Isuzu was inside Shiroe's office. She wanted to take a deep breath, then decided that wasn't a good idea. She did breathe slowly enough to calm her insides while opening a chat with Minori. At the same time she read the status on the sleeping werecat. "Oh dear." Purrcy wasn't in felinoid form and her werecat status didn't display HP and MP. That wasn't good. Isuzu groaned. "Well. What am I supposed to do about that?" she muttered. ...Or at least she thought she muttered it. She waited to hear the knock on the door. It seemed like it was taking longer than it should, so she prepared her spell. "Minori, I can't read any HP levels because she's in werecat form." There was no answer, but the door opened behind her and Tetora came in and it closed behind him. She nodded at him and cast the spell. The thing that happened just before happened again. There was no sound coming out of her mouth...that she could hear, that is. It felt like sound was coming out but there was no sound to hear at all. "Well, damn. That's no good." Still no sound. She turned to Tetora.

Tetora opened his mouth and it moved but no sound came out, or at least Isuzu couldn't hear it. She shook her head. His eyes also widened in concern now. He pointed to his eyes. She moved just enough to wave miserably at Purrcy. He looked, and his face fell as well. He stood thinking, then stood up straight, put one hand over his heart, opened his mouth, and made a sweeping wide gesture with the hand over his heart, held it, then looked at her. She gave him a "what? really?" look and mouthed, Rudy? He paused, then laughed (still no sound), and shook his head. He thought some more, then played an air guitar and opened his mouth, then gestured to his throat, drawing a line up to and out of his mouth.

That she did get. Sing. She nodded then looked at him quizzically. He pointed to Purrcy, pointed to his head, or mind, then did "sing" again and pointed to her. Isuzu pondered. Purrcy - think - sing. She'd been teaching them to imagine when doing magic, and Isuzu sang. A bard was a performer and singer, and the Class Bard used music to do their magic. If she used song to do her spell, would it work since it wasn't spoken? She gave a little thoughtful nod and thought hard about how to turn her spell into a song, then stopped. More important was waking Purrcy up at this point. Any low level spell to test the room would work. She ran through the songs she might sing that would help Purrcy wake up.

Isuzu's father was a musician. Rock, but he had an extensive collection of classics that were always being played when he was around the house, and even when he wasn't once she got old enough to treat the disks nicely. Some of the favorites had been the Beetles, but from that same era her father had some American songs as well, and one fit this situation very well. Isuzu grinned. Wake Up, Little Suzy sung by the Everly Brothers circa 1957. She wished she'd grabbed her lute, but it was too late now. Voice would have to do. Could she make it a spell? ...Purrcy had said intent was just as good, it seemed to Isuzu, and it wasn't like it needed to be high level. She was just sleeping. Isuzu opened her mouth and gave it a try, substituting a few words here and there and singing it in English, since that's how she'd learned it.

Wake up, Little Purrcy, wake up.
Wake up, Little Purrcy, wake up.

Tetora grinned. It worked. They could see the musical notes in the air that always accompanied her songs. As she sang she slowly led them closer to Purrcy, Tetora coming closely behind.

We've both been sound asleep.
Wake up Little Purrcy and help.
The questions are over, it's ten o'clock,
And we're in trouble deep.

Isuzu put her hand gently on Purrcy's head. She'd already twitched her ear several times on their way over.

Wake up, Little Purrcy.
Wake up, Little Purrcy.
We gotta go home.

Isuzu ended the song there and Purrcy rolled her head slightly and opened her eye. Isuzu pointed to her throat and then her ear. Purrcy blinked a few times, then said, "I've fixed it," in a very sleepy voice. "Sing more of that one. I like it."

"You aren't that old surely," Isuzu said, mostly to try and see if she could hear it.

Purrcy gave a chuckle. "You're not either."

"No. My Dad liked the old classics."

"Well, there you go. So did mine. Saxophone."

"My Dad was string bass, rock," Isuzu offered in return.

Purrcy smiled a sleepy smile. "Classical band, but swing was his favorite, both to play and dance. He was my favorite dance partner."

Tetora's first spell settled on Purrcy and soon thereafter the second one did as well. Purrcy looked a little surprised, then looked over. "That was an interesting spell, Tetora. Very good. You left a large imprint, but that will fade with time. Trying to cast a fifth level when you're just barely a first will do that."

"The tracer is a fifth level?" he asked her.

