."

Nobina, looking at Fitz, shook her head vigorously.

"Oh no… I'm ok. I'm more saddened by the fact I might have ruined the evening of everyone else," she responded back.

Fitz gave it some thought and patted her on the shoulder.

"Let's go for a walk and talk. If it's a bit private, we can find a nice, secluded spot to finish up the night. Unless you’re hungry, of course."

"My appetite is a bit ruined," she chuckled. "I'd love to have tasted some of that chocolate desert, but… not much we can do about that."

With that, both of them headed off into the night. The moonlight was illuminating the calm, peaceful streets. There weren't that many people out at this time, with guards making up most of the individuals they saw. Eventually, they found their way into the city part. It was illuminated by magical lanterns that were powered by very common energy crystals. Agora was different in the sense that they only used candle-based lanterns because these energy crystals weren't common at all in Agora. It was thanks to Navira being a major trade town that these were more numerous.

"It's beautiful," said Nobina, approaching one of the magical lanterns.

"Oh yes," smiled Fitz, joining her. "These lanterns are growing in popularity. They only require a bit of magic and last for days to weeks. As long as someone can cast magic of any time, they can power the lanterns, which makes them far cheaper to use."

Nobina gave a nod, her gaze still on the pleasant light of the lantern.

After looking at it for a bit, Nobina found an empty bench, where she sat down with Fitz on her side. It was only then that she realized she was pretty cold due to being wet by the water. If it wasn't for the leather portion of it and the pants being water-resistant, she'd have been freezing. However, looking at Fitz, she finally noticed that he was shivering a bit.

"Fitz! You're freezing aren't you," she said worriedly.

The weather was relatively cold, so Nobina was worried that Fitz was enduring a coldness that was causing him pain. However, he smiled, shaking his head.

"Oh, don't worry," he smiled. "I've delt with heavy showers before, I'm perfectly fine."

Nobina shook her head, going into her special bag to find something to help.

"Nope. Not this… Definitely not those…"

For all the special items, Nobina had no idea what would work best. However, her mind remembered one of the gifts, drawing her to grab it near the bottom of the bag.

Nobina pulled out a beautiful scarf that she immediately tossed over Fitz. His eyes opened in surprise when he felt much warmer than before.

"What… is this?" asked Fitz.

"This scarf has high temperature resistance. It should hopefully bring you to a warmer state."

Fitz, his eyes full of wonder, looked at Nobina in awe.

"Who… are you Nobina?"

Nobina, giving a smile, decided to tell Fitz what she could.

The story Nobina gave Fitz was one that spoke of everything except her Path and Nonomo. She told him about the Gaze bag and went into more detail about it compared to before. She talked about the things she'd received from it and the various events that had happened related to the bag itself. Fitz merely nodded, piecing together the story from earlier with the new information Nobina was adding. When it was done, all Fitz could do was nod.

"I see… So you have some divine entities watching you and they interact with you through this bag," he nodded.

"It's honestly crazy," sighed Nobina. "I never thought that this bag would get so chaotic, but its proven me wrong each time. There are so many magical items I have with me that I'm scared will cause chaos if I ever use them. At least Eric is watching most of them, but I do have the most important ones with me."

"Then… would you say the bag was messing around with you?" asked Fitz, his gaze on it.

"I honestly don't know," she smiled. "It's done more good than bad, but it makes me worried about what it will do in the future. All it takes is an item received in at a bad time to ruin everything."

Nobina had always had that worried, but the bag had so far been mindful of when it timed things. The fact that this time its timing resulted in this mess meant that it might be leaning to be more reckless than it usually was.

"So what now?" asked Fitz. "Just… keep going on as usually, I suppose?"

"What else is there to do," said Nobina, leaning back. "Do I try to learn more about the Gaze and try to control it? There's also a lot of other stuff I'm dealing with that… I can't tell you yet. I feel overwhelmed."

Fitz thought about the correct thing to say but eventually just shook her head.

"Well… It's hard to help you without knowing everything, but… just know that I'm here for you Nobina. I might not be with you all the time, but I'll do my best to find time to help you if needed."

Hearing that, Nobina gave a chuckle.

"I really… appreciate that Fitz. I'm hoping tomorrow is calm and there's nothing to stress over, but it might be too much to ask," she said, her eyes looking a bit down casted.

"Let's hope together," nodded Fitz.

