A/N: Nicely done, everyone! 21 reviews, and as promised, a new chapter:) Keep it up, and enjoy the chappie!
Logging On
Chapter 3
Akira leaned back in her chair, taking off her FMD in accomplishment, "Level 134. Not bad, not bad."
"Not at all," Kenji agreed, copying her motions and setting his FMD beside his monitor, "We're going to have to register soon."
"Yeah, yeah," she waved her hand in dismissal. Her stomach growled, and she sighed.
"Hungry?" Kenji asked, grinning. She nodded.
"Just a bit."
He stood up, "Here, I'll take you to dinner."
Akira scowled, "I have food here, you know."
He glanced around the room, and his eyes settled on a stack of packages just by the stove-top, "Ramen?"
"And cereal!" she defended.
Kenji shook his head and picked up his coat off of the rack, "Come on, Akira. You can pick the restaurant."
Akira glared at him for a moment before stiffly grabbing her coat and walking past him in a huff. He smiled and closed his dorm room door behind him before following her down the hallway towards the staircase.
"Hey, Kenji!" someone called, and he turned to see his best friend, Yasuhiko, waving through his open door. People in this dorm building were strange; they often left their dorm doors wide open when they had nothing important going on. It was a very trusted area, and Kenji knew most of the people there anyway, so he did it as well.
"Yasuhiko, how are you?" he asked his black-haired friend. Akira stopped a few steps away and turned to come back and stand beside Kenji. Her irritated mood disappeared as she greeted Yasuhiko as well.
"I haven't seen you around lately; where've you been?" she asked, beaming.
He chuckled, leaning back in his chair see around the doorframe, "Oh, you know, here and there," his eyes sparkled, "I hear that you two have started playing The World again."
Kenji grinned, "Well, it's a personal game."
"You never could stay away from something you loved, Kenji," Yasuhiko remarked, eyeing Akira pointedly. She put her arm around Kenji, which was a bit more difficult than it would seem, as he was a good head taller than she was.
"Hey, I'm not a 'thing'!" she protested.
Yasuhiko held up his hands, "I never said you were."
"You implied it," she muttered darkly.
Kenji sighed, "Hey, we're going to go. Akira's hungry, so I'm taking her to dinner."
"Against my will!" she cried loudly.
"So she says," Kenji whispered to Yasuhiko before waving and starting down the hallway. Yasuhiko's laughs were heard until the door for the staircase closed.
Kite and Blackrose gated into the field to level up, but that plan changed rather quickly with the encounter with a certain Harvest Cleric.
They were walking through the grassland, ignoring the rain plummeting from the heavens as they searched for monsters. Then, as they went around the corner, they noticed a battle circle activated. Instantly they ran to help, because usually when a battle circle was activated, it meant that a PKer was trying to practice their arts against another PC.
Inside the barrier, they realized that they had been right, as a character with a large spear was chasing a wavemaster around. The wavemaster turned to them and waved his arms.
"Help me!" he cried, and Kite didn't need any more information. He sped forward and slashed at the PKer, then jumped back when the spear turned on him. Blackrose was already behind the character, though, and brought her heavyblade down hard on his head. The PKer dropped to the ground and vanished, and the battle circle disappeared.
"Thank you!" the boy beamed at them. Blackrose nodded, taking her spot beside Kite as they surveyed him. For the first time, the wavemaster took in their appearances. Instantly, his expression changed from gratitude to shock, and he took a step back.
"Um…" he stuttered.
Kite frowned, "What were you doing when that PKer attacked you, wavemaster?"
The boy frowned, "I'm not a wavemaster. Those don't exist anymore. I'm a Harvest Cleric."
"Really?" Blackrose asked, staring hard at him. He seemed to shrink in her gaze.
"Y-yeah. They got rid of a lot of the old classes when the original World crashed. The only class that's the same in R:2 is the twin blade," he seemed to be edging away.
Kite nodded, "We'll have to look into that, then…" he muttered, "Well, you never did answer my question. I think that since we saved you, we have a right to know."
