by Blitz Kiva
Airi let out a big sigh and turned off the TV. Megumi Fuyo really was amazing. All she could do for a few minutes was bask in her dream of becoming someone like her.
Just then, the smartphone on the table started playing its shrill “incoming call” melody. Scowling at the interruption to her thought process, Airi picked up the phone. It was her friend from school. She managed to return her tone to usual, then tapped the call icon.
“Hello?”
“Oh, hello,” her friend said. “Airi? Were you watching TV right now?”
The sudden question caused her brow to furrow. “The one with Megumi Fuyo?”
“Yes, that one! I knew you’d be watching it! You’re the biggest MiZUNO fan there is!”
She could hear her friend grinning even through the phone. Before Airi could ask why she was asking, her friend continued.
“Listen, Airi. Did you see the e-mail from the school?”
“From school? Not yet.”
That’s right, she thought. They had gotten an e-mail. It was about special lectures the school would be holding over summer vacation. Attendance was not mandatory, and it would have no effect on their grade—which meant Airi had no intention of going.
“I knew it!” her friend said teasingly.
“What, was there something special in it?” she asked.
“Megumi Fuyo’s the next lecturer!”
“Huh?”
“Megumi Fuyo! Your favorite, Megumi Fuyo!”
Airi felt an electric current tingling through her body. She immediately hung up, checked her inbox, and opened up the school e-mail she had left buried in her inbox, unopened. It was a schedule of special summer vacation lectures, and indeed, the name Megumi Fuyo was among them. Restraining the urge to jump into the air, Airi called her friend back.
“You’re right!”
“You’ve got some nerve hanging up on me, you know...”
“I’m so going!”
“I thought you’d say that!” A wry smile worked its way into her friend’s voice. “Good thing I let you know. Anyway, that’s everything. So long!”
“Oh, sure,” Airi said. “Thanks! I’ll take you out to eat sometime to thank you.”
“I’m glad to hear it, but I’m not counting on it.” With that, her friend hung up the phone.
I’ve got such nice friends, Airi thought.
Megumi Fuyo. This was her chance to meet Megumi Fuyo in person. Incredibly, the lecture was tomorrow. She was just in time. If her friend hadn’t told her, she would have really regretted it.
Yet a shadow hung in the back of Airi’s mind, nevertheless. It was about Nem.
She had picked up the gauntlet that Nem had thrown. They hadn’t scheduled the challenge yet, but it would surely be soon. Nem’s designs were clearly the work of a professional, and a little bit of cramming wasn’t going to be enough to bring her up to her level.
This was a good chance. Tomorrow, somehow, she would find the key.
Airi Kakitsubata, 17 years old, steeled herself for battle.
After logging out for dinner, Ichiro did a bit of “work” for the first time in a while.
A few days ago, he had become the owner of the electronic amusement facility Akihabara Cybertown, which was set for its grand opening in autumn. He had bought it for the most trivial and circumstantial of reasons, but as long as he had it, he wanted to do right by it. Whatever else anyone might say about Ichiro Tsuwabuki, he saw things through.
He had negotiations to handle on many fronts. The idea for the arcade had originally come from Pony Entertainment president Shinya Otogiri; several other companies decided to join in, and that was more or less the entirety of the planning that had gone into it. Otogiri himself had had no intention of bearing responsibility for it, which meant that the framework and foundation were shaky.
“Ah, yes,” Ichiro said into the phone. “I’ll pay that myself. Let him know. In exchange, I need more staff for the pre-opening. Yes. Right. Yeah. No, I won’t capitulate on that. Yeah... Mm, thank you. Talk to you later.”
Having finished the last negotiation of the day, Ichiro hung up. He didn’t feel tired, yet he turned his eyes to the ceiling and closed them. He remained like that for a while, until the full-bodied aroma of black tea nearby brought him back to this world.
“Welcome back,” Sakurako said. “I made you some tea.”
“Thanks. I appreciate it.” Ichiro leaned back on the sofa and set his smartphone on the table. Then he took the teacup from his maid, who was standing silently beside him.
