The gust of wind that flew into Kirigaya Kazuto's face would have been better -had it not happened in the first place. More so because it was icy cold.
It was still partially moving towards the middle of the day as the sun barely stretched overhead through several gray puffy clouds. So far, it hadn't rained to avert the SAO Survivor School to issue a notice that no physical sports or outside eating were allowed.
But, seeing as that wasn't the case, for now, Kazuto wasn't too glad it happened. He had too much time on his mind but not enough to actually use it.
Walking with his girlfriend, Yuuki Asuna, and their other friend, Shinozaki Rika, the trio planned ahead of time to head over to the Dicey Cafe after classes. With final exams next week, it was an excellent opportunity to relax and have a quick chat. Though Kazuto admitted, it did suck that he had to leave his motorcycle at his house up in Southern Saitama to take the bus to school and halfway to the cafe.
Since things weren't busy until later in the afternoon, this was the perfect opportunity. So to speak.
"You guys ready for next week?" Rika perked up as if she understood the metaphor.
"Mmhm!" Asuna nodded eagerly at the prospect. "Hopefully, the exams would be a bit more tamer than the last time around with the new material. I know for certain my mom wouldn't be happy unless it's less than perfect," She drew her chestnut eyes over to Kazuto's direction, her long, orange-brownish hair swaying in the pursuit. "How about you, Kirito-kun? Do you feel prepared?" She asked.
"Oh! Uh," Kazuto was a bit taken off for her sudden question while he was still busy finding the corner to the bar up ahead. When he spotted it and, thus, the other two girls, too, also nodded as casually as possible. "Y-Yeah. I um, feel pretty good for final exams, too. I actually made sure to read up on the new concepts for Mathematics, especially for-"
"Gosh! Don't even remind of that stuff, will you?" Rika sputtered out. "It's bad enough I'm behind you guys in chemistry. I don't need math to reel it's ugly head around the corner again!" She exclaimed with great stride.
Asuna and Kazuto simply deadpanned in sympathy. Most students, including them, were in the same boat from two years of absent academic rustiness from the death game known as Sword Art Online.
Coping with it came in different ways and flavors.
Deciding to put the thought of test away from now, Kazuto and his two friends who were girls turned the corner off the streets of Taito, Tokyo, and down the quiet, bright alley to their destination. The front exterior of the bar gave off the impression the place was deserted, aside from several small posters and empty boxes. Kazuto and his friends knew better, though.
Dicey Cafe. Written under a steel sign with two dices -the first cube facing up with a single dot and the one beside it facing a full six- greeted them as Kazuto held out the door for the two girls. "Hey, Agil!" Rika was the first to shout out as they entered the cafe. "Hello! You here?"
The bar was established for -better terms- simplistic in design and nature with excellent wooden build serving as a foundation of foreignness to it. And that was precisely right. The co-owner, Andrew Gilbert Mills, or Agil, helped run the bar with his wife after SAO. He was of African descent and, without a doubt, brought some decorations and posters that must've belonged to his parents when they arrived in Japan to fit where they came from. And, overall, it made the bar more colorful and relaxing at the same time. Since it was the afternoon, business picked up later into the night; for now, it was empty.
Sure enough, by the time Kazuto closed the door after Asuna, the older, broader man came out from the room in the back of the bar. Cleaning a bottle with a clean white rag.
He spotted the three high schoolers with a courteous nod. "Good afternoon, guys. Glad to see you three." He gave a small smile at them. "Could've sworn I heard a racket a couple of seconds before, you guys arrived though. Know what that was?" Everyone but Rika laughed at that.
After getting settled in, Agil provided Kazuo and the girls with, generous enough, lemon his wife made before coming into the cafe this morning. Kirigaya admitted it was seldom when he drank something so sour and sweet. The pitch it left in his mouth was enough when he and Asuna and Lisbeth (Rika's gamer name) made the small hike over here. For that, Kazuto was grateful.
"So, what's on you're guys' mind?" The barkeep asked. "Anything new from the last time we had a chat?"
Rika tonelessly stuck the cup's straw into her mouth and used her fist to support the weight of her cheek as she sipped. "Other than me trying to keep up with my studies?" She motioned somberly. "Nope."
"Don't worry too much about it, Lis," Kazuto continued to use part of her SAO and ALO username. "If you got this far, I'm sure something will come up for you to pass before next week." He assured matter-of-factly.
