Naotsugu looked over as the door opened to the roof. He was sitting on his favorite lounge chair, having turned it so he could see both the door and Nyanta up in the tree on the branch he suspected they'd slept on last night. He was close enough that he could use his taunt on Nyanta if necessary before the felinoid could get to and through the door. He'd also made sure the trap door below the tree was locked from the inside and had the outdoor table set on top of it, just to slow down whomever might be coming up from below. Coming through the door didn't warrant moving, just additional awareness. When it was the four youngest, his eyebrow raised. "I thought we sent you lot to bed?"

They shook their heads and pulled up chairs, but not so they'd be in his way. They'd come up with blankets still wrapped around them. Every one of them had set, stubborn faces. "Shiroe-kei came out and walked up with Akatsuki-jou," Touya said, the stubborn in his voice. "He told us to stay put and watch a door that can't be opened. Tetora got us up and said what we'd all been thinking. We aren't going to be left out this time."

Naotsugu was about to say that he hadn't seen anyone else yet when he realized that would be a bad thing to say right now. He closed his mouth, nodded, and leaned back again, keeping an eye on everything and everyone, like he was supposed to. The kids curled up in their chairs, still sleepy, but determined to not fall back to sleep. Adventurers knew how to rest. He didn't worry about them. That didn't mean he wasn't suddenly more worried than he had been. He was. That's what he'd learned to keep quiet about.

The door opened again. This time it was Tetora, who closed the door behind him with a set look on his beautiful face. He'd really firmed up in the last three days. He was still Tetora, but he had the feel of "male" he'd never let on to before. Naotsugu looked into the eyes that rose to meet him. Determined, worried, but seemingly satisfied. "I've told them we're waiting," he said, "and let them know I'll be damned if I'm going to let them give up, too."

That was the message Naotsugu was waiting for. "Do they need to hear it from my lips, too?" he asked.

Tetora's forehead twitched as his face expressed his irritation. "If they're not up here in less than ten minutes, go break down the door two down from mine."

Naotsugu nodded. He'd learned to keep his mouth shut when he was worried because there was usually someone else worried about it as well that was taking care of it while he took care of what he needed to take care of. He would be called in only when needed, and he'd just been told that. He folded his arms and set his internal timer. Tanks didn't get moved around haphazardly or on whims. The movement change might not be necessary, and the timer might not ring, but if it did and he didn't move ...well ...nothing good came of it, that's for sure.

Tetora leaned back against the wall right next to the door to the roof, arms crossed and one foot crossed over the other. Touya stood and shifted his chair a bit. As a Samurai, his taunt was close range only. He'd moved so that if Naotsugu had to move, he could take over as watchman on the roof. Naotsugu smiled to himself. Yeah, they were good kids who'd trained up right. When nothing needed to be said, but people moved right, you knew they had good training and cared to use it properly.

"You think she'll fit in?" he asked casually.

"She's been solo a long time...but she's got everything else she needs. That's just simple training. The rest is the hard stuff." Tetora answered with calm surety.

Naotsugu knew how deep Tetora read the guild, how hard he fought for it, how necessary it was to him. The rest of them loved the guild. Tetora needed it. Naotsugu kept it healed, Tetora kept it cohesive and whole, without blemish, cleaned out any rot before it could settle. Naotsugu knew he'd been having troubles with himself being the rot he couldn't clean out because he couldn't leave. He'd love Purrcy just for helping him clean himself up, but he wouldn't accept her as guild if she couldn't be guild.

In the guild battles that were like this one, Tetora was the field monitor, and the position he'd taken just now, leaning up against the wall by the door, said it loud and clear. He wasn't there to prevent. He was a healer after all as far as Class went. He was the one who made sure there wasn't something coming that shouldn't, the one who warned when something was and who was needed to deal with it. It was the position that managed the movements of the party around the enemy as a whole so the rest could focus on each individual battle during the campaign, and who knew which would be the best direction for the party to travel to miss as many enemies as possible. That's why he was also recon and investigation in town. He kept track of allies, enemies, knew how to quickly get the info he needed to make sure they moved in safe, useful, helpful directions. So if he said the tank was going to be needed somewhere else in less than ten minutes, the tank would go.

The tank was the protector. The keeper of the hearth and life. Took all the damage, kept the focus of the worst enemy, protected the others of the party so they could move around and dish out the damage. He could dish out damage, and plenty, and did, but it had to be properly used because it was heavy hitting damage. Here, he was holding, preventing damage from being dealt. Touya was his back up tank, just sufficient grit and stubbornness to not be cowed into backing down. Willing to take any punishment that came his way to do his part to protect, too. It had been his right to be the one to speak, to set the position. When an enemy was engaged, the tank was set first, called the attention of the biggest and baddest, then sat there stubbornly until the battle was won, or he died trying. He was proud to have Touya as his back up, and knew he wouldn't back down ...so he hadn't sent them back down. If the field monitor had sent them up and the tank had set himself, then that's the way it was.