“Was it expensive after all?” Sakurako asked hesitantly.
He didn’t think he’d done anything to imply he regretted it. Even though he had only bought the facility to save Sakurako in the game, Ichiro made it a policy to never regret a purchase.
And so Ichiro answered honestly. “The cost doesn’t matter to me. It’s just the time it takes up that I could do without.” That was more or less it.
Sakurako nodded earnestly.
“I’ve spoken to various parties, and I’m working to build up the framework and foundation. It’s just that we’re tremendously shorthanded. I had a feeling things had been rocky before I got involved, so I’m sure a lot of them washed their hands of it the moment I made the purchase.” He couldn’t confirm it, but he did wonder if Otogiri was turning people against him, either directly or indirectly.
Ichiro didn’t know much about the man’s personality. When he’d bought the facility, he wasn’t sure whether the man would try to meddle, or if he would simply drop the issue and ignore him. At any rate, it was too early to assume that the shorthandedness was his doing.
Fortunately, it seemed Ichiro could get the people he needed for the opening. He wanted to run the place like a business. It would be possible to pour his own funds into it, unconcerned about profits, and create a successful amusement facility. But to do things that way wouldn’t be beautiful, and it certainly wouldn’t be fun. It was necessary to be uncompromising when it came to investment and returns.
“Ichiro-sama, it’s evening. What shall we do?” Sakurako asked as Ichiro drank his tea thoughtfully. Needless to say, she was asking about NaroFan.
“Let’s see,” he said. “Iris said she’d log in in the evening, so let’s go. I wonder what Felicia decided to do.”
“Yuri is helping her level up now,” said Sakurako.
“Ah, I see.” Ichiro stood up and gave the teacup and saucer back to Sakurako. “Then let’s make a few preparations and head out.”
“Yes, Ichiro-sama.”
A few minutes later, the two had logged in as usual.
“Eat my fireball!” Felicia leaped into the air and shifted into her special pose, arching her body and lifting her leg like a battle-ax in midair. It was a pitching form reminiscent of the Hiroshima-born pitcher, Choji Murata.
“Hydro Blasterrrrr!” The Iron Sphere “Gobo-Two,” shrunk down to the size of a baseball, was released from Felicia’s right hand in a submarine pitch, with the force of a siege catapult.
The ball of fire roared towards the colony mushroom monster, the Living Shimeji, and shaved its HP down in an instant. The only remnant of its existence was the “Fragrant Autumn Matsutake,” left behind as a drop item. Needless to say, it was summer.
“That’s the last one, Coach!” Felicia called.
“Yes. Ah, yeah. Right.” The person she called “Coach” snapped out of her thoughts and nodded as she was addressed.
She was a tall Human Grappler, one of the members of the party that Iris had previously adventured with. She and Felicia had been introduced, and she had taken on the role of Felicia’s coach in the game. Her name was Yuri. Ichiro and Kirschwasser couldn’t be online all the time, so whenever they weren’t, Felicia would ask Yuri to take her out into the mountains.
Ichiro and the others had logged out for the evening and wouldn’t be back on until later that night—possibly not at all for the rest of the day, they had said. Thus, she was currently off
hunting Living Shimeji with Yuri.
“I don’t feel like there’s enough of a gap in our levels for you to be calling me ‘Coach’...” Yuri said.
Felicia picked up Gobo-Two, who was rolling on the ground, and tilted her head. “But you’re teaching me how to fight. I think you’re more used to the game than I am, too.”
“That’s just because I do karate,” Yuri said, scratching her head. “I can give you advice on close-range fighting, but you’re mainly a mid-range fighter, so I don’t know if I can help you out a lot there... Please, just call me Yuri.”
“Okay, Yuri!”
She had killed all the Shimeji in the area. They could just wait around here until they respawned, but judging by the time, Iris would probably be logging in soon. Ichiro and Kirschwasser might come back, too, so she thought it might be good to go back to the guild house.
When Felicia suggested it, Yuri tilted her head. “Guild house? Felicia, you aren’t even a member of Ai’s guild, are you?”
