Chapter Thirty-Seven:
Makoto and Ruuska
The Story of a Girl and Her Bear
1
In the back corner of a incense-filled tavern located on the 27th floor of the night-elf town of Ronbaru, a sharp-eyed Damian seemed to fade into the lush shadows cast by an ornate statue of a bare-breasted elf mermaid carved from the rocky wall next to his table. The boy smiled with a conspirator's grin at the young woman quietly seated across from him, also similarly bathed in shadows, her whiskered face and blonde hair hidden beneath the legendary hooded cloak while she smugly grinned back.
They'd both noticed the entrance of Argo's prey the moment he'd entered the bar.
The concealed pair watched from the rear as a nervous Dale from the Fuurinkazan guild made his way into an unassuming tavern which most frontline players had already forgotten about, the bulky young man casting an anxious look back at its main entrance, then a cursory glance at the rest of the sparse handful of patrons contained within these dimly lit stone walls before the stout samurai proceeded to a small candlelit table, finally ordering a bottle of chilled elven-wine from a white-haired (and pointed-eared) NPC waitress.
Beneath the hood of her cloak, Damian heard the confident Argo quietly whisper, "Right on time".
It was exceedingly rare for the Boy Wonder to visit this kind of establishment on any world, but tonight was special. Tonight would be the culmination of a plan which the clever Argo had set into motion over a week ago, seizing an opportunity she'd conspired to achieve after extraordinary circumstances.
A plan the two young players wanted to see finalized firsthand on this warm night.
Sipping his mulled apricot fruit smoothy (the boy had just learned that players under the age of thirteen couldn't order alcoholic beverages in this world), Damian watched the portly samurai with the curly hair and the knotted white bandana nervously drum his fingers under the soft candlelight where he sat, anxiously watching the main entrance for the arrival of a girl he'd never met…
Except the next patron to enter this quiet inn wasn't a girl.
It was Klein.
As a surprised Damian watched the samurai-themed leader of the Fuurinkazan guild scan the tavern and then stride confidently over to Dale to clap his broad shoulders with a familiar greeting, the young man already seated suddenly turned crimson with embarrassment.
Damian grimaced in consternation as he leaned in closer to Argo.
"Klein's not supposed to be here."
Like a devious mastermind about to unleash utter destruction upon an unsuspecting world, Argo smiled back and winked at her accomplice.
"Sure he is."
With that tidbit now in hand, Damian continued to watch with renewed interest as the unexpected Klein slid into the only other chair at Dale's cozy table, crossing his arms like a Police examiner about to crack the biggest case of his life before cocking an appraising eyebrow at his portly guild-mate, the guilty-looking Dale only seeming to shrink in his own chair under the harsh eye of Klein's scrutiny.
"That's twice you've sneaked off this week, Dale… C'mon buddy, we're Fuurinkazan, a team, the best of friends… You know you can tell me anything, right?... What's with all the secrecy, bud?... We all thought you'd snuck off to level up, but if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were meeting someone here."
Dale's answer was cut short by the boisterous arrival of the remaining four member of Fuurinkazan, all smiling over in Dale's direction and declaring their affectionate greetings for their missing mate as they casually strolled into this formerly peaceful tavern…
"Well look who it is! Our old pal, Mr. Solitude!"
"Alright! Was that wine for me, Dale? Gosh, you really shouldn't have!"
"Barkeep, a dozen more bottles of the same! On his tab!"
As the five members of the elite samurai guild named Fuurinkazan besieged the seated Dale while he quietly died inside, the large man had almost slid beneath the table when all their teasing banter suddenly stopped.
All six men seemed to freeze in place as a dark-haired beauty with playful violet eyes shyly walked into the tavern while nervously glancing behind her as though unsure whether to enter or not.
Each member of Fuurinkazan stood motionless as they eyed the soft, lilac sleeveless kimono she wore, her gold-inset black Japanese breast plate softly moulded to perfect B-cups, tied like a bikini across slender shoulders with the same blue knotted cloth which was woven into a traditional bow into her shoulder-length black hair.
She was a spear-user, a golden-hemmed Japanese bladed yari strung across her back like a sigil, the upside-down wok-like Japanese kasa helmet hung with a golden insignia to her side.
The men's dreams of intimacy were suddenly jeopardized as this traditional Japanese vision of beauty turned around and then spoke to someone just outside the door.
