Inspired by: Summer Wars
Merry (early) Christmas, everyone! This will be a short ReaderXRin fic; I had the idea a week ago, I think, when I watched Summer Wars. This will not be a crossover, really; just inspired by the movie! You will see Oz in this, though, because I'm too lazy to think of another name for a virtual world, so if you've never seen Summer Wars, that's fine! (But I recommend you watch it, it's a great movie!)
Also, just using Lando from my fic, Nostalgia, instead of typing [Best friend's name] over and over!
Disclaimer: I don't own Free!, or Oz.
Music blared from the speakers of her iPhone, her iHeartRadio app just scrolling through songs endlessly that the girl did not even pay attention too; the last time she'd caught herself humming along, it was Sakura Merry Men's Aikotoba, though it was now on some song she did not recognize. Her unwashed hair was thrown up in a ratted, half-knotted ponytail, greasy bangs pinned back by several bobby pins that had obviously just been shoved it. She grabbed for the can of Pocket Sweat, finishing it off, and tossed the can over her shoulder to land in the pile of other cans and bottles and fast food wrappers that littered the carpeting of her little apartment; it landed with a clatter, though she paid it no mind, going back to her game.
Her music cut off, her phone beginning to ring; she did not even turn from her laptop screen, reaching over and answering it.
"Ah - hello?"
"[Name]!"
She winced, briefly pulling her phone away from her ear to avoid the harsh shriek. Once she was sure they were done, she pressed the phone back to her ear.
"Hey, Lando."
Her fingers danced along the keyboard, knocking out her opponent; her avatar, a red-furred fox wearing a formal yukata standing on its hind legs, was deemed victorious, number one in the tournament she was competing in. Its black-tipped tail swished behind it happily; black nose twitched, [e/color] eyes looked round at the cheering crowd who had come to watch the competitors of the high-leveled restricted tournament.
"Are you on Oz?!"
"No." the reply was instant; she knew her friend detested it when she was on the computer while talking on the phone with her.
"Liar! I'm watching the tournament right now!"
"Oh. Well, I did good, right? Look at little Yuumei-chan."
"Yuumei-chan isn't so little anymore."
Even though Lando wasn't there to see it, [Name] shrugged. "We've been training a lot. Hey, where are you? I can't find you."
An exclamation mark suddenly appeared overhead a hazel-nut colored squirrel, who stood slightly taller than the fox, though only because of how the girls programmed their avatars. The squirrel's hair was a slightly darker color than its fur; she wore a pale yellow yukata, a sword hung across its back, that bounced as she pushed her way to the front of the crowd for the fox to see.
"See me?"
"Yeah, found you."
Yuumei-chan, controlled by [Name], suddenly disappeared from its spot; they were digital gasps all around the squirrel, wondering where their champion had gone, when [Name] spoke in Lando's ear.
"I spawned to Marimo Books. Meet me there."
"Alright, give me a minute."
The fox, standing in front of the doors of the digital bookstore, put away the staff it used as a source of weaponry; while [Name] waited, she played with Yuumei-chan's design, adjusting her hairstyle.
"Okay, I'm there."
[Name] exited out of the window, the style saving - Yuumei-chan now had long, curly, [h/color] locks.
A chat box appeared over Yuumei-chan's head, red ears twitched. 'So what's up?'
'We're gonna go out tonight. When was the last time you took a shower?' the squirrel asked, and [Name] made the fox shrug.
'What day is it?'
'Friday.'
'Five days ago.'
There was a shriek in her ear, though [Name] simply hung up to do her talking over Oz.
'Seriously?! You have some work to do! I'll come pick you up at eight thirty! We'll stop and get something to eat.'
[Name] hesitated, beginning to type, though Lando quickly signed off, leaving Yuumei-chan speaking with a rack of Hetalia doujinshi.
[Name] huffed, pushing her rolling chair away from the desk; it slid back a foot, before its course was stopped by Pocket Sweat cans. Yuumei-chan continued to look at the covers of America and England, Spain and Romano, Italy and Germany, before a friend request popped up on screen. The girl, grabbing hold of her desk, yanked herself back to the laptop with a roll of her eyes, looking at the avatar of whoever requested.
Friend requests were not an uncommon thing for Yuumei-chan; she was a well-known avatar, winning high-leveled tournaments and always willing to accept a challenge asking for PK. However, that wasn't the only reason; ever since she'd won her first 80-leveled tournament, frauds had been coming forth with, if not the same name, then something like it, looking identical to the red-furred fox, disregarding rules and slandering the fox's name - why someone would want to do that, she wasn't sure, though she was now revered as being a sexting goddess by some around Oz. The frauds would disappear not a day later; most likely removed by Oz security, attempting to clear Yuumei-chan's name, though that would never happen.
