Following the four ladies back to the others was just as easy as following them to the church. After a little bit of skulking, and after reaching the main part of town, Artyom was able to get ahead of the group and find Tommy and Neitra.

  Before he left on his own, he got a good idea of where they were headed. That made it easy for him to find where he needed to go.

  But what about the others?

  Nobody told them anything about where Tommy would be, so how did they find him? Probably the same way they knew he’d gotten into a fight against the undead earlier.

  Artyom wondered what would happen if he brought Tommy back to headquarters? Would they be able to track him beyond worlds altogether? He knew it was nothing but paranoia, but with their magical acumen and the possibility of rune magic coming into play as he’d seen with the undead that morning, such a thought experiment didn’t seem entirely off the table.

  “Hey you two,” said Artyom, walking into the restaurant and finding their table ahead of the others. “I got lost, but I think I saw the others arriving. Please don’t tell them that.” He gave them a sheepish expression.

  Neitra tried to stifle a giggle while Tommy tried looking disappointed, but soon began to laugh along. “Sure, we’ll keep it a secret. Right Neitra?”

  The brunette nodded along.

  Just as Artyom took his seat, the rest of the party walked in and made a bee-line for their table. They grimaced at Artyom and Neitra when they saw the two taking the seats on either side of Tommy, but the funk settled over them must have been strong enough to keep them from complaining, and they took the other free seats.

  That didn’t mean they weren’t readying their tongues to dig into the two interlopers.

  “Oh Lensa,” said the hero as soon as he saw the lavender haired girl. “Were you able to keep your dad safe? Did any of the undead attack the church again?”

  Tommy’s eyes were wide and his voice filled with nothing but concern; the question truly was completely innocent, but whatever mood the ladies were in reached some sort of crescendo, causing their jaws to snap shut.

  “Y-yeah. He’s safe,” replied Lensa, who had to slowly work her mouth to get the words out.

  “That’s good,” said the hero with a nod. “Was fighting off the undead hard? Apparently Artyom proved someone is controlling them with-”

  “So what should we order?” loudly asked Daisy, cutting Tommy off. “We’ve all been working our butts off today so let’s eat first! I’ve had enough seafood during lunch, let’s get something else!”

  She was so abrupt that even Tommy, ever aloof, was caught off guard. But thankfully for the ladies, he played along and just looked down at his menu.

  Artyom looked at him and saw the same look as when they’d split up from Lensa during the most recent attack. He wanted to say something, but once again, this wasn’t the time or place. But what was more annoying was how Daisy had cut off the line of discussion about the necromancer leading the undead.

  “Whatever, it’s not like I need their approval to investigate it anyway, and having them on board would probably lead to more trouble than it’s worth. Maybe I’ll grab everyone to help once I’ve found the culprit and gotten the info I need out of them?” thought Artyom.

  A waiter soon arrived to take their order and quickly returned with their food.

  Tommy interestingly tried to order pizza, which he described as cheesy tomato bread, and was given something that made his eyes go wide.

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  “Oh wow, is that the pizza you’ve always been talking about? It looks really good!” exclaimed Xerica. “You look excited, you must love it.”

  Tommy blankly stared at a hollowed out loaf of bread filled with raw diced tomatoes and chunks of aged blue cheese.

  Even Artyom couldn’t look away from the abomination on the hero’s plate, wondering how the restaurant had messed up such a basic description.

  “I think I’ll just have what you all are,” Tommy said weakly. “Artyom, give me some of your food.”

  “Just order a second plate for yourself then,” he replied. “I’m hungry after using all of that magic today.”

  “Wow, so selfish,” said Daisy, shaking her head in an exaggerated manner. “If I were sitting next to Tommy, I’d share my meal in a heartbeat.”

  “Why don’t you two switch, then?” asked Xerica. “And Neitra, switch with Lensa, she needs the pick-me-up after today.”

  The brunette looked between the four other women and slowly exhaled. Something about how she looked at them was different than before, and she slowly opened her mouth with a smile, “You only share instead of getting him a full meal? Let’s do that instead.”

  The four of them stared at Neitra with surprise, then contempt, but said nothing more. They knew they’d just been played.

  “Excuse me, waiter, could we get another seafood plate here, please? Just a normal one.”

  Tommy’s mood, and appetite, improved after the new plate of food was placed in front of him. With renewed vigor, he began to dig into his meal, and the others soon followed.

  All the tension from the evening and the start of dinner still hung in the air, weighing on everyone present. But not a word was said about it. They all just kept eating, and keeping their feelings about all these matters to themselves. For all it was a team dinner, everyone save Tommy was seemingly deep in enemy waters.

  Everyone was soon full and they left the restaurant after paying.

  “My father was able to get us one of the luxury cabins!” softly exclaimed Lensa as soon as they were outside. “However it only has one bed, so everyone else needs to stay at the local inn.”

  “Just one bed?” wondered Artyom. Whole lodgings from back home pretty much always had more than one bed for multiple guests, why else would anyone rent out an entire building? “They should at least have a couch, we could take that-”

  “Alright, we’ll come pick you two up in the morning,” said Xerica, as she, Tommy, and the other three ladies of her clique began to make their way towards the outskirts of town.

  Artyom stood there staring at the quintet as they walked away ignoring him.

  “Yeah, I really shouldn’t be surprised,” he said with a grunt. “It’s getting pretty late, so let’s get ourselves a place to sleep too.”

  Neitra nodded and led the way to a nearby inn. Rather than being one of the larger ones closer to the luxury cabins, this building was next to the markets. It wasn’t as fancy, but it was more than comfortable enough for the two, and still a step up from the tavern Artyom had stayed at back in Brimhaven.

  “Hello, we’d like a place to sleep,” said Neitra to the woman standing at the front counter.

  “Sure!” the attendant exclaimed. “It’s pretty quiet in town this time of year, minus all the commotion today, so the room with our biggest bed is available.”

  “Oh, um… we’re not actually-”

  “Excuse me for presuming!” the attendant said with a laugh. “I’ve got a room with twin beds in that case, how’s that?”

  “That’s wonderful-”

  “Actually, could we get two separate rooms?” asked Artyom. “If it’s not going to hit the team funds too hard, that is.”

  “Why would you want to do that?” asked Neitra, turning around to look at her teammate. “A single room with two beds should be fine too.”

  Artyom raised an eyebrow, not saying anything but not budging either.

  After a moment, Neitra slowly turned back to the attendant. “Two smaller rooms, please.”

  She didn’t sound sad or angry, but most certainly a little disappointed.

  The two each got a key and retired for the night to their rooms.

  “I wonder what that was about?” Artyom thought to himself. “Is she into me or something? But then why hasn’t she made a move on Tommy if she’s willing to pursue teammates like that? Maybe she’s not into him, or more likely the others would have gotten in her way, seeing as how overprotective they are of Tommy.”

  He shook it off. It wasn’t his business anyway, and besides, he needed some privacy tonight.

  Locking the door to make sure she didn’t try to pull a Skeya on him, Artyom slowly settled into bed and pulled out his phone. He pulled up the first number on speed dial and made a call.

  “Hey Gus, it’s been one hell of a day today. You free to talk?”

  https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/50757/a-frog-out-of-water-yu-gi-oh-gx