"C'mon, Ruuska… Quit being so stubborn… Get in here."
There was a wave of tensing silence which cascaded across the tavern when a monstrous brown bear suddenly squeezed itself past the tavern's entryway, the beast's rounded shoulders easily as high as the girl's breastplate.
The bear (who's name was Ruuska) gave an annoyed growl as it looked at its handler with big sad brown eyes for being forced to enter such an unnatural cave.
"It's alright, Ruuska… I'm meeting a friend here."
With that, the Japanese maiden turned to look at the bar's stunned patrons for the first time, her excited eyes finally fixing upon on an open-mouthed Dale as she strode over to the rotund, round-eyed warrior, a giddy grin cresting his lips as she happily embraced him with an emphatic crushing hug worthy of her Ruuska.
"Dale-san!"
Damian could've sworn he heard a quiet 'heh, heh, heh' coming beneath Argo's cloak as the Boy Wonder quietly reflected back on the events which had led to this strange encounter, when he and Argo had begun their quest to level up quickly in order to make up for three lost months of game time on the 57th floor.
With perfect clarity, the boy's memories faded backwards, fondly remembering stepping into the mist-soaked trees of the expansive Forest of Wandering on the 35th floor for the first time alongside a cautious Argo, bringing out the rare-item map they'd just purchased from the crotchety old vendor set up at the entrance to those extensive woods, a digital parchment worth its weight in diamonds and necessary for any player willing to navigate those labyrinth-like woods.
Even so, Damian recalled holding the map as though it were an unwanted court summons, grumbling towards his cloaked companion about the price they'd just paid.
That was the day when they'd met Makoto Eiko and her bear Ruuska.
A day Damian would soon regret.
2
"I can't believe I just paid twenty thousand Col for this stupid map."
Glancing through the shadowed trees of the Forest of Wandering, Argo grumbled back at her young travelling companion and then raised her hands in defeat.
"He won't negotiate… Anyways, better you than me, Dami-chan… Marigan would've court-marshalled me if I didn't agree to her 360,000 Col repayment plan… God, that woman's cheap!"
The boy shot her a sideways glance and considered passing a comment about her last statement before deciding to let it go, looking over instead at the clusters of glowing egg-like spheres nestled into the forest floor, illuminating their sylvan surroundings with an eerie glow.
"But why do I have to buy such an expensive map? Couldn't we just use Teleport Crystals to leave?"
Argo shook her head glumly.
"They don't work in here… Crystals will just teleport you to another section of this weird forest until you become hopelessly lost… Great for getting out of tight spots I guess, but not for getting out of the woods… That's why we need the map."
Damian looked at her curiously.
"Not that I mind… But isn't this place a little risky for us?"
The Information Broker quietly nodded.
"Maybe, but it's our best strategy for levelling up… Marigan is only giving me three weeks to make up for those three months of falling behind and to pay her back with interest, so we need to play aggressively…
"And the line-ups to get into the high-spawn areas are ridiculous these days…
"That's why this place made the most sense… Most players stay away from the Forest of Wandering because it's only been recently unlocked and Drunken Apes spawn in small groups of only three or four… Well, that and the fact they don't drop magic items and the map's too expensive and becomes useless after one day."
Damian remained unconvinced.
"Four apes against two players still doesn't sound like great odds to me."
His co-adventurer became serious once again as she continued to scan their lush surroundings, the pair wandering deeper into the woods as Damian charted their progress along a dotted path.
"It's a manageable risk, just don't get hit by one… Drunken apes may be slow and easy to predict, but they pack a wallop… Four to six thousand hit points of damage with that heavy club of theirs… About the same as their own hit points."
Those steep kind of numbers used to worry him.
"Alright… Will you be using the Sleeping Darts we picked up?"
Argo shook her head with a sly grin.
"Nope… The alcohol these apes drink also make them immune to toxins… But luckily for us, it's also a component of Antidote crystals and worth 500 Col to the right vendor, but not many players know that yet… We're going to make a fortune here, Dami-chan!… We'll be able to recoup the cost of that map in no time."
Damian really shouldn't have been surprised that the profit-minded Argo had a financial angle for this two-person adventure. The boy had been surprised to learn that Marigan had implemented a loan-shark level interest on Argo's 'loan' as punishment for her 360,000 Col spontaneous expenditure in Marten though.
