Do you guys know if there is a way to schedule to post chapters automatically? That could save us all a lot of problems. Sorry for the wait, hope you all will review.
Chapter 25 - The Doughnut
"Don't you mean... 'the Dreadnaught'?" Doomsday Device, self proclaimed specialist in world domination, offered the name, thinking Crow had perhaps made a mistake.
"No, I mean 'the Doughnut'. Here, look." He took out his notebook, and drew a circle that occupied the whole page. "This is the Central Continent." He then drew a smaller circle, in the center of the first. "And this is Infinite City. Do you see? The Doughnut."
Like people trying (unsuccessfully) to comprehend abstract art, the other members of the Black Brotherhood squinted and tilted their heads until, one by one, gasping in sudden enlightenment.
Jet started laughing.
"You are the devil."
Their leader shrugged, modestly accepting the compliment.
"So what are we doing now?" Dash's military training in Moon City was kicking in. He was suddenly all business.
"Oh, just some sightseeing, you know. Exploring the town, taking loads of pictures."
"That's fine by me but, seriously, Crow, you need to level up."
Jet's comment earned her a poke from Pen.
"It's not his fault if someone out leveled the whole team in just the five days we've been apart. How did you even get all that free time?"
It was true. Ten days, in an online game, could change the very balance of the world, so of course Crow was now a few levels behind the rest of the team. But during the five days when the team disbanded, Jet had single handedly finished dungeon after dungeon.
"I admit I got a little carried away." She said curtly. "But I did tell everyone I wanted to improve my reputation."
"It sure worked" One Man Band laughed, and rested his eyes on some of the newest posters.
Stone Heart of the Black Brotherhood. A mysterious player that soloed dungeons, killing mobs and players alike. His signature move was to finish his opponents by trespassing their hearts with a sword, a petrification status quickly spreading from the wound.
Jet caressed her Windblade, now equipped with Medusa's Eyes.
"Well, Jet's poster is okay, but Dee and I weren't even trying to hide our identities."
Another addition to the gallery of wanted posters showed the mage and barrier master, but their features were so vague that you could mistake any two blue and pink haired girls for 'the Con Cuties'.
"I bet the guys that fell for our act weren't paying attention to our faces because they were paying more attention to our other... feminine charms." Dee struck a pose, making the others laugh.
"I bet they just didn't think it would be appropriate to put our three sizes on a poster for public display." Pen added.
"Oh, girls. I feel so ashamed of my fellow male home sapiens... How can guys be so insensitive, and underestimate you so much?"
Crow seemed genuinely upset, and Dash and Band were nodding their agreement.
All the girls had to smile at that. It was good to be part of that team.
Real Life
School life was beginning to resume normality. He hadn't told anyone - not even Feng Yi - about professor Min's rampant. He didn't want people to act weird. He himself already felt weird enough for ten people, so to force himself to cross the threshold of the classroom doors he was forced to adopt the popular view some students seemed to have about teachers: that they weren't real people. They were just NPC's that spawned on the teachers' room, roamed around the campus saying "hello" and delivered pre-set speeches.
"So, Kuai Jiu Le, is it?"
"You won't regret it." Hua Feng Yi gave Yu An the phone number of yet another girl.
Second Life
All the staff of Infinite City was so impossibly busy that Prince rarely ever got to see Gui. As if the liege lord needed any more worries, with the Black Brotherhood running all over the place - seriously, how fast could those guys travel? It was almost as if they were in two places at the same time - and new bands of thieves popping up one after another, plus all the new branches of criminal activity.
Potion smuggling was the one Prince considered most troublesome of all. It had been Yulian's idea, once the financial mage realized that players were making small fortunes by selling potions they had looted - or worse, by reselling potions they had bought at Moon City - she declared Mana and Health Potions to be a monopoly of the Crown. But that measure had made players really angry.
So no, the last thing Prince needed at the moment was the unpredictable and often unseemly behavior of the bard. Lately, Gui had been asking for them to talk and, compared to his usual gibberish about love and devotion, that was almost scary.