The look the brunette haired girl sent him said she took that as sarcasm. Not like that was his intention. Or at least, not as much. Again, next week's test probably won't be a walk in the park. But midterm exams gave a good insight into what to expect when the time came.
Hopefully, everything turns out well. Kazuto thought, optimistically. He'd been having that thought more lately. And sometimes it called for that.
"Thankfully, nothing school-related." -Asuna sent her own cautious look to make sure Rika wouldn't find offense; the other girl downing her drink said maybe- "Kirito-kun actually got a new job a few days ago!" She put the fact more delighted than intended.
Kazuto nearly spat out the lemonade because of it. "Uh-! Ha Ha, Asuna...we really don't need to talk about-"
"Really, now?" Agil leaned forward across the bar over to him with a curious interest. "Where at? Has to do with VR or something?"
"Yup!" His girlfriend confirmed before Kazuto could hastily add on. "It has to with another VRMMORPG called 'Gun Gale online,' I think?" Asuna turned to Kazuto's blank face. "Right?"
"..Hai." He replied with a cold sweat. Wishing not to add more to this conversation.
Rika must have finished her drink during the exchange -or stopped midway when she started paying attention when her annoyance subsided. She cocked an eyebrow up and asked, "Wait, isn't that the VRMMORPG where someone actually died in-game last month?"
Asuna's and Agil's -and, more because it was brought up, Kazuto's- eyes went wide open. "Wh-What?!" His girlfriend was the first to mutter out. Asuna's light-orange eyes bolted towards him. "Do you know about this?" She asked as if Kazuto were her kid and he just finished running face-forward on the sidewalk with a terrible bloody nose to show for it.
Sugu looked and sounded the same way a day before. And, like a day before, Kazuto had to think fast to stretch the truth. Right now, the practice seemed to dictate how to curve what he said a bit.
Shaking his head, he said, "No, this is the first for me." He admitted, partially. "I...haven't been inside the game yet. Besides looking at some source code here and there, there hasn't been anything too crazy on my part it looks like. Unless it's sleep." Which was definitely right and he was glad no one knew about the leftover drool on his keyboard. Other than that, he wasn't at liberty to say more.
The best way, from the studies online, videos demonstrating what to-and-not say, and plain old applying it yourself in "telling" the truth was to add on authentic information. You sounded more convincing that way. Kazuto hoped after this week, he wouldn't continue practicing it again. Whether he liked it or not, it was the best way to keep Asuna and his friends -for a while- safe.
He did ask Rika, "Where did you hear about it?"
"A few days ago, I think? Around my shop back in ALO," The slightly older girl tapped the front counter, thinking. "The name 'GGO' and 'Gun Gale' kept being tossed around, though."
Kazuto frowned. "And who said that?"
Rika shrugged. "Two guys buying some of my handiwork were talking about it. I didn't hear about it until you guys brought up the rumor." Rika admitted with another shrug.
"Rumor?" Asuna must've caught that too when they echoed that together. But, more so -because Kirigaya now thought of a way to get out of this.
When Rika nodded, he took the initiative with both hands. "If it's just a rumor," He rubbed his chin in thought, "there's luckily nothing to lose sleepover, then. The AmuSphere made sure it anyways." He took a sip of his drink.
"How come?" Asuna asked, with Rika nodding afterward. From the looks of it, the girls seemed pretty convinced by the end of his explanation. It wasn't hard since it was basically a rundown that he already believed before taking the Death Gun case from the four-eyed administrator, Kikuka Seijirou, on the AmuSphere' design. How the designers made explicit sure not to repeat the NerveGear and tap brainwaves' mistakes, for fear of having another SAO incident (though that wasn't starting to look like the case at the moment). It was still highly impossible for that to happen. That's what I keep telling myself in the end.
He couldn't say anything further. Unless he wanted to let off more than he knew. But Asuna and Rika acted more willing not to think also about it. After all, Kazuto went more in-depth on computer-related issues than they did and looked like it made sense the more he explained his beliefs. Even if Rika, especially Asuna, looked troubled just the same. Kazuto swore just the same, as well.
Agil, who was pretty quiet over the discussion, send him a sly grin. The girls now were too busy talking about ALfheim and something about an MMO stream later this week. Kazuto wasn't paying mind to the details when he noticed.
Then, Agil's grin turned to a small, conspicuous nodded. 'I know you're lying,' it translated.
Kazuto bit the side of his cheek. Morse codely, he gave the barkeep a crooked grin. 'Please don't tell her,'
After a couple of seconds of hard waiting, Kazuto felt relief when Agil shot him a hidden thumbs up under his plain white long sleeve. The sweat off of Kazuto's forehead begged to differ, regardless, and he felt like he needed to wash it down with the lemonade.
