Virtually Yours

Chapter 2: The Professor and Merry Ann

"-some kind of trouble?" Seto trailed off as Mercutia vanished.

The young CEO stared at the screen as if he could bring the girl back through sheer force of will. But, of course, he knew that was foolishness. Mercutia had said she'd be back in an hour, so Seto would just have to wait. He moved his knight back to the safe platform and busied himself with updating spreadsheets. Yet his eyes kept straying to his clock.

Talking to the girl had been a spur-of-the-moment thing. Seto hadn't meant for it to become hours of conversation. He'd just wanted to make sure that the game wasn't glitching. When she'd come to his table and merely stood there, he'd worried that she'd stumbled on a bug in the system.

Seto still wasn't sure why he'd offered to help Mercutia train. It had just seemed a chivalrous thing to do, and his character was a knight. And the fact that Mercutia was easy on the eyes hadn't hurt. Of course, for all he knew, she could be "howl at the moon" ugly in real life. But that didn't matter. He'd probably never meet her outside of the game.

As the time passed, Seto began to worry more and more. What if something happened? What if she needed help? What if...?

"Hey! You still around?" Fifty-seven minutes had passed.

"Yeah," Seto answered. "I'm at the training grounds. You need me to come back to the town and get you?"

"Nah," came the bubbly response. "I'll come to you, Professor." Seto smiled at the nickname. Earlier, she'd insisted that he must be some kind of literature professor, and even though Seto had denied it, she'd been calling him "Professor" since.

Seto got up from his desk to pour some coffee, his mind still on Mercutia's earlier disappearance. "Is everything alright?"

Silence.

"Mercutia?"

"I'm sorry, Prof." The bubbly tone was gone, Seto noted. "My problems are my own, y'know. I don't like talking about them. And it's not a big deal. I'll be starting work next week and saving up, and as soon as I'm eighteen, I'll move out and my problem won't be a problem anymore."

Mercutia appeared on screen and took up her monster-slaying again. Seto watched, wishing he could do something to help. Even though she hadn't told him outright, she'd dropped enough clues as to the nature of her "problem." Seto shuddered, thinking back to his own days when he'd had a similar "problem" with Gozaburo. "He hits you, doesn't he?"

"Don't worry your armor-plated head over it." Mercutia joined Seto on the platform for another healing session. "It'll take more than one damn drunk to get me down. Now, you want to talk about someone with problems, you ever read 'The Drowning of Stephan Jones?' No? Well, Stephan really had some problems. This whole hick town was against him simply because he swung the other way."

Seto let himself fall back into the familiar conversation of books, resolving not to involve himself in Mercutia's problems. It wasn't his place. He'd only known this girl for a few hours, after all. Getting close was a mistake. And, yet, even as she'd dubbed him "Professor," he found himself more and more calling her "Merry."

Eventually, though, the camaraderie had to end. It was Mercutia that offered a farewell first. "I've got to go, Prof. They're fixing to close the cafe and my old man's probably passed out by now. You going to be on tomorrow?"

Seto nodded, and then remembered that his game character wouldn't follow suit with the action. "Yeah, Merry. I'll be here. And... And if I'm not, and you want to talk to me about anything, call me. Do you have something to write with?"

"Just a minute. Hey, Miss, can I borrow a pen? Thanks! Go ahead, Prof."

Seto rattled off his cell number, and then they both logged off. Seto buried his face in his hands and sighed. He didn't know what he was getting himself into, but he hoped Mercutia would call him if things did start to get bad. He'd done all that he knew to do, and he could only hope it would be enough.

After stretching out muscles stiff from being still for too long, Seto began packing his briefcase - the files he wanted to look over tomorrow, his laptop, and a list of books Mercutia had mentioned. A visit to the library was going to be in order tomorrow.

The trip back to the Kaiba mansion was uneventful and quiet. When he got in, Seto checked on Mokuba to make sure he was asleep, and then went to bed himself. Yet sleep was long in coming, as Seto's thoughts kept drifting back to Merry. She seemed so intelligent and spunky, even despite her situation. Maybe he could invite her to come stay with him. He could certainly afford to fly her from anywhere. Yet... Maybe such an invitation would seem too stalker-like. Letting his thoughts wear him out, Seto slowly drifted off to sleep.

Morning dawned all too soon for Seto as a heavy weight tackled him into wakefulness. "You were late getting in last night!" a small voice accused. Yawning, Seto glanced at his clock and saw that he'd managed a full four hours of sleep. He promptly shoved his head under his pillow. "Go 'way. Tired."