The rest would play their parts when the other party showed up. That's what they were waiting for now. Would the other party show up on their own, or would he have to go fetch them? That was the other job of the tank. Whip the enemy up into a frenzy and pull them into the place that had been chosen for the battle. The field monitor had tried to taunt them up. If it didn't work, then the person with a real taunt would be sent down to drag them up, no matter what they wanted. It didn't make a hill of beans that the 'enemy' in this case was the party strategist and Enchanter and his personal operator, the one who made sure he was protected and his power maintained. Minori was Touya's operator, Tetora doubled as Naotsugu's ever since they'd battled the big one with Silver Swords, and it hadn't changed since.

Isuzu and Rudy were general purpose, both magic users. Rudy hit hard and ferociously, but had learned smarts in the last year and a half, and he kept the beat with Isuzu, who was a Bard and kept the tempo and the music flowing. Her's was an understated, but powerful position. If things started to fall apart, she could smooth things over just enough to get the rest of them back into position. She was also scout. Light on her feet, collector of information. Isuzu protected Rudy and Rudy protected Isuzu, and their light banter and repor moved them all forward, or sideways, in minor ways that sometimes made all the difference.

As for the Chief, the Swashbuckler, he was general purpose, too, but he was close up damage. Naotsugu held the enemy so Rudy and the Chief could dance around them, Rudy from a distance, Nyanta close up, dealing damage until the enemy fell. Having the Chief be the boss in this one was disturbing, difficult. If he moved this time, he was to be held fast, tied down. It rubbed Naotsugu wrong. Nyanta knew it, so he was holding still (at least for now) all by himself. The main close up dancer shouldn't be holding still...but...he also was one who sometimes waited until just the right moment to attack, sometimes even taking lots of damage until he found the right time to move, or the Strategist said to move. When that order was given, death to the enemy came swiftly. Maybe...maybe that's what he was doing. Biding his time... Yeah, that felt more like it. Like he was hiding behind the tank, taking some damage, waiting for his turn to be sent in. Doing little bits of whittling down when he could. Naotsugu nodded. He had to keep his eye on the Chief to make sure he could survive until the order was given. That's what it was, even if he had to be tied down by a taunt.

He'd said that it didn't matter that the enemy was the Strategist and his operator, but, really, it did. To lose them meant they might not win the battle, for all they knew what they were doing. That's why the field monitor was irritated almost to the point of angry. Someone had dealt damage to them, probably to the Strategist and his field operator was trying to heal him back up to usable before he counted as completely dead. Naotsugu nodded. That was it, exactly. And he was to fetch them both and bring them back for healing if Akatsuki couldn't do it by herself, before the Strategist dissolved into air and was sent to the Cathedral. The campaign didn't do well when that one had to be resurrected. That took a lot of retreat and reconfigure and start-over-city.

So...who had dealt the damage? Shiroe's campaign was with Purrcy. He'd gone into the next level with her today. But was she the one who'd dealt the damage, or had they both gone down? Did the field monitor have enough info? "Tetora."

"Yeah?"

"...What role does she play in the party?"

"Mmm...," Tetora considered that for a while. "Long distance recon. High level field monitor, almost the level of strategist, but not close in like that. Brings the data back to the strategist and close-in field monitor... Let's the party know if they need to stop at the end of this level before heading down and go back up for dinner and sleep ...that kind of thing. Already been down levels and coming back to warn or say 'go on'. She's gone so deep without having anyone to report to, we've found her down in the depths - or she got spit out at our feet - and she's got a serious warning she's trying to get out."

"So, she's got status effects?" He actually got lots of nods on that one, even Minori, the strategist in training. "Who's healing her?" There was silence. "We're just sitting here listening to her data and going to let her die? I don't think so. That's not us. Who's healing her?"

"She's healing us," Tetora said quietly. "Wants us to have the strength to keep going on down, not fall apart. Nyanta's taking the fall so she doesn't go to Cathedral, but they'll both pay for it."

"HP, MP transference at best, then," Naotsugu mused. "Not liking that solution. Needs the whole troupe working on her, I think."

"Yup," Tetora said quietly. "That's why we're here." Suddenly he stood straight up. "O-M-G. Status effects!" He pulled the door open as fast as he could and yelled down the stairs. "Shiroe, get your ass up here right now! I've figured it out and she's gonna go if we don't get on it ASAP!"

He was suddenly being pushed out the door, a smaller female figure in black doing it so that the man just called up could walk out onto the roof. He was rubbing his ears. "You could have used your eyes before your mouth, Tetora," scolded Akatsuki.