“Oh, um, yeah. That’s true. I’m not...” It was such a welcoming place that she always ended up hanging out there, drinking Kirschwasser’s delicious tea. Still, Yuri was correct; Felicia was not a member of Iris Brand.
Neither Ichiro, Kirschwasser, nor Iris seemed inclined to kick Felicia out, but even so, Felicia realized that this status quo couldn’t last forever.
Felicia had originally started playing NaroFan in order to find a classmate who had withdrawn into the world of the game. She had found that friend, and had learned that that friend was completely devoted to playing the game solo, which had effectively eliminated Felicia’s reason for playing NaroFan at all. It felt wrong for her to keep playing if all she was going to do was laze around.
The two let their legs start carrying them back down the mountain.
As they walked the mountain road, Yuri spoke up. “Speaking of which... I heard that your decision to start increasing your level was a recent one?”
“Yeah...” In fact, it was the belief that she had to change that had inspired Felicia’s decision. Her friend Sera Kiryu was King Kirihito, the second strongest player in the game. In her quest to find King, she had met all kinds of players, who all enjoyed the game in their own ways.
As long as she was here in this game world, Felicia wanted to find her own way of enjoying the game. Just being with Ichiro, or being with King, or enjoying Kirschwasser’s delicious tea, was not enough. That was why she’d been working hard at leveling up lately.
As her levels increased, she could feel herself growing stronger. That experience was more fulfilling than she’d expected. She was starting to understand how a gamer felt. And even if it was just in a fictional world, Felicia still liked being physically active.
“It’s just, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about things,” she concluded, with a theatrical air of maturity about her.
“I see. That’s important,” Yuri agreed with a gentle smile. “Ai went through the same thing.”
“Iris did?”
Yuri was an old friend of Iris’s—though in game terms, that still referred to “less than a year”—and affectionately referred to her as “Ai.”
“She also started the game not quite knowing what she wanted to do,” said Yuri. “We adventured together for a while, and when she finally found her new inspiration, she broke off from our guild.”
“You mean making accessories and designing armor?” Felicia asked.
“Yes.”
Even that bullheaded creature Iris, charging at her dream at full speed, had once been unsure of herself? It was true that she sometimes showed a side so depressive it made Felicia nervous, so maybe it wasn’t impossible.
“Felicia, I hope you can find something you want to do in the game soon, too,” said Yuri.
“Yeah... Thanks.” The words came naturally to her lips. Gobo-Two rotated in Felicia’s arms to look up at her.
Eventually, they descended far enough down the mountain road that the merchant shops of Glasgobara Merchant Town came into view. If they’d come this far, it would be faster just to go to the Iris Brand guild house together. The guild house where Yuri worked, MARY, was in Starter Town, and with Warp Feathers still sold out for the moment, it would be hard for her to get back there easily.
“Maybe I’ll stop in, after all...” Yuri said, scratching her head awkwardly.
Felicia nodded. “I think it’s okay. Iris would be happy to see you.”
As they talked, they eventually arrived at the entrance to Merchant Town. The arch-shaped gate that had been destroyed in the fight between Ichiro and Edward (of the famous Akihabara Forging Guild) had been fully rebuilt by now. As usual, it was a bustling town, with a variety of items being sold in the open-air booths that lined the main street.
“All these things for sale, but no Warp Feathers, I guess...” said Felicia.
“Yeah. I hear everyone’s sold out... It’s a real problem.” Coming from someone like Yuri, who had effectively lost the ability to get back to her guild house, the words had real weight.
The Merchant Town was a headquarters for non-combatant players, and there were plenty of shifty-looking stalls set up in the back alleys. Selling items dropped by players who were PKed was allowed by the system, and the devs didn’t punish people for it, so it was technically proper playing. Which meant they had a lot of rare items on display. Naturally, with the current state of things, any Warp Feathers they had would be sold at ridiculous prices.
“Should I?” Felicia asked. “I’ve been leveling up so much lately, I’ve got tons of money...”