Mokuba, however, was not to be put off. He yanked Seto's covers back. "Not until you tell me where you were, big brother. I was worried sick."

With a sleepy growl, Seto pawed around until he found the blanket and pulled it back up. "Office," he grunted. "Testing Age of Heroes."

"You spent all night playing a game!" the smaller boy screeched, yanking the covers back once again. "Up! Up! Up! You wouldn't let me sleep in if I did that, so you can't sleep in either!"

Seto continued the blanket tug-of-war, this time holding fast to the blanket so Mokuba couldn't pull it down again. He wanted to get at least another two hours of sleep. Yet little brothers and fate seemed to be conspiring against him as his cell phone rang. Seto sat up like a shot and grabbed his phone, flipping it open in a single fluid motion. "Merry?"

"May I speak with the financial decision maker of the household?" came a nasally whine. Damn solicitors! Seto snarled and snapped his phone shut. Too late he noticed Mokuba watching him with narrowed, suspicious eyes. "Who's Merry, big brother?"

"No one important," Seto sighed. "Just someone I was helping out in the game."

Much to Seto's surprise, Mokuba began giggling. "So not only were you playing games all night, you were flirting with a girl!"

Blushing from his brother's teasing, Seto lunged across the bed and caught the child in a headlock. Mokuba squealed in delight and darted his nimble fingers along Seto's side, taking advantage of his big brother's ticklishness to make an escape. The smaller boy rolled off the bed as soon as he was released, and dashed for the door.

Once Mokuba was gone, Seto went to get his shower, dressed, and went down to the kitchen. Mokuba was already at the table, crunching down on a bowl of some sugar-coated excuse for a breakfast. "Stay out of trouble while I'm at work," he murmured as he filled a travel cup with coffee.

Mokuba nodded. "Alright, big brother." He pointed his spoon imperiously at Seto. "I want to hear all about this Merry person when you get in. You can't cyber with her unless she gets my approval first!"

Blushing, Seto made his hasty escape, grabbing his briefcase as he ran out the door. Before going to the office, he had his driver stop at the library first. He pulled out the list he'd made and browsed the shelves to pick out a few books. When he went to the check-out desk, Seto spotted an all-too-familiar mop of blonde chatting with the librarian. "I didn't think the library allowed pets," Seto sneered.

The boy at the desk stiffened and turned slowly to face Seto. "What are you doing here, Moneybags? Ain't there a bookstore or something you could buy?"

Seto opened his mouth to retort, but closed it again when he saw the book on top of the stack Joey was checking out. "The Jungle?" Seto frowned at a sense of deja vu. Hadn't he and Merry talked about that one? What an odd coincidence. "Careful, mutt. That one will put you off your kibble."

Wheeler growled like the dog he was and gathered his books, stuffing them into a ratty backpack. "Fuck off, Moneybags." Seto smirked smugly as the boy stormed off, cursing under his breath. Putting Wheeler in his place was a wonderful way to start the day. Humming to himself, Seto checked out his books and went out to his waiting limo.

When he arrived at his office, Seto spread out the files he wanted to work on and then turned on the game. His good mood became even better when he saw that Merry was logged on. He wasted no time in messaging her, while directing his game avatar to their training grounds. "Hey there. Did you have any problems when you got in last night?"

"Pfft!" came Merry's response. "I had more trouble with this complete ass-hat I bumped into this morning. I swear! The bastard totally gets off on insulting me!"

"Ex-boyfriend?" Seto mused, trying not to feel the odd urge to find this horrid person and rip his guts out.

Merry broke out into peals of laughter. Not the reaction Seto was expecting, but the sound brought a smile to his face. He closed his eyes and imagined her sitting in front of her computer shaking from this full-out belly laugh. "God, Professor!" she managed to gasp out as she got herself back under control. "Oh, God! I haven't laughed like that in ages! Thanks, Professor."

At last Seto made it to the training ground. And there was his Merry. She flashed him a smile, and Seto responded in turn with a smile emote. "You're probably getting bored with straight monster-killing. Let's go find a quest."

With Seto in the lead, the two players began making their way through the beginner's forest. He'd briefly considered using a teleport scroll to take them to a town, but decided there was no sense in it. The monsters in the area were too weak to cause him much damage, and the experience points would be good for Merry.

As they traveled, Seto kept watch on Merry's health bar. Whenever it started to run low, he used a potion on her. She didn't need much healing. After all the training they'd done, Merry was a match for any monster in the beginner forest.