"That one was."

Isuzu was worried. As of yet Purrcy hadn't moved. "Miss Purrcy, can you move? We've cast the spells that need to be cast but no one else can come in. You need to come out. We've tried to heal you enough, but you don't show when in this form how much HP you have, or MP either."

Purrcy sighed. "Is it really safe to come out?"

"All the boys and men, besides Tetora, are on the roof. We only need you to come to the couch outside."

Purrcy nodded a nod and slowly lifted herself to leave the couch, and they walked on either side of her towards the door. Isuzu went to open a chat with Minori and was a little surprised to find it was still open from before. "We're coming to the door. I'll knock."

"Okay," Minori answered. "I have a protective spell waiting."

Isuzu passed on the information, so no one would be surprised, then knocked on the door. Tetora's fingers tightened in Purrcy's fur, having taken hold of her because he really didn't want her to disappear at all. Isuzu, being the expendable, stood behind them. As soon as the door opened, Tetora pulled on Purrcy and they moved through the door. Isuzu passed through after them quickly and Akatsuki closed the door behind them with a click.

"Ah, did my spell work?" Minori asked, looking a little confused and worried.

"Look at my status," Tetora said. Minori did, then nodded. Tetora crouched down next to Purrcy. "Does it take HP to transform to a small cat?"

Purrcy blinked at him, then put a paw on his shoulder. It was a bit slow, but soon he was holding the smaller Purrcy housecat, resting her front paws on his shoulder and him holding her back ones. He carried her over to the couch and held her in his arms. The three girls settled around them. Isuzu's heart was as worried as Tetora's face was. "Purrcy, will they take you away now?" he asked, his voice pained.

She rubbed her head under his chin and on his cheek by his ear and purred for him. He froze. "No, Purrcy. Don't do that. Don't take my...that. Don't absorb that. We think it's making it worse." She stopped in surprise. "You can physically comfort me, but look, can you see my data stream? It's the first of the two spells I cast."

"Okay, I see it," she said.

"Now, do what I said not to do, but just a little."

They watched it together. "Oh. That's...hmmm. I think I must do that automatically. I had no idea it did that. Can I copy that code so I can learn when to do that and when not to?"

"Sure," he said magnanimously. "We think it negates the effect of the plague virus you've got, but we don't know how, so I'm watching it. There is also the possibility that you are actually putting that into your own system when you take it from others and you've overloaded your system with it and can't get rid of it, or at least aren't properly."

"Oh, no, when people pet me it goes away. That's one of the reasons I like to be pet."

"Well, you've only been pet here in the last two or three days. To have gone lots of months and years without it, you're definitely overloaded. Don't do it for a while...like months. I'll put together another reader to see how well you're getting rid of the down side."

"No, not a new one. Modify the existing. Like this." There was quiet for a minute.

"Oh, that's cool. Can I make it a higher level spell?"

"Yes, but you shouldn't until you are higher level," humor was in her voice. "You can also copy them and keep the one but make the other lower or higher. Here, watch me copy it for me, though it's slightly different since I have to change permissions and you can't." He watched her do that too, but Isuzu noticed he was now petting her purposely and looked like he was keeping track of his data line at the same time.

Isuzu glanced at Minori, wondering. She shook her head. It looked like she was counting. Akatsuki was kneeling on her chair watching both them and the room in general. Isuzu considered her spells and set off one that would keep a low level of HP flowing into all of her compatriots. It was mostly for Purrcy's benefit, but if battle was brought to them, then it would at least be available. Then she sat back to also pay attention to the room. She'd wait until Minori's count was done so as to not distract her.

At the same time as Minori's count ended and she asked, "Miss Purrcy, how are you feeling now?" Tetora frowned and said, "I don't like this."

Purrcy looked between them. Tetora nodded at Minori. Purrcy looked at her and said, "Tired. One hour isn't much sleep, though the spells have been helpful for the points. As a wild natural cat, I do actually need sleep not just increases in the bars. I think that's my curse, though, not everyone's."

"No, it's not that either, Purrcy." Tetora shook his head. He was still looking closely at his data.