. . .
Asada Shino found this coolish -slightly cloudy weather- day, going pretty well. Of course, there was nothing better than having to travel several more blocks and streets of her school's grounds and past the food market just to not go through what happened yesterday again. Since she had most of her money in her student account, she didn't want to waste any of it until GGO's monthly subscription fee passed by.
A chunk of it was already in her bullies' -Endou's- pockets. And any more and I'll have to start rationing again. Asada ruefully joked. If it ever got that bad, she'd have to move back home. It didn't mean the thought popped out here and there; she knew she had to try harder to make sure it didn't get that bad. Taking the long away out of school was one of them.
There was a spot near a park she was walking by and -pretty soon- walking into that was nice and quiet to rest in. Every so often, she'd enjoyed coming here for the scenery -considering the day and weather.
Wearily walking through the entrance, Shino realized she might have arrived at a perfect time. There was barely anyone, besides a family, or two having a picnic. And, near the paved trail leading to one of the bushes under a tall shade tree, a bench was overlooking one of the ponds and slightly rolling green fields and gardens around the area. Almost too perfect for the occasion.
When Shino got there, cautiously, she looked right and left then back again around the paths. A little tight to do since most of the trails had small upward slopes to cover whoever it was. She ended up stopping halfway through. If Endou and her goons wouldn't be caught dead in a library -much less a park outside of the central city that wasn't a bar or a bar for karaoke - Asada hoped this place was under the radar. But still, you couldn't be too safe.
After a couple more minutes waiting for someone to come out from either the entrance to her left or the path on her right, Shino subsided her pre-running stance. Someone passed by and gave her an odd look. She sheepishly apologized and returned to the wooden bench.
Letting out an exhausted sigh and dropping her bag -and herself- onto its wooden frame. She threw her head back in fatigue. "Geez." She shook her head from all that cross country catching up with her. "If I knew it was going to be this tiring -I would have made sure not to hurry so much trying to get here."
Her eyes were shut closed when she said that: no one was around to hear her anyways. So, obviously, she didn't expect an answer.
Surprisingly though, she still got one. A familiar voice in partisan Japanese pointed out: "I reckon your day isn't going so well?"
Asada's eyes fell back behind her glasses.
She sat up straight. And nearly yelped in fright when she almost fell off the wooden platform. Luckily the support bar was there to prevent such an event. The sun's glare above the clouds might have blocked most of her vision. However, she still recognized the teen in the brownish jacket and darker brown cap. "R-R-Reggie-san?!"
"Asada." Reggie touched the brim on his hat with a small smile on his boyish face. Then awkwardly rubbed his cheek a little. "Er- sorry for scaring you there. I didn't think you were that tired?" He guessed, figuratively enough.
Shino felt her ears go red. "N-No! Daijōbudayo! It's-" She stood back up and hastily dusted off her skirt. "It's my fault. I should have been more aware. S-Sorry about that.."
"Don't bother," The American shook his head. "It happens." He admitted with a small shrug. Which made Shino feel a little bit better.
"Arigatō...gozaimashita." Asada bowed her head and started fixing her glasses -gaps within the tree's shade- and from the partial groups of clouds above- said the sun continued its pursuit to give the lenses a reason to be distracted.
For a minute, she didn't even notice when Reggie took the seat right beside her after she sat down and expected him to leave. Not that she implied or at all thought about hinting that to him. Leaving enough room between them to conserve space, Reggie kept his distance. However, that didn't mean much.
Shino's hands started to start heating up like her ears again. She wasn't sure why. The slightly taller boy asked, "So, what ended up happening today?" Reggie added with a degree of concern. "You look like you've been through the mill, too long,"
"I-I-I do?!"
It still took Shino a moment to exactly know what the American meant by that. The exhaustion and some sweat she didn't honestly know was there gave her a pretty picture of why. Along with her mind speaking out loud to print it. From the way Reggie sounded, he sounded genuine in his worry. Something she didn't expect from more than a few people.
Not wanting him to worry further, she brewed the air in and, slowly, out of her lungs. "It's...final exams next week." Shino put the best smile on to sugarcoat the detail. "I was just worried about...how my grades will turn out if I didn't study adequately enough, you know?"
"Really?" Asada nodded. Reggie blinked, "Oh. Well.." The teen looked a bit taken back from the response. Since he looked almost as pale as she was, his face would've guessed she was feeling down on her luck. Fortunately -and unfortunately- Reggie didn't know that.