"Right, sorry. But seriously. Naotsugu's been going through the line up, the formation, and fitting Purrcy into it. He asked who her healer was, since we all agreed she's got status effects and we've found her down in the depths trying to get back up to let whoever know all the stuff she knows. We also all agree we all need to be working on healing her. Having Nyanta do it all by himself with transference is killing them both. And you got hit by the same status effect so massive you almost went Cathedral and I wasn't sure your Op would be enough. So listen," he finally took a breath, to everyone's bemusement, though this wasn't too out of character, "it's me. I gotta be the healer, find out what the status effect is in the first place. Someone's placed a spell on her, if you get my meaning, and we can't negate it until we know what it is and since she works in the computer realm...it's like a computer virus, set on her. If we can stop the virus, or even just slow it down, the rest of us can get her points up enough she won't have to critical, and neither will Nyanta."

Shiroe's eyes had gone into his mode he went into when he was thinking hard strategically. "No...you've hit on something. It's moved so fast, and spread so fast, I've already been thinking along those lines as well. That Log Horizon's already infected and we have to quarantine effective last night." Tetora pulled up and looked amazed, then brightly proud of himself. "And it does fit the computer model, very nicely. The problem is you can't code yet. ...But... have you written anything before that could be a basis for doing your work inside? Can you write a piece of field monitor pseudocode that won't take you out, too? Even first level simple pseudocode. Something that will give you a window into what's going on, without sacrificing yourself?" He was looking with his hard bright eyes at Tetora. It contained patience and impatience at the same time, as always. Shiroe always waited for the best, the right answer, but he didn't want anyone taking longer than they had to.

"Window...window," Tetora didn't stand still well. He started pacing as he muttered. "Read!" it wasn't loud, but he still pounded his fist into his other palm. "If I just have the data scroll by, something will show itself...but what needs to be read? There's too much data to read it all."

"It's in the reproductive system," Akatsuki said in her usual dry, hard way.

"Well...," Tetora paused and look up, "...that's where the symptoms are appearing...but...," he went back to pacing, "...that's the source of connection. She's binding us up so we don't fracture, because...it's a fracture virus? It wants to divide us?"

"Yes," Shiroe answered, "that is exactly what it wants to do ...to all of Akiba and all of the Adventurers on this world in the end."

"Gah, a plague," Naotsugu spit out.

They turned to him, wide eyed. Tetora rubbed his head vigorously with both hands, trying to get it all put together. "If it's plague, we'd need to know it's level to get it treated right, but even low level healing would get it to slow down a bit, maybe." He spun around. "How far did you get it to back off down there? Are there still effects?"

There was a pause. Shiroe finally said, "Still some effects. It's better though."

Tetora looked at Akatsuki. "You should have picked it up, too, being in the room with him. How are you doing?" He looked at her very closely. She stared back in surprise, then scowled at him. "Yup, you've got it too. Hold still, you two, I want to try an experiment."

Shiroe tipped his head. "And that would be?"

"She said it...magic is magic. Since the other magics can be done, she can do any magic she wants, right?" Tetora had his small wand out. He gave them instructions, "Okay, feel it. Minori, watch it, on the status screens." He cast one of his usual healing spells on Shiroe. He was level 97, so his healing magics were correspondingly high level. Then he turned and did a different one on Akatsuki, since there was the cool-down time for the first one. He watched them both closely. "What I did was what she taught us to do. I chose those spells first, and 'imagined' that they would affect the 'plague virus' that's affecting you two. Then I cast them." Shiroe raised both eyebrows, but Tetora had already begun muttering to himself again.

"Ah ...if it means anything ...I feel better, calmer," Akatsuki said.

"Yes, that does mean exactly what I want it to mean. And you, Shiroe?" Tetora turned to him.

Shiroe looked at him. "I think ...it wasn't high enough level ...but it had an effect."

Tetora wrinkled his nose. "That's what I thought. They want this to affect her after all."

Naotsugu narrowed his eyes at Tetora. "What do you know, Tetora?" he asked warningly.

Tetora waved a hand at him. "I know how programs - and overwriting - work Naotsugu. I'm a programmer by training, remember. I know what she is and how special. I won't say it if she saved it for the officer's meeting, but to me, it's obvious. ...But even still. I'm high enough that we should be able to buy her the time she needs to write the code to kill it." He turned to the tree. "Nyanta, get down here. I think I've got the right window written. I want to test it on you while the heal spell's working so I can see just what it's doing. That will help me do it right on her."

Nyanta was already on the ground in front of him at the first call. Naotsugu grinned. The close-up precision fighter had just been called in and the long distance field monitor finally had a healer. This was more like it. They were going somewhere now. It made sense that the local field monitor was the back up and the operator for the long distance one, too. He nodded to himself. This was all right. And sending in the precision fighter to pick her up and bring her back was right, too. He looked over to Shiroe. Shiroe looked back at him. Naotsugu nodded. "It's going to be all right," he told his guildmaster. "The formation's solid. Just do your job." - He was a bit surprised at just how much Shiroe relaxed.