Isuzu leaned forward. "Tetora-kun, read. I'll tell her." He nodded gratefully. Isuzu summarized their current working theory that she had a computer virus that was acting like a plague. That the larger spell Tetora had cast in the office should have dampened it's effects for now, but was still too low level to remove it. That they had tested it already and on what levels and the effects on those people. She meandered into the theory of the guildmasters and guilds as test subjects and the Wolf Pack as well, as well as them being the final carriers. Her own opinion was that Purrcy'd been surrounded by the pack in order to make sure she had the last and strongest virus and Shiroe believed she'd been chased to Log Horizon on purpose to bring it to them. When asked if she'd been touched, Purrcy shook her head. Isuzu frowned. "From what little evidence we have, it's transmitted by touch. Are you sure? And it would have had to have been a male that touched you. It alternates between the sexes."

Purrcy had curled up in Tetora's arm. She lay her head down and closed her eyes. Isuzu was afraid she was falling asleep again, but finally she said, "It is possible...that one of the guards who brought me to Grandale touched me. I seem ...oh, right, he helped me steady myself when I landed with Call of Home. There was something underfoot, but I didn't see it because he was so fast to help me."

"Could you identify him again if you saw him?" Akatsuki asked immediately.

Purrcy thought about it. "Maybe...I think so."

"Tetora...," they waited for him to come back, "what have they done with the men that you took into custody?"

"Hmm...I don't know. I left them with the guilds - Woodstock has them, I think."

Akatsuki was immediately on chat with Shiroe. "Contact Woodstock again. Have him make sure he still has his prisoners. He's got a mole in the group of guards that picked her up. That one passed her the virus. She might be able to identify him again. It's the one who steadied her on arrival, if any of the other guards can remember who it was. ...Yes. He put something on the ground so that she needed the steadying. She's a cat and Call of Home doesn't twist cat's feet when they land. ...Yes." There was a longer pause during which Akatsuki looked at Purrcy and Tetora. "...Not yet. Tetora's watching something he doesn't like, and she's still not looking good, for all she should be by now. We'll let you know. ...Oh, okay. Thank you. ...Purrcy, please turn on the MP and HP status so we can see them."

Isuzu looked and saw she'd done it. She frowned too. "Why is HP capped?"

Tetora started. "Oh, is that what it looks like on the outside?"

"Yes," Isuzu answered him. "It goes up to a certain height then bounces back down, then back up again. ...Oh, I've got a support spell going that adds to HP slowly, so some of the returning up might be me. Should I turn it off so you can see just the drain side?"

"Well, ...if it's not too much to turn it back on again."

She considered that. "No, I don't think it should be." She canceled the spell and they watched from either side what the result was. Sure enough, there was a slow drain. Tetora motioned and she reset the spell again. It didn't go up again, but it didn't go down either. It bounced again. "My rate is two HP per second. So, that's a one HP beat per half-second."

"I'll do a search by frequency then."

Isuzu frowned. Frequency, and beats were her kind of magic. "Could the Hacker be a Bard? Look for a Bard signature, because that sure is one if there ever was one." She ran through in her mind all her own spells, both for what it could be and for one that would counter it.

"Bard...," Purrcy said sleepily. "Damn. ...Need more HP, just enough to wake up for about four to five minutes, but I know how to find him in here. ...If you can't do that much I'll take what I can get. I know how to block him, too. It's sad. I like his music and he's got a great beat."

"Well, you would think so. You're tied to it. You need to untie it and burn the string. Then he can't influence you any more," Isuzu scolded while Tetora cast another HP healing spell on Purrcy.

"Hmm..., come here, Tetora." She fell silent and the two sat quietly for a while.

"Isuzu," Minori leaned over and said quietly, "could you hear me when you were in the office?"

Isuzu looked at her in surprise. "No. I couldn't hear me and when Tetora arrived we couldn't hear each other either."

"Hmm...interesting. I could hear you just fine."

Isuzu blinked. "It was just set for...hearing? That's interesting."

"I was starting to get worried when you wouldn't answer me, and then you started singing. I'd wondered what it was."

"I did that as a spell, of the kind she says to do - naturally, since I'm a Bard. I'm not sure, but I was thinking that if we couldn't hear speech, then maybe we could hear singing instead, though it was Tetora's idea. ...Honestly, I'm surprised we could do magic in there."

Minori shrugged. "Maybe she thought if anyone was going to, she would already know. I doubt external magic would work." Isuzu agreed with that.

A smile came on Tetora's face. "How do I rewrite the tracer to make it a level one spell?" he asked. There was another pause, then a look of concentration, consideration, then triumph. "I've got him." Akatsuki looked positively pleased. "And I've put it on the guild map."

