All I have to say is... WOW!
I do love that part "Artificially flavored tooth-decay developer" sounds so...so...so Kinoku.
This part confused me a bit : '"Hey, you wanna pay for your gas yet buddy?" He slaps a hand on my shoulder, and I hastily pay for my temporarily forgotten gas.'
I thought, "Is that the dad or the station attendent or... both? But then, where does the son come in?" It was not until I read on, that I figured it all out.
I do love the ending too. The line, "...But we don't voice that of which we have no proof."
Great story Corky-chan!
oh, and PLEASE make haste in writing the story of the Nues...did I spell that right? Oh, well, you know what I mean, am i correct? And finish at least one chapter of the wonderful story with our favourite oxymoronturnedinwardonhimself. teehee... _
talk to you later... Kiryuu

I love the use of the present tense - in general I love first person present narratives, but this is just a beautiful use of it, but for this story it makes it wonderfully present, and yet (maybe because of the names, Merit, Worth and Worry) it also has a distant, ageless quality. Merit's naration is just quirky enough to be really human. The ending is subtly undefined and bittersweet (I'd go as far as to say perfect). One phrase is a little awkward to my mind: "but we won't voice that of which we have no proof" could be, "we won't voice fears for which we have no proof." Other than that, I just enjoyed it.

It was a nice calm story between two friends and their journey of seekage. Very nice and the first-person narration is very warm.