The avatar was a shark anthro, and, for a avatar, [Name] assumed it was pretty well put together, now as awkward as she'd thought a shark might be. He wore a leather jacket, fin protruding out the back, strong tail fin making huge sways, a pair of what appeared to be swimmer's goggles atop its sleek grey head. The shark was level eighty, and she guessed that well enough to join her friend's list for at least a minute, clicking 'Yes' on the request asking to be friends.
Not two minutes into being friends, a challenge was automatically accepted on her behalf, the girl having it set as such. Her level one hundred and twelve avatar appeared, taking her stance, her staff materializing in her paws; the shark stood across from her, and [Name] raced over to her laptop from her dresser, dropping her pair of clean underwear and tripping over Pocket Sweat, taking a tumble onto the carpet, food wrappers puffing up from her thud. A crowd was already beginning to gather; the shark got the first move as [Name] was hauling herself off the floor, ramming into Yuumei-chan, sending the fox flying straight into the crowd.
A hazel nut squirrel suddenly appeared in the crowd with a digital flurry by the name of The Professor, a vein appearing above her head. 'Yuumei, you should be getting ready!' hissed the squirrel, though [Name] paid her no mind, clambering up into her seat, repeatedly tapping the space bar to urge her fox to her feet.
Once Yuumei-chan was back on her feet, [Name]'s eyes flicked up into the right corner to see how much damage the shark had done to her hit points; her 1080 had already been lowered to 903, just by that ram. [Name] placed Yuumei-chan into her stance, staff outstretched as she typed in a combination of keys to cast a spell, wondering what the hell made this shark special enough to deal so much damage to her precious Yuumei-chan.
All around her, the crowd cheered, save for The Professor; the fox cast a spell, lowering her MP, though [Name] did not worry of that - the shark had been knocked back, though was already on its feet, massive tail swaying slowly behind it, Yuumei-chan still casting a recovery spell. [Name]'s fingers moved faster across her keyboard, though the shark rammed into her once more, cutting her off mid-cast, the spell rendering useless though still costing the fox MP.
Yuumei-chan stood once more, suffering another hundred and so damage; the crowd around her stared down at the fox, whose ears were back in anger. [Name] began typing again for another spell, faster, faster, the shark coming closer towards Yuumei-chan-
And then her computer shut off.
[Name]'s eyes went wide; she touched the side of her laptop, feeling her charger plugged in, though a light on her keyboard flashed red, claiming her computer had died. She followed the line of cord to the outlet it was always plugged into; upon seeing it was unplugged, she gave a distressed noise, dashing over and plugging in, though, by the time her laptop had turned back on, the challenge had already ended.
There was a pounding on her door. "[Name]! Ah - what happened? My phone says you've been disqualified!"
She shuffled her feet across the carpet, kicking up trash along her way; opening her door, she saw Lando, and pouted. "My laptop died, I accidentally unplugged my charger. Ugh - people probably think I backed out from a challenge with a level eighty!"
Lando sighed, pushing her way into the room, grimacing at the floor; she logged out of her Oz account on her phone, exiting out of the app. "Stop being a NEET and get ready already!"
The girl huffed, walking over to pick up her underwear she'd dropped during her rush to get to her computer. "I'm not a NEET." she muttered underneath her breath.
"Really?" asked Lando with a sarcastic tone, taking a seat on the corner of [Name]'s bed. "Not in education, employment, or training." She held up three fingers, ticking them off as she went along, "That's the definition of a NEET."
"I've already been in school." the girl muttered; indeed she had, taking four years of computer science and getting her degree only to become a hobbit and work on maintenance for Oz on occasion, though it was enough to pay her bills. "Sometimes I have a job."
"Sometimes." repeated Lando, "Look, hurry up, okay?! Suzeme's waiting for us there!" she snapped her fingers, and [Name] rolled her eyes, albeit obeying.
As she was standing in the shower, she used the water droplets on the wall to draw a portrait of a shark biting a fox's tail, though the image was quickly wiped away by the stream of water from the shower head.
Her [h/color] hair was curled by Lando in a similar fashion to Yuumei-chan's; she wore a little black dress that had been shoved to the very back of her closet, one Lando had made her buy a few months ago. It was a strapless thing that barely reached mid-thigh; she felt very exposed and was always tugging it down to cover her further, though it would just slide up as the girls barhopped from club to club, walking until their heels made their feet hurt, then just hailing a cab.
On the way to another club, [Name]'s phone dinged with a message from Oz; she saw she had a PM, and opened up the app, seeing it was from the shark.
mynameisnotrinrin.
She hesitated at the screen name, though nonetheless read the message. 'Nice job backing out in the middle of a challenge.'
