Her friends called her Vivi for short, but the Black Mage properly called Vivian was thinking Eiko had lost that privilege. The bratty little summoner-boy just didn't know when to stop bugging people.

"C'mon, Vivi, you're like a girl too, you gotta help me out here!"

"I told you I don't know anything about that!"

"But you and Zida are friends, right? You know what she likes, and you can help me stop the Prince muscling in on the action!"

"...Where did you even learn all this stuff?"

"Pretty much all my grandma's library was romance novels, plays, and summoner stuff. And she told me when I was older I was supposed to leave the village and look for a beautiful older woman, well, one came into the village!"

An evil thought occurred to Vivian.

"You know girls have... cooties, right?"

"Grandma told me that was the kind of weird crap outsiders believed in."

Damn it, his grandma had been as smart as hers.

"Uh, well, Zida is... well, she's like, a lot older than you."

"Duh, that's what my grandpa said I was supposed to look for, and she's cute!"

"Well, why do you have to say Zida's the only one? It's a big world, why not wait and see if there's more fish in the sea?"

"Uh, Vivi, I'm not fishing. Not after that shark I caught."

"It's a meta-thingy. Metadoor."

"Oh, that was in a play, some weird guy fought a bull, sounded really dumb..."

"What I mean is that there's more girls than just Zida. I mean, there's like the Knights of Pluto, uh... there's Blanc, Zida's friend. There's Lady Steiner..."

"Wait a minute. I see what you're doing here..."

Finally!

"You're an older girl too! I'm flattered, Vivi, but Zida's won my heart already!"

"...That... That's not even what I..."

Vivian sighed.

"Zida's right, boys are stupid..."