“Just hold on to it for now,” said Yuri. “You’ll probably want new armor soon, anyway.”
“Hmm, I see. But there just aren’t many things that look good...” Felicia should probably commission a design from Iris, after all. But right now, between her summer homework and her challenge from Nem, Iris had too many things to focus on, and Felicia didn’t want to burden her.
As they talked, eventually the Iris Brand guild house came into view. It was a chic black building, with a logo that remained just within the bounds of good taste. Of course, what was in bad taste was the way the building clashed with everything else around it.
As the girls opened the door, a bell rang to signal their presence to those inside.
“Welco... oh, hey, Yuri, Felicia!” Iris’s red hair fanned out behind her as she turned away from the desk where she was sitting.
“Hey, Iris!” called Felicia.
“You look happy,” commented Yuri.
“You bet I am!” Iris grinned and let out a chuckle. She was clearly very excited right now.
Iris’s moods were all peaks and valleys—truly forbidding terrain. Even Felicia, who hadn’t known her very long, had seen her ups and downs in action. Artists were often temperamental, but Iris’s biorhythms (if that was what it was) were completely unpredictable. You never knew when a precipice might be lurking just a few steps ahead.
But as long as she was in a good mood now, that was what mattered.
“Did something good happen to you?” Felicia asked.
“Not yet, but soon...” Iris giggled and grinned even more broadly. It was truly rare to see her like this.
Felicia looked around the guild house. “Where’s Itchy?”
“He’s not here yet.”
“Oh? I see...” She’d just seen him earlier that day, so she didn’t especially need to see him again, but...
“I’d like to talk to the young heir a little bit about what we’re going to do from now on...” Iris turned to the desk again, resuming her design sketch practice.
Behind Felicia, Yuri tilted her head. “That’s right, you mentioned something about a... design competition, was it? What’s going on with that?”
“Oh, yeah, that...” Iris scowled up at the ceiling, her index finger pressed to her lips.
Iris had accepted Nem’s challenge from the other day, but nothing else had happened since then. Iris was certainly feeling re
vved up about it, but they hadn’t even chosen the day of the competition. She also hadn’t consulted with Ichiro about what they were going to do from now on.
“Well, I don’t absolutely need to talk to him today, of course...” As Iris spoke, they heard the clack of the guild house door opening.
Speak of the devil, Felicia thought. The two girls turned towards it, and Iris did so, as well, a second later.
“Took you long enough, young heir! I wanted to ta—” The minute she saw the visitor’s identity, she froze.
“I’m afraid I’m not the person you were hoping for.” The speaker was a young girl with a dour smile on her face, wearing black armor in a Gothic Lolita style and carrying a frilly parasol. It was definitely not the young heir. “Or is business just so poor that you assume anyone who comes through the door must be an employee?”
The words came out so smoothly, barely disguising their terrible, barbed core. Iris fell speechless, and Felicia could only stare at her, too.
Felicia and Iris both knew her name. This was the Mage, Sorceress, one of the mercenaries employed by Nem’s guild. The other day, she and her fellow mercenary, Taker, had used skillful teamwork to drive Kirschwasser to the verge of death. In other words, she was the enemy.
Felicia put herself on guard. Gobo-Two fell from her arms and began to roll around the floor at high speed. It was a threat.
“No need to be so tense,” Sorceress giggled. “I’m just a messenger, for today.”
“Messenger?” Iris asked suspiciously.
“That’s right. I have some words from my leader to pass on.”
“From Nem?” Sorceress didn’t even have to say it. It was clearly going to be about the specifics of the challenge.
Ichiro wasn’t here right now. But even if he had been, it wouldn’t have been his place to comment. Iris was the one who had accepted the challenge, after all.
After clenching her fists, Iris stood up from her seat and folded her arms. “Fine. Say it.”
“As you’ve no doubt guessed, it’s about the challenge,” Sorceress said. “In five days, we’ll rent out the event hall at Manyfish Beach. We’ll each prepare one model and have them wear one armor we’ve designed. Victory will be decided based on the votes of judges and spectators.”
