"I'll be gone for about an hour. Please don't do anything too crazy."

It had been with those words that Naofumi had left, headed out into the city to do some quick shopping at the grocery for what he wanted to cook up later that evening. And it had been with those words that Raphtalia now tried to busy herself to pass the time whilst he was away. She didn't necessarily mind being alone - it wasn't as if she was some lovesick puppy who needed constant attention from him. But being in a foreign country and a foreign world had meant that her mere presence introduced some… complications.

For starters, they were still on the fence as to whether or not her ears and tail were completely visible to others. Naofumi's brother hadn't seemed terribly bothered by it, so either he couldn't see them at all, or he could and simply hadn't paid much attention to them. In any case, the results from one person couldn't be applied to the masses, and so it was often considered a safer choice to simply have her stay at the house.

The moment he had stepped out the door, she had a singular goal in mind - his computer. He had already explained to her how it functioned, as well as how it could connect to a vast global network that housed the collective information of the entirety of humanity, something she found to be both extraordinary and almost inconceivable. There had even been a bit of extra legwork on his part to make things a bit more accessible. Her status as a vassal hero meaning that speech was automatically translated for her, but text was not.

And… computers were predominantly text-based.

So, text to speech had been flipped on for a special account he had made just for her (she couldn't read the name at all on the login screen, but instead recognized it by the cherry blossom icon he had selected), a crash course had been given on how to even use a computer, and the rest had simply been left to her. She learned best when she could get hands-on with something anyways, and it wasn't as if there was any real harm in trial-and-error.

With that in mind, she had already scuttled away to his room, taking a seat before his computer and guiding the mouse to her own profile.

She… wasn't terribly certain what to do after that. She had watched him use it plenty, but now that she was alone, she was suddenly drawing blanks. Maybe if she just… looked at some of the icons, it'd jog her memory.

Except it wasn't. Aside from one that looked much like a trash can, she didn't really recognize any of these. Most of the pictures looked horribly vague, or were so overly-stylized that she had no real idea what they even could be.

Wait. Maybe… this one?

The mouse moved her towards an icon that looked like an orange 'U' upon a blue backdrop, and clicking it soon brought her to a more familiar site - a homepage. Progress!

...and a sudden setback. What came next again?

She remembered Naofumi using the keyboard to type various words into the bar near the top, but of course, she couldn't make heads or tails of it. It was a Japanese keyboard, of course she didn't know what any of it meant. But… wait, text to speech was on, wasn't it?

A finger pressed one of the keys, resulting in a simple "E" sound from one of the speakers. The rest of the bar suddenly filled in with numerous results, and she was very quickly beginning to feel overwhelmed. One of the results was frantically clicked, if only to try and make everything else go away, and she was quickly brought to a rather colorful website.

None of it made any sense to her, of course, but it did look rather pleasant. The logo in the corner seemed to be red, blue, yellow, and green, certainly not nearly as consistent as some of the others she had seen while running through the streets with Naofumi after her sudden arrival. There were also a slew of other pictures present before her, with text and numbers below several of them. Her attention was suddenly drawn elsewhere, by a flashing picture along the side, and with her curiosity getting the better of her, she gave it a click.

"Congratulations! You've won!"

The sound had just about sent her jumping out of her own skin, and with her tail suitably puffed from fright, she squinted and leaned a bit closer. All she could really make out was the picture of a small, strange-looking silver box."I… won? What did I win?"

"Congratulations! You've won!"

"Yes, I know. Could you please tell me what it is I've won?"

The screen made no real recognition of her question, and instead continued to spew out the same line through the speaker. "Congratulations! You've won!"

"I know!" Ears now flicking in irritation, she leaned ever closer, almost pressing her cheek against the monitor. "Whoever is in there, please tell me what I've won!"

It merely droned on, repeating the same line, and she could feel herself becoming increasingly aggravated from getting stonewalled by whoever had been offering her something. Cutting her losses, she instead decided to simply forsake whatever it was her prize was to be, and clicked the 'X' in the corner to make it disappear - she had at least remembered that much from watching Naofumi.

Doing so simply made another box appear, this one featuring the image of a human man and woman, who wore… not a whole lot, really. The appearance rapidly sent her as far back in the chair as it would allow.

"Hot singles in your area want to meet you!"