Akatsuki sat up straight almost trembling with excitement. "Shiroe, permission to go hunting. The bastard's in town. ...'Kay." She was gone.

Both Tetora and Purrcy sighed and Isuzu could see the HP meter begin to rise steadily. She and Minori both sighed and relaxed at the same time as well. Isuzu glanced at Minori. She only had half of her attention on the status, as she'd picked up scanning the room now that Akatsuki was gone. She called up to Shiroe herself now. "It was a Bard, and his rate of decrease was a half-second rate, one HP per."

He was quiet for a moment, then said, "That equates to the rate she fell by each time between rests."

"Yes. Once she got pushed down, she couldn't fill it fast enough, so it would have been a steadily decreasing rate over all."

He sighed. "What's the rate of increase now?"

Isuzu asked Minori then passed the answer back up. "Check her state in four minutes. If she looks mostly recovered bring her up."

"Okay. Um...would it be okay to have Rudy come down to my room and get my lute for me to pick up when we get there?"

He considered it. "I'll send him down. That far and if he's fast shouldn't be too bad."

"Thanks." She ended the chat. "He says give it four minutes and if she's good, go up."

Purrcy buried her head in Tetora's elbow. He paused his reading and looked at her in surprise, then pet her. "Did you not understand, Purrcy? Because of the virus you were headed to heat. Now that I've used the bigger spell on you and we've found out why you're so tired all the time, you won't be in heat by the time we're supposed to go up. He wants you to create the antivirus. I'll keep you healthy until you're done with it so we can get the city back in order. It's in quarantine right now with everyone using the healing magic to get by until then."

Purrcy turned her head around to look up at him. "Seriously?"

Tetora nodded. "Yes. You said that magic is magic here, so I just imagined my normal healing magic affecting the computer virus, and it did, it's just higher level than I can effect to get rid of it altogether. You have to do it, to eradicate it. We've been calling it plague because that's what it mimics, and that works just as well for the other guilds. Their healers imagine their spell to work against plague and they get the same results -ish. We aren't there to compare really, but that's the verbal report."

"Just a general purpose spell?"

"Yes, targeted to plague...or computer virus."

She snorted. "Well, who would have known. I've got to stop being so detail oriented sometimes. All-purpose cleaner works just as good. I'll remember it from now on." She paused, then said, "Okay. Now I need to know the range of spread."

"It's for sure Akiba. We haven't had the opportunity to research beyond that yet. This newest strain is the worst. Everything before it can be handled by a level ninety-eight."

She sat up straight. "No way. He's done it. Gah. I'm falling behind again. No wonder it worked so well."

Tetora frowned. "He's higher level than you?"

"No, not yet, but he's moved up enough to be damaging again. He's the one I need to get rid of right now. I guess we've reached full blown war at this point."

"Damn straight. He decided to mess with Log Horizon this time," Tetora said fiercely. The girls nodded.

Minori asked, "How are you feeling now, Miss Purrcy?"

"Like fighting...but in the morning." She chuckled a purry sort of chuckle.

Minori stood. "Let's go, but we'll take it slow." Isuzu and Tetora rose as well.

Isuzu took point and kept careful watch. Tetora carried Purrcy in the middle and Minori took up the rear. They made it to the rooftop without incident on the way up. Isuzu motioned to Tetora to wait at the door, though. He nodded. Minori stayed with them. Isuzu stepped out and walked straight up to her guildmaster and held up her sleeve. "How bad is it? I was in the room for just about seven minutes, then we were in the downstairs for nearly, what, ten?" She looked him in the eyes, judging his reaction.

He finally took a step back and shook his head. "Keep her either by the door or take her straight to the edge downwind. It will be worse on her, even if she isn't producing it any more. Likely a bath will be necessary...for everyone. Has she been told I don't have a place to sleep tonight yet?"

Isuzu stared at him. "Of course you do. If you don't sleep with Akatsuki we'll all kill you." His eyes went wider than she'd ever seen them before and the rest of the men on the roof laughed themselves to tears.

"That's our Bard!" Naotsugu crowed and slapped her on the back as she moved to go back to the stairwell. It pushed her forward three feet.

She glared at him over her shoulder. "Easy, big guy. I'm still a thin stick in this place, for all my levels have gone up."