-:-:-:-:-

Shiroe looked around at this little group that was his guild, who were obviously in campaign party mode and were in complete solidarity. It always filled him with a sense of awe that they relied on him with complete faith. Even when he'd been the one stricken and down, they hadn't given up. There'd been no recrimination or anger even. He'd get scolded later at the after meeting where they wrapped it up, but even that would be gentle, he already knew. He was scolding himself plenty. He should have known better given the state Purrcy was in and the obvious knowledge they were opposite sexes so of course he'd be affected in some way, but he'd wanted her information so greedily he couldn't stop to see she needed healing first. He pulled in a sharp breath of air and stopped that as best he could. It was a waste of time to think like that right now. It had taken all of them thinking about it, probably Naotsugu in particular pulling on his unique brand of thinking about things, to see it in a way they could fight it.

Sometimes they had to get under pressure like this for the answer to come out - be really and truly in the middle of the battle to recognize what was going on. It wasn't unusual for dungeons or quests. Sometimes it took a while to understand what was going on and you had to do trial and error learning first before a solution was forthcoming. Considering this one came from a completely unknown source to them, sure, mistakes were made and he could have thought smarter. They all worked that way. They'd actually done pretty good. And now it was his turn. He held open the slot for Tetora's test data, and got to work on how they were going to help Purrcy. Tetora was right that the sooner they got to her the better. She didn't have much more time at the moment. More time was what they needed to buy her. "Right now her HP is really low. I need restorative HP healing going right into it. Isuzu, that's yours."

"Got it!"

"Minori, can you put up a shield for Isuzu and for Tetora at a minimum against the drain? If you can get her HP up and get her out of there, the rest of us can help, though I'd rather leave her in there since she's got the protective barrier up, but the room's completely poisonous. Since it can affect either sex, I don't want anyone in it any longer than necessary."

"Shiroe-ichi," Nyanta said calmly. "I can go in and get her."

"No. You can't," Shiroe was firm and sober. "I had almost no control left at all and she was full cat the whole time and I'm half-alv. The room is filled to the brim with the pheromones. As a matter of fact, I don't want you going down until Tetora's healed the virus enough she isn't anywhere near in heat any more. I won't keep you away after that, but you have to wait until the miasma's been taken care of."

Shiroe went back to thinking. "She's going to have to clear the room herself, I suspect. She's really the only one who'll be able to go back in until then. ...Just opening the door's going to leak it out."

"Umm...," Akatsuki wanted a turn so Shiroe let her have it. "I don't think I was really affected until you had it and gave it to me. ...That is ...it may have to cross the sexes, from one to the other."

"Like female to male to female to male in rotation?" he asked for clarification. Akatsuki nodded.

"Oh, that helps me!" Tetora said and they could tell he was immediately working on his spell set again. "That's actually a common computer virus pattern so that it can't be tracked down quite so simply."

"Whoa, back," Naotsugu called out and they looked at him. "Tetora, where does that place you, exactly? Make sure you don't fall into it by mistake. Check your work and what it does before you walk in there."

"Ah, right," Tetora answered. "...I wouldn't be kissed by a male if I was going to die ...but I get your point." He looked at Shiroe with speculation. "Can you tell if it has effects other than physical? If it's just that I'm safe."

"Well, there's the obvious emotional ones."

"Well...," Akatsuki said, "actually ...let me handle that one."

The girls nodded. "Why?" asked Shiroe. He wanted to understand this virus as much as possible. If they had data, he wanted it.

The girls all looked at each other, and as a group blushed. "Begging your pardon," Isuzu said, "but ...you shouldn't assume your emotions were affected...," she looked away, "...most men don't have any clue if their emotions were affected or not."

Naotsugu laughed, "That's our Bard. Tell Tetora what he needs to know. Shiroe will get it once you've explained it enough...maybe."

"Do you get it?" Shiroe asked in irritation.

Naotsugu grinned. "Nope. But I don't need to if the Bard does."

Shiroe let it go. Naotsugu was right when he said things like that. He nodded to Isuzu. Isuzu turned to Minori and Akatsuki and they conferenced. "What about Serera?" he interjected. "Hasn't Purrcy had the most interaction with her, as far as other females goes?"

Nyanta nodded. "Yes, she's actually hugged Serera. Has she touched any of the others of mew?"

They looked around at him with wide eyes. "She let me pet her a little," Akatsuki said. The other two shook heads.

Isuzu pondered on that. "Serera didn't have any adverse effects while she was with us ...and she didn't get it from Nyanta either?" She looked back over at him.

He shrugged. "I didn't touch her. Just in the same room, though we stood at the stove together. But then I worked in the kitchen with all of mew all day today."

"No, it makes a difference because Serera loves you. We just like you." She flashed a grin at him. He flicked an ear back.

"I'll check on it," Naotsugu said. He immediately call up a chat. "Hey Marie! How's it going?" He walked through the list of people who'd been in the Log Horizon building since Purrcy had been there, including her and Marielle and Serera, then he named the men in Crescent Moon League who had crushes on the same. "Ah...well...yes, sorry, but I can't tell you anything right now. We're just about to head into full battle on the boss, we hope. If it works maybe Shiroe will have something for you. ...Yeah. Thanks. See you."