Apparently, that 'loan' had literally wiped out the elite guild's savings.
"So which weapon will you be using?"
"Eulogy."
Damian suddenly turned and then looked at her, stunned by Argo's strange selection. Why would she use the antiquated needle-like dagger he'd given to her on the second floor?
"Eulogy will only cause six hundred points of damage… At best."
The mischievous Argo grinned as though she were about to tell him a deep, dark secret.
"That's right… Look, you're going to be doing the heavy lifting here, Damian… I'm an Information Broker… My sub-class allows me to gain experience based on gathering knowledge, even downloading the stats of a Drunken Ape…
"You'll get the majority of the experience for causing the damage, but I should get about the same amount by acting as bait, dodging and then recording their stats… A fair split… That's why I complete all the rumour quests."
In truth, Damian had always figured that Argo gained experience from learning about the secrets of Sword Art Online and its players. Considering the limited amount of fighting she actually did, it made sense.
Argo gauged his reaction carefully before she continued.
"I know it sounds too good to be true, but it has its drawbacks as well… I can only specialize in soft skills like Hiding, Listening, Detection, Purchase Negotiating, Dodging… I'm pretty much useless at killing things… My 'Fighting Spirit' and 'Parry' skills were expensive for a Broker like me to level up… But they're the only way I can contribute in a fight."
'Parry' was a fairly common skill among players these days, especially since the monsters had become more effective with weapons at the higher levels, but 'Fighting Spirit' was a hate skill that few players ever bothered selecting. It basically increased that player's odds of becoming the target of a monster's attack, a sure way to draw enemy fire in a crowd.
And in this game, drawing unnecessary attacks was a death wish.
Even so, 'Fighting Spirit' was a hate skill Argo had been developing since Marigan had named the tiny Information Broker the leader of the Legion's elite team. She'd literally chosen to become a human Matador's cloak, drawing fire away from her team.
The agile player could get away with it though because her Dodging was second to none, especially with that new cloak.
But in a surprise attack situation or an enemy mob attack, Damian knew her life would be in deadly peril. She'd be the one monsters would attack first and she had Agility-based hit points, not the much higher Strength-based ones he favoured now.
"Argo, you're taking too much of a risk here…"
The paint-whiskered girl held a stiff finger to her lips to quiet Damian and then leaned in to speak softly while pointing to a cluster of trees next to them.
"Four apes… Thirty meters… We hide over there."
Because of her lack of fighting skills, Argo had developed her Listening and Detection skills to the point where it was almost like an early warning detection system, far better than his own (or just about anyone else in the game). While other players focused on attack skills, Argo had become the ultimate defensive strategist, able to keep herself out of danger and practically untouchable.
Within moments, the former Beta player had been proven correct.
After their initial ambush, the brawny glowing-eyed apes couldn't even get near the acrobatic Argo while Damian made short work of the surprised monsters' flanks, using his Martial Arts attack-style to eliminate lag times and become a whirling dervish of death as the beasts tried to corner Argo. His Stigmatic damage soon dealt lethal amounts to the lumbering simians before they exploded into blue polygons under Damian's flashing dagger.
The Information Broker smiled at him enthusiastically as she collected the four jugs of 'Ape Wine' and then transferred them into her Cloak of Many Pockets.
"Look like we've found our hunting grounds, Dami-chan… That Martial Arts/Stigmatic combo of yours really is ideal for this type of encounter and they don't stand a chance of hitting me."
It was true.
Argo hadn't been in danger at all and the Boy Wonder had been able to raise his Martial Arts skill to the point where he could now use real-world fighting techniques in this make-believe world. And although his realistic fighting style would never deal the same amount of damage as an in-game attack combo, his Stigmatic damage and Hit Point buffs more than compensated for that.
Even though it would eventually bleed him dry, he could become a non-stop attack combo.
He might be using a Healing Crystal after each encounter, but the four jugs of 'Ape Wine' which could be traded in at 500 Col apiece more than made up for the price of a Crystal.
Even the few hundred Col the apes were worth covered the cost of a crystal.
And besides, he needed the experience points more than the money anyways.
The stealthy pair continued this way for hours, Argo acting as their radar and then the bait while Damian cut down oversized apes until he was down to his last Healing Crystal and Argo's magical cloak was now literally overflowing with 'Ape Wine'.
It was a good day.