The Harvest Cleric shook his head, "I was just… uh… walking around! Yeah!"
Blackrose opened her mouth to reply when a PC walked up to the boy.
"Sorry I'm late, I got held up," she hugged him before turning towards the two dot-hackers, "Who are they?"
"They're nobo—"
"We came and found this boy being attacked by a PKer. We saved him," Kite filled in, cutting the boy off.
The girl beamed, "Oh, really? Thank you so much! My name's Ouka."
Blackrose balked, "Excuse me?!"
"Ouka!" the Harvest Cleric snapped.
"What?" she glanced from Blackrose to the boy before her.
"Kazu!" Blackrose rounded on the Harvest Cleric, fuming, "What in gods name are you doing playing The World R:2?!"
Kazu cringed, "Um… Heh… So, sis, how's college going?"
Ouka blinked and turned to Blackrose, "Akira? I didn't know you played The World R:2."
"I didn't," Blackrose snarled through gritted teeth, "Kazu, you were in a coma from playing this game! Why are you still playing it?!"
He glared at his sister, "You did too, but that didn't stop you either!"
Kite stepped between the two feuding siblings, "Come on, guys, be nice. Blackrose, it's not your business if Kazu wants to play The World. That's his decision."
Blackrose turned her glare to her boyfriend, "It is so my business! He's my little brother; I'm supposed to protect him!"
Ouka raised a hand feebly, a bit frightened by Kazu's sister's temper, "Um, I'm here, you know. I can protect him too."
Kazu and Blackrose rounded on Ouka, "No you can't!" she cried, while Kazu shouted, "I don't need protecting!"
Kite narrowed his eyes and frowned. This was getting a bit ridiculous.
"EVERYBODY STOP YELLING!" he bellowed. Surprised, both siblings quieted. The dot-hacker took a deep breath, once again calm and assuming the role of peacekeeper, "Listen, you two. The World is supposed to be a place to go for fun. Yes, at times it can be dangerous, but it's still known as a refuge for people. It's not anybodies business who decides to play, but the fact is that once someone joins, no one else can make them stop. Yelling about it won't solve anything."
Kazu looked down at the floor, ashamed, while Blackrose glanced to the side in frustration. Ouka nodded in agreement.
"Now, make amends with each other," Kite said in a stern voice.
Blackrose rolled her eyes, but mumbled nonetheless, "Sorry, Kazu. I guess you're free to choose what you do."
Kazu nodded in agreement, keeping his eyes on the floor, "Me too. I'm sorry I kept the fact that I kept playing hidden from you…"
Kite nodded in approval, "Now give each other a hug!"
"Yeah right!" Blackrose snapped. Kazu looked in total agreement.
The Twinblade laughed, "I just wanted to see how far you guys would go."
Blackrose rubbed her forehead with one hand, "I don't know why I put up with any of you."
Kazu opened his mouth to retort, but Ouka intervened, "Well, now that that's settled, how did you guys pick this game back up again?"
"Mitsuki," both of them replied.
Ouka and Kazu exchanged a confused glance before frowning, "Oh, Ouka, we'd better go. We'll be late otherwise."
"Oh, right," Ouka waved, "Well, nice to see you guys again."
Blackrose watched as they left, and folded her arms, "Do you believe them? They didn't even give us their member addresses!"
"Well, we didn't give ours either," Kite pointed out.
"And I can't believe that Kazu's still playing!" she ignored him.
He shrugged, "I can. But I already knew."
Blackrose turned to glare at him, "You knew? And you never told me?!"
"Well, yeah. He made me promise not to. He was actually going to an internet café while you still lived at your house, so you wouldn't catch him going online."
Her eyes widened as realization hit, "That's what he was doing?"
Kite nodded, "Yep."
She rubbed her temples, "I feel a headache coming on…"
A/N: Yay! Done with chappie three! And Kazu:) Ok, please review! Thankies for reading!