"Yes." She continued, somberly. "I'm sorry if I hadn't said 'hi' a couple of days after last Sunday night." Asada pushed up her lens with a bent index finger. "I'm afraid Mathematics and English are going to be a challenge since I'm not too acquitted with either. But what can you do?"
"Amen to that," Reggie said in the latter subject Shino was having some difficulty on. The pale teen must've noticed. "Sorry" -He rubbed his cheek with his index finger, awkwardly- "Force of habit."
" 'It happens,' " Shino lightly echoed. "Right?"
The American made an amused tone and nodded eagerly to the phase returning under his doorstep.
Feeling relieved that response went well, Asada quickly asked, "I'm assuming you feel prepared for final exams next week, too?"
Shino almost felt her anxiety shoot up to the roof -or one of the tree's branches overhead- when Reggie made a face at that. Whatever calm state she was in before went up times ten in the opposite direction. Did she say something rude, again?
She got her answered. As quick as a lamp switch, he plainly shook his head. "Don't need to." He answered cooly. "I already did."
"R-Really?" Shino asked. When Reggie nodded, her hands quit sweating, "How..come?"
"Back in the States -the USA, I mean- we take our exams at the beginning of December." He answered in brewing tones. "That way, the rest of the month we have off. Not too bad, thank God."
"Wow." Shino pondered the thought, then quickly found herself liking the idea. "That must be nice."
"Hm, sometimes," Reggie shrugged. "I ended up getting my scores from my teachers a couple of days ago to keep me happy. History was a given, but um math and literature were a bi...piece of work." He turned away when his cheeks turned red. Shino cocked her head, confused.
Nevertheless, she shook her head in shared pain. "I know how that feels," She admitted with a small smile to consulate him. "There's no shame in it."
"I know," Reggie sniffed and started rubbing his nose. "I won't call you a liar on that, either," He gave his own thin smile right back.
The two exchange sudden glances. And, after a few seconds, started to lightly chuckle. More so for Shino's case because, for all intents and purposes, this conversation let some things off her chest -without specify expressing them. Which felt oddly exulting, really.
It was strange that it took someone not knowing who she was as a person or her past to feel appropriately human. She didn't know much about Reggie. And, more likewise, he didn't know a lot about her, too. She didn't want him to. Still, this interaction felt..refreshing, to say the least.
That's when she got the idea. She began, "Uh, Reggie-san?" The pale teen moved up his chin to let her know he was listening. "Can-Can I ask you something?"
"I can't guarantee you an answer," Shino stopped. But, Reggie waved his hands to show that he was joking. Which made Asada pout a little at the American for that.
Flustered, she asked, all at once, "This weekend..can you..maybe..help me with my English? If you have time, that is!" She added the last one with haste.
Reggie opened his mouth to give her a response. Suddenly, instead of his, another voice in front called out: "Asada-san?" The duo turned, and Asada was puzzled that it was Shinkawa Kyouji's voice.
"Shinkawa-kun?"
"I thought you said we were heading to the library today?" Her other old friend went on with a mixture of concern and bitterness.
"I said that?" Shino sounded unsure if she did. When the skinny boy nodded matter-of-factly, Asada turned over to Reggie.
"It's fine." He assured her, waving his fitted hand -the other holding his nose. "I better get going before the weather knocks me flat, anyways." He got to his feet, "I'll see you around." and waved her and, briefly, to Shinkawa, bye before exiting the park as the wind blew past them.
She l noticed him sneeze in the distance and felt oddly disappointed, not at Reggie or him not answering her question. She couldn't fully explain what it was.
When Shino turned back to her other friend. Shinkawa, for some reason, followed Reggie as he left, too. More intently than she'd ever seen him do since she'd known him last Summer. When she asked him if he was all right, Shinkawa didn't answer right away.
When she asked him again, he looked like he was quick to change the subject to Endou and what the bully did immediately after Asada started explaining how she met Reggie.
Much to her confusion.
. . .
Reggie McKnight looked at the large, old Japanese style house with a smaller structure right by it with taken back astonishment. If there was some sort of grand design created by Mejin, Japan's first Imperial Emperor (and maybe the shoguns before him) made their buildings and houses distinct from the West -this was it.
In fact, most of this street -Reggie checked the map on his phone- Kawagoe, Saitama. Seemed ancient and uniform to fit the bill.