He looked up. "Well, since they're all waiting to hear, that was just a few too many questions, I guess. Sorry. Wanted to be thorough."

Shiroe shrugged. "What's the sum?"

"No changes on their side. But...it makes me wonder about Woodstock and Akaneya. They've been smitten with her for a long time, and their guilds too. Are they already infected?"

"Hmm..., that's a female to male connection, so it might not be wrong." Tetora said thoughtfully.

"Not to mention the Wolf Pack," Rudy said. "It's all male."

They nodded at that. Shiroe sighed. "Well, let's get here fixed, then we'll have to go rat hunting."

"Test cases?" Minori asked.

Tetora and Shiroe stared at her. "Brilliant, Minori," Tetora breathed. "She already had the connections, so they could be tested on them. I'd place the guildmasters as first tests and the Wolf Pack as continual test cases after that. This one's proved the most effective on the male side so she was sent here with the final version."

Shiroe nodded his agreement. "Does that mean the level would be lower for the guildmasters, then?"

"If the pseudocode mage has increased in levels since the first iteration, yes."

Shiroe stepped out and called up Woodstock. "I'm sorry to bother you but we've got a lead on a problem we're working on. Do you have a healer who's in the upper nineties handy you can call out?"

"Yes. When do you need them?" Woodstock was sounding a bit tired. It might not be so easy if he'd been reinfected in two visits in two days, and if she'd touched them.

"It's not for me. It's for you. Can you get them now and let me know when you're next to them, please?"

"Ah, yeah. It will take me about two minutes or so, shall I call back?"

"Yes, please."

Shiroe looked at Naotsugu. "Did she touch them?"

"The first day, yes, when she thanked them she took Woodstock's hand."

Shiroe sucked on his tongue. "He was sounding pretty tired. I think he's got the higher level version. A heal will only get him stronger again, but not cure it. Let me call Akaneya for the test run. I want to know a little better what level we're looking at for the final." The group waited for him to ask the same request of Akaneya. As soon as he was done with that call, Woodstock called back. "Hello, Woodstock. How are you feeling? You sound tired."

"Well, actually I am. I've not been sleeping well since hearing that Purrcy's had to be at your place because of the Wolf Pack. ...Ah, sorry. That wasn't meant as a slight. I'm just worried about her."

"Woodstock, what level is your healer?"

"She's level ninety-six."

"Ninety-six. Thank you. Will you please have her cast her highest level healing spell on you and then tell me how you feel after about one minute. Tell her to focus on getting rid of a strange plague. We're not sure, but it might be something we've not seen before. If she adds that to her thoughts, it should help some, we're finding."

"Okay," he sounded mystified. Shiroe waited while his instructions were passed on, then for the requisite one minute for Woodstock to answer back. "Well, I certainly feel better," he said cautiously, "not so moody and tired, or depressed, I suppose, though I'm still worried, of course."

Shiroe nodded. "That's how it affected me, too. If you've got what I had it wasn't enough healing at that level. If you start feeling that way again, have her cast it on you again. My estimate is likely every twelve hours. We're working on an actual cure. Ah, and it is a plague. Have you touched any females in the last two days, even just handshakes?"

"Ah...Purrcy...and maybe a few of my guildmates to congratulate them?"

Shiroe sighed. "It may be too late, but quarantine the whole guild and have your healer use that spell on anyone who is feeling symptoms like yours. The women may be feeling jealous or angry, too. We'll let you know when we've got the cure. Sorry to shut the business down until then."

"No...plague should be treated seriously. We'll do what we need to do. Give me a call when you've got it figured out."

"Will do." It was just in time. "Shiroe here, Akaneya."

"I've got my healer here. Level ninety-eight."

"Ninety-eight. Wonderful. First, tell me how you're feeling right now."

"A little tired, but not too bad."

"Any worries or concerns that won't go away?"

"Well, not so much, now that we have the contracts signed."

Shiroe was relieved. "Will you please have your healer cast his or her highest level healing spell on you? Have that person focus their thoughts on using it to cure a plague status effect. We're running an experiment."

Akaneya passed on the instructions. After about a minute Shiroe asked, "Will you tell me how you're feeling now?"

"Pretty good. But don't we usually when we get healed?"

"Any knots in your stomach come undone, any stresses that you couldn't get rid of that suddenly don't seem so bad?"

Akaneya considered it, then laughed. "Well, if you put it like that, then yes. I'm not feeling stressed any more either."

"Great. Have your healer walk around the guild and cast that spell on anyone who looks tired or stressed out, or a little too angry, and you should be cleared, but if you want to have them stay clean, quarantine until we've cleared out the city. It may be a day or two, but I'll let you know for sure. You had a low level case, but Woodstock and I have it worse and the whole Wolf Pack is carrier."

"Yikes, Shiroe. That's awful. We'll stay put. I hope it isn't longer than that, though. I've got product to turn over."