"Sorry, sorry," he said, waving a hand in apology.

As she opened the door to give Tetora his orders to take Purrcy downwind to the edge of the roof and suggest Minori go also, she heard Shiroe complain, "Naotsugu, how come you can get touched and touch, but not get this thing?"

"Ah, because I'm an open perv, Shiroe. It's all you closet pervs that can't handle it."

Isuzu snorted. As she walked back, she said, "It's because he doesn't have a hateful bone in his body, most of the time. He's so calm nothing perturbs the surface of his puddle."

Naotsugu just grinned as Isuzu took her lute from Rudy. "Thanks," she said to him.

"Are you going to sing while we wait?" he asked her. As a Person of the Land originally, he was her most devoted fan.

She smiled. "Well, maybe after. I used a natural song spell to get Miss Purrcy to wake up. I just thought that if we're going to fight a Bard-Hacker, then maybe I could counter him better with the strings to back up my voice."

"Well, I'll look forward to it, then," he smiled his golden-boy smile. She refrained from patting him on the head. She didn't want to pass what she might have picked up from the office to him.

Isuzu walked over to be with Tetora, Minori, and Purrcy again. She heard Purrcy softly ask, "Tetora, where's Nyanta?"

Isuzu interrupted. "He went with Akatsuki to get the one Tetora put the tracer on."

"Isuzu, will you let Purrcy come over there? I'd like my hands free for healing magic and I've also got to focus on the other magic pretty hard still, since it's still new," Tetora requested.

"Sure," Isuzu didn't mind.

When Tetora handed Purrcy over, instead of letting Isuzu hold her, she walked up onto her shoulder. "I'll stay up here so you have your hands free for the instrument." Tetora left them to go talk to the men.

"How small can you really go?" Isuzu was amazed that she'd reached almost kitten size so she could sit on the one narrow shoulder. Isuzu was rather thin and tall for a girl, having kept to her natural size in this originally-2D-constructed body.

"Well, there are some mass issues so I don't go much smaller than this, and I can go bigger than what I've done here, but too large is just too much, so I have a maximum as well. No city block sized cats for me, thanks."

"Godzilla in cat form," Isuzu laughed, and Minori and Purrcy laughed with her.

"No. Nothing like that," Purrcy agreed. "I think, actually, that it's limited by what a 'cat' would be really, so to speak, though I don't know if that's from my mindset because of the cats, house and big ones, that I know, or if it's because somewhere in the system is an actual definition of sizes of cats. The largest are the panther and lion and that's about as big as it gets, really, though I can for short periods of time go a little bigger. It stretches me funny, so I don't much."

Tetora returned to them. "The Boss says just do Akiba for now and maybe out five to ten feet in case there are some sleepers on the outside tonight, then do a few more inoculations over the next couple of days. If you can stay a few weeks, then once weekly after that might catch the rest. And can it be copied to me so I at least have it, even if it's too high level to use?"

"Hmm...scroll, maybe. He's probably thinking it but not sure how to get it from one to the other. When I've recovered enough, I'll see what I can do." There was silence for a moment, then, "Okay. I'm going to need one full up dose of MP and HP. Once I cast the spell he's going to know I'm present and likely still weak. I don't know that he'll actually do anything to the rest of you, since he'll be fighting me inside the program, so to speak. If you come to look around inside, Tetora, stand inside my shields to be protected yourself and watch what they do. They're complex, but if you see them in action, you'll be able to create your own faster."

"Yes, ma'am. Hang on while I go let them know." Tetora was off again.

"Not like we couldn't chat," Minori commented.

"He must like the exercise." Purrcy commented. Isuzu and Minori laughed, agreeing.

"Miss Purrcy, let me set a spell so that he can't use the same Bard connection he was using before." Isuzu started tuning her lute, trying to not unbalance the kitten on her shoulder. She stayed put pretty well, though, and started purring in Isuzu's ear.

"If it's more singing, I'm happy to let you do whatever you want in that regard," the now little voice said in her ear.

"You like music," Minori observed.

"Yes," Purrcy said. "I studied piano. I'm self taught so nothing like the awesome pianists of Japan, or even the average classical pianist of where I'm from, but if I could have been, I wouldn't have minded, I think. Or so I say now that I'm older." She laughed at herself.

Isuzu nodded. "For all my father was in a known band, I'm mostly self taught as well, but I also love to play."