As they took stock of their situation and the tiny blonde girl indicated she was finally out of inventory slots, the pair grinned at one another as Damian allocated the stat points from his latest level gain and unlocked the skill he'd been eagerly anticipating, nodding enthusiastically as he finished.
"Finally! Alright, we'll use the map and get out of here for now…"
The sudden and ear-splitting roar from just beyond the trees to his left was something completely different from the apes' rasping growls. If Damian didn't know any better, he could've sworn it sounded exactly like…
A bear?
As the pair glanced at one another in surprise, Damian and Argo carefully made their way to the stand of trees towards until they heard the familiar growls of attacking apes sounding from the same place as though apes were fighting a bear.
And they heard a girl scream…
"RUUSKA!"
At the sound of a human voice, the two players broke into a sprint, leafy branches flashing by their eyes until they emerged from the other side and discovered the situation beyond was as grim as it sounded.
A teenaged girl with dark shoulder-length hair and a spear was attempting to regain her footing against a tree while a huge brown bear was facing off against four Drunken Apes. Surprisingly, Damian noticed a green cursor above the bear until he winced when one of the attacking apes connected with its club on the animal's side and sent its Health bar into the yellow.
Which was the same level as the girl's.
Launching himself from a nearby rock, the former assassin connected with a flying Backstab on the nearest ape, instantly reducing its hulking form into glittering polygonal dust as the familiar grey window appeared, listing his Experience and Col reward…
But as impressive as the spontaneous strike had been, his Backstab attack still had that damned five-second lag.
Two of the apes turned to divert their attack away from the bear whose fur was now bristling on end, taking the opportunity to mercilessly hammer their crafted clubs into Damian's attack-frozen body, swatting the boy aside like a piñata until he was sprawled across the long grass with his Health bar also in the Yellow.
As the two apes stalked towards him, he glanced over at the third ape who was bringing his thick club down like a primate executioner upon the wounded bear…
Until it was parried by Argo's claws.
Now saved from its own imminent demise, the massive bear counter-attacked with a fierce bite attack, only reducing the ape's Health bar by a notch.
Damn, for all its impressive size, Damian quickly realized this gigantic bear was about as effective as Argo when it came to inflicting damage...
Which was basically ineffective.
Perhaps he should've been annoyed that his greatest ally in this game had just saved a bear instead of him, but they both knew that Damian could take whatever these apes could dish out.
Especially since he'd finally been able to invest in the 'Battle Healing' skill only moments ago.
Grinning as he reached into his pouch to retrieve his last Healing Crystal, the boy slowly picked himself up off the ground and healed himself without even averting his steely gaze from his towering opponents, eagerly gripping his dagger as he watched the two lumbering apes advance menacingly towards him.
"Alright… Let's dance."
He grinned with the joy of a warrior-born, launching himself forward in a flash of steel.
During the last seconds of their digital existence, the doomed pair of Drunken Apes had no idea where the next strike would come from, slashed from above and below, front and back until the confused monsters disappeared from the game in a dazzling display of digital fireworks.
As the elusive Argo caused the last remaining ape to waste its attack by actually trying to hit her, she finally took a deep breath as Damian ended the muscular beast with an unseen Backstab, delivering far more damage than the 35th floor monster could ever hope to absorb.
As he stood triumphant in his five-second attack lag, the boy witnessed the mauve-eyed girl simple staring at him in wonder, not even healing herself as Damian remained frozen until she finally spoke.
"Was… Was that a seven-attack combo?!"
Now free from the effects of the in-game technique, Damian sheathed his dagger and cracked his neck, wondering why this teenaged girl seemed to be in such awe of him. Most agility-based frontline players had mastered seven and eight-attack combos before they even hit the twenty-fifth floor.
He'd even witnessed a twelve-attack combo from Asuna last week.
"It was my Martial Arts skill… I don't bother with this game's ridiculous attack sequences… Is that your bear?"
With flushed cheeks and a shy smile, she glanced down at the bear by her side and then back at him.
"Y-yes… His name is Ruuska."
Stepping in front of Damian and pulling her cloak's hood from her blonde tresses, Argo interjected herself between the strange vibe the rescued girl seemed to be sending towards her boyfriend.
"You're a Beast Tamer, right?"