A day ago, Kirigaya Kazuto had sent him the address to his home when he asked Reggie to head all the way out here for the Death Gun case. Reginald couldn't tell why the swordsman couldn't just send him what he already knew through text, call, or face call for that!
But, contract for his temporally stay back in Tokyo, dedicated to interacting and recording any data relating to the investigation on that damn Death Gun fellow. Especially on his partner, for some reason, his boss didn't inform him about why.
He sighed. He couldn't grouse about it, no matter how much he really did want to. Instead, he got moving past the fancy, overhead Torii that was found onto tall ancient mountains like the history books that told of them. The small garden beside Reggie painted that feeling of Japanese-ness (that wasn't a word) even more so when he walked up to the front door. Or, sliding door since one part of it stuck outward beside the other.
It was a good thing there was a little light bulb right above it because he couldn't very much notice it without squinting his eyes. That, and since it was getting dark out, the wind picked up a couple hours before. Making him sneeze like there was no tomorrow.
There isn't going to be a no tomorrow if I stand out here any longer! Reggie winced after the wind tickled him to below out a sneeze once more.
The weather early today -and in general- had begun to turn against him more effectively. Richmond and Tokyo had slight differences in temperature that, if appropriately dialed, could make his stay a living hell. A shame too. He was having a, surprisingly enough, pleasant old time with the bifocal girl, Asada, he met three doors down his apartment place last Sunday.
She didn't talk like a few high foreheads from back in Virginia who thought their crap didn't stink and was generally lovely for a girl in Japan.
He felt terrible that he couldn't answer her question when that skinny kid who, he guessed, was her friend, came over. But, frankly, Reggie doubted he could if he wanted to. Because after Gun Gale's qualifiers...after the Bullet of Bullets tournament...after he caught that bastard...he was gone. And McKnight couldn't do much about it. He agreed to it, happily more than a week ago.
Letting out a sneeze when a gust of wind whistled by his nose, he withdrew the thought. Immediately he drew his elbow back stationery to it after finding the doorbell. A white vertical thin piece of metal with the button in the center said it was. The doorbell at his own house wasn't a doorbell at all. It was a door knocker.
Ding, Ding! The soft tone carried out of the tiny bell knocker. Enough so, Reggie doubted anyone could really hear him since the house looked, especially more up close, huge.
"Yes!" A high-pitched girl's voice called from inside. "I'll be right there!"
"Huh?" McKnight sniffed in joint puzzlement. "I thought he said he was alone?" Damn liar.
The door slid a tiny bit open. A girl that awfully resembled Kirgaya poked part of her head out. "You're my brother's friend?" She asked, probably cautiously getting reading to shut it on him if he said no.
Cracking a small sniff from his running nose. Reggie reluctantly nodded, "More or less." He allowed. Luckily he stuck out his clean hand. "My name's Reggie, by the way. Hajimemashite."
"Uh!" The girl flushed but accepted the gesture seeing as she opened the door to shake his. Reggie noticed she was wearing a red track jacket and very short shorts in blue to match the look. Maybe he caught her at the wrong time? He didn't ask.
After greetings, the young girl named Kirigaya Suguha -Reggie was confused from the name's placement but realized her first name was the latter word- she opened the door out for him.
"My brother's getting something upstairs." Suguha led him inside the more impression inferior of the house.
"Anyway to tell how long he's been up there?" Reggie asked, wondering what the Hero of Aincard was up to.
Suguha shrugged. "Beats me. Onii-chan's been up there cooped up almost the whole week."
"Really?" Reggie sniffed the last of his allergies away. When the Japanese girl nodded, he groaned. "Happy days."
"You're telling me." The girl giggled and, for some reason, had a weird look in her eye. "If you want, we can wait in the living room?" She gestured.
The next two minutes were very discomforting since Reggie and Suguha waited on the small dining table around the classy Meji-Modern Style home. Mostly because Kazuto's sister, weird to say they were related, would be overly touchy when talking. She could tell he wasn't from around here and asked what the States were like. Including some personal questions, Reggie frankly assumed it was a Japanese thing. Something obviously told him it wasn't.
Luckily enough, the rapid thumbing from the upstairs down to the living room threw off some worry away from him. And in came the Black Swordsman. "Sorry about that, Reginald..!" He huffed and wiped the sweat off his head. "Lost track of time and nearly fell asleep on the monitor." He waved back to the top of the roof. "Come on, let's start things."