"She's really good, actually," Minori said, and Isuzu shrugged a little, uncomfortable.

Purrcy patted her ear with a paw. "Yes, that's how I feel about my music, too, but I'm sure that if you love it with all your heart, then that's what people are hearing, and that's what matters. Keep playing for you, so that you can have the joy stay with you. Love your music and it will love you back."

Isuzu thought about that, then nodded. She strummed a few chords as she considered how she wanted to set the protective spell. "Miss Purrcy, what's your favorite type of music?"

"Whatever you choose to play that makes you the happiest, Love. If you're going to set a spell I'm going to have to hear the tempo of for a long time to come, make it that. Then I'll always have in me the memory of how much you love and find joy in your music. ...Though if I can dance to it, too, that'd make me even happier, but it's a side note, really."

Isuzu stopped, her eyes shut, and just felt those words for a minute. She held the lute in one hand and reached up and held the little kitten to the side of her face. "Mother...thank you." Purrcy purred and rubbed her head on Isuzu's cheek, then gave her jaw a little rough-tongued lick. Isuzu smiled and got to work.

-:-:-:-:-

"We're at a tavern full of people," Akatsuki said, having reached the place in downtown Akiba that was marked on the guild map by Tetora's marker for the enemy Bard. The guild map let them know where each member of the guild was within a local range, but Purrcy had shown him how to modify it that much.

"Do mew want me to go in and look around?" Nyanta asked on the guild chat.

"I'd rather you were on the back end, to invite him to dinner when he's had enough drink." Shiroe answered.

"Going," Nyanta said.

"Akatsuki, you've got the front. Keep an eye out for your girlfriend. She might want to get a drink or two with you." Shiroe paused that chat and opened another. "Rieze...interested in helping?"

"Where?" That was "pretty interested", maybe even "very interested" it had been said so fast.

"Hang on." Shiroe was betting that his communications were being "read". He had to assume it, since the person was both very high level, and almost surely knew that Purrcy was at Log Horizon and a guild member, since that news had been used to gain information the previous day. He was experimenting with his own natural magic now. He had the chat open to Rieze and now he "scribed" to it, as if doing the text version. The actual text was set to only show up in front of Rieze's eyes. It might be a bit sloppy since he couldn't see where characters overlapped on his end. He wrote with his finger, letting the words fade between sentences:

We're wire-tapped. Find Akatsuki.

Outside a tavern, south-east side of market.

Target is inside and it's full.

We'll watch the doors on the outside.

Bard with special magic skills.

Can erase status effects in one turn.

Ignore status screen - falsified.

HP/MP are ratios.

Expected level 98/99.

Nyanta calls dibs.

You can pick him up in the usual place after.

"The hell, Shiroe," Rieze complained when he'd paused long enough, having been quiet herself until now. "Why do you like to pick up these kinds? Is it the one?"

"Yes."

"Right. Got some ideas. We're on it."

"Thanks." He ended the chat, pleased that his spell addition had worked and went back to monitoring the chat with Nyanta and Akatsuki. While waiting to hear things on that end, he considered what the full battle plan should look like. If the Bard was monitoring his virus and the extent of it, like Shiroe would have been, then as soon as Purrcy cast the spell to get rid of it, he would be alerted to the fact. That would make him attack Purrcy. But if he was distracted with D.D.D., then with Nyanta and Akatsuki, he wouldn't be able to get too many new spells off against her. Any sleeper spells would be set off, though. Likely Purrcy was waiting for those at the very least. Solo players were very paranoid or they died early and often.

Tetora had set himself as secondary and healer for Purrcy and if she didn't use him right, he'd teach her to. There wasn't much for the rest of them on the roof to do, unless by some chance the Bard got off a spell against them that was more physical in nature. They'd listen for either Purrcy or Tetora to warn them something was incoming and deal with it then. ...Unless they were busy. That meant he needed... And he wanted to know... He sighed. He'd have to go talk to her himself. Maybe enough time had passed.

Shiroe walked over to stand upwind of the sub-party of girls (and Tetora, who looked like a girl so it might as well be called that without the modifier, except they wanted to show him proper respect). For a moment he couldn't see Purrcy, but there was a glowing ball on or near Isuzu's left shoulder. She was ending a song. He waited politely.

"How's that feel, Miss Purrcy?" Isuzu asked.