"Hey, sisters!"
"Crow!"
The Black Sisterhood was delighted to see him.
"When your team told us you wouldn't be playing Second Life for a while, we were afraid you could be gone for months. Did they tell you about the Seven and the Lynxcats?"
"Other groups that were faking to be us, right?"
"Right. The Seven adhered to the franchise - though I wasn't sure I had the authority to do that." Lilly looked at him apologetically.
"I think it's perfectly fine, I trust your judgment. Of course, you need to tell us afterwards, just to make sure everyone knows each other. Speaking of that, have you met Red?"
She had. Apparently, Crow's brief absence had made the divers branches of the Black Brotherhood eager to communicate with one another.
"It was a vacuum of power." Both Jet and Pen had said, and the warrior motioned for the kekkaishi to continue. "Everyone started measuring each other, trying to figure out who would replace you as front man of the group. No one felt like they measured up, so they ended up trying to increase their personal skills."
"You make it sound like as soon I was gone, people started going at each other's throats." He had been saddened by the report.
"It was not a conscious thing." Dee comforted him. "It's human nature. Psychology degree, remember? I'd say everybody took it rather well. When we lost the thing that bound us together, we just grew apart instead of, for instance, turning against each other."
It was the first time that Crow actually felt the weight of leadership.
Back to the present, his team "the Originals", the other branches called them, was visiting the numerous franchisees, telling them about...
"...the Doughnut?"
"You will know when it happens." Crow assured her. "And if you want to join the fun, you just need to come with all your inventory full of black paint."
Silly Lilly seemed to understand less and less about what was going on.
"Come where?"
"You will know... if we succeed."
"And if you don't?"
"Then we won't need black paint."
Other members manifested different concerns.
"But, Crow," Red Scorpion objected, "if we will know when it happens, and want to join, how are we supposed to buy an inventory load of black paint without any previous warning?"
"..."
"You know what? Never mind. We'll find a way. But are you sure you couldn't have come up with a better name than 'the Doughnut'?"
Giddy Gideon and his party were all for it, whatever "it" was, so the original Black Brotherhood decided to meet the so called Seven.
"But..." Crow started, and then stopped really abruptly.
"Please, Crow, just say it." The leader of the Seven looked like a young boy, but they knew looks could be deceiving. He was beaming, and the members of his team had knowing smiles.
Crow looked for help on his side, but the eyes of his teammates said he'd asked for it.
"... but there are only six of you." He finished, sullen. The explosion of laughter that issued wasn't unexpected.
"My life is complete." One of the Seven needed to support himself against a team member that looked so much like him that they could be brothers. "The great leader of the Black Brotherhood fell for that. I don't need a life of crime anymore."
"It is a great psychological effect, how people continue to look over their shoulders, expecting the seventh person to show up." One of the girls in the team explained.
"Right." Crow was still slightly bothered, then cheered up a little when he remembered what their business was in the first place. "Now, about the Doughnut..."
And once they finished visiting the other teams, it was time to train. Level up, plan, and level up some more.
Real Life
"Well, first thing, I am not Prince."
"I know. Hua Feng Yi told me as much."
"Great. Second thing, I don't talk about Second Life outside Second Life."
"Why not?"
"In case you haven't believed the first statement."
Kuai Jiu Le laughed. "It seems like it happens to you a lot."
She was clearly different from the other girls, and Yu An was appreciating it very much.
"So, what is your major?"
"Literature."
"Isn't a member of Odd Squad teaching literature at your university?"
"I don't mean to be rude, but could we not talk about Second Life?"
"Sure, my bad... So, Yu An, how did you chose Literature?"
"I guess... it really helped me connect with people. I didn't get out much, and there are tons of things I've never done and will never be able to do. But through books I could taste a little bit of those experiences. Like... well, a little bit like Second Life."
"Now who's talking about the game outside the game?" She teased him. But, though she took a while to realize, something in his expression while he told her all that bugged Jiu Le.