Reggie was eager to get to his feet and away from the frontline that Kazuto's sister was burning, mostly because his nose was burning, not her personally. Something told him to run for the hills. Again, either from the sneezing or the heat. No telling. But Suguha definitely sent daggers her brother's way after a quick glance.
Reggie noticed that when they climbed the steps up to his room, it was pretty simplified to how organized the books and bed was set up. The computer -or computers since there were three monitors- was facing out towards the window right by the bed. If it wasn't for the fact, Reggie's own room had a hallway with everything he needed in terms of cooking, a shower, and of course, a bed -the setups were about identical.
After making sure the bedroom door was closed and -it seemed Kazuto had it in mind- locked: the swordsman cut right to the chance before McKnight did. "What's it like in GGO?" He asked at once.
Reggie, a little taken off guard, shrugged. "Have you ever read, 'All Quiet on the Western Front?' "He waited for the slightly thinner teen to shake his head before saying, "Good, because most of the book is exactly what the title suggests: 'Quiet.' "
He was a little more or less delighted when the black-haired teen made an unamused face at that. "I'm serious." He said.
"So am I." Reggie looked hurt. Then added, "But, that's about all the information I'm liable to give you, swordsman. Other than a skirmish I had the day I came here, most of the player-base in Gun Gale had...reduced in size." Which was nothing but the truth?
Before having his little run-in with some PvP squadron near the Outskirts of the Wastelands, -and after that too might he add- empty bridges, roomy crossroads and, whenever he did see anyone was in a small group, suspicious stares. And not because he was unfamiliar, either.
He doubted anyone outside a handful of people knew he was an American -his Japanese was pretty passable.
After mentioning (mostly) all that to the swordsman, he nodded during every point in thought. "Makes sense why that would happen this early. But, that leaves off one important detail for us."
"And that would be?" Reggie asked.
Kirigaya Kazuto smirked and waved him over to his computer monitors -which made the yank frown suspiciously. A pool of dried up drool by the mouse narrowed down why that was that. Apologizing and halfheartedly, cleaning off the remnants with a piece of cloth, the ex-SAO player tapped the space bar on the keyboard, and the screen light up like the Fourth of July with how lightly dark the room was and the shades of green and blue on the screens.
One moment of circling through a few selected tabes on the center pc, Kazuto quickly nodded to himself. "Koko ni." He drew away for his partner. "Take a look."
An article of the player deaths showed up on screen displaying all three of their avatars. It was a relatively short page written entirely in Japanese, so it was troublesome to get through. There wasn't anything of value since a lot of the claims pointed to rumors. Disappearances of Pale Rider, XeXeeD, and Lightly Salted Tarako (funny name), and how the publishing company, funnier enough located back home, Zaskar, wasn't giving out the deceased players' address or whereabouts. Apparently, some even called the cops but got a similar response.
"Okay," Reggie motioned he was done. "Sounds like no one really knows what's up. What's that have to do with how hard our job's going to be?" He already talked, somberly, about it with Seijirou the day before. And better hoped the swordsman knew it too.
In fact, maybe he did. "Because," He smiled. "The last time Death Gun -and I'm not saying he did- killed someone on the 2nd of December you mentioned the player-base was low on the count. And if players are more aware -even if it's a rumor- and distancing with guns, don't you think he knows his job won't be easy if he really is killing people in-game?"
Reggie thought that one over. "Makes sense, I guess," Kazuto's tone still held speculation. Reggie didn't share his sentiments. "But why bring me over, then? Couldn't you have messaged me this instead?"
"Well," The other teen looked troubled. "As I mentioned when we took this up at Ginza if we're going to do this," He made a sharp grin. "We do this as a team. Right?"
"Right." Reggie lightly answered, much less enthusiastically. It would have sounded worse in English. His boss made it a point to act accordingly.
A buzz in his pocket said he was about to be more unenthusiastic. When Reggie checked, it was from, sure enough, his employer. Detailing an address to a hospital and a room number 7025 was texted. With a message underneath saying, 'Make sure you escort Kirito-kun there after his classes tomorrow. I'm counting on you, Reggie-kun! :) -Mr. Seijirou'.
Reggie made a sour, about-expression. "You have plans tomorrow, swordsman?"
Kirigaya Kazuto shook his head. "No, why do you ask?"
Reggie McKnight began to leave the room. He added over his shoulder before coming down to go and say goodbye to his sister, "You're diving into Gun Gale tomorrow with me," He replied. "So, get ready."
Author's Note: Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this newest entry, please favorite/follow the story and leave a review of what you thought! Have a good one and God speed!
