Chapter Text
It begins with a fable. One passed through the ages about a race of people known as Icarians. The Icarians were a group of people with humanoid features, save a few key detail, their majestic wings, and their unimaginable power. Historians have mulled over their existence for nigh centuries at this point, with their existence being a topic for some fiery debates over the years.
Until eventually, one key discovery was made. A excavation team at Sult Ruins discovered ancient statues of the Icarians, which were soon to be displayed at a nearby museum in Parm; The museum in question being the Baal Museum.
But that wasn’t the only interesting thing going on in Parm that day.
A young girl, no older than 8 years old, with strikingly purple hair, and a frilly pink dress sprints through the small port town, ducking, dodging, and weaving through passersby, while a small creature rests atop her head, taking in the breeze.
All of a sudden, a shout echoes through the north district of the town.
“HEY YOU!”
The girl comes to a halt almost immediately, listens to where the sound came from for around 5 seconds, before dashing off towards its origin.
While dragging a redheaded boy out of his shed, a sailor picks him up by the ear, and shouts, “This’ll teach ya, you punk!” before throwing him up against the wall.
“How many times do I gotta tell you Justin, Stop going through my shed!”
“I don’t need some brat trashing up the place on the daily! I swear, if I catch you in there ‘hunting for treasure’ one more time, I’m gonna give you a thrashing you won’t ever forget!”
The redheaded boy peels his head away from the wall and retorts, “I didn’t trash it though! Why won’t you just listen to me for once!”
“Don’t you dare get mouthy with me!” The sailor cocks his fist back, and subsequently sends it right into the boy’s cranium with a loud crack, sending him straight to the ground.
And with that meaty hit to the noggin, the sailor walks back to his shed, and slams the door shut.
After peeling his face off yet another hard surface, the boy starts to clutch his head, and through gritted teeth mutters out, “Damn, that hurts.”
“That dude just doesn’t get it, does he…”
While the boy continues to nurse his heavily bruised noggin, a shrill cry can be heard, with it getting louder by the second.
“JUUSSTTIINN!!”
The little girl sprints right up to the boy, and without missing a beat, asks him
“Hey, are you doing okay? That sounded like it reaaally hurt.”
The boy quickly gets up, placing his signature blue cap back on his head, and while bashfully rubbing his head, he elects to say, “Oh, you saw that? It was nothing, really! An adventurer like me has been through much worse!” while he attempts to ignore the throbbing pain pulsing though his temple.
Luckily for Justin, the girl lets up on the topic pretty quickly, and gets back to the meat of their conversation.
“So, did you find anything inside of the legendary treasure cove?”
“Nah, I couldn’t find squat. I prolly just guessed wrong…”
“What about you Sue?”
With a smirk plastered all over her face, Sue reaches behind her back to procure her spoils.
“Of course I found something!”
She whips out a old, grease-stained, but still relatively clean kitchen apron.
“Feast your eyes upon the legendary armor!”
The small creature perched atop Sue’s head begins to angrily chirp, while flying in circles around the two.
“Oh yeah, Puffy helped a ton too!”
As soon as these words leave Sue’s mouth, Puffy lets out one last satisfied chirp, before taking his place atop Sue’s head once again.
“Anyways, here you go Justin, hold on to it for the two”– another angry chirp rings out above Sue’s head – “No, three of us!”
She hands the apron off to Justin, who quickly folds it up, and places it into his bag.
“Great job Sue, now we only need to find the Warriors Helmet, The Shield of Light, and lastly, The Spirit Sword!”
“Don’t forget about our deadline Justin, we gotta get all of ‘em before sundown, or we’ll lose…”
“And we’d better win! I reaaally don’t wanna get stuck with that awful Gantz…. You really didn’t have to take him up on that bet anyways you know!”
“Alright, on my honor as an adventurer, I swear that we’ll win this thing! Now, lets go show this to Gantz!”
The three of them run through the streets of Parm, weaving between pedestrians, and alleyways alike, all while their noses were tickled by the salty sea breeze.
The three of them soon arrived at the bridge, where a group of kids sat up against some boxes.
As Justin walked up to the bridge, one of the kids, namely the one with a horrendous looking mullet gets up, and starts making his way over to Justin.
The two of them meet face to face, and with a smirk plastered all over his freckled face, Justin declares ”We found it Gantz. We found the first treasure.”