They were talking for almost two hours now, and Yu An was telling her some anecdote about his childhood - he had a talent to make twenty chronic illnesses feel like something funny, rather than depressing - when she noticed that expression again, and finally took notice of that itch on her consciousness.
"You know, Yu An, you really look familiar."
"Huh? Oh, well, yes. Isn't it the point of the whole thing? That I find it hard to find a girlfriend given my uncanny resemblance with Prince?"
"No, I'm not talking about that."
"...?"
"Never mind. Do go on."
At first hesitantly, but little by little picking up enthusiasm, he resumed his tale. Jiu Le closed her eyes, trying to find it again. Not so much in the voice, but in the cadence.
She opened her eyes just in time for the punch line, and the image she had evoked in her mind matched almost perfectly with the one she had before her. She saw a young man beaming, eyes shining, arms kind of raised, since he'd been taking with his hands. The only mismatch was the colors.
"Crow!"
All mental functions ceased. Yu An was so surprised that any attempt to look cool and ask "Who?" would make him lose face. So as soon as his brain resumed working, he decided to gain some time, in case he was able to recognize the girl back.
"You know, that was awfully sudden."
"What?"
"Have you ever considered that I might not want that fact publicly acknowledged?"
She had to be someone from the Black Brotherhood, that was for sure. Wild Sting didn't have girls. She wasn't Siren, from the Sideway Crawlers, nor one of the new girls from the Seven.
"Then what was I supposed to do, exactly?"
She was from the Black Sisterhood, and not Sililly.
"You could have, you know... hinted subtly or something." Then he smiled. Of course he knew her. She was the archer. They had been exchanging techniques just the other day, during their visit to the sisters. "Isn't that right, Evergreen of the Black Brotherhood, second branch?"
Recognizing her seemed to have been the right choice, because Jiu Le seemed pleased.
"But I can't believe it... Crow, of all people. You look so different!"
"You look different enough yourself." He smiled sheepishly.
"So, tell me, how did you end up a criminal in the first place?"
Yu An laughed.
"I could ask you the same question... but I did say I have a rule on not talking about Second Life."
"Common! But I already know you secret identity!" Though she complained, Kuai Jiu Le didn't sound half as intent on getting an answer as Yu An would expect. She seemed to have grown a little distant, considering a new thought in her own little world.
"Well, it's the first time my 'secret identity', as you say, is discovered. So I'm still not sure if this is an exception to the rule."
"You know... I guess you don't need to decide on that right away because... I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"I guess I haven't been honest with you. When Hua Feng Yi told me about 'this super nice guy who looks like Prince but is not Prince'... I wasn't actually looking for someone nice in order to have a relationship. I was looking for a handsome guy to make my ex-boyfriend jealous. So... I actually let her give you my number just because of your looks."
Yu An sighed. He was disappointed, but not devastated. He teased her.
"So, after seeing me up close, do I still count as handsome?"
She laughed.
"Yes. Though your skin is not very good."
"I can't do much about that. I'm allergic to lotions."
"Oh. Sorry. But, you see, I'm saying I don't want to deceive you, because you are a friend."
So you are okay with deceiving people that aren't friends. He registered that in his mind, not as an accusation, but as a note about human character.
"Well, that's kind of sad. Are you sure that resorting to this sort of pretense is the best course of action?"
"Completely not sure." She shrugged. "But I'm desperate. Pathetic, isn't it?"
"No. It just means you are capable of loving passionately. I'm kind of jealous. It hasn't happened to me yet."
Jiu Le smiled. To think Crow was that kind. They talked some more, and Yu An left her with the admonition:
"Should you find yourself unencumbered, give me a call. I totally think we should give it a go."
So optimistic... she kept his number, even though she believed she would never have a use for it.
So... he thought to himself. Perhaps I really am jinxed. But it should be over now: there was only one girl he wanted to take on a date. No next in line, no plan B.
Just Xiao Lan.