"I know. Sorry, it can't be helped. It's from outside and an odd source we've just heard about. We haven't got the cure yet for the higher level plague, but we should in less than a day if all goes well."

"All right. We'll wait to hear the all-clear."

"Thanks."

Shiroe looked up and opened his mouth. He got four hands up. He closed his mouth and smiled.

"I've got Souji's people on the streets as soon as they're healed up themselves." Tetora said.

"I've got D.D.D. hunting their own, and told them to make sure the halfs in particular are watched to see if it settles them, and put them on the twelve hour rotation as necessary until we have the answer," Naotsugu said.

"I've asked Serera to handle Crescent Moon after she gets healed first," Isuzu said, "and since I knew Naotsugu was talking to D.D.D. she's promised to apologize to Marielle-san for us that Naotsugu couldn't call back." Naotsugu gave her a thumbs up and a grin. Isuzu grinned back.

"I called Roderick-nyan and he's going to let the other members of the Round Table know for us so we can get back to work," Nyanta said. "He's also going to experiment to see if the high level anti-plague potions work well enough."

And just like that, the whole city was covered as expeditiously as possible. Shiroe smiled a proud smile. "Thank you, everyone. Then...shall we see to our own?" He looked at Tetora. "Did you get enough from overhearing my conversations?"

Tetora nodded. Shiroe looked at Minori. "And did you?"

Minori looked at him soberly for a moment. "It's by touch, across sexes, and the symptoms are physical, but my one concern is that strong emotions seem to be the catalyst. Jealousy, excessive worry, that sort of thing. And that seems to be for both sexes. ...Except Serera. Why did she leave happier? And Isuzu, did she really sound okay now?"

Isuzu considered it. "Well, yes, though I would have thought she would be more depressed. Of course, she can sound okay when she's not, but if Marielle-san said she's okay, then she probably is. Marielle-san knows when Serera isn't doing okay."

All eyes turned to Nyanta. Only he had been in the room at the time with the two females. He shook his head. "I do know Serera-chan was feeling very strong emotions just before Purrcy touched her. I watched her face. Fear, worry, jealousy just before the hug even. It eased up over the time Purrcy talked to her and she stood beside me to cook the rest of the time, then mew all saw breakfast itself, and clean up after. Any other strong emotion would have been after she closed the door where we couldn't see it."

"But you didn't touch her?" Tetora asked. Nyanta shook his head.

"It hasn't affected Marie either, and she pet Purrcy for a long time," Naotsugu said. "Maybe it's just a touch of an opposite?"

"Well...," Nyanta said and gave him a look, "mew've touched Purrcy a lot, too, and then touched Marie."

"At the same time as Purrcy at the beginning, though after she stole Henrietta's glasses it was just the two of us."

"You touched then, after?" Shiroe clarified one point. Naotsugu nodded.

"I was the first to really touch her," Tetora said, "and I don't think I've been negatively affected."

"Maybe...," Touya said slowly, "maybe her touch...is the healing touch?"

Shiroe frowned. "You mean, the miasma is the plague, but if she touches you it's effect is lessened?"

"Okay, odd thought, but what if she's been healing too many and taking the status effects off others and not getting rid of it off herself so it's finally having to go somewhere and it's coming off on whomever or however?" Naotsugu was trying with a topic he didn't understand well enough.

Shiroe shook his head. "It's also plausible, certainly, but we need to do what we can now. Tetora you haven't been negatively affected yet. We'll assume you won't be again. Just try to keep any extreme emotions buttoned up. Walk in calm. Isuzu, the same goes for you. Cast the MP-up first. Akatsuki, you wait outside the room as field monitor. It will open for you, but you've already been affected so likely you'll pick up more if you go in. Tetora, if you think it's too bad in the room, wait until you have her out to cast the spells. Minori wait out with Akatsuki. You're operator as needed and back up field monitor." He looked at the mini-party. "If she's up and the window says she isn't contagious, send her up. We need to get to phase two as soon as possible." The retrieval party nodded and headed down the stairs.

Naotsugu stood and walked over to Touya. He rubbed his apprentice's head. "Hey, it'll be all right. Minori's your assistant tank. She's got this. You did good tonight."

Touya looked up into Naotsugu's eyes. "Yeah, Sis'll be fine. You did really good, too, to figure out Miss Purrcy needed a healer."

Naotsugu chuckled. "Swashbucklers make great fighters, but awful healers, even though I'm sure the Chief is trying. It's just not his Class, you know?"

"Well, Purrcy is the healer. We've just had to reverse because she's the one down," Nyanta said softly. "It sucks to be the soldier who loses their healer. All mew can do is watch them die and know meowr own is next, usually in the next blow. Mew do whatever mew can to keep them up." They all looked at him soberly and Naotsugu moved to put his hand on the older cat's shoulder with a firm grip.

Nyanta looked over at him soberly. Naotsugu studied him for a bit. "You've come along, then, have you?"