"Hey, Professor," Merry interrupted at one point. "Got any Holy Hand Grenades?"

Seto stopped and frowned, wondering what brought that on. "There aren't any such things in the game."

Merry sighed and stabbed a killer rabbit into nothingness. "Geez! Then why bother putting these gory little fluffballs in the game? If the programmers are going to do Monty Python, they should do it right! You know the movie, right?"

"No," Seto muttered. "I've never had much interest in movies."

"So you've never seen any Monty Python?" Merry gasped in shock. "You poor deprived man!" With that, she put on the most atrocious British accent Seto had ever had the misfortune to hear. "Now did the Lord say, 'First thou pullest the Holy Pin. Then thou must count to three. Three shall be the number of the counting and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither shalt thou count two, excepting that thou then proceedeth to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the number of the counting, be reached, then lobbest thou the Holy Hand Grenade in the direction of thine foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.'" 1

By "five is right out," Seto gave up any attempts to keep a straight face. What started with a few unstifled snickers built up into a roar of delight – a sound heard so rarely in Seto's office that his secretary peered in to make sure Seto wasn't having some sort of strange seizure. He waved her away and scribbled on a notepad next to his computer, "Rent Monty Python."

Back in the game, the forest reached an end and a town came into view. "Welcome to Lilyvale,"an elf chirped. "How may I be of assistance?" A menu popped up beside the elf with three options – News, Quest, and Heal.

Seto opened the Quest menu and began studying their options. "Go upgrade your equipment, Merry. The shops here are better than the ones at Brighton. I'll wait here, and when you get back we'll go on the quest to rescue the miller's son."

While Merry was gone, Seto took the time to turn his attention briefly back to the real world. He reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a set of gloves. Eventually, he might set up the VR pods from his RPG World fiasco. But for now he could content himself with merely adding a touch more fluidity to the movement of his game avatar.

When Merry returned, Seto took hold of her hand. "Oh!" she gasped in surprise. Seto pretended not to notice, despite the flush of pleasure that rose at such a simple touch. "Let's go. The miller's son has been kidnapped by goblins. They'll turn the kid into dinner if we can't get him back." Seto began walking, not releasing his hold on Merry's hand. "We don't have far to go," he continued. "The entrance to the goblin caves is just a little way back into the forest.

"Professor?"

Seto stopped, realizing for the first time he was being overly brusque. "I'm sorry." He brought his hand to Merry's cheek, wishing she could feel his touch. "I'm not accustomed to being part of a team. When there's a job to be done, I tend to throw myself into it full force."

"Don't forget, Professor. This is just a game," Merry murmured. "Now, let's go kick some goblin butt!" She was laughing and in motion now, leaving Seto to follow.

As they reached the goblin caves, Seto halted and examined the area. No guards. Probably all of the goblins were inside, gathered around their cookpot. Cautiously, he took the lead as they went inside. It didn't take them long to find the main chamber. Goblins filled the room, surrounding a large fire. Against the wall was a cage, and a young boy could be heard snuffling inside.

Seto frowned at the sight. "There's too many for me to kill..."

"I've got a plan. Can you distract them?" Merry whispered.

"Yeah, but what-?"

Seto never had the chance to finish the question as Merry got out a grappling hook and tossed it up at one of the cave ridges. As she climbed the rope, Seto caught a brief flash of panty. "God bless horny programmers," he breathed before drawing his sword and launching himself into the midst of the goblins.

Seto's sword swung in a dazzling arc. He whirled and slashed – an armored dervish of goblin death. And as he kept up the offensive, he saw Merry dropping down by the cage. She drew out a thin wire and began working on the lock. "Clever girl!" he praised.

"Yeah, well, just keep those goblins off my ass, Prof. I've almost... Got it!" With a triumphant squeal, she pulled the cage door open and pulled out a scraggly peasant boy. Up the rope she went again, the boy holding tight to her back. Seto, meanwhile kept up his attack on the goblins. That is until Merry came swinging down from the roof of the cave. She plowed into Seto, the momentum pushing them beyond the goblins. And then they ran.

Both players were laughing as their avatars crashed through the forest. A victory! The quest had been fulfilled! Alone, they never would have succeeded. But together...

"We make an amazing team, Professor!" Merry crowed, in an uncanny echo of Seto's thoughts.

1 Quoted from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. If you've never seen that movie, you have been terribly deprived! Go remedy the situation immediately!