There was a pause, then, from that point on the shoulder that no longer glowed, "I like it very much, Love." The voice was small and smooth and sounded tired. "It's happy with a good dance tempo, but isn't overwhelming for having to have in the system long-term. You did a good job."

"I tried to get it about adult heart-rate level so you don't fall asleep or get too irritable."

"Oh, that was very thoughtful."

Shiroe looked closer at that spot on Isuzu. "Excuse me?" he politely interrupted.

They turned to look at him. "Oh, Mister Shiroe. We're sorry," Minori said, a bit horrified they'd missed him being present.

"No, it looked like you were busy," he said.

"Ah, Isuzu's just..., well," Minori turned to Isuzu.

Isuzu fully turned towards him and he could finally see that on her left shoulder was a calico kitten, difficult to see in the night. He raised his eyebrow. He hadn't known she could go that small. "I've just used a natural Bard song spell." Isuzu's face turned into a look of consternation. "Well...those words didn't flow, but do you get what I mean?" He nodded. "The other Bard Hacker, in having that slow drain on her, had lodged a long-term frequency in her. She and Tetora got rid of it, but it could be restored if he finds out it's gone, so I was replacing it with one of mine that is a slow restorative rather than a drain."

"Oh, thank you very much, Isuzu!" Purrcy rubbed the top of her head on Isuzu's jaw and purred. "You didn't have to do the restorative, though I appreciate it."

"Is it permanent or temporary?" Shiroe asked.

"Permanent, those kinds...and I told the music to make it that way." Isuzu said.

Shiroe nodded. "Purrcy, I have a few questions before the battle begins." Everyone turned to him to give him respectful attention, even Purrcy sat upright on Isuzu's shoulder and wrapped her tail around to lay it on the front paws, in what he was learning was her formal pose. "Is the Bard Classed or sub-classed?"

"Classed. Bard is now the sub-class."

That's was Shiroe had been afraid of. In his own element he was going to be difficult. "How are you planning on protecting us if he manages to slip away from the distractions headed his way?"

The tip of her tail flipped up and back down. "I can put a shield over the top of the building. The smaller the size, the better, though. I'm going to use at least half just to cast the antiviral healing spell."

Shiroe thought about that. "Minori's a Kannagi. Could you do one over our larger group and her do one over your smaller group?"

Purrcy looked at Minori. "Probably, if she thinks she can. That would help me."

Minori frowned a bit, then said, "So one of the spells that shields from damage, but focus on the damage being from a computer virus or something like that?"

Purrcy tipped her head, thinking and Shiroe, completely separate from the other things that had gone on earlier this day, thought that it was probably one of the cutest things he'd seen in a long time - a kitten looking intelligently thoughtful. "You probably don't want to think specifically of a virus, there are other attacks that would get through, but if you generalized it to just 'computer' attacks...or you could just let it be as it is...or as is but add in additional defenses against status effects, making a higher level spell... Really, there isn't a limit when you branch out past the spells written into the initial code. Just do what seems best to you. Probably it's more important to visualize the boundaries of it. Is it an umbrella over us? A wall around us? A sphere? A half-sphere? How far out are the boundaries from us?"

"If we move you would need to let us know if we've moved outside the boundaries. If it's a spell for a single person, and you want it for all of us, that needs to be included in the visualization as well, but that will also increase the level of spell it is. You need to keep track of each increase so you don't go over your own level or there will be weak spots or even holes in it. Too high and it will fail, and sometimes there are negative repercussions to failures. ...Having said all that, keeping it simple really is the best way to go. Decide what the most important features are, and stick to them. Outlying attacks can be handled on the fly, like we always do when something unexpected comes along."

Minori had been listening carefully and at the last she nodded. She knew how to handle that sort of thing, and Shiroe had confidence in her capabilities. "Will multiple layers work if the attacks are so much higher level than I am?" she asked. It was an intelligent question.

"If you plan them that way. The first one goes down and negates so many points of damage, or a percentage, the second one negates the same, etc., so by the time it hits us it's a five or less level spell, I assume is what you're thinking." Minori nodded. "Yes. You'll have to play with it a bit. Each successive shell might be considered a higher level spell than the first one. Magic still has higher costs for better stuff. Those kinds of rules still apply because they are the general rules of magic on this world." Minori nodded again. She was very good at putting these kinds of rules into memory and into practice.