Managing to finally pry her attention away from Damian's pale blue-eyed stare, the teenaged girl finally acknowledged the presence of the Information Broker who was now standing between them. As she waited for the reply, an observant Argo calculated that this player couldn't possibly be younger than seventeen-years-old, rather attractive in her own tomboyish way but far too old to be ogling her Dami-chan like that.
The strange girl blushed and then smiled at Argo, bowing her head slightly.
"Sorry, my name is Makoto… I just thought I might be dreaming… You're right, I'm a Beast Tamer… This is my bear Ruuska… My partner… And… Well… We're lost."
Argo suddenly cocked her head as she put her claws away and then folded her arms.
"Lost? Didn't you purchase the Forest of Wandering map?"
The teenaged Makoto looked at the smaller girl oddly and then smiled as she placed a hand on top of her head and scratched in joyful embarrassment.
"Is that the name of this place? The Forest of Wandering?... That makes sense, I've been wandering in here since yesterday and still haven't been able to find a way out."
A stunned Argo's face went slack as she looked up at the older girl incredulously.
"You're in here without a map?! Don't you read the Player's Guide?"
The girl named Makoto blushed a little more.
"I do… Honest, I have my Guide for the twelfth floor right here in my inventory… But it didn't say anything about a Forest of Wandering…"
After the Beast Tamer saw the shocked silent stares on both Damian and Argo's faces, an apprehensive Makoto quietly asked…
"Isn't this the twelfth floor?"
It looked as though Argo had been suddenly slapped across the face.
"This is the thirty-fifth floor!"
As the girl dark-haired blinked and then leaned on her bear for support, Argo and Damian exchanged glances before the boy detective stepped forward once more.
"Makoto-san… If you're only on the twelfth floor in this game, how did you get all the way up here?"
They watched as the slender young woman staggered backwards and then slumped against the tree, lowering herself to the ground before hugging her knees, confusion painfully evident in the mysterious light of the egg-shaped crystals beside her.
"Two boys teleported me here… I didn't know them… But they seemed really nice… And they were a higher level than me… They said they wanted me to join their party."
Argo suddenly tensed.
"These two boys… What did they look like?"
The girl thought for a moment.
"Around fifteen or sixteen maybe… One had long red hair… The other one had short dark hair with earrings… Both used a sword-and-shield style… They said their names were Jin and Hodges...
"We met in a bar on the twelfth floor yesterday and then formed a guild… They teleported me here… But… As soon as the apes appeared, they just teleported away…
"Maybe they were afraid... After I realized how strong the apes were though, I teleported away too, but my Teleport Crystals just took me and Ruuska to a different section of this forest, and I couldn't find those guys anywhere…
"Then I couldn't message them because they disbanded the guild… So I've been wandering around ever since… I would teleport when I got cornered, but I ran out of Crystals hours ago… I can't even go to sleep… We just kept getting attacked."
A concerned Damian quickly pulled Argo aside.
"The description she gave doesn't sound anything like the Laughing Coffin guys."
Argo looked back at him darkly - as though there were a bitter taste in her mouth.
"This is still a Monster PK… Teleporting a lower-level player to an inescapable area and then ditching them is a well-established player-killer strategy… The advantage is that it won't change your cursor colour to orange, even though you're just as responsible for the abandoned player's death as the monsters are…
"Look, Dami-chan… These Jin and Hodges guys might not have been Laughing Coffin, but…"
Her next words chilled Damian to the marrow.
"There's also a possibility Laughing Coffin might be recruiting."
As he stood and considered that implication, a concerned Argo then turned back to the lost player.
"Makoto-san, we'll guide you and Ruuska out of this forest with our map… But in exchange, I need you to sit down with my guild leader and tell her everything about the two guys who brought you here… If they pulled this trick on you, they'll probably do it to other players as well… And this place is really dangerous for lower-level players… Deal?"
She only looked at Damian.
"Of course… You just saved my life… I'll do anything you want."
The blonde thirteen-year-old really didn't like the way Makoto was staring directly at Damian with the fantasizing eyes of a dateless schoolgirl as she said that last part, as though suggesting something lurid. Luckily (for him), the boy had seemed oblivious to her feminine attentions as he retrieved the map from his inventory, but the lustful insinuation had been all too clear for Argo's liking.
The defensive Michi decided to take appropriate action before this went any farther.
"I'm sorry, I should have properly introduced myself earlier… My name is Argo… And this is my eleven-year-old boyfriend, Damian."