Soon, the two departed from the park, heading back to Nobina's place. Once they were at the guild inn, Fitz handed back the scarf. Despite still being wet, the guild receptionist of the inn offered a set of dry clothing for him to use, which he accepted gracefully.

"See you around Nobina," smiled Fitz.

"See you… and thank you for everything Fitz," responded Nobina.

As soon as he was gone, she returned to her room, where she changed out of her outfit, dried off, and swapped back to her normal outfit.

"Guess I'll have to get the uniform dried," sighed Nobina.

Once that was done, she began writing in her diary. At the same time, Hammy joined her, appearing on the side of her diary and resting as it seemed to watch her write.

"Do you enjoy writing Hammy?" asked Nobina.

Hammy merely looked at her before turning their attention back to the book. Despite the lack of words, Nobina took their response as a yes, as they seemed extremely focused on what she was writing. So much had happened and Nobina hadn't been filling in her diary as often as she liked.

"I… haven't even been keeping up with my training," she sighed.

Nobina had been slacking on her physical training ever since they left the town. It was mainly due to the fact that she wasn't fully settled in and hadn't found her rhythm. She was hoping to wake up a bit earlier the next day to get some training in.

Besides that, Nobina really wanted to continue her book, but she lacked both inspiration and the material she needed to continue it. She had hoped to go on an adventure in the town to write a few more chapters, but so far, she had been swamped with work. She was hoping it wouldn't be long though before the current situation was resolved and she had some free time. The worst case would be having to merely keep things in memory so she could write the book when she got back to Agora.

"All in good time," she told herself.

Soon, she finished up her diary and headed to bed. Hammy slept right next to her, providing her some comfort as her only companion there.

"I wonder how they are doing," Nobina told herself before falling asleep.

The following day, Nobina woke up early to go for a bit of a jog. Once she was downstairs, the receptionist was surprised to see her in a casual outfit.

"Day of Nobina?" asked the receptionist.

"Oh no," she responded. "I still need to get my old uniform dried. Uh… you wouldn't happen to have a spare one, right?"

The receptionist shook their head.

"Unfortunately not. We don't often keep spares for security reasons. I can have your uniform dried though."

Nobina gave a nod, heading upstairs to grab it and then heading back down. Once she handed it over, she thanked the receptionist, who merely gave a nod.

"Have a good day Nobina," she smiled.

With that, Nobina stepped out of the guild inn and began her jog. She was still new to the city, so she took a route amongst the streets she was familiar with so far. The city was slowly waking up, but Nobina knew it wouldn't be long before it was packed yet again. All she could do was enjoy the nice, relaxing sight she was having as she made her way through the city.

The city itself felt somewhat old. From what Nobina could recall, this city was founded hundreds of years ago as a small village. However, it immediately blew up one day when a famous merchant decided to turn it into a hub of commerce. Eventually, its population soared as trades from all over decided that was the place to do business.

"This place certainly doesn't lack options," she chuckled.

Despite not having a bookstore for her to buy books, it did have a specialized book trading store and a library. That was more than Agora had and Nobina wanted to visit the library when she got a chance.

Eventually, it was time to head back to the guild. Despite not having a uniform, Nobina had the special guild symbol attached to her clothing, indicating it was a substitute for an actual uniform. She hoped that it would still be valid at the Navira guild, but she was prepared to change into an actual uniform if it wasn't.

When Nobina arrived back at the guild, she was immediately flagged down by Mimiki, who was at one of the receptionist desks.

"Nobina," she called.

"What is it Mimiki?" asked Nobina as she headed to her.

"The supervisor in charge of animals has informed me they are having trouble taming your giant bunny. Can you go ahead and handle it? The bunny is outside the western gate in the Navira Animal and Monster Containment Area. I can lead you if you want."

Nobina gave a nod.

"That would be great."

Mimiki handed off the spot to another guild employee, and the two were off. As they walked, Nobina could see Mimiki's joyous expression as they traveled to the western gate.

"Seems like you've been enjoying things," chuckled Nobina.

"Oh yeah," she nodded. "I've helped so many adventurers, seen some new cool skills, and sparred with another S-rank adventurer. Of course, I got easily defeated, but I learned a decent amount from then. This is a blast."

Nobina couldn't help but be happy for Mimiki. Despite how less exciting her own work had been, Nobina did enjoy working with the numbers. It removed her worry about dealing with the craziness of her Path and her ever-growing worry about something serious happening.