Nyanta raised an eyebrow, then shifted slightly, his tail moving in a soft wave near his ankles. "If by that mew mean, have I grown overly fond of her ...to the point I might actually have something like feelings for her? ...Purrhaps. At this point, it would be painful to lose her, but not harshly. It's a soft thing." Everyone blinked at him, then blushed and looked away. That had been very expressive and open for Nyanta. They weren't quite sure how to take it.

-:-:-:-:-

The Log Horizon mini-raid party headed down the stairs, the younger ones wanting to go fast, but Akatsuki cleared her throat and they pulled up short on the next landing. "Shiroe told me he was going to have her sleep for four and a half hours to get back up to full HP - that she'd been drained. That was about half an hour ago now." The others blinked at her. That was important data. It helped them understand why he wanted HP to be the first thing. "She loses it faster than MP when he makes her think hard. You know how she gets tired and has to sleep after she tells only a few things? Like studying too hard, then taking exams and having to sleep all weekend to recover. It's real, for her. In the status."

They stared at Akatsuki. "No way," Isuzu said. "That doesn't even sound Adventurer, though I guess I've never thought about it for mental, only for physical."

"Like she does battle with her mind instead of a sword." Minori said.

"Tell that to Shiroe as soon as we're upstairs," Akatsuki ordered, though kindly. Minori nodded. Akatsuki had learned what data would be important for Shiroe to add to his mental lists. She got them walking again, having said her piece.

"Akatsuki, Shiroe-san said that the door would open for you. Is that the guild locks?" Minori asked. She was good at putting together all the data she could because she was Shiroe's apprentice strategist.

"I think so," Akatsuki said absently. It would make sense in a Shiroe-like reason, though it made her tingle to think that he would be willing to let her have such a permission on his room. Then she felt a little depressed.

She wasn't sure everything was still going to be okay after tonight, even though she'd only tried to do her best to do what he said he'd needed. She really didn't know what she'd been doing at all, and had been surprised out of whatever it was when Tetora had pounded on the door and yelled at them. They both had been and had called an immediate truce at opposite sides of the room. When they could work up the courage to talk, they both admitted neither of them could remember what had gone on, really. For her it had been rather a blur. She hoped he was telling the truth too. It had looked like it, but ...he was so kind he sometimes wouldn't tell her just to spare her discomfort. She sighed and shook herself. This wasn't the time to think of past regrets. That could come after. She was glad someone had come and interrupted. It was nice to know they could count on guildmates to know what to do.

"What about the scroll?" Minori asked next. Akatsuki looked at her blankly. "Do you know how it works?" Akatsuki shook her head. "She wouldn't talk until she'd cast it, and it didn't disappear, and it felt like we were surrounded by thick magic walls when she was done," Minori listed off the traits she could remember.

Tetora pursed his lips. "As a secure room spell, it might be hard. If the last setting was only for her and Shiroe, and she was saying high level stuff... We might not get into the room even with Akatsuki being able to open the door."

"Trap then," Minori said. "It probably won't hurt us, but if we think about it like that, then we'll be cautious enough to find out what it is and how to deal with it." The others nodded.

"Who goes in first, then?" Tetora asked.

"Isuzu," Minori said after a moment. "I'm sorry, Isuzu, but this time you're expendable. Tetora can cast healing spells, too, to up her HP but he's the only one who can cast the window spell to make sure he's got it right."

"That's fine," Isuzu said cheerfully. "Should I use my highest level spell first?"

Minori pursed her lips. "No," she said slowly. "What if that set something off, then was wasted? It would be better to use a low level one to test the room first." Isuzu nodded. That made sense, too.

"Hmm. What if her low level is fine but when I get in there my high level one explodes the place?" Tetora asked.

Minori shook her head, but was thinking. "Really...it might be better to move her first if we can get to her just so we don't screw things up. It'll be safer to heal her on the couch in the room we can all get to. What level of HP should we set as a minimum for moving her out?"

Akatsuki held up her hand. "It's variable. Let me calculate." She considered it hard. Likely she would have kept it hidden like before, but from what she could remember of the ratios..., "If it's thirty or above should be safe. Under twenty not ...in between ...maybe. I'm having to estimate."

Isuzu was looking worried. "Um, ...what about ...she's been in the room for safety when she talks, and this was the most important stuff, ...and if there's others, ...what if she's in trouble for talking now?"

"Well, they won't know what she said," Tetora said. "So they might not know."

Akatsuki stared at Tetora in disbelief. "If I'd been watching her to see how well she was spreading a virus, I would be sweating by now and might not let her get off on this round, if she kept disappearing for two days straight. I'd want to find out just what was going on as soon as she came out this time, at least, even if I did want to leave her here."

"And...we weren't so protected or quiet on the roof," Minori said timidly. Isuzu was in agreement.

Tetora considered it more seriously. "Well... She said they don't interfere much unless it's to uncover a certain data point. Since that can't be known at this point, we can't go anywhere with that, except to assume they'll do the usual. But...this feels more like Hacker material, like the one who is yet unnamed wants to destroy at least Akiba by using her and the Wolf Pack."