She honestly couldn't say whose cheeks flushed more when she revealed that last part, but as cute as an embarrassed Damian was as she publicly called him her 'boyfriend', Argo felt herself growing increasingly uneasy as she eyed Makoto's unapologetic grin and her hopeful gaze which was still fixed on the boy.
The Beast Tamer's glowing cheeks weren't flushed with mortification like Argo had hoped when she announced Damian's age…
Instead, they seemed to be flushed with excitement.
3
Soon after being rescued from the Forest of Wandering, Makoto had kept her word and revealed all the details of her misadventure to a very troubled Marigan, describing the two players who'd trapped the unsuspecting girl twenty-three levels above her own in perfect detail.
The Legion Commander instantly put out rewards and organized a search for these two Player Killers.
For her own good deed in rescuing the hapless Makoto, Marigan also reduced Argo's interest rate on her substantial loan by a full two points as a reward.
The grumbling Information Broker may have muttered something under her breath as she left with the dark-haired young woman along with her bear.
It was then that Argo had been seized by inspiration and used a Record Crystal to take a picture of the fraught Beast Tamer, privately sending the image of the attractive girl to Dale of the Fuurinkazan in order for him to fund Makoto's 50,000 Col shopping trip...
All in exchange for a date which would be arranged by Argo.
As it was an incredibly rare sub-class, Beast Tamer items were ridiculously cheap, but only if you knew where to shop. With Argo's help, Makoto and Ruuska were soon outfitted to handle anything that the twelfth (or even the fifteenth) floor could throw at them, laden with magical items to boost Makoto's skills and points.
Argo was even able to knock the already low prices down farther with her Negotiation skill.
It was then that the crafty Michi Aoi had taken Makoto to a specialty themed fashion shop, cleverly choosing Makoto's samurai-inspired armour for the arranged meeting with her new portly patron, purposely making the plucky seventeen-year-old irresistible to the members of Fuurinkazan, a perfect samurai warrior-maiden that Argo suspected they'd soon be falling over themselves to impress.
Surely Makoto would find one of those good-natured slackers to her liking.
And then she could stop giving her Damian those creepy looks!
As the slender Makoto was outfitted for her armour, the Information Broker reasoned that it was only because the young woman had been lost in the Forest of Wandering and close to death that she'd developed an unnatural crush on Damian. To her frightened eyes, Dami-chan must have seemed like a gallant young hero, arriving in the nick of time to save the seventeen-year-old from a cruel fate.
It was simply a hero complex.
And Damian was pretty cute.
By having Dale fund the purchase of all her specialty items in exchange for what he believed would be a private date with the pretty Beast Tamer, Argo believed the idolizing Makoto would forget about her strange crush and seek companionship amongst guys closer to her own age.
As the concealed Argo watched the giddy young woman stand up after using Dale like an oversized teddy bear and then politely introduce herself to Dale's friends, it seemed the plan had succeeded.
Argo smiled inwardly as she watched the bubbly Makoto bow to all the members of the Fuurinkazan guild, humbly asking if she could pour their wine for the rest of the evening in thanks for what Dale-san had done for her.
To which the spellbound men all readily agreed.
In celebration, they watched as an ecstatic Makoto instructed the massive Ruuska to stand on his hind legs, twirling her finger until the bear began to gingerly turn in a circle like a clumsy ballerina, causing uproarious laughter from the members of Fuurinkazan and even the handful of other players at the bar as more wine was delivered to the table.
It was at that exact moment that Argo felt a hateful glare piercing her soul, diverting her attention from the dancing bear and towards a pair of mauve eyes which carried invisible daggers burning with an insane wrath.
A pair of lavender eyes brimming with rage which let a stunned Argo know that this happy hostess act was nothing more than a show. That the duplicitous Makoto Eiko had played the thirteen-year-old girl's little game and come to this tavern for one and one reason only…
And that blue-eyed reason was now sitting directly across from Argo and watching a dancing bear, oblivious to the laser-focused stare which the two young women were now exchanging.
It was then that the shocked Argo realized she may have made a terrible, terrible mistake.
Author's Notes:
Shotakon: A Japanese term describing the sexual complex of an adult who is attracted to a young (especially underage) boy.
Yandere: A Japanese term for a person who is initially very loving and gentle to someone (or at least innocent) before their devotion becomes destructive in nature, often through violence and/or brutality.