"Purrcy, since this is your first time working with us, go ahead and tell me what you've set up already and what you expect to see," Shiroe requested.

"I've got watchdogs that know his scent already on duty. The same goes for my shields and Tetora's been practicing hiding behind them. I'll set watchdogs for your group when I put the shield there. Tetora can set up warnings on Minori's shield and handle watching incoming on it. If it's bigger than he can handle he can pass them up to me, but most of those I should catch before he sees them. It's only if it's a swarm that I might have to let some through." She considered. "If it's something coming that you all can handle, and I'm busy with hand-to-hand, I'll put tracers on them so you can see them visibly. That way you can affect them with your own magics. You could anyway, they just aren't visible normally."

"Can you color code them?" he asked.

"Um...If I set that up ahead of time. If I'm in hand-to-hand I won't have the capacity. I suppose writing that ahead of time as a stand-by would be good anyway. Three minutes to write it, I would think. Half to cast or less, so four minutes for that one." She paused reading her own stats, "I could do that with what I've got now, before Tetora fills me up."

Shiroe nodded. "Do that. They've found him and are watching the place, but are waiting for the heavy reinforcements to arrive, which should be soon. What are you doing to protect them?"

Purrcy blinked, then said soberly. "Nyanta's solid. I did that yesterday. ...I might not have time to help Akatsuki, though, at least as solid as I'd like. I'll get what I can on her to the best of my ability. Do you have a preference on what I focus on?"

"Things that a healing spell won't affect," he answered immediately, knowing D.D.D. would be bringing in at least one healer, and more likely three, that Akatsuki could use.

"Does the virus count?"

"Why?"

"Because after I cast the spell, he may recast immediately. It will take the battle time for it to take full effect, so no one will be adversely affected during battle. I anticipate having tomorrow's recast handle that..." She paused a pregnant, heavy pause.

"Tell me," he said.

"I...I'm thinking he might have one more. One that he's reserved. I'm hopeful it's just another iteration so I'll be able to wait that half-day I need and can modify my anti-viral to match it. If it's out of scope, I might not be able to do anything about it at all for some time. If he's made it fast-acting...well, that's our worst case scenario."

Shiroe considered his battle plan options he'd been holding pending her additional information. "For the worst case scenario, how much HP and MP would he need to cast them?"

"Well...if he only has to touch one person...and guessing at the level of spell...ah, no. If he's already paid the price, it would only be the one touch, so two to four points. A single point is the thread of life. If you're down to one you can't spend it on a spell or a spell release."

"HP or MP?"

"HP. It blocks spending MP regardless of it's level." She tipped his head at him. "By the way...that works for Call of Home, too. If you get injured in the field and are at one HP, you can't even use Call of Home, regardless of Class. Most people don't know that since they are rarely at one HP."

"You have been, then?" he asked her.

"Oh, yes. Several times. Life was super sweet at those moments. I learned a lot of my hiding techniques then, and that's when I decided to stop and focus on learning the transformation magic until I had it down cold." Everyone nodded their understanding. They knew from the stories of Serera's rescue what it would have been like to have had to resurrect back at Susukino. That would have been very dangerous. Demikas had kept a twenty-four hour watch on the Cathedral. Call of Home put you down outside the city gates. She would have had a chance to escape there.

"I'd like to not have Akatsuki dead or quarantined, but if he's got something you don't know about, there isn't much that can be done, really. Decrease damage or level would be nice if you can do that much." Shiroe returned to the initial request.

Purrcy nodded. "Tetora, put a read on Akatsuki and watch her back. If something looks bad, call me in. I might have to put it on hold, but I'll show up. Do what you can in the meantime while you wait for me."

"Yes, ma'am," Tetora looked like he was starting it right that very moment.

Shiroe nodded at them. "As soon as the spells are set, raise your hand and I'll tell them to get started on that side. Give it six and a half minutes, then cast the antiviral." Purrcy nodded. Tetora also gave a faint nod to let Shiroe know he'd heard and would properly calculate for when he needed to give Purrcy the healing spells to get her up to the proper levels to cast it.

Shiroe looked at Minori. "I'll watch them. I've got potions with me for Tetora," she said.

"Mister Shiroe," Isuzu asked, "shall I put one up for MP and one for HP, or one for HP and one for decreased casting time?"

Shiroe looked at Purrcy. "I think agility will be rather key if things go bad," he said.

Isuzu nodded. "Gotcha."