They all stiffened. "Maybe the plague is from the Wolf Pack, not Purrcy." They all nodded. That made sense. Then of course Purrcy was trying to heal people of it. "Or...not she's healing them of the plague, she's healing them of broken hearts and pains of the heart and by extension it's healing the plague, or gives them protection from it?"

"That's got to be it!" Tetora crowed. "I'll add that to the window to see if I can see that." They had stopped at the chairs in the main room, having arrived without really paying attention at all because of their strategy meeting on the way down. Now he sat down to put his mind to it.

Akatsuki looked at Minori, wondering if she had more questions. "If the plague is from the Hacker, then we'll need protections that will prevent him from reading we're healing the virus that last long enough for her to find it and write the counter virus, right?" Minori said, unsure. "I would think that we aren't anywhere near good enough for the other possible enemy."

"Tracer," Akatsuki said. "Tetora can put a tracer on her so if she's taken he can find her. Then we can all go get her together."

"That will still take spell casting time and he hasn't written it yet, so we still need at least a short-term protective spell that hides what we're doing." She bit her lip. "Well, for those reasons it would be better to do it while still in the office, then bring her out."

Akatsuki nodded. "If the tracer is already set before they come out would be best."

"Maybe instead of asking at what level to bring her out, it should be at what level to wake her up." Isuzu said practically. "Then she could change the settings to let us work in there, dropping the security level back down for us." Akatsuki considered that.

"Well, if she has to change settings, that might use up some of her own power, so we want her to end up not too low." Minori said in the meantime. "But we don't know costs, do we?"

Akatsuki smiled. "She covered that, too." They looked at her in surprise. "Remember? She said it, that she would."

"Oh, right, that she'd let the officers know basic strategy stuff."

Akatsuki nodded. "Let's put it at...well...roughly the same numbers. Maybe five points higher."

"We could just wait fifteen minutes more, then, or something like that," Minori said. "She'll go up that much just sleeping won't she?"

"I wonder if Shiroe knows?" Akatsuki mused aloud. "That should have been covered in his questions."

Minori agreed and called up a chat. "Shiroe-san, excuse me, what is Miss Purrcy's recovery rate, and at what minimum HP can we wake her up if we need to have her change a basic setting on the scroll?" She blushed a little, then thanked him and came back. "He complimented us on working things out and apologized for not giving us that information to begin with. He says that the minimum to wake her up and make her do that kind of spell should be about twenty-eight, but if we wait another ten minutes it won't matter."

"Hmm...I wonder what that means?" Isuzu said. "That sound like one of his cryptic things."

"That puts her at about fourty-five minutes," Akatsuki said.

"Will the scroll's effect wear off then?" Minori's eyes widened.

"Oh, that wouldn't be good if we want to protect her," Isuzu responded.

Akatsuki nodded. "Let's go in as soon as we can. Then if we just can't, when that time is up ...then it won't matter."

Minori nodded. "And if her HP is sufficient we'll have time for our other things we want to do." The others were in agreement.

Tetora came back. "Write another one," Akatsuki said immediately. He stared at her. "Tracer so if she gets stolen as soon as we walk out of the room, all of us can follow you to where she is."

Tetora nodded. "Good idea. Give me two to three."

Minori frowned. "No more than that, please." He nodded and got to work. That would only give them six minutes to work in. Minori wasn't pleased. "Can we open the door and look in from here and get her status now?" she asked Akatsuki. Even that much would shave off some time.

Isuzu held up her hand. "Only Akatsuki can open it and Shiroe says the miasma will leak out and affect her worst of all. It might be better to only do it once."

Minori shook her head. "And I don't want to send you in alone, even though I want you to go first." She worried her lip, then finally pointed to the door. "Both of you, go stand ready. As soon as Tetora looks like he's coming back I'll give you the sign. Isuzu, go in. Akatsuki, immediately close the door. Isuzu, read the status and let Tetora know if you can work inside or not as soon as he arrives inside. I'll send him at a run and follow. Akatsuki, when I start talking to him, knock on the door. Isuzu, when you hear the knock cast the low level HP spell and see what it does. It should go off at the same time or just before Tetora arrives, so he'll be there to help you or to see that it works okay. Then you should still have five minutes to get done what needs to get done, including wake her up to reset things. Stay two steps ahead of Tetora so if something goes off when you get close to her it gets you and not him. Then he'll know how close he can get. Watch for other effects as you go. If you can chat with me, do, and I'll help as best I can, but you should initiate the chat, I think, just in case."

They nodded and hurried off to the office door to wait. Minori stood where she could watch Tetora's face, gripping her staff tightly in her slight anxiety at the tight timing they had. They'd done this kind of thing before in their training, but it always put butterflies in her stomach, or so she said. Akatsuki stood calmly at her place, watching for the sign to open the door, that being the only way she could support Minori from here. Stay calm and do what was your's to do. That was the best way to help your party be successful.