"What?!" She certainly didn't appreciate having the people inside the computer throw her emotions around so quickly, hastily pushing her from shocked, to surprised, to aggravated, and now… to flustered. "I'm, um… flattered, really. But there's already someone else I'm interested in…"

Unlike the previous picture, this one didn't talk to her any further, and instead sat still upon the screen, continually flashing its message. Something about having the man and woman simply staring at her was… a little unnerving.

"I'm… going to go now. I'm sorry if I upset you at all." Raphtalia cocked her head a bit, as she eyed the screen with suspicion. "I'm simply not interested, though. I'm sure you understand."

The image continued to stare right back at her. Unyielding. Unblinking. Whoever these people are, they're awfully determined… It reminded her of Motoyasu, and not in a good way. Another quick movement of the mouse, and the judgmental picture disappeared, leaving her right back where she had started. No one-or rather, nothing-was really trying to speak to her here, but that was fine.

Scrolling down the page, she soon found something that piqued her interest - a picture of a rather large wok, not unlike what Naofumi sometimes used when he cooked. Hadn't he been talking earlier about wanting a new one? Curious, she clicked upon it, bringing her to yet another page. The picture of the wok still remained, but this time, several more numbers had appeared, and she wasn't entirely sure what any of them meant.

Two of the numbers kept changing, and she simply stared at them as she tried to decipher their meaning. One looked like it was going… up? And the other was going down. Was this perhaps simply some game? Her eyes flashed with realization as a thought came to mind - if she played this game, and were to get a new wok for Naofumi to use… he'd no doubt be elated, wouldn't he? Oh, how perfect!

She had always thought of herself as a fast learner anyways. It shouldn't take horribly long for her to figure out this game if she simply studied it for a bit, watching the numbers change every few minutes. There was a small box next to the picture, with several buttons next to it, and she cautiously pressed a few keys into the box before giving the button a click.

The number went up. And then it went up again, with a small message cropping up in the corner.

Ah, so that's it! The entire point of the game is to make the number go up! And surely whoever reached the highest number won the game, yes?

She entered another number into the box, and clicked the button again. The number rose, and abruptly stopped rising. Had she managed to be the highest number? The other number simply continued to tick down, and after a few more minutes of nothing else happening, another message suddenly appeared. She wasn't entirely sure what this meant either, but she could at least recognize the symbol for 'yen', Naofumi's native currency. Were they perhaps giving her a cash prize as well for winning? A few more clicks, and the message vanished just as quickly as it had appeared, with what she assumed to be a congratulatory announcement showing up afterwards.

Oh, Naofumi-sama's going to be so happy!

"Raphtalia? I'm back."

Ducking her head out his bedroom door, she smiled and waved. "Welcome home, Naofumi-sama."

"Guessing it was easy enough for you to keep busy?" He was already in the midst of setting some groceries down upon the counter, laying some out for the meal prep he would no doubt be starting in just a few short minutes. "Sorry for just leaving you behind, but we don't know yet how people might react to you."

"Oh, it's fine, really! I, um… I got you a present, Naofumi-sama, though…" Taking a few cautious steps away from his computer, she scratched at her cheek a bit in thought. "I'm… not completely sure when or how it's supposed to get here?"

"A present, huh? What'd you manage to…" He trailed off, looking up from a carton of eggs to simply stare at her. "Wait. You're… not sure how it's supposed to get here? Raphtalia, what did you do?"

"W-Well… I was on your computer, and… I had one person telling me I won something, but then someone else tried to tell me they were interested in me. But I stood my ground and told them I was simply not interested in them, that I instead already had you, and-"

"No no, not… not that. What else did you do?"

"Oh! Well, I found this odd little game on your computer! All you did was simply make a number go up before the other went all the way down, so I thought I'd play it and… maybe win something for you."

He narrowed his eyes a bit. "And… where did you play this game at?"

"Um… I… don't really know what it's called, but it was awfully colorful."

"Hold on." Setting a carton of milk down, he quickly brushed past her, peeking into his own room and staring at the screen. "Raphtalia, why were you on Ebay?"

He would end up spending the next hour on the phone with customer support, trying to calmly explain that no, he hadn't meant to spend eighteen thousand yen on a single cast iron wok. Raphtalia was also promptly banned from using the internet without direct supervision as well, though he also made it absolutely clear that he wasn't angry at her in any way. The sentiment had certainly been appreciated, at least, and he thought it was kind of her to be thinking of him like that.

As long as she wasn't spending a small fortune on a singular item in an online bidding contest, he was more than happy having her keep him in her thoughts.