"How about you Nobina? Have things been good?" asked Mimiki with a curious look.

"Hm… Overall? I say yes," she nodded. "There's been a lot of hectic things due to the position of financial officer, but I'm getting used to it at least."

"That's good," smiled Mimiki. "Have you been keeping up with your training?"

"Ack," said Nobina, causing Mimiki to stop and stare at her.

"Nobina," she said, tapping her foot and looking at her with a frown.

"Listen! I'm settling in. I did go for a jog at least so… soon I'll get back into the routine."

"Alright," smiled Mimiki. "We'll do some personal training together later on so be ready for that."

Nobina gave a gulp realizing Mimiki was going to work her to the bone. It was her own fault though for slacking behind.

"Yes… teacher," sighed Nobina.

The two of them eventually reached the west gate and passed through. Nobina was surprised to see more houses and other structures on this side, considering that the east gate had none, but she had to guess it was due to this side being the path to the capital. The walk to the giant bunny took about ten more minutes, with them leaving the housing area and arriving at a fenced-off area with a few large buildings. There were all sorts of animals around, but the really surprising thing was the special metal enclosures with monsters. Some of them were giant-winged birds, while others were similar to wolves and bears.

"Wow," said Nobina, her eyes moving from monster to monster.

"Yeah. This place contains any animals that clients have requested to be captured," said a nearby guild employee. "Of course, due to the danger of this we charge significantly more for this, but money is money after all. There are limits to what you can capture, but we generally have no issue with most animals and monsters."

Nobina gave a nod. It made her wonder what purpose some of these animals and monsters had that someone would pay extra to capture it.

"Squeak!"

A large squeak was heard, causing all the animals and monsters to react accordingly. Nobina, Mimiki, and the other employees covered their ears as well.

"What was that," yelled Nobina.

"The giant bunny," he yelled back. "Ever since it ran out of that soup, it's been extremely difficult to control. Even our best animal handler can't do anything. Either we get it more soup, or the owner helps control it."

Nobina felt guilty once again that she was a part of the problem, but she shook her head, hoping to resolve the issue.

"I'm the owner," said Nobina. "Please lead me to them."

The employee gave a nod, leading Nobina to the spot of the giant bunny. Once she was there, she saw that it was sadly lying down, looking at the empty bowl in front of it. The moment it saw Nobina, it gave another loud squeak, forcing them to all cover their ears.

"I'm here," said Nobina, realizing she still needed to name the bunny. "Uh… Shoot. What should I…."

Before Nobina could say anything, she saw a piece of paper fly out of the bag and land in her hands.

"Tenfold Gigaton… Iron Beast of… the Moon? Oh! Also known as Giggles," said Nobina.

The moment she said Giggles, the bunny gave a nod, positively receiving the name.

"Right…. Giggles… Uh… Do you want… miso soup?"

"Squeak," they responded back.

"Right," Nobina said. "Well… I… Hold on. Let me try this."

Nobina took out the bottle that had been pierced earlier by the dart. Hoping it worked, she imagined highly condensed concentration miso soup, and soon, the bottle began filling with it. Due to the leak, it was unable to hold the liquid long, but that worked to Nobina's advantage. She uncapped the top and held the bottle to allow the miso soup to fill the giant bunny's bowl. However, almost expectantly, the bottle only filled it slightly. Next, she had them fill the rest of the bowl with water. Her hope was that mixing the highly concentrated soup with water would create a slightly diluted version of the soup. She began worrying it wasn't enough for Giggles, but they seemed happy and began drinking the diluted soup.

"Phew," sighed Nobina.

"Thank you," said the guild employee. "Uh… but I think that might only last… Giggles… a week at most."

"Right," nodded Nobina. "I need to find a more permanent means of feeding Giggles… "

She couldn't help but sigh at getting another task to complete. However, she was happy that Giggles was content for now.

"Giggles," said Nobina, walking up to it.

"Squeak," they responded, turning to them.

"I won't be able to give you miso soup that often, but… can you drink water and not cause a fuss?"

"Squeak," they responded again, giving a nod.

"Thank god," smiled Nobina.

For now, the immediate problem was handled, but Nobina knew there was still a lot to do. From her normal tasks to the more serious problems, she found herself lacking the time to do everything. However, she knew the only thing she could do for now was power through the tough times and hope for things to get better. In the meantime, she'd do her best to get stronger.