Her grip tightened on her phone, and she typed a reply with quick thumbs, climbing out of the taxi with the others, her dress sliding up, and, if Suzeme had not been right there to tug it back down, she would of walked into the bar as so.
'I didn't back out, my laptop died. I'd be happy to give you a rematch when I get home though, RinRin.'
'That's not my name. At least I didn't pick Yuumei for a username. Full of yourself much?'
'Don't talk about Yuumei-chan.'
Lando walked in, already slightly tipsy; they did not have time to eat before they came, and therefore the booze was slowly but surely getting to her. Suzeme was there to steady her, laughing, the two girls walking ahead of [Name], who still had her phone clutched in her hands.
'Don't add the chan and try to make it cute. The name means famous, we both know that.'
'Don't be mad that I got the username before you did, RinRin.'
"[Name]!"
The girl jumped in shock, almost dropping her phone from her hands. Her eyes shot back up to Lando and Suzeme, the brunette staring her down while the noirette checked her reflection in her phone, making sure her curled bob still looked fine.
"Yeah, Lando?"
"We came out to have fun, come on!" Lando stumbled forward to [Name], almost twisting her ankle on her heels, though [Name] caught her. Lando cussed underneath her breath and kicked off her heels in the general direction of an empty booth, claiming that the girls were going to sit there, before looking back up to her friend. "Stop playing on Oz!"
[Name] sighed, sliding her phone inside her purse and zipping it back up, "Fine, fine. Better?" she asked, and was shocked when the girl shook her head.
"No; you haven't been having any fun! We need to think of something to make you have some fun!" she suddenly swirled on her bare feet, looking over the club, Suzeme coming to join Lando, whispering into her ear.
'Yeah - there you go!" she turned back to [Name], whose eyebrows were knitted together in concern, "You have to go talk to him!"
Her finger pointed over to a table in a corner, where a redhead boy sat alone, elbow resting on the table, one hand holding his cheek in boredom with the other scrolled through his phone; in front of him sat a glass of Black Velvet whiskey, though he seemed to have no interest in the strong drink.
"And by talk, we want you to get him to dance!" clarified Suzeme, and [Name] rolled her eyes.
"He doesn't really seem like the kind of guy to dance." she said.
"Black Velvet changes a lot of guys." said Lando, nudging her with her hip, and she sighed, shoving the girl away.
"Shut up, fine. Hold my purse." she ordered, handing it off to Suzeme, who gladly took it, surprised the girl so easily agreed.
While Suzeme and Lando took a seat at their claimed booth, ordering drinks, Suzeme questioned Lando why the girl was acting so strange.
"Oh, her laptop died in the middle of a challenge, so she was a little upset over that." Lando shrugged, thanking the bartender who delivered their tray of shots, "Some level 80 shark punk. You weren't online when it happened."
[Name] crossed the bar with her confidence slowly dwindling; why she agreed with this, she was not sure. Perhaps she just wanted to get mynameisnotrinrin out of her head. She walked by dancing bodies until she'd reached the man's round table; she adjusted her dress quickly, pulling out the chair beside him and taking a seat.
"This place have wifi?" she asked over the music; the boy hesitated, glancing up from his phone at her, and gave a nod.
"Yeah." he responded, "It does."
She smiled, noticing that he had the bottle of whiskey at the table next to his glass. "Does me no good, I got my phone confiscated." she laughed, and he quirked a tiny smile, locking his phone and shoving it into his pocket.
"Is that why you're over here." he said it as a statement, and hesitated, chuckling.
"Well," she began, noticing the row of sharp teeth the boy had - like a shark. She immediately pushed that to the back of her mind. "I'd be lying if I said no."
He gave a slight laugh, reaching forward for his whiskey and downing it with one drink; she marveled, knowing it had to burn going down. She watched him grab the bottle and pour just a tiny amount to cover the bottom of the glass, before passing it to her, sliding it across the table.
"Take a drink, let's go dance." he said, already standing, and she glanced from him to the glass. Not wanting to look a wimp, she gulped her tiny amount down and forced herself to swallow; it burned her throat, and she stood with a stagger and a suppressed gag.
He caught her hip, pulling her along with him into the crowd of bodies; he pulled her flush against him, and began moving her body against his, feeling how awkward she felt in this unfamiliar position. She briefly wished she'd locked Lando out of her room; she could still be on Oz at the moment, in a rematch with mynameisnotrinrin, or perhaps she would of already won.
A song later, and she was grinding against this redheaded stranger, grip tight on his leather jacket.
This will probably only be three parts - I haven't really decided yet, though!
Hope everybody likes this! :D I'd appreciate some reviews! :3